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Former U.S. General Says Target Of Kosovo UN Probe
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=84357 ^

Posted on 09/26/2007 8:26:56 AM PDT by kronos77

Steven Schook, an outspoken former U.S. Army general, said he had not been officially informed of the probe by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight but learned of the allegations through questions asked of his staff on Tuesday.

As far as he was aware they included displaying "aggressive behaviour", having "personal relationships" with local and international female U.N. staff and having an "unprofessionally close relationship" with Energy Minister Ethem Ceku and Ramush Haradinaj, a former prime minister and war crimes defendant.

Asked if he was resigning, Schook replied: "Absolutely not."

"I know that, based upon how I do business and how I am, that at times, it can be a bit of a lightning rod, especially when you take passionate positions on very tough issues," the 54-year-old told a news conference.

"I have made a lot of friends in Kosovo, I have made a lot of enemies in Kosovo," said Schook, deputy to Special Representative Joachim Ruecker, a German diplomat.

Schook took up the U.N. position in April 2006, having served as a commander with NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Haradinaj, an ethnic Albanian former guerrilla commander, was indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in March 2005. He immediately resigned as prime minister and turned himself in.

He was released pending trial, but critics have accused the U.N. mission in Kosovo of giving him special treatment, believing his considerable influence has helped stop hardliners from turning to violence in the diplomatic deadlock over Kosovo's push for independence from Serbia.

(Excerpt) Read more at javno.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: islam; kosovo; serbia; trror

1 posted on 09/26/2007 8:26:59 AM PDT by kronos77
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To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; ma bell; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 09/26/2007 8:28:00 AM PDT by kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: kronos77
having "personal relationships" with local and international female U.N. staff

I guess the UN only objects if its staff have relationships with adult females.

3 posted on 09/26/2007 8:30:24 AM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: All

bump


5 posted on 09/26/2007 8:33:24 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: kronos77
The son of the former Secretary General can scam tens of millions dollars with his father’s help but let a US General smile at a woman, and let’s put him on trial at The Hague.
6 posted on 09/26/2007 8:38:03 AM PDT by MindBender26 (Having my own CAR-15 in Vietnam meant never having to say I was sorry......)
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To: JackRyanCIA

>>>>Why does the left love the UN so?

For them it’s a triple play.

1. Attack a straight male.
2. Attack an American
3. Attack an American military man!


7 posted on 09/26/2007 8:39:48 AM PDT by MindBender26 (Having my own CAR-15 in Vietnam meant never having to say I was sorry......)
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To: MindBender26

WOW!
Kosovo, Islamist quasi-state created by Clinton...
Kosovo, Part of the world where drugg and sex-slave traffiking are only branches of economy that work...
Kosovo, region infested with mafia nad crime
AND UN ADMINISTARTOR TOOK A BRIBE?
NO WAY!

sarc off/


8 posted on 09/26/2007 8:43:20 AM PDT by kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: MindBender26

Schook, a friend of Islamofascist:

Schook took up the U.N. position in April 2006, having served as a commander with NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Haradinaj, an ethnic Albanian former guerrilla commander, was indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in March 2005. He immediately resigned as prime minister and turned himself in.

He was released pending trial, but critics have accused the U.N. mission in Kosovo of giving him special treatment, believing his considerable influence has helped stop hardliners from turning to violence in the diplomatic deadlock over Kosovo’s push for independence from Serbia.

Schook said he was “guilty” of “having great respect for Ramush Haradinaj’s performance as the prime minister of Kosovo, including his exemplary cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”

Schook said he was also “guilty” of supporting an ongoing tender, controlled by Ceku’s ministry, for the construction of a new power plant in Kosovo.

Asked if he believed the allegations against him originated at the Hague tribunal, Schook said he did not know, but added: “I suspect there may be other agencies involved in this.”


9 posted on 09/26/2007 8:44:58 AM PDT by kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: kronos77
What we did in the Balkans is almost unforgivable! Shame on us (and our then President Clinton) and NATO. It is one of the few times that I think we really messed up with our brave military. Unlike Iraq and the other battles in this War on Terror, we had no business in helping the Muslims against their Christian host.
10 posted on 09/26/2007 8:49:15 AM PDT by BKerr (Swap principle for power and you'll end up with neither!)
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To: MindBender26
>>>>Why does the left love the UN so?

For them it’s a triple play.

1. Attack a straight male. 2. Attack an American 3. Attack an American military man!

The first thing I thought when I read this article is that the gnomes at the un have found a way to divert attention from themselves: accuse an American of something likely to hold headlines for a protracted length of time.

11 posted on 09/26/2007 8:51:55 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Man, that's stupid...even by congressional standards.)
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To: RobinOfKingston

Why is he even talking to the un?


12 posted on 09/26/2007 8:54:51 AM PDT by Never2baCrat (I used to be modest, now I'm perfect!)
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To: kronos77
Smuggling is going pretty well there too.

It’s a multi-faceted economy!

13 posted on 09/26/2007 8:56:59 AM PDT by MindBender26 (Having my own CAR-15 in Vietnam meant never having to say I was sorry......)
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To: Never2baCrat

I dunno. The un campus should cleared of personnel and turned into a proving ground for Caterpiller equipment.


14 posted on 09/26/2007 8:58:10 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Man, that's stupid...even by congressional standards.)
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To: MindBender26
A man is known by the company he keeps. It takes imagination to picture an Ameriacan Brigadier General being a close friend of a prominent crime figure with a terrorist past.

In a movie plot, it would be unconvincing. And that is exactly the case here. Life is stranger than fiction.

15 posted on 09/26/2007 9:04:53 AM PDT by DTA (Advice to Condi: when you are in a hole, stop digging)
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To: kronos77; All

I think most American senior military officers are less political than the least-political non-military citizen - keep in mind I said “most” (not counting those “retired” officers who have no other employable skills besides shilling for the media).

I have seen this throughout the events in Iraq.

They have a job to do. They want to do it. They want to achieve the objectives that are tasked to them. If someone is cooperative in helping achieve those tasks, they are appreciative of that cooperation. That appreciation is not a commentary on any other activities conducted by those who have cooperated with them. If it were, we could never have built our alliances with some of the Sunni Sheiks in Anbar province against Al Queda - too many in their culture expect the “local authority” to wield that authority without compromise.

For instance, the article correctly does not say the general violated any laws, treaty obligations or rules of his command, in the “cooperation” he got from (1)one man who has charges pending (guilty until proven innocent??) and (2) one man in an official government position.

Someone in the UN or the Hague is trying to muddy the prosecution of war crimes charges against certain individuals in Kosovo, with the diversion of dragging a US military officer into the mix for associations and cooperation with people in Kosovo, conducted in the course of his assigned tasks there; long after the alleged war crimes were committed.

Don’t flame me, I am not saying the “war crimes” did not occur. I am only saying that in his civil affairs role (its sort of like a military-diplomat-social-worker), the general was under no obligation to NOT cooperate with any individuals with whom it was NOT against the rules of his command to cooperate with, if their cooperation would assist in reaching the objectives of his tasks. The rest of us can have our political opinions, his are not supposed to be part of his role. It would seem the source of the charges against him are that he did not follow a political opinion in getting his objectives achieved.


16 posted on 09/26/2007 10:10:25 AM PDT by Wuli
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