{"id":211,"date":"2009-01-29T08:05:24","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T08:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/obamas-intelligence-director-d.html"},"modified":"2009-01-29T08:05:24","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T08:05:24","slug":"obamas-intelligence-director-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/obamas-intelligence-director-d.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and East Timor genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Farber sounded the alarm<\/a> last month about President Obama’s nominee for National Intelligence Director, Denis Blair, who was complicit in genocide in East Timor<\/a> during the Clinton Administration. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, no questions were asked about East Timor<\/a> during Blair’s confirmation hearing. Blair also refused to categorically state<\/a> what the attorney general already said explicitly, that waterboarding constituted torture.<\/p>\n

This is not good. Blair’s nomination needs to be opposed on basic moral principle. Recall President Obama’s own words<\/a> during the Inauguration speech:<\/p>\n

And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today,
\nfrom the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was
\nborn: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman
\nand child who seeks a future of peace<\/b> and dignity, and we are ready to
\nlead once more<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just words?<\/p>\n

If Obama, who has lived in Indonesia (a fact he trumpets), is unaware of the history of the genocide in East Timor, then that’s quite an embarrassment, but it can be fixed, starting with replacing Blair as nominee for top spy. If he knows and nominated Blair anyway, then there’s a deeper problem that isn’t so easily fixed. But either way, the nomination of Blair must not be allowed to pass unchallenged. <\/p>\n

UPDATE: Good, it seems that he was asked about it, only to deny it outright<\/a>. I don’t know if it was followed up or not in further questioning. We will have to wait for the transcript of the confirmation hearing to see for sure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Farber sounded the alarm last month about President Obama’s nominee for National Intelligence Director, Denis Blair, who was complicit in genocide in East Timor during the Clinton Administration. Unfortunately, no questions were asked about East Timor during Blair’s confirmation hearing. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}