[A-List] CIA Agents assassinated in Afghanistan worked for "contractor" active in Venezuela, Cuba

[james daly]

CHAVEZ CODE/Golinger:

CIA Agents assassinated in Afghanistan worked for "contractor" active in 
Venezuela, Cuba

Posted to CN by: "walterlx" walterlx at earthlink.net

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2009

http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/12/cia-agents-assassinated-in-afghanistan.html

At least eight U.S. citizens were killed on a CIA operations base in 
Afghanistan this past Wednesday, December 30. A suicide bomber infiltrated 
Forward Operating Base Chapman located in the eastern province of Khost, 
which was a CIA center of operations and surveillance. Official sources in 
Washington have confirmed that the eight dead were all civilian employees 
and CIA contractors.

Fifteen days ago, five U.S. citizens working for a U.S. government 
contractor, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), were also killed in an 
explosion at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) office in 
Gardez. That same day, another bomb exploded outside the DAI offices in 
Kabul, although no serious injuries resulted.

The December 15 incident received little attention, although it occurred 
just days after the detention of a DAI employee in Cuba, accused of 
subversion and distribution of illegal materials to counterrevolutionary 
groups. President and CEO of DAI, Jim Boomgard, issued a declaration on 
December 14 regarding the detention of a subcontractor from his company in 
Cuba, confirming that, "the detained individual was an employee of a program 
subcontractor, which was implementing a competitively issued subcontract to 
assist Cuban civil society organizations." The statement also emphasized the 
"new program" DAI is managing for the U.S. government in Cuba, the "Cuba 
Democracy and Contingency Planning Program". DAI was awarded a $40 million 
USD contract in 2008 to help the U.S. government "support the peaceful 
activities of a broad range of nonviolent organizations through 
competitively awarded grants and subcontracts" in Cuba.

On December 15, DAI published a press release mourning "project personnel 
killed in Afghanistan". "DAI is deeply saddened to report the deaths of five 
staff associated with our projects in Afghanistan…On December 15, five 
employees of DAI's security subcontractor were killed by an explosion in the 
Gardez office of the Local Governance and Community Development (LGCD) 
Program, a USAID project implemented by DAI."

DAI also runs a program in Khost where the December 30 suicide bombing 
occurred, although it has yet to be confirmed if the eight U.S. citizens 
killed were working for the major U.S. government contractor. From the 
operations base in Khost, the CIA remotely controls its selective 
assassination program against alleged Al Qaeda members in Pakistan and 
Afghanistan using drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) Predator planes.
A high-level USAID official confirmed two weeks ago that the CIA uses 
USAID's name to issue contracts and funding to third parties in order to 
provide cover for clandestine operations. The official, a veteran of the 
U.S. government agency, stated that the CIA issues such contracts without 
USAID's full knowledge.

Since June 2002, USAID has maintained an Office for Transition Initiatives 
(OTI) in Venezuela, through which it has channeled more than $50 million USD 
to groups and individuals opposed to President Hugo Chávez. The same 
contractor active in Afghanistan and connected with the CIA, Development 
Alternatives Inc. (DAI), was awarded a multi-million dollar budget from 
USAID in Venezuela to "assist civil society and the transition to 
democracy". More than two thousand documents partially declassified from 
USAID regarding the agency's activities in Venezuela reveal the relationship 
between DAI and sectors of the Venezuelan opposition that have actively been 
involved in coup d'etats, violent demonstrations and other destabilization 
attempts against President Chávez.

In Bolivia, USAID was expelled this year from two municipalities, Chapare 
and El Alto, after being accused of interventionism. In September 2009, 
President Evo Morales announced the termination of an official agreement 
with USAID allowing its operations in Bolivia, based on substantial evidence 
documenting the agency's funding of violent separtist groups seeking to 
destabilize the country.

In 2005, USAID was also expelled from Eritrea and accused of being a 
"neo-colonialist" agency. Ethiopia, Russia and Belarus have ordered the 
expulsion of USAID and its contractors during the last five years.

Development Alternatives, Inc. is one of the largest U.S. government 
contractors in the world. The company, with headquarters in Bethesda, MD, 
presently has a $50 million contract with USAID for operations in 
Afghanistan. In Latin America, DAI has operations and field offices in 
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, 
Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

This year, USAID/DAI's budget in Venezuela nears $15 million USD and its 
programs are oriented towards strengthening opposition parties, candidates 
and campaigns for the 2010 legislative elections. Just two weeks ago, 
President Chávez also denounced the illegal presence of U.S. drone planes in 
Venezuelan airspace.
Posted by Eva