-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Der Fuhrer Invades Yugoslavia CLINTON WILLING TO RISK GLOBAL WAR "How many body bags will it take to make this jerk face reality?" Bill Clinton's failing Kosovo war is part of a desperate, dangerous and fatally flawed plan by a scandal-ridden President to salvage a legacy for the history books, White House and Pentagon insiders say. In fact, the President is willing to risk a global military conflict to shift the emphasis on his Presidency away from the many sex and money scandals that have dogged his administration, interviews with present and past White House and Pentagon staff members reveal. Interviews conducted over the past two weeks show an increasingly isolated President whose obsession with his place in the history books has led him to ignore the recommendations not only of career military officers, but also of many close aides. "The President is standing alone on a lot of this," says one White House aide. "He's finder fewer and fewer people who are willing to stick with him over Kosovo. He's backed himself, his administration and his country into a corner." Two who are sticking with Clinton are National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who aides say would follow Clinton anywhere. "Berger and Albright put their loyalty to Clinton above their oaths to serve the constitution," says military analyst Sander Owen. "It's pathetic to watch." At the Pentagon, senior officers now call the President the "draft dodger in chief," and sneer at his inability to grasp simple military tactics. "The man is an ass," says one career officer. "He has no concept of a military operation. To him, it's just a video game. What we don't know is how many body bags it will take to make this jerk face reality." Arnold Crittendon, a retired intelligence analyst, says Clinton has become a "laughing stock" in both the military and intelligence communities. "His political motives are so blatant that they would be farcical if we weren't talking about the lives of American soldiers," Crittendon says. "There wasn't that much respect for the man to begin with. What little there was is long gone now." Clinton, who often turns to history to justify his actions, has told aides that Richard Nixon, who resigned from office in the Watergate scandal, will be remembered more for his foreign policy accomplishments than the scandal that ended his Presidency. "There's a real irony here," says one White House staffer. "The President's troubles have often been compared with those of Nixon. Now he's using Nixon as a model to justify his actions in Kosovo." Aides say that Clinton started focusing more on foreign policy when it became clear he would not be convicted in the Senate impeachment trial. "He wanted to find some foreign policy arena where a bold stroke would showcase his administration as a world leader," one former aide says. "When it became clear that he was focusing on Kosovo, a lot of people tried to talk him out of it. But Bill Clinton is a man who won't let go of something once he focuses on it. He was sure that defeating a tyrant would restore his place in history." But military planners told Clinton he could not win a limited air war in Kosovo. "The President was advised that his strategy was flawed and did not serve the national interest," says one Pentagon planner, "but he wasn't interested in hearing the facts." Now, with the air war turning into a global fiasco and some calling for sending in ground troops, Clinton is faced with either a full commitment or a pullout that will be seen worldwide as a defeat. "The President is really facing only two choices," says one White House aide. "He can get out before American lives are lost or he can increase the commitment and plunge the country into a prolonged war that will undoubtedly lead to American casualties." Former Navy Capt. Al Simonson says he knows several career military professionals who are willing to resign their commissions rather than continue to serve under Clinton. "I've been around the military for more than 30 years and I have never seen morale this low," Simonson says. "Bill Clinton has destroyed the soul of our armed forces." At this point, few at either the White House or the Pentagon are willing to guess which direction the President will go. "There's a real feeling at the Pentagon that the President may have gone off the deep end on this one," says retired Air Force officer Matthew Higgins. "He has become very unpredictable on this one." "A few weeks ago, we all would have said that Clinton would give up as soon as the going got tough," says a high-ranking Pentagon officer. "But no one is really sure what he will do now. He's obsessed with this thing and that makes him both unpredictable and dangerous." A psychologist who treats obsessions says Clinton's preoccupation with his legacy could be viewed by mental health professionals as a warning sign over the President's stability. "There are enough outward signs that the President is so driven by his obsession with his legacy that it could be affecting his mental judgments," says Dr. Stephanie Crossfield. "If I were consulting on the President's case, I would recommend further evaluation of his condition." The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this report. Capitol Hill Blue, April 5, 1999 Russian Follies Arrest Warrant Issued for Chief of the Oligarchs Primakov puts on the squeeze Russian politics neared boiling point yesterday when an arrest warrant was issued for Boris Berezovsky, the controversial business tycoon and Kremlin power broker, who helped finance President Boris Yeltsin's re-election campaign. The warrant was seen as a further escalation in the increasingly fierce power struggle between Mr Yeltsin and Yevgeny Primakov, the Russian prime minister. Mr Primakov has been a long-time enemy of Mr Berezovsky, turning him into the prime target of the government's crackdown on "economic criminals". Alexander Lebed, the governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk who is campaigning to succeed Mr Yeltsin, said the dispute signified the "death throes" of the current powers. "Everyone has become tangled up and they are beginning to drown each other," he said. The prosecutor's office, which has been investigating Mr Berezovsky's business interests for several months, accused him of illegally syphoning money out of Aeroflot, Russia's biggest international airline. But, speaking from Paris, Mr Berezovsky criticised the country's "shameless and dull-witted" law officers, vigorously denying their allegations. "They do not have any chance of success," he said. The leader of a group of self-styled "oligarchs", Mr Berezovsky has previously accused Russia's security services of conducting an illegal campaign to slur his reputation. In a further twist to Moscow's latest political drama, Yuri Skuratov, the country's top law official, announced he would submit his resignation to parliament for a second time today. The Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, had earlier rejected Mr Skuratov's resignation, prompting Mr Yeltsin to dismiss him last week by presidential decree. Mr Skuratov claims to have unearthed explosive information incriminating some members of Mr Yeltsin's closest entourage. But Mr Skuratov's critics allege he has been turned into a political plaything of Mr Yeltsin's Communist opponents. Russian state television recently broadcast secretly-shot film of Mr Skuratov in bed with two prostitutes, allegedly procured by a businessman under criminal investigation. Mr Berezovsky, who was depicted in the Russian press as a latter-day Rasputin at the court of Tsar Boris, lost his immunity from prosecution last week when he was fired as secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States and stripped of his diplomatic status. But Mr Berezovsky claimed he had been prevented from defending himself at a meeting of CIS leaders in Moscow when his aircraft was denied access to Russian airspace. Mr Berezovsky's current location in France appears to leave him protected from any attempts by the judicial authorities to bring him back to Russia to face criminal charges. The French foreign ministry confirmed last night that there is no extradition treaty between France and Russia, although it said there is a proposal under discussion. The Financial Times, April 7, 1999 Oil and Pan Am Bombing Europeans Line Up for Libya's Oil Boom UN to lift embargo; US won't TRIPOLI - European oil companies are preparing for an investment boom in Libya after Tripoli turned over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am bombing, clearing the way for the United Nations to suspend sanctions. ENI SpA of Italy, already Libya's biggest foreign oil producer, and Lasmo PLC of Britain are among the companies that are planning to expand investments. Their activities will put further strains on continued sanctions that Washington imposed independently on Libya two years before the bombing, in response to terrorist incidents that forced American oil companies to leave the country. On Tuesday, the two Libyan suspects were charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the bomb that exploded on the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Libya has lost $24 billion in potential oil revenues since the UN sanctions were imposed in 1992 and is desperate for investment - due to the drop in the price of oil more than the embargo. Oil income, accounting for 95 percent of the nation's hard-currency earnings, fell more than one-third last year as crude prices touched 12-year lows. That forced Libya to devalue its currency by 18 percent in December. ''Oil companies will now feel more comfortable in talking with the Libyan government about potential projects,'' said Mohammed Abduljabbar, who is an industry consultant with the Petroleum Finance Co. in Washington. ''It will allow Libya to rehabilitate its oil production.'' Lifting UN sanctions means that international flights to Tripoli could be resumed and Libya could buy supplies to refurbish oil-export equipment. While the European Union has no ban on oil drilling in Libya, the six-hour drive from Tunisia to Tripoli is an ordeal that has warded off many Western investors. [''I don't think it is an issue of the money or spare parts,'' Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, told The Associated Press. ''It is the issue of having political stability to attract foreign investment.'' For that stability, he said, air traffic must be free.] [Over the years, Western diplomats and Libyans have acknowledged that the sanctions have done little damage to the country. Libya had domestic suppliers of parts it needed to keep its oil industry running. The air embargo affected imports and exports, but Libya could use its seaports. European countries also continued buying oil from Libya, and several African nations have ignored the sanctions.] Already, Libya has taken steps to welcome back oil companies that left through the 1980s as a combination of UN sanctions and threats against foreigners by the Libyan leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, made the nation a no-go area for Westerners. Later this month at a conference in Geneva, the Libyan oil minister, Abdallah Salim Badri, will announce amendments to the nation's petroleum law, which dates from 1955, and unveil the first major round of bidding for oil exploration rights in four years. Mr. Badri said last month in Vienna that he already had held talks with U.S. oil companies about returning. ''As far as Libya is concerned, they are welcome back,'' Mr. Badri said. ''We already have been in contact with some of our previous partners. We have been contacted by the American oil companies, and we want them to come back to Libya.'' With proven oil reserves of about 30 billion barrels - almost as much as has been found in the North Sea - Libya is a prize for the world's oil industry. Lasmo of London pumps Libyan oil for $5 or so per barrel, about half the cost for British drilling. The two-year oil price slump has made Libya's cheap oil even more attractive. Benchmark Brent crude oil prices, currently $14.72 a barrel, are little more than half their 1997 peak price of almost $25. Libyan projects, however, are profitable even if prices slip well below $10 a barrel ENI, based in Rome, produces about 16 percent of Libya's oil, and it discovered the nation's biggest offshore field. The company is seeking customers to back a $3.5 billion investment in new gas production from the Wafa field on Libya's Mediterranean coast and a pipeline under the sea to Italy. Others, such as Total SA of France, OMV AG of Austria, Repsol SA of Spain and Lundin Oil AB of Sweden, also are active in exploring for oil in Libya. Still, the U.S. companies that withdrew in the early 1980s after sanctions tightened probably will not be back soon. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan told Occidental Petroleum Corp. and a consortium that includes Marathon Oil Co., Conoco Inc. and Amerada Hess Corp. to pull out after Libyans were linked to the bombing of an Egyptian airliner and a German nightclub. Exxon Corp. and Mobil Corp. withdrew in 1982, a year after a U.S. trade embargo began. And in 1996, the U.S. Congress tightened sanctions against Iran and Libya, accusing both of funding terrorism. If U.S. sanctions were lifted, Conoco, Hess and Marathon could have a head start on their rivals, since assets worth about $2 billion, including seven major oil fields, have been held in trust by Libya until sanctions are removed. While the United States has acknowledged that Libya has not sponsored terrorism in at least three years, Jane's Defense Weekly last year reported that intelligence officials were concerned that Libya's $25 billion ''great man-made river'' project could be used to support a chemical-weapons program or to speed troops to Libya's borders. Libya maintains that the irrigation project is to develop agriculture near its northern cities. Even so, almost nobody expects the United States to lift sanctions. ''UN sanctions will go, but the U.S. sanctions will be retained,'' said George Joffe, a scholar on the region at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a London policy consultancy. International Herald Tribune, April 7, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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