O'Bomber the WhiteHouseboy

If this raises a grim smile...read this.

Mongrelisation of Europe continues - Kosovo plans revealed today by Ahtisaari

Washington Post today Editorial " Solution for Kosovo"

All along it's been obvious what the permanent solution must be: the recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation, with protections for its Serb minority. The question has been whether that outcome can be arranged without a diplomatic or even military blowup -- between Kosovo and a Serbia still infected by belligerent nationalism, or between the West and an increasingly troublesome Russia.

The Bush administration is cautiously optimistic that the transition can be pulled off in the next several months. But it will take some deft Western diplomacy and, in the end, probably some American toughness.

When the great democracies in the shape of NATO stopped bombing Kosovo in 1999 to discourage Serb ambitions - it still left Kosovo technically a province of Serbia - Metohija [the full Serbian name of the province]

The indigenous Albanians wanted independence, the reduced (14% down to 4/5%) and cowed Serbian minority didn't.

NATO - effectively the United States, postponed any decision regarding Kosovo's status a decision with which their European allies passively agreed. A principal concern was that recognition of Kosovo’s independence would stir up Serb nationalism. As the Wapo editorial exhibits, Uncle Sam is getting impatient.

Amidst a general sort of international acceptance that Kosovo should receive some sort of recognition of independence along the lines of UN Security Council’s Resolution 1244, Martti Ahtisaari, U.N. envoy and former President of Finland, has been visiting the Balkans to try to barter a diplomatic procedure for talks between the Albanians and Belgrade on resolving Kosovo’s status. Meanwhile 220,000 refugees stay in greater Serbia although some 16,000 are said to have returned according to UNHCR.(Kosovo pop. approx 2 MN.)

The Serbs want acceptance of ;
1 Debt write off
2 Entry /membership of NATO’s Partnership for Peace
3 Entry to the European Union.
4 Statutory acceptance of minority Serbs in any form of future Government.

Effectively something on the lines of Bosnia , allegedly independent (but of course whose whole existence is as a satrap state of the US) a sovereign country for a decade, but one that still has an international administrator and considerable limitations on its freedom of action.

There are two clearly defined ethnic-based entities in Bosnia , a Muslim-Croat federation and a Bosnian Serb republic. Holding the ring is a token and powerless weak central government in which 3 representative Presidents provide some leadership and three presidents. The 3 Muslim, Croat and Serbian leaders have publicly agreed to eliminate the system of three presidents to provide a stronger central authority but the European Union forces which replaced the NATO forces still - with the European Union's High Representative provides the principal control over the elected Government.(Not forgetting U.S. ambassador Donald Hays)

After a decade this ad hoc International administration ( and war weariness) has helped Bosnia gradually strengthen the role of the central government and promote faster integration.Last year there was a significant and major breakthrough when there was agreement to create a unified multi-ethnic national police force. Shades of Ulster.

Probably the biggest reward / carrot was the decision by EU foreign ministers late last year to agree on talks for a Stabilization and Association Agreement, the start of Bosnia’s path toward possible E.U. membership - at least a decade away.

Ahtisaari on behalf of UNOSEK unveils the result of his labours today when he meets Serbian President Boris Tadić in Belgrade - although Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica has had a fit of the sulks and announced that he will not receive Ahtisaari and Vuk Drašković, the third co-chairman of the Belgrade negotiating team on Kosovo hasn't up to press made up his mind. It is ulikely that givewn the political vacuum that exists after the January elections that any form responses will be made by anyone - expect the Albanians in Pristina will be disappointed.

Slobodan Samardzic, a Serbian negotiator, and aide to President Tadic has appeared on Serbian TV from Belgrade rejecting Mr Ahtisaari's expected conclusions in advance but explaining that the Belgrade negotiating team cannot undertake any of its basic activities until parliament and the government have been properly constituted.

Copies of his report (which is described by the Swedes as an interim / draft report) have been given to the UN Secretary General and the Contact Group members but Reuters have claimed to have a copy which is said to include;

1. An outline of how the ethnic Albanian majority (90%) in Kosovo could proclaim independence and could allow for the individual recognition of its secession by certain states. Kosovo would have some trappings of the state, including state symbols, a flag and an anthem, all reflecting its multiethnic character. Kosovo would also be granted control over its borders.

2. Formation of a professional, multiethnic security service equipped with light weaponry and controlled by a civic body (politicians).

3. Appointment of an "international community representative" , with powers to intervene if Kosovo tries to go further than the plan allows, while Nato and EU forces (which now include Germans) would remain in military and policing roles.

4. Kosovo's Serbs, especially the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Serbian language, would be explicitly protected. Representation would be guranteed for Serbs in Parliament, the Police / Border Police and civil service.

Essentially, more for the talking shops, which is preferable to the previous solution of bombing from 22,000 feet with HE 500 lb bombs. There are two unfactored variables ;

1. Putin / Russia is opposed to UN resolution 1244 and Kosovan independence under Albanian control - their response is still unclear.

2. The biggest changes since then took place on January 1st when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU. The Balkan states are now an intrusive enclave in Europe.

An enclave in which some very shady men who did very well out of the war, smugglers, mafiosi, Russian minor (but powerful and rich - many in a happily protected London base) oligarchs, outwitting an international bureaucracy they are happy to see remain in place.

The residents of this fractured enclave (see map) - well expect a lot of them to fetch up in Europe - real soon now with those handy Romanian and Bulgarian passports.

...and the Yanquis ? The Wapo is their mouthpiece ...read it.

EX-President Clinton - whore Warmonger welcomed at Labour Party Conference

In June 1995 Monica Lewinsky, a 21 year old graduates from Lewis and Clark College,( A Presbyterian College in Portland Oregon), comes to the White House from California, as an unpaid intern in the office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. She later worked in the Pentagon and left late 1997.

Krajina was at the time a stretch of mountains that were inhabited by 400,000 Serbs. In the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 1995, on the heels of an incessant artillery and air bombardment, some 200,000 Croatian troops moved accroding to the US prepared plan "Operation Storm" to "liberate" Krajina, the Serbs who were not killed fled - 200,000 of them.

The Orthodox Serbs, had fled the Turks, of the Ottoman Empire, their numbers had been reduced by between 500,000 and 750,000 by the homegrown Nazis, the Croatian Ushstase led by Ante Pavelic during WWII.

President Clinton's US envoy to the Balkans Richard Holbrooke, wrote in his book - To End a War, Chapter 6 reporting what US Ambassador Robert Frasure wrote in a note to him ... "We 'hired' these guys to be our junkyard dogs because we were desperate. We need to try to 'control' them. But it is no time to get squeamish about things."

11 years later , Krajina is a wasteland, with "scattered ghost villages strewn with shell-scarred houses overgrown with ivy and tall grass" (Reuters). Perhaps a tenth of the 400,000 Croatian Serbs returned, only to face bureaucratic abuse and frequent physical violence. President Tudjman made Pavelic's dream to rid Croatia of Serbs a reality. The US proved to be better allies than the Nazis when ethnic cleaning was planned.

On Aug. 6, 1998: Monica Lewinsky appears before a US grand jury to begin her testimony...that's the lady who on January 26th,1998 President Clinton made a comment on TV that will be repeated for the rest of his presidency, if not forever. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

The US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously on August 7th 1998. 257 people were killed including 12 Americans. The US Embassy in Kartoum, Sudan was closed down.

On Aug. 19th, 1998: Word that Prsecutor Starr had requested and received a sample of Clinton's DNA became public.

President Clinton went on nationwide TV on the 20th August 1998 after returning to Washington from his holiday at Matha's Vineyard. He announce that Tomahawk missiles fired from U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The simultaneous attacks took place about 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) and slammed into sites in in Khost, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Jalalabad, 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Kabul.

In the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the El Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries factory -- which U.S. officials say was housing chemical weapons -- was also attacked.

In Washington Aug. 20th, 1998 at about 11.00 a.m EDT (1500GMT) : Monica Lewinsky testifies before the grand jury for a second time.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said the goal of the strikes was to disrupt and attempt to destroy the suspected training and support facilities used to train "hundreds, if not thousands, of terrorists."

"We recognize these strikes will not eliminate the problem," Cohen said. "But our message is clear. There will be no sanctuary for terrorists and no limit to our resolve to defend American citizens and our interests -- our ideals of democracy and law -- against these cowardly attacks."

President Clinton said, ""Our actions today were not aimed at Islam," he said. "No religion condones the murder of innocent men, women and children."

On December 16th 1998 (Just prior to Ramadan) President Clinton orders a three-day bombing attack against Iraq for Sadaam Hussein's refusal to allow entry to United Nations weapons inspectors. Lt. Kendra Williams and First Lt. Cherry Lamoureux (USAF) became two of the USAF first women pilots to take part in combat. At 10.20 GMT President Prime Minister Tony Blair announced to the House of Commons that RAF Harriers were on their way to bomb Iraq. The action delays the House impeachment vote by one day.

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENCE, MR GEORGE ROBERTSON, MOD PRESS CONFERENCE, LONDON, SATURDAY, 19 DECEMBER 1998 in "Operation Desert Fox" over 100 bombing raids, some 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired and around 100 air-launched cruise missiles had been used in the 4 days of raids by the RAF.

December 19th 1998 The U.S. House of Representatives passes two of four articles of impeachment against President Clinton. On counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, the president is impeached.

The Senate trial of President Clinton begins on January 14. 1999.

On January 20th 1999, NATO and the U.S bombing campaign against Serbia began. It's aim was said to be to preventing ethnic cleansing of Albanians. After 79 days of bombing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic signs NATO's agreement to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

INTRIGUING FOOTNOTE

US Ambassador Frasure (also often called President's Special Envoy to Yugoslavia) was a decorated foreign service officer with a 21-year career that had taken him to overseas posts in Switzerland, Germany, Britain, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Estonia.

Frasure was one of three American diplomats killed on Saturday August 19th 1995, when their APC vehicle plunged 500 feet, off a treacherous and muddy mountain road into a ravine in Bosnia. The others were Air Force Col Nelson Drew, and Joseph Kruzel.

President Clinton called the widows to express condolences from a golf course and his phone called the wives of the three from the greens of Teton Pines Golf Course some 10 miles from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

On December 15, 1995 President Clinton awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously to all 3 diplomats.

A military hospital in Albania dedicated a wing in honor of Joseph Kreuzel and a corridor in the Pentagon is named after him.

CONCLUSION

So Clinton was the first US President to bomb Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and the 2nd to bomb Iraq....the occasion when Tony Blair first sent British armed forces to bomb civilian targets - and didn't seek approval of the House of Commons - it became a habit.

... and not a peep from the Labour Party ...

POSTSCRIPT See Richard Miniter in an article in the Wall Street Journal today after this was published for a different take on Clintonans War on Terror.