Allan Nairn (born 1956) is an American

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

. He was imprisoned by

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

. His writings have focused on

U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

in such countries as Haiti, Guatemala, Indonesia, and East Timor.

Biography and career

Nairn was born in Morristown, New Jersey to a Puerto Rican mother. In high school, he got a job with consumer activist

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...

, 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 Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, b ...

, was printed as part of the

report in 1980. In 1980 Nairn visited Guatemala in the middle of a campaign of assassination against student leaders amidst a chaotic

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

campaign against Marxist guerrillas active in both

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

areas. He interviewed United States 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. On November 12, 1991, covering developments in East Timor, Nairn and fellow journalist

Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...

were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after they witnessed a

mass killing Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members withou ...

of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as the

Santa Cruz Massacre The Santa Cruz massacre (also known as the Dili massacre) was the murder of at least 250 East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian occupation of Ea ...

. He was beaten with the butts of

M16 rifles The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

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 The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

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 Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

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 ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' in 1994 Nairn revealed the U.S. government's role in establishing and funding the Haitian paramilitary, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) which was involved in human rights abuses. On March 24, 2010, it was revealed that Nairn could be facing possible detention and criminal charges in Indonesia for revealing Indonesian military assassinations of civilian activists. An

Indonesian Military , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo , ...

spokesperson told the ''

Jakarta Globe The ''Jakarta Globe'' is a daily online English-language newspaper in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17, ...

'' that the military is considering legal actions against Nairn's publication. In June 2013 Nairn and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...

. A June 27, 2014 report indicated that Nairn had been threatened with arrest for revealing the role of Indonesian presidential candidate

Prabowo Subianto Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo (born 17 October 1951) is an Indonesian politician, businessman and former army lieutenant general who is the currently-appointed Minister of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia. He is the son of Sumitro Djojoh ...

in human rights abuses. On April 19, 2017, the Intercept published an exposé researched and written by Nairn warning that a cadre of Indonesian military officers had joined forces with an ISIS-affiliated " vigilante street movement" in order to unseat President Joko Widodo.

Awards

In 1993 Nairn and

received the

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

Memorial First Prize for International Radio award for their reporting on East Timor. In 1994, Nairn won the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

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. He was a recipient of the 1994 Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage.Joe A. Callaway Awards For Civic Courage Past-Winners
''Calloway Awards'', 2019. Retrieved November 11, 2019.

References

External links

Website/blog
*
Twitter account
*
Allan Nairn's articles
at

"18 Ex-Military Guatemalan Leaders Arrested for Crimes against Humanity During U.S.-Backed Dirty War"
(

Democracy Now ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

, January 8, 2016)
"Exclusive: Allan Nairn Exposes Role of U.S. and New Guatemalan President in Indigenous Massacres"
(

, April 19, 2013)
"U.S. Complicity in Timor"
(''The Nation'', September 27, 1999)

(Mobile, Alabama, April 25, 2000)
"A discussion of the Guatemalan and the CIA"
interview on

Charlie Rose (talk show) ''Charlie Rose'' (also known as ''The Charlie Rose Show'') is an American television interview and talk show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show was syndicated on PBS from 1991 until 2017 and is owned ...

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

(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

(March 24, 2010)
Allan Nairn: U.S. Comparative Advantage is in Killing, And It's Using It"
- video report by ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

''
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
The American Empire: Murder Inc.
Chris Hedges interviews Allan Nairn for ''

Truthdig Truthdig is an American news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, blog items, curated links, interviews, arts criticism and commentary on current events delivered from a politically progressive, left-leaning point of view. The site of ...

'' (January 3, 2016). {{DEFAULTSORT:Nairn, Allan 1956 births Living people American people of Puerto Rican descent American investigative journalists American foreign policy writers American male non-fiction writers American human rights activists American people imprisoned abroad George Polk Award recipients