CIA services by proxy<\/p>\n
Although in his letter (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 2, 2000: On the
\nCIA's role), Mr. Richard Lewis confirms some of the facts
\nmentioned in my article (the Post, Jan. 13 and Jan.14: The U.S.:
\nA party to mass murder?), worryingly he stops just short of
\nexonerating the CIA by rather recklessly stating, \"The CIA, while
\na contributor, was neither the cause nor the catalyst\".<\/p>\n
It is Mr. Lewis' opinion that, even without CIA involvement,
\nthe massacre would have occurred, but he provides no real basis
\nfor such a view except the opinion of an Indonesian embassy
\nspokesman who claimed, \"the Indonesian people fought by
\nthemselves to eradicate the communists\". Since the communist
\nthreat was used to justify and provide legitimacy for what was in
\nfact an American-sponsored Soeharto coup, would one expect an
\nIndonesian embassy spokesman to claim otherwise?<\/p>\n
Mr. Lewis needs to delve deeper than the Internet alone allows
\nhim. He might like to consult Brian May's book The Indonesian
\nTragedy and read Distant Voices by the Australian journalist,
\nJohn Pilger, who writes that, \"Declassified American documents
\nhave since revealed that the United States not only supported the
\nslaughter but helped the generals to plan and execute it. The CIA
\ngave them a 'hit list' of 5,000 Communist Party supporters
\nincluding party leaders, regional committee members and heads of
\ntrade unions and women's and youth groups, who were hunted down
\nand killed\".<\/p>\n
Pilger goes on: \"In 1990 a former U.S. embassy official in
\nJakarta disclosed that he had spent two years drawing up a hit
\nlist, which was a big help to the army\".<\/p>\n
Historian Gabriel Kolko, in his book Confronting the Third
\nWorld, writes that, \"No single American action in the period
\nafter 1945 was as bloodthirsty as its role in Indonesia, for it
\ntried to initiate the massacre, and it did everything in its
\npower to encourage Soeharto\".<\/p>\n
In light of this, can the CIA use the rather suspect,\"the
\nmassacre would have happened anyway\" as an extenuating factor? If
\nI shoot dead a man whose life appears to be endangered by
\nanother, am I absolved? Can I plead that my victim would have
\ndied anyway at the hand of another? I would suggest that anyone
\nusing this as mitigating circumstances is on very dangerous
\nground indeed. I am sure that if Gen. Wiranto were to use such a
\ndefense to reduce his culpability for the East Timor mayhem, he
\nwould be laughed out of court.<\/p>\n
It may be hard for Mr. Lewis to accept that the American
\ngovernment through, inter alia, the services of the CIA, is
\nresponsible for torture and mass murder by proxy. However, he
\nshould be aware that it is this apparently unshakable but often
\nunfounded conviction of Westerners, that their governments act
\nmorally and benevolently, which still makes it possible for
\nsophisticated, covert barbarity to be carried out by Western
\ngovernments when they deem it necessary.<\/p>\n
FRANK RICHARDSON<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cia-services-by-proxy-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }