Tuesday, May 12, 2009

No Accident

On May 7, 1999, during the NATO offensive against Yugoslavia, an American bomber dropped a precision bomb into a corner office of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. NATO claimed it had been a "mistake" and the CIA even concocted an implausible story about "old maps" used to plan the attack.

In November 1999, however, the Observer (UK) - a paper that supported the NATO bombing, be it noted - revealed that it had not been an accident:

But the midnight strike was so precise the embassy's north end was untouched, leaving the marble and glass of the front entrance and the ambassador's Mercedes and four flower pots unscathed.


Why do I believe this, even though the officialdom on both sides of the Atlantic has repeatedly dismissed the Observer's claims? Very simple: because the Observer story introduced a perfect red herring. Namely (emphasis added):

The Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was deliberately targeted by the most precise weapons in the US arsenal because it was being used by Zeljko Raznatovic, the indicted war criminal better known as Arkan, to transmit messages to his `Tigers' - Serb death squads - in Kosovo.


Say what? Well, admits the Observer, Arkan's "precise role in Kosovo is still not clear." But hey, the ICTY "had good reasons to suspect" that Arkan and his men were "playing a murderous role in Operation Horseshoe, Milosevic's plan to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of its majority Albanian population."

You know, the fictitious plan conjured by the Bulgarian intelligence and furnished to the Germans? The plan that didn't actually exist? That plan.

And the Chinese personnel killed on the occasion? Must have been intelligence officers, obviously, says the Observer. The Chinese must have been helping the Evil Milosevic (why? Because NATO says so!), and the bombing was a message to them both.

It's blindingly obvious that the Chinese Embassy attack could not have been accidental. Most likely it was a message: to Beijing not to interfere, and to Belgrade to abandon all hope of resisting. The "death squads" and "Horseshoe" angle is horse-hockey, of course, but some sort of moralistic cover was needed for a naked show of force. That's how that entire war was justified, after all.

Observer's report smells like a "yes, but" defense leaked from NATO (or rather, Foreign Office and the State Department), seeking to accept the blame for the bombing but justify it by the necessity of stopping the Evil Serbs. It all adds up, really. It's certainly a lot more plausible than a threadbare story about "old maps."

With a quisling regime in Belgrade getting ready to welcome Deputy Emperor Biden - one of Washington's most outspoken Serbophobes - it may appear that the Serbs have forgotten 1999. I'm willing to wager the Chinese have not.

7 comments:

Suvorov said...

Also relevant to the story is the murder of that CIA contractor Bennett. I mean, it is entirely possible that those three in the white van were using an old map of Virginia and therefore shot the wrong man.

el swino said...

Yes GreyFalcon the CHinese won't forget the bombing of their embassy but Belgrade certainly has. The arrival of Biden in Belgrade is the final nail in the coffin. Soon we shall see northern Kosovo and the enclaves being wrapped. WEll done Tadic and co- you will always be remembered.

Unknown said...

I vaguely remember reading, a few years back, the account of the Embassy bombing which roughly stated:

The real target was a Yugoslav government building, several hundred meters away from the embassy. Wrong co-ordinates were keyed into the missile guidance system, erroneously targeting the Embassy.

Theory, clearly, is a clumsy attempt at a cover-up.

If there really did exist another "legitimate" target, what explains NATO never going after it, after demolishing the Embassy?

By now propaganda is exposed. There is nothing to be gained from stating the obvious. It's time for pure, unadulterated hatred.

CubuCoko said...

Far as the Empire has been concerned, it's been time for "pure, unadulterated hatred" against the Serbs for the past two decades.

Mark Johnson said...

It's a bizarre relationship between those two countries. US needs China's cheap rubbish, China needs $US. All the while they glare at each other across political and geopolitical boundaries.

I'd love to know what is really going on between the two heavyweights.

Apex said...

I don't think the Serbian people forgot anything anyone who knows Serbs knows we have a long memory.
Tadic was put into place to forget on behalf of the country.
The fact that there are Serbs actively working with the empire to destroy ourselves is a god damn shame,it really is.Biden is going to see his vassals in Sarajevo and Kosmet as well.The Beograd trip is just to come spit in our face.

Kosovo-is-SERBIA said...

Joe Biden said at one time he wanted all Serbs to be placed in concentration camps. Will there be anti-biden demonstrations in Belgrade? OH, please do have them. PLEASE!!!

If you really want to insult him, everybody go into the streets and when he shows up, turn around and MOON HIM!!!!