Why The West Doesn't Want Milosevic To Speak For Himself

Fahrenheit 9/11 Just Tip Of Iceberg
As US And UK Face Embarrassment At The Hague
Why The West Doesn't Want Milosevic
To Speak For Himself
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATMilosevictrial.htm
Western Powers Covertly Used
Islamic Terrorists To Break Up Yugoslavia

Orwell-Speak And Censorship Move To New Level
As Trial Sits On Verge Of Exposing NATO Crimes

"There is no evidence that the accused [Milosevic] is not fit to stand trial at all. But there is evidence that the health of the accused is such that he may not be fit to continue to represent himself, and that his continuing to represent himself could adversely affect the fair and expeditious conduct of the trial [sic]."
Judges, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
The Hague, 6 July, 2004

"Just this summer a nationalist Croatian group asked the Hague-based Yugoslav tribunal to consider bringing former President Bill Clinton up on war crimes charges. Many Croatians were upset by the Hague court's indictment of a popular Croatian military leader, Gen. Ante Gotovina, for atrocities allegedly committed during a 1995 offensive against Serbs..... The battle in question--Operation Storm--was vetted and approved by US leaders up to Clinton himself, according to a complaint submitted by the Croatian World Congress to Carla del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor. US forces even provided secret military aid, charged the CWC. Thus 'evenhanded justice' requires that Clinton stand in the dock shoulder to shoulder with Gotovina, said the group's complaint. It's unlikely that UN security troops will be marching a handcuffed ex-President out of his Harlem offices any time soon. The Hague prosecutor's office simply filed the complaint without comment."
Disorder in the Court
Air Force Magazine Online (US), October 2002, Vol 85, No 10

"General Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander and presidential hopeful, will testify next month at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic under conditions of strict censorship and confidentiality imposed by the United States. Washington is believed to be fearful of potentially damaging revelations about its Balkan realpolitik during the 1990s and in the Bosnian War. General Clark, who is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for President, will be one of the highest-profile witnesses to take the stand. The former Nato commander directed the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo in 1999, after Serbian forces had launched an onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists. General Clark will testify on December 15 and 16. Public galleries will be closed and the broadcast system that transmits the proceedings on the internet and on closed-circuit television will be shut down. The conditions of General Clark's testimony include a 48-hour delay to enable the US Government to review the transcript and seek the court's consent to censor parts on the ground of national security. Two US representatives will attend the sessions. The three-judge panel hearing Mr Milosevic's case agreed to the conditions, which are unique, because they decided that they were justified by the potential importance of General Clark's testimony, Jim Landale, the tribunal spokesman, said. In his cross-examination of General Clark, Mr Milosevic could reveal sensitive information about the West's diplomatic and military strategy for dealing with the crisis in the Balkans."
General Clark to testify against Milosevic
London Times, 20 November 2003

"On April 8 [1999] the Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany [PDS], an opponent of the war, issued a report describing an alleged CIA covert operation named 'Operation Roots' aimed at sowing ethnic divisions in Yugoslavia to encourage its breakup. The report claimed that this operation has been going on 'since the beginning of Clinton's presidency.' It was supposedly a joint operation with the German secret service, which also sought to destabilize Yugoslavia. The final objective 'is the separation of Kosovo, with the aim of it becoming part of Albania; the separation of Montenegro, as the last means of access to the Mediterranean; and the separation of the Vojvodina, which produces most of the food for Yugoslavia. This would lead to the total collapse of Yugoslavia as a viable independent state.' The report also asserts that the KLA was founded by the CIA with funding was funneled through drug-smuggling operations in Europe."
Fun Facts About Our New Allies
The Progressive Review, Washington, 22 June 1999

"Terrible crimes were committed in the Balkans during the 90s and it is right that those responsible are held accountable in a court of law. But the Hague tribunal, a blatantly political body set up and funded by the very Nato powers that waged an illegal war against Milosevic's Yugoslavia four years ago - and that has refused to consider the prima facie evidence that western leaders were guilty of war crimes in that conflict - is clearly not the vehicle to do so. Far from being a dispenser of impartial justice, as many progressives still believe, the tribunal has demonstrated its bias in favour of the economic and military interests of the planet's most powerful nations. Milosevic is in the dock for getting in the way of those interests...."
The Milosevic trial is a travesty
Guardian, 12 February 2004

"A United Nations court has ruled that Serbian troops did not carry out genocide against ethnic Albanians during Slobodan Milosevic's campaign of aggression in Kosovo from 1998 to 1999... The court, which is comprised of two international judges and one Albanian, was ruling on the case of a Serb, Miroslav Vuckovic, convicted of genocide by a district court in Mitrovica".
Kosovo assault 'was not genocide'
BBC Online, 7 September 2001

"If Senator Kennedy wants to talk about fraud [in relation to the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq], he ought to talk..... about what he and President Clinton told us in 1999 when they told us to bomb innocent Serbs, we'd find 100 thousand mass graves. Those mass graves were never found. They lied to the America people to justify the aerial bombardment campaign."
Congressman Curt Weldon (R) Pennsylvania on 'Hardball with Chris Matthews'
NBC News, 19 September 2003

A Sorry Tale For All Those Who Think The Iraq WMD Fraud Was Unique
Lies As A Pretext For War
There Was No Genocide In Kosovo
Civilians Killed By Both Sides In Kosovo Civil War Tiny Fraction
Of Those Killed In Iraq By US And UK

"This is a story of espionage, bugging, covert military operation, political double dealing. In an investigation across six countries Correspondent has uncovered a series of incidents which has tested the western alliance to breaking point.... This is a story about Americans behaving badly, about thousands of unnecessary deaths [in the Balkans]...."
Allies and lies
BBC Online, 22 June 2001

"The Dutch government has released a report that details the alliance between the United States and the Islamic effort to help Bosnian Muslims. The report determined that the United States provided a green light to groups on the State Department list of terrorist organizations to operate in Bosnia. This included the Lebanese-based Hezbollah. For the European Union, the U.S. effort marks a stain that calls into question Washington's war on terrorism. For nearly a decade, the Clinton administration helped Islamic insurgents aligned with Chechnya, Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilize the former Yugoslavia. The insurgents were allowed to bring weapons and explosives to Bosnia-Herzegovina and fight Serbs and their allies. The insurgents also were allowed to move further east to Kosovo. The United States was helped by a range of Muslim countries – from Iran and Saudi Arabia to Turkey. In short, the Clinton administration thought that the stronger the Muslims in Bosnia, the weaker the Serbian hold over Yugoslavia. Today, there are tens of thousands of Islamic insurgents throughout such countries as Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, and many of them are moving west to Austria, Hungary, Germany and Switzerland. "
U.S. gave green light to terrorists in Bosnia
WorldNetDaily, 24 April 2002

"Defence analyst Tim Ripley believes that the US plot to [secretly] train and equip the Bosnian Muslims directly led to the terrible death-toll at Srebrenica later in 1995."
Allies and Lies
BBC, Correspondent, June 2001

"...the [Srebrenica] enclave increasingly acquired the status of a 'protected area' for the [Bosnian Muslim] ABiH, from which the ABiH could carry out hit and run operations against, often civilian, targets. These operations probably contributed to the fact that at the end of June the [Serb] VRS was prepared to take no more, after which they decided to intervene: the VRS decided shortly after to capture the enclave. In this respect, the [illegal US sponsored] Black Flights to Tuzla and the [US backed] sustained arms supplies to the ABiH in the eastern enclaves did perhaps contribute to the ultimate decision to attack the enclave. In this connection it is not surprising that Mladic and other Bosnian Serbs constantly complained about this, but usually received no response to their complaints..."
Srebrenica - A Safe Area?
Appendix II - Intelligence and the war in Bosnia 1992 – 1995: The role of the intelligence and security services
Chapter 4, Secret arms supplies and other covert actions
Report Published on Behalf of The Dutch Government, 10 April 2002

"The U.S. government needs to release crucial imagery and signals intelligence information it collected during the capture of Srebrenica and the several days afterward, during which Serb forces committed the massacre. Intelligence experts such as Cees Wiebes of the Netherlands, who spent years investigating the fall of Srebrenica for a Dutch government-sponsored report, believe that the United States has such information. If it is not forthcoming, Congress should order an investigation of what our country knew about the massacre and when. Failure to do so would suggest that the leaders of the world's only superpower in the 1990s fear being held accountable for failing to act to stop the genocide."
Truth In The Balkans
Washington Post, 12 November 2003

"[The Americans] were concerned that their allies would learn about the covert operations [to arm the Bosnian Muslims] and mis-use of NATO resources. So they shut down the supply of all satellite reconnaissance photography and signals intelligence [for Bosnia] ....."
Allies and Lies
BBC Correspondent, 22 June 2001

"The clandestine arms supplies were therefore of greater importance to the Croats and the Bosnian Muslims. The [US backed] training and the supplying of arms, for example, simplified the Croatian operations in the Krajina in mid 1995. Alongside secret arms supplies, the company MPRI provided training.... By engaging this company, Washington at the same time also reduced the danger of 'direct' involvement. The operation resulted in the killing of more than 500 civilians and the exodus of more than 150.000 ethic Serbs from the Krajina. In view of the US covert support to the Croats it will be interesting to see if the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague will seriously investigate this matter."
Srebrenica - A Safe Area?
Appendix II - Intelligence and the war in Bosnia 1992 – 1995: The role of the intelligence and security services
Chapter 4, Secret arms supplies and other covert actions
Report Published on Behalf of The Dutch Government, 10 April 2002

"Last month prosecutors announced the indictment of General Gotovina for atrocities committed during and after Operation Storm, including the murder of 150 Krajina Serbs, the forced displacement of as many as 200,000 others and the torching of thousands of homes.... Now a NEWSWEEK investigation has shown that U.S. intelligence cooperation with Croatia went far deeper than Washington has ever acknowledged. According to Miro Tudjman, son of the late president Franjo Tudjman and head of the Croatian counterpart to the CIA in the mid-1990s, the United States provided encryption gear to each of Croatia's regular Army brigades. He says the CIA also spent at least $10 million on Croatian listening posts to intercept telephone calls in Bosnia and Serbia. 'All our [electronic] intelligence in Croatia went online in real time to the National Security Agency in Washington,' says Tudjman. 'We had a de facto partnership.' American officials familiar with intelligence issues confirm that the CIA operated drones from a base near Zadar on the Adriatic coast, during and after Operation Storm... And the country's former intelligence chiefs have decided to speak out about their ties to the United States as a way of vouching for Gotovina's innocence. 'I always said that the only people in Croatia who know everything are the Americans,' says Markica Rebic, the former head of military intelligence. When Gotovina stands trial, some of those Americans may be asked to testify about their country's role in an ugly conflict."
What Did the CIA Know?
NEWSWEEK, 21 August 2001

"President Mesic of Croatia is promising that his Government will co-operate fully in trials of Croatians accused of atrocities during its independence war.... The country’s relations with Europe have also become stronger in recent years, as evidence of alleged American involvement in the ruthless campaign to drive Serbs from the region has begun to emerge.... 200,000 Serbs [were] driven from the Krajina region during the 1995 Croatian offensive.... Croatia, however, cannot arrest the most wanted Croatian, General Ante Gotovina, because he is hiding in neighbouring Bosnia.... Another major obstacle is American concern that if General Gotovina is arrested he may carry out a threat to disclose the previously unknown extent of US covert involvement in the Krajina offensive...."
Croatia in pledge to help war crime trials
London Times, 14 June 2003

'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Baghdad'
STARING
Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Slobodan Milosevic
CO-STARING
George W. Bush, General Wesley Clark
and Saddam Hussein
The Tale Of How A Hungry Pack Of Wolves Devoured A Pair Of Wildcats
Who Got In The Way Of The Anglo-American Pursuit Of Power And Oil

"In a league table of death and destruction, Clinton beats Bush hands down."
Bush or Kerry? Look Closely and the danger is the same
New Statesman, 4 March 2004

"America took it upon itself to deliver arms directly to the Bosnian Muslim Army - the ABiH. These covert air drops began at the start of 1995. The most well-documented were the drops at Tuzla in the north of Bosnia, where they were observed by members of the UN Nordic Battalion stationed close to the dropping zone.... these air drops took place in the face of Operation Deny Flight, the UN-imposed and Nato-policed no-fly zone over Bosnia.... The air drops were only the tip of the iceberg. A team of retired US officers planned the bloody Croatian 'liberation' of the Kraijina [which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Serbs] and the subsequent invasion of western Bosnia by the Croatian Army in the summer of 1995.... The scope of these activities included bugging UN Commanders and diplomats.... Senior European negotiators believe that with US backing the war could have ended two years earlier, but US desire to see the Serbs punished meant that they instead encouraged the Bosnian Government to continue fighting. The price in human terms? Over 15,000 dead and nearly 600,000 refugees."
Allies and lies
BBC 'Correspondent', 22 June 2001

"... Now we have the full story of the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamist groups from the Middle East designed to assist the Bosnian Muslims... in flagrant violation of the UN security council arms embargo against all combatants in the former Yugoslavia. The result was a vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling though Croatia. This was arranged by the clandestine agencies of the US, Turkey and Iran, together with a range of radical Islamist groups, including Afghan mojahedin and the pro-Iranian Hizbullah...."
America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
Guardian, 22 April 2002

Press Reports On False Claims Of Genocide In Kosovo - Click Here

"The 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, directed by the US general Wesley Clark, was said to be stopping an alleged 'genocide' by the Serbs in Kosovo (some 2,000 bodies were later exhumed, a horrifying number but far short of the 100,000 the US predicted). The US goal was to assist the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Yet the year before, the US state department had branded the KLA a terrorist organisation, financing its operations from the heroin trade and funds from Islamic countries and individuals, including Osama bin Laden..... Through much of the 1990s, US support for Islamic militants in former Yugoslavia was backed up by covert US airdrops of arms, especially at Tuzla in northern Bosnia. These took place in the face of Operation Deny Flight, the UN-imposed and Nato-policed no-fly zone over Bosnia. The US House of Representatives also failed to authorise the war under the War Powers Act, making it illegal (shades of Iraq). But the airdrops were only the tip of the iceberg. Retired US officers heading Military Professional Resources Inc, a private paramilitary firm based in Virginia, planned the bloody Croatian 'liberation' of the Serb-held Krajina enclave, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Serbs.... The implications of this are stark..... from 1992-95 the Pentagon assisted the movement of thousands of Islamic fighters from central Asia to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims and remove the Milosevic barrier, and so extend US influence in a key area of oil geopolitics - a 'pact with the devil', as Richard Holbrooke, America's former chief Balkans peace negotiator put it...... Before President Bush trumpets his dedication to his war on terror, he should reflect on his country's links with terrorism over the past decade where it has suited US interests."
Michael Meacher - Former Blair Government Minister
The path to friendship goes via the oil and gas fields
Guardian, 27 March 2004

"The project envisages construction of a new spur from Delnice to Trieste, 100 kilometres long, and conversion of the Omisalj port into the leading spot-market for resale of oil in the Mediterranean [Adriatic]..... One should recall that Milosevic did not end up in the Hague only as a war criminal, but above all because with his policies he stood in the way of a new network of Euro-Asian oil pipelines. His political fate was sealed in Zagreb, where two years ago a large ministerial-business conference of the EU INOGATE program was held. A hundred days later, Milosevic was not in power anymore, and at the time of the signing of a new oil pipeline from Constanta to Trieste he was already on the way to the Hague, supposedly by chance."
Mega Pipeline Becomes Reality
Novi List (Croatian Newspaper), 23 July 2002

"[After the Soviet war in Afghanistan] America's role in backing the mujahedin a second time in the early and mid-1990s is seldom mentioned - largely because very few people know about it, and those who do find it prudent to pretend that it never happened.... From 1992 to 1995, the Pentagon assisted with the movement of thousands of mujahedin and other Islamic elements from Central Asia into Europe, to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs...Yet in 2000, the State Department raised concerns about the 'hundreds of foreign Islamic extremists' who became Bosnian citizens after fighting against the Serbs, and who pose a potential terror threat to Europe and the United States. US officials claimed that one of bin Laden's top lieutenants had sent operatives to Bosnia, and that during the 1990s Bosnia had served as a 'staging area and safe haven' for al-Qa'eda and others.... In the late 1990s, in the run-up to Clinton's and Blair's Kosovo war of 1999, the USA backed the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbia. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post in 1998, KLA members, like the Bosnian Muslims before them, had been 'provided with financial and military support from Islamic countries', and had been 'bolstered by hundreds of Iranian fighters or mujahedin ...[some of whom] were trained in Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps in Afghanistan'. It seems that, for all its handwringing, the USA just couldn't break the pact with the devil... It would appear that when it comes to Bosnia, many in the West have a moral blind spot..... Western intervention in Bosnia, it would appear, has become an unquestionably positive thing, something that is beyond interrogation and debate."
How we trained al-Qa'eda
Spectator, 13 September 2003

"Though prosecutors took a year to prepare their case and two to present it, the ICTY allowed Milosevic only 90 days to prepare his defense and was to allow only 150 days for him to present it. Any time there is a delay for his health, the court refuses to allow him access to any papers or books or to interview potential witnesses at leisure. He lost 51 of the 90 days preparation when he complained of bad health. As part of his defense case, Milosevic intended to call U.S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other NATO leaders as witnesses so he could charge them for the war crimes NATO committed against Yugoslavia. He also planned to call a number of political analysts and activists who have written, spoken and organized against U.S. and NATO intervention in the Balkans. Some of these potential witnesses participated in the Peoples Tribunal on Yugoslavia organized by the International Action Center (IAC) in 1999-2000. Faced with the embarrassment of a powerful political exposure of NATO and U.S. leaders, the ICTY, like a schoolyard bully who keeps getting beaten at his own game, decided to change the rules and refuse to allow Milosevic to defend himself. One potential witness was Sara Flounders, a co-director of the IAC and an editor of the IAC book, 'Hidden Agenda: the U.S.-NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia.' Flounders was scheduled to testify early. She met with Milosevic in The Hague on June 28. Flounders told Workers World that 'The attempt to remove President Milosevic as his own attorney is an admission of his innocence of the war crimes charges and of U.S. and NATO guilt in planning, executing and carrying out a 10-year war that broke up a strong and successful Yugoslav Federation into a half-dozen weak colonies and neo-colonies subservient to the United States and Western Europe. 'Just as the weapons of mass destruction have never been found in Iraq,' Flounders continued, 'the charge of massacres, mass graves and genocide proved to be an utter fabrication in Kosovo. It is essential that President Milosevic have a full opportunity to expose NATO's war crimes, to defend Yugoslavia and to answer these charges against his government.' IAC founder and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark made himself clear on the issue of Milosevic's right to defend himself: 'President Milosevic chose to 'defend himself in person,' a fundamental human right recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.' Tiphaine Dickson, an attorney from Canada who is assisting the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic, said, 'Within the U.S., the Supreme Court has recognized this as a right under the Sixth Amend ment to the Constitution. To refuse to allow him this right would turn the already illegal ICTY hearings into a star-chamber proceeding.'"
Why Hague Court Wants To Silence Milosevic
Workers World, 15 July 2004

"It will not be an easy decision for the judges to make, and Mr Milosevic has already dismissed the idea out of hand. He wants his own day in court - he dreams of putting questions to Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and others, but it may never happen. His health problems are 'chronic and recurrent', the chief judge Patrick Robinson concluded, as he promised a 'radical review' of the way things are going. It all sounded rather ominous. So after more than two years, this trial seems to have reached a fork in the road. It still has the ability to deliver compelling drama. But the big question now is - can it still deliver justice?"
Turning point for troubled trial?
BBC Online, 6 July 2004

"Judges at The Hague have announced that the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will resume on 14 July, subject to his state of health....Observers believe that if a defence lawyer is appointed, he would be likely to question whether Mr Milosevic was fit to stand trial. Experts say the court would have no alternative but to free Mr Milosevic if he is found unfit and the case is halted."
Milosevic trial to resume in days
BBC Online, 6 July 2004

"Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is fit to stand trial on war crimes charges but to ensure the much-delayed case proceeds, the court may have to assign him a defense lawyer, judges ruled Tuesday.... Milosevic, who is representing himself in the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, said Monday he would never agree to the imposition of a defense counsel. Vladimir Krsljanin, a Milosevic supporter providing assistance in his trial, said forcing defense counsel on Milosevic would make his health problems worse. 'That would only increase his stress and antagonism and effort to follow everything a lawyer he does not trust is doing,' he said. 'They are achieving what they wanted to achieve from the start -- to prevent him from saying what he wants.'.... Milosevic, who does not recognize the court, wants to summon former U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 150 working days allotted for his defense."
Milosevic Trial to Proceed, May Need Defense Help
Reuters, 6 July 2004

"Although doctors said that the former Serbian leader had dangerously high blood pressure, Mr Milosevic, who refuses to recognise the court, appeared in his usual combative form ... Steven Kay, a British barrister who is acting as a 'friend of the court' in Mr Milosevic's interests, asked the judges to consider whether he was fit enough to stand trial at all. Mr Milosevic made no such request, saying that he was determined to present his case. He would refuse any attempt to force him to accept defence counsel.... Mr Milosevic, exerting a commanding presence in the court, suggested that the prosecution was frightened of letting him operate at full strength. 'I wonder who is afraid of my good health when I am starting my defence case?' he said. Mr Milosevic said that he needed a month to finish preparing his case. He wants to call 1,400 witnesses, including Tony Blair, Gerhard Schr�der, the German Chancellor, and former President Clinton, to question them on what he calls the war they waged against Serbia. 'I want to call as many witnesses as possible to show the truth so the public can follow what you call a trial here,' he told Judge Robinson."
Milosevic trial to resume on July 14
London Times, 6 July 2004

"Legal observers have noted that any appointed defence lawyer would have to question whether Milosevic was fit to stand trial and that the court would have to free him if doctors found that he was unfit to continue. There are those within ruling circles who oppose such an option and still want Milosevic to be made an example of. But events have shown that there are also those who feel that a humiliation [of setting Milosevic free] that can be explained away as the result of Milosevic’s ill health is less damaging than prolonging a trial that has seen the spotlight so effectively turned on the criminal machinations of US and its NATO allies in the Balkans."
Judges call for 'radical review' of Milosevic trial
World Socialist Web Site, 10 July 2004

"It is no exaggeration to say what is happening in Kosovo is racial genocide... Thousands murdered. One hundred thousand men missing... These atrocities cannot be seen, of course, because the Serbs will not allow journalists or TV crews to report what is happening behind Kosovo's closed borders for themselves....".
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
BBC Online, 14 May 1999

"Two years' worth of evidence has failed to produce the 'smoking gun' that directly proves Slobodan Milosevic is guilty of genocide, the U.N.'s chief prosecutor says. Carla Del Ponte made the statement yesterday after she abruptly rested her war crimes case against the former president of Yugoslavia. She ended her case prematurely, dropping four witnesses she had planned to call — hoping to reduce the lengthy delay likely to result from the resignation, due to illness, of presiding judge 65-year-old Richard May. 'I know that I don't have the smoking gun on the count of genocide, and so we will see, Del Ponte told a handful of journalists."
U.N. rests its case against Milosevic
Toronto Star, 26 February 2004

"There are few observers who have written or commented on the Milosevic trial without trailing some baggage behind them..... What is uncontentious is the assessment that the prosecution has not delivered the spectacular knockout punch which it promised before the trial began by promising insider evidence of Mr Milosevic's culpability. No former aide of Mr Milosevic has provided a 'smoking gun', not even Rade Markovic, the former head of the Serbian security service, on whom many prosecution hopes rested."
Prosecutors fail to deliver 'smoking gun'
BBC Online, 25 February 2004

"....things have gone horribly wrong for [Hague prosecutor] Ms Del Ponte. The charges relating to the war in Kosovo were expected to be the strongest part of her case. But not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic's personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called into question. Numerous prosecution witnesses have been exposed as liars - such as Bilall Avdiu, who claimed to have seen 'around half a dozen mutilated bodies' at Racak, scene of the disputed killings that triggered the US-led Kosovo war. Forensic evidence later confirmed that none of the bodies had been mutilated. Insiders who we were told would finally spill the beans on Milosevic turned out to be nothing of the kind.... "
The Milosevic trial is a travesty
Guardian, 12 February 2004

"...the estimate of a Spanish forensic surgeon, Emilio Perez Pujol, who has just returned home, disillusioned after investigating war crimes in Kosovo, is that as few as 2,500 civilians were killed. In an outspoken interview, Pujol complained he had been sent to head a large investigation team attached to the ICTY, consisting of pathologists and police specialists, to work in the north of the country. But he found that what was publicised as a search for mass graves was 'a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines, because we did not find one -- not one -- mass grave'.... The gap between the hyperbole of the western propaganda machine and the realities of Kosovo were wide throughout the air campaign and led to the publication of wild, misleading and just plain untrue stories. Above all, there was a tendency to claim there was a systematic campaign of genocide in Kosovo... The war in Kosovo was Nato's first intervention in a sovereign country, so building a case to sway public opinion was crucial for it and member governments.... War reporting is now experiencing extraordinary changes. In the case of Kosovo, western military officers, officials and ministers all conspired to push out the party line. There was spin-doctoring on an unprecedented scale, which has damaged Nato's reputation for fairness and truth.... All this has left a dedicated forensic scientist such as Pujol, who had come to Kosovo to help establish the truth, deeply irritated. In an interview with El Pais, he says: 'We had been working with two parallel problems. One was the propaganda war. This allowed them to lie, to fake photographs for the press, to publish pictures of mass graves, or whatever they had to influence world opinion in favour or against Milosevic or in favour of the Nato bombings....There never was a genocide in Kosovo. It was dishonest and wrong for western leaders to adopt the term in the beginning to give moral authority to the operation.'"
Lost in the Kosovo numbers game
Sunday Times, 31 October 1999

"In an exclusive interview for AFP, Del Ponte said she is working on two investigations of ethnic Albanians accused of war crimes in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war but that she had run into problems because of the reluctance of the international community.... The prosecutor did not want to specify which countries or organisations were hesitant about the inquiries. The office of the prosecutor is currently investigating two cases involving ethnic Albanian members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army which fought a guerrilla war against Serb security forces from Belgrade. So far only three ethnic Albanians have been indicted by the UN war crimes court for crimes committed against Serb civilians in Kosovo."
Del Ponte slams Belgrade and international community
AFP, 16 February 2004

"Kosovo had been away from the international spotlight for some time, thus facilitating ethnic cleansing — this time of Kosovo Serbs. Whereas the crimes committed under ex-Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic came under the microscope five years ago, the subsequent crimes by ethnic Albanians went by largely unnoticed, confirming that big words about human rights tend to be a disguise for hypocrisy and a policy of double standards...."
Reverse Process
Kathimerini (Greek English Language Newspaper), 20 March 2004

"The retired General who had been refusing to declare himself a Democrat or Republican is now declaring himself a Democratic presidential candidate. But more important than his party affiliation is Wesley Clark's bizarre view on how to fight terrorism. The media refer to Clark's impressive military credentials but they fail to note that his main accomplishment under President Clinton was presiding over the establishment of a base for radical Islamic terrorism, including Osama bin Laden, in Kosovo... Clark, who has been making headlines by claiming that the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq was a misjudgment based on scanty evidence, ran Clinton's NATO war against Yugoslavia on behalf of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The House of Representatives failed to authorize the war under the War Powers Act, making it illegal. Thousands of innocent people in Serbia, Yugoslavia's main province, were killed to stop an alleged 'genocide' by Yugoslavia that was not in fact taking place. Investigations determined that a couple thousand had died in the civil war there.... The 1998 State Department human rights report had described the KLA as a group that tortured and abducted people and made others 'disappear.' Yet a photograph was taken of Clark and [KLA leader] Thaki with their hands together in a gesture of solidarity. The KLA's ties to Osama bin Laden were also well-known and reported.... Another Democratic presidential candidate, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, has tried to prohibit funding for the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), the successor to the KLA now being protected by U.N. troops as a result of the outcome of the conflict. Kucinich said an internal United Nations Report found the KPC responsible for violence, extortion, murder and torture.... Clark's presidential decision suggests that he believes the media will not ask him about supporting the same extremist Muslim forces in Kosovo that militarily attacked us on 9/11. He's right: during interviews on ABC's Good Morning America and the NBC Today show on September 17, the subject didn't come up. "
Wesley Clark's Ties To Muslim Terrorists
Accuracy in Media, 17 September 2003

"For amid the present furore over the no-show of Iraqi WMDs, let us remember that in Kosovo our humanitarian Prime Minister dragged this country into an illegal, US-sponsored war on grounds which later proved to be fraudulent. In 2003 Tony's Big Whopper was that Saddam's WMDs 'could be activated within 45 minutes'. In 1999 it was that Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia was 'set on a Hitler-style genocide equivalent to the extermination of the Jews during World War Two'..... In fact, the Yugoslavs had by February 1999 already agreed to most of the autonomy proposals and had assented to a UN (but not Nato) peacekeeping team entering Kosovo..... It was the unwelcome prospect of Milosevic signing up to a peace deal and thereby depriving the US of its casus belli that caused Secretary of State Albright, with the connivance of Cook, to insert new terms into the Rambouillet accord purposely designed to be rejected by Belgrade. Appendix B to chapter seven of the document provided not only for the Nato occupation of Kosovo, but also for 'unrestricted access' for Nato aircraft, tanks and troops throughout Yugoslavia. The full text of the Rambouillet document was kept secret from the public and came to light only when published in Le Monde Diplomatique on 17 April. By this time, the war was almost a month old...The Kosovan war was, we were repeatedly told, fought 'to stop a humanitarian catastrophe'. 'It is no exaggeration to say that what is happening is racial genocide' - claimed the British Prime Minister - 'something we had hoped we would never again experience in Europe. Thousands have been murdered, 100,000 men are missing and hundreds forced to flee their homes and the country.' The Serbs were, according to the US State Department, 'conducting a campaign of forced population movement not seen in Europe since WW2'....With public support for war faltering, and a Downing Street spokesman talking of a 'public-relations meltdown', it was time for the Lie Machine to go into overdrive.... To date, the total body count of civilians killed in Kosovo in the period 1997-99 is still fewer than 3,000, a figure that includes not only those killed in open fighting and during Nato air strikes, but also an unidentified number of Serbs. Clearly it was an exaggeration - of Munchausenian proportions - for the Prime Minister to describe what happened in Kosovo as 'racial genocide'. In both Kosovo and Iraq, the government's war strategy seems to have been threefold:
1. In order to whip up public support for war, tell lies so outrageous that most people will believe that no one would have dared to make them up.
2. When the conflict is over, dismiss questions about the continued lack of evidence as 'irrelevant' and stress alternative 'benefits' from the military action, e.g., 'liberation' of the people.
3. Much later on, when the truth is finally revealed, rely on the fact that most people have lost interest and are now concentrating on the threat posed by the next new Hitler.
An admission of the government's culpability for the Kosovan war only slipped out in July 2000, when Lord Gilbert, the ex-defence minister, told the House of Commons that the Rambouillet terms offered to the Yugoslav delegation had been 'absolutely intolerable' and expressly designed to provoke war. Gilbert's bombshell warranted scarcely a line in the mainstream British media, which had been so keen to label the Yugoslavs the guilty party a year before."
How the battle lies were drawn
Spectator, 14 June 2003

"Nato strikes on Serbia caused, rather than prevented, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, says Nato's former Secretary-General and former UK Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington.... in the Saga interview, published on Friday, Lord Carrington openly accuses Nato governments of creating the mass exodus of Kosovo Albanians.... Lord Carrington also criticised Britain for being 'a little bit selective' about its condemnation of ethnic cleansing ... "
Ex-Nato chief criticises Kosovo Campaign
BBC Online, 26 August 1999

"....it was impossible for Milosevic to accept the Rambouillet agreement because what it asked him to do was allow Nato to use Serbia as a part of the Nato organisation. Sovereignty would have been lost over it. He couldn’t accept that. I think what Nato did by bombing Serbia actually precipitated the exodus of the Kosovo Albanians into Macedonia and Montenegro. I think the bombing did cause the ethnic cleansing. I’m not sticking up for the Serbs because I think they behaved badly and extremely stupidly by removing the autonomy of Kosovo, given them by Tito, in the first place. But I think what we did made things very much worse and what we are now faced with is a sort of ethnic cleansing in reverse. The Serbs are now being cleared out. I think it’s a great mistake to intervene in a civil war. I don’t think [Milosevic] is any more a war criminal than President Tudjman of Croatia who ethnically cleansed 200,000 Serbs out of Kyrenia [Krajina]. Nobody kicked up a fuss about that. I think we are a little bit selective about our condemnation of ethnic cleansing, in Africa as well as in Europe"
Interview with Lord Carrington, Former British Foreign Secretary
Saga Magazine, September 1999

It is two years today that the trial of Slobodan Milosevic opened at The Hague. The chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, was triumphant as she announced the 66 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide that the former Yugoslavian president was charged with. CNN was among those who called it "the most important trial since Nuremburg" as the prosecution outlined the "crimes of medieval savagery" allegedly committed by the "butcher of Belgrade".

British Judges Appointed To Try Milosevic
"Slobodan Milosevic launched a blistering attack on Britain yesterday as the Hague war crimes tribunal finalised arrangements for his historic trial, due to start next month. Checking his watch to display contempt as the UN court discussed witnesses and evidence relating to charges over Kosovo, the former Yugoslav president complained that the fact he was facing a British judge was evidence of bias.... Making his fifth appearance since being handed over last year, Mr Milosevic also accused prosecutors of following British intelligence reports about ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. 'Look at this court,' he said. 'Courts should be impartial. The indictment has been raised according to what the British intelligence service has said. The judge is an Englishman.'..."
Milosevic attacks Hague tribunal for British bias
Guardian, 10 January 2002

"July 1, 2004 Sir Richard May, the presiding judge, dies. He is succeeded by Lord Bonomy, another British judge."
Case History
London Times, 6 July 2004

"The three-judge panel which sat today included a new judge, Lord Bonomy of Scotland, who replaced the previous senior judge, Briton Richard May, who died last week after an unspecified illness."
Illness Could Bring Freedom for Milosevic
The Scotsman, 5 July 2004

British Prosecutor Appointed To Make Case Against Milosevic
"The trial of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo is on the verge of collapse because former aides have refused to testify against him. The case hinges on evidence collected by Western intelligence officers rather than the UN�s own investigators, and some of the 90 witnesses who provided testimony against the former Yugoslav president have died. Three weeks before it is due to open, Europe�s most important war crimes trial since Nuremberg is reported to be in such disarray that prosecutors travelled to Belgrade earlier this week to try to shore up the case. But despite visiting several of Mr Milosevic�s allies in their jail cells and homes, the team led by the British barrister Geoffrey Nice came away empty-handed, according to sources in Belgrade."
Milosevic war crimes case faces collapse
Independent, 26 January 2002

British Lawyer Appointed To Monitor 'Fairness' For Milosevic
"Stephen Kay, a British barrister and 'friend of the court' appointed to ensure Mr Milosevic gets a fair trial, said there was no doubt that the former president's health had deteriorated."
Milosevic's Poor Health Hits Trial
Guardian, 5 July 2004

British Pincer Movement
"Steven Kay, a British barrister who is acting as a 'friend of the court' in Mr Milosevic’s interests, asked the judges to consider whether he was fit enough to stand trial at all. Mr Milosevic made no such request, saying that he was determined to present his case. He would refuse any attempt to force him to accept defence counsel — a move requested by Geoffrey Nice, the British prosecutor in the trial, as a way of sparing his blood pressure."
Health fears undermine Milosevic trial
London Times, 6 July 2004

"Milosevic's long-time aide, Vladimir Krsljanin, said from Belgrade on July 5, 'What we have seen at The Hague is the worst kind of political theater and legal outrage directed at the president. Slobodan Milosevic was brought to trial while he was suffering bad health conditions. Despite our pleas and complaints and the petitions of medical experts to the ICTY, it refused our demands for more time for preparation and rest for President Milosevic. 'First the court created conditions that worsened his health, and now they are using his ill health to justify stifling his presentation of his powerful defense case,' said Krsljanin."
Why Hague Court Wants To Silence Milosevic
Workers World, 15 July 2004

Bias, What Bias?
"General Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander and presidential hopeful, will testify next month at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic under conditions of strict censorship and confidentiality imposed by the United States. Washington is believed to be fearful of potentially damaging revelations about its Balkan realpolitik during the 1990s and in the Bosnian War. General Clark, who is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for President, will be one of the highest-profile witnesses to take the stand. The former Nato commander directed the alliance's 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo in 1999, after Serbian forces had launched an onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists. General Clark will testify on December 15 and 16. Public galleries will be closed and the broadcast system that transmits the proceedings on the internet and on closed-circuit television will be shut down. The conditions of General Clark's testimony include a 48-hour delay to enable the US Government to review the transcript and seek the court's consent to censor parts on the ground of national security. Two US representatives will attend the sessions. The three-judge panel hearing Mr Milosevic's case agreed to the conditions, which are unique, because they decided that they were justified by the potential importance of General Clark's testimony, Jim Landale, the tribunal spokesman, said. In his cross-examination of General Clark, Mr Milosevic could reveal sensitive information about the West's diplomatic and military strategy for dealing with the crisis in the Balkans."
General Clark to testify against Milosevic
London Times, 20 November 2003

"Madeleine Albright, who was U.S. secretary of state during the 1999 U.S.- NATO war against Yugoslavia, was seen in The Hague at the ICTY building on July 5. Albright is known as 'the mother of the ICTY.' Supporters of Milosevic believe her presence is connected with the court's decision to postpone the trial and its attempt to change the rules."
Why Hague Court Wants To Silence Milosevic
Workers World, 15 July 2004

"According to wire and newspaper reports, Slobodan Milosevic, the man Empire loves to hate, may be too ill to stand trial - even a show one, staged so ineptly by the Hague Inquisition over the past two years. His defense, scheduled to begin Monday, was postponed till July 14, due to Milosevic's ongoing blood pressure problems. The process, frivolous in the extreme, has recently suffered a series of setbacks. First the presiding judge Richard May had to resign due to ill health - and died last week from the mysterious illness. His replacement, Iain Bonomy, was chosen just in time for a ruling on the motion by the Inquisition-appointed amici curiae to drop several of the 66 charges against Milosevic (including genocide) due to the prosecution's lack of evidence. The motion was dismissed out of hand. Milosevic's defense - which he is conducting himself - has been shackled with requirements that he submits witness lists and evidentiary material to the prosecution well in advance - something the prosecutors almost never did themselves; indeed, they often submitted last-minute materials and made frequent changes in schedule, with no objections from the 'judges.' Par for the course for ICTY, but hardly justice. Milosevic also got half the time alloted to the prosecution, and only two months total to prepare his case (while the prosecution had three years). Given that he is facing a 'kitchen sink indictment,' usually thrown at the accused in hope that at least something will stick, he has to go over thousands of pages and hours of videos, something humanly impossible in the time he has allotted. But he has no choice; the way the Inquisition works, if the defendant does not contest the prosecutors' allegations, they are assumed to be correct and thus 'established' as fact. Now the 'judges' have to decide whether to impose counsel on Milosevic, dismiss the case, or something else altogether. A dismissal is unlikely - the Milosevic trial is at the heart of ICTY's existence, and his conviction is absolutely necessary for continuing to assert the dubious legitimacy of that 'court,' and more importantly, its hideous rewrite of history. But the imposition of counsel, however cheered by the Inquisition's partisans, has been explicitly rejected by Milosevic. If they impose a defender on him, it will be too glaringly obvious the former Serbian leader is being railroaded. What the ICTY 'judges' will do is anybody's guess, but expect it to be in the interest of the ICTY - and the Empire - and not the interest of justice, fairness or any sort of principle."
Another snag in the Milosevic show trial
AntiwarBlog, 6 July 2004

Meanwhile A Special Problem For Blair And Clinton
"Since the trial started in February 2002, the prosecution has wheeled out more than 100 witnesses, and it has produced 600,000 pages of evidence. Not a single person has testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes. Whole swaths of the indictment on Kosovo have been left unsubstantiated, even though Milosevic’s command responsibility here is clearest. And when the prosecution did try to substantiate its charges, the result was often farce. Highlights include the Serbian ‘insider’ who claimed to have worked in the presidential administration but who did not know what floor Milosevic’s office was on; ‘Arkan’s secretary’, who turned out to have worked only as a temp for a few months in the same building as the notorious paramilitary; the testimony of the former federal prime minister, Ante Markovic, dramatically rumbled by Milosevic, who produced Markovic’s own diary for the days when he claimed to have had meetings with him; the Kosovo Albanian peasant who said he had never heard of the KLA even though there is a monument to that terrorist organisation in his own village; and the former head of the Yugoslav secret services, Radomir Markovic, who not only claimed that he had been tortured by the new democratic government in Belgrade to testify against his former boss, but who also agreed, under cross-examination by Milosevic, that no orders had been given to expel the Kosovo Albanians and that, on the contrary, Milosevic had instructed the police and army to protect civilians. And these, note, were the prosecution witnesses. Serious doubt has also been cast on some of the most famous atrocity stories. Remember the refrigerator truck whose discovery in the Danube in 1999, full of bodies, was gleefully reported as Milosevic was transferred to The Hague in June 2001? The truck had allegedly been retrieved from the river and then driven to the outskirts of Belgrade, where its contents were interred in a mass grave. But cross-examination showed that there is no proof that the bodies exhumed were the ones in the truck, nor that any of them came from Kosovo. Instead, it is quite possible that the Batajnica mass grave dated from the second world war, while the refrigerator truck may have contained Kurds being smuggled to Western Europe, the victims of a grisly traffic accident. The realisation is now dawning that lies were peddled to justify the Kosovo war just as earnestly as they were to justify the attack on Iraq. The weakness of the prosecution case was underlined by the fact that its triumphant conclusion in February was to broadcast a TV documentary made several years ago. This suggests that its two-year marathon has not served to advance knowledge of the truth beyond the tall stories peddled by telly hacks at the time. Even professional supporters of the ICTY now admit that the only ‘proof’ of Milosevic’s guilt has been General Sir Rupert Smith’s stated ‘impression’ that Milosevic controlled the Bosnian Serbs, and Paddy Ashdown’s statement that he ‘warned’ the former Yugoslav head of state that war crimes were being committed in Kosovo. In February, the chief prosecutor herself, Carla del Ponte, admitted that she did not have enough evidence to convict Milosevic on the most serious charges. The supposedly impartial judges have been deeply complicit in this prosecution bungling. The ICTY has long been characterised by an unhealthy community of interests between the judges and the prosecutors; I have myself heard the first president of the ICTY, Judge Antonio Cassese, boast that he encouraged the prosecutor to issue indictments against the Bosnian Serb leaders, a statement which should disqualify him from serving as a judge ever again. In the Milosevic trial, the judges have admitted a tawdry parade of ‘expert witnesses’ who are not, in fact, witnesses to anything. In Britain, the role of experts is rightly under the spotlight after the convictions of some 250 parents found guilty of killing their babies have been thrown into doubt precisely because they relied on this kind of testimony; but in the ICTY you can be a ‘witness’ without ever having set foot in Yugoslavia. Numerous other judicial abuses have been legitimised by the ICTY. The use of hearsay evidence is now so out of control that people are often allowed to testify that they heard someone say something about someone else. It is common for the ICTY to offer reduced sentences (five years in one case) to men convicted of hideous crimes, mass murder for instance, if they agree to testify against Milosevic. The use of anonymous witnesses is now very widespread, as is the frequency of the ‘closed sessions’: a glance at the ICTY transcripts shows pages and pages blanked out because sensitive issues have been discussed in court — sensitive, that is, to the security interests of the Great Powers which control it, the USA in first place. The ICTY’s nadir came last December, when the former supreme commander of Nato, Wesley Clark, testified in the Milosevic trial; the court agreed to let the Pentagon censor its proceedings, and the transcripts were not released until Washington had given the green light. So much for the ICTY’s transparency and independence. Ironically, Slobbo has one objective ally: the British prime minister. The possibility is now real that a conviction of Milosevic can be secured only on the widest possible interpretation of the doctrine of command responsibility: for instance, that he knew about atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serbs and did nothing to stop them. But if Milosevic can be convicted for complicity in crimes committed by people in a foreign country, over whom he had no formal control, how much greater is the complicity of the British government in crimes committed by the US in Iraq, a country with which the UK is in an official coalition? This is not just a cheap political jibe but a serious judicial conundrum: the UK is a signatory to the new International Criminal Court, and so Tony Blair is subject to the jurisdiction of the new Hague-based body whose jurisprudence will be modelled on that of the ICTY. So if Slobbo goes down for ten years in Scheveningen jail because of abuses committed by his policemen, then by rights his cell-mate should, in time, be Tony."
Let Slobbo speak for himself
The Spectator, 10 July 2004

Why Hague Court Wants To Silence Milosevic
"The NATO-created International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague took ominous new steps July 5 to restrict former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's right to represent himself. The ICTY used Milosevic's real health problems as an excuse to justify depriving him of his rights. The following day the court ruled that his trial would resume on July 14, but that it would assign a cardiologist to monitor Milosevic's health in preparation for forcing him to accept assigned counsel. Milosevic has been imprisoned for three years in The Hague in a place where the Nazis held resistance fighters. For two years he cross-examined some 300 prosecution witnesses. He was about to begin his defense case. Though he was to be restricted to 150 days in court, the former president was prepared to present a powerful case exposing U.S. and NATO crimes in his country and exonerating himself and the Yugoslav people...."
Why Hague Court Wants To Silence Milosevic
Workers World, 15 July 2004

"Slobodan Milosevic plans to call the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, as a witness in the defence phase of his trial at the Hague Tribunal, Vecernje Novosti writes today. The daily quotes 'a close associate' of the former Yugoslav president as saying that Milosevic will also call former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, former Greek prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis and US human rights activist Jesse Jackson."
Milosevic to call Church head
B2 (Serbia), 9 July 2004

"I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists."
United States special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, speaking about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) 1998
BBC Online, 28 June 1998

Happy Days Building Empire In The Balkans With The Terrorists Linking up in Kosovo in 1999

Left: Hashim Thaci, Head of the KLA - a State Department designated terrorist organisation, closely linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda Right: US General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Commander	Above: Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, greets KLA Hashim Thaci

"... the KLA is closely involved with Terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of radical Islam, including assets of Iran and of the notorious Osama bin-Ladin".
The Kosovo Liberation Army: Does Clinton Policy Support Group with Terror, Drug Ties?
Republican Policy Committee of the US Senate 31 March 1999

"British and American special forces teams are working undercover in Kosovo with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army to identify Serbian targets for Nato bombing raids.....It is the latest evidence of the growing co-operation between Nato and the KLA, a movement once denounced by the West's leaders as 'terrorists'...... The alliance is now quietly drafting the KLA into its war against Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader. It is even considering plans to train them and ease the arms embargo on Yugoslavia to supply them with weapons such as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.... They are negotiating for a long-term training deal with Military and Professional Resources International, a mercenary company run by former American officers who operate with semi-official approval from the Pentagon and played a key role in building up Croatia's armed forces..."
SAS teams move in to help KLA 'rise from the ashes'
Sunday Telegraph, 18 April 1999

"American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] before Nato's bombing of Yugoslavia. The disclosure angered some European diplomats, who said this had undermined moves for a political solution to the conflict between Serbs and Albanians... Several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the Nato commander..."
CIA aided Kosovo guerrilla army
Sunday Times , 12 March 2000

"I read the latest reports concerning a recent Executive Order that hands the CIA a black bag in the Balkans for engineering a military coup in Serbia, for interrupting communications, for tampering with bank accounts, freezing assets abroad and training the Kosovo Liberation Army in terrorist tactics, such as how to blow up buildings. How this is intended to help establish a democracy in Serbia or Kosovo hasn't been explained. Nor has the failure to substantially demilitarize the KLA been explained. Nor has the reverse ethnic cleansing taking place in Kosovo by the KLA while NATO rules the province been explained."
Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Ohio
The Progressive, Vol 63, No.8, August 1999

"The UK Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) was also aware of the American secret arms supplies to the ABiH [the Bosnian Muslim Army]. According to a British intelligence official, the DIS never made an issue of them, so as not to further damage the sensitive relationship with the US services. An internal DIS analysis concluded that the arms were delivered via 'a different network', and that the entire operation was probably led by the NSC [National Security Council]..... the DIS received a direct order from the British government not to investigate this affair. This was not permitted for the simple reason that the matter was too sensitive in the framework of American-British relations. The DIS also obtained intelligence on the secret supplies to the ABiH from the German military intelligence service and the Bundesnachrichtendienst, because some of the flights departed from Frankfurt. However, no American-German alliance existed in the matter of clandestine support to the ABiH."
Srebrenica - A Safe Area?
Appendix II - Intelligence and the war in Bosnia 1992 – 1995: The role of the intelligence and security services
Chapter 4, Secret arms supplies and other covert actions
Report Published on Behalf of The Dutch Government, 10 April 2002

US Backed Islamic Terrorism in the Balkans Press Reports
Full Archive Of Reports - Click Here
1. Oil and US Geopolitical Objectives in the Balkans	Click here
2. US backed terrorism in Croatia	Click here
3. US backed terrorism in Bosnia	Click here
4. US backed terrorism in Kosovo	Click here
5. US backed terrorism in Macedonia	Click here
6. The human cost of US backed terrorism in the Balkans	Click here
American Sponsored Islamic Jihad In Yugoslavia Article by former British government Minister, Michael Meacher - click here
Post 911 - Some Habits Die Hard "The Pentagon is considering a massive covert action program to overthrow Iran's ruling ayatollahs... The proposal, sources say, includes ... backing armed Iranian dissidents and employing the services of the Mujahedeen e Khalq, a group currently branded as terrorist by the United States..." The Iran Debate ABC News, 29 May 2003 "The People’s Mujahidin is seen by Washington as a possible instrument for 'regime change' in Tehran....The Marxist movement, which initially supported the Islamic revolution and then broke with the fundamentalist regime, was formally designated last year as 'terrorist' by the State Department and the EU but it is known to have links with the CIA and other US agencies." France rounds up US-linked Iranian exiles London Times, 16 June 2003

"This is about America's energy security. It's also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly independent countries toward the west. We would like to see them reliant on western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. We've made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right."
Bill Richardson 1998, US energy secretary, on US policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil
'A discreet deal in the pipeline - Nato mocked those who claimed there was a plan for Caspian oil'
Guardian, 15 February 2001

"During the 1999 Balkans war, some of the critics of Nato's intervention alleged that the western powers were seeking to secure a passage for oil from the Caspian sea. This claim was widely mocked.... [However] For the past few weeks, a freelance researcher called Keith Fisher has been doggedly documenting a project which has, as far as I can discover, has been little-reported in any British, European or American newspaper. It is called the Trans-Balkan pipeline, and it's due for approval at the end of next month. Its purpose is to secure a passage for oil from the Caspian sea. The line will run from the Black sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic at Vlore, passing through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. It is likely to become the main route to the west for the oil and gas now being extracted in central Asia. It will carry 750,000 barrels a day: a throughput, at current prices, of some $600m a month. The project is necessary, according to a paper published by the US Trade and Development Agency last May, because the oil coming from the Caspian sea 'will quickly surpass the safe capacity of the Bosphorus as a shipping lane'. The scheme, the agency notes, will 'provide a consistent source of crude oil to American refineries', 'provide American companies with a key role in developing the vital east-west corridor', 'advance the privatisation aspirations of the US government in the region' and 'facilitate rapid integration' of the Balkans 'with western Europe'...."
'A discreet deal in the pipeline - Nato mocked those who claimed there was a plan for Caspian oil'
Guardian, 15 February 2001

"Today, the circumstances which we have created here have changed. Today, it is absolutely necessary to guarantee the stability of Macedonia and its entry into NATO. But we will certainly remain here a long time so that we can also guarantee the security of the energy corridors which traverse this country."
General Michael Jackson, commander of KFOR in Macedonia
Italian daily, Sole 24 Ore, 13 April 1999

"US goals in the use of the KLA as a proxy force, similar to the funding of the Contras against the leftwing Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s, were partly to remove Milosevic and break up Yugoslavia as one of the remaining Communist regimes. But related motives were to break Russia's monopoly over oil and gas transport routes and secure pro-western governments in the strategic Black Sea-Caspian Sea oil-rich basin. A crucial oil corridor, called the Trans-Balkan pipeline, designed to become the main route to the west for oil and gas extracted in central Asia, was to run from the Black Sea to the Adriatic via Bulgaria, Macedonia near the border with Kosovo, and Albania. Another was to run across Serbia to Adriatic ports in Croatia and Italy, fed by a pipeline running from a Black Sea port in Romania. The implications of this are stark. The US played a major role in creating and sustaining the mojahedin to fight the invading Soviet army in the Afghan war of 1979-92. Then from 1992-95 the Pentagon assisted the movement of thousands of Islamic fighters from central Asia to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims and remove the Milosevic barrier, and so extend US influence in a key area of oil geopolitics - a "pact with the devil", as Richard Holbrooke, America's former chief Balkans peace negotiator put it. It has proved quite another thing to rein them back in again. Before President Bush trumpets his dedication to his war on terror, he should reflect on his country's links with terrorism over the past decade where it has suited US interests."
Michael Meacher - Former Blair Government Minister
The path to friendship goes via the oil and gas fields
Colonel Gadafy is just the latest beneficiary of a cynical strategy
Guardian, 27 March 2004

"The project envisages construction of a new spur from Delnice to Trieste, 100 kilometers long, and conversion of the Omisalj port into the leading spot-market for resale of oil in the Mediterranean [Adriatic]..... One should recall that Milosevic did not end up in the Hague only as a war criminal, but above all because with his policies he stood in the way of a new network of Euro-Asian oil pipelines. His political fate was sealed in Zagreb, where two years ago a large ministerial-business conference of the EU INOGATE program was held. A hundred days later, Milosevic was not in power anymore, and at the time of the signing of a new oil pipeline from Constanta to Trieste he was already on the way to the Hague, supposedly by chance."
Mega Pipeline Becomes Reality
Novi List (Croatian Newspaper), 23 July 2002

2010 - Dick Cheney's Final Countdown To Peak Oil
"For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our seventy one million plus barrel a day of oil depletion, but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? Governments and the national oil companies are obviously in control of about ninety per cent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow."
Dick Cheney, Chief Executive of Halliburton, now Vice President of the United States
Speech at London Institute of Petroleum, Autumn Lunch 1999

"Oil is unique in that it is so strategic in nature. We are not talking about soapflakes or leisurewear here. Energy is truly fundamental to the world's economy. The [1991] Gulf War was a reflection of that reality."
Dick Cheney, Chief Executive of Halliburton, now Vice President of the United States
Speech at London Institute of Petroleum, Autumn Lunch 1999

2010 - James Woolsey's Final Countdown To Peak Oil
"Optimists about world oil reserves, such as the Department of Energy, are getting increasingly lonely. The International Energy Agency now says that world production outside the Middle Eastern Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (opec) will peak in 1999 and world production overall will peak between 2010 and 2020. This projection is supported by influential recent articles in Science and Scientific American. Some knowledgeable academic and industry voices put the date that world production will peak even sooner—within the next five or six years. The optimists who project large reserve quantities of over one trillion barrels tend to base their numbers on one of three things: inclusion of heavy oil and tar sands, the exploitation of which will entail huge economic and environmental costs; puffery by opec nations lobbying for higher production quotas within the cartel; or assumptions about new drilling technologies that may accelerate production but are unlikely to expand reserves. Once production peaks, even though exhaustion of world reserves will still be many years away, prices will begin to rise sharply. This trend will be exacerbated by increased demand in the developing world....."
Richard G. Lugar and R. James Woolsey (Former Director of the CIA)
The New Petroleum - Foreign Affairs January/February 1999

"Energy is vital to a country's security and material well-being. A state unable to provide its people with adequate energy supplies or desiring added leverage over other people often resorts to force. Consider Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, driven by his desire to control more of the world's oil reserves, and the international response to this threat. The underlying goal of the U.N. force [in the 1991 Gulf war], which included 500,000 American troops, was to ensure continued and unfettered access to petroleum...."
Richard G. Lugar and R. James Woolsey (Former Director of the CIA)
The New Petroleum - Foreign Affairs January/February 1999

"It is a document that fundamentally questions the motives behind the Bush administration's desire to take out Saddam Hussein and go to war with Iraq. Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century describes how America is facing the biggest energy crisis in its history. It targets Saddam as a threat to American interests because of his control of Iraqi oilfields and recommends the use of 'military intervention' as a means to fix the US energy crisis. The report is linked to a veritable who's who of US hawks, oilmen and corporate bigwigs. It was commissioned by James Baker, the former US Secretary of State under George Bush Snr, and submitted to Vice-President Dick Cheney in April 2001 -- a full five months before September 11. Yet it advocates a policy of using military force against an enemy such as Iraq to secure US access to, and control of, Middle Eastern oil fields. One of the most telling passages in the document reads: 'Iraq remains a destabilising influence to ... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East. Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets.'..... At the heart of the decision to target Iraq over oil lies dire mismanagement of the US energy policy over decades by consecutive administrations. The report refers to the huge power cuts that have affected California in recent years and warns of 'more Californias' ahead. It says the 'central dilemma' for the US administration is that 'the American people continue to demand plentiful and cheap energy without sacrifice or inconvenience'. With the 'energy sector in critical condition, a crisis could erupt at any time [which] could have potentially enormous impact on the US ... and would affect US national security and foreign policy in dramatic ways.'''
The West's Battle For Oil
Sunday Herald, 6 October 2002

".... it is clear the US authorities did little or nothing to pre-empt the events of 9/11. It is known that at least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks. Two senior Mossad experts were sent to Washington in August 2001 to alert the CIA and FBI to a cell of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation. The list they provided included the names of four of the 9/11 hijackers, none of whom was arrested... Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers obtained their visas in Saudi Arabia. Michael Springman, the former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, has stated that since 1987 the CIA had been illicitly issuing visas to unqualified applicants from the Middle East and bringing them to the US for training in terrorism for the Afghan war in collaboration with Bin Laden (BBC, November 6 2001). It seems this operation continued after the Afghan war for other purposes. It is also reported that five of the hijackers received training at secure US military installations in the 1990s (Newsweek, September 15 2001).... Instructive leads prior to 9/11 were not followed up. French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui (now thought to be the 20th hijacker) was arrested in August 2001 after an instructor reported he showed a suspicious interest in learning how to steer large airliners. When US agents learned from French intelligence he had radical Islamist ties, they sought a warrant to search his computer, which contained clues to the September 11 mission (Times, November 3 2001). But they were turned down by the FBI. One agent wrote, a month before 9/11, that Moussaoui might be planning to crash into the Twin Towers (Newsweek, May 20 2002).... The whistleblowing FBI agent Robert Wright told ABC News (December 19 2002) that FBI headquarters wanted no arrests.... The evidence again is quite clear that plans for military action against Afghanistan and Iraq were in hand well before 9/11.... Given this background, it is not surprising that some have seen the US failure to avert the 9/11 attacks as creating an invaluable pretext for attacking Afghanistan in a war that had clearly already been well planned in advance.... the PNAC blueprint of September 2000 states that the process of transforming the US into 'tomorrow's dominant force' is likely to be a long one in the absence of 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor'. The 9/11 attacks allowed the US to press the 'go' button for a strategy in accordance with the PNAC agenda which it would otherwise have been politically impossible to implement. The overriding motivation for this political smokescreen is that the US and the UK are beginning to run out of secure hydrocarbon energy supplies."
Michael Meacher, former Blair government Minister - 'This war on terrorism is bogus'
Guardian, 6 September 2003

"But the age of cheap oil is over. If you doubt this, take a look at the BBC's online report yesterday of a conference run by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil. The reporter spoke to the chief economist of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. 'In public