| By chris@chris-floyd.com Jonathan Schwarz at A Tiny Revolution points us to the ever-on-fire Dennis Perrin, who gives a brief masterclass on how the big-time media neatly erases American complicity in mass murder from the national consciousness: Airbrushing the Dead. Says Perrin:
It takes a deft hand to not only erase an active sponsor of genocidal violence, but also hide some 200,000 butchered human beings. Yet Guido Guilliart of the Associated Press did so in a single sentence:
"Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory with an iron fist until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence."
The ol' "iron fist" line. Seemingly descriptive, but in this case, incredibly vague. An honest, accurate account would read:
"Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975, after receiving the green light from then-U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who visited Jakarta on the eve of the Indonesian invasion. Indonesia ruled the tiny half-island territory through terror and mass murder, killing some 200,000 Timorese, nearly a third of East Timor's population, thanks to several billion in military and economic support from the United States. This state of siege lasted until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence. The Clinton administration continued to finance the Indonesian military as it committed more atrocities in a last-ditch attempt to stem Timorese independence. As U.S. Ambassador to Jakarta, Stapleton Roy, told reporters at the time, 'Indonesia matters, East Timor does not.' International pressure and outrage in Congress finally forced President Clinton to halt military aid on September 10, 1999."
Something tells me that if the Soviets or Saddam were financing these atrocities, especially over a 24 year period, their sponsorship would be mentioned. Indeed, we'd never hear the end of it. But knowing when to tell the whole story, if telling it at all, is one of the many tricks a journalist must learn in order to climb the mainstream ladder. An "iron rule," if you will.
The Red State Son says a true word there. The story of the Ford-Kissinger greenlight for genocide was finally confirmed in June 2001, when the release of declassified documents from the period turned up the "smoking gun" message from the American statesmen to their partner in crime, Suharto. But Perrin's "iron rule" held firm; the story was promptly buried after a quick appearance in the Washington Post. More details below, from a piece I wrote in The St. Petersburg Times (Russia), on Dec. 18, 2001:
"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
Like everyone else in the world, we here at the Global Eye were shocked and horrified last week by the release of damning material that confirmed the complicity of terrorist leaders in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
 We refer, of course, to the release of declassified documents showing that U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave their OK to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975 – an act of "state-sponsored terrorism" that killed more than 200,000 people. The documents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act – in June, before George W. Bush gutted the law – but only reported last week by the Washington Post.
Kissinger and Ford had long denied any prior knowledge of the murderous assault, even though they'd been feasting with the genocidal Indonesian tyrant Suharto the day before the troops went in. However, in a secret State Department cable, Ford and Kissinger actually told Suharto before the attack that "we understand the problem you have and the intentions you have" and "we will not press you on the issue."
Kissinger, ever mindful of the media angle, added in another love note: "We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned."
The murders were carried out with U.S. weaponry. Congress had restricted their use to defensive purposes only, but Kissinger blithely brushed this aside, assuring Suharto that America would "construe" the invasion as "self-defense rather than a foreign operation." Kinda like Hitler did with Poland.
Naturally, this [2001] story was buried by the usual bull-roaring of Bush praise in the media. In fact, in the same issue of the Post in which it appeared, you might've been diverted from its revelations by a fascinating piece on the editorial page, a long disquisition on the new ordering of the world, penned by one of our most revered elder statesmen:
Henry Kissinger.
Postscript: On September 21, 1999, Sander Thoenes, a former colleague of mine at The Moscow Times, was murdered in East Timor, almost certainly by Indonesian military forces, while covering the last throes of Jakarta's fury before East Timor won its independence. . |
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