Neocon, interesting article...
worldnetdaily.com
East Timor and the FALN
John Doggett
Connect the dots and follow the money. Those two rules of politics will help you explain the unexplainable.
If you want to understand why Bill Clinton sat on his hands while they murdered tens of thousands and moved hundreds of thousand of East Timor citizens, connect the dots and follow the money. If you want to understand why Bill Clinton moved with uncharacteristic speed to free Puerto Rican terrorists, connect the dots and follow the money.
Let's start with East Timor. In 1974, a coup by Portuguese generals marked the end of Portugal's 400 years of rule over Asian, Latin American and African colonies. One of those colonies was East Timor, a half-island country of 600,000 people, predominately Catholic.
On Nov. 28, 1975, as Portugal was leaving, the East Timorese declared their independence. On Dec. 7, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor. On Dec. 22, 1975, the Security Council of the United Nations demanded that Indonesia withdraw. Indonesia, with the support of an American government still smarting from the lost of Vietnam, ignored the U.N.
The 1960 U.N. Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples mandated a process by which the people of East Timor could decide whether they wanted to be independent. Indonesia ignored that U.N. mandate and instead maintained control of East Timor by force of arms. They have killed or forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of East Timorese residents during Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor. Militias subject to the influence of the Indonesian government have murdered several western journalists.
In 1996, Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Belo, leaders of the East Timor independence movement, won the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the Nobel Committee, "the citizens of this former Portuguese colony have been fighting a 23-year war of independence against Indonesia, who annexed the then newly independent nation in 1975." Since annexation, "it has been estimated that one-third of the population of East Timor lost their lives due to starvation, epidemics, war and terror."
On Aug. 30, 1999, a U.N.-sanctioned election finally gave the people of East Timor the chance to decide whether they would remain a part of Indonesia or become independent. Seventy-eight and one-half percent of the people of East Timor voted for independence in spite of widespread violence from pro-Indonesia gangs of thugs. Since that fair and open election, pro-Indonesia militias have murdered tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians. Hundreds of thousands of East Timorese have been forced to flee their homes in terror.
This is much worse than anything that happened in Kosovo. In fact, thugs have killed more people in East Timor since the election of Aug. 30, 1999 than the total death toll in Kosovo since 1998. So the question is, why was the Clinton administration hell bent on going to war to "save" the Kosovar Albanians but unwilling to save the East Timorese?
One week after the independence election, the Washington Post reported that "Pro-Indonesian militias assisted directly by local soldiers and policemen executed East Timorese independence leaders and herded thousands of people into military trucks Monday in an organized campaign of violence that left a U.N. sponsored peace plan for the territory in tatters." This was no surprise. It was to be expected. Yet in the face of the inevitable slaughter of thousands of innocents, Bill Clinton did nothing. Why?
According to the Boston Globe, "When President Clinton visited Rwanda last year on the fourth anniversary of the genocide that left more than half a million people dead, he apologized to survivors and said the world should have intervened. "Never again must we be shy about the evidence." Clinton said. "We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. ... We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide." Yet in spite of Bill's tough words, he sat idly by while the lifeblood drained out of tens of thousands of East Timorese. Why?
Now, let's look at FALN. The Armed Forces of National Liberation is a terrorist group dedicated to the independence of Puerto Rico. The only problem is that during a 1988 referendum in Puerto Rico, less than 3 percent of the people of Puerto Rico voted for independence.
Federal prosecutors have blamed FALN for 130 bombings in the United States from 1974 to 1983. Once they tracked down these terrorists, arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced them to 35 to 90 years of prison, the violence stopped. When Bill Clinton was sworn in as president in 1993, supporters of FALN immediately submitted clemency petitions. That was six years ago. Suddenly, a month ago, Bill Clinton decided to offer clemency to 16 FALN members. Why?
Most Americans and politicians believe that the only reason Bill Clinton dusted off the six-year-old clemency appeal of FALN was to help his wife's political campaign. That is why both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn Bill's coddling of terrorists. If you think the word terrorist is too strong, let's look at the crimes that these people committed.
Ten of those offered clemency were convicted of seditious conspiracy, weapons charges and other counts after being arrested in 1980 in connection with the armed robbery of a car rental agency in Evanston, Ill., and were charged with plotting another armed robbery. They convicted four others of seditious conspiracy and other charges in connection to what prosecutors said was a 1983 plot to bomb two military installations in Chicago. The final new "Friend-of-Bill" was convicted of planning the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Conn., with plans to use the $7.1 million stolen for the militant Puerto Rican group Los Macheteros.
Now, let's connect the dots and follow the money. The war over Kosovo started just as the Chinese spy scandal started to heat up. The war over Kosovo started when Clinton was fighting for his political life after having been impeached by the House of Representatives. Kosovo was a true, let's-distract-the-media, "wag-the-dog" war.
East Timor is different. Bill feels safe now. This week's big scandal is Waco and Janet's rear is on the line for this one. Oh by the way, Bill is close friends with the Riady family, one of the wealthiest families in Indonesia. Connect the dots and follow the money.
Back to FALN. One million, three hundred thousand Puerto Ricans live in New York State. Their vote is crucial in any Democrat primary. Hillary is running for Senate in New York State. Bill has an immediate and present need to use his power to help his wife. After all, she stood by his side when he disgraced her and their daughter. Helping FALN is popular with some Puerto Rican voters. Freeing terrorists, however, is not very popular in a state that suffered through the World Trade Center bombings. So, time for more Clintonian strategy.
If Bill says, "you're free" and Hillary says, "not so fast," they can cover both sides of the table. Oh yes, some Puerto Rican Democrats have made a lot of noise, but that is all for show. Remember, less than 3 percent of the people of Puerto Rico want independence. Also, the most vocal "anti-Hillary" Congressman Jose Serrano, was also the most vocal "pro Bill" Democrat during impeachment.
To get a sense of how much of a charade all of this is, the New York Times reprinted what the good congressman said on the floor of the House on the day that they impeached Bill:
"The Republican right wing in this country doesn't like it when we say coup d'etat, so I'll make it easier for them -- golpe de estato -- that's Spanish for overthrowing a government. From Day 1, they wanted to get rid of Bill Clinton. They're blinded by hate today. This place is full of hate, because of what they tried to do to our president." He closed with a little street talk straight from his Bronx boyhood: "Bullies get theirs, and you're going to get yours, too."
Does that sound like the rhetoric of a man who is going to turn on Bill's wife a few months later? To be sure, Hillary showed the arrogance of her husband by making a unilateral decision without talking to anyone connected with Puerto Rico. Many believe, however, that the sins of the wife can be cured if her husband is willing to substantially increase federal spending in Congressman Serrano's district. Connect the dots and follow the money.
Now let's look at what we know about Clinton's Indonesia ties. Since his days as governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton has had a very close and very strange relationship with the Riady family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Indonesia. Their family holding company, the Lippo Group, has been involved in several questionable deals since Bill Clinton become president.
For example, the Lippo Group paid Webster Hubbell a $250,000 bribe in the months after he resigned from his position as the third highest ranking member of Janet Reno's staff until Ken Starr sent him to prison. If you have forgotten, Web Hubbell went to prison for stealing from his, and Hillary's, law clients.
As bad as that was, the most smelly deal was when Clinton unilaterally turned millions of acres of low-sulphur coal producing land in Utah into government owned, "you-can't-mine-it" land just before the 1996 election. Only a few journalists reported that this governmental decision, in turn, increased the value of wharf and shipping investments that the Lippo Group owned to export the last major source of low sulphur coal in the world. Guess where that last source is from? That's right, Communist China. Connect the dots and follow the money.
Now maybe all of this is a coincidence. Maybe Bill Clinton did not sacrifice the poor people of East Timor for political reasons. Maybe Bill Clinton really wanted to wait until it had permission of the Indonesian government to intervene. Maybe Bill's decade's long relationship with the Lippo Group and the Riady family had no impact on him. Maybe, just maybe, freeing FALN terrorists had absolutely nothing to do with Hillary's run for the U.S. Senate.
If you believe that all of this "just happened," I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I want to sell you.
Finally, I want to know why "legitimate" journalists aren't asking these questions. Why doesn't the "establishment" press connect the dots between the Clinton-Indonesia connection and America's foreign and domestic policy decisions and follow the money?
Why haven't the "professional" journalists looked at the FALN deal with more creativity? Have they lost their backbones? We know they've sold their souls long ago.
There is a Pulitzer prize here for the taking. This is another "All the President's Men" book deal. This is a chance to be the next Bernstein and Woodward. Unless they just don't care about what the Clintons do with our government.
Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, we don't have to wait for the paid flacks to do the hard work. Because we can connect the dots and follow the money on our own. |
