21609_ch00.i-iii.qxd 5/8/04 10:30 AM Page i Bill Clinton called her ‘hostile, combative, and even disrespectful’. Newt Gingrich told her it was because of ‘people like you’ that he warned his mother not to speak to report- ers. The Indonesian military banned her, calling her a ‘threat to national security’. AAmmyy GGooooddmmaann is an internationally acclaimed journalist. She has won some ofthe most prestigious awards in journalism, including the George Polk Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting. She is host of the influential show Democracy Now!which is broadcast on over 200 radio and TV stations in the US and around the world and is a leading voice in a growing grassroots movement. DDaavviidd GGooooddmmaann, Amy’s brother, is an award-winning independent journalist whose articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Mother Jonesand other publications. He is author of five books, including Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa. 21609_ch00.i-iii.qxd 5/8/04 10:30 AM Page ii 21609_ch00.i-iii.qxd 5/8/04 10:30 AM Page iii EXCEPTION T H E TO THE RULERS Exposing America’s War Profiteers, the Media that Love Them and the Crackdown on Our Rights Amy Goodman David Goodman with 21609_ch00.iv-x.qxd 30/7/04 9:54 AM Page iv Ariel Dorfman, “Lessons of a Catastrophe,” The Nation, September 29, 2003. Reprinted with permission of the author. “Another Nameless Prostitute Says the Man Is Innocent” reprinted with permission of Martin Espada. Excerpt from “Patriot Raid” by Jason Halperin reprinted with permission of the author. Reprint of the statement on East Timor, as read on Democracy Now!on September 20, 1999, by Allan Nairn, reprinted with permission of Allan Nairn. Samuel Gardiner, “Truth from These Podia,” Self-published October 8, 2003. Website: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/documents/truth.pdf. Used with permis- sion of the author. First published in Australia and New Zealand in 2004 Copyright © Amy Goodman and David Goodman 2004 Originally published in North America by Hyperion All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Acy 1968(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen &Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email: [email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Goodman, Amy, 1957–. The exception to the rulers: exposing America’s war profiteers, the media that love them and the crackdown on our rights. ISBN 1 74114 530 9. 1. Goodman, Amy, 1957–. 2. Political corruption–United States. 3. Mass media–Political aspects–United States. 4. Journalism–Political aspects–United States. 5. Journalists–United States–Biography. 6. Profiteering–United States. 7. Iraq War, 2003. 8. United States– Politics and government–2001–. I. Goodman, David, 1959–. II. Title. 973.931 Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group, Maryborough, Victoria 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21609_ch00.iv-x.qxd 30/7/04 9:54 AM Page v Contents Introduction: The Silenced Majority 1 1. Blowback 13 2. OILYgarchy 41 3. Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship 70 4. Crackdown 82 5. Smackdown 103 6. Lockdown 126 7. Lies of Our Times 137 8. State Media, American Style 150 9. In Bed with the Military 169 10. Killing the Messenger 181 11. Sanitized 197 12. Going to Where the Silence Is 216 13. Not on Bended Knee 237 14. Psyops Comes Home 251 15. Things Get Messy with Sally Jessy 278 16. Hiroshima Cover-up: How the War Department’s Timesman Won a Pulitzer 293 17. The People’s Airwaves 302 18. Conclusion: Free the Media 310 Notes 319 Index 337 Acknowledgments 343 21609_ch00.iv-x.qxd 30/7/04 9:54 AM Page vi To our Parents, George (1928–1998) and Dorothy Goodman Who taught us to listen To learn To laugh To love 21609_ch01.1-318.qxd 30/7/04 9:53 AM Page 1 Introduction The Silenced Majority THE TROOPS MARCHED SLOWLY up the road, their U.S.- made M-16s in the ready position. It was November 12, 1991, a day that would forever be seared into my memory, and into history. I was in Dili, the capital of East Timor, a small island nation 300 miles north ofAustralia. East Timor had been brutally occupied by Indonesian troops for sixteen years, since they invaded in 1975. The Indonesian military had sealed off East Timor from the out- side world and turned it into their private killing field. A third of the population—200,000 Timorese—had died. It was one of the worst genocides ofthe late twentieth century. I had just attended mass at the main church in Dili with Allan Nairn, journalist and activist, then writing for The New Yorker magazine. After the service, thousands marched toward the Santa 21609_ch01.1-318.qxd 30/7/04 9:53 AM Page 2 2 THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULERS Cruz cemetery to remember Sebastião Gomes, yet another young man killed by Indonesian soldiers. The people came from all over: workplaces, homes, villages, and farms. They traveled through a geography of pain: In almost every other building, Timorese had been held or tortured, disappeared or killed. Whether it was a police station or a military barracks, a hotel or an officer’s house, no place was beyond reach ofthe terror. Not even the church was safe. It was about 8 a.m. when we reached the cemetery. We had asked people along the way: “Why are you marching? Why are you risking your lives to do this?” “I’m doing it for my mother,” one replied. “I’m doing it for my father,” said another. “I’m doing it for freedom.” In the distance, we heard an eerie, synchronized beat. Sud- denly we saw them. Many hundreds of Indonesian troops coming up the road, twelve to fifteen abreast. People grew very quiet. We knew the Indonesian military had committed many mas- sacres in the past, but never in front of Western journalists. Allan suggested we walk to the front ofthe crowd, hoping that our pres- ence could head offwhat looked like an impending attack. I put on my headphones, took out my tape recorder—I usually kept these hidden so as not to endanger Timorese caught talking to us—and held up my microphone like a flag. Allan put his camera above his head, and we went and stood in the middle of the road, about fif- teen yards in front ofthe crowd. By visibly showing the tools ofour trade, we hoped to alert the troops that this time they were being watched. A hush fell over the Timorese. Those in the back could run, but the thousands ofpeople in front were trapped by the cemetery walls that lined both sides of the road. The main sound was the rhythmic thump ofboots hitting the road as the troops marched in unison toward the people. Children whispered behind us. Then, without any warning or provocation, the soldiers rounded the 21609_ch01.1-318.qxd 30/7/04 9:53 AM Page 3 THE SILENCED MAJORITY 3 corner, swept past us, raised their U.S.-made weapons, and opened fire. People were ripped apart. The troops just kept shooting, mov- ing their guns from left to right, killing anyone still standing. A group of soldiers surrounded me. They started to shake my microphone in my face as if to say, This is what we don’t want. Then they slammed me to the ground with their rifle buttsand started to kick me with their boots. I gasped for breath. Allan threw himselfon top ofme to protect me from further injury. The soldiers wielded their M-16s like baseball bats. They slammed them against Allan’s head until they fractured his skull. For a moment, Allan lay in the road in spasm, covered in blood, unable to move. Suddenly, about a dozen soldiers lined up like a firing squad. They put the guns to our heads and screamed, “Politik! Politik!” They were accusing us ofbeing involved in politics, a crime clearly punishable by death. They also demanded, “Australia? Australia?” We understood what was at stake with this question. In Octo- ber 1975, Indonesian soldiers had executed five Australia-based television journalists in an attempt to cover up a military incursion leading up to the December 7, 1975, invasion of East Timor. On December 8, Australian journalist Roger East, the only other Western reporter left in East Timor, was dragged out ofa radio sta- tion in Dili down to the harbor and shot. Almost exactly sixteen years later, as Allan and I lay on the ground surrounded by Indonesian soldiers, we shouted, “No, we’re from America!” They had stripped us ofour possessions, but I still had my passport. I threw it at them. When I regained my breath, I said again, “We’re from America! America!” Finally, the soldiers lowered their guns from our heads. We think it was because we were from the same country their weapons were from. They would have to pay a price for killing us that they never had to pay for killing Timorese.