He’s Not Your Commander in Chief
Mr. Eddlem,
Sir, thank you for an excellent article and lesson on the American Constitution.
When I joined the Marines in 1968 (OK, I was young and dumb) I swore an oath to defend the Constitution, NOT to any person or office. By the way, when I was released from active service I was never asked to renounce that oath. That means it is still in effect.
An excellent book that I am now reading may be of interest to you. It is Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard. This book details how the apathy of the American voters and public is such a danger to our constitutional republic.
~ Charlie Ehlen, Glenmora, La.
Not to worry, most Americans know every player on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster!
Rank ignorance does indeed reign on the part of Paul Craig Roberts. He claims:
“The ‘evidence’ that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons consists of mere assertion by members of the Bush administration and the neoconservative media. Iran says it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have found no evidence of a weapons program.”
Is the UK publication The Guardian (see “Intelligence Report Claims Nuclear Market Thriving“) just another Bush administration mouthpiece or a bunch of neocons? According to Paul Craig Roberts, apparently anyone who questions the intentions of an Iranian leader who publicly calls for wiping Israel off the map and denies the reality of the Holocaust must be a neocon dupe or ignoramus. Of course, all extremist statements by Iranian leaders are just to be taken as blowing smoke for consumption by the Iranian masses. Why excite the Iranian masses with such rhetoric? Perhaps in the fantasy world of Paul Craig Roberts, all violent threats are mere campaign rhetoric. It’s as if he believes everyone will just forget the comments tomorrow and simply go shopping. Paul Craig Roberts, if you have read my comments, please take my advice and step out of your upper-middle class shell of pretensions for five seconds. Of course, after five seconds of fresh air he might find that the accurate perception of events does not merely consist of taking everything an Iranian leader claims at face value.
Paul Craig Roberts replies:
The Guardian news story has nothing to do with Iran. The reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency do, and these reports find no evidence of a weapons program. The Iranian president’s statement calls for Europe to take back the present of Israel that it gave to Muslims. He did not call for the extermination of Israel but for its removal to Europe: let the Europeans give Jews a piece of Europe, not a piece of the Middle East. The statement, of course, is absurd in the sense that Europe doesn’t want Israel any more than the Muslims do. He made it for propaganda advantage with other Muslims to gather as much support as he can to withstand the coming assault, whether sanctions or military, from the Bush administration. To state obvious facts is not to make excuses for Iranians and their statements. Nuclear weapons already exist in the Middle East. Israel has them and an aggressive, militaristic Likud Party to go with them. Muslim Pakistan has them, and Bush’s reckless actions could result in the overthrow of our Pakistani puppet. What Klingenbeck is really complaining about is that he prefers the rank propaganda of the Bush administration and does not want to hear any truth or facts whatsoever. He would make a perfect member of the Bush administration. He is already their perfect dupe.
Kosovo: Wiping the Slate Clean for Some Dirty Work Ahead
Chris,
Just a note relating to your latest article on Antiwar.com regarding (U.S. Special Envoy for the Kosovo talks) Frank Wisner:
His father, who committed suicide, was Washington’s point man in the nascent CIA operations in the Balkans with specific duties to remobilize the Kosovo Albanian Nazi group, Bali i Kombetar, into a fighting force that was meant to thwart Enver Hoxha’s conquest of Albania and conquer Kosovo for the Albanians. In late 1945 and early 1946, Frank Wisner’s father personally directed scores of dispersed and defeated Albanian Nazis to swarm upon Kosovo and instigate guerrilla violence, much like today’s, against the Kosovo Serb minority. The epicenter of the Wisner-directed Kosovo Albanian violence was then, as it is today, the village of Drenica.
Tito’s thugs eventually killed every one of these Bali i Kombetar stationed in Drenica, and it is of this operation that Milosevic once spoke to a State Department official, bragging that “we” know how to deal with Albanian terrorism. Subsequently, the State Department redesignated these Albanian terrorists as “rebels.”
I therefore agree with you that, indeed, there is no apparent connection to Wisner’s appointment to Kosovo – but then the connection is rather transparent: Why would someone who dealt with over a billion people in India accept a job to deal with a million and some Albanians in Kosovo?
Unless there is an unfinished family business of a suicidal father and a determined son to vindicate his father’s failure to deliver Kosovo to Albania. Who knows?!
Cheers to you for a good analysis.
~ M. Bozinovich, editor, Serbianna.com
Unlike Bush, bin Laden Keeps His Word
Could it be that the president does not want to catch bin Laden? Congress authorized all means necessary to catch the perpetrators of the 9/11 plots. If bin Laden and his minions are caught, could Congress say that the matter is over and effectively take the “war powers” from the president? This would scuttle perceived plans for Iran and Syria. It would also effectively stop war-profiteering by the administration’s friends.
A comment to Nebojsa Malic’s article on Rugova:
Good article, but even Malic forgot/did not know(?), that Rugova – with German, Turkish, Saudi, and U.S. assistance – in 1998 co-organized a paramilitary guerilla army called FARK (Armed Forces of the Kosovo Republic), which committed numerous war crimes against the civilian population in Kosovo (Serbs and Roma).
A pacifist with his own army – sounds even better.
The FARK exists still today as Rugova’s praetorian guard and intelligence service (backed mostly by Germany). They suffered many losses (over 50 FARK officers killed by UCK) after they forcefully (on orders of the CIA in Tirana) merged with the KLA (UCK) in 1999, but they still survived and built the core of Rugova’s secret police.
Here, among many proofs (you can just google Rugova + Fark), an article of the German Internal Secret Service of Baden-Württemberg (Verfassungsschutz) in Stuttgart: LANDESAMT FÜR VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ.
Notice: Bujar Bukoshi was “transferred to Germany” by the BND in 1991. He organized and led from Bonn, Germany, the money-raising action called “Homeland Calling,” which served to finance the FARK. The German BND was behind him, but nevertheless acknowledged that he gathered something around 1 billion DM till 1999.
I hope there’s someone who can translate it for you.
~ Vlado Konstantinovic, freelance journalist, Germany
