Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 23:52:06 +0200
"Color Revolutions": US State Department Document Confirms Regime Change
Agenda in the Middle East
By <http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/middleeastbriefing> Middle East
Briefing
Global Research, June 28, 2014
middleeast
The Obama Administration has been pursuing a policy of covert support for
the Muslim Brotherhood and other insurgent movements in the Middle East
since 2010. MEB has obtained a just-released U.S. State Department document
through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that confirms the Obama
Administration's pro-active campaign for regime change throughout the Middle
East and North Africa region.
The October 22, 2010 document, titled "Middle East Partnership Initiative:
Overview," spells out an elaborate structure of State Department programs
aimed at directly building "civil society" organizations, particularly
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to alter the internal politics of the
targeted countries in favor of U.S. foreign policy and national security
objectives.
The five-page document, while using diplomatic language, makes clear that
the goal is promoting and steering political change in the targeted
countries:
"The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a regional program that
empowers citizens in the Middle East and North Africa to develop more
pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies. As the figures in
this overview illustrate, MEPI has evolved from its origins in 2002 into a
flexible, region-wide tool for direct support to indigenous civil society
that mainstreams that support into the daily business of USG diplomacy in
the region. MEPI engages all the countries of the NEA region except Iran.
In the seven of NEA's eighteen countries and territories with USAID
missions, country-level discussions and communication between MEPI and USAID
in Washington ensure that programming efforts are integrated and
complementary."
In a section of the document titled "How MEPI Works," three core elements of
the program were spelled out: region-wide and multi-country programming,
local grants, and country-specific projects. The objectives of the
region-wide and multi-country programming were described as:
"builds networks of reformers to learn from and support one another, and to
catalyze progressive change in the region." The local grants "provide
direct support to indigenous civic groups, and now represent more than half
of MEPI's projects."
Under the country-specific aspect of the program, designated officers of the
U.S. embassies manage the funding and work as direct liaisons to the various
funded local NGOs and other civil society groups. The "country-specific
projects" are tasked "to respond to local developments and local needs, as
identified by our embassies, local reformers, and our own field analysis.
Political developments in a country may produce new opportunities or
challenges for USG policy goals, and MEPI will shift funds to respond to
these needs."
According to the October 2010 document, the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at
every U.S. embassy in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is in charge of
the MEPI program, giving it a clear high priority. The document makes clear
that the Middle East Partnership Initiative is not coordinated with host
governments:
"MEPI works primarily with civil society, through NGO implementers based in
the United States and in the region. MEPI does not provide funds to foreign
governments, and does not negotiate bilateral assistance agreements. As a
regional program, MEPI can shift funds across countries and to new
issue-areas as needed."
The document makes clear that special priority, as early as 2010, was given
to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, and that project
headquarters in Abu Dhabi and Tunis were overall coordinating centers for
the entire regional program. Within a year of its inception, Libya and
Syria were added to the list of countries on the priority list for civil
society intervention.
The State Department document was released as part of an FOIA suit focused
on Presidential Study Directive 11, which remains classified "secret" and
has not yet been released to the public. According to MEB sources, PSD-11
spelled out the Obama Administration's plans to support the Muslim
Brotherhood and other allied "political Islam" movements believed at the
time to be compatible with U.S. foreign policy objectives in the region.
The MEPI is currently directed by Paul Sutphin, who was previously U.S.
consul general in Erbil, Iraq and more recently, Director of the Office of
Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Near
Eastern Affairs. His deputy is Catherin Bourgeois, who was first assigned
to MEPI in February 2009 as Division Chief of Policy and Programming. Her
past State Department assignments have involved the development of
Information Technology uses in advancing U.S. foreign policy goals.
Two other senior State Department officials have overseen the development
and expansion of the program since the drafting of the October 2010 MEPI
document, spelling out its transformation into a regime-change force.
Tomicah S. Tillemann is the Senior Advisor for Civil Society and Emerging
Democracies, appointed to that post by then-Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton in October 2010. He remains in that post under Secretary John
Kerry. He was the founder of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and
Justice, itself an NGO named after Tilleman's grandfather, the former U.S.
Congressman, Tom Lantos.
In September 2011, Ambassador William B. Taylor was appointed to head the
then-newly established Office of the Special Coordinator for Middle East
Transitions, after having served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine during
the "Orange Revolution" of 2006-2009. According to a State Department
paper,
"The Office of the Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions (D/MET),
established in September 2011, coordinates United States Government
assistance to incipient democracies arising from popular revolts across the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Special Coordinator for
Middle East Transitions implements a coordinated interagency strategy to
support designated MENA countries undergoing transitions to
democracy-currently, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya."
The complete State Department documents released under the FOIA will soon be
available as part of a comprehensive MEB Special Report now in production on
the regime-change program and its consequences for the region. For
upcoming details on this report, check the MEB website.
Copyright Middle East Briefing 2014
www.globalresearch.ca/us-state-department-document-confirms-regime-change-ag
enda-in-middle-east/5388948" data-title=""Color Revolutions": US State
Department Document Confirms Regime Change Agenda in the Middle East">
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