U.S.-funded Cuban 'Twitter' stale cold-war tactic

"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you," wrote Joseph Heller in "Catch-22."

A little paranoia is understandable in light of revelations about the National Security Agency, and Cuba has a long history of justified suspicion when it comes to its neighbor to the north.

It turns out one of the last so-named communist countries in the world was the target of an Internet campaign designed to overthrow its government, funded by the U.S. government.

And, it was channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which takes institutional pride in being above such machinations.

The project, called ZunZuneo, was a primitive Twitter-like social media platform designed to draw young Cubans and eventually push them toward dissent against their government.

The operation sidestepped Cuban government control of the Internet, and was funded through shell companies to the extent that even those employed by it did not know they were working for the U.S. government.

It was apparently activated shortly after Alan Gross, a USAID subcontractor who was sent to Cuba to help provide citizens access to the Internet, was arrested.

"There is the risk to young, unsuspecting Cuban cellphone users who had no idea this was a U.S. government-funded activity," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., chairman of the Appropriations Committee's State Department and foreign operations subcommittee.

Most of us are not especially concerned about violating the rights of Cuban young people, especially in view of the NSA spying on American citizens. That's despite the fact ZunZuneo went out of business after two years of federal funding ran out.

But 50 years after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, it's troubling that we're still banking on a popular uprising to overthrow the Cuban government.

Yes, the Cuban government is oppressive to its people and a change in the right direction would be a good thing.

And, social media did play an important part in the "Arab Spring" uprisings, but how many of those turned out in ways that benefited the United States?

We have longstanding commercial, economic, and financial embargo against Cuba designed to pressure its government into improving conditions for its people.

We have no trouble maintaining commercial, economic and financial ties with China, for example, or other equally oppressive governments.

Most of them, however, are not opposed by an American political force as powerful as Cuban exiles in Florida, who can play a key part in American elections.

Lifting the embargo and exporting true American influences such as popular culture and economic prosperity to the island will do far more to overthrow the oppressive Cuban government than any stale cold-war tactic ever can.