July 13, 1999

Special Truth in Media Reports on NATO's Kosovo War and "Peace" S99-123, "Peace" 17

HEADLINES

Gracanica                  1. Brave But Naïve Serb Bishop Quits Contacts with KFOR, KLA;

                                      But Naively Appeals to the Criminal-in-Chief for Help

Phoenix                      2. Last Jewish Family Driven Out of Kosovo by the KLA

Toronto                      3. An Open Letter to the Canadian Jewish Congress:

                                      Withdraw Your Support of the War!

Australia                   4. Kangaroo Courts Are An Aussie Thing

Dublin                       5. Different Strokes for Different Folks: Gypsies Not

                                     Welcome in Ireland; KLA Is?

Belgrade                   6. Take a Look at This "High-Tech" Baby

Boston                      7. The Day Progress Died Where Revolution

                                      Was Born (in Beantown)

----------------

1. Brave But Naïve Serb Bishop Quits Contacts with KFOR, KLA; But Naively Appeals to the Criminal-in-Chief for Help

GRACANICA, July 12 - The brave, but naïve, Serb Bishop Artemije, whose July 4 plaintive appeal to the U.N. and KFOR authorities we cited in our last TiM GW Bulletin, finally gave up trying to deal with the local thugs (S99-122, "Peace" 16, Item 1, July 11). But reaffirming our observation that he seems to be suffering from incurable naivete, Bishop Artemije applied to a world class criminal for help. That’s like pledading to Al Capone for mercy after his assassins did what the Mafia "soldiers" usually do - carry out boss’s orders.

The Kosovo Bishop and his All Serbian Church-People Council, a self-appointed group of Kosovo Serbs, including Bishop Artemije, "decided yesterday after a Gracanica Monastery meeting to cancel further cooperation with the KFOR and the civil mission of the UN in Kosovo and Metohija, as long as the violence over the Serbs in this southern Serbia's province continues," according to a July 12 press release which we’ve just received.

Instead, the Council has asked to be received at the White House by Bill Clinton in order to inform the President of the United States about "the sufferings and the systematic biological destruction of Serbian people of Kosovo and Metohija."

---

TiM Ed.: See what we mean by appealing to a world class criminal for help?

Meanwhile, since the deployment of the KFOR in Kosovo a month ago, several dozen Serbs have been killed or kidnapped, and a number of ancient Serb monasteries and churches have been burned down or destroyed by the KLA, according to a July 12 release by the Serbian Orthodox Church information service. And, according to the records of the international Center for Peace and Tolerance, since the arrival of KFOR and through July 8, 128 Kosovo Serbs have been abducted by the KLA. Their fate is unknown.

And now, the Serb Bishop wants to talk to the American Criminal-in-Chief about calling off his murderous dogs?

How about bringing back to Kosovo a few Yugoslav Army divisions instead? After all, it’s not the Serbs, but Clinton’s NATO, KFOR, KLA and a bunch of other state-terrorist acronyms that have breached the Kosovo "piss agreement," and are now murdering, or acquiescing to murder, of the Serb civilians. And who are destroying the nation’s most precious, centuries-old, cultural monuments - OF CHRISTIANITY, NOT ONLY OF SERBIA!

By defending the Kosovo Serbs in this manner, the leaders of the Yugoslav Army would get rid of the thugs like Milosevic, Clinton et. al. once and for all. And MUCH FASTER than the Serb cowards and western quislings could even say Halfbright (such as Halfbright’s apostles, like Zoran Djindjic, Milo Djukanovic or Vuk Draskovic, not to mention that bio-biker charlatan, Milan Panic). Because they would have the support of the Serbian people, and that of the patriots world over behind them.

But do the Serb military leaders have the courage to do it?

Do they have the guts to confront the world’s greatest power, as did the Serbs who said no to their government’s pact with Hitler on March 27, 1941?

Do they have what it takes to walk in the enormous footsteps of their forefathers who had routed the Austro-Hungarian and other Central Powers WW I invaders? (even at the cost of one-quarter of the country’s population (see Day 16, Update 2, Items 4. and Item 5, Apr. 8).

Which would put the cost of freedom in America today at about 65 million lives.

And you think that a nation which has sacrificed so much for its freedom can be enslaved by Clinton’s thuggery, Milosevic’s cowardice, Djindjic-Djukanovic-Draskovic’s treachery, and Artemije’s naivete? If you do, then you have another think coming…

------------

2. Last Jewish Family Driven Out of Kosovo by the KLA

PHOENIX, July 10 - When the TiM editor first met Branko Piliser of San Diego in September 1994, this Jewish-American, born in Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia, told this writer that he was "one of the 10 Jews left in Kosovo."

No longer. Those were the "good old days" - the days of the Serbian rule in Kosovo, when even a minority of 10 enjoyed protection under the Yugoslav law from abuses by the Albanian insurgents.

Shortly after the KFOR troops moved into Kosovo in mid-June, the KLA terrorists knocked on the door of the Piliser’s family home in Pristina. Branko’s brother, a man in his mid-40s, was told to move out along with his family. Or else.

He moved out, fleeing with his wife and two children to a town in central Serbia (known to TiM, but not identified here so as to protect the Piliser family’s security). "They are physically safe there," Branko Piliser said in a telephone conversation last week.

But this Jewish-American now faces a different sort of a struggle. He has been trying to bring his brother and his family to the States, but is getting nowhere since they are Yugoslav citizens.

"What about the fact that they are Jews?"

"It makes no difference," Piliser replied. "No one with the Yugoslav citizenship is welcome in this country."

"What about having them emigrate to Israel?"

"My brother won’t go there. He says he doesn’t want to go from one civil war into another."

As if that weren’t bad enough, Branko’s brother and his family don’t have any passports. So they fear that even if somehow they are allowed to emigrate to the U.S., once they apply to the Yugoslav authorities for passports, they may be deported back to Kosovo, (which is why we withheld the identity of their central Serbia location).

And Pilisers’ fears are not unfounded. After all, Slobodan Milosevic isn’t too keen on seeing the number of refugees in Serbia swell up beyond the 700,000 who are already there - 600,000 Serbs "ethnically cleansed" in 1991-1995 from Croatia and Bosnia, and about 100,000 already driven out of Kosovo during NATO’s "piss process." Especially not, considering that Bill Clinton has said that Serbia would not get "one red cent" in any reconstruction aid, as long as Milosevic is in power. And like it or not, he still is.

So, the Pilisers in Serbia are caught between a rock and a hard place. But that’s kind of God’s will, if you like. What really irks Branko Piliser is the attitude of his fellow-Jews in America.

"I am really angry at the American Jewish organizations which have been actually supporting NATO’s bombing of Serbia," he said. "I just don’t get it."

---

TiM Ed.: Most people who think that friendships are based on mutual respect and loyalty, rather than money, don’t get it, either. Take a look at the next story, as a case in point…

-----------

3. An Open Letter to the Canadian Jewish Congress:  Withdraw Your Support of the War!

TORONTO, July 12 - A few days ago, we received from a TiM reader in the States a copy of a letter supposedly sent to the Canadian Jewish Congress by a group of Canadian Jews in May, during NATO’s war on Serbia. Since such letters are easy to forge in the anonymous and alias-rich Cyberworld, it took us a while to confirm its authenticity.

Now that we are satisfied the letter was genuine, we can tell you that it was composed and sent by Paul Lebl, who describes himself as "a sort of a co-ordinator of a group of some 50+ Jews from former and present-day Yugoslavia who are now residing in Canada."

"By former and present-day Yugoslavia I mean Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia including ‘autonomous territories’ (Kosovo-Metohija in the south and Vojvodina in the north), Mr. Lebl explains. "Slovenia and Montenegro (which, together with Serbia, remains a part of present-day Yugoslavia) have traditionally had very few Jews living there."

With that as a preamble, here’s the letter the 50+ Canadian Jews had penned:

"In a statement of April 5, 1999, the Canadian Jewish Congress has commended the Government of Canada for acting "...to effect a cessation of the crimes being perpetrated in Kosovo and to ameliorate the human suffering in the region." The Canadian Jewish Congress has also stated that it "...stand(s) in solidarity with the efforts of the brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces..."

We, the Jews from the former and present-day Yugoslavia, who are privileged to enjoy the hospitality and citizenship of this great country, write this letter to express our strong disagreement with your decision to support the war NATO and Canada are waging against Yugoslavia.

We believe the initial support of the Canadian Jewish Congress was given in good faith and with the best of intentions. It was, however, based on slanted, grossly prejudiced and, at times, deliberately false information available to the Canadian public both before and after the beginning of NATO's war against Yugoslavia. We hope your position would have been very different if you had access to a more responsible and objective assessment of the situation. Any such assessment would inevitably reveal the following points:

• The NATO war against Yugoslavia constitutes an unprecedented aggression against a sovereign country in contravention of the very essence of International Law, the United Nations charter, NATO's own charter, as well as the highest laws of participating NATO countries including Canada. This was attested to by a number of esteemed Canadian legal experts, as well as the former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia.
• If a ‘humanitarian exception’ was to be used as a justification for the war, it should have been considered and authorized by the United Nations. Without such authorization, the NATO rationale for attacking a sovereign country is as convincing as Hitler's rationale for ‘humanitarian’ invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
• The so-called Rambouillet Peace Agreement was never agreed upon by the conflicting parties. It was a US-drafted document presented to the Yugoslav authorities on a sign-or- be-bombed basis. Such a document, amounting to an outright capitulation, could not have been signed by the government of any sovereign nation in the world and, even if signed under threat, would have been null and void according to the International Law.
• The situation in Kosovo, prior to the beginning of NATO strikes on March 24, 1999 could have been described, at best, as a low level armed insurgency. It was not a civil war, much less a ‘humanitarian catastrophe.’ The total number of people killed, during the whole year, was less than 2,000 including armed members of all the conflicting groups. The civilian casualties were predominantly caused by the KLA (the self-proclaimed Kosovo Liberation Army) and included both ethnic Serbs and loyal ethnic Albanians. Although there were a number of internally displaced people, the presence of OSCE verifying mission improved the situation to a point where most of them were returning to their homes. There were no refugees outside Kosovo, except for a certain number of KLA members and supporters who took shelter in the neighbouring Albania.
• Although there is little dispute over well-documented examples of political repression, there never were any official or unofficial, explicate or implicate policies of ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Albanians on the part of any level of government in Yugoslavia. On the contrary, the policy of Yugoslav and Serbian governments was in the past 10 years chronically plagued by a lack of any consistent approach to the Kosovo problem.
• Military and intelligence experts of all NATO countries, and particularly of the United States, warned that the creation of a flood of refugees and of a real humanitarian catastrophe would be the likely results of any military action.

We have ample evidence in support of every point we have made and would appreciate an opportunity to put our knowledge, experiences and insights at your disposal.

We would like to acquaint the Canadian Jewish Congress with some of the results brought about by the "efforts of the brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces", together with their comrades from other NATO nations:

• Two months of bombing have resulted in more than 1,300 dead and 7,000 injured civilians throughout Yugoslavia, among them a significant number of ethnic Albanians.
• The damage to predominantly civilian infrastructure and industrial capacities has, according to some estimates, reached $100 billion. At least 700,000 people, including ethnic Albanians, were left without jobs, which means that close to 3 million people, or more than a quarter of the total population of Yugoslavia, were left without a minimum sustenance.
• The destruction of oil refineries and chemical industry, predominantly in Novi Sad and Pancevo, as well as the use of depleted uranium weapons, have resulted in severe ecological crisis which is already spreading beyond Yugoslav borders. The ‘background radiation’ measurements in Kosovo reportedly point to an increase of over 30% compared to the last year's levels. Large areas of Pancevo and Novi Sad had to be evacuated. Hundreds of thousands were left without potable water. Oil spills, some of them longer than 20 km, are travelling down the Danube river toward Romania, Bulgaria and the Black Sea.
• In addition to more than half a million of ethnically cleansed Serbian (and other) refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia now has to deal with an equal or greater number of new refugees and displaced persons. Hundreds of thousands of them are ethnic Albanians who, considering themselves Yugoslav citizens, were labelled traitors by the KLA. An estimated number of ethnic Albanians in Belgrade alone has surged from 100,000 to at least 150,000. This also raises concerns about a serious rift within the ethnic Albanian population, a rift that will take years, if not decades, to heal.

We can understand that the initial support of the Canadian Jewish Congress was given as a result of incomplete and biased information. However, the continuation of such support after two months of NATO's ruthless destruction of a whole nation would be clearly indefensible.

We call upon the Canadian Jewish Congress to withdraw its support of NATO war against Yugoslavia, and to demand an immediate cessation of the bombing campaign and resumption of the negotiations. We call upon the Canadian Jewish Congress and all Jewish organizations in the world to do everything in their power to help the cause of a viable, lasting peace -- a peace that would ensure a future worth living and heal deeply shattered lives of people of all ethnic groups in Yugoslavia.

Finally, we call upon the Canadian Jewish Congress to remember the words of the Scripture: ‘If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink’ (Prov.25:21).

Please do everything in your power to make sure the help Canadian Jewish community has so generously given reaches all the victims, on both sides of this ugly, undeclared and illegal war’."

Paul Lebl, Toronto, May 21, 1999

(on behalf of 50+ Canadian Jews)

---

TiM Ed.: You may also wish to check out "Jews vs. ‘Jews’," S99-74, Day 49, Update 2, Items 4. and 5., May 11).

------------

4. Kangaroo Courts Are An Aussie Thing

AUSTRALIA, July 12 - We’ve received the following comment from a TiM reader in Western Australia about our story, "Thugs of the World Unite" (S99-117, "Peace" 117, Item 1, July 1), in which we used the term "kangaroo court." This explanation should help set everyone straight as to how this expression came into being:

"The term kangaroo court IS actually an Aussie term. It goes back to the days when the (British) Red Coats controlled 'justice' with the spelling 'just-us'.

Kangaroos, while lovely animals, are not quite as smart as a sheep. This is why so many man folks down in WA (Western Australia) have roo-bars on their cars.

---

TiM Ed.: Also see other TiM Australian vignettes on this topic - by searching our Web site.

---

A kangaroo court is one where by the system is stupid and easily dazzled by bright lights and fancy footwork. That is the end of the trivia lesson for today."

Chris Bartle, Australia

---

TiM Ed.: And just think… if the kangaroos, "while lovely animals," are "not as smart as sheep" - as Aussies of all people SHOULD know, since Australia is home to tens of millions of both animal species - then maybe there is hope for the world’s sheeple after all? Provided, of course, they are led by the right shepherd, rather than a Pappa-Roo. J

------------

5. Different Strokes for Different Folks: Gypsies Not Welcome in Ireland; KLA Is?

DUBLIN, July 13 - Commenting about our story in the last TiM GW Bulletin regarding a KLA Albanian who stabbed two people in Dublin (see S99-122, "Peace" 16, Item 3, July 11), a TiM reader from Dublin wrote:

"Do you know that this is already the second case in Ireland? The first time, an Albanian refugee was convicted two years ago of murdering a McDonald's security guard in Central Dublin. That time , all the newspapers here were full of: ‘Albanian criminal! Let him be deported! That's what those refugees do when we let them enter our country!’

But this time, they (the politically correct media) haven't say a word about it. All they say is that the ‘poor guy’ became like that (using drugs and drinking) because he was tortured by those ‘horrible Serbs! So, we should show some understanding’.

I work in my free time as an interpreter for the Refugee Legal Aid here in Dublin - and I hear all kinds of horror stories. But the authorities refuse to believe them - if those people were tortured by the Azeris, the Chechens, the Tadzhiks... They say: ‘You don't have enough proof that it was because of your ethnic origin.’

Well, apparently in case of Hassan Abazi, it wasn't necessary to prove it... So much for the Irish system of justice."

Another TiM reader of Irish descent, who now makes his home in Denmark, had a similarly disapproving reaction to a new law passed by the Irish government. He went so far as to say that he was ashamed to be Irish and a European. Here’s an excerpt from his letter to TiM, along with our reply:

"Recently the Republic of Ireland passed a ‘Deportation Bill.’ It is designed to deprive asylum-seekers and immigrants of what little rights they had left.

This is a particularly shameful act for a country like Ireland, with its history of oppression (by the British Empire) and emigration. There are an estimated 70+million Irish spread out over six continents.

Anyway... it was the case, right up to the 1950s, in both the USA and Britain, that signs were placed in windows proclaiming, ‘No Blacks-No Dogs-No Irish.’ And if an Irish person wanted to have any chance of getting a job (that wasn't complete slavery), they had to drop their accents and Anglicize their name.

For those of you that remember them, The Sex Pistols were started by a group of second generation Irish in Britain, protesting against the inherent racism and fascist tendencies of the British establishment. Of course it developed from there.

I have always been proud of being Irish, European and an Immigrant. It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this with regard to the first two."

Slán, (See Ye)

Anthony Kiely, Denmark

---

TiM Ed.: To which TiM’s editor replied:

"A Chara, Anthony! Thanks the update.

Always be proud of your Irish roots. Try to distinguish between the acts of (vassal) governments and the people. If we, Americans, for example, were not able to do that, we could all be branded as war criminals on account of what Clinton, Albright, Clark, Cohen and others did in Serbia. And the Serbs could all be ashamed of being Serbs because of what Milosevic has done. Yet decent people in America and Serbia outnumber the thugs by a huge margin.

The same is true in Ireland. I know that first-hand. I've been there. I have many Irish friends whom I love dearly. I would never dream of tarring them with the same brush which the Dublin government deserves. Whenever I correspond with these friends, I usually sign off with..."

Bob O'Dj. of Belfast

(which these days is only a tad better than being from Belgrade, where I was born)

------------

6. Take a Look at This "High-Tech" Baby

BELGRADE, July 13 - By now, you’ve seen a number of articles and photos PROVING that Bill Clinton and NATO lied when they said they had suffered zero combat losses in their 79-day war on Serbia. But we thought you may be also interested in some new shots of the downed F-16s posted in the NATO War section of our Web site. And tonight, we also received an undated photo of a Serb SAM-9 missile launcher, in its semi-camouflaged position, along with the two NATO aircraft "kills" painted on its side.

We don’t know exactly when this picture was taken, but judging by the look of the countryside around the missile launcher, we suspect it would have been in May. Here is the text submitted by our source which accompanied it:

"What you see on this photo is a Yugoslav SA-9 "Gaskin" mobile SAM system (BRDM-2 transporter with 9M31M missiles, Flat Box passive detection and IR, max range 9km (5 miles), max altitude 5.2km (3.5 miles). If you take a close look, under the serial number (22260) you will see two stenciled planes indicating two destroyed NATO aircraft.

The photo also gives an insight into how the Yugoslav army camouflaged its SAMs. The upper section of the vehicle, containing the missiles, can be pulled down and a camouflage net can be easily and quickly deployed over the entire position."

-----------

7. The Day Progress Died Where Revolution Was Born (in Beantown)

BOSTON, July 13 - As you may have seen from the dateline to this TiM Bulletin, your editor is currently in Beantown, a birthplace of the American Revolution (Boston). He is attending a business conference which includes 40 of Fortune 500 CEOs, 200 vice presidents, and hundreds of their minions from 14 countries around the world.

And he is having a ball, dropping some (balls) occasionally, too - trying to play shortstop between the striped suits of this high-brow executive conference and the annual American baseball ritual - the All Star Game national hoopla - also taking place in Boston this week.

In time, we hope to bring you some meaty and meaningful reports about the economic echoes from this business conference. In the meantime, however, here’s a short "Beantown Vignette" which could aptly be titled: "The Day Progress Died Where Revolution Was Born:"

"Trying to shake off the cob webs of the stuffy business meetings which had taken up most of my Monday morning, I was doing my usual daily ‘speed-walking’ along Boston’s fashionable Boylston Street in mid afternoon today.

‘Doesn’t anybody work here?’ I wondered, looking at all the sun-bathers, park lovers, lovers in parks, bird-watchers, or jaywalkers which I encountered during a 3-4 mile round trip ‘speed march’ between my hotel and the Boston Common.

Guess not. Not on a beautiful, sunny Monday, preceding the Tuesday All Star Game. Except for the drivers of the busses and the limos lined up in front of Boston’s hotels. And the rest of this city’s tourist industry which seems to have gone into overdrive as the rest of Beantown went to hibernation .

But the highlight of my ‘afternoon march’ occurred on my way back from the Boston Common. Two young men in their early 20s, dressed in business suits fashionable enough to qualify them as the Wall Street Yuppies, were walking side-by-side, talking on their cell phones.

Nothing unusual about that, of course. This writer has seen ‘kids’ like that doing it in Melbourne, Australia, in 1994. And in Warsaw, Poland in 1995. And in Moscow in 1997.

In fact, if anything, the TiM editor has been wondering how long it would take America to catch up to the rest of the digital world when it comes to mobile telephony? So why not on Boylston Street in Boston in July 1999?

But there was something uniquely ‘Yuppy American,’ reminiscent of the ‘Cabbage Patch’ dolls’ fad about this Yuppie male couple. They were talking - to each other. Live and via satellite. While walking next to each other on Boylston Street in Boston.

Now, how much more perverse can technology get?"

---

TiM Ed.: For answers to that question, check out our Kosovo war reports featuring all the "Wag the Dog" producers. And stand by for our upcoming report about this Boston high-tech, high-flying executive conference, which seems to have spelled the end of Progress. At least the kind of "progress" as we have been taught in high schools and colleges.

Until then, "batter up!"

Also, check out... Truth in Media Statement on the Kosovo War, "Wither Dayton, Sprout New War?", "On the Brink of Madness", "Tragic Deja Vu's," "Seven U.S. Senators Suggest Ouster of Milosevic", "Biting the Hand That Feeds You", "A Balkan Affairs Potpourri", "Put the U.N. Justice on Trial", "International Justice 'Progresses' from Kidnapping to Murder", "Milosevic: 'A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery'...", "Kosovo Lie Allowed to Stand", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Kosovo Heating Up", "Decani Monastery Under Siege?", "Murder on Wall Street",  "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II', Serbia's Aztlan",  "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?", "Serb WW II General Exhonerated by British Archives," "Green Interstate - Not Worth American Lives", "An American Hero or Actor of the Year?" (A June '95 TiM story) and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques", "Kocevje: Tito's Greatest Crime?", "Perfidious Albion Strikes Again, Aided by Uncle Sam"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "Chinese Dragon Wagging Macedonian Tail,"  "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis"

Or Djurdjevic's NEW DAWN magazine columns: "Washington's Crisis Factory,"  and "A New Iron Curtain Over Europe"