“When It’s Too Dirty For The CIA…” Benz On USAID’s Litany Of Corruption

For those who turned into the live debate last night, we apologize for the ”demonstration of Wirecast” mantra that played repeatedly. This was not a mass MK Ultra sleeper cell activation but a glitch with our streaming software. And, yes, we have an active Wirecast subscription. So… please direct your hate mail to support@telestream.net.

That aside — Keith Knight, Mike Benz, and Cenk Uygur — respectively the abolitionist, reformist, and proponent — had a great debate. Here were the highlights for those who missed it:

“I see a lot of bathwater and very little baby.”

Responding to Cenk’s defense of USAID’s HIV programs with the phrase, “Keep the baby with the bathwater,” Benz retorted sharply: “I see a lot of bathwater and very little baby,” citing forced sterilizations in Peru and aggressive abortion campaigns in Latin America and Africa as evidence that USAID is sometimes involved in “the opposite of saving babies… USAID is taking the lives of babies.”

Benz further detailed covert operations masked as health aid, referencing a CIA-backed, USAID-funded fake vaccine program in Pakistan that collected blood and DNA under the guise of counterterrorism. “Nobody would think [HIV prevention] would be where they would establish a recruiting office for regime change,” he noted on a similar program in Cuba. Even massive charity efforts like Band Aid and Live Aid come under fire, with Benz alleging that “of the 100 million raised, 95 million went to purchase weapons for rebels in Somalia.” In sum, Benz urges scrutiny: “We have to look at what USAID is doing vs. what they say they are doing.”

“Instead of throwing out the entire budget..THE ENTIRE BUDGET WITH BATHWATER” – Cenk@cenkuygur begins to “inform” everyone on HIV alone we have 25 million lives saved via USAID programs and how that have spread even further…”Keep the baby with the bath water”
Benz… pic.twitter.com/D5dSxssBtO

— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) June 29, 2025

“When it’s too dirty for the CIA…”

Benz’s view boiled down: USAID is a cover arm of U.S. foreign policy.

“USAID at its heart is a CIA function.” Even seemingly benign programs—whether about “food security, public health, independent media, [or] rule of law”—are, according to Benz, “secretly accomplishing some goal the State Department wants to achieve.”

These programs can also channel funds back home to prop up the “political apparatus” through kickbacks. Benz underscored the lack of oversight, warning that “USAID has only ONE METHOD OF ACCOUNTABILITY… The Inspector General,” and that it can “block Congress,” effectively bypassing legislative checks. Pointing to the Zunzuneo scandal—USAID’s secret attempt to incite an Arab Spring-style uprising in Cuba—Benz noted that when the operation was exposed, “Obama denied knowledge because he didn’t give a presidential finding & the Congress & Senate said we didn’t know this was happening.”

“Foreign aid has gone way too rogue,” he concluded, noting that USAID has now been expelled from eight countries. His prescription is one of reform: “USAID has to go into the shop for repairs before it is driven back out onto the road again.”

On the @zerohedge Foreign Aid Debate, Mike Benz briefly explains USAID is a vehicle used to employ covert tactics without requiring executive approval.
” IF IT’S TOO DIRTY FOR THE CIA..GIVE IT TO USAID” – BENZ
@MikeBenzCyber that “ USAID at its heart is a CIA FUNCTION & You… pic.twitter.com/qMxU5c36OS

— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) June 28, 2025

For the abolitionist perspective — i.e. no foreign aid whatsoever — tune into the full debate below for remarks by Keith Knight, editor at Scott Horton’s Libertarian Institute. Knight is one of the brightest young thinkers among modern libertarians:

https://t.co/A2uwg4HOYH

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 28, 2025