When a cheetah cries foul over soiled spots

MY TURN  with TICHAONA ZINDOGA

There is an interesting story coming from the United States of America that apparently has caused so much angst among the people there. It concerns “revelations” that Russia helped Donald Trump to win the recent elections, beating Hilary Clinton.We are told the Russians used their spying skills to hack into sensitive information about Clinton, which exposed her corrupt activities and embarrassed her deeply, possibly – or as is being posited – leading to her loss.

Such is the annoyance that outgoing president Barack Obama was a few days ago left fuming promising to get down to the bottom of the matter, essentially promising vengeance. Now, for some of us, framing the whole issue is pretty easy. One, you have to take everything that the US and its media say with a pinch of salt.

They are masters of mass deception and it is often remarked that American audiences are pretty dumb and gullible. They are easily fooled, which gives the mass deceivers a field day – like they did with, at least in recent memory, Saddam Hussein and the lies about weapons of mass deception.

Secondly, the story is pretty much a Cold War era kind of propaganda that frames Russia as presenting a mortal threat to America – keeping Americans on their feet and looking over their shoulders.

Thirdly, and connected to this, you have the feeling as though you have been down that road before: Russian spies wreaking havoc on the systems of America and compromising the security of state and people. You see that in the movies where good Americans tussle with bad, malevolent guys of Russian espionage. Fourthly, this story mightily appears to be a bad excuse on the loss of Hillary Clinton which hurt the establishment and its media to no end.

The story of Trump getting a hand from the bad Russians is soothing enough. It caresses the ego of those who were determined to see the Clintons back into the White House.

The story is not convincing at all. It’s like the script of a boring American spy film that is as predictable as it is badly written. Very few will take it.

But let’s just say the story is true, do we really have to mourn with America and lend a sympathetic to Clinton’s sob story? If indeed the story that Russia interfered with American elections, then it was probably a good thing, to the extent that America have now had an experience of how it feels for foreigners to tamper with your systems and manipulate processes against the national interest and in breach of international law and morality.

It is hardly a secret that America has its dirty fingers all over the place meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, especially the developing ones, seeking regime change and leverage for its interests that usually run contrary to local sentiment.

It has been doing that since the 20th century in South America, Africa and Asia. Some operations have been covert while others have been overt and blatant to the point of aggression. The last time we checked America had toppled half a century of rulers it did not like. In Zimbabwe the interference of America in political processes has been blatant and really contentious.

The Americans have been interfering with internal affairs of the country through agencies such as USAid, National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), International Republican Institute and George Soros’ Open Society initiatives, among others.

These agencies have been funding the opposition and opposition-linked civil society organisations and individuals. Thousands of organisations purporting to fight for democracy and human rights have been given dirty money to help topple the popular and heroic government of President Mugabe.

These organisations largely fall under the banner of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition which has a membership of over 300 organisations that cover areas such as human rights, elections, student movement, women issues and other seemingly innocuous and liberal formations.

Gays and homosexual organisations, artists and students are also given money through American institutions. Private media in the country has been also a recipient of grants and support from American institutions.

The purpose of these organisations has been to put pressure on, or aid the downfall of, the ruling party by presenting themselves as the face of the civil society – that is the general populace.

They also are designed to, as someone put it once, the “false left”. American institutions that carry out operations or fund activities are well-heeled, throwing money like confetti to anti-establishment organisations and to date millions and millions of dollars have been poured into them since the late 1990s.

Interestingly, that same money has often been misappropriated with programme officers at these NGOs squandering grants and living like Arab oil sheikhs.

For all the monies invested, little has been achieved, and it is one point of consternation that one American ambassador once regretted that with the resources put into Zimbabwe, regime change could have been achieved in a different place and time.

Just to demonstrate, the influential think tank Council on Foreign Relations, CFR, has profiled American regime change institutions and their global reach and influence. According to CFR: National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was established in 1983 under the Reagan administration and funded by Congress.

It is governed by an independent, bipartisan board of directors and has an annual war chest of about US$100 million, 55 percent of which funds are distributed equally in the form of grants to its four core institutes, and the rest of the budget is distributed among several other democracy-promoting organizations, as well as smaller indigenous groups across the globe.

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) is chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and is funded by the NED, USAID, the State Department, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as foreign governments’ aid agencies and private sector contributions. “NDI’s activities take place before and after elections, and include education campaigns, debate organisation, and encouragement of women’s participation in the political process,” says CFR.

The International Republican Institute (IRI) is the Republican counterpart to NDI and its similar budget is the NED, USAID, the State Department, etc.

IRI is said to be active in approximately sixty countries. There are also such organisations such as Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (“Solidarity Center”), an affiliate of American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) which primarily is concerned with building and supporting democratic trade unions, educating workers about collective bargaining, accountability, and health safety.

They are funded by USAID, the US State department, and so forth. Freedom House, founded in 1941, is billed to be one of the oldest “democracy-promoting” organisations in the US and operates, according to CFR under the principle that “freedom is possible only in democratic political systems”.

Its funding comes from USAID, the State Department, and, to a greater extent than many other organisations, private contributors and CFR says it provides “small grants in their efforts to promote human rights and advocate press freedom”.

Another notable organisation is the Open Society Institute (OSI) which is part of billionaire George Soros foundations network and has a network of organisations that purport to promote human rights, election-monitoring and advocating government accountability and transparency.

Organisations such as Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network, Doctors for Human Rights, Lawyers for Human Rights, ZimRights and the Media Institute of Southern Africa are some of the well-known organisations that receive money from the American government through various institutes.

Now all this points to a sickening interference by America in the internal affairs of other countries, including Zimbabwe and election periods are especially busy a time as these organisations, oiled by American money go into overdrive to achieve regime change.

That is not a secret at all. If the US really wanted to be free from interference, which it may or not have suffered in the last elections, it should not have made it its business to poke its noses in other people’s affairs – including Zimbabwe.

But then, America is exceptional! It is the global policeman. We are tempted to hope that the reports of Russian interference are true – just to show what a fine phenomenon karma is. America should not cry over its soiled spots.