National Endowment for Democracy: an alternative perspective

I am sure that this has been posted before, but just to balance all the propaganda about Venezuela, have a read through this. In the words of the McDonald's ad: I'm loooooovin it..

How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies. The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s. The latter was a remarkable period. Spurred by Watergate-the Church Committee of the Senate, the Pike Committee of the House and the Rockefeller Commission, created by the president, were all busy investigating the CIA. Seemingly every other day there was a new headline about the discovery of some awful thing, even criminal conduct, the CIA had been mixed up in for years. The Agency was getting an exceedingly bad name, and it was causing the powers-that-be much embarrassment.

Something had to be done. What was done was not to stop doing these awful things. Of course not. What was done was to shift many of these awful things to a new organization, with a nice sounding name-the National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/TrojanHorse_RS.html

a worse-formatted version with extra footnotes:

http://members.aol.com/superogue/ned.htm

some more dirt:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipients/ned.htm

But don't worry... they have a nice name so its all gravy...

V

Dobar dan :hi:

I hate that damn institute. So much evil comes from there. Haiti, Columbia, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran --- you name it. Thanks

Tinoire :). I just got a bit tired of certain posts idolizing the NED, so I googled it. Amazing what even the most cursory glance brings up... I hope Judi Lyn has some time to chip in with her usual wealth of info.

V

Ahh, what the hell.............:grouphug:
As you can see the drinking has started early tonight......

:grouphug:

What a bad news week! Impossible to face the week-end without trying to relax a little tonight ;)

NED and its apologists all over the place!~

and a rough year. Lets just hope we can really crack open some vintage shit in november...

:grouphug:

V

I'll save the real vintage stuff for someone I really believe in. The day that occurs, I hope you'll make it out here to celebrate the biggest bash I have ever thrown in my life (and boy have I thrown some ;) )

For you I will take a bottle of Russkie Standart vodka, place it in a cylindrical plexiglass tube, pour water and rose petals in the tube, freeze thoroughly and serve with the best blinis, caviar and smoked fish that money can buy.

Bosnankiy lonac will be simmering all night ;)

For a Kerry win, you just get a decent Stolichnaya :)

that is fair enough... when real change happens my friend, we'll all party like its 1917... :)

V

Not one drop of Russian blood but speak it fluently... The blood is Haitian and French.

When I have nothing better to do... I pull my little rocking chair out into the garden, pull out my knitting and reminisce about rusty guillotines and how pleasant certain heads would look rolling about, all red, gushing, krovij-like.



Anthony Burgess, where art thou? We have another anglo masterpiece to write using beautiful Slavic words.



"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, Georgie, Pete and Dim. And we sat in the Korova Milk bar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova sold milk plus, milk plus velocet, synthemesc or drencrom which was what we were drinking. And this would sharpen you up for a bit of the old ultraviolence"

I interned at the National Democratic Institute for Intl Affairs, one of its branches. I got to meet Jose Figueres of Costa Rica, the Father of Democracy in Central America, and John Kenneth Galbraith, Jr. I remember getting in trouble for inviting Daniel Ortega to a symposium. And then getting in trouble again for inviting him again. Then I really got in trouble when I invited him again and the State Department called my boss. He was democratically elected in an internationally-sanctioned election so I thought he would be eligible. Guess I wasn't there long enough to overthrow any governments, though.

I don't know much about Ortega... fill me in. Why did you get into trouble?

V

who helped overthrow the fascist death squad thug Somoza. The Sandinistas were neo-marxists therefore automatically the enemy. They did win the first election after the revolution by a landslide, though. Think he was a member of Socialists International.

Gotta go watch Moyers now...

somehow I am less than surprised.

V

You interned... got in trouble... got in trouble again (failure to repair)... got in trouble again and pissed off the State Department.

How long afterwards were you "let go"?

Badge of honor, my friend! I think your whole problem was believing the "democracy" part of the name ;)

Peace & thanks for making me laugh!

you guys may have a problem...as Kerry wants to raise NED funding and it enjoys overwhelming congressional support.

Just because Kerry/Kuchnich/the democrats in general is/are for something doesn't make it good. Argue with me on the issues, not the lipgloss.

V

P.S. For those who need repeating: Vote Kerry in 2004... because Bush is infinitely worse.

I support it like most (I mean 99.9%) democrats...

We will raise funding for it next year.

What country do you live in and what are your elected leaders doing to support democracy?

I note:

1) Your assertion that the NED is good

2) Your lack of evidence

3) The counter-evidence provided here by several posters

4) That the form of argument used by yourself is commonly known as '50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong' and is debunked in most high-school level debating textbooks

I conclude that:

i) Your assertion as noted in point a) has no factual basis

ii) In light of conclusion i), your implication that I can't criticise because my country doesn't help spread democracy is meaningless.

V

"i) Your assertion as noted in point a) has no factual basis"

let me guess....I like the NED??

why?? mainly cuz it feeds funds to democratic opposition parties and orgs that are oppressed by psuedo populistic/socialistic goons around the world who talk the talk but never deliver...and also cuz my party supports increased funding for this non executive controlled NGO that has operated for more than 20 years with full congressional support under numerous administrations.

counter evidence by other posters??? LOL...if they have evidence NED is evil incarnate they better write their congressmen and especially Kerry...

should indeed have read point 1) and was in your subject line.

I also note that you offer no evidence other than continuing bipartisan support for said foundation by various administrations (which I note and accept as factually correct). I refer you to point 4) in my previous post.

As you clearly have a firm belief on the matter, I urge you to rebutt with direct evidence the various issuees raised by posters in this thread.

V

But just to humiliate the bush crime family I'll hope my vote counts this time. We'll deal with president Kery when the time comes. In the mean time. Where do you disagree with republicans? heh heh heh

though he is better than the current "president" in office.

democracy can be ignored if it gets in the way.

:thumbsup: & :hi:

it's under the authority of USAID, but is also focusing on "democracy assistance", from all that I have heard from people in Serbia who have experienced them, it is actually undermining the activism and social movements that did exist, replacing them with US-directed "citizens groups".

The NED, in addition to NDI, mentioned by another poster, is also behind International Republican Institute, IRI, which was set up in Serbia. These US groups have been taking credit for overthrowing Milosevic because they managed to teach those poor benighted, ignorant Serbs how to be true democrats... NDI was in Bosnia and reports I have read indicate that it was doing similar bullshit stuff that was also undermining real citizen activism and social movements.

It seems the goal is to make sure that no one actually can mobilize social movements and groups against the kinds of policies that the US, the World Bank, the IMF are imposing on countries in the region.

Ja sam malo ove grupove studirao...

supported Pol Pot in the early 80s?

Some of the same right-wing Republicans that are so gung-ho to get rid of Hun Sen today are the same hawks that backed Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s, in a guerilla war against the Hanoi-backed Phnom Penh government. IRI president Folsom worked at the Pentagon under the Reagan administration.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/database/2003/vol11.7/regional.html

I'm looooovin' it!

V

that link is great. This is the kind of stuff that every American should read and know about what their country is doing in and to the rest of the world. Why do they hate us indeed!

the quality of research conducted by its members. Thanks Tinoire!

:yourock:

V

Anytime ;)

He's even been implicated in the coup against P Lumumba. What a f#$ing specimen.

Carlucci = Carlyle (but the next step for some is to tell us that Carlyle is "good").

Fucking specimens. Them and anyone supporting what they do.

Who's not with us anymore.

AAADIOS ADIOS ADIOS ADIOS
AAADIOS AAADIOS
AAADIOS ADIOS ADIOS ADIOS
AAADIOS AAADIOS

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: