Reply #6: Nation: Who is the National Endowment for Democracy? Must see!

[autorank]

I’m stunned. Vin Weber runs this. Remember him from the stolen Florida vote, 2000—the “felon purge” was done by a company in which Weber was a principal. Now he’s spreading the word. Look who is on the board.

National Endowment for Democracy
http://www.ned.org/about/about.html

About Us
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit organization created in 1983 to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. The Endowment is governed by an independent, nonpartisan board of directors. With its annual congressional appropriation, it makes hundreds of grants each year to support prodemocracy groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.

The Endowment is guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values. Democracy cannot be achieved through a single election and need not be based upon the model of the United States or any other particular country. Rather, it evolves according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures. By supporting this process, the Endowment helps strengthen the bond between indigenous democratic movements abroad and the people of the United States -- a bond based on a common commitment to representative government and freedom as a way of life.

Officers and Directors
NED Staff: Office of the President ~ Program Section ~
Finance Section ~ International Forum for Democratic Studies


Officers and Directors
http://www.ned.org/about/who.html

Officers
The Honorable Vin Weber More. (You’ll remember Vin, he was tightly connected with the software company that helped with the 2000 “felon purge”, and you know the one that disenfranchised black voters in Florida leading to the election being even close. ..
(Chairman)

Clark & Weinstock

The Honorable Evan Bayh, More...
United States Senate

General Wesley K. Clark, More..oops!
Wesley K. Clark & Associates

The Honorable Christopher Cox, Republican …we all know who he is.

Ms. Rita DiMartino, More...

The Honorable Kenneth M. Duberstein …as in Reagan administration etc...
Chairman and CEO
Duberstein Group Inc

Ms. Ester Dyson, More...
Chairman
Edventure Holdings

The Honorable William H. Frist …a true friend of democracy.
United States Senate Dr. Francis Fukuyama, More...
Johns Hopkins University,
Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies

Ms. Suzanne Garment, More...
Weil, Gotshel & Manges

The Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, More...


The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, More...
Director
The Woodrow Wilson Center

Mr. Michael Novak, More...
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

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Office of the President
Carl Gershman, More...
President

And who might Mr. Gershman be? ...a neoconservative!

From

“Highlights & Quotes
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1199

Carl Gershman, the long-time head of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), has been a central figure in U.S. sectarian politics for decades. He was a member of the Socialist Party USA when it split into two factions in the early 1970s: a left wing led by Michael Harrington and a right wing led by Gershman, Tom Kahn, and Rachelle Horowitz. The right faction morphed into Social Democrats USA (SD/USA), which in the early 1970s rallied around Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, the hawkish Democrat from Washington State whose staff was made up of several key neoconservative figures, including Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, and Elliott Abrams.

Like many of these neoconservatives, Gershman was tapped to serve in the Reagan administration. In 1984, Gershman took over the helm of the NED, a congressionally funded organization created by Ronald Reagan in 1982 to support groups in the Soviet Union and other communist countries that promote democracy.

…but there’s more
“An even more dubious initiative,” wrote Barbara Conry for a 1993 Cato Institute report, “was NED’s involvement in Costa Rica. Not only is Costa Rica a well-established democracy—former president George Bush visited the country in 1989 to celebrate 100 years of democracy there—it is the only stable democracy in Central America. But Costa Rican president Oscar Arias had opposed Ronald Reagan’s policy in Central America, especially his support of the Nicaraguan Contras. Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to dampen conflicts in the region, but he incurred the wrath of right-wing NED activists. So from 1986 to 1988 NED gave money to Arias’s political opposition, which was also strongly supported by Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. As Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-NY) commented: ‘They may technically have been within the law, but I felt this clearly violated the spirit. … The whole purpose of NED is to facilitate the emergence of democracy where it doesn’t exist and preserve it where it does exist. In Costa Rica, neither of these applies’.” (8)