Phil Gingrey: “they will take advantage of this policy to create the appearance of impropriety at the institute, and Venezuela and…”

“they will take advantage of this policy to create the appearance of impropriety at the institute, and Venezuela and China will be the beneficiaries. Those concerned about human rights will then have to deal with these potentially hostile nations setting the human rights standard in Latin America. As for transparency, Madam Chairman, you simply do not learn everything about any institution solely by looking at the names of those who have attended. If you followed that logic, one could contend that Harvard is an institution that trains brutal killers and human rights violators simply because the Unabomber once took a class there. On the other hand, WHINSEC is open to visitors every working day. It invites people to sit in class, talk with the students, the faculty, review instructional material. This is perhaps the most open, transparent and welcoming organization in the Department of Defense. And it has certainly been the subject of more oversight than any other element of the Department. Madam Chairman, unfortunately, I believe that the release of personal information has less to do with transparency and more to do with yet another effort to shut down WHINSEC.”