-Caveat Lector- CONFUSING SIGNS IN NATO WAR =========================== (CNNS, 05/14/99) -- A network report which aired yesterday foresaw problems for Kosovo refugees. Living in tents, the thousands of emigrants would be okay during the next few months, stated the narrator, but what about when winter comes? The broadcast segment ended with the warning that temperatures would then be well below freezing and the encamped refugees would be in a very uncomfortable situation. But isn't NATO on the verge of winning their war over Kosovo? Isn't victory "just around the corner?" If it's anticipated that Kosovo refugees will still be in their camps come next winter, then apparently the war against Yugoslavia is a long way from being over. "Reading the tea leaves" is one of the few ways of getting past both NATO and Serb propaganda. For example, the report mentioned above on future sufferings, during winter, of Kosovo refugees, contains a hidden message: subtext -- that this war may drag on for awhile. President Bill Clinton, in an Oscar quality performance, yesterday gave an impassioned speech in which he played Romeo to a Juliet audience. As if kneeling with arms extended before his beloved, Clinton wooed listeners with a new story: that 15 Kosovars had been tied up and set on fire by the Serbs. Bill Clinton: he simply seduced a nation. It will be interesting to find out, later on, if the Clinton tale of 15 ignited Kosovars is true. But that fact-finding may be overwhelmed by a future barrage of imaginative reports now that the White House has brought in a PR expert to assist in the selling of the Yugoslav war. Joining the Clinton spin doctors will be Leslie Dach, who "will try to spread the word about interesting stories of individual refugee families, of heroic humanitarian relief work, of Serbian atrocities against Muslims remaining in Kosovo." [1] He, according to ABC News, will apparently work to shore up deteriorating public support in the U.S. for the Yugoslav war. [2] The White House propaganda, like the NATO bombing, is about to intensify. But some point out that the Serbs also use propaganda. That, in itself, has become anti-Serb propaganda, with the USA mass media often hinting that the Serb reports are likely lies. After all, they're by Serbs. As local commentator Carl Estabrook explains, "When U.S. television carries material from Yugoslavian TV, the label 'Government-controlled Serbian Television' is prominently displayed -- but CNN doesn't carry a 'Corporate-controlled American Television' warning." [3] At any rate, reports available at www.serbia-info.com, though partisan to the Serb cause, also routinely cite independent sources in their stories. If the Serbs are inventing their news, then it ought to be easy for pro-NATO propagandists to contact the cited, independent sources utilized, and refute what the Yugoslav press is saying. But this has not happened. In a report issued by this news service on May 9, 1999, we relayed a story from the PBS program, "The McLaughlin Group," in which host John McLaughlin stated that the U.N. commissioner on human rights has now included NATO as a likely subject for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. [4] The Tanjug News Wire corroborates that Mary Robinson, a human rights official with the United Nations, visited the city of Nis, in Yugoslavia, to eyewitness effects of a NATO cluster bomb attack there. [5] The NATO bombing of Nis, in which civilians were slaughtered when a cluster bomb hit a non-military target, was briefly covered even by USA TV networks. CBS Evening News reported the outrage, and their on-site reporter was visibly shaken by the event. However the subsequent US/NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy pushed the story of the Nis massacre out of the headlines here in the U.S. Tanjug News Wire reports that *ten* cluster bombs were dropped on the residential area of Nis. [6] According to another report by Tanjug, easy to verify or refute, "The international organization Human Rights Watch expressed today its concern that NATO was violating international humanitarian law in Yugoslavia." Reportedly, "Human Rights Watch particularly expresses its concern for destruction of the objects of economy, attacks on Yugoslavia's electrical transformers which primarily serve civilians and the destruction of several of Yugoslavia's television and radio stations, bombarding of the city hospital in Nis on May 7 and Chinese embassy in Belgrade, as well as bombing of civilian vehicles because they were not seen or misidentified." [7] According to another report by Tanjug, easy to verify or refute, John Laughland, a commentator with the London Times newspaper, calls the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, "not only an attack on a sovereign country but a barbarian act against the civilians." Laughland reportedly adds that the NATO attacks are "an insane, anti-civilizational act which I cannot understand." [8] According to another report by Tanjug, easy to verify or refute, Austrian writer Peter Handke condemns the NATO bombing as well as the way it's being covered by the Western media. Handke also stated that all "anti-Serbs are, in a way, the same evil and insufferable as the anti-Semites once." What Handke means is that it is just as wrong for NATO and friends to demonize the Serbs as it was for Hitler and friends to demonize the Jews. Handke's statements were reportedly published recently in both the Austrian Weekly News and in the daily "Der Standard." [9] Reports are flowing on Internet that several lawyers, not affiliated with Yugoslavia, have brought suit against NATO in the world court. NATO is reportedly accused of war crimes. The lawyers are reportedly signatories to a document which says, in part, that "Bombarding of civilians is not only amoral but also a criminal act punishable by law of the Tribunal. You may not kill a child or woman in Belgrade on the pretext that you thus protect lives of women and children in Pristina. Even in a justified war you may not murder civilians and devastate the country." [10] Please notice how the various credible reports cited in this CNNS press release are rarely, barely, or even narily mentioned in U.S. mainstream news reports. Instead, emphasis is each night given to whatever Bill Clinton, an admitted liar, has said that day. Those resident here in the U.S. will know the above is true. But international readers of CNNS may not be aware of just how massively biased the reports being digested by most Americans are. This is pointed out as a partial apology to the people of the world: most Americans are not witting monsters. ---------------------------<< Notes >>--------------------------- [1] "Spin the Battle: White House Hires PR Expert to Handle Kosovo," by Ann Compton. ABCNEWS.com, 5/13/99. [2] Ibid. [3] "News From Neptune: Video Killed the Radio Star," by C.G. Estabrook. From local alternative newspaper, *The Octopus*, May 14-20, 1999. [4] "Avalanche of New Data on Balkans War." CNNS, 5/9/99. [5] "Mary Robinson as a witness of crime in residential area of Nis." Tanjug News Wire, 5/13/99. [6] "Civilians wounded in Nis." Tanjug News Wire, 5/13/99. [7] "Human Rights Watch: NATO violates international humanitarian law." Tanjug News Wire, 5/13/99. [8] "Laughland: Aggression on Yugoslavia is a barbarian act." Tanjug News Wire, 5/13/99. [9] "Handke: 'Anti-Serbs Are the Same Evil as the Nazis.'" Tanjug News Wire, 5/13/99. [10] Those signing the document reportedly include David Jacobs and Brian Shell, Barristers and Solicitors, Shell, Jacobs Lawyers 672 Dupont Street, Suite 401 Toronto, Ontario Canada M6G 1Z6 Christopher Black, Barrister and Solicitor, 121 Nymark Avenue, Toronto, Ontario Canada M2J 2H3 John Philpot, Barrister and Solicitor, Alariel Legault Beachemin Paquin Jobin Brisson & Philpot 1259 rue Berri suite 1000 Montréal, Québec Canada H2L 4C7 Fred Stasiuk, Barrister and Solicitor, 296 Mill Road, Unit B6 Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9G 4X8 Professor Peter Rosenthal, Barrister and Solicitor, Mathematics Department, The University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Canada Professor Roberto Bergalli, Departament de Dret Penal i Ciences Penals Universitat de Barcelona, Av. 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