"I found that when I came to the UN, it hardly obeyed its charter strictly at all - each State fought with others over national interests," he replied, glancing around for Chomsky. "With the changing state of world affairs, I expect that this problem will be solved by the end of the decade if international pressure continues to mount."

"Look, I have to go," he exclaimed hurriedly. "Wheres Noam?"

"Ines Almeida, his minder, is taking him out of the building," I answered.

Jose Ramos-Horta mumbled something about having to be with them and ran across the other side of the room. You read it here first, folks!

According to ETRA's press schedule there was supposed to be a launch for the magazine 21.C that contained an article by Jose Ramos Horta at The Adelphi in Melbourne on Wednesday morning. However when I arrived at The Adelphi, a minimalist art deco nightmare, I was told that the conference had suddenly been moved to the World Congress Centre, which was situated across the other side of the city.

On the way I thought about my last visit to The Adelphi six months previously, to meet John Little, an ex-field producer of nine years for the current affairs program 60 Minutes. Little backed up the Herman/Chomsky media propaganda model by stating that the editors and producers had the most control over the framing and editing of a story, but had little external controls to monitor the process.

But when Little told me the story of the Australian media's direct complicity with the invasion, I was stunned. "Gerald Stone's biggest mistake in the early 1970s was to think that the viewer wanted to watch real news. Stone and media magnate Kerry Packer travelled to Dili from Darwin on a medical supplies ship just as the Portuguese pulled out of Timor in 1975 and FRETELIN took control on the day they arrived. Amidst the state of confusion, cameraman Brian Peters filmed scenes of Indonesian warships off the coast, gunfire echoing around the buildings and shots of prisoners under guard. They ferried some refugees to safety, and then caught a ride back to Darwin on an RAAF Hercules jet. Despite coverage there was little public interest. Two months later Stone sent a team back to the island. Peters and a young journalist from Melbourne went from Sydney. Channel 7 sent three men, reporter Greg Shackleton, cameraman Gary Cunningham and soundman Tony Stewart. Apart from Peters, none of them had entered a war zone. On October 15th, Rennie sent a cable from Balibo near the border with Indonesian Timor, planning to stay for two more days to see some action. Shackleton filmed a message. The day after an Indonesian force attacked the town, and Stone never saw them again, or the trio from Channel Seven. The Indonesians covered up the incident and the Whitlam government refused to investigate. It was a shameful episode in Australian diplomacy."

Whitlam and his successor Malcolm Fraser had knowledge from intelligence sources that the Indonesians were responsible for the Balibo executions, but did nothing. A potential diplomatic incident was diverted. Under Hawke, the Labor government recognised Indonesia's de facto control of East Timor. Current PM Paul Keating went further, criticizing US congressmen who raised Indonesia's human rights violations during visits to Washington; and attempting to portray the massacres at Santa Cruz, Dili in November 1991 as "an aberration."

Legal action is being brought against the government in the High Court by Jose Ramos-Horta, Jose Guasmo and Abel Guterres to challenge a violation of international law under 'external affair powers' Constitutional provisions. The Commonwealth has used such provisions against the States to save the Franklin Dam and heritage listings, but this will be the first time that such provisions are used against it.

According to the Achbar/Wintonick film, Stone was one of the first journalists allowed into East Timor after the civil war in 1975 began. An article published in the London Times (September 2, 1975) attempted to verify reports of widespread atrocities attributed to Fretelin, but this angle was distorted by the New York Times version of the article published on 4 September 1975, which was subject to heavy subediting and substantial rewriting. Stone's belief that the Australian, Indonesian and Portuguese governments all misrepresented the situation is clearly missing from the latter article.

Arriving at the Congress Centre I met Michael Petkoff, who told me that the press conference was over and that "it had been pretty disorganised."

Apparently Chomsky had no idea that it was on his schedule, and gave an impromptu remark that "Australia is the only Western nation trying to become a Third World one," a sentiment echoed by Samuel P. Huntington.
He then departed to Deakin University's new Center for Human Rights which was sponsoring his public speech about democracy and market forces at the Congress Centre later that afternoon.

4000 people turned up to the World Congress Centre in Melbourne, to fill a hall that fits only 1644 people. The end of the public address degenerated into an impromptu press conference for the student press, some of whom had attempted to gain access to the official press area near Chomsky, but without press passes and clearance were unable to do so.

A journalist from the Marxist "Left Alliance" group put Chomsky on the defensive as his minder Ines Almeida attempted to draw him away from the melee. Here I caught a glimpse of Chomsky that few would see from the speeches and controlled press conference environments.

"I see that you're a diehard Marxist. Its very romantic to think that because Trotsky broke with Lenin soon after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, that he was a martyred hero. In fact Lenin and Trotsky instituted a form of state capitalism that was just as bad as the system it replaced.

"But how do we change things besides revolution?" the persistent journalist asked.

"Well, look what I do - I give lectures, attend marches. I've put myself in danger on the West Bank to help Palestinians, been thrown into jail. You use a variety of methods, not just demonstrations or rhetoric. We have to take social change one step at a time and climb the next mountain."

By this time a crowd of twenty people had formed around Chomsky, thrusting microphones and cameras into his face as he autographed books at a frantic pace.

"Who do you think assassinated Kennedy?", another voice asked.

"I've written a book on it, why don't you go and read that?", Chomsky was visibly seething and his voice betrayed a tired frustration at having to answer a question asked many times before.

"The reality is that state institutions formulate the policies, not necessarily individual Presidents. Kennedy has been the subject of cult worship. Look I have to go, but if anybody wants to write me a letter at MIT, I'll reply."