Toward Another "Red October" and other Balkans stories (Sep 8, 2000)

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TiM GW Bulletin 2000/9-2

Sep. 8, 2000

Clinton-Gore Gearing Up for New Military Strike against Serbia? Or Just Saber-Rattling to Rattle Milosevic?

Toward Another "Red October"

Kostunica: A "Don Quixote" in Bed with Scorpions - The EU "Trojan Horse" Is Real “Kiss of Death” to Kostunica, As Is Djindjic’s Endorsement

Pozarevac 4. Location of Milosevic’s Secret “Bunker Bolthole” Disclosed

Kostunica: A "Don Quixote" in Bed with Scorpions - The EU "Trojan Horse" Is Real “Kiss of Death” to Kostunica, As Is Djindjic’s Endorsement

Clinton-Gore Gearing Up for New Military Strike against Serbia? Or Just Saber-Rattling to Rattle Milosevic?

PHOENIX, Sep. 8 - Serbia may be facing another “Red October” (i.e., war) regardless of who wins the Sept. 24 presidential elections, some experts predict (see Items 2 and 3 of this TiM Bulletin). And good prospects for a total NATO occupation of the country, either by force, or through acquiescence of some Serb quisling.

There are indications that Bill Clinton wants his pound of Serb leaders’ flesh before he leaves office. Not only

Radovan Karadzic’s, whose capture the U.S. president has just reordered (see “Clinton tells his generals: Get Karadzic”, the London Times, Sep. 2); but also Slobodan Milosevic’s. And what better time to try to get it than in the last month of the U.S. presidential campaign, when that can help both Al Gore’s and CNN’s ratings.

Serbia accused the United States last Saturday of setting up intelligence centers in countries surrounding the country to subvert Serbia's authority through its non-governmental organizations, according to a Sept. 2 UPI newswire report.

In the first days of September, special offices of the U.S. government in American embassies in four neighboring countries will begin thoroughly planned and synchronized activity of "tightening an intelligence and propaganda ring around Serbia," with the aim of "undermining the legally elected government in Yugoslavia," the UPI said, quoting the state-owned Tanjug news agency.

Special offices were opened in rapid succession in Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest and Tirana by a mid-August order of the secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. They have so far engaged the services of nearly 120 experienced experts in espionage and psychological propaganda warfare, according to Tanjug.

Okay, so let’s assume the latest Clinton-Albright moves in the Balkans to run a ring around Serbia may be just a bunch of Milosevic government propaganda. But we have also received report from the “Monitor,” an independent Bulgarian paper, translated by Blagovesta Doncheva on Sept. 2, which not only seems to corroborate Tanjug, but provides additional details.

Such as that the American ambassador and some CIA people met last year at the “Sheraton Hotel” in Sofia with some Serb “Otpor” (“Resistance”) leaders. And that, starting with Aug. 28, the CIA has been running a special 10-day course in Sofia for them. “In that course, the USA spies will lecture to Serb activists from "Otpor",” the “Monitor” said in its Aug. 28 edition, citing BBC as source.

Two weeks earlier, the CIA chief, George Tenet, paid a personal visit to Bulgaria (Aug. 13-15), as you can see in Item 2 of this TiM Bulletin. Tenet reportedly met with the Bulgarian president, Petur Stoyanov and with his prime minister, interior and defense ministers, among others. The upshot of the visit is that some NATO troops will start operating out of Bulgaria in early October. The U.S. military is also planning to lease the Shabla base in northeastern Bulgaria for “training exercises.”

Amid all this saber-rattling, there are some indications that the leading Serb not-so-united-opposition candidate, Vojislav Kostunica, is starting to suffer from the same “Trojan Horse” syndrome that had toppled the well-meaning, but gullible Bosnian Serb politicians (see "Jimmy Carter Is a Trojan Horse" (TiM Dec/94+The News, 1/05/95). Which should worry open-minded Serbs a lot more than what Tanjug says.

The Bosnian Serb leaders’ STRATEGIC mistakes (despite having received REPEATED advice to the contrary!) ultimate cost them their country and personal freedom. They eventually led to a total occupation of the Bosnian Serb Republic’s by NATO. Kostunica is now treading in their footsteps and repeating their errors of judgment. Such as his newfound collaboration with Washington’s European Union “Trojan Horses,” or Albright’s sheep in wolf’s clothing, if you prefer.

At a Friday (Sep. 1) rally in Serbia, Kostunica vowed to “defend Yugoslavia and bring it back into Europe,” according to a New York Times, Sep. 4 report.

What he didn’t say is on what terms? But we can. The only way Kostunica can “bring Serbia into Europe” is with a vassal’s chain around her neck. And it won’t be “back,” either. Serbia has never been a part of Western Europe, except when occupied by force, such as during WW I and WW II.

If even Europe’s most powerful country is nothing but an obedient vassal of the Washington Big Brother, what makes Kostunica think that he can be anything but? Or that he has not already become one, despite his self-delusions and rhetoric to the contrary?

Is he naïve, stupid or just acting? - one TiM reader of Serbian descent from Florida recently asked us in reference to Kostunica (his letter is published as Item 3 below).

Stupid - no; naïve - definitely. As were the Bosnian Serb leaders. Which is why Kostunica has no excuse for his gullibility. All he needs to do is look at what happened to Biljana Plavsic, for example, the former Bosnian Serb president, to see what’s in store for him and Serbia.

With friends like Washington’s EU whores, Kostunica and Serbia need no other enemies.

Which is why Kostunica’s endorsement of “Europe,” that happily participated in the 1999 bombing of Christian Serbia in 1999, in which more than 2,000 Serbs were killed, is an indication of both his naiveté and gullibility. Here is what he said, for example, at a Sept. 4 Belgrade press conference:

“We can neither do without Europe nor continue living under the sanctions. It is important for Europe to realize that it cannot do without Serbia and Yugoslavia either, that it is far from normal or natural.”

TiM Ed.: Really? That “Europe” did quite nicely without Serbia and Yugoslavia during the last eight years of the genocidal UN sanctions which that “Europe” willingly enforced.

“Just like it is not normal to imprison an entire people because of one single man. Politics cannot be personalized in that manner, at least (not) in the long run.”

TiM Ed.: Pardon me? It is “not normal?” Where has Kostunica been in the last 10 years of the New World Order? Not only it is “normal,” it is the norm for the genocidal NWO that has ostracized and decimated entire nations using “one single man” as pretext (Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Serbia, Cuba…).

“Never in history has a personality cult been built but from within. Iraq and Yugoslavia, that is Serbia, and Cuba to a degree, are the only examples that it could have been built from the outside. And this is America's huge mistake. Such a thing is not only unjust but extremely irrational as well. Moreover, it is also a permanent source of regional instability.

Therefore, I have to repeat that this hint of a change in Europe's attitude is very important and may instill some hope in all of us. We can only hope that Washington will see it too. I am certain that European capitals that faithfully follow America's every move would accept the new attitude as well.”

In short, Kostunica’s plan of “bringing Serbia back to Europe” seems based on his hope that the EU whores would turn on their pimp, and convince the Big Brother that from now on, he really ought to be a nice guy and behave like a Big Patsy!

Frankly, we’re not sure that this would pass even for a Hollywood fairy tale scenario, let alone be a platform for Serbia’s “national salvation,” or “rejuvenation” (“preporod” in Serbian). What we do know, however, is that many EU diplomats have been whispering in Kostunica’s ears lately, after which he changed his tune about Madam Halfbright’s Budapest move (see “Washington’s Move - “a Kiss of Death” to Democracy in Serbia, Says Serb Opposition Leader, Aug. 16).

Having at first (appropriately) condemned Washington’s meddling in Serbia’s internal affairs when the State Dept. announced it was setting up a special office in Budapest, Kostunica proceeded to schmooze with various western envoys.

Five days later (Aug. 21), Kostunica "had talks at the residence of Japanese Ambassador Nariaki Owada with diplomatic representatives of the G8 and EU countries. The lengthy and meaningful talks extensively focused on the upcoming elections..." (an excerpt from his release).

"G8," by the way, INCLUDES the U.S. and Britain, the two countries that Kostunica claims to have been distancing himself from - for “tactical” reasons, as the New York Times Sep. 4 article explains (i.e., not to be perceived too soon for being a stooge of the sworn Serb enemies).

Two days later (Aug. 23), Kostunica also met with ambassadors and charges de affairs of France, Holland, Spain and Austria.

Now, what do you suppose these all these G8 and EU NATO countries' diplomats were telling Kostunica about his earlier tough, "kiss of death" comment re. Albright/State Dept.? "Attaboy?" Or "you'd better change your tone if you want our support?"

Which this erstwhile decent and honest Serb politician obediently did. He changed his tune.

The following day (Aug. 24), Kostunica reversed himself from the previous “kiss of death” comment about the Washington’s supposed support for the Serb democratic parties. He said in a release that, “a recent statement by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was important insomuch as it revealed a positive change in the U.S. attitude towards the developments in Yugoslavia, and should be termed as a good sign in that context.”

Since his Aug. 24 reversal, Kostunica has also received several other “kiss of death” endorsements.

The first came from Zoran Djindjic, a proven Serb vassal (see Cavorting with the Enemy (Albright) - Dec. 29, 1999), who said in an Aug. 26 article published by Belgrade’s “Danas” daily that, “all that’s influential in the West is today behind Kostunica.”

Second, came in the form of a flattering front page article on Sept. 4 in the most Serbophobic, leftist-liberal, rabidly anti-Orthodox Christian daily in America - the New York Times. The story was datelined on Sept. 2, but the editors saved it for maximum exposure for Labor Day, a signal that they are now also behind Kostunica.

Another hint of who is really behind Kostunica was the State Department’s silence about him. Notice the unusual absence in the Times piece of any public comments by any State Dept. spokesmen? If this were meant to be an objective or a critical piece, rather than a piece of PR fluff that it was, any self-respecting foreign correspondent would have run some State Dept. comments. They certainly always do when they need a negative quote about Serbia. Yet the Times didn’t, even though the paper has a deep and well used pipeline into the Foggy Bottom.

Finally, no Serbian nationalist, not even a "moderate nationalist," as the Times now depicts Kostunica (just as it described Biljana Plavsic three years ago, when she turned on Karadzic), would have EVER given an EXCLUSIVE interview to the enemy press. Unless he is either naïve or carefully stage-managed by Serb enemies “who are leading him thirsty over water” (a literal translation of a Serb proverb). Already! Before he has even touched the reigns of power.

Amusingly, Kostunica gave an approving crowd at a rally in Serbia last Friday (Sep. 1) his "word of honor" to "try to change this state of ours for the better in accordance with God's and human laws, and to never let power change me," according to the New York Times Sept. 4 story.

Yet it already has changed him, as you saw from the above “kiss of death” examples. No surprise there. As Lord Acton noted more than 140 years ago, “power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Once upon a time (when this writer first met the Serb president in January 1990), Milosevic like Kostunica, also lived in a modest apartment. His approval rating among the Serbs was more than double that of Kostunica’s and other opposition candidates today - combined. Milosevic did not profess to be seeking any grandeur, either. It found him anyway.

So, just look at Milosevic now… After 11 years of self-enrichment and state-sponsored corruption, Milosevic’s has become a scaled-down version of Tito’s self-aggrandizement (Yugoslavia’s communist dictator 1945-1980, who reportedly had over 30 residences scattered all over the country. Also check out Item 4 of this Bulletins about his secret hide-away near Pozarevac).

By the way, Kostunica is someone this writer knows personally very well. He is indeed a modest man. Up until the time that he started to mingle with the likes of Draskovic and Djindjic western quislings, Kostunica had been one of the few decent and honest politicians in Serbia. He split up with Djindjic in 1991 to form his own Democratic Party of Serbia because of his old, and now ironically new, partner’s alleged corrupt fund-raising practices.

But everyone has his price. We don't know what Kostunica’s was. Maybe he is not even be aware that he is being used by the Serb enemies. Or that he has already changed. Perhaps he is suffering from a massive attack of self-delusion under the spell of Washington’s EU servants?

Whatever the case, you know what they say - you judge a man by the company he keeps, not just by the words he speaks. In that respect, Kostunica has shown poor judgment. And not only because of his frequent mid-summertime tête-à-têtes with the EU diplomats.

When this writer last met with Kostunica in Belgrade in late April, we asked him why he was now cavorting with proven Serb quislings, such as Djindjic or Vuk Draskovic, among others (see Cavorting with the Enemy (Albright) - Dec. 29, 1999). Kostunica admitted to having to answer similar questions asked by many of his friends and constituents in Dorcol, an old downtown Belgrade neighborhood where he lives.

“That sometimes there comes a time when tactics become more important than the strategy,” Kostunica replied.

Pardon me? That’s like saying HOW you get there is more important than WHERE you’re going.

Despite all this circumstantial evidence that Kostunica has now tied his navel to the folks who had bombed Serbia for 79 days last year (his rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding), the pollsters in Serbia say that he has a comfortable lead over Milosevic - about 35% to 23% at the present time.

So what’s going on? Are the pollsters lying? Or are the Serb voters perhaps “naïve or stupid,” to quote our befuddled Florida TiM reader?

Maybe they are. But mostly, they are desperate to get rid of Milosevic, the devil they do know. And “desperate people do desperate things,” as Shakespeare said. Such as bringing to power a devil the Serbs don’t know (NATO) sneaking behind a sheep in wolves clothing - Kostunica.

Are we suggesting that if Kostunica is elected president, the NATO troops will eventually enter Serbia? And that Montenegro will be allowed to secede from Yugoslavia?

Absolutely. Despite Kostunica’s current bout of self-delusion, which he has successfully shared with a large part of the Serb electorate. This will happen with or without him as the head of state. Whether Kostunica wins or loses is irrelevant (again, see Item 2 below, particularly the Holbrooke and Robertson’s comments about Montenegro being “a NATO’s vital interest”).

Which brings us to the key and the only STRATEGIC alternative the Serbian nation has if it is to survive in the long run under an unrelenting onslaught of the anti-Christian forces of the New World Order. It is to align itself STRATEGICALLY and PERMANENTLY with Russia and Belarus. Period! All else is delusion and postponement of the inevitable enslavement of Serbia by the West.

Whereupon Serbia can sheepishly succumb to the folks who bombed her last year, and become another materialistic, brainless, gutless, soulless - but immensely happy society, according to the CNN - that loves and gulps all the junk food and culture that the New World Order can dish out (see Djurdjevic's speeches - English - Australia, Oct/99).

First things first… Milosevic has got to go. Not because Clinton and Albright say so. Because the Serb leader has done as much harm to the national interests as did the country’s foreign enemies. He has betrayed the Serbs in the Krajina, Bosnia and Kosovo; is responsible for losses of those ancient Serbian lands; deaths of thousands; and displacements of hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians. Back home, has allowed a build-up of an oligarchy around him that’s been plundering the nation during its greatest (foreign imposed) ordeals.

Removing Milosevic, preferably by ballot, may turn out to be the easy part, judging by the current polls. The hard part is figuring out who should succeed him, and where the new leader should take the nation.

We’re not familiar with detailed platforms of the Serbian election campaign, but if any of other presidential candidate (besides Milosevic) is advocating that Serbia must ALIGN HERSELF STRATEGICALLY WITH RUSSIA, and deal with “Europe” only using Russia as a lever - that’s Serbia’s man! At least from a geopolitical standpoint.

Serbs with leadership qualities could also do a few other things. Such as quit whining or waiting for some Messiah to arrive and save the country, and run for president on such a “panslavic ticket.”

But if Kostunica is not the man because of his newly-minted ties to Washington's EU and the Serb quislings;

and if Milosevic is not the man, because of his past transgressions; and if there is no other candidate in sight who sees the geopolitical necessity for Serbia to align herself with Russia - what then?

Well, the Serb voters who are in such a quandary should consider doing what 62% of the American electorate did in the last (November 1998) congressional elections - ABSTAIN! Refuse to participate in another “demo farce” which would legitimize either a despot or a western stooge (see “American vs. Serbian Demo Farce”). At least the Serbs who do that will be able to look themselves in the mirror and tell their children one day, “I did not help bring into power another despot or another quisling.”

Says who? One of the western stooges, like Zoran Djindjic, who claims the higher the turnout, the better the chances of defeating Milosevic?

Why would a low turnout help Milosevic? We’ve challenged several intelligent and well informed Serbs to back up this theory with good arguments, and none have succeeded so far in convincing us that it holds water.

To be sure, there are hardcore Milosevic supporters who will vote no matter what. But there are also hardcore Milosevic opponents who will vote no matter what. We've never seen a statistical survey proof that:

(a) The former is a bigger number than the latter (in fact, common sense and recent polls suggest otherwise - Kostunica is leading BECAUSE there is a greater number of hardcore Milosevic OPPONENTS; which suggests that low turnout would help Kostunica, not Milosevic);

(b) If the rest of the undecided electorate come out and vote in big numbers, that they will necessarily be anti-Milosevic; nor that even those who now say they would vote X, may end up changing their minds n-times between now and Sept. 24 and vote Y in the end anyway.

In short, suggesting that a NO VOTE would help Milosevic is an unproven theory about which we remain skeptical. The fact that the State Dept. and the EU are also backing it, should make every Serb doubly cautious.

What if this were a part of the continued western perfidy? Another “kiss of death?” What if they (the NWO Serb enemies) really do want Milosevic to win, and the naïve or corrupt Serb politicians are just parroting the Serb nemesis’ lines?

Milosevic’s Unconstitutional Election Supported by “Democrats,” the West

Just as important to us is the reason the Serb “opposition” candidates do not seem to be raising that that Milosevic imperiously changed the country’s constitution to give himself two more shots at the presidency. Which makes the Sept. 24 elections at the outset - legally flawed.

Equally perplexing to us is why Kostunica, and the EU and the State Dept. behind him, are urging the Serbs to come out and vote in big numbers despite such a clearly ILLEGAL election? Could it be that Kostunica’s comment about “tactics over strategy” really meant that gaining power by any means was more important than either legality or real democracy?

If so, it is a sad day when a constitutional lawyer agrees to participate in a “demo farce.” And an even sadder one when the self-proclaimed champions of democracy in the world are cheering him on. Or are they really the “pimps of democracy?”

“I will pray to God that the nation from which I and my family have descended, is wise enough to choose its future course wisely. And that such a future is one of the God-fearing Orthodox Christian salvation, rather than that of a materialistic New World Order pursuit of "Earthly Kingdom" rewards of the CNN-Coca-Cola-McDonald's world.

September 24, 2000, I will pray for Serbia on that day. Prophetically, it is the 18-month anniversary of the start of NATO's bombing, the New Day of Infamy (March 24, 1999). Which happens to be Kostunica’s birthday, too.

So each Serb voter should act according to his/her conscience on Sept. 24. No vote is better than fraud vote.

Which is why it is amazing to us that the Serb “opposition leaders,” not to mention other intellectuals with above average intelligence, are allowing themselves to be manipulated by the West like a bunch of dumb puppets. Or are some Serb “opposition leaders” paid to “feel no pain” and “see no evil” in what they are doing?

A Jewish-American, who has proven himself to be a great friend of the Serbs throughout the 79 days of the NATO bombing, and during the subsequent Kosovo “peace farce” (he runs the www.emperors-clothes.com web site), wrote to us in response to our commentary about the violent takeover of the Kosovo Serb Trepca mine in early August (see British-led NATO Troops Seize Serb Mine in Kosovo, etc., Aug 15, 2000).

(Kostunica’s) “demagogic denunciation of the US thing in Hungary; demagogic because what has he said about the $100 million given his allies (by the West)? Allies is too weak a word. For without them, he is Don Quixote - and they will control him, through parliamentary strength, if he does get elected. All this says he is now in bed with the scorpion.” (also see http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/kostunic.htm).

In other words, Serbia may be becoming another land where a common sense Spanish peasant, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s loyal servant, would feel right at home. This writer has a feeling that Sancho wouldn’t bother to vote, either. But his stupid boss would. And with gusto, just as when he charged the windmills four centuries ago.

All that’s missing in Serbia are the windmills and Lady Dulchinea, Don Quixote’s sweetheart. Sorry, Mira Markovic won’t do in that role despite the red rose in her hair. Not enough class. And also too much - in the ideological sense. J

But wait… The windmills may be also here, only in disguise. Haven’t Milosevic, Karadzic, Krajisnik, Plavsic… et. al. been swinging at the windmills created by the New World Order “Wag the Dog”-type virtual world productions for most of the last decade? And missing. Just as the latest Serb opposition “Don Quixotes” may be doing now?

Wish Miguel de Cervantes could be with us again to write a Serbian sequel to his marvelous Spanish novel. In which Sancho would tell us which end is really up in the world. As he had tried to point out repeatedly, though in vain, to his foolish master.

Okay. So now Sunday, Sept. 24 has come and gone. Let’s say Kostunica outpolls Milosevic in the first round, but ends up with less than 50% of the vote (meaning a second round is needed on Oct. 8 in which only Kostunica and Milosevic would be facing off). What happens next?

In two words, a “Red October.” But first, a historical perspective on the “Red Octobers” past - to help put this term in proper context…

The first “Red October” occurred actually on November 7, 1917, by the western calendar, in St. Petersburg, Russia. What followed was the so-called “Russian Revolution,” actually a western Bolshevik-Marxist import in which tens of millions of Russians ended up as victims.

The second “Red October” took place some 76 years later. It was "Yeltsin's 'Red October II'" (TiM GW Bulletin 98/3-10), staged live on CNN on October 3, 1993, though actually on September 20 by the Orthodox Christian calendar. Once again, thousands of Russians perished in yet another betrayal of their nation by a western quisling.

The third “Red October” also took place in November - by the western calendar. It was in October 1996, by the Orthodox Christian calendar, that Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic government refused to yield power after losing a number of local election races in Serbia, including in the capital Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac - the third and fourth largest cities.

What followed was three months of, at times, bloody protests against the Milosevic regime, in which scores of pro-democracy Serbs were either killed or bludgeoned by the Milosevic’s police (see TiM’s “Supporting Serbia's Pro-Democracy Demonstrations”).

In the end, Milosevic yielded and the opposition took power in municipalities it had won in early 1997. Kostunica was himself AWOL from the streets and spoke out AGAINST the 1996-1997 pro-democracy protests.

Yet, the supposedly “pro-democracy” West, including Western Europe, watched the carnage in Belgrade streets without lifting a finger to help the demonstrators. No NATO bombers or tanks rushed to support the Serbian pro-democracy freedom fighters. Anymore than they did at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing seven years earlier (1989).

But two years later, NATO did just that - by bombing the very people who had bravely stood up to the Serb despot, marching for their democratic rights in the dead of winter for over 100 days in the Belgrade streets. And NATO did it in support of the Kosovo Albanian drug-pushing terrorists, the western-funded and created Kosovo Liberation Army.

Back to the October 2000 reality… Is NATO about to do it again, as some pundits suggest? It might. But all this war talk could also be just Washington’s saber-rattling, a part of psychological warfare, designed to rattle the nerves of the Serb president. If the “Red October” does happen, however, the war scenario could be as follows…

Kostunica wins the first round. Milosevic refuses to yield power. Montenegro secedes from Yugoslavia in protest. (The Milo Djukanovic government is boycotting the elections anyway). The Yugoslav Army tries to take over the Montenegrin government functions by force. Clashes between Djukanovic’s 15,000-strong British SAS-trained special police and the Yugoslav Army troops ensue (see Big Brother Resurfaces in Britain Again, Aug 1, 2000). Scores of people die, as Serbs kill Serbs for the benefit of the New World Order.

Djukanovic sends a pre-arranged “SOS” message to his pal Albright (with whom he has again just conferred - Sep. 7), asking for NATO help. Milosevic is given an ultimatum by Washington: Get out of Montenegro or face total war again.

Milosevic doesn’t flinch. Fighting continues in Montenegro. Support for Djukanovic arrives - in the form of U.S. Marines landing in Montenegro, from the British aircraft carrier “Invincible” (which is already in the Adriatic), and from the sky, with NATO resuming the bombing of all of Serbia where it left off on June 10, 1999. Except for Kosovo and Montenegro, of course.

Al Gore’s and CNN’s ratings surge. Russia protests, but can do little to help Serbia without any troops on the ground. Meanwhile, a part of the Russian Northern Fleet sails into the Mediterranean, as previously scheduled but mostly to monitor the situation, just as it did during the 1999 bombing, when the ill-fated “Kursk,” among other Russian vessels, hovered around the Adriatic.

Ultimately, Milosevic is either killed, captured, surrenders or commits suicide. Kostunica is installed as president. Washington gets its puppet government. Sanctions are lifted. Serbia becomes another McDonalds-Coke-CNN NWO banana republic. Ostriches, sheep and sardines rejoice world over.

A massive World Bank, EBRD and IMF-financed “Serbia Reconstruction Program” begins. NATO wants to move into Serbia, but Kostunica initially objects to it. So he either relents, or suffers the fate of Biljana Plavsic. He is used for a while by the West, and then discarded like a used diaper. NATO moves in anyway. Now all of Europe is under a New Iron Curtain.

Could this scenario really happen? It could. But there is also a chance that Milosevic might let go of the reigns if Kostunica grants him immunity from prosecution by, and extradition to, the UN kangaroo court in the Hague. Which Kostunica has already said he would do.

So there you have it. A complex puzzle reduced to a few simple choices. Hopefully now you can see what the Sept. 24 election in Serbia is about, at least from a geopolitical standpoint. The Serb voters among the TiM readers can now decide whether to vote with their feet or hands. At least their eyes and minds should now be wide open.

For those whose are not, well, as they say, “minds are like parachutes; they only function when they are open.” Guess such voters will have to do what a large part of the electorate also does in western “demo farces” - run to the polling station with their heads planted firmly in the sand. Just like that ostrich you saw earlier.

OHIO, Sep. 4 - We’ve received a lengthy essay on the dim prospects for a lasting peace in the Balkans from Gregory Elich, an Ohio-based anti-war activist and commentator. Mr. Elich says that his anti-war work reaches back to the Vietnam war. Since then, he has been involved in working on Central American issues, opposing the bombing of Iraq, the embargo against Cuba, and Clinton's threats against North Korea in 1994.

Since 1992, however, Mr. Elich has been most heavily involved in publicizing the truth about the western neo-colonial interventions in the Balkans. In August 1999, for example, he was a member of a delegation which traveled throughout Yugoslavia, documenting NATO war crimes.

Mr. Elich has had over 40 of his articles published, primarily on the Balkans and East Asia issues. His most recently published article in the United States was "Bringing Democracy to Bosnia-Herzegovina," Covert Action Quarterly, Spring-Summer 2000 (www.covertaction.org).

And now, with this brief introduction, here are excerpts from Mr. Elich’s latest essay about the possible future NATO actions in the Balkans:

“Quietly, NATO is laying plans for a new military strike against Yugoslavia. On August 13 through 15, CIA Director George Tenet visited Bulgaria. In a series of extraordinary meetings, Tenet met with Bulgarian President Petur Stoyanov, as well as the Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Defense Minister. Officially, the purpose of Tenet's visit was to discuss the problem of organized crime and narcotics. However, Tenet spent a combined total of only 20 minutes at the headquarters of the National Security Service and the National Service for Combating Organized Crime. Unnamed diplomatic sources revealed that the proposed oil transit pipeline from the Caspian Sea was also topic of discussion.

Driving motivation for Tenet's visit, though, was to discuss Yugoslavia. According to an unnamed diplomatic source, Montenegrin secession from Yugoslavia topped the agenda. Following the meeting between Tenet and Major General Dimo Gyaurov, Director of the National Intelligence Service, a public statement was issued which stressed their "commonality of interests." Reports in the Bulgarian press revealed that various options were discussed with Bulgaria's president and prime minister.

Leaked information from the meetings indicated that Tenet's preferred option is the removal of the Yugoslav government, either as a result of that country's election on September 24, or by a NATO military assault that would install a puppet government. Another scenario Tenet discussed was associated Montenegro's secession from Yugoslavia. If open warfare breaks out over Montenegro's secession, then the United States plans to wage a full-scale war against Yugoslavia, as it did in spring 1999.

Sofia's Monitor reported that the "CIA coup machine" is forming. "A strike against Belgrade is imminent," it adds, and "Bulgaria will serve as a base."

The Italian army recently signed a lease contract to conduct training exercises beginning in October at the Koren training ground, near Kaskovo in southeast Bulgaria. The French army signed a similar agreement, in which French soldiers and tanks will train at the Novo Selo grounds in central Bulgaria from October 11 to December 12.

Talks are also underway for the U.S. military to lease the Shabla training grounds in northeastern Bulgaria. Scheduled to take place following the election in Yugoslavia, the training exercises could serve as a launching pad for NATO's planned military strike. It was recently announced that the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible is to be redeployed to the Adriatic over the next few months in support of a potential conflict over Montenegro.

Military force is only one component of the West's destabilization campaign against Yugoslavia. NATO's plan for military intervention emanates from a history of persistent Western meddling. In November 1998, President Clinton launched a plan for the overthrow of the government of Yugoslavia. The initial emphasis of the plan centered on supporting secessionist forces in Montenegro and the right-wing opposition in Serbia.

Several months later, during the bombing of Yugoslavia, Clinton signed a secret paper instructing the CIA to topple the Yugoslav government. The plan called for the CIA to secretly fund opposition groups and the recruitment of moles in the Yugoslav government and military.

On July 8, 1999, U.S. and British officials revealed that commando teams were training snatch operations to seize alleged war criminals and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. As an encouragement to mercenaries, the U.S. State Department also announced a $5 million bounty for President Milosevic.

Several Yugoslav government officials and prominent individuals, including Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic, have been gunned down. Most of these crimes remain unsolved, as the assassins managed to escape. Police apprehended one assassin, Milivoje Gutovic, after he shot Vojvodina Executive Council President Bosko Perosevic at an agricultural fair in Novi Sad. During interrogations, Gutovic admitted to police that he worked for the right-wing Serbian Renewal Movement.

TiM Ed.: The TiM editor has pointed out to Mr. Elich that the above Vuk Draskovic party is anything but “right-wing.” It’s one of the Serb opposition parties most closely aligned with the leftist-liberal State Dept. Draskovic has been even photographed as kissing Madeleine Albright’s hand.”

Goran Zugic, security advisor to secessionist Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, was murdered late on May 31, 2000. The assassin escaped, allowing Western leaders to blame President Milosevic. Coming just one week before crucial local elections in Montenegro, forces opposing President Milosevic stood to gain from the murder, as the effect would tend to sway undecided voters in favor of secessionist parties. A few days after the assassination, Yugoslav Minister of Information Goran Matic held a press conference, at which he accused the CIA of complicity in the murder.

The first publicly known Western plan to assassinate President Milosevic was drafted in 1992. Richard Tomlinson, a former British MI6 employee, later disclosed the plan. His task as an MI6 agent was to carry out undercover operations in Eastern Europe posing as a businessman or journalist. Tomlinson frequently met with MI6 officer Nick Fishwick. During one their meetings, Fishwick showed Tomlinson a document entitled, "The Need to Assassinate President Milosevic of Serbia." […]

In November 1999, members of an assassination squad, code-named "Spider," were arrested in Yugoslavia. According to Minister Goran Matic, "French intelligence was behind" the Spider group, whose aim was the assassination of President Milosevic. Planned scenarios included a sniper attack, planting an explosive device alongside a route they expected Milosevic to travel, planting an explosive in his car, and organizing 10 trained commandos to storm the presidential residence.

The leader of the group, Jugoslav Petrusic, had dual Yugoslav and French citizenship. Matic claimed that Petrusic worked for French intelligence for ten years. During interrogations, Petrusic said that he had killed 50 men on orders by French intelligence. Matic announced that one of the members of Spider was a "specialist for killings with a truck full of sand" - the same method used against Draskovic the previous month. […]

Yugoslav secret service sources revealed that the Spider group trained at NATO bases in Bosnia where "buildings resembling those where Milosevic lives were constructed." Money from the French intelligence service for Spider was brought to the border between Hungary and Yugoslavia by a man named Serge Lazarevic.

One month later, members of a second hit team, calling itself the Serbian Liberation Army, was arrested. Their aim was to assassinate President Milosevic and restore the monarchy.

At the end of July 2000, a squad of four Dutch commandos was apprehended while attempting to cross into Serbia from Montenegro. During the investigation, they admitted that they intended to kill or kidnap President Milosevic. The four said that they were informed that $30 million had been offered for "Milosevic's head," and that they intended to "claim a reward."

One of the men said that the group planned to abduct Milosevic or former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and "surrender them to The Hague." The group planned to put them atop a car "in a ski box and transport them out of the country." If the abduction failed, one of the men "had the idea to kill the president, to decapitate his head, to put it in the box and to send it home" to the Netherlands.

One of the arrested men, Gotfrides de Ri, belonged to the openly racist neo-nazi Center Party. During the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, the Center Party sent Dutch mercenaries to fight in right-wing Croatian paramilitary units. At the time of their arrest, the four were found with several knives, including one with a swastika, and wires with hooks for strangulation. All four admitted that they had trained under the British SAS.

At a news conference on August 1, Goran Matic accused the U.S of being the prime sponsor of assassinations and attempted assassinations. "It is obvious that they are recruiting various terrorist groups because they are frustrated with the fact that their military, political and economic goals in southeastern Europe have not been realized. [They are] trying to send them into the country so that they can change our political and social environment."

Jonathan Eyal, an advisor to the British government, commented recently, "I can't say when it will happen, but I can guarantee that Milosevic will end up dead, and he will be followed by a more pro-Western government." […]

Western leaders yearn to install a puppet government in Belgrade, and place their hopes in the fragmented right-wing opposition parties in Serbia. In 1999, American officials encouraged these parties to organize mass demonstrations to overthrow the government, but these rallies quickly fizzled due to lack of popular support. When Yugoslav Federal and local elections were announced on July 24, 2000, American and Western European officials met with leaders of the Serbian opposition parties, urging them to unite behind one presidential candidate.

If President Milosevic is re-elected, then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expects street demonstrations to overturn the election results and topple the government. In meetings held in Banja Luka in spring 2000, Albright expressed disappointment with the failure of past efforts to overthrow the legally elected Yugoslav government. Albright said that she had hoped sanctions would lead people to "blame Milosevic for this suffering." An exasperated Albright wondered, "What was stopping the people from taking to the streets?" Indicating that the U.S. was casting about for a pretext for intervention, she added, "Something needs to happen in Serbia that the West can support." […]

Djukanovic has moved steadily toward secession from Yugoslavia, indicating that he will push for separation if the right-wing opposition loses the September 24 election. In a phone call to Djukanovic in July 2000, Madeleine Albright promised that the U.S would provide him with an additional $16.5 million. That same week, Djukanovic blurted out that Montenegro "is no longer part of Yugoslavia."

He also made the astonishing claim that he considered it a "priority" for Montenegro to join NATO, the organization that had bombed his country only the year before. The next month, Albright announced that she and Djukanovic "try and talk to each other and meet on a regular basis," and that the "United States is supportive of the approach that President Djukanovic has taken in terms of democratic development and his approach to the economic reforms also."

Western support for secession extends beyond Albright meeting and talking with Djukanovic. More than half of the population of Montenegro opposes secession, and any such move is likely to explode into violence. In preparation for that rift, Djukanovic is building up a private army of over 20,000 soldiers, the Special Police, including special forces armed with anti-tank weapons. Sources in Montenegro revealed that Western special forces are training this private army. Djukanovic has requested that NATO establish an "air shield over Montenegro" as he moves toward secession. […]

In August, two armored vehicles bound for Montenegro were discovered in the port of Ancona, Italy. One of the vehicles was fitted with a turret suitable for mounting a machine gun or anti-tank weapon. Italian customs officials, reports the Italian news service ANSA, are "convinced" that arms trafficking to Montenegro "is of far greater magnitude than this single episode might lead one to believe." Reveling in anticipation of armed conflict, Djukanovic bragged that "many will tuck their tails between their legs and will soon have to flee Montenegro."

A violent conflict in Montenegro would provide NATO with its long-desired pretext for intervention. As early as October 1999, General Wesley Clark drew up plans for a NATO invasion of Montenegro. The plan envisions an amphibious assault by more than 2,000 Marines storming the port of Bar and securing the port as a beachhead for pushing inland. Troops ferried by helicopters would seize the airport at Podgorica, while NATO warplanes would bomb and strafe resisting Yugoslav forces. According to U.S. officials, other Western countries have also developed invasion plans.

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the UN declared, "We are in constant touch with the leadership of Montenegro," and warned that a conflict in Montenegro "would be directly affecting NATO's vital interest."

NATO General Secretary George Robertson was more explicit. "I say to Milosevic: watch out, look what happened the last time you miscalculated."

President Milosevic and the ruling socialist-led coalition in Yugoslavia enjoy considerable popular support, and many Western analysts admit they are likely to emerge victorious in the September 24 election. A socialist victory could precipitate a NATO strike, launched from Bulgaria within months, to overthrow the legally elected government of Yugoslavia. If the coup attempt fails, then Montenegro could declare independence, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to a second all out war by NATO against Yugoslavia. The war in 1999 brought immense suffering to the Balkans. The next war promises to be catastrophic.”

TiM Ed.: This version of Mr. Elich’s essay is abridged to the extent that we have removed some paragraphs dealing with topics with which the TiM readers should already be familiar from the TiM Bulletins. If you wish to read the full text of the article, however, including the numerous footnotes which back it up, you can request a copy directly from the author at gelich@att.net.

FLORIDA, Sep. 4 - We’ve received the following letter from Mr. Mladen K. Vranjican, an American of Serbian descent who is based in Florida:

“Bob, short time ago you and I had a brief discourse on Vojislav Kostunica whose statements seemed to have been made ‘out of character,’ and thereby raised some red flags regarding his integrity.

Although his position in the past has always been admirable, I am uneasy with his current position as the choice of DOS. (TiM Ed.: An acronym used by Serbia not-so-united opposition parties). If he is not one of ‘them,’ he is being used to do the dirty work ‘they’ couldn't get done: change the regime in Serbia and hand the country over to their overlords in the West.

After all, what "magic" did it take to get all the well known traitors of Serbia to unite into an Unholy Alliance and hand the reins of leadership to an independent, apparently uncorrupted Serbian nationalist? And what would posses such an independent and apparently honest man to accept the offer from an alliance of Serbia's leading traitors?

You know Vojislav, and I would like to ask you a very simple question about him: is he incredibly naive or is he just acting?

For him to be quoted in an American newspaper (TiM Ed.: the New York Times, Sep. 4 report) as saying that despite the bombing he has not abandoned the ideal of the West (i.e. democracy, blah, blah, blah), and that he is just reacting to bad people who have come to power in the West. If correct, that that is just incredibly stupid! It's like saying that there is nothing wrong with Socialism or Communism for that matter; it's just that some bad people came to power!

It takes an awful lot of competition to eliminate in order to come to power - no matter which way - which is why the road to power is not paved for nice guys.

Which is why I had to laugh when a U.S. Navy psychologist told me that he did a personality profile study on Milosevic and came up with some "bad conclusions."

At which time I asked him if he had also done a sociopath study of the current occupant in a well known house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The bottom line is: there are no honest politicians because the competition is too stiff. Seeking an honest politician is a contradiction in terms. (TiM Ed.: Indeed, there is an old American saying that “the only honest politician is the one who stays bought” - i.e., who doesn’t betray his current master for a higher-paying one).

But there is a place for stupid politicians. They serve a purpose as a smoke screen, to be discarded as soon the goal is achieved. So, which one is Kostunica?

The sight of Kostunica shaking hands with Zoran Djindjic is revolting. If he were true to his writings, he would have never done this. Choosing between not opposing Milosevic and shaking hands with Western lackeys, he chose the latter. That makes him one as well.

I have always disagreed with Kostunica's philosophy, especially the one which says that Kosovo is a problem to be solved democratically. Rubbish! Kosovo is not a democratic problem. It was not created in democratic conditions, or through democratic institutions. And it cannot be resolved with democratic means.

Today, the Albanian population in Kosovo has practically doubled from the pre-aggression period. And now the population is practically 99% Albanian. Kosovo's demographics have been shaped, in succession, by force rather than democracy; by force exercised by the Nazi Germany, Tito's Serbophobia, and now NATO’s bombs.

Kostunica's victory in the election will hand Serbia to its enemies, to the very people who brutally bombed it with impunity. To this very day, British government sources claim that their cluster bombs have been used solely on well-identified military targets. The residents of Nis know then that to NATO, Serb civilians must be "well-identified military targets."

And Kostunica says that power will not change him? Well, he needs to take a second look because the metamorphosis has already begun!”

TiM Ed.: We did answer Mr. Vranjican’s questions briefly and contemporaneously, but we promised him an expanded answer which he now has - see Item 1 of this Bulletin.

POZAREVAC, Sep. 4 - The Sunday (London) Times disclosed in its latest edition (Sep. 3) the location of what it called a secret “bunker bolthole” that the Serb president, Slobodan Milosevic, has started building for himself and his family near his erstwhile hometown of Pozarevac, in eastern Serbia. The Times said an underground bunker complex stretched underneath a villa in eastern Serbia once used by Marshal Tito.

Extensive renovations of the former Yugoslav dictator's residence on a mountain known as Crni Vrh, near the town of Bor, come amid speculation in Belgrade about Milosevic's likely next move, the Times said.

News of the extensions under the villa - known to locals as "the forbidden city" - leaked out after Marko,

Milosevic's freewheeling son, returned from a visit there, and told staff at his private Madonna discotheque in the Milosevic’s clan's home town of Pozarevac that his father feared the worst.

Only the villa's roof is visible from the nearest road, but powerful lights illuminate the site at night. Villagers told the Times that Milosevic normally travels there by helicopter, and he is said to have spent much of the NATO air campaign in a command bunker there.

PETLOVO BOJISTE, Serbia, Sep. 1 - An elite Yugoslav Army unit whose stated goal is to return to the NATO-controlled Kosovo staged war games with live ammunition in rain and fog before a group of Yugoslav generals and a dozen of foreign diplomats, the Associated Press reported on Sept. 1.

About 1,000 infantry, backed by 200 tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters, conducted the exercises known as “Return 2000,” a clear reference to the army's desire to take up a clause in the NATO military agreement for Kosovo that allows for a limited numbers of Yugoslav soldiers back into the province.

The unit’s “sacred duty” is to return to Kosovo, said the top military commander of the Yugoslav Army, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic.

Asked after the exercise whether the Yugoslav Army would enter Kosovo by force, Gen. Pavkovic said that the YU military “did not wish to violate” the (June 11, 1999) peace agreement. But he warned that the “threshold of tolerance of the Serbian people has its limits.”

TiM Ed.: Well, here’s another Serb leader who is changing his tune. Just over a year ago, Gen. Pavkovic told NATO to leave Kosovo, because he would be soon returning with his army (see http://www.truthinmedia.org/Kosovo/Peace/ps36.html). And he repeated that to this writer on Sept. 13, in a meeting at the Third Army headquarters in Nis (see TiM Editor's "Tour de Serbia" - Stage 2 - Nis).

As it turns out, that was an empty threat. Now, after NATO has violated just about every term of the peace agreement, the general is meekly saying he does not wish to be the one to do it.

So it looks like these war games were more a part of Milosevic’s presidential campaign, than a serious threat to NATO. In which case the name of the location where they were held is very appropriate (“Petlovo Bojiste” in Serbian stands for “Rooster’s Battlefield”).

6. Yugoslav Military Seized U.S. Ship in the Adriatic, Released It Upon Payment of Fine

MONTENEGRO, Aug. 30 - Yugoslav military personnel armed with automatic rifles boarded a U.S. vessel carrying humanitarian food supplies in the Adriatic Sea last weekend, and allowed the ship to leave after payment of a $3,200 fee, the U.S. government and shipping sources said Friday (Aug. 25), according to an Aug. 30 Associated Press report. The shipment, consisting of grain, was earmarked for the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

There were moments of high tension during the incident, said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker. "This kind of harassment could impede future humanitarian shipments" in the region, he said. The vessel, the Delaware Bay, was seized in Yugoslav territorial waters off the coast of Montenegro.

Word of the incident was first reported by the newsletter of the American Maritime Congress, which said that the vessel also was carrying military cargo for Israel and Egypt.

Reeker had no comment on that report, but other officials said it is not uncommon for Farrell Lines, which chartered the ship, to make such deliveries. He said the Yugoslavs demanded that the ship be taken to a military port, that communications be shut down, and that the bill of lading and crew list be turned over.

Reeker said Yugoslav authorities allowed the ship to dock at the Montenegrin port of Bar, the destination of the vessel. The cargo was apparently unloaded after the Yugoslavs demanded and received payment of a fee. The newsletter said Farrell Lines paid $3,200.

TiM Ed.: Now, a U.S. ship carrying “humanitarian aid” for Kosovo enters the Yugoslav territorial waters, evidently unexpectedly, and is destined for the port of Bar, Montenegro’s busiest harbor, and the likely future battleground between the Yugoslav Army and NATO, as you saw from our earlier reports. The ship just happens to be also transporting unspecified military cargo, ostensibly for Israel and Egypt.

And the State Dept. expects us swallow such a shallow explanation - line, hook and sinker? Maybe the lamestream media would, but not the TiM. Consider the following facts…

First, shipping of supplies for Kosovo is normally done via the Greek or Albanian ports, and then by land transport to the final destination.

Second, why in the world would the State Dept. ever imagine that the Milosevic’s army, with which the U.S. is supposedly at odds, would allow it ship anything to Kosovo over its territory? More likely the unspecified military supplies might have been intended for the Milo Djukanovic government’s eventual insurrection against Milosevic.

Third, to us, it seems the U.S. vessel got off quite lightly with only $3,200 fine. Except, of course, if the Yugoslavs got to keep the grain, too. The AP report does not make it clear if the military supplies were also unloaded, and therefore kept by the Yugoslav Army.

Fourth, notice just a mild protest by the State Dept. spokesman, instead of the usual stern rebukes, admonitions and demands for restitution that one could have expected from the State Dept. - if what the U.S. ship was doing were really above board? Could it be because the State Dept. got caught with its hand Milosevic’s cookie jar, and wanted the matter hushed up quickly?

7. A TiM Reader from Serbia: “Unfortunately, You Are Right about Kostunica”September 17, 2000

BELGRADE, Sep. 17 - A TiM reader of Serbian descent, who asked to remain anonymous, but whose identity is known to the TiM, has sent us (in response to our “Red October” article) the following letter to the editor about Vojislav Kostunica , the leader of the united Serb democratic opposition (DOS), and the main challenger to Slobodan Milosevic in the upcoming September 24 elections.

Unfortunately, you are right about Vojislav Kostunica. He is giving us more proof of being a disappointment by the day.

Just the other day, during his stay in Sveti Stefan near Budva (Montenegro), he held a press conference with a couple of Montenegrin officials, in which he stated full support to their Platform for Redefinition of Relations in the Federation.

In case you don't know, according to that document, Yugoslavia would no longer be a federal state, only a "community of states". There would be no federal parliament, no federal laws, a coordination board instead of a federal government and the army will be under the command of the Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro on their respective territories.

So, in case he becomes president, Kostunica would, instead of preserving his country, practically destroy it.

His latest pearl of wisdom, however, is the statement of gratitude to the government of Norway (needless to say, under full control of the NWO), which promised a $35 million donation should the so-called "democratic forces" win the elections, claiming that Norway will be the first country he will visit when he becomes president.

However, it seems to me you are over-emphasizing the presidential elections, and neglecting the elections for both houses of the Federal Parliament. Let me remind you that according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the president has very little authority. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the army, gives decorations, posts ambassadors and... Well that's about it!

The fact that Slobodan Milosevic virtually rules the country is due to the majority that his, and the parties supporting him have in both houses of the Parliament. So those who control the Parliament will have the true power. It will be interesting to see Milosevic losing, and his party the strongest in the Federal Parliament? I wonder how they would cope with that?

But this rather long prologue brings me to my main point: you recommendation to boycott the elections. Abstinence seems OK at first sight, but it hides many dangers within itself.

The Yugoslav law says that the elections are valid only if 50%+1 voter turns out. If that doesn't happen the country would be without it's legal and legitimate parliament, government and President. So Milosevic continues to rule, perhaps indefinite.

But that's not the worst that could happen. How so? Well, imagine this scenario:

After it is confirmed that there is a low turnout, the Montenegrin government proclaims that Yugoslavia no longer exists and declares independence. It causes an uproar among a good deal of Montenegrins who are against secession, and soon clashes between them, Yugoslav army and the police of Montenegro start. The government of Montenegro calls for the assistance of the so-called "international community" and... well, Clinton and Albright need only be asked once (TiM Ed.: Which is exactly the “war scenario” we outlined in the “Red October” piece).

They could simply say that Yugoslavia has no government, and that they are "forced to stabilize the region".

Russia and other anti-NATO countries would be reluctant to help because of fear that they might be chasing a lost cause. And of course, western quislings could arm their supporters and tell them to take over strategic spots in Serbian cities and greet NATO troops. It would also enable the U.S. to terminate Milosevic and other Yugoslav officials.

If, on the other hand, the elections were valid, whoever is elected is the legal and legitimate representative of Yugoslavia, and any actions described above would be a serious international crime by all standards.”

M.L., Belgrade, Serbia (name withheld per author’s request, but known to the TiM editor)

TiM Ed.: Also see the following commentaries about Kostunica - http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/kostunic.htm, and http://www.politika.co.yu/2000/0917/01_25.htm (Serbian language only - published today in the state-owned, and pro-Milosevic Politika). So please take the crudely and maliciously written Politika story with a grain of salt. We only reference it here because it does contain some truthful comments about Kostunica, from the 1996-1997 timeframe).

8. A TiM Reader from California: More Reasons Why Kostunica Should Not Be SupportedSeptember 17, 2000

CALIFORNIA, Sep. 17 - We also received the following comment from Tika Jankovic, a TiM reader from California, who recently traveled to Kosovo, and reported about the desperate plight of the remaining Serbs in this Serbian province, now under the NATO/KFOR occupation:

1) He would LOSE Kosovo completely! As it stands now, the UNSCR 1244 (resolution) recognizes "Yugoslav" sovereignty over Kosovo. Kostunica and many Diaspora Serbs want to "do away" with the label "Yugoslavia," and "re-define" inter-republican relations.

But this is exactly what the Clinton Administration wants, because as they've argued -- once Montenegro goes, there is NO MORE YUGOSLAVIA, and thus 1244 doesn't apply!!!! Then they can simply implement the Landsdowne Declaration (a blue print for Kosovo's eventual independence drafted by the State Dep. after the bombing).

Kostunica’s and the opposition’s SERBIA consists of the “Pashaluk of Belgrade” (the “Borough of Belgrade,” loosely translated), the old Ottoman province which consisted of Belgrade and its immediate environs.

This is the goal of the West, and (some) leaders the Serb Diaspora and opposition are advocating will make this happen.

2) While in power, during the first "transition year," the Kostunica government will seek to eradicate the party machinery of the SPS/JUL (TiM Ed.: the Serb socialist-communist parties), and perhaps even the SRS (TiM Ed.: the Serb Radical Party - nationalist at its essence). This will be done to neutralize any organized opposition to reforms in the country, and to ensure that when "new elections" are slated for next year, an alternative to WESTERN parties will NO LONGER exist in YUGOSLAVIA!!!!!!!!

3) The opposition believes that the only solution for Serbia (b/c it has already given up Kosovo and Montenegro in its program, in accordance with official State Department and Albanian foreign policy, which considers those two provinces and republics as separate countries), is to divide the country into 100 administrative areas; to prevent any centralized control of the country; and they would extend considerable autonomy to Hungarian areas in the Vojvodina (more so than the Hungarians enjoy at the moment) -- perhaps as a present for Djindjic's neo-fascist friend Viktor Orban who leads the NATO Hungary.”