John Pilger: Don't forget Yugoslavia and Kosovo

[ashgarth]

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=500


Don't forget Yugoslavia



14 Aug 2008

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger digs beneath the received wisdom for the break-up of Yugoslavia and points to a largely ignored memoir by the former chief prosecutor in The Hague - and an echo from current events in the Caucasus.

The secrets of the crushing of Yugoslavia are emerging, telling us more about how the modern world is policed. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, this year published her memoir The Hunt: Me and War Criminals. Largely ignored in Britain, the book reveals unpalatable truths about the west's intervention in Kosovo, which has echoes in the Caucasus.

The tribunal was set up and bankrolled principally by the United States. Del Ponte's role was to investigate the crimes committed as Yugoslavia was dismembered in the 1990s. She insisted that this include Nato's 78-day bombing of Serbia and Kosovo in 1999, which killed hundreds of people in hospitals, schools, churches, parks and tele vision studios, and destroyed economic infrastructure. "If I am not willing to [prosecute Nato personnel]," said Del Ponte, "I must give up my mission." It was a sham. Under pressure from Washington and London, an investigation into Nato war crimes was scrapped.

Readers will recall that the justification for the Nato bombing was that the Serbs were committing "genocide" in the secessionist province of Kosovo against ethnic Albanians. David Scheffer, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, announced that as many as "225,000 ethnic Albanian men aged between 14 and 59" may have been murdered. Tony Blair invoked the Holocaust and "the spirit of the Second World War". The west's heroic allies were the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose murderous record was set aside. The British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, told them to call him any time on his mobile phone.

With the Nato bombing over, international teams descended upon Kosovo to exhume the "holocaust". The FBI failed to find a single mass grave and went home. The Spanish forensic team did the same, its leader angrily denouncing "a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines". A year later, Del Ponte's tribunal announced the final count of the dead in Kosovo: 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the KLA. There was no genocide in Kosovo. The "holocaust" was a lie. The Nato attack had been fraudulent.

That was not all, says Del Ponte in her book: the KLA kidnapped hundreds of Serbs and transported them to Albania, where their kidneys and other body parts were removed; these were then sold for transplant in other countries. She also says there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the Kosovar Albanians for war crimes, but the investigation "was nipped in the bud" so that the tribunal's focus would be on "crimes committed by Serbia". She says the Hague judges were terrified of the Kosovar Albanians - the very people in whose name Nato had attacked Serbia.

Indeed, even as Blair the war leader was on a triumphant tour of "liberated" Kosovo, the KLA was ethnically cleansing more than 200,000 Serbs and Roma from the province. Last February the "international community", led by the US, recognised Kosovo, which has no formal economy and is run, in effect, by criminal gangs that traffic in drugs, contraband and women. But it has one valuable asset: the US military base Camp Bondsteel, described by the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner as "a smaller version of Guantanamo". Del Ponte, a Swiss diplomat, has been told by her own government to stop promoting her book.

Yugoslavia was a uniquely independent and multi-ethnic, if imperfect, federation that stood as a political and economic bridge in the Cold War. This was not acceptable to the expanding European Community, especially newly united Germany, which had begun a drive east to dominate its "natural market" in the Yugoslav pro vinces of Croatia and Slovenia. By the time the Europeans met at Maastricht in 1991, a secret deal had been struck; Germany recognised Croatia, and Yugoslavia was doomed. In Washington, the US ensured that the struggling Yugoslav economy was denied World Bank loans and the defunct Nato was reinvented as an enforcer. At a 1999 Kosovo "peace" conference in France, the Serbs were told to accept occupation by Nato forces and a market economy, or be bombed into submission. It was the perfect precursor to the bloodbaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[isfahan]

I think it was Eric Fromm who over 50 years ago observed that in the West we too live in a totalitarian society.

When I first read it --I think it was in his book, The Sane Society-- I was somewhat shocked to find myself agreeing with Fromm that my life experience confirmed what he had said.

That was thirty years ago. Everything that has happened since has only gone to reinforce that view. We do live in a totalitarian society. It's just a different flavour of totalitarianism to others.

In many ways it's worse than others because we are constantly brainwashed in a very Orwellian way to believe that we are free and what we have is democracy. Even the slightest examination of those assumptions will show how untrue they are. Try disagreeing in a serious way with the system and see what happens.

Organisations like NATO are the international gangsters of western or NWO totalitarianism. I was in my teens when the Berlin Wall was built in the 'sixties and as a history student used to receive a freebie from the Central Office of Information called NATO Review (in those days I was still taking the Blue Pill before switching over to the Red variety).

A constant theme in NATO Review was that NATO was a defensive organisation set up to defend the West from what it called "Soviet aggression." NATO, it said, would happily dissolve itself the moment that the Warsaw Pact (or Warsaw Treaty Organisation) did the same. In the same way the USUK promised to scrap its nuclear missiles if Russia did the same.

The first statement, at least, was a barefaced lie. Though the Warsaw Pact dissolved itself along with the Soviet Union not only did NATO not follow suit but it EXPANDED its organisation to include east European, ex-Warsaw Pact countries. Ceasing to be simply an organisation concerning itself with issues in the North Atlantic area of interest it is now policing countries in Central Asia (Afghanistan) and on track to be in the Caucasus (Georgia)!

And BTW, all that nonsense we were fed about why the Soviets built the Berlin Wall missed out on what led to it: the east Germans (German Democratic Republic) wanted to have an economic union with the west Germans (German Federal Republic) so both might use the same Deutschmark. The US pressured the west Germans into turning down their east German relatives. When the DDR realised there was no chance of economic unity they were faced with a quandary which threatened their survival: east Germans were freely going over to west Germany to work and earning much higher incomes. So finally they were forced into stopping the westward flow by building a wall. After the passing of nearly half a century, I wonder how many here will know that side of the story? See how good the 'Free West' is in suppressing inconvenient truths?

What happened in Yugoslavia was a war crime committed by NATO and the West. Instead, the western propaganda machine turned reality on its head and tried the Serbs for war crimes! The court which is 'trying' these crimes was bankrolled to do so by the West to punish its enemies and no other. Nuremburg started that ball rolling.

Similarly we have just lived through an immense war of information in which, contrary to the facts, we have been told that a country run by a mentally unstable mafiosi type, Saakashvili, has been the victim of those bad Russians! Goebbels would go green with envy if he could see the subtle techniques of disinformation the BBC uses today.

The entire story can be summed-up neatly by one of Orwell's astute observations: "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable". That may be universally applicable but anyone who has had to live through the massive barrage of lies and disinformation to which we in the 'Free West' are subject will recognise the truth in it.

A final thought: where today would you expect to find more CCTV cameras per capita, London or Moscow? No prizes for the right answer!

[conspiracy analyst]

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
August 21, 2008

It appears Russia is wasting little time responding to the neocon provocation of declaring its intention of installing missiles at Redzikowo, on Poland’s Baltic coast. Russia has dispatched the aircraft carrier at Admiral Kuznetsov to the Syrian port of Tartus. Admiral Kuznetsov, along with Russia’s biggest missile cruiser Moskva and at least four nuclear submarines, left Murmansk on the Barents Sea on August 18, according to DEBKAfile.

Iskander

Russia plans to install Iskandar missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.


On August 21, at the Black Sea port of Sochi, Syrian president Bashar Assad told the media he is considering a Russian request to deploy missiles in his country. The Arabic language newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, reported Bashar as saying he hopes to see Moscow cease its cooperation with NATO-allied states. “He is quoted as saying that Israeli arms sales to the Georgian army should prompt the Kremlin to strengthen the military alliance between Russia and Syria,” reports the Israeli news site, YNet News. Bashar is scheduled to meet with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. According to the BBC, fast track military and technical co-operation are at the top of the agenda.

It should be noted that prior to Russia’s defense of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the signing of the Polish missile deal, Moscow promised the U.S. it would not provide Iran and Syria with advanced military technology.

“I want to voice support for Russia over the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Assad told Itar-Tass. “We understand the essence of the Russian position and consider its military reaction a response to provocation by the Georgian side.” Assad also said “Syria was and is striving to develop strategic relations with Russia, in the interests of security in the whole world,” an obvious reference to the neocon plan to confront Syria, Iran, and Russia.

Russia plans to install Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, sources at DEBKAfile report. As widely reported over last weekend, Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads. “One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile’s sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile).”

“We have brought Syria to this situation,” Israel Likud MK Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio on Thursday. “We must freeze talks with Syria until it stops calling on Moscow to arm Israel’s enemies, and until [Damascus itself] stops transferring arms to Hizbullah.” Several months ago, Israel and Syria announced they would resume peace talks.




Russia’s move is at least in part a response to Israel’s arming and training of the Georgian military. “Israel armed the Georgian army,” Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told a Moscow press conference last week. Jerusalem provided Tblisi with “eight types of military vehicles, explosives, landmines and special explosives for the clearing minefields.” Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia previously said that “Georgian corporals and sergeants train with Germans, alpine units and the navy work with French instructors, and special operations and urban warfare troops are taught by Israelis,” Noah Shachtman reported for Wired on August 18. Earlier this year, Russia shot down a number of Georgian spy drones, specifically Hermes 450 reconnaissance planes manufactured by Israel’s Elbit Systems.

As reported by Infowars and Prison Planet, Georgia’s defense minister, Davit Kezerashvili, is a former Israeli who is fluent in Hebrew. Kezerashvili contributed to military cooperation between Israel and Georgia. “Israel’s defense industries managed to sell to Georgia [drones], automatic turrets for armored vehicles, antiaircraft systems, communication systems, shells and rockets,” former Israel internal security minister Roni Milo told Ynetnews. Moreover, “Israel has reportedly helped upgrade Soviet-designed Su-25 ground attack jets assembled in Georgia. And former Israeli generals serve as advisers to the Georgian military,” according to the Jewish Week.

On Wednesday, Bush praised Georgia’s NED engineered “Rose Revolution” while addressing a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Florida, the Washington Post reported. NED’s installation of Mikheil Saakashvili was “one of the most inspiring chapters in history,” according to Bush. “Georgia stood for freedom around the world,” he said. “Now the world must stand for freedom in Georgia.”

Bush’s “freedom in Georgia,” that is to say the imposition of a client state micromanaged by the IMF and World Bank, will become less tenable now that Russia “plans to establish a long-term presence inside Georgia and one of its breakaway republics,” as the Chicago Tribune reports. “If implemented, the plan would effectively put under Russian control the border between Georgia and South Ossetia, which is seeking independence, as well as a small chunk of Georgia proper.”

Obviously, with the Russian presence in Georgia and its renewed military relationship with Syria, the neocon plan to confront Iran and encircle Russia has encountered a speed bump. It remains to be seen how the Bush neocons, quickly approaching the apogee of their power, will react to Russia’s latest move.

[QuitTheirClogs]

Kosovo’s dirty secret: the background to Germany’s Secret Service affair

By Peter Schwarz -- 1st December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/koso-d01.shtml

The arrest of three German secret service agents in Kosovo exposes the sort of society that has been developed with German and American support in this former part of Yugoslavia—one mired in corruption, organised crime and secret service plots. The affair began on November 14, when a bomb exploded outside the office of the European Union special representative, Pieter Feith, in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. The building was damaged but no one was hurt.

The German government has denied any involvement by the three BND agents in the attack on the ICO building and called such accusations “absurd.” And it is indeed difficult to discern a motive for the BND to organise an attack on an institution in which the German government is involved.

However, secret service expert Erich Schmidt Eenboom, a long-time observer of the BND, thinks differently. In an interview with Junge Welt he was convinced that the BND agents had committed the attack to increase pressure for a faster transition to full sovereignty in Kosovo. However, he was unable to provide any proof.

On the other hand, the question arises why the Thaci government would court an open conflict with Germany, which after the US is the second largest financial backer of Kosovo and ranks among the most important advocates of its independence.

Most German commentators describe this as an act of revenge—an interpretation that clearly originates in senior government circles. Over many years, Kosovan politicians, and in particular Prime Minister Thaci, have been angered by the BND’s criticisms linking high-ranking politicians with organised crime, contrary to the position taken by the CIA.

One bone of contention was a 67-page BND analysis about organized crime in Kosovo, produced in February 2005, and reported by Frankfurt journalist Jürgen Roth the same year in Weltwoche. The report accuses Ramush Haradinaj (head of government from December 2004 to March 2005), Hashim Thaci (prime minister since January 2008) and Xhavit Haliti, who sits in the parliament presidium, of being deeply implicated in the drugs trade.

[QuitTheirClogs]

Kosovo: A European Narco State

By Tom Burghardt -- December 7, 2008
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11323

When three officers of Germany's foreign intelligence service the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), were arrested in Pristina November 19, it exposed that country's extensive covert operations in the heart of the Balkans.

...one can hypothesize that the BND, stepping on the CIA's toes and that agency's cosy intelligence "understanding" with Mafia-linked KLA fighters and al-Qaeda assets, would have every reason to sabotage the BND's organized crime operations


BND: An Agency Mired in Scandal

This latest scandal comes as yet another blow to the BND considering August's revelations by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks that Germany's external intelligence agency had extensively spied on journalists. Like their counterparts at the CIA, the BND is forbidden by law from carrying out domestic operations.

According to Wikileaks documents, journalists working for Focus Magazine and Der Spiegel were collaborators in a scheme by the agency to learn their sources as well as obtaining information on left-wing politicians, including Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) leaders Gregor Gysi and Andreas Lederer.

Indeed Focus Magazine journalist Josef Hufelschulte, code name 'Jerez, wrote articles based on reports provided by the BND "intended to produce favorable coverage." Wikileaks correspondent Daniel Schmitt and investigations editor Julian Assange comment that, "The document in general shows the extent to which the collaboration of journalists with intelligence agencies has become common and to what dimensions consent is manufactured in the interests of those involved."

In November, Wikileaks published a subsequent document obtained from the telecommunications giant T-Systems. In addition to revealing two dozen secret IP addresses used by the BND for surveillance operations, the document provides "Evidence of a secret out of control BND robot scanning selected web-sites. In 2006 system administrators had to ban the "BVOE" IP addresses to prevent servers from being destroyed." Additionally, Wikileaks revealed the "activity on a Berlin prostitution service website--evidence that intelligence seductions, the famed cold-war 'honeytrap', is alive and well?"

While the document does not spell out who was running the sex-for-hire website, one can't help but wonder whether Balkan-linked organized crime syndicates, including Kosovan and Albanian sex traffickers are working in tandem with the BND in return for that agency turning a blind eye to the sordid trade in kidnapped women.

[QuitTheirClogs]

German Intel Head Threatens Whistleblower Site

Muriel Kane -- Monday December 22, 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/German_intel_head_threatens_whistleblowe r_site_1222.html

In the latest twist in a scandal involving the presence of the German intelligence service or BND in the Balkan nation of Kosovo, the head of the BND has ordered whistleblower website Wikileaks to remove all BND-related files under threat of "immediate prosecution."

Wikileaks has responded with a press release noting that the demands have no legal force outside Germany, so the order "must be assumed to be an attempt to engage Wikileaks via its German component -- or does Mr. Uhrlau suggest it is now BND policy to kidnap foreign journalists and try them before German courts?"

According to Wikileaks, "The threats, made by BND President Ernst Uhrlau, were triggered by the Wikileaks publication of an article by Tom Burghardt, a US journalist, on the BND's bungled Kosovo operation, together with a classified BND dossier on senior Kosovo figures from 2005 -- both of which were specifically named by Mr. Uhrlau."

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Affair%3F_The_BND,_CIA_and_Ko sovo%27s_Deep_State

[TonyGosling]

non-violent: Adam de Maci
KLA
violent: Hasem Facci
Kosovo