US NED: Global Meddler and Rightful Heir of CIA
Демонстрант, охваченный огнем от взрыва бензобака мотоцикла, во время протестов в Венесуэле
Last week, Sputnik obtained documents indicating that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US foundation, had interfered in the latest Malaysian elections. What is the NED, and why has it been repeatedly accused of fomenting coups d’etat worldwide?The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a self-described private, nonprofit foundation, which was founded in 1983. The organization is known for funding and supporting various non-governmental groups and institutions around the world which propagate “democratic” values.According to the organization’s official website, each year, the NED makes more than 2,000 grants to support the projects of NGOs working in more than 100 countries. But where does the money come from?The non-profit admits that it receives an annual appropriation (about $100 million) from the US Congress through the Department of State and therefore is largely dependent on the continued support of the White House and American lawmakers. In a bid to maintain the veneer of a somewhat independent organization, the entity insists that its self-governing board of directors controls how the appropriation is spent.
NED’s Board: Ex-Government Officials in Charge
What does NED’s “independent board” look like? Like his famous predecessor, Carl Gershman, NED President and CEO Damon M. Wilson is a former civil servant.From 2001 to 2004, Wilson served as deputy director of the Private Office of the NATO Secretary General, then, between 2004 and 2006, he worked as the director for Central, Eastern, and Northern European Affairs at the National Security Council. In 2007, he assumed the positions of executive secretary and chief of staff at the US Embassy in Baghdad, while between December 2007 and January 2009, Wilson worked as senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council.NED’s Vice Chairman Karen Bass is a member of the House of Representatives, while the entity’s other two vice chairmen, Peter Roskam and David E. Skaggs, are also former congressmen. NED Secretary Marlene Colucci is a former special assistant to the president under the Bush administration. Michele Dunne, a treasurer, was a Middle East specialist at the US Department of State from 1986 to 2003, where she served in assignments that included the National Security Council, the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, the US Embassy in Cairo, the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. With a board packed by mostly career politicians and civil servants, the NED resembles nothing so much as a branch of the US government, rather than a “private” non-profit.
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How NED Made CIA Covert Ops Overt
The story of the NED’s creation also shows the entity’s close connection with the US government. Rather than being an independent freedom-loving grant-disbursing entity, the NED is a brainchild of Cold War hawks seeking to curtail Soviet influence and implode the Soviet bloc from within, according to US independent journalists.The entity’s roots apparently trace back to the 1960s, when the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ran a program “which support[ed] media and contact activities aimed at stimulating and sustaining pressures for liberalization and evolutionary change from within the Soviet Union,” the Soviet bloc, and its potential allies in the third world. The agency came under criticism when it came to light that it was funding and training opposition groups in countries tilting towards communism. The other problem was that ties with the CIA cast a shadow on recipients of Washington’s aid and their activities, which were meant to look like a grass-root noble “freedom fight.” Therefore, the US government sought to create a separate vehicle, unaffiliated with US spooks, to do the job from the shadows.In 1986, the US mainstream press admitted that the NED’s program resembles the aid given by the CIA in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to bolster pro-American political groups worldwide. The NED’s co-founder Carl Gershman explained at the time: ”It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 60’s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”Allen Weinstein, the other founder of the NED, put it more straightforwardly to the US press in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” Weinstein provided a glimpse of what he had been doing, including having a hand in the collapse of the USSR and protest movements in Eastern Europe in 1989; meddling in elections in the Philippines, Panama, and Nicaragua to “topple undemocratic regimes” there; consulting parliamentarians from the ex-Warsaw Pact’s Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, and even assisting constitution-drafters in these countries.Some US investigative reporters argue that despite being settled as a separate entity, the NED maintained ties with the CIA. They allege that behind the NED’s creation in 1983 were specifically CIA Director William J. Casey and senior CIA covert operations specialist Walter Raymond Jr. Remarkably, a scan of Raymond’s note dated January 2, 1985, appears to indicate that the NED’s co-founder Carl Gershman coordinated decisions on grants with him.
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NED’s Post-Cold War Activities
The NED did not cease to exist after the USSR collapsed; quite the contrary, it stepped up its operations, at a time when the US was emerging as the sole superpower.In 2003, then Texan Republican Representative Ron Paul called the NED as “nothing more than a costly program that takes US taxpayer funds to promote favored politicians and political parties abroad.” The congressman explained that what the NED was doing in foreign countries would be “rightly illegal” in the US. Contrary to its established goals, the NED has been harassing duly elected governments, interfering in foreign elections, and emboldening the corruption of “democratic movements,” according to the politician.The NED operates four core recipient organizations: the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), which promote the US “democratic” political agenda abroad; the Solidarity Center, which partners directly with workers and their unions across the world, “supporting their struggle”; and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), which engages in overseas local private enterprises. Through these entities, the NED has considerably enhanced its presence and influence across the world over the past decades.
WorldHow US Meddles in Other Nations’ Elections ‘in the Interests of Democracy’20 February 2018, 14:46 GMTThe NED is accused of fomenting regime changes in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, which the US mainstream press has had no scruples with bragging about. The list includes the 2000 Velvet Revolution in Serbia, which overthrew the Slobodan Milosevic government; the 2004 Rose Revolution in Georgia; the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Euromaidan coup of 2014. Earlier, between 2013 and 2014, the NED poured millions into its vast network of NGOs and activists in Russia, trying to disrupt and smear Russia’s elections, influence government policy, and discredit the country’s armed forces. In July 2015, the NED was declared an “undesirable organization” by Russia.The organization played a big role sowing chaos in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The US press revealed in 2011 how “a small core of American government-financed organizations” had helped ignite uprisings during the Arab Spring against “authoritarian governments” in MENA. According to the media, the Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and Yemeni activists received training and financing from groups like the IRI, NDI, and Freedom House, funded by the NED. Would-be Arab rebels also attended technology meetings in New York in 2008, sponsored by Facebook*, Google, MTV, Columbia Law School, and the State Department. In 2011, a wave of revolutions engulfed Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Syria, Libya, and other countries.
WorldWhere’s the Money, Lebowski? Guaido’s Spending of US Taxpayer Dollars Raises Legal Concerns – Prof25 February 2020, 04:06 GMTWhen it comes to Latin America, the US government, the NED and another of Washington’s non-profits, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have been accused of trying to subsidize coups against Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro in 2002 and 2019, respectively. In 2008, then Bolivian government official Juan Ramón Quintana claimed that the NED provided $10 million in 2007-2015 to NGOs and institutions to undermine the Evo Morales government. Some suspect that the NED was also involved in Evo Morales’ ouster in 2019 via funding of the Fundacion para el Periodismo (Foundation for the Media) and Agencia de Noticias Fides Compania de Jesus (FIDES News Agency Company). The NED is also said to have spent tens of millions on botched attempts to topple then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in 2010 and 2015.In Asia, the NED was seen meddling in Hong Kong’s elections and interfering in China’s internal affairs via its core institution, the NDI. According to the Chinese government, the NED has funded opposition parties, groups, and organizations in Hong Kong since as early as 1997; in 2020 alone, the NED funneled two million US dollars to 11 Hong Kong-related projects, with a particular focus on disrupting LegCo elections. The US entity was also reported interfering in the affairs of ASEAN member states, including Myanmar and, recently, Malaysia.
WorldThe Bay of Piglets: How Botched Venezuela Raid Strips Washington of Its Prestige & Soft Power13 May 2020, 14:11 GMTFurthermore, British investigative website Declassified UK claimed in January 2022 that the NED had poured over £2.6 million ($3.15 million) into seven British independent media groups over the past five years, thus showing that Washington is eager to meddle in its Western allies’ affairs, too. According to journalists, the list of recipients of the NED’s generous aid include UK investigative groups Bellingcat, Finance Uncovered and openDemocracy, freedom and training organizations Index on Censorship, Article 19, the Media Legal Defence Initiative, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Tip of Iceberg
The NED, the heir of the CIA’s covert Cold War programs, is continuing to build up its networks abroad and interfere in the sovereign affairs of world players to maintain Washington’s dominance. Still, this is only the tip of the iceberg of the US’ broader power structure, comprising its global spying and cyber apparatus busted by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks, CIA black sites, Pentagon military bases spread around the world, hundreds of secret overseas biolabs, and many other facilities which have yet to be scrutinized by the international community.*Facebook is banned in Russia as an extremist organization.
