From Phoenix, Arizona

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

Subject: Letter to the editor Re. "KLA Accuses Serb Police of Violating Cease-fire in Kosovo," Dow Jones Newswires (Nov. 10, 1998)

Dear Ned,

Have the Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones Newswires become the mouthpieces of Islamic terrorist organizations?

Suppose two Israeli policemen were tortured and murdered in cold blood by the Hezbollah or Hamas terrorists. Would you ignore such news? Worse, would you carry instead as THE story of the day a manifesto of such murderers accusing Israel of some violations?

If not, how then do your editors explain covering up today's (Nov. 10) news about a murder of two Serbian policemen by the predominantly Muslim Kosovo Albanian terrorists?

The Dow Jones Newswires' "KLA Accuses Serb Police of Violating Cease-fire in Kosovo" article (Nov. 10, 1998) is a perfect example of how editors can manipulate the news by omission and diversion. By omission, because the printed editions of the Wall Street Journal today said nothing at all all about the cold-bloodied murder of Dejan Djatlov (23) and Ilija Vujosevic (48), two Serb policemen whose bodies were found yesterday (Nov. 9) near Malisevo in Kosovo, Serbia. By diversion, because this Dow Jones wire story served to obfuscate the real news.

The two Serbian policemen, a young police reserve officer (the 23-year old) and a veteran, were abducted Nov. 7 by the Albanian terrorist organization, Kosovo Liberation Army, as they were driving a truck on a road between Malisevo and Orlat. Today's Los Angeles Times, which carried a Reuters report about the killings, said that Serbian officials took the reporters yesterday (Nov. 9) to the scene of the crime to view the bodies, which also showed signs of torture.

Why was the Journal's Kosovo "Johnny-on-the-spot" not among them? Or was he/she there but your editors decided the story didn't fit their opinions of what the "truth" should be? Is that why, by contrast to the LA Times, the Journal did not even carry the Reuters' report about the murders, either?

Furthermore, the Washington Times' reported today (Nov. 10) that both of the slain police officers had gunshot wounds to the head, indicating they had been killed execution-style.

David Scheffer, the roving U.S. ambassador on war crimes issues, also viewed the corpses as he toured Kosovo with the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission. "This represents one of the problems that is being experienced here with the cease-fire, and that is that there are violations of the cease-fire by both sides," Mr. Scheffer said, according to the Washington Times.

Can your editors explain to their readers why the Journal chose to muffle even an American ambassador's voice? Is it because finding out the full truth about what happened in Malisevo would possibly implicate some U.S. officials in tampering with the witnesses?

The Washington Times, for example, also said today that an Albanian, who claimed to have witnessed the slayings, was quickly removed from the scene by a two-man American observer team in an orange, U.S. military "humvee" jeep. An angered Serbian police commander, Bozidar Filic, told the reporters the man was one of the "only witnesses to the crime."

Serbian journalists surrounded the U.S. military officer when he returned to the scene yesterday afternoon, according to the Washington Times. The officer, who would not identify himself by name, apologized to the Serbian police for what he called a misunderstanding. Officials said the (Albanian) man will be interviewed at another time.

Sure thing. Did they also say in which world the interview will take place? And if Saint Peter will be the stenographer, or will we have to wait for a translation from Prophet Mohammed's notebook?

Furthermore, the day before the two Serb policemen were abducted by the KLA, the U.S. envoy to the Balkans, Christopher Hill, met with the KLA members in Kosovo, according to a Nov. 7 Reuters report. The KLA spokesman, Jakup Krasniqi, later told the media that the Americans were of great influence in Kosovo and elsewhere, and that the U.S. recognized the KLA as a factor in negotiations with the Serbian government. No word about that meeting, either, in your newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DPS), an opposition party, issued a stern rebuke yesterday (Nov. 9) to the Serbian government for allowing such negotiations with the terrorists to take place. "It is painfully clear from Hill's behavior that, what the ruling Socialists and his errand-boys have been vainly striving to present as a huge diplomatic success and Slobodan Milosevic's wisdom (the Oct. 12 Kosovo agreement), is nothing but defeat and disgrace."

The DPS statement added that, "when a diplomat, who has regular meetings with Serbian and Yugoslav officials, holds a three-hour meeting with people who are offenders and criminals according to the laws of this state, and what's more, seeks their opinion on the future status of Kosovo, i.e., both Serbia's and Yugoslavia's future, that means that such a diplomat and his country (U.S.) do not in the least respect our legal system."

In short, while the KLA is murdering the Serbian police in cold blood, the U.S. observers are tampering with witnesses, and the U.S. government is elevating these Albanian terrorists to a statesmen-like level. Which is like the C.I.A. publicly removing witnesses to anti-Israel terrorist crimes, while Dennis Ross, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, negotiates with the Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists over the future of Israel.

The Journals' evident news manipulation and obfuscation makes it an accomplice to such a travesty. It also suggests your editors had better drop their masks now that the Halloween is over, and change the paper's name to "Pravda on the Hudson" (given that your midtown rival, the New York Times, seems to have already earned the "Kremlin on the Hudson" epithet).

Best regards,

Bob Djurdjevic

Also check out..."You Were Wrong About Gen. Perisic", "New York Times' Kosovo News Manipulation",  "Plus, Another Kosovo News Cover-up",  "Embarrassed About Such 'Serbs',"  "Put the UN Justice on Trial",  "Another Wall Street Bailout, Another Main Street Sellout", "Does WSJ Dance to Wall St. Bankers' Tunes?",  "Clinton Fiddles While Milosevic Burns",  "Let the Bombing Begin?  Not!" , "What's Good for the Goose..."  and "Journal's Rotten Apples" (Wall Street Journal); and "Stock buybacks: Wall St.'s Duping of Main St.", Business Week).