-Caveat Lector- Curious facts and stories ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com We have recently been hit with a wave of curious stories. For example, there recently appeared a report about illegal immigration from Mexico. Strangely, it wasn't about Mexican illegal immigrants. It was about OTMs -- Other Than Mexicans -- slinking across our southern frontier. Apparently the United States Border Patrol's Tucson and Yuma sectors, over the past two years, have apprehended 119 mainland Chinese, 31 Bulgarians, 15 Cubans, 10 Lebanese, 10 Poles, nine Filipinos, nine Indians, seven Iranians, six Romanians, and six Russians. What's so curious about these figures? China, Bulgaria, Cuba, Poland, Romania and Russia -- six of the ten countries mentioned -- are part of the "former" Communist bloc. Of the OTMs caught trying to penetrate that particular sector of the U.S. border, 187 out of 222 were either from Communist countries or "former" Communist countries. Here's another interesting story: The Russian General Staff is preparing for a large military exercise called "Combat Commonwealth 99." This giant war game will involve forces from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan. The drill will commence with operations carried out by the Air and Air Defense forces. The exercise will simulate defense against a missile strike on the "former" Soviet Union (now dubbed the "Commonwealth of Independent States"). Here is another curious story: Last Saturday Russian news sources told of a high level Kremlin meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin. The meeting was about improved methods for protecting the Russian people in the event of a thermonuclear war. Sources reported that a new civil defense doctrine was being prepared. Itar-Tass said, "Participants at the meeting believe that protection of the population is the most important task of the state." Another curious fact reared its head in Khabarovsk, Russia, last Sunday. According to railway chief Aleksandr Strelnik, the amount of freight hauled on Russia's Far Eastern Railway has recently jumped by 49 percent. No explanation was offered for this increase. As you might guess, tourists are not exactly flocking to Siberia, and the local economy is said to be stagnant. Of course, the Russian Far East is noted for being one of the world's largest repositories of mothballed tanks, self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers, hydrogen bombs and missiles. A dramatic increase in Siberian rail traffic could mean that the repository is being tapped. Here's another item: Last Sunday they were celebrating Airborne Trooper Day in Moscow. General Aleksandr Lebed, himself an old paratrooper, attended the festivities and offered an alarming prediction about growing unrest in the North Caucasus (i.e., Chechnya). Lebed said that "complications in the North Caucasus might lead to a state of emergency in the whole of Russia." On Monday, the day after the general's statement, there was a huge gun battle in the North Caucasus between "bandits" and Russian authorities, leaving 10 dead and several wounded. And yet another odd story appears: Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, met with members of Congress and congressional aides last week. According to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, Adm. Blair referred to Taiwan as "the turd in the punchbowl." On the subject of defending Taiwan in the event of a Communist invasion, Adm. Blair was quoted as saying: "I don't think we should support them at all." Anyone familiar with the military knows that a ranking admiral wouldn't dare make statements of this kind unless supported by the president. If any top commander ever says something political that goes against policy, then he is sure to be slapped down. And that leads us to what recently happened to Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO supreme commander. Well, he's not supreme for long. It appears that Gen. Clark did something rather foolish last month when he testified before a Senate committee about the Russians capturing Pristina airport. When asked why he'd been caught off guard by the Russian march on Pristina, Clark replied that he hadn't been caught off guard. According to Clark, a higher authority had purposely allowed Pristina to fall to the Russians. Uh oh. This was a naughty thing to have said. Everybody knows that only one authority stands higher than a four star general. It's not nice to imply that the president was to blame for the most embarrassing debacle of the Balkan campaign. Obviously, this could not go unpunished. So it wasn't surprising when President Clinton retaliated by cutting short General Clark's term as supreme NATO commander by two months. Worse yet, a story was leaked to Newsweek suggesting that Clark had risked World War III by ordering an air assault to grab Pristina before the Russians could reach it. Clark's subordinate, British Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson, refused to carry out the order. So now Gen. Clark -- who was Clinton's dromedary in NATO -- is now Clinton's whipping boy. From henceforth Clark is to be depicted as an irresponsible warmonger who almost unleashed a global holocaust. What a wonderful twist. The president pushes NATO into an act of aggression against a Slavic country. He enrages the Russian people, he enables Russia to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, he uses up precious cruise missiles bombing a country that has no significance for our national security, then he allows the Russians to capture the most significant facility in the contested province. When this is pointed out by Gen. Clark -- bang, crash, kaboom. Smoke curls up from a smoldering Clark. Odd facts feed on each other, they multiply, and they bring us further oddities. Last month President Clinton enacted sanctions against those who were once called "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. He failed to oppose U.N. sanctions against anti-Communist rebels in Angola. He also declined to support Colombia's request for $ 500 million to fight Communist insurgents who now control 40 percent of that Latin American country. All across the board there are these curious little facts. Earlier this week China test-fired a new ballistic missile weapon, the DF-31. It is road mobile and was made possible by Chinese thefts of U.S. nuclear and missile technology. These thefts were facilitated by the lax security measures of the Clinton administration. Another curious tidbit: President Clinton's press conference last month was weird. He joked and clowned with the press like a giddy teenager. He rested his chin playfully on the palm of his hand. He grinned from ear to ear. He even cackled. No doubt there is something funny going on. But I'm not laughing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- J.R. Nyquist is a WorldNetDaily contributing editor and author of 'Origins of the Fourth World War.' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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