Members of iraq veterans against the war are pushing the military to do more to help soldiers suffering from postTraumatic Stress syndrome. We will look at the department of Veterans Affairs, how it has paid more than 200 million in wrongful death payments to the families of veterans who died under v. A. Care. They would take a look at the latest u. S. Effort to topple the cuban government. This time from using social media. A new expose reveals usaid securely set up a fake twittermy program and hoped to use to trigger a cuban spring. The Obama Administration defends the program. It was not a Covert Program. It was debated in congress and reviewed by the gao. Those kinds of things dont happen the Covert Programs. It was a program about increasing the level of information the cuban people have and were able to discuss among themselves. And that is part of an effort we undertake not just in cuba, but elsewhere. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Senate Intelligence committee has voted to release parts of a report on the Bush Administrations torture iran it should program. 113 other state to declassify nearly 500 pages 6000pagee than report, including its executive summary. The cia will review the findings before their release, leading to fears they might redact large portions. The report caused a spat between the cia and senate panel, with Committee Chair senator Dianne Feinstein openly accusing the cia of spying on Senate Staffers and deleting files. Speaking thursday, she said the results of the investigation are shocking. The report exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation. It chronicles a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again. This is not what americans do. The report also points to major problems with the cias management of this program and its interactions with the white house, other parts of the executive branch, in congress. This is also deeply troubling and shows why oversight of intelligence agencies in a democratic nation is so important. The senatey reports probe concluded cia officers illegally detained 26 prisoners and used interrogation methods that were not approved by either cia headquarters or the Justice Department. In afghanistan, an Associated Press photographer has been shot dead in Afghan Police officer while her colleague has been wounded. Anja niedringhaus, 48, died instantly in the attack to the pakistani border. Ap reporter kathy gannon survived. It is believed to be the first time in Afghan Police officer has intentionally killed a foreign journalist. The pair were traveling with election workers littering ballots ahead of saturdays president ial election. Anja niedringhaus was a veteran german photographer who served on a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for photographing the iraq war. She was previously hit by snipers bullet while working in syria of oh, loan out of a car by an explosion in kosovo, and mistakenly bombed by nato in albania along with a number of other journalists in 1999. One of her last projects depicted women lawmakers in afghanistan. Her death follows the killings last month in afghanistan of afp reporter sardar ahmand and swedish radio journalist nils horner. Afghans head to the polls on saturday to elect a successor to president karzai. Theres a, karzai urged afghans to vote. The significant participation of our people in the selection will be the biggest guarantee of continuation of the republic of afghanistan. A strong participation will be the greatest response to those who believe violence and destruction will act as a deterrent against our people. The afghan election has already been marred by the anticipation of voter fraud and undue influence by president karzai. A new report reveals the United States oversaw the creation of a fake social media networking cuba in a bid to undermine the cuban government. The Associated Press reports the socalled cuban twitter project was built with secret Shell Companies and financed through foreign banks. Slang forzuneo, cuban hummingbirds tweet, in masqueraded as a twitterlike prime rib but it was created by usaid, the us agency for international development. Its users were unaware their private data was being gathered by u. S. Contractors for political use. What House Press Secretary jay carney denied the program was secret. Quick suggestions this was a Covert Program are wrong. Helping cubans access more information and strengthen civil society. These appropriations our public, unlike covert action. The money invested has been debated in congress. Gao review this program in detail in 2013 and found it was conducted in accordance with u. S. Law and under appropriate oversight controls. Talks despite jay carneys claims, top Congressional Democrats have said they knew nothing about the program. We will have more on the story later in the broadcast. Hasenergy firm anadarko agreed to pay more than 5 billion in what the Justice Department hailed as the largest payment ever for cleaning up environmental contamination. The case involves thousands of sites across the country polluted by nuclear fuel and other toxic material and more than 8000 people who say they were sickened by chemical exposure. Anadarko had tried to avoid liability for pollution caused by kerrmcgee, an Energy Company it acquired in 2006. The payments include 1 billion to the Navajo Nation for damages from kerrmcgees uranium mining. The activist and journalist Barrett Brown has reportedly reached at lee deal with prosecutors after 19 months behind bars. Supporters say brown has been unfairly targeted for investigating the highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors. Last month, prosecutors dropped a number of charges against him related to the hacking of the private Intelligence Firm stratfor, which exposed how the firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. Around was still facing up to 70 years in prison. The plea deal remains sealed, but wired reports round is now being charged with assisting stratfor hacker after the fact and obstructing the execution of a search warrant. Those two charges would dramatically reduce his possible prison time. The hearing is scheduled for april 29. Peace talksd between israelis and palestinians have deadlocked after israel canceled a planned release of palestinian prisoners. The move came after palestinians applied for membership in 15 International Conventions and treaties. Speaking thursday in algeria, secretary of state john kerry said the talks had reached a critical point. The disagreement between them is not over the fundamental substance of a final status processt, but over the that would get you there. And what you need to do in order to be able to continue to negotiate. It would be a tragedy for both of them, we would say, for them to lose the opportunity to get to those really issues that are the differences of the final status agreement. Earlier today, john kerry said the United States would reevaluate its approach to the talks to determine whether or not it is worth continuing their efforts. In the u. S. , legal groups including the aclu of washington are suing immigration and Customs Enforcement to block them from retaliating against immigrant hunger strikers at the northwest Detention Center in washington state. Activists say 20 hunger strikers and supporters have been placed in solitary confinement at the prison, which is run by the or profit geo group. At one point last month, at least 750 prisoners were on hunger strike. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has signed a measure critics say could enable discrimination against lgbt people. Opponents of the bill protested outside the State Capitol thursday. While lawmakers removed some controversial language, appointed still say the law could open the door to discrimination under the guise of religious freedom. Another provision adds the words in god we trust to the Mississippi State seal. Texas has executed its fifth prisoner of the year, using a drug from an undisclosed compounding pharmacy. Tommy lynnurderer sells was the first to be executed with the states newly refreshed supply of pentobarbital after its old batch expired. The Supreme Court declined to halt the execution despite a plea from his attorneys, who wanted the name of the drug supplier disclosed. The state has kept the supplier secret, purportedly to protect it from threats, but an ap report found no evidence authorities in texas are investigating any such threats. Citigroup is reportedly facing a criminal investigation after revelations of a 400 million fraud involving its mexican unit. In february, citigroup revealed at least one and a max employee had processed false documents which helped a mexican oil Services Firm defraud the company. According to the new york times, the fbi and Us Attorneys Office in manhattan have opened a probe into whether citigroup ignored winning signs. The bank is also facing a separate probe from the federal prosecutors in massachusetts over the possible laundering of drug money through a citigroup account. Two taxpayereived bailouts, racking up more in federal aid in the financial crisis than any other bank. The Delivery Company ups is firing 250 unionized drivers for staging a 90 minute walkout in february to protest the dismissal of a longtime worker. The New York Daily News reports ups has already fired 20 workers from a facilities facility in twins, new york and told the remaining 230 they will be dismissed as soon as their replacements are trained. The cofounder and ceo of the nonprofit Internet Firm mozilla a step down after coming under fire for his an antigay views. Had donated 1000 dollars to support californias proposition eight Ballot Initiative against samesex marriage. After his promotion to ceo last week, three mozilla directors resigned and the Online Dating platform protested by blocking users from running the site on mozillas foxfire web fire web browser. The fda has approved an emergency overdose treatment for use in homes and other nonmedical settings. When activated, the treatment device delivers verbal instructions on how to inject a naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an overdose on heroin or painkillers. The fda said the move will help save lives amidst a nationwide epidemic of drug overdoses, which now claims more lives in the u. S. Each year than car accidents. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. At fort todays show hood, texas, where flags are fine at half mast following wednesdays shooting that left four dead including the gunman. 16 people were winded in the attack will stop authorities identified the shooter as 34yearold Army Specialist ivan lopez, who was being evaluated for postTraumatic Stress disorder. Lopez served in iraq, but Officials Say he never saw combat. This is base Commander Lieutenant general mark milley. We will go to that clip in a moment. No motive was given for what was the second mass shooting in five years at the countrys Largest Military base. It was the third shooting at a military base in the United States in about six months, including the shooting spree in september that left 12 people dead at the Washington Navy yard. Hasanear, major nidal sentenced to death for committing the worst attack on u. S. Base in history, killing 13 fellow soldiers and injuring scores of others at fort hood in 2009. Defense secretary chuck hagel said the repeated soldier on soldier attacks on military installations suggest something is not working. Is the fort hood investigation unfolds, we will continue to take a close look to identify any new Lessons Learned and implement those as well. In the meantime, we will all stay focused on the victims and their families in the Fort Hood Community who yet again, are experiencing a terrible tragedy and much grief. For more were joined by three guests. From his home near fort hood, texas, were joined by Malachi Muncy, manager of the under the hood cafe in killeen since 2012. He served in the Texas Army National guard from 2003 to 2009 and served two dubbed to iraq. He is a member of iraq veterans against the war and iraq veterans for peace. Last night he helped organize a vigil outside fort hood. In san francisco, were joined by Ryan Holleran, who served as an improvement interim remain in the army from 2010 to 2013. He is a member of iraq veterans against the war and is helping to produce their report coming out on memorial day about soldiers at fort hood. Were also joined by aaron glantz who covers veterans and domestic military issues for the center for investigative reporting. He is author of three books on the war, most recently, the war comes home washingtons battle against americas veterans. We welcome you all to democracy now to theirst go to killeen cafe right outside fort hood to talk about the atmosphere at fort hood. Malachi muncy . Yes. At under the hood cafe which is right outside fort hood. Talk about what has happened over the last two days. Stranges been very experiences. Atic it has been tragic and traumatizing. Ryan holleran, you are at fort hood for quite a long time. Talk about your experience there and your response to this latest shooting. Sure. First cover i would like to say i extend my heart and sympathies to the victims and their families. Andmost, this is a tragedy a terrible thing to see have happened. Also, the second time at the same base. But the reaction ive gotten from a lot of my buddies who are still at fort hood and from veterans and social media seems to be one that is not terribly surprised, i guess. Can you talk about in your time at fort hood, ryan, or their discussions about these shootings and possible shootings . Of course, in 2009, yet another very serious attack. Sure. There was definitely an awareness. Security was heightened for a period of time before he was relaxed again. Everybody station there was well aware of the previous shooting. You could not do your morning physical training without running by the building and the wall of flowers. It was a regular reminder of what had happened in 2009. The active duty suicide rates are also very high. Suicide, unfortunately, has become all too commonplace i think in the dod and that fort hood. All,ron glantz, first of congratulations on winning a peabody for your critical work about what happens to soldiers when they come back. Here on fort hood, we are talking about an active duty soldier and you work with veterans. But if you talk about this issue of suicide, of soldiers coming home. Well, we have had over 10 years of war. In 2001. N 9 11 here we are in 2014. So many people have served so many deployments. 2. 6 Million People have gone to serve in these wars, many, multiple times over an extended period. We have hundreds of thousands of people coming home with poster manic stress disorder, major depression. We have hundreds of thousands of people going home with dramatic brain injury, physical brain damage. Huge gaps in care both on the active duty side and the v. A. Side. Now we are just kind of beginning to piece together how picture might or might not fit into this tragedy that we have seen at fort hood. We know the shooter was in iraq were veteran who served at the very end of our engagement in iraq. You sure served a short to ar who may have sustained traumatic brain injury and was seeking treatment of post Traumatic Stress disorder. Hopefully, the coming days and weeks, we will get some clarity. Lets go to the Fort Hood Base Commander talking about ivan lopez. We have very strong evidence that he had a medical history that indicates unstable psychiatric or psychological condition, going through the records to ensure that is in fact correct and we believe that to be a fundamental underlying cause. That is Lieutenant General mark milley. I want to go to Malachi Muncy near fort hood at the cafe outside that serves soldiers and veterans under the hood cafe. Talk about how the military is talking about these shootings. Languagek some of the that is being used is telling to where they want responsibility to fall. When talking about some of these issues, ive noticed they have used a lot of language that refers to anxiety and sleeping some of these are symptoms of ptsd, but theyre not using theyre trying to stay away from actually using rainy thing that might be related or anything that might be related. It seems as if there china talk about these issues as they may have been previous conditions to service or Something Like that. I think that sort of illustrates what a lot of folks are experiencing and having their on them sort of placed and some preexisting sort of way or some unrelated to the service sort of way, rather than allowing these issues to be connected to their service will stop it affects their benefits and such like that. U. S. Army Officials Say ivan lopez was 34 years old, join the puerto rico National Guard in 1999 when he would have been about 18 or 19 or 20. Officials said he served in iraq in 2011 for four months, did not see combat, but was a truck driver. They said he came back and said he suffered posttraumatic he ,uffered from a brain injury but they did not see any records from iraq that indicated he had been injured. They do admit he was seeing a psychiatrist for postTraumatic Stress disorder. Aaron glantz, can you talk about the treatment of soldiers when ofy come home around issues ptsd, around issues of rain injury, and when they get treated . I think the military, especially now that the combat in iraq is over and the combat in afghanistan, there are a lot fewer soldiers than there used to be, has been a little more proactive than in the earlier part of the war in treating these conditions. But still a lot of people fall through the cracks. I find it personally preposterous that somebody could have been in iraq and not see combat. They be not from the conventional definition of combat the army uses, but if youre driving a truck up and iraq duringhways in the final months of the war when bases are being rocketed, when Everybody Knows america is , it is certainly less physically dangerous than i was and 2005, but4 still, not a walk in the park by any means. Injuryt he had a brain that he spoke about that was not documented in the military record is also not surprising. This is a big problem that a lot of soldiers have. Their injuries are not being written down. They go later to the v. A. To get their benefits and theyre told that there is no record of their injuries. So theres a lot of Unanswered Questions at this early date, and a lot of things in this case that are both similar and different than the broader trend we see. Ryan holleran, you are nodding your head. If you could talk about this description of ivan lopez not having seen combat in iraq, and what it means to come home. Talk about your own experience. Sure. It seems to be a common narrative right now people are talking about the shooting, tried to do value this persons experience and or country. I was in iraq in 2011 as well and i can relate, although i was not in falluja or sonar city, but we were receiving rockets on a regular basis. That may not be technically classified as a combat situation. I guess i could see trauma as a spectrum and see a persons reaction to that trauma as a spectrum as well. This being the most extreme example. I had trouble getting help when i came back from iraq as well when i was at fort hood. Access to health care is limited. It is available, but it is not necessarily accessible. Stigmaunt of sic. Eeking Mental Health crux you suffered from depression. How did the doctors respond . Diagnoses. Slew of depression, anxiety, bipolar, personality disorder. A sickly everything but ptsd. And only now that with the v. A. Are we starting to get through that. I am not unique. Positionslot of hesitate to give the ptsd diagnosis. I wont say why it is, but i affects the ability to get help on the outside. You are nodding her head around the militarys description of ivan lopez not having seen combat in iraq. Driver as well, so, i find it hard to believe that a truck driver wasnt under that would stresses possibly cause some of these issues. I was nodding my head along with what aaron was saying about the difficulty receiving a ptsd diagnosis and now it seems, for whatever reason, it appears the trend is folks are being i messed with everything but ptsd are being diagnosed with everything but ptsd. Malachi muncy is just outside fort hood at a cafe called under the hood. Ryan holleran is with iraq veterans against the war, served in iraq. Aaron glantz is with us, who has been looking at veterans at home and the treatment they received for years. His latest book, the war comes home washingtons battle against americas veterans. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As we continue to look at challenges faced by u. S. Soldiers who served in iraq and afghanistan as we turn to report by our guest, reporter aaron glantz, who spent more than a decade covering the iraq war and the treatment veterans receive when they come home. This wiki in the center for investigative reporting 18 chris prestigiouson a peabody award. This is the clip from that report called, drugging americas veterans. U. S. Army specialist Jeffrey Wagener received a funeral with full military honors. He was medically evacuated out of afghanistan in 2007 after he sustained a groin injury when a grenaderopelled exploded during house to house search. But that is not what killed him. He survived his deployment. Motel, back home in his just hours after being discharged from the department of Veterans Affairs hospital in oregon. While recovering from his wins, wageners mental state deteriorated. He became addicted to painkillers. The army sent him to the detox center at this v. A. Hospital to get clean. But the hospital continued to give him narcotics. After two months, they released him with a massive cocktail of drugs including 12 tablets of the painkiller oxycodone. Fatherust death, his greg has been trying to piece together what happened. Could not believe the amount of medications that was being described to him. After he left the hospital, jeff to a nearby hospital. Crux he picked up a sixpack of beer, checked into a room, had a couple of beers amid ascites hungry. He goes next door to a restaurant and orders up a plate of nachos and another beer. Then becomes very groggy. The Surveillance Footage shows what happens next. Jeff fumbles with the keys to his room, barely able to stand. Fort andnlarges collapses. He lay on the floor for an hour until paramedics arrived will stop they tried to revive him, but it was too late. The state medical examiner concluded in addition to the two beers, he consumed eight oxycodone pills along with tranquilizers and muscle relaxants that he got from the v. A. Wagner has never watch the video. He believes the v. A. Was complicit in his sons death. The last thing you would think is you would have a child in the hospital trying to get would callsomebody at your door and tell you that he passed away. From,t is a clip drugging americas veterans. , pick up the story from there. Talk about how the department of Veterans Affairs published a study two years ago showing the fatal overdose rate among v. A. Patients, nearly double the national average, the continuing to prescribe veterans increasing amounts of these powerful painkillers. As a reporter covering this for many years, i would always hear from veterans saying, i went to the v. A. And i wanted treatment for this or that and all they would give me was highly addictive narcotic painkillers, opiates, which are similar in their make up to heroin. We filed a freedom of information act request to the v. A. To get their prescription data over the last 12 years. Increase in the known number of opiate prescriptions that these doctors at the v. A. Were writing. We also found incredible wild variations in how many prescriptions doctors were writing depending on where a veteran havent to live. For example, in oregon where jeffrey wagn died, that roseburg hospital prescribed eight times as many opiates for patient as a one in new york city. There is no reason to expect veterans in oregon rn eight times much pain as those in new york. Washington they knew this was a problem, they did not manage it. They allowed doctors who are overstressed was so many people coming back from war and not nearly enough training or time to treat them to reach for their prescription pad and write these prescriptions for medications that might dull the pain temporarily, but will have herbal tragic and sometimes fatal results. You report the addiction often starts when soldiers are on active duty. Absolutely. Jeffrey wagner was blown up in afghanistan. He was airlifted to walter reed where he was given incredible doses of narcotic painkillers to ease his pain because he of him physically wounded. By the time him largely physically recovered from the wounds of the explosion that he survived, he had become an addict. So the army sent him, as we heard in the clip, to the v. A. To a detox unit to get clean. But now we see the problem continues at the v. A. At the v. A. , even in the detox unit, they continued to give him opiates. When they discharge them on a weekend pass, they gave him 19 prescriptions for drugs, including the opiates and muscle relaxants that ended up killing him. Even in the setting where the v. A. Shouldve had the most control, they were hardly controlled at all. Talk about the settlement that was Just Announced on thursday, the wrongful death settlement for veterans. This is a similar issue. We always hear the story, the veteran who died after being turned away from the v. A. And going to the v. A. , there are survivors winning a settlement. I know you at democracy now a decade ago cover the suicide of Corporal Jeffrey lucy who was turned away from the v. A. In himselfsetts and hung tragically and his parents basement. It took him five years his parents to win a 350,000 settlement from the v. A. So how common is this . Using the freedom of information act, we obtained a decades worth of data from the v. A. And found there were nearly 1000 cases where the v. A. Paid money to family members of those who died as a result of negligent care from the department of Veterans Affairs. Itis worth noting as well, is very, very hard to win the settlements. So the number of actual deaths is much higher. As a perfect example of this, jeffrey wagner, the veteran who overdosed on drugs prescribed by the v. A. Within three hours of being discharge from the detox unit, his family was denied any compensation after his death. Can you talk about other side effects of these drugs . For example ,aaron, violence . They are linked to violence. I was just at a brain injury conference with some of the leading doctors in the country on traumatic rain injury, which is a signature injury of the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. The 3mold at a panel by and of positions physicians that opiates can be linked to violence, especially in people who have sustained a brain injury. It has to do with the way the the brainteract with after an injury. But i think the most important side effect that people should be aware of is these are downers. Opiates are downers. Heroin is a downer. Vicodin is a downer. The population of people who have been through a war who are depressed, who are specially at risk of substance abuse, these are the people that the v. A. Knows should be prescribed opiates very judiciously because it can be especially damaging to their ability to survive. Long,t we saw for far too the v. A. Going the other direction. The one thing i would say which is good news is since our report ran in september, there have been two congressional hearings on this topic. At the second congressional hearing, which was in march, the v. A. Toll commerce there were 20,000 fewer veterans on opiates told congress there were 20,000 fewer veterans on opiates than when our story ran. Living in reports from around the country of the v. A. s claims theyre rolling out alternative therapies that may be more effective than opiates and veterans are in fact happening at different clinics and hospitals around the country and the v. A. s plan to make these treatments were available the next year or two may actually occur. I would like to go back to Ryan Holleran for last comment. During your time at fort hood, you said you would do physical training, running past the memorial of the adolphus on anooting nidal has shooting. You could see how it impacted the community. Youre now working on a report about fort hood soldiers and new veterans. What do you find needs to be done based on the interviews you have done, your own experience at fort hood . Sure. The recommendations that came extensive. Tudy are there is plenty of room to improve. Suggestions,imple just a better physician to Service Member ratio for health care. Closer monitoring when service are being prescribed medication. Having different Accountability Measures for Service Members who are looking for help in trying to reduce that culture of stigma, of ting to get help the stigma of trying to get help. I did realize when i was deployed in iraq and summit was having a hard time, the first reaction that any physician assistant would have would be to dopeds drugs and keep us up. Their primary goal was to see us keep us as doped up as needed so we could get to deploying. Behavior like that is not looking after the best interest of the servicemembers or the ourion, and it is failing men and women in uniform. Finally, Malachi Muncy, there at under the hood cafe, there is another vigil tonight . How peoplek about now are talking about these shootings and what needs to be done at fort hood . A lot of conversations im having with veterans and servicemembers on the ground i think beyond medially is the support, safety and the conversations are on supporting our communities and safety and support. I think a lot of the community here is concerned with the stigma that this event brings with it, and the like in which many veterans are afraid they may be painted in after Something Like this, especially those seeking care. Hood, isafe under the a like a place of refuge for soldiers, for veterans . Im sorry, im having some audio problems. Could you repeat . I was asking what the climate in the cafe under the hood. I have seen these cafes outside different basis. They become a kind of sanctuary, a form of therapy for soldiers and veterans. Yes, the cafe has always been a place where we try to create a safe space for people to talk about whether it be their views on war or the issues theyre dealing with within the military. We have always tried to be a safe space for folks to work through those things without worry about being judged were ostracized for what theyre going through or their views. So i think we are continuing to try to do that for folks in the area. Malachi muncy, thank you for being with us, manager of the under the hood cafe in killeen, texas since 2012. He served in the Texas Army National guard from 2003 to 2009, served to deployment in iraq. I also want to thank Ryan Holleran who served in the army to iraq02013, deployed in 2011. He was stationed at fort hood for his entire time at the army when he was not overseas. He is a member of iraq veterans against the war come helping to produce this report which we will link to a memorial day about holders at fort hood that includes recommendations for policy changes there. Aaron glantz, congratulations on all of your work in winning this prestigious peabody award covering veterans and domestic issues. He has cover this issue for more than 10 years, author of three books on the war, most recently, the war comes home washingtons battle against americas veterans. Usaid sets upack, a secret cubanTwitter Program. We will find out with the details are. The Associated Press has done an expose. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. U. S. Secretly created cuban twitter to stir unrest. That is the name of an explosive the associate oppressed detailing how the u. S. Government created a fake Twitter Program to undermine the cuban government. The Communications Network was called zunzuneo, slang for a cuban hummingbirds tweet. It was reportedly built with secret Shell Companies financed through foreign banks. The program used cellphone text messaging to circumvent cubas strict internet restrictions. At its peak, it drew in more than 40,000 cubans. However, its subscribers completely unaware they were using a u. S. Government program and giving American Contractors their private data to potentially use for political purposes. Perhaps my shockingly, the program was not paid for and run by a spy agency such as the cia. Instead, it was the brainchild known forbest overseeing billions of dollars in u. S. Humanitarian aid. Documents show, the u. S. Government planned to build a Subscriber Base through noncontroversial content news messages on soccer, music, hurricane updates. They to are when the network reached a Critical Mass of subscribers, operators would introduce political content aiming at inspiring cubans to organize smart mobs which were Mass Gatherings called at a moments notice that might trigger a cuban spring. Or as one usaid acumen put it, renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society. By 2011, usaid was paying tens of thousands of dollars in text messaging fees to cubas telecommunications monopoly routed through a secret bank account and front companies. For the middle of 2012, the program vanished as mysteriously as it appeared. On thursday, white House Press Secretary jay carney also defended the usaids cuban Twitter Program. Suggestions this was a Cover Program are wrong. Congress funds programs to help empower cubans to access more information and to strengthen civil society. His appropriations our public, unlike covert action. The many invested has been debated in congress. The gao review this in detail in 2013 and found it was conducted in accordance with u. S. Law and under appropriate oversight controls. That was white House Press Secretary jay carney. For more we are joined by Peter Kornbluh who directs the cuba documentation project at the National Security archive, a Public InterestResearch Center located at George Washington university. Hes the coauthor of the forthcoming book, back channel to cuba the Hidden History of negotiations between washington and havana. He recently wrote an article in foreignpolicy called, our man in havana was usaid planning to overthrow castro . Toer kornbluh, welcome back democracy now why dont you answer that question. Talk about his twitter account and what you have been most surprised by. In the job clearly of trying to bring about regime change in cuba. Sendingced a program private contractors in to cuba secretly several years ago to set up satellite communication networks. And now we have found out to this extreme your Associated Press story that it was trying to set up a secret Twitter Network that has all the elements of a classic covert operation. It has secret bank accounts, Shell Companies, multinational platforms in terms of various countries being used nicaragua, spain, ireland, london. In the background, a murky office in usaid call the office of transition initiatives, oti, is competing the Central Intelligence agency for creative regime change programs in cuba. It is a stunning story, an important story. Im glad were talking about it. How it was going to work i mean, how the Associated Press expose, how they had the cuban cell phone numbers, they got ahold of them, and why this winter usaid in the end went to usaid in the end . They have funding from the u. S. Congress. This funding is done under the title of a Democracy Program democracy promotion program. Every Year Congress is basically throwing away 20 million into usaids lap and demanding this money somehow get into cuba to foster democracy. If we had better relations with cuba and the United States regime change was in goal was of regime change, he could be used for scholarships, educational programs, programs, training programs. But instead, it is being used for this kind of operation, apparently. Covert operations intended first to Network Young cubans and this is one of the elements of the story that is particularly interesting. The twitter accounts, the text messaging. Clearly, the domain in the u. S. , but all around the world of younger people, and the youth population in cuba is the most disenchanted with the revolution itself. It is clearly the demographic that the u. S. Would want. The idea was to create a Network First in a very benign way where all these cubans would be talking to each other. Then once the network was built, to start to pass these messages without anybody knowing where theyre coming from that would have much more of a political content. This is important. When unrest would eventually come to cuba, have acumen occasions Vehicle Communications vehicle in which the u. S. Could mobilize, organize opposition. I want to play a comment of democratic senator Patrick Leahy of vermont. He was on msnbc yesterday and talked about the secret cuban Twitter Program. What theyre trying to do makes me think of people i somehow think theyre still at the state department and writing memos that they were writing back to president eisenhower. If we just stay tough, those castro brothers will be out of there any day now. They have been saying that for 60 years. This may no sense at all. I was not briefed. Nobody was briefed on this. I think most people would say, are you out of your mind . Usaids not a program should be involved with. For one thing, it accomplished practically nothing. Government, we saying, thisney wasnt secret. Yet ap gets these memos from a like the one in 2010 from mobile accord, one of the projects contractors theres no mention of the u. S. Government involvement. This is crucial for the longterm success of the service and to ensure the success of the mission. Peter kornbluh . Of course it is secret. Jay carney is misleading the american public. This is one of the saddest elements of this whole story is the way the Obama Administration has deceptively misrepresented these usaid programs. Ciad, perhaps, is the new here. This has a whiff of irancontra element. You may remember better than anybody, back in the mid1980s when the cia was and from supporting the contras in Central America by congress, and passed the operations to the National Security council so they could be conducted from there. And here we may have a situation where covert operations hasnt been passed to usaid were there isnt very much scrutiny. But it begs the question, if this is what usaid is doing in cuba, what has the cia been doing all this time there . Theres a lot of programming and operations that we dont know about directed towards cuba that i think is very fundamental to be discussed and debated now, so we can change this archaic policy that Patrick Leahy referred to and get on with normalizing relations with cuba, which of course, is changing rapidly not from a communist society, but capitalist society. We can help with that, but we cant help with that by these silly, surreptitious and absolutely dangerous kind of covert operations. Peter kornbluh, you met with alan gross who has been imprisoned in cuba acting now in his fourth year of prison. This is back in 2010 about the time is program was starting. He was arrested by the cuban authorities for setting up a satellite Communications Network in cuba as part of usaids cuba to tension policy program. Is there a link . This is part of a broader usaid effort to use the internet , to use modern social Media Communication systems to both network cubans and then have an independent Communications Vehicle so cubans on the island through which is a just can be sent when unrest occurs. Both to spur unrest and the basically be able to communicate with leaders of the opposition to the cuban government. Alan gross is project was very similar, although, it had a different technological dynamic than the twitter account, but it was the same idea. He created a network, build a base of independent to medication, then later you can have people use those communications and receive communications from the United States in a way that gets around at the controls of the cuban government. Alan gross was arrested in december 2009. I believe this program was probably in the works, this Twitter Program, all throughout 2009. It may have well derived from the end of the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration wanted to help the Republican Party and ib bush in florida eventually pushing forward with covert operations and prodemocracy operations. They started throwing even more money at usaid to do this. One of the elements we have learned, even after alan gross was arrested and congress began to very forcefully scrutinize these types of surreptitious, certainly clearly covert, operations being run out of usaid, usaid did not stop them. They continued and escalated this very twitteri program that we are now learning about. It is very important we recognize one thing. Like the alan gross gambit, this twitter operation failed miserably. It was a waste of money in the end. Now with the revelations of it are hurtful to the effort to kind of rebuild the u. S. Cuban relationship, solve the problem of alan gross in prison in cuba and the three cuban spies that are still in prison in the United States, and get on with the relationship with cuba that is a modern relationship that meets the National Interest of the United States of america. These regime changes are only a hurtful. Peter kornbluh, thank you for being with us. We will have a link to the article you just wrote about this api expose a. That does it for the show. Our condolences to messiah roads on the death of his partner ashley blake. She will be buried today. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]