“Sesame Street in Iraq”: USAID “wasted and dangerous” expense exposed by Senator

Senator Joni Ernst, R-IAWA, published a list of projects and programs that says that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped to fund himself over the years, emphasizing it as expenses. “wasted and dangerous” that taxpayers have taken to the The Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) came in.

“From tax dollar funnel to risky investigation to Wuhan to sending Ukrainians to Paris Fashion Week, Usaid is one of the worst waste criminals in Washington … worldwide “, Ernst published on X on Monday before making a good number of examples.

Ernst emphasized that the agency “authorized $ 20 million to create a Sesame Street in Iraq.”

By virtue of Biden administration, USAID granted $ 20 million to a profit called sesame workshop To produce a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” in an effort to “promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding between ethnic, religious and sectarian groups”.

“As Iraq has recovered since years of conflict, communities are struggling to find a new feeling of normality while maintaining physical and emotional injuries,” says a link filed on the USAID website. “The legacy of Iraq’s conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) left many children without a stable or displaced house, especially those of the ethnic and religious minorities of Iraq. In addition, Young Iraqi, who constitute more than half of the population, cannot find jobs in a war -tightened economy and corruption, creating vulnerabilities in radicalization. ”

USAID website closed this week as DOGE and Tech The billionaire Elon Musk Put the agency on its microscope.

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The show is designed as the American Kids’ Sesame Street “program, and was awarded funding that began in 2021 and runs until 2027, according to the archived website. Continue airs in the Middle East. Review of your website.

In another example, Ernst was emphasized, it was found that USAID had provided millions of dollars to Afghanistan farmers to try to grow food instead of poppy and opium fields.

The plan, however, led to an increase in poppy production and, therefore, the production of opium, during the war in Afghanistan.

“During the height of the war in Afghanistan, USAID spent millions of dollars to help Afghans grow crops instead of opium,” Ernst published on Monday in X. “The results: The cultivation of the poppy d ‘Opium all over the country doubled almost, according to the UN.’

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USAID, as well as the North -American military, paid farmers to build or rehabilitate miles of irrigation channels in the province of Helmand, Afghanistan, during the Obama administration to try to persuade farmers to cultivate fruits and other plants, Washington Post reported 2019. Farmers, however, used the channels to grow poppies.

Poppy production almost doubled in the region between 2010 and 2014, reported the site, quoting the United Nations figures.

In another example, Ernst said that USAID spent $ 2 million to finance “Classes and promotion of Moroccan pottery”. Morocco thousands of years ago created pottery, dating to 6,000 BC

Ex-sector Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Who died in 2020, published a “Waste Book” Government in 2012 In detail that Usaid “began to pursue a four -year plan to improve the economic competitiveness of Morocco” from 2009, which included $ 27 million in funding.

Part of the funding was directed to a program that “involved forming Moroccans to create and design pottery to sell in national and international markets”, according to the report.

The North -American Pottery instructor hired to teach local artists, however, could not communicate with them as a translator of the program was not “fluid in English”, according to the waste book.

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“A north -American pottery instructor was hired to provide several weeks of training classes to local artists to improve their methods and teach them to make ceramics lead to the market,” The waste book reported. “Unfortunately, the translator hired for the sessions was not fluid in English and could not transmit great portions of the conferences to the participants.”

Ernst added to another example that USAID “incorporated about $ 1 million in coronavirus research into the China China’s Infamós Institute of Virology, which the CIA admits to Covid-19 source. “.

The Government Accounting Office published a report by 2023 to 2023 that both the USAID and the National Health Institutes directed taxpayers’ funds to North -American universities and a non -profit organization before the money found the Its path to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The report found that between 2014 and 2021, the funds of the North -American taxpayers were redirected to entities, including the Wuhan Virology Institute, the University of Wuhan and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, which is part of it. of the Chinese Communist Party. The three groups each received more than $ 2 million combined from the United States “through seven sub -sub -consequences”, according to the report.

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“The selected entities are government institutions or laboratories in China that carry out work in infectious diseases, including pandemic viruses, and have had actions carried out by federal agencies to address security or security concerns,” says the report. “The three selected Chinese entities received funds.”

In January, the CIA under the Second Administration Trump published an updated evaluation on Covid-19 origins, favoring the theory that contagious disease was due to a laboratory escape. The CIA had previously maintained that it did not have enough evidence to conclude if Covid originated in a laboratory or “wet market” in Wuhan, China.

Ernst stated in Thread X that USAID also provided funds for promoting tourism in Lebanon and sending Ukrainian models to Fashion Week.

“The agency spent $ 2 million promoting tourism in Lebanon, a nation that the State Department warns of traveling to ‘due to crime, terrorism, civilian malaise, abduction, without exploiting terrestrial mines and The risk of armed conflict, “he wrote.

“Usaid spends money as if it were fashionable, literally,” he wrote. “Commercial assistance in Ukraine paid models and designers for traveling to New York City, London Fashion Week, Fashion Week and south by South -West in Austin.”

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Trump’s administration And Doge, directed by Musk, put USAID on its line of fire over the weekend, as DOGE continues to tear government agencies to confuse the reported spending and corruption.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated that he is now the acting director of USAID and said on Monday in the media that the agency must be adjusted to the “first America” ​​policies of Trump, which include Intense scrutiny on the distribution of taxpayers’ funds abroad. .

In the meantime, Musk has struck the agency as a “Nest of Radical Marxists of the left of Viper of Viper who hate America” ​​and reported on Sunday in a only audio message to X Trump agreed to close the agency.

Democrats have struck the Trump administration’s efforts in USAID. Representative Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Accused Trump of beginning a dictatorship as he protested against USAID headquarters on Monday.

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“It’s a really day, really sad in America. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis,” Omar said. “We have talked about Trump who wants to be a dictator on the first day. And here we are. This is what the beginning of the dictatorship looks like when you step on the Constitution and install yourself as the only power. This is how the dictators are made. “”

Brooke Singman and Caitlin McFall of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.