Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 26, 2008 By Mark Mazzetti
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged arms upgrades and other Pentagon support for Indonesia on Monday, as the Bush administration forged closer ties to the military of a country still viewed skeptically by some in Congress for past human rights abuses.
During a series of meetings in Jakarta, Mr. Gates tried to broaden the focus of American relations with Indonesia beyond the fight against terrorist networks, giving only passing mention to the threats they represent, in a speech before a group of foreign policy experts.
Instead, he emphasized the emergence of Indonesia as the “bedrock” of Southeast Asia and vowed that the United States would help to shore up the country’s aging military hardware. He was not specific in the types of upgrades he would approve, but Indonesian officials have, among other things, sought replacement parts for its fleet of C-130 cargo planes.
Aides to Mr. Gates said that in the years immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, American policy toward Indonesia was driven too often by the Bush administration’s demands for an aggressive campaign against terrorist cells in Indonesia.
During a visit in 2006 by Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary at the time, his Indonesian counterpart, Juwano Sudarsono, publicly warned the Bush administration that its counterterrorism policies were overbearing and self-defeating.
In his speech on Monday, Mr. Gates occasionally struck humble chords, admitting that at times the United States had been “arrogant” in dealings with other countries.
Mr. Gates called the development of Indonesia’s military “a key component” of relations between the United States and Indonesia, and “a vital aspect of Indonesia’s emergence as a prosperous and stable democracy with global reach.”
In 1992, Congress restricted arms sales and most American training for Indonesia, citing human rights abuses by the Indonesian military under Indonesia’s longtime dictator, Gen. Suharto. Internal dissent forced Mr. Suharto to resign in 1998, but Congress enacted new curbs the next year, after a rampage by an army-backed militia in what was then East Timor Province, and again in 2003, after the killings of two American teachers in Papua Province in 2002.
Meanwhile, Islamic separatists within Indonesia and Al Qaeda were believed to have begun collaborating. Security experts blamed the groups for a series of terrorist strikes on Indonesian territory, including the bombings in Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people. Military ties between Jakarta and Washington were restored in late 2005.
Indonesia has largely emerged from the economic woes that crippled the country in the late 1990s, but is still viewed by many Western security experts as a potential hotbed of Islamic radicalism. More recently, the Indonesian government has been credited for cracking down on militants through a combination of successful police work and a campaign to turn the population against them.
Senior American military officials have long railed against the restrictions on training and equipping Indonesia’s military imposed by Congress, saying they served only to weaken American influence over a country of growing strategic importance.
During a visit to Jakarta last September, the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, signed an agreement with Indonesian officials to use a $1 billion Russian loan to sell the country Kilo-class submarines, helicopters and tanks.
American officials worry that even though the ban on weapons sales has been lifted, labyrinthine procedures and what Mr. Gates on Monday called “bureaucratic inertia” could still hold up the flow of military hardware.
February 26, 2008 By Mark Mazzetti
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged arms upgrades and other Pentagon support for Indonesia on Monday, as the Bush administration forged closer ties to the military of a country still viewed skeptically by some in Congress for past human rights abuses.
During a series of meetings in Jakarta, Mr. Gates tried to broaden the focus of American relations with Indonesia beyond the fight against terrorist networks, giving only passing mention to the threats they represent, in a speech before a group of foreign policy experts.
Instead, he emphasized the emergence of Indonesia as the “bedrock” of Southeast Asia and vowed that the United States would help to shore up the country’s aging military hardware. He was not specific in the types of upgrades he would approve, but Indonesian officials have, among other things, sought replacement parts for its fleet of C-130 cargo planes.
Aides to Mr. Gates said that in the years immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, American policy toward Indonesia was driven too often by the Bush administration’s demands for an aggressive campaign against terrorist cells in Indonesia.
During a visit in 2006 by Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary at the time, his Indonesian counterpart, Juwano Sudarsono, publicly warned the Bush administration that its counterterrorism policies were overbearing and self-defeating.
In his speech on Monday, Mr. Gates occasionally struck humble chords, admitting that at times the United States had been “arrogant” in dealings with other countries.
Mr. Gates called the development of Indonesia’s military “a key component” of relations between the United States and Indonesia, and “a vital aspect of Indonesia’s emergence as a prosperous and stable democracy with global reach.”
In 1992, Congress restricted arms sales and most American training for Indonesia, citing human rights abuses by the Indonesian military under Indonesia’s longtime dictator, Gen. Suharto. Internal dissent forced Mr. Suharto to resign in 1998, but Congress enacted new curbs the next year, after a rampage by an army-backed militia in what was then East Timor Province, and again in 2003, after the killings of two American teachers in Papua Province in 2002.
Meanwhile, Islamic separatists within Indonesia and Al Qaeda were believed to have begun collaborating. Security experts blamed the groups for a series of terrorist strikes on Indonesian territory, including the bombings in Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people. Military ties between Jakarta and Washington were restored in late 2005.
Indonesia has largely emerged from the economic woes that crippled the country in the late 1990s, but is still viewed by many Western security experts as a potential hotbed of Islamic radicalism. More recently, the Indonesian government has been credited for cracking down on militants through a combination of successful police work and a campaign to turn the population against them.
Senior American military officials have long railed against the restrictions on training and equipping Indonesia’s military imposed by Congress, saying they served only to weaken American influence over a country of growing strategic importance.
During a visit to Jakarta last September, the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, signed an agreement with Indonesian officials to use a $1 billion Russian loan to sell the country Kilo-class submarines, helicopters and tanks.
American officials worry that even though the ban on weapons sales has been lifted, labyrinthine procedures and what Mr. Gates on Monday called “bureaucratic inertia” could still hold up the flow of military hardware.