Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"Investigative journalist Allan Nairn reveals that U.S. intelligence officers in Jakarta are secretly tapping the cell phones and reading the SMS text messages of Indonesian civilians. Some of the Americans involved in the spy operation work out of the Jakarta headquarters of Detachment 88, a US-trained and–funded paramilitary unit which is part of Kopassus, the Indonesian army’s special forces famed for abduction, torture and assassination. The news comes as Congress weighs whether to send more military aid to Indonesia....
AMY GOODMAN: Detachment 88 was recently involved in the arrest of a West Papuan human rights lawyer who had sent a text message critical of the Indonesian military and the president, Yudhoyono. The lawyer, Iwangin Sabar Olif, was charged with “incitement and insulting the head of state.”
Sources have also told Nairn that US intelligence is providing covert intelligence aid to Kopassus, the Indonesian army’s Red Beret special forces famed for abduction, torture and assassination. These disclosures come as the US Congress is deciding whether to send more military aid to Indonesia.
Allan Nairn is an award-winning investigative journalist who has reported from Indonesia for years. I reached him on the phone in Indonesia yesterday and asked him to lay out his findings......
AMY GOODMAN: How do you know that Americans are involved?
ALLAN NAIRN: Three sources have told me this, one of them a person who works regularly with the Indonesian security forces and who has spoken directly formally with the US intelligence people involved in the phone tapping. And the presence of the Americans was confirmed by two Indonesian officials who work inside Detachment 88. And further, when I asked the US embassy in Jakarta today for comment, they at first issued a blanket denial, but then, twenty minutes later, revoked that denial and issued a statement which did not deny the presence of US phone tappers inside these units and did not deny US covert intelligence assistance for Kopassus.....
AMY GOODMAN: In the piece you wrote, you talk about classified Kopassus manuals that talk about the technique of terror. Can you explain?.....
AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned the Detachment 88 mentored by Cofer Black, well known for his CIA ties, also vice chair of Blackwater and a top adviser to the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney .....
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Kopassus—the Indonesian military is hated by the Indonesian public. The term, if you talk to regular people, poor people in the neighborhoods, the term they use for the Indonesian military is “sadists.” And everybody knows that. In fact, it’s so well known that the Indonesian military a couple of years ago even put up an entry on their website in which they denied that they were sadists, because they know that that’s what the people call them.
Within that military, the most-hated and–feared unit is the Kopassus, because they are the most highly trained, they are the most specialized in torture and abduction. And they also are the unit that has historically been closest to the United States. Previously, Kopassus has received courses from US Green Berets and other units in matters like advanced sniper technique, psychological operations, reconnaissance, surveillance, air assault, etc. So Kopassus is really the worst of the worst in an army that has massacred hundreds of thousands of Indonesian civilians since they seized control back in 1965......
ALLAN NAIRN: Yes. It’s very important, when we talk about terrorism, to be objective. Terrorism is the killing of civilians for political purposes. By that standard, the jihadist groups, like those that did the Bali bombings, are certainly terrorists, and they’ve killed several hundred civilians in Indonesia. But by this standard, the Indonesian military and police are also terrorists, and terrorists on a much larger scale. They have killed many hundreds of thousands of Indonesian civilians.
President Bush has what Karl Rove has called “the Bush doctrine,” and that is, “You aid a terrorist, you are a terrorist.” And if we apply that standard, when the US is aiding the Indonesian armed forces and the Indonesian police, which meet the objective definition of “terrorism,” the definition included in the USA PATRIOT Act, i.e. killing civilians for political purposes, then Bush, the US, by the US’s own standard, by the Bush doctrine, is engaging in a terrorist action by aiding terrorists, and he should stop. We should stop aiding any forces that kill civilians."
To read his full report, you can visit his website at newsc.blogspot.com
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