US Accused of Siding With 'Criminals and Jihadists' in Kosovo

CNSNews ^ | July 21, 2006 | Nathan Burchfiel

[sergey1973]

A prominent Serbian Orthodox bishop Thursday said the U.S. was allowing Islamic extremists to wage war on Christians in Kosovo by deciding not to oppose Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo is an autonomous province in Serbia with a population of about 2 million, most who are ethnic Albanian and Muslim. It is currently administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but negotiations which began this year are expected to eventually result in independence for the province.

However, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic on Thursday issued a warning about the prospect of and independent Kosovo.

"At a time when America is leading the free world in a global struggle against jihad terror, Kosovo-Metohija must not continue to be an exception, where for reasons we do not understand, American officials have taken the side of the criminals and jihadists," Artemije said during a news conference in Washington, D.C.

[tgambill]

ping

[tgambill]

Nah. The fact that folks like you still keep trying to misrepresent the situation in the Balkans is laughable.

Where's it getting you? Nowhere.
So what's your course of action?

---

They are not representing the Balkans one inch. In 1948 the CIA started operations in Albania, and from there began a long term campaign...fact and recorded. Milosevic was approached by CIA in the 80's....now, whether he decided not to continue this relationship or whether he did and the CIA turned the tables on him by throwing the Muh in the equation early 90's, and not a Clinton stupid move, but....worse. It was planned this way, which is what happened. Either way, Milo went nationalist and the CIA stirred up Bosnia, you know the rest of the exaggerations and tail wagging dog; dog waggling tails.....head and tails......ah shucks you know what I'm talking about...:)) It's not laughing matter however, innocent Bosnians, Albanians, Serbs were killed needlessly due to NATO's planned targeting...and Clark's well conceived abortion......they weren't mistakes. People not understanding this will say it was because of Klintoons indisgressions and he wanted a cover and distraction..not so. We actually, no joking around, won WWII and then....here comes the zinger...studied Hitler's plan for taking the Balkans and in fact, continued the campaign right up to the formation of the Balle Kombetar movement and the formation of the Skenderburg Division, once again. The last time it was under the banner of the SS. This time it was under the banner of NLA, and MPRI advisors....17 to be exact. Now, here comes the second zinger..... yes you are right, one of the reasons was to root out any solid support for Jihadist, but allow them to do business with Mafia plus operate their charities and just be good raghead and little sheet heads...(don't hold your tongue and say...not very correct politically)..lolol...now, the wrong part is that this justification to root out support for Jihadist was the official story given to JCS...in their briefings. The real reason is the continuing what the CIA started in 1948..and we know what that was.....now don't we? The big picture. Macedonia is next in line......and southern presevo....final objective....Russian states breakup completely....

Now, where is it getting folks....well, resistance to the idea of independent Kosovo. The biggest concern of K-Albanians and Serbs is jobs......

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/12623

If they get independence, according to Old Holbrooke by quote, the independence will destablize the entire Balkans. ALL analysis and experts agree that this will happen. Fact. So, where does that leave the Albanians and Serbs. The Albanians don't even realize this....YET. The Mafia owns Kosovo and thus the Albanian mafia will have a home base and..the Islamist will remain and then start operations against internationals anyway. Course of action, lobby against the independence....educate the U.S. and others as to the truth behind the entire campaign as the history books will be misleading the future leaders. It is getting these groups to some degree of being heard. If anything just upset the status quo and continue the fight.

It's not laughable..........IT IS CRIMINAL, and the fact that we have to is a travisty for what my country stands for. However, I do support the war in Afghan and Iraq, I have some quams but, I do understand the Islamic fundies and their agenda which is about as evil as the Koran itself. Now, this is the reality and I'm not laughing......

[tgambill]

"They are not representing the Balkans one inch."

**** Can you change this statement to read:

"They are not misrepresenting the Balkans one inch"..."

[eleni121]

I am unaware of the long term strategy you refer to...a source for this would be appropriate...I do remember however, how the long term strategy of appeasement and coexistence with Soviets changed with Reagan. Policies can be changed and even reversed given the political will.

[blinachka]

I agree with you 100% Sergey!

[ma bell]

thats it, that is why he is so angry, Tom. Hoplite has only one inch!

[Smartass]

BS, If the United States and NATO, aren't siding with
Islamofacists in Kosovo, then who are those guys?

---

Is Koran flushing worse desecration than blowing up Christian churches?

Mary Mostert

Mary Mostert
May 18, 2005


The stupidity and senseless violence that caused a number of deaths in reaction to a Newsweek article which claimed Americans had "desecrated the Islamic holy book" needs to be examined from a couple of angles. According to Newsweek American military interrogators had placed the Koran on the lavatory inside inmates' cells at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay and had "in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet."

The article supposedly so enraged Muslims that anti-American riots resulted in several countries. The radical Arab newspaper Al Jazeera reported "Protests in Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia followed demonstrations across much of Afghanistan in the past few days in which 14 people were killed and dozens injured after clashes with police. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria have registered displeasure at the alleged desecration."

My first reaction to this news was to go get the Koran out of my own library that was printed in both Arabic and English in Saudi Arabia and check out the number of pages. It has 2082 pages. If printed only in Arabic, it probably would be only about 800 pages. Question: have ANY of the people rioting ever SEEN a Koran? If so, how could you flush an 800 page book down a toilet?

Second, assuming you could overcome that technical difficulty and actually flush a Koran down a toilet, why is that somehow worse than burning down or blowing up Christian Churches, some of them hundreds of years old, as Muslims have done in Kosovo? There were 30 churches and monasteries destroyed, 19 people killed and 250 non-Muslim homes looted and burned in Muslim riots in Kosovo from March 17-19, 2004.

If killing people and rioting is an acceptable way to express one's concern over one's religion being desecrated, what is an acceptable way for Christians to react to hundreds of Christian Churches being desecrated or blown up? There seems to have been nothing much done in recent years following the destruction of Serbian Orthodox Churches by anti-Christian Muslim extremists. In fact, the world community is even still talking about allowing those very same Muslims to completely take over Kosovo and ethnically cleanse it of Serbs, where Serbs have lived for and built churches for hundreds of years.

The Christian Churches blown up by Muslims in Kosovo last year included:

1. Orthodox Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God of Ljevis, 14th century (Prizren)
   
   
2. Church of Holy Salvation, 14th century (Prizren)
   
   
3. Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Great Martyr George, 20th century (Prizren)
   
   
4. Holy Archangels Monastery, 14th century (Prizren)
   
   
5. Church of St. George Runovic, 15th century (Prizren, courtyard of the Episcopate)
   
   
6. Church of St. John the Fore-runner and Baptist (Pec) with parish home
   
   
7. Church of the Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple (Belo Polje near Pec)
   
   
8. Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God (Djakovica) with parish home
   
   
9. Church of the Holy King Uros (Urosevac)
   
   
10. Church of St. Nicholas (Kosovo Polje)
    
    
11. Church of St. Catharine (Bresje near Kosovo Polje)
    
    
12. Church of St. Nicholas (Pristina)
    
    
13. Church of St. Nicholas (Gnjilane)
    
    
14. Church of St. Sava (Kosovska Mitrovica)
    
    
15. Church in Vitina (Vitina near Gnjilane)
    
    
16. Devic Monastery, 14th century (Srbica)
    
    
17. Church in Donja Slapasnica (Kosovska Kamenica)
    
    
18. Church in Brnjak near Bela Crkva (Orahovac)
    
    
19. Church of St. John the Fore-runner and Baptist (Pecka Banja)
    
    
20. Church of St. Elijah, 19th century (Vucitrn)
    
    
21. Church of St. Michael (Stimlje)
    
    
22. Church in Obilic (Obilic)
    
    
23. Church of St. Lazarus in Piskoti (Djakovica), damaged in 1999, now burned
    
    
24. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary building (Prizren)
    
    
25. Episcopate — seat of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren (Prizren)
    
    

It was also reported that the Albanian Muslims are removing the ruins of the Church of the Holy Trinity (Djakovica), one of the more than 100 churches blown up in 1999.

Since 1999 Muslims have destroyed 140 Christian Churches in Kosovo. And, exactly what has been the official Muslim response from Muslims in Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, etc to that desecration of Christian churches and artifacts? Dead silence.

Now, don't get me wrong. If, somehow, some American did in fact figure out how to flush a Koran down a toilet, I certainly believe that an apology is in order and the Koran should be immediately replaced with a new one purchased by the American who did that. So far, of course, there is no proof that such a thing happened.

On the other hand, I also believe that justice demands that Muslims who have burned down or blown up 140 Churches in Kosovo owe Christians throughout the world an apology and that Muslims need to rebuild or at least finance the rebuilding of every one of those Christian churches.

This should not be hard to do. It is something the United Nations might be capable of doing. After all, those Churches were destroyed during the time that Kosovo has been controlled by the United Nations. A just and workable solution to this situation would be to require Christians to replace the Koran for every Guantanamo Bay inmate who had his Koran flushed down the toilet in exchange for the Muslims replacing every Christian church Muslims destroyed in Kosovo and other nations.

Even Al Jazeera should be able to endorse this kind of justice pertaining to desecration of religious books and churches. After all, as the Koran says, in Sura 60:8, "Allah loveth those who are just."

---

Mary Mostert is a nationally-respected political writer. She was one of the first female political commentators to be published in a major metropolitan newspaper in the 1960s. After working in President Lyndon Johnson's failed War on Poverty programs in New York state, she became a Republican. She ran, unsuccessfully, for the New York State Senate and became campaign manager for a number of candidates. She once served as the secretary of "Positive Action NOW!"--a South African women's group that sought to reduce the hostility among South Africa's various racial, religious, and political groups.

In recent years, Mary has researched, written, and edited articles for national talk show host Michael Reagan's Information Interchange on the Internet, and for The REAGAN MONITOR, a monthly newsletter that provides in-depth information on key issues. Her book, COMING HOME - Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America," was published in 1996 by Gold Leaf Press. Mary maintains a political media site, Banner of Liberty. She can be contacted at mary@bannerofliberty.com . Click here for more information.

© Copyright 2005 by Mary Mostert
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mostert/050518

[Smartass]

No laughing matter... Clinton's Kosovo policy!

 

[Smartass]

Kosovo was never Islamic, nor should it ever be.   Beating the crap out of Serbia, then appeasing the Islamofacists in Kosovo will never work in the Balkans. Because, the Slavic people have very long memories (more than an inch), and will never forget or give up what is theirs!   Islamic Kosovians were originally unwelcome, unwanted remnants and occupiers from the Ottoman Turks.   To solve the problem, they should just go home, instead of terrorizing and burning what does not belong to them.!


     
Support the war on terror...

 

 

[sergey1973]

"If you're looking to pursue non-American interests, find yourself a different country to prod. If you're looking to pursue American interests, you'd best get your facts straight first."

Hoplite--your insults only show that you ran out of arguments and start playing a pathetic game of accusing me of not being patriotic. Not unlike Communists occusing being their opponents of being "Nazis" or social liberals accusing anyone who disagree with them as being "Racists", "Sexists", "Homophobes" and fill in the blank.

This is a complete BS. Questioning your arguments with factual counterarguments whether the US intervention in the Balkans on Muslim Behalf in Bosnia and Kosovo was in the long-term US Interests in light of 9-11, Islamic doctrine of worldwide conquest, etc. is perfectly reasonable and perfectly patriotic.

This insult game simply doesn't work with me. If you disagree with me, show me your facts, but if you going on insulting tirade, you simply showing yourself as someone who is incapable of holding a rational discussion and as an unworthy opponent.

I repeat again that IMHO, Milosevic, as bad as he was, was lesser evil than Jihadists as far as the US interests are concerned. My posts from different sources make substantial allegations that there was heavy Iranian and Al-Qaida involvement in both Kosovo and Bosnia. And you are telling me that Al-Qaida who seeks to wipe the US off the map and foment Islamic revolution all over the world to create worldwide Islamic Caliphate is lesser evil than Milosevic ? Sorry, Hoplite, but this is ABSURD.

Anyway, I'm not interested in trading insults with you. I'm simply digging beyond what PC Media broadcasts, and I suggest you do your own research and dig a bit deeper than the garbage the "Mainstream" media is feeding you. The good place to start is http://www.balkanpeace.org where you get good info up to date on the situation in Kosovo and Bosnia. You can dig many other sources, like the book by Yossef Bodansky (Director of the U.S. Congress' Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional warfare) detailing Al-Qaida and other Islamist involvement in the Balkans. So save your insults for bad neighbors and start researching -:)))


http://members.tripod.com/Balkania/resources/geostrategy/bodansky_peace/index.html

[sergey1973]

"I agree with you 100% Sergey!"

Sure, thanks blinachka ! I expected that there will be someone who'll try to accuse me of being pro-Milosevic or something like that. I have no sympathy for Milosevic regime, but I'm realist and I understand that sometimes you may have to deal with lesser evils to defeat the greater evil, be it Communism or the worldwide Islamic Jihad.

As for Kosovo, now that Milosevic regime is gone, any reason to keep Kosovo away from Serbia simply disappeared. Serbia should have control of Kosovo not only because it's cradle of Serbian civilization, but also for the long-term interests of Europe, the US and Western Civilization. Independent Kosovo means one more Muslim country in the world as if we don't have enough already. Among the US State Department official list of countries sponsoring Terrorism (chiefly Islamic), how many are Muslim countries ? 3 out of 5 are Muslim with the other 2 being die-hard Communist (Cuba and North Korea). Plus in this list there is no Saudi-Arabia and other oil rich gulf Arab states who support Wahhabi Islam worldwide.

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/c14151.htm

Cuba

Iran

North Korea

Sudan

Syria

In other words, the More Muslim countries--the more bases for Jihadists or their sponsors.

The fact that we don't hear much about Jihadist control of Kosovo and Bosnia these days doesn't make it any less dangerous, and I'm sure we'll have much more trouble with independent Jihadi Kosovo and Bosnia where thousands of Iranians and other Muslim holy warriors are loose and still not deported 10 years after the War ended there.

[Hoplite]

So you've read the books I referenced you already?

Wow - you're fast.

Not.

And then you have the temerity to reference me to one of the failed Cassandra's I was talking about - Yossef Bodansky.

Way to go. Home run. Superb effort. If you want to continue to be a disinformation victim regarding the nature of Kosovo and Bosnia's Muslims and Al Qaida's efforts in the region, then by all means, have fun and continue to toe the Serb nutjob line on the matter.

Say, by the way, do you notice anything odd about Balkanpeace's War Crimes Section Witness Testimonies?

Big "Duh" there, sport.

[sergey1973]

I couldn't read the book that fast yet, but thanks for the compliment -:)))

Here is from amazon.com book review on one of your references. How does this book disprove the points that I made before about Al-Qaida and other Islamist involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo ? It only affirms them -:)))) !

"Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network", By Evan F. Kohlman

"Why did so many of the September 11th hijackers spend time in Germany? How did terrorist sleeper cells plant themselves in cities such as London, Paris, Rome, and Hamburg? This is the first book to uncover the secret history of how Europe was systematically infiltrated by the ranks of the most dangerous terrorist organization on earth. Terrorist analyst Evan F. Kohlmann argues that the key to understanding Al-Qaida's European cells lies in the Bosnian war of the 1990s. Using the Bosnian war as their cover, Afghan-trained Islamic militants loyal to Usama Bin Laden convened in the Balkans in 1992 to establish a European domestic terrorist infrastructure in order to plot their violent strikes against the United States. As the West and the United Nations looked on with disapproval, the fanatic foreign mujahideen, or holy warriors, wreaked havoc across southern Europe, taking particular aim at UN peacekeepers and even openly fighting with Bosnian Muslims at times. Within a few months of the war's end, home-grown terrorist sleeper cells appeared on the streets of Europe's cities. Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe unveils a new angle to the deadly international terrorist organization and includes recently declassified American and European intelligence reports, secret Al-Qaida records and internal documents, and interviews with notorious figures such as London-based Bin Laden sympathizer Abu Hamza Al-Masri.

[Hoplite]

Oh, wow - an Amazon review, well there you go then.

No need to concern yourself with Kohlmann's conclusion wherein he states that Al Qaida's Bosnian foray was a failure as their ideology was incompatible with the locals, and no subsequent need to re-examine your erroneous claim that the Bosnians are jihadis and more a threat to American interests than Milosevic was.

[GarySpFc]

Today I attend a Special Forces chapter meeting. I was shocked at how emphatic my buddies were that we supported the wrong side in Kosovo.

[Smartass]

---

The Road To Hell,
Clinton, Kosovo and good intentions

by Charles Krauthammer

The Washington Post, Editorials

Friday, April 2, 1999; Page A29

---

On Monday, as "genocide" was going on in Kosovo (so said the State Department), Bill Clinton played golf. The stresses of war, no doubt.

But perhaps we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he needed to retreat to shaded fairways to contemplate the consequences of his little Kosovo war. Perhaps between mulligans -- alas, none are allowed in the Balkans -- he was pondering what has become of the objectives for which he unleashed, for the first time in its 50-year history, the might of NATO.

Objective 1: "We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a mounting military offensive" (televised address, March 24).

It is not just that the opposite has happened: savage ethnic cleansing, executions of Kosovar Albanian leaders, the forced expulsion of more than 100,000 Kosovars. That would merely imply gross presidential miscalculation. But the supreme allied commander of NATO, Gen. Wesley Clark, asserts that from the beginning "we never thought that through air power we could stop these killings on the ground."

Question: "Did you tell President Clinton . . . there is no way we can stop that kind of thing with a bombing campaign alone?"

Gen. Clark: "That's been said many times, and everybody understands that."

And yet Clinton publicly ruled out ground troops, thus declaring that there would be nothing but an air campaign. So he starts a campaign to protect Kosovar civilians knowing all along, says NATO's top general, that "you can't stop paramilitaries going house to house with supersonic aircraft flying overhead and dropping bombs."

Has there ever been a clearer case of foreign policy means and ends so mismatched, a condition Walter Lippman once called the very definition of "insolvency"?

Objective 2: To keep the Kosovo conflict from blowing up and destabilizing the neighboring countries. "All around Kosovo, there are other small . . . countries that could be overwhelmed by a large new wave of refugees from Kosovo" (March 24 address, again).

He meant Albania, Macedonia, and the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro -- every one of which is now overwhelmed by a large new wave of Kosovar refugees created since the start of Clinton's Balkan adventure.

NATO's bombing of Montenegrin territory and the influx of the refugees have left the West-leaning, anti-Milosovic government of Montenegro teetering. In Macedonia, long fearful of its own Albanian minority, violent anti-NATO anti-American riots have broken out. And Albania, already a wreckage, is overwhelmed by the huge numbers of Kosovars streaming into its territory. Every one of Kosovo's neighbors that Clinton was claiming to stabilize is being destabilized.

Objective 3: "We act to prevent a wider war; to defuse a powder keg in the heart of Europe that exploded twice before in this century with catastrophic results."

Goodness. Where does this man get his history? World War II was not remotely caused by the Balkans. And World War I was caused not by clashing ethnics in the Balkans, but by the catastrophic decision of the Great Powers to intervene and choose sides among the contestants for Balkan power.

Sound familiar? Clinton has taken a Balkan conflict that by world standards was relatively minor -- three times as many people were killed in the civil war in Sierra Leone in January alone as had died in the entire Kosovo war at the time we intervened -- and turned it into a world event. The NATO 19 are attacking Serbia; Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are supporting Serbia; China is denouncing from afar. Russia has kicked NATO representatives out of Moscow and is sending a warship into the Mediterranean.

Clinton isn't preventing a World War I scenario; he is recapitulating it. Of course, this time there is no danger of general war breaking out because, apart from the presence of nuclear weapons, the United States is overwhelmingly superior to all rival powers. But the fact remains that Clinton, intending to contain a minor civil war, has overnight internationalized it.

Objective 4: To preserve NATO.

Well, NATO did rather well, thank you, for 50 years without launching any wars against sovereign states. The greatest threat to NATO right now is that the Serbia campaign will fail. The Clinton administration, ever seeking to do good, has staked NATO unity and credibility on its ability to pacify the Balkans, a task never accomplished in the century except by Marshal Tito. And he needed all the delicate machinery of a police state to do it.

After Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia, Kosovo marks the outer limits of this administration's foreign policy of good intentions. In war, good intentions are no excuse. They are instead the road to hell, as many Kosovars and Serbs can testify. Something for the president to contemplate while he putts.

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

[Smartass]

---

The US/NATO War in Yugoslavia:
8 Myths and Facts

IAC, New tork

http://www.iacenter.org
April 1999

---

Myth #1. U.S./NATO had to attack "the Serbs" because the Yugoslav government and President Slobodan Milosevic refused to negotiate on Kosovo, a region of Yugoslavia where ethnic Albanians are the majority.

Reality: U.S./NATO bombs are falling on all Yugoslavs: Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians, Hungarians, Romanis (called Gypsies) and other peoples who make up the multiethnic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. There were no "negotiations." U.S. officials like Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went out of their way to make this point when "peace talks" were held in France in February. Instead, the U.S. government presented an ultimatum to the Yugoslav government that had three points: 1) Kosovo must be granted autonomy; 2) NATO must be allowed to station 30,000 ground troops in Yugoslavia to ensure this autonomy; and 3) A NATO-conducted referendum for Kosovo's independence from Yugoslavia would take place within three years.

The Yugoslav government agreed to the first condition, and rejected the second and third, saying they were a gross violation of their sovereignty and the independence of their country. The one breaking point that Yugoslavia refused to negotiate is that they will not allow a foreign occupying army. The only constant U.S. demand was that NATO troops must be based in Yugoslav territory. The U.S. refused to allow the Yugoslav delegation to meet with the Albanian delegation, or even to see 56 pages of the 80-page agreement.

---

Myth #2. Yugoslavia is the aggressor in this conflict and Milosevic is a "new Hitler."

Reality: No Yugoslav soldiers, planes or ships are attacking another country. The conflict in Kosovo is an internal issue. Yugoslavia is a small developing country of 11 million people, being attacked by 19 countries, including the biggest military powers in the world, which have a combined population of more than half a billion people. Milosevic has been demonized much like Saddam Hussein was during the war against Iraq. A State Department official admitted: "The demonization of Milosevic is necessary to maintain the air attacks." (San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 1999)

---

Myth #3. Clinton, Albright and the Pentagon generals were moved to action by their concerns about "ethnic cleansing" and human suffering.

Reality: The U.S., Germany and other NATO powers played a key role in breaking up Yugoslavia in 1991-92, arming and supporting secessionist movements. It was the International Monetary Fund that demanded an end to "special privileges" for Kosovo in the 1980s. For 45 years after World War II, the many nationalities that made up Yugoslavia lived together in peace. In the civil wars, which followed the break-up of Yugoslavia, there was much bloodshed and human-rights violations on all sides. The biggest single act of "ethnic cleansing" was the forced removal of 600,000 Serbs from the Krajina region of the former Yugoslav Republic Croatia by the U.S.-trained and armed Croatian military in 1995. More than 55,000 of these Serbs, who were resettled in Kosovo, are among the hundreds of thousands of people made refugees by NATO bombing and the conflict in Kosovo. (Julia Taft, Asst. Secretary of State on C-SPAN, March 29, 1999) The U.S. "concern" about removal of people from their homeland is very selective. This is not surprising: Virtually the entire continent of North America was "ethnically cleansed" of Native people to make way for the U.S. and Canada, two NATO powers. U.S. policy has supported, with arms and money, the removal of Kurdish people in Turkey and of Palestinians, East Timorese, Guatemalan indigenous people -- the list goes on.

---

Myth #4. The U.S./NATO goal is to protect the rights of the predominantly Muslim Albanians in Kosovo.

Reality: U.S. officials pretend to care about the rights of Muslim people in Yugoslavia, while their policy of sanctions and war kills 300 mostly Muslim Iraqis every day -- half children under 5 years old.

The Pentagon is not a humanitarian relief agency and the corporate-owned politicians don't really care about any people--Albanians, Serbs, Kurds, Iraqis, or the poor and working people of this country. This war is killing people of all nationalities in Yugoslavia, and poisoning their land with radioactive depleted uranium (DU) weapons. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, U.S. veterans and their families are suffering from Gulf War Syndrome as a result of depleted-uranium poisoning. The Clinton administration and the Pentagon talk about "supporting our troops" before they go into battle, but then deny medical benefits to veterans who suffer from the after-effects of Agent Orange from Vietnam or DU from Iraq.

This war will cost many billions of dollars, money stolen from housing, health care, education and other social programs. Each cruise missile costs $1 million. The only ones who will benefit from this war will be the military-industrial complex and big business.

The real U.S./NATO goal is to break Yugoslavia into ever-smaller pieces and bomb its people into submission. The Balkans is a strategic region, a crossroads between Western Europe and the oil-rich Middle East and Caspian Basin. The U.S. has established, in only five years, military domination of the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia, as well as Hungary and Albania. The only hold-out has been what is today the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This is the real reason why Yugoslavia has become the target in the Balkans, just as it is the real reason that Iraq has become the target in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region.

---

Myth #5. U.S. news reports are balanced and impartial, giving us the true story.

Reality: What we see today is a gross distortion of the facts. The media is dominated by big business interests, and functions as a Pentagon propaganda machine. For political purposes, the suffering of only one group, the refugees leaving Kosovo, is shown, while the other Yugoslav victims of the NATO bombing are virtually ignored. The New York Times, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Chronicle Examiner, and others have given a very slanted view of events in Yugoslavia, to justify the massive bombing. General Electric, one of the country's largest military contractors which supplies engines for NATO jet fighters, owns NBC and co-owns MS/NBC.

---

Myth #6: The U.S. is trying to defend the rights of the people of Kosovo because they have no rights.

Reality: All minorities in Yugoslavia have much greater rights than national minorities have in the United States or in Europe. While bilingual education is under attack from California to New York, Albanians in Kosovo have schools and tuition-free universities in the Albanian language. Medical care is free for all citizens in Yugoslavia. Albanian separatists boycotted the government school system and health care system. To refuse to use what exists is very different from being denied these rights.

The population information commonly given out is also misleading. For example saying that 90 percent of the population is Albanian is not accurate. This figure actually includes all non-Serbs in Kosovo--Romanis, Turks, Egyptians, Goramacs (Serb Muslims from Kosovo) and others. At the Rambouillet talks, the Yugoslav delegation represented not only Serbs, but all of the nationalities in Kosovo, including two Albanians, while the Albanian separatist delegation consisted only of Albanians. The religious differences are also exaggerated. While many Albanians are Muslim, 10 percent of the Serb population is also Muslim. In addition, 25 percent of the Albanian population is Roman Catholic such as Mother Teresa, who was a Kosovo Albanian.

---

Myth #7: The KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) is a genuine liberation army.

Reality: The KLA is a terrorist force similar to CIA-funded Contras used by the U.S. in Nicaragua in an effort to overthrow the government. NATO uses the KLA to justify sending U.S. troops to occupy and further break up Yugoslavia. The KLA did not exist one year ago. Suddenly, it has the latest high tech weapons.

What kind of liberation struggle calls for the bombing of its own people and for a foreign army of occupation on its soil? This is the KLA demand. The Society of Albanian American Students released a call for a demonstration on Wednesday, March 31 "organized with the invitation of the U.S. State Department to support NATO strikes, and above all, will focus to pressure for Ground Troops in Kosova and Arms for KLA." Al Gore addressed the crowd. The signs of KLA supporters at rallies organized by the U.S. State Department--"NATO Bombing, Just Do It," "KLA is NATO"--express the real relationship between the KLA and the U.S. government.

---

Myth #8: The NATO bombing is not the cause of the refugee crisis.

Reality: There were no waves of refugees until the beginning of the NATO bombing on March 24. The U.S. government used similar scripts of defending civilians and stopping massacres to justify massive bombing campaigns in both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Again and again it was the massive bombing that created refugee crises. The London Sunday Times interviewed refugees and found: "Nor was there much fodder for NATO propagandists among the 200 or so refugees waiting to register at a Skopje district police station early on Friday [March 26]. Mirvei, a tall Albanian woman clutching her four-month-old baby, looked bewildered when asked if Serbian troops had driven her out. `There were no Serbs,' she said. `We were frightened of the bombs.'"

[kronos77]

Well, frankley we in Serbia WERE aware that Hitlers plan of division of Yugoslavia is taking place, ant it wasnt a secret. Idea was, as we were told, that Serbia is to be set back on hers pre Berlin Congress borders, of 1878. No Vojvodina and Kosovo, and that, crippled small Serbia is no threat to interests of USA and NATO.
It is no secret. As for Milosevic, he was concidered bz hard line communists (now democrates) an "american man", and that is also, true. odf course , roumors about CIA egsisted.
But.
Plan would go ahead whatever Milosevic did. If he plazed bz notes, All of what happened woulkd happened and he would be something like Gorbachev.. nice democrate, who ruined his own country.
If he defied, USA would plaz hardball, as she did. I belive that Milosevic belived and did logial thing: "Event is destruction of Serbia. If I do what Im asked, it cant be undone, but if I defy we might achive something, even minor in our benefit" What he did was stall, and Stall. Accepting deals with west, but than also supporting Serbs in Bosnia, and that gave Serbs and Serbia time just enough to survive early ninties when USA was undisputed cold-war victor, and only not superpower, but only power.
Now, Clinton attacked Serbia in 1999, noone suported Serbia, but, what if it hapened in 1993 or 1994? It wopuld be total colapse of Serbia.
I also belive that milosevices defiance, bough just enough time for new, democratic goverment to negotiate with new, US gov, but, now, in totaly different circomstances that one in 90 es. With new powers rising, and totaly new problemns for USA to deal, new goverment of Serbia got manuvering space.
Trick was to surrvive ninties.

[Hoplite]

I was shocked at how emphatic my buddies were that we supported the wrong side in Kosovo.

Wow. That must've been uncomfortable for you.

LOL.

Hope you had a good time, regardless.

[Hoplite]

Ramsey Clark?

Go away.