Free Republic

The Meaning Behind the Violence 0010 GMT, 001005 The significance of the current violence between Israelis and Palestinians should not be underestimated. It originates in both the deepest fears of both sides and in the basic global and regional geopolitics. Its outcome is to force both sides to deal honestly and openly with the fact that their fundamental hopes and aspirations are incompatible. The situation is dangerous. Weeks after it ended, the Camp David summit has effectively destroyed the center – and the centrists – in the political lives of Israelis and Palestinians. With both at the mercy of their ...

Checkmate in Yugoslavia? 25 September 2000 On their face, the Yugoslav elections appear to have failed in clarifying the country’s political situation. Slobodan Milosevic is still president, has succeeded at least in postponing a day of reckoning and the West’s crafty old enemy sits, for the moment, in Belgrade. But in reality, a clarifying moment is unfolding. Amidst the riot police, the fights and the mixed results – another round of voting in two weeks – an important change has occurred. Milosevic may be replaced, but by another hard-line Serbian nationalist, Vojislav Kostunica. Kostunica will not necessarily be the ...

By moving to break up Microsoft, the U.S. Justice Department is tackling the domestic challenge that the company poses to anti-trust law. It is unclear whether the company will simply acquiesce. As important, the breakup of Microsoft could be a setback for the United States abroad. An unintended consequence of the company's success has been the way it has magnified American power overseas, from the cultural sphere to the dominance of information. ANALYSIS On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department turned over its next card in the Microsoft anti-trust case. Having already won a ruling in federal court judging the ...

Milosevic Cornered: Where Will He Strike Next? 0023 GMT, 000411 Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia all are undergoing shifts in government. Despite the rumors floating through the Western press, these shifts indicate an increasingly firm Western orientation for all of these states. Faced with total isolation, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must respond to this threat. Milosevic has three pressure points he can use: Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia itself. In Slovenia, internal power squabbles led to the demise of the ruling coalition, leaving Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek’s Liberal Democratic party foundering with a weak minority government. But this is the first instability ...

Group Loses White House e-mail Bid WASHINGTON (AP) - A conservative group was rebuffed Friday in its effort to have a federal judge take custody of hundreds of thousands of White House computer messages in the e-mail controversy. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, the group, Judicial Watch, sought to have the Executive Office of the President found in contempt of court, claiming White House officials tampered with a computer disk containing some of the electronic mail. Judicial Watch lawyer Larry Klayman focused on the White House's acknowledgment in congressional testimony Thursday that a mishap had occurred ...

MORRIS: HOW BILL AND AL BLEW THE ANTI-TOBACCO FIGHT By DICK MORRIS FROM now on, blame teen smoking on Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Donna Shalala. In perhaps the most blatant and disgusting act of political demagoguery in recent history, they torpedoed congressional passage of the tobacco settlement in order to keep the issue alive for the 2000 election. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has done what Donna, Bill and Al swore it would not do: strike down federal Food and Drug Administration regulation of cigarettes -- thereby invalidating the core of the administration's proposed anti-tobacco initiatives. The courageous ...

NATO Prepares to Abandon Neutrality in Kosovo 0137 GMT, 000225 The day after NATO’s urgent call for reinforcements to be sent to the embattled northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson proclaimed Feb. 23 that the conditions in Mitrovica had stabilized. NATO assurances of safety in Mitrovica contradict other news coming from the region. This contradiction suggests the possibility of an upcoming change in NATO policy for Kosovo. Despite its claims, NATO does not seem to control Mitrovica, or Kosovo in general, and blames the Serbs and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for continued instability there. NATO has insisted ...

Albania GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE Albanian Instability Threatens NATO's Kosovo Mission February 3, 2000 Summary Albanian media has reported that the head of the Albanian intelligence service, Fatos Klosi, secretly met with Prime Minister Ilir Meta to brief him on the possibility of armed protests against his government. Though not the first time that Albania has been threatened by armed unrest, this time it could have serious implications for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR) support operations located in Albania. Analysis The Albanian newspaper Koha Jone reported Jan. 29 that the head of Albania’s National Intelligence ...

SUMMARY Far beyond the rubble of Grozny, the four-month war in Chechnya is a defining moment for both Russia and the West. Within Russia, the war will determine the unity of the federation and the leadership of the next government. On a global scale, the war will impact Moscow’s bid to return to superpower status. In order to win, Russia must choke off rebel supplies flowing through neighboring Georgia. This, in turn, sets up a confrontation with the West. Washington has spent a decade building ties with Georgia and must back its partners in Tbilisi – or risk losing ...

Albania Falls Apart, Again 27 October 1999 Summary Despite their long history of conflict, Albania’s divided ethnic groups presented a united front during the war in Kosovo. Now that the war is over, however, the country has elected the previous leadership and resumed its internal feuding. It is likely this feuding will escalate to a clash threatening to envelop Kosovo, and forcing NATO to become involved in yet another foreign ethnic conflict. Analysis Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko resigned Oct. 25, officially transferring power back into the hands of longtime arch rivals Fatos Nano and Sali Berisha, who will now ...

First Thoughts on the Presidential Campaign SUMMARY As the 2000 campaign opens, presidential candidates are struggling to define what they stand for. We are reminded of the 1980 campaign, when Carter and Reagan struggled over issues of fundamental importance to the republic and neither had to take extra measures to define where he stood; the pieces fell naturally. Reagan's victory, in a way, made the presidency much less powerful and important than it had been since 1932. The federal deficit created during and after the Reagan years did not cripple the economy, but it did cripple the ability of the ...