A 'NEW WORLD ORDER INTELLIGENCE UPDATE' SPECIAL ADVISORY
TORONTO, 16th May, 1998
The 1998 meeting of the secretive and immensely-powerful Bilderberg Group closes tomorrow at the luxurious Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire, Scotland. The 120 or so Bilderbergers, who normally converge at their pre-selected venue with as much secrecy as possible, had hoped that their selection for the May 14th - 17th conference this year, 15 miles south of Ayr and a quarter of a mile away from the A77 trunk road to Glasgow, would - together with armed and black-clad police at the the property entrance and around the perimeter - guarantee their previously-inviolate privacy.
They have still not recovered from the acute discomfort which they experienced when the TORONTO STAR and local Toronto media, acting on detailed Press Releases from the NEW WORLD ORDER INTELLIGENCE UPDATE, ran several major articles revealing their existence and querying, for the first time in their then 43-year history, the nature and purpose of their secretive conclave at a $66-million luxury resort property at King City, just north of Toronto
Conrad Black, the most closely-watched media magnate in Canadian history, was the convener of that 1996 meeting, during which - exhibiting a new and disarming policy of openness - the Bilderbergers released a list of attendees and a highly-generalized and non-specific agenda. They tried the same proactive approach at their 1997 meeting in Georgia; but now, apparently, find the comfort of dark anonymity and of non-existent Press Releases to be more congenial to their purposes again.
Well, unfortunately, much of their security effort has been wasted. For here once again, following the tradition of free publicity for the Bilderbergers which we first established at their 1996 meeting, are the substantive issues which they discussed at their secretive 1998 Conference. Since the Bilderbergers make a point of never confirming or denying the substance of their discussions, we invite our readers to take note of the following items and to compare them with the contents of their newspapers over the forthcoming months.
Our sources have shown an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy over the past several years, as those who have purchased our detailed 'Bilderberg Report' can attest.
We need, for reasons which will quickly become obvious, to refresh our readers' memories at this point.
During and following the 1996 Bilderberg Conference, we asserted that Bilderberger Bill Clinton would be re-elected as U.S. president; that he would promptly break his promise to bring American troops home from Bosnia, but that he would re-position them in Hungary and the surrounding countries instead and pass command of the Bosnian operation to a German general and 3,000 German combat troops from Heidelberg [this later occurred, in October, 1996]; and that the Bilderbergers had thereafter arranged to inflame the Serbs by pursuing the war criminals in their midst for trial before a new International Court [the Serbs, a proud but experienced people, side-stepped this provocation by persuading the lower- and middle-level suspects to voluntarily surrender].
If that failed to incite a Balkan war, then we pointed out that they were prepared to utilize Kosovo to bring one about:
"When war comes, as expected, Kosovo, at the southern tip of the Serbian Republic, may be the flashpoint that ignites a wider war involving Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Russia, and Turkey - in addition to the hapless U.S. and NATO troops caught in the middle. Kosovo, "the Jerusalem of the Balkans", is a self-proclaimed nominally independent "republic", presided over by "President" Ibrahim Rugova. It is, in fact, a province of Serbia, though its population is largely of Albanian descent. The United States, though on record as recommending more "autonomy" for Kosovo, treats the province to all intents and purposes as a de facto independent state, a fact which infuriates the Serbians. Twice - once in 1992 and again in 1993 - Presidents of the United States have threatened Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic with military retribution "in the event of a conflict in Kosovo caused by Serbian action." To add insult to injury, the U.S. now plans to establish an "official presence" in "the capital of Kosovo." Aggrieved by this, and rightly sensing the intent of the United States to encircle and contain them, the Serbians are likely to appeal to an increasingly-nationalistic Russia, their traditional protectors, for help and military assistance. As reported by Germany's DIE ZEIT, "Serbia is every place where there are Serbian trenches or Serbian graves", according to Serbian opposition leader Val Draskovic. That means that Serbia will fight to retain Kovoso, in spite of the fact that its population is 90% Albanian. The Albanian Kosovans, determined to be independent, will fight back. That will likely draw into the conflict the 3.4 million inhabitants of Albania proper, together with the Albanians of Montenegro and Macedonia. Albania also has openly-expressed designs on Macedonia's western provinces, largely populated by Albanians: at least one armed insurrection directed by Albania has been foiled by the Macedonian authorities, and the Albanians continue to openly support and encourage Macedonian Albanian separatist groups. Bulgaria, which considers Macedonians to be "western Bulgarians", may then go to war for the fourth time this century to seize the opportunity to finally settle its territorial claim there. Greece, already incensed by Macedonia's use of the Greek "Vergina Sun" symbol on its flag and suspicious of the Macedonian Republic's supposed intention to form a "Greater Macedonia" by inciting insurrection and separation in the Greek province of Macedonia, may well then take advantage of events to settle the issue once and for all. Turkey, acting in defence of its Muslim brethren in Bosnia, and infuriated by the actions of its traditional rival Greece against the Macedonian Republic, could then scarcely be refrained from joining the fray.The Serbs, scenting the trap thus laid for them, have confined themselves to short, repressive police actions against the Kosovan Albanian population, none of which have been sufficient in duration, extent or intensity to provide the pretext necessary for the Bilderberger elite to rally Western European and American public support for a full-fledged military engagement of the Serbs. So their methodical preparation, financing and arming of the newly-revealed Kosovan Liberation Army has so far provided the Bilderbergers with no dividends at all...and the clock is running on their schedule. They need this war, and they need it soon.The "Albanian issue", centred in Kosovo and overshadowed by the larger Serb-Bosnian tensions, is a powderkeg waiting to explode. And when it does, the whole region will explode with it."
- from our 1996 BILDERBERG REPORT [almost three years later, these things are now happening!]
The third fall-back plan, we reported in 1996, was the creation of a war between Greece and Turkey on Cyprus which they could then push back into the Balkans.
It was this third option which occupied the Bilderbergers at their 1998 meeting.
Russia has contracted, through its Rosvooruzheniye arms export agency, to deliver a sizeable number of S300PMU-1 [SA-10D] surface-to-air missiles to the Greek-Cypriots, a move which will irrevokably destabilize the current delicate balance of power between Turkey and Greece over Cyprus and which will demand an immediate and overwhelming Turkish military response. Originally slated for installation during September or October of this year, their delivery has been abruptly and unexpectedly moved up to August. The Greek-Cypriot parliament, which has characterized the $400 million dollar anti-aircraft missile deal as a purely "defensive" move, recently unanimously approved a 1998 defence budget to cover their costs. The Russians have repeatedly refused to "reconsider" their sale, and are expected to rebuff the pleas of Turkish military Chief of Staff Ismail Hakki Karadayi that they again do so during his forthcoming trip to Moscow this month. The Greek Defense Minister, Akis Tsohazopoulos, defended in April the Greek-Cypriots "right" to deploy these weapons. The Turks have steadfastly warned that they will immediately take them out via a sudden and overwhelming air strike, together with the batteries of MM40 Exocet surface-to-surface anti-ship missiles with which the Greek-Cypriots have tried to fortify the south-western Cypriot port of Paphos. None of these sides are like to back down, much to the satisfaction of the Bilderbergers. War on Cyprus is therefore a certainty in late summer or autumn, unless the Bilderbergers manage to ignite their Kosovan war earlier - in which case the Cyprus "crisis" will be quietly settled by diplomatic means. [UPDATE: Turkish Chief of General Staff General Ismail Karadayi commenced his five-day visit to Moscow on Monday, May 19th, three days after the first Internet posting of this article. He is expected to make clear to his Russian equivalent, General Anatoly Kvashnin, and to Marshall Igor Sergeyev, the Russian Defence Minister, that if Russia goes ahead as planned with its mid-August delivery of S300 missiles to the Greek-Cypriots then it can forget about sharing in or winning Turkey's international invitation to tender for the supply of 145 attack helicopters (a contract worth $3.5 billion) and an even more lucrative (US$4.5 billion) contract to provide the Turkish army with latest-technology main battle tanks. The Russians would be naturally happy to sell Turkey a few squadrons of their Ka-50 and Ka-52 helicopters, which they've eagerly promoted to the Turks, if they could. He is also likely to point out in a robust and soldierly fashion that Russia could further improve its chances by closing down the Kurdish PKK terrorist training bases it currently "permits" to operate on its territory. The Russians, as usual, are playing both sides deftly: last month they warmly welcomed Greek Defence Minister Akis Tzhatzopulos. Since they have a much larger strategic game in motion now, and are already a major supplier of tanks and other miltary equipment to the Greek-Cypriots, they are likely to merely smile politely, offer General Karadayi more coffee, forgo those Turkish military contracts, and finish crating up the S300 missiles which they've already determined to send to Cyprus. And where else, after all, could they set two NATO allies at each other's throats, and get paid for the privilege of doing it?]
Greek Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos has stated that deployment of the S300 missiles on Cyprus would be "unnecessary" if the parties agreed to "a flight exclusion zone" over the island, a proposal which - though quickly embraced by the Americans - is utterly unacceptable to the Turks. Greece, on the other hand, flatly rejects the American attempt to bring about a "comprehensive peace settlement" between Greece and Turkey by linking the Cyprus issue with the settlement of a long-running dispute between the two nations concerning sovereignty over a number of Aegean islands claimed by both countries. [NOTE: A knowledgeable Greek correspondent has just drawn our attention to the vast pool of oil which is reported to underlie the relatively shallow Aegean, and has suggested that this may in fact be the primary reason why the U.S. is furthering a "peace" policy in the region that actually increases the chances of war between Turkey and Greece: such a conflict might well then give the Bilderbergers an excuse to garrison the disputed area with UN "peacekeepers" and thus ensure their ultimate control over the expoitation of this treasure-trove. If so, that would certainly explain why Holbrooke is busy upsetting the Greeks and Greek-Cypriots, why the U.S. is still busily feeding weapons to both sides, and why Bilderberger Bill Clinton is so eager to link the Cyprus issue with an Aegean settlement] The U.S., which is the major supplier of arms to both Greece and Turkey, is just about to offer Turkey a US$43 million deal for 30 Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles even as it offers the Greeks 248 Hellfire anti-tank missiles worth US$24 million.
Following the 1974 attempts by the then-ruling Greek junta to forcibly unify Cyprus with Greece in fulfilment of General Grivas' original dream of "Enosis", the Turkish government moved swiftly to protect the Turkish-Cypriot community, which numbers just under 20% of the population of Cyprus. An autonomous Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was hastily established, garrisoned by 30,000 Turkish troops and occupying approximately one-third of the island, which continues in diplomatically-unrecognized legal limbo to this day. The British, whose responsibility under the London agreements which settled Cyprus' independence from Britain was to prevent any such action, sat unmoving on their sovereign bases on the island, and will do so again. They and the Americans were reportedly active in "encouraging" the Turkish invasion which divided the island: the British, who have long memories, had not forgotten the atrocities committed against their forces by General Grivas nor the stream of virulently anti-British propaganda which had poured out from Radio Athens in his support, an activity doubly offensive to the British because of their own prompt and costly military intervention on the Greek mainland some years earlier which had saved Greece from an attempted communist takeover. The British also suspected, with good reason, that their sovereign bases in Cyprus would be promptly converted to NATO bases in the event of union of the island with Greece, and that they would be politely shown the door.
The Greek-Cypriot militia and the Greek regular army brigade stationed on the island will likely be overwhelmed by superior Turkish military forces within a matter of days in the case of war, with little hope of reinforcement through the then-devastated port of Paphos and with virtually complete air superiority over the island held by Turkey, whose aircraft take literally minutes to reach Cyprus from their Turkish air bases and are able therefore to strafe, attack or loiter for long periods. Greek aircraft would be forced to fly from Rhodes, a 500 kilometer flight in each direction, which would leave them precious little time for dog-fighting, military interdiction, or the provision of air cover for Greek-Cypriot forces in Cyprus.
Any naval attempt by Greece to reinforce its military units on Cyprus must therefore also run a gauntlet of continous Turkish air and naval attacks, with the prospect of dauntingly heavy losses.
Though the Turks are already closely scrutinizing Russian ships passing through the Dardanelles straits, it is unlikely that they would risk Russian wrath by seeking to interdict or impound any missiles thus found while they were being transported under the protection of the Russian flag. The only remaining option, therefore, would be to strike them hard as soon as they were landed at Paphos and before they were dispersed and set up. As soon as they are activated, the Turks not only lose their advantage in air superiority over the island but also their present relatively-unchallenged freedom to attack Cyprus-bound Greek naval convoys. Indeed, the S300's 150-kilometer range would also effectively give the Greek-Cypriots air superiority over the two neighbouring mainland Turkish air force bases once they were successfully activated.
Given the near-certainty of an overwhelming Turkish military success on Cyprus, the U.S. State Department has already covered itself with the Greeks by publicly blaming the Turks for the crisis; true to form, it has also covered itself with Ankara by being careful not to specify which Turks it had in mind, those on the mainland or those on Cyprus.
Does this all sound too incredible to be true? Well, apart from the warnings in our June, 1996, Bilderberg Report, we also posted - well before the recent Bilderberg meeting - the following warning on our Web site (you can see an archived copy at http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/WEBAD1.HTM):
Note two key items almost buried in this concise alert.The Coming Kosovo War, Greece, Turkey, And Cyprus...
In our June, 1996, Special Report on the Bilderbergers, the New World Order Intelligence Update warned that the globalist elite had planned a Balkans war which would become the "Vietnam of the '90's"; and that, if they could not get such a war going by inflaming the Serbs through the use of NATO "snatch squads" to seize suspected war criminals for trial at the Hague, their plan was to use Kosovo as the flashpoint to ignite a regional conflict which would ultimately embroil the Yugoslav federation, Bosnia, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, the Western European military powers, the United States, and by extension - as allies of Turkey and Greece - Israel and Syria. Now, from virtually nowhere, the well-financed Kosovan Liberation Army has sprung into the limelight and the scene is being set for a Balkan war of unbelievable carnage and merciless hostility.We further warned that, if the war in Kosovo took too long to engineer or eluded the elite altogether, then their fall-back plan was to create a vicious conflict between Turkey and Greece over Cyprus, and to push the war back into the Balkans area from there. Now, with the delivery of Russian missiles to the Greek-Cypriots moved up to August of this year, we expect sudden, overwhelming Turkish air strikes upon that island late this summer if the Kosovo conflict is in fact delayed by Serbian political dexterity.
This is not a good summer to plan to be vacationing on any of the Greek islands, especially those in the Agean and the disputed island of Cyprus - unless, that is, you feel the need to exercise your adrenaline glands by ducking hot shrapnel, trying to stay away from ports, roads, bridges, installations, and buildings that the Turkish air force might legitimately consider to be military targets, and trying desperately to find some means of getting off a crowded island which has suddenly become a big bulls-eye for loitering Turkish strike aircraft. Forget about getting help from the Greek air force if you're on Cyprus - they'll barely be able to carry enough fuel to reach the island, make one pass, and return safely to their mainland bases!
And it's certainly not a good summer to be visiting northern Greece or the Balkans as a tourist!
The Turks will relish the opportunity this provides them with to avenge themselves upon Greece for constantly blocking their European Union membership applications, for openly harbouring an office of the terrorist PKK in Athens, for Greece's support for a Kurdish state in Turkey, and for what they perceive to be the calculated insults, hatred, and bile toward Turkey spewed out by Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos [a Bilderberger] virtually every day. We don't anticipate, therefore, that Turkish pilots will be too discriminating as they hit their targets, and, if tourists get in the way....well, they'll say, unfortunately, "that's war!"
If you were a subscriber to the New World Order Intelligence Update, you'd have known about these threatened conflicts over two years before the regular media began to mention them - and you'd have learned well ahead of time about the elite's plans for massive social, political, economic, and governmental change as they prepare to bring in "global governance" and their promised "New World Order" in the year 2000. You'd also have had time to arrange your affairs, protect your assets, and decide where - and how - to live in order to maximize your freedom and independence!
Theodoros Pangalos, the Greek Foreign Minister, attended the 1996 Bilderberg Conference in Toronto, Canada, and it appears to us that his policy of publicly insulting and offending the Turks really commenced in earnest from that date. Was he told at that Conference that the exascerbation of tensions between the two nations by such regular and uncouth utterances would be one of his primary future responsibilities?
And Greece is allied with Syria. We understand from various sources that the Greeks may well have made emergency arrangements to launch F16 military air sorties from Syrian air bases in the event that the Turks succeed in taking out the Cypriot S300 missile installations in a devastating first strike. The existence of this alliance infuriates Turkey, which has its own serious differences with Syria. It exists partly as a Syrian response to Turkey's own alliance with Israel, on whose notable and successful experience with aerial "first strikes" Turkey will probably be drawing heavily. This refinement of the conflict no doubt further delights the Bilderbergers since it not only pits an Orthodox Christian and a technically-secular but Muslim state against each other, but also draws in by default the Arabs and the Israelis in opposing supporting roles. Greece [along with Russia] would thereafter be quick to offer aid and support to its fellow-Orthodox Serbian neighbours in the event of a Kosovan conflict, whilst Turkey [along with the Arab states] would be equally prompt in supporting the Kovosan muslims and moslem Albania in such an eventually. And the Bilderbergers would finally have their rapidly-spreading, long-lasting Balkans war. [UPDATE: In a deadly twist in, and refinement of, their current Byzantine game in the Middle East, the New World Order Intelligence Update learned on May 19th that the Russians were on the brink of signing a $300 million-plus deal to supply S300 missiles to the Syrians also. Once installed, they will negate Israeli air superiority in the region in exactly the same way that their installation on Cyprus will do with regard to the Turks. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victor Posuvalyuk will face concern and criticism on the part of Israeli officials as he commences a working visit to Israel on May 18th, but it is unlikely that the Russians will be moved by this. The Russians and Syrians set up a joint "security and defence" committee last January in Damascus, and the Russians intend to fulfil this contract for their own purposes as soon as the Syrians can obtain financing for the deal from the Saudis or from another oil-rich and sympathetic Arab state. Israel, a nation which depends heavily on the tactical superiority of its small but highly-trained air force, will then have two choices: to strike these missiles as soon as they arrive and before they are activated, and thus risk a wider Arab-Israeli conflict; or to persuade the Turks, in defence of their own tactical freedoms and local air space, as willing proxies, to do the job for them]
A dangerous volatility is added to this mix by the fact that Turkey's generals, who are the major power in that country, are simmering with fury at repeated Greek "provocations" and are incensed that their attempts to reinforce Turkey's secular and Western orientation have been undermined by the latest refusal of the European Union to admit them into full membership [a slight they attribute almost wholly to Greece's influence], and by the fact that Greek politicians, a notoriously corrupt class, are only to willing to excite war scares with Turkey in order to divert domestic attention from their own economic mismanagement and general ineptness.
To ensure the conflict's deadly and rapid spread, discussions are already underway concerning the posting of a small and hapless force of NATO troops on the border between the Yugoslav Federation and Albania, ostensibly to prevent Albanian gun-running into Kosovo. This will hardly impede the steady flow of weapons coming through that rugged terrain, but it will succeed in firmly postioning the NATO troops in the enemy camp as far as the Kosovan Liberation Army is concerned, since it will appear to have no other practical purpose than to assist the Serbs. It is therefore inevitable that, first, sporadic firefights and, then, full-scale conflict will occur between the KLA and these unfortunate NATO troopers. The fact that the Serbs have now also quietly instituted an effective blockade at the internal Serbian-Kosovan border, turning back hundreds of trucks carrying foodstuffs and the basic necessities of life and causing severe shortages in Kosovo and Metohija - an on-going policy which they publicly deny - will not sweeten Kovosan tempers when they see NATO troops enforcing what will clearly be a blockade of another type on their border with Albania. [NOTE: on May 17th, the day after we sent out this article over the Internet, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, on a visit to Ljubliana, Slovenia, offered to post Canadian troops on the Kosovo-Albanian border "if the United Nations asked us to participate." Chretien, an attendee at the 1996 Bilderberg meeting and whose Ottawa political "handler" is long-time senior Trilateralist Mitchell Sharp, made the offer after flying in from the G8 meeting in Birmingham, England, for a "lightning quick" meeting with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek. To provide the appropriate "cover" for this quick conspiratorial huddle, he will then continue on to visit Canada's 1,200 troops in Bosnia and to announce that Canada will be keeping them in place well after their current mandate expires on July 1st of this year. A deliberative Bilderberg discussion in Ayr, Scotland; a fast call to the G8 meeting in Birmingham, England; a quick flight by an obedient Prime Minister to Slovenia; and...voila! - NATO troops will soon be emplaced "in harm's way" on the border of Kosovo and Albania. The Bilderbergers certainly don't let grass grow under their feet - when they want something done, it's done!]
And what will Greece gain from cooperating in what seems to be, for her, a foregone disaster? Our sources indicate that Greece may have been promised the opportunity, in the event of a wider Balkans war, to seize and hold the neighbouring area of Northern Epirus, or "southern Albania", a territory with a large local population of Greek extraction which has long been coveted by Greece. Such an exchange would more than reconcile the Greeks to an apparent Turkish "victory" over Cyprus and cause the "insiders" in their government to do everything in their power to bring such a wider conflict about. [NOTE: There is no doubt that the Greeks would have the military muscle to pull this off: in the latest (Spring, 1998) edition of NATO QUARTERLY, Greece, alone among the 16 NATO countries, has increased the size of its military (by 20,000 over a 14-year period, to its current level of 206,000) and maintained its spending on military equipment (at approximately 20% of its budget); Turkey, by comparison, has 820,000 military personnel and spends 36% of its budget on military hardware. Following the 1996 clash between Greece and Turkey over Imia, a tiny island in the Agean, Greece commenced a US$13 billion arms-purchase program: the two countries have almost come to open warfare twice since 1967, and the Greeks no doubt expect the worst concerning Cyprus. It might be virtually impossible to get troops, armour, field guns, and reinforcements to Cyprus in the coming conflict, but they'd be conveniently to hand and waiting if the opportunity arose to employ them in southern Albania]
Our readers can therefore understand with what interest we learned from our own sources of a secretive meeting during this year's Bilderberg Conference between the Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cam, Richard Holbrooke [U.S. special presidential envoy to Cyprus], and Sir David Hannay [the British representative to Cyprus]. Greek Foreign Minister Pangalos, as already mentioned, was present for briefing at the 1996 Conference, and his attendance was therefore not required this year. We leave our readers to draw their own conclusions as to the content of these concealed discussions, and do no more than to remind them to watch their newspapers for the next act in this deadly game of Bilderberg political theatre. [UPDATE: the Greeks are now displaying increasing distrust of American efforts to "mediate" in the Cyprus impasse. On May 18th, the Anatolia news agency reported that Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatsopoulos, who had just met in Thessalonika with Greek-Cypriot Defence Minister Iannakis Omiru, said, "We should be suspicious if we take into account the history of Cyprus and the roles and attitudes of the mediators in the past." Holbrooke caused deep offense to both Greeks and Greek-Cypriots recently by refusing to acknowledge the Greek-Cypriot head of state as "President", referring to him repeatedly instead as "Mr." He also abruptly reversed the previous American position by publicly affirming that the authority of the Greek-Cypriot administration does not extend over the approximately one-third of the island now occupied by the Turkish-Cypriots and garrisoned by Turkish troops. The Greeks would have had even more reason to be suspicious had they realized that the British and Americans are deeply concerned about the positioning of Russian S300 missiles in Cyprus (and soon, also, Syria), but for a different reason from that of the Turks: the radar array which accompanies these missiles is so powerful that it can detect any aerial movement throughout the entire region. It is sensitive enough to "paint" and track aircraft up to 200 miles away, which would permit it to fully cover a great swathe of strategically-sensitive air space stretching deep inland from Turkey right down to Egypt. Since it is very likely that Russian specialists will be delegated to operate this sophisticated equipment, this means that intelligence on British and American aerial activities in the Mediterranean and the Gulf would be probably promptly be fed back to Moscow and from thence to Russia's favorite rogue states in the region, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Libya. Its ability to fully penetrate and monitor Israeli air space would also deny Israel much of the element of surprise which has cloaked its own previous "first strike" successes. In addition, both the British and Americans make intensive use of the Royal Air Force's huge Akrotiri base on Cyprus for Middle Eastern, Gulf, and other operations; the Americans find it particularly useful as a secure forward base from which they can operate clandestine U2 surveillance and other sensitive flights. Since neither the Americans nor the British are in a position to eliminate the latent threat thus posed by the tracking capabilities of these missile batteries in Cyprus, they'd be only too happy to help create the circumstances under which the Turks could do it for them. And then again, as equally necessary, later, in Syria]
Other topics on the agenda at this year's meeting included:
Apart from a brief article in THE SCOTSMAN which, through no fault of their own, was long on supposition and short on specifics, the Bilderbergers managed to restore the almost complete Press blackout which had prevailed up to their 1996 meeting, when the New World Order Intelligence Update encouraged them to involuntarily reform their ways. Since they appear to have slipped back into their old bad habits once again, we're happy to give them a little nudge again this year. After all, people who work so hard on our behalf deserve a modicum of public recognition and credit.
Copies of the series of 'New World Order Intelligence Update' 1996 Press Releases on the Toronto Bilderberg Conference can be readily seen, downloaded or printed off on this Web site at http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/bildpres.htm.
On the Turnberry Hotel's web page, an enraptured guest has declared, "This is what the golf course in heaven looks like." Seldom can such repugnant deliberations have taken place in as beautiful a setting. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Bilderbergers shun the light of honest public scrutiny?
May 14-17, 1998
USA - Allaire, Paul A - Chairman, Xerox Corporation
E - Almunia Amann, Joaquin - Secretary General, Socialist Party
P - Balsemao, Francisco Pinto - Professor of Communication Science, New University, Lisbon; Chairman, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister
S - Barnevik, Percy - Chairman, ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd
TR - Bayar, Ugur - Chairman, Privitization Administration
I - Bernabe, Franco - Managing Director, ENI S.p.A.
D - Bertram, Christoph - Director, Foundation Science and Policy, Former Diplomatic Correspondent, Die Zeit
NL - Beugel, Ernst H van der - Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings for Europe and Canada
CDN - Black, Conrad - Chairman, The Telegraph plc
INT - Bonino, Emma - Member of the European Commission
INT - Brittan, Leon - Vice President of the European Commission
GB - Browne, John - Group Chief Executive, British Petroleum Company plc
IRL - Bruton, John - Leader of Fine Gael
GB - Buchanon, Robin - Senior Partner, Bain and Company Inc. UK.
D - Burda, Hubert - Chairman, Burda Media
E - Carvajal Urquijo, Jaime - Chairman, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson S.A. (Spain)
I - Cavalchini, Luigi G - Permanent Representative to the European Union
TR - Cem, Ismail - Minister of Foreign Affairs
CDN - Chretien, Raymond A.J. - Ambassador to the U.S.
RUS - Chubais, Anatoli B. - Former First Vice Prime Minister; Chairman RAO EES
GB - Clarke, Kenneth - Member of Parliament
F - Collomb, Bertrand - Chairman and CEO, Lafarge
INT - Courtis, Kenneth S. - First Vice President, Research Dept., Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific
P - Coutinho, Vasco Pereira - Chairman, IPC Holding
INT - Crockett, Andrew - General Manager, Bank for International Settlements
GR - David, George A. - Chairman of the Board, Hellenic Bottling Company S.A.
B - Davignon, Etienne - Executive Chairman, Societe Generale de Belgique; Former Vice Chairman of the Commission of the European Communities
USA - Deutch, John M. - Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry. Former Director General, Central Intelligence Agency; Former Deputy Secretary of Defence
CDN - Dion, Stephane - Queens Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
USA - Donilon, Thomas - Partner, O'Melveny & Myers; Former Assistant Secretary of State, and Chief of Staff, U.S. Department of State.
DK - Ellemann-Jensen, Uffe - Chairman, Liberal Party
D - Engelen-Kefer, Ursula - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB
USA - Feldstein, Martin S. - President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research Inc.
INT - Fischer, Stanley - First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
USA - Forester, Lynn - President and CEO, FirstMark Holdings Inc.
USA - Gadiesh, Orit - Chairman of the Board, Bain and Company Inc.
F - Gregorin, Jean-Louis - Member of the Board of Directors, Matra Hachette
TR - Gezgin Eris, Meral - President IKV (Economic Development Foundation)
B - Goossens, John - President and CEO, Belgacom
GB - Grierson, Ronald - Former Vice Chairman, GEC
USA - Grossman, Marc - Assistant Secretary, US Department of State
F - Guetta, Bernard - Editor in Chief, Le Nouvel Observateur
GB - Hague, William - Leader of the Opposition
GB - Hannay, David - Prime Ministers Personal Envoy for Turkey; Former Permanent Representative to the United Nations
USA - Hoagland, Jim - Associate Editor, The Washington Post
N - Hoegh, Westye - Chairman of the Board, Leif Hoegh and Co. A.S.A.; Former President, Norwegian Shipowners Association
NL - Hoeven, Cees H. van der - President, Royal Ahold
USA - Hoge, Jr., James F. - Editor, Foreign Affairs
GB - Hogg, Christopher - Chairman, Reuters Group plc
USA - Holbrooke, Richard C. - Former Assistant Secretary for European Affairs; Vice Chairman, CS First Boston
P - Horta e Costa, Miguel - Vice-President, Portugal Telecom
D - Ishinger, Wolfgang - Political Director, Foreign Office
D - Issing, Otmar - Member of the Board, Deutsche Bundesbank
GB - Jenkins, Michael - Vice Chairman, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson
USA - Johnson, James A. - Chairman and CEO, FannieMae
USA - Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. - Senior Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP (Attorneys-at-Law)
GB - Kaletsky, Anatole - Associate Editor, The Times
GR - Karamanlis, Kostas A. - Leader of the Opposition
TR - Kirac, Suna - Vice Chairman of the Board, Koc Holding A.S.
USA - Kissinger, Henry A. - Former Secretary of State; Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.
INT - Kohnstamm, Max - Senior Consultant, The European Policy Center
D - Kopper, Hilmar - Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank A.G.
NL - Korteweg, Pieter - President and CEO, Robeco Group
CZ - Kovanda, Karel - Head of Mission to the Czech Republic to NATO and the WEU
USA - Kravis, Henry R. - Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
USA - Kravis, Marie-Josee - Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Inc.
USA - Leschly, Jan - CEO SmithKline Beecham plc.
F - Levy-Lang, Andre - Chairman of the Board of Management, Paribas
FIN - Lipponen, Paavo - Prime Minister
DK - Lykketoft, Mogens - Minister of Finance
CDN - MacMillan, Margaret - Editor, International Journal, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, University of Toronto
CDN - Manning, Preston - Leader of the Reform Party
I - Masera, Rainer S. - Director General, I.M.I.S.p.A.
USA - Matthews, Jessica Tuchman - President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
USA - McDonough, William J. - President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
D - Nass, Matthias - Deputy Editor, Zie Deit
NL - Netherlands, Her Majesty Queen of the
PL - Olechowski, Andrzej - Chairman, Central Europe Trust, Poland
FIN - Ollila, Jorma - President and CEO, Nokia Corporation
I - Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso - Chairman, CONSOB
GR - Papandreou, George A. - Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs
INT - Prendergast, Kieran - Under-Secertary General for Political Affairs, United Nations
USA - Prestowitz, Clyde V. - President, Economic Strategy Institute
A - Puhringer, Othmar - Chairman of Managing Board, VA-Technologie AG
GB - Purves, William - Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc.
CH - Pury, David de - Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turrettini and Co. Ltd.
A - Randa, Gerhard - Chairman of the Managing Board, Bank of Austria
USA - Rhodes, William R. - Vice Chairman, CitiBank, N.A.
GB - Robertson, George - Secretary of State for Defence
USA - Rockefeller, David - Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank International Advisory Committee
E - Rodriguez Inciarte, Matias - Vice-Chairman, Banco de Santander
GB - Roll, Eric - Senior Advisor, SBC Warburg Dillon Read
GB - Rothschild, Evelyn de - Chairman, N M Rothschild and Sons
D - Schremp, Jurgen E. - Chairman of the Board of Mangagement, Daimler Benz A.G.
DK - Seidenfaden, Toger - Editor in Chief, Politiken A/S
I - Siniscalco, Domenico - Professor of Economics; Director of Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei
INT - Solana Madariaga, Javier - Seceretary General, NATO
P - Sousa, Marcelo Rebelo de - Leader of the PSD Party
N - Storvik, Kjell - Governor, Bank of Norway
PL - Suchoka, Hanna - Minister of Justice
USA - Summers, Lawrence H. - Deputy Secretary for International Affairs, US Department of the Treasury
IRL - Sutherland, Peter D. - Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Chairman, British Petroleum Company plc.
GB - Taylor, J. Martin - Group Chief Executive, Barclays plc.
USA - Thoman, G. Richard - President and CEO, Xerox Corporation
N - Udgaard, Nils M. - Foreign Editor, Aftenposten
CH - Vasella, Daniel - CEO Novartis
USA - Vink, Lodewijk J.R. de - President and CEO, Warner Lambert Company
FIN - Virkkunen, Janne - Senior Editor in Chief, Helsingin Sanomat
B - Vits, Mia de - General Secretary, ABVV-FGTB
A - Vranitzky, Franz - Former Federal Chancellor
INT - Vries, Gijs M. de - Leader of the Liberal Group, European Parliament
S - Wallengerg, Jacob - Chairman of the Board, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken
USA - Whitman, Christine Todd - Governor of New Jersey
D - Wissmann, Matthias - Federal Minister for Transport
INT - Wolfensohn, James D. - President, the World Bank
D - Wolff von Amerongen, Otto - Chairman and CEO of Otto Wolff GmbH
USA - Wolfowitz, Paul - Dean, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
USA - Yost, Casimir A. - Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington
GB - Wooldridge, Adrian - Foreign Correspondent, The Economist.
Our orientations are clear. The building of the state of Kosova, economic development, economic and social well-being and rigorous measures against corruption, organized crime and negative behavior, so we can have improved security and integrate Kosova into European Union structures. (Hashim Thaci, chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Prime Minister of the Kosovo provisional government, former KLA leader and known criminal)The US, the EU and the UN are supporting a Kosovo government headed by a known criminal, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.The PDK, led by Hashim Thaci, former Kosovan Liberation Army commander, took control of many municipalities after the war. The party has close links with organized crime in the province. (The Observer, 29 October 2000)
Mr. Thaci, nicknamed "the Snake" during his KLA days, is a sharp-suited 32-year-old former rebel commander with poor oratory skills, links to organized crime and a determination to preserve relations between his party and the United States (The Scotsman, 20 October 2000)
"I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists," (US Special Envoy and Ambassador Robert Gelbard)
"The KLA [formerly headed by Hashim Thaci] is tied in with every known Middle and Far Eastern drug cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA,..." (Michael Levine former official of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA))
Hashim Thaci founded the "Drenica-Group" an underground organization that is estimated to have controlled between 10% and 15% of all criminal activities in Kosovo (smuggling arms, stolen cars, oil, cigarettes and prostitution). Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia
The position of Prime Minister was created under the "Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG)" established by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
Under UN mandate, the purpose of the provisional government was "to provide 'provisional, democratic self-government' in advance of a decision on the political status of Kosovo.
What this signifies is that the United Nations has not only set the stage for an "Independent" Kosovo government in violation of international law, it has also installed a Kosovo government integrated by the members of a criminal syndicate. All three Kosovo Prime Ministers, Ramush Haradinaj, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci are war criminals.
The Kosovo Democratic Party headed by former KLA Commander Hashim Thaci is essentially an outgrowth of the former Kosovo Liberation Army.
US-NATO covert support the KLA, goes back to the mid-1990s. Iin the year preceding the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, the KLA was quite openly supported by the Clinton administration.
KLA leader Hashim Thaci was a protégé of Madeleine Albright. He was chosen by Albright to play a key role on Washington's behalf at the 1998 Rambouillet negotiations. .
The links of the KLA to organized crime have been documented by Interpol and the US Congress. The Washington Times in an article published in May 1999 describes the KLA and its links to the Clinton administration as follows:
Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army [headed by the current Kosovo Prime minister Hashim Thaci] , which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans.The Christian Science Monitor in an August 14, 2000 report describes the criminal network controlled by Thaci:The KLA members, embraced by the Clinton administration in NATO's 41-day bombing campaign to bring Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the bargaining table, were trained in secret camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, according to newly obtained intelligence reports.
The reports also show that the KLA has enlisted Islamic terrorists -- members of the Mujahideen --as soldiers in its ongoing conflict against Serbia, and that many already have been smuggled into Kosovo to join the fight. ....
The intelligence reports document what is described as a "link" between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire, and the KLA --including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports said bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, has both trained and financially supported the KLA. (Washington Times, May 4, 1999, see complete article below)
UN police suspect that much of the violence and intimidation has come from former KLA members, especially those allied with Hashim Thaci, the former KLA leader and head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, one of the KLA's political offshoots.The Heritage Foundation: Support the KLA-KDP, despite its Criminal ConnectionsIn one recent incident, the shop of an LDK activist in Mr. Thaci's home village was sprayed with automatic gunfire - the second such attack since November.
Thaci's party potentially has much to lose in the elections, which are for municipal offices only. After Serb forces withdrew last year, the KLA occupied town halls and public institutions across Kosovo and set up its own provincial government.
Although the UN has gradually asserted its own authority and placed representatives of other political groups in local governments, in places like Srbica ex-KLA members affiliated with Thaci's party still exercise virtual complete control.
"These guys are not going to give up power that easily," says Dardan Gashi, a political analyst with the International Crisis Group, a US-based research organization with an office in Pristina.
UN police also suspect organized crime is involved in some of the violence. They say that criminal groups engaged in racketeering, smuggling, and prostitution rely on close links to some people in power. The prospect of losing these connections - and the income they generate - may make them ill-disposed toward the LDK.
Officials say the problem is the worst in the Drenica region of Kosovo, the KLA's heartland and a stronghold of Thaci's party. Srbica, where Koci is the local LDK president, is one of the main towns in Drenica. (emphasis added)
The Heritage Foundation in a May 1999 report acknowledges that the KLA is a criminal organization. It nonetheless called for the support of the KLA should by the Clinton administration:
Should the U.S. harness the KLA's military potential against Milosevic's brutal regime, despite the KLA's unusual ideological roots and apparent ties to organized crime? ... The KLA does not represent every group seeking an end to Milosevic's brutal campaign and is known to have committed some atrocities of its own, it is the most significant force resisting Yugoslav aggression within Kosovo. Moreover, the scale and scope of its crimes have been dwarfed by the systematic campaign of terror unleashed by Yugoslav military, paramilitary, and police forces inside Kosovo. which Washington has done consistently since the 1999 war. (Heritage Foundation Report, 13 May 1999)The Heritage Foundation supports the Kosovo Democratic Party (KDP) which is integrated by former members of the KLA.Shunning the KLA now will deprive the United States of the benefits of cooperating with a resistance force that is capable of ratcheting up the pressure on Milosevic to negotiate a settlement (Ibid)
The KDP has retained its links to organised crime. This position broadly summarizes the attitude of the "international community" in relation to Kosovo. More recently, the Heritage Foundation, which plays a behind the scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy, has been pushing for Kosovo "Independence"
The evidence amply confirms that the prime minister of Kosovo never severed his links to organized crime.
A known criminal is being protected by the United Nations: He was arrested in Budapest in July 2003 on an Interpol warrant and was immediately released, following a request from the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). This is not an isolated event. There is evidence that the UN Mission and its international police force have protected the former KLA, which in the wake of the 1999 NATO bombing was relabeled the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) under a formal UN mandate.
According to Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic, "the prosecution at the Hague war crimes tribunal has over 40,000 pages of evidence against former Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci, (quoted by Radio B92, Belgrade, 3 July 2003).
In April 2000, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "ordered The Hague chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte to omit from the list of war crime suspects Hashim Thaci" (Tanjug, 6 May 2000). Carla del Ponte subsequently claimed that there was not enough evidence to indict Thaci on war crimes. .
More generally, the UN Mission has acted as an accessory in protecting a criminal syndicate.
In November 2003, criminal proceedings against several former KLA commanders were initiated in Belgrade. These included Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku and Ramush Haradinaj. .Both Haradinaj and Ceku's names are on Interpol lists.
Agim Ceku
Agim Ceku is known for having committed extensive war crimes in the Krajina region of Croatia in the mid-1990s involving the massacre and ethnic cleansing of the Serb population. He was a former brigadier general in the Croatian Army and a key planner of Operation Storm, which led to the expulsion of several hundred thousand Serbs from Krajina region of Croatia. In 1999, he was appointed Commander of the KLA, with the approval of the US and NATO. He was subsequently appointed Commander of the UN sponsored Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (on a UN payroll) and became Prime Minister of Kosovo in 2006, succeeded by Hashim Thaci, the current Prime Minister In Kosovo, he has continues to have links to organized crime syndicates. According to a London Observer, the KPC which was headed by Ceku, was involved in acts of torture as well protecting prostitution in Kosovo. (March 14, 2000 , Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
The Western Media: Disinformation concerning the Nature of the Kosovo government
The Kosovo government is tied into organized criminal syndicates involved in narcotics and human trafficking.
The fact that all three Kosovo Prime Ministers, Ramush Haradinaj, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci are war criminals has not been acknowledged in recent press reports regarding the Independence of Kosovo.
The EU and the US are supporting the criminalization of Kosovo politics.
We bring to our readers attention two articles published in the Washington Times.
The first article was published in May 1999 describes the KLA as a criminal organization. The second article published in February 2008 highlights the role of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, a "former criminal" in the process of Kosovo independence.
Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army [headed by the current Kosovo Prime minister Hashim Thaci] , which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans.
The KLA members, embraced by the Clinton administration in NATO's 41-day bombing campaign to bring Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the bargaining table, were trained in secret camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, according to newly obtained intelligence reports.
The reports also show that the KLA has enlisted Islamic terrorists -- members of the Mujahideen --as soldiers in its ongoing conflict against Serbia, and that many already have been smuggled into Kosovo to join the fight.
Known to its countrymen as the Ushtria Clirimatare e Kosoves, the KLA has as many as 30,000 members, a number reportedly on the rise as a result of NATO's continuing bombing campaign. The group's leadership, including Agim Ceku, a former Croatian army brigadier general, has rapidly become a political and military force in the Balkans.
The intelligence reports document what is described as a "link" between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire, and the KLA --including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports said bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, has both trained and financially supported the KLA.
Many border crossings into Kosovo by "foreign fighters" also have been documented and include veterans of the militant group Islamic Jihad from Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. Many of the crossings originated in neighboring Albania and, according to the reports, included parties of up to 50 men.
Jane's International Defense Review, a highly respected British Journal, reported in February that documents found last year on the body of a KLA member showed that he had escorted several volunteers into Kosovo, including more than a dozen Saudi Arabians. Each volunteer carried a passport identifying him as a Macedonian Albanian.
Bin Laden and his military commander, Mohammed Atef, were named in a federal indictment handed up in November in New York for the simultaneous explosions Aug. 7 at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The indictment accused the two men of directing the attacks, which injured more than 5,000 people.
The indictment said bin Laden, working through al-Qaeda, forged alliances with government officials in Iran, the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and an Iranian terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. He was indicted earlier this year by a federal grand jury in New York for his suspected terrorist activities.
The al-Qaeda is believed to have targeted U.S. embassies and American soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. The organization also is accused of housing and training terrorists, and of raising money to support their causes.
The State Department, along with other federal agencies, offered a $5 million reward last year for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the two men. Mr. Clinton ordered a retaliatory attack on training bases controlled by bin Laden in Afghanistan and a chemical factory near Khartoum, Sudan, after the bombings.
Last year, while State Department officials labeled the KLA a terrorist organization, saying it bankrolled its operations with proceeds from the heroin trade and from loans from known terrorists like bin Laden, the department listed the group as an "insurgency" organization in its official reports. The officials charged that the KLA used terrorist tactics to assault Serbian and ethnic Albanian civilians in a campaign to achieve independence.
The KLA's involvement in drug smuggling as a means of raising funds for weapons is long-standing. Intelligence documents show it has aligned itself with an extensive organized crime network in Albania that smuggles heroin to buyers throughout Western Europe and the United States. Drug agents in five countries believe the cartel is one of the most powerful heroin smuggling organizations in the world.
The documents show heroin and some cocaine is moved over land and sea from Turkey through Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia to Western Europe and elsewhere. The circuit has become known as the "Balkan Route."
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent report that drug smuggling organizations composed of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were considered "second only to Turkish gangs as the predominant heroin smugglers along the Balkan Route."
Greek Interpol representatives have called Kosovo's ethnic Albanians "the primary sources of supply for cocaine and heroin in that country."
France's Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs said the KLA was a key player in the rapidly expanding drugs-for-arms business and helped transport $2 billion in drugs a year into Western Europe.
German drug agents said $1.5 billion in drug profits is laundered annually by Kosovo smugglers, through as many as 200 private banks or currency-exchange offices.
Jane's Intelligence Review estimated in March that drug sales could have netted the KLA profits in the "high tens of millions of dollars." It said the KLA had rearmed itself for a spring offensive with the aid of drug money, along with donations from Albanians in Western Europe and the United States.
The KLA were identified as a terrorist organization by US special envoy Robert Gelbard.
Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, said yesterday that his government has received information indicating the Kosovo province's Albanian leadership will "illegally" declare independence soon.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - The Serbian minister for Kosovo said yesterday that his government has learned the province's ethnic Albanian leadership will declare independence on Feb. 17. Western diplomats said they expected the move a day later.
Slobodan Samardzic said Serbia's government has received "relevant information" that Kosovo's government will "illegally declare unilateral independence of Kosovo on Sunday, Feb. 17." He did not specify the source of information and Belgrade remains fiercely opposed to the loss of the province.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will declare independence from Serbia "in a matter of days," but never specified the exact date. Serbia regards the province as the cradle of its statehood, and expressions of nationalist anger have increased as the independence declaration approached.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci [former leader of the KLA] would not comment on the Feb. 17 date, but insisted Kosovo's split from Serbia was "a done deal."
"I can only confirm today that we have the confirmation from some 100 states which say they are ready to recognize Kosovo's independence," Mr. Thaci said in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
In Munich, Serbian President Boris Tadic, considered a relatively pro-Western moderate, told a major security conference there would be no winners if Kosovo's leaders pressed ahead without a negotiated deal.
"If such negotiations don't occur, I fear all three parties will end up paying an extremely high price," Mr. Tadic said, referring to Kosovo's Albanians, Serbia and the international community. "That is something none of us can afford."
Bishop Artemije, spiritual leader of Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox minority, said his community would not recognize any independence declaration from Pristina and would remain loyal to Belgrade.
"Independence is not the only option," he said in an interview with The Washington Times on a U.S. visit this week. "The West tells us to compromise, but the only choice we are given is capitulation."
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday the Bush administration wants to see the final status of Kosovo "resolved and resolved in the not-too-distant future."
But he said he could not discuss the "intentions of the leadership either in Serbia or in Kosovo."
Serbia's main ally, Russia, opposes Kosovo's independence, asserting it would set a precedent worldwide. Other EU states, including Romania and Cyprus, also have deep reservations, fearing it would spark new ethnic violence in the Balkans and encourage other separatist movements.
But the U.S. and a clear majority of EU nations are expected to back Kosovo's statehood, saying the U.N.-run southern province, where 2 million Albanians represent an overwhelming majority, is a special case that deserves to be independent from Belgrade.
As nationalist tensions rose sharply, an explosion shook a shopping mall yesterday in Serbia. No one was injured and the explosion caused only minor damage. Mr. Samardzic's statement was issued after a meeting with a senior European Union official, Stefan Lehne, who was in Belgrade to clarify the bloc's plans to send an EU policing and administrative mission to Kosovo.
Serbia has rejected the mission, saying it would be a prelude to the province's independence.
- Staff writer David R. Sands contributed to this story from Washington.
Russia has repeatedly made it very clear that it will not recognize nor accept an independent Kosovo but rather uphold Serbia's historic claim to the province. Recall how World War I broke out after a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austro-Hungarian archduke in 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, Russia came to the defense of its ally. The alliance system kicked in; Germany and the Ottoman Empire joined the Austro-Hungarian, while France and Britain joined Russia. That system is long gone, but the relationship between Russia and Serbia, deeply rooted in ethnic and religious ties, should not be taken lightly.
Recall how Bill Clinton's big war was "Operation Allied Force," conducted by a somewhat reluctant NATO at U.S. insistence in 1999. Building upon NATO's "Operation Deliberate Force" targeting Serbian fighters in Bosnia four years earlier, it resulted in the aerial bombing of a European capital (Belgrade) for the first time since 1945. Human Rights Watch concluded in 2000 that between 488 and 527 Yugoslav civilians were killed as a result of the bombing, which forced Belgrade to obey Washington and withdraw its troops from the heart of the Serbian homeland.
That heart, of course, is Kosovo. Since the seventh century, when the Serbs pressing eastward from Dalmatia established themselves in the old Roman province of Upper Moesia, Kosovo has been the spiritual core of the Serbian nation. The Serbs have shared it with others, notably Albanians, and the Serbian gene-pool is itself complex and changing over time. But Serbian identity was shaped by the Battle of Kosovo Polje (The Field of Blackbirds) against the Ottoman Turks in 1389, in which both Serbian King Lazar and the Ottoman sultan Murad were killed. Modern historians differ about whether this was a draw or heroic defeat of the Serbs; nationalist mythology depicts it as the latter.
During over four centuries of Muslim Turkish rule the Serbs preserved their Orthodox religious identity, maintaining the Gracanica Monastery and at least half a dozen other religious centers which have survived from the fourteenth century to the present day---threatened though they have been in recent years by desecration, vandalization and destruction.
On Sept. 13, 1999, the Church of Saints Cosma and Damian, built in 1327, was obliterated by a bomb blast. The initials of the Kosovo Liberation Army were painted at the site. By that time some 20 Serbian religious sites had been blown up, including the Dormition of Mother of God parish church, built in 1315. Another 40 others had been attacked or looted. All of this took place after Serbia's capitulation to Washington in June 1999, and the arrival of the NATO-led "peacekeeping force" (Kosovo Force; KFOR) presiding over NATO's new protectorate. KFOR, currently 16,000 strong in a province of two million, has provided some protection for Serbian holy sites; in June 1999 French troops prevented the rape and murder of nuns and a priest at Devic Monastery after the fifteenth century structure had been desecrated and looted by KLA militants. But NATO basically empowered and legitimated forces that proceeded to destroy or desecrate over 70 churches or monasteries by October 1999 (21 in the U.S. zone of responsibility). Meanwhile more than 200,000 Serbs fled the province. During the summer of 1999, 40,000 Serbs fled Pristina.
The destruction continued; 35 sites were attacked in 2004. Last March Decani Monastery (founded in 1327) came under mortar attack. Such incidents are seen by Serbs as not only as assaults on their culture and history but efforts to erase that history.
Some Albanians claim that they were the original inhabitants of Kosovo, a land four-fifths the size of Connecticut. They claim descent from the ancient Illyrians who inhabited the area from about the fourteenth century BCE. It appears as likely they migrated from what is now Albania during the Ottoman period, coming to outnumber the Serbs. One hundred years ago, however, migration into the region brought the Serb population up to the level of the ethnic Albanian: 50/50. Thereafter the greater Albanian birthrate reduced the Serb population to a mere 10% of the total. Following the ethnic cleansing of the last decade, the figure's down to maybe 4%.
Kosovo was the poorest region in Tito's Yugoslavia, but it enjoyed the status of an autonomous province and was treated as a de facto republic in accordance with Tito's philosophy that "Weak Serbia equals strong Yugoslavia." Following Tito's death in 1980, there were large demonstrations demanding full republic status. When ethnic Serbs were targeted, the little-known politician Slobodan Milosevic postured as defender of Kosovo's Serbs. As president of Serbia, he (foolishly) withdrew Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, provoking Albanian protests and the formation of the KLA in 1995. The KLA targeted police, army and civil officials, taking control of about one-quarter of the province.
Belgrade hesitated for several years before taking firm action against the KLA. After the rebels failed to seize the town of Orahovac in the summer of 1998, it launched an offensive, regaining control of almost all the province. At this point Washington became actively involved. President Clinton had sent a special envoy, Robert Gelbard, to the region in February 1998. At that time he stated that the KLA was, "without any questions, a terrorist group" in Washington's view. Indeed the State Department had concluded it was a heroin-financed terrorist group with some ties to al-Qaeda (Washington Times, May 4, 1999). A few months later, however, Gelbard was meeting with KLA leaders; the organization was soon removed from Washington's terror list. Later that year another U.S. special envoy to Kosovo, Richard Holbrooke, was photographed with KLA leaders, further encouraging their violent secessionist movement.
Yugoslavia ("land of the southern Slavs) had been a peaceful, nonaligned nation with cordial relations with both the Soviet bloc and the West for decades. But from 1991 the federation began to fall apart. First Slovenia declared independence. The U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker, was unhappy with the move thinking (correctly) that it would lead to regional destabilization. But reunited, powerful Germany encouraged the breakup. Croatia and Macedonia followed suite, then Bosnia-Herzegovina descended into civil war. Washington recognized Bosnian independence in 1994. Accusing Serbian forces of atrocities, NATO bombed Bosnia in August and September 1995, paving the way for the Dayton Agreement in November and the deployment of NATO forces in Bosnia. Now Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, accustomed to making demands and being obeyed, demanded that Milosevic cease his offensive against the KLA. He did.
Following a ceasefire in October 1998, by agreement with Milosevic, peace monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) arrived in Kosovo. But the ceasefire broke down with a few months. Washington then demanded that Milosevic withdraw his troops from Kosovo. That is to say, it demanded that a sovereign state remove its troops from one of its provinces where a group the U.S. had earlier termed "terrorist" was waging a war for secession.
Washington summoned the "Contact Group" (including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) as well as Belgrade and Albanian secessionist representatives to Rambouillet, France in February and March 1999. The "Rambouillet Accords" were signed by all parties---except forYugoslavia and Russia. The agreement specified that Kosovo would obtain autonomy but remain part of Serbia. That was the one concession to Belgrade, and an initial cause for the KLA representatives to balk. But the separatists were won over, no doubt realizing that they would gain independence in time. (They just declared that, with Washington's approval, February 17.)
The Accords dictated that Belgrade accept a NATO force with liberty to act throughout the territory of Yugoslavia. It was a demand no sovereign state could accept. A top French official accused the U.S. of behaving like a hyper-puissance ("hyper-power"); NATO itself was divided and disturbed by U.S. demands. (The Spaniards, Italians and Greeks in particular were troubled about the NATO bombing of Belgrade.) Washington was calling for an organization founded to defend western Europe from Soviet attack to intervene in a friendly, non-threatening country, to force it to accept further dismemberment. From March 24 to June 10 NATO air forces, including the German Luftwaffe deployed for the first time since 1945, bombed Yugoslavia.
I didn't think at the time that Clinton's actions resulted from some geo-strategic designs on Kosovo. (There's not that much there, other than lots of coal.) But had he done nothing, and the violence continued, he would have been criticized for failing to use American power ("to prevent genocide") and left the door open for other interested parties (Germany) to take unilateral action. He had to rally NATO to send a message to the world that the U.S. remained the leader and policeman of the western camp. Ongoing chaos in the Balkans would have suggested that the U.S. was sloughing off the responsibilities of power. Strong action would signal allies, as well as the Russian Federation, that the U.S. facing an increasingly united and competitive Europe could continue to deploy NATO in pursuit of its own aims. (Similarly the use of NATO in Afghanistan after 9-11 has served to bind the alliance around a U.S.-dictated agenda, while the public in member states increasingly questions the value and logic of the mission.)
We associate the Bush administration and its neocons with the systematic dissemination of disinformation designed to justify war. But the Clinton administration used the same tactic as it prepared to bomb Yugoslavia. There were horror stories about "ethnic cleansing," and Yugoslav government forces' attacks on innocent Bosnians. Defense Secretary William Cohen, echoed Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), and former Sen. Bob Dole accused Belgrade of "genocide." "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing... They may have been murdered," warned Cohen. "There are indications genocide is unfolding in Kosovo," declared State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin.
But German reports told a different story. Four German court opinions from October 1998 to March 1999; two Foreign Office intelligence reports in January 1999; and one report from the Foreign Office to the Administrative Court in Mainz in March 1999 all challenged such accusations. According to the Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at Munster(March 11, 1999), "Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have neither been nor are now exposed to regional or countrywide group persecution in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
After the glorious victory of NATO over Yugoslavia, it was discovered that as few as 2,108 people were actually killed in the province during 1998-9 before the bombardment began. Quite likely more Serbs have been killed by Albanians than vice versa since 1998. The "genocide" charge (reminiscent of the rhetoric of those urging U.S. intervention in Darfur) had been exaggerated, if not contrived; the depiction of Milosevic as a "new Hitler" (reminiscent of the hysterical characterization of Saddam Hussein) equally overblown.
Washington got what it wanted, almost. It destroyed the Yugoslav state, hauled Milosevic to a kangaroo court at the Hague (where after enhancing his reputation among Serbs by a spirited defense, he died of a heart attack), and planted NATO in what had once been proudly nonaligned European territory. But in the closing days of NATO's war on Yugoslavia in June 1999 Russia dispatched troops based in Bosnia to Kosovo's capital of Pristina, where they took control of the airport. It was a clear statement that Russia would not concede total control of the former Yugoslavia to NATO. It shocked Madeleine Albright, and disturbed Gen. Wesley Clark enough to order an airborne assault on the Russians. But the British general heading the NATO force at the time, Michael Jackson, told Clark: "Sir, I'm not starting World War Three for you."
Thus the Russians were included in the post-bombing "peace-keeping" mission in Kosovo and have since been regarded as the protectors of the remaining Serbs in the Serbian province. Their opposition to Kosovo's independence might be perceived as a slight irritation in Washington among those eager to establish a new client-state and drag it into NATO. But this move comes on the heels of U.S. meddling in Georgia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, the relentless eastward expansion of NATO, and moves to locate missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Russian government is in effect saying: "Look, you intervene at will in Latin America, forming and toppling governments as you will, arguing it's necessary for your 'national security.' We who have been invaded many times from the west have legitimate reasons to support our friends in the Balkans, including the Serbs whom you've maligned and mistreated disgracefully. Do you really think you can just wrench away a province from a Slavic country friendly to us, through brutal military force, and expect us to take it lying down?"
I have the feeling that Washington blew it here---and that there will be some blowback. It is all very nice for a people comprising 90% of the inhabitants of a land to form their own state after decades of aspiration and (under Milosevic) undeniable national oppression. But look at thisvideo on youtube: Watch the young Albanian try to rip down the cross from a burning Serbian church in March 2004. Look at this one of the gutted interior of the Manastir Devic monastery, built up in 1434 and torched in March 2004. Or this, showing an ancient Serbian cemetery desecrated in April 2005.
One can find equally ugly images of Serbian actions no doubt, and both Kosovar-Albanian nationalism and Serbian nationalism retain the potential for further destruction. But the leadership in Pristina hoisted into power by U.S. action looks especially unsavory and apt to produce disaster.
The leadership of the newly declared nation of Kosovo is rooted in the KLA; Hashim Thaçi, the new Prime Minister, was a member of its inner circle. The Government of Serbia alleges that he met with Osama bin Laden in Tirana in 1995.
He has been accused of connections with the Albanian, Czech and Macedonian mafia, and of membership in the Drenica Group, controlling 10-15% per cent of criminal activities in Kosovo including arms smuggling, car theft, prostitution and illegal trafficking in oil and cigarettes.
Yugoslav courts in 1997 and 1998 found him guilty of terrorism charges, including attacks on Serbian policemen, but he was a Kosovar Albanian representative at the Rambouillet talks. With the disbanding of the KLA in 1999 he became head of largest party in Kosovo, the Democratic Party. Meanwhile former KLA members have become involved in ethnic Albanian insurgencies elsewhere in the Presevo Valley in Serbia and in Macedonia. (The Albanian population in Macedonia is now about 25% of the total.) An "Albanian National Liberation Army of Macedonia" waged war on Macedonian security forces until the Ohrid Agreement was signed in August 2001, meeting some of its demands. Another armed group headed by Avdil Jakupi ("Commander Cakalla") was formed in 2003, while another, led by Agim Krasniqi, held a village outside Skopje for six months in 2004.
Those dreaming of a "Greater Albania" (optimally to include Albania, Kosovo and other parts of Serbia, and parts of Macedonia, Montenegro and Greece), taking heart at Kosovar independence, may redouble their efforts throughout the region. There are potential religious dimensions to Albanian nationalism; while the Albanians (like Bosnians) are overwhelmingly secular Muslims, the product of generations of atheistic education in Albania and Yugoslavia, they are indeed Muslims. So there are now, aside from Turkey, two Muslim European countries: Albania and Kosovo. (Bosnia-Hezegovina's Muslim population is under 50%). The Saudis, Kuwaitis and others have been pouring money into mosque construction in Albania and Kosovo, encouraging fundamentalist forms of Islam. The Saudi Joint Committee for the Relief of Kosovo has repaired 190 damaged mosques in Kosovo and the Saudis have built mosques there. (One, for a time, was actually named the Bin Laden Mosque.)
Whether intended to do so or not, these efforts to spread Salafi-style Islam dovetail with al-Qaeda's efforts to exploit instability in the Balkans. The organization was active in Bosnia during the war in the early '90s, and surely endorses the idea of "Greater Albania" and a jihad to realize it. What better vehicle for the propagation of its ideology than an ethnic-based web of insurgencies coordinated from Kosovo?
That's one blowback possibility traceable to NATO's 1999 war and events in Kosovo in its aftermath. Another is the emboldening of the Albanian regime in Tirana. Serbia has indicated that it will now beef up security in the Serb-majority areas of what it continues to consider its province. Some might see this as an effort to divide Kosovo. Albanian Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj declared in March 2006, "If Kosovo is divided, we can no longer guarantee its borders with Albania, or the border of the Albanian part of Macedonia." In other words, Albania might take military actio