For the past two years, college student Karly Berezowsky has helped do research for the Cuba Money Project. She wrote letters as part of the project’s FOIA campaign and she added dozens of videos to the website’s YouTube channel. It has been great to have her help, but she graduates in December. I’ll be looking [...]
Cuba Money Project goals after first year
The Cuba Money Project’s five goals for 2011 were to: Publish: Post stories and interviews that give dissidents, bloggers, Cuban government supporters, exiles and others the opportunity to voice their opinion on U.S. government-financed programs in Cuba. Investigate: Use the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, to pursue documents that shed light on U.S. government [...]
FOIA requests: Same slow tune
Over the past year, I have filed more than 100 Freedom of Information Act requests to try to learn more about what becomes of millions of tax dollars that go toward democracy programs in Cuba. I filed most of the FOIA requests in October 2011. They went to the U.S. Agency for International Development and [...]
24 interviews posted on Vimeo
I have posted 24 videos on the Cuba Money Project’s Vimeo channel since early December. They feature interviews with people on both sides of the Florida Straits. They come from all political perspectives, from bloggers who support Cuba’s socialist government to dissidents who oppose it. Feel free to suggest people that you believe I ought to [...]
October roundup
U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are of no concern to the United Nations, American ambassador Ronald Godard told the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 25. He said: The U.S. economic relationship with Cuba is a bilateral issue, and is not appropriately a concern of this Assembly. The embargo represents just one aspect of U.S. policy [...]
USAID keeps Cuba project secret to protect “personal privacy”
The U.S. Agency for International Development declined to identify the recipient of a $2 million-Cuba grant even though the apparent winner is readily available on a government-run website, USAspending.gov. USAID redacted almost the entire 33-page grant proposal, which I requested on March 13 through the Freedom of Information Act and received today. The agency said [...]