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Clinton’s bombing of Yugoslavia was a subject of great interest at FreeRepublic as it was occurring.

The KLA: from ‘Terrorists’ to ‘Partners’

The Kosovo Liberation Army “began on the radical fringe of Kosovar Albanian politics, originally made up of diehard Marxist-Leninists (who were bankrolled in the old days by the Stalinist dictatorship next door in Albania) as well as by descendants of the fascist militias raised by the Italians in World War II” [”Fog of War — Coping With the Truth About Friend and Foe: Victims Not Quite Innocent,” New York Times, 3/28/99].

The KLA made its military debut in February 1996 with the bombing of several camps housing Serbian refugees from wars in Croatia and Bosnia [Jane’s Intelligence Review, 10/1/96].

The KLA (again according to the highly regarded Jane’s,) “does not take into consideration the political or economic importance of its victims, nor does it seem at all capable of seriously hurting its enemy, the Serbian police and army. Instead, the group has attacked Serbian police and civilians arbitrarily at their weakest points. It has not come close to challenging the region’s balance of military power” [Jane’s, 10/1/96].

That’s from U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee found at http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/fr033199.htm

In that same statement it was reported:

In view of such tactics, the Clinton Administration’s then-special envoy for Kosovo, Robert Gelbard, had little difficulty in condemning the KLA (also known by its Albanian initials, UCK) in terms comparable to those he used for Serbian police repression:

” ‘The violence we have seen growing is incredibly dangerous,’ Gelbard said. He criticized violence ‘promulgated by the (Serb) police’ and condemned the actions of an ethnic Albanian underground group Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Serb targets. ‘We condemn very strongly terrorist actions in Kosovo. The UCK is, without any questions, a terrorist group,’ Gelbard said.” [Agence France Presse, 2/23/98]

Mr. Gelbard’s remarks came just before a KLA attack on a Serbian police station led to a retaliation that left dozens of Albanians dead, leading in turn to a rapid escalation of the cycle of violence. Responding to criticism that his earlier remarks might have been seen as Washington’s “green light” to Belgrade that a crack-down on the KLA would be acceptable, Mr. Gelbard offered to clarify to the House Committee on International Relations:

“Questioned by lawmakers today on whether he still considered the group a terrorist organization, Mr. Gelbard said that while it has committed ‘terrorist acts,’ it has ‘not been classified legally by the U.S. Government as a terrorist organization.’ “ [New York Times, 3/13/98]

That statement about KLA not being classified legally by the U.S. Government has been disputed. The State Department at one time listed the KLA on their website as terrorists. It has been scrubbed.

There was one reference to the terrorist listing that survived the scrubbing but a lot of years have passed and may not be available anymore. I might have a link to it somewhere. If I find it, I’ll post it.