American Educational Trust

The American Educational Trust (AET) is a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC in 1982 by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. AET perceives a dearth in knowledge about the Middle East, Arabs, and Muslims, in the U.S., and pursues an educational mission of “Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans; Interpreting North America for the Middle East.”

AET's Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Senator J. William Fulbright, and Republican Senator Charles Percy, both former chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Members of AET’s Board of Directors and advisory committees receive no fees for their services.

AET does not take partisan domestic political positions. In general, AET supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations, international law, the Geneva Conventions, and traditional American support for human rights, self-determination, and fair play.

As part of its educational mission, AET publishes the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a 76-page magazine published 8 times per year in Washington, DC, that focuses on news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S. policy in that region. AET also maintains the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Web site.

The AET Library Endowment Fund, a 501(c)3 registered charity, provides educational materials to schools, libraries, and religious institutions, including, but not limited to, subscriptions to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, books, pamphlets, white papers, and multi-media educational tools.

AET, in conjunction with Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU), Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), and Black Voices for Peace (BVFP), published the two booklets “Who Will Save the Children?” and “Remember These Children,” and maintains the Web site, http://www.rememberthesechildren.org, to further educate the American public about the realities of the situation in Palestine and Israel.

AET also maintains a bookstore which offers a variety of books and DVDs. Political and historical monographs, fiction, cookbooks, children’s books, poetry, maps, music, and movies, as well as Palestinian handicrafts, olive oil and spices are available. To make these materials more readily available to the general public, AET offers virtually every item at a discounted price, all the time. The book club can be found at http://www.middleeastbooks.com.

AET’s Palestinian Arts and Crafts Trust (PACT) sells Palestinian pottery, embroidery, olive oil, olive oil soap and other solidarity items.

Experts on the Middle East are available for interviews, panel discussions, or presentations by contacting communications@wrmea.org. A list of available speakers and their biographies can be found below.

AET receives no government funds, and is funded solely by magazine sales, book sales, advertisements, and the generous donations of our “choir of angels”—a partial listing of which can be found in every issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

ABOUT THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is a 76-page magazine published 7 times per year in Washington, DC, that focuses on news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S. policy in that region.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states.

AET's Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Senator J. William Fulbright, and Republican Senator Charles Percy, both former chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Members of AET's Board of Directors and advisory committees receive no fees for their services.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs does not take partisan domestic political positions. As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242’s land-for-peace formula, supported by seven successive U.S. presidents. In general, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations and traditional American support for human rights, self-determination, and fair play.

Material from the printed version of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and from this website, may be reprinted without charge as long as articles are not changed in any way and are credited to the author and the magazine. [This release does not apply to any of the photographs or graphic designs in the printed magazine or this Web site.]

Founders

The American Educational Trust was founded in Washington, DC in January, 1982. Its founding chairman was Edward Firth Henderson, a British Army Officer during World War II who served in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Co-founders were Andrew I. Killgore, AET’s first president, who was U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar when he retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980; and Richard H. Curtiss, AET’s first executive director, who was chief inspector of the U.S. Information Agency when he retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1980.

In addition to the three founding directors, other initial directors of the American Educational Trust were Prof. John Ruedy, former director of studies at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies; former Democratic Member of Congress Thomas Rees of Los Angeles; John Law, Middle East correspondent for U.S. News & World Report for some 20 years before he founded Mideast Markets, a publication of the Chase Manhattan Bank; and Dr. John Duke Anthony, president and chief executive officer of the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations.

Subsequent board chairmen have included Dr. John Davies, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Reverend Dr. L. Humphrey Walz, former associate executive of the Presbyterian synod of the Northeast, and Henrietta Fanner, who has spent much of her life working for peace.

Speaker’s Bureau

The following people are available to speak on a variety of topics related to the Middle East, Arabs, and Islam.

DELINDA CURTISS HANLEY

Executive Director and News Editor, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

Delinda Curtiss Hanley is news editor and executive director of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a 76-page nearly monthly magazine with the largest circulation of any Middle East related publication in North America. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, features insightful analysis of the political, economic, and historical realities of the U.S.-Middle East relationship. Each colorful issue is packed with special reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq, current Middle East issues and grassroots activism in the U.S. and abroad. The magazine is important to every Muslim- and Arab-American organization because it is the only publication that reports on every group's symposiums, lectures, dialogues and activities. The magazine also focuses on U.S. lobbying groups involved in crafting U.S. policy.

Background Information:

Delinda Hanley spent most of her childhood in the Middle East accompanying her foreign service officer father Richard Curtiss, co-founder of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. After attending the American University in Washington, DC, and American University of Beirut, she earned a degree in education from the University of Maryland. She joined the Peace Corps and taught English in the Sultanate of Oman. She stayed for three additional years to work in the Musandam Province of Oman as a consultant for a development project. After several years of teaching in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, she returned the United States in 1988 to work as an editor and picture researcher for a publisher of historical magazines. In 1996 she came to work for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and is now the executive director and news editor. She writes extensively for the magazine on an array of topics and her stories have also been published in the Arab News, Saudi ARAMCO World, the Minaret, Islamic Horizons and other U.S. magazines, including the Jewish Spectator. She has written extensively on Palestine Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the emergence of the Muslim voice in Arab politics, and fairness in the mainstream American media. Ms. Hanley has given talks at various conferences and demonstrations across the United States and Canada.

American Educational Trust, Inc.

P.O Box 21041, Washington, DC 20009 or
1902 18th St, NW, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 939-6050 • Fax: (202) 265-4574

How can I contact your staff?

Call (202) 939 6050 (extensions and e-mail addresses are listed below)

Founding Managing Editor: Janet McMahon

Executive Editor: Delinda C. Hanley dhanley@wrmea.org or advertising@wrmea.org Ext. 101

Bookstore Director: Nathaniel Bailey bookstore@wrmea.org Ext. 103

Director of Finance and Administration: Charles Carter CRCarter@wrmea.org Ext. 100

Managing Editor: Dale Sprusansky dsprusan@wrmea.org Ext. 102

Subscriptions Director: subscriptions@wrmea.org (800) 607-4410

Art Director: Ralph-Uwe Scherer artdirector@wrmea.org

For questions or problems with this Web site, contact Webmaster.

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AET receives no government funds, and is funded solely by magazine sales, book sales, advertisements, and the generous donations of our “choir of angels”—a partial listing of which can be found in every issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.