Free Republic

I don't know whether Gen. Wesley Clark is qualified to be president, but Peter J. Boyer's profile in this week's New Yorker—which paints him as scarily unqualified—is an unfair portrait as well as a misleading, occasionally inaccurate précis of the 1999 Kosovo war and Clark's role in commanding it.Boyer relies heavily on some of Clark's fellow retired Army generals who clearly despise him. The gist of their critique, as Boyer summarizes, is that Clark, while a brilliant analyst, "had a certainty about the rightness of his views which led to conflicts with his colleagues and, sometimes, his superiors." I have...

The director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the storied home of the agency’s most secretive intelligence operations, has announced that he plans to retire, The Daily Beast has learned. CIA spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed that the director announced his retirement “after a long and distinguished career at CIA. We thank him for this profound and lasting contributions to both CIA and to our nation’s security.” As a practice, the CIA doesn’t identify the head of the clandestine service by name. But Frank Archibald was outed in a Twitter post in 2013, and details of his biography were known to...

Funny how time changes things: Slobodan Milošević, visionary? Now that 2015 is here and Serbia is swamped with wave after wave of Muslim invaders -said to consist of 90% fit, military-age men- I guess it's time again to wonder -as many did in the immediate wake of 9/11- if Slobodan Milošević was right about beating back the Islamic hordes before they completely flood Europe...  and whether the (Lewinsky-impaired) Clinton Administration -reportedly talked into it by Tony Blair- was wrong. It sounded pretty retro at the time to fear conquering Muslim mobs coming to storm Serbia/all of Europe someday -and his war crimes were...

The most striking proof that the Arab anti-Israel cause is a common meeting ground for both Nazis and Communists --and that the Arabs welcomed supporters of both ilks-- lies in the friendship of Carlos, the notorious master terrorist who served the PLO, with Fran*ois Genoud, an old Nazi, one of the leading Nazis in pre-War Switzerland, later a financier who provided funds for Habash's faction of the PLO. "Carlos" (his nom de guerre) was what is called a "red diaper baby." His fabulously rich father, a Venezuelan lawyer and owner of estates, gave "Carlos" the name Ilich, Lenin's patronymic, as...

The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership. Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: "There will be no return to the 1990s," the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war. "As prime minister, I will never make a decision that will be an injustice to Serbia and its citizens," Dacic said after meeting President Tomislav Nikolic, head...

BELGRADE, Serbia – Socialist leader Ivica Dacic won a mandate Thursday to form a new Serbian government, marking a full-scale return of the late Slobodan Milosevic's former allies to power for the first time since the autocrat's ouster in a popular revolt in 2000. President Tomislav Nikolic formally approved Dacic as prime minister designate to lead the new coalition government that would include the Socialists, Nikolic's nationalists and a small center-right party. Although Nikolic and his nationalists claim to have shifted from being staunchly anti-Western to pro-European Union, a new nationalist-dominated government is likely to stall Serbia's proclaimed EU membership...

A key witness in a war crimes case against a senior Kosovo figure has been found dead in Germany, the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX) said Wednesday. "EULEX confirms that Agim Zogaj, known as witness X in the Klecka case, was found dead in a park in Germany," the mission's statement said. It added that the "German authorities are conducting the necessary investigation to determine the circumstances of his death." According to local media reports, Zogaj had agreed to testify in the case of Fatmir Limaj, one of the most prominent commanders of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas...

President Obama has announced that America would stop attacking Col. Muammar Gadhafi's forces in Libya. He instead hopes that others can force out Gadhafi -- or that the dictator will leave through economic and diplomatic pressure. It will apparently be up to NATO to finish the war -- without direct American combat participation. The relieved Obama administration had never quite explained what the mission was in the first place -- or for whom and for what we were fighting. Was the bombing to stop the killing, to help the rebels, to remove Gadhafi, or to aid the British and French,...

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

<p>IF YOU ENJOYED the election crisis of 2000, you’re going to love what Democrat leaders are cooking up for November.</p> <p>"George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party," charges Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson. (2) Some might dismiss Miss Iverson's comment as hyberbole. However, Soros' massive soft-money contributions have indisputably given him power over Democrat strategy.</p>

The March 11, 2006 death of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic while in U.N. custody at The Hague was the tragic end to an unjust war and prosecution. The U.N. war crimes tribunal had tried unsuccessfully for four years to convict Milosevic. Since 2004, the health of the former Yugoslavian President had been in decline. For several months before his death, Milosevic claimed that he was being poisoned and requested a trip to Russia for medical treatment. Of course, all requests were denied by the U.N. A January blood test given to Milosevic showed traces of the rarely used antibiotic...

<p>Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been found dead in the detention centre at The Hague tribunal.</p> <p>The tribunal said an autopsy would be conducted to establish cause of death, but there was no indication of suicide.</p> <p>Zdenko Tomanovic, a lawyer for Mr Milosevic, says the autopsy should take place elsewhere as his client said he was being poisoned in the jail.</p>

Belgrade, 20 August (AKI) – Two Serbian government ministers on Wednesday visited the grave of Slobodan Milosevic to pay respects to the former president on the anniversary of his birth. Zarko Obradovic and Milutin Mrkonjic, the Education and Infrastructure ministers from Milosevic's Socialist Party, laid a wreath on the tombstone of the late autocratic leader in his hometown, Pozarevac, east of Belgrade. The Socialists joined forces with their former bitter rivals, the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic, to create a coalition government on 7 July. Obradovic, Education Minister, said that his party needed to "point out the values" once...

MI6 plotted to murder Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in a staged car accident in a tunnel five years before Diana, Princess of Wales died in a similar crash, a renegade former spy has told the inquest into her death. Richard Tomlinson, who worked for MI6 in the early 1990s, told the High Court he had seen a two page document, drawn up in 1992, detailing three plans to kill Mr Milosevic. Diana inquest: MI6 plotted tunnel murder One plan was to use a strobe light to blind Mr Milosevic’s chauffeur The first involved using a Serb opposition paramilitary group, which...

MI6 plotted to murder Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in a staged car accident in a tunnel five years before Diana, Princess of Wales died in a similar crash, a renegade former spy has told the Inquest into her death. Richard Tomlinson, who worked for MI6 in the early 1990s, told the High Court he had seen a two page document, drawn up in 1992, detailing three plans to kill Mr Milosevic. Mr Tomlinson said the plan was shown to him by a senior MI6 officer referred to as "A" who argued that a crash in a tunnel would mean fewer...

UNITED NATIONS June 1 (UPI) -- Sponsors of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution granting supervised independence to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo have softened wording in the measure due to strong opposition. Yet the bottom line remains independence for the province that has been under U.N. administration since 1999. Russia, one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the panel of 15, does not agree with taking control of the autonomous province of about 2 million people away from Belgrade. China also is opposed. Moscow has hinted it would veto the measure when it comes up for a vote,...

Adam Gadhan: All praise is due to Allah, creator of the heavens and the earth, and prayers and peace be upon the messenger of Allah and his companions, family, and followers until the Day of Judgment. Bush, you thought you would be remembered by history as the president who waged a series of successful crusades against the Muslims. Instead, you will go down in history not only as the president who embroiled his nation in a series of un-winnable and bloody conflicts in the Islamic world, but as the president who sent the United States off on its death march...

Belgrade, 24 May (AKI) - The conviction of 12 people for the murder of prime minister Zoran Djindic in March 2003, was seen by Serbian politicians across the political spectrum on Thursday as a victory of justice and a proof of the judiciary's independence. After a three and a half year trial, a special court in Belgrade Wednesday sentenced 12 former members of a special police unit 'Red berets' and members of the so called Zemun criminal gang, headed by Milorad Ulemek Legija and Zvezdan Jovanovic, to maximum sentences of between 35 and 40 years in jail each for a...

NewsweekBosnia: Digging Up the Secrets of the Dead By Ginanne Brownell Web Exclusive May 11, 2007 The genocidal massacres of Srebrenica took place more than a decade ago, but Kathryne Bomberger relives them every day. As the director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Bomberger spends a good portion of her days visiting mass graves. Another grim stop: the Podrinje Identification Project (PIP) in Tuzla, Bosnia. Specially built to house recovered remains of Srebrenica victims, it is filled from floor to ceiling with body bags and thousands of bones. There are also poignant personal items like clothing,...

THE HAGUE: In the spring of 2003, boxes with hundreds of documents arrived at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague containing hundreds of pages marked "Defense. State secret. Strictly confidential." The cache contained minutes of wartime meetings of Yugoslav political and military leaders, including Slobodan Milosevic, and promised the best inside view yet of Serbia's role in the Bosnian war of 1992-95.