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>>>The "State Department human-rights effort" is not exactly world-renown for its ethics. Quite the opposite. I guess helping people in oppressive regimes does

>>>The "State Department human-rights effort" is not exactly world-renown for its ethics. Quite the opposite. I guess helping people in oppressive regimes doesn't count to you then?? I guess this $28 million was wasted then huh? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/u-s-funds-help-democracy-activists-evade-internet-crackdowns.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/u-s-funds-help-demo... "The U.S. State Department is set to announce $28 million in grants to help Internet activists, particularly in countries where the governments restrict e-mail and social networks such as those offered by Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Google Inc. (GOOG)" "The program, which has drawn Republican criticism and budget cuts, has produced software that is spreading widely in Iran and Syria, helping pro-democracy activists avoid detection, said Dan Baer, deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor."

cinquemb 13y ago
I wonder how many billions go to helping subvert other sovereignties? Can we have some cherry picked examples for that?
- aspensmonster 13y ago
  Well, you can start with Iran. The reason it's such a mess today is because of our own meddling in 1953. Well, meddling isn't really the right word. More like a CIA-backed coup to overthrow Mossadegh and install a brutal dictator, all because BP didn't like Mossadegh's decision to push legislation nationalizing the oil fields. There's also Indonesia. We weren't exactly doing the communists any favors there either. We didn't mind that hundreds of thousands of people were being slaughtered then. We tacitly accepted it at best, because we didn't want another domino to fall in the wrong direction.
tripzilch 13y ago
Right, because helping "Internet activists" to access Google, FB and Twitter totally had nothing to do with securing the NSA's power to spy on those countries.

cinquemb 13y ago

I wonder how many billions go to helping subvert other sovereignties? Can we have some cherry picked examples for that?

aspensmonster 13y ago
Well, you can start with Iran. The reason it's such a mess today is because of our own meddling in 1953. Well, meddling isn't really the right word. More like a CIA-backed coup to overthrow Mossadegh and install a brutal dictator, all because BP didn't like Mossadegh's decision to push legislation nationalizing the oil fields. There's also Indonesia. We weren't exactly doing the communists any favors there either. We didn't mind that hundreds of thousands of people were being slaughtered then. We tacitly accepted it at best, because we didn't want another domino to fall in the wrong direction.

tripzilch 13y ago

Right, because helping "Internet activists" to access Google, FB and Twitter totally had nothing to do with securing the NSA's power to spy on those countries.