Who is NED, National Endowment for Democracy

Who is NED?

NED is National Endowment for Democracy. Here's a quote:

The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress.[1] Although administered as a private organization, its funding comes almost entirely from a governmental appropriation by Congress and it was created by an act of Congress. In addition to its grants program, NED also supports and houses the Journal of Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the Reagan-Fascell Fellowship Program, the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, and the Center for International Media Assistance. It has been accused by both right-wing and left-wing personalities of interference in foreign regimes, and of being set up to legally continue the CIA's prohibited activities of support to selected political parties abroad.[2]

So, it takes US tax payer's money, and give to other countries, for spreading US ideology. Note the last sentence. The source “[2]” is from the book Killing Hope by William Blum. Buy at amazon. Wikipedia has a article on it Killing Hope, quote:

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II is a history book on covert CIA operations and U.S. military interventions during the second half of the 20th century, written by former State Department employee William Blum. The book takes a strongly critical view of American foreign policy.

The book covers various US foreign policy ventures from just after World War II onward. Its basic premise is that the Soviet Union occupied the Warsaw Pact states only to better defend its territory[citation needed] and the American Cold War-era activities abroad were done with imperialist motives.

Noam Chomsky called it “Far and away the best book on the topic.” [1] Former CIA officer John Stockwell called it “The single most useful summary of CIA history.” [2]

Note that Noam Chomsky is a very well-known linguist, and famous as a major critic on US foreign policies.

And who is the author William Blum? Quote:

William Blum (born 1933) is an American author, historian, and critic of United States foreign policy. He studied accounting in college. Later he had a low-level computer-related position at the United States Department of State in the mid-1960s. Initially an anti-communist with dreams of becoming a foreign service officer, he said he became disillusioned by the Vietnam War.[1]

There are quite a lot critcism of NED. Depending your point of view, NED is throwing money all over enemy countries to fuck them up, meddle with their elections, support the criminals, stage coups. China, Iran, Central America, eastern and western Europe, russian areas and states, … all over the map. Here's few selected quotes:

NED says it does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. However, it has been accused of providing funding to opposition candidates in elections in countries other than the USA. According to NED, it intervenes in elections by funding election observation and civic education on voting, such as student "get-out-the-vote" campaigns.[6]

Critics such as Pat Buchanan accuse the NED of fomenting revolution and regularly interfering in the affairs of other countries, especially dictatorships and undemocratic regimes.[7]

Other critics say that the NED only supports candidates with strong ties to the military. William Blum accuses NED of being part of a U.S. government funding strategy to undermine left-wing leaders and "pervert elections". Others are also critical of U.S. corporate investment in foreign countries, and criticize the NED for not supporting candidates who oppose free trade and the investing rights of US companies. For example, Bill Berkowitz of Working for Change claims, "The NED functions as a full-service infrastructure building clearinghouse. It provides money, technical support, supplies, training programs, media know-how, public relations assistance and state-of-the-art equipment to select political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, and other media. Its aim is to destabilize progressive movements, particularly those with a socialist or democratic socialist bent."[8]