Russia Backs Urgent UN Session Over Kosovo Conflict Escalation

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/09/15/56212560.html

Voice of Russia
September 15, 2011

Russia warns of Kosovo conflict escalation

       
The Kosovo conflict is highly probable to escalate, warns Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin talking to the Russia Today channel.

He referred to Albanian authorities in Pristina who intend to get North Kosovo under their control saying that it's in line with customs agreements reached at the volatile border between Serbia and Kosovo.

Albanians are ready to resort to violence to make Kosovo customs officers control border posts. Another point of concern is that peacekeepers seem to support this dangerous plan.

Russia, in its turn supports Serbia's claim for an urgent UN session preventing further conflict, the envoy said.

Orthodox Christian ghettoization and anti-Serb clampdown in Kosovo

Thursday, September 1st, 2011 | Filed under Balkans,Europe,Latest Articles | Posted by whiteleejay1

Orthodox Christian ghettoization and anti-Serb clampdown in Kosovo

Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

If you reside in a parallel universe then welcome to Kosovo, the land of Albanianization and Islamization and all in the name of democracy. A flick back into history tells us that the Serbs were 98% of the population of Kosovo 600 years ago but today the Orthodox Christian Serbs are between 6% and 8% depending on various figures.

Of course, the Kosovo Serbs became a minority because of the ravages of the Ottoman Empire, dhimmitude, Islamization, and Albanian support of fascism　during the German Nazi period. Communism in the old Yugoslavia was the final nail in the coffin because Albanian long-term objectives became a reality and this applies to immigration and other important areas. However, this reality is ignored and instead the dehumanization of the Kosovo Serbs goes hand in hand in this parallel universe.

Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of who is to blame for the Kosovo crisis the simple cold reality exists. Let us say that Serbian nationalism was to blame based on the Western and Islamic propaganda machine.  Does a short period of a clampdown allow over 600 years of Kosovo Serbian persecution and marginalization to be ignored and thrown away?

In truth, it sadly does because this is what happened, therefore, the children of the enslavers and supporters of Nazism have been rewarded and the "Orthodox Christian lamb" was allowed to be slaughtered by Western intervention.

The ghosts of World War Two and ethnic and religious hatred towards the Kosovo Serbs is highlighted in the article titled 21st Waffen-Gebirgs Division "Skanderberg" on Wotan's Children.

Albanian Skanderberg Division supported Nazi Germany

"Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the "Balli Kombëtar" (or "Ballistas") carried out a campaign of deportation and murder of Serbs in 1943 and 1944. Then, on Hitler's express order, the Germans formed the 21st "Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" – the Skanderbeg Division. It was hoped that Skanderberg Division Albanians could achieve its well-known political objective of creating a viable "Greater Albania" including Kosovo."

"In general, policy was to organize volunteer military units among sympathizers in occupied countries. Of all the occupied nations only the Serbs, Greeks and Poles refused to form volunteer units. The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to fight resistance groups but the Skanderbeg's Albanians had little interest in going up against soldiers; they mainly wanted to terrorize local Serbs, "Gypsies" and Jews. Many of these Kosovo Albanians had seen prior service in the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian SS divisions which were notorious for slaughtering civilians."

"Why such passionate hatred for non-Albanians? A big factor was militant Islam. The Fundamentalist "Second League of Prizren" was created in September 1943 by Xhafer Deva, a Kosovo Albanian, to work with the German authorities. The League proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against Christians. They were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin Huseini, who had called for getting rid of all Jews in what was at that time British-occupied Palestine. Albanian religious intolerance was shown by their targeting Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries for destruction."

"In 1945, but the remnants of the Kosovo Albanian fascist groups continued fighting the Yugoslav government for six years, with a major rebellion from 1945 to 1948 in the Drenica region. That rebellion was under the command of Shabhan Paluzha and it is called the Shabhan Paluzha rebellion. Sporadic violence continued until 1951. It is literally true to say that the last shots of World War II were fired in Kosovo."

In recent times it wasn't only the Kosovo Albanians who persecuted the Kosovo Serbs because outside Western forces had a grand plan and a huge propaganda machine took place under Western support for the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army. The organ scandal tainted leadership of course is fine because Hashim Thaci and the Kosovo Albanian clique are friends of London and Washington. 

For over a decade in Europe the systematic destruction and abandonment of a religious and ethnic minority took place under the watch of the international community.  Of course, certain photo opportunities take place and the resemblance of trying to protect can be seen on the ground but in the cold reality of Kosovo the Serbian Orthodox Christians have been ghettoized and have either been forced to flee or to face even more pressure.

Orthodox Christians don't have a rightful place at the table in Europe unlike secular, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim dominated nations.  Three wars since World War Two in Europe involving Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Bosnia, Cyprus, and Kosovo respectively, and each time Western powers supported Muslims over Orthodox Christians.

The Russian Federation which is mainly Orthodox Christian but with a sizeable Muslim minority, is also deemed to be a nation to contain, therefore, NATO expansion is aimed at containing the most powerful mainly Orthodox Christian nation in the world. 

Therefore, the same international community which was robust about Kosovo and supporting the mainly Muslim Albanians of this region; is the same international community which did zilch about Turkey taking control of northern Cyprus.  Of course, Orthodox Christian nations are welcome in the "European club" and "NATO club" but on conditions that they fall into line and agree to join a military pact which is aimed at containing and reducing the power of the Russian Federation.

However, it appears that Western cliques who rule Kosovo and maintain a favorable relationship with the organ tainted Albanian leadership desire not only ghettoization but the complete humiliation of Kosovo Serbs. Therefore, while many areas of Kosovo have witnessed de-Christianization of Orthodox Christianity this is fine with the powers that be in London and Washington.

Yet, if the Kosovo Serbs dare to challenge Albanianization, Islamization, and de-Christianization of Orthodox Christianity, then "the rule of law" and implementing shared themes with the organ tainted Albanian leadership comes into place in order to cut the Kosovo Serbs down to size. 

Therefore, in this parallel universe where a minority is being squeezed even more in order to placate the majority, more anti-Kosovo Serb policies are being implemented.

A fresh operation against Kosovo Serbs will take place in northern Kosovo after the death of one policeman during recent demonstrations by Kosovo Serbs.  Therefore, the usual "rule of law" mantra is being ushered but where was the "rule of law" during the organ scandal and ethnic pogroms which took place against many vulnerable Kosovo Serb communities and other minorities.

Western morality is that the victims of history who suffered 600 years of victimhood at the hands of so many external forces must be taught a lesson for trying to defend their land.  NATO and other institutions which have helped to take Kosovo away from Serbia would have been welcomed with open arms by the slave master Turks of the Ottoman Empire and the grand designs of Nazi Germany.

Who said history is dead? After all, Germany and Turkey welcome the downsizing of Serbia and both nations are intent on spreading their power base in the Balkans in the modern period and only a compliant and weakened Serbia will be allowed.

leejay@moderntokyotimes.com

http://moderntokyotimes.com

 

UK minister bribed by Gaddafi

UK minister bribed by Gaddafi

Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:17PM GMT

 

Revelations have been made about a British minister asking for £1 million in bribes from Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive son in exchange for Lockerbie bomber's release.

In a letter found in an abandoned farmhouse in the outskirts of Tripoli, former British Premier Margaret Thatcher's Conservative minister, Lord Trefgarne, has demanded £1 million in "fees owed" for his efforts to advise Gaddafi regime's intelligent agents prior to the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's appeal case.

The letter was written to the overthrown Libyan dictator's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who is now wanted by the International Criminal Court for committing crimes against humanity.

In the letter, which was on House of Lords notepaper and dated back to June 4, 2007, a reference to a meeting in Britain acknowledged that the fee "may seem a large sum" of money but was the payment for "nine years' work."

In the letter, Trefgarne, who worked with Scottish QC Professor Robert Black to provide political and legal advice, said, "During the course of our conversations in London I ventured to draw your attention to the problem being experienced by Professor Robert Black and myself in relation to fees owed over a considerable number of years."

The chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, who maintained that the bribe "barely covered expenses," went on to say that, "The amount now owing following a small payment on account is 1.5m USD. This may seem a large sum but in fact represents nine years' remuneration, no less, for two senior professionals and is measurably below, we are told, the hourly/daily rates paid to some others."

The leaked letter showed the "entirely proper" arrangements including the circumstances of the time. Trefgarne also admitted that their cooperation with the Libyan intelligence services had begun as early as 1993.

As more and more revelations are made about the British government's links with the Gaddafi regime, the international community is growing more skeptical about Britain's integrity accusing it of hypocrisy as it attempts to present itself as a supporter of human rights.

ISH/PKH/HE

 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/198583.html

US War on Terror: Provocations, Mystifications, and Illusory Feats

Nil NIKANDROV | 08.09.2011 | 00:00

A decade ago, the World Trade Center was destroyed in "a terrorist attack" on September 11 in New York. Contrary to all efforts made by the Empire's propaganda and (dis)information machine, the belief in the complicity of hawks from G. Bush's Administration in the whole story did not recede from public discourse but, instead, gained tens of millions of followers worldwide... Even those who take no interest in global politics are beginning to discern the agenda behind the drama which shook the heart of New York: after the collapse of the USSR, the US military-industrial complex desperately needed a credible threat posed by a strong and lethally dangerous enemy. The hawks gave the role to Al Qaeda and its leader Usama Bin Laden, a former CIA agent who had led the mujahideen resistance to the Soviets in Afghanistan. Serious preparations were made, in part by Bin Laden's former patrons from the CIA and the Pakistani intelligence service, to help him stage a comeback in the new era and in the new role of a leader of the global terrorist underground, with new agents from Muslim countries infiltrating Al Qaeda in the process. It is practically irrelevant whether Bin Laden was being used or knowingly joined the game – in any case, he fully accomplished his mission. In the distant past, the Saudi billionaire and notorious schemer possibly hoped to outsmart his puppeteers by imitating loyalty and readiness to stay under control, but when the plan failed Bin Laden broke the links with the CIA and turned into the elusive champion of the anti-American and anti-Western Jihad. It is hitherto unclear which of the US Administration members could have sanctioned the Al Qaeda offensive within the US. Hypotheses tend to converge on Dick Cheney, a risk-taking decision-maker and a secret admirer of A. Hitler. Cheney's motivation was beyond doubt patriotic: he sought to preserve at any cost the United States' hyperpower status, to ensure the Empire's control over the oil riches of Iraq, Libya, and Iran, to bring to completion the process of locking Russia within a circle of US military bases, and to avert the economic crisis into which the US was evidently sliding. Eventually, the CNN demonstrated live the appalling potential of Bin Laden's heavily disguised groups which seized several liners flying over the US and crashed them into the targets condemned by Al Qaeda: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and, unsuccessfully, the White House. The destruction of the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon's ruined massive wall were broadcast by all of the world's TV channels. The White House was luckier: the doomed liner taken by the attackers fell on the way, either due to the passengers rebellion or because it was downed by a fighter jet. Authors of the show got what they were after: the world was left in a state of shock. By the way, initial reports mentioned a total of 12 liners. With almost no exceptions, countries across the world – even Cuba which for decades endured attacks by terrorists the CIA supported financially and sheltered in Miami - rushed to express solidarity with Washington. Bush unnecessarily explained at the time that those who failed to side with Washington automatically became its enemies – even apart from that, no accepted politician thought of distancing oneself from the global war against US foes. The worldwide spell cast by the attack actually took a short time to fade away, but the goal was reached: Al Qaeda managed to infect the world with an unprecedented phobia. Virtual reality technologies made it seem like the numbers of terrorists attacking the Western civilization at all azimuths, using whatever means to cause irreparable damage to it grew day by day. Washington was warning its allies that they would have to fight till the end lest terrorists drill holes in the defense of Europe and Latin America or get entrenched even deeper in Asia and Africa. Challenges notwithstanding, true friends of the US were thus obliged to sacrifice lives in the name of freedom and democracy. The Pentagon does not give in to emotions, letting Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians risk their lives under NATO flags in Afghanistan. Out of the same solidarity, Washington's Latin American allies – Columbia, Honduras, and El Salvador – ended up contributing to the XXI century neocolonial wars. In 2003-2005, Venezuela's defiant H. Chavez challenged a number of times Washington's account of the September 11 attacks. In September, 2006, he stressed unequivocally the increasing credibility of the hypothesis by which, to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that immediately followed and the threats which Venezuela, among others, had to face, the Empire actually had masterminded and implemented the bloody terrorist act against its own nation and foreign nationals who worked inside the World Trade Center. Chavez upheld the version laid out by journalist Carlos Sicilia in a state-run TV program and supported by well-known engineers and architects that the World Trade Center buildings were blown up with preloaded dynamite, pointing to the fact that no remnant of the liner including the titanium turbines that can always be found on crash sites had been located. Chavez pinpointed the key weakness of the US account of the alleged terrorist attack against the Pentagon. Reportedly, the liner that hit the Pentagon wall at 9:38 was Boeing 757-200, American Airlines, flight 77, but the fact of its seizure was never proven. It was suggested later that the Pentagon could have been hit by a cruise missile. The site was promptly isolated by plain-clothed officers, tentatively CIA agents, who carefully searched the territory to pick up whatever remained of the vehicle. Videos from nearby surveillance cams were classified, and a legible theory of the incident that should have been formulated by the US Administration is still missing. Bloggers expressed a view that the cruise missile hypothetic parameters matched those of the Russian Navy's Granit, which prompted speculations that implicating Russia was an element of the initial plan. Moscow could be confronted with tough questions about the circumstances under which the terrorists grabbed the cruise missile and about the state of security of Russia's arsenals, or even come under pressure to consent to placing them under international control. There is no information why the plan was not put into practice – perhaps, it was suspended due to Moscow's readiness to cooperate with Washington in the war on terror. Later on, Russia offered to host on its territory the supply routes nourishing the international coalition in Afghanistan... The killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan was another example of a mystification pulled off by the US intelligence community. Officially, after years of hunting, the US spotted its number one enemy in Pakistan's affluent city of Abbottabad, some 50 km northeast of Islamabad, where he was killed in a fierce firefight with the US Navy Seals. US President B. Obama and his team, including the US Secretary of State H. Clinton, watched the operation online. The same night, B. Obama broke the news to the nation that justice had been delivered to Bin Laden, the man responsible for thousands of deaths. Bin Laden's body was dumped to the Arabian Sea, with no posthumous photos released due to ethical regards. Representatives of the Iranian, Turkish, and other intelligence communities do claim that Bin Laden died of natural causes. Turkish politician, an ethnic Chechen Berkan Yashar who knew Bin Laden closely in the early 1990ies told Russia's Channel 1 that Bin Laden died on June 26, 2006 (purportedly of Typhoid fever) and was secretly buried in a mountainous region at the interface between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yashar learned about Bin Laden's death from his bodyguards and believes that the CIA obtained information about the location of the grave. The Abbottabad operation was supposed to "legalize " the US possession of Bin Laden's corps and mark the triumphant completion of the years-long anti-terrorist operation. Since showing the long-rotten corps would have rendered the killing version implausible, the body was hurriedly dumped to the sea. The Navy Seals who took part in the raid and could unveil the actual story were killed under suspicious circumstances shortly thereafter. That altogether combines into a relatively minor branching of the wide drama of the death of thousands of people at the World Trade Center. The first decade of the Empire's war on terror, a campaign quite successful in terms of the actual pragmatic agenda behind it, is over. What Washington needs at the moment is another striking case of terrorism that would help drum up support for the US globally and convince Americans to embrace hardline policies. Some of the conspiracy theories were built around the assumption that Obama's presidency was a priori meant to end with his getting killed by terrorists. Hopefully, this will not happen, but those who rule the US from behind the curtain have their own designs. It may be that a new Lee Harvey Oswald, possibly a Venezuelan, a Nicaraguan, or an Ecuadoran, and a highly professional support team are already there, ready to do the ordered job.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/09/08/us-war-terror-provocations-mystifications-and-illusory-feats.html

On Germany's fanatical anti-Serbian efforts

01.09.2011

 

Recently, German Chancellor Angel Merkel visited Belgrade to deliver yet more arbitrary demands on Serbia before the nation will be considered for the problematic and possibly soon-to-collapse European Union. This reminded me of the brutal ultimatum that Austria delivered to Serbia just before the outbreak of WWI and after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, and which led to the popular phrase: "Serbien muss sterbien" ("Serbs must die!").

Of course, to those of us with a modicum of historical knowledge pertaining to Germany's shameful mistreatment of the Serbs during the entire 20th Century these unrealistic, illegal, and harsh demands (such as forcing the Serbs to give up their Jerusalem, the heart of their Serbian Orthodox Christian Faith in Kosovo) were no surprise to anyone except perhaps Serbia's President, Boris Tadic who more often than not appears as a NATO-sponsored quisling/puppet overseeing the planned-well-in-advance dismantling of Tito's rump Serbia in the "reduce Serbia at all costs" and "divide and conquer" spirit that generations of German governments have obsessively and fanatically pursued in the Balkans. This uninterrupted continuity of anti-Serbian bullying and behavior calls into question the claims by post-WWII German leaders that Germany has atoned for its shameful Nazi past.

No people infuriated Hitler more than the Serbs when Serbian officers led a putsch and tore up the Tripartite Pact in 1941 inflicting "Operation Punishment" on Yugoslavia as a result. The racist and savage Nazi and Nazi quisling brutality initiated a massive yet largely unacknowledged genocide of some one million Serbian Orthodox Christians, ethnic cleansing of another million of them from lands they had inhabited for centuries within Yugoslavia, and the forced conversion to Roman Catholicism of over 200,000 of them in the Nazi quisling "Independent State of Croatia" which encompassed Croatia, Bosnia, and a large chunk of Serbia all the way to Belgrade. For every Nazi soldier killed by the Serbs (either as Partisans or Chetniks), 100 Serbian civilians would be slaughtered and for every Nazi soldier wounded, 50 civilians would be murdered. An entire class of high school children in Kragujevac, Serbia was systematically used for target practice and murdered in cold blood as a result.

The post-WWII West, eager to please and court half-Croat/half-Slovene Josip Broz Tito (the post WWII communist dictator of Yugoslavia), the war criminals who committed genocide against the Serbs (Germans, Croatian Ustashe, Albanians, Bosnian Muslim Handzars, Hungarians) were largely never brought to justice including Kurt Waldheim, former UN Secretary General and President of Austria, reterrorizing the Serbs some 60 years later and creating a stain in the Balkans that just won't go away regardless of the mainstream corporate-controlled media's Goebbelesque efforts to whitewash and deny Balkan history. The fact that the Serbs dared to resist Hitler, delayed Operation Barbarossa by at least three weeks and tied up dozens of Nazi divisions in the Balkans that were needed on the Eastern front, and even succeeded in temporarily defeating the Nazis, forming the first liberated republic in Nazi-occupied Europe in Uzice, Serbia for over two months, demonstrating to the world that the Nazis were not as invincible as claimed (and thus giving hope to the Russians who ultimately proved this) have not been forgotten by post-WWII German leaders and form a nucleus of their hatred against all Serbs.

Thus, German leaders have largely not confronted the shameful Nazi past of their predecessors as they are repeating the exact same 19^th Century program to chop up and destroy Serbia and leave the suddenly alienated Serbs to the mercy of their WWII Nazi-puppet enemies and live in ethnically and religiously "pure" fascist banana republics (such as Croatia and Kosovo) that treat them as fifth-class citizens. The problem is thus that history is repeating itself in Europe and the Russians, who suffered more casualties than any other people in history during WWII should be extremely concerned at this resurgence of anti-Serbian and anti-Orthodox Christian fascist and racist attitudes and actions coming from "civilized" German leaders and their quisling puppets in the Balkans.

As one who admires many aspects of German culture and who always harbors hope of Slavic-Germanic reconciliation, I am deeply saddened at the horrible anti-Serbian actions perpetrated by Germany in the recent Yugoslav civil wars which include illegally recognizing Croatia and Slovenia before issues of civilized treatment of minorities could be guaranteed, illegally invading and bombing the Serbs under the guise of NATO (just as in 1941), illegally recognizing and promoting the Islamic terrorist drug- organ- and sex slave- trafficking "safe haven" of Kosovo, and invading this Serbian territory (supposedly as "peacekeepers" but really to aid the Kosovo Liberation Army in terrorizing the local Serbian population there) effectively stealing the territory from the Serbs, and maintaining their fanatical anti-Serbian rhetoric. Germany had an opportunity to square with Her horrible past after the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent reunification courtesy of Russia.

Tragically for the world, German leaders have demonstrated that they weren't yet ready for the world stage with their immature, underhanded/surreptitious behavior against the Serbs and have yet to come to terms with their shameful past. I only hope that Russian leaders take notice of the fate that has befallen the Serbs and act to remind the Allied nations such as the US of the dangers of German fascism if left unchecked and the ridiculousness of squandering US taxpayer dollars supporting German national interests at the expense of one of the best allies that the United States ever had (and probably ever will have) in both World Wars: Serbia. After what Germany did to the Serbs in WWII, she never should have been allowed to interfere in the Balkans. The Serbs also need to be aware that they will never be accepted by Germany and thus the European Union except as defeated and converted untermensch slaves and should seek alliances based on historical and proven reality and not media-brainwashed fantasy. The European Union needs the ever independently-minded Serbs far more than the Serbs need the EU.

The mistreatment of the Serbs by Germany should never be forgotten by all those who seek true justice in this tainted world and should serve as a reminder to us all that freedom requires eternal vigilance. We also need to be aware that those who forget or ignore history will be doomed to repeat it.

Michael Pravica, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physics
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/feedback/01-09-2011/118925-germany_serbia-0/

Britain wars all based on lies

Tuesday Sep 06, 201108:57 PM GMT

Britain wars all based on lies

Tue Sep 6, 2011 8:59PM GMT

 

The British government has participated or launched three wars in the last decade, all of which have been started based on a bunch of lies.

The UK government under Tony Blair lied to its people, when it joined the so-called "coalition of willing" more than 10 years ago to launch an invasion against Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on US soil.

The Blair government unleashed a huge media campaign to persuade Britons that the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists were definitely behind the 9/11 attacks.

The then government of Britain also used, as a pretext, the ideology of the extremist Wahabis to fool the British into believing that if those radicals behind 9/11 attacks were not stopped they would definitely launch a similar attack on British soil.

Wahhabism itself is a product of a British conspiracy, perpetrated to be applied for their own sinister purposes to destroy Islam during the 18th century.

Now, more than a decade after the invasion, doubts are emerging one after another about the motives behind the campaign, and the UK politicians are leading so-called peace negotiations with the Taliban to pull themselves out of the quagmire their predecessors have created for them.

Again in March 2003, the Blair government lied about the executed dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, when he claimed that "We had to launch an attack on Iraq because its regime possesses weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that could be activated within 45 minutes," and that wasn't true either.

In fact, the West wanted to topple a regime it had fully supported in the 1980s, when Saddam's regime imposed an eight-year war against Iran.

The then Western leaders including the British were not happy with the Iraqi dictator anymore and they used WMDs as a pretext to justify a military intervention to topple his regime.

The real motives behind the war had nothing to do with WMDs but was all about US control of Iraq's oil resources and to strengthen their presence in the Middle East.

However, US president George W. Bush and British Prime minister Tony Blair needed a more compelling reason to win public support for going to war.

Blair and his government lied to the British public in order to wage a war against Iraq. In his statement to the British parliament, Tony Blair told four lies as follow:
First, he lied when he said: "Iraq has chemical and biological weapons" and that, "Saddam has continued to produce them".

Secondly, he lied when he asserted that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes.
"He [Saddam] has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes", Blair said.

Thirdly, the former Prime Minister lied when he said "Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger in Africa in order to produce a nuclear warhead".

"In addition, we know Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa", Blair said.

And the forth lie was that Tony Blair did not say the intelligence assessment was that Iraq would only use chemical or biological weapons if attacked.

The current UK government and its allies unleashed a bombing campaign against crisis-hit Libya to enforce a UN Security Council resolution, which called for a no-fly zone over the North African country to protest its civilian population from being killed at the hands of its long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

But, the UN mandate turned out to be a pre-planned plot to overthrow the regime of Gaddafi on the back of a popular uprising fuelled by discontent inside the country.

Now that the Gaddafi regime has been toppled, Britain and other western powers have unveiled bids to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya with France saying it was "fair and logical" for preference to be given to those who first helped the revolutionaries.

Actually, British Prime Minister David Cameron lied to the British people, when he told the parliament that his government was attacking Libya out of humanitarian concerns.

The Libya invasion was a pre-written scenario to enforce regime change and to control the impoverished country's vast oil resources on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to steer the domestic political agenda in order to decieve the British public into believing that their government was acting as an international player.

But, the world's public opinion in general would never ever again accept the so-called Western humanitarian concerns as a good excuse for supporting evil objectives behind military interventions elsewhere around the globe.

MOL/MTM/HE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/197799.html

17 Aug 2011 / 15:42

Kosovo's Successful Use of Violence

Violence has been used repeatedly and successfully in Kosovo to advance political goals, but US mediation is now required to solve the current crisis, says Balkans' expert David Phillips.

David L. Phillips

Kosovo Albanians have a track record of using violence to advance their political goals. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's bid to seize Kosovo's border crossings with Serbia fits the pattern: create a crisis, get the international community involved, and enlist foreign mediators in service of Kosovo's agenda.

The current crisis occurred when Thaci seized customs stations on the Kosovo-Serbia border in a bid to end the de-facto partition of Kosovo.

While the Kosovo government has an absolute right to assert its sovereign rights, European leaders criticized Thaci's recent gambit as reckless and provocative. Brinksmanship may achieve some goals in the short term, but it also risks discrediting Kosovo and undermining its goal of gaining  greater global recognition.

Kosovars successfully took matters into their own hands on two previous occasions. In the 1990s, their impatience with peaceful non-violent resistance led to an armed rebellion against Serbia's tyrannical rule. Slobodan Milosevic responded with atrocities and war crimes.

Kosovo rebels calculated that the United States would never let happen in Kosovo what happened in Bosnia. They were right. In 1999, the Clinton administration launched a 67-day air campaign resulting in Serbia's surrender.

A confrontation between Serb and Albanian youths in the divided city of Mitrovica sparked riots across Kosovo during the spring of 2004. Frustrated with their lack of progress towards independence, Kosovars launched a seemingly coordinated attack on Serbian enclaves and UN personnel.

The Bush administration condemned Albanian-led violence, while concluding that the status quo was untenable and launching a diplomatic process that culminated in Kosovo's US-led coordinated declaration of independence.

Serbia rejected the outcome. So-called bridge watchers, Serbian thugs allegedly financed and coordinated by Serbia's Interior Ministry, enforced a partition of Kosovo. Serbia's goal is to annex 20% of Kosovo north of the Ibar River.

The international community turned a blind eye. It also ignored Serbia's embargo of goods bearing a customs stamp with the state insignia of Kosovo.

On July 28, Kosovo Special Forces took control of two northern border crossings to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia in retaliation for a ban on Kosovo's exports in a dispute over customs regulations.

When NATO forces regained control, they were attacked by a mob of armed Serbs. The border crossing at Jarinje was burned to the ground. One Kosovo policeman was killed.

Thaci's provocation paid off. He consolidated his nationalist political base by issuing an emotional appeal to protect the country's "sacred sovereignty. The confrontation with Serbia comes at a time when Thaci's credentials have been tarnished by allegations of vote rigging, rampant corruption, and ties to human organ trafficking.

Thaci may have instigated the current crisis, but international public opinion holds Serbia responsible. President Boris Tadic has tried to distance Belgrade from the hooliganism of Kosovo Serbs. However, Serbia's EU membership has been seriously compromised.

Europe is suddenly paying attention. Violence in Kosovo could escalate conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in its ethnic partition.

In addition, it could destabilize Macedonia where a fragile power-sharing agreement keeps the peace between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians. Another spasm in the Balkans would fuel anti-immigration sentiments on the rise across Europe.   

Seized by the dangers of Kosovo's partition, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called for dialogue. She castigates both sides insisting, "Violence will never be tolerated." In fact, violence has served a purpose by mobilizing international mediation.

Thaci may look like a winner in the short term, but crisis has a cost. EU member states that refuse to recognize Kosovo's independence will harden their position. The visa liberalization dialogue enabling visa-free travel for Kosovars to Europe will be delayed. EU member members opposing expansion will be validated.

The United States does not want to reward violence. However, letting the current problem fester or punting responsibility to the EU risks an even greater crisis.

Bill Clinton is beloved for leading NATO's intervention and George W. Bush for stewarding Kosovo's independence. It is Barack Obama's turn to lead an international diplomatic effort restoring Kosovo's sovereignty and stabilizing the Western Balkans.

David L. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights and a Fellow at Harvard University's Project on the Future of Diplomacy. His upcoming book is entitled "Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention."

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/phillips-kosovo-s-successful-use-of-violence

Hague tribunal wakes up to Mladic interview

Hague tribunal wakes up to Mladic interview

permalink email story to a friend print version

Published: 02 September, 2011, 08:29
Edited: 02 September, 2011, 11:51

Commander of Serbian forces in Bosnia General Ratko Mladic (C) speaks to a Serbian soldier on February 15, 1994 (AFP Photo / Pascal Guyot)

(27.7Mb) embed video

 

An interview with wars crimes suspect Ratko Mladic carried by RT two weeks ago seems to have been news not only to the public, but also to the one international body which is supposed to be most aware Balkan war-related matters - The Hague Tribunal.

­At least this is what RT judges from an inquiry about the interview and how it came into RT's possession, ordered by a criminal investigator of the Tribunal.

RT will naturally co-operate with the investigation in the interests of justice, although the fact that such an important piece of evidence was missing from the Tribunal's materials is somewhat surprising, especially since the interview dates back to 1995 and was done by a Western TV channel.

The interview with Mladic, a former general of the Yugoslav army and later the army of the Republika Srpska, was recorded shortly after the Srebrenica massacre, the mass killings of Bosnian Muslims which the Tribunal has defined as genocide. In it, Mladic voiced several serious allegations against the UN peacekeeping force.

"Instead of disarming the Muslim formations, as they had committed themselves to doing… the United Nations forces turned those safe areas into terrorist and fundamentalist bases from where our villages and towns were attacked," he said

The ex-general also accused the UN of smuggling weapons into the supposedly demilitarized zone.

"Sometimes, they even used helicopters to airlift weapons from Iran and other combat hardware. We knocked down one such helicopter on the outskirts of Zepa two or three months ago," he said.

Mladic, who was arrested in May 2011, is standing trial in The Hague for this episode and other alleged war crimes. He is the final prominent Serb leader to face this fate. The last Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic stood in the dock for five years before dying in the Tribunal's custody, while the President of Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic has been on trial in The Hague since his arrest in 2008.

The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993, when the series of bloody armed conflicts in the Balkans was far from over. The UN Security Council formed the body to prosecute the gravest atrocities committed by all the warring parties.

Over the 18 years of its existence it has drawn a lot of criticism. It faced allegations of bias based on the fact that almost 70% of indictments it issued were against Serbs. Its fiercest critics called the Tribunal a political show rather than a court of law.

Some of ICTY's sentences were seen as astoundingly mild, as was the case with Bosnian military commander Naser Oric, who was tried for raiding Serbian villages and torturing prisoners, and was sentenced to merely two years and then totally acquitted of all charges on appeal.

There is also criticism over the ICTY's lack of will to investigate atrocities allegedly committed by non-Serbs. The most widely-publicized case is the allegation of trafficking of donor organs harvested from kidnapped Serbs during and shortly after the war in Kosovo. The suspected crimes had been investigated by the UN as early as 2004, but were not given due coverage until 2008, when former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte published a book on them.

More generally, some argue, the Tribunal's activities have not served the interests of reconciliation in the Balkans. It is viewed with suspicion by Serbs and Croats alike, who doubt the ICTY's integrity and call its decisions biased, although in cases where both parties are involved, the direction of the alleged bias would often be opposite depending whose side you talk to.

http://rt.com/news/hague-mladic-interview-rt/

Serbia's destruction by the West inevitable

01.09.2011

 

Russia is unable to protect the Serbs who live in the north of Kosovo. The UN Security Council failed to elaborate the joint position to provide security on the territory.

Russia put forward a suggestion to approve an official statement, which would give the sides the precise signal about the need to abstain from the use of single-handed and military actions.

Western powers, in the face of the USA, Britain and France rejected Russia's suggestion. The West is currently in the process of completing the legal registration of another stage of Serbia's dismemberment. Russia is an obstacle for the West at this point. We would like to remind here that the Albanian authorities of Kosovo declared independence single-handedly in 2008.

There is one thing left: to make the new "state" legitimate via the UN. The votes of 97 countries are required to finalize the process, and the West already has 94 votes. The USA and the EU won the support from island states of the Caribbean Basin and a number of African countries, the poorest countries of the world. Thus, they only need to find three more countries. One may not doubt that the missing votes will be found easily.

Russia's Ambassador to the UN Security Council Vitaly Churkin raised very unpleasant issues for the West at the session on August 30. Churkin particularly wondered why the UN had not launched investigation into illegal trafficking of Serbs' organs. He also asked his Western counterparts to explain why the UN delays the appointment of a new special representative of the secretary general of the international organization in Kosovo.

Churkin received support from Colombia's Ambassador to the UN, Nestor Osorio. Mr. Osorio stated that one should achieve progress in the case of human organ trafficking. One would have to find an alternative way to do it otherwise, he added.

On January 25, 2011, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved the resolution about the illegal trade of human organs in Kosovo. PACE urged to conduct unbiased investigation into all circumstances of the case. It is worthy of note that for the first time the PACE report mentioned the involvement of the sitting Kosovo administration in the organization of the criminal group which was dealing with human trafficking, including the trafficking of human organs.

However, the West did not let the UN work normally in this direction. Kosovo's Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj said at the meeting of the UN Security Council on August 30 that the events of July 25 were an act of violence committed by Serbia on the territory of Kosovo. According to him, there can be no parallel structures of power in Kosovo. Those Serbs who live in Kosovo must conform to Pristina. Serbia, Hoxhaj added, did not have the right to fund semi-military groups on the territory of the region.

When Kosovo's foreign minister was speaking about the investigation of illegal transplantology case, he said something that came as a very unpleasant surprise for the European Union. According to him, Kosovo has nothing to hide about this question. The authorities are ready to cooperate with investigation, he added. However, it appears that it is the West, particularly the EU, that has something to hide.

The situation in Kosovo's northern territories populated by approximately 200,000 Serbs and Gypsies, aggravated considerably on July 25, 2011. The authorities of Pristina attempted to establish control over the administrative border with Serbia in violation of international agreements. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci gave a personal order to police units to take two boundary points - Yarine and Brnyak - to prevent imports of cargoes from Serbia. The decision was like a tragedy for the non-Albanian population of the region. Neither Serbs, nor Gypsies indulge in illusions of what they may expect in case they lose what has been left of their independent rights.

It goes about the expulsion of the Serbian and the Gypsy population from the northern territories of Kosovo. Many Serbs stood up to defend the two boundary units that connected them with Serbia. Tens of people were injured as a result of the conflict, one Albanian policeman was killed.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic put a very unpleasant question to the European Union on August 30. The official wondered why the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo left the Serbs without protection.

Russia's Vitaly Churkin took up the issue: "The provocative actions of Kosovan-Albanian authorities destabilize the fragile situation even further," he said. Churkin blamed the West for it and said that NATO provided helicopters to deliver Kosovan special troops to the Serbian boundary units.

KFOR forces took those two units under control. Vitaly Churkin stated the following: "We are concerned about the fact that they pronounced Yarine and Brnyak the closed military zone, in which military men had the right to use firearms for effect."

The EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) became responsible for the events in the region at the end of 2008. Vitaly Churkin cracked down on the mission having claimed that the organization violated the neutral status and ran the policy of appeasement with Pristina authorities.

Churkin also claimed that the UN delays the appointment of the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo. This is not a surprise at all because the European Union does not need anyone as it continues to put more and more pressure on Serbia.

Kosovan Serbs urge Belgrade to defend Serbian interests. They insist that in accordance with resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council, Serbia must demand the return of its security forces to Kosovo. This is only an illusion. After the defeat in 1999, Serbia has no right to keep either its army or police there.

Speaking about the ultimatum from the West, Kosovan Serbs mean the statements from German Chancellor Angela Merkel from August 23, 2011, which she made during her visit to Belgrade. Merkel demanded Serbian authorities in Kosovo be dismissed in light of Serbia's possible integration in the EU.

Serbian politicians harshly criticized the ultimatum, because Merkel virtually asked for abolishment of Serbian autonomy in the region. According to the German Chancellor, the Kosovan Serbs must be supervised by those who used to gain profit from selling their organs to Western countries.

Belgrade is unable to show resistance to the destruction of Serbia. Some of them count on Russia's help. However, since Russia did not protect the Serbs in 1999, it is doubtful that the country will be willing to do it now.

Sergei Balmasov

Pravda.Ru

http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/01-09-2011/118928-serbia-0/

Libya, the Truth and the international community

Libya, the Truth and the international community

31.08.2011 | 22:07

Today, August 31, we are on the eve of the September 1 Al-Fateh Revolution which brought Muammar al-Qathafi to power in a bloodless coup which installed the world's first Jamahiriya, or government through People's Congresses. The tremendous support behind Colonel Gaddafi in the international community is a telling comment on where people stand.

 Muammar al-Qathafi is, in one word, a genius. His Jamahiriya system of government is perhaps the purest form of governance and its sheer simplicity means it can be implemented in any society, anywhere on Earth. In essence, it is government based on people's congresses - government by the people for the people, in a world in which the resources belong to all, equally. It is the real village, implemented globally, understanding that the human being functions best when living and cooperating in small communities.

 Now that paragraph will taste of poison for the clique of corporate elitists who gravitate around the centres of power, using the media and NATO to manipulate public opinion and where possible, implant their regimes and that paragraph also explains the Libya story in a nutshell.

 And we also see in this crisis exactly where our world stands. International law exists but is not implemented. NATO has broken all the rules in the book in Libya and has rendered itself and its representatives liable for prosecution - something which is at present in the pipeline. On one side of the divide, the Satanic and dark forces of NATO and on the other side, those who see themselves as the guardians of what is right and good and just. It is good versus evil, it is God versus Satan, it is about implementing international law.

 For those who justify NATO's act of aggression by calling "Gaddafi" a "dictator", some home truths. Muammar al-Qathafi was to receive a humanitarian prize in March for his record, he was the one to speak out against the more conservative practices in Islam, who spoke out against the killing of homosexuals or the stoning of women. The Jamahiriya system is the antithesis of a dictatorship. What dictator educates his people and pays for them to study abroad?

 Libya's literacy rate improved from ten per cent to ninety per cent under "Gaddafi" and under his guidance the country rose from the poorest in the world to the richest in Africa. Those who understand anything about geopolitical events know that this is an amazing achievement, in itself, within four decades.

 Colonel Gaddafi also leaves his legacy, which is the Green Book, which explains his philosophy and his political system - one which should at least be fundamental reading in all schools and one whose Legacy will be eternalised by the Internationalisation of the Jamahiriya, something which is already taking place and which has tens of thousands of followers around the world. Tomorrow, there will be millions.

 Colonel Gaddafi can also sit back and look at his enemies today and laugh. True, he has been fighting, and continues to fight, against the most powerful military organization in the world for six months and any progress his enemy made, was done by breaching the rules of engagement, each and every one of them. So that is hardly "winning". But he is the dream-maker behind the African Union, he stands for African Unity and against imperialism, he stands for a united Africa, Africa for Africans, African problems solved by Africans for Africans, and African resources for African people. More than this, his pan-African projects saw Africans freed from the yolk of imperialist tyranny, having their own funding for their own programmes without having to depend on western sources which provided goods, yet with enormous tails of interest payments attached.

 What his enemies want we saw very clearly - an international "conference" was called last week in which lines were yet again drawn on maps and in which the colonial powers literally divided among them Libya's spoils, even before the conflict is over. As for the "rebels" themselves, what are they and what do they want?

 Western sources took delight in the freeing of prisoners without bothering to research what they had done or why they were there. Serial rapists, murderers and common criminals now parade as "rebels", a movement which included a bunch of political opportunists carefully groomed by the French, British and Italians, a few liberals, Islamic fundamentalists (as we shall soon see more clearly), a lot of mercenaries from abroad and in essence, a load of day-trippers who raced into a conflict with machine gun blazing in the morning before driving home to have dinner at night.

 Looters, rapists, murderers. Terrorists, yes - civilians, no. Militarily capacitated by a savage and murderous NATO bombing campaign, these people may or may not eventually dismantle the Jamahiriya in Libya but they will not destroy it as a system. The Legacy is well protected and Muammar al-Qathafi knows this.

 That is why Muammar al-Qathafi can look back with satisfaction over what he has achieved and why Messrs. Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy will spend the rest of their pathetic, wasteful and vapid lives looking over their shoulders or wondering who it might be every time there is a ring at the doorbell, leaving no legacy at all except a failed attempt to govern their own countries, while they stood behind the most blatant and flagrant violation of the law in recent history. And, worse, they and their NATO machine have the blood of Libyan children on their hands. If they had an iota of decency they would hear these screams ringing in their ears all night every night and the more they tried to block them out, the louder they would become.

 That is why so many people in the international community support Muammar al-Qathafi. Those of us who have actually been to Libya and who have knowledge of the country understand very well where the hearts and minds of these people are - with what is right and just and good.

 As for the hearts and minds of NATO and those who support them, well, there are always those who will sell their souls to the Devil. However, there is something higher than us, and to whom we will inevitably present ourselves for judgement when the day comes. Muammar al-Qathafi knows where he is going, and I suspect Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy, deep down, know where they are going too.

 For those with any doubts after a bombardment of lies from the western media, research Green Book, Jamahiriya and Gaddafi projects in Africa.

 Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

http://www.moscowtopnews.com/

Balkans: Serbian president and Kosovo PM clash over "criminal structures" in north Kosovo

last update: August 31, 17:55

 

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Belgrade/Pristina, 31 August (AKI) - Serbian president Boris Tadic and Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci exchanged bitter accusations on Wednesday over the situation in northern Kosovo and alleged existence of "criminal structures" there.

The exchange followed a European Union and Kosovo police action in northern Kosovo early on Wednesday, aimed at discovering the killers of a Kosovo ethnic Albanian policeman on 26 July.

Irina Gudeljevic, a spokeswoman for the EU police in Kosovo (Eulex) said the police during the search of Serb homes in the village of Zupce confiscated weapons and found evidence in connection with the murder of a policeman who was presumably killed by a Serb sharpshooter.

"Eulex can confirm that orders had been issued for the arrest of six persons in connection with the murder," she said. "Similar operations can be expected in the future relating to the murder and other acts of violence which recently took place in the north," Gudeljevic added.

Tensions in northern Kosovo worsened after Kosovo government sent special police unit on 25 July to take over two border Crossings with Serbia. Local Serbs, who oppose Kosovo independence, declared by majority Albanians, responded by setting up road blocks and a policeman was killed.

Thaci said "parallel structures" that Serbia still operates in Serb-populated north have turned into criminal and "terrorist structures", supported by Belgrade which opposes independence.

He said the killers of the policeman may well have found a refuge in Belgrade, but warned that "days of criminal structures in the north have been counted. Illegal Serbian structures in north Kosovo are turning into paramilitary structures which are behind terrorist acts and organized crime in that part of Kosovo," he added.

Tadic said no one contests that the killers of the policeman should be found and punished. "But Hashim Thaci's statement that there are parallel structures in the north connected with terrorism behind which stands the state of Serbia is a prelude to new violence," he said.

" It's the height of hypocrisy that Pristina institutions should establish the rule of law in northern Kosovo, because the EU and every statesman in the EU and the US knows that Kosovo and Pristina institutions are not immune to organized crime," he said.

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Politics/Balkans-Serbian-president-and-Kosovo-PM-clash-over-criminal-structures-in-north-Kosovo_312403833835.html

US prosecutor to probe Kosovo organ trafficking claims: EU

29 August 2011, 13:35 CET

 (PRISTINA) - Authorities in Kosovo have appointed a US prosecutor to investigate allegations linking prime minister Hashim Thaci and other senior figures to organ trafficking.

"John Clint Williamson from the United States has been appointed lead prosecutor for the EULEX Special Investigative Task Force," the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo said.

Williamson is a former US ambassador at large for war crimes and worked for the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. He was briefly the director of justice of the UN mission to Kosovo.

"This task force will further the investigation into the allegations contained in the Council of Europe Report of December 2010 by Senator Dick Marty," which linked former rebel leader Thaci and other members of his Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) to allegations of organ trafficking.

EULEX launched its preliminary investigation in January.

Marty's report said Thaci headed a Kosovo guerrilla faction that controlled secret detention centres in Albania where Kosovo Serbs and Albanians considered collaborators were held.

The report alleged that human organ trafficking took place in three of the centres in the aftermath of the 1998-99 war between the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) guerrillas and Serbian forces.

Thaci denies the allegations.

The Kosovo conflict ended after a NATO air campaign ousted then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's forces from the territory, paving the way for the establishment of UN administration in Kosovo.

EULEX was launched only months after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 to oversee and strengthen the rule of law. The mission is empowered to take on cases considered too sensitive for the local judiciary.

Text and Picture Copyright 2011 AFP. All other Copyright 2011 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/kosovo-us-human.bwg

Inside the last Days of Gadhafi's Libya - with Scott Taylor

 

Date: Friday, August 26, 2011, 7:54 PM   ... I think the most startling thing for me was the apparent absence of any form of defensive preparations on the part of the Gadhafi loyalist forces.  ...     ...  First of all, the rebels are a fractious bunch of armed units with a wide variety of goals and aims…the very least of which is democracy and human rights. The only thing uniting them was the desire to overthrow Gadhafi. There is now a very real threat of these factions fighting each other, and Libya descending into an anarchistic, warring tribal state such as Somalia or Afghanistan. The immediate challenge will be to restore a sense of order, return the refugees and migrant workers, and restart what was a booming pre-crisis economy.  ...     Inside the last Days of Gadhafi's Libya with Scott Taylor   Posted By verkko.ca, Aug. 26, 2011 Esprit de Corps editor and publisher Scott Taylor is back from a week long fact-finding mission inside Gadhafi-controlled Libya. verkko caught up with him on his return to get his impressions on the current state of affairs inside Libya. What surprised you the most in your recent trip to Libya? I think the most startling thing for me was the apparent absence of any form of defensive preparations on the part of the Gadhafi loyalist forces. Whether it was in front of the strategically vital oil refinery in Zawiya or on any of the approaches to Tripoli, there was no evidence of any bunkers, armoured vehicles or even rudimentary trenches. The numerous checkpoints were at best just some cinder blocks laid across the highway and a handful of volunteer/militia personnel. From what you witnessed, what is the human impact of NATO's air offensive on the Libyan people? There is no doubt that the sophisticated NATO guided munitions reduced the incident rate of 'collateral damage' and the targeting was very specific to symbols of Gadhafi's authority and his military capability. The Government Ministry buildings destroyed in the bombing had no impact on the average Libyan. However the steady downgrading of the power grid, combined with the acute fuel shortage was having a serious impact on the day to day living conditions among the population. What were security conditions like for you and your team inside Gadhafi-controlled Libya? Although we were assigned Libyan Intelligence 'handlers' for the majority of our visit, on the Friday (Sabbath) they did not work. As such we were able to spend the entire day travelling about Tripoli and the eastern suburbs unaccompanied. At no time were we threatened or detained at checkpoints. Security seemed incredibly lax for a capital city in the midst of a civil war. What was your sense of the rebels' military capabilities? Did you get any indication that special forces were on the ground in Libya and assisting the rebels ? In the wake of the quick capture of Tripoli, NATO countries involved have been quick to trumpet their own Special Forces involvement…especially in the coordination of the vital air support. Inside Gadhafi held territory as we were, the only contact we had with rebels was the images we saw on international news reports. This was the same Mad Max style convoys of ill disciplined fighters in improvised fighting vehicles blazing bullets into the air as they moved towards Tripoli. How was NATO's intevention perceived by Libyans you talked to? The Libyans who supported Gadhafi did so for a number of reasons. Libya is a very tribal oriented society and for the past 42 years Gadhafi has kept his people fearful and hateful towards the west. The fact that the eastern based rebels would enlist the aid of NATO in what was essentially a Libyan civil war, was regarded as a traitorous and treasonous act. It actually served to increase support for Gadhafi when NATO started their bombing campaign. In your opinion, what will be some of the challenges in securing post-Gadhafi Libya and ensuring a peaceful democratic transition? First of all, the rebels are a fractious bunch of armed units with a wide variety of goals and aims…the very least of which is democracy and human rights. The only thing uniting them was the desire to overthrow Gadhafi. There is now a very real threat of these factions fighting each other, and Libya descending into an anarchistic, warring tribal state such as Somalia or Afghanistan. The immediate challenge will be to restore a sense of order, return the refugees and migrant workers, and restart what was a booming pre-crisis economy. What should NATO's role be in ensuring a peaceful transition? Without NATO's intervention the rebels had no chance to win this civil war. The embargo, freezing of Gadhafi's accounts, aerial bombardment and provisions of countless weapons to the rebels tipped the balance unnaturally in their favour. Any looting, destruction or revenge killing that the rebels engage in will be the result of NATO's intervention on their behalf. The UN mandate given to NATO was to protect Libyan civilians, and that should mean all civilians…including former Gadhafi loyalists. Tell us more about 'Under Siege: Inside Gadhafi's Libya'? The trailer (see below) was produced in anticipation of creating a 30 minute television piece. Events have now superceded the content, but we may yet revisit Tripoli in the hopes of turning it into a Before & After the Fall of Gadhafi's Regime. Stay tuned. For more photos of Scott Taylor's fact finding mission go to espritdecorps.ca     Scott Taylor is editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine.

 

Letter submitted to the Globe and Mail

not to speak of Poles, Russians killed by Germany    Date: Friday, August 26, 2011, 9:34 AM Dear All:        The Globe and Mail of Canada published an article that blatantly omitted the genocides of Serbian, Russian, and Greek Orthodox Christians: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/memory-becomes-a-minefield-at-canadas-museum-for-human-rights/article2135961/   IRA BASEN 4331 words 20 August 2011 The Globe and Mail GLOB The Globe and Mail - Print and Online CTGGLO F1 English ©2011 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved. SEE CORRECTION AT END OF TEXT 600,000-1,500,000 Armenians 1915-1923 6,000,000-7,000,000 Ukrainians 1930s 6,000,000 Jews 1933-1945 500,000-2,000,000 Nigerian Igbos 1967-1970 1,500,000-2,000,000 Cambodians 1975-1979 100,000-200,000 Iraqi Kurds 1988 200,000 [sic] Bosnian Muslims 1992-1995 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis 1994 200,000 East Timorese 1976-1996 200,000-300,000 Sudanese 2003-present I encourage you to write a letter of protest to the Globe and Mail: Letters@globeandmail.com I submitted the following letter myself.  Feel free to copy, paste, and amend it if you like. Letter to the Editor The Globe and Mail Toronto, Canada August 26, 2011 Dear Editor:      As a Serbian-American who lost some 100 relatives during the Holocaust of Serbians during WWII, I was deeply saddened and surprised that a well known and reputable newspaper such as yours would so blatantly omit the genocide of Serbian, Russian, and Greek Orthodox Christians in your article entitled: "THE POLITICS OF MEMORY," August 20.        The genocide of some 500,000 - 1,000,000 Serbians, which was officially recognized as such at Nuremburg, as well as the genocide of 25 million Russians during WWII, and 1.7 million Greeks in Asia Minor earlier in the 20th century should have been included in your article.  The Serbs were the second only to the Jews in the proportional loss of their population during this genocide.  The Russians, of course, lost more than any other ethnic group ever in the genocide perpetrated against them.        Instead, you mention the "genocide" of Bosnian Muslims with a highly inflated and erroneous figure of 200,000.  Even the Red Cross has stated that not more than 100,000 people perished on all sides in the Bosnian civil war.  The highly contentious issue of "genocide" of Bosnian Muslims surrounding the alleged 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and teenage boys in Srebrenica is still being investigated as most of the alleged victims have yet to be found and the West has yet to acknowledge the genocide of Serbians at the hands of their enemies in the recent civil wars in the former Yugoslavia.      It appears that your newspaper is not interested in uncovering the truth and reconciling humanity but in fact, with obvious historical amnesia, presenting a highly biased, highly censored, anti-Orthodox Christian and anti-Slavic presentation of distorted history,  You should be deeply ashamed.   Sincerely, Michael Pravica, Ph.D. ______________________________________________________________________

 

NATO is in big trouble

24.08.2011

 

Resolutions 1970 and 1973 (2011) of the UN Security Council were very clear in their terms: No foreign military personnel, no mercenaries, no weapons to the parties in conflict and inspection of vessels ferrying arms and soldiers. NATO has breached all four counts and now is liable for prosecution under international law.

Resolutions 1970 and 1973 (2011) of the UN Security Council stated very clearly and categorically that there were to be no foreign troops on the ground in Libya, there were to be no mercenaries, neither were foreign powers to arm the parties to the conflict, as well as imposing the obligation on parties surrounding this to investigate vessels shipping in personnel or arms. NATO has not only failed on all four counts, it has categorically breached them all. NATO is guilty of breaching international law, and there will be consequences.

Quite apart from its obvious breaches of international law, NATO is liable for war crimes - strafing civilian structures such as the water supply system, to "break the population", strafing civilian structures with military hardware, murdering civilians in their homes by precision-bombing children, strafing civilians using Apache helicopters from the USA (isn't there a law in the US about that?).

The more this conflict goes on, the more sinister NATO becomes and the more those of us who knew Colonel Gaddafi's projects and thanked him for his wonderful humanitarian policies (which irritated practically all the players in the western lobbies) are convinced that we have been right from day one, whatever the outcome. This is backed up by today's message from Muammar al-Qathafi, Leader of the Green Committees Movement, in his address to the World Green Committees, in which he called on his supporters to stand firm, encouraged those who said they were depressed, exhorted people not to use violence if possible.

For those who accuse Colonel Gaddafi of terrorism, then let each and every one suffer the crimes that the Black and Tans did to innocent civilians in Ireland, and then come here look me in the face and speak of terrorism. For those who accuse Colonel Gaddafi of terrorism, show me one shred of tangible evidence.

Colonel Gaddafi spread knowledge, not fear. He spread e-learning programmes, he spread telemedicine programmes across Africa while others, from the countries NATO represents left what legacy? 500 years of slavery, of colonialism and pillaging and raping Africa of its resources.

Colonel Gaddafi, as I write, is not finished. He can and would, if given a chance, spread these social and developmental programmes further, if NATO was not so intent on killing him and destroying his country.

The world is at a crossroads. Today, August 2011, we are facing a monumental battle between the forces of evil against an innocent man and an innocent and heroic population. The world is watching Goliath trying to devour David, who fights back heroically against NATO and its Satanic forces of evil who are racists, who have decapitated people in the streets, murdered children (like NATO) raped women and looted.

There is fresh evidence that foreign mercenaries are being deployed by NATO - British, French, Qatari and UAE military personnel have been captured; the Libyan Armed Forces allowed the British to come and collect their dead and wounded as they fled screaming, while the Royal Air Force would have strafed them.

And a clear sign that NATO represents evil is the sinister new practice of deleting facebook accounts of independent journalists, the alleged threats by CNN staff against numerous independent journalists in Tripoli (under investigation) and the media blackout from Libya. However it is not sufficient. We have other ways and means besides Facebook.

There are other social networks. We have other means besides channels like SKY, CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera. There is an international movement to boycott them. There are also commercial consequences: a pan-African movement is being implemented to lock NATO countries out of Africa. You murdered Libyan kids? No place in Africa, no contract. Go steal your own resources, not ours.

And a new international community is being formed by the people of the world, who are flocking towards the Jamahiriya system of government (Read The Green Book *).

It is difficult to know what NATO wanted out of this. It was not peace, for they refused to negotiate. It was not democracy, for they refused to heed the call for elections. Could it then have been simply and only to steal a sovereign country's resources by murdering its people?

Now what, ladies and gentleman, will posterity say to that? Messrs. Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy, and that sickening clique of cowards in NATO, you are in deep, deep trouble. And by God, are you going to pay for what you have done...

 Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/24-08-2011/118852-nato_trouble-0/