An article at Counterpunch over the holidays by Gary Leupp-which kicks off with a quote from our own Chris Bowers talking about frustration with Obama's cabinet picks-reminds us:
During his debate with Clinton on January 31, Obama declared, "I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place. That's the kind of leadership that I think we need from the next president of the United States. That's what I intend to provide."
This is the kind of talk that seriously raised a lot of people's hopes. How many hundred thousand volunteer hours was that soundbite worth? Odds are, quite a few. Sure, Digby's right (too many times to link to, just read her blog, okay?) there was plenty of evidence to the contrary-but that's why God invented soundbites-to get people to ignore evidence. And it was so.
Now we have the unveiling of his top-tier intelligence team, and one man-Leon Panetta--caused an uproar because he's anti-torture and not part of the intelligence problem clique. Plus DiFi needed to throw her weight around. The other two, however, are everything Obama seemed to be campaigning against. John Brennan we already know-he's the one who resigned because of the mean old bloggers in their PJs (yeah, right, wanna buy a bridge?) But the one who's escaped major scrutiny, Admiral Dennis Blair, is just as out of synch with Obama's promise to change the mindset as Brennan is.
As award-winning journalist Alan Nairn explained on Democracy Now! on Tuesday, Blair had acted to support the Indonesian military in 1999, while they were involved in civilian massacres in East Timor, after the US official policy had finally changed. Nairn had written about this at the time for The Nation, when, apparently no other reporters remained covering the story. Nairn and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman survived a 1991 massacre in Dili, East Timor, together, so they tend to not overlook what happens there.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Admiral Blair was involved in supporting the Indonesian armed forces as they were massacring churches in East Timor, as they were killing civilians in 1999 in the run-up to a UN-sponsored free election. That election was due to decide whether East Timor would become independent. The Indonesian army was trying to stop the occupied Timorese from voting for independence, so they set up militias, which went on rampages.
In one incident, they went into a church in Liquica where refugees were hiding. They massacred them with machetes. Their flesh was found plastered to the walls. Two days after that, Admiral Blair went to meet with the Indonesian commander, General Wiranto, and he gave him reassurances that the US was still behind him. He offered him new US military aid. And even though Blair had been told by the State Department and the White House to tell Wiranto to stop the massacres, Blair did not do that. This is according to classified US cables which I obtained in 1999 and reported in The Nation magazine.
After that, when people at the State Department heard about what Blair had done, he was told to talk to Wiranto again. He again spoke to Wiranto, on the phone, and again reassured him, offered him new US military aid. Blair even offered Wiranto aid for the specific unit, the Brimob, the paramilitary police who had gone into that church as they chopped up the refugees and chopped up the clergy who were hiding there. General Wiranto naturally took this as reassurance. He escalated the attacks. Wiranto was later indicted for crimes against humanity. Blair has not been held to account.
And now, they say Obama wants to make him Director of National Intelligence. You know, Richardson is in trouble.
AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds.
ALLAN NAIRN: Blagojevich is in trouble. That's small potatoes compared to what Admiral Blair did. ETAN, East Timor Action Network, is running a campaign to stop this nomination.
Adm. Blair Poor Choice as Director of National Intelligence, Says Rights Group Blair's History with Indonesia and East Timor Raises Questions about Likely Nominee
January 7 - The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) called Adm. Dennis Blair "a poor choice for intelligence director." The group urged President-elect Obama to reconsider the nomination, and make a break from past policies that have undermined human rights worldwide.
"During his years as Pacific Commander, Blair downplayed human rights concerns. He actively worked to reinstate military assistance and deepen ties with Indonesia's military despite its ongoing rights violations in East Timor and consistent record of impunity," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN.
"Admiral Blair undermined U.S. policy in the months preceding the U.S.-supported and UN-sponsored referendum in East Timor in 1999," said Ed McWilliams, a senior U.S. embassy official in Jakarta at the time. "While senior State Department officials were pressing the Indonesian military to end the escalating violence and its support for militia intimidation of voters, Blair took a distinctly different line with his military counterparts. As Pacific Commander, his influence could have caused the military to rein in its militias. Instead, his virtual silence on the issue in meetings with the Indonesian generals led them and their militias to escalate their attacks on the Timorese."
"The extraordinarily brutal Indonesian retaliation against the East Timorese and the UN teams in East Timor following the Timorese vote for independence from Indonesia transpired in part because of Blair's failure to press U.S. Government concerns in meetings with the Indonesian general," said McWilliams.
"Blair's actions in 1999 demonstrated the failure of engagement to temper the Indonesian military's behavior; his actions helped to reinforce impunity for senior Indonesian officials that continues to this day," added Miller.
"The extraordinarily brutal Indonesian retaliation against the East Timorese and the UN teams in East Timor following the Timorese vote for independence from Indonesia transpired in part because of Blair's failure to press U.S. Government concerns in meetings with the Indonesian general," said McWilliams.
Blair's apologetics for murder and torture by the Indonesian armed forces in East Timor, and his opposition to trials, international or otherwise, for the high level perpetrators of mass violence, offers a sobering indication of the positions he is likely to take as Director of National Intelligence. President-elect Obama's choice suggests that he will resist - as Blair almost certainly will - demands for the prosecution of high-ranking Bush Administration officials, much less lower level employees in the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency, for torture, rendition and other crimes carried out in the name of the so-called War on Terror.
So, what was that Obama said?
"I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place. That's the kind of leadership that I think we need from the next president of the United States. That's what I intend to provide."
Well, not exactly. It's hard to figure out just why Obama would want to continue the same failed policies that he could recognize so easily as an Illinois State Senator. But that's what he seems to be preparing to do.
Maybe, though, some of the senators might get upset about this next piece of information. On Friday, Nairn returned to Democracy Now! with new information about Blair lying to Congress:
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, in addition to supporting General Wiranto as he and his forces were massacring churches and killing more than a thousand civilians in Timor in 1999, it now appears that Blair either lied to or willfully misled the US Congress in testimony given before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 3rd, 1999. In that testimony, Blair discussed the fall of the Indonesian dictatorship Suharto. Suharto fell in May of 1998. And Admiral Blair, in his prepared statement, submitted-made the following statement: "Throughout this process, the Indonesian armed forces have played a difficult but generally positive role. While there were instances of individual or small unit violence against Indonesian citizens, military leadership firmly supported the constitution. Moreover, the incidents of abuses, shootings and kidnappings that were reported are now being investigated and the perpetrators punished," end-quote.
Now, that is simply false. Almost every element of that statement is false, as anyone who is familiar with the situation in Indonesia at that time could tell you. It was not individual small units, but top Indonesian military officers, led by General Prabowo, who carried out the Kopassus kidnappings of activists, known as the "Rose Team" kidnappings. Not only did this involve senior officers, but those senior officers were US-trained. And the specific Kopassus intelligence units doing the kidnapping had a liaison with the US military attaché in the embassy, and General Prabowo was a longtime US protégé. The senior officers of the Indonesian military instigated anti-Chinese riots, in which their agents rampaged through the streets, burned houses, conducted mass rapes of Chinese and other women in the streets, a model of mayhem that was used one year later in occupied East Timor. They were also involved in the killings of protesters in the streets.
And Admiral Blair tried to tell the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Indonesian military leadership had firmly supported the constitution. Well, he had to know when he submitted that written statement that shortly before Suharto-as Suharto was falling, the Indonesian grassroots movement had announced a mass demonstration, and it was widely anticipated in Jakarta that this mass demonstration might draw a million people and that it would lead to the downfall not only of the individual dictator Suharto, but of the entire military establishment. So what did General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian armed forces, do? He told the organizers that if they held this demonstration, they would get a Tiananmen. They would be massacred by the military. And, in fact, they called the demonstration off, with the result that Suharto, the individual, fell, but the military institution run by Wiranto remained intact and dominates within Indonesian politics to this day. So, Admiral Blair was either lying or willfully deceiving the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 3rd, 1999.
Hello! Administration officials lying to Congress! Where have we seen this before?
"I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place. That's the kind of leadership that I think we need from the next president of the United States. That's what I intend to provide."
Let Bartlett be BartlettReagan be Reagan Obama be Obama.
Who's stopping him?
He is, of course.
This is, apparently, what Obama thinks "competence" looks like.
Me, I think it's ideology. In fact, it's "the mindset that got us into war in the first place."
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