Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Adm. Dennis Blair should be brought to justice, not appointed by Obama to be the Director of National Intelligence
by Larry Geller
This provides more information, as follow up to my article yesterday about the actions of Adm. Dennis Blair as reported by Allan Nairn in The Nation.
This appointment relates to Hawaii not only because Blair was stationed here as head of Pacific Command, but because of Governor Lingle’s overtures to the murderous Indonesian military, which I’ve covered in earlier articles.
Today’s Democracy Now closed with part one of a two-part interview with Allan Nairn. You can see the program if you are on Oahu at 10 p.m. on channel 56. Or the video, audio and a transcript are on their website.
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 Likisia 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.
…
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.
The East Timor Action Network has a website that I hope you’ll visit. See if you agree that this nomination should be stopped.
FYI:
"Akaka praises Blair choice to oversee spy agencies"
Associated Press - January 6, 2009 1:54 PM ET
HONOLULU -- **Sen. Daniel Akaka says he's glad** that a man with hands-on knowledge of Asia-Pacific security issues has been picked for the nation's top intelligence post...
...**Akaka says** he expects Blair, who is considered an expert on China, to serve the nation with the **same level of duty and honor he showed in the Pacific.**
There you go, Akaka knows best, next up...the Akaka Bill.
: January 7, 2009 at 7:42:00 AM HST << Home
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