Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

U.S. Government: Americans are 'Killer Zombies' (WND)

My latest from WND. -- S.P.

A bloodthirsty zombie version of the Uncle Sam character bites the neck of a foreign man in a promotional video the Obama administration is using to catch the attention of Pakistani youth.

Voice of America, through a local cable company, currently distributes “Zindagi 360,” a program VOA uses to target young adults in Pakistan, but the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors is setting its sights higher.

BBG now is aiming for a Pakistan-wide broadcast of the show, which “focuses on topics that resonate with young people in Pakistan,” such as music and “life in America.”

The topics apparently include the stars-and-stripes-adorned killer-zombie adaptation of Uncle Sam, the traditional personification of the American government.

While the promo clearly is intended to be humorous, if not satirical, BGB is using it as a calling card in its search for a distributor capable of spreading its message.

Continued at WND.com...

Media Ignored Big Picture of NSA Surveillance, Focused on Jobs

My latest from Patriot Update -- S.P.

While the breadth of NSA’s communications-intercept program only recently came to light, a review of federal records and news reports shows that mainstream media largely ignored or overlooked a massive surveillance-system buildup that started to accelerate in 2006.

Indeed, hundreds of millions of dollars since have been poured into the very facility in Hawaii from which Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed the PRISM spying program, had removed classified documents while working as a government contractor.

Read more at PatriotUpdate.com...

EDITOR'S NOTE FROM U.S. TRADE & AID MONITOR: As alluded to in the Patriot Update article, The Peacock Report -- the Monitor's predecessor site -- in 2006 broke the original story on the NSA infrastructure-modernization plan (See: “NSA Seeks to Pour Hundreds of Millions Into Surveillance Infrastructure").

Even a full year after that breaking story, when some media finally began reporting on the project, The Peacock Report raised the question of why so-called news organizations were soft-pedaling the global surveillance issue (See: “Media Miss NSA Angle on Navy ‘Telecom’ Project in Hawaii”).

Obama repackages Kenyan aid scheme (WND)

My latest via WND. - S.P.

After WND report, propaganda plan dropped

The Obama administration is relaunching a strategy to shift vast quantities of money from the United States to Kenya, even though the African nation was stripped of a propaganda plan that was uncovered in a series of WND reports a year ago.

WND reported June 20, 2012, that the Obama administration’s spending in Kenya had become so voluminous that the U.S. Agency for International Development was asking for more contractors to oversee the work.

The propaganda plan, an addition to the project, explained “targeted opinion leaders” must be used to exert influence on the ideas...

Now the administration has relaunched its effort to hire contractors to oversee other vendors involved in Obama’s expansive aid program to Kenya.

Continued at WND.com...

Obama Pushes $50 Million More for Kenya

But officials admit new program could just create more corruption

Strengthening Kenya’s county governments, at cost to U.S. taxpayers of millions of dollars, could spark the redistribution of political power across the African republic, whose national government is viewed as one of the most notoriously corrupt in the world.

Efforts to bring about such decentralization, however, may inadvertently create 47 equally corrupt county systems, the Obama administration has acknowledged.

Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, nonetheless intends to dole out upwards of $50 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to help the Kenyans get it right, according to contracting documents that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor discovered via routine database research.

One potential obstacle to accomplishing the task is the relatively recent discovery of significant oil resources in Kenya, USAID says.

Corruption, therefore, could magnify due to the lack of transparency between the government and the “land and extractive industries.”

The new Kenyan Constitution and related legislation raise the issue of transparency; however, they contain “few if any specific mechanisms” to guarantee it.

USAID is wasting no time in preparing for the five-year endeavor, known as the Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions Project, or AHADI – which means “promise” in Kiswahili.

The agency will meet in Nairobi May 30 with private vendors potentially interested in securing AHADI contracts. The anticipated official execution of the project is the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013.

USAID says it has learned from prior experience that decentralization, when successfully implemented, can create a “more responsive, open and pluralistic government,” the agency points out in the AHADI Statement of Work.

On the other hand, decentralization “also runs the risk of systemic failure that further exacerbates the problems that it was intended to alleviate – often leading to a frustrated populace and a re-centralization of power.”

“This is nowhere more true than in the Kenyan context,” it says.

This planned diffusion of power – which USAID calls “devolution” – stands to alleviate conflict, improve service delivery and empower Kenyan citizens, according to USAID.

“It could just as easily exacerbate ethnic tension, worsen service delivery and reinforce corruption and unaccountable governance,” the agency admits.

The hiring of a contractor to advise Kenyan county governments is intended to help Kenyan authorities avoid such pitfalls.

The selected company will be tasked with improving a targeted number of county governments, ensuring that the systems are “more informed, capable, transparent, accountable and open to the participation of its citizens – especially historically marginalized groups,” the Statement of Work says.

The contractor also will advise county officials on how to work more cooperatively with each other and with the national government.

While the devolution process aims to more closely connect the Kenyan government with its citizens – thereby increasing transparency and accountability – “it also provides new entry points and opportunities for corruption, and could easily replicate old national patterns of obfuscation, unresponsiveness and unaccountability at the local level.”

The AHADI program is one of several new endeavors that the Obama administration is pursuing in Kenya.

As the monitor recently reported, Obama is embarking upon a nationwide reading project that aims to improve the skills of children in tens of thousands of Kenyan schools.

Similarly, the administration earlier this year launched new peace initiatives in and around Kenya, despite acknowledging that chronic cattle rustling and other cultural practices – such as killing rivals “to prove their manhood or impress young women” – might impede progress.

The Monitor last year reported Obama administration spending and projects in Kenya had become so voluminous that USAID had to hire more contractors to oversee endeavors other providers already carried out across the African nation.

USAID, in its own words, had admitted that the “overall USAID/Kenya program has increased rapidly and exponentially, outstripping workforce resources available to effectively perform assessments and rigorous analyses … track results … manage recordkeeping, and other project development and program office functions.”

According to a Statement of Work for the USAID/Kenya program-support initiative, the agency acknowledged the level of U.S.-financed Kenyan operations has outpaced Washington’s ability to adequately manage it.

USAID in turn eliminated public access to documents about the unwieldy portfolio of Kenyan projects, which included a formal plan to manipulate Kenyan and global media.

This article originally appeared via WND on May 20, 2013. Under agreement with WND, rights have reveretd back to the author, Steve Peacock.

Contract for U.S.-Funded Survey of Arab TV Consumption Awarded

Gauging how the Arab world consumes -- or fails to digest -- U.S. government broadcast news is about to cost $110,000 for such an assessment. The Broadcasting Board of Governors recently awarded a contract to the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Strategic Information and Communications Group LLC to carry out the survey, which also will entail an evaluation of overall news viewing, including that of non-U.S. media.

As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported earlier this year, BBG wants to learn whether brand identity drives Middle Easterner choices of news sources; Phase Two will attempt to determine whether BBG's “I am the news. I am Alhurra” promotional campaign was successful. (See: Data on Desires of Middle Eastern TV-News Viewers Sought).

Source document: Contract award #BBG50-P-12-0700.

OTHER BBG COVERAGE:

U.S. Baseball as a Propaganda Tool? (Feb. 17, 2012)

U.S. Seeks Data on Libyan Media Consumption (Nov. 5, 2011)

U.S. Cancels Planned Media Barrage in Pakistan (Nov. 1, 2011)

FOR FURTHER COVERAGE OF INFORMATION-DISSEMINATION ISSUES, SEE THE MONITOR’S PROPAGANDA/PR PAGE.

Hillary Goes to Hollywood, Hollywood Comes to Hillary

Equipping U.S. embassies  with the unlimited ability to show movies to residents and visitors over the next five years could cost taxpayers more than $1.5 million. The U.S. Department of State claims the expenditure is necessary since the U.S. uses "feature films as programming tools to support foreign policy objectives."

State's Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau awarded the sole-source contract to the Motion Picture Licensing Corp. (MPLC) , which it says is the only source that can provide a worldwide blanket-viewing license for 800 facilities. According to a Statement of Work that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research,  those sites include U.S. embassies and consulates plus "off-site screenings at venues under U.S. embassy sponsorship, operation and direct control such as  Binational Centers, American Corners and American Centers."

State consulted with the Motion Picture Association of America and other sources, which recommended MPLC since all other major providers solely offer "title-by-title licenses on a daily rental basis," according to an accompanying Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition, or JOFOC, document.

Data on Desires of Middle Eastern TV-News Viewers Sought

 

Viewer choices of TV news sources in the Middle East—particularly in the aftermath of the Arab Spring—are about to be evaluated by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which also will assess recent promotional efforts for its Alhurra TV operations.

Specific to Middle Eastern consumer preferences, BBG will enlist private-contractor services to obtain answers to the questions:

• To what extent is brand identity a driver of the choice of TV stations for news?
• What are some of the brand identities for TV news audiences view positively? Negatively?
• How do audiences learn about these brands?
• What are some of the differences in preferences by country or demographic groups?
• What is the role of content in shaping perceptions of the TV news brands?
• What is the news and information content audiences are looking for in the wake of the Arab spring?
• Which TV channels do they believe are providing this content? Why?
• To what extent are audiences getting this news from non-TV sources such as the internet, radio, newspapers, etc?
• What attracts them to these sources?

The 2^nd phase of the project will focus on the outcome of its new 30 second TV advertisement campaign, “I am the news. I am Alhurra.” (see YouTube frame above). The goal of that study segment will be to:

examine the identity the advertisement conveys and the extent to which the advertisement promotes an image consistent with audience preferences, along with the implications for future marketing and advertising efforts.

BBG requires the selected contractor to conduct a region-wide assessment, but will consider proposals "to limit the research to Egypt, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, as long as the offeror submits a regional assessment as well.”

Source document:  Solicitation #BBG50-R-12-0022.

OTHER BBG COVERAGE:

U.S. Baseball as a Propaganda Tool? (Feb. 17, 2012)

U.S. Seeks Data on Libyan Media Consumption (Nov. 5, 2011)

U.S. Cancels Planned Media Barrage in Pakistan (Nov. 1, 2011)

FOR FURTHER COVERAGE OF INFORMATION-DISSEMINATION ISSUES, SEE THE MONITOR’S PROPAGANDA/PR PAGE.

COVER-UP! Contracting System Sanitized of Kenya Documents

Obama's USAID says information suddenly 'for internal purposes only'

By Steve Peacock

Publicly available documents revealing the Obama administration’s unwieldy portfolio of Kenyan projects—which includes a formal plan to manipulate Kenyan and global media – have been removed from a federal contracting database, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered.

The Monitor now has restored public access to the USAID/Kenya Strategic Communications Plan, 2012-2013.

The sanitizing of the FedBizOpps system follows a series of Monitor reports—first published via WND—on what the U.S. Agency for International Development itself has described as an “exponential increase” in U.S.-funded initiatives in the African nation.

The Monitor and WND additionally broke the story on a USAID propaganda initiative to sway how “opinion leaders”—including those in the media—depict U.S. operations in Kenya. That “strategic plan” maps out how the federal government intends to take its cue from the public relations industry in order to “target specific journalists at key media outlets to be groomed to cover targeted issues over time.”

The discovery of the document purge probably would not have happened without the assistance of Kenyan journalist and blogger Dennis Itumbi, who raised questions about dead links in the WND articles.

Itumbi had widely distributed to his readers WND articles about the Obama administration’s Kenyan projects and propaganda plan. He then found out that the links did not offer access to the documents in question.

Itumbi earlier this received worldwide attention when Kenyan authorities arrested and released him for allegedly hacking into International Criminal Court e-mails, a charge that Itumbi denies.

Wayne Madsen, author of the recently released “The Manufacturing of a President: The CIA’s Insertion of Barack H. Obama into the White House,” told the Monitor that this governmental data purge – combined with the escalation of USAID projects – offers further evidence of the president’s staunch commitment to influencing Kenyan affairs.

“Obama clearly is favoring Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, his distant cousin who was propelled into power by Soros money into the Orange Movement,” according to Madsen, a former Naval intelligence officer.

Madsen was referring to the financing of a Nairobi-based activist group by billionaire George Soros, whose support of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement allegedly fueled Kenyan post-election violence in 2007.

The Monitor submitted a request to the USAID Press Office for an explanation of the government’s removal from FedBizOpps of the entire Kenya Program Support solicitation, Number SOL-623-12-000013, which included an amendment that included the USAID/Kenya Strategic Communications Plan 2012-2013.

The agency also was asked to provide the legal justification for their removal.

USAID Press Officer Matthew Johnson swiftly responded via e-mail, saying:

“The solicitation was removed from FedBizOpps as it contained information that was for internal purposes only. As part of our standard procedure, the solicitation was removed to correct for this error.

“With regards to the communications document you referenced below and in your article, USAID is federally mandated as part of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act to inform people that our assistance is ‘American aid.’ USAID therefore develops communications strategies around the world to ensure that countries recognize the generosity of America’s assistance, which further supports the impact of our investments while strengthening our national security and economic diplomacy.”

Johnson up until recently was the agency’s Horn of Africa campaign manager of the FWD (Famine, War, Drought relief) initiative, a public awareness campaign that USAID operated with the Ad Council from September 2011 to March 2012.

President George W. Bush appointed Johnson as White House Director of Presidential Personal Correspondence, a position he held 2006-2008. He also sits on the board of directors of the Center for Global Understanding, a non-profit group that believes “the only way to bring people together is through educating everyone about different cultures, religions and their values.”

But WND has documented Obama ties to Odinga in the past, and recently reported on a tell-all book by a former associate that targets Odinga.

Former top adviser Miguna Miguna provided to WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi an 800-page manuscript of the book, which was scheduled to be published in Kenya this year.

Miguna, however, was informed by his publisher that publication in Kenya had to be delayed until 2013, after the presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of the year.

The delay appears to be politically motivated government censorship, said Corsi, who was deported by the Kenyan government in 2008 during an investigative reporting trip.

“Odinga knows his chances of being elected president are dramatically reduced if Miguna’s book is published before this year’s presidential election in Kenya,” Corsi said. “Miguna presents a convincing portrait of Odinga as a ‘political conman’ whose term as prime minister has been riddled by family favoritism, massive corruption, sexual abuses, and public policy incompetence.”

Miguna told Corsi that the book’s publication “will completely change Odinga’s political fortunes and ultimately, the political panorama in Kenya.”

Odinga, a self-proclaimed communist, received his college education in East Germany and named his first-born son Fidel after the Cuban dictator.

Among the more damaging accusations in the book, Miguna charges that Odinga and various Luo tribe leaders practice black magic that incorporates animal slaughter and that Odinga has a voracious sexual appetite that shows no respect for his own marriage or to the spouses of the women who catch his fancy.

Miguna’s book provides further documentation for Corsi’s allegation in his 2008 New York Times No. 1 bestselling book, “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” that Odinga signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sheik Abdullah Abdi, the chairman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum in Kenya, to support and expand Islam in Kenya.

In the memo, Odinga promised to rewrite the Kenyan constitution to enact Shariah as law in “Muslim declared regions,” elevate Islam as “the only true religion” and give Islamic leaders “oversight” over other religions, establish Shariah courts and ban Christian proselytism.

Odinga’s ties to Obama

Odinga, a fellow Luo tribesman to Obama, was appointed prime minister in April 2008 only after he lost the December 2007 presidential election. The decision to create the extra-constitutional “co-head of state” position of prime minister for Odinga was devised by Obama, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The purpose was to stop the wave of tribal rioting and machete-wielding violence against members of the rival Kiduyu tribe in January and February 2008 that arose as Luo members charged their candidate was a victim of voter fraud.

The tribal violence ultimately left 1,000 dead and about a half-million homeless. Some 800 Christian churches were destroyed or burned to the ground, without a single mosque being damaged.

WND reported the existence of a strategy document developed by Obama and Odinga during Obama’s 2006 senatorial “fact-finding” trip to Kenya. It called for Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement to exploit tribal tensions should Odinga lose the 2007 presidential challenge, as a means of keeping alive his aspiration to be Kenyan head of state.

During the 2006 trip, Obama campaigned so openly for Odinga that Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua went on Kenyan television on behalf of Kenyan President Kibaki to object that Obama was meddling inappropriately in Kenyan politics, as WND reported.

WND further reported documentary evidence that Obama contributed nearly $1 million to the ODM in support of Odinga’s 2007 presidential campaign. An ODM campaign accounting document that listed the contribution as coming from “Friends of Senator BO.”

A similar version of this article originally was published via WND.com on July 16, 2012. Under agreement with WND, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

WND: COVER-UP! Contracting System Sanitized of Kenya Documents

See "COVER-UP! Contracting system sanitized of Kenya documents -- Obama's USAID says information suddenly 'for internal purpose only'" from WND.

This article is a follow-up to related pieces I've written on the topic, both here and at WND (and sometimes initially for WND and republished via U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor), such as:

White House Rolls Out Kenya Propaganda Plan

Obama's Spending Grows 'Exponentially' in Kenya

Pentagon Extends Kenya, Djibouti Military Support Contract

U.S. to Provide Kenya with Navy SEAL Boats

Kenya Sees Spike in Obama Administration-Funded Projects

Spin Cycle! Feds' Journalist to Control Media

The federal agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid is now hiring workers to combat negative news media and promote positive spin about its Afghanistan operations.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is enlisting private-sector assistance to “lead rapid response efforts to correct erroneous or misleading news accounts.”

The agency on Tuesday re-launched its recruitment of a senior press liaison, who among other tasks must embark upon “aggressive outreach efforts” and “forge productive relationships” with international as well as Afghan news organizations, according to a Personal Services Contract, or PSC, notice – Solicitation #SOL-306-12-000025-01/OPPD – that WND located the via routine database research.

Just last year, U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan was the subject of a damning comprehensive congressional report that found billions of dollars of American aid may have been used to fuel corruption and create programs that would collapse as soon as the U.S. exited the region, causing dependency and future economic troubles for the poverty-stricken country.

In 2010, a media report exposed a $60 million “mismanaged” USAID project that left Afghans “angered over project failures, secrecy and wasted funds.”

This latest contracting action is only one of many media-monitoring and news-manipulation endeavors that USAID and the U.S. Department of State recently have launched.

Among the numerous government media initiatives that WND has exposed is the Obama administration’s comprehensive plan to influence African and global media on how they portray U.S. involvement in Kenya.

Obama, likewise, is creating the equivalent of propaganda ministry that will leverage the assistance of “global news coverage service providers” who will create and disseminate department “news.”

USAID, in this most recent project, is aiming to hire a press liaison with an extensive background as a working journalist – someone possessing not just deep knowledge of what news organizations need, but, most importantly, an exhaustive understanding of how the U.S. government might enable those media to meet their editorial needs.

The liaison therefore must be “persistent, tactful and thorough in gathering and placing stories,” the PSC emphasized.

“The Embassy Public Affairs Office performs this function for the embassy, and the USAID senior press liaison would work closely with the embassy, coordinating efforts,” the document said.

The ability to perform under “changing and often-difficult conditions” – while simultaneously displaying “cultural awareness and sensitivity” – are among other contract requirements. Consequently, the agency prefers applicants with demonstrated leadership skills and Afghanistan-specific experience.

Daily communication with the Afghan and global media is another demand of this position, according to the PSC. Inviting journalists to the USAID Mission-Kabul for tours, providing informal interviews and holding “on-background” conversations with journalists likewise is expected.

Liaison visits to news operation facilities – where he or she will attempt to become “a familiar presence” while “working to earn trust” among journalists – is yet another critical element of the position. The selected candidate, serving as a member of the Mission Development Outreach and Communications Office, conversely will be tasked with arranging reporter tours of USAID-Afghanistan projects.

Getting agency-approved stories published in media, however, represents only part of this job, as the liaison also must “write senior-level speeches that tell the USAID story eloquently and catch the attention of reporters, editors and producers.”

Similarly, training USAID Mission-Kabul leaders and officers how to deal with difficult reporters is another key element of this outsourced post. The liaison not only will deliver lectures to mission staff, but also will conduct what are known as “murder boards” – which USAID described as “rigorous mock interviews designed to prepare subjects to deal with aggressive reporters.”

The liaison additionally will work with locally employed USAID personnel in scanning Afghan and international reporting on the agency.

To counteract what USAID deems to be “inaccurate or incomplete stories and editorials,” the liaison ultimately is responsible for producing “effective stories and hard-hitting commentary to fill gaps in news coverage.”

The Kabul-based position pays in the $84,697-$110,104 range, not including a 35 percent post differential allowance and 35 percent danger pay. Perks under the one-year contract include two rest-and-recuperation, or R&R, trips, three “regional rest breaks” and 20 days of administrative leave, in addition to 48 hours of travel time for each reprieve.

This article originally was published via WND.com on July 6, 2012. Under agreement with WND, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.