The
National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S.-government backed nonprofit
designed to influence the domestic politics of countries across the
globe, says its efforts are part of a campaign to promote "open and
transparent government."
The group, funded by
Congress and working in tandem with the State Department, has backed
activists and civil society groups across Europe, Asia, the Middle East,
and Africa to push for greater disclosure among government entities.
For instance, a recent NED report
argues that “enhancing transparency” is vital for building trust in
institutions and democratic governance, and urges the adoption of new
disclosure laws for countries in the Balkans.
Despite
the altruistic goals of disclosure for the developing world, NED is now
going dark. In a new “duty of care” policy published this week, NED
quietly announced a new rule to conceal the names of recipients of its
programs from the public. Its 2024 grant list,
attached to the policy, features dollar figures and one sentence
summaries for over 1,700 grants. All of the external recipient names and
identities have been wiped.
The move amounts to a
fundamental shift in NED programming. For decades, the group, in
accordance with its public demands for transparency, has published
annual lists disclosing its grant recipients.
Formed
in the early years of the Reagan administration in response to
increasing controversy surrounding the activities of the Central
Intelligence Agency, NED set out to engage in pro-American foreign
influence initiatives that were once the domain of covert operations.
“This program will not be hidden in the shadows. It will stand proudly
in the spotlight, and that's where it belongs,” stated Reagan in 1983.
"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA," stated
former acting NED president Allen Weinstein in a widely quoted 1991
interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. “The biggest
difference is that when such activities are done overtly, the flap
potential is close to zero. Openness is its own protection,” summarized
Ignatius.
The primary U.S. funder of overt
operations has been the NED, the quasi-private group originally headed
by Carl Gershman that is controlled by the U.S. Congress, Ignatius
explained. Through the late 1980s, it did openly what had once been
covert -- such as dispensing money to anti-communist forces behind the
Iron Curtain and funding dissident media known as ‘samizdat’.
The
endowment was initially active inside the Soviet Union. It gave money
to Soviet trade unions; to a foundation headed by Russian activist Ilya
Zaslavsky; to an oral history project headed by Soviet historian Yuri
Afanasyev; to the Ukrainian independence movement known as Rukh, and to
many other projects. Avoiding the scandal of journalists and governments
uncovering covert political action funding has been the raison d'être.
More recently, NED has been highly active
in efforts to highlight Chinese human rights abuses, especially in the
predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and its grantees
have worked in Ukraine to counter alleged Russian influence. In a report
titled "Long-Term Investments Pay Dividends in Ukraine," NED touted its
work funding local think tanks and activists pushing for civil society
reforms, including a controversial media registration law in 2023 used
to shut down media outlets accused of spreading Russian narratives.
NED,
despite its status as a quasi-independent nonprofit, continues to serve
as an arm of the U.S. government. Its leadership features former
government policymakers and elected officials, and its funding is
virtually all from appropriations earmarked by Congress. As of fiscal year 2024, 99.3% of the organization's $356.5 million in revenue came from the U.S. Government.
The
push for secrecy by NED is justified as a security measure designed to
protect the recipients of its funds. In a statement, the group noted
that the Taliban had targeted Afghans associated with NED and that NED
grantees were on Russian “kill and capture” lists.
In 2022, NED apparently deleted its Ukraine-related grant lists. Archived internet records show that over $22 million in grants to groups and activists in the country appear to have been wiped.
Yet the sudden reversal on transparency comes amid a broad push for secrecy. Last month, the U.S. Government-backed international journalistic group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) similarly advised its peers to “launder money legally” as part of hiding sensitive donors, in response to what OCCRP described as a “toxic future” for pro-democracy journalists. The State Department further retroactively deleted details of the vast majority of USAID’s personal services contractors from public records.
“Rather than listing names that could serve as a roadmap for those seeking to silence advocates for freedom, we provide descriptive information that reflects the nature of their work without compromising their security,” wrote Wilson in Monday’s policy announcement. The new policy, he added, still maintains “the spirit of transparency.”