Formed 1997 Website Perry Center | Agency executive Mark Wilkins, Director | |
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Motto Mens et fidis mutua(Mutual understanding and confidence) Parent agency | ||
William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies is a U.S. Department of Defense institution for defense and security studies in the Western Hemisphere. Through courses, seminars, outreach, strategic dialogue, and focused research in support of policy objectives, the Perry Center works with senior civilian and military officials from the Americas to build strong, sustainable networks of security and defense leaders and institutions. In so doing, the Perry Center is supposed to promote greater understanding of U.S. policy, mutually supportive approaches to security challenges, and improved, sustainable institutional capacity. The Perry Center's programs align with, but according to national security whistleblower disclosures, are not always consistent with, the Office of the Secretary Defense's publicly-presented global initiative of Security and Defense Institution Building (SDIB).
Contents
- History and background
- Resident courses
- Regional seminars
- Hemispheric Forums
- Alumni
- Human rights controversies
- William J Perry Award
- Other DSCA regional centers
- References
In February 2017, the controversial role played by the Perry Center in Latin America was underscored after the Miami Herald published an article on former CHDS Dean Craig Deare, who had been appointed by General Michael Flynn to be the Western Hemisphere chief for the National Security Council. Citing Deare's former William Perry colleagues, the story noted that Deare, in addition to security concerns and lax personal conduct, had "a checkered record of support for and involvement with some of the Western Hemisphere’s most notorious human rights abusers." It pointed out that he was also "a central figure" in former Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin’s request for a Department of Defense inspector general’s investigation that included questions about what role the U.S. Southern Command’s William Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies may have played in the 2009 military coup in Honduras. It added that the probe of CHDS included the question of whether the Center "still bore vestiges of the old School of the Americas, the U.S. program that trained Latin America military officers, many of whom then went on to be brutal dictators in their home countries." A day after its publication in the Herald, Deare offered a controversial analysis of Trump Administration policies and the role of key First Family figures during a supposedly "off-the-record" talk before a score of Beltway "insider" invitees at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Following media coverage of Deare's reported criticism of the Trump policies, allegedly 'awkward' comments about Ivanka Trump's good looks, and the Miami Herald article, Deare was unceremoniously shown the door at the NSC the day after his appearance at the Wilson Center.
While the Defense Security Cooperation Agency is the Perry Center's executive agent, the Perry Center also supports other Department of Defense components, such as United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). In 2013, the Perry Center was the only federal office to receive an Alfred P. Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility. In 2016, the Perry Center was again honored with the Award for Workplace Flexibility. However, in 2015 the Center for Public Integrity, in an article focusing on alleged gross violations of human rights by senior Center staff that was cited in the Miami Herald article about Deare, quoted an internal Southern Command document that reported that CHDS "staff had exchanged 'racially charged emails' — including one directed at President Barack Obama; used offensive language such as 'faggot,' 'buttboy' and 'homo'; and that 'women employees feel that they are treated inappropriately.' Even senior leaders used 'inappropriate hand gestures,' it said, and mentioned simulations of masturbation.”
Three years earlier, there had been national security whistleblower disclosures of corruption, alleged human rights violations and other gross malfeasance by other senior staff working under the then Director, Col. (ret.) Richard D. Downie (who earlier was the first Commandant of the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC). Col. Downie then requested an officer from another Regional Center to "informally" - not outside of the chain of command headed by that same Director - investigate the disclosures. This was done using an Army 15-6 rule in a civilian DoD training institution, choosing someone who belonged to a "sister" institution rather than an independent Office of Inspector General to head the probe.
In March, 2012, Saul Bracero, the investigating officer privately provided his "findings" on allegations of gross misconduct to the very same Center Director who had commissioned him: "After extensive review into these allegation[s], I find that the Center’s leadership has not violated any laws or Department of Defense regulations, has not acted unethically towards its employees, and has maintained good order and conduct expected in an organization of the Department of Defense."
However, the copy of the report obtained by the Center in a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request suggested that the full story was not in fact told, as it reflected a state of fear shared by Center staff members reluctant to come forward. "Many employees did want to remain anonymous for fear of retribution" by senior staff, it said. The report specifically cited what the accused wrongdoers had already done to two national security whistleblowers. On March 10, 2014, Congressional Liaison office has transmitted your classified Congressional Disclosure #1703 to both the House Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence via a classified network, protecting the lawful disclosure of classified information.
On March 10, 2017, Daniel P. Meyer [1], executive director for Intelligence Community Whistleblowing & Source Protection (ICW&SP), Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC IG), announced that classified Congressional Disclosure #1703 relating to the CHDS scandal had been sent "to both the House Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence via a classified network, protecting the lawful disclosure of classified information." Four days later, Department of Defense Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote an email to a senior member of Congress announcing that "Given the seriousness and scope of [the] allegations, OIG staff is conducting a careful analysis of each allegation. While this has taken longer than we would have preferred, we want to ensure that appropriate consideration is given."
History and background
The William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (WJPC) was created on September 3, 1997 by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, who had proposed creating a regional center tailored to the unique requirements of the Western Hemisphere where many countries could strengthen civilian defense and security leadership in revitalized democracies. The Perry Center traces its roots back to the first two Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA), where Secretary Perry convened defense ministers from around the hemisphere to discuss shared defense and security issues.
The Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) opened its doors on September 17, 1997, followed by a two-day Hemispheric Conference on Education and Defense. The Center conducted its first resident course, the Defense Planning and Resource Management Course, in March 1998. The Center also conducted the first of many in-region seminars that year.
On April 2, 2013, the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies was renamed the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in honor of the Center's founder, the 19th Secretary of Defense, Dr. William J. Perry.
The Perry Center is co-located at, and maintains an academic relationship with National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC.
Resident courses
Resident courses form the core of the Perry Center academic program. Conducted in Spanish or English, foundational and specialized courses are designed to meet the evolving needs of sophisticated professionals from the defense and security sectors across the hemisphere. Resident phases are one or two weeks in length and are preceded by a distance learning phase.
Regional seminars
Regional seminars are held in conjunction with regional partners and are tailored to the specific objectives identified by the Perry Center, the partner institution, and the U.S. embassy team. Regional seminars serve to enhance sustainable institutional capacity, emphasizing support to national and regional policy-makers and leaders.
Hemispheric Forums
The Hemispheric Forum is a vehicle that takes advantage of the abundance of subject-matter experts and the community of interest in Western Hemisphere affairs. The format of each program is a panel discussion centered on a timely and important topic, with expert panelists representing government, think tanks, and academia. These events are open to the public and are streamed online with simultaneous Spanish interpretation.
Hemispheric Forum topics have included:
Alumni
Key to the Perry Center's mission is relationship-building, as it strives to maintain strong relationships with alumni. Maintaining relationships with alumni helps the Center's professors stay abreast of security and defense developments in countries throughout the region, and also provides opportunities for collaboration and increased regional exposure for the Perry Center. All of the following countries have sent participants to resident events at the Center: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Great Britain, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Spain, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, the United States Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Notable alumni
Human rights controversies
In 2015, various media organizations published allegations that the Center, previously headed by a former WHINSEC Commandant, had on its faculty a WJPC professor who once belonged to the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional of military dictator Augusto Pinochet before he became a senior official in that regime. In response to media inquiries, a former CHDS Director suggested that the professor might have "previously worked with the CIA." The case brought immediate fire from Capitol Hill as well as human rights activists. “The Department of Defense should know better than to invite in and continue to employ a foreign military officer for a position of authority at a prestigious U.S. institution even after he was credibly implicated in serious crimes,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in response to the reports. “We criticize other countries for failing to hold accountable officers who violate the law. Yet, in this case, we reward him in our own country? It sends a terrible message.” The Department of Defense claims that at the time of his hiring no adverse information was known to hiring officials, ignoring the fact that substantial information about the case was provided to the Center's leadership as early as 2008.
The CHDS professor (a close friend Craig Deare, the former Center Dean appointed by the controversial General Flynn to the National Security Council before he was sacked by President Trump) was indicted in a Chilean civilian court in 2014 along with approximately 25 others from the regiment to which he had been assigned, for questioning by a judge under the legal theory of collective responsibility for the alleged human rights abuses committed by members of his regiment. Press reports included the personal accusation against the CHDS professor by a torture victim. "He was the person who tortured us, with his face shown,” said Herman Carrasco, who added that he'd known the CHDS professor from social events before the coup. "He forced us into sexual acts, which shows that besides ferocious cruelty there was a level of psychopathic behavior."
The William Perry professor, who was subsequently released on bail pending resolution of the allegations about his involvement in the torture and death of eight detainees, was in October 2016 formally named by a civilian court for his alleged role in the torture and murder of a ninth unarmed detainee, a professor of mathematics. However, in February 2017, he was found to be not guilty in one of the nine cases, the others apparently still outstanding. Other allegations include the clandestine participation of Center officials in the 2009 Honduran coup, something that caused CIA ire when discovered, an issue that was included in the request by then Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Levin for an investigation by the Defense Department Office of the Inspector General.
William J. Perry Award
The William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education is named after the former U.S. Secretary of Defense who was responsible for the establishment of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Recipients are chosen for having substantially contributed in tangible ways to enhancing capacity in security and defense, building mutually beneficial relationships, and increasing democratic security in the Americas. Nominees may be educators, practitioners, or institutions of defense and security from throughout the Hemisphere, or from outside the region.
In 2013, then CHDS Director Downie, the first Commandant of WHINSEC, gave the award to that institution, the successor of the infamous School of the Americas. In July 2016, just days before the Democratic Party convention, a Platform Committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, issued a call for the closing of the Institute as one of its planks into the Democratic Party's policy platform. The amendment, which was agreed to by representatives of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, said: "Our support of democracies and civilian governments in the Western Hemisphere includes our belief that their military and police forces should never be involved in the political process, and therefore we will reinstate the 2000 Congressional mandate to close the School of the Americas now known as WHINSEC."
In 2016, the William Perry Center announced that the award would be given to U.S. Ambassador Luigi R. Einaudi "for his commitment to advancing cooperation and promoting defense and security education among the countries of the Americas." As a senior aide to the Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Einaudi was in the room in Santiago, Chile, in June 1976 when Kissinger gave Argentina's ruling military dictatorship a "green light" for their illegal repression during a so-called dirty "war" in which tens of thousands of people were secretly detained, tortured in more than 300 concentration camps, then murdered. "Einaudi, the current assistant secretary general of the Organization of American States, who took notes at the meeting... previously denied that Mr. Kissinger privately gave any 'green light' to political repression and torture in Latin America, as has Mr. Kissinger himself," Diana Jean Schemo reported in The New York Times. Although Einaudi repeatedly denied that Kissinger had given his approval at the Hotel Carreras, later declassified information showed that indeed Kissinger offered unquestioned support for the dirty warriors.
Other DSCA regional centers
The Perry Center is one of five regionally-focused security studies organizations. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency is the Executive Agent for all five organizations. The other four are: