BAE is allowed to put a “branded give-away” in the evening’s “guest goodie bag.”  The guests may include President Obama and the First Lady, the event’s “Honorary Chairs.”   Obama and Hamilton are good friends.  Hamilton even held a private dinner at the WWC with the president-elect and their staffs several days before the inauguration.

It may be unwise for the President to chair an event in which BAE is the main sponsor.

Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge slapped BAE with a $400 million criminal fine for its “deception, duplicity and knowing violations of law … on an enormous scale.”

Around the same time, BAE agreed to pay a fine of 30 million BP (about $50 million) to the U.K.

What had the genocide-denying BAE done wrong?  Among other things, BAE had bribed Saudi officials, reportedly using slush funds, to buy jet fighters.  The BBC says that the bribes were in the hundreds of millions of dollars.   There were numerous other allegations of dishonest or unlawful practices by BAE in deals with Romania, South Africa, and Tanzania.

To avoid scrutiny, BAE had made illicit payments through intermediaries and front companies.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said that BAE had “conspired to defraud the U.S. by impairing and impeding its lawful functions, [making] false statements … [and violating] the Arms Export Control Act.”

The DOJ also charged BAE with making “false applications for export licenses” for sensitive U.S. technology in Gripen fighter jets that the company leased to the Czech Republic and Hungary.

We should note that the DOJ says that the American division of BAE was not involved in the criminal conduct to which BAE pled guilty.

One suspects, however, that the decision not to prosecute the BAE’s U.S. division may have been partly a political one.  It is telling that Britain’s own investigation into BAE had been “unlawfully” halted for political reasons, until the British High Court of Justice ruled that the investigation must continue.

We also know that two years ago the DOJ issued “subpoenas in the U.S. to employees of BAE Systems plc and [its American division] BAE Systems Inc.”

Using U.S. banking records, Chilean authorities charged that BAE had secretly funneled more than $1 million to ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet through offshore accounts.  The payments, apparently to bribe Pinochet into concluding arms deals with BAE, continued up through 2004, two years before Pinochet’s death.

More Gala Donors

Boeing and Chevron have also paid $50,000 each to be “National Sponsors” of the WWC Gala.  Both companies have lobbied, obviously at Turkey’s urging, against the Armenian genocide resolution.  Executives of both companies have also received WWC’s “Corporate Citizenship Award.”  Coincidentally, Chevron recently acquired a lease to explore for oil in Turkish waters.  It obviously pays to play ball with Turkey.

WWC Trustee Ignacio Sanchez, among others, gave $15,000 to be a Gala “Benefactor.”   Sanchez just happens to work for DLA Piper, a lobbying firm that is registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent for Turkey.  He “represents national and international clients on a broad range of issues … before Congress.”  DLA Piper’s contract states specifically that “services shall include … preventing the introduction, debate and passage of legislation and other U.S. government action that harms Turkey’s interests and image.”

The earlier exposé noted that the WWC has accepted cash contributions from several other corporations that have individually, or as part of an organization, opposed the Armenian resolution.   For example, Alcoa, Bechtel, Bombardier, Coca Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Honeywell, and Lockheed-Martin are members of the American Turkish Council or the Aerospace Industries Association, both of which have lobbied against the genocide resolution.

Given WWC’s corporate love affair with Turkey, it’s no wonder that in June the WWC traveled to Istanbul to give awards to Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu (detailed in the first exposé) and a multi-billionaire Turkish businessman.  The latter’s Dogus Holding conglomerate is, not surprisingly, a member of WWC’s WilsonAlliances.

The award to Davutoglu was especially undeserved because it is well-known that he and Turkey have gratuitously complicated U.S.,  European, and U.N. policy in the region.

The WWC’s explanation for the two Turkish awards?  “In 2009, the Center identified Istanbul as an international city where a fundraising event of this kind would be viable.”  Translation: ‘Show me the money.’

Stinging Rebukes

Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points — for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920 — sought “autonomous development” for all peoples under the Ottoman Turkish yoke, especially the Armenians, for whom he had a particular empathy.

After WWI, the Paris Peace Conference tapped Wilson to arbitrate the borders of Armenia on former Ottoman territory.  Wilson’s decision became part of the Treaty of Sevres (1920).  Despite its contemporary relevance to Turkey and Armenian-Turkish relations, this body of knowledge has been all but ignored — no doubt for political and monetary reasons — by the WWC and its Wilson Quarterly journal.   By virtually ignoring these vital aspects of Wilson’s “ideals, concerns, and accomplishments,” the WWC has violated The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act.

That background suffices to better appreciate some of these recent condemnations of the WWC and Lee Hamilton:

  • In two articles (“Pawn for the Wrong President,” and “Presidential Legacy for Sale”), Wilson family descendant and human rights advocate Donald Wilson Bush blasted the WWC.

The Center, said Bush, was “specifically chartered to preserve [Wilson’s legacy] through their selection of programs, projects, scholars, and award recipients.” That legacy included Wilson’s “Arbitral Award on the Turkish – Armenian Boundary.”

“What could possibly cause Lee Hamilton and his staff to kow-tow to White House pressure in this instance of Turkish diplomatic appeasement even at the cost of dishonoring Woodrow Wilson’s personal wishes and thereby violating the WCC’s very own mission and purpose?”  Hamilton has “brought shame to the halls of one of our nation’s most cherished and taxpayer supported institutions by violating its charter in favor of personal and self-serving ambitions” and “should consider leaving his post.”

President Wilson would have objected to “money raising schemes specifically designed to bring home the spoils of economic gain at the expense of higher ideals.”

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