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National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

Faculty At Elite US Universities Linked To National Endowment For Democracy

August 30, 2026 Jeremy Kuzmarov, Covert Action Magazine. , , ,
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a CIA off-shoot that was founded in 1983 with the purpose of advancing political propaganda and U.S. regime-change operations. The NED routinely supports dissidents and highlights human rights abuses occurring in countries that are geopolitical rivals of the U.S., like China, Iran and Russia, or socialist countries that have tried to assert control over their natural resources, like Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea. Meanwhile, the NED is silent about the human rights abuses that occur in countries like Ukraine, Israel, Bangladesh, Kenya, Rwanda, Syria or others whose governments are supported or have been installed by the U.S.

USAID, NED And Open Society Quietly Bankroll Cuba’s ‘Independent’ Media

May 16, 2026 Alan MacLeod, Mintpress News. , , , , ,
Amid escalating U.S. aggression towards the Cuban island through a maximum pressure campaign and the threat of military intervention, the United States government has been covertly funding a huge network of Cuban media outlets that claim to be independent in a push for regime change against the independent socialist government.  These outlets present themselves as unbiased investigative journalism, but are quietly being financed by Washington through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundation in order to sow discontent across the Caribbean nation.

Amnesty International Defends US Regime-Change NGOs

April 1, 2026 John Perry and Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. , , , , , , , ,
Why are many Latin American countries shutting down nonprofit organizations? Amnesty International claims it has the answer: in every case, it’s part of a drive to restrict human rights and “tear up the social fabric.” Amnesty’s new 95-page report (in Spanish, with an English summary), criticizes governments across the political spectrum for attacking what it calls “civil society organizations.” But Amnesty ignores the history of many such organizations and therefore why governments might be justified in closing them. Here we focus on the report’s deficiencies in relation to Nicaragua, Venezuela (two NGOs interviewed in each) and Cuba (none).

NED Leader Cut Off In Congress, Boasts Of ‘Deploying’ Starlinks To Iran

February 25, 2026 Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed, The Grayzone. , , , ,
Damon Wilson, the head of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), was interrupted by a member of Congress during a House oversight hearing on February 24 after revealing that his agency “began supporting the deployment [and] operation of about 200 Starlinks early on” amid the violence which swept through Iran last month. Before he could finish the sentence, he was cut off by the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Rep. Lois Frankel, who told Wilson: “You know what, I’m going to interrupt you – we’d better not talk about it.”

Western Media Whitewashes Deadly Riots In Iran

January 13, 2026 Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed, The Grayzone. , , , , , , , ,
Western media has ignored a growing trove of video evidence showing terrorist tactics deployed across Iran by protesters described by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as “largely peaceful.” Recent videos published both by Iranian state media and anti-government forces reveal public lynchings of unarmed guards, the torching of mosques, arson attacks on municipal buildings, marketplaces and fire stations, and mobs of armed gunmen opening fire in the heart of Iranian cities. Instead, Western media has focused almost exclusively on violence attributed to the Iranian government.

US Regime Change Front Funded Nepalese Youth Revolutionaries

December 13, 2025 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , ,
The US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars tutoring dozens of Nepalese youth on “strategies and skills in organizing protests and demonstrations” prior to a violent coup which overthrew the government of Nepal in September 2025, leaked documents show. The documents reveal a clandestine campaign organized by an NED division known as the International Republican Institute (IRI) that sought to cultivate a Nepalese “network” of young political activists explicitly designed to “become an important force to support US interests.”

Mexico’s ‘Gen Z Rebellion’ Exposed As Viral Right-Wing Plot

November 20, 2025 Wyatt Reed and Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , , , , , ,
Violent demonstrations which erupted in over 50 cities across Mexico on November 15 were secretly financed and coordinated by an international right-wing network and amplified by bot networks, a new report by public fact-checking platform Infodemia has concluded. Those findings were amplified by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has questioned what role Mexico’s cartel-linked opposition parties and foreign meddling may have played in inflaming so-called “Gen Z” protests on November 15. The demonstrations left around 120 people injured – over 100 of them police officers, according to a statement from authorities.

US Reinstates Funding To Propaganda Outlet

May 18, 2025 Roger D. Harris and John Perry, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
The brief freeze and rapid partial reinstatement of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding in early 2025 helped expose it as a US regime-change tool. Created to rebrand CIA covert operations as “democracy promotion,” the NED channels government funds to opposition groups in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, meddling in their internal affairs. In 2018, Kenneth Wollack bragged to the US Congress that the NED had given political training to 8,000 young Nicaraguans, many of whom were engaged in a failed attempt to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Wollack was praising the “democracy-promotion” work carried out by NED, of which he is now vice-chair.

Washington’s Unstoppable Superweapon

December 29, 2024 Brian Berletic, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , ,
In recent months, even across the collective West’s media, growing admissions are being made about both Russia and China’s superior military industrial capacity. With Russia’s first use of the intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, it is admitted that Russia (and likely China) possess formidable military capabilities the collective West currently lacks. Despite the collective efforts of NATO in arming, training, and backing Ukraine, Ukrainian forces continue to give ground at an accelerated rate across the entire line of contact amid the ongoing Russian Special Military Operation (SMO).

Documents Reveal US Intel Cutout’s Iranian Counter-Revolution Plans

September 23, 2024 Kit Klarenberg and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. , , , ,
Leaked documents and emails obtained by The Grayzone reveal a seemingly covert effort by American regime change operatives to impose radical leadership on the remnants of Iran’s protest movement against the mandatory hijab, in order to topple the government of Iran. The initiative was spearheaded by Carl Gershman, the longtime director of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US government-funded non-profit which advances regime change operations across the globe. Originally conceived by the Reagan administration’s CIA, the NED has meddled in elections and sponsored coup leaders from Nicaragua to Venezuela to Hong Kong, and beyond.

Washington’s Proxy War In Myanmar Continues Along China’s Borders

May 13, 2024 Brian Berletic, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Depicted by Western governments and Western media as an isolated, internal conflict between a “military dictatorship” and the forces of “democracy,” in actuality the conflict represents decades of Anglo-American attempts to reassert Western control over the former British colony. Much of the fighting is taking place between the central government and armed ethnic groups that had at one point been a part of the British Empire’s occupation force, utilized by the US and UK during World War 2 against the Japanese, and used ever since to disrupt Myanmar’s ambitions for independence and self-determination.

Leaked: CIA Front Preparing Color Revolution In Indonesia

September 9, 2023 Kit Klarenberg, MintPress News. , , , , ,
Documents passed anonymously to MintPress News reveal the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA front, is laying the foundations for a color revolution in Indonesia. In February 2024, citizens will elect their President, Vice President, and both legislative chambers. Current maverick leader Joko Widodo, widely beloved by Indonesians, is ineligible for a third term, and NED is preparing to seize power in the wake of his departure. This operation is conducted despite the leaks indicating Jakarta’s foremost intelligence agency has expressly warned U.S. officials to stay put. The paper trail is a stunning insight into how NED operates behind the scenes, from which obvious inferences can be drawn about its activities elsewhere, past and present.
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