The controversial United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which had attempted to bring about a ‘colour revolution’ in India through its affiliates, has witnessed a recent crackdown by the Trump administration.
The so-called ‘independent organisation’ has been taken over completely by the US State Department. Donald Trump had informed how USAID was being run by ‘radical lunatics’. Elon Musk had dubbed it a ‘criminal organisation.’
Although the website of USAID has been taken down, a 96-page ‘Disinformation Primer’ published by it in February 2021 is doing the rounds of the internet.
The document was prepared with the ‘stated objective’ of helping its staff and partners understand disinformation, modes of its spread and ways to combat it.
In reality, it was a propaganda ‘guide’ to help the USAID team to peddle influence in foreign countries, co-opt the media ecosystem and civil society and bring about ‘regime change’ in the host nation.
All of this was shrewdly framed as an effort to combat ‘information disorder.’
Page 2 of the report stated, “USAID staff and partners around the world need a working knowledge of the scope and form of disinformation since it impacts many levels of programming and interventions across all development sectors.“
While USAID did not elaborate on its many levels of ‘interventions’, its track record in other countries shows us a grim picture.
Gplus has previously reported in detail about the US agency’s efforts to destabilise governments in several nations including India through its ‘partners’ and affiliates.
USAID and its reference to Rana Ayyub
The Disinformation Primer which claims to train USAID staff and partners to fight ‘information disorder’, ironically cites the example of a habitual fake news peddler Rana Ayyub to explain the harms of ‘disinformation.’
Page 16 of the report claims –
In India, journalist Rana Ayyub was slandered by fake images and tweets insinuating that she was a porn actress. The coordinated attacks occurred after Ayyub began fighting for the justice of an 8-year-old girl who was raped over several days and then murdered. The doctored video of Ayyub was shared over 40,000 times, including a share by the ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) fan page. It ultimately sent her to the hospital for heart palpitations and anxiety.
It is interesting to note how USAID made it a point to refer to the ‘ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’ while talking about a morphed video of the scam-accused ‘journalist.’ This is despite the fact that the Indian political party was not directly involved in the dissemination of the said video.
A random, so-called fan page was ‘referenced’ to malign the ruling, democratically elected party in the country.
USAID similarly made multiple references to India in its ‘Disinformation Primer’ including a unique, election campaign strategy used by BJP to reach out to linguistic voters. It even cited the Qatar-funded Islamist propaganda front, Al Jazeera, to defame India.
USAID reveals its strategy
On Page 18 of the report, the US agency inadvertently gave away its strategy.
It stated,”In countries where both the United States and Russia have been working to develop influence, the Kremlin tends to put forth narratives that are easy to understand, play to the emotions, and disingenuously offer a clear good guy–bad guy paradigm. Comparatively, the United States has often struggled to offer effective fact-based alternatives to such narratives. This is particularly relevant in countries where USAID works to promote democratic governance.“
USAID conceded that it interferes in the functioning of the foreign government in the name of promoting democracy and competes with Russia to peddle influence on behalf of the US Deep State.
Further on page 45 of its ‘Disinformation Primer’, it recommended its media ecosystem to maintain ‘strategic silence’. Another strategy that it advocated throughout its report was of ‘fact checking’ as a means to influence and sway public opinion.
The US State Department is implementing the project starting 1st September this year in 5 cities of India – Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
In July last year, Gplus reported how the Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) of the US State Department set aside a whopping $2,00,000 (~₹1.67 crores) to recruit fact-checkers in India as part of its ‘Empowering Media Savvy Youth.’
This scheme of hiring ‘fact-checkers’ to promote its narrative in India has been shrewdly called a ‘targeted digital literacy and resilience program.’
“In India, where social media usage is widespread among the youth population, recent research by Indian, European, and American think tanks has highlighted how manipulative content is amplifying societal polarization and erodes institutional trust. This consequently strains U.S.-India bilateral relations, threatening collaborative efforts and diplomatic ties,” the US State Department made its agenda crystal clear.
Coincidentally, USAID is now taken over by the same US State Department.
USAID promotes Atlantic Council, which targeted Modi govt
In its 96-page ‘Disinformation Primer’, USAID promoted the ‘Atlantic Council‘ and its links over 30 different times.
In July 2022, Mike Benz, Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, wrote a detailed article on how USAID and other government organisations funded censorship initiatives in Brazil via Atlantic Council.
The article indicated that US tax dollars, through agencies like USAID, the State Department, and the National Endowment for Democracy, had financed efforts to monitor and suppress private communications on encrypted messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
These initiatives aimed to counter “disinformation” by scrutinising private messages, thereby influencing political discourse and potentially affecting electoral outcomes.
Interestingly, Benz shared videos of an event by the Atlantic Council where a panel discussed how to “coordinate digital speech bans in response to what were considered two undesirable electoral outcomes in 2018: the rise of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and the consolidation of voter support for Narendra Modi in India.”
In the clip shared, Fergus Bell, a journalist and media innovator, “flagged” the “danger of family WhatsApp groups” in India because people in India tend to trust their own family members over so-called “fact-checkers.” Benz pointed out that Bell had created a global media network to “coordinate social media censorship in target countries all over the world through an alliance of privileged fact-checkers and vetted mainstream media journalists.”
During the discussion, Fergus Bell highlighted the challenges of fact-checking in India, particularly during elections. He pointed out, “The danger of family WhatsApp groups in India is significant because people tend to trust their family members over fact-checkers.” Bell reflected on his experiences working on elections in both Indonesia and India, noting the complexities posed by encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
In March 2023, Gplus, in its extensive coverage of Twitter Files, revealed how Atlantic Council’s DFR Lab wanted to censor Twitter handles associated with BJP.
USAID, George Soros and ‘colour revolution’ in India
In March 2017, the Heritage Foundation published a report detailing how USAID worked in close association with far-left billionaire George Soros during the Obama administration to promote its ‘radical agendas’ in several countries.
The report stated, “…Evidence is emerging that during the past eight years, Soros, his Open Societies Foundations (OSF), and their many smaller affiliates have received U.S. taxpayer money through USAID and that USAID has made the OSF the main implementer of its aid.“
It may be recalled that George Soros, who worked with USAID, had been eyeing a colour revolution in India.
In February 2023, the far-left billionaire exploited the Adani-Hindenburg controversy and launched a scathing attack on the Indian government.
He claimed, “Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies. Their fate is intertwined…Adani Enterprises tried to raise funds in the stock market, but it failed. Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards.”
Soros accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of crony capitalism. “Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament,” he added.
The Hungarian-American billionaire also said that the ‘shakedown’ caused to the Indian markets due to the Hindenburg Research report will result in ‘much needed institutional reforms’ and ‘democratic revival’.
George Soros and his vicious ecosystem of NGOs, activists and journalists had been trying to prove PM Modi as an ‘electoral autocrat’ who needed to be ousted for the ‘greater good’ of this country. And it has been a work in progress for a long time.
