Western NGOs Through the Prism of History

The Whole world is passing through a period of financial upheaval, fighting hard against massive debt., unemployment etc. In spite of this severe financial roller coaster what is intriguing is that these western nations donating trillions of dollars to NGOs in hostile foreign countries as aid. Why so much magnanimity on the part of these countries which are never known to have 0looked beyond their own selfish ends? Is it just out of normal human concerns that they are doing this or there is something else to it? Do they have any agenda behind such huge monetary assistance? It does not seem that they are without any agenda. Then, what is their agenda? Why respective local governments are vehemently opposing foreign donations to local NGOs? After Russia and Egypt s stern actions against USA funded NGOs, astonishingly UAE, a close confidant of US in the gulf region, has also asked US NGOs of standing to close their operations in its own country. Few days back Indian Prime Minister during a recent interview accused US funded NGOs of thwarting (playing spoil sport) commissioning of the Nuclear power project India, at kudankulam. Do these allegations hold any water? Let us examine them from a historical perspective. History of the NGOs dates back to the late 18th century. Western NGOs had played some decisive roles in antislavery, Women's suffrage etc. movements in US & European nations. However, after world war II intelligence departments of various western countries started using NGOs in their covert operations .Their main jobs were to gather information from hostile nations, funding pro -western institutions, political parties .This also includes political assassinations of hostile leaders in foreign countries(predominantly the erstwhile communist regimes had been their targets) .So after the world war II the number of NGOs in US and other European countries grew significantly .According to B. Raman, Indian security &intelligence expert, The increasing resort to political ,economic & psychological covert actions by the western intelligence agencies since the 1950s was accompanied by a mushrooming of Non-Government Organisations(NGOs) focusing on human rights, trade union rights, environmental issues etc. He further mentions for whose sake NGOs have been working many of these NGOs were inspired and funded by the intelligence agencies of the US & other western countries An intimate and clandestine relationship between western intelligence agencies and Non- Governmental Organizations first came to the fore in the 1960s.Amnesty International, one of the most vocal critique of the human rights records of Indian government in Kashmir ,was accused of turning a blind eye to the atrocities perpetrated by the British army in Southern Rhodesia, Aden etc. It was later established by the British Parliamentary Committee that Amnesty International had close nexus with British Intelligence Agency MI6 and the then British government of Harold Wilson. In the early 70s allegations were started pouring in against American intelligence agency CIA of meddling with and destabilizing of hostile countries, primarily the erstwhile communist regimes. It was also involved in murders of hostile foreign political leaders, academicians etc. In the aftermath of Vietnam war and Watergate Scandal the US government set up several commissions (Rockefellers commission, Church commission etc.) to investigate CIAs covert activities since its inception in 1948.In these investigations it was found that NGOs ,academicians, religious and political leaders(both national and international) were being used to gather information secretly. According to Historian Christopher Andrew At a White House lunch for the publisher and editors of the New York Times on January 16 [1975] the president(Gerald Ford) revealed that the intelligence files contained material that it was against the national interest to reveal because it would blacken the reputation of every President since Truman. All these controversies surrounding CIA s covert operations, both inside and outside of US, forced President Nixon to resign.

After this humiliation of the government later presidents took some stern actions against the CIA. President Gerald ford in the early 1976s banned political assassinations by the CIA.Jimmy Carter in 1977 curtailed several of CIAs rights and powers, including its covert actions in foreign countries . Later, The Iranian hostage crisis and the advent of Ronald Reagan as the president of USA in the 80s brought the debate to reengage CIA in its foreign espionage activities back to the US political arena. But this time it was ordained that CIA would not directly fund or engage itself with foreign academicians, religious institutes and NGOs, rather fund indirectly through an independent body.Which would later fund international NGOs. Thus came into being the National Endowment for Democracy(NED).In 1983 it was set up as a non-profit, non- governmental, bi-partisan, grant making organization to help strengthen democratic institutes around the world but deep down it is a US congress controlled organization, according to B.Raman Though it is projected as an NGO, it is actually a quasi-governmental organisation because till 1994 it was run exclusively from funds voted by the Congress (average of about US $ 16 million per annum in the 1980s and now about US $ 30 million) as part of the budget of the US Information Agency (USIA). Since 1994, it has been accepting contributions from the private sector too to supplement the congressional appropriations. Out of total budgetary allocation for NED 30% reserved as discretionary grant &the rest goes to its affiliated or Core organizations, the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI). Some of Americas major obtrusions in foreign countries internal political affairs through its NGOs, under the banner of promoting democracy are The Rose Revolution in Georgia, The Orange Revolutionin Ukraine from November 2004 to January 2005,The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and the continuing Arab Spring from 17th December 2010 onwards , The New York Times reported that United States democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known, with key leaders of the movements having been trained by the Americans in campaigning, organizing through new media tools and monitoring elections. It forced Egypt,UAE banning some major NGOs ,including IRI and NDI. Apart from these some other Organisations,Ford Foundation,George Soros,Rockfeller etc, have been accused of having connived with CIA in perpetrating covert operations.According to Joan Roelofs , Keene State College, New Hampshire Ford,Kaplan Fooundation and others became pass throughs for the CIA project, congress for cultural freedom(CCF). .( Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism, By Joan Roelofs,P.85) One doesnt need to do painstaking research into the history of Foreign policy practiced by western nations to find out how NGOs have been used by them to subvert democracy and spread propaganda in anti west,anti-US, pro communist hostile countries. The US gives training to foreign activists.US always tries to promote its interest all over the world. America

Gyan Ranjan Mohapatra gyan_mohapatra@rediffmail.com 8908837801