tent backroom operators, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, out of the lower quadrants of the twisted bowels of the Nixon White House and raised them to the highest levels of American government, where, in one form or another, overtly and covertly, they have inflicted their primitive ideology and violent psychodramas on the nation, and the world, for more than three decades.

But Ford's enduring legacy is in no way exhausted by the glories of his bloodthirsty political progeny. For the sad occasion of the statesman's death is certainly a most appropriate time to recall what is probably his greatest geopolitical masterstroke: the green-lighting of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor -- an act of state-sponsored terrorism that killed more than 200,000 people. True, George W. Bush has now far surpassed that genocidal benchmark, setting new standards of pointless and barbaric mass murder in Iraq -- but only with the help of Fordians Cheney and Rumsfeld!

I first wrote about the pivotal role that Ford, along with Henry Kissinger (currently the chief outside adviser to the White House, according to Cheney -- hey, it's like the Nixon-Ford era never ended!), back in 2001, just after the release of declassified documents which had been gathered and published by the invaluable National Security Archive (see their report East Timor Revisited for more). As I noted in a follow-up report in May 2006:

...The documents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act – in June 2001, before George W. Bush gutted the law – but only reported in December of that year by the Washington Post. Kissinger and Ford had long denied any prior knowledge of the murderous assault, even though they'd been feasting with the genocidal Indonesian tyrant Suharto the day before the troops went in. However, in a secret State Department cable, Ford and Kissinger actually told Suharto before the attack that "we understand the problem you have and the intentions you have" and "we will not press you on the issue."

Kissinger, ever mindful of the media angle, added in another love note: "We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned."

The murders were carried out with U.S. weaponry. Congress had restricted their use to defensive purposes only, but Kissinger blithely brushed this aside, assuring Suharto that America would "construe" the invasion as "self-defense rather than a foreign operation." Kinda like Hitler did with Poland.

Naturally, the December 2001 story was buried by the usual bull-roaring of Bush praise in the media. In fact, in the same issue of the Post in which news of the declassification first appeared, you might have been diverted from its revelations by a fascinating piece on the editorial page, a long disquisition on the new ordering of the world, penned by one of our most revered elder statesmen:

Henry Kissinger.

I also noted in the May post that on September 21, 1999, Sander Thoenes, a former colleague of mine at The Moscow Times, was murdered in East Timor, almost certainly by Indonesian military forces, while covering the last throes of Jakarta's fury before East Timor won its independence -- another fact to be recorded with the high and mighty deeds of Gerald R. Ford.

[For more on how the enduring legacy of Gerald R. Ford in Indonesia has been erased from history, see this post from Dennis Perrin: Airbrushing the Dead.]

It's unlikely that we will hear very much about these aspects of Gerald R. Ford's enduring legacy in the innumerable encomiums that will fill the corporate media in the coming days. There the focus will undoubtedly be on the way Ford "healed the nation" by thwarting the course of justice and keeping the most depraved operators of the Nixon gang in power. But as a public service, we thought it only fitting to recall these triumphs of the 38th President of the United States. ***

Comments

December 27, 2006

Richard Ryckoff: The Ford Legacy: Accesory to Murder

What one will likely not find anywhere in the empty, mindless commentary on Ford's death - with the endless drivel of what "nice people" he and his family were - is the reality of his biggest crime: an accessory after the fact to the murder of John Kennedy.

Ford was the FBI's (and probably CIA's, also) plant on the Warren Commission. He was one of the keystones in the coverup, especially during his presidency when Congressional investigations into the CIA and assassinations were reaching their zenith. He authored a book about Lee Harvey Oswald, "The Lone Assassin," illegally using secret government documents from the Warren Commission in the service of establishing the lie of Oswald's guilt.

He continued his lying to the end: I watched him on a newscast this morning in a recent interview where he was asked if he still thought Oswald was the lone assassin. He answered in the best, precise lawyer-like equivocation possible -- saying "I have seen no evidence of a conspiracy." The classic "non-denial" denial. The same answer George H. W. Bush has given repeatedly (another thug implicated by FBI documents in the thick of CIA involvement in the assassination -- and whose appointment to head the CIA after Nixon's resignation by Ford, was crucial to the campaign to thwart the exposures re. the assassination by the Congressional investigations).

How many people are aware of Nixon's foreknowledge of John Kennedy's murder (keep in mind he worked intimately with the CIA in the 1950's as vice president, including assassinations)? And that a number of the White House plumbers were the same anti-Castro Cubans who were in Dallas on November 22? Combine this with H.R. Haldeman's statement in his memoirs that Nixon's foremost concern re. Watergate was that it might lead to the uncovering of the truth re. the Kennedy assassination. A pivotal behind the scenes event at the height of Watergate, was Nixon sending John Erhlichman to threaten Richard Helms at the CIA, that they must thwart further investigation of Watergate or it would expose "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" -- which Haldeman said was, in the Nixon White House, code for the Kennedy assassination.

I believe the above indicates the real motives behind both Ford's selection as vice president and his infamous pardon of Richard Nixon. And, yes, along with the front men of Rumsfeld and Cheney, this is what has led to our present social and political disaster.

*******************************************

Airbrushing The Dead

By Dennis Perrin

From: http://redstateson.blogspot.com/2006/04/airbrushing-dead.html

It takes a deft hand to not only erase an active sponsor of genocidal violence, but also hide some 200,000 butchered human beings. Yet Guido Guilliart of the Associated Press did so in a single sentence:

"Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory with an iron fist until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence."

The ol' "iron fist" line. Seemingly descriptive, but in this case, incredibly vague. An honest, accurate account would read:

"Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975, after receiving the green light from then-U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who visited Jakarta on the eve of the Indonesian invasion. Indonesia ruled the tiny half-island territory through terror and mass murder, killing some 200,000 Timorese, nearly a third of East Timor's population, thanks to several billion in military and economic support from the United States. This state of siege lasted until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence. The Clinton administration continued to finance the Indonesian military as it committed more atrocities in a last-ditch attempt to stem Timorese independence. As U.S. Ambassador to Jakarta, Stapleton Roy, told reporters at the time, 'Indonesia matters, East Timor does not.' International pressure and outrage in Congress finally forced President Clinton to halt military aid on September 10, 1999."

Something tells me that if the Soviets or Saddam were financing these atrocities, especially over a 24 year period, their sponsorship would be mentioned. Indeed, we'd never hear the end of it. But knowing when to tell the whole story, if telling it at all, is one of the many tricks a journalist must learn in order to climb the mainstream ladder. An "iron rule," if you will.

3