At the end of last week, the website of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was taken offline as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Elon Musk, began a deep dive into the fiscal morass of that agency.
As a reminder, USAID is supposedly an independent government agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy’s executive order, it is one of the largest official aid agencies globally, with a budget of over $50 billion.
USAID operates in more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Theoretically, its primary mission is to partner to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing U.S. security and prosperity.
Americans are concerned it has become a slush fund for pet projects and policies that fail to promote the best interests of this country.
The move to dig into USAID directly resulted from President Trump’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid. Therefore, USAID and its books are fascinating to DOGE, and the team has spent the weekend trying to unravel some of the funding complexities and identify accountability gaps.
To begin with, DOGE was granted access to US Treasury databases and full access to the federal payment system.
Next, senior USAID officials quickly experienced the consequences of Trump’s executive orders and the DOGE team’s scrutiny of its finances.
Two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave Saturday night after attempting to refuse officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency access systems at the agency, even after DOGE personnel threatened to call law enforcement, multiple sources familiar told CNN.According to sources, personnel from the Musk-created office physically tried to access the USAID headquarters in Washington, DC, and were stopped. The DOGE personnel demanded to be let in and threatened to call US Marshals to be allowed access, two of the sources said.The DOGE personnel wanted to gain access to USAID security systems and personnel files, three sources said. Two of those sources also said the DOGE personnel wanted access to classified information, which only those with security clearances and a specific need to know are able to access.
Meanwhile, Musk’s social media this weekend has been a steady revelation of what the team has uncovered so far.
For example, the agency appears to have paid for propaganda.
It looks like Americans have been paying for Afghan farmers to grow….opium.
Many US cities have been struggling to remove prosecutors supported by billionaire George Soros, for both their incompetence and their general criminal-favoring enforcement using their twisted sense of the rule of law.
But, for me, perhaps the most shocking was the agency’s connection to EcoHealth Alliance, the organization that worked with the Chinese scientists to create the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In 2013, EcoHealth Alliance received a three-year, $2 million grant from USAID to address land use alteration as a driver of disease emergence and climate change in Asia.
In other words, a non-governmental organization (NGO) reaped millions in our tax dollars in the name of “science” using two popular globalist phrases: “disease emergence” and “climate change.”
EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on local conservation and global health issues, announced the award of a three-year, $2 million award to address land use alteration as a significant driver of both disease emergence and climate change in Asia. The funding for the new program was awarded by U.S. Agency for International Development, Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA).Over 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases over the past six decades-from SARS to pandemic H1N1 and HIV-have originated in animals, with nearly half linked to land use change, agricultural intensification, or changes in food production. Land alterations accelerate the pace and diversity of human and animal contact, enabling pathogens to spill over from animal populations, a first spark in the chain of events that ignite global pandemics.
I would assert that allowing scientists to conduct gain-of-function research on viruses without proper biosafety containment would be a more significant driver of global pandemics.
Furthermore, EcoHealth Alliance was also part of USAID’s PREDICT program, which ran for 10 years prior to 2019, focusing on identifying and increasing capacity to respond to new and emerging disease threats…like the ones it created.
In September 2022, a group of U.S. Senators led by Roger Marshall (KS-R) demanded that USAID suspend its taxpayer-funded financial awards to EcoHealth Alliance due to concerns about the organization’s noncompliance with federal grant requirements and its involvement in potentially risky virus research. This year, that group’s funding was permanently blocked by the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
EcoHealth Alliance is certainly a chilling example of USAID running amok, but it isn’t likely the only one.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY