SIT-REP 6-07; Monday, June 7, 1999 --Corrected

In This Issue: Peace? Further Considerations - Exodus? "Bait & Switch?"

- Tacitus; Life of Agricola; quoting Caledonian (Scottish) Chieftain Calgacus, c. AD 85

"To robbery, slaughter, plunder they give the lying name of empire; they make a desert and call it peace."

? - Tacitus, alternate translation.

Coming out of the Rambouillet negotiations, English Lieutenant General Michael "Mike" Jackson was tasked to build up the NATO peacekeeping force in Macedonia for rapid entry in "a permissive environment," as William Cohen likes to euphemize. Jackson named his project, "Operation Agricola," after the Roman General who had pacified northern England and had done it the hard way. Ironic humor (maybe reflecting a cynical response to his orders)? Evidence of the hidden agenda? We think the latter is certain, and now have further confirmation from George Kenney, writing in "The Nation;" see below. We already had Joseph DioGuardi, Adem Demaci, Commander Remi and Commander Drini exhorting the KLA to fight on despite Hashim Thaci's signature on the accord.

It is not safe, I recognized overnight Friday after watching the news show discussions, to assume anything is as straightforward as promises on paper appear at first consideration, given the established record of those in control of the Kosovo peace process. Many American and Yugoslav readers have written of their concerns and I will try to circulate some of those comments to my readers.

Hope and relief are passing emotional moments in a crisis; the G-8 agreement, in implementation, looks to be a forlorn hope, a cruel twist of the knife. In fleshing out the details of the G-8's 12 points, it looks more like the implementation General Sheridan contrived against the Plains Indians than a fair offer. But then the US never behaved in this as "an honest broker." Welcome the return of "The Ugly American" to center stage, the "indispensable nation" is a cynical, bribe-making, manipulative bully. Some "sole remaining global superpower" we have become.

The "bait and switch" began right away, as you will see further below. By Monday morning, it was apparent NATO is attempting to pull a series of "bait and switch" tactics between the generalities of the G-8 agreement's 12 points and the details of implementation of the points. (This is the classic "fallacy of ambiguity" in diplomatic practice.) When Yugoslav officers balked over important details in the Macedonian border talks with NATO commander LT Gen Mike Jackson, when Foreign Minister Ivanov of Russia began to grumble, and when the KLA continued to assert its ambition for sovereignty, America chose to adhere to the carefully prepared spin control line that Milosevic was playing cheat and retreat. In fact, the out-of-control nightmare is the achievement of US policy.

Secretary of Defense William Cohen and others tried to deflect attention from the fact that the heroic, young commanders of the KLA have no intention of demilitarizing or of stopping their fight for independence.

The United States policy has not only made a desolation and tried to call it peace, they have created a mess of political ambitions that they cannot control. Did they ever intend to impose peace, though?

Here is another reason we shall all have to remain suspicious; as I have said repeatedly on air, the Rambouillet Accord was never meant as a deal "in good faith." It was designed to lead to bombing, George Kenney's source, below, asserts. We also know that Adem Demaci, Joseph DioGuardi, Commanders Remi and Drini all rejected the accord and the KLA kept fighting to ensure NATO could bomb Yugoslavia.

From: The Nation, June 14, 1999; Rolling Thunder: the Rerun; by GEORGE KENNEY

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Dirty secrets are hard to keep forever and the Clinton Administration has the damnedest need to brag and crow "off the record" to their acolytes. Kenney found a reporter with a reflexive twinge of honorableness.

Further confirmation of the intellectual origins of the stupidity behind the NATO intervention may be found in John Roberts II's excellent article, "Roots of Allied Farce," in the June issue of the American Spectator, already zipping around on the internet. -- Mr. Roberts now has a copy of SIRIUS' extracts of Albanian American PAC contributions to key politicians, as well as the Dole Senate Resolution 150, of June 1986.

EXODUS? Soldiers dedicate their lives to protecting the nation and Serb soldiers set a standard of devotion; though the Ministry of Interior Police, who fought the KLA may be another matter. It seems the generals know NATO's occupation plan leaves the door too far open for the KLA and sets the stage for a stampede of non-Albanians and some loyalists out of what will become a nightmare of factional rivalries and vengeance taking between the Albanians themselves, and against all non-Albanian communities.

This is stimulus-response and a paradox. NATO pledges it is creating a safe environment for Albanians to return to their homes, but to do that, has decided to render conditions unsafe for their non-Albanian --and anti-KLA Albanian-- neighbors. NATO's demands do not even provide for local cops to remain at their posts. Nor will NATO troops be used as active police to pressure the KLA into orderly behavior; rather, Mme Albright foresees filling Kosovo's new police force with KLA veterans. Gun-toting extremists will be given control of law & order in Kosovo, yet the West expects moderation to dominate the post-war political realm of Albanian-Kosovo? Mr. Ibrahim Rugova may have to flee to Belgrade to ensure his personal survival, if this plan is followed to the logical extremes it leads to. This is the stimulus

The logical response is exodus and devastation: Kosovo Serbs are of two minds; some want to shoot a US Marine --to go down swinging, for their homes. Others say they will leave the province as the Yugoslav Army pulls out. The latter, like the Serbs who left Sarajevo and Islamic-controlled parts of Bosnia, can be counted on to destroy anything they have to leave behind, and to disinter their dead for reburial elsewhere --Albanian xenophobes of the KLA ilk have a long record of desecrating graveyards, churches and other monuments. So expect widespread destruction of houses, barns and infrastructure if their legitimate security concerns are not addressed.

This time, with the KLA having proven its vicious, xenophobic and chauvinist intent, the Gypsies, Turks, Gorani and other minorities will also be highly inclined to leave the province, though media attention will be focused --negatively-- on the Serbs alone.

The Pentagon, instead of concerning itself with the prospect of a Serb exodus, ignoring the plight of other minorities, and believing its propaganda line, jumped on the "exodus" sentiment during its Saturday briefing, even as the demonstration was held outside the "puzzle palace." The Clinton spin doctors miss no chance to puff up the victory and to rub more salt into the wound. But, oh, the consequences of this Clintonian policy --to call it Machiavellian is to blacken the Florentine's name. Machiavelli, Orwell and Kubrick could not construe something this degenerate.

The KLA has not only rejected the agreement, they are calling to widen the fight again as the Yugoslav forces pull out of Kosovo. Caviling for television, Secretary Cohen spoke of demilitarizing the KLA but not disarming them. Fine, but the KLA has a long track record of murdering individuals in their homes and at job sites. How does NATO intend to discipline this guerrilla army to prevent an ongoing campaign of assassinations and other terror?

Oddly, on Friday, June 4, The Washington Times' Jerry Seper, using a leaked NATO intelligence report, confirmed that even NATO understands that the KLA is getting its weapons-purchasing money from the Heroin Mafia. When microphones are switched off, some at least, are nervous at who has been "empowered" in this struggle for "multicultural tolerance."

Bait & Switch: With or without Milosevic, the pressure will continue on Yugoslavia, we all fear. If he is toppled, Belgrade may get some aid, but it will remain the convenient whipping boy at hand for "The Wholly-Socialist Empire" for years to come. Every tyrant regime needs an enemy to set up and knock down. Our third-way, enlightened social democrats are no different in having that need to prove their righteousness and indispensability.

Clearly the victory spin is on and Washington insiders must have their own conspiratorial buzz about how things will really end. On Friday night, the pro-Clinton and pro-Albanian media (some anti-Clinton Republicans) spent considerable time polishing up the trophies of NATO's apparent victory in the Balkans. I wrote that I do not believe that Mr. Clinton won a real victory and that NATO's concessions were material, but it is clear that the people of Yugoslavia, the Albanians and the taxpayers of the NATO powers have all lost to some extent. People died in several thousands to gratify the egoistic needs of leaders needing power and legacies. Plato's tyrants are still too powerful and all these nifty international bodies do nothing to slow them down or contain them --the international bodies are all political too, manned by politicos, after all.

It seems that when Mr. Clinton announced Europe should bear the brunt of costs for cleaning up the mess created by NATO's bombs, the European Union promptly figured out that the best way of reducing costs and cash flow is to withhold any money from Yugoslavia, as long as "the indicted war criminal" Milosevic remains "dictator." Now economists estimate that NATO accomplished some $30 Billion in damage on an economy that is so badly crippled that per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated as a mere $1000 in 1995 (down from a pre-war $5000), and where national GDP is below $20 Billion. If you cannot beat them, beggar them.

Article 9 of the peace proposal approved by Belgrade's Parliament stated:

But NATO, the EU, Clinton and Blair have pronounced Yugoslavia not worthy of participating while Milosevic remains in office. So the first "bait-and-switch" has already been accomplished. Pollsters rapidly got American public opinion to support this line of reasoning. "Malice towards all, charity toward only the politically correct," is the Clinton-Blair formulation.

This freeze on reconstruction aid indicates that among other important points, the Danube River will remain closed for some time thanks to all those destroyed bridges. That keeps an important tension between Belgrade and Europe alive and helps to set up a pretext for a potential punitive occupation of the trans-Danube province of Vojvodina at a future date, some suspect.

What a cynical deal was cut here? And just in time so that Hillary Clinton could confirm her Senate candidacy through favored leaks in the media. Al Gore can claim credit for the earnest work of his good buddy Viktor Chernomyrdin. Hmmm·... It is a coin-toss as to which presidential pairing is more cynical and manipulative, Milosevic-Markovic or Clinton-Rodham? Cherchez la femme.

The peace deal looks good on paper, but the implementation is another matter; as we have seen in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and with Croatia. The whole end game does indeed stink

And in the flush of victory, promotions have already begun. The recovering communist-socialist NATO figure-head, Javier Solana, has already been tapped as Secretary General of the newly forming European Union's foreign policy and security council --the official title is even longer, more pompous and tedious.

The only brake on a continued manipulation of Kosovo will come if Russia and China succeed in embedding checks and balances into the UN Security Council Resolution which will authorize the peacekeeping mission. Those two vetoes stand in between the Albanians and independence, but are also outnumbered by the vetoes of Washington, London and Paris, which will collaborate in writing the draft document. Their effective intercession is a forlorn hope.

Nobody can point to any tangible proof that this is the end of the game of dismantling Yugoslavia. And when Mr. Milosevic "let" crimes happen in Kosovo, during the eviction of "illegal immigrants" after NATO's bombing began, he further ensured the other side would have sufficient evidence of war crimes to maintain the wall of isolation around the Serbian people. All the evidence SIRIUS and its friends have gathered and all similar efforts by friends of the truth are neutralized in the political debate; at least for the moment.

Belgrade Blame Game

With Mr. Milosevic officially to blame for the sputtering military negotiations, the intense game of vilifying the enemy continues and the bombing is again escalated. NATO hopes the Yugoslavs will rid themselves of their despised leader. But I, for one, think that removal of Milosevic will not change the disposition of Kosovo, nor will it lead to a flood of reconstruction assistance. Only a trickle of that and a modicum of humanitarian relief will ever come from the West.

A neo-Machiavellian twist to the Clinton spin campaign is to amplify and encourage the dispute among Serbs as to who lost Kosovo: this is deadlier than the Pentagon twisting the threat of a Serb exodus from the heartland province without taking into account the prospect for further destruction. It is more cruel than to diminish the importance of NATO intelligence reports on KLA-Herion and to be slow in arranging the containment of KLA ambitions, while being slow to occupy a province when NATO demands that all national forces be evacuated, to leave Kosovo in a law and order vacuum.

Read G-8 in a Clintonian way and you expect that NATO may be insisting that all local cops have to leave, not just the Ministry of Interior Police. Exodus guaranteed.

Meanwhile, hoping to save the Republica Srpska in Bosnia, its Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik (a devious and sslf-serving politician according to one of my Serbian readers), hand-picked by NATO viceroy Carlos Westendorp, another recovering Spanish socialist) launched an attack on Milosevic to gratify the international press. Serb-on-Serb violence? Serbs are naturally disputatious and are now vulnerable to outside manipulation.

Historical Note: The Germans attacked London for 57 nights from September 7 to November 3^rd, 1940. During that `London Blitz,' 43,000 Londoners died and over 200,000 were wounded. From November 4th to May 10, 1941, the Germans hit various cities and periodically hit London again, including the final incendiary bombing raid of May 10, 1941. The attacks on Belgrade have now gone on for some 75 days and nights, exceeding the London Blitz by nearly three weeks.

© Copyright 1999 by Benjamin C. Works -- SIRIUS www.siri-us.com

KLA Threatens New Wave of Killings

The Telegraph (UK)

6/4/99 Philip Smucker in Skopje and Tim Butcher

KOSOVO Liberation Army guerrillas are poised to sweep forward the moment Serb forces begin the withdrawal agreed in Belgrade yesterday, threatening more killing in Kosovo as Nato prepares to deploy in the province.

The KLA yesterday reacted sceptically to the peace deal accepted by Belgrade, which calls for the withdrawal of Serbian forces and for the guerrillas to disarm. "We are not prepared to even discuss the future status of our army until all the Serb forces have left Kosovo," said Ilir Rama, a KLA official in the Albanian capital, Tirana. "And we won't be discussing disarmament anyway."

Nato planners anxious for an orderly withdrawal of Serb army, paramilitaries and special police concede that the presence of large numbers of KLA members seeking vengeance against the Serbs raises difficulties. The KLA's command structure is weak and disunited, meaning that assurances of restraint from the senior commanders would be unlikely to hold force on the ground.

It is likely that Nato troops advancing into Kosovo will encounter pockets of fierce fighting between the KLA and Serb troops who either refuse or are unable to withdraw. There might be Nato casualties if they try to intervene and delays to the withdrawal if they do not. It is possible that Serb commanders on the ground could argue they will not give up their positions to meet their side of the deal until the KLA is forced to lay down its arms.

Western defence sources said such problems threatened to slow the withdrawal of Serb forces, which in any event is likely to take weeks rather than days. The Serb field army is known to be desperately low on fuel after Nato jets made great efforts to destroy Yugoslav fuel stocks and refining facilities throughout Operation Allied Force.

Roads and, more important, bridges have also been attacked, raising difficulties for the orderly withdrawal of what remains a substantial force despite Nato's efforts to destroy it from the air. Nato estimates that there are about 40,000 Serb security forces in Kosovo - 20,000 troops from the Yugoslav army and a similar number of special police units and paramilitaries. They are spread all over the province and as a result of the Nato air campaign have adopted dispersed and concealed positions.

KLA activity is mainly on the western fringe of the province where it borders Albania from where the KLA receives reinforcements, ammunition and support. Around the town of Junik, the Yugoslav army is known to have deployed a motorised brigade, a parachute brigade and elements of an artillery brigade. Elements of each of these brigades have fought with KLA guerrillas trying to establish a supply corridor into central Kosovo and are dispersed under camouflage netting in well dug-in positions across the nearby hills.

The warren of positions, bunkers and decoys built by the Serbs over the past 10 weeks would take some time to clear and it is here that problems can be expected from the KLA. Thousands of newly trained guerrilla recruits have been ready for weeks in Albania but have been kept back by heavy Serb artillery.

If the Serbs move, this tide of KLA manpower will flow over the border, past the villages of Batusha, Padesh and Kosare, where they have suffered casualties in recent weeks, and down on to the plain near Junik. They would try to link up with other forces who remain in the mountains in Kosovo.Nato peacekeepers, still on the perimeter of the province, will be hard-pressed to prevent the KLA forces from moving in.

Despite a will to fight on, there is a growing fear within KLA ranks that, under a Nato-imposed peace, the rebels will lose their image as the vanguard of the independence struggle. The KLA has given warning that Nato should not ignore it. "If Nato enters Kosovo it will be impossible to be there without our co-operation," said Jashar Salihu, the chief of the KLA's "Homeland Calling" financial arm.

US: Serb Civilians May Leave Too

By ANNE GEARAN .c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Serbian civilians probably will flee Kosovo along with Serb troops retreating as part of a deal to end NATO bombing, the Pentagon predicted Saturday. If that happens, the province Serbs hoped to purge of ethnic Albanians will instead be emptied of the Serbs themselves.

``The fact of the matter is that I don't think that Kosovo is going to be a very happy place for Serbs,'' Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said, referring both to Serb military units and to the 100,000 or more Serb civilians in the province.

``As Kosovar Albanians flow back in, our assumption is that many Serbs'' will leave Kosovo, Bacon said.

None of the approximately 40,000 Serb troops occupying Kosovo had left by Saturday, two days after their leader accepted NATO demands. Pentagon and NATO officials repeated that the alliance will keep bombing until the troops move out.

Ethnic Serbs accounted for about 10 percent of the Kosovo population before March 24, when NATO began airstrikes intended to stop what the alliance calls a Serb effort to use terror to drive out the ethnic Albanians.

People of Albanian ancestry are a minority everywhere in Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia, except Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have fled to refugee camps in neighboring Balkan countries or to hideouts in the Kosovo highlands.

NATO leaders have railed for weeks against Serb attempts at ethnic partitioning, but appear to regard the exit of Serb civilians as a simple fact of life.

``If people want to leave, they'll be allowed to leave. They will not be forced out, the way the Serbs forced out Kosovar Albanians. They can stay if they want to stay,'' Bacon said.

Serbs in Kosovo have been quoted as saying they fear for their safety if their old adversaries, the ethnic Albanians, seek revenge once they return. NATO wants to make the province safe for everyone, Bacon said.

But much the same type of ethnic division occurred during and after fighting in the Balkans earlier this decade.

About 250,000 ethnic Serbs fled Croatia for Serbia before a ceasefire in 1995; more followed from Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, after the peace settlement. In Sarajevo, Serbs set fire to their own homes rather than live under Bosnian rule.

Also Saturday, a meeting between NATO and Yugoslav military delegations ended without a timetable for Serb troop withdrawals. The meeting was to resume Sunday.

Since Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agreed Thursday to NATO's peace demands, NATO has flown hundreds of sorties over Kosovo and bombed dozens of targets, including artillery sites and an ammunition dump near the Kosovo capital of Pristina, Bacon said.

``The NATO air campaign will continue until we have a demonstrable, verified pullout,'' Bacon said. ``That hasn't yet started.''

Once Serb troops and paramilitary forces begin marching toward Serbia, U.S. Marines along with forces from Britain, France, Germany and Italy will move into Kosovo, Bacon said.

A buffer zone will protect Kosovo as NATO powers and perhaps Russia establish semi-permanent peacekeeping operations there and begin preparations for the refugees' return.

AP-NY-06-05-99 1552EDT Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.

KLA buys arms with illicit funds

By Jerry Seper

THE WASHINGTON TIMES; June 5, 1999

The Kosovo Liberation Army is buying sophisticated weapons with cash from an "independence tax" levied against expatriates and from profits of illicit drugs and prostitution.

According to a secret intelligence report by NATO's Office of Security, the weapons have been smuggled to the KLA from arms dealers in Albania, Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Some have been hidden in shipments of medical supplies, food and clothing bound for Kosovo's refugees.

The Clinton administration has said it wants the KLA disarmed once the NATO bombing campaign ends.

The 24-page NATO report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, said the weapons include SA-7 and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, RPG-7 anti-armor rocket launchers, AK-47 and HK G3 assault rifles, SSG-69 sniper rifles, 9mm submachine guns, 82mm and 120mm mortars, shotguns, handguns, grenade launchers, ammunition, explosives, detonators and anti-personnel mines.

The KLA, formally known as the Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or UCK, also has purchased laser aiming devises, infrared night vision gear and communications equipment, including satellite telephones, according to the report.

"The acquisition of arms from abroad is funded mainly by the Kosovar Albanian communities in Western

-- Continued from Front Page --

Europe, using the proceeds of a 3 percent 'independence tax' on expatriate income, drug trafficking and prostitution," the report said.

"Some funds from the drug trade, in which the Albanians traditionally acted as couriers and more lately as suppliers, reportedly are being used to purchase weapons for the Kosovo insurgents," the report said. "The profitability of the drug trade and the Kosovo Albanians' extensive involvement in it suggests this activity is a significant source of income for the insurgency and other Albanian causes."

It is not clear how the purchase of huge amounts of weapons by the KLA over the past several months will affect efforts by the Clinton administration and NATO to call for the rebels to disarm once the bombing ends. The KLA guerrillas, who fight under the black double-headed Albanian eagle, want no less than to separate from Serbia and join their brethren in Albania and Macedonia -- a push for independence that is opposed not only by Yugoslavia but also by the United States and its NATO allies.

The Rambouillet peace plan calls for the "demilitarization of the KLA" and touts a need to secure the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."

The NATO report said the KLA has bank accounts in at least 19 countries, a dozen of which are part of the organization's Homeland Is Calling fund. The independence tax, according to the report, was established to fund Kosovo's schools and hospitals, but now also is routed to purchase arms.

Several other expatriate organizations, the report said, also are collecting money, much of which is deposited in banks in several European countries.

Intelligence documents obtained by The Times have described the KLA as a terrorist organization that has financed much of its war effort with money sent to the rebels by ethnic Albanians throughout Western Europe and the United States, and through profits from the sale of drugs, mainly heroin.

The documents said drug agents in five countries, including the United States, believe the KLA has aligned itself with an organized crime network centered in Albania that smuggles heroin to buyers in Western Europe and the United States. They tie members of the Albanian Mafia to a smuggling cartel based in Kosovo's provincial capital, Pristina.

The cartel is manned by ethnic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo National Front, whose armed wing is the KLA. It is believed to be one of the most powerful heroin-smuggling organizations in the world, with much of its profits being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons.

The clandestine movement of drugs over land and sea routes from Turkey through Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia to Western Europe and elsewhere is so frequent and massive that intelligence officials have dubbed the circuit the "Balkan Route."

Jane's Intelligence Review estimated in March that drug sales could have netted the KLA profits in the "high tens of millions of dollars." The British-based journal noted at the time that the KLA had rearmed itself for a spring offensive with the aid of drug money, along with donations from Albanians in Western Europe and the United States.

The 24-page NATO report described the KLA's supply system and the financial base that supports it as a "loosely organized international and Balkans network" that developed as a result of the unexpected and rapid escalation of armed conflict in Kosovo.

It said the KLA is supported financially by a number of organizations composed of Albanian expatriates as well as Albanian crime syndicates. Most KLA funding originates in Europe, although some comes from expatriates and sympathetic groups in North America and the Middle East.

During the early stages of the insurgency, the report said, the KLA was supplied by arms stolen from the Albanian military during that country's spring 1997 unrest. However, the KLA's rapid growth and the need to counter the Serb's superior firepower necessitated the development of additional sources of more sophisticated arms and funding.

The report said the KLA has sought to purchase weapons and equipment in Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Israel, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, China, Turkey, Ukraine and Cyprus. It said KLA commanders have funds at their disposal and are known to pay directly for weapons and ammunition for their local units' needs.

The KLA, according to the report, uses a variety of routes for bringing weapons into Kosovo, with most shipments entering through Albania.

KLA commanders have begun to diversify their supply routes, relying less on Albania and more on other routes, the report said, noting that arms traffickers have begun to exploit humanitarian-aid shipments by including arms and ammunition among otherwise legitimate-aid cargo into Kosovo.