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KOSOVO: "Cutting Through a Fog of Lies"

by Jared Israel

Tuesday, March 30, 1999

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People should be very wary of believing the atrocity stories flooding the press and TV. As the Sunday London Times news story, Truth Chokes on the Fog of War, noted:

"All is not what it seems in the latest western attempt to impose order on Balkan chaos. A conflict promoted in Washington, London and elsewhere as a crusade against a despot looks a lot more complicated to those who live within earshot of exploding Tomahawk missiles...."

The Times is right. Consider the miraculous case of Bajram Kelmendi and his two sons. It's miraculous that a London Times story 3/28, reports that

"among those seen fleeing yesterday were the moderate politician Fehmi Agani and his family."

Why is this miraculous? Because they had already been "killed" by CNN and the whole Western media. These people, seen alive on the 28th, were reported quite dead on the 26th. That's correct, Kelmendi AND two sons. And not just reported dead -- there were even some grim details about the "murder." Here's a sample of the much-trumpeted story, from AFP:

"They had been kidnapped Wednesday, four hours after NATO began air strikes against Yugoslavia, said Kandic, citing information from Kelmendi's wife Nekibe Kelmendi.

"Their bodies were found by a cousin on a roadside near a gas station at Kosovo Polje, a mainly Serb suburb of Pristina. They had been shot." (AFP, 3/26/99)

And, just to remind every one of how horrid the Serbs USUALLY are, the story added "but with no sign of torture" (THIS time!)

At least the dastardly Serbs who DIDN'T kill these people also DIDN'T torture them first. Otherwise, the LIES the press created would have been EVEN HARSHER!

Wouldn't an UNBIASED press have been eager to correct this slanderous error by trumpeting a RETRACTION on page one of every paper? Yet while the FABRICATION of Kelmendi's DEATH was page one the TRUTH of his REINCARNATION was MINOR NEWS. Buried inside some newspapers, entirely ignored by others. Why? Doesn't the RUSH to print the LIE and the FAILURE to make KNOWN the FALSITY of the original story demonstrate the terrible bias of the media? That it is not serving the truth but the war?

And indeed, a smart fellow once said: "Truth is the first casualty of war."

BECAUSE NATO is bombing Kosovo and this bombing is of course creating a wave of refugees (wouldn't you flee??);

BECAUSE the KLA (Albanian secessionist terrorists) wants to prove there's a humanitarian catastrophe to justify more bombing and therefore is doing everything it can to drive Albanians out of Kosovo, including by masquerading as Serbs and attacking villages;

BECAUSE their many agents among the refugees will say ANYTHING for the cause, because their LIES are a weapon of their terrorist war, because NATO is VERY anxious to justify its murderous bombing (about 3000 civilians have been killed by bombs) and KLA lies are WEAPONS of WAR;

BECAUSE the press is controlled by the same people who are pushing this war;

BECAUSE refugees KNOW they will get a much better reception if they blame their flight on Serbs - instead of the NATO bombs;

THEREFORE the reporting has become an hysterical demonization of Serbia.

But THINK about it. When a crime occurred, we're supposed to ask WHO GAINS? Well, WHO GAINS from atrocities against Albanians in Kosovo? Such atrocities only hurt the Serbs. Who gains? ONLY the KLA and NATO.

In the 13 months that the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police have been fighting 15,000 heavily armed guerrillas, the total casualties are reported as having been 2000. That's 5 a day on both sides. Doesn't that suggest the Serb forces have been very careful NOT to kill civilians? Why would they change their tactics NOW when they know that every atrocity will be used to justify attacking their side?

The answer is they have not. People are fleeing mainly because bombs are falling. Most Americans would flee too! Some make up atrocity stories to curry favor with NATO - remember, they are REFUGEES now and refugees know that in the real world they are treated better if they say what the host wants to hear. Some are KLA supporters, who have a motive to lie. And some have been attacked by Serbs driven to desperate action BY THIS BOMBING. But isn't that NATO's fault?

As the London Times said in the article TRUTH CHOKES ON THE FOG OF WAR:

... Not everyone reaching Macedonia had encountered a genocidal Serb. Many had been scared from their homes not by Milosevic's marauding troops, but by the threat of NATO attacks. Others, like the well dressed Albanians, had motives that were hard to fathom through the centuries-old fog of Balkan intrigue and deceit.  In Tetovo, there was speculation that the Kotlina Albanians had fallen foul of their own side. Reports reaching Skopje have suggested that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the underdog resistance unit of Albanian separatist guerrillas, is not always as heroic as it is sometimes portrayed."The Sunday Times" March 28 1999

War is hell. LET'S STOP THIS ONE! The victims are citizens of Serbia, whether of Serbian, Albanian, Gypsy or other ethnic group -- and they are MAINLY being killed by NATO's HUMANITARIAN BOMBS.

-- Jared Israel

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