Hi Daniela,

As usual, you're right on target with your eye for good, well researched analysis. The truth about the attack on Yugoslavia is finally beginning to come out sufficiently that the mainstream media can't ignore it anymore.

Meanwhile, I've been hunkered down on another forum dealing with our own version of "kosovars" in South Florida who have managed to provoke a government response useful for their own political agenda of preventing normalization of US/Cuba relations. However, it may be backfiring on them. We'll see how it plays out over the coming days/weeks.

t'gunns

It would be interesting to see those people without their own kids
how would they react when somebody denies their right as a parent -
to be with them because someone else has a political agenda on his mind.

Hi Daniela,

I'm a mom, therefore feel addressed, are you refering to the Cuban boy? or something else?

Kim/Unicef

hello, daniela/kim...

i wish i contribute more to the elian story other
than living where the sh*tstorm is most thick.

we've got the mother who died for her son ==IN
FRONT OF HIM, mind you== and the father,
intentionally left behind in cuba, ostensibly
forever, as of elian's departure.

yeah, that 'home invasion' footage was shown over
and over at the time....and that [shudder] pic of
the guy w/the weapon pointed towards the kid,
circling the globe in hours....or _minutes_ >>

yes, it is difficult to imagine that elian's life
would be 'better' in cuba...but i'm not sure it
goes w/o saying that his life in america would be
'better'.
i suppose it would depend on where the child
=remember the _child_?= was happier.

if elian and his mother had both survived the
trip, then their return to cuba would have been a
simple matter, by comparison.

and while the law _is_ gonna win out on this, and
father and son will most assuredly return to a
_different_ sort of exploitation than what they've
experienced in the states...[exploitation it'll
be, nonetheless]

elian's mother died before his eyes in her effort
to get him out of cuba. to return the boy is a
disgrace to her memory.

the laws be >hanged<, commie/yankee/whomever.

as I undersood she went there because her boyfriend wanted them to /go to US/
not because she had a bad life in Cuba

and if one country had chosen to live in communism, who are we to decide for them and isolate them from the rest of the world by imposing various political
and other measures

Cuba would have definetely be better off without US telling them how to live

yes, Kim

sorry for not responding immediately to you

good morning, daniela...

cant really disagree w/you...
yeah, i'd heard about the boyfriend.

...and/but when the little boy becomes more
cognizant of his experience...what then?
===
mornin', mum!

then he can make he's own choice

Chief of UN office for removal of
unexploded mines in Kosovo, Colonel John Flegen,
accused NATO that it does not provides expert or
financial support to removal of 30.000 unexploded
cluster bombs outstanded after NATO bombardment.

http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2000/tim2000-5-1.html


2. NATO Losses Revisited (by Venik)

VIENNA, May 4 – Pseudonym "Venik" should be a familiar term to the wartime TiM readers. It was Venik who was the first to
systematically analyze and report the NATO losses as of last April. And this TiM source been updating that information ever since
(just search our Web site by that keyword). Here is the latest contribution on the topic of NATO losses:

PHILADELPHIA, Apr. 21 - According to a March 25, 2000, article published by the ITAR-TASS news agency, Russian
GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) sources report that during the Operation "Allied Force" NATO's air forces sustained
losses considerably higher than is officially acknowledged by NATO command. According to GRU information, NATO
lost three F-117A stealth bombers, and at least 40 other combat planes, and over 1,000 cruise missiles.

So far, NATO officials acknowledged losing three combat planes (the USAF F-117A on March 27, the USMC AV-8B
Harrier on May 1, and the F-16CG-40-CF on May 2), two attack helicopters (AH-64 Apache on April 26 and another
Apache on May 5), between 30 and 32 unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, including at least 16 American, 7 German, and
5 French UAVs. Interestingly enough, NATO acknowledged all of the UAV losses mentioned by Yugoslav military
officials - 30 - and, perhaps, even more.

Official NATO reports and statements made by various NATO officials indicate that about 10 NATO planes made
emergency landings. Two F-117As sustained extensive damage (the F-117A 86-0837 was damaged on April 21 during
landing; and another F-117A lost a part of its tail section due to a nearby SA-3 SAM explosion). An RAF C-130K
Hercules transport plane crashed on June 11 in Albania. The aircraft was delivering a British SAS unit that was trying to
beat Russian paratroopers to the Slatina base. The US Army OH-58 combat reconnaissance helicopter crashed on May 26
in Bosnia.

According to the information from unofficial Yugoslav military sources, NATO's final assessment of its aircraft losses
during the operation "Allied Force" indicates that some 61 aircraft have been destroyed, 53 aircraft were damaged beyond
repair or it is not cost-effective to repair them, 57 aircraft have sustained repairable combat damage. A total of 171
NATO aircraft were hit by Yugoslav defenses during the war.

According to Yugoslav army officials, NATO lost 61 planes, 7 helicopters, 30 UAVs, and 238 cruise missiles. These
numbers include only those NATO aircraft that crashed inside Yugoslavia. Distribution of aircraft kills among various units
and branches of the Yugoslav Armed Forces is as follows:

3rd Army: 34 planes, 5 helicopters, 25 UAVs and 52 cruise missiles (according to an official statement by
General Nebojsa Pavkovic, commander of the 3rd Army, on June 12, 1999); Navy 3 planes, 3 UAVs and over
5 cruise missiles (from an official statement by the FRY Navy Commander, Milan Zec, June 10, 1999);

2nd Army: 24 planes, 2 helicopters, 2 UAVs (reported by Major General Spasoje Smiljanic in his interview to
Politika newspaper at the end of April), 30 cruise missiles;

1st Army: 6 planes, 129 cruise missiles (reported by General Ninoslav Krstic in his interview for the "Vojska"
magazine on May 24, 1999). If you add up these numbers, provided by various Yugoslav military officials, you
will see that the number of planes reported to have been shot down is 67, and not 61, as the official report by
Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic states. And here's why...

On June 17, 1999, Gen. Spasoje Smiljanic, then commander of Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defense (RVand PVO),
announced that "the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defence units have downed 36 airplanes, 42 cruise missiles, nine
UAVs and two helicopters." It is important to keep in mind, however, that RVand PVO air defense units do NOT include
low-level army air defenses or naval air defenses, such as man-portable SAMs and some AAAs. The total number planes
shot down by RVand PVO and by various air defense units outside of RVand PVO command comes to 61 planes, 7
helicopters, 30 UAVs and 238 cruise missiles according to Gen. Ojdanic. However, these figures only include those NATO
aircraft that crashed inside Yugoslavia. In some of the earlier reports mentioned above Yugoslav military commanders
included NATO aircraft that crashed outside Yugoslavia.

Several new pieces of destroyed NATO hardware were added to the Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum's exhibit on March
24 to commemorate one year since the beginning of NATO's aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Currently the museum's exhibit includes over 1,500 fragments of NATO's military hardware. The museum's curator,
Cedomir Janjic, announced that more destroyed NATO weapons will be soon added to the collection in a new wing of the
museum dedicated to the war with NATO.

In an interview to the Associated Press Yugoslavia's Minister for Science and Development, Cedomir Mirkovic, said "It is
truly amazing how many aircraft and drones were downed with the relatively modest and primitive equipment..." Mirkovic
refutes Western claims that Yugoslav air defense downed only two planes. "We shall prove we have more," he said,
without elaborating.

In February British press was discussing a sharp shortage of operational aircraft experienced by the Royal Air Force. The
news first appeared in the January 23, 2000, Hundreds of Crippled Jets put RAF in Crisis article from The Observer, by
Antony Barnet. In particular, the article, based on the Observer's own investigation, outlines the following problems with
the RAF:

"Two out of three of the UK's 186 fleet of Tornado bombers are grounded;

Fewer than 40 per cent of other frontline aircraft, such as Harriers and Jaguars, are ready to fly at short
notice;

The Ministry of Defence has spent almost £1 billion developing a laser-guided bombing system that does not
work properly;

There is shortage of nearly 20 per cent of junior officer fast jet pilots and the RAF is having a severe
problem in retaining trained pilots."

Two out of three British Tornadoes that are grounded comes to a rather substantial number of 124 Tornado strike aircraft
which are not operational. The crisis began developing following the Operation "Desert Storm" in Iraq, but it really took
off since the Operation "Allied Force" against Yugoslavia. As far as I know only four NATO Tornado aircraft were shot
down during the conflict based on media reports. Two Luftwaffe strike aircraft were shot down on March 26-27. The
other two Tornadoes were shot down on April 15 and May 26. It was not reported whether these aircraft were German or
British.

The fact is that most of RAF's strike aircraft are out of order for a variety of reasons. I do not have enough information to
draw any definitive conclusions. However, I know enough to say that 124 strategically - important strike aircraft are not
grounded for no reason.

NATO has sustained significant losses. An even greater number of aircraft were damaged not only by ground fire but also
by the intensity of operations and skipping on the required maintenance hours. After talking to several USAF aircraft
mechanics, who participated in the "Allied Force", I can conclude that NATO aircraft were pushed to the limit and way
beyond it. This is especially true for the USAF aircraft. One USAF aircraft mechanic who served at Aviano told me: "Two
weeks - three weeks tops - and the "Allied Force" would have been over 'cause NATO would have run out of working
planes."

In the February 13 article in The Observer, based on first-hand information posted by RAF pilots and technicians at an
Internet discussion group and entitled Pilots Vent Fury at RAF on Web, Antony Barnet writes "Pilots currently serving in
the Gulf, and others recently back from Kosovo, are so angry about defective equipment and low morale they are
flooding the secret site with complaints aimed at senior officers." The "secret" site is the PPRuNe message board for
military pilots. I've spent several days at that site fishing for information until that Sherlock from The Observer scared
everyone away with his article.

From what was written by RAF pilots, it can be readily seen that there is a great deal of concern about technical
capabilities of aircraft and even about their basic safety compromised by the lack of proper technical service and spare
parts. An RAF Captain wrote: "The number of sorties lost due to unserviceability is way too high. I now find that I have
to accept faults to get the job done that a few years ago I would not have done ... Although I have a few worries about
the structural strength of the airframe I am convinced that we are going to have a major problem due to some esoteric
fault... We struggle to get spares, some parts have to be manufactured over and over. We use the cheapest contractor we
can find..."[...]

Yugoslav Air Force Grounded "Apaches," Not Mechanical Trouble

According to an ITAR-TASS review of the article published by the Foreign Military Review magazine of the Russian
Defense Ministry, Yugoslav aviation prevented the use of American AH-64 Apache attack helicopters during the Kosovo
conflict. The "NATO Losses in the War with Yugoslavia" article, the Foreign Military Review writes "... the biggest
sensation was the number of troops lost by NATO. Not just NATO pilots were killed in Yugoslavia, but also
search-and-rescue troops that were tasked with locating downed pilots. Yugoslav air defenses have shot down no less
than five NATO helicopters, which (alone) resulted in deaths of about 100 troops of the Alliance."

According to the Foreign Military Review, the reason why Pentagon did not use Apaches in Kosovo "...had nothing to
do with technical problems with the helicopters or insufficient training of their flight crews, as was often stated by
NATO officials. The only reason was the April 26, 1999 attack carried out by Yugoslav "Galeb" fighters against
"Rinas" airport located near Albania's capital of Tirana, where the Apaches were based. That day two groups of
these light helicopters were destroyed and over 10 helicopters were damaged."

A similar operation was carried out by Yugoslav AF on April 18 against the airport in Tuzla, Bosnia, used as an emergency
landing site for NATO aircraft. As the result of this attack some 15 NATO aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

The Foreign Military Review writes: "Despite the fact that American aircraft dominated NATO operations, they weren't
the only aircraft shot down by Yugoslav air defenses. Among the destroyed aircraft were five German "Tornadoes,"
several British "Harriers'" two French "Mirages," Belgian, Dutch, and Canadian aircraft. On June 7 the USAF lost a
B-52 strategic bomber, while on May 20 a B-2A "Spirit" was shot down."

Information regarding the B-52 loss comes as a surprise to me. I have seen a brief eyewitness report regarding this
incident, but it was never mentioned in press or on the NATO losses list on my site. Looking at the eyewitness report
listing compiled by aviation enthusiasts in Yugoslavia, we can find the following entry (#381) June 7, between 012 and
040, area between Slankamen and Indjija, One large bomber (most probably B-52) was shot down. Aircraft exploded after
a direct SAM hit. Crew killed."

Venik, Philadelphia, April 21, 2000, www.aeronautics.ru (the previous location at http://way.to/venik is also working.

Racism Never Takes a Holiday at the Associated
Press

T.V. Weber & Alida Weber

The most politically correct group upon which to
focus racial hatred are the Serbian people. Unlike
former instances of racism, the hatred directed
against the Serbian people literally never takes a
holiday. Well before he was indicted on trumped-up
charges, Slobodan Milosevic requested that NATO
suspend its bombing of Yugoslavia so that Serbian
people could celebrate one of their most sacred
holidays, Orthodox Easter, in 1999. (In most years,
it is celebrated on a different Sunday from that on
which Christians in the West celebrate Easter.)
American strongman Bill Clinton had the power to
suspend the bombing and had the historical
precedent to do so. He refused. Fighting a
genocidal war against the Serbian people could take
no holiday. In 2000, Associated Press writer Alison
Mutler followed in his footsteps by inserting what
has come to be known as the “obligatory Serb bash”
in her Easter message from Pristina,
YUGOSLAVIA. The reason her bigoted statements
are in the Associated Press story is plain and simple;
racism can never take a holiday at the Associated
Press.

Old-Time American Racism

The authors are old enough to remember a different
form of institutionalized racism, when discrimination
based on skin color and facial features dominated the
landscape. That was a time when dark skin, Asian
features, or American Indian features were kept out
of the public eye. When individuals with such skin
color or features did appear on television or in the
movies, or were otherwise exposed to the view of
the American public, they appeared in the roles of
servants, entertainers, or athletes. Even then, they
were displayed in inferior roles. At one time, these
“minorities” had no visible role in the media
whatsoever.

We watched the world unfold; the “Negro,” later
“black person,” and now “African-American,” has
changed his role in society greatly. People of Asian
decent and even those indigenous peoples who
inhabited the territory that is now the United States
have been welcomed, more or less, to American
society and all it has to offer. Even the language of
peoples south of the U.S. is growing as an accepted
alternative language. But racism did not die; it just
changed its aim to a new target.

The Modern Target of Racism

Sometimes Serbs even wear targets to show their
displeasure at the racism that has been directed at
them in the form of bombs, as well as threatening
words. The racist propagandists in the media have
created a climate in which anti-Serbian racism is not
only tolerated, it is expected.

In the middle of her article, Mutler inserted two
highly racist sentences salted with falsehoods and
deceptions, which read:

Last year at Easter, most ethnic Albanians were too
afraid to venture out of their homes during the
78-day NATO air campaign, fearing they would be
caught by Serb forces loyal to Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic. More than 10,000 ethnic
Albanians are believed to have been killed during the
18-month crackdown by Serb forces loyal to
Milosevic before the air war.

(The entire text may be found here)

Easter Bombing

Who was responsible for the fact that bombs were
falling last Easter? The guilt for that crime rested
solely on Bill Clinton and his fellow NATO
henchmen. The Pope asked that the bombing be
stopped for Easter, but Clinton denied the Pope’s
request. (AFP report) The leader of the Albanians
living in Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, asked that the
bombing be halted and that negotiations be reopened,
but the leader of the people President Bill “I even lie
under oath” Clinton refused. (AFP and other articles
nearby in the same archives.) Of course, NATO
answered the Yugoslav request for an Orthodox
Easter bombing pause with more bombs, while
Belgrade ordered a unilateral cease-fire. (Reuters)

Mutler’s suggestion that Albanians were “afraid to
venture out of their homes” because of “Serbs” is
laughable. The “Serbs” she described were under
the direction of the government, which certainly
knew where the Albanians lived. In fact, it would
have been easier to catch them if they were at home,
rather than on the move.

Racist Description of Serbian People

Her description of the government troops is racist.
She speaks of “Serb forces loyal to Yugoslavian
President Sloboban Milosevic” as if that were some
sort of anomaly. Would she describe, for example,
the police force of a typical American city as
“Irish-American forces loyal to Bill Clinton?” Would
she describe U.S. Army troops as
“Mexican-American forces loyal to the President?”
If not, why refer to the ethnic characteristics of the
police and/or army units stationed in Kosovo in that
manner?

Why is she able to get away with anti-Serbian racism
and not racism against other ethnic groups? There
are a number of media people who are
Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans,
Polish-Americans, African-Americans and the like.
But how many Serbian-Americans are visible in the
media? What ethnic Serbian leaders are given any
credibility with the media?

Repeating the Numbers Lie

Then Mutler repeats the infamous lie about 10,000
dead Albanians. She tried to “wash her hands” of
personal responsibility for this false accusation in a
tradition that is as old as Easter itself. She says that
they are “believed to have been killed...” Does she
mean that this statement is believed by the same type
of people who believe that President Kennedy and
pop singer Elvis Presley are still alive? We doubt it.
She is repeating the same major lie that NATO gave
us during the bombing.

Unless all dead Albanians rise from the dead on the
third day, where are those 10,000 bodies? KFOR
and their KLA criminal sponsors have been in
Kosovo for ten months now and we don’t have the
bodies. During the bombing, NATO told us that they
knew where the mass graves were. Now they
don’t. Approximately 2100 bodies, not all Albanians,
have been found. This includes combatants, Serbs,
Albanians killed by other Albanians, and a number
that forensic experts determined were not likely
killed, but died from other causes. Human remains
are hard to dispose of. They require deep graves or
cremation at high temperatures to do the job
properly. Disposal of bodies was such a setback to
the Nazis that they had to develop special crematoria,
as the Nazis found mass graves to be ineffective.
The only conclusion a reasonable person can draw is
that those 10,000 dead bodies cannot be found
because the murders never took place.

But there is another real whopper buried in that
sentence. Notice that these 10,000 Albanians were
supposedly killed BEFORE the bombing began.
NATO’s own numbers list 2,000 killed before the
bombing. The 2000 includes many Serbs and
members of ethnic groups other than Albanians, as
well as Albanians who were killed by other
Albanians. Considering the fact that the KLA was at
war with the Yugoslavian government at the time,
these numbers are very low.

Effect on Other Media and the Public

The effect of this type of trash journalism from
Pristina is that other reporters and editors who rely
on the Associated Press wire service are themselves
influenced by this racist first-hand account of
Kosovo. The image of the Serbian people as a
violent race of barbarians is reinforced in the minds
of news media personnel.

In addition, Mutler’s story glosses over the real,
ongoing violence of the day, in which KLA
Albanians, or perhaps NATO troops, fired nine
mortar shells into a purely Serbian village;
fortunately, no one was hurt. The fact that the KLA
Albanians are still trying to kill Serbs, with practically
no interference from KFOR, goes almost unnoticed
in Mutler’s article, and unreported in the American
press.

The climate of racism in the U.S. news media has led
to a news blackout so airtight that even those
Associated Press stories that do mention violence
against Serbs are rarely, if ever, picked up by U.S.
news media. To have any idea of what is really
going on in the Balkans, Americans must read the
foreign press. (See “Albanians attack Serb
churchgoers as UN mission visits” in the Toronto
Star. See “Albanian terrorists blew up Serbian
church in Grncar,” April 28, 2000, with a
horrifying photograph that we doubt the U.S. news
media will ever let the American public. Also see
“Desecrated Serbian cemetery in Ajvalija,” April
28, 2000, and “Eighty years old Serb beaten up,”
April 29, 2000.)

Thus, the American public never hears of what the
KLA has done, and is doing, to the Serbs and other
non-Albanians who live in Kosovo, nor what the
KLA has been doing to the Kosovo Albanians who
are unwilling to collaborate with the KLA’s racist
reign of terror. In the United States, the media
description of the Serbs is so racist that it is not clear
to the reader that Serbs are human. One impression
is that these descriptions leave is that Serbs may be
human in the literal sense, but by virtue of their race
are intrinsically evil. The other possible impression is
that “Serb” is a political description, like “Viet
Cong.” In theory, a member of a political group
such as the Viet Cong could have defected and
become an American ally, but it is impossible to
defect from one’s racial or ethnic heritage. If the
reader is not so misled, he must conclude that the
Serbian race is evil and that anti-Serbian racism is
justified, perhaps even demanded, by societies of
“civilized people.”

Mutler and the Associate Press Should Apologize to
the Serbian People
for Their Racist Lies and Attitude

We believe that a public apology is in order. Mutler
maliciously lied about the Serbian people and the
Associated Press editors allowed the story to be run.
Subscribers to the wire service have read her racist
remarks. Unless it is stopped now, the cycle of
racism will continue.


http://www.serbianna.com/weber/stories/racism.html

Can I move to Serbia, seems the only place they tell the truth.(If you believe it)

Kim Arx

Hello all. I am a member of a Russian Board on DMS. Just wanted to say one thing: what a peaceful place this is!
For hell (if needed) refer to Russia-Chechnya Board. And apollogies for intrusion.

Dimitri from the "other" side of this site.

Kim, I'm not sure about the tone of your message
since here we do not have a chance to read anything from the
Serbian side, so your comment is very unclear to me