NYT Conceals U.S. Control Over Anti-Russian "Pro-Democracy Nonprofit"
What is a pro-democracy nonprofit?
Pro-Democracy Nonprofit Is Banned in Russia
MOSCOW — A nonprofit group that promotes democracy has become the latest American-linked group to be banned in Russia under restrictions on “undesirable” organizations signed into law by President Vladimir V. Putin in May.The office of Russia’s prosecutor general on Thursday outlawed the group, the National Democratic Institute, claiming in a statement that the it posed “a threat to the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order and national security.”
The above quoted NYT piece studiously avoids to describe what the "pro-democracy nonprofit" really is. There is no mention at all of its sources of money or its relations to non-Russian governments.
The National Democratic Institute, a group promoting democracy and civil society, had operated in Russia directly since the late 1980s, but it decided to close its offices there in 2012, according to its website. It has continued to establish programs in Russia through partner organizations, however. Madeleine K. Albright, an former United States secretary of state, is its chairwoman.
When asked about U.S. sanctions against Iraq Madeleine Albright once said (vid) that 500,000 killed Iraqi children were "worth it". Any organization led by here must surely be a morally good. But who pays it? And what for?
To know what exactly this "nonprofit" is, is certainly relevant to understand the Russian position. But the NYT writer hides from the readers the fact that the NDI is a U.S. government financed organization. It is a "nonprofit organization" in the same sense that the U.S. Armed Forces are a "nonprofit organization". The NDI has been involved throughout the years in dozens of right-wing "regime change" coups. Its direct parent organization is the U.S. National Endowment of Democracy:
The private, congressionally funded NED has been a controversial tool in U.S. foreign policy because of its support of efforts to overthrow foreign governments. As the writers Jonah Gindin and Kirsten Weld remarked in the January/February 2007 NACLA Report on the Americas: "Since [1983], the NED and other democracy-promoting governmental and nongovernmental institutions have intervened successfully on behalf of 'democracy'—actually a very particular form of low-intensity democracy chained to pro-market economics—in countries from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Ukraine to Haiti, overturning unfriendly 'authoritarian' governments (many of which the United States had previously supported) and replacing them with handpicked pro-market allies."[2]NED works principally through four core institutes: the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA or NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), and the Center for International Private Enterprise—representing, respectively, the country's two major political parties, organized labor, and the business community.
To call the NDI and its brothers and sisters non-government organization is obviously wrong. To call them "pro-democracy" is only right when one has some fondness for the peculiar kind of "democracy" in foreign countries that sets U.S. business interests above the interest of its own people.
What the Russian prosecutor general kicked out of Russia is obviously a U.S. government organization. The NDI was acting clandestinely by secretly financing local groups in Russia which work against the duly elected Russian government and against the interest of the Russian people.
But the petty-minded NYT, with its slavishly U.S. centric view, can not allow its readers to learn such facts.
Posted by b on March 12, 2016 at 17:03 UTC | Permalink
The NYT is only good for the periodic correct quote buried deeply within it's bombastic verbiage. It is often quoted by authors such as this one, PCRoberts, Vltchek, the Saker, etc., to make a point ... but is otherwise useless as information. Granted, the NYT does provide a view into the mindset of the Empire, but is otherwise nothing more than a propaganda rag. I find it fascinating that anyone gives it any credence as 'information' ...
Posted by: Rg an LG | Mar 12 2016 17:54 utc | 2
thanks b.. more light needs to be shone on this topic of 'ngos', 'non profits' and any other sacrimonious name tag the money wants to give to 'regime change'... democracy my ass... we don't have it here in canada.. plutocracy is encouraged instead.. the russians are smart to not allow this kind of bs to enter the pic.. take george soros and tie him up.. that would be a better example of democracy in action..
Posted by: james | Mar 12 2016 17:56 utc | 3
About the only truthful items published by the NY Times are its recipes and page numbers.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2016 18:02 utc | 4
"But the petty-minded NYT can now allow its readers to learn such facts."
you mean "can not" ?
Posted by: xmasucks | Mar 12 2016 18:04 utc | 5
○ US Policy of Military 'Re-alignment' and Obama's Military Think-tank
○ World In Turmoil: Role of Brzezinski and Albright, Our Democrats
Brzezinski and Albright belong to the "in-crowd" of the Clintons and likely foreign policy advisors to HRC's campaign for the presidency.
"Nest of spies" is the correct term for all such organizations.
Russia, and any other country interested in preserving its autonomy, would be crazy to permit any outside funded organization whose raison d'etre is subversion.
In fact the members of such organizations when operating clandestinely through front organizations should be subject to arrest and prosecution.
Another thing: U.S. embassies are primarily and above all else organs of espionage and subversion. With modern communications abilities allowing online performance of many traditional ambassadorial functions. If I were Putin, I would clip the wings of hostile powers' embassies by eliminating most attaches and other mischief makers and placing restrictions on the total numbers of staff.
The term NGO is too cute by half.
Posted by: adrian | Mar 12 2016 18:15 utc | 7
• Beware of Greeks bearing gifts (especially if you live in Troy)
• Beware of Yanks bringing democracy
• Have caution of NGO's in general, they may not always be what they appear
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Mar 12 2016 18:18 utc | 8
Good catch, but I'm not sure I agree with your characterization of the NYT as "petty-minded".
It's a semantic cavil, perhaps. I think that an argument can be made that any pejorative term applied to the NYT poobahs... er, fits.
But I refer you to the Gospel of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, who masterfully demonstrated that institutions like the New York Times are essentially organs of authoritarian government, with the clandestine mission of "manufacturing consent" for the government's policies and programs.
"Petty-minded" implies that the NYT publisher/editors choose to withhold or distort the truth out of a sort of personal-- perhaps aristocratic-- pique. It's way worse than that; it's a calculated "business" decision to further their above-cited consent-manufacturing function.
All that said, you could've gone with "evil-minded".
Posted by: Ort | Mar 12 2016 18:23 utc | 9
○ Plan Called for Covert Aid In Iraq Vote | NY Times | by Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger - July 17, 2005
- Despite the denials by some Bush administration officials, others who took part in or were briefed on the discussion said they could not rule out the possibility that the United States and its allies might have provided secret aid to augment the broad overt support provided to Iraqi candidates and parties by the State Department, through organizations like the (Inter)national Democratic Institute.
Slightly off topic ...
"The Syrian foreign minister says it is only for Syrians to decide on the country’s future elections, calling the departure of President Bashar al-Assad a “red line” for Damascus ahead of the next round of UN-brokered peace talks on Syria.
Walid al-Muallem made the remarks during a Saturday press conference in the capital after the UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said the new talks due on March 14 in Geneva would discuss the formation of a new government, a fresh constitution, as well as UN-monitored presidential and parliamentary elections within 18 months.
The Syrian top diplomat, however, said no one “has the right to discuss presidential elections. This right is exclusively for the Syrian people.”
source - http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/03/12/syrian-fm-red-line-only-syrians-will-decide-syrias-future/
Posted by: ALberto | Mar 12 2016 19:10 utc | 11
- Crushing Kerry
In December 2004, IRI contracted with Tony Marsh and Lance Copsey of the media consulting firm Marsh, Copsey & Scott to set up a Baghdad Media Center on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Its stated purpose was to assist Iraqi political parties and candidates in the upcoming January elections.
Earlier that year, in January 2004, Marsh Copsey & Scott (now Marsh Copsey & Associates) had registered the domain name crushkerry.com, which was used throughout the 2004 election for an anti-Kerry blog run by their senior account executive, Patrick Hynes. The site was heavily involved in promoting both the SwiftBoat Veterans and CBS Memos stories. It also encouraged readers to suggest other ways of discrediting John Kerry, and claimed to have inside sources of information on the Kerry campaign.
Outsourcing regime change
IRI was founded in 1983 as the result of a Reagan administration initative to fight Communism by providing government funding to private groups -- most notably the National Endowment for Democracy -- that would promote U.S. policies in ways the government could not undertake directly. In 1991, one of the creators of the NED would be quoted as saying, "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." This initiative led to the creation of two organizations, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, associated with the two political parties.
Linked to my story in 2012 - LaHood Nabbed at Cairo Airport Fleeing Egypt.
The 'Empire Times' is the NYT objectives, so let's call it by its actions instead of its PR lies... The Empire Times.
Posted by: tom | Mar 12 2016 19:43 utc | 13
○ Breaking News: Jaish al-Nasr rebels say they shot down Syrian fighter jet In Hama province | Reuters |
○ Damascus to call off Geneva delegation if no peace talks within 24 hours | Russia Today |
Native speakers of English would not say that the New York Propaganda Crimes is not "petty minded" in the sense of being vindictive but "small minded" in the bland way it makes its report and leaves it there, in the manner of bureaucrats or those who fulfill the minimum work tasks required of them and then do no more.
The fact that former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is a chair of this National Democratic Institute probably tells most people with a triple-digit IQ all they need to know and then they can go away and do their own research.
Incidentally that NYT report was filed by Ivan Nechepurenko who writes for The Moscow Times (a pro-US newspaper) and who has worked with the Carnegie Moscow Center, another NGO that the Kremlin should be fixing its sights on.
Posted by: Jen | Mar 12 2016 20:29 utc | 16
Comment on previous Obama Doctrine Whitewash thread Geoff # 106 Mar 11, 2016 1:56:01 2016 1:56:01 PM
"The only thing good about the political class perhaps, is that on the whole they keep the rest of us moving, while simultaneously holding back a better future. Without their class, however, perhaps we would propegate unimpeded and run out of food supplies."
Geoff,
This is the type of dystopian logic that is utilized at West Point and other War Colleges that allows them to Manchurian Candidate drone pilots so they can mass murder brown people without blinking an eye.
Go F*#K yourself A$$wipe.
Posted by: ALberto | Mar 12 2016 20:51 utc | 17
For many, if they didn't read about it in the NYT or saw it on Fox news then it never happened. Combine enough of those missing ITS together and one can see what flavor of reality is being fed to those that believe the myth of the last sentence.
Its the old Faith thingy, it works until it doesn't. Faith in America is not on the upswing and is quite close to the tipping point on numerous fronts, ME politics, private finance (Fed, IMF & World Bank), US Manifest Destiny, etc.
I am encouraged to recently hear David Draiman’s (Disturbed) cover of ‘Sound of Silence’. I don't care about his background. I just want to note that, IMO, he upped the in your face aspect of the message.... ".....People bowed and prayed, to the neon Gods THEY made...."
Just like what happened in Chicago yesterday with shutting down the Trump rally, the energy level of the complacent is rising.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 12 2016 20:55 utc | 18
Just like what happened in Chicago yesterday with shutting down the Trump rally, the energy level of the complacent is rising.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 12, 2016 3:55:54 PM | 18
Moveon.org has taken credit for the disturbance. I predict more non events like this will occur in the lead up to the non event elections.
Posted by: Nana2007 | Mar 12 2016 22:24 utc | 19
" ...the energy level of the complacent is rising" is an assumption that cuts both directions. While it certainly is possible that Americans in general want change, I suspect that what many want is really a return to the 1950's when the assumption was that we were the winners of a recent war ... despite the fact that only a few hundred thousand Americans lost their lives defeating the Japanese and Germany while China lost about 15 million, and the Russians lost around 25 Million. WWII was simply a war between fascists and not a war against fascism.
The carpet bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, or the threat of being "Hiroshima'd" or "Nagasaki'd" was the only real post WWII threats we had, and there was really no question we would use them again.
It is really too bad that the best we Americans stand for is to be oblivious to the real issues faced by the rest of the world so long as our plutocrats and oligarchs allow us to have some of the benefits of world domination.
Posted by: Rg an LG | Mar 12 2016 22:27 utc | 20
The CIA used to handle all the subversive activities of the US Government abroad until the Church and Pike commissions opened up that can of worms post-Watergate.
The Reagan regime eventually repackaged the US Government's efforts at subversion of foreign governments at the State Department:
National Endowment for Democracy
International Republican Institute
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
These were apparently modeled on the CIA's efforts, organizations it had founded or subverted in Germany, during the US' administration of West Germany after WW II:
Konrad Adenauer Foundation (CDU)
Friedrich Ebert Foundation (SPD)
Friedrich Naumann Foundation für die Freiheit (FDP)
Hanns Seidel Foundation (CSU)
Heinrich Böll Foundation (Grüne)
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Die Linke)
It amazes me that any nation allows such blatant, political organizations, sponsored from abroad, to operate within its borders, but ... money talks.
The NYTimes and WaPo are now funny papers, bald propaganda sites posing as newspapers, and have been since the younger, neo-con Sulzberger took over from his 'liberal' dad at the one, and since the Amazonian CIA contractor, Bezos, took over the other.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 12 2016 22:59 utc | 21
I know that RLS are pretty social democratic, but do they actually take US state dept money?
Posted by: P Cockshott | Mar 12 2016 23:24 utc | 22
Hm, same money behind all the pro-democracy people in Egypt?
Posted by: shadyl | Mar 12 2016 23:34 utc | 23
But the NYT writer hides from the readers the fact that the NDI is a U.S. government financed organization. It is a "nonprofit organization" in the same sense that the U.S. Armed Forces are a "nonprofit organization".
Posted by b on March 12, 2016 at 12:03 PM
Nailed it, b!
The United States Of AmeriKKKa's raison d'être in two short sentences.
Pure genius & effing brilliant!
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 13 2016 0:05 utc | 24
@22 pc ' I know that RLS are pretty social democratic, but do they actually take US state dept money? '
I don't know. I imagine that by now all the German GNGOs are German-government-funded. Just as are the German and other NATO contingents. Still 'centrally coordinated' though, aren't they? RLS was among the German political exporters at wikipedia, so I included it as well. Wikipedia doesn't list the source of their funding, but I imagine they're government funded? A budget of €44,391,120 in 2012, according to wp.
GNGOs - Government-funded Non-Governmental Organizations - are in every way a contradiction in terms, and those exporting Government-funded Non-Governmental product ought to be turned around at the border of any and every other supposedly independent state to which they are sent, as an obvious infringement of national sovereignty.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 13 2016 1:35 utc | 26
Nana2007 @19
" ...the energy level of the complacent is rising"
ISIS and Al Nusra pose at rebelling against their Saudi/CIA masters, and yet through war and terror do exactly what Saudi/U.S./Israel want them to do.
Black Lives Matter and other identity politics groups pose at rebelling against their MoveOn and Democratic Party masters, and yet through creation of chaos and 'FEAR OF TRUMP' do exactly what the Democratic Party and Hillary 2016 want them to do.
Rg an LG @20
I thought where you were going was ... When the previously complacent but now energized are tightly restricted in what they think is permissible thought, poorly and politically correctly 'educated', and (therefore) easily manipulated, they are as likely to be placated by 'other hatred', or by imperialist fear-mongering and "Let's have a war!" as by all the good things we wish they'd fight for.
Posted by: fairleft | Mar 13 2016 3:10 utc | 28
Simply put, any and all organization pretending to do "good" has actually been infiltrated and subverted by the PTB. From local NGO's all the way to HRW, USAID, Red Cross, and even UN agencies like the Minustah who spread cholera to Haiti post-earthquake. But you dont believe in the NWO, do you? ;)
Posted by: Lozion | Mar 13 2016 3:41 utc | 29
As the originator of " ...the energy level of the complacent is rising", please notice that I didn't say what the result would be. I continue to smoke hopium or I would have offed myself long ago.
i agree with fairleft/28 and Lozion/29 that all the spreading of Democracy since WWII has been more about empire building with private finance at the core.
The reason we won't see world wide uprisings in the smaller countries is because our organizations of empire backed by the MIC/NSA/CIA et. al. have eliminated any potential threats, likely in their youth for decades now.
Again, the ring that rules them all is private finance and those that own that hidden matrix.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 13 2016 3:57 utc | 30
Great article B
Next to the NED and the IRI, The Open Society of George Soros must be added to the forefront of Pro Democracy nonprofit group used by The CIA and The deep state and the oligarchs linked to them.
One thing about all this Russo-phobia is that with the new Russia military dominance all this habit To scream bloody murder every time Russia does something seems Like water off a duck's back.It is too late and unless Russia get another Yeltsin or Gorbachev after Putin or the united state catch up on its military technology we are already living in a new world.The US dominance throughout the world is over.
Posted by: lebretteurfredonnant | Mar 13 2016 4:10 utc | 32
This action seems more about Putin's paranoia about internal dissent than the effectiveness of these pseudo NGO's who can be easily monitored. Russia may have a military backed with Nukes but their economy is about the size of Mexico so I doubt they will be projecting much military might for very long.
Putin is apparently settling into his President for Life position and informing the weak opposition that any dissent will be viewed as foreign interference.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Mar 13 2016 5:10 utc | 33
@ALAN - #15
Originally an unconfirmed news bulletin from Reuters published by many news outlets.
This article offers a bit more details, yet still unconfirmed wether it was "shot-down" by rebels ...
- Syrian rebels claim to have downed a Syrian air force MiG-21 fighter jet that crashed in Hama Province while bombing militant positions. At least one pilot died, for which conflicting reports blame either fire from the ground or a jet malfunction. “The pilot was ejected and brought to safety in al-Mughayr,” a military source told the Syrian Al Masdar News outlet. The same source insisted that the plane was not taken down by militants, but crashed due to a technical failure.
○ VP's Son Hunter Biden Joins Ukraine Gas Corporation
- Biden Jr's resume is unsurprisingly sprinkled with Ivy-league dust - he is on the Chairman's Advisory Board for the National Democratic Institute, a director for the Center for National Policy and the US Global Leadership Coalition comprising 400 American businesses, NGOs, senior national security and foreign policy experts.
Former US President Bill Clinton appointed him an Executive Director of E-Commerce Policy and he was honorary co-chair of the 2008 Obama-Biden Inaugural Committee.
NED and affiliates: a perpetuum mobile for reapimg benefits from US imperialism!
@ lebretteurfredonnant
○ Soros Joins USAID in Cold War II Propaganda
○ European Nations and Soros Apologize for Gaddafi Ties
not sure which is worse wow.. putin as pres for life or you as bullshitter for life here at moa?
Posted by: james | Mar 13 2016 8:57 utc | 37
5;You will be very unhappy;Trump says he's gonna put Jesus back in Xmas!We'll be able to say Merry Christmas wo getting the haters upset.I didn't see that quote in todays Ziorags though.
The lying times also gets yesterdays weather and sports scores correct,so lets be fair now.
Blaming the violence from outside agitators on Trumps "political arson"is hilarious.Who da Nazis?
Bernie quickly denounced Trumps claim of them being Sanders supporters.He has to eschew that commie label.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 13 2016 13:00 utc | 38
Move on .Org has been silent throughout the abysmal Obomba reign.There resurrection as Trump bashers will be a death knell for the Ziohypocrites who run it.Trump is a direct threat to the Zionist control of America.Their hair is on fire.
I think what is really happening is the that Trump people are not the complacent,as anyone fighting his words obviously are stuck in the narrative of BS foisted on US by the global monsters,or have skin in the illegal immigrant game.
Why are there no protesters at the hell bitches rallies?I mean she is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocents deaths,division and destruction to rival ww2,while Trump calls to bring back troops,help the working man,protect and expand SS are protest worthy?All things they protested under the shrub?Hypocrisy writ large.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 13 2016 13:20 utc | 39
21;Wapo was just as bad under the previous owners.
How any nation could trust American based NGOs in this day and age reveals the absolutely perfidy of the leaders of those nations in allowing it.Payoffs.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 13 2016 13:23 utc | 40
@39 dahoit
I just read that The Donald has been invited and is going to make an appearance at the AIPAC ring-kissing event toward the end of the month. The Hil and Joe Biden will be there too, of course, kissing ass for all they're worth ... the only 'logical' thing for Trump to do is to let 'er rip in opposition. Send his critics in both forks of the War Party around the bend, set his 'loyalists' ... and how many others? ... dancin' in the streets. The AIPAC command performance might be interesting this year ...
Yeah the WaPo was trash before Bezos ... they played it straight though, tryied to carry on as a newspaper with a poker face. Now the joker is unmasked. Bezos doesn't even care what people think. He's laughing ... in print ... at the people who read his rag.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 13 2016 13:44 utc | 41
It is a "nonprofit organization" in the same sense that the U.S. Armed Forces are a "nonprofit organization".
An excellent description of all US/AngloZionist NGOs
@41 Trump has also stated, given the ISIS situatuin, he would put 20,000-30,000 US troops in Iraq/Syria. He doesn't say whether they would be fighting with ISIS or against it.
Posted by: Yonatan | Mar 13 2016 13:58 utc | 42
5;You will be very unhappy;Trump says he's gonna put Jesus back in Xmas!We'll be able to say Merry Christmas wo getting the haters upset.I didn't see that quote in todays Ziorags though. [dahoit]
After Saturn was taken out of Saturnalia ("seven days of Xmas"), Satyres out of satyres, and Rama out of Ramadan, I do no care anymore.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 13 2016 14:03 utc | 43
@OUI
Very interesting articles. Thanks for the links.
Posted by: lebretteurfredonnant | Mar 13 2016 23:41 utc | 44
@43 pb ' Rama out of Ramadan '
Wait, what?
The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root ramiḍa or ar-ramaḍ, which means scorching heat or dryness.
I imagine all the Pakistanis reading your joke are 'laughing' uproariously.
41;Of course the donald will make nice with the framers of the agenda,or else they'll call in Mossad to kill him off,or invent memes like HE is the fascist.Sheesh.The crimes of the Hell Bitch leave one, with the lack of arrows at her huge inviting target suspicious,eh?
AIPAC;Talk bout a foreign NGO and its tax exempt!
Trump is not afraid to talk turkey with these clowns,he's dome it already,with his neutrality comment.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 14 2016 16:56 utc | 46
43;Yes,America doesn't act Christian.Can't disagree.
You are not American right?
Over the last 40 years or so it has become unfashionable among the intelligentsia to want Merry Xmas said.It's the generic happy holidays.
Because the Zionists didn't like it.It's ok for the 60% Israelis to have a Jewish State,but its not ok for 90%Christian America to have a Christian(nominal)state.And do you know who had prayer(voluntary)taken out of schools?Zionists from LI.Nazis.Just like the idiots in Chicago who gave Sanders a black eye.Soros,the Zionist.Helps Shillary?
Their hypocrisy is breathtaking.
I hate organized religion btw,its all personal.Freedom.
And the FF agreed,by keeping religion far from govt.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 14 2016 17:06 utc | 47
@43 pb ' Rama out of Ramadan '
[... ]
I imagine all the Pakistanis reading your joke are 'laughing' uproariously.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 13, 2016 7:54:47 PM | 45
I do not know many Pakistanis but I know some. And in that small sample, some do show a sense of humor and some do not.
By the way, I actually had hard time understanding if the problem of "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas" is totally contrived or not. It reminds me when as a "wee lad" someone stopped me on the street with a simple question "Where is the store?" "What do you mean, the store?" "Liquor store, of course!" The point is that when you say "Happy Holidays" in Poland it is an obvious abbreviation of Holiday of the God's Birth.
And after few months another problem. You can wish "Happy Holidays" once more, but more standard is "Happy Great Night Holidays" and somewhat rare "Happy Holidays of the Lord's Resurection".
So to people who have a choleric attitude to some variations of the greetings I would wish "Be yourself! Be grumpy if you wish! No need to be happy!".
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 15 2016 6:32 utc | 48
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thank you b, excellent work!
We all need to do what we can to try to make your take on the NY Times into a more mainstream understanding of that capitalist/imperialist propaganda rag.
Posted by: fairleft | Mar 12 2016 17:30 utc | 1