Tag: foreign aid

Elon Musk: Bono Is A Retard

Outgoing DOGE overseer Elon Musk has hit back at claims made by U2 singer Bono that 300,000 people have “already died” because of cuts made to USAID.

Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Irish singer declared “It’s not proven, but surveillance suggests 300,000 people have already died from this cut-off, this hard cut of USAID.”

The key phrase there being ‘it’s not proven’.

Bono added “So, there’s food rotting in boats and warehouses…This will f**k you off.”

“No American will be happy. There is 50,000 tons of food that are stored in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and wait for it, Houston, Texas that is rotting,” he further claimed.

“The people who know the codes at the warehouses are fired, they’re gone,” the singer also suggested.

He then asked Rogan “What do you think? That’s not America, is it?”

Rogan responded with actual facts, noting “There have been a lot of organizations that have done a tremendous amount of good all throughout the world. Also, for sure, it was a money-laundering operation.”

“For sure, there was no oversight, for sure, billions of dollars were missing,” he continued, adding “In fact, trillions that are unaccounted for were sent off to (who knows) where, because there are no receipts.”

“The way Elon Musk described it, he said if any of this was done by a public company, the company would be delisted and the executives would be in prison. But in the United States, this is standard,” Rogan emphasised.

ZeroHedge notes that “Bono’s claim may be based on projections by Brooke Nichols, a mathematician and infectious disease professor at Boston University, who modeled an estimated 300,000 deaths, with over 200,000 of them being children. However, much like weather models, these projections are highly speculative and come with significant uncertainty.”

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Inside America’s Hidden Power Network: NGOs, The CIA, And The Rise Of The Blob

Former State Department official and director of Foundation for Freedom Online Mike Benz sat down once again with Tucker Carlson, where he laid out a labyrinthine narrative about U.S. power and influence that should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention. Benz described the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intelligence agencies, and private philanthropic empires have engaged in to quietly shape global and domestic affairs.

“NGOs are the stem cell of the government’s central nervous system,” Benz said, adding “They are this highly flexible tool…you can’t disentangle or really separate the government from the non-governmental organizations.”

According to Benz, the US often wields power through unofficial channels – increasingly through a network of publicly funded and privately directed institutions Benz dubbed “the Blob,” a term originally coined by Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security advisor to President Obama.

According to Benz, the roots of this NGO influence structure go back to the early 20th century, with the 1913 introduction of the income tax and the subsequent 1917 law making contributions to charities tax-deductible. This opened a floodgate of elite philanthropy which, during World War II and the Cold War, merged with U.S. intelligence objectives.

“In 1948,” said Benz, “the CIA achieved its first covert operation: rigging the Italian election by working through trade unions, charity fronts, and other non-profits.” He cited a now-declassified memo by diplomat George Kennan, who described the need for a “Bureau of Political Warfare” and endorsed a system where covert influence would appear to originate from civil society.

Benz divided the “Blob” into three strata: official government actors (State Department, Pentagon, CIA, USAID), a network of NGOs funded and coordinated by these agencies, and the “donor-drafter class” – high-net-worth individuals like George Soros and Bill Gates, whose foundations shape U.S. foreign policy priorities.

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Marco Rubio Reveals Just How Little USAID Funding Was Helping the Needy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered some shocking data points about American foreign aid spending before the Trump administration reformed the system.

During testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, the top diplomat revealed that the White House discovered a foreign aid regime that was distracted and inefficient.

Only 12 cents of every dollar spent by USAID reached recipients.

“That means that in order for us to get aid to somebody, we had to spend all this other money supporting this foreign aid industrial complex,” Rubio said, per a State Department transcript.

In other words, while a mere 12 cents went to recipients, the other 88 cents was pocketed by third parties.

“We’re going to find more efficient ways to deliver aid to people directly, and it’s going to be directed by our regional bureaus, and it’s going to sponsor programs that make a difference, and it’s going to be part of a holistic approach to our foreign policy,” he told lawmakers.

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UK Contractor Extradited to U.S., Pleads Guilty in Massive USAID Fraud Scheme Tied to Pakistan Energy Program

A UK citizen who ripped off American taxpayers through a U.S.-funded foreign aid program has been sentenced to time served after a brazen kickback scheme drained nearly $100,000 in USAID funds — and he’ll now be handed over to immigration authorities.

Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, 53, of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. federal court Monday to conspiring to commit theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, a felony offense.

Sutton was a Logistics Operations Manager for a contractor implementing the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Power Distribution Program (PDP) in Pakistan — a five-year effort that was supposed to help modernize Pakistan’s failing electric utilities.

Instead, Sutton and his co-conspirator, who remains under indictment, lined their pockets by setting up bogus shell companies that funneled inflated contracts for forklifts and crane services — all under the guise of helping Pakistan’s struggling power grid. Sutton personally pocketed at least $21,000 in kickbacks.

More from DOJ:

 According to court documents, PDP was a component of U.S. government assistance to the government of Pakistan to support its energy sector.

Launched in September 2010, the five-year program was designed to facilitate improvements in Pakistan’s government-owned electric power distribution companies through interventions and projects addressing governance issues, technical and non-technical losses, and low revenue collection.

The main goal of the PDP was to improve the commercial performance of the participating distribution companies through technology upgrades and improvements in processes, procedures, and practices, as well as training and capacity building.

Under the PDP contract, Sutton’s employer subcontracted through purchase orders with vendors in Pakistan for certain goods and services.

From May through November 2015, Sutton and his co-conspirator, an employee supervised by Sutton, participated in a kickback scheme by creating two companies, obtaining PDP purchase orders for forklift and crane services for the companies, and distributing the profits to themselves.

As part of the scheme, his co-conspirator arranged for low-grade local vendors to provide the services for at least half the contract rates, and Sutton ensured that the company paid the invoices despite suspicions raised by an accounts payable officer.

U.S. government sentencing documents indicate the agency was defrauded of almost $100,000 and that for his part, Sutton received at least $21,000 in kickbacks.

Sutton’s co-conspirator is also charged by indictment and his case is pending disposition.

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USAID: Hungary Claims U.S. and EU Gave over $63 Million to Anti-Orbán Media in Bid to Topple Government

The head of Budapest’s Office for the Protection of Sovereignty claimed that tens of millions of dollars from the United States and the European Union have funded left-leaning media institutions over the past three years, with the intent of overthrowing the conservative government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

Supposedly independent media outlets in Hungary have been propped up by money from the now-axed United States Agency for International Development (USAID), other State Department programmes, as well as from the European Commission, Tamás Lánczi said this week.

The top man at the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty said that the globalist influence schemes were intended fund “propaganda” in the hopes of toppling the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of the leading opponents of the neo-liberal open borders and socially far-left agendas favoured by elites in Brussels and Washington.

According to Lánczi, the American government and the European Commission — the executive arm of the EU — gave over HUF 23 billion ($63.5 million) to media outlets, which he claimed were in fact political pressure groups, over the past three years, alone.

“It’s not micro-donations, it’s not reader support, it’s not a voluntary offering, it’s money from foreign powers… It’s not charity, it’s a HUF 23 billion foreign intervention. This money was used to buy media workers, activists and politicians,” he said per the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

The watchdog said the majority of the funding came from the European Commission, accounting for HUF 19.5 billion ($54 million) of the total. However, Lánczi said that USAID — under the Biden administration — directed HUF 3.5 billion ($9.7 million) to fund anti-Orbán media.

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REPORT: USAID Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

When USAID came under the microscope of DOGE, people on the left absolutely flipped out. They all acted like USAID was above reproach and that the world would come to an end if it wasn’t fully funded.

Not only did the world not end, but now we’re learning that a senior officer for the organization has been charged with bailout fraud from the pandemic.

We are probably going to see fraud like this uncovered for years to come.

The Daily Wire reports:

USAID Contracting Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.

Is anyone really shocked by this?

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Acting US Attorney Ed Martin Claws Back $1 Million From Consulting Firm That Overbilled USAID

Acting US Attorney Ed Martin clawed back $1 million from a consulting firm that overbilled USAID by inflating its employee salary costs.

This is one of the reasons why the Democrats and RINOs are stonewalling his confirmation.

Per the US Attorney’s Office of DC:

Stax Inc., a private consulting based in Boston, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations it overbilled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in claims for salary reimbursement in the implementation of the U.S. Government funded Sri Lanka@100 project.

This matter came to the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the USAID Office of the Inspector General which found that Stax overbilled USAID more than $850,000 by inflating its employee salary costs.

During an administrative audit, it was discovered that Stax put hidden profit in its proposed salary for its employees. This hidden profit violated the terms of the cooperative agreement entered into by USAID, and further was in direct contradiction to expressed statements to Stax informing them that they were not to get any profit from this cooperative agreement.

During the investigation, Stax was bought out by another company that immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and instituted remedial measures. The new company fired the official who directed that the profit be hidden in the salaries, revamped Stax’s compliance procedures, and placed new personnel with extensive compliance experience into leadership positions. As a result of the earned cooperation credit, the parties agreed to settle for 1.2 times the single damages for a settlement total of $1 million.

Ed Martin is currently the Acting US Attorney for DC and Trump recently announced he nominated him for a permanent position as one of the country’s top cops.

If Ed Martin is not confirmed by May 20, federal court in DC will appoint an interim US Attorney until he is confirmed. There is currently no vote scheduled to confirm Ed Martin.

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 Here are the Three Biggest US-Backed Interferences in Austrian and German Democracy

In February, a federal judge ordered health care agencies to restore websites about transgenderism that President Donald Trump removed by executive order. Elon Musk revealed on X that the judge’s wife had received funding from USAID, calling him “corrupt.”

Despite the attention USAID has received in the U.S., its role in meddling with democracy in Austria and Germany is not well understood.

Surprisingly, foreign interference from the U.S. not only undermines democracy abroad, but also on American soil.

In 2017, the German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer demanded “solidarity” and a “collaborative investigation” from the media against President Donald Trump.

Obermaier and Obermayer, who broke the Panama Papers for the Süddeutsche Zeitung two years earlier, were and still are part of several USAID-funded networks that have caused the first impeachment against Trump.

Similar playbooks were used in Austria and Germany which had a much more pronounced impact than the Trump impeachment, which ultimately failed.

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Zelensky demands ‘at least’ Israel-style support from US

Kiev expects Washington to provide long-term security assistance modeled on the US relationship with Israel, Vladimir Zelensky has said, after Ukraine’s European backers reportedly rejected several points of US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan.

Washington presented its draft deal to end the hostilities between Kiev and Moscow during talks in Paris last week. At a follow-up meeting in London on Wednesday – which was downgraded at the last minute after Zelensky publicly rejected key US suggestions – Ukrainian officials and their NATO European counterparts reportedly put forward a counterproposal.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Zelensky insisted that any future peace deal with Moscow must be backed by sustained US military, financial, and political support.

“Discussions in London have focused on security guarantees from the United States. We hope them to be at least as robust as those provided to Israel. Additionally, we anticipate support from our European partners and are actively developing the infrastructure necessary for these guarantees,” Zelensky said.

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‘We Give Israel $4B a Year – That’s a Lot’: Trump Tells Netanyahu He May Not Drop Tariffs

President Donald Trump on Monday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US might not drop its new 17% tariff on Israel because we “give [them] four billion dollars a year” and they’re “one of the highest” recipients of foreign aid.

When asked by a reporter if the US would reduce the new 17% tariff on Israeli goods, Trump responded: “Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade — maybe not, maybe not.”

“Now, don’t forget we help Israel a lot. You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot. Congratulations, by the way. That’s pretty good,” Trump quipped. “But we give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It’s one of the highest of any — we give a lot of countries money.”

The US not only gives Israel over $4 billion a year but also fights their wars (which in the case of the war in Iraq cost $2 trillion).

Israel’s not simply “one of the highest recipients” of foreign aid but the highest recipients of foreign aid — and it’s not even close. The aid money we give to Egypt is also a bribe to normalize relations with Israel.

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