The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a CIA cut-out[1][2][3] soft-power[4] organization which finances protests and color revolutions to destabilize targets of US foreign policy.[5] It provided $1.2 billion of grants between 2011 and 2020 and issues over 2,000 grants every year.[6] Despite calling itself a non-governmental organization, it receives funding from the U.S. Congress.[7]
Ronald Reagan founded the NED in 1983.[7] In 1986, NED's President Carl Gershman said that the NED was created because "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."[8]
In 1991, Allen Weinstein, founder of the NED, said "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."[9]
Operations
Domestic activities
The NED gave grants to the AFL-CIO, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Democratic and Republican National Institutes.[7]
Latin America
Cuba
The NED gave over $100,000 a year to the Cuban-American National Foundation from Miami, which was involved in terrorist attacks and funded Nazi collaborators in Hungary.[7]
Grenada
The NED funded the right-wing New National Party in Grenada that took power following the U.S. invasion in 1983 that overthrew the People's Revolutionary Government.[7]
Nicaragua
The NED funded pro-Contra groups in Nicaragua.[6] Critics have compared the NED's funding of Nicaraguan groups (pro-U.S. and conservative unions, political parties, student groups, business groups, and women's associations) in the 1980s and 1990s in Nicaragua to the previous CIA effort "to challenge and undermine" the socialist government of Chile.[10]
Eastern Europe
Belarus
The NED gave $2.5 million to anti-Lukashenko groups in Belarus during the 2020–21 color revolution attempt.[11]
Bulgaria
The NED gave more than $1.5 million to groups in the 1990 Bulgarian election. The Union of Democratic Forces received $750,000, including $233,000 for its newspaper. The Bulgarian Socialist Party still won the elections, so the NED funded violent opposition groups that committed arson and sieged Parliament until the president resigned. The NED also funded the new elections in 1991, which its candidates won.[12]
Poland
The NED funded the anti-communist Solidarity group in Poland during the 1980s.[7]
Soviet Union
In the 1980s, the NED provided $140 million to anti-communist groups in the Soviet Union.[3]
Ukraine
Since 1989, the NED has funded over 100 organizations in Ukraine to bring Ukraine under Western influence and pull it away from Russia.[3]
Afghanistan
The NED funded the Islamic fundamentalist mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.[6]
Further reading
References
- ↑ Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy
- ↑ NED, the Legal Window of the CIA
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-06-24). "Is there really a U.S. government agency that gives out awards for deceiving the public?" Monthly Review. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ NED on InfluenceWatch
- ↑ Mnar Alley (2022-02-05). "Mnar Adley exposes the National Endowment for Democracy" Mintpress News.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ajit Singh, Roscoe Palm (2022-08-08). "Manufacturing consent: How the United States has penetrated South African media" Monthly Review. Archived from the original on 2022-08-08. Retrieved 2022-08-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-03-04). "If the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Is Subverting Democracy—Why Aren’t Some of the Left Media Calling It Out?" CovertAction Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
- ↑ David K. Shipler (1986-06-01). "Missionaries for Democracy: U.S. Aid for Global Pluralism" New York Times.
- ↑ David Ignatius (1991-09-22). "Innocence Abroad: The New World of Spyless Coups" Washington Post.
- ↑
- ↑ Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-12-21). "Nobel Peace Prize Winners Have Deep CIA Ties" CovertAction Magazine. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
- ↑ William Blum (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower: 'A Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present' (pp. 132–133). [PDF] Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 9781842772201 [LG]