National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

A quasi-governmental US organisation which aims to influence political processes in other countries. This is largely through intervening in media, fostering business groups, lending support and finances to preferred politicians/political parties, election monitoring, and fostering human rights groups. Alan Weinstein, one of the founders of the NED, explained in 1991 ‘A lot of what we do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA’