Ronnie Dugger and Mary Willis Walker on Texas Books THE TEXAS

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES OCTOBER 1, 1999 • $2.25 EEL OF MISFORTUNE Debbie Nathan on the Texas Legal Lottery

And from East Timor: Gail Rothe observes an election, Noam Chomsky recalls the brutal history, and Allan Nairn reports on the chain of command

uisPi pr‘ 0 4 DIALOGUE

SENSE OF THE ABSURD If that article by Ronnie Dugger ("South To- ward Home," August 20) was intended as a oz7 3e313- Op 443Gai:a tribute to the late Willie Morris, then God for- bid Dugger ever from writing any eulogy for 6 Ua 4AceS me. Under the guise of praising Willie as a sweet, gentle man Dugger revealed nothing so much as his long-time envy of Morris, who outstripped him as a writer, editor, and human- EAST TiMoR...YEA1.1... IT'S TIME .5oMEI3oDyl ist. Willie Morris had qualities Ronnie Dugger fails to share: a sense of the absurd, a sense of THEY PESERVE To BE NATO...OR THE IMF... humor, a sense of loyalty to old friends, an ap- preciation of what they had done for him, and INDEPENDENT FROM OR...U14..„ UNICEF true talent. I have written for the Observer and long OR WAS DID SOMETHING! have supported it for doing the kind of hard- IT scrabble ditch-digging political reporting that ETHioNA? Fat Cat Texas Dailies won't do. People such as Bill B rammer, Molly Ivins, Kay Northcott, Greg Olds, Michael King, and, yes, Willie Morris worked for Dugger for peanuts and the love of what they did. It is sad and sickening to see Willie Morris repaid by mean-spirited com- ments that need not have been made. I am scheduled to assist with an Observer fundraiser in Washington October 7, and I shall go through with it: but let me be clear that I am doing it for the Texas Observer and the dedi- cated people who work for it and have worked for it — not for Ronnie Dugger who could write such a chickenshit piece about an old and honorable friend who never did harm. Larry L. King Washington, D.C.

WORTH A THOUSAND TOONS Congratulations! The "Got Coke?" parody in the latest issue (The Back Page, September 3) is absolutely su- perb. As an editorial cartoonist, there's no way I could possibly have done anything to compare. Don Cooper Hereford

ANSWER THE QUESTION George W. Bush has said in so many denials that for sure he has not used cocaine since he was twenty-eight years old ("The Runner Stumbles," Editorial, September 3). I would think the Amer- of the United States? The man should either cause of its cost, but because of the leadership's ican public would like to know if he was flying come clean, or remove himself from the presi- pathological hatred of the President. The Air Texas Air National Guard jets between twenty- dential race. Force won a great victory for the Clinton Ad- two and twenty-eight, if he was also flying on co- His father drove me from the Republican ministration's foreign policy, in a role that the caine simultaneously. I think all us would further Party in 1992. We needed better than his father Republican House leadership opposed (much to like to know, if there was a question on his appli- then, we need better than him now. their embarrassment), and the House vote on cation for the Texas Air National Guard asking if Ronald Drum the F-22 is the Republican revenge on the U.S. he had used drugs, and how he answered? It Falls Church, Virginia Air Force for successfully carrying out the or- would seem to me that someone who raises the ders of the Commander in Chief.... possibility that he might have done both simulta- UNKIND CUT Secondly, Galbraith's alternative is an up- neously is not fit to be president of United States, In the last issue, Professor Galbraith railed graded F-16. The F-16 first entered Squadron or perhaps even the Governor. against the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft, and was service twenty-five years ago. Galbraith's logic Having served my country with a top secret proposing a variant of the F-16 as an alternative would have had the U.S. Army Air Force en- clearance during the Vietnam War period, per- ("Kill the Raptor!" September 3, by James K. gage the Luftwaffe's ME-109 fighter planes sonal secrets like Mr. Bush's only open one up Galbraith with John Robert Behrman). Now, I with a hotrod Sopwith Camel, and defend the for blackmail and extortion. Who knows what believe in arms reduction myself, but cutting nation against the Soviet Union's best fighters someone might have done in his past that could the F-22 is not the way to achieve real arms re- with F-86s. In the Kosovo action, the U.S. Air be used to blackmail him into actions that duction. The first point I would make is that the would not be in the best interests of the people Republican House opposes the aircraft, not be- See "Dialogue," page 29

2 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 THIS ISSUE

DEPARTMENTS FEATURES Observations 24 Dialogue 2 Ronnie Dugger on the Life Eyewitness in East Timor by Gail Rothe 7 of Lady Bird Johnson Editorial 3 Austinite Gail Rothe watched the East Timorese vote for BOOKS AND THE CULTURE Political Gunplay independence, and then the gathering Indonesian storm. by Louis Dubose The Land of Metal 27 The U.S. Roots of the East Timor Slaughter 9 Poetry by Robin Scofield Left Field 5 by Noam Chomsky Flying Pigs, Having a Cow in From the beginning, U.S. relations with Indonesia have The Ins and Outs of Fort Hood & The Bush Beat produced a brutal occupation for the people of East Timor. Kenneth McDuff 28 Book Review by Mary Willis Walker Political Intelligence 16 U.S. Complicity by Allan Nairn 11 Pursued by Jakarta, journalist Allan Nairn reports on the U.S. Afterword 30 Molly Ivins 22 military's malign indifference to the Indonesian assault. Playing Monopoly by Jim Wright The Political Follies The Back Page 32 Wheel of Misfortune by Debbie Nathan 12 A Simple Plan for Peace Jim Hightower 23 If you get arrested in Texas, you'd better have your own lawyer by Allan Nairn Ambulance Choosers, Export on call. What happens to those who don't is just criminal. Hijinks & Consumer Screwing Cover Art by Michael Krone EDITORIAL Wave of Evil ne of the signature characteristics cans were shot to death by handguns — the right-to-carry bill, it was a waste of the of the Bush presidential candidacy along with the eight who died at Wedg- Senate's time to consider it. O is its lack of programmatic solu- wood Baptist Church. Bush is part of the A few days after declaring the measure tions to problems government might solve problem. It is not just that he doesn't dead, Bullock resurrected it. According to — or at least attempt to solve. So it's no believe in "activist government." He Stuart Eskenazi of the Houston Press, Bul- surprise that when seven people are killed owes his candidacy to handguns — and lock called Patterson. "The Senate should by a gunman in a Fort Worth church, Bush Bob Bullock. pass it," Bullock said, "and we don't care is adrift in platitudes. The shootings were As is often the case in Texas politics dur- what Richards wants to do." The Senate caused by a "wave of evil" sweeping the ing the past ten years, there's a Bullock passed the bill in the form of a country. It was a "terrible tragedy made backstory. In 1993, the "right to carry" leg- voter referendum. Richards worse by the fact it took place in a house of islative caucus — led by Republican Jerry vetoed it, as she had hope and love." When reporters asked what Patterson in the Senate and Democrat Ron promised. The veto gun controls he would propose, the Gover- Wilson in the House — was blocked by the provided Bush the nor responded with his tired line about the Lieutenant Governor. The pragmatic Bul- wedge issue he futility of looking to legislation to put lock told Patterson and a group of senators needed to persuade "love in people's hearts." the gun bill wasn't going to make it to the East Texas Democrats No one familiar with George Bush's Senate floor. Ann Richards had said it was to vote for him instead of record in Texas expected him to propose bad public policy and that Richards. And Richards any solution to the she intended to veto it. lost the election. national handgun One of Bullock's Patterson told Eskenazi violence crisis. unwritten rules of pro- It is a crisis. If cedure was that the September 15 Senate only worked on was an average bills it could pass. If day, fifty-six the Governor in- other Ameri- tended to veto

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 the Democrats were tired of Richards' advi- lamentation about "a wave of violence." Clymer even described Gore in Los Ange- sors — and that Bullock wasn't averse to Did Al Gore seize the moment and offer les — "resolutely star[ing] out the car win- hammering her. It was a great moment in up a bold policy initiative? Gore criticized dow," while pondering "questions for the Texas politics: Bob Bullock handing Bush for signing a second right-to-carry gun industry and for those who unquestion- Richards over to pro-gun, ingly support their positions." East Texas Democrats, while In other words, the Vice Presi- Ron Wilson turned black vot- dent is slightly more articulate ers in Houston against her. than George Bush. So we got what we There are 60 million hand- elected: a Governor who in guns in private hands in the his first session worked to United States, according to the pass the "right-to-carry" Washington Post. That's 60 measure Richards vetoed two million too many, Post edito- years earlier, and who has rial writers argued in late since opposed every attempt April, when they described a to curb the spread of hand- bill Rhode Island Republican guns. In the 1999 session, on John Chafee tried to get the evening of the through the Senate seven years Columbine High School ago. Chaffee' s bill would have mass murder, Bush briefly banned the sale, manufacture, reconsidered his opposition ( • and ownership of handguns. It to a bill requiring instant was a "radical bill," Chafee •;-. background checks for gun- said, intended to address a show and flea-market hand- ' A = • - • • . 40 "radical situation." After the • 11. gun sales. But he came to his • • :II:a.' Columbine High School mur-

• . .41r senses, and instead supported 7.; •••• ders, the Post argued it was • 1 011%1'...r. and signed pro-gun legisla- ...KM' • time to pass such a law. tion that makes it impossible Valerie Fowler Instead, we get George for cities and counties to sue gun manufac- bill in 1997, making it legal to carry li- Bush talking about a "wave of evil in ... a turers for the cost of caring for victims of censed weapons into churches, prisons, and house of love and hope" and Al Gore reso- handgun violence. So when a shooting oc- hospitals. Talking to The New York Times' lutely staring out a car window. curs close to Bush's home, there's no rea- Adam Clymer, he took an oblique swipe at Now there's a couple of profiles in polit- son to expect more than hand-wringing and Bush, saying: "If the holster fits wear it." ical courage. — L.D.

VOLUME 91, NO. 18 The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040- JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES 4519/USPS 541300), entire contents copy- A righted, 1999, is published biweekly SINCE 1954 except for a four-week interval between Editors: Louis Dubose, Michael King issues in January and July (24 issues per Assistant Editor: Mimi Bardagjy year) by the Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, 307 West Managing Publisher: Charlotte McCann 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Office Manager: Ayelet Hines Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Production: Harrison Saunders E-mail: [email protected] Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye World Wide Web DownHome page: Staff Writer: Nate Blakeslee http://texasobserver.org . Special Projects: Jere Locke, Nancy Williams Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, Texas. Webmasters: Mike Smith, Amanda Toering Subscriptions: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time students Interns: Julie Hollar, Carol Huggins $18 per year; add $13/year for foreign subs. Contributing Writers: Barbara Belejack, Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, Robert Bryce, James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm Gilb, Paul Jennings, Steven G. Kellman, Char available from University Microfilms Intl., Miller, Debbie Nathan, John Ross. 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Staff Photographer: Alan Pogue Indexes: The Texas Observer is indexed in Contributing Photographers: Jana Birchum, Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, In Memoriam: Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 Access: The Supplementary Index to Period- icals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 Vic Hinterlang, Patricia Moore, Jack Rehm. Chandler Davidson, Dave Denison, Bob Texas Democracy Foundation Board: through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. Contributing Artists: Jeff Danziger, Beth Eckhardt, Sissy Farenthold, John K. Galbraith, Ronnie Dugger, Liz Faulk, D'Ann Johnson Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Sam Hurt, Kevin Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim Hightower, Maury (President), Molly Ivins, Bernard Rapoport, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kreneck, Michael Krone, Ben Sargent, Maverick Jr., Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid. Geoffrey Rips, Gilberto Ocafias. The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Street, Gail Woods. Austin, Texas 78701.

4 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 LEFT FIELD

Pigs Fly kept moving." Move he did: when he finally "Technology Transfer Fair," Pantex had to stop short at the light, about a dozen managers offered their military ex- Over Amarillo pig carcasses went flying over his head and pertise to help local businesses an- hanks to Don Moniak of Amarillo's into the roadway. swer technological chal- STAND (Serious Texans Against Nu- While BFI did not exactly welcome the lenges. Unrenderable Tclear Dumping), Left Field has defunct pigs with open arms, it was ready dead pig disposal was learned of yet another environmental threat to do the job. A BFI manager said dead not immediately iden- to the Panhandle: flying dead pigs. On pigs are categorized under state law as tified as a technology

September 7, theAmarillo Globe-News re- "special waste," requiring immediate dis- transfer option for the ported, a gravel truck stopped short at a posal under two feet of dirt or three feet of Pantex Plant's Burning traffic light and accidentally dumped about trash. Left Field suggests such primitive Grounds. a dozen deceased porkers at the intersec- methods are simply evidence of a failure But compared to pluto- tion of U.S. Highway 60 and Farm-to-Mar- of Amarillan imagination. nium, dead pigs are rela- ket Road 1912, northeast of Amarillo. The The flying pig disaster, Moniak points tively benign — certainly the dead pigs, it turns out, were suspended in out, happened to occur about five techno boys at Pantex should post-mortem limbo: first shipped from a miles east of two of the largest be able to dream up a few new techniques hog farm in Oklahoma to a rendering plant maximum security prisons in for post-bacon sandwiches. Irradiated hog in Booker on the state line, they had been Texas, and about six miles south- nomic development projects of jowls? Plutonium-fried pork bellies? Very rejected as "too bad to render" by North west of the Pantex Nuclear Panhandle boosters. There was hot dogs on the bomb-tip half shell? Be- Texas Protein, and were en route to the Weapons Plant's Zone 4, where no immediate groundswell of tween Pantex, beefpackers IBP, and maybe Browning Ferris Industries landfill dump an estimated 12,000 plutonium local enthusiasm to send the un- Monsanto, we're sure these guys can come outside of Canyon, 100 miles south. "These pits are presently being stored. renderable pig carcasses to up with something. pigs are really rotten," said truck driver Jim And in recent years, "pigs, pris- nearby prisons for re-process- Remember: it's that sort of old-fash- Warnke. "I had left Booker, and I had not ons, and plutonium" have ing as an inmate food substi- ioned American ingenuity that engineered stopped till I got here. I couldn't smell it if I been among the favorite eco- tute. But at a recent Pantex plutonium production in the first place.♦ Fresh Pork for Cattle Fat Cats prawling across almost 220,000 acres of hilly country southwest of again wrangling to have its five-year lease renewed without competitive bid- Waco, the Fort Hood army base is one of the largest pieces of publicly- ding). In exchange for free grazing, the cattleman are required only to mow owned land in Texas. It is also the site of one of the biggest giveaways periodically and maintain cattleguards and fences on the property, a service S the Army estimates to be worth about $160,000 per year (although absent the of public money in the state, and the pork — er, cattle — is only getting fatter. For decades, the Army has allowed the Central cattle, none of these services would be necessary). With private land grazing Texas Cattleman's Association, a group of about eighty fees running from $4 to $8 per acre in Texas, that amounts to an annual subsidy ranchers, to graze cattle on the base — of up to $1.4 million. much of which is open range used for ar- Recently, the C.T.C.A. has been maneuvering to open up mored vehicle training — at no charge. more acreage for grazing. To do so, they've had The ranchers are ostensibly the descen- to clear even more of the juniper woods on dants of the original landowners who the base, which is home to one of the state's gave up their property when the base largest public-land popu- was established in the fifties, lations of endangered although the association has songbirds, including recently refused to provide Black-capped Vireos a membership list to and Golden- Army officials (the See "Cattle," group is once page 6

OCTOBER 1, 1999 TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 ong ago in a galaxy far far away — last spring in Austin — the L Governor was asked by a hard- charging local reporter if he planned to use the Internet in his presidential campaign. "Yes," came the frank and forthright answer — fruit of what the Bush family calls "the vision thing." A few months later, Left Field is pretty sure this is not dismissal of the idea: "There ought to be limits to free- sional special features (e.g., a very funny parody inter- what Dubya had in mind. Oh, the Bush campaign duly dom," said Dubya, when his operation was plagued by view with the Very Lite Guy, "Austin Perry"). maintains its official website at www.georgewbush.com , another Bush parody site — www.gwbush.com — which Politex told Left Field he devotes six to ten hours a day where the faithful can "Meet the Governor" and Laura, mimicked his official site and took dead aim at his per- on the site ("if there were more hours in the day, I would muse over old speeches, and peruse the daily endorse- sonal waffling on the drug issue. "Hypocrisy with do more"), and though he clearly has little trust in his ments and press releases. But really surfing the Governor Bravado" is the slogan posted on gwbush.com , which like subject candidate, he's not impressed by the rest of the on the World Wide Web is far more likely to turn up its subject bravely declares itself "Drug Free Since 1974." field either. "I'm looking for the lesser of two weasels," skepticism, mockery, or downright impudence. A cur- There are several other single-issue Bush web sites. he laughed. His site categorizes Bush-related material rent healthy example is at www.bushsuckz.com , whose But there are also a couple of more serious and extensive chronologically and by subject, and it's also become a impertinent spelling serves to defeat Bush operative Karl sites devoted to in-depth analysis of Bush's record, his nexus for Bush information around the world. Most re- Rove's attempt to buy up all the web domain names campaign, and the journalistic coverage thereof. Among cently, the Bush campaign posted its fundraising infor- (nearly $1,000 worth, apparently) which might possibly the best is www.georgebush2000.com, sponsored by mation on its site but in unsortable form, saying to do so insult the Bush Who Would Be President: bushbites.com , "Actions Speak Louder Than Words," which offers an would cost thousands of dollars and take thousands of bushsucks.com, bushblows.com ... you get the idea. In- issue by issue analysis of the Bush record in Texas along hours. Shortly thereafter, Bush Watch correspondent deed, in a Rovean strategy of reverse psychology, surfing with links to much of the best critical coverage — in- and cyber-jockey Elliotte Rusty Harold posted a sorted to (for example) "www.bushsuckz.com " sends the hap- cluding what it describes as "the most comprehensive version on his site, with the wry comment, "Actually it less wanderer back to the official Bush campaign site website on George W. Bush." took me about six hours and $0.00 :-)." "If you want a ("Prosperity With a Purpose," it intones) — face to face That would be "The Bush Watch," maintained in decoded version of the Bush list for searching and sort- with the Bush policy statement on agriculture, a sure Austin by a retired educator who goes by the name "Jerry ing," reported Politex helpfully, "go to http://metalab. prescription to dissuade visitors from ever saying, "Bush Politex." In addition to exhaustive connections to the unc.edu/javafaq/bush/." Sucks!" again. For this kind of strategic thinking, candi- worldwide coverage of the presidential campaign, Poli- No, when Dubya promised to use the Internet, this sort dates pay big bucks. tex offers his own regular acerbic, fair, and witty com- of chip-roots democracy is definitely not what he had in The BushSuckz site is devoted to "Free Speech on the mentaries on the Bush news of the day, featured links on mind. Oh, and by the way: while you're at it, check out the Net," and takes particular aim at the candidate's offhand specialized subjects (e.g., the cocaine crisis), and occa- Observer's Bush site at www.bushfiles.com . Surfs up! +

"Cattle," from page 5 cheeked Warblers. Amazingly, the cattlemen have not only been allowed to destroy the ing associated with bovine interference. But efforts to limit grazing have bumped up habitat, they have actually been paid to do so by the state and the federal government. against the association's considerable network of friends in high places. According to The Department of Defense has contracted with C.T.C.A. to perform $5 million per year records obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), high- worth of juniper clearing, with the dual purpose of opening more of the base for train- level Texas Parks and Wildlife employees apparently helped the association kill a pro- ing maneuvers and clearing land for cattle grazing. At the same time, C.T.C.A. has ap- posed cattle-exclusion study, designed by Fort Hood officials and The Nature Conser- plied for and received funds through an E.P.A. program for "watershed improvement"; vancy, which sought to assess the impact of cattle grazing on levels of cowbird nest the plan calls for extensive deforestation. parasitism, a leading threat to songbird populations. Most recently, C.T.C.A. managed All told, about 30,000 acres of Golden-cheeked Warbler habitat have been de- to forestall an effort by federal authorities to defer grazing in endangered songbird stroyed in the last two years. Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife habitat during breeding seasons, by offering to trap cowbirds on private land sur- Service have signed off on the deals, with the support of Governor Bush, U.S. Senator rounding the base, in an agreement PEER scientist Dean Keddy-Hector labeled a Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Congressman Chet Edwards. "bogus cover for what would in fact be increased [cattle] stocking rates and a public Whenever a tank runs over a cow (which apparently happens fairly frequently) the subsidy of predator control." The real threat, he noted, is not nest predation (which Army must pony up $200-400 per carcass. The Army also estimates losses of about has already been greatly reduced by trapping on the base) but the pressure on habitat 2,000 hours per year in training time and 2,500 lost manhours, due to pauses in train- caused by too many cows, too much grazing, and too much habitat destruction. +

6 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 FEATURE Eyewitness in East Timor BY GAIL ROTHE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM SEAMAN n Thursday, September 2 — three days after East Timor's August 30 independence referendum, but before the results were announced — two members of our team of international election observers were traveling on the road from Dili to Baucau, when they passed a military convoy. The last man on the last truck raised his gun and shouted, "War! " IO first visited East Timor in 1989. I was living in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, but I spent a week traveling throughout the terri- tory, talking to local leaders, trying to expand the relief and devel- opment projects funded by the agency I then worked for, Catholic Relief Services. During that time I also worked in West Timor and in Flores, the next major island to the northwest. The islands ap- peared very much alike: dry, mountainous, and with little infras- tructure. They were largely rural and agricultural, populated by farmers and their families. But there were also striking differences. In East Timor, tanks drove the rural roads. As we traveled from town to town, military roadblocks stopped us. Adults did not smile. Women wore cheap cotton sarongs instead of the intricate, hand- woven ikat that these islands are famous for. Farmers did not go out to their fields; any activity that might put them in contact with the guerrillas in the mountains was forbidden. Living in Jakarta, I never imagined that President Suharto would step down, nor that the Indonesian presence in East Timor would be the subject of a United Nations-sponsored referendum. After my re- Waiting to vote in Same, East Timor William Seaman turn to Texas, I followed the situation over the years and talked from A time to time with Indonesian friends who worked there, but I was was verified, fingers were checked for the dye that would indicate never very hopeful that Indonesia would ever allow independence. a previous vote, an index finger was sprayed with the dye, and fi- Then, almost miraculously it seemed, under pressure of the eco- nally a ballot was stamped and handed over. Two cardboard voting nomic crisis and popular protest, Suharto stepped down. On May 5 booths stood in each of the classrooms of the school, which for that of this year, Portugal, Indonesia, and the U.N. signed an agree- day had become the polling center. The ballot box had been placed ment. The agreement set out the terms for a national referendum, in on a table in the middle of the room, guarded throughout the day by which the Timorese would either accept or reject integration into a U.N. official. At the opening of the station we had observed the Indonesia. Rejection would be, in effect, a vote for independence. empty box and the sealing of the box. All of these things I had ex- Based on what I knew of the circumstances, I believed that if the pected to see. U.N. went through with the referendum (known officially as a I did not expect to see the crush of people waiting to vote at 6 "consultation") then violence would be sporadic but contained, and a.m., as our team approached the polling center. People were smil- the voting results implemented. I volunteered to go to East Timor ing and hopeful, waving their registration cards in the air. Some as an election observer with the International Federation for East had brought their children or grandchildren. Some walked for Timor-Observer Project. hours and most waited for hours to vote. Many were barefoot. All Tragically for East Timor, it appears I was wrong about the were eager to vote early in the day, so they could return quickly to U.N.'s commitment to implement the results of the vote, and right their homes or escape to the nearby hills before the shooting about Indonesia's reluctance to leave East Timor. started. One woman came without her identification card, clutching There was some violence on August 30, the day of the referen- a small child and claiming her house had been burned the night be- dum, but in comparison to what was to come afterward the day was fore and her card with it. Her eyes were not like the others. I be- calm. I visited three polling stations, one in the capital of Dili and lieved her story. two just outside the city. We were five observers: an Indonesian, a I also did not expect to see, on a street in Becora, a small group Portuguese, a Finn, and another American. There was much about of people holding a sign saying that here a student had been killed the polling that was predictable and normal: the long lines, the hot by the military four days before. An Indonesian election observer I sun, the tedious nature of the actual voting process. In the polling met later that day had seen the student shot in the back. center in Becora in eastern Dili, 3,355 people voted; 3,355 times By the end of the day 98 percent of the registered voters — es- someone directed a voter to the correct polling station, an identity sentially the entire adult population of East Timor — had voted.

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 UNAMET helicopter landing, Same, south of Dili William Seaman Someone told me that during the registration period, when the bal- militia had been attacking with guns and machetes for days. lot choices were being explained, people had consulted their priests. We had learned during the night that the Australian military was They wanted to be certain of the meaning of the words on the bal- flying in planes that day to relocate to Darwin, Australia, all lot: "autonomy" and "integration." Which choice, they would ask nonessential U.N. staff and any other foreigners who wanted to the priests, would get the Indonesian military out of East Timor? leave. Consular officials from several countries stopped by our of- I saw no fraud on polling day. Irregularities were pointed out to fice early that morning to advise us to leave. the U.N. staff who quickly responded and made corrections. The In spite of the violence escalating all around us, our meeting that IFET–Observer Project had teams of observers in thirteen districts Monday morning was calmer than many meetings the previous week. that day, in dozens of the 200 polling centers. Our project believes Of the approximately fifty international observers remaining — out that this was as free and fair an election as could be conducted in an of 168 on the day of the polling — fifteen bravely chose to stay. They atmosphere of violence and intimidation, that the U.N. fairly ad- were hopeful that in the coming days and weeks they could report on ministered the referendum, and that the results — overwhelmingly the burnings and forced evacuations, on the tenor and the killings that against integration and for independence — reflect the will of the were becoming more prevalent each hour. They also hoped that their East Timorese. presence might provoke an international peacekeeping effort. Yet no one cheered when the results were announced. Some cried. I had chosen to leave on the noon flight, what turned out to be the last commercial flight out of Dili. Large fires burned in Becora in n Saturday, September 4, a few hours after the results had eastern Dili, where I had spent polling day. I learned later that the been announced, I visited with a Timorese man in Dili. He militia paid a visit to our office sometime after I left. They gave the O was very happy with the results — 78 percent voted for in- remaining observers a warning; I suspect that telephone lines and dependence — but admitted it would be foolish to celebrate and electricity may have already been cut. In any case, the fifteen who antagonize the militias. Yet he was smiling, as were many in his had chosen to stay left later that day for Darwin. The only foreign- neighborhood, and cautiously optimistic. We parted hurriedly be- ers remaining were some U.N. staff and a few journalists. Two cause the gunfire started earlier than usual that evening. His house thousand East Timorese had taken refuge in the U.N. headquarters was burned that night. along with the U.N. staff, even though the headquarters had al- On Monday, exactly a week after the polls had opened, our team ready been attacked. No place was safe. The following morning, of election observers met to determine who would stay to continue the Indonesian government declared martial law. our work over the coming days and weeks. We had spent Sunday War had indeed come to East Timor: a one-sided war, waged by night at the nearby police station, evacuated for fear that our office the Indonesian military and their militias against the Timorese. ❑ would be attacked. The shooting had gone on all night; houses were burned within blocks of the station. Austinite Gail Rothe is a water development planner with the Texas We had that morning said goodbye to several of our Timorese Natural Resource Conservation Commission. She previously staff. Earlier in the week our presence served to protect them, but worked in international development in Bolivia, Central America, the situation had changed so that now we only helped to make them and Indonesia. She and William Seaman (of Seattle) traveled to targets for the police, the militia, and the military. As they drove East Timor as observers of the independence referendum, with the away, we knew they might run into the militia within blocks. The International Federation for East Timor-Observer Project.

8 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 FEATURE The U.S. Roots of the East Timor Slaughter BY NOAM CHOMSKY here are three good reasons why Americans should care about East Timor. First, since the Indonesian invasion of December 1975, East Timor has been the site of some of the worst atrocities of the modern era — atrocities which are mounting again right now Second, the U.S. government has played a decisive role in escalat- ing these atrocities and can easily act to mitigate or terminate them. It is not necessary to bomb Jakarta or impose economic sanctions. Throughout, it would have sufficed for Washington to withdraw support and to inform its Indonesian client that the game was over. That remains true as the situation reaches a crucial turning point — the third reason. President Clinton needs no instructions on how to proceed. In May 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Upon In- donesian President Suharto to resign and provide for "a democratic transition." A few hours later, Suharto transferred authority to his handpicked vice president. Though not simple cause and effect, the events illustrate the relations that prevail. Ending the torture in East Timor would have been no more difficult than dismissing Indone- sia's dictator in May 1998. Not long before, the Clinton administration welcomed Suharto as "our kind of guy," following the precedent established in 1965 when the General took power, presiding over army-led massacres that wiped out the country's only mass-based political party (the P.K.I., a popularly supported communist party) and devastated its popular base in "one of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century." According to a Central Intelligence Agency report, the 1965 massacres were comparable to those of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao; hundreds of thousands were killed, most of them landless peasants. The achievement was greeted with unrestrained euphoria in the West. The "staggering mass slaughter" was "a gleam of light in Asia," according to two commentaries in The New York Times, both typical of the general western media reaction. Corporations flocked to what many called Suharto's "paradise for investors," im- peded only by the rapacity of the ruling family. For more than twenty years, Suharto was hailed in the media as a "moderate" who is "at heart benign," even as he compiled a record of murder, terror, William Seaman and corruption that has few counterparts in postwar history. A On the mountains near Maubisse, East Timor Suharto remained a darling of the West until he committed his fectively authorized it. Australian Ambassador Richard Woolcott, first errors: losing control and hesitating to implement harsh Inter- in memos later leaked to the press, recommended the "pragmatic" national Monetary Fund prescriptions. Then came the call from course of "Kissingerian realism," because it might be possible to Washington for "a democratic transition" — but not for allowing make a better deal on Timor's oil reserves with Indonesia than with the people of East Timor to enjoy the right of self-determination an independent East Timor. At the time, the Indonesian army relied that has been validated by the United Nations Security Council and on the United States for 90 percent of its arms, which were re- the World Court. stricted by the terms of the agreement for use only in "self-de- In 1975, Suharto invaded East Timor, then being taken over by fense." Pursuing the same doctrine of "Kissingerian realism," its own population after the collapse of the Portuguese empire. The Washington simultaneously stepped up the flow of arms while United States and Australia knew the invasion was coming and ef- declaring an arms suspension, and the public was kept in the dark.

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 The U.N. Security Council ordered Indonesia to withdraw, but to no avail. Its failure was explained by then-U.N. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In his memoirs, he took pride in having rendered the U.N. "utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook" be- cause "[t]he United States wished things to turn out as they did" and "worked to bring this about." As for how "things turned out," Moynihan comments that, within a few months, 60,000 Timorese had been killed, "almost the proportion of casualties experienced by the Soviet Union during the Second World War." The massacre continued, peaking in 1978 with the help of new arms provided by the Carter administration. The toll to date is esti- mated at about 200,000, the worst slaughter relative to population since the Holocaust. By 1978, the United States was joined by Britain, France, and others eager to gain what they could from the slaughter. Protest in the West was minuscule. Little was even re- ported. U.S. press coverage, which had been high in the context of concerns over the fall of the Portuguese empire, declined to practi- cally nothing in 1978. In 1989, Australia signed a treaty with Indonesia to exploit the oil of "the Indonesian Province of East Timor" — a region sober realists tell us is not economically viable, and therefore cannot be granted the right of self-determination. The Timor Gap treaty was put into effect immediately after the army murdered several hun- dred more Timorese at a graveyard commemoration of a recent army assassination. Western oil companies joined in the robbery, eliciting no comment. After twenty-five terrible years, steps are finally being taken that might bring the horrors to an end. Indonesia agreed to permit a ref- erendum in August 1999 in which the Timorese were to be permit- ted to choose "autonomy" within Indonesia or independence from it. It is taken for granted that if the vote is minimally free, pro-in- dependence forces will win. The occupying Indonesian army (T.N.I.) moved at once to prevent this outcome. The method was A In the mountains near Maubisse, East Timor William Seaman simple: Paramilitary forces were organized to terrorize the popula- East Timor" is verified by close observers. "Many of these army tion while T.N.I. adopted a stance of "plausible deniability," which officers attended courses in the United States under the now-sus- quickly collapsed in the presence of foreign observers who could pended IMET program," he writes. Their tactics resemble the U.S. see firsthand that T.N.I. was arming and guiding the killers. Phoenix program in South Vietnam, which killed tens of thousands The militias are credibly reported to be under the direction of of peasants and much of the indigenous South Vietnamese Kopassus, the dreaded Indonesian special forces modeled on the leadership, as well as "the tactics employed by the Contras" in U.S. Green Berets and "legendary for their cruelty," as the promi- Nicaragua, following lessons taught by their C.I.A. mentors that it nent Indonesia scholar Benedict Anderson observes. He adds that should be unnecessary to review. The state terrorists "are not sim- in East Timor, "Kopassus became the pioneer and exemplar for ply going after the most radical pro-independence people but going every kind of atrocity," including systematic rapes, tortures, and after the moderates, the people who have influence in their com- executions, and organization of hooded gangsters. Concurring, munity." "`It's Phoenix' ... notes a well-placed source in Jakarta," Australia's veteran Asia correspondent David Jenkins notes that Jenkins writes. That source adds that the aim is "`to terrorize ev- this "crack special forces unit [had] been training regularly with eryone' — the N.G.O.s, the [Red Cross], the U.N., the journalists." U.S. and Australian forces until their behavior became too much of The goal is being pursued with no little success. Since April, the an embarrassment for their foreign friends." Congress did bar U.S. Indonesian-run militias have been conducting a wave of atrocities training of the killers and torturers under the now-suspended Inter- and murder, killing hundreds of people — many in churches to national Military Education and Training (IMET) program, but the which they fled for shelter — burning down towns, driving tens of Clinton Administration found ways to evade the laws, leading to thousands into concentration camps or the mountains, where, it is re- much irritation in Congress but little broader notice. Now, con- ported, thousands have been virtually enslaved to harvest coffee gressional constraints may be more effective, but without the kind crops. "They call them 'internally displaced persons,'" an Australian of inquiry that is rarely undertaken in the case of U.S.-backed ter- nun and aid worker said, "but they are hostages to the militias. They ror, one cannot be confident. have been told that if they vote for independence, they will be Jenkins' conclusion that Kopassus remains "as active as ever in killed." The number of the displaced is estimated at 50,000 or more.

10 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 Health conditions are abysmal. One of the few doctors in the ter- Reporting on the tenor from the scene, Nobel Laureate Bishop ritory, American volunteer Dan Murphy, reported that fifty to one Carlos Ximenes Belo called for "an international military force" to hundred Timorese are dying daily from curable diseases, while In- protect the population from Indonesian terror and permit the refer- donesia "has a deliberate policy not to allow medical supplies into endum to proceed. Nothing doing. The "international community" East Timor." In the Australian media, he has detailed atrocious — meaning Western powers — prefers that the Indonesian army crimes from his personal experience, and Australian journalists provide "security." A small number of unarmed U.N. monitors and aid workers have compiled a shocking record. have been authorized — but subsequently delayed — by the Clin- The referendum has been delayed twice by the U.N. because of ton administration. the tenor, which has even targeted U.N. offices and U.N. convoys The picture in the past few months is particularly ugly against carrying sick people for treatment. Citing diplomatic, church, and the background of the self-righteous posturing in the "enlightened militia sources, the Australian press reports "that hundreds of mod- states." But it simply illustrates, once again, what should be obvi- ern assault rifles, grenades, and mortars are being stockpiled, ready ous: Nothing substantial has changed, either in the actions of the for use if the autonomy option is rejected at the ballot box," and powerful or the performance of their flatterers. The Timorese are warns that the T.N.I.-run militias may be planning a violent "unworthy victims." No power interest is served by attending to takeover of much of the territory if, despite the tenor, the popular their suffering or taking even simple steps to end it. Without a sig- will is expressed. nificant popular reaction, the long-familiar story will continue, in Murphy and others report that T.N.I. has been emboldened by East Timor and throughout the world. ❑ the lack of interest in the West. "A senior U.S. diplomat summa- rized the issue neatly: 'East Timor is Australia's Haiti' — in other Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at M.I.T. He has writ- words, it's not a problem for the United States, which helped cre- ten many articles on the history and politics of the Indonesian oc- ate and sustain the humanitarian disaster in East Timor and could cupation of East Timor. This commentary originally appeared on readily end it. (Those who know the truth about the United States the MoJo Wire, Mother Jones magazine's Web site (www.mother- in Haiti will fully appreciate the cynicism.) jones.corn). U.S. Complicity BY ALLAN NAIRN Dili, East Timor t is by now clear to most East Timorese and a few Westerners still left here that the militias are a wing of the T.N.I./ABRI, the Indonesian armed forces. Recently, for example, I was picked up by militiamen who turned out to be working for a uniformed colonel of the National Police. [Editors' note: The Indonesian government has denied any connection between the militias and either the 1 But there is another important political fact that is not known here or in the in- police or the military.] ternational community. Although the U.S. government has publicly reprimanded the Indonesian Army for the militias, the U.S. military has, behind the scenes and contrary to Congressional intent, been backing the T.N.I. U.S. officials say that this past April, as militia tenor escalated, a top briefed on Liquita, quickly made clear at the meeting with Wiranto U.S. officer was dispatched to give a message to Jakarta. Admiral that he was there to reassure the T.N.I. chief. According to a classified Dennis Blair, the U.S. Commander in Chief of the Pacific, leader of cable on the meeting, circulating at Pacific Command headquarters in all U.S. military forces in the Pacific region, was sent to meet with Hawaii, Blair, rather than telling Wiranto to shut the militias down, General Wiranto, the Indonesian armed forces commander, on April instead offered him a series of promises of new U.S. assistance. 8. Blair's mission, as one senior U.S. official told me, was to tell According to the cable, which was drafted by Col. Joseph Wiranto that the time had come to shut the militia operation down. Daves, U.S. military attaché in Jakarta, Admiral Blair "told the The gravity of the meeting was heightened by the fact that two days armed forces chief that he looks forward to the time when [the before, the militias had committed a horrific machete massacre at the army will] resume its proper role as a leader in the region. He in- Catholic church in Liquita, Timor. YAYASAN HAK, a Timorese vited General Wiranto to come to Hawaii as his guest in conjunc- human rights group, estimated that many dozens of civilians were tion with the next round of bilateral defense discussions in the murdered. Some of the victims' flesh was reportedly stuck to the walls of the church and a pastor's house. But Admiral Blair, fully See "East Timor," page 18

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 FEATURE Wheel of Misfortune BY DEBBIE NATHAN he sun was just setting one day last spring when a slender, African-American seventeen- year-old named Bobby walked out of the Bexar County Adult Detention Center, precisely seven months after the evening he first walked in. Seven months is nearly a school year Tand before he was arrested last fall, Bobby (his name is changed to protect his identity) was a Sam Houston High School dropout who'd gone back to class to earn his G.E.D. His studies came to an abrupt halt in jail. But there Bobby learned another, much harder lesson. He learned what happens when you're poor in Bexar County and ask for a criminal defense lawyer. He also learned that whether or not you get screwed in the process depends almost wholly on luck. The way Bobby tells it, ending up in the justice system was the last thing on his mind the afternoon of September 14 last year. That's when the soft-spoken teen arrived at Village East Apart- ments, in the heart of the poverty-stricken East Side near Dignowity Park, to visit a longtime girlfriend who lives in one of the buildings. If you believe Bobby's story, this is what happened next: he stopped to chat with some other young men who were hanging around the front of his friend's apartment. Suddenly, they saw a group of policemen approaching. The young men split up; the oth- ers ran in one direction, and Bobby went — much more slowly — in another. "Walked off," is how he puts it, but before he knew it, the cops had arrested him. He couldn't fathom the reason, unless Courtesy San Antonio Current they were trying to frame him. everyone accused of a crime the right to a defense attorney. The At first glance, the cops' version of the story makes a lot more Constitution doesn't say explicitly if that right extends to people sense than Bobby's. Police reports describe how four officers were who can't pay for a lawyer, but in the 1960s and 1970s, a number using binoculars to stake out the apartment complex after a neighbor of Supreme Court rulings ordered the government to provide poor complained that several black males were selling drugs there. One folks with attorneys. Since then, several systems have developed to dealer was notorious, and was known to often wear a white T-shirt fulfill the mandate. Some are considered (by groups such as the and long, khaki shorts. Sure enough, the cops reported, one black American Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties male that afternoon wore the same attire. The police reports say he Union) preferable for delivering good services to the accused. One ran from the apartment building, but not before he stuffed something is a statewide public defender agency, in which state governments into a clothesline pole. One cop caught up with Bobby, who the re- pay lawyers to work full time representing indigent defendants in ports say was wearing a white T-shirt and khaki shorts. Another of- every county. Another favored system is the county-financed pub- ficer rooted around in the pole. He fished out three small plastic bags. lic defender office. Whether state- or county-funded, public de- Lab tests confirmed their contents: 4.7 grams of crack cocaine. fender offices are generally deemed efficient and cost effective. Bobby had never before been arrested. Now he was booked into They operate in every U.S. county with a city of more than 750,000 jail and charged, as an adult, with possession and intent to deliver people. Every county in the nation, that is, except Harris (encom- drugs. The crime is a first-degree felony, with a maximum sentence passing Houston) and Bexar (which of course means San Antonio). of ninety-nine years in prison. Bail was set at $25,000, meaning it Instead of a public defender office to secure lawyers for the poor, would take $1,000 to bond him out. His family could not afford Bexar County uses what's called the "appointment system." It is a $1,000, and they didn't have money for a private lawyer either. confusing hodgepodge of two nationally well-known models, com- So Bobby did what more than half of Bexar County's 58,000 bined with a unique and arguably unconstitutional arrangement criminal defendants do each year after their arrests: he asked for a called the "San Antonio Plan." The first system works this way. All court-appointed attorney. His ordeal in the indigent defense system lawyers in Bexar County — except for employees of the district at- was about to begin. torney's office, law professors, and others not in private practice — have their names put into a computer. When a felony comes up that's THE LEGAL LOTTERY WHEEL not a capital case (for which there is yet a different system), the de- The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees fendant's name is also put in the computer and randomly paired with

12 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 an attorney. The attorney then gets a postcard announcing the as- signment; each lawyer can expect four or five such cards a year. As reimbursement for accepting these cases, Bexar County pays lawyers a fixed $500 to take a first-degree felony case to trial. Or, if the lawyer opts to bill for actual time spent on the case, the pay is twenty to thirty dollars an hour for out-of-court work, and $200 for an entire day in court. Payment for other felonies and for mis- demeanors is less. So is reimbursement for handling a case that ends in a guilty or no-contest plea, although doing so often takes only a few minutes, and can be an easy way for a lawyer to earn a quick $100 to $400. Bexar County auditor records for fiscal year 1998 (October 1, 1997 to September 30, 1998) show local lawyers made an average $276 for handling a felony case and $93 for a misdemeanor. That's a far cry from the hourly $175 to $400 that

seasoned criminal defense attorneys bill paying clients, which in- Courtesy San Antonio Current cludes charges for time spent both in and out of court. For lawyers who end their cases in a few minutes with plea bargains, the county But because of built-in defects in the San Antonio Plan, he never money is good. For attorneys willing to investigate and prepare for had a chance to enjoy its benefits. trial, though, indigent appointments amount to charity work. Even so, many attorneys accept their social-service obligation to PASSING THE PRO BONO BUCK take a few such cases annually. Some, such as Gerry Goldstein, Mark From the day he was booked into the county jail, Bobby protested Stevens, Ray Fuchs, and Eddie Garcia, are among San Antonio's stel- his innocence. "He cried and said he had nothing to do with drugs," lar criminal defense lawyers. Others don't want to bother with indigent says Gloria Davis (not her real name), a small, stern woman who is cases. Or they worry that their specialties — probate, corporate work, Bobby's grandmother and who has raised him, since his early and the like — give them few skills to do the job for accused robbers, childhood, in a tidy, two-story yellow house on the East Side. But rapists, and drug dealers. About 1,000 of these reluctant lawyers, al- if Bobby wasn't selling crack, why had he walked off when the po- most a third of the San Antonio Bar Association's membership, take lice approached? He claims it was because he was scared of one of advantage of a second subsystem for indigent representation: the San the cops. And his grandmother bitterly confirms that her grandson Antonio Plan. Run by the Bar Association, it's an unusual concept that had reason to be afraid. evokes Civil War draft-evasion schemes, whereby a man could pay "I tell young black men, 'You're doomed the day you're born,"' someone to take his place in the Army. In San Antonio today, if you're she says, by way of introducing her account of an incident that took a lawyer who doesn't want to defend indigent accused felons, you can place early last year. When Bobby was still sixteen, Davis gave him pay the Bar Association $500. Then, when your name comes up on the about $170 to buy new clothes for school, and sent him by bus to go computer, you're exempt from having to take the case. Instead, the de- shopping. Two hours later, he returned home crying. He told his fendant's name is transferred to yet another computer, which the Bar grandmother that a policeman had confiscated his money, telling Association calls the "bonus wheel." Some 350 lawyers' names are on Bobby that the amount was "too much" for an East Side teen to be the bonus wheel. All have at least a year's experience doing criminal carrying. Davis had to go to police headquarters to retrieve the defense work, and all have volunteered for this specialty list. They are money. Bobby later told her that the cop who took the cash warned supposed to be the cream of indigent defense attorneys, and not merely him, "When you turn seventeen, I'm going to send you to jail." His because they seek cases. They're also a special group because the $500 birthday came and went. Then, on September 14, at the apartment apiece that other lawyers pay the San Antonio Plan gets divvied up building on Hays Street, he saw the same policeman approaching. among members on the bonus wheel. Believing that Bobby had been wronged, his grandmother urged These attorneys earn their paltry $276 average per case from the him to demand a trial, and the wheels of justice started creaking. county. But in addition, the San Antonio Plan pays them a far more Four days after his arrest, he filled out paperwork requesting a generous $525 to $540 average. As Bar Association Executive Di- court-appointed lawyer. Three weeks passed before 226th District rector Jimmy Allison explains it, the extra money makes it less of Court Judge Sid Harle approved the request, and Bobby's name was a sacrifice to do indigent defense cases, and, hopefully, encourages entered into the assignments computer. It was matched with attor- better representation for poor people lucky enough to end up on the ney R.L. "Lee" Mays, Jr., who got a postcard telling him to be in bonus wheel. During fiscal year 1998, the Plan kicked in money to Harle' s court on October 15 to serve as Bobby's appointed counsel. defend 1,800 of the 6,933 indigent cases handled by Bexar Bobby called Mays asking for a jailhouse meeting. Mays said he County's seven felony courts during that period. That means that if would come, but never did. On October 15, Bobby went to court ex- you were a felony defendant who couldn't afford a lawyer, you had pecting to finally meet Mays. Mays didn't show up. about a one-in-four chance of being promoted out of the regular as- Lee Mays' display ad in the Yellow Pages touts his specialities signments computer, with its random selection of attorneys, and as business law, probate, and bankruptcy. When he got the post- into the bonus wheel and its club of more enthusiastic criminal de- card assigning him to represent an accused crack dealer, he felt fenders. Bobby was technically eligible for that one-in-four draw. inadequate to the task. Presumably he has felt inadequate every THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 OCTOBER 1, 1999 time he's received an assignment from the county computer. But office. Many of these cases were misdemeanors, because in most Mays has never paid to buy his way off the list. Instead, he contin- county courts (where lesser crimes are handled), judges don't use ues to receive assignments he doesn't take, because, he says, "it's computers to make indigent assignments. Instead, they and their coor- too expensive to join the San Antonio Plan." Bar Association Di- dinators personally choose the attorneys. And in felony courts, even rector Allison says many San Antonio attorneys are feeling finan- though appointments are officially supposed to be made via county cially squeezed these days. As a group, they've always made less computer, assignments also are often made by the judge and his assis- than their counterparts in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Things have tants. They tend to favor the same lawyers over and over again. gotten worse since the closing of Kelly Field, which used to gener- Perhaps not coincidentally, those lawyers favor the judges with ate a wealth of employment and concomitant demand for legal ser- generous campaign contributions when election time rolls around. vices. As well, since the late eighties, the conservative "tort re- In the 226th District Court, for instance, Judge Sid Harle gave only form" movement has successfully pushed legislative reforms that ten attorneys a third of the $367,486 he spent last year for lawyers, make it very hard for plaintiffs and their lawyers to win favorable and 42 percent of the cases his court handled. Meanwhile, Judge verdicts — or money — from companies sued for injury. Worker Sharon McCrae, of the 290th Court, paid 42 percent of her budget compensation cases have also dried up, due to changes that hinder to ten lawyers, who handled over a quarter of her cases. Harle ran payments to attorneys from clients who win government benefits. unopposed in last year's election, but McCrae had an opponent and So Bexar County lawyers are pinching pennies. And since Mays needed campaign money. The top-earning lawyers in her court had not paid $500 to have his computer appointments transferred to often made several contributions apiece, in amounts ranging from another lawyer on the bonus wheel, when his name got hooked up forty dollars to $500 per donation. with Bobby's, the two were joined at the hip. Yet Mays didn't want Most of Foster's appointments came from judges such as Harle Bobby for a client. So he contacted Cynthia Babbitt Foster, a col- and McCrae. But she was small potatoes compared to lawyers like league who does criminal defense work, and asked her to take the Russell Mitchell, who in 1998 billed the county for 667 cases and case. Foster agreed, and Mays asked Judge Harle to approve the collected almost $61,000. Or Charles Rubiola, who earned more change. He did, on October 29. Bobby had now been in jail for six than $77,000 for 575 cases. Or Hilda Valadez,whose bills for 399 weeks without talking to a lawyer. He was desperate to meet with cases totalled about $73,000 (and who last year kicked back $3,100 his new attorney. He wanted to tell her certain things that, if sub- to the coffers of incumbent county- and district-court judges run- stantiated, would have blown holes in the cops' case against him — ning for re-election). All three attorneys previously worked in the such as that on the day he was arrested, the shorts he was wearing D.A.'s office, and all insist that they have the skills to handle their weren't khaki, but gray. large volume of indigent appointments. They say they advise every client of the right to a trial, and let the defendant decide whether to COUNSEL FOR HIRE exercise that right or cop a plea. Cynthia B. Foster is a petite, quick-moving woman with a friendly But at best, what really happens between indigent clients and smile and a no-nonsense gaze. She's someone you might expect to their appointed attorneys seems far more ambiguous. Last winter mount a spirited defense if you were facing hard time and looking and spring, I went court hopping to see how poor people's cases get for a lawyer. In addition — although Bobby's case didn't come to handled. What I witnessed was low-grade pandemonium. Attor- her this way — Foster is on the bonus wheel, which means she neys rushed into court, grabbed a file or two, and sat down for a knows how to do criminal law. On the other hand, Foster has a lot quick read: this was their first and often most lengthy exposure to of poor clients — indeed, some would say too many of them to give their new client's case. Confused-looking defendants, mostly His- each one quality representation. That is because she is part of a third panic or African-American, met their counsel amid a hubbub of Bexar County indigent defense subsystem, appointments that come other defendants, defendants' spouses, and defendants' squalling directly from the courtroom. To get county-paid clients, Foster babies. Clients who'd posted bond sat in the spectator area of the doesn't rely merely on a few cases from the county's computer or court room, wearing street clothes. The less fortunate, who could- the Bar Association's bonus wheel. Instead, she joins dozens of n't pay the bail bondsman, were led in from jail to the jury box, other lawyers who haunt the courthouse every morning, trotting dressed in orange jumpsuits and manacled to their fellow inmates. from courtroom to courtroom, hoping judges and their coordinators Rushed attorney-client "conferences" were held, often in the jury will give the lawyers spur-of-the-moment work representing poor box or in noisy hallways, where they could be overheard by any people who showed up for their court dates without attorneys. passerby. Attorneys darted from these conferences to the assistant Foster says she has a passion for criminal defense work. Yet she is district attorneys back in court. a relative newcomer to the field, and didn't start law school until Sometimes cases were dismissed for lack of evidence. Other times, she'd finished raising children and was in her late forties. After get- a client insisted on a trial, and a later date was set. But often, the at- ting licensed a few years ago, she opened a practice with her daugh- torney came back from the D.A. tete-a-tete with a deal in exchange ter, Catherine Babbitt. Today, Foster is still building her client list. for a plea. If the client took it, the next step was an appearance before To pay her bills in the meantime, Foster frequents the courthouse the judge to say "guilty" or "no contest" and be sentenced — usually and picks up appointments, such as the 106 cases she billed the county to community service, a fine, and probation or "deferred adjudica- for during fiscal year 1998. Daughter Catherine Babbitt billed 120 tion," meaning no conviction on the defendant's record if he or she cases, but handed several over to Foster after getting a job in the D.A.'s stays out of trouble in the future. The plea and sentencing often took

14 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 ten minutes or less, and occurred far more often than a trial. rest. In late February, she got Bobby's bail lowered and his bond In fact, only 270 juries were empaneled for Bexar County's es- decreased to $300. But by then, his next court date was only four timated 9,700 felonies that resulted in plea bargains or verdicts in days away. Although Foster was urging him to go to trial, Bobby 1998. That means that less than 3 percent of all cases went to trial. said he felt exhausted and demoralized. According to Robin Dahlberg, an expert on indigent defense issues "I don't sell drugs! I'm innocent," Bobby declared during a jail- with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in New York, house interview earlier this spring. "But I don't know what to do. this trial rate is extremely low compared to the 8 to 10 percent con- The officer said he saw me put the dope in the pole. It was my word sidered indicative of a healthy criminal justice system. against the police." On February 26, Bobby was again brought from jail to Judge NO CONTEST Harle' s court. All morning he sat in the jury box, dressed in the Foster took on the job at the end of October, and Bobby's next flaming orange trousers, open-necked shirt, and matching slippers court date was set for November 24, two days before Thanksgiv- that make Bexar County inmates look like worst-fantasy medics ing. Bobby came, but he never saw Foster. "I called her when I got from "Chicago Hope." Bobby spent the whole time handcuffed to back to jail," he says. "She said they didn't have my files." Foster a sheepish-looking prisoner who looked years older than him. now says the reason she didn't see Bobby was "the holidays." Or Eventually Foster hurried in from another court, and Bobby's case to be precise, an entire holiday season, because December also was called. The cuffs removed, he faced the judge and pleaded "no came and went, and still there was no attorney-client meeting. "I contest" — a technical plea that means the defendant doesn't admit thought, with the possession and intent charges, that he was just guilt, but agrees to be sentenced anyway. Bobby ended up with another cocaine dealer," Foster said recently of Bobby. By the time five years of deferred adjudication. He also was assessed 320 hours she first talked with him in January, almost three months had of community service and a $1,000 fine, which he was ordered to passed since she'd agreed to take his case. At the end of the month, pay in $100 monthly installments. After sentencing, he thought she filed papers requesting money for an investigator to explore questions such as what color shorts Bobby had on the day of his ar- See "Misfortune," page 20

vide and one of only two states with LStatu- , w county-by-county system: a fe unties the counties, and from Dal have public defender systems. but in potentially undermining the right of poor self a defense attorn 0 Partiall;;\ most, judges appoint lawyers for those people to effective counsel (a matter not pends on court appointments, and Ellis who can't afford them, from a pool of previously known to be an urgent priority commented afterward, "Royce still has to lawyers thereby beholden to the judges in- of criminal court judges). go into courtrooms." stead of their clients. Some judges accused Ellis of sandbag- Bush vetoed the bill, saying , he objected If Senate Bill 247 had become law this ging them with late committee amend- to taking appointment authority away year, poor defendants might have had a ments, but a spokesman for the Senator from judges (although the bill did not better chance in Texas courts. Sponsored responded that the judges "just weren't mandate it), and called the requirement to by Houston Democrat Rodney Ellis, the paying attention. If anything," he added, appoint a lawyer within twenty days a bill would have confirmed a defendant's "the bill was watered down in commit- "danger to public safety." So much for the right to timely legal representation, re- tee, and was in fact tepid in terms of the rights of the accused. quired counties which have no indigent real need for reform." Pat McDowell, the Undaunted, Ellis says he will introduce defense system to create one, made administrative judge for District 1 (North similar legislation next session, and that certain that defendants know of their Texas, including Dallas), admitted to a he intends to hold the judges to their right to a lawyer, and required counties reporter that "we weren't really tracking newly proclaimed support for indigent to maintain records on indigent defense. it" because it appeared the bill's reforms defense. — Michael King

■ 15 OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

BLOODY HANDS. Beneath a banner con- demning "100 Acts of Conservative Com- passion," about sixty demonstrators gath- ered near the Governor's Mansion September 10, to mark the execution of Willis Barnes in Huntsville that evening. Barnes was the hundredth prisoner exe- cuted during the George W. Bush adminis- tration; protestors wore white gloves to in- dicate their refusal to accept the blood on the hands of the state of Texas. The spon- soring organizations included the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Amnesty International, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Speakers recited the names and date of execution for each inmate, stopping to re- call some of the most egregious instances of capital injustice: David Spence (No. 24 — April 3, 1997), serious evidence of in- nocence, ruled inadmissible under Texas law because discovered too late; Terry Alan Pogue Washington (No. 29 — May 6, 1997), suf- the abolitionist movement will continue to the flow of state dollars stopped. All that's fered from organic brain damage and men- grow among ordinary citizens. left of the local economy except farming and

tal , retardation, matters unremarked by his His feelings were shared by Texas ranching is the train from New York, the court-appointed lawyer; Ireneo Tristan A.C.L.U. Executive Director Jay Jacobsen, school district, and the Border Patrol. Montoya (No. 44 — June 18, 1997); Mexi- who argued that apparently broad public But Hudspeth County Judge James Peace can national denied consular rights; Joseph support for the death penalty diminishes argues that the county is still owed $2.5 mil- Cannon (No. 61 — April 22, 1998), re- greatly when people are asked about spe- lion in funds because Maine, Vermont, and tarded juvenile with childhood schizophre- cific issues: execution of juveniles or of the Texas signed a federal compact designating nia, subjected to brutal physical and sexual mentally ill, or alternatives such as life Sierra Blanca the dumpsite. The $3.5 mil- abuse as a child; Karla Tucker (No. 58 — without parole. Jacobsen added that we lion the state already paid to Hudspeth February 3, 1998), convincing evidence of cannot expect politicians to take the lead in County was used to build, among other rehabilitation rejected by Board of Pardons fighting the death penalty, and that it will things, a solid waste landfill, a new county and Paroles and Governor; Andrew Cantu have to be a grassroots movement. "I'm in barn, a park, a library, and a better football (No. 83 — February 16, 1999), attorney in- this one for the long haul," Jacobsen said. field. (There's also an If-you-build-it-they- competence, required to represent himself "Where we are now is where the civil will-come clinic, which cost $125,000 but on appeal ... and so on. These were not ex- rights struggle was in the thirties and for- has no doctor and no ambulance, leaving ceptional cases, noted Genevieve Hearon ties — and we're not going to have a local anti-dump activist Bill Addington of Capacity for Justice: "One third of the friendly court." wondering who was in charge of writing the prisoners who are executed have mental A few days later, at press time (Septem- checks. "There's no doctor there, there's no disabilities that are documented in their ber 22), the poison had continued to flow: clinic," said Addington.) school records or hospital records." Capac- Texas executions under Governor Bush County Auditor Eva Tarango has written ity for Justice works with the Coalition for numbered 102. a few checks and is still angry about the the Rehabilitation of Errants (TX–CURE) state's denial of the radioactive dump li- on improving the treatment of mentally ill RADIOADDICTIVE? It seems like all the cense — finally rejected because of a geo- inmates in Texas prisons. news from Hudspeth County is bad. First logical fault beneath the proposed dumpsite. Austin Methodist minister Charles there was the MERCO sludge dump: the The dump was also in violation of the La Moore estimated he has attended vigils for "shit ranch" that receives hundreds of thou- Paz treaty, under which the United States seventy of the 100 prisoners executed by sands of tons of New York City sewage and Mexico agreed that neither company Governor Bush, and pointed out that the sludge each week. Then came the Low Level would place hazardous waste sites on the Governor, himself a Methodist, defies the Radioactive Nuclear Waste Disposal site, border corridor. Tarrango is not buying that. official church policy against capital pun- which was denied a license a year ago. That "Mexico doesn't care about us," she told the ishment. Moore lamented that so few was good news for some in the county seat of Odessa American. "If Mexico cared about churchmembers act against the death Sierra Blanca. But not for everyone. Once us, they would take care of their own people penalty, but said he remains hopeful that the town of 3,400 was no longer a dumpsite, and we wouldn't have all of these people

16 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999

coming in, these illegal aliens." ored with Olasky, either. Rove , hands out brook to get any help for his mental health Like Tarango, Judge Peace (there was a copies of secular compassionate conser- problems. Texas spends less on mental Judge Love, who sold the county on the vatism guru Myron Magnet's The Dream health services per person than any other sludge ranch, and came to be known as and the Nightmare — not Olasky's The state, Weinstein said. "Part of the Texas Judge Sludge) wants his money. The county Tragedy of American Compassion. ethos is that government is not going to solve received its final $951,000 check in August, But Bush seems to have bought Olasky's your problems," he told The New York which the judge says will be used to continue pitch, at least rhetorically. His first policy Times. In a state where there are four guns projects started with dump money. He has to speech in July included a promise to "rally for each person, low spending on mental know continued funding is unlikely — if for the armies of compassion in our communi- health services is somewhat worrisome. no other reason that there is no more Low ties to fight a very different war against Larry Ashbrook, the Fort Worth man who Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Author- poverty." Grann also revealed that Olasky, killed seven people in the church before tak- ity. State Senator Buster Brown killed it in now a devout religious conservative who ing his own life, was apparently a paranoid May, in an effort to pave the way for private had moved from Judaism to communism to schizophrenic. There were no records that he companies to build elsewhere the rad-waste fundamentalist Christianity, had been previ- had received treatment at any public or pri- dump the state refused to allow the Authority ously married (a family member let it slip). vate mental health clinic. "Holes have to build in Sierra Blanca. Olasky, who never tires of recounting the opened in the safety net," Weinstein said. ❑ details of his religious conversion, had never TRUE BELIEVER. The Austin American- volunteered that bit of personal history Lunch Will be Served! Statesman finally took a look at its own when he was profiled in these pages ("The compassionate conservative columnist Last Puritan" by Michael King, May 14). Thanks to all our readers and new Marvin Olasky— by reprinting a New subscribers who entered the York Times Magazine feature written by TEXAS SAFETY NET. As the press did its post "Lunch with Molly" subscription contest, which David Grann, as supplemented by States- mortem examination of the Wedgwood Bap- officially ended on Labor Day. tist Church killings in Fort Worth, University man political reporter Juan Elizondo. In the Stay tuned for the announcement of the excerpted feature, Grann bums a ride with of North Texas economics professor Bernard lucky winner! Olasky who is driving a newly converted Weinstein had his own ideas about why it "tattooed ex-con" to a bus station in might have been difficult for Larry Ash- Austin. "Fred just needs to show he can stick to a job," Olasky tells the reporter, as Fred listens from the back of the car. "Then THE TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT he can take some writing classes at the community college, and then who knows." It's the compassionate-conservative model NINTH ANNUAL for social services in the near future — if BILL OF RIGHTS DINNER George Bush is elected president. Fred's transition from prison to civilian life is OCTOBER 10, 1999 taken care of by New Start, a charity oper- HONORING NORMA CANTU ating out of the Austin Presbyterian church General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education Olasky attends. Olasky, a U.T–Austin journalism profes- sor, advises Bush on social services — Special Guest Speaker: which Olasky would turn over to faith-based Father Robert Drinan charities such as New Start. Congenital neo- Master of Ceremonies: con Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard de- scribes Olasky's work and his dozen books State Representative Dawnna Dukes as a "thunderbolt" that hit the conservative movement. Kristol's Weekly Standard col- Join Reverend Drinan, who served on the House Judiciary Council that league David Brooks wasn't so taken by the voted to impeach Richard Nixon, and civil rights advocates and activists fundamentalist professor's work. "Olasky's from across the state, in honoring San Antonio's Norma Cant -LI for her historical judgments are so crude and work against sexual harassment in America's schools. pinched that one suspects his main effect will Reception 6:30 p.m. Dinner: 7:30 p.m. be to buttress the stereotypes of those who Mabee Ballroom, Saint Edward's University, Austin are prejudiced against religious conserva- Tickets: $40 For more information: (512) 474-5073 tives," Brooks wrote in the New York Times The banquet raises funds to help indigent and low - income Texans. Book Review earlier this year. Bush advisor Karl Rove doesn't seem to be overly enam-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 17 OCTOBER 1, 1999 Women harvesting yams, near Maubisse, East Timor William Seaman "East Timor," from page 11 call was arranged between General Wiranto and Admiral Blair. That call took place on April 18. July–August '99 time frame. He said Pacific command is prepared I have the official report on that phone call, which was written by to support a subject matter expert exchange for doctrinal develop- Blair's aide, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Sidwell. According to the ac- ment. He expects that approval will be granted to send a small team count of the call and according to U.S. military officials I spoke to, to provide technical assistance to police and ... selected T.N.I. per- once again Blair failed to tell Wiranto to shut the militias down. In sonnel on crowd control measures." fact, Blair instead permitted Wiranto to make, in essence, a political Admiral Blair at no point told Wiranto to stop the militia opera- speech, saying the same thing he had said before. Here is one pas- tion, instead inviting him to be his personal guest in Hawaii. Blair sage from the account: "General Wiranto denies that T.N.I. and the told Wiranto that the United States would initiate this new riot-con- police supported any one group during the incidents" — meaning trol training for the Indonesian armed forces. This was quite sig- during the military attacks. "General Wiranto will go to East Timor nificant, because it would be the first new U.S. training program for tomorrow to emphasize three things: ... Timorese, especially the the Indonesian military since 1992. Although State Department of- two disputing groups, to solve the problem peacefully with dialogue; ficials had been assured in writing that only police and no soldiers (2) encourage the militia to disarm; (3) make the situation peaceful would be part of this training, Blair told Wiranto that, yes, soldiers and solve the problem." At no point did Blair demand that the mili- could be included. So although Blair was sent in with the mission tias be shut down, and in fact this call was followed by escalating of telling Wiranto to shut the militias down, he did the opposite. militia violence and increases in concrete, new U.S. military assis- Indonesian officers I spoke to said Wiranto was delighted by the tance to Indonesia, including the sending in of a U.S. Air Force meeting. They took this as a green light to proceed with the militia trainer just weeks ago to train the Indonesian Air Force. operation. The only reference in the classified cable to the militias was the following: "Wiranto was emphatic: as long as East Timor Allan Nairn is a U.S. journalist who has covered East Timor for is an integral part of the territory of Indonesia, Armed Forces have many years. In 1991, after being badly beaten by Indonesian responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the region. Wiranto troops while witnessing the massacre of several hundred East Tim- said the military will take steps to disarm FALINTIL pro-indepen- orese, he was declared a "threat to national security" and banned dence group concurrently with the WANRA militia force. Admiral from the country. He has entered several times illegally since then. Blair reminded Wiranto that fairly or unfairly the international In recent weeks, Nairn left the besieged U.N. compound and community looks at East Timor as a barometer of progress for In- walked the streets of Dili, where he hid in abandoned houses and donesian reform. Most importantly, the process of change in East observed troops and militia burning and looting. In an earlier dis- Timor could proceed peacefully, he said." patch from East Timor (The Nation, March 30, 1998), Nairn dis- So that was it. No admonition. When Wiranto referred to dis- closed the continuing U.S. military training of Indonesian troops arming the WANRA force, he was talking about another militia implicated in the torture and killing of civilians. He filed the above force, different from the one that was staging attacks on Timorese report by satellite telephone through Amy Goodman, host of Paci- civilians. When word got back to the State Department that Blair fica Radio's "Democracy Now!" On September 13, a few days had said these things in a meeting, an "eyes only" cable was dis- after this report was transmitted, Nairn was arrested by the In- patched from the State Department to Ambassador Stapleton Roy donesian military and threatened with prosecution. After several at the embassy in Jakarta. The thrust of this cable was that what days and much international protest, he was deported by the In- Blair had done was unacceptable and that it must be reversed. As a donesian authorities. This article originally appeared in The Na- result of that cable from Washington to Roy, a corrective phone tion (www.thenation.com).

18 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income Life Insurance Company Chairman of the Board and Aild EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 2608 WACO, TEXAS 76797 (817) 772-3050 Chief Executive Officer

he way a debate is framed and choices are posed is often more important than which option is chosen. That's because the Tframing of the debate sends a powerful message to the public about what's at stake. It sets the boundaries of discourse. For politi- cians to stray beyond requires too much explaining and runs the risk of appearing irrelevant or radical. The debate over what to do with the Federal budget surplus offers a case in point. Congressional Republicans want to use almost all of it for a tax cut. President Clinton argues that it should be used to pay off present and future obligations. "Save Social Security. Save Medicare.... And get America out of debt for the first time since healt 1835," he said recently in response to the Republican proposal. decades ow Both alternatives — cutting taxes and paying off obligations -- decades from now. are attractive, if done equitably. Once the posturing is over, any final Because the Federal budget fails to compromise is likely to feature some of each. But a third option — for tomorrow and spending on to to apply some of the surplus to public investments in our future — by families and businesses in t is left out almost entirely. public investment has been deba By public investments I mean things that will make the nation vored budget item — from farm OM roductive in the future but that individuals or businesses efits for the elderly — is called all ave little incentive to do on their own. Such public investments Government does is assumed to be sp complement private investments. Without them, the private sector vate investment. cannot sustain high returns over the long term. But many other nations have figured out how to draw the distinc- Politicians once talked about public investment. This was a cen- tion. There's a common-sense test. If it's likely to make us more pro tral theme of the President's 1992 campaign. Bill Clinton came to ductive in the future, it's an investment. If not, it's s Washington stressing the urgency of dealing with "twin deficits" Granted, there are hard cases. Spending on national the budget deficit and America's failure to invest adequately in our environmental protection might be seen as investment people. We are far better able to afford public investment today than tent they make the future more livable. Yet spendin in 1992, when the deficit loomed large. Yet we're investing less, as for the middle aged (like me), although desirable on other a percentage of gross domestic product. is probably not. But hard cases should not distract us from Basic research and development, for example, is the foundation the principled distinction. for applied research by the private sector. The Internet emerged Private investment is critical, of course. The best argume from basic research financed by the Government, and similar efforts cutting taxes and paying off financial obligations is that both free up cry out to be made in fields like physics and environmental remedi- money for the private sector, some of which will be invested. But the ation. Yet basic research hasn't kept up. In 1992, Federal invest- other portion will be consumed. And it is this distinction — between ment in R&D was 0.43 percent of the gross domestic product. This investment and consumption --- that should be the focus, rather year, it's 0.39 percent. than the distinction between private and public. Likewise, an educated workforce is essential if we are to reap the Our future prosperity depends on the amount and wisdom of our benefits of new technologies. Companies have been investing con- private and public investments and on the restraint we show in our siderable sums in computers and digital gadgets, but chief execu- private and public consumption. Therein lies our real choice. tives complain that they can't find enough skilled people to use them. Yet the problem goes much deeper than a chronic shortage of Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor, is a professor of social software engineers. One out of six Americans is functionally illiter- and economic policy at Brandeis University and national editor of ate. Our classrooms are overcrowded and understaffed, some liter- The American Prospect. This article first appeared in The New York ally falling apart. In 1992, Federal investment in education and train- Times on August 11.

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 "Misfortune," from page 15 fendant who hired a lawyer. The solution to these injustices, critics say, begins with the creation of local public defender offices, he'd be released to go home. He thought wrong. Judge Harle apol- which currently exist only in the following Texas counties: El ogized for a crowded caseload and his upcoming vacation. A pro- Paso, Webb (which encompasses Laredo), Wichita (Wichita bation evaluation needed to be done but couldn't be completed for Falls), and to a limited extent in Dallas and Tarrant (Fort Worth). six weeks. Devastated, Bobby went back to jail again. His grand- The past two decades have seen unsuccessful attempts to legislate mother left the courthouse irate and deeply worried that Bobby public defender offices. Most recently, during the 1999 Legisla- would be unable to make the payments on his fine. She was sure a ture, Senator Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat, succeeded in default would send him back to the county jail — or worse, prison. passing legislation that would have allowed counties to set up such a system. But after furious lobbying from Harris County judges, MINIMUM-WAGE DEFENSE who under the new law would have ceded to county commission- Among people working nationwide to improve the way poor people ers their power to appoint criminal defense attorneys, Governor get lawyers, Bobby's story raises barely an eyebrow. All point out Bush vetoed the bill (see "The Bush Veto," page 15). that indigent defense systems across the country often are flawed. Many Texas county commissioners supported the Ellis bill, but But in Texas, they say, they're an unmitigated disaster. One reason Bexar County government is against a public defender office, says for the fiasco is stingy budgets. That isn't just a Lone Star problem: Mercedes Kutcher, who served as Bexar's criminal district courts while national spending on police, prosecutors, and prisons has administrator from 1988 to 1998. The prospect, Kutcher says, climbed dramatically the last decade, funding to defend the accused "comes up every year" before the county commissioners. "But has not kept pace. Alabama, for instance, pays twenty dollars and they don't want it," she says, "because under equal protection law, forty dollars per hour for in- and out-of-court time, respectively, and they'd have to give the public defender office and the D.A.'s office caps the total at $1,000 per case — even for death-penalty cases. equal funding. The system they have now is a lot cheaper." Virginia's maximums are lower still: $845 for crimes with a penalty Indeed, the D.A.'s office last year got almost $12 million to pros- of more than twenty years; for lesser offenses, $305. In states such ecute accused criminals. That's twice as much as appointed lawyers as Minnesota, Connecticut, and Mississippi, indigent defense bud- got to defend the same people. Despite the discrepancy, the gets are so inadequate that the state has been sued. A.C.L.U.'s Wesevich discounts the county's worries about being Texas, meanwhile, ranks fortieth of all states in the money it legally obligated to pay the same for prosecution and defense. Con- spends on indigent defense. The Spangenberg Group, a Mas- stitutionally, he says, equity isn't required. Yet he admits that the sachusetts-based, indigent-defense research organization that ad- vises the U.S. Justice Department, blasts systems throughout Texas as "seriously under-funded and understaffed." Jerry Wese- vich, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Wash- ington, D.C., says Bexar County's $301-per-felony-case average ACLU TEXAS is itself "about average" for Texas. In some other counties, he notes, "it's as low as $150 per case." That's because unlike most other states, Texas gives no money to GREATER localities to defend poor people, nor does the state mandate how to organize or evaluate indigent defense services. Instead, each of the state's 254 counties pays its own way and manages its own system — HOUSTON which generally includes judges personally appointing lawyers. This arrangement has been condemned by every nationally recognized or- ANNUAL GALA ganization dealing with indigent defense policy, from the American Bar Association to the President's Crime Commission Report. In a study done a few years ago by the State Bar of Texas, attor- neys statewide reported that on average, counties were paying them October 16, 1999 Honoring only twenty-nine cents of every dollar it actually cost to defend their 6 -10 P.M. Warren Burnett, Esq. indigent clients. Almost three-fourths of the lawyers said they'd spent 2106 Persa Houston, Texas With Guest Speaker their own money doing indigent defense cases. Even more said that Molly Ivins privately hired attorneys were giving clients better service than were 77006 court-appointed lawyers. Prosecutors agreed: an overwhelming ma- Tickets: $50 Master of Ceremonies jority said Texas attorneys devoted less time to indigent than to pay- Anthony Griffin ing clients, and seemed less prepared to defend the former in court. For more information It's extremely hard to measure the results of these damning ob- call Greg Gladden: servations. But in an eighteen-month study of the Harris County 713/880-0333 criminal justice system done in 1993 and 1994, Texas Lawyer Betafiling ACLU/ Texas AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION Foundation magazine found that a defendant with a court-appointed attorney TEXAS was three times more likely to receive jail or prison time than a de-

20 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 bottom line for good indigent defense is money. Catherine Burnett, turned to jail to be processed for release. His grandmother came to a Houston law professor who chairs a State Bar committee studying get him early that evening. Bobby took off his inmate oranges then, indigent defense issues, agrees: "If a public defender office is un- and for the first time in 212 days, put on street clothes and returned derfunded, it can be just as bad" as a court-appointed set up. Yet in to his East Side home, making plans to resume his studies. the current political climate, Burnett laments, "it's hard to make Is Bobby innocent of the charge that took so much time from his anybody care about the quality of indigent defense. No one wants to life? Or is his story just a story? At this point, perhaps the truth allocate the money. There's a tremendous sense that we've lived doesn't matter to anyone but him. What does matter, though, is that through twenty years of criminals being coddled by the system. In- a faulty indigent defense system robbed him and the community of digent defendants are hard to evoke sympathy for. They're [consid- a chance to fairly evaluate his case. And it left Bobby, his kin, and ered] guilty until proven innocent. They raise questions about class neighbors with the acrid sense that in San Antonio — as one local and other things that make people uncomfortable." lawyer puts it — justice for poor people comes only with the luck

But Wesevich says even a poorly-funded public defender office is of the draw. ❑ better than none. For one thing, it takes county money out of judges' hands, thus abolishing the appearance (or reality) of cronyism. For Debbie Nathan is a staff reporter for the San Antonio Current, another, it maintains standards for lawyer qualifications and for max- where a version of this story first appeared. Research assistance by imum caseloads. Public defender offices are the first step to remedy- Heather Mockeridge. ing "a complex and awful problem," concludes Wesevich. The This article is dedicated to the memory of former Observer edi- A.C.L.U. continues to push for such offices in Texas: the civil liber- tor Linda Rocawich. ties organization is currently considering suing various counties, such as Bell and Cameron, that have particularly bad indigent defense sys- The rule still applies. tems. The aim is to use legal suits to pressure the Legislature. A comprehensive public defender office might also challenge When you finish all the "San Antonio Plan," the buyout system for lawyers who don't want to defend indigents. A similar scheme exists in Midland. 44-% Here s your recommended There's also one in El Paso, even though El Paso has a public de- ir . k fender office. (It doesn't handle all indigent cases, though. Many , dose of. youlM enlAusuism. still get assigned to private lawyers, and those who pay to avoid the work end up funding the public defenders.) Civil libertarians argue your chores, you get to that these buyout plans are illegal, since it is unconstitutional to force a class of private citizens — in this case attorneys — to go out and play. So what bankroll services the government should be funding. The same rea- soning can be applied to the court-appointment system, which will it be? Sea World, forces lawyers to labor for the government, usually at prices well Fiesta Texas, The Alamo? below their earnings for private work. A few Texas lawyers have formally protested these practices. In Or would you prefer world 1995, Austin attorney Scott Klippel sued Travis County and a class golfing? Shopping judge for forcing him to represent a poor client at rock-bottom pay. Two years later in El Paso, lawyer Tanja Hunter refused to accept and hill country views. indigent cases and complained about the buyout system to the State Either way, there's Commission on Judicial Misconduct. Klippel's case was rejected: the courts said he couldn't sue a judge or the county. Hunter's ef- something for everyone. forts also came to naught. But in other states during the past decade — among them Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, and Alaska — law- 01997 OMNI HOTELS suits and other filings have led to major reforms. Omni San Antonio, a mere $89* per night THE PRICE OF FREEDOM For families. For fun. For the weekend.

Bobby wasn't thinking about indigent defense systems the morning Plus applicable occupancy taxes. he made his final appearance in court. It was April 14 — seven months to the day after he was first locked up. A week before, I asked Judge Hale to comment on the fact that Bobby had spent OMNI e SAN ANTONIO HOTEL over half his incarceration without representation by a lawyer, even TH-10 AT WURZBACFI IN THE COLONNADE though he was telling a story of innocence that should have been in- vestigated. "They all tell stories," Hale had answered. But on April CALL YOUR TRAVEL PLANNER OR 14, Bobby walked up to the bench, and Attorney Catherine Foster 1-800-THE-OMNI rushed in and stood by his side. In less than five minutes, Hale re- scinded Bobby's $1,000 fine. Foster hurried out, and Bobby re-

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 MOLLY IVINS Political Comedy Time hat ho, political junkies! Time for inside baseball. Forget campaign finance, trade with China, health care, child poverty, family values, moral elevation, education and all that Wjazz — let's talk politics. Now this is starting to look like fun; this is something more like it. Now we've got some action.

Bradley's gaining on Gore, Buchanan is Well. Since "Mad at Clinton" includes pression it's what he really thinks, instead about to jump ship and go Reform, and the 98.2 percent of the country including his of some political blah-blah designed not to Repubs are so worried about having put all wife (the other 0.8 responded, "Who's offend anyone. But Republicans don't seem their chips (not to mention $50 million) on Clinton?"), ergo, it stands to reason that to like him, at least the Establishment kind. a guy who may not be ready for prime time Bradley would be a more attractive candi- I think they suspect him of having a sense that they look as confused as goats on As- date in the General. of humor. They keep calling him a "maver- troTurf. The media continue to dote on But should Clinton be held against a wor- ick," as though that were something bad. John McCain, and Republican women are thy fellow like Gore? Now is no time for They're very orderly in that party. Of really liking Liddy Dole. Ain't we got fun? fairness, argue these Democrats (suddenly course, the Rs hold campaign finance re- Of course, most of our fellow citizens re- calculating liberals) — let's think strongest form against him — with a fund-raising gard all this as so much background noise candidate. My, my, my. The new buzz is edge like theirs, they'd be crazy not to. — sort of the way one regards golf if one is that Bradley has gravitas. As soon as we tell The Christian right may yet settle down not a golfer — something you see while people what it means, we can sell him. and support George W. the way it's sup- flipping channels: "Oh, yes, there's some Meanwhile, Buchanan — my favorite posed to; he's been pulling it off in Texas golf on television. I wonder whatever hap- racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic for six years. But right now they're still pened to that nice young man from Califor- anti-Semite — is once again proceeding to restless and out there milling around Gary nia with the Asian mother and the black fa- make things interesting for us all. I'm a Bauer and Alan Keyes and my man Dan ther. What was his name?" stonewall Jesse Ventura fan myself, and if Quayle. (And let me point out a pip of a But for us junkies, these are palmy days. Jesse says us populists can be for quote from my man Dan just the other day On the Democratic side, I can attest from Buchanan, that's okay by me. And I espe- on Alan Greenspan, the great Pooh-Bah of my own travels around the country that cially enjoyed watching Buchanan on the Washington: "Greenspan represents the big every serious Democrat not already signed Sunday chats fielding questions about "the banks and internationalists, and the farmers up with Al Gore is saying, "You know, Bill social issues." are getting screwed." Why, Dan! I swan!) Bradley could be a better candidate for us." "I understand the Reform Party does not Perhaps the most interesting develop- This is sort of an unusual discussion for take positions on the social issues," said the ment on that side of the aisle is the utter re- passionate Democrats, who are usually in- old cultural cleanser, "and they have to un- pudiation of the Republican Revolution of volved in some fratricidal battle over prin- derstand I'm pro-life and I won't change, '94, or at least the rhetoric of the Republi- ciple — "I could never vote for a man who but that can be worked out." can Revolution. Bill Kristol and George supported Bobby Kennedy over Gene Mc- Flexibility is a wonderful thing. I see a Will have both pronounced it dead as Carthy in '68." great future for the Reform Party: If every- Pharaoh's mummy. Newt Gingrich, so ten The only Democrats who ever worry body who's tired of the Republicans and minutes ago. Nobody does that anymore. about winning are those boring dweebs in the Democrats joins it, it'll win in a walk. They may be surprised to learn that George the Democratic Leadership Council, and Hint to Buchanan: campaign finance re- W.'s political philosophy, to the extent that everybody hates them. form is a winning issue. The Reform Party it can be discerned with the naked eye, is But boring is our hallmark this year. You should own that one. Bradley is getting a quite, quite Gingrichian. can't even get a fistfight started over boost from campaign finance reform, and Well, it's festive season for us junkies, NAFTA anymore. For lack of anything so is McCain. with promising developments if not actual better to do, we're weighing candidates I have a problem with picking Republi- fisticuffs ahead. based on who's got the best shot. can candidates. Republicans never seem to Onward. And Bradley is looking ... well, he's like the ones I do. I liked Senator Dick looking better than Gore, actually. Ac- Lugar in '96. I thought he'd be a good pres- Molly Ivins is a former Observer editor and cording to the polls (can't be a junkie ident, but he finished at, like, 2 percent. I a columnist for the Fort Worth without those polls), Bradley comes up still think he had gravitas. Star-Telegram. Her latest book is You Got sharply to really competitive against Gore McCain seems like more of a grown-up to Dance With Them What Brung You. when Democrats who are mad at Clinton than the other Republicans, and he has a You may write to her via e-mail at are polled. nice way of saying things so you get the im- [email protected].

22 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 JIM HIGHTOWER Don't Dial 9-1-1 et's say you're at home one evening, sitting there in your La-Z-Boy, maybe with a cool one in your hand, when suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your chest, your left arm is tingly and sort Lof numb. Heart attack! Or it least it could be one. You go for the phone to get emergency help — but you don't dial 9-1-1. Instead, you call H-M-O. What?! Yes, it's the latest "advance" in the sumption to a foregone conclusion. LIES, DAMN LIES AND ADS wonderful world of managed health care — Well, the Picasso of Statistics is the U.S. Let's take a trip into the Far, Far, Far-Out instead of calling 911, you've got to call your Commerce Department, which keeps Frontiers of Free Enterprise. Health Maintenance Organization, and its telling us how good NAFTA is for our Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you corporate bureaucrats will decide whether country. For example, we're told that our once again into the bizarre sphere of prod- you get an E.M.S. to come help you. exports to Mexico are up! Never mind that uct advertising. Our guide in this surreal USA Today reports that Kaiser Perma- our imports from Mexico are waaaay up, world is Consumer Reports magazine, nente, one of the largest H.M.O.s in the creating the third worst trade deficit that we which keeps finding the Black Holes that country, is the first to impose this new layer have with any country in the world. But swallow any shred of truth in ads. of corporate bureaucracy between you and let's peek into that export number that offi- Let's start with the "105-Piece Ladies the medical service you need — a bureau- cials are so proud of. It turns out that four Tool Set." Here's the hammer, pliers, two cratic step that could waste precious min- out of every ten products that we ship to screw drivers, needle-point pliers, mea- utes as you explain to some Kaiser clerk Mexico are not sold to the people there, but suring tape, adjustable wrench, and ... sitting in a cubicle way out in Wisconsin are parts sold to U.S. factories located in well, I only count twenty tools, not 105. what your symptoms are and why you Mexico. We're "exporting" to ourselves. Ah! Here they are in this little box — think you need an ambulance pronto, Then, General Electric and the rest use eighty-five assorted screws. So, screws P.D.Q., post haste, and, like, right now! these parts in their Mexican factories to are what you get, huh? You'll be pleased to know that the make appliances and whatnot, shipping the But here's something for free! It's a H.M.O. clerk at the other end of the phone finished product back here to sell to us. So chiropractic pain relief center that says, has received a good four weeks of training the "export" becomes an import. "Most chiropractors only offer you a free for the job, so of course he or she is per- If that's too confusing, don't worry, be- exam. I offer much more than that!! ! Free fectly qualified to diagnose you from afar. cause corporations like GE are going to headache pain consultation, Free If the clerk decides you need an ambulance, simplify the process, by getting the suppli- headache pain X-rays, Free computerized one is then dispatched to you. But — get ers of parts to move to Mexico, too! The spinal motion study, Free examination & this — the H.M.O. will send an ambulance Wall Street Journal reports that forty per- diagnosis of your back pain" and many from a firm that it contracts with, even cent of the electric ranges that GE sells in more Free services. The price for the though another company's ambulance is the U.S. are coming from Mexico, and now complete Free pain analysis and diagnosis closer to you. Kaiser says it's doing a favor a U.S. company that makes glass doors and plan: $49.00. for the whole society because, according to tops for the stoves has me ved there, as has Forest Lawn cemetery also offers an its emergency medical services director, a maker of burners, and regulators. U.S. amazing deal for you: Free burial service. "there's a finite number of ambulances. We Steel, which sells 100 tons of sheet metal This is an $825 deal for digging a hole, want to reserve them for those who really every day to GE's Mexico factory, also has putting your loved one six feet deep, need them." Great. A corporation with a built a steel plant just fifty yards from the then covering it up. But you better hurry: bottom-line incentive not to send an ambu- GE factory. the Forest Lawn deal for the dead is lance is going to be the arbiter of whether The bottom line is that America's chief only good through June 30, 1999. Oops — you get one. And if the H.M.O. makes a export is jobs. Thanks to NAFTA, U.S. too late. 111 boo-boo, leaving you dead at the other end corporations can eliminate middle-class of the phone, remember — the Republicans jobs here, move the factory to Mexico, pay Jim Hightower's radio talk show broad- in Congress continue to give H.M.O.s im- subsistence wages to people there, then casts daily from Austin on over 100 munity from lawsuits. send their stoves and other products back to stations nationwide. His book, There's Welcome to the cold world of corpora- the U.S. without paying a dime in tariffs, Nothing in the Middle of the Road tized medicine. selling the products for the same high price but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos they've always charged. The wage differ- is in paperback. Find him at www.jim THE NAFTA RIPOFF ence is pocketed by the corporation. hightower corn, or e-mail: info@jimhigh The use of statistics has been called the art What a ripoff! I say it's time to repeal tower. corn. of drawing a straight line from a wrong as- NAFTA. , 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 jt.ZEn - /-

OBSERVATIONS The President's Lady BY RONNIE DUGGER LADY BIRD: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson. By Jan Jarboe Russell. Scribner. 350 pages. $26.00.

eading Jan Jarboe Russell's book on Lady Bird John- son has brought me back closer in my mind to Lyndon Johnson than I have been since his funeral. Putting aside all else that must be said, he was such an original, daring, and entertaining man! More to the book's. pur- Rpose, Russell's Lady Bird contains more credible and revelatory in- formation about Lady Bird and more self-knowledge from her than any other book about her. Bird gave Russell long interviews, and cooperated with her for three years, until Russell began question- ing some of Lyndon's lovers and Bird read Russell's piece in a web magazine calling Lyndon the last of the really big hicks, a fearful and uncertain man who whispered terrible, dark things about him- self under his breath, and a whiner. Evidently, until then the Presi- dent's widow and the reporter had a natural rapport, both being Southern white women from East Texas, although at a generation's remove. By following closely what Bird told Russell and taking in the results of the author's tenacious investigative reporting in Bird's home territory, Harrison County, I have acquired a better understanding of Lady Bird than I had after reading many thou- sands of pages about her and interviewing her myself. The author is an old friend of mine. This then is not a review, but rather a sharing of some of what, despite knowing as much as I do about the Johnsons and being one of Lyndon's biographers, I learned reading Jan's book. She fixes Bird in our minds as very much the daughter of her fa- ther, T.J. Taylor, whom Russell portrays harshly as a greedy and phi- landering furnishing merchant. We learn, from "three family sources" whom Russell does not identify, that Taylor and his brother A Claudia Alta Taylor with her nurse, Alice Tittle, LBJ Library collection may have fled Alabama to East Texas to escape suspicion in a train who gave her the nickname "Lady Bird." robbery. Harrison County was the Old South, and Taylor double- "He always used to lecture me about thevalueofadollar" — he'd charged African Americans at his country stores and sometimes ac- rattle it off as if it were one word — Bird said. He was the boss in cepted deeds to their homes in payment of their debts to him, while his territory, everybody obeyed him including of course his daugh- also supervising his 15,000 acres of cotton and his two cotton gins. ter, and when Bird in effect eloped from home with Lyndon she Bird grew up in a ten-room red-brick house that had been built was both escaping from her father and marrying someone like him. by slaves. Standing enclosed in a 600-acre pasture, the house had "I feel sure," Bird has said, "my ideas of what a man was were giant encased windows that ran from floor to ceiling and were formed by my father. I adored him." She has also said that "sub- opened or closed by pulleys. Bird's mother, Minnie Patillo Taylor, consciously I suppose I was looking for my father." was well-read, cultured, and artistic, sometimes journeying to If we are not to make the mistake of trying to understand a Chicago to attend the opera, and reading to little Bird from Greek woman of Lady Bird's time and place by the values and customs of and Roman myths. But Minnie was "melancholy," and when Tay- our own time and place, we must keep firmly in mind the fact that lor took up with another woman Minnie returned to Alabama to she was formed in the crucible of her father's domination and her live with her parents, leaving Bird with her father. Minnie returned, submission to him. "She comes from a long line of female martyrs though, and when Bird was almost six, her mother fell down a cir- and male tyrants," Russell writes. "The women in her family all cular staircase in the living room and died from the fall. Her father learned to suffer well and in silence, while the men fought against went on to other wives. poverty and pursued power." If this is too formulaic, Bird was

24 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 indeed a Southern white lady in a white man's world that she alone was glad that Lyndon and I were well off, that we had enough could not change, a world where even a locally rich young woman money, and wondered what it would be like to be that sick without who drove her own black Buick, as Bird was and did, avoided any money at all." spinsterhood and loneliness by marrying the right husband and When asked about Lyndon' s lovers, Bird replied: "When people serving and obeying him. In a televised interview that Russell re- ports, Bird said to her daughter Lynda that she regarded Lyndon as "my lover, my friend, my identity," adding, "The need for women to have their individual identity belongs to your generation, not mine." Russell quotes her further: "His life became my life. I re- spected it. I wanted to learn from it, excel in it." At the University of Texas in Austin, Bird showed some of the spunk and deviltry that was to fit so well into her admiration of Lyn- don. She dated some with the student body president, a law student, and a pre-med student, and decided to be a newspaper reporter. "I saw journalism as an outlet, a safe outlet, to be a little bit more ag- gressive," she told Russell. Bird and two of her girlfriends at U.T. used to have dinner out with a married vice-president of an oil com- pany, and the three of them were delighted when a former captain of the Texas Rangers, an old guy without his teeth, let them see his erotic books and recited risque nursery rhymes to them. On some nights, Russell reports, Bird and her friends and their dates drove out to a pasture students frequented eight miles north of Austin, and the dates paired off and scattered and spread their blankets in the pasture for some heavy petting. At home in Karnack, she and her friends drank homemade whiskey out of Mason jars, and they fa- vored gin with either grapefruit or cherry juice. Politically Bird was for Governor Ma Ferguson, which means by Texas lights that she was liberal before she met Lyndon. The first book she gave Lyndon was Voltaire's Candide, which she believes he never read. One senses from a recollection Bird shared with Russell that she would have been a good reporter. "I literally saw oil and gas flare into importance in Texas," Bird said. "Flaring is the correct word, because when I drove across Texas, all I could see were the tall stacks where gas was being burned off. It burned red and blue from those stacks and looked just like hell when you drove through. The land itself looked like it was on fire."

" I remember once," Bird told Russell, "when I was a little girl, that a group of white men cornered a black man in the middle A Lady Bird in Austin, 1941 Austin American of the night and accused him of some crime. The poor man was so terrified that he just took off running. The white men shot him in ask me these sorts of things, I just say, 'Look to your own lives. the back." This happened in the woods near Karnack — she had Look to yourselves, everybody. Fix yourselves, and keep your not seen it, but she heard about it the next morning at her father's problems to yourself.'" store. She remembered thinking, "This isn't right. Somebody "She knew him inside out and accepted him for what he was," ought to change this." George Reedy told Russell. Horace Busby, Johnson's man-Friday, The man she married did more to change it than any American told her, "The key to understanding Lady Bird is to understand that President since Abraham Lincoln, and Johnson did what he did in in her mind her father was the role model for how all men are and an egalitarian spirit that Lincoln did not have toward blacks. That should be. It explains why she put up with LBJ' s womanizing, and story from Bird's girlhood memory is an example of the resonance why she idealized him for being a public servant. She grew up with of what we can learn, about Lady Bird and the Johnsons, in this her father and assumed all men had a wife but also had girlfriends. book. Here are some further examples. She didn't attach much importance to it." Speaking of Lyndon and her honeymoon trip to Mexico, Bird said: Busby related that one weekend, when Johnson was vice-presi- "I was a born sightseer, but Lyndon was a born people-seer. He in- dent, he invited Helen Gahagan Douglas, who had been and per- dulged me on that trip, but the truth is he wasn't much intrigued." haps still was a lover, to spend the weekend at the Johnsons' home. Lady Bird's fourth miscarriage jeopardized her life. "When they Bird left to shop in New York for the weekend. This leads to the were putting me in the ambulance," she said, "I remember that I speculation that Bird knew about his affairs and, as Russell writes,

S."ErrEfotreE4E-3-' , 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 25 ot:koleac-r- "condoned them." A taped phone conversation Russell listened to caught Bird saying to Douglas, "I like for women to like him, and I like him to like them." Lyndon was a bully and abused people. "Ours was a compelling love," Bird told Russell on her porch in Austin. "Lyndon bullied me, coaxed me, at times even ridiculed me, but he made me more than I would have been. I offered him some peace and quiet, maybe a little judgment." Bird is also quoted: "He would sometimes say cruel things to me. I had more calmness and justice than he did at times." One evening in the late thirties the Johnsons went to the movie, The Grapes of Wrath. In the darkness Bird heard Lyndon sobbing loudly, and took his hand and squeezed it. "He always wanted me to be lively and healthy and in good spir- its and have my lipstick on," she said. "That's what I tried to be." Russell quotes her staffer Ashton Gonella: "She always believed in him. I think the fact that she just always had a smile on her face, was always glad to see any friend that was his friend at any hour of the day or night — she was not a complaining-type female." Bird A Lady Bird and family, 1948 LBJ Library collection served Lyndon coffee along with the morning paper in bed every morning, took care of his clothes, paid the bills. When Russell consider all the categories of judging in sexual matters. We need to asked her if she resented doing any of this she replied, "Heavens devise new and subtler ways, which should start, I think, on the no, I was delighted to do it. I adored him." foundation of what the French say, when they are discussing the Concerning Lyndon Johnson's attitude toward women, George sexual behavior of others: "I wasn't holding the candle." Reedy told Russell: "Johnson really did identify with poor people On the evidence of what she told Jan, I believe Bird never left Lyn- and with blacks and Mexican Americans.... But the idea of a really don because she loved him. Jan recounts a story from the fifties that liberated woman was beyond him. He thought the way to liberate Reedy told her: "Late one evening, Reedy saw Lady Bird and Lyndon women was to get them married and to give their husbands good walking down a road near the Pedernales River on the ranch. Lady jobs. The rest of it — pretending to take women seriously — that Bird was holding his hand and had the most blissful look on her face. was just snake oil." It was clear to Reedy how devoted Lady Bird was to him, despite his Concerning Lyndon's attitude toward men, Nancy Dickerson, the ill treatment. She seemed content to have him home, away from NBC correspondent, interviewed him in 1960 when he was angry and Washington." After giving Lyndon a critique of his 1968 State of the despondent because Kennedy had just won the presidential nomina- Union address, Bird said before hanging up the phone, "And I love tion, and what Johnson told her, quoted by Russell from Dickerson's you very much." Busby told Russell that not long after Lyndon died oral history transcript, is sobering. "I am like a wild animal," he said. Bird told him at the ranch, "You know what I miss most? He was so "I keep myself on a very tight leash. My instinct is always to go for funny, so very funny, and I miss the way he made us all laugh." the jugular. Sometimes I have an uncanny way in life to be able to hit Lady Bird Johnson was born in a cage and flew into another one, the jugular of most men, but I keep myself on a tight leash." before feminism came to us all with its mission and work to liber- Lady Bird's role as First Lady, beautifying Washington, D.C. ate half the human race. She stood by her husband, doing as he told and fostering the planting of wildflowers, really flowed from her her and championing his causes, as he became the most liberal husband's assignment of her to do "beauty." She threw herself into President in domestic policy since Franklin Roosevelt. On Viet- it — causing two million daffodil bulbs to be planted, rebuilding nam, as on everything in public, she followed out his script in total the hike-and-bike trail along Austin's Colorado River, founding loyalty, joining, for example, in his public abuse of the demonstra- the Wildflower Research Center nearby — accepting and fulfilling tors against the war. She later told her staff, Russell reports: "I another of the roles her husband assigned her. couldn't handle the war in Vietnam. I wasn't big enough." Jan Russell is a Baptist from East Texas, but also a feminist, and Jan asked Bird if she believes in heaven. "Oh, yes, I do," Bird she judges Lyndon and Bird in both Baptist and feminist terms. said. "I do know that there is something hereafter, because all this She writes of Lyndon's "sexual betrayal," his inability to give Bird has been too significant, too magnificent, for there not to be some- loyalty, his "hypersexuality"; she quotes an unnamed aide describ- thing after. Heaven, to me, is a mystery, a place I'll know what all ing him as a "sexual gorilla." Nadine Brammer told her that one this — the events of my life — meant." day Johnson was helping her get out of the back seat of the car, and That would be heaven indeed, and I hope if it's there she makes "as I leaned over to get out, he took the opportunity to feel me up it. Would she find Lyndon there? I wasn't holding the candle. [1] — it happened so fast I didn't even have a chance to complain." Russell asks about this: "Why did female staff members put up Ronnie Dugger was the founding editor of the Observer, is the na- with such treatment?" Finally, she asks wonderingly why Lady tional co-chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, and the author Bird never left Lyndon. of The Politician: The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson, and I am impelled by these judgments to reflect that we need to re- other books. He can be reached at [email protected] .

26 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 BOOKS & THE CULTURE

Triple Digits Just a heat wave No matter 108 wrings the spectrum cooks flowers evaporates cars White sky at sundown brings no relief for the puzzlement of roses Burning meridian falls to ash no violets ask for admittance no orange hues complain The metal soil stacked with silver the solid silver of the road and river Myth of a Miscarriage bursts open like a mirror A child of stones dreamed the red cow In the land of metal reflecting the code of seven terns what is strong enough to endure reared the wintering tree the work of wind and sun A child of clouds drooped under the weight of stars The wind clanged in the metal sky The red cow gave until she bled no rain replied My hand a dragon that lay down by the sea A child of snow nested in the shell of my ear Her song of blue eggs rolled toward the moon while a river rock hollered in my belly These winter thoughts do not stay long under the cold terms of heaven they depart Some signals cannot be repeated through the blood and salt and song

—ROBIN SCOFIELD

obin Scofield lives in El Paso where she writes and partici- forthcoming in Paris Review and Western Humanities Review. pates in the Tumblewords Project, a grassroots writing or- —Naomi Shihab Nye Rganization. She works at U.T.-El Paso and El Paso Com- munity College, teaching everything from Holocaust studies to The Observer's poetry page is partially funded through a grant medieval literature to first-year composition. She received her from the Austin Writers' League in cooperation with the Texas M.A. in creative writing from U.T.–Austin in 1987 and has poems Commission on the Arts.

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Revolving Door Kenneth McDuff and the Texas Prison System BY MARY WILLIS WALKER BAD BOY FROM ROSEBUD: things happened in 1972 that turned out to The Murderous Life of be very lucky breaks for him. First, the Kenneth Allen McDuff. United States Supreme Court, in Furman v. By Gary M. Lavergne. Georgia, ruled that the way states adminis- University of North Texas Press. tered the death penalty was unconstitu- 366 pages. $29.95. tional. McDuff's death sentence, with that of 126 other Texas death row inmates, was he life of Texas serial killer Ken- commuted to life in prison. The same year, neth McDuff is presented here in inmate David Ruiz sued the state of Texas, all its sordid, violent detail, from alleging that the Texas prison system was his childhood in Rosebud to his violating his civil rights. As a result of the death by lethal injection in Ruiz suit, United States District Judge THuntsville. His was an unimaginably William Wayne Justice eventually ordered brutish existence, devoted to drugs, guns, a complete overhaul of the Texas prison torture, rape, and murder — not so differ- system. In the short term, the Ruiz decision ent from other serial killers in the seem- resulted in a massive number of paroles, in- ingly endless line of them. But McDuff's tended to relieve brutal overcrowding in story is well worth telling, different be- the state prisons. cause of the powerful impact it has had in The most disturbing part of this story is changing Texas' criminal justice system, that McDuff, using a combination of ruth- the third largest in the country. less persistence, some family support and The question that makes this narrative so money — and lots of luck — managed to get A Kenneth McDuff's first Texas Department compelling is how in God's name it was of Criminal Justice paroled from a life sentence after twenty- possible for someone with a violent crimi- mug shot from Death Row three years in prison. Upon his fifteenth ap- nal history dating from 1965, including a leased from jail, and placed on probation. plication, the Texas Board of Pardons and conviction for murder, to be legally on the This left McDuff — a convicted burglar, Paroles, by a two-to-one vote of the three- streets again in 1989, to continue raping murderer, and briber, on both parole and person committee reviewing his case, set and killing at will. It is a story almost be- probation — free to drive to Austin and Kenneth McDuff free. Parole was granted yond belief, of a man with an eighth-grade kidnap Colleen Reed from a car wash on despite McDuff's conviction four years ear- education and officially below-average I.Q. Sixth Street, rape her, torture her, and, fi- lier for trying to bribe one of the board mem- who was able, nonetheless, to slip through nally, in his own words, "use her up." Dur- bers, and in spite of heated protests from the cracks in the criminal justice system, ing the less than three years following his prosecutors. McDuff, as always, had several time and time again, even though everyone 1989 parole from prison, he also murdered things working to his advantage. One was in law enforcement who had ever had con- Melissa Northrup, Brenda Thompson, his obsessively devoted mother, Addie Mc- tact with him knew he was a vicious sadist Reginia Moore, Valencia Kay Joshua, and Duff, whose lawyers kept on helping her who would kill again. A fiction writer who probably Sarafia Parker. boy. And he was lucky in his timing: his ap- tried to tell a story like this would have a Gary Lavergne tells McDuff's story in plication came at a time when the Texas De- difficult time persuading readers to sus- rich detail, putting it into the historical con- partment of Corrections was releasing large pend their disbelief. text of the upheavals in Texas' criminal numbers of inmates — 150 a day — in order Between 1965 and 1991, McDuff was justice system during the seventies and to be in compliance with Judge Justice's rul- arrested for burglary, sent to prison, eighties. He is not afraid to name names ings. In 1989, the year McDuff was paroled, paroled, arrested for three brutal murders and assign responsibility for McDuff's fifty-six percent of the parole requests were while on parole, sent back to prison and shark-like swim through the nooks and approved. Also working in McDuff's favor placed on death row, taken off death row, crannies of a chaotic system. In 1966, when was simply the passage of time: after convicted of bribery while in prison, McDuff was condemned to death for mur- twenty-three years, even the most heinous paroled, arrested for making terroristic dering Marcus Dunnam (one of three Fort crimes fade from public memory. So in threats while on parole, sent back to prison, Worth teen-agers he killed in the infamous 1989, McDuff was a free man back in Rose- paroled again, arrested for driving while in- "broomstick murders") it looked like his bud, to the horror of former neighbors who toxicated while on parole, put in jail, re- criminal career was finished. But two had watched him turn from a schoolyard

28 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 bully into a sadistic killer. A year later he rulings. He writes, "And so, an unelected "Dialogue," from page 2 threatened some teen-agers with a knife, and federal judge seized a prison system and Force proved to the world that our stealth air- was sent back to prison for violating his pa- placed the rights of prisoners above the craft are currently the best in the world, and we role. Again through luck and influence, two safety of the public." Without so much as a should keep it that way. The best way to achieve months later his parole was reinstated. In paragraph to support this assertion, he goes real arms reduction is to retire the old equipment 1991 he was arrested for D.W.I., yet another on to lay McDuff's parole at the door of the when new equipment becomes available, rather parole violation — but because the prisons Federal court. It is certainly true that Mc- than sell it all off to third world pestholes ruled by inhuman, bloodthirsty dictators. were still overcrowded, he was simply Duff was paroled at a time when the Texas However, if Professor Galbraith wishes to placed on probation. Department of Corrections was releasing halt foolish spending on wasteful military When McDuff was finally captured and large numbers of inmates in order to be in equipment, I would direct his attention to the sentenced to death for the murders of compliance with court rulings — but the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, our newest multi-zillion dollar aircraft carrier. This ship can not defend Melissa Northrup and Colleen Reed, the T.D.C. was not required to release violent itself from a forty-year old diesel electric sub- public was so outraged over the saga of his murderers. McDuff's repeated parole was a marine, the likes of which Russia has sold to al- manipulations of the criminal justice sys- gross error of judgment, not something or- most all the outlaw terrorist nations.... tem they demanded some real changes, and dered by the court. Another place to cut arms spending is to get were willing to pay for them. The author Lavergne's book is also marred by an ex- rid of the large armored and mechanized divi- sions and stay strictly with light infantry, and sums it up: "He was more than just another cessive and sometimes melodramatic rev- air mobile units.... Yes, let's reduce arms, and serial killer. Kenneth McDuff's murderous erence for the federal marshals, Texas arms spending, but cutting the F-22 is not the rampage, from 1989 to his arrest in 1992, Rangers, police detectives, and prosecutors way to do that.... Please don't use Republican brought about large changes in the Texas who were involved in the capture and pros- sour grapes to define a sane defense policy.... criminal justice system. More significantly, ecution of McDuff. Here he describes Michael R. "Mike" Morrin he attached powerful images to the argu- Deputy U.S. Marshal Parnall McNamara Via internet ment that helped the public overcome a driving home while thinking about Colleen RECONSIDERING WACO conservative political tide to fund a mas- Reed: "The 'spiritual descendant of an un- The media has an opportunity to redeem itself sive expansion of state government. Ar- forgiving school of lawmen' could not help on Waco — if it will ask the right questions this guably, the Ruiz lawsuit brought to the but fear for the women at home he wor- time ("The Fire This Time," September 17). The right questions are: forefront the inadequacies of Texas pris- shiped more than life itself. And the man of (1) Why were armored vehicles and tear-gas ons, but it was not until the Kenneth Mc- stone began to weep." His awestruck rever- grenades used on a building full of women and Duff murders that Texas government, and ence for law officers interferes with children? the people, chose prison construction and Lavergne's telling the whole story, for he is (2) Who made that decision — and when increased government spending over mas- defensive in warding off any possible criti- will that individual be called to account? . sive paroles." (3) Since two A.T.F. agents and David Koresh cism of law enforcement's dealings with went target shooting together at Mount Carmel It's almost, but not quite, a paradox: that McDuff, even as his execution approached just nine days before the military attack on Mount the explosion of prison construction in this year and he was telling authorities Carmel, why was the initial military attack or- Texas can be seen as a reaction against a where his victims had been buried. As a dered? You can see the A.T.F.'s memo docu- conservative political atmosphere — be- consequence, Lavergne evades an impor- menting this on Attorney David Hardy's webpage cause prisons are very expensive. The new (www.indirect.com/www/dhardy/waco.html). tant issue. If this was indeed as it seems, If the media allows the Congressional hear- prison construction was accompanied by McDuff's last-gasp attempt at manipulat- ings to focus primarily on what types of tear- changes in the law relating to parole, now ing the system, then the author is obligated gas grenades were used, and who started the collectively referred to as the "McDuff to explore the possibility that the same fires, then these new hearings will simply be a Laws." One of these is that a defendant charges might be made against those who continuation of the six years of cover-up. Mike Ford who gets a life sentence for capital murder negotiated this deal as he makes against Austin must serve a minimum of forty years before those who once paroled McDuff. being considered for parole. Another is that Despite its flaws, Bad Boy From Rose- paroles for serious offenses now require the bud is the best kind of true crime writing. It ANDERSON & COMPANY approval of two-thirds of the entire eigh- tells a ripping good story and also ad- COFFEE teen-member Board of Pardons and dresses larger issues. And it presents a dev- TEA SPICES Paroles, instead of a three-member panel ilish dilemma for those of us who oppose TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE like the one that released McDuff. capital punishment: the same system we AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 don't trust to administer the death penalty 512-453-1533 avergne's lucid, very readable, and fairly, can't be trusted not to, either. ❑ Send me your list. thoroughly researched book remains Name marred by some thorny flaws. Austin writer Mary Willis Walker is the L Street Lavergne puts forth some extremely sim- author of several novels, including The plistic and unsupported opinions, for exam- Red Scream, based in part on the criminal City Zip ple, about Judge William Wayne Justice's career of Henry Lee Lucas.

OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 29 • AFTERWORD Cabled to a Monopoly BY JIM WRIGHT his century began with Theodore Roosevelt and others urgently warning of the rapid growth of monopolies and insisting on controls to keep a few big corporations from poisoning the T roots of free enterprise by squeezing out smaller competitors. Ironically, the century ends with the most rapid, rampant spread of monopoly in the world's history. During the first half of our century, Amer- Let's consider something as familiar as settling in for a pleasant evening at home, ica's statesmen crafted a careful matrix of the family TV set. Until recently, cable TV our sets went blank except for a message measures to restrict the always eager tenta- service was supplied here in Fort Worth by that said we owed $158. There was a tele- cles of the biggest from gaining control of Marcus Cable. It was locally owned. If you phone number. whole industries by strangling or gobbling had a problem, you could call someone lo- It wasn't only the cable channels that up all significant competition. cally. For ten years, my family had no were out. The computer had shut down There were antitrust laws; the graduated problems. Everything went smoothly. our free stations as well. I called the num- income tax; controls on banks, stock and A few months ago, Marcus was taken ber displayed on our set. After listening bond promotions, and interstate telephone, over by Charter Communications, a na- to several options, I pressed the number pipeline and transportation companies; and tional chain with a million customers. for discussing our bill and then waited. other legal measures to protect the public Maybe Mrs. Wright and I are atypical. We And waited. All Charter's "service repre- from price gouging by monopolistic greed. moved our residence in May. Perhaps our sentatives" were busy, I was repeatedly Free enterprise thrived from a million moving angered the computer. Since Char- told via recording. roots, and most businesses were home- ter took over, we've had nothing but I explained to the lady who finally came grown, locally owned. Some grew big, but headaches — and nobody to talk to. Imme- on line that there was an error, as we owed not so big as to dominate whole industries. diately we began getting impersonal nothing and had actually sent in a voluntary America became a beacon to the world, the printed duns for $158 that we didn't actu- overpayment. She said she could not help, symbol of opportunity for all. Franklin ally owe, threatening to disconnect our ser- as the computer showed that we owed Roosevelt's second vice president, Henry vice if it weren't paid immediately. $158. She didn't say she was sorry. A. Wallace, proclaimed this "the century of When the first of these arrived, I wrote a So we waited, televisionless, until Mon- the common man." personal check for the stipulated amount, day morning when a young man called, Then, somewhere along the way, we accompanied by a handwritten letter, and stating that he would be out soon to "dis- seem to have lost our zeal for small, local, posted it that afternoon from our home. I connect" our cable. I explained again. He competitive free enterprise where busi- • got no acknowledgement, said he didn't work for Charter and was nesses knew and cherished their workers then or ever. A week or so only a freelance contractor, but he quoted and their individual customers, and where later, we got another dun. a figure for which, in addition to the $158, the well being of laborers and consumers Then, on a Saturday evening, he'd reconnect us. I waited for him most of was the business of us all. We strayed from just as Betty was the day. that path. When he arrived, I It may have begun changing in the seven- / pointed out that this ties with the overlobbied mania for "decon- would be the second trol." We deregulated the airlines, savings time I'd have paid the and loan companies, banking, telephones. unowed bill. "Too Now cable television. This was supposed to bad," he said, but promote competition. It hasn't. Today there there was nothing are fewer, not more serious competitors. You Owe that he — or anyone The biggest keep getting bigger. The mid- else, for that matter dle-sized are all being squeezed out. — could do about How does this affect the consumer? In it. "They ' re a lots of ways. Mainly, it reduces him or her monopoly," was his to a number, a tiny faceless, voiceless fig- only explanation. ure on a ream of computer printouts whose That week, my of- convenience is not important and whose fice assistant got business is dispensable, buried in a bottom- someone on the tele- line calculation of averages. phone at Charter.

30 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 1, 1999 After considerable discussion, an error was acknowledged. A "computer glitch," I REVOLTED BY EXECUTIONS? think they call it. Join the Amnesty International Charter's computer had been carrying Campaign Against the Death Penalty. two accounts, one in my name and one in Call: (214) 361-4935. Betty's. Mine carried a healthy credit. We asked that the two be consolidated. This done, Charter's spokesperson said, we had "When a nation's young a credit balance. men are conservative, Fine, I thought. We'll stay ahead and its funeral bell is avoid further harassment. TM already rung." The next week I got another printout — Henry Ward Beecher threat. The computer hasn't forgiven me. We owe $158, and if we wanted to avoid a GET THE STATE OF The left/liberal/ disruption in service, we'd better pay up THE STATE OF TEXAS progressive political immediately! magazine for Now, I don't really think that big corpo- ON-LINE Bryan/College Station ration is deliberately trying to cheat me. It's Tough, investigative reporting; the A Journal of Opinion, just that it's...well, sort of...distant, you wit and good sense of Molly Ivins Comment, and know, and... well, computer-dependent and and Jim Hightower; Political Investigation personality-deprived, and...do I dare say Intelligence; insightful cultural P.O. Box 2711 indifferent? It hasn't said it's sorry yet, or analysis; and much more. College Station, TX thanks, or... not that I expect it to. Check out Molly Ivins' 77841-2711 It's a monopoly. special subscription offer, too! (409) 696-3395 Jim Wright is a former speaker of the U.S. www.texasobserver.org Email: House of Representatives. You may write to Subscribe on-line or call [email protected] him at P.O. Box 1413, Fort Worth 76101. The Texas Observer at www.rtis.com/ 800-939-6620 touchstone/ Will he reach his high aspirations? Or will kg% he just blow it? Read about it in the Observer. I want to subscribe to The Texas Observer. _Student ($18) 1 year ($32) Check enclosed Bill me

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OCTOBER 1, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 31 T E BACK PAGE ► A Simple Idea BY ALLAN NAIRN Editor's note: Allan Nairn is a U.S. jour- rested, tortured or raped be- nalist who has covered East Timor for many cause they dared to criticize years. Although banned as a security risk the army and demand their by the Indonesian government, he was in right to freedom. the country covering the current massacres As a foreigner and a jour- by Indonesian-supported Timorese militias. nalist, particularly an Amer- He was arrested and threatened with prose- ican journalist, I know that I cution. During his interrogation he wrote a enjoy a certain de facto po- statement of his beliefs, excerpted here. litical leeway that enables After several days and intense international me to say .things that local protest, he was deported. For more on East people would be killed for Timor, see pages 7-11. saying. I have tried to use that privilege to tell the truth I know that the army has put me on the about T.N.I./ABRI.... black list. They did this because I watched During my most recent de- their soldiers murder more than 271 people tention, I have been interro- at the Santa Cruz cemetery [in 1991]. This gated by officials [who] have crime was the responsibility of the Indone- asked me many questions sian army commander, General Try about my political motives Sutrisno and the Minister of Defense, Gen- and opinions. I would sum- William Seaman eral Benny Murdani. marize my opinions this way: A East Timorese children in Dili The murders were committed with I am pro human rights, pro democracy, Timor, and provided both murder American M-16 rifles. The American gov- and anti-T.N.I./ABRI. I am a supporter of weapons and the logistics of repression, ernment also bears some of the responsibil- the people of East Timor, Aceh, West should also be charged, prosecuted and if ity because they have armed, trained and Papua, and Indonesia, and an opponent of convicted, jailed. given money to the T.N.I./ABRI [the Tim- the officials who have repressed and ex- Pragmatically, it is hard to imagine Gen- orese militias and the Indonesian military], ploited them. eral Wiranto sitting in jail. It is even harder even though they knew the T.N.I./ABRI is As an American citizen who is visiting to imagine President Clinton as his cell- led by murderers and is responsible for the Indonesia and occupied East Timor, I also mate. But justice should be impartial. deaths of hundreds of thousands of Timo- want to be clear that I believe in even- It is time for the genocide to end. Untold rese, Acehnese, West Papuan and Indone- handedness. The same political, moral and thousands of Timorese lie slaughtered. sian civilians.... legal standards that are applied to Their families are bereft. The victims of I do not think that I am a threat to the In- T.N.I./ABRI officers should also be ap- Santa Cruz, Liquica, and Suai can no donesian or Timorese people, but I hope plied to the officers and political leaders longer speak. Those of us who can should that I am a threat to General Wiranto and of the United States. So while I support insist that the killing stop right now. And General Tanjung, and the other present and the U.N. Secretary-General's call for war we should also insist that the killers face former leaders of the T.N.I./ABRI. I be- crimes and crimes against humanity pros- justice, regardless of who they are. lieve that they feel threatened by anyone ecution on East Timor, I think that the These same principles apply of course who would expose their crimes.... Many prosecution should not be limited to In- to atrocities everywhere. I think that this brave Indonesians, Timorese, Acehnese, donesian officials. Foreign officials who is a simple idea and that most people

and West Papuans have been killed, ar- were accomplices to atrocities in East would agree. ❑