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*HOW* Musk Bullied USAID into letting his geek squad get in their undershorts [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-06
The Guardian has an exclusive this morning about how Musk, in a series of personal phone calls, personally intimidated USAID officials into letting his minions, without security clearances, into USAID databases, including classified information -- risking the safety and privacy of employees and possibly national security.
The Trump administration has since attempted to shut down USAID unilaterally, without required action by Congress.
x Crucial new article. About the "how." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... "Musk...demanded the suspensions of dozens of the agency’s leading officials, and cajoled and threatened senior USAid officials to give his acolytes private data and access to restricted areas.....
/more
[image or embed] — Clio2 (@clio2.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Security staff initially rebuffed the engineers’ efforts to talk their way into the secure rooms, called sensitive compartmented information facilities (Scifs), because they didn’t have the necessary security clearances. But that evening, Musk phoned a senior official at USAid to demand access for his subordinates, the first of numerous calls to officials and employees of Doge at USAid that have continued into this week. Inside the building, chaos reigned. Areas that were once declared restricted, with limitations on electronics such as phones and watches, suddenly loosened their security protocols to allow in uncredentialed outsiders. Doge employees were said to obscure their identities to prevent online harassment, a tactic that was repeated at other agencies. And Peter Marocco, the controversial new director of foreign assistance at the state department, was stalking the halls and meeting in private with the Doge employees. By Friday, things had gone further downhill....
Altogether a must-read.
..
Speaking of SCIFs, btw, remember this blast from the past?
Oct. 24, 2019: Republicans storm secure room, delay in questioning top defense official on Ukraine aid
That was an SCIF, where Republicans carrying cell phones barged in to try and interfere with an inprachment probe involving classified info, so that the had to be fully screened before the hearing could resume, 5 hours later.
…
Back to Musk:
x "At one point, he threatened to call in the US Marshals Service."
..
"Some US officials had begun calling the young engineers [that Musk brought in] the 'Muskovites' for their aggressive loyalty to the SpaceX owner." There could be another reason why that happened to be fitting. /more — Clio2 (@clio2.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 6:25 AM
USAID is one prominent target of Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation proposal to remake the U.S. government from the ground up -- which Trump denied knowing about during the election season but appears to be following fairly closely.
And also:
"USAID Shutoff Will Hurt U.S. Interests Around the Globe, Including Ukraine" (DefenseOne )
"U.S. Funding Halt Leaves Ukrainian Media Seeking Support" (Kyiv Post )
"Ukraine reels from 'worst-case' suspension of U.S. foreign aid" (Guardian)
And in general:
"USAID and the Wilful Sabotage of American Soft Power" (Financial Times)
What was it, remind me, earlier about Trump and Ukraine, some scandal, uh -- oh, yeah.
Trump enlisted surrogates in and outside his administration, including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, to pressure Ukraine and other governments to cooperate in supporting and legitimizing [a] bogus Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory....
and
Trump blocked payment of a congressionally-mandated $400 million military aid package, in an attempt to obtain quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Who said NOPE.
And that's what his FIRST impeachment was all about. The craven Republican Senate refused to convict. So here we are.
And.…before that...
Russia is known to have interfered on Trump's behalf in the 2016 elections (extensive social media disinfo, plus convicted spy Maria Butina, who was later received back home with a metaphorical ticker-tape parade).
At this point, someone sure seems want the U.S. isolated politically, militarily and economically from the rest of the world, its civil society in chaos, neutered. Public services and infrastructure sold off.
Not at all unlike what happened in Russia after the fall of Communism, as it happens.
Cui bono ? Who benefits? Who in the world ? Maybe one in particular. Maybe more.
Note: Please add, and if you spot any errors let me know. Thx.
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