Stephen Zunes posted the following comment:

January 3, 2009 at 5:49 pm

There are a number of glaring inaccuracies in this article, but I will address only a few.

First of all, I have never claimed that there are “no Western efforts to overthrow the Mugabe government.” This is a total fabrication on Gowans’ part. What I have said is that WOZA is a genuine grassroots progressive organization and is not part of such Western conspiracies. They have never been dependent on U.S. funding. WOZA activist Jenni Williams is a critic of U.S. imperialism as well as much of the MDC leadership.

Secondly, Peter Ackerman is not the head of Freedom House. He previously served as chair of its board of directors, but stepped down apparently because of resistance to his efforts to wean the organization from NED and other government-funded agencies and adopt a more independent line. He has never had any CIA affiliation. Nor does he “run” the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict; he was one of the co-founders.

Thirdly, the Albert Einstein Institution has never trained inssurrectionaries to overthrow the governments of Venezuela or anywhere else. They have provided generic information on the history and dynamics of strategic nonviolent action to activists from many countries, including those resisting U.S.-backed regimes. See: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5327