By Mariam Jooma Çarikci
Learning in my late teens that the 1980s TV character MacGyver was actually a CIA spy was a defining “loss of innocence” moment. My childhood hero, the unflappable problem-solver who defused bombs with gum wrappers, was a covert operative for the Phoenix Foundation, a government-contracted think tank. This revelation mirrored real-life ties between U.S. intelligence and so-called “civil society” fronts for foreign policy—a narrative far darker than the adventure series I’d imagined. Unlike MacGyver’s fictional rivalries, this worldview subtly reinforced U.S. hegemony, cloaking neoliberal capitalism and militarism in a human rights discourse that undermines indigenous democracies. Any resistance to this system often encounters financial or military suppression.
The U.S’s critical support of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, while lecturing the world on human rights, is a recent example of this cognitive dissonance. When the global decolonial movement gained momentum in the 1960s, the U.S. systematically targeted people-centered revolutions. One of the most notorious cases was the U.S.-Belgian-led assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, whose death destabilized the resource-rich country for generations.
During apartheid, the U.S. collaborated closely with South Africa’s National Party to counter Soviet influence, effectively sacrificing the rights of indigenous South Africans to maintain Western dominance. This stance was clear when Nelson Mandela remained on the U.S. terrorist list until after his presidency. For the U.S., maintaining a Western-aligned stronghold in Southern Africa took precedence over supporting Black South Africans’ human rights—like Israel’s current role as a Western outpost in the Middle East.
The National Endowment for Democracy: the CIA’s civilian outfit
Considering this history, it is disappointing that, thirty years after South Africa’s democratic transition, prominent South African NGOs are acting as host partners of the 2024 Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy. These NGOs include the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Defend Our Democracy, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, the Human Rights Institute of South Africa, In Transformation Initiative, and the Ronnie Mamoepa Foundation, partnering with the Assembly’s secretariat, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The NED is widely considered a civilian front for the CIA. According to its website, the NED will host the World Movement for Democracy’s 12th Global Assembly in Johannesburg from November 20-24, 2024, marking 30 years of South Africa’s democracy and drawing over 500 civil society leaders.
Formed in 1983 during the Reagan administration, the NED is a bipartisan “think tank” composed of four institutes created to promote “democracy abroad” after controversial CIA regime change operations in Africa and Latin America in the 1960s and ’70s. The NED has undermined legitimate governments and nurtured pro-U.S. puppet groups worldwide, all under the guise of promoting democracy. Carl Gershman, NED President until 2021, stated, “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA,” adding, “We saw that in the 60’s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.” Co-founder Allen Weinstein explained, “A lot of what we [the NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
In the 2023 fiscal year, the NED received $315 million in congressional funding. The NED Act grants U.S. officials access to all records related to its funded programs, highlighting the direct oversight the U.S. government maintains over its foreign activities. Former CIA officer turned whistleblower Philip Agee noted that NED, as a “sidekick” to the CIA, openly manipulates political processes by funding “democracy activists” to align local agendas with U.S. foreign policy.
One example is the Iranian anti-hijab protests in September 2022, led by Masih Alinejad, who received $628,000 from U.S.-backed groups, including the NED. This, even though the hijab issue in Iran has been put to a constitutional referendum and vote in multiple electoral cycles, with Iranian women consistently supporting the law. Since the Arab Spring, the NED has infiltrated Arab countries by funding NGOs, promoting “democratic” agendas, and using social media to trigger color revolutions. It sponsors activists, assists “dissidents” in exile, and encourages local trade unions, often under the pretense of supporting constitutional reforms.
In Ukraine, NED’s involvement was notable during the 2004 Orange Revolution, where it provided $65 million to opposition groups. Since then, it has invested in Ukraine’s civil society networks, including efforts to sway media narratives during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests. The NED positions itself as a force for democracy but primarily acts as an extension of U.S. foreign policy, shaping media and gathering intelligence on anti-imperial movements in the Global South.
The NED and media influence
South African media has not been immune to its influence, especially during the apartheid era. The Citizen newspaper is an example of a media outlet directly supported by the NED. Investigative journalist Roscoe Palm has documented U.S. infiltration of South African media, explaining that, “While the NED was financing its media campaign in South Africa, it was also funding the mujahideen in Afghanistan, pro-contra organizations in Nicaragua, anti-Soviet trade unions in Eastern Europe, and anti-government groups in Grenada.” Between 2020 and 2021, the NED granted $355,200 to the Mail & Guardian’s non-profit arm, the Adamela Trust, to launch The Continent, a pan-African publication. The NED prescribed specific topics to be covered, raising concerns about editorial independence. This selective support of media narratives reflects the NED’s broader strategy to shape public opinion in line with U.S. interests, often narrowing the range of acceptable debate to favor anti-China, anti-Russia, and Islamophobic perspectives.
The NED partners with groups that share its agenda of capitalist expansion and the subjugation of non-compliant states. NGOs such as George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and Pierre Omidyar’s Luminate operate under the guise of humanitarianism but selectively apply human rights rhetoric to suit their interests. Meanwhile, as the U.S.-supported genocide in Gaza continues against Palestinians and the democratically elected Hamas party, Cuba is also facing humanitarian devastation under U.S. sanctions. Pro-Palestine protests have been violently suppressed across universities and cities in the U.S., yet the NED believes it can export democratic values to South Africa.
It is no coincidence that South Africa was chosen as the venue for the Assembly just months before the 2023 elections. South Africa’s unwavering foreign policy stance on Palestine and its case against Israel for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) challenges U.S.-backed Zionist plans for the region.
U.S. foreign policy harms not only the Middle East but also neighboring Cuba. For over six decades, the U.S. has enforced an illegal blockade, barring Cuba from international banking and sanctioning entities that trade with it. Recently, 187 countries voted at the United Nations to end this embargo, with only the U.S. and Israel opposing—a vote passed 32 times with overwhelming support to lift the sanctions. Yet, under U.S. “democracy,” Cuba remains subject to severe economic restrictions, leading to life-threatening impacts like nationwide blackouts due to critical shortages of fuel and electricity.
As South African NGOs prepare to join the NED-sponsored assembly, they must consider the ethical implications of this partnership. While funding may be welcome, grassroots democracy could be undermined. Amid live-streamed genocide openly supported by the U.S., partnering organizations need to reflect on the morality of joining what is essentially a counter-revolution that could set back South African agency for decades.
MacGyver may have been fictional, but U.S. imperialism is not, and to its proponents, anyone who challenges their dominance is akin to a “Murdoch”—an enemy of the state. Israeli writer Alon Mizrahi captures the need for moral clarity, urging people to disengage from institutions complicit in oppression. “Do not be dragged into their deliberate support of evil,” he says. “Engaging with them only erodes your integrity and sanity.”
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Defend our Democracy, and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundations have all confirmed their participation in the event.
Mariam Jooma Çarikci is an author and researcher at the Media Review Network (MRN). She focuses on issues concerning the media, Türkiye and the Horn of Africa.
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