“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” isnsi of tl)e QCtmesirnVol. 1 No. 12 December 1999rnDuring the Indonesian crisis in September,rntlie American media faithfully toedrnthe U.S. government line. “East Timor isrnnot Kosovo!” declared Albright, Berger,rnand Cohen; “Amen!” responded thernFourth Estate. But commentary on America’srnhypocritical diplomacy was abundantrnabroad. In the Toronto Sun (Septemberrn14), Lorrie Goldstein wrote:rnIf East Timor was [sic] Kosovo,rnwe a l l know what would havernhappened by now. U.S. PresidentrnBill Clinton would haverngone on national television torndenounce Indonesian presidentrnB.J. Habibie as a new Hitlerrnand a threat to world peace.rnThere would have been American-rnled cries (with a hearty,rn”Me too!” from Jean Chretienrnand Lloyd Axworthy) to indictrnIndonesia’s army generals forrnwar crimes. The media would bernreferring to what is now happeningrnin East Timor as a “newrnHolocaust.” The reason none ofrnt h i s is happening i s obvious.rnThe United States, the keyrnplayer in both conflicts, regardsrnSerbia as a pariah staternand Indonesia as a valued tradingrnpartner.rnThe U.S. has given more than moralrnsupport to Indonesia; in fact, it has secretlyrntrained Indonesian death squads. Accordingrnto the Observer of London (“HowrnUS trained butchers of Timor,” by Ed Vulliamyrnand Antony Barnett):rnIndonesian military forcesrnlinked to the carnage in EastrnTimor were trained in the UnitedrnStates under a covert programmernsponsored by the ClintonrnAdministration whichrncontinued until last year . . .rnThe US programme, codenamedrn”Iron Balance,” was hiddenrnfrom l e g i s l a t o r s and the publrni c when Congress curbed therno f f i c i a l schooling of Indonesrni a ‘ s army after a massacre inrn1991. Principal among thernunits that continued to berntrained was the Kopassus-anrne l i t e force with a bloody h i s ­toryrn—which was more rigorouslyrntrained by the US than any otherrnIndonesian unit, accordingrnto Pentagon documents . . .rnKopassus was b u i l t up withrnAmerican expertise despite USrnawareness of i t s role in therngenocide of about 200,000 peoplernin the years after the invasionrnof East Timor in 1975,rnand in a s t r i n g of massacresrnand disappearances since thernbloodbath. Amnesty Internationalrndescribes Kopassus asrn”responsible for some of thernworst human r i g h t s violationsrnin Indonesia’s history.”rnThe Pentagon documents show that therntraining was in military expertise thatrncould be used internally against civilians,rnsuch as urban guerrilla warfare, surveillance,rncounter-intelligence, sniper marksmanship,rnand “psychological operations.”rnSpecific commanders thus trained havernbeen tied to the current violence and tornsome of the worst massacres of the past 20rnyears, including the slaughter at Kraras inrn1983 and at Santa Cruz in 1991. ThernU.S.-trained commanders include the sonin-rnlaw of the late dictator General Suharto,rnPrabowo Subianto.rnThere is one reason why bombing Indonesiarnhad always been out of the question:rnIt is a Muslim nation—the most populousrnone, at that—and the regime inrnWashington is fond of Muslims. Butrncourting Islam, flattering it, and hoping tornmake it benign may not work. In the UnitedrnStates, it is not p.c. to say so aloud, butrnsuch restraint does not apply to WilliamrnReese-Mogg of the London Times. OnrnSeptember 20, he wrote that East Timor,rnChechnya, Kosovo, Iraq, and Kashmir arernall parts of a single global problem:rnThe danger l i e s in the reactionrnbetween this revival of Islamicrnconfidence, backed by arngrowing population, and thernfears of the neighbouringrnc i v i l i s a t i o n s . All the neighbouringrnc i v i l i s a t i o n s feel potrne n t i a l l y under threat. ThernWest i s concerned about o i l ,rnnuclear proliferation, immigration,rnthe survival of Israelrnand human r i g h t s . Thernthreat to Russia is even morernd i r e c t , from the current wavernof terrorism and claims for independencern. The Serbs fear arngreater Albania. India fearsrnPakistan and p o t e n t i a l l y thernalienation of the 100 millionrnMuslims in India i t s e l f . Chinarni s concerned about CentralrnAsia and about the Chinese inrnIndonesia. The non-Muslimrnpopulation of sub-SaharanrnAfrica has anxieties as well.rnIslam is an unresolved problem, concludesrnRees-Mogg, and the West needs tornface up to the fact of its revival: “Thernworld is not going to find it easy to bind uprnthe ‘bloody borders’ of Islam.”rnThat those bloody borders may soonrnmove across the Atlantic does not concernrnour rulers, not because they are unawarernof the threat but because some of them dornnot expect the United States to be aroundrnfor much longer In a laudatory profile inrnthe New York Times (September 21)—thernsecond in six months!—Deputy Secretaryrnof State Strobe Talbott declared his beliefrnthat the United States may not exist in itsrncurrent form in the 21 st century becausernnationhood will become obsolete.rnBut far more remarkable was Talbott’srnespousal of ideological globalism beforernhe joined Clinton’s team. In an essay inrnTime magazine (“The Birth of the GlobalrnNation,” July 20, 1992) he stated that hernwas looking forward to government runrnby “one global authority.”rnHere is one o p t i m i s t ‘ s reasonrnfor believing unity will prevailrn. . . within the next hundredrnyears . . . nationhood asrnDECEMBER 1999/23rnrnrn