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Bringing 'democracy' to the world

Overview Nicaragua 1984 Nicaragua 1990 Nicaragua 1996 Serbia 2000 Russia 2000

Russia 2003 Macedonia 2002 Georgia 2003 Belarus 2004 Ukraine 2004 Ukraine 2004 rerun

Iraq Jan 2005 Iraq Dec 2005 Haiti 2006 Other Countries The Players OSCE in Kosovo

Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything. – Joseph Stalin.

Overview

Following the coup [in Haiti], it was recognized that the installed puppet government would not enjoy the full legitimacy that would be required to truly move Haiti onto the “correct” neoliberal path. What was therefore required was what Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have referred to as a “demonstration” election – a tightly constrained and controlled voting exercise that projects the imagery of liberal-democratic institutions, but whose actual function is to legitimize the “elected” government. A key function within such elections is the “observation/monitoring” process, which Chomsky and Herman describe in Manufacturing Consent as follows:

“Official observers are dispatched to the election scene to assure its public-relations success. Nominally, their role is to see that the election is ‘fair.’ Their real function, however, is to provide the appearance of fairness by focusing on the government’s agenda and by channeling press attention to a reliable source. They testify to fairness on the basis of long lines, smiling faces, no beatings in their presence, and the assurances and enthusiasm of U.S. and client-state officials.”

– Haiti is 'fixed' by Kevin Skerrett, 01 December 2005.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States has laid claim to Moscow's former republics and satellites. Apart from its 1999 bombings and other military operations in the former Yugoslavia, Washington has used the weapons of political and economic subversion for its interventions into Eastern Europe.

The standard operating procedure in a particular country has been to send in teams of specialists from US government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), American labor unions, or private organizations funded by American corporations and foundations; leading examples are the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Agency for International Development (AID), and the Open Society organizations of George Soros, American citizen and billionaire. These teams go in with as much financial resources as needed and numerous carrots and sticks to wield; they hold conferences and seminars, hand out tons of papers, manuals and CDs, and fund new NGOs, newspapers and other media, all to educate government employees and other selected portions of the population on the advantages and joys of privatizing and deregulating the economy, teaching them how to run a capitalist society, how to remake the country so that it's appealing to foreign investors.

– Interventions by William Blum, 2005. From Freeing the World to Death: essays on the american empire.

Nicaragua 1984

Although rigged elections during the Somoza era raised hardly an eyebrow in Washington, Nicaragua's November 1984 election was pilloried by the White House and the mainstream media. Pre-election reporting was hostile, coverage of the actual balloting was hijacked by hysteria over phantom Soviet MIG jets in Nicaragua, and a few months later many journalists seemed to forget that elections had even taken place. A New York Times editorial (2/13/85) lambasted the Sandinistas, who garnered 67 percent of the vote, for refusing "to subject their power to the consent of the Nicaraguan people."

Yet according to the vast majority of independent observers, the 1984 elections were perhaps the freest and fairest in Nicaraguan history. A report by an Irish parliamentary delegation stated: "The electoral process was carried out with total integrity. The seven parties participating in the elections represented a broad spectrum of political ideologies." The general counsel of New York's Human Rights Commission described the election as "free, fair and hotly contested." A study by the U.S. Latin American Studies Association (LASA) concluded that the FSLN (Sandinista Front) "did little more to take advantage of its incumbency than incumbent parties everywhere (including the U.S.) routinely do."

– 'The Sandinistas won't submit to free elections' from Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), October/November 1987.

Nicaragua 1990

The U.S., through the CIA and NED [The National Endowment for Democracy], orchestrated a process to consolidate a number of Nicaragua's opposition parties into a so-called unified effort, the United Nicaragua Opposition (UNO). In attempting to tabulate the total amount of money provided by the U.S. government between 1984-1990 to the "opposition" parties of Nicaragua, one must add up the known covert aid with the identifiable overt funds provided to both the CIA and the NED. If the truth were known, the total might approach $50,000,000. Fifty million dollars in Nicaragua, a country of 3.5 million people as of the mid to late 1980s. …

The extraordinary U.S. intervention into Nicaragua's election process was only one of three prongs in the U.S. strategy to overthrow the Sandinista led government. The second prong was economic strangulation through the economic embargo and associated U.S.-imposed trade and credit blockades that continued to force most Nicaraguans to suffer significant misery. The U.S. hoped that, in the process, more and more of Nicaragua's citizens would "cry uncle." The third prong, of course, was the continued financial and military support of the Contras as a terrorist military force operating throughout the country. The terrorist campaigns continually caused widespread suffering and damage through ambushes, assassinations of various community leaders, kidnappings and disappearances of other important citizens, and attacks on cooperatives. …

Thus it was understandable, though tragic and disappointing, that the majority of voters chose the U.S. candidate in the elections. Ten years of an all-encompassing war that had included sustained economic deprivation as well as military terrorist attacks killing more than 30,000 mostly civilians had worn down the Nicaraguan people. There was a realization that as long as the Sandinistas remained in power, the U.S. embargo and Contra terrorism would never relent in their campaign to overthrow them. President Bush had virtually told them this. Paul Reichler, a U.S. lawyer representing the Nicaragua government at the time, concluded that "Whatever revolutionary fervor the people once might have had was beaten out of them by the war and the impossibility of putting food in their children's stomachs" (L.A. Weekly, March 9-15, 1990).

– How the U.S. Purchased the 1990 Nicaragua Elections by S. Brian Willson, 1990.

In 1990, Nicaragua held National Elections. President George Bush was clear about US intentions: a Sandinista victory would mean the continuation of the US war and the blockade. Nicaraguans had lost 50,000 of their sons, and were living in an economy in ruins. Sick at heart, they went to the polls and voted out the Sandinistas. In spite of the climate of fear produced by the ongoing US threats, in the opinion of hundreds of international observers, the elections were declared to have been free and open and the Sandinistas handed over power to the US backed UNO party.

– Nicaragua elections, American style by Phyllis Ponvert, December 2001.

As the election campaign opened, the US made it clear that the embargo that was strangling the country and the contra terror would continue if the Sandinistas won the election. You have to be some kind of Nazi or unreconstructed Stalinist to regard an election conducted under such conditions as free and fair – and south of the border, few succumbed to such delusions.

– Teaching Nicaragua a lesson by Noam Chomsky, 1993.

Nicaragua 1996

Here we go again. It's presidential election time in Nicaragua, which means that U.S. officials once again parade about making threats to Nicaraguan voters. As the country enters the final month before its November 5th elections, Congressman Dan Burton, Chair of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House's Committee on International Relations, threatened in a press conference that if Nicaraguans elect former president Daniel Ortega, the U.S. could be forced to cut $175 million in aid through the Millenium Challenge Account and prohibit Nicaragua's participation in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Burton also claimed that Ortega's promise for the state to take over remittance services would result in families earning “much, much less money” – a grave threat for the many families that depend on remittances.

– Rep. Burton in Nicaragua: Speaking Loudly and Carrying the Same Big Stick by Brynne Keith-Jennings, 05 October 2006.

Serbian Presidential Election 2000

IRI [The International Republican Institute] worked with a broad range of opposition political parties in Serbia to strengthen their structures and to improve their public communications. As the September 2000 elections approached, IRI worked with the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) to train more than 15,000 polling board members throughout Serbia and to conduct a parallel vote count. The DOS polling board members and parallel vote count prevented Milosevic's attempts to falsify the election results. IRI also assisted the student resistance movement, Otpor, in building a national network of more than 70,000 activists and then in designing and executing the "Vreme-je" (It's Time) get-out-the-vote campaign for the September 2000 elections.

– from the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) web site.

In the September 24 presidential election, opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) – a coalition of some 19 parties – won with 51.7 percent of the ballots. Incumbent Slobodan Milosevic of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) received 38.2 percent. Milosevic initially claimed that Kostunica had failed to win a majority and called for a run-off. However, after a popular uprising and pressure from the international community, Milosevic finally conceded to Kostunica, stepping down on October 6, 2000. This resulted in the end of the autocratic Milosevic regime and the beginning of the transition to democracy in Yugoslavia.

– from the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) web site.

Russia Presidential Election 2000

In September of 2000, The Moscow Times published an exhaustive and impressive investigative piece detailing exactly how and where votes were stolen, proving that that Putin only won the election in the first round thanks to massive vote fraud, including massive ballot stuffing and the creation of an extra 1.3 million voters in the space of a few months.

On the day of those elections, Yabloko and the Communists both complained of election rigging. Their cry fell on deaf ears. The day after the elections, Eduard Bruner, who headed the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe]'s observer mission in Russia, declared that the elections had been "well and correctly organized." Bjorn von der Esch, who headed the Council of Europe's observer mission, told Russian news agencies the night of the elections that they were "absolutely legitimate" and that they had been conducted according to international standards "openly and peacefully."

– How do you spell Hypocrisy? O-S-C-E by Mark Ames, 12 December 2003.

Russia Presidential Election 2003

In 2003, the OSCE came to Russia and found religion. Its initial election report said that the advantages of incumbency, which in 2000 actually made Russia more like everyone else, had, in last Sunday's case, been "overwhelmingly distorted." Bruce George, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, attacked the "extensive use of the state apparatus and the media... to the benefit of United Russia" which he said "created an unfair environment for the other parties and candidates.

"Our main impression of the overall electoral process was ... one of regression in the democratization of this country," he said.

The problem with this sudden change in opinion is that the supposedly "bad" 2003 elections were not significantly less democratic than the "good" 2000 presidential elections, or indeed the 1996 presidential elections, which the OSCE enthusiastically approved.

"I would maybe say that the 2003 elections were even a little better," said analyst Boris Kagarlitsky. "But there is one interesting point. This time, most of the votes that were stolen were stolen from the liberal parties [as opposed to being stolen from the Communists]."

– How do you spell Hypocrisy? O-S-C-E by Mark Ames, 12 December 2003.

Macedonia General Election 2002

The US seems to want an SDSM [Social Democratic Union of Macedonia] victory at all costs, and will try and attain this goal through every conceivable method of intervention possible. Its enormous arsenal includes international organizations like the OSCE, the media, "independent" NGO's like the ICG, and powerful financiers like the IMF and World Bank.

–The International Campaign to Intervene in Macedonia's Elections by Christopher Deliso, 26 August 2002.

Macedonia held its parliamentary elections on 15 September 2002. The contest resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Together for Macedonia Alliance [the major party of which is the SDSM], which garnered more than 40 per cent of the overall vote. VMRO-DPMNE and Liberal Party Alliance received the next highest number of votes, with 20 per cent.

Election day was marked by a high turnout of voters and few isolated incidents of violence.

"The citizens of this country have achieved a successful electoral process which could represent a major step towards restoring stability, reconciliation and democracy in the country", said Kimmo Kiljunen, vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to lead the OSCE Observation Mission.

– Macedonian General Elections 2002 from the South East European Times, 15 September 2002.

Georgian Presidential Election 2003 (The "Rose" revolution)

In the November 2003 presidential election Eduard Shevardnadze, the incumbent president and candidate for the For a New Georgia party, was declared the winner. There seems little doubt that the regime resorted to vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing, but the public perception of a stolen election was enhanced by exit polls showing a victory for the opposition parties. These polls were funded by US agencies such as the US firm the Global Strategy Group and American-backed non-governmental organizations; they were broadcast on Rustavi 2 TV, a Western-backed oppositional media outlet.

Michiel Saakashvili, a 36-year-old US-educated lawyer, led a bloodless popular revolution that drove Shevardnadze out of office. The slogan was "Kmara" ["Enough"]. Then, in internationally supervised and approved elections on 4 January 2004, he put together a political coalition that brought the kind of landslide victory (96.3% of the votes) that ordinarily is seen only in blatantly stolen elections.

– (Various sources)

In one vote of confidence, monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said Sunday's poll was an improvement on previous fraud-ridden Georgian elections.
"This was not a perfect election by any means, but there were many, many positive things that we observed and we are proud to report on," said Bruce George, a British MP who headed the 450-strong observer mission.

  Lawyer set for Georgia landslide from the BBC, 05 January 2004.

Belarus Elections 2004

President Bush signed into law October 20 a bill that authorizes assistance for democratic opposition movements in Belarus and also applies economic sanctions against the Central European country.

"At a time when freedom is advancing around the world, Aleksandr Lukashenko and his government are turning Belarus into a regime of repression in the heart of Europe, its government isolated from its neighbors and its people isolated from each other," Bush said in a statement.

The Belarus Democracy Act of 2004, which was passed unanimously by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, provides assistance for Belarusian political parties, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and independent media while prohibiting U.S. government agencies from providing loans and investment to the Belarus government, except for humanitarian goods.

On October 17, the Belarusian people voted in both parliamentary elections in Belarus and in a referendum on allowing Lukashenko to run for president for a third term in 2006.

President Bush said that the referendum campaign and concurrent Parliamentary elections were conducted in a "climate of abuse and fear." He noted that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other observers "have determined that this victory was achieved by fraudulent means.

– Belarus Democracy Act Will Help Cause of Freedom, Bush Says from the US State Department, 21 October 2004.

Officials in the ex-Soviet republic have accused foreign countries of backing opposition candidates.

– Landslide win for Belarus leader from the BBC, 20 March 2006.

Ukraine Presidential Election October-November 2004 (The "Orange" revolution)

(The "wrong" candidate – Yanukovych – won.)

International election monitors say they believe Ukraine's presidential poll was not fully free and fair. The Central Election Commission "displayed a lack of will to conduct a genuine democratic election" is how the main body co-ordinating international monitors put it on the day after the poll.

– Monitors criticise conduct of Ukraine poll from the BBC, 24 November 2004.

Ukraine Presidential Election rerun December 2004

(The "right" candidate – Yushchenko – won.)

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has won the re-run of Ukraine's troubled presidential election by a clear margin, election officials say. With more than 98% of votes counted, the pro-Western leader is eight points ahead of Prime Minister Viktor following Sunday's vote. International observers from the OSCE monitoring watchdog said the re-run was much fairer than the earlier rounds. The original vote, won by Mr Yanukovych last month, was annulled due to fraud.

– Yushchenko wins Ukraine election from the BBC, 27 December 2004.

Afghanistan Presidential Election 2004

So far, there is just one significant Afghan observation effort – the newly formed Free and Fair Elections Foundation for Afghanistan (FEFA) – backed by the American-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), and funded by the US government's development agency USAID.
A FEFA member who did not want to be named told IRIN that they were training 1,500 Afghan observers, a number that would only be sufficient to observe just 12 percent of polling stations.
"They will only be in towns and cities, not in the rural areas where most people live," the FEFA member said.

– Afghanistan Elections Face Credibility Problem extracted from an article by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 17 September 2004.

International observers have endorsed Afghanistan's first presidential election, rejecting opposition calls for a new poll amid reports of fraud. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said demands by 15 of the 18 presidential candidates to annul the poll were "unjustified". The local Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) said the poll was "fairly democratic".

– Observers approve Afghan election from the BBC, 10 October 2004.

Iraq Elections January 2005

Iraq's escalating violence has forced the International Mission for Iraqi Elections to headquarter its operation outside Iraq – in neighboring Jordan – a fact the group is not keen to publicize because of fears it could be targeted there, too.

– No Foreign Observers to Monitor Iraq Vote by Robin Wright, 22 January 2005.

The leader of a team of international election experts watching the Iraqi poll said the elections generally met international norms, but some unspecified legal areas need improvement. “Certainly, as a starting point where one considers from where the Iraqi people are coming … this is very good, this is a very good process,” Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada’s top election official and the chief of the U.N.-backed International Mission for Iraqi Elections, said Sunday.

– Iraq vote said to meet international norms from AP, 31 January 2005.

Iraq Elections December 2005

A coalition of more than 60 political parties threatened Thursday to boycott Iraq's next parliament and warned of a surge in violence if new nationwide elections were not held. The group, led by top Sunni Arab parties and the secular coalition led by former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, issued a statement denouncing last Thursday's elections as fraudulent and listing demands they said must be met before they would participate in the new legislature.

– Iraqi Political Parties Threaten a Boycott by Omar Fekeiki and Jonathan Finer, 23 December 2005.

International monitors say there were irregularities in last month's general election in Iraq though they do not question the final result.

– Monitors report Iraq vote fraud from the BBC, 19 January 2006.

Haiti General Election 2006

The deeply-impoverished country of Haiti is in the midst of a major human rights crisis, following the coup d’état sponsored by Canada, the US, and France on February 29, 2004.

At the time of the coup, Canadians were told that Haiti’s former President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, had resigned from the elected government he led. This was not true. Aristide was coerced by US marines to leave the country, was forced onto a plane, not told where he was going, and dumped into the French-controlled dictatorship of the Central African Republic. At the request of the US and France, the UN Security Council quickly sanctioned the illegal coup and launched a “peacekeeping” mission that quickly evolved into a military occupation force.

Canadians were also told that Canada would be working with the “international community” – a euphemism for the US and France, Haiti’s former colonizers – to deliver aid to Haiti and help rebuild it. This was also not true. Instead, Canada and the other two coup-backers have overseen the establishment of an unelected government that is facilitating a brutal military occupation that features untold thousands killed, more than a thousand political prisoners including “prisoner of conscience” and potential presidential candidate Father Gérard Jean-Juste, police executions and shootings of unarmed demonstrators, UN military assaults on poor neighbourhoods, journalists murdered and arrested for investigating police abuses, and the poor majority being disenfranchised in a sham, Canadian-backed election process. Meanwhile, the cost of living has skyrocketed, and the turmoil has left the population far worse off than they were before the coup.

We reject the deployment of Canada's own Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley to lead the "monitoring mission" appointed to bless this sham election in the same way that sham occupation elections were blessed by Kingsley in Iraq earlier this year. Jean-Pierre Kingsley is in a clear conflict of interest, given his position on the Board of Directors of IFES, a US-funded NGO with direct links to the International Republican Institute and other groups that worked to undermine Haiti's democracy and foment the coup.

– Canada's Role in Haiti's Human Rights Crisis from the Halifax Peace Coalition, 15 October 2005.

International monitors have praised the running of Haiti's general election, as vote-counting gets under way.

– Monitors praise Haiti election from the BBC, 08 February 2006.

Other Countries

Slovakia 2002

Vladimir Meciar is not a true believer in globalization. He had been a marked man in Washington since 1994 when he became prime minister as the head of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (MDS), the main party in a coalition that won the election on a strong anti-capitalist platform. …

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, arrived in Bratislavia, the Slovak Capital, and issued his own warning, reminding Slovakians that the United States had blocked Slovakia's entry into NATO in 1997 because of Meciar and could do it again. Washington still viewed Mr. Meciar as an authoritarian anti-West leader, he said. "The former government, we believe, did not demonstrate a commitment to democracy and the rule of law." …

The National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of NED's four principal arms, admitted that it excluded Meciar's MDS from those political parties receiving aid. …

Although Meciar's party won the most votes, no other political party would form a coalition with them." One does not have to be terribly cynical to surmise that fear of antagonizing Washington lay behind this.

– Interventions by William Blum, 2005.

El Salvador 2004

The March 21 election for the presidency had on one side Schafik Handal, candidate of the FMLN, the leftist former guerrilla group, which the previous year had won the largest bloc in Congress with 31 of the 84 seats and held nearly half the offices of mayor in the country. His opponent was Tony Saca of the incumbent Arena Party, a pro-US, pro-free market organization of the extreme right, which in the bloody civil war days had featured death squads and the infamous assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. …

During a February visit to the country, Roger Noriega, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, met all the presidential candidates except Handal. He warned of possible repercussions in US-Salvadoran relations if Handal were elected. Three Republican congressmen threatened to block the renewal of annual work visas for some 300,000 Salvadorans in the United States if El Salvador opted for the FMLN. And Congressman Thomas Tancredo of Colorado stated that if the FMLN won, "it could mean a radical change" in US policy on remittances to El Salvador. …

Arena won the election with about 57 percent of the vote to some 36 percent for the FMLN.

– Interventions by William Blum, 2005.

Kyrgyzstan Elections 2007

The OSCE was also critical of the role of the media in the election, particularly the state broadcaster, saying it "did not provide adequate and balanced information for voters."

– Kyrgyz leader's poll win criticised from the BBC, 17 November 2007.

Others

• Kyrgyzstan, 2005. The "Tulip" revolution.
• Azerbaijan, 2005.

The Players

• Freedom House is an organization with a fine-sounding name and a long history since it was created in the late 1940's to back the creation of NATO. The chairman of Freedom House is James Woolsey, former CIA director who calls the present series of regime changes from Baghdad to Kabul, ‘World War IV.’ Other trustees include the ubiquitous Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Clinton Commerce Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake. Freedom House lists USAID, US Information Agency, Soros Foundations and the National Endowment for Democracy, among its financial backers. It is a notorious CIA front.
• Global Strategy Group works for the U.S. Democratic National Committee and boasts of having run Al Gore's campaign in 2000. It conducted the "exit polls" in Georgia.
• International Crisis Group (ICG) is "an independent non-governmental organisation" [own website] funded mainly by western governments, foundations and companies such as Chevron and J.P. Morgan. Most board members have been high-ranking government officials. George Soros is also a board member. “Based on information and assessments from the field, Crisis Group produces regular analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers.” [own website]
• International Foundation of Election Systems (IFES) – “IFES currently operates in new and developing democracies in over 20 countries. Our staff is truly global, with 150 professionals from 25 countries leading technical assistance projects for international and bilateral donor organizations such as USAID, the UN, DFID, the OSCE and others.” [own web site]. Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada is a board member. IFES receives funding from Exxon-Mobil, Citibank and Motorola.
• The International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE). “Comprised mainly of independent electoral management bodies, the IMIE is focusing on the election process in Iraq, as well as the registration and voting process outside Iraq.” [own web site]. The chairman of the Steering Committee is Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada.
• The International Republican Institute (IRI), which was initially known as the National Republican Institute for International Affairs, receives government funding for international democratization programs, principally from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Founded in 1983, it is “dedicated to advancing democracy, freedom, self-government, and the rule of law worldwide.” Among the corporations represented on the IRI’s board are Lockheed Martin, Chevron Texaco, AOL Time Warner, and Ford. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is IRI’s chair.
• National Democratic Institute (NDI) chaired by Madeleine Albright is widely considered a CIA front organisation. Funding is provided by the Federal Government and the Democracy Century Fund.
• National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a non-profit organization which claims to help train people in democracy and manages money grants to that effect, which was founded in 1983. Although administered by a private organization, its funding comes almost entirely from a governmental appropriation by the United States Congress. Widely considered to be a CIA front organisation. From NED, approximately 70 percent of available grant money goes to four "core" grantees: the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, the Free Trade Union Institute of the AFL-CIO (FTUI), and the Center for International Private Enterprise of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has 55 member states. These are drawn mainly from Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The United States and Canada are members of the OSCE. In Kosovo the OSCE worked with the CIA to support the KLA guerillas. (See OSCE in Kosovo below.)
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “works to support long-term and equitable economic growth and advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives.” (own website). Widely considered to be a CIA front organisation.
• World Movement for Democracy (WMD). “The Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) initiated this nongovernmental effort with a global Assembly in New Delhi, India, in February 1999 to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition.” [own website].

Wikipedia

Right Web

OSCE in Kosovo

American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before Nato’s bombing of Yugoslavia. The disclosure angered some European diplomats, who said this had undermined moves for a political solution to the conflict between Serbs and Albanians.

Central Intelligence Agency officers were ceasefire monitors in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLA and giving American military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police.

When the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which co-ordinated the monitoring, left Kosovo a week before airstrikes began a year ago, many of its satellite telephones and global positioning systems were secretly handed to the KLA, ensuring that guerrilla commanders could stay in touch with Nato and Washington. Several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the Nato commander.

European diplomats then working for the OSCE claim it was betrayed by an American policy that made airstrikes inevitable. Some have questioned the motives and loyalties of William Walker, the American OSCE head of mission.

“The American agenda consisted of their diplomatic observers, aka the CIA, operating on completely different terms to the rest of Europe and the OSCE,” said a European envoy.

  CIA aided Kosovo guerrilla army by Tom Walker and Aidan Laverty, 12 March 2000. (Sunday Times)