TiM GW Bulletin 98/6-7 June 26, 1998

Holbrooke Meets with Albanian Terrorists, Snubs Serb Bishop "Thugs of the World Unite!" - New NWO Slogan? Albanian Criminal Ring Broken by Police in Spain, Germany

PHOENIX - Richard Holbrooke, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and evidently America's permanent ambassador to Mira Markovic, met on Wednesday (June 24) with Albanian terrorists in Kosovo while snubbing a Serb Bishop. That's as if the American envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, were to meet with the Hezbollah or Hamas terrorists right after conferring with Benyamin Netanyahu. In other words, it was a clear and unmitigated poke in the eyes of the Serbs, just as the latter analogy would have been an unforgivable insult to Israel.

But then, the Clinton administration has already elevated some "former" terrorists, such as Yasser Arafat, to the status of respected statesmen. And the State Department has been making friendly overtures toward Iran, the world's center of terrorism and anti-Americanism; while Bill Clinton is currently kow-towing to the communist dictators in China. So, I guess, why should we be surprised the man whom some approving New York media referred to as the "Kissinger of the Balkans" was posing Wednesday for photographs with Albanian KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) terrorists. Maybe the new New World Order slogan should read - "thugs of the world unite!", along the lines of the Communist Internationale's erstwhile mantra - "workers of the world unite."

But wait a minute, what "country" is Mira Markovic? (to which Holbrooke is the permanent ambassador). Well, Ms. Markovic is the person who runs Slobodan Milosevic, who is in charge of Serbia, which is a part of the country called Yugoslavia, of which Milosevic is president (see "Milosevic: A Riddle Wrapped in Mystery" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/6-6, 6/22/98). Kind of like the way things work in Washington, where Holbrooke was the "NGO" (Non-Government Organization) pulling Madeleine Albright's, Clinton's and Congress' strings on U.S. Balkan policy, even when he was ostensibly working for a Wall Street bank, let alone now, that the Wall Street-Washington revolving door has spun him again back into government service.

But not all New Yorkers speak approvingly of Holbrooke. Benjamin Works, executive director of The Strategic Issues Research Institute and a political/military consultant to CBS News and to Fox News Cable who has already contributed to TiM a piece on Kosovo (see "Kosovo Is Heating Up" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/6-4, 6/15/98), had this to say in his June 25 newsletter about Holbrooke's latest mission:

"Richard Holbrooke, our UN Ambassador-designate, swaggered into Belgrade to lay down the law with Slobodan Milosevic, then made a high-profile trip into Kosovo to visit the KLA in the Decani area, comparing what he saw --burned out houses-- to his experience in Vietnam as a junior diplomat in the 1960s. 'I felt like I was going back into the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta and seeing the same tragic scenario playing itself out,' he declaimed melodramatically at the KLA-held village of Junik, as if he had been a young rifleman under fire and not a junior Saigon diplomat. 'All I can say is we will give it our best shot.' Meanwhile, the KLA took a few shots at Holbrooke's entourage, held back at a Serb police checkpoint a few kilometers away.

The KLA rejected Holbrooke's call for a truce out of hand. 'Events on the ground,' he admitted to Kurt Schork of Reuters, Chris Hedges of The New York Times and others, 'have been moving faster than the diplomatic process. We are not waiting for intricately coordinated positions in order to stop this, even though we keep the Contact Group informed.' Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana reiterated to (Ibrahim) Rugova's party that there is no hope for an independent Kosovo.

It doesn't get much more contradictory. Set aside the fact Holbrooke is an egotist of considerable magnitude who fancies he is John Wayne-tough and who feeds fat off the Wall Street trough through his new connections when not on government service. The fact is that in such a diplomatic intercession, he, as the US and NATO's lead diplomat, is supposed to be acting as an honest broker, with some moderation to his public rhetoric. In fact, he continues to openly take sides, while misrepresenting facts, events and circumstances. He is too partisan to retain credibility, yet as the US representative, his position is virtually unassailable."

Mr. Works depicted Holbrooke perfectly. He is a bully and a racist to boot as the following excerpt from this writer's Aug. 18, 1997 WASHINGTON TIMES column, "Will American forces ever leave Bosnia?", shows:

"The sympathetic New York media have nick-named him 'Kissinger of the Balkans' - a sure omen of an ignominious end to an illustrious diplomatic career. Just as the Henry Kissinger diplomacy ultimately produced the most humiliating defeat in America's 221-year history - loss of Vietnam war - Richard Holbrooke's current Bosnia 'peace mission'" is doomed to failure no matter how many wrists Bill Clinton's 'Balkan Bully' twists in this troubled region.

The reason is quite simple. There are two MIA's in U.S. Bosnia policy. One is balance. The other is fairness. Without the two, no deal can work in the long run. A Wall Street deal-maker (which is what Holbrooke is when not pinch-hitting for the State Dept.) ought to know that, even if the goons and the Foggy Bottom diplomats don't seem to grasp such a simple concept... Continued engagement of foreign troops on Balkan soil would give NATO yet another raison d'être, while projecting its neo-colonial power closer to Russia's borders....

In short, balance and fairness was evidently not what Holbrooke's mission is about. He earned the epithet the 'Balkan Bully' by his unceasing oppression of the Serbs. Revealing his deep-seated hatred of the Orthodox Christians, this former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, called the Serbs 'murderous [expletive deleted]' in a discussion with ABC's Ted Koppel, according to a flattering Nov. 6, 1995 'NEW YORKER' article. Holbrooke's racist remark seemed to shock even this veteran newscaster...

'Murderous [expletive deleted]' is hardly the language graduates of this country's finest diplomatic schools are taught to use. Nor are the anchors of popular TV news programs expected to repeat them, so as to reinforce the negative impact. Such gutter language belongs in the gutter, of course. Which is why it became quite typical when the Nazi or the Soviet leaders chose to demonize certain groups of people. Still, this is neither the Nazi Germany, nor the Soviet Union (at least not yet). This is America - 'the home of the free'."  [etc.]

Ten days after this was published, Holbrooke made a rare appearance on NPR (National Public Radio) to virtually apologize for his racist remark about the Serbs. Here's an excerpt from what he said (see TiM GW Bulletin 97/8-10, 8/28/97):

HOLBROOKE: "...It is a fact that the Serbs are not evil people. They are not murderers. It is the Serb leaders who led their people into this terrible, terrible tragedy. The Serbian people don't have any 'bad genes' (i.e., 'genetic defects' which would predispose them to crimes)."

Holbrooke's clumsy apology seemed downright comical in the face of his obvious Serbophobia. The U.S. envoy's Wednesday meeting with the KLA, an organization which even the State Department has labeled as terrorist, clearly demonstrated what his aim was - to provoke and outrage the Serbs. This was a good example of how perfidiously Balkan ethnic fires can be stoked by foreigners who pretend to carry an olive branch and work for peace. Kosovo is evidently "Bosnia II" all over again. New names, new places, same old warmongering scenario.

One of such outraged Serbs was Bishop Artemije, whose Raska and Prizren diocese includes Kosovo, and whom Holbrooke had snubbed during his whirlwind visit to the region. By the way, Bishop Artemije is well known for his opposition to the Milosevic regime, and has been an outspoken critic of any side which was using violence as a means of solving the Kosovo crisis. Constant appeals by His Grace for an urgent dialogue have been muffled by gun fire from both sides in the Kosovo conflict. Here is Bishop Artemije's open letter to Holbrooke:

June 25, 1998

TO: Richard Holbrooke

Your Excellency,

Yesterday, on June 24, you spent all day on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. We believe that you came with the noble intention to make your contribution to the calming down of the conflict as well as to the victory of peace and justice in this region.

However, your visit has brought me in a dilemma. I ask myself whether your visit to Kosovo in Metohija was really a peace-making and well-intentioned. Here is the reason of my concern:

It is very difficult to understand (and even more to accept) that the peace may be achieved by contacting one side in the conflict only. On this occasion you have had only the contact with the Albanian side. Is it possible to have a full impact on the truth here if another side is not heard (in this case the Serbian one)?

Is it possible that you have overlooked the fact that there are also Serbs who live in Kosovo and Metohija and not only Albanians?

How can we understand and explain the fact that you passed through Prizren yesterday and did not have a wish to meet there the Bishop of Raska and Prizren in order to hear from him at least a part of the truth on what is going on in Kosovo and Metohija. And the Bishop would have had a lot of things to tell you.

How can we understand and explain the fact that you were in Decani and did not visit Decani Monastery which is only two kilometers from the town. There you could have seen and learned more about the deep historic roots of the Serbs in this region. In the contact with the Serbian refugees there you could have heard their tragic story and learn how they became refugees in their own homeland.

We are therefore in dilemma whether you wanted at all to learn the factual truth or it was your kind hosts from your escort (Mr. Fehmi Agani, Mr. Veton Surroi and others) who did not allow you that and mislead you so that you could have an impression of only one side of the Kosovo and Metohija situation.

No matter what the real reason were, we think that such a relationship towards the Kosovo and Metohija reality cannot and will not contribute the achievement of the mutual confidence, peace and the common life in this region. It is painful to learn that your mission and mighty America have missed this point.

With my wish that the next time you show more understanding for the pain and cries of the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs, I am greeting you cordially.

Sincerely Yours,

Bishop of Raska and Prizren

ARTEMIJE

Indeed, the Bishop has good reasons to question whether Holbrooke's visit to Kosovo was really peace-making and well-intentioned. For example, Holbrooke used the devastation of Decani, a small town near the Albanian border, to launch another tirade against the Serbs in the presence of western reporters. He asked the Serbs to leave the town and allow the Albanians to return, as if the Serbs had occupied a foreign territory.

  Well, Decani has been one of Serbia's cultural pearls for centuries. That's where an ancient Serb monastery is located, a beautiful Romanesque structure built by the Serbian King Stefan in the 1320s. Its walls are one of the world's richest medieval galleries, displaying some 1,000 priceless frescos (see "Murder on Wall Street," TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-6, 5/09/98).

Near the Decani monastery was also a refugee camp for the "ethnically cleansed" Serbs, the orphans of the New World Order that one rarely hears about in the establishment media. They were reportedly under siege by the Albanian rebels at the end of May. For a few days, TiM had also lost all contact with the monastery as its power had been cut. Even a Serbian Democratic opposition leader called on Milosevic to send the troops to Decani and to free the Serbs trapped on their own land by the Albanian insurgents (see "Kosovo: Ancient Monastery, Serb Refugees, Under Siege?", TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-9, 5/29/98, at our Web site).

Of course, few average Americans would have known all this about Decani. Which is how Holbrooke's twisted remarks, widely reported by the western media, can become truisms in the minds of the uninformed. And which is why, if there were truth in media, there would be no reason for the Truth in Media.

Nor was this the only distortion which emanated from Holbrooke's visit to Kosovo. As in Bosnia in 1992-1993, the State Department and the establishment media are trying to advance the theory that the Serbs, the victims of decades of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, are now doing it to the Albanians, systematically forcing them to flee to Albania. Yet at the same time, the same U.S. government and media have been complaining that the Yugoslav Army has now sealed the border with Albania (so as to prevent the illicit arms traffic and supplies for the KLA rebels), thus preventing the Albanian refugees from fleeing to Albania.

Anybody noticing a contradiction in terms here? The Serbs are supposed to be forcing the Albanians out of Kosovo by preventing them to leave? Sounds like some "Wag the Dog" screenwriter blew the script here. Or is it that the NWO producers of the Kosovo show think that all of us are brain dead and would gulp down their propaganda medicine without a second thought?

But perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Holbrooke's latest Kosovo jaunt was that he traveled with three ethnic Albanian officials in a 14-car armored convoy for which protection was provided by a truckload of Serbian security forces. That's as if the Israeli forces were to provide security for an American envoy so as to facilitate his meeting with Israel's enemies!? Only in the Balkans... No wonder people in Serbia are talking about Milosevic being America's stooge.

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P.S. A June 17 Reuters wire reported that Spanish and German police had broken up a major criminal network operated mainly by ethnic Albanians from Serbia's Kosovo province, and arrested 88 people in the two countries. The Albanian crime ring is suspected of committing over 1,000 robberies during the last 18 months. The authorities had also frozen several bank accounts in Germany and Spain which they said were used to launder stolen money. Police said that the operation is continuing, and more people might be arrested over the next few days.

TiM Ed.:  And these are the kinds of people the U.S. government is backing? As we said earlier, "thugs of the world unite" seems be the new NWO slogan.

Also, check out..."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'",  "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?" and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES column: "Ginning Up Another Crisis"