FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA The Special Truth in Media Global Watch Bulletins on NATO's war on Serbia, such as the one enclosed below, can also be accessed at our Web site: www.truthinmedia.org which is being updated throughout the day. Issue S99-56, Day 34, Update 1 --------------------------------------- Apr. 26, 1999; 0:10AM EDT HEADLINES Novi Sad 1. Last Novi Sad Bridge Destroyed; Hungary to Let NATO Use Its Three Air Bases Italy 2. An Italian Soldier: Very Little Time Left; Maybe a Week? Naples 3. Italian Police Battle anti-NATO Protesters U.S. Midwest 4. Jewish Students Support NATO's Bombing of Serbia; An Anglo-American Student Fights Back Florida 5. Roundtable's Reaction to Independent's Story: What About Exposing the CFR Sins? Belgrade 6. German Mothers Say No to NATO's War ---------------------- 1. Last Novi Sad Bridge Destroyed; Hungary to Let NATO Use Its Three Air Bases Novi Sad, Apr. 25 - This just in from a TiM source in Novi Sad: "After several attempts, they (NATO) have finally managed to completely destroy the last remaining bridge in Novi Sad. The attack started at 1:15AM (local time; 7:15AM EDT), and ended 30 minutes later." --- TiM Ed.: And now, "let the games begin!" (i.e., the NATO invasion from Hungary). After all, despite a general sentiment among the Hungarian population against NATO's war on Serbia which this writer encountered earlier this week, while traveling through Hungary, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Oban, acceded to Washington's request, and agreed to let NATO operate out of its three air bases. Many of the additional 400 airplanes, which Gen. Wesley Clark has requested from the Pentagon, are expected to fly out of the Hungarian air bases in Taszar, Kecskemet and Papa. Meanwhile, there are some 300,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina who are also targets of NATO's wrath against civilians, just like their Serb neighbors. Many of them are freedom fighters who escaped to Yugoslavia following the unsuccessful 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviets. Having been welcomed with open arms in Yugoslavia (see a letter from a Hungarian refugee - Day 31, Update 2, Item 4, Apr. 23), wonder what they will think of the Hungarian prime minister's decision to help NATO wage war on them, too? -------------- 2. An Italian Soldier: Very Little Time Left; Maybe a Week? BELGRADE, Apr. 25 - TiM has just received a letter from an Italian soldier who warns that there is very little time left for a political solution to the Kosovo crises; "maybe a week," he says. Here is an excerpt from his correspondence: "Today, the Italian newspaper, 'Liberazione,' published the following note received from an informer in the Italian army in Macedonia: 'A gigantic military maneuver has been under way for 48 hours on the territory of Macedonia, up to the frontier with the Yugoslavia. The operational NATO HQ is situated in Krivolak (Macedonia). Another command center, only for U.S. troops, is in the (Macedonian) capital Skopje. Principal protagonists of the maneuver, beyond to the 'bersaglieri' of the of the (Italian) brigade 'Garibaldi,' is a German tank division - the best of Bonn's army. The Germans have 100 powerful "Leopard 2" (similar to U.S. heavy Abrams tanks)n and 200 armored vehicles. The Italian brigade has 60 mobile batteries of TOW optically-guided missiles. There are also two British tank brigades with activated missile heads. These forces, once the order arrives, have the possible assignment of attack on the Yugoslav troops in Kosovo that are facing the Italian "alpini" (alpine troops) along the Albanian border. The way to the forces coming from Macedonia should be opened by a well armed and trained KLA special detachment, which penetrated 48 hours ago into Kosovo, along the famous corridor number 10. --- TiM Ed.: TiM has no idea what that is, nor why it is "famous?" We suspect it may have to do with the Lepenac river valley entry into Kosovo from Macedonia. --- >From Friday (Apr. 23), despite the persistently bad weather, all of Kosovo territory under Serb control has been subjected to a continuous "preparatory" aerial and missile bombardment . There is very little time (perhaps one week) for a "political" intervention. Otherwise it would go off the 'Plan X', of which I have given many details some weeks ago." --- TiM Ed.: Not to TiM, anyway. We are not aware to what our correspondent is referring here. --- "Otherwise, God save the Italian army, once more sent to battle without any preparation. This soldier swore to the Italian Constitution, art. 11, 'Italy repudiates war as an instrument to attack other peoples freedom and to resolve international disputes.' The traitors are in the government." --- TiM Ed.: As is evident in ALL NATO countries, including the U.S., the alliance's war on Serbia is also the New World Order's quisling governments' war on all peoples of NATO countries. It's just a matter of priorities; first, the Serbs, then the folks back home... Oh, by the way, never mind that Macedonia has said it would not allow the NATO troops to use its soil for aggression against Serbia. It goes to show us how much national governments matter at this day and age of neo-imperial rage. -------------- 3. Italian Police Battle anti-NATO Protesters NAPLES, Apr. 24 - Speaking of which (the NATO governments vs. the people actions), police used tear gas against protesters who showered them with stones, bottles and balloons filled with paint during a demonstration Saturday outside a NATO base in suburban Naples, news reports said. At least two police officers were treated for injuries, the ANSA news agency reported, and at least one demonstrator was taken to a police station for questioning. Police said 1,500 protesters joined the rally outside the base in Bagnoli, headquarters of the alliance's southern command. After the violence was quelled, several hundred demonstrators remained outside the gates to continue the demonstration. In Rome, tens of thousands of people joined in a rally against racism that also attracted anti-war protesters. -------------- 4. Jewish Students Support NATO's Bombing of Serbia; An Anglo-American Student Fights Back U.S. Midwest, Apr. 23 - TiM has received the following comment from Ben Cameron, a student at "a major university in the Midwest," who reacted to a recent piece by Barry Chamish (see Day 28, Update 1, Item 6, Apr. 20), an Israeli journalist, as follows: "(This is) in regards to Chamish's vain attempts to convince us that Cohen's, Albright's, and Rubin's Jewishness doesn't matter. I attend a major university in the (U.S.) Midwest. Yesterday (Apr. 22), there were posters sown across the campus in support of NATO, a rally was held, and donations were accepted on behalf of NATO. I nearly swallowed my tongue, when lo and behold, if there wasn't a huge sign telling us that this action was brought to us by the Jewish Students Association and the Hillel Chapter. No one else has shown such support for the bombing of Serbia. And these signs were full of the usual media lies and rhetoric. I'm no anti-Semite, but Chamish is obviously full of it. Who put these groups up to this? Someone had to. After all, those donations go somewhere, don't they? Today I fought back and posted my own signs saying: DID YOU KNOW: * NATO is operating in Yugoslavia without a mandate from the UN Security Council. * Kosovar Albanians are fleeing Kosovo not so much as a result of the Serbian Army but because of NATO bombing. * NATO has enlarged its bombing campaign from military targets to civilian targets like schools, hospitals, and commercial buildings. * NATO is acting against the wishes of at least one NATO member (Greece) and without the universal consent of further members. * NATO is violating the sovereignty of Yugoslavia by interfering in a civil war and is therefore violating international law. * NATO is proposing to end a civil war by widening the war into a possible international conflict. * NATO is a defensive organization now engaged in offensive operations, something it was never intended to do. * NATO is destroying the Serbian infrastructure so that it cannot sustain its population, and NATO is doing this intentionally. * Reliable reports exist which say at least 40 NATO aircraft have been shot down and 90 airmen killed, and neither NATO nor the media are talking about it. * NATO is positioning ground troops in Macedonia along the Serbian Border without the consent of the Macedonian people. * President Clinton has mobilized 20,000 reserve troops for a ground offensive he assured us would never be necessary. * By threatening Russia with NATO expansion, Europe may experience an escalation in violence it has not seen since WWII. * By engaging in an operation it was never intended to undertake, NATO is severely damaging the credibility of both itself and the US. * Despite Russian pleas to avoid escalation in the conflict, it still considers Serbia as being specifically within its domain of influence and has expressed intentions to react should a NATO ground offensive take place, and NATO is provoking her. * The Western media has undertaken a massive propaganda campaign to demonize both Milosevic and the Serbian people even though it knows much of its rhetoric is outright dishonesty designed to manipulate American public opinion. * NATO and the US has used both the carrot and the stick to gain access to Romanian and Bulgarian airspace for offensive operations against Serbia even though both are keenly aware that these actions may result in Russian intervention and the widening of the conflict on an international scale. * On 4/14/99 NATO bombers killed 85 Albanians and injured countless others by bombing a refugee column not once but twice. * On 4/12/99 NATO bombers attacked an destroyed a Serbian civilian passenger train killing 9 and injuring countless others by bombing the train twice. * As a result of NATO actions in Serbia, we are closer to another world war than we have been since the Cuban missile crisis and the Berlin airlift. * NATO has intentionally bombed petrochemical facilities which released toxic chemicals into both the atmosphere and soil of Serbia. * NATO is using shells containing depleted uranium which will inevitably result in an increase in the cancer rate of the Serbian population for an untold number of years. * NATO is creating a new Iron Curtain by seeking to fill the void left by the fall of the Soviet Union and the destabilization of Eastern Europe. * As a result of NATO bombing countless civilians are killed every day that the bombing continues. * As a result of NATO actions a Russian-Chinese-Middle Eastern anti-NATO axis is being nurtured. * The Serbian reaction to NATO bombing was perfectly predictable and that both the Albanians and Serbians are now further from the negotiating table than they have ever been. THE ACTIONS OF NATO ERODE INTERNATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. SUPPORT NATO AT THE RISK OF SACRIFICING YOUR OWN NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY." Ben Cameron --- TiM Ed.: We forwarded Mr. Cameron's letter to Mr. Chamish for comment, who replied: "Shame on Hillel, but note that of the Western-allied nations ONLY Israel's Foreign Minister, Sharon has spoken out against the NATO bombing. Barry." --- TiM Ed.: To which we replied that the Israeli government's ambiguous statements - with the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu supporting the NATO action, and the foreign minister, Ariel Sharon, opposing it - reminded us of a "good cop-bad cop" pitch. The only question being - who is being conned and for what (no good) purpose? Besides, Sharon wasn't the "ONLY" "western" leader to speak out against NATO. The Italian foreign minister, A. Dini, also condemned the NATO raid on Serb TV, for example. And the Italian parliament voted overwhelmingly against the NATO bombing of Serbia early on in the war (see Day 3, Update 1, Item 3, Mar. 26). And that's even before the violent anti-NATO reactions by the Greeks. -------------- 5. Roundtable's Reaction to Independent's Story: What About Exposing the CFR Sins? FLORIDA, Apr. 24 - In the article, "NATO Is Now Killing People Because It Doesn't Like What They Say" (see Day 32, Update 1, item 1, Apr. 24), the author, Robert Fisk, wrote: "Once you kill people because you don't like what they say, you change the rules of war." Here is a letter which we received from David Shedrow, a TiM reader and publisher of the "Roundtable," an Internet newsletter, in reaction to this story: "If Fisk is such a veteran war correspondent why is it that has never exposed the Council on Foreign Relations of Royal Institute of International Affairs, and told people how these two groups have been responsible for most of the conflicts over the last 100 years. The Joint Chiefs of Staff DoD Publication 1 (1987) Glossary Department of Defense Military Associated Terms defines: "COVERT OPERATIONS: (DoD, Interpol, Inter-American Defense Board) Operations which are so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor. They differ from clandestine operations in that emphasis is placed on concealment of identity of sponsor rather than on concealment of the operation." Don't you find it odd that so many excellent investigative war correspondents never investigate the Council on Foreign Relations, and Royal Institute of International Affairs connection to sponsoring the wars? The CFR/RIIA have the means (control of the government, media, and military-industrial complex), motive (maximizing the profits of member controlled industries of war -- medicine, munitions, media, food, banking, and energy), and opportunity (control of the executive office, State Department, Department of Defense, National Security Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency) to create conflict and war. Fisk makes his money writing about war. Fisk has good reason to participate in the covert operation of keeping the identity of the group who is sponsoring the wars a secret. If people are not aware of the group that is sponsoring the wars, they can't stop the wars, and Fisk keeps on making money writing about war. How about writing an article on hypocrites like Fisk? Or printing this letter in your column?" David Shedrow, Florida -------------- 6. German Mothers Say No to NATO's War BELGRADE, Apr. 24 - A group of 130 German peace activists arrived in Belgrade on Saturday (Apr. 24) to protest against NATO's month-long bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The members of "Mothers against the War" and "Peace Now" lit candles and placed flowers in front of the Serbian state television building where at least 10 people were killed when a bomb hit Friday night, the Agence France-Presse reported today. "We want the war to stop immediately," said Ilona Rothe, one of the trip organizers. The group, comprising pacifists and left-wing militants, left Thursday from Dresden, a town chosen because it was flattened in a World War II bombing raid and is today a symbol of civilian casualties inflicted by air attacks. The group came in three buses, decorated with mottos: "Stop NATO," "Solidarity with Yugoslavia," "For Freedom of Europe," and images of doves as symbols of peace. Among them were teenagers and elderly couples, all demanding "an immediate end of war in the Balkans." "We didn't give birth in order to see our children killed," Rothe said. Rothe, whose son is now stationed in Macedonia, said that "all women in Europe should be against the war." After they crossed the Hungarian-Yugoslav border late Friday, the activists visited northern town Subotica, hit by NATO air strikes last week. They visited a family whose house was destroyed in the attack, and spent the night there. "The constrast we saw in Subotica was terrible. Beautiful houses and landscape, and then, smashed buildings," said Juergen Fischer. "We were horrified by what we heard and saw. When we talked with people who lost everything, we could realize the worst side of the war we have not seen before," he said. Peter, 26, said he was against the war, describing the NATO air campaign as "terrorism for the new world order. It is possible there were some wrong things in Kosovo, there is a war going on there, but not everything can be black and white, as our governments are presenting us," he said. Fischer said the aim of their action was to "show people if peace can not be achieved by politicians, it must be reached by ordinary people. We want to show that the Germans are divided: there are those who are fighting the war, but also those who are suffering together with people of Yugoslavia." The activists planned to join Belgrade residents in their night protest on the main bridges in the Yugoslav capital. -------------- NOTE: To cancel the e-mail editions of our reports, just reply REMOVE or UNSUBSCRIBE, followed by your e-mail address. ---- Bob Djurdjevic TRUTH IN MEDIA Phoenix, Arizona e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit the Truth in Media Web site http://www.truthinmedia.org/ for more articles on geopolitical affairs.