National Endowment for Democracy - Ukraine in perspective

This is a compilation of analysis of "non governmental organizations" like National Endowment for Democracy. This was the NGO heavily involved in "promoting democracy" in Ukraine, despite the fact that Ukraine was an already democratic nation. This article will try to put their motives and modum operandi in perspective. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a most troublesome entity. It is funded nearly entirely by the US government, but as a non-government entity it is not at all answerable to the hand that feeds it (nor the pockets picked to provide the food). The relationship is mutually beneficial: the US government can task it with regime change overseas while keeping the appearance of clean hands; the NED has free reign to pursue its mission (regime change) with zero governmental oversight. As one of the founders of the NED, Allan Weinstein, said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." NED President Carl Gershman perfectly embodies why it is a bad idea for the US to keep an unaccountable entity dedicated to subversion and destabilization in the foreign policy stable. Though over decades he has spent many millions of US taxpayer dollars on regime change overseas, there has never been a regime change in the National Endowment for Democracy. Gershman, a former Trotskyite, has been president-for-life of that organization. He overthrows elected governments overseas, but has never been elected to any office himself. Democracy is usually the first victim of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. agency that promotes the U.S Empire's foreign policy beneath the false guise of "promoting democracy". Considered a "soft" tool of Empire, NED and its subsidiaries work to transform societal fissures in target countries into gaping holes, through which covert agendas can metastasize before exploding into illegal regime changes. Funding flows from the congressional budget of USAID, to NED and its subsidiaries, and finally to factions within target countries whose political economies do not align with globalized economic models of monopoly capitalism. Beneath NED's democratic veneer is a Board of Directors replete with members who also represent Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, board members include signatories to the pro-war, pro-corporatocracy think tank Project For A New American Century: Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalizad, Will Marshall, and Vin Weber. Two (of many) examples of the damages wrought, and liberties lost, include Venezuela and Honduras. The final outcome in the case of China, another country where Empire is interfering in internal affairs, remains uncertain. In Venezuela and China, NED is a work in progress. NED's work in Honduras is finished. Acclaimed attorney and writer, Eva Golinger, explains in "The Dirty Hand Of The National Endowment For Democracy (NED) In Venezuela", that in 2013 alone, and in "gross violation of Venezuelan law," NED provided more than $2.3 million to Venezuelan opposition groups and projects. The clear purpose of the funding is to undermine the democratically-elected Maduro government in favour of a regime that embraces a U.S style (neoliberal) economic model. NED, then, serves as a "soft" tool to support a soft coup to destabilize Venezuela's social democracy. Another article by Golinger, this one entitled "Washington Behind The Honduran Coup" explains that the International Republican Institute (IRI), which receives funding from NED, received more than $1.2 million in 2009 to "intervene in the internal politics of Honduras". This intervention contributed to the illegal coup in 2009 which deposed the democratically-elected government of Manuel Zelaya and installed a series of ruthless, murderous dictators, starting with Manuel Micheletti. In an article entitled "Why Canada And The U.S. Are On The Wrong Side Of Democracy", I describe the shocking downward spiral of Honduras since the illegal coup, and the concurrent loss of economic and political self-determination. This, then, is the consistent pattern when Empire intervenes in the internal affairs of other countries. And finally, a few words about Occupy Central in Hong Kong. Here too, NED and NDI are actively participating in the movement. Unlike its counterparts in North America, Occupy Central has identifiable leaders, including Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai, Joseph Zen, Anson Chan, and Benny Tai, and each of these leaders is connected in one way or another with U.S. contacts, and U.S. funding. All of this, plus the conspicuous absence of banking institutions from the agenda, suggests that Occupy Central is not organic, and that Empire will strongly impact this movement as well. Time will tell what the impacts will be, but if history provides any clues, the protestors marching valiantly in the streets, demanding justice and democracy, may yet be disappointed. The Board of Directors: Last Updated: May 15, 2013 - The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiaries, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), despite the lofty mission statement articulated on its website, is nothing more than a tool for executing American foreign policy. Just as the military is used under the cover of lies regarding WMD's and "terrorism," NED is employed under the cover of bringing "democracy" to "oppressed" people. However, a thorough look at NED's board of directors, as well as the board of trustees of its subsidiary, Freedom House, definitively lays to rest any doubts that may be lingering over the true nature of these organizations and the causes they support. Noam Chomsky in 1993 on the NED's projects in Nicaragua: "It's about what you would expect from a bipartisan democracy campaign - it's an attempt to impose what is called democracy, meaning rule by the rich and the powerful, without interference by the mob but within the framework of formal electoral procedures." Upon NED's board of directors we first find John Bohn who traded petrochemicals, was an international banker for 13 years with Wells Fargo, and is currently serving as a principal for a global advisory and consulting firm, GlobalNet Partners, which assists foreign businesses by making their "entry into the complex China market easy." Surely Bohn's ability to manipulate China's political landscape through NED's various activities both inside of China and along its peripheries constitutes an alarming conflict of interest. However, it appears "conflict of interest" is a reoccurring theme throughout both NED and Freedom House. Bohn is joined by Rita DiMartino who worked for Council on Foreign Relations corporate member AT&T as "Vice President of Congressional Relations" as well as a member of the CFR herself. Also representing the Fortune 500 is Kenneth Duberstein, a board member of the war profiteering Boeing Company, big oil's ConocoPhillips, and the Mack-Cali Realty Corporation. Duberstein also served as a director of Fannie Mae until 2007. He too is a CFR member as are two of the companies he chairs, Boeing and ConocoPhillips. Image : A visual representation of the National Endowment for Democracy's corporate-financier ties found across their Board of Directors. Far from "human rights advocates" they are instead simply leveraging such issues to disguise what is in reality corporate-financier hegemonic expansion. We then consider several of the certified warmongers serving upon NED's board of directors including Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalilzad, Will Marshall, and Vin Weber, all signatories of the pro-war, pro-corporate Project for a New American Century. Within the pages of documents produced by this "think tank" are pleas to various US presidents to pursue war against sovereign nations, the increase of troops in nations already occupied by US forces, and what equates to a call for American global hegemony in a Hitlerian 90 page document titled "Rebuilding Americas Defenses." As we will see, this warmongering think tank serves as a nexus around which fellow disingenuous rights advocate Freedom House also gravitates. The "Statement of Principles," signed off by NED chairmen Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Vin Weber, states, "we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles." Of course by "international order" they mean meddling beyond the sovereign borders of the United States and is merely used as a euphemism for global imperialism. Other Neo-Con that signed their name to this statement include Freedom House's Paula Dobriansky, Dan Quayle (formerly), and Donald Rumsfeld (formerly), along with Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Eliot Cohen, and Elliot Abrams. A PNAC "Statment on Post-War Iraq" regarding a wholehearted endorsement of nation-building features the signatures of NED chairman Will Marshall, Freedom House's Frank Carlucci (2002), and James Woolsey (formerly), along with Martin Indyk (Lowy Institute board member, co-author of the conspiring "Which Path to Persia?" report), and William Kristol and Robert Kagan both of the warmongering Foreign Policy Initiative. It should be noted that the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) is, for all intents and purposes, PNAC's latest incarnation and just recently featured an open letter to House Republicans calling on them to disregard the will of the American people and continue pursuing the war in Libya. The FPI letter even suggests that the UN resolution authorizing the war in the first place, was holding America "hostage" and that it should be exceeded in order to do more to "help the Libyan opposition." An untitled PNAC letter addressed to then US President George Bush regarding a general call for global warmongering received the seal of approval from Freedom Houses' Ellen Bork (2007), Ken Adelman (also former lobbyist for Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra via Edelman), and James Woolsey (formerly), along with Neo-Con degenerates Richard Perle, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and the always disingenuous demagogue Daniel Pipes. Other notable corporate-fascists populating NED's board of directors include: William Galston: Brookings Institution (board of trustees can be found on page 35 here). Moises Naim: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (corporate funding here). Robert Miller: corporate lawyer. Larry Liebenow: US Chamber of Commerce (a chief proponent of SOPA), Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Anne-Marie Slaughter: US State Department, Council on Foreign Relations (corporate members here), director of Citigroup, McDonald's Corporation, and Political Strategies Advisory Group. Richard Gephardt: US Representative, Boeing lobbyist, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Ameren Corp, and Waste Management Inc lobbyist, corporate consultant, consultant & now director of Ford Motor Company, supporter of the military invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Marilyn Carlson Nelson: CEO of Carlson, director of Exxon Mobil. Stephen Sestanovich: US State Department, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CFR. Judy Shelton: director of Hilton Hotels Corporation & Atlantic Coast Airlines. NED's subsidiary, NDI, is likewise chaired by an unsavory collection of corporate-financier interests. Some select members include: Robin Carnahan : Formally of the Export-Import Bank of the United States where she "explored innovative ways to help American companies increase their sale of goods and services abroad." The NDI's meddling in foreign nations, particularly in elections on behalf of pro-West candidates favoring free-trade, and Carnahan's previous ties to a bank that sought to expand corporate interests overseas constitutes an alarming conflict of interests. Richard Blum : An investment banker with Blum Capital, CB Richard Ellis. Engaged in war profiteering along side the Neo-Con infested Carlyle Group, when both acquired shares in EG&G which was then awarded a $600 million military contract during the opening phases of the Iraq invasion. Bernard W. Aronson : Founder of ACON Investments. Prior to that, he was an adviser to Goldman Sachs, and serves on the boards of directors of Fifth & Pacific Companies, Royal Caribbean International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Chroma Oil & Gas, Northern Tier Energy. Aronson is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which in turn represents the collective interests of some of the largest corporations on Earth. Sam Gejdenson : NDI's profile claims Gejdenson is "in charge of" Sam Gejdenson International, which proclaims on its website "Commerce Without Borders," or in other words, big-business monopolies via free-trade. In his autobiographical profile, he claims to have promoted US exports as a Democrat on the House International Relations Committee. Here is yet another case of conflicting interests between NDI's meddling in foreign politics and board members previously involved in "promoting US exports." Nancy H. Rubin : CFR member. Vali Nasr : CFR member and a senior fellow at the big-oil, big-banker Belfer Center at Harvard. Rich Verma : A partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP - an international corporate and governmental legal firm representing for Verma, a multitude of conflicting interests and potential improprieties. Setptoe & Johnson is active in many of the nations the NDI is operating in, opening the door for manipulation on both sides to favor the other. Lynda Thomas : A private investor, formally a senior manager/CPA at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in New York, and Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte in London. Among her clients were international banks. Maurice Tempelsman : Chairman of the board of directors of Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest cutter and polisher of "ideal cut" diamonds in the United States. Also senior partner at Leon Tempelsman & Son, involved in mining, investments and business development and minerals trading in Europe, Russia, Africa, Latin America, Canada and Asia. Yet another immense potential for conflicting interests, where Tempelsman stands to directly gain financially and politically by manipulating foreign governments via the NDI. Elaine K. Shocas : President of Madeleine Albright, Inc., a private investment firm. She was chief of staff to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during Madeleine Albright's tenure as Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nation, illustrating a particularly dizzying "revolving door" between big-government and big-business. Madeleine K. Albright : Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group and Chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm - directly affiliated with fellow NDI board member Elaine Shocas, representing an incestuous business/government relationship with overt conflicts of interest. Albright infamously stated that sanctions against Iraq which directly led to the starvation and death of half a million children "was worth it." It is safe to say that neither NED, Freedom House, nor any of their subsidiaries (IRI/NDI) garner within their ranks characters appropriate for their alleged cause of "supporting freedom around the world." It is also safe to say that the principles of "democracy," "freedom," and "human rights" they allegedly champion for, are merely being leveraged to co-opt well meaning people across the world to carry out their own self-serving agenda. Sources: http://ift.tt/1MoRtOd http://ift.tt/14D4wex http://ift.tt/11UzflW



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