posted 9/6/96 WORLDWIDE COVERT OPERATIONS A recent diplomatic battle between Cuba and the United States highlights the worldwide use of U.S.-sponsored human rights groups by (presumably) the CIA: Cuba is expelling Robin Meyer a U.S. diplomat in the Political-Economic section whose primary duty was human rights issues. The State Department said "during her two years in Cuba, Ms. Meyer has openly met with representatives of human rights and independent professional groups throughout the island, providing moral support and distributing published information...newspapers, magazines and college textbooks on government, democracy, international relations and journalism." Washington Post 8/20/96 A7 The United States is determined to maintain contact with dissidents, with a declared goal of inciting dissent. Cuba recently refused to renew the visa of Robin Meyer, Second Secretary of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, for she supported, organized and united small counterrevolutionary groups. Washington Post 8/22/96 A2 Robert Gates, a former Director of the CIA, said the CIA uses human rights issues to subvert other governments. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is the overt implement for creating and funding these human rights organizations. In 1983, the CIA passed, or so we were told, many its political action functions to NED -- supposedly an independent entity but one that is funded by Congress. Events in Cuba prove U.S. organization and management of these groups for subversion, whether by the State Department or more likely, the CIA. This leads to the probability that CIA uses NED for cover and that NED's hundreds of so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) -- many of them human rights groups, are little more than fronts for the operations of the CIA. Since NED sponsors human rights groups and other NGOs in about 90 countries this creates a massive worldwide mechanism for subversion. A number of countries, other than Cuba, have protested the activities of NED-CIA's NGOs -- China and Vietnam are good examples. Earlier Vietnam arrested activists during the visits of two human rights representatives from the U.S. -- General William Westmoreland and former CIA Director, William Colby. China this year said the United States was using human rights as an excuse for subversion and protested the activities of various U.S.-sponsored groups and individuals -- citing especially NED-financed Harry WU and his espionage (and propaganda) operations. In August, China began blocking internet messages from human rights and other similar groups from entering China. In some countries -- such as Burma -- we may agree with the goals of NED-CIA. But when the Agency uses human rights as a universal cover for subversion -- no matter what the target, we all will suffer. (It is important to recall that the Vietnam war was a direct result of a failed CIA operation.) One thing is certain, the people in countries being brought NED-CIA's gift of democracy will suffer. The record is clear and unequivocal: CIA operations sustain or empower military or political elite (the rich and powerful) who frequently decimate poorer societal elements who are struggling for equality -- labor unionists, students, liberal politicians, and others. A few of the countries where people have been murdered as a consequence of CIA operations are: Guatemala, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba and many others. In the case of CUBA, I have extracted a few citations from CIABASE re the activities of NED-CIA human rights and other groups in that country. Ralph McGehee CIABASE Cuba, 84-91 Despite its overt character, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) also engages in extensive covert operations. Dozens of U.S. organizations have acted as conduits for NED funds. NED is made up of core groups - the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI); National Republican Institute for International Affairs (NRI aka IRI); Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE), a branch of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and the Free Trade Union Institute, an international branch of the AFL-CIO. A host of "private" organizations include the right-wing Freedom House and the Councils on the Americas, that handle programs for "civic" sectors. Robinson, W. (1992). A Faustian Bargain 18-9 Cuba, NED, 95 center for Cuban Democracy $55,000 (Centro de la Democracia Cubana) to publish and distribute its quarterly newsletter, Un Solo Pueblo; to maintain a presence at international human rights conferences and meetings of international political leaders; and to establish direct communications with Cuban government officials to press for democratic reforms. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 Cuban committee for human rights $55,000 (Comite Cubano pro Derechos Humanos), including publication of the bimonthly magazine Siglo XXI ("Twenty-First Century"). National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 Freedom House a grant of $70,000 for efforts, including expanding contacts with the human rights movement on the island; to engage in appeals and campaigns designed to focus international attention on the persecution of human rights activists; to print and distribute copies of the universal declaration on human rights inside Cuba; and to provide humanitarian assistance to human rights groups and families of political prisoners. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 FTUI $261,690 for AIFLD to strengthen independent union groups improving communications among workers and their own constituencies; to promote international campaigns to protest the continued confinement of political prisoners; to report violations to human rights organizations; to interview knowledgeable individuals and recently-arrived Cubans on the current situation; and to disseminate information on worker rights violations. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 Information bureau of the human rights movement in Cuba $70,000 (buro de informacion del movimiento Cubano de derechos humano) to maintain telephone contact with dissident groups inside Cuba; and to produce and disseminate information on the human rights situation through radio programs, faxes, and a quarterly bulletin. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe $45,000 to send prodemocracy activists from central and eastern Europe to Cuba to share experiences with members of various dissident groups. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 IRI $254,114 for a report on opposition leaders and groups; to provide humanitarian assistance to activists; to convene roundtable discussions; to publish a newsletter for activists; and to provide support for freedom house's human rights advocacy program in Cuba. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 IRI $7,557 for the Cuban revolutionary democratic directorate to disseminate information on the struggle for democracy in Cuba among young social and political leaders in Latin America and Spain. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, NED, 95 Universal Dissident of Puerto Rico $55,200 (disidente universal de puerto rico) for continued publication of El Disidente, a monthly news digest on Cuba focusing on political and economic issues and prospects for peaceful democratic change. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1995 Cuba, 85 After dissidents showed up for a meeting with congressmen Moakley, the Cuban government charged that Concilio Cubano, the dissidents coalition, had been invented by the U.S. to undermine Castro. Washington Times 3/16/96 a9 Cuba, 93-95 Mas Canosa of the Cuban American National foundation (CANF) was instrumental in pushing the Reagan Administration to create NED. CANF received one of NED's first grants. Between 83-88 CANF received $390,000 in NED grants. NED and USAID programs to bring democracy to Cuba - most money for radio and TV Marti and an array of anti-Castro groups both inside and outside of Cuba who receive NED funds. NED projects include the Cuban Committee for Human Rights whose activity is designed to hasten Castro's departure from power. The Center for Cuban Democracy published a newsletter "Un solo pueblo" and covers travel expenses of Cuban opposition leaders to international conferences. The Information Bureau of Human Rights Movements in Cuba maintains contact with dissident groups in Cuba. The Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI) funds the (AIFLD) American Institute for Free Labor Development's programs. Freedom House distributes books and assistance to Cuban opposition groups. The U.S. government's policy has hindered, not aided democratization process and supports most extreme and undemocratic elements. Democracy Backgrounder 9/95 3-8 Cuba, 93 NED grant for Freedom House distribution of books on democracy. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 69 Cuba, 84-88 NED grant to the Cuban American National foundation to assist the international coalition on human rights in Cuba (ICHRC). Directed by Armando Valladares - it received previous NED grants in 84 and 86. has a net of citizen committees in Europe and Latin America. In 3/88 the U.N. human rights commission directed a delegation visit Cuba. ICHRC formed work commission, compiled extensive evidence, and organized an international delegation to travel to Cuba. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 87 pg. 53, 1988,37. Cuba, 91 NED a grant of $127,295 to FTUI to build relationships with workers inside Cuba who wish to organize trade unions. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 91 59 Cuba, 92-93 NED AIFLD created mechanisms for workers in Cuba - 40 small union groupings coordinated by 5 regional or National centers. (Comment: AIFLD - the American Institute for Free Labor Development was for many years reported to be an arm of the CIA). The centers circulate samizdat publications and make contact with union bodies in France, Spain, and the former East Bloc. Released prisoner, Mario Chanes de Armas, was invited to Washington by the AFL-CIO. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 24 Cuba, 93 NED, Cuban committee for human rights received a NED grant. National Endowment for Democracy newsletter 7/93 10 Cuba. Armando Vallardes, head of the International Coalition for Human Rights (ICHR) in Cuba is prohibited by terms of NED grant from lobbying in U.S. yet in 85 and 86, while in employ of the Cuban American National foundation (CANF), Vallardes testified before congressional subcommittees and collected signatures on a letter urging president Reagan to support the Nicaraguan contras. resource center groupwatch project Cuba. Cuban American National foundation (CANF) is a lobbying group formed by Cuban-Americans in 81. CANF was founded and is headed by Jorge Mas Canosa, a veteran of 61 CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion that left over 2,000 Cuban-Americans in prison in Cuba for 22 months until they were ransomed by Kennedy for $63 million. CANF is spearheaded by veterans of Bay of Pigs invasion, and is strongly anticommunist. CANF is funded in part by NED. Resource Center Groupwatch Project Cuba. Cuban American National foundation (CANF) has used NED grants to create and finance an international coalition for human rights in Cuba. project is based in Madrid and disseminates information about alleged human rights violations in Cuba. CANF selected Armando Valladares, a poet and reportedly a police thug for Batista, who was released from jail in Cuba. Resource Center Groupwatch Project Cuba, 84-86 Cuban American National foundation is funded by NED to establish citizen committees in European countries. Some already in Sweden and Spain - together all will constitute a European coalition for human rights in Cuba. Armando Valladares is prime mover. Some now in France, Spain and Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. They distributed thousands of booklets and published books. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report Reports 84,85,86 Cuba, 88 NED/human rights project to produce film "Nobody Listened," produced by Almendros and Jorge Ulla. Film indicts Cuba on human rights. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 88 38 Cuba, 89-91 NED, Cuban American National foundation, for continued assistance to international coalition for human rights in Cuba. 1989 $100,000, 1991 $100,000. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 89 32, 90 39, 91 58-59 Cuba, 89 NED, Cuban American National foundation, to support an American counterpart to Havana-based Cuban committee for human rights to disseminate human rights information inside Cuba and abroad. $20,000. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 89 32 Cuba, 90 NED, Cuban American National foundation, for U.S. counterpart to Havana based Cuban committee for human rights in efforts to compile, reproduce and disseminate human rights information and ideas. $30,000. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 90 39 Cuba, 90 NED, Puebla Institute $20,000, to enable the Cuban committee for human rights (CCHR) to continue to focus international attention on Cuba's political, social and economic realities by sending delegation of Cuban rights activists to meet with a broad spectrum of individuals in the Soviet Union to discuss political developments in Cuba. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 90 39 Cuba, 93 NED grant to the Information bureau for human rights in Cuba -- to promote opposition groups -- working committee on human rights; association for continental peace (ASOPAZCO), and the distribution of human rights material internationally. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 69 Cuba, 93 NED/IRI grant to Freedom House and Jose Marti liberal foundation to assist human rights activists. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 69 Latin America, 93-95 in June 1993 aid allocated $36.9 million to AIFLD for a five-year program. this regional grant is currently financing programs in sixteen countries in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. in addition, AIFLD operations in Haiti and El Salvador are funded by bilateral programs administered by aid country missions. Nicaragua was funded in same manner, although that grant expired in 3/95 and has not been reauthorized. in Latin America and Caribbean region NED granted FTUI $1.3 million in 1994 for three regional AIFLD programs in addition to country-specific projects in brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Paraguay. brazil program focuses on training unions to increase "civic participation of workers in key National decisions." programs in Cuba and Paraguay are designed to support general labor organizing and union formation. in Mexico the program supports a "worker rights project to develop greater solidarity with independent and democratic trade unions." regional programs intend to ease Post cold war transitions and to bolster Democracy. resource center - Democracy backgrounder 8/95 Cuba, 93 NED Center for Cuban democracy grant to quarterly newspaper, Un solo pueblo. With the Puebla Institute and the Cuban committee for human rights to disseminate information and the publication of bimonthly magazine Siglo XXI. Support for El Disidente, a monthly news digest of reprints of articles on Cuba in the international press for dissemination in Cuba. AIFLD ops. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 68-9 Cuba, 91-92 International coalition for human rights in Cuba funded by NED published material for distribution in Cuba. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 1992 29 Cuba, 91 NED/IRI, to sponsor a conference on future of Cuba. $40,000. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 91 59 Cuba, 91 NED/NDI, organize two-day conference in Venezuela on democratic transitions to Democracy. $99,837. National Endowment for democracy Annual Report 91 59 Cuba, 60-93 article, "the exiles in Miami call the shots in Washington, Cuba obsession," by Jane Franklin. mentions Cuban Democracy act, Cuban-American National foundation (CANF), led by Jorge Mas Canosa. In 1960 Mas was a mere underling in CIA plan for bay of pigs invasion. nexus of CIA, business and politics made Mas a valuable instrument for the Reagan Administration. Reagan's first National security adviser, Richard Allen, was instrumental in creating Cuban-American National foundation, a tax-exempt organization. Mas shaped CANF to fit teh White House agenda and the Reagan Administration appointed him virtual president of Cuban exile community. one of Mas pet ventures was radio Marti funded by U.S. government. presidential advisory board for radio and TV Marti headed by Mas Canosa. a typical message urges Cubans to get out pans, take to streets, and demand food, freedom, and coming of Mas. NED contributed hundreds of thousands to CANF front groups-the European coalition for human rights in Cuba for example. ins in project exodus allows Cubans from 3rd countries to enter U.S. if CANF sponsors them. Torricelli, chair of house subcommittee on hemisphere affairs, collaborated with Mas in drafting Cuban Democracy act. act outlaws trade with Cuba by U.S. subsidiaries in 3rd countries. The Progressive 7/93 18-22 Latin America, 93 in 93, NED assigned high priorities to Cuba and Mexico - supporting transition to democracy. in Cuba, NED funded human rights activists and dissidents and media ops. In Mexico NED supported opening up political system through civic education, democratic training schools, open forums and protection of civil liberties. In Peru, NED supported public education and a new constitution. In Argentina, NED supported electoral reform and training for women activists and a data bank on candidates. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 9/93 65 Nicaragua, 88-91 NED official adelina "chiqui" reyes gavilan, Cuban-born anti-Castro militant who had worked with friends of democratic center in central America (prodemca, an NED-funded group that promoted contras) became NED's Nicaraguan program coordinator. Robinson, w. (1992). a Faustian bargain 50 Albert Shanker, a member of the Cuban American National foundation (CANF) advisory council, served on board of freedom house and is also on boards of (FTUI); social democrats/USA (SD/USA), a neoconservative group that believes that labor is cutting edge of political change; NED; and coalition for a democratic majority (CDM), a neoconservative lobby group. Shanker is treasurer of league for industrial democracy, a group working closely with SD/USA. in 88, Shanker was vice pres of AFL-CIO and on board of trustees of AIFLD. Shanker served on two more AFL-CIO international affiliates, AALC and AAFLI. Shanker was a founder of the committee on present danger (CPD), an anti-Soviet group promoting policy of containment. Resource Center Groupwatch Project Cuba, 94-95 NED grants to Cuban committee for human rights, freedom house for a human rights advocacy effort. information bureau of human rights movement in Cuba to maintain contact with dissident groups. National Endowment for Democracy newsletter summer 94-95 Cuba, 82-95 discussion of radio Marti, the Cuban-American National foundation (CANF), TV Marti and Mas Canosa. NED grants to CANF totaled $390,000. an almost identical amount from Canosa's free Cuba pac distributed to politicians. in 91, NED awarded $262,000 to anti-Cuba programs. NED total amounts to CANF are over one million dollars. "Unclassified" winter 95 4-5 Cuba, 90 NED, Freedom House, $30,000 to produce and distribute inside Cuba copies of writings by prominent eastern European and western democratic activists and scholars. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 90 39 Cuba, 91 NED, Center for Cuban Democracy, organization composed of former Cuban political prisoners and dissidents, $45,000 for publication and distribution of a newsletter. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 91, 58 Cuba, 91 NED, Puebla Institute, supports the committee for human rights in cause of human rights and Democracy in Cuba. $44,000. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Report 91 59 NED's discretionary grants are aimed at nondemocratic countries The grants go to expatiate organizations to publish books, newspapers, train journalists, carry out civic education, or monitor human rights. NED's discretionary grants reflect anti-communism - particularly in Asia where Burma, China and Vietnam get major attention. NED projects the cold war notion of democracy promotion as a crusade, a stark struggle between good and evil. foreign policy mag summer (7) 94 129 The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is the Reagan administration's structure to influence foreign journalists ala the CIA in the fifties. The only difference is that the government has found a new way to launder the money. In 9/84 NED gave Leonard Sussman's Freedom House $200,000. Freedom House is a conservative human rights organization set up by a net of opinion makers...to end the isolation of democratic-minded intellectuals and journalists in the third world. The idea is to send articles to regional editors on each continent to reprint the article. Ten to 12 articles each month are sent to 350 journalists in 50 countries. Authors of the articles are neoconservatives. Articles were sent to Nicaragua from Leiken, Arturo Cruz and Pedro Chamorro. Freedom House also disseminated an attack on people in Jamaica, an investigation of the far left in Australia and a feature on West Europe's peace groups' relations with the PLO. All of the articles on South Africa have argued against divestment. Articles on Afghanistan, Tibet, Angola, Poland, Grenada, Ethiopia, the Ukraine and Cuba have been distributed. Freedom House received an additional $175,000 to operate the exchange. The Nation 5/24/86, 720|