This week the Associated Press dropped a bombshell report detailing how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) secretly created ZunZuneo, a "Cuban Twitter" network, in what appears to have been an attempt to damage the Cuban government's standing. Now Congress has decided to look into the matter.

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah will testify Tuesday before a Senate subcommittee on the project to create the ZunZuneo social media network in Cuba, after the AP exclusively broke the story on it on Thursday.

Congressional Reaction

Shah is officially to appear with USAID's budget request for the fiscal year 2015, but you can bet the main item on the agenda will be the agency's "Cuban Twitter." The particular Senate subcommittee, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, is chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who, as we previously reported, called the program "dumb, dumb, dumb," on MSNBC after the AP story broke.

Leahy also said that he had "absolutely not" been made aware of the ZunZuneo initiative, which wrapped up in 2012 after funding ran out, saying, "if I had been, I would have said, 'What in heaven's name are you thinking?" In its exposé, the AP had reached out to USAID for comment, with spokesperson Matt Herrick responding that congressional investigators had reviewed the agency's Cuba programs and found them to be consistent with U.S. law.

"If USAID says they briefed the people giving them money for this -- that's not so. I was not briefed. I know of nobody who was briefed," said Leahy to MSNBC on Thursday. "And I think most people would say, 'Are you out of your mind?'"

Congressional members on both sides of the aisle have been split on the Cuban Twitter program, according to the AP, with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) commenting, "That is not what USAID should be doing...if they start participating in covert, subversive activities, the credibility of the United States is diminished." Rep. C.A. Ruppersberger (D-MD) agreed with Leahy that Congress had not been aware of the program. But Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was born in a family of Cuban immigrants, approved of USAID's "Cuban Twitter" initiative. "The whole purpose of our democracy programs, whether it be in Cuba or other parts of the world, is in part to create a free flow of information in closed societies," said Mendenez to the AP.

ZunZuneo's Secret Backers

What's likely to be a kerfuffle in Congress stems from the question over whether USAID's "Cuban Twitter" program was simply an extension of USAID's mission to promote human rights, free speech, development and democracy around the world through foreign aid, or whether the program shows the agency was acting too much like the anti-Castro Central Intelligence Agency of old. It comes down to whether USAID's secrecy in implementing ZunZuneo, was a necessity of being "discreet in non-permissive environments," as USAID argues, or whether it was "clandestine."

The other sticking point that Shah will likely have to answer to was the political motivations behind ZunZuneo. As the AP report described:

"Documents show the U.S. government planned to build a subscriber base through 'non-controversial content': news messages on soccer, music, and hurricane updates. Later when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, perhaps hundreds of thousands, operators would introduce political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize 'smart mobs' -- mass gatherings called at a moment's notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring, or, as one USAID document put it, 'renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society.'"

Check out the AP's original report for more details on the birth and death of ZunZuneo.

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