In the aftermath of the London attacks, a handful of conservatives wondered aloud about the connection between Islamic terror and Timor's "liberation". Tim Blair: "Anti-war leftoids, who supported East Timor’s liberation, always seem to forget East Timor when blaming the West for Islamic terror."
Wrong. Says who? Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson.
First, Richardson, speaking at the Sydney Institute on Tuesday, 26 October 2004:
"In this context, I think bin Laden's first known reference to East Timor in November 2001 was designed to strike a chord in South East Asia, especially Indonesia, and his subsequent references to Afghanistan and Iraq must be seen in terms of al-Qa'ida propaganda and recruitment purposes. That is not to diminish the significance of his references to East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq, but to question whether our involvement in those countries is the central driver in al-Qa'ida's targeting of Australia. Otherwise, how do you explain al-Qa'ida's very real interest in Australia, and the targeting of us, before our involvement in those countries. It simply does not make sense."
Downer on ABC Lateline on 16 March 2004:
TONY JONES: Let's come to the issue what is Al Qaeda propaganda, as you put it, and what isn't. First of all would you agree with the proposition that Australians were targeted in Bali because of their intervention in East Timor?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, I don't think Australians were so much targeted as Westerners were targeted in Bali. We don't have evidence that Australians themselves were targeted. We know that 88 Australians were killed. There were a large number of Australians in that nightclub and in Paddy's Bar on that night. But I think this was an attack against Westerners generally because this was a bar that Westerners congregated in. I don't think you can link it directly to the Timor issue."
If right-wing commentators have better intelligence than either man, produce it now. They don't, of course, making their accusations all the more pathetic.
al-Qaeda is as opportunistic as those conservative commentators attempting to rewrite history. When the West was supporting Bin Laden against the Soviets during the 1980s, we heard no complaints from the usual suspects. Today, however, any excuse of absolving Western responsibility for Islamic terror is acceptable. History knows better than to trust these false idols.
Wrong. Says who? Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson.
First, Richardson, speaking at the Sydney Institute on Tuesday, 26 October 2004:
"In this context, I think bin Laden's first known reference to East Timor in November 2001 was designed to strike a chord in South East Asia, especially Indonesia, and his subsequent references to Afghanistan and Iraq must be seen in terms of al-Qa'ida propaganda and recruitment purposes. That is not to diminish the significance of his references to East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq, but to question whether our involvement in those countries is the central driver in al-Qa'ida's targeting of Australia. Otherwise, how do you explain al-Qa'ida's very real interest in Australia, and the targeting of us, before our involvement in those countries. It simply does not make sense."
Downer on ABC Lateline on 16 March 2004:
TONY JONES: Let's come to the issue what is Al Qaeda propaganda, as you put it, and what isn't. First of all would you agree with the proposition that Australians were targeted in Bali because of their intervention in East Timor?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: No, I don't think Australians were so much targeted as Westerners were targeted in Bali. We don't have evidence that Australians themselves were targeted. We know that 88 Australians were killed. There were a large number of Australians in that nightclub and in Paddy's Bar on that night. But I think this was an attack against Westerners generally because this was a bar that Westerners congregated in. I don't think you can link it directly to the Timor issue."
If right-wing commentators have better intelligence than either man, produce it now. They don't, of course, making their accusations all the more pathetic.
al-Qaeda is as opportunistic as those conservative commentators attempting to rewrite history. When the West was supporting Bin Laden against the Soviets during the 1980s, we heard no complaints from the usual suspects. Today, however, any excuse of absolving Western responsibility for Islamic terror is acceptable. History knows better than to trust these false idols.
10 Comments:
You fail to engage with the thrust of Blair's quote.
Here's how I read the Blair quote: Anti-war leftoids blame the west for terrorist attacks - the root causes argument. Many of these same leftoids supported Australia's involvement in East Timor. These same leftoids conveniently ignore the East Timor involvement as a root cause of terror attack. Leftoids ignore East Timor as a root cause of terror attacks because they were in favour of Australia's involvement. It boils down to political point scoring.
Please correct me if I've got it wrong.
The point is that Timor has been used opportunistly by Bin Laden and his ilk to justify atrocities. It's false and Downer and Richardson say so.
You are attributing to Blair a point he does not make. This should be obvious if you've read the Blair post you've linked to.
I am not defending Blair, I'm disputing AL's – and now your - reading of what Blair wrote. If you follow the link to Blair's post you'll see that he regards the so called "root causes" of terrorism as a "persistent myth". In order to spare themselves the embarrassment of having supported a root cause of terrorism the left conveniently omit East Timor as one of the root causes.
It could be I'm reading it wrong but I don't think so.
Big of you to admit that. Thanks.
"If right-wing commentators have better intelligence than either man, produce it now."
"We warned Australia before not to join in [the war] in Afghanistan, and [against] its despicable effort to separate East Timor.
It ignored the warning until it woke up to the sounds of explosions in Bali.
Its government falsely claimed that they [the Australians] were not targeted."
Statement believed by experts to be from Osama Bin Laden himself. There's also statements of the bombers themselves implicating Timor (reg. required).
Personally, I don't think Bali is what some might call a "direct result" of Australia's actions in Timor, I think the "root causes" go a bit deeper. But if someone is going to argue that terrorist attacks are a direct result of our policies (and many have), they look silly when they pick and choose policies they agree with and ignore policies directly mentioned by the men responsible.
(One more thing, if Timor is used for "propaganda and recruitment purposes", then Timor would basically by definition be one of the "root causes" for terrorist attacks. It means Timor inspires people to join al-Qaeda.)
ah Timor - what a marvellous reminder of the perfidy & vileness of Gough Whitlam & Paul Keating
The philosophical roots of Islamism started 100 years ago with the founders of Muslim Brotherhood. I think the attacks would have come regardless of anything the US or Australis did or did not do.
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I just noticed that scare quotes were used with East Timor's liberation.
The description of you as a wannabe kapo is inaccurate. No-one in the pro-Indonesian militia was Jewish.
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