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<big><big>And the REAL reason for the U.S. Nato war in Yugoslaviz
in 1999, which was the first neo-liberal military
intervention, was to destroy a non-market Socialist economy,
which after the cold war had become the threat of a good
example.<br>
See Diana Johnstone's " Seeing Yugoslavia through a dark glass
" for a well documented history of this period </big></big><br>
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August 07, 2014
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">Return to Kosovo</div>
<h1 class="article-title">Bill Clinton’s Most Abominable Freedom
Fighters Uncloaked</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle"><big><big>by JAMES BOVARD</big></big></div>
<big><big> </big></big>
<div class="main-text"><big><big> </big></big>
<p><big><big>Former president Bill Clinton continues to pirouette
around the world as a visionary humanitarian and senior
statesman. But the sordid truth about some of his favorite
“freedom fighters” is finally becoming undeniable. A
European Union task force last week confirmed that the
ruthless cabal he empowered by bombing Serbia in 1999 has
committed atrocities including murdering individuals to
extract and sell their kidneys, livers, and other body
parts.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Clint Williamson, the chief prosecutor of a special
European Union task force, declared that senior members of
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had engaged in “unlawful
killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal
detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence,
forced displacements of individuals from their homes and
communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and
other religious sites.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>A special war crimes tribunal is planned for next
year. But the New York Times reported that the trials may
be stymied by coverups and stonewalling: “Past
investigations of reports of organ trafficking in Kosovo
have been undermined by witnesses’ fears of testifying in a
small country where clan ties run deep and former members of
the KLA. are still feted as heroes. Former leaders of the
KLA. occupy high posts in the government.” American
politicians have almost entirely ignored the growing
scandal. Vice President Joe Biden hailed former KLA leader
and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in 2010 as “the
George Washington of Kosovo.” A few months later, a Council
of Europe investigative report tagged Thaci as an accomplice
to the body trafficking operation.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The latest allegations might cause some Americans to
rethink their approval of the 78-day bombing campaign
against Serbia that killed up to 1500 civilians. In early
June 1999, the <i>Washington Post</i> reported that “some
presidential aides and friends are describing [bombing]
Kosovo in Churchillian tones, as Clinton’s ‘finest
hour.’” Clinton administration officials justified killing
civilians because the Serbs were allegedly committing
genocide in Kosovo. After the bombing ended, no evidence of
genocide was found, but Clinton and Britain’s Tony Blair
continued boasting as if their war stopped a new Hitler in
his tracks.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Kosovo was wracked by a civil war in which both the
Serbs and their opponents committed atrocities. The KLA’s
savage nature was well-known before the Clinton
administration formally christened them “freedom fighters”
in 1999. The prior year, the State Department condemned
“terrorist action by the so-called Kosovo Liberation
Army.” The KLA was heavily involved in drug trafficking and
had close to ties to Osama bin Laden. But arming the KLA
helped Clinton portray himself as a crusader against
injustice and shift public attention after his impeachment
trial. Clinton was aided by many congressmen anxious to
portray U.S. bombing as an engine of righteousness. Sen.
Joseph Lieberman whooped that the U.S. and the KLA “stand
for the same values and principles. Fighting for the KLA is
fighting for human rights and American values.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>After the bombing ended, Clinton assured the Serbian
people that the U.S. and NATO agreed to be peacekeepers only
“with the understanding that they would protect Serbs as
well as ethnic Albanians and that they would leave when
peace took hold.” In the subsequent months and years,
American and NATO forces stood by as the KLA resumed its
ethnic cleansing, slaughtering Serb civilians, bombing
Serbian churches, and oppressing any non-Muslims as well as
ethnic Albanians who did not support the KLA. Almost a
quarter million Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, and other minorities
fled Kosovo after Clinton promised to protect them. By 2003,
almost 70 percent of the Serbs living in Kosovo in 1999 had
fled, and Kosovo was 95 percent ethnic Albanian.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>In 2009, Clinton visited Kosovo’s capital, Pristina,
for the unveiling of an 11-foot tall statue of himself. The
allegations of the KLA’s involvement in organ trafficking
were already swirling but Clinton made no mention of the
grisly record of his hosts. Instead, he stood on Bill
Clinton Boulevard and lapped up adulation from supporters of
one of the most brutal regimes in Europe. A commentator in
the U.K. Guardian noted that the statue showed Clinton “with
a left hand raised, a typical gesture of a leader greeting
the masses. In his right hand he is holding documents
engraved with the date when NATO started the bombardment of
Serbia, 24 March 1999.” Regardless of the persecution that
followed the bombing, the authorizing documents for the
aggressive war were presumed to be as holy as the stone
tablet with the Ten Commandments that Moses purportedly
received.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Shortly after the end of the 1999 bombing campaign,
Clinton enunciated what his aides labeled the Clinton
doctrine -“whether within or beyond the borders of a
country, if the world community has the power to stop it, we
ought to stop genocide and ethnic cleansing.” In reality,
the Clinton doctrine was that presidents are entitled to
commence bombing regardless of whether their accusations
against foreigners are true. As long as the U.S. government
promises great benefits from bombing abroad, presidents can
usually attack who they please.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Clinton’s war on Serbia was a Pandora’s Box from
which the world still suffers. Because politicians and most
of the media portrayed the war against Serbia as a moral
triumph, it was easier for the Bush administration to
justify attacking Iraq and for the Obama administration to
bomb Libya. Both interventions sowed chaos from which
continues to curse the purported beneficiaries.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>The bombing of Serbia also revealed prior to 9/11
that the American media would uncritically parrot the U.S.
government’s war propaganda. In the mainstream media, no
one did more to oppose and denounce the war than the late
Counterpunch co-founder Alexander Cockburn. In his columns
in the <a
href="http://articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/29/local/me-27493"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://articles.latimes.com']);">Los
Angeles Times </a>and elsewhere, he debunked one
justification after another for attacking a foreign nation
that posed no threat to America. And, in pieces sometimes
co-authored by Jeffrey St. Clair, he revealed how the war
had <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/1999/06/15/who-nato-killed/">utterly
failed</a> to achieve Clinton’s lofty-sounding goals.
Cockburn also <a
href="http://articles.latimes.com/1999/aug/19/local/me-1746"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://articles.latimes.com']);">pointed
out</a> that “Hillary Rodham Clinton was an enthusiastic
advocate for the cluster bombs that now litter the Serbia
and Kosovo landscapes, set to kill or cripple for the next
half century.” (A roundup of articles by Cockburn and St.
Clair on the Serbian war can be found in the 2004 book, <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Crusades-Iraq-Afghanistan-Yugoslavia/dp/1844675068/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407343398&sr=1-1&keywords=9781844675067"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);"> Imperial
Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia</a>.)</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Unfortunately, Bill Clinton will never be held liable
for killing innocent Serbs or for helping body-snatchers
take over a nation the size of Connecticut. Clinton is
reportedly being paid up to $500,000 for each speech he
gives nowadays. Perhaps some of the well-heeled attendees
could flourish artificial arms and legs in the air to
showcase Clinton’s actual legacy. And at least the KLA’s
defenders can still praise the terrorist group for not being
cannibals.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><em><strong>James Bovard</strong> is the author of
author of <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AKZH97W/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00AKZH97W&linkCode=as"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Public
Policy Hooligan</a>,<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/140397666X/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Attention
Deficit Democracy</a>, <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403968519/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">The
Bush Betrayal</a>, <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403963681/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Terrorism
and Tyranny</a>, and other books. More info at <a
href="http://www.jimbovard.com;"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jimbovard.com;']);">www.jimbovard.com;</a> on
Twitter @jimbovard</em></big></big></p>
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