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Notes -
I suspect that "The Agency" is an...apt term to describe USAID.
People are thinking a lot about
Missed in this is the question of 3): What message is being sent to foreign governments by shutting down a branch of the US intelligence apparatus*?
*Yes, I think this is an overstatement, but think about it from the perspective of a foreign government: once USAID serves as cover for a hostile covert op aimed at overthrowing a government, you have to assume the entire agency is serving as a CIA arm. And this is without getting into even the "soft power" or perhaps "propaganda" aspects of what USAID does.
If the CIA was competent enough it'd set up its own network of shell companies or charities to just continue the work of infiltrating nations and cultivating domestic assets. Funneling everything through USAID or some other US centric organization just seems like a forced sharing of the feeding trough with other pigs that exist just to be the first up for slaughter when the butchering season begins. Actually once I say it that way it makes sense that the CIA would have a vast number of friendly organizations embedded in the bureaucracy that would be first on the chopping block. Being the biggest baddest hog in the swamp is a survival strategy, but so is being one step faster than the clueless pigs feasting next ro you.
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