Milosevic Fingers Clinton as Terrorist Supporter
Speaking for many in the media, Helle Dale of the Washington Times says she is happy that former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic is on trial before a U.N. tribunal. She says his forces terrorized "the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo." But those ethnic Albanians included Muslim terrorists associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army, linked to Osama bin Laden, who, in his declarations, had named the Americans, the Russians and the Serbs as his enemies.
In dramatic remarks at his trial, Milosevic claimed that U.S. and NATO forces had been the ally of Osama bin Laden in Kosovo, and he demanded Bill that Clinton and other Western leaders come to testify. Milosevic said that Bin Laden's al Qaeda was "one of the fundamentalist groups which sent a unit to fight in Kosovo" alongside Muslim Kosovo Albanians aided by the United States against Serb forces. He went on to say, "The attacks on New York and Washington show what the terrorism you sponsored looks like when it turns against you."
On CNN's Capital Gang program, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger conceded that Milosevic may have a point. Bob Novak wondered if the Muslims in Kosovo "had some connections with the international Muslim terrorists who perpetrated the September 11 attacks. Do you think he's got any point there? Not judging Milosevic, but whether there's any factual basis for that?" Eagleburger responded, "I wouldn't be -- well, it depends on how hard you want to stretch it. I have, myself, would not be surprised if there weren't fairly substantial connections between some of the Kosovar Muslims and some of the terrorist groups. Whether they are directly connected to Osama bin Laden or any of that sort of thing, I don't know. But I would not be surprised if there isn't some influence from outside terrorist groups."
There is, of course, evidence of such a connection, and it has been publicized in various major media outlets. But Clinton and NATO intervened on the side of the Muslims. In a column in the Washington Times, David Keene said that "die-hard Clinton haters" should not welcome the prospect of former President Clinton being prosecuted by this U.N. tribunal that he helped set up, even though Clinton approved the use of the Croatian Army to drive hundreds of thousands of Serbs from Krajina, "ethnically cleansing" an area dominated by Serbs for hundreds of years. Keene admitted that a case could be made against Clinton, but he said U.S. officials should not be subjected to the jurisdiction of such a court.
Keene explained Clinton's complicity: "To avoid committing U.S. ground forces to the region, the Clinton administration in August 1995 got the Croatian army to launch a massive ground offensive known as Operation Storm against Serb positions in Croatia and Bosnia. Croat forces routed the Serbs, but the evidence suggests that Washington dreamed up and controlled the whole operation. "
It is an arrogant double standard to contend that Clinton should not be prosecuted for the same things former Serbian leader Milosevic is on trial for. David Keene should have insisted that Clinton be held accountable by the U.S. Congress and U.S. courts. (30)
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