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"" 'It will not happen. It has brought Europe and the US closer
together.' ""
'Hawkish' Britain ruffles Nato allies
By Martin Walker in Brussels and Ian Black in London
Tuesday May 18, 1999
More about Kosovo: latest news, links, background and recent reports
International divisions widened yesterday over the next step in
Nato's campaign in Yugoslavia as Britain appeared increasingly
isolated in its focus on ground troops while European foreign
ministers held firm in their continued support of the bombing and
demands for a Serb withdrawal.
'Why are the British doing this? They are alone,' a senior French
official complained yesterday, reflecting a widespread bafflement at
what is seen as Britain's hawkish stand in insisting that Nato have
the ground forces ready to take advantage of a Serbian retreat or
collapse.
'We are not going to hang around waiting for President Milosevic to
give us a written invitation,' Robin Cook, the foreign secretary,
said yesterday. Troops should be ready to go into Kosovo as soon as
Serb forces were no longer capable of 'organised resistance'.
But Nato's spokesman, Jamie Shea, speaking on behalf of all 19
allies, yesterday appeared to pour cold water on the British stand,
saying Serb forces would 'clearly have to be on their way out of
Kosovo in a total and irreversible movement' before an international
security force was sent in.
'We would like to see those Yugoslav forces in an even worse state
than they are today and they will have no option but to withdraw,'
added Mr Shea.
In the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, student demonstrators yesterday
burnt an effigy of Tony Blair as he claimed that the Nato alliance
remained united and determined to prosecute its campaign against Serb
forces 'whatever it takes'.
Protesters waved placards saying Welcome, Murderer as Mr Blair
started his shuttle visit to the Balkans. 'Milosevic may have hoped
for Nato to fracture but it hasn't happened,' he told an audience in
Sofia. 'It will not happen. It has brought Europe and the US closer
together.' He will arrive in Albania later today.
A consensus is emerging among the other European allies to continue
the bombing but intensify the diplomatic effort for a negotiated
solution with Russian support and a United Nations mandate. But Italy
is prepared to reward the slightest diplomatic advance with a bombing
pause, Greece wants a 48-hour truce, and senior French sources say
that 'bombing plus diplomacy is the only way we can hold a
consensus'.
Mr Cook yesterday waved aside suggestions that Britain was hawkish,
stressing that the Nato air strikes were working and that sufficient
Nato forces had to be position soon to take advantage of a Serb
withdrawal if the refugees were to have any realistic prospect of
returning home before winter.
Seeking to play down the impression of a transatlantic row over
Kosovo, Mr Cook insisted yesterday that Nato had never ruled out the
option of deploying ground troops. But after a spate of weekend
reports highlighting widening divisions between Britain and the US,
he was clearly stretching credibility by stressing the 'strong unity'
of their approach to achieving their objectives.
In a sense, the difficulty is almost semantic, between Nato troops
going into a 'permissive' environment through Serbian acceptance of
Nato's terms or a 'submissive' environment through Serbian inability
to resist.
After a potentially stormy Commons debate today Mr Cook flies to
Washington on Thursday for a series of joint media appearances with
the US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, and to press a divided
Clinton administration to accept that ground troops will have to be
sent in if Nato is to achieve its goals.
Via Academy For Peace
International Action Center, New York
Original link:WARHAWK BEHIND U.S. KOSOVO POLICY
Back to AFP
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
WARHAWK BEHIND U.S. KOSOVO POLICY
AMB. WALKER COVERED UP REAL MASSACRES IN EL SALVADOR
Go to: A Reader's Response to this Article
By Gary Wilson
When the U.S. news media began to report that a massacre had taken place on Jan. 15 in
Yugoslavia’s
Kosovo province, most relied for their information on statements by U.S. Ambassador
William Walker
.
On Walker’s say-so, U.S.-NATO warplanes could begin bombing this small country, which
has already h
ad large pieces torn out of it in recent years.
It’s important that the world know who Walker is: a U.S. State Department veteran who
directed the
dirty war against El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s and lied about every aspect
of it.
Walker, now the head of a NATO-imposed inspection team in Kosovo, said he had visited
the site of t
he alleged massacre and declared that he knew all the facts. He was the judge, jury
and executioner
all in one.
Not even a district attorney in any United States city could so boldly make such a
declaration. Gui
lty first. Evidence later.
The Yugoslav government ordered Walker’s expulsion. The U.S. media all said this was
in order to co
ver up what had really happened. But that’s turning reality on its head. It was Walker
who spoke ou
t before the facts cou
ld be known. He thus guaranteed that Washington’s version of what happened became the
official vers
ion.
That’s a real cover-up.
WHO IS WALKER?
Who is Ambassador Walker? Is he the Richard Butler of Kosovo, as many in the Balkans
now believe?
Butler, an Australian acting as the head of the United Nations inspection force in
Iraq, has secret
ly worked for U.S. military and intelligence services. Members of the UN Security
Council have even
charged him with fabr
icating his last report to fit the needs of Washington in order to justify the
Pentagon’s December
bombing campaign against Iraq.
Walker heads up a NATO inspection team in Kosovo. Who makes up the team? "Sizable
numbers have mili
tary backgrounds; a lesser number, but also a sizable number, have police
backgrounds," Walker said
at a State Department
news conference Jan. 8 (official transcript, U.S. Information Service).
When asked if the Kosovo team was a spy team like the UNSCOM group in Iraq, Walker
replied, "I hope
everyone on my mission is trying to gather as much intelligence as they possibly can."
Questioned again, "Are you reporting it back to Washington?" Walker replied, "A lot of
it comes bac
k to Washington, but it goes to all the capitals [of the NATO powers]."
Sounds a lot like what’s been happening in Iraq.
Is Walker someone who can be trusted to tell the truth about what is happening in
Kosovo? Or does h
is past history show that he is the master of the political lie and cover-up?
Walker is commonly portrayed in the U.S. media as a career diplomat now caught in the
Balkan quagmi
re. But that’s not quite the reality.
Walker does have a long career in the U.S. State Department. It is how he spent that
career that sh
eds some light on what he is doing today.
AN AIDE TO ELIOT ABRAMS AND OLIVER NORTH
Walker began his diplomatic career in 1961 in Peru. In 1985 he was made deputy
assistant secretary
of state for Central America. He was a key operator in the Reagan White House’s
operation to overth
row the Nicaraguan gov
ernment, run by Lt. Col. Oliver North and Assistant Secretary of State Eliot Abrams.
Walker was a s
pecial assistant to Abrams, according to charges filed in U.S. District Court by
Independent Counse
l Lawrence Walsh.
According to the court record, Walker was responsible for setting up a phony
humanitarian operation
at an airbase in Ilopango, El Salvador. It was secretly used to run guns, ammunition
and supplies
to the contra mercenar
ies attacking Nicaragua.
Independent Counsel Walsh believed that Walker was one of the key players in Oliver
North’s operati
ons, according to court records.
Later, from 1988 to 1992, Walker was the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador. That was the
period when m
ilitary death squads reigned. Many in these death squads were trained at the U.S.
military’s School
of the Americas at Ft
. Benning near Columbus, Ga.
‘SILENT PARTICIPANT’ IN KILLING OF JESUITS
A document presented last Nov. 16 by anti-war activists at a protest outside the
School of the Amer
icas gave details of one of the massacres:"On Nov. 16, 1989, an armed group of men
from El Salvador
’s U.S.-trained Atlaca
tl military battalion, most of them SOA graduates, entered a dormitory of the Jos,
Simecn Caas Univ
ersity of Central America at 2:30 to 3 a.m. They dragged six priests from their beds
and then shot
them in the head. Then
they killed the priests’ cook and her 15-year-old daughter."
The priests were believed to be sympathetic to the liberation army fighting against
the U.S.-backed
government. The Jesuits have charged that Walker was a "silent participant" in the
massacre.
Years later, on May 6, 1996, Walker headed a ceremony in Washington to honor 5,000
U.S. soldiers wh
o had secretly fought in El Salvador. At the time Walker was ambassador, the official
story was tha
t there were only 50 U
.S. military "advisers" in El Salvador. (Washington Post, May 6, 1996)
AN EXPERIENCED LIAR
So Walker is not someone used to telling the truth. He could not honestly be
characterized as an in
dependent observer or a human rights advocate.
He is probably up to his old tricks in Kosovo. This time, his actions give backing to
a different c
ontra army, the contra "Kosovo Liberation Army."
Some European newspapers have begun to refer to NATO as the KLA Air Force.
Walker’s actions are clearly meant to destabilize the Yugoslav government. His
statements could be
used to justify a NATO military attack, if the U.S. government decides to do that.
On Jan. 12, three top Yugoslav officials, including a prominent opponent of the
government of Slobo
dan Milosevic, held a news conference to show a top-secret CIA document on U.S. plans
to oust Milos
evic. The document sai
d that $35 million was to be funneled to opposition groups in Yugoslavia.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill calling for the overthrow of Milosevic.
A war is being waged against the government of Yugoslavia. The so-called Kosovo
Liberation Army, wh
ich has adopted the uniform of the fascist occupiers of the region during World War
II, has backing
from the United State
s, Germany and Israel. On news of the alleged massacre, right-wing Israeli Arial
Sharon wrote a sta
tement that was passed by parliament condemning the Yugoslav government and calling
for its ouster.
No one should get caught up in the media hysteria of the moment. The truth of what
happened in the
Kosovo village of Racak may never be fully known. Yugoslav forensic teams were
prevented by the KLA
from visiting the sit
e or examining the bodies before Walker made his statements.
The story given out to the world has come through Walker and his team of military
"experts."
A READER RESPONDS TO ARTICLE
Stephanie Niketic wrote:
Gary Wilson’s article "Warhawk behind U.S. Kosovo policy" is truly
excellent.
However, Mr. Wilson makes three errors I know of regarding the Kosovo
situation which can undermine the entire piece if left uncorrected:
One, the Racak "massacre" is said to have taken place on Jan. 15, not
Jan. 14.
Two, the document which upset the Yugoslavian government was not "a
top-secret CIA" document, as claimed by Milosevic. It was a report
written by the "U.S. Institute for Peace," available on their web
site (www.usip.org ) for about a month. It does call for U.S. funding
of "democracy" in Yugoslavia to increase from the current $15 million
to $35 million. But who is the USIP? It is funded by Congress and run
by presidential appointees, including the State Department Under
Secretary for Intelligence and someone from the Department of
Defense. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...?
Three, I follow this pretty closely and I know of no Senate bill
passed calling for the overthrow of Milosevic. The Senate did pass a
non-binding resolution last summer calling for his indictment by the
International War Crimes Tribunal. If I’m wrong on this, I would
really like to know about it!
Stephanie Niketic
Gary Wilson replies:
Thanks for your remarks. You’ve give me a chance to elaborate on some
points that space limitations kept me from doing in the original
article.
The date of the alleged massacre was Jan. 15, and the typographical
error has been fixed on the web version of the article.
On the second point, I reported what was said at the news conference
in Belgrade—that the papers came from the CIA. Since I had space
limitations I did not elaborate more fully. I felt that since the CIA
is often used generically to refer to all spy operations by
Washington, it could stand.
As you’ve noted, the documents they presented were actually prepared
by the United States Institute for Peace, an agency set up and funded
by the U.S. Congress. The USIP is like many Cold War organizations
funded by the U.S. government and secretly tied to the CIA. As you’ve
noted, this looks like a duck.
The head of the USIP is Chester Crocker. Under him is Max Kampelman.
Crocker was a Reagan administration official whose policy of
"constructive engagement" strengthened and emboldened the racist
apartheid government of South Africa. Kampelman was also a Reagan
administration official who has spent much of the 1990s advocating
the breakup of Yugoslavia and a NATO military occupation of the
Balkans.
Finally, the term overthrow was inaccurate. An overthrow might imply
a popular uprising. The Senate knows that’s not about to happen and
doesn’t want to take such a chance. A better choice of terms might
have been to say that the Senate has called for a foreign military
takeover of the Yugoslav government much like the U.S. military
takeover of the Panamanian government of Manuel Noriega in 1989.
The Senate resolution you refer to—Senate Concurrent Resolution
105—does more than call Milosevic a criminal. It lays the groundwork
for justifying a foreign invasion of Yugoslavia by U.S.-led NATO
forces for the purposes of dismantling the Milosevic government. The
resolution says that "the United States should engage with other
members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other
interested states in a discussion of measures to be taken to
apprehend" Milosevic and members of his government.
Read more: Fabrication of Racak massacre
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
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expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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