Allan Nairn

Allan Nairn (born 1956) is an award-winning American investigative journalist who became well known when he was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in East Timor. His writings have focused on U.S. foreign policy in such countries as Haiti, Guatemala, Indonesia, and East Timor.

Biography

Nairn was born in Mobile, Alabama to a Puerto Rican mother. In high school, he got a job with consumer activist Ralph Nader, working for him for six years. His book The Reign of ETS: the Corporation That Makes up Minds, an investigation of the SAT I exam and its creators, the Educational Testing Service, was printed as part of the Ralph Nader report in 1980.

In 1980, Nairn visited Guatemala in the middle of a campaign of assassination against student leaders amidst a chaotic counterinsurgency campaign against Marxist guerrillas active in both urban and rural areas. He interviewed U.S. corporate executives there, who endorsed the death squads, and he decided to further investigate death squad activities in that country and in El Salvador, also in the throes of civil war. Subsequently, Nairn became interested in East Timor and helped found the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), which was instrumental in bringing the independence movement in East Timor to international attention.

In 1991, covering developments in East Timor, Nairn and fellow journalist Amy Goodman were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after they witnessed a mass killing of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as the Santa Cruz Massacre. He was beaten with the butts of M16 rifles and had his skull fractured in the melee. Nairn was declared a "threat to national security" and banned from East Timor, but he re-entered several times illegally, and his subsequent reports helped convince the U.S. Congress to cut off military aid to Jakarta in 1993. In a dispatch from East Timor on March 30, 1998, Nairn disclosed the continuing U.S. military training of Indonesian troops implicated in the torture and killing of civilians. In 1999, Nairn was detained briefly by the Indonesian Army in East Timor, where he had chosen to remain after most other media had evacuated following East Timor's independence referendum.

In an article published in The Nation in 1994, Nairn revealed the U.S. government's role in establishing and funding the Haitian paramilitary death squad, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH).

On March 24, 2010 it was revealed that Nairn could be facing possible detention and criminal charges in Indonesia for revealing US backed Indonesian Military assassinations of civilian activists. An Indonesian Military spokesperson told the Jakarta Globe that the military is considering legal actions against Nairn's publication.

Awards

In 1993, Nairn and Amy Goodman received the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial First Prize for International Radio award for their reporting on East Timor. In 1994, Nairn won the George Polk Award for Journalism for Magazine Reporting. Also in 1994, Nairn received the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for his writing on Haiti for The Nation magazine.

Quotation

"The United States has no monopoly on the abuse of power. But since I am an American this is where I have some influence and responsibility."

External links

• Allan Nairn's blog - "News and Comment"
• Allan Nairn page (Links to various articles by Nairn)
• Allan Nairn's articles at The Nation
• "U.S. Complicity in Timor" (The Nation, September 27, 1999)
• Interview with Allan Nairn (Mobile, Alabama, April 25, 2000)
• "A discussion of the Guatemalan and the CIA" interview on Charlie Rose (talk show) with Elliott Abrams, Robert Torricelli and Allan Nairn, March 31, 1995 (video).
• Interview on Democracy Now (Jan. 6, 2010)
• EXCLUSIVE…Indonesian Forces Tapped by Obama for Renewed US Aid Implicated in New Assassinations A phone interview with Allan Nairn on Democracy Now (March 19, 2010)
• EXCLUSIVE…Journalist Allan Nairn Facing Possible Arrest in Indonesia for Exposing US-Backed Forces Assassinated Civilians A phone interview with Allan Nairn on Democracy Now (March 24, 2010)
• Allan Nairn: U.S. Comparative Advantage is in Killing, And It’s Using It" - video report by Democracy Now!
• Journalist/Activist Allan Nairn speaks on East Timor, Indonesia, East Timor Action Network, Occupy Wall Street and more - video from January 2012 talks for ETAN and OccupyWallStreet ThinkTank

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