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The US government aid agency USAID was behind ZunZuneo, a text-message service that was allegedly designed to foment unrest in Cuba, the White House confirmed today.

ZunZuneo, dubbed a “Cuban Twitter”, had 40,000 subscribers at its height in a country with limited web access, reports the Associated Press.

The Cuban Twitter project is said to have lasted from 2009-2012 when the grant money ran out.

The US reportedly hid its links to the network through shell firms and by routing messages via other countries.

There has been no official Cuban government reaction to the story.

ZunZuneo is a text-message service that was allegedly designed to foment unrest in Cuba

ZunZuneo is a text-message service that was allegedly designed to foment unrest in Cuba (photo CBS News)

The scheme, first reported by the Associated Press news agency, was operated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

It is a federal international development organization run under the aegis of the Department of State.

At a daily news briefing on Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the project had been debated by Congress and passed oversight controls.

Jay Carney said: “These are the kinds of environments where a program like this and its association with the US government can create problems for practitioners and members of the public.

“So appropriate discretion is engaged in for that reason but not because it’s covert, not because it’s an intelligence programme, because it is neither covert nor an intelligence program.”

The USAID said it was proud of its efforts in Cuba and that it worked to help people everywhere to exercise their rights and connect them with the outside world.

However, the report could undermine USAID’s longstanding claim that it does not take covert action in the countries where it operates aid programs.

ZunZuneo, slang for a Cuban hummingbird’s tweet, was reportedly designed to attract a subscriber base with discussion initially about everyday topics such as sport and weather.

US officials then planned to introduce political messages to spur the network’s users into dissent from their communist-run government, the Associated Press reports.

Executives set up firms in Spain and the Cayman Islands to pay the company’s bills and funneled the text messages away from US servers.

A website and bogus web advertisements were reportedly created to give the impression of a real firm.

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the foreign operations appropriations subcommittee, said the revelations were troubling.

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The United States has begun a project to help clean up Agent Orange contamination at one area in Vietnam – the first such move since the war ended in 1975.

The work is taking place at the airport in the central city of Danang.

The US sprayed millions of gallons of the toxic defoliant over jungle areas to destroy enemy cover.

Vietnam says several million people have been affected by Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with severe birth defects.

On Thursday, a ceremony was held at the Danang airport where the defoliant was stored before being sprayed over forests hiding fighters from the Viet Cong, guerrillas backed by the Communist government of North Vietnam.

The US has begun a project to help clean up Agent Orange contamination in Vietnam after 37 years since the war ended

The US has begun a project to help clean up Agent Orange contamination in Vietnam after 37 years since the war ended

The US government is providing $41 million to the clean-up project, which is being carried out by two American companies in co-operation with the Vietnamese defence ministry.

The US has in the past helped fund some social services in Vietnam, but this is its first direct involvement in clean-up work.

The contaminated soil and sediment is to be excavated and then heated to a high temperature to destroy the dioxins, a US embassy statement said.

Frank Donovan of USAID told Radio Australia the project would last until 2016.

“We expect it will be cleaned up to rid the contaminated areas of dioxins down to harmless levels that are accepted both by the government of the US and the government of Vietnam, and so safe for industrial, commercial or residential use,” he said.

There are dozens of other contamination hotspots where the defoliant was stored, including two more airports.

The US and Vietnam resumed full diplomatic ties in 1995 and have grown closer in recent years amid concerns over China’s assertiveness over disputed territories in the South China Sea.

The US compensates its veterans exposed to the defoliant, but does not compensate Vietnamese nationals. A lawsuit brought by a group of Vietnamese nationals against US manufacturers was dismissed in 2007.

For many Vietnamese Agent Orange is a matter of justice undone and a very bitter legacy of the war. Most Vietnamese still think the US should do more to help.

 

 

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