SomaliNet Forums

AbuShabab wrote:

Grant wrote:The initial invitation was between governments

However, you claimed you were personally invited.

Grant wrote:

AbuShabab wrote:

Grant wrote:The initial invitation was between governments

However, you claimed you were personally invited.

You are putting a rather tighter spin on things than you allow yourself in your polls.

Ok, the Volunteers were invited by the Somali government. I was a Volunteer. I was personally invited by the Peace Corps, at the request of the Somali Government. The Somali Government wanted an English teacher. They didn't know me personally from Adam.

Grant wrote:Basra,

I have the unfortunate disability of knowing first-hand that Somalis are human beings. There are few others today who can say that.

Grant wrote:You are putting a rather tighter spin on things than you allow yourself in your polls.

Ok, the Volunteers were invited by the Somali government. I was a Volunteer. I was personally invited by the Peace Corps, at the request of the Somali Government. The Somali Government wanted an English teacher. They didn't know me personally from Adam.

AbuShabab wrote:

Grant wrote:You are putting a rather tighter spin on things than you allow yourself in your polls.

Ok, the Volunteers were invited by the Somali government. I was a Volunteer. I was personally invited by the Peace Corps, at the request of the Somali Government. The Somali Government wanted an English teacher. They didn't know me personally from Adam.

I think it's the US government that offered the Peace Corps' services. I don't think the Somali government requested it (unless there's proof in the form of documentations). So, this appears to me as something forced on Somalis.

Early controversy

The organization experienced major controversy in its first year of operation. On October 13, 1961, a postcard was written by a volunteer named Margery Jane Michelmore in Nigeria to a friend in the U.S. She described her situation in Nigeria as "squalor and [of] absolutely primitive living conditions." However, this postcard never made it out of the country. The Ibadan University College Students Union demanded deportation and accused the volunteers of being "America's international spies" and the project as "a scheme designed to foster neocolonialism." Soon the international press picked up the story, leading several people in the U.S. administration to question the future of the program as a whole. Nigerian students protested the program, and the American volunteers sequestered themselves and eventually began a hunger strike. After several days, the Nigerian students agreed to open a dialogue with the Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corp ... ontroversy

SahanGalbeed wrote:Grant knows more somali and things about Somalia than Abu shabab , no kidding !

A. Peace Corps: The Urban Front

The Peace Corps is a perfect structure for the CIA. It provides a point of contact with the working class which is so necessary for information gathering. And, because of the Peace Corps structure, the CIA does not have to control it in order to use it successfully. The Peace Corps entered Latin America as the "person-to-person" of the Alliance for Progress. Working out of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, the first head of the Peace Corps in Chile was Nathaniel Davis, promoted to Ambassador by the time of the September 1973 coup. Under the skillful guidance of Davis, many of the youthful volunteers headed straight for the poblaciones which housed the poorest sectors of the Chilean working class and unemployed. Fresh out of Swarthmore, Bennington and Berkeley, the volunteers invaded the poblaciones, lived with the people and came to know them -- politically and socially. They worked with them, observed their customs, their way of life, their traditions. And then they drew up work reports describing their experiences.

It was not necessary to have many agents in the Peace Corps -- just in the right places and with access to all the information which was generated. Unknowingly, thousands of U.S. youths, most thinking that they were helping the Chileans, were instead gathering data for the now undercover Project Camelot.

Those agents in the Peace Corps who were conscious of their role had several tasks. As they mingled with the people, they were identifying future leftist leaders as well as those right-wingers who in the future would work for U.S. interests. They were assessing consciousness, evaluating reactions to reforms. And they were selecting and training future agents. It was at this point that Michael Townley, Peace Corpsman in the sixties, was recruited to enter the Agency. Townley returned to Chile in 1970 as one of the agency's closest contacts with Patria y Libertad.

Finally, the Peace Corps was used as a front to get paramilitary equipment into the country. Ellis Carrasco, who succeeded Davis as head of the Peace Corps, was himself accused of gun-running. Later, the U.S. Army donated and installed radio receivers in all Peace Corps regional offices to facilitate communications. These same receivers were used during the coup to facilitate coordination of the Junta's bloody activities.

James Dahl wrote:Well, as a Canadian I can attest to the fact that while most Americans are trustworthy, count your fingers after shaking hands with the US Government.