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Article: The right discovers East Timor. (concern for Timorese people used as a political weapon)(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- May 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Never underestimate the power of partisanship to alter the consciousness of America's pundits and policymakers. In the final months of 1996, soon after the Clinton-Riady-Lippo scandal broke, rightwingers throughout the media and political establishment suddenly became champions of human rights for the people of East Timor, whose plight had until then gone unnoticed in both official Washington and among the punditocracy. For some, this meant breaking twenty years of silence on the subject; for others, it required a dose of amnesia to block out their own complicity.
Former Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist William Safire may have experienced the ...