The NGO Problem

A mural in Khartoum, Sudan during the December Revolution reads, “Freedom, Peace, Equality; Protect the Nation.” (Photograph by the National Endowment for Democracy)

One of the salient features of the endless wars leading us into worldwide conflagration is the use of proxies like non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to do the dirty work of empire.

Of course some proxies are actual nations (think Ukraine) or are co-partners in the losing quest for global hegemony (think Israel). NGOs are active on behalf of these actors; the purpose of proxies is to conceal agency as a means of manipulating public opinion. So it isn't Zelensky who decided to attack civilians inside Russia, or to drone bomb the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant under Russian control -- but I can find scores of corporate media mentions of his "decisions" about those acts.

And it also isn't the U.S. Congress or the Biden-Harris administration that is bombing refugee camps with weapons designed to slice children to ribbons. It's Israel! Online debate rages over which is the tail and which is the dog being wagged. 

The U.S. has laws against other governments influencing public opinion without registering as foreign agents and is currently using the law to harass and intimidate dissidents like Scott Ritter or activists with the African People’s Socialist Party Uhuru! movement. But Israel has ALWAYS had an exemption. What could explain this if not the fact that the donor class that owns and operates both the U.S. and the Israeli governments is the same group of billionaires?

Lee Fang's substack yesterday shared a guest post by Guardian reporter Jack Poulson making good use of a trove of hacked documents from Israel's Ministry of Justice to report on how the sausage gets made. Aside from why AIPAC never has to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the article sheds light on some newer NGOs tasked with influencing public opinion vis a vis Israel. 

https://x.com/JohnBrzezinski1/status/1824831087538790870

The Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy are both structured specifically to evade FARA. And as NGOs they are both structured specifically to conceal the hand of either the U.S. or Israel in their founding, funding, and direction.

A longer running dog of capitalism, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is an NGO with blood on its hands from decades of covert regime change. Ironically, despite its name, the undermining of democracy is its signature brand. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently published "The National Endowment for Democracy: What It Is and What It Does" which is well worth a read. 

An excerpt:

NED is the implementer of CIA covert operations. In the early days of the Cold War, CIA supported opposition activities in socialist countries in Eastern Europe via “private voluntary organizations” to advance “peaceful evolution.” After such activities were exposed in the mid to late 1960s, the US government began contemplating cooperation with civil society organizations to conduct similar activities. Hence the idea of setting up an organization of this kind. As William Blum, an American scholar, wrote, “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.”

The Chinese report may be too long and too detailed for your taste. As a guide, I offer this outline based on the headings used in their document:

Ⅰ. NED—the US government’s “white gloves”

II. Instigating color revolutions to subvert state power in other countries

Ⅲ. Colluding with all sorts of elements to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs

1. Cultivating pro-US forces in target countries

2. Misrepresenting the human rights situation in other countries

3. Manipulating and interfering in other countries’ elections

Ⅳ. Inciting division and confrontation to undermine the stability of other countries

Ⅴ. Fabricating false information to mislead public opinion

Ⅵ. Using “academic activities” as a cloak for interference and infiltration

Ⅶ. NED exposed and criticized by the US and the international community

You might prefer "The Grayzone caused ‘biggest PR fiasco in history’ for US govt regime change arm, leaked emails reveal." Kit Klarenberg and Max Blumenthal offer a humorous peek into NED to reveal a level of dysfunction that caused Twitter user Aronaya to comment, "Could maybe explain the various comical coup failures in the last few years."

Because in the same way that Israel is failing to drive Palestinians off their land, NED is failing to challenge the results of Venezuela's recent re-election of Maduro.

This is not to say that none of NEDs goals are being met. Symmetrical coups in Pakistan and Bangladesh were intended to offer a toehold for U.S. attacks on China.

President Xi Jinping meets with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Beijing on Friday. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily] Source: "Bangladesh’s Prolonged Coups and Its Impact on Surrounding Countries"

Ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina was quoted in 2023 saying:

I won’t have any issues staying in power if I mortgage St Martin’s Island or the country to someone else, and I know that. But that’s not something I can do. No one will be allowed to play with the fate of the Bangladeshi people.

Meanwhile the U.S. denies any intention of putting a military base on the Bay of Bengal's tiny St. Martin's Island.

Because of course they do.