Last week, the AP released an exclusive investigative report showing that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had developed a "Cuban Twitter" with -- perhaps -- covert, political motives. On Tuesday, USAID's administrator answered to Congress on the matter.

Ravij Shah, the head of USAID, took a trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to appear before both the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees that oversee the agency, which is chiefly known for running development and foreign aid programs around the world.

The topic on the agenda was funding for fiscal year 2015, but what members of Congress wanted to talk about most was USAID's "Cuban Twitter" program, which the AP reported last week was secretly created to "stir unrest," and activate anti-Castro "smart mobs," after enough followers had subscribed and engaged with the social network. As we commented, the report made USAID seem like a throwback to the Cold War-era Central Intelligence Agency.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee, was none too happy after initially hearing about USAID's social media initiative, which was called ZunZuneo -- slang for the sound of a Cuban hummingbird.

In the hearing on Tuesday, according to the AP, Leahy called the ZunZuneo program "cockamamie" and argued that Congress had not been adequately informed about the program. He asked Shah if the project did indeed seek to "influence political conditions abroad by gathering information about Cuban cell phone users," or was intended "to encourage popular opposition to the Cuban government," as the AP exposé asserted.

"No," responded Shah. "That is not correct." Shah insisted that the "Cuban Twitter" was not unlike other initiatives in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. "The purpose of the program was to support access to information and to allow people to communicate with each other," said Shah. "It was not for the purpose you just articulated."

As for the "clandestine" funding by the U.S. government, Shah said that ZunZuneo was not cover, but that "parts of it were done discreetly" to protect people involved. "This is simply not a cover effort in any regard," said Shah, according to CSMonitor.

Shah also argued that Congress had been informed about the existence of the "Cuban Twitter" program year after year, since it submitted budgetary documents in 2008.

Although under Congressional and media scrutiny, Shah and USAID have fired back at the Associated Press for what it said, in a Monday blog post, were "significant inaccuracies and false conclusions about ZunZuneo," contained in its report.

USAID also argued that the details of the report reported by the AP -- "that USAID spent years on a 'covert' program to gather personal information to be used for political purposes to 'foment' 'smart mobs' and start a 'Cuban spring'" -- made for "an interesting read, but it's not true."

The agency specifically attacked the AP's reference to "smart mobs," saying the documents the AP cited in its exposé "appear to be case study research and brainstorming notes," further arguing, "'Smart Mobs' had nothing to do with Cuba nor ZunZuneo."

The Associated Press fired back Tuesday, citing what it saw as specific examples of politically motivated messages:

But some messages sent to Cuban cellphones were sharp political satire. One early message sent on Aug. 7, 2009, took aim at the former Cuban telecommunications minister, Ramiro Valdes, who had once warned that the Internet was a "wild colt" that "should be tamed."

"Latest: Cuban dies of electrical shock from laptop. 'I told you so,' declares a satisfied Ramiro. 'Those machines are weapons of the enemy!'" the message read.

Others were marked in documents as drafts, and it was not immediately clear if they were ultimately transmitted by the service, which the government said ceased in 2012 because of a lack of funding.

Said one draft message: "THE BACKWARDS WORLD: 54% of Americans think Michael Jackson is alive and 86% of Cubans think Fidel Castro is dead." Another called Castro the "The coma-andante," a reference to Fidel's age.

"No," wrote organizers, apparently nixing that text. "Too political."

Do you think USAID overstepped its purview in its ZunZuneo initiative, or does the AP's case that the program was more "cloak and dagger" than "communications development" look weak? Let us know in the comments!