>>NATO PREPARING NEW MILITARY STRIKE IN BALKANS >> >>By Gregory Elich >> >>Quietly, NATO is laying plans for a new military strike against Yugoslavia. >>On August 13 through 15, CIA Director George Tenet visited Bulgaria. In a >>series of extraordinary meetings, Tenet met with Bulgarian President Petur >>Stoyanov, as well as the Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Defense >>Minister. Officially, the purpose of Tenet's visit was to discuss the >>problem of organized crime and narcotics. However, Tenet spent a combined >>total of only 20 minutes at the headquarters of the National Security >>Service and the National Service for Combating Organized Crime. Unnamed >>diplomatic sources revealed that the proposed oil transit pipeline from the >>Caspian Sea was also topic of discussion. >> >>The driving motivation for Tenet's visit, though, was to discuss >>Yugoslavia. According to an unnamed diplomatic source, Montenegrin >>secession from Yugoslavia topped the agenda. Following the meeting between >>Tenet and Major General Dimo Gyaurov, Director of the National Intelligence >>Service, a public statement was issued which stressed their "commonality of >>interests." Reports in the Bulgarian press revealed that various options >>were discussed with Bulgaria's president and prime minister. Tenet's >>preferred option is the removal of the Yugoslav government, either as a >>result of that country's election on September 24, or by a NATO military >>assault that would install a puppet government. Another scenario would >>follow the secession of Montenegro from Yugoslavia. If open warfare breaks >>out over Montenegro's secession, then the United States plans to wage a >>full-scale war against Yugoslavia, as it did in spring 1999. Sofia's >>Monitor reported that the "CIA coup machine" is forming. "A strike against >>Belgrade is imminent," it adds, and "Bulgaria will serve as a base." (1) >> >>The Italian army recently signed a lease contract to conduct training >>exercises beginning in October at the Koren training ground, near Kaskovo >>in southeast Bulgaria. The French army signed a similar agreement, in which >>French soldiers and tanks will train at the Novo Selo grounds in central >>Bulgaria from October 11 to December 12. Talks are also underway for the >>U.S. military to lease the Shabla training grounds in northeastern >>Bulgaria. Scheduled to take place following the election in Yugoslavia, the >>training exercises could serve as a launching pad for NATO's planned >>military strike. It was recently announced that the British aircraft >>carrier HMS Invincible is to be redeployed to the Adriatic over the next >>few months in support of a potential conflict over Montenegro (2) >> >>Military force is only one component of the West's destabilization campaign >>against Yugoslavia. In November 1998, President Clinton launched a plan for >>the overthrow of the government of Yugoslavia. The initial emphasis of the >>plan centered on supporting secessionist forces in Montenegro and the >>right-wing opposition in Serbia. (3) Several months later, during the >>bombing of Yugoslavia, Clinton signed a secret paper instructing the CIA to >>topple the Yugoslav government. The plan called for the CIA to secretly >>fund opposition groups and the recruitment of moles in the Yugoslav >>government and military. (4) On July 8, 1999, U.S. and British officials >>revealed that commando teams were training snatch operations to seize >>alleged war criminals and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. As an >>encouragement to mercenaries, the U.S. State Department also announced a $5 >>million bounty for President Milosevic. (5) >> >>Several Yugoslav government officials and prominent individuals, including >>Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic, have been gunned down. Most of these >>crimes remain unsolved, as the assassins managed to escape. Police >>apprehended one assassin, Milivoje Gutovic, after he shot Vojvodina >>Executive Council President Bosko Perosevic at an agricultural fair in Novi >>Sad. During interrogations, Gutovic admitted to police that he worked for >>the right-wing Serbian Renewal Movement. (6) >> >>Goran Zugic, security advisor to secessionist Montenegrin President Milo >>Djukanovic, was murdered late on May 31, 2000. The assassin escaped, >>allowing Western leaders to blame President Milosevic. Coming just one week >>before crucial local elections in Montenegro, forces opposing President >>Milosevic stood to gain from the murder, as the effect would tend to sway >>undecided voters in favor of secessionist parties. A few days after the >>assassination, Yugoslav Minister of Information Goran Matic held a press >>conference, at which he accused the CIA of complicity in the murder. Matic >>played a taped recording of two telephone conversations between head of the >>US mission in Dubrovnik Sean Burns, US State Department official James >>Swaggert, Gabriel Escobar of the US economic group in Montenegro and Paul >>Davies of the US Agency for International Development. Excerpts of the >>conversations, recorded 20 minutes after the assassination and again three >>hours later, included comments such as, "It was professional," and "Mission >>accomplished." (7) >> >>The first publicly known Western plan to assassinate President Milosevic >>was drafted in 1992. Richard Tomlinson, a former British MI6 employee, >>later disclosed the plan. His task as an MI6 agent was to carry out >>undercover operations in Eastern Europe posing as a businessman or >>journalist. Tomlinson frequently met with MI6 officer Nick Fishwick. During >>one their meetings, Fishwick showed Tomlinson a document entitled, "The >>Need to Assassinate President Milosevic of Serbia." Three methods were >>proposed for the assassination of Milosevic. The first method, Tomlinson >>recalled, "was to train and equip a Serbian paramilitary opposition group," >>which would have the advantage of deniability but an unpredictable chance >>of success. The second method would employ a specially trained British SAS >>squad to murder President Milosevic "either with a bomb or sniper ambush." >>Fishwick considered this more reliable, but it lacked deniability. The >>third method would be to kill Milosevic "in a staged car crash." (8) Seven >>years later, on October 3, 1999, the third method was employed against the >>leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic, when a truck filled >>with sand plowed into his car, killing everyone inside except for >>Draskovic. The temperamental Draskovic had been a major factor in the >>chronic fragmentation of the right-wing opposition, frustrating >>Washington's efforts to forge a unified opposition. (9) >> >>During NATO's war against Yugoslavia, a missile struck President >>Milosevic's home on April 22, 1999. He and his wife were staying elsewhere >>that evening. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon was quick to announce that "we >>are not targeting President Milosevic." It is impossible, though, to view a >>missile striking Milosevic's bedroom at 3:10 AM as anything but an >>assassination attempt. (10) >> >>In November 1999, members of an assassination squad, code-named "Spider," >>were arrested in Yugoslavia. According to Minister Goran Matic, "French >>intelligence was behind" the Spider group, whose aim was the assassination >>of President Milosevic. Planned scenarios included a sniper attack, >>planting an explosive device alongside a route they expected Milosevic to >>travel, planting an explosive in his car, and organizing 10 trained >>commandos to storm the presidential residence. The leader of the group, >>Jugoslav Petrusic, had dual Yugoslav and French citizenship. Matic claimed >>that Petrusic worked for French intelligence for ten years. During >>interrogations, Petrusic said that he had killed 50 men on orders by French >>intelligence. Matic announced that one of the members of Spider was a >>"specialist for killings with a truck full of sand" - the same method used >>against Draskovic the previous month. >> >>Following the Bosnian war, Petrusic organized the transport of 180 Bosnian >>Serb mercenaries to fight for Mobutu Sese Seku in Zaire, an affair that was >>managed by French intelligence. According to a Bosnian Serb businessman, >>Petrusic "did not hide the fact that he was working for the French >>intelligence service. I have personally seen a photo of him next to >>Mitterand as his bodyguard." In younger days, Petrusic was a member of the >>French Foreign Legion. During NATO's war against Yugoslavia, the Spider >>group infiltrated the Yugoslav Army, supplying information to the French >>and guiding NATO warplanes to their targets. >> >>Yugoslav secret service sources revealed that the Spider group trained at >>NATO bases in Bosnia where "buildings resembling those where Milosevic >>lives were constructed." Money from the French intelligence service for >>Spider was brought to the border between Hungary and Yugoslavia by a man >>named Serge Lazarevic. (11) >> >>One month later, the members of a second hit team, calling itself the >>Serbian Liberation Army, was arrested. Their aim was to assassinate >>President Milosevic and restore the monarchy. (12) >> >>At the end of July 2000, a squad of four Dutch commandos was apprehended >>while attempting to cross into Serbia from Montenegro. During the >>investigation, they admitted that they intended to kill or kidnap President >>Milosevic. The four said that they were informed that $30 million had been >>offered for "Milosevic's head," and that they intended to "claim a reward." >>One of the men said that the group planned to abduct Milosevic or former >>Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and "surrender them to The Hague." >>The group planned to put them atop a car "in a ski box and transport >>them.out of the country." If the abduction failed, one of the men "had the >>idea to kill the president, to decapitate his head, to put it in the box >>and to send it home" to the Netherlands. >> >>One of the arrested men, Gotfrides de Ri, belonged to the openly racist >>neo-nazi Center Party. During the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, the Center >>Party sent Dutch mercenaries to fight in right-wing Croatian paramilitary >>units. At the time of their arrest, the four were found with several >>knives, including one with a swastika, and wires with hooks for >>strangulation. All four admitted that they had trained under the British >>SAS. At a news conference on August 1, Goran Matic accused the U.S of being >>the prime sponsor of assassinations and attempted assassinations. "It is >>obvious that they are recruiting various terrorist groups because they are >>frustrated with the fact that their military, political and economic goals >>in southeastern Europe have not been realized. [They are] trying to send >>them into the country so that they can change our political and social >>environment." (13) Jonathan Eyal, an advisor to the British government, >>commented recently, "I can't say when it will happen, but I can guarantee >>that Milosevic will end up dead, and he will be followed by a more >>pro-Western government." (14) >> >>Flagrant Western interference is distorting the political process in >>Yugoslavia. U.S. and Western European funds are channelled to right-wing >>opposition parties and media through such organizations as the National >>Endowment for Democracy and George Soros' Open Society Institute. The >>National Democratic Institute (NDI) is yet another of the myriad >>semi-private organizations that have attached themselves like leeches on >>Eastern Europe. The NDI opened an office in Belgrade in 1997, hoping to >>capitalize on opposition attempts to bring down the government through >>street demonstrations. By 1999, the NDI had already trained over 900 >>right-wing party leaders and activists on "message development, public >>outreach and election strategy." NDI also claimed to have provided >>"organizational training and coalition-building expertise" to the >>opposition. (15) >> >>The New Serbia Forum, funded by the British Foreign Office, brings Serbian >>professionals and academics to Hungary on a regular basis for discussions >>with British and Central European "experts." The aim of the meetings is to >>"design a blueprint for post-Milosevic society." The Forum develops reports >>intended to serve as "an action plan" for a future pro-Western government. >>Subjects under discussion have included privatization and economic >>stabilization. The Forum calls for the "reintegration of Yugoslavia into >>the European family," a phrase that translates into the dismantling of the >>socialist economy and inviting Western corporations to swarm in. (16) >> >>Western aims were clearly spelled out in the Stability Pact for >>Southeastern Europe of June 10, 1999. This document called for "creating >>vibrant market economies" in the Balkans, and "markets open to greatly >>expanded foreign trade and private sector investment." One year later, the >>White House issued a fact sheet detailing the "major achievements" of the >>Pact. Among the achievements listed, the European Bank for Reconstruction >>and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporations are said >>to be "mobilizing private investment." By 2002, "new private investment in >>the region" is expected to reach nearly $2 billion. The Pact's Business >>Advisory Council "is visiting all of the countries of Southeast Europe" to >>"offer advice" on investment issues. Another initiative is Hungarian >>involvement with opposition-led local governments and opposition media in >>Serbia. >> >>The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), on July 26, 2000, >>inaugurated an investment fund to be managed by Soros Private Funds >>Management. The Southeast Europe Equity Fund, "will invest in companies in >>the region in a range of sectors." Its purpose, according to the U.S. >>Embassy in Macedonia, is "to provide capital for new business development, >>expansion and privatization." In March 2000, Montenegro signed an agreement >>permitting the operation of OPIC on its territory. Billionaire George Soros >>spelled out what all this means. U.S. involvement in the region, he said, >>"creates investment opportunities," and "I am happy to put my money where >>they are putting theirs." In other words, there is money to be made. George >>Munoz, President and CEO of OPIC was also blunt. "The Southeast Europe >>Equity Fund," he announced, "is an ideal vehicle to connect American >>institutional capital with European entrepreneurs eager to help Americans >>tap their growing markets. OPIC is pleased that Soros Private Funds >>Management has chosen to send a strong, positive signal that Southeast >>Europe is open for business." >> >>The final text of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe suggested that a >>Yugoslavia that would "respect" the Pact's "principles and objectives" >>would be "welcome" to become a full member. "In order to draw the Federal >>Republic of Yugoslavia closer to this goal," the document declared, >>Montenegro would be an "early beneficiary." Western leaders hope that a >>future pro-Western Yugoslavia would, as has the rest of Eastern Europe, be >>
