Richard Downie

Dr. Richard D. Downie
Born	(1954-11-12) November 12, 1954 New York
Service/branch	United States Army; United States Department of Defense
Years of service	1976–2004; 2004–Present
Rank	Colonel; SES
Commands held	Director, Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (NDU)

Richard Downie was the controversial director of the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS), the educational institution of both the U.S. Northern and U.S. Southern Commands (SOUTHCOM), at the National Defense University in Washington, DC from March 2004-March, 2013. He is regarded as an expert in Latin American security affairs and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.^[1] During Downie's tenure at CHDS, the institution faced controversy over its continued employment of a former military officer from Chile, who was later indicted by a civilian court for his alleged participation in torture and murder and who was defended by Downie.^[2][3] In addition, The Intercept reported that Honduran plotters in the illegal 2009 military coup received "behind-the-scenes assistance" from CHDS officials working for Downie. The detailed August 2017 article noted that Cresencio Arcos, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras who was working at the Center at the time the coup occurred, received an angry call from a Congressional staffer who had met with the Honduran colonels who were meeting with Members of Congress in Washington. The colonels purportedly told the staffer they had the center's support. Arcos confronted Downie and Center Deputy Director Ken LaPlante, telling them, "We cannot have this sort of thing happening, where we're supporting coups." LaPlante was a former instructor at the notorious School of the Americas, shut down by Congress in 2000, and an ardent defender of that institution while at what is now called the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.^{[4][5] [6][7]}

Downie is now executive vice president for global strategies for OMNITRU Technologies as well as part of the distinguished faculty of defense and strategic studies at Missouri State University.^[8]

Background

Downie was born in Hempstead, New York but grew up in Riverside, California. He attended high school at the Webb Schools in Claremont, CA.

Education

Downie graduated from the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1976. He earned his Masters of Arts Degree and Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California. His research focused on organizational learning and counterinsurgency.^[9][10]

Downie's military education includes the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Course and the Defense Strategy Course. He was also an Army Fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Seminar XXI Program.^[11] Downie is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.^[12]

Downie holds a 1st degree Black Belt in the martial art of Hwa Rang Do.^[13]

Military and government service

During his service in the US Army, Downie held a series of both staff and command positions. He served as an Infantryman and later as a Latin American Foreign Area Officer. In 1985 Downie served as an exchange officer in Colombia, where he completed the Lancero (International Ranger) School as the distinguished graduate.^[14][15] Downie worked at the U.S. Army South and the United States Southern Command in Panama; coordinated Western Hemisphere affairs on the U.S. Joint Staff; served with the Multinational Specialized Unit in Bosnia; and was the Defense and Army Attaché in Mexico.^[16]

On January 17, 2001, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) opened its doors in Fort Benning, Georgia. Downie was the school's first Commandant in his final US Army command position.^[17] In 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed Downie as the Director of the Center For Hemispheric Defense, which "conducts educational activities for civilians and the military in the Western Hemisphere to foster trust, mutual understanding, regional cooperation and partner capacity."^[18]

During Downie's tenure at the CHDS, the alleged (and as yet unproven) role of a Chilean professor who worked in the 1970s for Captain General Augusto Pinochet's state terrorist organization, the National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA in the torture and murder of seven detainees was revealed inside the Center. His alleged role was first brought to Downie's attention in early 2008 by Center Assistant Professor Martin Edwin Andersen, a senior staff member who earlier, as a senior advisor for policy planning at the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, was the first national security whistleblower to receive the U.S. Office of Special Counsel's "Public Servant Award."^[19] The DINA is perhaps best known for its 1976 car bombing attack a mile from the White House in which two people were killed, including a young American woman.

According to a two-part exposé published in 2015 by McClatchy, “'I have been involved in situations involving unproven allegations before – and the potential of harming the reputation of a person who may be wrongfully accused is also a major consideration that weighs heavily with me,' Richard Downie, then the director of the school, wrote to Andersen in a Nov. 12, 2008, email. He then ordered Andersen to back off. 'I remind you that you are our chief of strategic communications and were not hired to be an investigative journalist,' Downie added." ^[3]

The revelations about Garcia Covarrubias received media attention. "The best evidence that the case is rock solid is not only the indictment coming from a local judge in Chile, but the judgment of the State Department itself", Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, told McClatchy investigative reporters Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall. "The protection from the Defense Department smells really bad." In 2014, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told McClatchy: "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. 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."^[2][3]

In 2014, at the same time as McClatchy broke the Garcia Covarrubias story, in "Flagship military university hired foreign officers linked to human rights abuses in Latin America," The Center for Public Integrity revealed that a nonpublic report in 2012 by a U.S. Army colonel appointed by Downie himself and conducted in a general climate of reprisal against whistleblowers, in particular against Professor Andersen. A redacted report of the AR 15-6 inquiry was obtained by CPI under the Freedom of Information Act. It depicted a sort of frat-house atmosphere at the Center under Downie, stating 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.

The report stated that "The Director of the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) directed an investigation into allegations of a hostile work environment, mismanagement, resource discrepancies and racial prejudice raised by [Name Masked in the report].^[20][21] After a review into these allegations, [the investigating officer stated that] 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 in the Department of Defense. I found no evidence of any type of discrimination based on federally protected classes."^[22][23]

However, four years later, the AR 15-6 military inquiry used by Downie in a civilian DoD center to defend against accusations against him and his colleagues was significantly revised and would not be permitted to be used in such cases as that of CHDS. The "Procedures for Administrative Investigations and Boards of Office" dated April 1, 2016, specifically “prohibits an individual from appointing an inquiry, investigation, or board if that individual is reasonably likely to become a witness; has an actual or perceived bias for or against a potential subject of the investigation, or has an actual conflict of interest in the outcome of the investigation (pars. 2-1F).”

Awards

His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service and Army Commendation Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Inter-American Defense Board Medal. He also has been decorated with foreign awards, including the "Orden del Gran Caballero" (Colombia) "Orden de Mérito Académico" (Colombia), the Bosnia/Former Yugoslavia NATO Medal, the Order of Military Merit (Mexico), as well as the Order of the Peruvian Cross (Peru).^[1]

Published work

Toward the end of the Bush Administration Downie and his CHDS colleague Richard Downes argued that early in his term as President, Evo Morales was quietly collaborating with Washington, a "pragmatism" they said resulted "from a conscientious effort to keep Bolivian and Bolivians' interests at the forefront of his administration." Morales' governing style, they wrote at that time, "provides an opening for improving bilateral relations and enhanced cooperation on issues of mutual concern. ... During the first part of his administration, the Morales government has maintained a working dialogue with the United States on the single most contentious issue, how to control the cultivation of coca." Downie and Downes characterized Morales as "a shrewd negotiator" who "seems to avoid open conflict with the United States. ... For pragmatic reasons, Evo Morales will most likely continue to orchestrate Bolivia's international relations to obtain material support for Bolivia's needs and for his own political image without surrendering to (Venezuelan leftwing populist Hugo) Chavez's political direction. The latter's support has failed to enlist Morales as a tool for extending Chavez's anti-U.S. politics into the heart of South America, because Morales has repeatedly demonstrated a pragmatic independence intent on preserving most of his options, especially concerning the United States." In conclusion, they wrote: " ... International actors committed to effective democratic governance, including the United States, have a fundamental interest in continuing interaction with Bolivian institutions and organizations that uphold democratic values. Efforts to engage the Bolivian government are positive steps to maintain and improve contacts at all levels of its government and society." ^[24][25][26]

References

External links

• Professional Bio at Center For Hemispheric Defense Studies (National Defense University)