Clooney to Organize Protest Against Unilateral Declaration of Kosovo Independence

This George Gets it Right: Clooney to Organize Protest Against Unilateral Declaration of Kosovo Independence

Famous Hollywood actor, activist and campaigner George Clooney in a statement to the Frankfurt daily News announced he intends to organize a protest with his colleagues against the unilateral declaration of independence of Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija.

“With my coworker and friend Sharon Stone and her childhood friends of Serbian ancestry, I'll soon organize a protest against the attempts to grant independence to Kosovo,” the popular American actor said.

Clooney, who was among the first to support the Hollywood writers' protest and also backed the boycott of the Golden Globe awards ceremony, is well known as a fierce campaigner against any kind of injustice.

“I strive to use my popularity to help the mankind, to contribute to solving the number of problems afflicting today's world,” he said.

George Clooney is a co-founder of Not on Our Watch, a humanitarian organization that focuses global attention on the plight of Darfur's people. The organization has raised more than $9.3 million for humanitarian efforts in the region.

The 46-year-old actor has been campaigning for an end to the 4 1/2-year war in Darfur and for humanitarian aid for the millions caught up in the conflict.

According to the AP, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated George Clooney as a U.N. "messenger of peace" Friday, January 18, 2008. He will become the ninth U.N. peace envoy.

While many U.N. agencies have goodwill ambassadors to promote activities ranging from helping children and refugees to promoting human rights, "messengers of peace" are selected by the secretary-general to promote the broader work of the United Nations.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Clooney was recognized "for focusing public attention on crucial international political and social issues."

As a messenger of peace, he will have "a special focus on United Nations peacekeeping," Montas said.

Clooney will receive his designation at U.N. headquarters Jan. 31. He will also attend a meeting of countries that contribute troops to the 17 U.N. peacekeeping missions in countries from the Mideast and Africa to Haiti, Afghanistan and East Timor.

P.S. News as it was reported on Serbian TV (RTS) available on YouTube, thanks to our Dutch friend, JJ van Kempen.

"Have you seen this????"

Got it? Yes. I blogged it, too!

Look, I've said this before and I'll say it again -- I don't agree with George Clooney's politics (usually), but I have no doubt about the guy's integrity or sincerity. Whatever else he may be, he is not shallow and I believe that he is for real. Not everyone who politically disagrees with you is an idiot.

And not all actors are vain and stupid. Most simply think with their "feelings" instead of their head. That's what makes them good actors and generally lousy at politics.

However in this case, "a heart" is exactly what was necessary to see what political arrogance had wrought in Kosovo -- and frankly, short of Ron Paul, I don't see any other Republican candidates out there taking up the banner of saving Kosovo Christians from Albanian jihadists, or fighting for the idea of national sovereignty when it counts.

If it only took "brains" and no heart, Nazi Germany had no shortage of great minds. We need brains and heart to be America. And in this case, I say, "Go George! Go Sharon!" You are there when it counts!

Italy is already on to the Albanian Mafia. Here is a taped conversation of Albanian Mafia members when they attacked Kosovo Serbs in 2004:

We torched everything!
Vecernje Novosti - Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Written by Zeljko Pantelic

May 16, 2006 - Organized Albanian criminal groups involved in the sale of drugs, people, illegal immigration, etc. were behind the March 2004 pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. This conclusion follows from taped telephone conversations between leaders of Albanian mafia organizations which since 2003 have been illegally transferring hundreds of illegal emigrants per year from Kosovo to Italy, and who were uncovered by Italian police at the beginning of this week.

By wiretapping the conversations of Albanian criminals, investigating prosecutors in Bari, led by prosecutor Giuseppe Scelsi discovered that the killing of 19 Serbs, the expulsion of several thousand Orthodox Christians and the torching of their churches was pre-planned and orchestrated.

“Hell, torch all the churches,” one of the mafia bosses ordered in a telephone conversation.

“We’ve already torched them all,” his collocutor on the other side responded.

Several conversations were also taped in which the criminals vaingloriously called their friends to tell them they had torched the churches and to turn on the television so they can see the results of their work.

The Italian police operation uncovered several Albanian organizations from Kosovo which ran illegal emigrant routes with the help of tourist agencies, falsified documents and fictitious marriages. At the top of the Albanian criminal hierarchy were Jashar Bitiqi (35) residing in Treviso, who piloted the work of three tourist agencies which served as fronts for illegal emigration. These were the agencies “Jaha Tours” in Treviso, “Saba Tours” in Suva Reka and “Poluxha Tours”.

There were three channels for illegally entering Italy. The first was Prizren (Suva Reka) - Drac - Bari - Treviso and the “ticket” for transportation to the Apennine peninsula cost 3,300 euros. Whoever wanted to legalize their stay in Italy could get a fictitious wife or husband with regular papers for 8,000 euros, and a valid residence visa as a family member. The second channel was a minor variation of the first; the disembarkation was in Brindisi, not in Bari, and the price ranged from 3,000 to 3,500 euros. The fourth route, from Kosovo through Macedonia and Greece to Ancona in Italy, was the cheapest at 2,500 euros.

Investigators also found a fourth channel for illegal emigration leading to Italy through Serbia, Hungary and Austria. The procedure was very simple: those interested in emigrating from Kosovo would pay the asked for amounts and in exchange receive false documents and visas. They would be loaded onto supposed tourist buses and enter Italy as false tourists, where would then illegally remain.

TRANSCRIPTS OF TAPED ALBANIAN CONVERSATIONS

EVERYTHING IS BURNING, BURNING...

“Novosti” encloses a part of the transcript of the recorded telephone conversation between two Albanians, Hazer (H) and Muharem (M):

M: Hello
H: Hi, Rema, how are things going?
M: Alright.
H: You’re still asleep?
M: Yes.
H: Why don’t you ask your brother where he is?
M: Why, you’re in Mitrovica, right?
H: No, I’m not in Mitrovica... We’ve torched all the churches in Prizren.
M: Hell, torch them all!
H: We’ve already torched them all, turn on the television so you can see them burning!
M: I just turned it on.
H: They’re showing Prizren right now... All the church have been torched, not one is left.

In a conversation between Hazer and another, unidentified man (U), the latter appeared to be quite cautious and did not want to talk about torched churches by telephone:

H: - Where are you?
U: - At Bujar’s.
H: - We burned them all, the bitches... everything is in flames, all of Yugoslavia.
U: - I know, I was there until just recently...
H: - You were there? And at that church...
U: - And the church was torched?
H: - The local church... I was proposing that we make an agreement... KFOR pulled back and a little later they told me we had torched it.
U: - Don’t talk like that, you’ll destroy us all.
H: - (laughs) Oh, why are you afraid, my brother.
U: - Leave it alone, you know they tap the phones. Don’t talk [about this] over the telephone.
H: - Come on, don’t worry...

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