From the Caribbean to Afghanistan, through Europe

By Weekly Archive On Jul 24, 2007

A respectable foundation follows the footsteps of the CIA

By Hernando Calvo Ospina

This article was published in Le Monde Diplomatique.

A respectable foundation follows the footsteps of the CIA

By Hernando Calvo Ospina Read Spanish Version

This article was published in Le Monde Diplomatique.

"Much of what we do today, the CIA did 25 years ago — covertly." The person who makes this startling statement is Allen Weinstein, historian and first president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nonprofit U.S. agency with objectives that are particularly virtuous: to promote human rights and democracy.

The NED did not exist on Feb. 26, 1967, when The Washington Post unveiled a scandal with international repercussions. The newspaper revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency bankrolled labor unions, cultural organizations, the communications media and reputed intellectuals abroad. The article told how the money was conveyed. Former CIA agent Philip Agee has confirmed the method to us: "The CIA used well-known U.S. foundations, as well as other entities created for the purpose, which existed only on paper."

To reduce pressures, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered an investigation, although he knew that the CIA was mandated to perform that type of activity since it was created in 1947. "Our politicians turned to covert action to send advisers, materials and funds to support the media and political parties in Europe, because even though World War II was over, our allies still confronted political threats," Agee says. The Cold War was beginning and the "ideological influence" of the Soviet Union had to be counteracted.

In many cases, the recipients of the money managed to weaken or overcome those who opposed the governments that were friendly to Washington. At the same time, they created spaces that were favorable to U.S. interests. That undermining work was used for coups d’état, such as the one that overthrew President João Goulart in Brazil in 1964. The best proof that those activities were not halted by Johnson was the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende in September 1973. According to Agee, "To prepare the ground for the military plotters, we [the CIA] financed and channeled the forces of important organizations in ‘civilian society’ and the media. It was an improved copy of the coup in Brazil."

Beginning in 1975, the CIA again was investigated by the U.S. Senate, principally because of its responsibility in plots and crimes against several political leaders worldwide (Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, etc.) Simultaneously, the success of several revolutionary movements in Africa and Latin America forced Washington to accept that the task of infiltrating organizations in "civilian society" was decisive but that the method was not adequate. Someone then recalled that "to carry the battle of ideas to international forums, the Johnson administration […] had recommended the creationof a public-private mechanism to openly finance activities abroad."

For that purpose, the American Political Foundation (APF) was established in 1979. It was a coalition of the Democratic and Republican parties, labor union and corporate leaders, conservative academicians and official organizations dealing with foreign policy. As a model, the foundations of the four principal parties of West Germany (known as "Stiftung") were used. Those foundations, financed by the West German government, were born a few years after the end of WWII and were used as tools for the Cold War — particularly the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

On Jan. 14, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a secret directive: NSDD-77. In it, he ordered the implementation of something he had mentioned in a speech to the British Parliament on June 8, 1982: an "infrastructure" to "contribute to the global campaign for democracy." The directive specified that the task "will require a strong collaboration between the resources of foreign policy, be they economic, political or military, as well as a close relationship with the following sectors of American society: labor, business, academia, philanthropy, political parties and the press."

Without mentioning that it was part of the implementation of the directive, Reagan submitted to Congress the proposal for the APF, called "The Democracy Program." On Nov. 23, 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was legally born. On Dec. 16, during the "ceremony" held at the White House, the president said: "Long range, this program will not be in the shadows. It will stand proudly in the spotlight […] And, of course, it will be consistent with our national interests."

Four organizations form the core of the NED and are responsible for its functions. One is a branch of the AFL-CIO, the Free Trade Institute (FTUI) which became known as the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS); it existed before the NED. The others were created ad hoc: The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) of the Chamber of Commerce; the International Republican Institute (IRI) of the Republican Party; and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the Democratic Party.

Although the NED legally is a private association, its financing is approved by Congress and appears on the State Department budget. Besides freeing the government from its responsibilities, the NED’s status has another strategic advantage. To former State Department official William Blum, the fact that it is "a nongovernment agency is part of the image, part of the myth. […] It contributes to maintaining abroad a degree of credibility that a U.S. Government agency could not enjoy."

In October 1986, a scandal exploded that almost toppled the Reagan-Bush administration. It was learned that people in the White House organized the illegal funding to bring down the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, a funding that included money from cocaine trafficking.

Coincidence: coordinated by Col. Oliver North, under the direction of the National Security Council (NSC), the entire structure was called "The Democracy Program." Although it was known than the NED had a leading role, the investigation curiously centered on the funding of the military apparatus, the "contra." It seemed less interesting that the "nongovernmental" organization was supervised from its birth until 1987 by Walter Raymond, a high CIA official and a member of the NSC’s Directorate of Intelligence.

"A child of Ronald Reagan’s Democracy Project, the NED […] placed resources in the hands of numerous Latin American groups, among them the Cuban American National Foundation, the CANF," said at the time Jorge Mas Canosa, who was then the president of that extremist organization, created by the NSC at the same time that the NED. With the motto "The freedom of Cuba passes through Nicaragua," the CANF acted against the Sandinistas.

Mas Canosa continues: "The origin of this collaboration occurred when Theodore Shackley, former deputy director of operations of the CIA and chief of the clandestine services section, asked the members of the CANF to support [U.S.] policy on Central America."

Beginning in 1987, amid the "contra" scandal, the NED behaved like a fish in water. Its money contributed to the construction of a front of anti-Sandinista organizations that included the Permanent Commission on Human Rights of Nicaragua. With that support, Violeta Chamorro, the candidate chosen by the Bush administration and owner of the "independent" newspaper La Prensa, reached the presidency in 1990. The achievements of the Sandinistas for the benefit of the population vanished once the neoliberal model was instituted.

The NED’s demonstrated skill in channeling funds, creating nongovernmental organizations, manipulating elections and intoxicating the media was proof positive that it had inherited the massive experience of the CIA, the State Deparment section in charge of cooperation, the U.S. Agency for International Development and numerous personalities from the conservative "elite" with links to U.S. foreign policy.

With the exception of terrorism, the Reagan administration used the same methods when dealing with socialist countries in eastern Europe. The cracks in those administrations and the wide gap between the rulers and the ruled simplified the task for the NED and its network of organizations. "One nongovernmental crusade for human rights and democracy with a less-imperialist face." What was novel was the thousands of "dissidents" of every kind given money and publicity, who disappeared — forgotten and unmourned — after the regime changes.

One of the NED’s historical triumphs was achieved in Poland. By 1984, the NED was delivering "direct assistance" to create labor unions, publications and human-rights groups there. All of them were, of course, "independent." For the presidential campaign in 1989, the NED gave $2.5 million to the Solidarity Movement led by Lech Walesa. That same year, Walesa rose to power as a powerful ally of the Washington.

Although the NED was born as part of the United States’ ideological arsenal for the Cold War, the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe was a preamble to its worldwide expansion. From that time on, with dollars and some "specialists," the Endowment has managed to interfere in the social, economid and political processes of some 90 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and eastern Europe. As researcher Gerald Sussman said, to intervene in elections "is extremely important for the objectives of global policy of the U.S."

The NED and other U.S. organizations present themselves as participants in "the building of democracy." But, as Sussman points out, "while they act in a less-brutal manner than the CIA until the Seventies, the forms of voter manipulation they practice are textbook demonstrations of moral drama and political drama." During the 1990 elections in Haiti, the NED invested $36 million to support candidate Marc Bazin, who had worked in the World Bank. Despite such aid, Bazin lost resoundingly to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was eventually overthrown on Sept. 29, 1991, after a media campaign financed by the NED and the USAID. The dictatorship that followed is responsible for about 4,000 killings.

During the first 10 years of existence, "the NED must have distributed about $200 million through 1,500 projects to support America’s friends."

Beginning in 1998, the NED became extremely interested in Venezuela. "It is a silent operation against the Bolivarian revolution," states former CIA agent Agee. "It began with President [Bill] Clinton and intensified under [George W.] Bush Jr. It is almost identical to what was done with the Sandinistas but without terrorism or economic embargo — so far. Its purpose is ‘to promote democracy, solve conflicts, watch elections and strengthen civilian life.’"

U.S. lawyer Eva Golinger discovered in official documents that, between 2001 and 2006, more than $20 million were delivered by the NED and the USAID to opposition groups and private media in Venezuela. The New York Times revealed on April 25, 2002 — a few days after the failed coup d’état against President Hugo Chávez — that the NED’s budget for Venezuela had been increased four-fold before the coup, with the approval of the U.S. Congress.

The fight against the Cuban Revolution is where the NED has shown the greatest perseverance. It is estimated that in the past 20 years the NED has invested $20 million in promoting the so-called "transition to democracy" in that country. This does not include the $65 million the USAID has delivered since 1996.

Washington insists on the supreme usefulness of "democratic" elections, although the official text of the Torricelli Law (Cuban Democracy Act of 1992), the Helms-Burton Law (Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996) and the manifesto of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, of May 2004) say that the winners must be satisfactory to Washington.

Almost all of that money remains in the hands of organizations in the United States and Europe that oppose the Cuban government. The governments of Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic receive most of the funds, because they lead the media campaigns and the international pressure against Cuba. Just in 2005, the NED earmarked $2.4 million for that work in Europe.

To the U.S. government, elections and business must go hand in hand; it is Washington’s synonym for democracy. On Jan. 20, 2004, President Bush announced during his State of the Union speech that he would ask Congress to double the NED’s budget so it may reinforce "its new work on the promotion of free elections, of free trade exchanges, of freedom of the press and labor-union freedom in the Middle East." In other words, so ideological work may accompany military actions. In that region of the world, the NED’s presence had been minimal.

By 2003, the NED network had been established in Afghanistan. The NED’s Web site states that the Endowment decided "to establish and strengthen businesses to help build democracy and the market economy." To prepare those conditions, it is providing "assistance to a broad series of nascent NGOs." With the same objectives, other nongovernmental organizations are being funded in Iraq, especially in the northern region of that occupied nation. As in other countries, the native organizations rapidly become dependent on that funding and, under the motto "struggle for democracy," go on to work for the interests of a system that almost never thinks about the interests of most of the local people.

Every year, or as required, the president of the NED must account for the Endowment’s activities to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. This is remarkable — unique — for a "nongovernmental organization." During his appearance before the committee on June 8, 2006, Carl Gershman, president of the NED since April 1984, insisted on the urgency to increase the Endowment’s budget "for the assistance to democracy." He said that the NGOs in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Egypt need to broaden their work because they face "semi-authoritarian" goverments. On Dec. 7, he used practically the same speech when addressing the European Parliament during the conference on "Democracy Promotion: The European Way."

According to William Blum, the NED’s philosophy is based on the idea that societies function best "with free enterprise, the cooperation of classes, a minimal intervention by the State in the economy […] The free-market economy is associated with democracy, reforms and growth, with an emphasis on the merits of foreign investment […] The NED’s reports insist on ‘democracy,’ but that is limited to election mechanics, not to economic democracy or anything that threatens the established powers […] In sum, the NED’s programs are in synchrony with the fundamental needs and objectives of economic globalization and the New International Order."

At the United Nations General Assembly in September 1989, President Bush stated that the challenge of "the free world" was to strengthen "the foundations of liberty." The previous year, the Canadian Parliament, at Washington’s urging, had created a foundation similar to the NED: "Rights and Democracy." In 1992, using the same model, the British Parliament officialized the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Later came the Swedish International Liberal Center, the Alfred Mozer Foundation in the Netherlands, and the Robert Schuman and Jean Jaurés foundations in France. The network of foundations inspired and sponsored by the NED was taking shape.

Within that framework, the Democracy Projects Database was created to coordinate "about 6,000 projects" of NGOs worldwide. The NED also is the hub of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, which includes "independent institutions related to political parties, universities, labor unions and movements for democracy and human rights."

Its objective is to facilitate contacts "between scholars and democracy activists." Also part of the NED is the secretariat of The Center for International Media Assistance, "a project that brings together a series of experts in the communications media for the purpose of strengthening support for the free and independent media worldwide."

On the State Department’s Web site, Carl Gershman declares that all these foundations, persons and organizations march toward "the creation of a worldwide movement for democracy." It is a "network of networks" whose center is the NED. Other foundations have joined this project, such as the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Germany, the Olof Palme International Center in Sweden, the Karl Renner Institute in Austria, and the Pablo Iglesias Foundation, linked to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

To justify the increase in the NED’s budget, the Endowment in 1996 submitted to Congress a report that was particularly revealing. "The worldwide war of ideas continues briskly," it said. "The United States cannot afford to abandon such an efficient foreign policy tool at a time when its interests and values are under a strong ideological attack from many anti-democratic forces in the world [… Those values] continue to be threatened by communist regimes that are deeply emplaced, neocommunists, aggressive dictatorship, radical nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists.

"Given this reality, the United States cannot afford to surrender the ideological battlefield to these enemies of a free and open society. The NED needs continuing financing as a prudent investment to safeguard the future." Three years later, Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives reprised many of the elements of that report for the same purposes.

Democracy, free elections, freedom of expression. William Blum is blunt when he concludes: "Many of the things the CIA used to do were shifted to another organization with a lovely-sounding name. The creation of the NED has been a masterpiece of politics, public relations and cynicism."

And here’s a kind of postscript:

FINANCING WITHOUT BORDERS

"Yes, it’s true. We receive money from the NED. And that presents no problem for us," said Robert Menard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres, or RSF) during the Internet forum by the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur on April 18, 2005.

This type of financing continues to feed the doubts that exist over the "independence" of this organization as a defender of freedom of expression. It also receives major support from the French government (11 percent of RSF’s annual budget), the European Commission (15 percent) and an indeterminate sum from financial groups that own communications media and from weapons manufacturers.

The reference to the NED money was included in RSF’s Web site only after U.S. journalist Diana Barahona made public its existence on March 11, 2005, on the newsletter of the Northern California Media Guild. "This money represents 2 percent of our budget […] and comes from the U.S. Congress, not from the White House," Menard wrote in a statement.

In another statement, Menard says: "We do not receive money from the U.S. Department of State, the CIA or the USAID." It is hard to believe that Menard is unaware of the history and objectives of the NED or that he doesn’t know that the Department of State requests NED financing to Congress.

In the same communiqué, Menard admits for the first time that RSF receives other "subsidies from the United States and they come from the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC)." From 2002 to 2005, RSF received 92,330 euros [US$127,415.] What Menard does not say is that almost all the resources of the CFC come from the NED. Or that Otto Reich, a historic character in the NED and U.S. policy toward Latin America, is a CFC trustee.

Nor does he mention that CFC director Frank Calzón was the first president of the Cuban American National Foundation in 1983. Or that Calzón, in the 1970s, was a leader of Abdala, a group organically linked to the U.S.-based Front for the National Liberation of Cuba, responsible for terrorist attacks in several countries, including France and Canada.

In 1993, Menard assumed the total direction of RSF, after the resignation of the other two co-founders, Rony Brauman and Jean-Claude Guillebaud. The principal reason for the two men’s departure was an unprecedented media campaign by Menard, in which he transformed the little-known Yugoslav newspaper Oslobodjenje and its editor into worldwide "stars," even though the Sarajevo paper printed only 300 copies a day. It may be sheer coincidence, but that the same time the NED invested millions of dollars in that newspaper "to keep it alive."

Apparently, that was the first time the objectives of Robert Menard and the NED coincided. Later, the coincidence became routine. Look, for example, at the role played by RSF in the controversy over the Venezuelan government’s refusal to renew the broadcast license held by the privately owned Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) — a perfectly legal decision.

The network broke the law on multiple occasions and openly participated in the coup d’état of April 11, 2002. Claiming an "attack" on freedom of expression and "the shutdown" of RCTV, RSF "calls upon the international community to mobilize to denounce this forceful blow and defend what remains of the independent media in Venezuela." RSF does not take into account the right of every state — be it Venezuela, France, the United States or any other — to control its public services. And the broadcast frequencies are such a public service.

Despite the presence of the important private networks Globovisión, Venevisión, Televen and CMT, RSF declared on May 28: "Hugo Chávez reduced to silence […] the only national network that still criticizes his administration." And it’s true that the other networks seem to trouble Menard; though regularly virulent against the government, they do not call so openly for the destabilization of the president.

Hernando Calvo Ospina is a Colombian journalist and writer who lives in France.
© Le Monde Diplomatique. Paris, July 2007.