>> >>Forward from mart. >>Please distribute widely. >>From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Date: September 7, 2000 5:05 PM >>************************************************************************* >>The following article was published in "The Guardian", >>newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue >>of Wednesday, September 6th, 2000. >>CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> >>************************************************************* >> Lies, lies and damned lies >> >>"Serb killing exaggerated by the West", said the headline of the >>London <BI>Guardian" (18/8/00). The paper's subheading said >>itmore forcefully and underscored the enormity of the lie: "Claims >>of up to 100,000 ethnic Albanians massacred in Kosovo revised >>to under 3,000 as exhumations near end." >> >>by Bob Petrovich >> >>Think of what this has to mean to Madeleine Albright, James >>Rubin, and Jamie Shea. They didn't pull this off single-handedly. >> >>Not only the US Government, but the worldwide media fabricated >>a "genocide" and, on that basis, launched a savage war against >>asovereign nation, that had never attacked us, in the name of >>"humanitarianism -- a war, I might add, that was stopped but has >>not ended. >> >>Where are the bodies, all 100,000 of them? This became the task >>of the "war crimes experts", as the "Guardian" describes them: to >>produce what never existed in the first place -- a task that >>naturally had to end in failure. >> >>The "Guardian" reports: >> >>"As war crimes experts from Britain and other countries prepare >>to wind down the exhumation of hundreds of graves in Kosovo on >>behalf of the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former >>Yugoslavia in the Hague, officials concede they have not borne >>out the worst wartime reports. >> >>"These were given by refugees and repeated by Western >>government spokesmen during the campaign. They talked >>of indiscriminate killings and as many as 100,000 civilians >>missing or taken out of refugee columns by the Serbs." >> >>It was lies, all lies, from beginning to end. They may have >>originated from government sources, in most cases, but in >>spreading these lies far and wide the Western media were >>more than willing accomplices. >> >>Keeping in mind that over 5,000 civilians were slaughtered in >>the NATO air strikes, the ladies and gentlemen of the [media] >>might fairly be characterised as Madeleine's willing executioners. >> >>Based on the myth of an Albanian Kosovar "holocaust" >>perpetrated by the Serbs, not only Milosevic and his regime >>but also the entire Serbian people are condemned. >> >>Here was classic war propaganda, on a par with stories of >>Belgian babies impaled on German bayonets during World >>War I and tall tales told during the Gulf war of babies dumped >>out of incubators and gasping for breath on the floor of a Kuwaiti >>hospital. >> >>The idea is to get public opinion behind the complete subjugation >>and "re-education" of the Serbian people, utilising the post-war >>German model. >> >>In the case of the Kosovo war, the retreat has already begun. >>Fartoo late to help the victims of the vicious "Allied" air war: >>they are dead and buried, or else mutilated beyond repair. >> >>Yet we are still waiting for some acknowledgment from the >> media that they were wrong. >> >>Endless horror stories illustrated with fantastically high death >>tolls were aired day after day on CNN but when will we hear a >>retraction? Christiane Amanpour [CNN reporter -- Ed] repeated >>her husband's lies with a perfectly straight face: tens of thousands >>slaughtered, we were told, and the murderous drug-dealing KLA >>were really "freedom fighters". >> >>Journalists didn't question the US Government line about alleged >>äSerbian "genocide": instead they wanted to know if the President >>would send in the ground troops, and if not, why not? >> >>Phillip Knightley who has written on wartime propaganda in his >>book "The First Casualty" said recently: "Usually the truth about >>what has really happened during a war will emerge after it is >>over. Sometimes it takes years and years. But sometimes the >>truth surfaces quite quickly. >> >>"Within little more than a year after the Gulf War we knew that >>the claims for the pinpoint accuracy of Allied air strikes and >>the ability of the Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi missiles >>>were all nonsense. >> >>"Within two years we knew that many of the atrocity stories >>attributed to the Iraqis -- American public relations companies >>working for the Kuwaiti Government, for example -- had invented >>the incubator babies story. >> >>"But, of course, by then it was too late to make any difference >>to the outcome of the war, and the media caravan had moved >>on. We are learning only now that the CIA helped train the Kosovo >>Liberation Army before the bombing began. >> >>We did not realise at the time that NATO was lying when it said >>it did not deliberately attack civilian targets. There will be a >>lot more, believe me." >> >>If, by some chance, the truth about Kosovo gets out, how will the >>American [and Australian? -- Ed] people react to the revelation >>that they were lied to by Clinton's numerous media enablers? Will >>they, like the Serbs, chase the bums out of town -- or will they >>bask in the warm security of their narcotised ignorance, >>indifferent to the truth and immune to righteous indignation >>except when prompted by government propagandists? >> >>This is the difference between cultural health and decadence, >>between a truly American political culture in the traditional >>sense and one that has become alienated from its roots and >>degenerate beyond redemption or revival. >> >>I like to believe that Americans are not numb to the crimes of >>their government. I like to think that they don't react to the >>crimes of the US against the people of Iraq -- daily bombing >>excursions and 5,000 children a month killed by murderous >>sanctions -- because they don't know about it. That is why >>antiwar.com exists -- and must continue to exist. >> >>Bob Petrovich [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Antiwar website: http://www.antiwar.com >> >>Footnote: And what of the Australian media, the ABC and SBS >>reporters who lied with the best of them. Will some qualify for >>the Walkley Awards for journalism? >> >>What of the government spokespersons who must have >>known the truth but went along with the war propaganda and >>took in thousands of the "poor" and also deceived Albanian >>refugees as their contribution. What of "Green Left" which >>excelled in its support for the drug-pedalling, CIA-trained and >>fascist KLA beefing them up as "freedom fighters", instead >>of as the imperialist mercenaries that they were? >> >>**************************************************************** >> >> >> >>Knowledge is Power! >>Elimination of the exploitation of man by man >>http://www.egroups.com/group/pttp/ >>POWER TO THE PEOPLE! >> >>Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Change Delivery Options: >>http://www.egroups.com/mygroups >> >> > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. 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