Posted on 02/21/2008 11:04:42 AM PST by 11th_VA
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy Thursday and set fire to an office after a massive protest against Kosovo's independence that drew an estimated 150,000 people.
Masked attackers broke into the building, which has been closed this week, and tried to throw furniture from an office. A blaze broke out inside one of the offices and parts of the facade also caught fire.
Authorities drove armored jeeps down the street and fired tear gas to clear the crowd. The protesters dispersed into side streets where they continued clashing with authorities.
The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group of protesters.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack strongly urged the Serbian government to protect the U.S. Embassy. He said the U.S. ambassador was at his home and was in contact with U.S. officials.
More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
But the declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has been rejected by Serbia's government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo. Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Belgrade's control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and KFOR, a multiethnic force, policing the province.
But Serbia — and Kosovo's Serbs, who make up less than 10 percent of Kosovo's population — refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory considered the ancient cradle of Serbs' state and religion.
Earlier Thursday, police estimated that about 150,000 people had attended a rally in the Serbian capital. The crowd waved Serbian flags and carried signs reading "Stop USA terror." One group set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
The U.S. embassy in Belgrade burns after masked attackers broke into the building and set an office on fire at the end of a massive protest against Western-backed Kosovo independence, in the Serbian capital, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. More than 150,000 Serbs gathered at the rally vowing to retake the territory which is viewed as Serbia's religious and national heartland. (AP Photo)
NATO is under no obligation to share what it knows with the press.
how is that any different from U.S. who are sopporting the Albanian Rebels in Kosovo against the legitemite Serbian Government
It's different in two ways.
Firstly, the US was not breaking international law by using its embassy as a military asset against Serbia.
Second, the US recognition of the new nation of Kosovo is not a military action, but a diplomatic one.
Understand?
"Portraying the Serbs as evil and everybody else as good was not only counterproductive but also dishonest. According to my experience all sides were guilty but only the Serbs would admit that they were no angels while the others would insist that they were. With 28, 000 forces under me and with constant contacts with UNHCR and the International Red Cross officials, we did not witness any genocide beyond killings and massacres on all sides that are typical of such conflict conditions. I believe none of my successors and their forces saw anything on the scale claimed by the media."
I suggest you also pick up a copy of Unholy Terror by John R. Schindler—professor of strategy at the Naval War College and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer.
"The Bosnian conflict of 1992 to 1995 has been largely misrepresented in the West . . . until now. In Unholy Terror, John R. Schindler—professor of strategy at the Naval War College and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer—reappraises the war in Bosnia, illuminating its pivotal role in the development of radical Islamic terrorism.The long hidden truth is that Bosnia played the same role for al-Qa’ida in the 1990s that Afghanistan did in the 1980s, providing a battleground where mujahidin could learn to wage holy war. Schindler exposes how Osama bin Laden exploited the Bosnian conflict for his own ends and the disturbing level of support the U.S. government gave to the Bosnian mujahidin—just as had been done with the Afghan mujahidin. Repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan contributed to blowback of epic proportions: Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (the mastermind of 9/11) and two of the 9/11 hijacker pilots were veterans of the Bosnian jihad.
Unholy Terror is a compelling and meticulously researched step toward finally learning the lessons of Bosnia, which can only help in the continuing battle against Muslim extremists and their global jihad."
So it’s ok for the Albanians to run Serbians out of Kosovo!
NATO should never have gone into Kosovo!
Serbia was putting down a rebellion there.
It won’t be the last time this place blows up or 100 places all over the world. You going to go fix them all Dad?
Srebrenica was all over the news but you never heard any of the things that the Albanians were doing.
What should have been done is to keep our noses out of other peoples business and only get involved in things that are in the interest of the United States.
Tell me what in the hell business we had over there in the first place?
It died down but I hear thunder again. What a wild storm it was. I love storms.
And when a Palestinian state is declared, with support by the U.S., will the Israelis burn down the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and will FReepers cheer?
Just askin’.
Welcome to Free Republic and I feel the same way...
Here’s to them never getting a state. The Palestinians and their Arab neighbors are the ones that do all the burning in that region.
I haven’t read all this thread but were people cheering the burning of our U.S. Embassy? If they were, that is disgraceful.
And this, imo, made our leaders look like untrustworthy idiots in the light of the entire world.
Nice try. Hey, I guess that “we bombed the wrong people in 1999” rap isn’t gonna stick anymore, huh?
Yes, I read the entire thread (and other threads) and the very few posters who express outrage at our U.S. Embassy being burned are roundly ridiculed. Add to that the dozens of posts that justify the Serbian attack on our Embassy, and this is not the forum I signed up on.
If the Palestinians do get their “state,” which is not what they really want anyway, Israel will certainly have played a great part in caving in to them. In other words, we cannot save others from themselves, but we are certainly available to be blamed and vilified when things don’t go well for them.
Is the U.S. truly to blame for Europe’s many cave-ins to Islam?
Having said that, I have not been happy with Condi’s blatantly arabist State Dept. But in that, she is only following orders. Knowing this, we are still falling into a trap when we justify an attack on one of our embassies, becoming perilously like the Pauline “truthers.”
Can you tell me why we were over there in the first place?
It doesn't have anything to do with bombing the wrong people. It's that we shouldn't have been bombing any people!
Hey. How’d you feel when you saw our flag burned by your fellow Americans in Berkely, CA? And...were they arrested? Think about that.
Do you not understand that the declaration of independence by Kosovo and our subsequent recognition of their "sovereignty" may be the beginning of World War III?
What the United States did in recognizing Kosovo (especially while we have troops stationed there) was probably the stupidest thing that Bush has done to date? We conceivably could be walking into a shooting war with the Russians in Europe, especially if Serbia and Russia team up to quell the rebellion in Kosovo.
Kosovo cannot possibly defend itself against a Serbian/Russian invasion which I believe is imminent. Kosovo is counting on NATO to provide defense forces since it has no ability to defend itself (which obviously calls into question the legitimacy of their so-called "sovereignty"). So when Russia and Serbia attack and NATO steps in to stop it, we very well could end up with the Russians launching tactical nuclear weapons.
So what would you suggest the US do about the burning of our embassy? Declare war on Serbia (as some have suggested)?
I would suggest that “true conservatives” take a look at themselves justifying a mob attacking a U.S. embassy.
You really don't know much about this Kosovo issue, do you?
WE were (and are) the ones "interfering", when we bombed Christian Serbs for 79 straight days and drove several hundred thousand of them out of Kosovo on behalf of Albanian Muslims who took over and destroyed over 150 ancient churches and forced the remaining non-Albanians into living behind barbed wire fences to survive. WE just redrew the borders of Serbia to give Serbia's ancient heartland to Muslim Albanians in order to kiss Saudi Arabia's a**!.
So tell me WHO doesn't have the right? Because Russia has done absolutely nothing aggressive other than to point out that WE have broken every international law and including a treaty we signed called the Helsinki Final act, to do this!
WE are standing in legal and moral pit on Kosovo, trying to wag our figure at Russia and at Serbia, as though we are standing on some "moral high ground", but it's all bluffing.
There may come a day when we do have to confront Russia, but we all better hope that it isn't today because WE are the ones who are full bull on this issue!
It’ll never happen. Israel is our only true ally unlike Serbia who has sold themselves to the fascist Putin.
Also the bombers used were our AF planes with our markings painted over and NATO emblems applied—another violation of international law.
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