Special Reports & Tweets - 20140404_SpecialReport_Alex
Aired: 2014-04-04
Duration: 02:44


=== Voice of America Reaches Home (02:44) ===

[00:00:00]  The US Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs has decided to remove the U.S. Ambassador to the United States
[00:00:05]  from the United States.
[00:00:07]  The US Congressional Committee on the Rights of the Deaf and the Deaf-Blind is a joint effort by the US Department
[00:00:08]  of State and the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the rights of the deaf and the blind.
[00:00:08]  government created a secret social media platform aimed at taking down Cuba's communist government.
[00:00:15]  With the recent introduction of cell phone use in Cuba, U.S.
[00:00:18]  officials saw the perfect opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands on the island.
[00:00:22]  The plan was to launch a Cuban Twitter, using cell phone text messaging to evade Cuba's
[00:00:27]  strict control of information and Internet regulation.
[00:00:31]  Initially, users would receive non-controversial content, like news messages on soccer games
[00:00:36]  or music and hurricane updates.
[00:00:38]  Later, when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, operators would introduce
[00:00:43]  political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize smart mobs, mass gatherings called
[00:00:49]  at a moment's notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring.
[00:00:53]  This was incredibly dangerous for the some 40,000 young Cubans who were interacting with the platform.
[00:00:59]  They had no idea that the messages they thought were uninfluenced by their government were in fact financed by the U.S.
[00:01:06]  government and influenced by its agenda.
[00:01:08]  Social media platforms like Twitter have aided uprisings in several countries.
[00:01:13]  And in 2011, Hillary Clinton admitted the U.S.
[00:01:16]  helped people in oppressive Internet environments get around filters.
[00:01:21]  There's no telling how many of these uprisings have been financed and influenced by the U.S.
[00:01:25]  government.
[00:01:26]  But while the U.S.
[00:01:27]  government admits that social media is a powerful tool in taking down regimes overseas, it wouldn't like to see technology having that same effect here in America.
[00:01:37]  That's why every year we're seeing legislation like SOPA, CISPA and PIPA, as well as the executive order signed by Obama that gives him the authority to shut down the Internet.
[00:01:47]  Instruments to fight the enemy abroad are now being used as tools of tyranny here in America.
[00:01:53]  Tanks used for war are now being brought to our streets.
[00:01:56]  Urban warfare training has increased at home, and we are being openly propagandized to thanks to last year's reform of the Smith Month Act.
[00:02:05]  The lifting of the propaganda ban will now allow a vast ocean of programming by Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other media, which is now heard in over a hundred countries, to be heard here at home as well.
[00:02:17]  Talk radio is and was the original alternative media.
[00:02:22]  When print was controlled, when the TV was controlled, only three channels, it was talk radio where people could call in and talk about things.
[00:02:31]  And so many stories would break regionally that would end up becoming very important.
[00:02:35]  And it was the place that could change what was happening legislatively.
[00:02:38]  Government, tyrants in government, have always feared talk radio.
[00:02:43]  And they're doing everything they can to kill it now.