What An Asshole #35- Richard Holbrooke

[chlamor]

Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke is "a Vice Chairman of Perseus LLC and is a former Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston and a former Managing Director of Lehman Brothers." He is a Director of Refugees International "serving as chairman of Refugees International from 1996 to 1999, two-time board member of the International Rescue Committee, founding chairman of the American Academy in Berlin, director of the Council on Foreign Relations." [1]

Holbrooke "most recently served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1999 until 2001 and was a member of President William Jefferson Clinton's cabinet. As Assistant Secretary of State for Europe from 1994 until 1996, he was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. From 1993 through 1994, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. During the James Earl Carter, Jr. Administration from 1977 through 1981, he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and was in charge of U.S. relations with China at the time Sino-American relations were normalized in December 1978. After joining the Foreign Service in 1962, he held assignments in Vietnam, the State Department and the White House."

"Ambassador Holbrooke has been a Peace Corps Director in Morocco, the Managing Editor of Foreign Policy, and has written numerous articles, two books (To End A War, a memoir of the Dayton negotiations, and Counsel to the President, Clark M. Clifford's memoir (as co-author), and one volume of The Pentagon Papers. He has received twelve honorary degrees and numerous awards, including six Nobel Peace Prize nominations."

"Ambassador Holbrooke serves as a Board Member of AIG, Coca-Cola, AOL Time Warner and Human Genome Sciences. On the non-governmental organization side, he serves as Chairman of the American Academy in Berlin, a center for U.S.-German cultural exchange, and President/CEO of the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS. He is also a member of the Board of Refugees International (and former Chairman), the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Endowment for Democracy, the American Museum of Natural History, the Telluride Foundation, the International Advisory Board, the Citizens Committee and the Africa-America Institute.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...hard_Holbrooke

Richard Holbrooke

Like Albright, Holbrooke will have major sway over U.S. policy, whether or not he gets an official job. A career diplomat since the Vietnam War, Holbrooke's most recent government post was as President Clinton's ambassador to the U.N. Among the many violent policies he helped implement and enforce was the U.S.-backed Indonesian genocide in East Timor. Holbrooke was an Assistant Secretary of State in the late 1970s at the height of the slaughter and was the point man on East Timor for the Carter Administration.

According to Brad Simpson, director of the Indonesia and East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, "It was Holbrooke and Zbigniew Brzezinski [another top Obama advisor], both now leading lights in the Democratic Party, who played point in trying to frustrate the efforts of congressional human-rights activists to try and condition or stop U.S. military assistance to Indonesia, and in fact accelerated the flow of weapons to Indonesia at the height of the genocide."

Holbrooke, too, was a major player in the dismantling of Yugoslavia and praised the bombing of Serb Television, which killed 16 media workers, as a significant victory. (The man who ordered that bombing, now-retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, is another Obama foreign policy insider who could end up in his cabinet. While Clark is known for being relatively progressive on social issues, as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, he ordered bombings and attacks that Amnesty International labeled war crimes.)

Like many in Obama's foreign policy circle, Holbrooke also supported the Iraq war. In early 2003, shortly after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the UN, where he presented the administration's fraud-laden case for war to the UN (a speech Powell has since called a "blot" on his reputation), Holbrooke said: "It was a masterful job of diplomacy by Colin Powell and his colleagues, and it does not require a second vote to go to war. … Saddam is the most dangerous government leader in the world today, he poses a threat to the region, he could pose a larger threat if he got weapons of mass destruction deployed, and we have a legitimate right to take action."

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/11/222404.php

RICHARD HOLBROOK SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR BEING AN ACCOMPLICE IN THE GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA

According to a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law and an attorney for the Bosnian association of genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica "the Mothers of Srebrenica" professor Francis A. Boyle, Richard Holbrook, who was Assistant U.S. Secretary of State in mid 90s, had a collusion with Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

"All evidence and records at hand indicate that Holbrooke was an accomplice in the genocide," the lawyer told the Azerbaijani Trend News Agency.

“But certainly Holbrooke aided and abetted war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing by Karadzic against the Bosnians,” Boyle, who was official juridical advisor for Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the representative of Bosnian Government at the International Court, said.

On 31 July, speaking to the Hague Tribunal,Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, stated there is an agreement between him and Holbrook, former representative of the United Stated in the UN, who is very often "credited" to be the architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement,but should be actually fully credited for helping the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor commit genocide against Bosnians by ,first of all,supporting the criminal arms embargo against Bosnian government that left Bosnia and the Bosnian people without basic means to protect themselves during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia and by forcing the Bosnian leaders in 1995 to "legalize" the genocidal Serbian fascist creature in Bosnia "RS".

“In 1996, Holbrooke proposed me to abandon the public life and the United States would fulfil its obligations instead,” said Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

U.S. State Department denied the statement. According to an official of the U.S. State Department Sean McCormack, Holbrooke did not conclude any agreement with Karadzic.

However,lots of facts prove there was an agreement between American fascist Richard Holbrooke and Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

Brother of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, Luka Karadzic confirmed there is a bygone agreement between Karadzic and Holbrooke, Interfax, a Russian non-governmental news agency ,reported.

Boyle is confident there is much truth in Karadzic’s statement.

“Of course I was not privy to any personal conversations between Holbrooke and Karadzic. But certainly Holbrooke aided and abetted war crimes, crimes aga

inst humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing by Karadzic against the Bosnians,” Boyle said.

“Holbrooke should be on trial in The Hague with Karadzic as an accomplice in the genocide,” he said.

Moreover, the attorney is confident the same is true for Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Yasushi Akashi, David Owen, Thorvald Stoltenberg, and Carl Bildt.

Boyle said it would be very inconvenient for all of these individuals and their Masters for Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic to defend himself they way he apparently plans to do so.

"Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic knows everything about how Western ‘mediators’ promoted his crimes," said Boyle.

“So I will be keeping a close eye on these war crimes proceedings in order to use this new information against these people on behalf of my clients the Mothers of Srebrenica,” said Boyle.

The task of the Bosnian association of genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica "the Mothers of Srebrenica" is to search for more than 10,000 Bosnian civilians from Srebrenica missing in European largest massacre, committed by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor, on July 11, 1995.

The lawyer is sure that but he will be able to use his new information against these Western ‘mediators’ and diplomats in order to hold them accountable to his clients for the massacre.

“At the end of the day Karadzic will be spending the rest of his life in prison, where he should have been for quite some time in any event,” Boyle said.

Professor Boyle was the one who convinced the former ICTY Prosecutor Carla DelPonte to indict Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic for every crime in the ICTY Statute, including genocide.

According to lawyer, earlier the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was undesirable, but possible for West.

"During the peace negotiations, Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been given visas to come and negotiate in Geneva. And in New York. The State Department let Karadzic come to New York to the Vance-Owen carve-up negotiations, with a US visa. The State Department was obliged under the Geneva Convention to apprehend Karadzic," Boyle said.

"The US had an absolute obligation to apprehend Karadzic if he showed up in New York, and to open an investigation, and to prosecute,instead, they're giving him a visa and secret service protection in New York," he said.

“They defended war criminals and those who committed genocide. These are big powers,” Boyle said.

How Holbrooke Lied His Way into a War
Sam Husseini
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49466

Richard Holbrooke, Samantha Power, and the “Worthy-Genocide” Establishment, by Edward S. Herman
http://one-state.net/herman2.html

Richard Holbrooke: A Hillary Clinton Neocon
by Joshua Frank
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/0...nton-democrat/

200,000 Skeletons in Richard Holbrooke's Closet?
by Sunil Sharma
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articl...ooke-Timor.htm

The Dismantling of Yugoslavia: A Study in Inhumanitarian Intervention (and a Western Liberal-Left Intellectual and Moral Collapse)
Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
http://www.monthlyreview.org/1007herman-peterson1.php

Public Strategies, Inc.

Public Strategies, Inc. says on its website that:

"Public Strategies offers counsel using a new business model:

* defining the public in a new way, as customers, employees, stockholders, voters, and political leaders
* bringing a unique mix of talent combining corporate, government, policy, and entrepreneurial experience
* identifying and managing public risk" [1]

PSI specializes in crisis management PR. Its website boasts, "Public Strategies has helped many corporations involved in high-profile crises successfully weather the storm and better prepare for the possibility of future turbulence. From the 'war room' to the public hearing room, the courtroom and America's living rooms, Public Strategies is many corporations' first phone call for crisis response." PSI's website then extends this invitation to crisis-afflicted corporations: "Trying to put out a fire at this very moment? No matter where you are or what time it is, don't hesitate to call. Our crisis team can work anywhere and they never sleep." [2]

Ownership

In August 2006, the giant advertising and PR conglomerate WPP announced that it had bought PSI. Brand Republic noted that in 2005 PSI employed 175 staff and had revenuse of $38.5 million. [3]

Clients

In 2004, Public Strategies, Inc. was engaged by Diebold Election Systems to perform crisis-management public relations work. Its employee David Bear was given an apparently full-time role with Diebold [4].

In June 2005, PSI was hired by the major video news release (VNR) company, Medialink Worldwide. Medialink retained PSI "to keep an ear to the ground" on discussions and proposals regarding VNR labeling before the U.S. Congress and Federal Communications Commission CEO Laurence Moskowitz told O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Working with Medialink are PSI's John Krueger and William Moore. Moore is the former chief of staff to Rep. David Price, a founding member of the Congressional "Future of American Media Caucus" that was established in April 2005. [5]

In February 2007, O'Dwyer's reported that Public Strategies "is bolstering PR for the record $43.8 billion buyout of Texas power company TXU. ... The buyout is expected to face regulatory, political and environmental concerns and the parties involved immediately moved to head off any immediate fallout. The news release announcing the buyout said the deal has been endorsed by Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council." [6]

Public Strategies Disappearing Advisory Board

In October 2004 PSI stated on its website (now dead link) (Internet Archive copy) (screengrab) that "Public Strategies' Advisory Board is comprised of some of the most highly regarded political, business, and communications experts in the world." However, by July 2005 only one, former Governor Ann Richards, remained.

The other six - José Angel Gurría, former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, James Johnson, Thomas Meredith, former Ambassador Lyndon Olson, and former Ambassador Renato Ruggiero - were no longer listed on the company's website. Nor did Public Strategies mention whether the Advisory Board still existed.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...ategies%2C_Inc.

[chlamor]

Timorese Skeletons in Holbrooke's Closet

by Brooke Shelby Biggs
Nov. 18, 1999

The irony of US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke's visit to East Timor in the coming week will not be lost on any East Timorese whose memories go back to the 1970s.

Holbrooke is scheduled to arrive in Dili Monday, where he will meet with Timorese leader Xanana Gusmão, and then visit East Timorese refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor. He met this week with another East Timorese political leader, José Ramos-Horta, about plans for the UN to take over the temporary administration of the newly independent nation. But Holbrooke may have a tough time convincing the East Timorese that he's suddenly on their side.

Holbrooke was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Ford administration's State Department, an agency largely responsible for the United States' covert aid to Indonesia and its military just before and during that country's invasion of the tiny half-island in 1975. As a State Department official who worked with Holbrooke in the 1970s recently told The New York Times' Anthony Lewis, the department's policy on East Timor "wasn't a policy of benign neglect, it was a policy of malign neglect."

As the department's ranking Pacific Asia official, Holbrooke was then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's right-hand man on matters related to Indonesia. As State Department documents have since revealed, Kissinger knew in advance that Indonesia, fortified with US-suppled weapons, intended to invade East Timor. Not only did the State Department not try to prevent the invasion, it worked after the fact to undermine the United Nations' denunciations of Indonesia for doing so. It was Holbrooke who often took on the task of justifying this policy.

A UN Security Council resolution calling for Indonesia's withdrawal was passed in 1976, with only the US and Japan abstaining. That US abstention was the work of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), who at the time coincidentally had the job Holbrooke now holds: US Representative to the United Nations. As he bragged in his memoirs, Moynihan was assigned the task of undermining the UN's efforts to stop Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East Timor: "The US Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook [against Indonesia]. This task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success."

In later testimony defending US policy in East Timor, Holbrooke repeatedly played down the brutality of the Indonesian occupation. In 1979, Indonesia reported that East Timor's population had shrunk by 10 percent because of "civil war and starvation." Analysts with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International now say the population had shrunk by far more than that, and that the causes were primarily Indonesian military violence against civilians, and starvation caused by the military's use of napalm to deforest the region and poison its farmland. Holbrooke, however, told a Congressional committee that the desperate hunger in East Timor had nothing to do with the Indonesians' invasion, but was the result of years of neglect during Portuguese rule. That the starvation did not reach desperate levels until several years after the Portuguese left the colony evidently did not strike Holbrooke as contradictory.

In his June 1980 testimony before the House subcommittee on foreign relations, Holbrooke dismissed Timorese refugees' accounts of ongoing brutal fighting between the Indonesian military and the resistance guerrillas, saying that the guerrillas had "ceased to pose a significant problem" by early 1979. Twenty years later, it's clear that there was never any halt in the battle.

Holbrooke has made a name for himself in recent years as a champion of the downtrodden in Bosnia and Kosovo; but back in 1980, he declared that Indonesia was "perhaps one of the greatest nations in the world."

Now Holbrooke makes his way to Dili as a white-knight representative of the United Nations, which is responsible for freeing East Timor from Indonesia. Whether he can keep a straight face while doing so remains to be seen.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/spec...holbrooke.html
_________________

[anaxarchos]

East Timor was the only part of the Indonesian islands which was colonized by Portugal rather than by Holland. During the Second World War, a very significant resistance developed on the Portuguese half of the island and over 60,000 of Timor's population of less than a million were killed. In the 1960s, a national liberation movement called the Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN) began fighting a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonialism.

In 1965, the post colonial and nonaligned Indonesian government of Sukarno was overthrown by a military junta led by General Suharto, who had been a colonial cop and a Japanese collaborator during WW2. Suharto's coup was engineered by the CIA and led to one of the most murderous purges in postwar history. Nearly 500,000 members and sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were killed.

In 1975, Portuguese fascism was finally overthrown and the Portuguese colonies rapidly moved towards independence. The elected government in East Timor was led by FRETILIN but was in power only a few days before Timor was invaded by Indonesia. FRETILIN resisted in a twenty five year guerrilla war which saw the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese (half by murder and the other half by starvation and disease) - fully 1 in 5 of the entire population. East Timor finally won its independence in 2002.

Holbrooke was the architect of that genocide, increasing the tempo of Indonesion "counterinsurgency" many times during his tenure, increasing military aid to the Indonesians as often, using every trick to block sanctions against Indonesia in the UN security council and war crimes investigations by both the U.S. Congress and the Hague Tribunal.

This is not just an asshole, but a world-class dog. Obama might as well recruit from the SS into this "bipartisan team"...


Nicolau dos Reis Lobato
Founder of FRETILIN
First Prime Minister of East Timor (November 28 to December 7, 1975)
Murdered by the Indonesian Army on December 31, 1978

[chlamor]

East Timor was the only part of the Indonesian islands which was colonized by Portugal rather than by Holland. During the Second World War, a very significant resistance developed on the Portuguese half of the island and over 60,000 of Timor's population of less than a million were killed. In the 1960s, a national liberation movement called the Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN) began fighting a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonialism.

In 1965, the post colonial and nonaligned Indonesian government of Sukarno was overthrown by a military junta led by General Suharto, who had been a colonial cop and a Japanese collaborator during WW2. Suharto's coup was engineered by the CIA and led to one of the most murderous purges in postwar history. Nearly 500,000 members and sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were killed.

In 1975, Portuguese fascism was finally overthrown and the Portuguese colonies rapidly moved towards independence. The elected government in East Timor was led by FRETILIN but was in power only a few days before Timor was invaded by Indonesia. FRETILIN resisted in a twenty five year guerrilla war which saw the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese (half by murder and the other half by starvation and disease) - fully 1 in 5 of the entire population. East Timor finally won its independence in 2002.

Holbrooke was the architect of that genocide, increasing the tempo of Indonesion "counterinsurgency" many times during his tenure, increasing military aid to the Indonesians as often, using every trick to block sanctions against Indonesia in the UN security council and war crimes investigations by both the U.S. Congress and the Hague Tribunal.

This is not just an asshole, but a world-class dog. Obama might as well recruit from the SS into this "bipartisan team"...


Nicolau dos Reis Lobato
Founder of FRETILIN
First Prime Minister of East Timor (November 28 to December 7, 1975)
Murdered by the Indonesian Army on December 31, 1978

Hey anax. While putting this out there I have to say just calling this man an asshole seemed a bit frivolous.

30,000 more troops heading into Afghanistan and Biden says expect more casualties with no hesitation whatsoever. And Mr. Holbrooke is in charge of the grand business plan...

[anaxarchos]

Hey anax. While putting this out there I have to say just calling this man an asshole seemed a bit frivolous.

30,000 more troops heading into Afghanistan and Biden says expect more casualties with no hesitation whatsoever. And Mr. Holbrooke is in charge of the grand business plan...

The same occurred to me but waddya gonna do? He is far from unique.

One of the little mentioned aspects of American governance is this revolving door between the huge banks and their "foreign policy experts". It is even more striking than the one between former military and the defense industries or former congresspeople and lobbying firms. It appears that it is no step at all to walk from a major bank into an upper position in the secret police... or in Murder, inc., and then back again. Despite my hatred for the banks, I can't imagine how the skills correlate or where in the loan department one picks torture techniques or genocidal mania.

Besides, you would think they would be afraid of soiling their fancy shoes.

[Kid of the Black Hole]

If economics is the dismal science, then actuaries are the grim (and grimy, alligator loafers aside -- or is ostrich in now?) high priests -- I should know I almost got conned into being one.

And ain't that what all these guys really are at heart?

[chlamor]

The Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke
Obama's Neocon

By JOSHUA FRANK

In wee morning hours on Friday, January 23, a U.S. spy plane killed at least 15 in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. It was Barack Obama’s first blood and the U.S.’s first violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty under the new administration. The attack was an early sign that the newly minted president may not be overhauling the War on Terror this week, or even next.

As the U.S. government fired upon alleged terrorists in the rugged outback of Pakistan, Obama was back in Washington appointing Richard Holbrooke as a special U.S. representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, like the remote control bombing that claimed human life, Obama’s vision for the region, in the embodiment of Holbrooke, may not be a drastic departure from the failed Bush doctrine. Or a departure at all.

"[Holbrooke] is one of the most talented diplomats of his generation," Obama said during a January 22 press conference at the State Department. In his speech Obama declared that both Afghanistan and Pakistan will be the "central front" in the War on Terror. "There, as in the Middle East, we must understand that we cannot deal with our problems in isolation," he said.

Despite Obama’s insistence that Holbrooke is qualified to leave the U.S.’s new efforts in the War on Terror, history seems to disagree.

In 1975, during Gerald Ford's administration, Indonesia invaded East Timor and slaughtered 200,000 indigenous Timorese. The Indonesian invasion of East Timor set the stage for a long and bloody occupation that recently ended after an international peacekeeping force was introduced in 1999.

Transcripts of meetings among Indonesian dictator Mohamed Suharto, Gerald Ford, and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger have shown conclusively that Kissinger and Ford authorized and encouraged Suhatro's murderous actions. "We will understand and will not press you on the issue [of East Timor]," said President Ford in a meeting with Suharto and Kissinger in early December 1975, days before Suharto's bloodbath. "We understand the problem and the intentions you have," he added.

Henry Kissinger also stressed at the meeting that "the use of US-made arms could create problems," but then added, "It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation." Thus, Kissinger's concern was not about whether US arms would be used offensively, but whether the act could be interpreted as illegal. Kissinger went on: "It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly."

After Gerald Ford's loss and Jimmy Carter's ascendance into the White House in 1976, Indonesia requested additional arms to continue its brutal occupation, even though there was a supposed ban on arms trades to Suharto's government. It was Carter's appointee to the Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Richard Holbrooke, who authorized additional arms shipments to Indonesia during this supposed blockade. Many scholars have noted that this was the period when the Indonesian suppression of the Timorese reached genocidal levels.

During his testimony before Congress in February 1978, Professor Benedict Anderson cited a report that proved there was never an US arms ban, and that during the period of the alleged ban the US initiated new offers of military weaponry to the Indonesians:

"If we are curious as to why the Indonesians never felt the force of the U.S. government's 'anguish,' the answer is quite simple. In flat contradiction to express statements by General Fish, Mr. Oakley and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Richard Holbrooke, at least four separate offers of military equipment were made to the Indonesian government during the January–June 1976 'administrative suspension.' This equipment consisted mainly of supplies and parts for OV-10 Broncos, Vietnam War era planes designed for counterinsurgency operations against adversaries without effective anti-aircraft weapons, and wholly useless for defending Indonesia from a foreign enemy. The policy of supplying the Indonesian regime with Broncos, as well as other counterinsurgency-related equipment has continued without substantial change from the Ford through the present Carter administrations."

If we track Holbrooke's recent statements, the disturbing symbiosis between him and figures like überhawk Paul Wolfowitz is startling.

"In an unguarded moment just before the 2000 election, Richard Holbrooke opened a foreign policy speech with a fawning tribute to his host, Paul Wolfowitz, who was then the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington," reported First of the Month following the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The article continued: "Holbrooke, a senior adviser to Al Gore, was acutely aware that either he or Wolfowitz would be playing important roles in the next administration. Looking perhaps to assure the world of the continuity of US foreign policy, he told his audience that Wolfowitz's 'recent activities illustrate something that's very important about American foreign policy in an election year, and that is the degree to which there are still common themes between the parties.' The example he chose to illustrate his point was East Timor, which was invaded and occupied in 1975 by Indonesia with US weapons – a security policy backed and partly shaped by Holbrooke and Wolfowitz. 'Paul and I,' he said, 'have been in frequent touch to make sure that we keep [East Timor] out of the presidential campaign, where it would do no good to American or Indonesian interests."

In sum, Holbrooke has worked vigorously to keep his bloody campaign silent. The results of which appear to have paid off. In chilling words, Holbrooke describes the motivations behind support of Indonesia's genocidal actions:

"The situation in East Timor is one of the number of very important concerns of the United States in Indonesia. Indonesia, with a population of 150 million people, is the fifth largest nation in the world, is a moderate member of the Non-Aligned Movement, is an important oil producer – which plays a moderate role within OPEC – and occupies a strategic position astride the sea lanes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans ... We highly value our cooperative relationship with Indonesia."

If his bloody history in East Timor is anything, it's a sign that Richard Holbrooke is not qualified to lead the US's policies in a new direction in today's Middle East -- a region that has been brutalized by the illegitimate War on Terror.

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank01272009.html