Report Links George Tenet to Croation
Gen. Gotovina and says CIA masterminded
Croation 'Ethnic Cleansing' Operation.
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Adnokronas International - Jan. 12, 2006
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.248656542&par=0
CROATIA: CIA ALLEGEDLY BEHIND
'ETHNIC CLEANSING' OPERATION
Zagreb, 12 Jan. (AKI) - The American Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) masterminded a military operation carried
out near the end of the Balkan wars, in which over 200,000
Serbs were expelled from Croatia and hundreds killed, the
Zagreb weekly Globus reported on Thursday. The CIA
secretly planned operation 'Storm', which took place in
August 1995, at the Sepurine military base, near Adriatic
port of Zadar,with the knowledge of then-US president
Bill Clinton and top Croation leaders.
Globus said it obtained the information from the defence
team of general Ante Gotovina, who was arrested last
December on charges of having committed crimes against
Serb civilians in the operation Storm and is awaiting
trial before the UN's Hague war crimes tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia.
According to Globus, George Tenet, who later became
CIA chief, had directly worked with Gotovina on
planning operation Storm. The paper alleged that
Clinton wanted to punish the Serbs, who overran the
UN protected Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July
1995, by crushing their rebellion in Croatia.
It was later discovered that up to 8,000 Muslims were
killed in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces, and several
Serbs have been sentenced or are standing trial in the
Hague for the massacre. Serbs in Croatia rebelled
against the republics secession from former Yugoslavia
in 1991, and until 'Storm', controlled one-third of
Croatias territory, on which they proclaimed their own
Republic of Srpska Krajina (RS).
Globus said that Tenet and at least 12 American military
experts had worked with Gotovina in Sepurine, planning
military action that resulted in the fall of Krajina. The
Americans had, among other things, jammed Serb
communication systems and conducted reconnaissance
flights for the Croats, Globus said.
After the mass exodus of Serbs, their property in Krajina
was subject to mass destruction and at least 150 civilians
were killed. ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has
charged Gotovina, along with late Croatian president
Franjo Tudjman, of a joint criminal undertaking aimed
at ethnically cleansing the Serbs from Croatia.
After hiding for four years, Gotovina was arrested by Spanish
police on the Canary Islands in early December, but pleaded
not guilty before the Hague Tribunal. According to Zagreb's
media, Gotovinas lawyers are basing his defence on the fact
that the Americans were masterminded the operation and it
would be difficult for the Hague tribunal to prove that
Washington was a part of a joint criminal undertaking.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
