NED TROJAN
National Enemy for Democracy
’National Endowment for Democracy’ or National Enemy for Democracy? How does the NED destabilize countries by interfering in their internal affairs?
By Faezeh sadat Yousefi
Guest contributor
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was founded in the early 1980s during the presidency of Ronald Reagan after the CIA’s crimes and destructive activities were revealed in the second half of the 1970s. NED’s website introduces itself as “an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world”.
In 1991, right at the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, David Ignatius wrote a detailed article for the Washington Post, titled “The New World of Spyless Coups,” on the activities of the NED and the CIA as well as one of the NED’s founders, Allen Weinstein. The article quotes Weinstein as saying that “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,” adding that the NED foundation “did openly what had once been unspeakably covert”.
In a report published in 1997, titled “Foreign Taint on National Election? A Boomerang for U.S,” the New York Times discussed the NED’s role as the overt arm of the CIA. “The National Endowment for Democracy, created 15 years ago to do in the open what the CIA has done surreptitiously for decades, spends $30 million a year to support things like political parties, labor unions, dissident movements, and the news media in dozens of countries including China,” the report said.
Thierry Meyssan, the French journalist and the president of the media organization Voltaire Network, cited Otto Reich, John Negroponte, Henry Cisneros, and Elliot Abrams as some of the most historic figures who were both involved in the CIA’s covert actions and, at some point, members of the NED’s Administrative Council or its board of directors.
So, it can be argued that democracy is used as a deceiving façade to further the goals of the United States intelligence services and Department of State.
Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, who is a political consultant and writer, democracy building’s institutional formation rests upon a reconfiguration of Cold War positions, which itself relies on retaining the subversive covert operations previously perpetrated by the CIA or MI6 to overthrow the governments opposed to America.
The foundation seeks to present itself as a non-governmental organization to stress that it is not affiliated with the United States government. However, the evidence suggests that it is funded by Congress as part of the United States Agency for International Development. Although the foundation is private, its budget is mostly provided by the government.
What sets NED apart
By studying international affairs and patterns followed by governments, think tanks provide recommendations or develop guidelines that fall in line with policy-making goals. So, the goal of these organizations is to empower policymakers to make better decisions.
Even though some think tanks get to implement their research findings and strategies using covert networking and establishing contact with dissident elements in other countries, their main activity revolves around analyzing national and international issues and subsequently issuing recommendations.
However, the National Endowment for Democracy, for one, has a completely practical field approach that, as it was already established, carries out the programs and operations of the CIA under the justified guise of democracy to evade allegations.
Pursuing a calculated diplomacy, the foundation engages with criminals or popular dissident groups directly and overtly. Then, by disrupting social order, inciting riots, influencing public opinion, and interfering in the internal affairs of governments that oppose American policies, the foundation either manipulates or changes those governments. So, because of the political ties it has and the specific activities it undertakes, the National Endowment for Democracy is commonly called “the white glove” of the US government to hint at its high-profile, special services.
FDI’s interventionism in Iran
The interventionist actions of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI) expanded in the 1980s to include granting scholarships, extending financial aid, and awarding prizes to Iranian dissidents. But the official, substantial activities of the foundation against the Islamic world and specifically Iran launched after the September 11 attacks with the publication of the 2002 Strategy Document and the important speech of its president, Carl Gershman, entitled “Promoting Democracy in the Muslim World,” on March 21, 2003. Addressing the World Conference of Democracy-Support Foundations in Paris, Gershman openly declared that spreading democracy in the Muslim world is now top of the West’s agenda. He placed the responsibility of creating democratic institutions and democratic culture on the reformers of Islamic countries.
Since then, the Foundation for Democracy in Iran has played a prominent role in inciting unrest and riots in Iran. The foundation interferes with Iran’s internal affairs in various ways and has cooperated with the proponents of the regime change in Iran and provided financial aid to them.
The foundation specifically played a central role in the failed Velvet Revolution of 2009–2010. Kenneth R. Timmerman, one of the founders and CEOs of the FDI, who openly calls for regime change in Iran, wrote in an op-ed before that fateful Iranian presidential election, “There’s talk of a ‘green revolution’ in Tehran.” He continued: “The National Endowment for Democracy has spent millions of dollars during the past decade promoting ‘color’ revolutions in places such as Ukraine and Serbia, training political workers in modern communications and organizational techniques. Some of that money appears to have made it into the hands of pro-Mousavi groups, who have ties to non-governmental organizations outside Iran that the National Endowment for Democracy funds.”
In an exclusive interview with the American magazine Foreign Policy, the former assistant secretary of the US Treasury Paul Craig Roberts said that George W. Bush had ordered the CIA to spread misinformation to create instability in Iran and ultimately overthrow its regime.In the aftermath of the failed ‘Green Revolution’ in Iran, Roberts wrote another op-ed for Pravada, wherein he pointed out that then-President Barack Obama asked the Iranian government to allow the protesters to take control of the streets of Tehran to demonstrate. He then asked whether Obama or any other US president, for that matter, would have allowed demonstrators to take control of the streets of Washington, D.C.Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state under George W. Bush, in a speech in 2006 called for the allocation of $15 million — which was later increased to $20 million by Congress — to the foundation to be spent on education and civic work that would be used to help organize anti-Iran labor unions and political organizations. Also, $36.1 million were allocated to support Voice of America TV and Radio Farda to influence the public opinion of Iranians.
The foundation also grants scholarships to experienced and elite academics and journalists to further its soft war project of dismantling Iran from within. Several Iranians including Mehrangiz Kar, Ramin Jahanbegluo, Hossein Bashiriyeh, Siamak Namazi, Ali Afshari, and Manouchehr Mohammadi have received scholarships as guest researchers. Jahanbegluo was the one who infiltrated the ranks of political and cultural officials when the reformists were in power in Iran as part of a secret operation launched by the NED and the CIA.
Moreover, the foundation created various websites including Panjareh and Rahbord to exchange information and advance its goals of training the civil society, empowering non-governmental organizations, etc.
The foundation also provides such groups and organizations in Iran with financial aid. For example, during 1995–96, the FDI was granted $75,000 in order to collect information about Iran’s human rights situation using local reporters and sources that are unavailable to the Westerners. NED allocated a total of $190,000 in financial aid to Abdul Rahman Broumand Foundation for four consecutive years between 2002 and 2005. NED has also helped the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace institution, which was founded by Mahnaz Afkhami in 2001 in the US. She received $25,000 for holding a series of educational workshops in Tehran under the management of Azar Nafisi, which resulted in the publication of the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran”.
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is one of the organizations that is also being sponsored by the NED. The council is an American lobbying organizations that claims to be advocating the interests of the Iranian-American community, but in fact, it has always supported subversive groups sustained by foreign services.
In 2005, NED entrusted a project for the development of Iran’s private sector in line with American values to the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). One of the items on CIPE’s agenda was to attract entrepreneurs and private sector activists of other countries for the benefit of the US to ultimately advance its foreign policy goals. In his book ‘Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking Middle East,’ Christopher Schroeder claimed that in West Asia, it is these entrepreneurs and new business owners that are starting a revolution, a revolution that he thinks is very much needed in the region.
According to a document prepared by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Intelligence Organization, NED indirectly played a significant role in street clashes during the 2022 riots in Iran. Its ties to Masih Alinejad, who actively works against the Islamic Republic, is one of the many examples of the foundation’s ties with the proponents of the regime change in Iran. Alinejad has received money from NED in exchange for her cooperation in recent years. According to the documents published on NED’s website, the organization devised plans to create 2020 unrest in Iran years before.
In general, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) financially supports non-governmental organizations that try to influence the political atmosphere of societies around the world by taking advantage of the media outlets, protests, and civil movements as well as indirectly interfering with the elections. Its attempts at removing the rulers who are against American policies is, in essence, a violation of the right of nations to self-determination, which earned the foundation the nickname “The Trojan Horse”.