Anglosphere Media Spin: "A Small Drone Stunt"

Three days after the drone incident at the Serbia-Albania game in Belgrade, the propaganda in the mainstream Anglosphere media is getting worse. That should not come as a surprise: for the Empire's lie machine, anything goes when dealing with the Serbs - from simple spin and subterfuge to outright making up one's own "facts."

screenshot of the NY Times article header, October 17, 1500 EDT

Here is the New York Times' Dan Bilefsky, blaming the Serbs for attacking, insulting and provoking the pure, innocent Albanians:

Video of the event showed some Serbian spectators — Albanian fans were barred from the stadium — shouting “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Others ran onto the field, attacking Albanian players, sometimes with chairs, and forcing the Albanian team to escape through a tunnel at the end of the field. 

Per Bilefsky (or his editors), it all started when "a small drone trailing a nationalist Albanian flag" flew into the stadium. At this point, I would like to refer you to an outright brilliant analysis by the good folks at eBritic, who not only surveyed the British media's distortions of Tuesday's incident, but set the facts of the case straight. I also refer you to the Serbian Football Association account, endorsed by the match officials. 

Just to be perfectly clear: the NYT - and other media - is busily spinning this as yet another manifestation of "Serb bigotry" against the poor innocent Albanians. Imagine, the Albanian fans were "barred from the stadium"! Serbian fans were likewise banned from the upcoming game in Albania - for the same reason, security fears - but there is no mention of that, of course. It would spoil the "Serbs bad" narrative.

The "nationalist Albanian flag" was in fact a banner depicting the so-called "Natural Albania," the objective of Albanian chauvinists since 1878 or so, for which they have repeatedly enlisted support of outside conquerors (Austria-Hungary, Nazi Germany, NATO). Of course, Albanians and their Western sponsors are shrugging this off as "Serbian propaganda" or paranoia - even as the US "diplomat" involved in staging NATO's 1999 casus belli openly endorses the project.

And let's by all means talk about that particular elephant in the room. Fifteen years ago, NATO attacked Serbia in support of an Albanian terrorist insurgency, occupied a part of Serbian territory (the province of Kosovo-Metohija) and had it declared an independent state (in 2008). Albania has backed the insurgency, the NATO war and the subsequent land grab all the way.

Even though the quisling government of Serbia has nonetheless bent over backwards to properly host the Albanian team in Belgrade, the Albanians launched a drone with an incredibly offensive banner - and not just to Serbs, but also to Greeks, Montenegrins and Macedonians (all Empire's vassals, but I guess beneath Albanians on the ladder so their interests don't matter?). They have tried to profit from the resulting interruption, bragged about it on social media (the US standard of truthiness, per J. Psaki), Albanian officials congratulated them for a "job well done" and called the whole thing a "splendid subtle provocation". And this is somehow Serbia's fault?

Nuts.

"Flag" Against Football

To hear the Western media tell it, the sight of an Albanian flag sent Serbs into paroxysms of rage at a soccer (football, in the non-US world) match with Albania yesterday, and the game was called off amid the riot.

Serbian player Stefan Mitrović calmly folding the Greater Albania banner, flown by a drone
during last night's Euro 2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania in Belgrade (photo: mondo.rs) 

Here is what actually happened: a drone (!) with a banner depicting the Nazi-allied "Greater Albania" flew onto the pitch. The British referee halted the game. A Serbian player grabbed the banner and began to fold it, whereupon the Albanian players attacked him. Outraged Serbian fans began throwing objects onto the pitch. Both the Serbian players and the police then shielded the Albanians and escorted them off the field until the disruption was sorted out. After the Albanians refused every reasonable offer to continue or reschedule the match, the game was abandoned.

The Serbian Football Association (FSS) has issued an official statement explaining the events:

Corvus oculum corvi non eruit

Ramush Haradinaj, KLA, released today by the war crimes "Tribunal", was greeted upon his triumphant return to occupied Kosovistan with billboards like these:

Pristina, occupied Kosovo, today (via NSPM)

Look at the flags.

Enough said.

A Monument to Evil

The recent decision by the Hague Inquisition to reverse the convictions of two Croatian generals wasn't just a favor to Empire's onetime "junkyard dogs"; its wider implication was that abuse, expulsion and murder could be practiced with impunity, as long as the perpetrators thereof are Imperial "allies," and the targets are Serbs.

This is the message the Albanians have been hearing for years. Remember, the military leader of the terrorist KLA - now the Kosovian "defense minister" - was a general in the Croatian Army, serving under one of the generals the Inquisition set free. Now, however, they had a chance to show their pride in such impunity, on the occasion of an Albanian national holiday.

On November 28, 1912, what became the Albanian national flag - black eagle on red field - made its first appearance. Each year, the Albanians celebrate this as "Flag Day", and even though "Kosovia" has its own, politically correct flag, its blue and gold are nowhere in evidence these days, amidst the sea of red and black.

The central, pan-Albanian celebration has already taken place - in Skopje, capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. Why not Tirana, the capital of Albania proper? Or Pristina, the capital of "independent Kosovo"? Simple. Skopje was the ancient capital of Serbia, and though modern Serbia doesn't claim the territory of Macedonia, the Albanians do.

But wait, there is more. In Presevo, a southern Serbian town claimed by Albanians as part of "Eastern Kosova", the local KLA first put up a monument to its "freedom fighters," then dared the Serbian police to come take it down. And yesterday, the following picture appeared in Serbian newspapers:

A model outside the Bujanovac Culture Hall (source)

An installation outside the Culture Hall in Bujanovac (a town near Presevo also claimed by the KLA), purports to represent the house in Valona where the Albanian flag first flew a century ago. However, the model is painted a shade of yellow entirely inappropriate for the original - invoking comparisons to the notorious "Yellow House."

This was the name given to a farmstead in Albania where, during and after the war to claim Kosovo (1999), the KLA killed and dismembered (in that order, if they were lucky) dozens of abducted Serb civilians, to sell their organs on the black market. When word of the "Yellow House" first emerged, the KLA, the Albanian authorities and the house's owners denied everything. The Hague Inquisitors claimed they had found nothing, and just accidentally happened to destroy all the evidence from the investigation. But as you can see, the KLA is now rubbing it in.

Pogroms based on blood libel. Desecrated churches and cemeteries. Pride in terrorism and butchery. All cheered on by the "international community" and the self-appointed defenders of "human rights." A month ago, Secretary of State Clinton declared that the cause of "independent Kosovia" was a personal matter - "for me, my family and my fellow Americans."

Clinton has a shopping center named after her. There are streets and boulevards named after her husband, and an Enver-style statue in downtown Pristina. I guess what's left to their "fellow Americans" is Kosovo itself - a monument to evil if ever there was one.

Proud yet?

A tale of two cemeteries

Serb cemetery in Albanian-occupied Djakovica; destroyed, desecrated, defiled.

Albanian cemetery in Serb-controlled Mitrovica.

The pictures speak for themselves.

Isn't Albania Enough?

The inimitable Taki Theodoracopoulos does a drive-by assessment of the Empire's Kosovo policy in his most recent column:

Even worse is the issue of Kosovo. With a few prominent exceptions, NATO, the EU, the USA, and the UN all favor speedy recognition of a rogue state led by drug dealers and terrorists and militant Muslims. What the hell is going on here? Why must we have a second Muslim state in our midst? Isn’t Albania enough?

Of course it's not enough to those who see "Kosova" as just the first step in annexing parts of Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, and even more of Serbia. And after that, who knows? If one believes the 19th-century canard about Albanians descending from ancient Illyrians, it's only a matter of time before some "reputable expert" asserts that all of the Balkans is actually "ethnic Albania." And why stop there? There's Albanians in Switzerland, Britain, New Jersey...

Anyway, at this stage slogans won't do Serbia much good. The people dismembering her, Czechoslovakia-style, seem to believe only in coercion. When dealing with aggression, polite arguments can only get one so far. Maybe it's high time to start doing some coercin' right back.

Albanian "Truth"

I can expend thousands of words and millions of electrons trying to explain what Albanian separatists think, say and do. Ultimately, those who do not wish to believe me will merely shrug and say "Well, you're an ethnic Serb, so how can you be objective?"

Fine. Don't listen to me. Listen to an Albanian instead. Here's a commentary written by one Mehdi Hyseni (who may or may not be related to Skender Hyseni, spokesman for the provisional government). Hyseni currently lives in Boston, Mass. (USA) where he moved in 1999. Prior to that, he "earned a doctorate in international affairs at Pristina University" and "held professional positions in the Department of Translation, Information and Foreign Affairs in Belgrade" from 1978 to 1999, according to a 2003 bio.

It was posted in a Serbian translation by Nova Srpska Politicka Misao (NSPM), which often publishes opposing viewpoints, without editorial guidance. I'm not that magnanimous, so I'll note beforehand that Hyseni not only had access to a doctoral degree under the "evil Serbian regime," but he also worked for the said regime even after 1989, when thousands of Albanians were supposedly disenfranchised and sacked from government jobs. And in Belgrade, no less. Keep this in mind as you read on.

The translation from Serbian is mine, and is faithful as far as I can attest. If there are any discrepancies between the Albanian source material and the Serbian text, talk to the NSPM translators.

Without further ado, here's Hyseni:

KOSOVO BETWEEN TWO PHILOSOPHICAL AND POLITICAL EXTREMES

Mitrovica PRESS – Mitrovica

Boston/Mitrovica, December 10, 2007 - The first extreme is the "philosophical and political" thesis of Serbian ethnocentrist (nationalist, racist, fascist, colonialist and genocidal) collective paranoid notion that "Kosovo belongs to Serbia", while the other reflects the abstract nihilism of official Tirana that "Kosova belongs to Kosova," instead of at least saying it belongs to Albania.

Both of these contradictions will be clarified only when Kosovo achieves independence.

The polished philosophical, utopian, decadent, existentialist and conceited speculation by dilettante analysts, reflected through the spirit and times of Communist philosophy of "brotherhood and unity" (that is, the Tito-Rankovic Yugoslavian "brotherhood and murder"), one cannot correctly interpret, or understand, let alone fight the colonialist and genocidal Serbian policy aimed against Albanians and ethnic Albania. Rather, it further clouds and obscures the theory and practice of the practical historical, political, philosophic, diplomatic and legal justifications for the solution of the colonial Albanian question in the Balkans.

We should clearly understand the fact that decadent political philosophy cannot achieve the liberation, freedom and independence of Kosova and other territories of the colonized ethnic Albania. It is now a decisive historical moment (as Hasan Prishtina, our famous patriot and fighter for the liberation and unification of ethnic Albania, once said) for the president of Albania Bamir Topi and Prime Minister Sali Berisha openly say to Belgrade's face that "Kosova is Albania, not Serbia!" Otherwise, Serbia and the Greaterserbs will not stop howling and will never give up their anti-Albanian thesis that "Kosovo is Serbia."

Until Albania officially declares that Kosova is Albania, both Kosova and Albania, as well as our loyal ally and savior the United States, will have disputes, misunderstandings and serious problems with the colonialist Serbia and the racist, fascist Greaterserbs, who believe "Kosovo is Serbia."

That Belgrade and the Greaterserbs make the colonialist and genocidal claim that Kosova is Serbia does not surprise us. However, that some Albanian "philosophers" in power still lack courage to defend the truthful counterclaim that Kosova is Albania, both to Serbia and to the world, not only upsets us, but urges us to suspect that the Albanian political philosophy still fails to understand that the cruel colonial and hegemonic Serbian rule cannot be rejected through pseudo-philosophical declarations that Kosova "belongs to those who live there"! Such political and national hypocrisy! Such an euphemism! Philosophical colorblindness! It is a lack of human and national consciousness, this lack of courage to tell the truth that Kosova does not belong to Serbia, but ethnic Albania.

This truth needs to be defended by all legitimate legal, national and international means.

The unmasking of many centuries of Greaterserb history, politics, propaganda, diplomacy, colonial and genocidal practice against the Albanians and ethnic Albania in the Balkans cannot be accomplished through thumb-twiddling and empty talk, using dilettante euphemisms and disgraceful, anemic, terrifying, speculative, moralizing, anti-philosophical, unrealistic and anti-pragmatic vocabulary. They need to be revealed before the world and called by their proper names, fully describing their anti-Albanian character.

No people in the world achieved freedom and independence through the exercise of speculative concepts of colorblind and decadent philosophy, fed to the readers of mass media. So long as we Albanians in the Balkans are happy to be fed such anti-philosophical and anti-realistic produce (which are essentially nothing but imaginations of a false, romantic ,symbolic, "dialectic" philosophy of Nietzche's absolute individualist concern), we will live with slavery and Serbo-Slavic colonialism in the Balkans.

No one in the history of Serbia and Serbs has ever given a more objective, humane and precise definition of Serb ethnocentrism than the great French philosopher Andre Glucksmann, when he said, "When Serbs say they are innocent, they express their utmost racism."

This is true in every way - anthropological, historical, psychological, human and propaganda. The entire psychology and practice of world anti-Semitism can evolve, but not that of the Serbs. Its genesis is hereditary, passed from one generation to another and cultivated systematically and through institutions, from the family to the Orthodox Church, the academia, literature, poetry, drama, politics, diplomacy, the military, etc. In other words, Serbian anti-Semitism is not imported, but is an original manifestation of collective Serbian anti-Semitic paranoia, "Made in Serbia".

This is the prime reason the Serbs even today cannot free themselves of the centuries-old muck of their maniacal philosophy that they are supposedly the "most peaceful, most democratic, most just, most cultured, most enlightened, most progressive and most civilized" people in the Balkans. All these negative concepts are organically part of the Greaterserb mythological ethnocentrism.

This essential doctrine and practice of self-destructive, anti-Semitic ethnocentrism and Serbocentrism is the reason Serbia, in its historical, political, colonial and militarist continuity, has committed over ten genocides against Albanians and ethnic Albania (1842-1999).

In this traditional ethnocentric (racist and fascist) style, the propaganda of modern Serbia began an official campaign against the independence of Kosova in Belgrade, on December 4, 2007.

The initiator, overseer and director of this all-Serbian populist campaign, under the slogan "Kosovo is Serbia" is the Serbian government's Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, headed by Slobodan Samardžić (member of the Serb negotiating team during the shuttle diplomacy efforts of Martti Ahtissari and Wolfgang Ischinger's "troika"), which "forgets" the truth that Kosova belongs to Albania, not Serbia, even though Tirana still lacks courage to say so.

Now, some might say that this is by no means a mainstream Albanian argument, but a rant of a madman. Fair enough. Only trouble is, I've heard these "arguments" over an over from Albanians; they are all over Albanian websites, peddled by Albanian lobbyists and "advocates," openly preached to the general Albanian public (in Kosovo, at least). As far as they are concerned, all of this is gospel truth.

Tell you what. Replace "Serbs" here with "Jews" and "Albanians" with "Germans." See how it sounds to you.

Yeah, I thought so.

Bush of Albania

I have resisted temptation to write about the Emperor's Albania trip. I had nothing to add to Neil Clark's brilliant piece, nor was there anything more to say about the purloined watch drama than was in plain sight on YouTube and elsewhere.

If the self-proclaimed autocrat of the known universe wants to make a complete idiot of himself, he's more than welcome to do so. At least this time no one got killed.

Scanning the news stories from the past week, however, my eye caught on this quote by Nancy Snow, identified as "professor of communications at California State University, Fullerton" in an AP report by Paul Chavez:

"You know things aren't going well when you have to go to Albania to have people take to the streets and cheer you."

And there you have it.

Koco Danaj and Internet Weasels

Who is Koco Danaj?

According to Italian news agency AKI, relying presumably on Pristina daily Epoka e Re, Danaj is a "political adviser to Albania's prime minister, Sali Berisha."

Days after I described Danaj thusly in my column, Antiwar.com started getting angry emails from Albanians. Koco Danaj, they all claimed, is no adviser to Berisha, but a marginal political figure; I manufactured falsehoods, and should retract his qualification at once; even Danaj himself wrote eventually - albeit in Albanian, so I could not understand a word of what he was trying to say.

So, who is Koco Danaj? I don't know - and honestly, I don't much care. Neither the Albanian government, which denied ties to Danaj, nor my numerous Albanian detractors to Antiwar.com, have at any one point taken exception to the content of Danaj's comments to Epoka e Re: namely, the need for a "natural Albania" in the Balkans. It's these comments, rather than Mr. Danaj's identity, that interested me in the first place. Given that no one made a point of disagreeing with him, he may as well be a political adviser to Mr. Berisha, or the KLA "government" of "Kosova" for that matter.

One of my favorite bloggers often resorts to seeding his writings with "weasel traps" - details deliberately askew, so that the typical internet critic (who enjoys taking potshots at people but flees an actual debate like the devil from a cross) would latch onto them instead of challenging the actual points of the argument.

I wish I were clever enough to do this, but apparently, I don't need to; as the story of Koco Danaj goes to show, my critics are good at making their own weasel traps and springing them without any help on my part.

Unholy Alliance

Six years ago today, NATO attacked what was then Yugoslavia. Alliance leaders claimed all sorts of reasons and justifications for their act of aggression, from political extortion (initially) to "helping the refugees" (who just conveniently happened to be under the thumb of their allies, the terrorist KLA).

On May 14, 1999, Empress Hillary Clinton went to visit the Albanian refugees in Macedonia. BBC ran this picture with the article about the visit.

The shape in the middle is Kosovo. On the right side is the Albanian eagle. The "UCK" is the Albanian acronym of the KLA. Are further comments really necessary?