9 March, 2000
Confrontation over Pristina airport
NATO was taken aback by the Russians' arrival
Details of Russia's surprise occupation of Pristina airport at the end of
the Kosovo war are revealed in a new BBC documentary on the conflict.
For the first time, the key players in the tense confrontation between
NATO and Russian troops talk about the stand-off which jeopardised the
entire peacekeeping mission.
The Russians, who played a crucial role in persuading Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic to end the war, had expected to police their own sector
of Kosovo, independent of NATO.
When they did not get it, they felt double-crossed.
As NATO's K-For peacekeepers prepared to enter the province on 12 June,
they discovered the Russians had got there first.
A contingent of 200 troops, stationed in Bosnia, was already rolling
towards Pristina airport.
'Third World War'
General Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, immediately ordered 500
British and French paratroopers to be put on standby to occupy the
airport.
''I called the [NATO] Secretary General [Javier Solana] and told him what
the circumstances were,'' General Clark tells the BBC programme Moral
Combat: Nato at War.
''He talked about what the risks were and what might happen if the
Russian's got there first, and he said: 'Of course you have to get to the
airport'.
General Jackson: Backed by UK Government
''I said: 'Do you consider I have the authority to do so?' He said: 'Of
course you do, you have transfer of authority'.''
But General Clark's plan was blocked by General Sir Mike Jackson, K-For's
British commander.
"I'm not going to start the Third World War for you," he reportedly told
General Clark during one heated exchange.
General Jackson tells the BBC: ''We were [looking at] a
possibility....of confrontation with the Russian contingent which seemed
to me probably not the right way to start off a relationship with Russians
who were going to become part of my command.''
Russian plans
The Russian advance party took the airport unopposed. The world watched
nervously.
A senior Russian officer, General Leonid Ivashev, tells the BBC how the
Russians had plans to fly in thousands of troops.
''Let's just say that we had several airbases ready. We had battalions of
paratroopers ready to leave within two hours,'' he said.
Amid fears that Russian aircraft were heading for Pristina, General
Clark planned to order British tanks and armoured cars to block the
runways to prevent any transport planes from landing.
General Clark said he believed it was ''an appropriate course of
action''. But the plan was again vetoed by Britain.
Partition fears
Instead, he asked neighbouring countries, including Hungary and Romania
not to allow Russian aircraft to overfly their territory.
Russians are not under direct NATO command
During the stand-off, Moscow insisted its troops would be answerable only
to its own commanders.
NATO refused to accept this, predicting it would lead to the partition of
Kosovo into an ethnic Albanian south and a Serbian north.
A deal on the deployment of Russian peacekeepers was reached in early
July.
The Russians now operate as part of K-For in sectors controlled by NATO
states, but are not directly under NATO's command.
The Washington Post reports that as late as
September 11th Howard Dean was asking Clark to join his campaign. And even
though Clark has announced as a candidate on his own it seems likely that
the neo-cons in both parties are encouraging his candidacy for either
the presidency or vice presidency.
Certainly, both Dean and Clark are Bush doctrine supporters when you
peel away the phony rhetoric they toss out to make themselves seem like
viable Democratic contenders.
A September 16, 2003 media advisory from FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In
Reporting) is entitled: "Wesley Clark: The New Anti-War Candidate? Record
Shows Clark Cheered Iraq War as 'Right Call.'" A careful study of Clark's
various pronouncements--as a CNN "military consultant" and as the author
of an opinion piece in Time--indicate that "the various opinions he
has expressed on the [Iraq war] issue suggest the media's 'anti-war' label
is inaccurate."
A 9/17/03 article entitled "The Arkansas Travelers" at billmon.org,
provides a first-hand report on a January, 2003 presentation by Clark to a
European audience, composed of French and German military and civilian
personnel. Clark expounded on how he saw the war in Iraq unfolding. With
utter disregard for the opinions or feelings of his audience, Clark
pronounced that the U.S. was going to war, the president had made his
decision, so the Europeans had just better suck it up. He asserted that
they had an obligation to support Bush's war, because "that's the
democratic process."
When we look beneath the veneer of the carefully crafted Clark persona we
find some disturbing aspects:
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Another Con Job from the Neo-Cons
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A vain, pompous, brown-noser:
At NATO they called Clark "Supreme Being" and not with affection
Update:
Waco
Update: The Delta Force Was There
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"The Guy Who Almost Started World War III," by Stella
Jatras, an August 23, 2003
article appearing in antiwar.com
Colonel David Hackworth, in his 1999
commentary "Defending America," wrote of Clark: "Known by those
who've served with him as the Ultimate Perfumed Prince, he's far more
comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than
hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die."
A May 15, 2000 Newsweek
expose, titled "Kosovo Cover-Up," claimed that during the Kosovo War
Clark misused air power and grossly exaggerated the results
Katrina vanden Heuvel's 9/12/03
article in Nation outlines how Clark's questionable conduct
in the Kosovo War was cause for him to be retired early from the
military
Katrina vanden Heuvel reminds us of Clark's rash action
during the Kosovo War
An 8/03/99 Guardian
article showed how Clark would have started World War III during the
Kosovo conflict had he had his way
Clark's own words indict him as a weather vane which has turned as
the wind blows, first saying one thing, then another, and finally, lying
that he never said what he first said (shades of Bush II):
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"I probably wouldn't have made the moves that got us
to this point. But just assuming that we're here at this point, then I
think that the president is going to have to move ahead, despite the
fact that the allies have reservations." (CNN, 1/21/03)
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"The credibility of the United States is on the line,
and Saddam Hussein has these weapons and so, you know, we're going to go
ahead and do this and the rest of the world's got to get with us. . ."
(CNN, 2/5/03)
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"I think they [weapons of mass destruction] will be
found. There's so much intelligence on this." (CNN, 4/2/03)
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George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
"should be proud of their resolve in the face of so much doubt." (London
Times column 4/10/03)
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"The campaign in Iraq illustrates the continuing
progress of military technology and tactics, but if there is a single
overriding lesson it must be this: American military power, especially
when buttressed by Britain's, is virtually unchallengeable today. Take
us on? Don't try! And that's not hubris, it's just plain fact." (London
Times, 4/11/03)
Whatever else we can say about Wesley Clark, it's clear that he would
be an ideal Democratic candidate--for the Republican Neo-Cons and
the Democratic Conservatives. He is vain beyond measure, making him
easily manipulable. He follows the orders of his superiors without
question, whether those orders go against the U.S. Constitution or not.
In regard to the 2004 election campaign, he takes away Kerry's
exclusive claim to military experience among the Democratic contenders.
With the backing of both the Democratic conservatives (DLC) and the
Republican neo-cons (the Bush junta), Clark could become a viable
candidate.
The Weapon of Mass Destruction
But the bombshell waiting to go off is the distinct possibility that
Wesley Clark was involved in the military assault and destruction of the
Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas that killed at least 82 people
including women, children and infants.
There are several different Web sites
which provide background for this disturbing contention concerning General
Clark:
"In the wake of the Feb 28 debacle Texas
governor Anne Richards asked to consult with knowledgeable military
personnel. Her request went to the US Army base at Fort Hood, where the
commanding officer of the US Army's III corps referred her to the
Cavalry Division of the III Corps, whose commander at the time was
Wesley Clark. Subsequent congressional enquiry records that Richards met
with Wesley Clark's number two, the assistant division commander, who
advised her on military equipment that might be used in a subsequent
raid. Clark's man, at Richard's request, also met with the head of the
Texas National Guard. . .
"Ultimately tanks from Fort Hood were used in the final catastrophic
assault on the Branch Davidian compound on April 19. Certainly the Waco
onslaught bears characteristics typical of Gen. Wesley Clark: the
eagerness to take out the leader (viz., the Clark-ordered bombing of
Milosevich's private residence); the utter disregard for the lives of
innocent men, women and children; the arrogant miscalculations about the
effects of force; disregard for law, whether of the Posse Comitatus Act
governing military actions within the United States or, abroad, the
purview of the Nuremberg laws on war crimes and attacks on civilians."
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, "Was Clark at Waco?"
A Genuine Democratic Party Presidential Candidate in
2004
The High Cabal is busy at work trying to fix the 2004 election:
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Making sure that the Democratic candidate is just as
much their creature as their puppet president, Dubya.
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Forcing all states to use flawed electronic voting
technology which can easily be used to rig elections
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Possibly going to outrageous extremes such as:
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A financial crash of vast proportions which would
create panic and havoc
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A second 9/11 terrorist assault which would be the
excuse for the Bush junta to impose a total police state in the United
States
You can gauge just how much the Republican Neo-Cons are pushing a
Democratic ringer or a California recall shill by the amount of TV news
coverage they receive from the Republican-owned nedia, as in the case of
Howard Dean and Ahnold Schwarzenegger. Now watch the TV frenzy over Wesley
Clark, the "anti-war," "anti-Bush" ringer.
We must make sure that we nominate a Democratic presidential
candidate who possesses genuine integrity, an honest regard for working
people, and sufficient courage to face the criminal gangsters in the Bush
II junta.
Our candidate cannot be a ringer for the Republicans or for the DLC
reactionaries. He must certainly avoid an extreme radical voice (like
Kucinich) so he speaks to the millions of American voters who are moderate
in their views. But he must be liberal enough to lead our nation away from
this corporate-dominated plutocracy back into a true democracy.
Updates:
http://www.hermes-press.com/Voting/cabal_clark.htm |
Counterpunch, June 1, 1999
Waco Update: The Delta Force Was There
Amid NATO military supremo Wesley Clark's onslaught on the civilians of
Serbia the question arose: did Clark hone his civilian-killing skills at
Waco, where the FBI oversaw the largest single spasm of slaughter of
civilians by law enforcement in US history, when nearly a hundred Branch
Davidians died amid an assault by tanks, flame-throwers and snipers.
The tanks were from Fort Hood, where Wesley Clark was, in early 1993,
commander of the Cavalry Division of the US Army's III Corps. In our last
issue we cited a congressional report commissioned in the aftermath of
Waco which described how Texas governor Anne Richards had consulted with
Clark's number two at Fort Hood. Then, on April 14, there was a summit at
the Justice Department in Washington, where Attorney General Janet Reno,
top Justice Department and FBI officials and two unnamed senior Army
officers reviewed the final assault plan scheduled for April 19.
The two Army officers at the Justice Department that day were Colonel
Gerald Boykin, and his superior, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the head of
Special Forces at Fort Bragg. Though Clark (who had served with Schoomaker)
was not directly involved in the onslaught on the Branch Davidians, the
role of the US Army in that affair throws into harsh relief the way
prohibitions against the use of the US military for civilian law
enforcement can be swiftly by-passed.
Boykin and Schoomacher were present because the Army's Fort Bragg-based
Combat Applications Group-popularly known as the Delta Force-had been
enlisted as part of the assault team on the Branch Davidian Compound. It
appears that President Clinton had signed a waiver of the Posse Comitatus
Act, with the precedent being Ronald Reagan's revocation of the Act in
1987, allowing the Delta Force to be involved in suppressing the Atlanta
prison riot.
The role of the Delta Force, the identity of the two Army officers, the
revocation of Posse Comitatus all form part of the disclosures of a
forthcoming documentary film, Waco: A New Revelation, put together by part
of the team that produced an earlier, excellent film, Waco: Rules of
Engagement. Following our questions about Wesley Clark's possible
involvement at Waco, producer/researcher Mike McNulty called us with some
details of his new documentary-directed by Jason van Fleet and due to be
released in July.
After energetic use of Freedom of Information Act enquiries, plus research
in three repositories in Texas holding evidence from the Waco inferno,
plus other extensive investigations, McNulty and his team have put
together an explosive file:
· 28 video tapes from the repositories show that in the final onslaught on
the Waco compound were members of the US military in special assault gear
and with name tags obscured. As noted above, Clinton's revocation of the
Posse Comitatus Act made this presence legal. McNulty isolates Vince
Foster as the White House point man for the Waco operation.
McNulty cites Foster's widow as saying that the depression that prompted
the White House lawyer's death was fueled by horror at the carnage at Waco
for which the White House had given the ultimate green light. Foster was
writing a Waco report when he died. McNulty says that some documents about
Foster and Waco were among those removed from his office after his death,
later to surface in a White house store room sheltering archives of the
First Lady.
The film, McNulty says, discloses how the federal assault team placed
explosives on top of a compound bunker whither the feds believed the
Branch Davidian leaders might flee. Material evidence collected by McNulty
shows that the FBI/Delta assault force bombarded the compound with
pyrophoric - i.e. fire-causing - projectiles.
Erosion of Posse Comitatus Act prohibitions on the involvement of the US
military in law enforcement here is particularly sinister. The
congressional report on Waco showed that some Army officers were extremely
disturbed at requests for military assistance by the FBI, and there were
some acrimonious exchanges at the time. The drug war, needless to say, has
been a prime solvent in this process of erosion. One factor is the malign
cross-fertilization occurring when these so-called "elite units" - the
Army's Combat Application Group, the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, the Navy's
SEALs - all train together, along with SWAT teams from police forces
across the country. Thousands of law enforcement officers have now cut
their teeth on the homicidal commando techniques most flagrantly displayed
by the killers assembled in the British SAS, members of which were also
present at the Waco siege. The Rambo mindset now saturates law
enforcement, and even the rangers in Fish and Game Departments now pack
heat. Both CounterPunch editors have had the experience of being asked to
down their fly rods and produce ID, by young Fish and Game rangers with
semi-automatics on their hips.See also
From Waco to Yugoslavia: General Wesley Clark and
Posse Comitatus
What does it mean to
be a Rhodes Scholar?
The Rothschilds supported Cecil Rhodes to form the diamond company, De
Beers in what is now Rhodesia, named for Cecil Rhodes. Later, Rhodes made
seven wills which established a secret society modelled after the Jesuits
and Masons to help bring in a One-World- Government centered upon Britain,
and the Rhodes Scholarships.
Cecil Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarships to recruit and bring top men
from several nations to Oxford to be initiated into the Illuminati and to
learn about how to bring in a One-World-Government. So the initial
selection into the Rhodes program--first degree of the Illuminati -- is
equivalent to the initiation into the Skull & Bones.
The Fabian Socialists dominated the staff at
Oxford when the Rhodes Scholars began arriving.
These scholars then received indoctrination and preparation to become part
of an international socialist
New World Order.
Le Sueur, Gordon (Rhode's confidential secretary). Cecil Rhodes The
Man and His Work. London: John Murray, 1913, p. 10.
Aydelotte, Frank (co-founder CFR and American Secretar. to Rhodes
Trustees). American Rhodes Scholarships. "The model for this
proposed secret society was the Society of Jesus, though he mentions also
the Masons."
Clark Says He Would Have Voted for War
Sept. 18 - Gen. Wesley K. Clark said today that he would have supported
the Congressional resolution that authorized the United States to invade
Iraq, even as he presented himself as one of the sharpest critics of the
war effort in the Democratic presidential race.
A Personal Experience of General Wesley Clark from
the wife of a pilot under his command.
Clark has a record in Vietnam that cannot
be taken from him. But, as a General, as a leader, there is a lot that can
be said about him that becomes frightening in the context of a potential
president.
As I've said before, (and as I REALLY DO KNOW) some generals are leaders
of men and men of competence and honor. Some are politicians. What that
means is that they work for their own advancement first. If they will act
like this with so many lives in their hands as a general, it is
frightening to imagine what they will do as president.
No education, no political viewpoint is worth having someone with such a
character leading the country. Character trumps scholastic awards and
stars.
During Kosovo, Clark's fighter pilots complained because Clark was having
them bomb from such a height that they could NOT AVOID civilian casualties
in the mass. This is frightening. My husband has done many bombing runs
under a variety of commanders, good and bad. He was very bothered by this.
True, one does try to maintain the safety of the pilots, but there has to
be consideration for civilians and balance. My husband immediately said
that there is only one reason to bomb from such a height. It makes the
general look good to for sure not lose planes. At what cost did this
general promote himself in the eyes of his superiors? How many civilian
lives was he willing to burn in order to advance? When even the pilots
doing the bombing (whose lives are on the line) complain, it is very
frightening that this man, with this character, is running for president.
By the way. Clark was FIRED as NATO chief. That despite the fact that he
is a personal buddy of Clinton.
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