The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades – and thus eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.

Thus, it was in 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to supposedly “support democratic institutions throughout the world through private, non-governmental efforts.” In actuality, virtually every penny of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial statement in each issue of its annual report.

The NED has been actively involved in the destabilization and overthrow of governments, even democratically elected ones, since 1984 to the present. If a foreign government defies the U.S. demands on it, the NED has been repeatedly used to force compliance through manipulation of the local population.