[ETAN-key] ETAN - Petition to Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair

[John M Miller]

Sign the petition now. - http://www.petitiononline.com/blair01/petition.html

Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair as 
Director of National Intelligence. As Commander in the Pacific, he 
cozied up to the Indonesian military and downplayed human rights 
concerns in the lead up and aftermath of East Timor's independence 
referendum. According to news reports, Obama will appoint his 
intelligence chief this week.

For background go here - http://etan.org/news/2008/12blair.htm.

In addition to signing the petition, you can also cut, paste and 
modify the text below and post it to President-elect Obama's 
transition website. Just go here: http://change.gov/page/s/seattable 
and send a comment.

Thank you and spread the word!  ETAN


President-elect Obama -

We urge you not to appoint Adm. Dennis Blair as Director of National 
Intelligence. During his years as Pacific Commander, Blair actively 
worked to reinstate military assistance and deepen ties to 
Indonesia's military, despite its ongoing human rights violations in 
East Timor and its consistent record of impunity. In 1999, he 
undermined the U.S. efforts to support human rights and 
self-determination in the Indonesian-occupied territory and opposed 
congressional efforts to limit assistance.

In April 1999, just days after Indonesian security forces and their 
militias carried out a brutal, churchyard massacre, Adm. Blair 
delivered a message of 'business-as-usual' to Indonesian General 
Wiranto, then Commander of the Indonesian armed forces. Following 
East Timor's pro-independence vote,  Blair sought the quickest 
possible restoration of military assistance, despite Indonesia's 
highly destructive exit and the failure, which continues  to this 
day, to prosecute the senior officials who oversaw the violence.
This lack of concern for human rights shows that he is unlikely to be 
a champion of reform. I don't believe that this is the kind of change 
people are expecting.



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Read what Noam Chomsky says about ETAN: http://www.etan.org/etan/2008-09app.htm

John M. Miller       john at etan.org
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)

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