-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 Yeltsin to NATO: Don't Push Us Too Far Says he will not allow American-led forces to seize Yugoslavia. PRESIDENT YELTSIN warned Nato yesterday not to send ground troops into Kosovo, saying that it would force Russia to become involved and threaten a European or even a world war. His words, a return to the sort of language not heard since the Cold War, came on a day when Western capitals were thrown into consternation by a report that he had ordered Russia's nuclear weapons to be aimed at Nato countries.The report was denied by the Kremlin after urgent consultations, but it was a sign of the feverish state into which the Kosovo crisis has cast Russian politics. Col-Gen Anatoly Perminov, the chief of staff of strategic rocket forces, said that no such order had been received, but that if it came the task would be done immediately. Russia's formidable nuclear arsenal has been aimed at no one since Mr Yeltsin agreed at a summit with President Clinton in 1997 to de-target the West. In comments broadcast on television, Mr Yeltsin said: "I told Nato and the Americans and the Germans: do not push us into military action, or there will definitely be a European and possibly a world war." Russia wanted to avoid being drawn into the conflict, but could not allow American-led forces to "seize Yugoslavia and make it their protectorate". Russia has supported Yugoslavia throughout the conflict and has sent a spy ship to the Adriatic. But last night American officials were emphasising Mr Yeltsin's repeated insistence that he does not want to be dragged into fighting. Igor Ivanov, Russia's foreign minister, said that a deployment of Nato ground troops in Yugoslavia would force Russia to consider "a serious evaluation of all aspects connected to the security interests of our country and Europe". Mr Ivanov is to meet Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, in Oslo on Tuesday. Nato continues to insist that ground forces will not be needed to force Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that Milosevic was "starting to crack". But public opinion in Nato countries increasingly appears to support the sending of troops if necessary and politicians are continuing to drop hints that the option is no longer being ruled out. This could compel Russia to force Milosevic to back down. The last thing Mr Yeltsin wants is a disastrous conflict with the alliance. In a further indication that contingency plans for a ground operation in Kosovo were being considered, the British commander of 14,000 Nato troops in Macedonia said he hoped to free his soldiers from their relief work. Lt-Gen Sir Michael Jackson told refugee officials: "I can't have my soldiers doing this week after week. We may be going north at some stage." Nato's supreme commander, Gen Wesley Clark, emphasised that Mr Yeltsin's words would not affect his bombing campaign. "We are going to continue with the mission exactly as planned, regardless of political and diplomatic atmospherics," he told Belgian television. Mr Yeltsin is coming under intense pressure from nationalists in parliament to be seen to be doing something. The claim that nuclear missiles had been aimed at Nato was made by Gennady Seleznyov, the speaker of the Duma, who met Mr Yeltsin yesterday after returning from talks with Milosevic in Belgrade. His remarks were clearly designed to add to the already high tension between factions in Russia. A Reuters journalist, reviewing his tape of an interview with Mr Seleznyov, said he had clearly said that the order to aim the missiles at Nato countries had been issued. Mr Seleznyov, who is fiercely anti-Nato, also said that Milosevic had asked to join the Slavic union of Russia and Belarus - a largely paper arrangement that has brought neither country any real benefits. His remarks were motivated more by internal politics than any real desire to engage Russia in fighting. The Duma is due to start an impeachment process against Mr Yeltsin next week on charges that include genocide during the war in Chechnya - and analysts believe that the president is worried about losing his job. With that in mind, Mr Yeltsin's statements have become more belligerent as he attempts to claw back some of the ground the communist opposition has captured by playing on nationalistic and anti-American sentiment brought on by the conflict in Yugoslavia. However, he still refuses to consider sending troops or arms to help Milosevic. The London Telegraph, April 10, 1999 Operation Allied Farce Defiant Serbs Turn Target Into Weapon NATO: the "New American Terrorist Organization" BELGRADE - The predominant popular reaction in Yugoslavia to the NATO bombing campaign, a mixture of fatalism, defiance, gallows humor and paranoia, is best summed up by a symbol that has taken the country by storm over the past two weeks. You see the target sign everywhere, adorning billboards, the clothes of young children, newspaper front pages, Web sites, bridges and lapels of government ministers. It is designed to mock Western claims that NATO has no quarrel with the Serbian people, only with their leaders. ''We are trying to relieve our anger through humor,'' said Miroslav Radic, the director of a small public relations company in Belgrade that is responsible for popularizing the target sign. ''We are trying to send a message that not just Serbs, but anybody in the world can be targeted by aggression or by an anonymous bureaucracy,'' Mr. Radic added. The sign, supposedly borrowed from the advertising symbol for the American department store chain Target, has multiplied like a virus in the 16 days since NATO planes and cruise missiles began hitting sites that Western officials say are parts of President Slobodan Milosevic's war machine. Something of a Serbian equivalent of the peace sign worn by American peace demonstrators in the 1960s, it reflects widespread anger and bewilderment over the bombing. While the anger has been harnessed by the authorities and fanned by government propaganda, it has deep roots in the popular psyche. The grass-roots reaction to the bombing is best conveyed by the Serbian word inat, which has no direct English equivalent but implies a combination of extreme stubbornness and a willingness to go to any lengths to exact revenge on someone who has wronged you. Examples of inat are legion, from the waiter who spits in the soup of a patron who has been rude, to the people of Belgrade who took to the streets every day for three months in the winter of 1996-1997 to protest the Milosevic government's refusal to recognize an opposition victory in local elections. ''Inat is a natural state of mind for a weak person dealing with a stronger people,'' explained Voja Zenetic, a Belgrade commentator and advertising executive who has been leading the target campaign. ''When Milosevic thought he could do whatever he wanted with us, I was against him,'' he added. ''Now I am against NATO because they are strong and we are weak.'' He traces the concept of inat to the desire of Serbs to get back at the Turks during their 500-year subjugation by the Ottoman Empire. Other expressions of defiance of the United States and its NATO partners range from the creative to the obscene. Visitors to Belgrade are greeted by a huge billboard over the Sava River that is angled slightly upward, in the presumed direction of U.S. planes. It displays an obscenity in English. American-run restaurants have been given such names as the Baghdad Caf�, and the Canadian Embassy has been renamed ''the Embassy of Quebec,'' a suggestion of solidarity with separatists in that province. The U.S. Information Center, situated on a central pedestrian street, has been trashed and ransacked, along with the cultural centers of Britain and France. Lewd drawings of President Bill Clinton have appeared all over town, and Monica Lewinsky jokes are legion. NATO is routinely referred to as the ''New American Terrorist Organization.'' The once flourishing industry of Milosevic jokes, meanwhile, appears to be grinding to a halt. ''I don't think Americans would make jokes about Clinton if they were attacked by Russia,'' said Mr. Zenetic, who answers his cell phone, ''Hello, Clinton speaking.'' Asked to tell the most current Milosevic joke, he comes up with an old chestnut. Clinton, Yeltsin and Milosevic are in a plane that is about to crash. Fate decrees that only one can survive, and he will be chosen by democratic ballot. The final vote count goes like this: 1 vote for Clinton, 1 vote for Yeltsin, 1 million votes for Milosevic. Political jokes apart, the crisis has spawned much black humor, as Serbs attempt to make the best of their situation. An entire subspecies of humor has been spawned in the underground air-raid shelters frequented mainly by people who live close to military sites that could be targeted by NATO bombs. Question: ''What is the difference between a black beetle and a red beetle?'' Answer: ''Just the taste.'' Many of the jokes consist of puns that are difficult to translate into English. For example, the Serbian expression for ''good morning'' is ''dobar dan,'' but people now say ''bombar dan.'' Some jokes are directed at NATO planners. After it was reported that the only town of any size in Serbia that had not yet been targeted by NATO bombs was a place called Zrenjanin, a billboard went up there with the slogan: ''NATO, why don't you hit us? We are not contagious.'' Mingled with the humor is a suspicion of outsiders and a conviction that NATO saboteurs are directing incoming attacks. Rumors have spread that subversive elements are planting electronic ''locaters'' in military buildings, which are then blown up by NATO bombs. A Washington Post reporter was briefly detained by military police Thursday morning for ''loitering'' near the Defense Ministry while waiting for his driver to return from an errand. A military building nearby had been bombed by NATO planes overnight, and the soldiers were nervous. The target sign is said to be the brainchild of Serbian activists in Boston who appropriated the emblem of the American retail company, adapting it slightly to their needs. It then crossed the Atlantic via the Internet. In Yugoslavia, the image has been popularized by a group of advertising executives and intellectuals previously critical of the Milosevic regime who are now directing their creative energies to making fun of NATO. In addition to distributing target leaflets and T-shirts, the group has opened a Web site (www.yutarget.com), where copies of the sign can be downloaded along with audio clips of air raid sirens sounding over Belgrade. International Herald Tribune, April 10, 1999 US Stock Market Suprise Revelation of Compaq Earnings After Friday Close Oops. There goes the high-tech section of the market. Compaq Computer, the world's largest personal computer manufacturer, issued an unexpected warning late yesterday that profits for its first fiscal quarter, just ended, would fall far short of Wall Street expectations. The profit warning, issued after the market close, is expected to rock investor confidence in the US high-tech sector. In after-hours trading the shares of Intel, Dell Computer and International Business Machines were all down sharply. Compaq's shares were suspended at the market close. The shares had risen $1 5/16 to close at $30 15/16 before trading was halted, but when trading resumed late in the day, they fell to $26. Compaq said it expected to report revenues for the quarter of $9.4bn, and earnings of about 15 cents a share. The consensus of Wall Street analysts' estimates had been for profits of 31 cents a share. The warning caught most analysts by surprise. Steve Milunovich of Merrill Lynch had been predicting revenues of $9.8bn for the quarter and said recently that he would maintain a "conservative" earnings estimate for the quarter of 30 cents a share. The shortfall was due to a "less favourable sales mix", Compaq said, with lower than expected sales of high-margin products such as servers. "The quarter's shortfall reflects lower than anticipated market demand and increased competitive pricing in the commercial personal computer sector," said Earl Mason, chief financial officer. "While market conditions will continue to be competitive, we fully intend to expand our business and grow market share profitably in 1999," added Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer. He said Compaq would "continue its aggressive drive of reduction of cost and operating expenses in the face of a very competitive market". Mr Pfeiffer is scheduled to unveil Compaq's new strategy for the corporate computing market next week in Houston, Texas. The first quarter earnings disappointment appeared to be caused by problems in Compaq's core PC market. Although some observers have raised concerns about the strength of the market, Compaq had been confident that growth would remain robust. As recently as February the company said most segments of the market were strong. Although there had been some softness in the market for PCs sold to medium-sized business early in the year, sales had picked up again in the middle of the quarter. Compaq declined to comment further on market conditions yesterday, pending the release of its results on April 21. The Financial Times, April 10, 1999 Gee, I was right about this, too Chinese Money Routed Through Lippo Bank to Clinton Campaign Mochtar and James Riady knew how to buy influence Read also: Tenacious Tenacles Read also: Vince Foster, Part 31 re the Hong Kong Chinese Bank Chinese military intelligence officers diverted illegal campaign donations to the Clinton-Gore Re-Election Committee through a Hong Kong bank controlled by an Indonesian family with long-standing ties to President Clinton, authorities said. Federal law enforcement officials, congressional investigators and others said several hundred thousand dollars in cash went to the campaign through several emissaries handpicked by the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The money, the sources said, originated in Beijing and initially was routed by the PLA to China Resources Holding Company Ltd. in Hong Kong. >From there, it was transferred to the Hong Kong Chinese Bank -- jointly owned by the Chinese government and Lippo Group, a multibillion-dollar Indonesian conglomerate owned by longtime Clinton supporters Mochtar and James Riady, the sources said. Eventually, the cash was moved to other banks, then wired to the emissaries, who distributed it to the Clinton-Gore campaign and to other state and federal races, the sources said. U.S. intelligence officials believe the PLA bought into the Hong Kong bank after Mr. Clinton's 1992 election as a way of gaining access to the president through the Riady family, which has been a supporter of -- Continued from Front Page -- Mr. Clinton since he was governor of Arkansas. Johnny Chung, a California businessman who gave more than $350,000 to the Democratic Party, has linked Democratic fund-raisers John Huang and Charles Yah Lin Trie to the PLA fund-raising scheme in grand jury testimony and sworn statements as part of a plea agreement in a Justice Department probe. Chung, an admitted bagman for Chinese intelligence, testified that his former business partner, Liu Chao-ying, a Chinese aerospace executive and lieutenant colonel in the PLA, told him Mr. Trie and Mr. Huang were "directed in their fund-raising activities by the Chinese government." At least one House committee is investigating the leadership of China Resources, based on preliminary information showing that top PLA officers have assumed key positions with the firm to continue efforts to influence U.S. policy on several issues. Of particular concern, the sources said, is a possible connection between China Resources and the PLA's chief military intelligence officer, Gen. Ji Shengde, who -- according to Chung's grand jury testimony -- ordered that $300,000 be transferred to Chung for donations to the Democratic Party. That transfer -- first reported by the Los Angeles Times -- took place after Chung personally met with Gen. Ji in Hong Kong in a meeting arranged by Miss Liu. The sources said Chung testified that Gen. Ji told him he already was engaged in similar transactions with others serving as conduits for Chinese money for Mr. Clinton. The cash eventually was wired to Chung's account at the Overseas Trust Bank in Hong Kong. He gave $35,000 to the Democratic National Committee. The rest was moved to a separate account at a California bank. It is not clear how it was used. China denies using illegal campaign donations to influence the 1996 elections. In a joint press conference Thursday with Mr. Clinton, Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji denounced the accusations. "I think this shows that some Americans really have underestimated us. If the political contribution were to be really that effective, I have 146 billion U.S. dollars of foreign-exchange reserve, so I should have put out at least 10 billion U.S. dollars for that purpose, why just $300,000?" he said. "That would be too foolish." Mr. Zhu promised to cooperate in any probe of the accusations; similar promises in the past have not been honored. It is against the law for foreign governments to donate to U.S. political campaigns. Lippo denies any wrongdoing in its relationship with the president, although the sources said the PLA was counting on the Riadys' ties to Mr. Clinton for access of its own. They said the PLA knew the Riadys' Worthen National Bank in Little Rock, Ark., had given Mr. Clinton a multimillion-dollar loan to get through the 1992 presidential election, and had handed over $100,000 to former Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell after he quit the Justice Department and before he pleaded guilty to two Whitewater felonies. Lippo sold a 15 percent interest in its Hong Kong bank to China Resources in 1993, four days after Mr. Clinton's 1992 election victory. By July 1992, the company had sold off half the bank to China Resources in what U.S. authorities believe was a continuing effort by the PLA to cash in on the Riadys' relationship with Mr. Clinton. China Resources paid what U.S. intelligence officials said was a huge premium over the net asset value of the bank, giving Lippo a profit of $164 million. A key player in the suspected plot appears to be Mr. Huang, a former Lippo employee, Commerce Department official and Democratic National Committee fund-raiser, who served as vice president of the Hong Kong bank from 1985 to 1986. When Mr. Huang left Lippo to join Commerce, he received a $780,000 bonus. China Resources, according to the sources, was used by the Chinese government as a cover for its spying activities. Owned by the PLA, Chinese military intelligence officials are said to be free to penetrate its operations for economic espionage. More recently, it has invested in several Lippo ventures within Indonesia. The company describes itself as a government-affiliated trading concern supplying Hong Kong with water and food from China, but testimony last year before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee documented that the firm was used as a front for Chinese espionage operations. Washington Times, April 9, 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! 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