New Trouble For An Obama Nominee: Admiral Dennis Blair Aided Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings In East Timor:..

And was followed by @gregtheveg:

Obama CIA Nominee involved in East Timor genocide

So did @giantpandinha on this tweet

How Obama's new intel chief screwed over Timor

And @allisonkilkenny on this this one

Dennis Blair, Nominee for Dir. of National Intel Connected to E. Timor Massacre

These are just a few examples of what citizen journalists have been tweeting regarding the nomination of Admiral Denis C. Blair as Barack Obama's choice to be the US Director of National Intelligence. And this should lead us to embark on our own fact-finding mission to establish the veracity of these serious accusations which the retired United States Navy official faces: during his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, he would have played a critical role in backing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in the 1990's, an invasion that led to the killing of approximately 1,400 Timorese and the displacement of 300,000 people. Did Intelligence Chief Aid Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings of East Timor Civilians?, asks twitter user @samsimon.

Allan Nairn has a comprehensive and shocking overview of the nomination implications on his blog, bearing in mind that in 1999, “in the midst of massacres of East Timor civilians and churches, Admiral Blair gave support to the perpetrators, the armed forces of Indonesia.”:

Two days after a massacre at Liquica that left flesh hanging from the church walls, Blair contacted the Indonesian commander, offered him US aid, and according to classified US cables, failed to tell him to stop the attacks. Reassured by the evident support from Blair, then the US Pacific Command chief, the Indonesian commander, General Wiranto, escalated the attacks.

The Indonesian forces subsequently struck the Red Cross and the Bishop's residence, killing more than a thousand as they went, burning churches and raping nuns.

They were trying to derail a free election, taking place under UN auspices, that eventually ended Jakarta's illegal occupation of East Timor.

Readers of Timor Loosae Nação published the piece of news and commented on it, concluding that the U.S. foreign policy does not change with the change of the President:

“A noticia anterior e um grande tabefe para os timorenses que se jubilaram pela eleicao de Obama.“

Another piece of news, published here, raised a controversial discussion. Robert Merkel started by saying:

This attitude - that keeping the Indonesian military happy was more important than saving the East Timorese - was very common amongst western diplomats dealing with Indonesia back in 1999 and earlier. It was a pretty slimy piece of realpolitik, but understandable; relations between Indonesia and western countries (particularly Australia, the closest, who took the major role in the peacekeeping operation that oversaw the transition to independence) did take a beating after East Timor's independence.

To which Erik coldly replied:

yes - we must be careful. The needs of the Indonesian dictatorship had to be carefully weighed against the Timorese people. After all, although we are discussing great numbers of deaths in relative terms - more than 10 per cent of their population, it was a small number in absolute terms - only 1-2 hundred thousand deaths. When you look at this you realize why realpolitik reasons would triumph.

A very different point of view is given by Gary Farber, from Amygdala. He has a very factual post with a lot of references, and is disgusted with other bloggers' apathy:

More confirmation (unofficially, still) of the Blair nomination. Where are all the big name left blogs on this? Why is almost everyone silent? Are people going to suddenly discover the problems only after the nomination is official? Why can't I get anyone to listen to me about this, he said forlornly?

The demonstration of outrage about the 1999 crimes has just started, and people have been gathering signatures on a Petition for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Humanity in East Timor. You can find bloggers joining this cause everywhere (check the East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin header).

At the same time, another petition is taking place, concerning specifically Blair's involvement in those crimes. According to John:

Dennis Blair's sordid record when it comes to East Timor and Indonesia disqualifies him for intel chief. The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has more here or sign their petition here.

Despite all the activism and debate arising online, some doubt Timor will be more than a ‘pebble in the shoe' for him [Admiral Dennis Blair] while others, like Charles Lemos say that he was following orders after all:

… If he disobeyed orders from the Clinton Administration to deliver a message to Indonesia's military authorities then he clearly is not fit to be Director of National Intelligence. Expect to hear more in the coming days from Indonesia experts on Admiral Blair.

Clinton's presidential campaign committee sent an e-mail to supporters on Thursday, inviting them to participate in a conversation with the former first lady in New York City on Monday, Dec. 15, which will feature special guest Bill Clinton and will be hosted by America Ferrera, the "Ugly Betty" star who first announced her support for Clinton in January 2008 and campaigned for her in Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Post extendido - Leer más 'Ugly Betty Really Wants Clinton in Obama White House'...

The video is primarily critical of anti-immigration politicians from the Danish People's Party, who yield a great deal of power as part of the Conservative government coalition, and have been known to say things like, “Islam is a new totalitarian plague sweeping Europe.”

After a few thousand views on YouTube, critics apparently managed to get YouTube to remove the video by repeatedly flagging it as “inappropriate”. It has since been moved to Blip.tv and has also been re-posted on YouTube by others.

Click to play

On Konflikten.dk, bloggers Troels Heeger and Søren K. Villemoes deliver a scathing attack on the video and its creators, calling it “pathetic amateur video-art by two professional cry babies”. They say:

… Det er i øvrigt også komisk, at Obama som forandringens budbringer åbenbart ifølge de to apostle har en rolle at spille i dansk indenrigspolitik, når de samtidig har gennemkritiseret Bush-administrationens indflydelse på Fogh-regeringen. Men det er naturligvis noget ganske andet…

Many have applauded the initiative and re-posted the video, including the blogger Provo. But even on this blog some commenters were less than enthusiastic.

“Border-Collie” says:

Lad os håbe, Obama har noget bedre at lave. Altså hvis vi endelig skal tro på, at den påtænkte modtager af budskabet faktisk hedder Obama … hvilket er mere end tvivlsomt. Men hvad fanden, kunstnerisk frihed og alt det der…

“Vogter60″ says:

Jeg tror Obama skal koncentrere sig om Amerikansk politik, ellers ender han måske med at blive lige så ” Populær” som den afgående præsident.

Both Larsen and Holdt are well-known in Danish media. Rune Engelbreth Larsen is a columnist for a Danish national newspaper Politiken, and Jakob Holdt is a photographer who received international acclaim for his photos of poverty in America in the 1970s: American Pictures

Oh, look.  It’s election night again.  Brilliant.  Cold turkey maybe the norm in the days after Thanksgiving, but there’s no way I can go cold turkey over elections.  My resolve for sleep and normal UK hours may be about to weaken.  Run-offs may not be the best way of deciding elections where no one gained over 50% of the vote - my preferred method is Instant Run-Off Voting  (aka the Alternative Vote) - but this way the fun for us politicos (if not the voters) gets carried on for another month.  And that brings us through to tonight.

Lousiana has a couple of congressional races that will be decided, but the main meal is being served down in Georgia, with a Senate seat up for grabs.  Republican Saxby Chambliss narrowly missed hitting the 50% mark last time around, and a win for him today - in a straight head-to-head with Jim Martin - would mean the Democrats would definitely not get to 60 seats and have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  So important stuff.

538 have again been on the ground, charting the election campaign and giving us a inside account - from the “boiler room“.  What I find most fascinating is the way so many Obama organisers, field office workers and others have made the journey to Georgia over the past few weeks (some within days of Obama’s victory) to take part in the campaign.  Partly that is because of the significance of the race.  But there’s something deeper, more emotional. Something I can empathise with, even these thousands of miles away. As Sean so movingly puts it:

“At the human level, there is almost a wistful, gravitational pull for many of these organizers in returning to a race. To work on the Obama campaign, these folks had to disconnect from their previous lives. Friendships, relationships, and other plans all took a backseat to the single-minded mission to elect Barack Obama. Plugging back into the world, especially when job plans for most of these twenty-somethings are uncertain, is a difficult task. While the pride is evident, conversations with many of these organizers reveals a strange sense of feeling lost, untethered from an all-consuming routine. So when organizers hear other organizers are coming to Georgia, it’s a form of therapeutic reunion for many, much like a reunion of military veterans. Unless you’ve been through it, it’s hard to explain.”

It was has become something of a post-election tradition of mine, I spend a day walking along the Washington Mall: visiting monuments to past presidents and the current seats of political power; reflecting on the election results and what it means. 

This year was no exception.  Like last time, glorious sunshine accompanied my stroll through DC’s famous sites.  But unlike 2004, the political climate was substantially changed for the better.  Then I was coming to terms with the depressing reality of not just 4 more years of Bush, but extended Republican control of both Houses of Congress, and a Supreme Court that was likely to become more more conservative.  I was looking for glimmers of hope where ever I could.   This time, hope seemed to be radiating brightly: from the steps of the Lincoln Monument, all the way along the Mall, and even to the railings of the White House. 

And not just hope, but progressive activism too.

Overlooking the Reflecting Pool, on those famous steps, Avaaz had set up their boards for people to write their “yes we can” messages of goodwill to Obama and reminders of the global change that hopefully his victory will herald. 

Less than 3 days before, and apparently spontaneously (and without precedent), a crowd of over a thousand DC residents had gathered by the famous White House railings to celebrate Obama’s victory.  Now outside the White House, students were marching up and down the street calling for American foreign policy to be more proactive in halting genocide in Darfur.   And at the far end of the grassy Mall, by Capitol Hill, a ‘tent city’ had sprung up.  Again the issue was Darfur - which has far greater prominence than here in the UK; where the Aegis Trust and its student groups are some of the few who are very active on it.  These tents had been bought and decorated by groups across the US and were to be sent on to provide shelter for families in the Darfur refugee camps that have sprung up for those forced out of their homes and villages.

My pilgrimage was a restorative one.  It was also a chance to marvel at the historic achievement of Barack Obama and everyone who had supported him.  Everywhere I went, to slightly misquote Tony Blair, “the hand of history was on my shoulder”.  Here were the memorials to the great Presidents and one day Obama might join these figures. There were two really emotional moments for me.  The first was sitting on the Lincoln Memorial steps, close to the spot where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech.  The second was at the railings of the White House, thinking that shortly an intelligent guy, an inspirational speaker, a pluralist - and yes - a black man whose father was African, was about to become President and occupy this building, a seat of global power.  “Yes we can”. “Yes we did”. Indeed.

However, there was one thing that did trouble me on my trek through DC.  And it was the same in 04 too.  The Lincoln Memorial.  The secular, pluralist nature of my political pilgrimage clashes against the religious and authoritarian symbolism of the building.  The Memorial is treated as a  ’holy of holies’, a venerated shrine, a temple.   You ascend these vast steps to pay homage to a towering figure seated on a throne.  Lincoln as god’s presence here on earth, it almost seemed to be saying.  The ultimate in (non)separation of church and state.  Try unpicking that one!  But the aspect that made me feel most uncomfortable is the hallowed, reverential atmosphere inside; the closed, dark interior; the relative lack of space (physical and metaphorical) or light for questioning, for different views. 

  
If the Lincoln Memorial seems to represent one major strand of America, then the Jefferson Memorial represents another.  A more democratic building in every sense: rounded; open on many sides; light streaming in; different paths, entrances and perspectives for people to take.  The building, and the words of Jefferson inside, convey and inspire the tolerance and pluralism of the nation. 

Fittingly, as the sunset over the unmistakeable DC skyline, my journey came to an end.

NB. A slideshow of all these photos and more can be viewed here

The protests are remarkable not only in the show of support for marriage euqality, but in the fact that they were largely organized virally, through facebook, blogs, instant messages and word of mouth. No slick sound systems or laminated signs, most protests had a few megaphones and a whole lot of homemade signs. Another common factor from different rallies is the positivity. By and large, though there was some anger, the common theme was being there in support of gay marriage and above all the optimism that eventually it will happen.

Andrew Sullivan has a great roundup of the rallies. My personal favorite is the Chicago rally featuring a picture of a (straight) married couple in full wedding regalia and a host of bridesmaids holding up a rainbow flag in support.

©2008 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

The main strength of the change.gove is, Klingler rightfully argues, that it allows visitors to participate in the political debate, just as BarackObama.com, the official campaign website, did. It allows visitors to become actively involved in the debate, in the government and to organize themselves in communities that tackle national, state, regional and local problems.

As Klingler explains, change.gov could very well be used to bypass the mainstream media in times of hardship; it will be a tremendous tool for the new president to reach voters, unhindered by the filter of MSM, if that would ever proof necessary.

Change.gov is still being developed, but I already noticed some things no one else seems to have noticed yet. For instance, and this is important: you can now register at change.gov by filling in the questions in the top right corner (e-mail address and zip code). Once you register, you are referred to a new page where you can send an invitation to your friends to register as well. To make it easier for you you to do so, and this is yet another sign of the Internet smarts of Team Obama, you can import your e-mail contacts. I tried it myself by sending an invitation to several people, among whom the Managing Editor and Assistant Editors of this site; it seems to have worked quite well.

The following message was sent to those individuals:

Hey,

President-Elect Obama is hard at work getting this country back on track, but he’s counting on all of us to get involved.

I just signed up to learn more about the presidential transition, and I thought you might want to do the same.

Just visit http://www.change.gov, and enter your e-mail address in the top right corner.

Thanks.

Aside from Change.gov yet another initiative was launched recently, which also aims at working with grassroots in order to ‘improve’ the nation. WhiteHouse2.org is a site very similar to digg, but then only about policy questions. This site is not an official part of any one campaign but it is used to rally the troops and to influence policy.

Visitors can vote for and suggest policies they would like to see implemented. These policies will then be ’suggested’ to President Barack Obama. Leading examples of such policy suggestions at the time of writing this article were “kill the Patriot Act” with 402 recommendations, “stop the Iraq War” with 380 recommendations, and “shut down Guantanamo” with 329 recommendations. Another very popular one was “energy independence in seven years.”

Visitors can endorse suggestions by clicking on the “endorse” button. If they attempt to do so for the first time, they have to register first, in a very fast and simple procedure taking 10 seconds or so. After this, they can endorse as many suggestions as they want, and they can share their own ideas.

Although Team Obama has no official ties to the website, it seems reasonable to suggest that they would focus on it and use it to their benefit nonetheless in the coming years: considering the high degree of Internet outreach by the campaign during and before the election, and the creation of change.gove afterwards, WhiteHouse2.org seems to fit right into the Obama play of reaching out to voters in new, untried ways.

Even if Team Obama does not do so, it could learn from WhiteHouse2.org and create a similar website, or a similar page on change.gov, which would increase people’s participation in the political process tremendously, which seems to be a key goal of the president-elect.

Changes are indeed coming, if not necessary in politics, than at least in the way politicians deal with the public and reach out to them over the heads of the mainstream media.

In the meantime, Team Obama announced at the old campaign website BarackObama.com that this website would continue to function in the coming years in order to help citizens “organize locally” to improve their neighborhoods, villages and cities.

“The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on.  Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact.  Our victory on Tuesday night has opened the door to change, but it’s up to all of us to seize this opportunity to bring it about,” the team said in the statement.

“In the coming days and weeks, there will be a great deal more information about where this community will head.”

There is Change.gov, BarackObama.com and other options such as WhiteHouse2.org for the Obama campaign to use to keep in touch with grassroots, to organize locally, regionally and nationally, and to assemble e-mail lists of potential donors for future campaigns. Obama’s campaign and behavior in the aftermath indicate that Obama may very well be the first politician who truly understands the power of the Internet, and who is determined to use it in order to bring the “change” he talked about so frequently during the campaign.

©2008 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

I arrive into DC and the first thing I hear on the metro is the guard announcing after the train pulls out of each station: “welcome to the yes we can service …..”

Outside the White House, a group of students were chanting “yes we can end genocide (in Darfur)”.

And on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in the same spot where Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech 40 years ago, the global citizen advocacy group Avaaz has set up a giant “Yes we can together change the world” board for people to write their messages of congratulations to Obama on.  It is part of a global ‘petition’ Avaaz is organising. 

I was there: albeit at the edge of the Grant Park, Chicago, celebrations.  Couldn’t wish for anymore, given we didn’t have tickets to the main section and also had driven for 6+ hours from Cincinnati that afternoon and only arrived at the park after 9pm, having made stops at the different sets of friends we were staying with.

We parked ourselves fairly close to a jumbo screen on one edge of the park, so we could easily watch the results and Obama’s speech.  Here is the first few minutes of Obama’s victory speech.  Stirring stuff.  

And here are a selection of photos from that night: mainly taken inside the park watching as history unfolded around us.  It was amazing to be part of it; eventhough tiredness and gaining an extra hour in the time change from Cincinnati left us without the energy to continue celebrating in the streets all night. 

"It was the greatest day."