The Wilson Center flouts Congress
The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act of 1968 was crystal clear: The WWC must commemorate Wilson’s “ideals and concerns” and memorialize “his accomplishments.” Yet it has ignored large swaths of the Wilson administration’s record on the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), Turkey, and the Middle East.
The WWC isn’t just thumbing its nose at Congress and taxpayers. It has closed its eyes to a wealth of political knowledge about a region in which the U.S. has enormous interests. The Caucasus, for example, is a major locus for producing and transporting oil and gas. It’s also ground-zero in the new Cold War between the U.S. and Russia, particularly since the Russian-Georgian war of 2008.
Donald Wilson Bush, President of the Woodrow Wilson Legacy Foundation and a Wilson family descendant, has rightly accused the WWC of “violating [its] very own mission and purpose.”
Wilson’s Record
Wilson and the State Department’s record on the region from the WW 1 era is extensive. Though the U.S. did not formally declare war against Turkey in WW1, Turkey was the main ally of Germany, America’s enemy. Wilson condemned, in the strongest terms, Turkey’s genocide of Armenians and was a fervent advocate of Armenian independence. By the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres – a product of the Paris Peace Conference in 1920 – the U.S. formally delineated the borders of that part of Armenia and Kurdistan that now lies within Turkey’s eastern regions. Turkey later reneged on the Treaty.
Yet, despite the clear stipulation of Congress, Wilson’s record has been almost totally ignored by the WWC. Indeed, three years ago, historian and legal scholar Ara Papian, a Canadian resident and former Armenian Ambassador to Canada, applied for a WWC Fellowship to do ground-breaking research on the U.S. archival record regarding Turkey and the Caucasus – a proposal the WWC should have jumped at. Papian was rejected without explanation. Ironically, several months ago Lee Hamilton told the American Historical Association that U.S. foreign policy officials need the views of “historians.” Yet as WWC president, he all but ignored the history of Wilson’s Caucasus policies.
Tainted corporate cash
The WWC has been corrupted by its gluttony for corporate cash. Case in point: it acknowledged that money was the main reason it journeyed to Turkey in 2010 to honor a Turkish billionaire whose Dogus Holding conglomerate is a WWC donor, and to give a much-criticized award to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Cong. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Chair of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, blasted Lee Hamilton for honoring Davutoglu. Ackerman cited Turkey’s military occupation of Cyprus, closure of the border with Armenia, and denial of the Armenian genocide. Honoring Davutoglu was “absolutely inconsistent with the mission of the WWC and the ideals that animated President Wilson’s administration and foreign policy.”
The Wilson Center, added Donald Wilson Bush, had engaged in “Turkish diplomatic appeasement.” It had “sacrificed its legitimacy as a ‘neutral forum for open, serious, and informed dialogue.’”
“Why,” asked Claudia Rosett, “should Congress keep fueling this morally blank, misleading and venal exercise [the WWC] with millions of American tax dollars?” Good question.
Part of why the WWC has all but ignored Wilson’s record on Turkey and the Caucasus is undoubtedly that many major donors (present and past members of its elite “Wilson Alliance”) have lobbied for, or been members of trade organizations that have lobbied for, Turkey and against the Armenian resolution. These include Alcoa, BAE Systems, Bechtel, Boeing, Bombardier, Chevron, Coca Cola, Exxon-Mobil and Honeywell.
In fact, Harman’s predecessor, Lee Hamilton, engaged in a clear conflict of interest during his tenure by sitting on the board of BAE Systems, a defense giant which does lots of business with Turkey. Last year a Federal judge slapped BAE’s parent corporation with a $400 million criminal fine for “deception, duplicity and knowing violations of law … on an enormous scale.“ Too bad the judge didn’t also look into the Wilson Center.
Hamilton also sat on the board of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a “global strategy firm” headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Hamilton’s WWC bio, incredibly, was dead silent about his corporate affiliations. This same Lee Hamilton co-chaired the official National Commission on the 9/11 attacks, whose report has been widely criticized as incomplete and biased. Hamilton and Harman, you see, can be counted on not to rock the corporate establishment’s boat.
The WWC is rife with other questionable characters, including those with deep ties to Turkey, such as former board member and present Wilson Council member Ignacio Sanchez, a lobbyist employed by DLA Piper, which is a registered foreign agent for Turkey. And former “Wilson Public Policy Scholar” Marc Grossman, ex-US ambassador to Turkey and DLA Piper bigwig. “Coincidentally,” Sanchez and Grossman were both on the WWC Search Committee that hired Harman.
Made for each other
If ever there was a marriage made in hell, therefore, Jane Harman and the Wilson Center are it:
- The WWC receives millions in “donations” from the military-industrial complex, which influences the Center’s agenda and policies. Similarly, Harman – a former Defense Department lawyer – has received large campaign contributions from defense and aerospace firms’ Political Action Committees and employees, including those in El Segundo, a key military–industrial center located in her former Congressional district.
“Coincidentally,” major Wilson Center donors BAE Systems (Lee Hamilton’s comrade-in-arms), Boeing, and Chevron have offices in El Segundo. Indeed, BAE, Boeing, and Chevron were her “constituents” (and American Turkish Council members) not only when she was in Congress. Those corporations – another “coincidence” – are her “constituents” again, at the WWC. Might the WWC have hired Harman for her expertise in raking in military-industrial “donations”?
- The WWC has ingratiated itself with Turkey. It has given awards to its Foreign Minister and a major Turkish corporate donor, and virtually ignored Wilson’s policies regarding Turkey and the Caucasus. Harman, too, has ingratiated herself with Turkey. She reversed her stance on the Congress’s Armenian genocide resolution (and gave absurd reasons for doing so).
- And just as the Wilson Center has gotten away (so far, anyway) with violating its Congressional mandate, Jane Harman has escaped prosecution (so far, anyway) for her dealings with a “foreign agent” in the AIPAC espionage scandal.
No, there’s no prospect that Harman will lead the WWC to adhere to the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act of 1968, fulfill its pledge to be a “neutral forum for open, serious, and informed dialogue,” and release the grip that mega-corporations have on it.
If Congress of its own volition will not bring the Wilson Center to its senses, then Congress must be pushed by the American people to do so. Other possibilities are investigations and legal action by third parties.
Just don’t count on Jane Harman’s cooperation.
Applause for the exposure of the disgusting Ms Harman, but the writer should research Woodrow Wilson a little deeper. WW was an unreconstructed Southern racist, as well as a phony “pacifist”. His idea for a “league of nations” was conceived as a way to facilitate colonialism, which it did very well, especially in the ME.
The author is perhaps unaware that the Young Turks
leadership was predominantly from a crypto-Jewish
sect, the Donmeh; This leadership was the instigator
of the Christian Armenian genocide.
The Donmeh have continued to be in control of
the Turkish military and thus of Turkey, and still
and remain so.
Perhaps that is why an Israeli leader on a visit to Turkey
made a big deal of placing a wreath or somesuch
at the grave monument of Ata Turk [the Young Turk
Donmeh Zionist who is associated with the creation
of the modern secular Turkey. Did he envision a secular Israel?]
The history of the Armenian genocide was documented by the most excellent researcher and historian, Christopher Jon Bjerknes, in his book:
The Jewish Genocide of Armenian Christians
The book is available as a free ebook download
at his website: jewishracism.com
On google video there is a series of interviews of him discussing the book.
The fuss about suppressing the genocide of the Armenians is perhaps based in the desire to keep the Judaic role in that genocide under wraps.
Like the Judaic role in the USSR, I reckon; or in
the Black African slave trade. Sooo many secrets to keep!!!
Harman is just another crook from the Democrat Party! No big deal. They are all like this. Charlie Rangel, Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi are all crooks and witches in different clothing!