Ereli - Another fucking lying bastard at State

At the Department of State's daily briefing spokesman Adam Ereli went out of his way to congratulate Croatian officials and the Spanish authorities who arrested General Gotovina late Wednesday in the Canary Islands.The United States were of course offering a reward of over $5 million for Gotovina.

Ereli would not discuss Croatia`s involvement in the arrest of Gotovina, who was indicted by a UN tribunal in The Hague on charges of committing atrocities against ethnic Serbs during the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian war.

Ereli said, "This arrest is obviously a major step forward for Croatia on its road to eventual NATO membership".

"It was clearly, therefore, in the best interests of Croatia, and we see it as a key step toward reconciliation in the region," Ereli told reporters at the State Department`s daily briefing.

You really have to admire the sheer fucking gall of the guy. It was of course President Clinton who approved and directed "Operation Storm" which led to the ethnic cleaning of the Serbs in Croatia, leaving untold thousands dead and up to 200,000 fleeing homeles refugees.

Did the assembled finest of the Washington Press Corps curiously incurious about such things , as, were Richard Holbrooke, Ambassador Galbraith etc., going to testify if Gotovina asked for them to appear ?

PS - In July the ICC's Carla Del Ponte travelled to Rome to share her intelligence (that Gotovina was holed up in a monastery - quite where she couldn't say) with the Vatican's 'foreign minister,' Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo. He refused to help, telling her the Vatican was not a state and thus had 'no international obligations' to help the UN to hunt war criminals." The Vatican is said to have assisted the exit of Croat Ustashe leaders to South America at the end of WWII - which they deny.

PPS - José Antonio Alonso, Spain’s Interior minister, said a false Croatian (in the name of Christian Horvat = Christian Croat)passport seized by police during Gen Gotovina’s detention on Wednesday night contained visa stamps from Argentina, Chile, China, Mauritius, Tahiti, the Czech Republic, Russia and Spain. Police also found a laptop computer, and a second false passport and some cash.