Posted on 05/27/2003 6:34:29 PM PDT by getoffmylawn
The US "fabricated evidence" against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic during clashes between Serbia and Bosnia in the mid-1990s, according to a prominent and experienced international peacekeeping official who served there.
Retired Swedish Brigadier General Bo Pellnas, who was head of UN Military Observers (UNMOs) in Croatia, now says that the US should not be trusted. Pellnas says that he learned to distrust US-provided evidence during peacekeeping service in the former Yugoslavia.
Pellnas's misgivings are described in an article from the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet. Here is an English-language translation of this article:
In an interview with Sweden's leading news-wire TT, retired Brigadier Bo Pellnas claims that the US "faked evidence to suit their own interests."
"If the US were to present evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, the countries of the Western world would have no way to substantiate these reports due to the technical superiority of the US."
These are the words of retired Brigadier Bo Pellnas, who says he witnessed the US "fabricating fact to suit their own needs." Pellnas says he witnessed this first-hand when he led an international force which safeguarded the borders between Serbia and Bosnia in the mid-1990s, where he gained a very good insight and understanding of US operations. "The technical superiority of the US gives their politicians the option of bringing forth fake evidence, in this case in front of the United Nations Security Council."
Pellnas served in Yugoslavia during a time when US efforts, led by then Secretary of State Madeline Albright, presented evidence to the UN Security Council that Milosevic's Belgrade government ran unmonitored arms shipments. Pellnas claims that Albright's staff presented manipulated satellite photos to document false allegations, leading the Security Council to act in accordance with the US hard line against Milosevic.
"There might be a possibility that Albright thought the pictures to be true," says Pellnas, "but several incidents pointed towards the fact that the US lied." The US stood firm by their claims, refusing to show supporting evidence to Pellnas and other members of the peacekeeping crew.
"If the US were to come forth with evidence against Iraq which were "difficult to confirm," the permanent members of the Council will be put in a difficult situation, since they lack the sufficient tools to research and verify such claims."
Pellnas said he hopes that nations of the European Union make it their responsibility to build their own intelligence agency which has the capability to act as a counterbalance to the US. "It would be great indeed if the EU could act as a balance to the world's only true superpower, which acts alone these days."
In addition to his UN duties, Pellnas was also in charge of an international monitoring mission to Yugoslavia in 1994 sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and worked with the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY), a group established in 1991 to find a peaceful solution to the region's conflicts.
This incantation of a leftie shibboleth ruins his credibility IMO.
Are we supposed to be impressed with a general from a neutral country?
I'm also not opposed to a balance of power and neither were our founding fathers. One of the great successes of the US is our balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I'm not sure if we're supposed to "impressed" with him. I just know that I'm more inclined to trust him over any Democrat or Republican president we've had in the last in that last 20 some years.
I'd believe Barney Frank or Jim Jeffords before I'd believe a politician or bureaucrat from a socialist country.
What's neutrality got to do with competence or honesty? The Swedes, along with the Swiss, have long been neutral, (less time for the Swedes, IIRC). But being neutral doesn't mean they are pacifists. Both have universal military service, with large reserve establishments, and the Swedes equipment is technally on a par with that produced by Germany, Britain and France, better in some areas. The Swiss Militia system served as model for that of the United States during the early years of our Republic. They've kept theirs up, we haven't. They send a full auto assault home with every reservist, and virtually every male is a reservist. (Officer and NCOs only get pistols IIRC, although they are free to buy their own AR if they want)
Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright, the prototypical "Ugly Americans"
But they are from a socialist country. Everytime time the government props up a company like Chrysler with money to keep it running and its labor force employeed or anytime someone needs to go on unemployment to provide food and shelter for their family because the economy took a nose dive and there were lay-offs involved, socialism is involved.
No country is either 100% socialist or 100% freemarket. It's a question of degree.
Again, credibility isn't a rightie or a leftie thing. In my exerience, you are just as likely to find people of equal degrees of credibilty no matter what side of the fence they come down on. I know just as many people of integrity on the left as I do on the right and the same is true with regards to a lack of integrity.
Former official provides no evidence that the US fabricated evidence in Yugoslavia
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