-Caveat Lector- >From TheHerald (UK)(probably Scotland) http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/19-4-1999-0-9-58.html Serbs used CIA phone to call in convoy raid IAN BRUCE, Geopolitics Editor THE refugees targeted by mistake in the Nato raid involving the US Air Force last Wednesday died because a Central Intelligence Agency undercover operation involving the Kosovo Liberation Army went drastically wrong. More than 70 fleeing men, women and children were killed as bombs straddled their convoy of tractors and trailers on the Prizren to Djakovica road in Kosovo, producing a propaganda disaster for Nato and triggering a furious behind-the-scenes row between the Pentagon and the US intelligence community. The Herald can now reveal that the fatal strike was called in by the Serbs using a mobile phone and security identification codes supplied to a KLA "spotter" by the CIA. The man is believed to have been captured early last week and tortured into telling what he knew. He was then executed. Intelligence sources said last night that a joint CIA-US special forces group operating out of the eastern Bosnian town of Tuzla is running a group of KLA agents inside Kosovo. These men are tasked with reporting the location and movements of all Serb troops and police units via mobile phones. The KLA spotters are being trained by the US equivalent of Britain's SAS - Delta Force - in camps set up in Albania. They are taught to map read and transmit exact co-ordinates of mobile Serb teams responsible for the ethnic cleansing offensive inside the province. The co-ordinates are then passed to allied air operations at Aviano air base in Italy and fighter-bombers vectored in to attack with what was hoped would be pinpoint precision. The KLA fighters have individual identification codes for their CIA handlers. Armed with those codes, the Serbs are understood to have called in five different air strikes last Wednesday in the hope of luring Nato into bombing refugees. Two involved RAF Harrier teams. On those two occasions, the RAF pilots went below their "safe flight ceiling" of 15,000ft to obtain visual confirmation of their targets when they felt that something was not quite right. On both occasions, they aborted the bombing runs. However, on two other occasions, US pilots dropped bombs. One of these incidents, when an F16 pilot hit the lead tractor in a three-vehicle convoy, was admitted last week after 19 hours of frantic examination of cockpit video footage and at least two fumbled explanations of events. But the main incident, near Djakovica, remained a mystery until last night. The Pentagon and Nato headquarters, furious at what one officer described as "a typical CIA-sponsored spook screw-up", have been fielding awkward questions for four days without being able to tell the truth or clear their military reputation. Alliance politicians, including Tony Blair and Robin Cook , have tried unsuccessfully to spin the intelligence shambles into pinning the blame on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for provoking the conflict in the first place. Part of this cover-up stems from the fact that the UK and the United States both see a Western-trained and armed KLA as the proxy ground arm of their campaign and a means of avoiding the commitment of Nato ground troops and inevitable heavy casualties. There are 40,000 Serb troops, police and paramilitary volunteer units inside Kosovo, supported by an estimated 500 surviving armoured vehicles, including main battle tanks and artillery, in small groups and well camouflaged. The SAS is understood to have about 70 men guiding in allied jets and illuminating targets with laser designators. But they are thin on the ground and the province consists of more than 11,000 square miles of heavily-wooded hills and mountains. The KLA has perhaps 25,000 men under arms, scattered in small groups in the hills. The Serbs move in platoon-sized units of between 30 and 50 men, careful to hide their vehicles when they halt. Barns, monasteries and mosques have all been used to conceal the marauding armour from Nato pilots. An intelligence source said: "Milosevic must have laughed himself sick. Using CIA-supplied mobile phones to lure US pilots into doing a bit of final ethnic cleansing for him is a neat trick and a major intelligence coup. "We were probably lucky it only worked twice. It's a pity that 70-plus refugees who must have thought they were within touching distance of safety had to pay with their lives for a breach of security which could and should have been foreseen. Perhaps the CIA should realise this is not Nicaragua, where blunders could be buried without coming under the spotlight of the world's media." - April 19 >From IrishTimes Monday, April 19, 1999 Allies prepare for riots ambushes and war ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- By Patsy McGarry in Skopje High in the hills at Petrovec, overlooking Macedonia's international airport and near its capital, Skopje, Capt Michale Melchionna, of the Italian Brigadata Garibaldi company, explained his troops were doing riotcontrol exercises so they would be prepared were there a request from the Macedonia government for support in case of civil disturbances. Macedonia has been the most reluctant of the three Balkan countries (including Montenegro) which border Kosovo to accept the staggering burden of thousands of refugees who arrive with nothing but the clothes they wear. At one stage in the early days of NATO's Operation Allied Force, the Macedonian government closed the border and said it feared that its own delicate ethnic balance would be upset by the influx of Albanians. Since then it has relented, but has still been enthusiastic for the refugees to be airlifted to other European countries. Yesterday France took its first batch of more than 300 Kosovans, who flew to Lyons from Stankovac camp on the outskirts of Skopje. Yesterday, above the airport, some of Capt Melchionna's troops had lined up in a phalanx holding transparent shields and wearing helmets and visors while others threw stones and rushed them. Behind the frontline of shield bearers further troops armed with batons formed a second line. With their front-line colleagues under pressure these emerged and attacked the "rioters" from both sides before dispersing the "crowd". Cap Melchionna said the soldiers would not use weapons against rioters throwing stones or Molotov cocktails, but if they had guns then the soldiers would be armed and would have permission to use them. He emphasised that NATO's role in Macedonia was purely defensive, and that now, as the soldiers left the refugee camps where humanitarian work was being taken over by international agencies, they were once again setting about preparation to enter Kosovo to implement whatever agreed settlement may arise from the present conflict. His company of soldiers occupies a prime vantage point in the area, with a 360 degree view of surrounding plains. Below, cattle and sheep graze, while two helicopters fly in the distance. British soldiers at another NATO camp played football while some of their colleagues did running exericises along a distant road. There are many villages and towns in the area, including Idrizovo, where the country's largest jails and its police training college are located. Capt Melchionna's men have blended tanks , tents and sandbag bunkers into the hills, using camouflage netting covered in false green leaves. He explained it was easiest to guard the site during daylight hours. At that time the largest number of men were on duty, when they used infra-red to scan the surrounding countryside constantly. Each tank also had infrared sights, he said. Preparations ranged from such sophistication to lines of trip wire along the hillside with cans and tins hanging from them. His men, he said, passed the day doing training exercises such as the one we had just watched on riot control. They also did weapons and close combat training as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft exercises, and simulated an ambush in "mined" terrain. Capt Melchionna, who has served in Sarajevo as well as other parts of Bosnia, and Albania, said that normally his company would be in such a location for four to six months at a time. "That is usual for NATO," he said. He was unable to say how long they might at Preschevo. NATO has 12,531 troops in Macedonia currently, with 1,800 UK troops en route and as many French. It is unclear what the alliance's numbers plan is for countries in the region. But Col Konrad Freytag, spokesman for NATO's supreme commander in Europe, Gen Wesley Clark, said in Skopje on Saturday that up to 28,000 NATO troops had been planned to help implement the Rambouillet accord in Kosovo, had it been endorsed by all parties. Most of those would have been located in Macedonia and Albania. To give an estimate of what might be required now would be "speculative" he said. Gen Clark was in Macedonia to meet President Kiro Gligorov and the Prime Minister, Mr Lupchko Georgievski. He did not speak to the media and went from there to Tirana to meet the Albanian leadership. Meanwhile, on Saturday night an estimated 3,000 people gathered at a rock concert in Skopje's Macedonia Square to protest against NATO's continued bombing of Serbia. Many wore the mock "target" strips which have been so popular across the border in Yugoslavia. Some carried the US star and stripes, with the stars replaced by small white swastikas, and placards compared Bill Clinton to Adolf Hitler. There were no disturbances. - (Additional reporting PA) Reuters adds from Washington:US First Lady Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton is considering travelling to Albania for a first-hand look at humanitarian relief operations for Kosovo refugees, her spokeswoman said yesterday. "Clearly she's very interested in what we can do to alleviate the refugee situation," her spokeswoman, Ms Marsha Berry, said. Ms Berry said Mrs Clinton will meet in New York today with the Pew foundation and other charitable groups to discuss the humanitarian needs of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians forced out of Kosovo since the NATO air war against Yugoslavia began on March 24th. A trip to Albania would be in keeping with Ms Clinton's emphasis on humanitarian issues related to the campaign against Yugoslavia. On Tuesday, she met two prominent ethnic Albanian women who said they were forced to leave Kosovo by Serb authorities, and who told her of atrocities being carried out by Serb forces. >From IrishTimes Monday, April 19, 1999 Peace depends on integration of Balkans into Europe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- By Jonathan Eyal Planning the future of the Balkans now makes sense, but change in Western thinking is needed, writes Jonathan Eyal The war in Kosovo shows no signs of ending; almost regardless of the strategy which NATO adopts, the confrontation is guaranteed to last for many more months. Yet, as the generals continue their campaign with their traditional claims of daily "victories", diplomats in all European and North American capitals are now working behind the scenes on a set of proposals intended to bring stability to the Balkans once the war is over. The emergency summit of EU heads of government last week discussed a plan put forward by the German presidency for a "stability pact" in the area, and the NATO summit which takes place this week in Washington is guaranteed to come forward with similar co-operation ideas. The air in Europe is therefore filled not only with bombs, but with various reconstruction schemes as well. Unfortunately, the Balkans are the graveyard of many previous plans, announced with great flourish and good intentions, and then abandoned at leisure. Discussing the reconstruction of the Balkans at this stage makes perfect sense. Kosovo will require military protection and economic support for decades. Meanwhile, the people of Yugoslavia must be persuaded that, if they are finally rid of their despicable leader, they may look forward to a better future. The other neighbouring countries which have kept out of the war and have behaved responsibly also need reassurance. And it is better to discuss such arrangements now in order to avoid the unsightly rows over burden-sharing between the EU and the US which accompanied the imposition of peace in Bosnia earlier this decade. Like it or not, both the EU and NATO are already pledged to the Balkans; Greece is a member of both organisations, NATO has its biggest military commitment there and Slovenia is about to open its membership negotiations with the EU in the coming months. If a bigger involvement is inevitable - and it is - it is better to sort out priorities now, rather than create policy on the hoof. The credentials of the current reconstruction policies are, therefore, impeccable. However, both the EU and NATO are likely to encounter huge problems, both at the conceptual and the practical stages. What is required is not only a change of minds in the Balkans, but also a change of psychology in the West. Both sides of the old ideological divide in Europe will need to be transformed if the current proposals are to work. EU leaders are now fond of talking about a "second Marshall Plan" for the Balkans, copying the massive reconstruction effort at the end of the second World War. Such talk produces good headlines in the media, but is misconceived. The Marshall Plan came after the aims of the war were accomplished. In the current crisis, however, there is no agreement what the war aims should be. The war started in order to avert ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. It then shifted to reversing the result of the ethnic cleansing which NATO failed to avert. A month ago the aim of the operation was to force Slobodan Milosevic to sign a peace deal; this weekend, President Clinton has claimed that Milosevic's removal from office is the ultimate goal. And nobody knows what the fate of Kosovo will be. The current reconstruction plans are therefore discussed in a strategic void. Instead of seeking to consolidate the eventual end of a Balkans war, they are offered as a substitute for the absence of war aims. It is difficult to decide what to reconstruct until one is clear what needs to be destroyed. The answer in the Europe of 1945 was clear; the reply in the Balkans at the end of this century remains as elusive as ever. Furthermore, the original Marshall Plan was intended to support vulnerable democracies, who had their own relatively efficient administrations. In the case of the former Yugoslav republics, however, offering cash is often part of the problem, rather than a solution. Billions of euros were poured into Bosnia since 1995 to no great effect; the country remains divided, and the black marketeers are the main net beneficiaries. Montenegro, a component part of Yugoslavia, is now ruled by a proWestern politician, but also a man who played a leading role in the war against the Bosnian Muslims and ran many of the Yugoslav sanction-busting smuggling activities. Franjo Tudjman, the Croat leader and another Western darling, presides over a mixture of nepotism, fear and corruption. In Bulgaria and Romania, where democratically elected administrations are in the hands of wellmeaning politicians, there is a huge lack of expertise. Even if one ignores the faintly ridiculous sight of the European Commission proposing to train Balkan administrations in how to eliminate waste and corruption, one conclusion is inescapable: the effort will take years and will have to be undertaken often against the wishes of the local leaders. Finally, there is the question of the resources available. Both the EU and NATO are suggesting that, while plans are put together for the area, the Balkan states should be encouraged to co-operate with each other. Such co-operation makes sense, and should not come at the expense of a wider European integration. Correct, but only up to a point. A great deal is already being done, and many of these activities do not require government co-ordination. Greek investors dominate markets in Serbia and Macedonia, and the remittances of Albanian workers in Greece are just about the only source of foreign revenue in Albania. Turkish construction and transport firms, as well as Turkish bakeries, predominate in Romania. But there are also great limitations on how far this process can go. All the region's states suffer from similar problems: relatively large agricultural sectors, redundant industrial capacity, a surplus of labour and a decaying infrastructure. Not only do they have little to offer each other, but they actually compete with each other for the same Western capital resources. Secondly, Greece will always be in a different position from the rest of the region: as an EU member, it is bound by certain tariff restrictions and trade practices which do not apply to others. Furthermore, if the West as a whole proved unable to solve the Greek-Turkish dispute, the Balkan states cannot be expected to do better. Very often, their solution is to skirt carefully around the dispute altogether, in the hope of avoiding any new tensions. And, ultimately, the obstacle to regional co-operation is psychological: although everyone assures the Balkan states that they have nothing to fear, the area's leaders instinctively regard regional cooperation as inferior to European integration and suspect that the more they succeed in co-operating regionally, the less they will be considered as serious candidates in either the EU or NATO. And this is where a transformation needs to take place in Western thinking. For over a century the Balkans were considered partly a geographic area, and partly a disease which needs to be quarantined. Romania fought hard to be admitted as a NATO member, but its application was ultimately turned down in favour of Central European countries which were less in need of this security reassurance. The EU is expanding but, yet again, not to the Balkans. Unless there is a realisation that Europe will not be peaceful without fully integrating the Balkans into its institutions, most of the regional reconstruction projects will fail. The real Marshall Plan, therefore, has to be for Western Europe's minds and hearts. If this is successful, the Kosovo disaster will go down in history as the last war of European integration. 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