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Office of the Secretary of State. Six other State rom Tunisia and Egypt on record as receiving training Department staff members and advisers also attended and support from abroad so that they could return to the summit, along with an immense list of corporate, heir home nations and sow unrest in a region-wide media and institutional representatives. coordinated campaign. Shortly afterwards, the April 6 Movement travelled to An April 2011 Agence France-Presse report confirmed Serbia to train under the US-funded CANVAS [Centre for his when the US State Department's Michael Posner Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies], formerly the stated that the US government "has budgeted $50 US-funded NGO Otpor! which in 2000 helped overthrow million in the last two years to develop new he government of Serbia. Otpor!, the New York Times echnologies to help activists protect themselves from reported, was a “well-oiled movement backed by several arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments". million dollars from the United States". After its The report went on to explain that the US "...has success, it changed its name to CANVAS and began organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in raining activists to be used in other US-backed regime- different parts of the world. A session held in the change operations. Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Foreign Policy magazine reported in its article Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their "Revolution U" that CANVAS assisted protesters in the countries with the aim of training their colleagues Rose Revolution of Georgia and the Orange Revolution here." Posner added: "They went back and there's a of the Ukraine and is currently working with networks ripple effect." That ripple effect, of course, is the "Arab rom Belarus, Myanmar (Burma) and all across the Spring". Middle East and North Africa as well as with activists from North 2011 - Year of the Dupe orea and 50 other countries. the WikiLeaks cables 16 January 2011: Al Arabiya ee News reported in its article 2009: In a US Department of were merely used asa "Tunisian exiled reformist to State-funded Radio Free . head back home" that Monce Europe-Radio Liberty (RFE-RL) . planned rhetorical Marzouki was returning to article titled “Exporting justification for long ago Tunisia from Paris amidst the Nonviolent Revolution, from . ° chaos sown by US State Eastern Europe to the Middle premeditated foreign- Department trained, supported East’, it was stated: funded sedition. and equipped mobs who were "triggered" by the convenien exported is nonviolent telease of US State Departmen methods, helping train the cables via WikiLeaks. Quite activists who spearheaded Georgia's Rose Revolution in clearly, considering the training Tunisian opposition 2003 and Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004. groups received long before the cables were released, "And now, Popovic is deploying his new organization, | the WikiLeaks cables were merely used as a planned called Canvas, even farther afield—assisting the pro- _ rhetorical justification for long ago premeditated democracy activists who recently brought down foreign-funded sedition. Since then, WikiLeaks has "{Srdja] Popovic then despotic regimes in Egypt and Tunisia." been employed in an identical manner everywhere from Activists from Iran, Belarus and North Korea were also —_ Egypt to Libya and even as far flung as Thailand. confirmed by RFE-RL as having received training from Moncef Marzouki, it turns out, was the head [and is CANVAS. The RFE-RL article places the activists’ now an Executive Board member] of the Arab meeting with CANVAS at some time during 2009. Commission for Human Rights, a collaborating institution with the US NED World Movement for February 2010: The April 6 Movement, after training Democracy (WMD), including a Conference on Human with CANVAS, returned to Egypt in 2010 along with Rights Activists in Exile, and a participant in the WMD United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency Third Assembly alongside Marzouki's Tunisian League (IAEA) chief Dr Mohamed ElBaradei. April 6 members or Human Rights, sponsored by NED, George Soros's were even arrested while waiting for ElBaradei's arrival | Open Society and USAID. at Cairo's airport in mid-February. Already, ElBaradei, A "call for solidarity" by the International Federation as early as 2010, had announced his intention of or Human Rights (FIDH) mentions by name each and running for President in the 2011 elections. Together — every group constituting the Tunisian opposition during with April 6, Wael Ghonim of Google and a coalition of he “uprising” in January 2011 as "FIDH member other opposition parties, ElBaradei assembled his organisations". These include Marzouki's Tunisian National Front for Change and began preparing for the | League for Human Rights, the Tunisian Association of coming "Arab Spring". Democratic Women and the National Council for Clearly, then, unrest was long planned, with activists Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT). FIDH, acting as an rom Tunisia and Egypt on record as receiving training and support from abroad so that they could return to heir home nations and sow unrest in a region-wide coordinated campaign. An April 2011 Agence France-Presse report confirmed his when the US State Department's Michael Posner stated that the US government "has budgeted $50 million in the last two years to develop new echnologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments". e report went on to explain that the US "...has organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of the world. A session held in the iddle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues here." Posner added: "They went back and there's a tipple effect." That ripple effect, of course, is the "Arab Spring”. were merely used as a planned rhetorical justification for long ago premeditated foreign- February 2010: The April 6 Movement, after training with CANVAS, returned to Egypt in 2010 along with United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Dr Mohamed ElBaradei. April 6 members were even arrested while waiting for ElBaradei's arrival at Cairo's airport in mid-February. Already, ElBaradei, as early as 2010, had announced his intention of running for President in the 2011 elections. Together with April 6, Wael Ghonim of Google and a coalition of other opposition parties, ElBaradei assembled his National Front for Change and began preparing for the coming "Arab Spring". Clearly, then, unrest was long planned, with activists 12 * NEXUS ...the WikiLeaks cables funded sedition. FEBRUARY - MARCH 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com