Former US diplomat Mike Benz who revealed how the USAID attempted to tarnish the image of PM Modi ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, has further exposed how the USAID administrator Samantha Power and her husband Cass Robert Sunstein spearheaded policies and programmes that facilitated the entry of illegal immigrants in the US and encouraged censorship of the US citizens.
Speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show said that when Samantha Power was heading the USAID, her husband Cass Robert Sunstein was moved over to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which manages borders and immigration, as the Senior Advisor of Immigration Policy on Open Borders. Benz alleged that Power and Sunstein worked in tandem to help illegal immigrants enter the US. Benz said that while Samantha Power spent billions of dollars as the USAID head to help illegal immigrants enter the US, her husband at the DHS was creating and popularising policies to open the borders for illegal immigrants.
"Samantha Power is funding the machine so that they all get here. There's no catch and release and the whole the whole thing's open and we can't do anything to stop them…Samantha Powers net worth increased from an estimated 6.7 million to 16.5 million to around 30 million. How… pic.twitter.com/QxGAJVOZPK
— Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyan762) February 12, 2025
”It’s a one two punch. Samantha Power is funding the machine so that they (illegal immigrants) get here. Her husband who is at the DHS creating and popularising and implementing policies that make sense sure there is no catch and release and the whole thing (border) is open and we can’t do anything to stop them,” he said.
Sunstein wanted the US government to develop strategies to counter alternative ideas online
Speaking about Sunstein, Benz said that he wrote a paper entitled ‘Conspiracy Theories’ justifying the US federal government’s interference in online media space to counter free alternative theories like the 9/11 conspiracy theory, gaining popularity on social media platforms like YouTube. Benz claimed that Sunstein’s paper “made the argument that US federal government needs to infiltrate the online space and infiltrate the cognitive intelligentsia of alternative movements…undemining the diplomatic posture and standing of the US and our military posture. If these theories gain steam, it would massively degrade the ability to wage war in Afghanistan, in Iraq and build an international coalition.”
Benz explained that Sunstein was promoting censorship as he wanted to develop strategies to counter the alternative theories gaining popularities on YouTube or other social media platforms that would influence people’s opinions about governments in their countries like in France, Germany and the UK and make them question them and even change them. ”The US government needs to develop capacities to infiltrate these movements and develop methods to either neutralise them or reroute their cognitive thought leadership in order to avoid the outcome that results in free and unfederal media alternative popularizing ideas that could undermine the workings of the State department and the US military, “
”This gets back to the role of the USAID in psychological operations and why the US needs to lie about what it does abroad and why it needs to lie about what it does to our own oversight organs and the people, the US citizens who vote for it,” he added.
Sunstein’s book considered as the Holy Bible for the censorship industry
Benz said that Sustein co-authored a book called ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions on Health, Wealth and Happiness’ which is considered as “the Holy Bible for the censorship industry”. He said that the book provides idea for countering ‘disinformation’ and ‘to get people to do things’. “ It is a book about how to get people to do things without top down coercion, the appearance of the autocratic coercive control… find a way to get them to do it without your fingerprints being on it,” Benz said.
Further expanding on this, Benz said that Sustein’s book suggests ways to take censorship to a whole different level where it not required to be implemented in the form of a formal government policy rather informal measures are used to stop people from saying things that the governor does not approve. “You want people to feel like their lives will be over if they challenge it but you don’t criminalise it (because) we have a first amendment,” he added.
USAID interfering with the Indian state, its links with the Congress
There were speculations about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi collaborating with the US for a regime change operation in India during his dubious visit to Uzbekistan in 2023 at a time when Samantha Power was also there.
In an investigative report OpIndia examined the connections between Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, and various U.S. government entities and foundations through his NGO, the Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI). GKI, co-founded by Pitroda, received funding from organisations such as USAID, the U.S. State Department, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The article highlighted that two of GKI’s co-founders, Nina V. Fedoroff and Sara Farley, had notable connections to the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation, raising concerns about potential influences on Indian political figures, particularly Rahul Gandhi, due to these associations.
Sam Pitroda, a longtime associate of the Gandhi family and Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, has played a key role in organising Rahul Gandhi’s foreign engagements. Though he previously held U.S. citizenship, he renounced it at Indira Gandhi’s insistence and served as an advisor to former Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
In 2009, while advising Singh, Pitroda co-founded the Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI) in the U.S. alongside Nina V. Fedoroff and Sara Farley, both of whom have deep ties to the U.S. government and global foundations.
