Fulton's Confession By Capitol Hill Cubans August 18, 2014
In Foreign Policy, former Senate staffer and CIA analyst, Fulton Armstrong, confesses to being the AP's source of attacks on USAID's Cuba democracy programs.
(The title of Armstrong's piece, "Damn Yanquis," is pretty telling in itself.)
Of course, we'd stated this from Day One.
Fulton was unable to control his ego and writes:
"The operations undertaken by former President George W. Bush and Obama have been both clandestine and covert, according to AP reports and the investigations the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) conducted when I was on its staff in 2010 to 2011."
He even brazenly threatens:
"More revelations are forthcoming."
The funniest part of Fulton's entire thesis -- which the AP has ingenuously (or maliciously) adopted -- is that these programs are "clandestine and covert."
Yet, Fulton himself is Exhibit A of how that is simply untrue.
If these democracy programs were "clandestine and convert," they would be classified.
Consequentially, Fulton would be prosecuted for revealing classified information and would be joining his old friend and colleague, former Defense Intelligence Agency senior analyst, Ana Belen Montes, in federal prison.
But they are not classified. And Fulton knows it.
As a matter of fact, these programs are explained on USAID's website. And Congress receives regular notifications on these programs.
But for Fulton, anything that is not agreed to (and previously consulted with) the Castro dictatorship -- even if consistent with fundamental principles of international human rights law -- is "covert."
Moreover, what Fulton wants is for USAID to reveal the name and address of every NGO worker or contractor working to support civil society in Cuba -- independent of the Castro regime -- and of every Cuban civil society and democracy activist they support.
USAID doesn't provide this information for obvious reasons -- to either supporters or detractors of the Cuba democracy programs.
(It's for the same reason that AP itself admits using secret, encrypted communications in dealing with Cuba.)
Moreover, USAID doesn't provide such information regarding similar programs in Iran, Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Burma or any other closed society.
Dangerously irresponsible bureaucrats like Fulton -- with little regard for courageous civil society and democracy activists throughout the world -- are precisely why USAID shouldn't.
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