Paul Wolfowitz, US ambassador to Indonesia 1986-89.Some of the media have been predicting that Egypt will be like Indonesia.
Both have links to terrorism.
Where did the idea of al Qaeda come from?
Back in the 1950s, the CIA and its friends began using Moslem militias to do their dirty work in Indonesia.
In 2003, Australian academic Dr Damien Kingsbury wrote about the Indonesian special forces regiment called Kopassus, which has friendly links to Mossad and the Pentagon.
"Kopassus... set up the Islamic organisation Komando Jihad that hijacked the plane in 1981 and which has since emerged as Jemaah Islamiah." (We must not get back in bed with Kopassus - theage.com.au)
Former Indonesian President Wahid was saying in 2005: "There is not a single Islamic group ... that is not controlled by (Indonesian) intelligence."
'Demcocracy' in Indonesia is a bit of a fiddle.On 16 February 2011, the New York Times suggests that Indonesia's political landscape offers a path for Egypt
What happened in Indonesia after the CIA's 1998 coup against Suharto?
"At the end of 1999, the UNICEF Jakarta office stated that ... Indonesia will sustain a lost generation; a weak and feeble-minded generation resulting from malnutrition, lack of education, and unhealthiness." (Indonesia's foreign debt: imprisoning the people of ... )
How long before we get more clashes of civilisation in Indonesia?
The New York Times (a path for Egypt) reports on the 2010 national congress of Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party, which is linked to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
The congress was held at the Ritz Carlton's ballroom in Jakarta.
Among the keynote speakers was Cameron Hume, then the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, who praised the party, known as the PKS.
According to the New York Times: "Following the 1998 overthrow of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia looked a lot like Egypt now."
Indonesia's Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) wants the Koran to form the basis of law.
The PKS in 2009 got less than 8% of the vote but got four seats in the cabinet of President Yudhoyono, a US trained general.
The PKS was a key force behind Indonesia's 2008 anti-pornography law.
C. Holland Taylor, the Jakarta-based chairman of LibForAll Foundation, which promotes moderate Islam worldwide, says the PKS has been a key factor in the rise of a more austere, intolerant form of Islam in Indonesia.
After two separate attacks in February 2011 by Muslim mobs, in which people were killed and churches torched, a number of PKS leaders said the attackers had been 'provoked' by acts of blasphemy.
aangirfan: FASCIST MOSLEMS BRING SHAME TO INDONESIA
aangirfan: AFTER THE PEOPLE POWER REVOLT
aangirfan: Aceh's Mad Islamists; the CIA.
aangirfan: The Muslim Brotherhood and the CIA in Indonesia; the ...
3 comments:
23 killed in Iraq's Day of Rage protests:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022506889.html
The British Press are remarkably quiet on this story - probably because they are aware that it was the West that put them in power in the first place - and only in the last few years.
One of the writers in today's Independent (Peter Popham) did at least acknowledge that Gadaffi took control of Libya in '69 as a moderniser who got Opec to drive up the value of oil in the region, quelled tribal violence and increased the literacy rate from 17% to 80% - but they added their own spin too - suggesting that power had transformed him into a megalomaniac over the years - and that all of that little or nothing now.
It did however point out one thing that bears up to scrutiny: Gaddafi's coup ousted the Western stooge, King Idris - which puts a question mark under your contention that Gadaffi was a CIA stooge?
Islamic/Jewish radicals might be tempted to see Gadaffi this way though. There's paranoia on both sides.
Britain will cosy up to just about anyone if the conditions are right. Just look at our early support for Idi Amin in Uganda. The problems arise when these fringe figures become so successful, powerful and autonomous that their long term interests for themselves and their own people are seldom in the interests of the West. Economic growth is tolerated but it has its own glass ceiling.
To be honest, I think UK and US security interests are not equalling up too well at present. I think survival instincts are kicking in.
The press have their own schedule to keep. They'll continue to build up the 'democracy sweeping the east' story - because it is a fantastic story - and in two or three years time they'll start tearing holes in it - because that will shift units too. Just like they did with the wars in iraq and afghanistan.
It's just a case of selling todays papers and tomorrow's papers.
How does that dialogue go in the Shipping News?
"you'll have to start by making up some headlines. Short, punchy, dramatic headlines. Now, have a look. What do you see? Tell me the headline.
Horizon Fills with Dark Clouds.
Imminent Storm Threatens Village.
But what if no storm comes?
Village Spared from Deadly Storm.
BW
Very many thanks for the links.
- aangirfan
No worries. Anything that helps furnish the house of wisdom.
The bbc's Frank gardner just made a gaff. He referred to the protesters as opposition forces. He corrected himself very quickly. The very phrase threatened to undermine all the spin they've been giving to events. Opposition forces are phrases more comfortable when talking about coups and civil war. Poor old Frank. He's a very busy man at the moment. It was a fine discursive choice.
Bw
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