In 1999, it was Yugoslavia in the crosshairs of the imperialists, now it’s Venezuela

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66

Published time: 1 Apr, 2019 11:54

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©  Neil Clark

To mark the 20th anniversary of the start of NATO’s illegal 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia, over 200 distinguished guests from all over the world gathered for a conference of the Belgrade Forum of the World of Equals.

The gathering titled “Never to Forget: Peace and Progress instead of Wars and Poverty” promoted genuine internationalism. Participants came from Israel AND Palestine. From Iran and Japan. From Britain, Germany, Italy, France and other NATO countries which had taken part in the bombing. From Venezuela, Cuba, Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil, Croatia, Canada and South Africa. India and Nepal, Austria and Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal, Turkey and Lebanon. From the US AND Russia. This was the real ‘international community’ on display.

Read more

If Trump wants to disarm Russia, he should un-recognize Kosovo

Speaker after speaker denounced NATO’s unlawful aggression, and stressed the wider significance of the military action of 20 years ago, which not only lacked a mandate from the United Nations Security Council, but was also in breach of NATO’s own charter.

Eva-Maria Follmer-Mueller, president of the Mut zur Ethik Association in Switzerland, described it as “a historic turning point.”

Momir Bulatovic, the prime minister of Yugoslavia in March 1999, called the bombing “a crime which only grows in significance”. He pointed out that it was the first step in a still ongoing war against other countries. He and subsequent speakers, (myself included), noted that since 1999 we’ve had US-led attacks on a series of independently-minded, strategically important and resource-rich sovereign states, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, while others, such as Iran and Venezuela have been subject to intense economic warfare. Each time we’re encouraged to see these conflicts as ‘stand-alones’ with the leader of the target state demonized, usually as the ‘New Hitler,’ and someone who ‘must be stopped’, but actually they are all part of the same war. A war for empire and the global hegemony of the US and rapacious international finance capital.

From Brazil, Socorro Gomes, the president of the World Peace Council, reminded delegates that Yugoslavia was a peaceful country that had not invaded anyone. To get round this, Kosovo was referred to in the US and depicted on maps on the television as if it was a separate country, not as a part of Yugoslavia. The media war on Yugoslavia began long before the bombing.

According to HRW, around 500 civilians were killed in the NATO air strikes. The Russian Foreign Ministry puts the toll much higher, at around 2,000.

In Belgrade’s Tasmajdan Park, there’s a very poignant memorial to the 89 children killed in the bombing, entitled ‘We were just children.’ Among the victims was a brilliant 15-year-old maths prodigy called Sanja Milenkovic, who died along with eight others, when the bridge in Varvarin was bombed at Pentecost. Marina Colic read out a very moving tribute to Sanja from the German politician Willy Wimmer. Sanja’s last words were “Don’t be crazy Mum, who’s going to drop bombs on a small town”. Answer: NATO. That’s who.

´We were just children’ Memorial to the child victims of the NATO bombing, in Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade. ©  Neil Clark

An exhibition outside the main hall in the Serbian Army House graphically illustrated the horrors of the bombing. Anyone seeing the pictures of dismembered, blood-spattered people being pulled out from debris following a NATO air-raid would ask the same question that I did: How on earth could any of this be justified as a ‘humanitarian’ action?

The line that “there was no alternative” is simply not true. Had Western powers been genuinely concerned over resolving differences between Pristina and Belgrade they could have brokered a deal between Rugova, the Kosovo Albanian leader, and Milosevic, the leader of Yugoslavia, which would have allowed international peacekeepers (but not NATO forces) into Kosovo to protect ALL of its citizens, and at the same time disarm the KLA. But they deliberately chose to bomb.

Speakers recalled that at the Rambouillet Conference Milosevic was presented with an ultimatum to which he could not possibly consent. This is backed up by the testimony of the late Lord Gilbert, a British Minister of State for Defence Procurement, who, in 2000, admitted, “I think certain people were spoiling for a fight in NATO at that time. I think the terms put to Milosevic at Rambouillet were absolutely intolerable: how could he possibly accept them? It was quite deliberate.” 

NATO got its war and the direct material damage to Yugoslavia resulting from it has been put at $100 billion. The country’s infrastructure was targeted for destruction and you can still see the ruins from some attacks, such as the one on RTS (Serbian television), which killed 16 people, in Belgrade today. One of the most shocking aspects of the NATO ‘humanitarianism’ was its widespread use of depleted uranium. Slobodan Petkovic, a member of the Serbian government’s commission for determining the consequences of the use of D.U., stressed there was no military need for NATO to use it. So why did they?

READ MORE: ‘NATO bombing of Yugoslavia paved way for 1 million civilian casualties worldwide’

In a really powerful oration, Liz Payne of the British Peace Council, said the bombing of Yugoslavia was a ‘deadly experiment’ and a blueprint for further aggressions across the world. “We recall with horror the orchestrated terror and devastation inflicted purposefully and mercilessly on the people of Serbia by the US and its allies, including by the right-wing Labour government of Britain and the neoliberal Establishment in whose interests it acted”. She finished with the words “While imperialism continues there can be no world of equals.”

Linking the events of 1999 with today, Professor Zahari Zahariev from Bulgaria said that the whole continent of Europe is ready for a new Helsinki process, a reference to the 1975 accords which were the high-water mark of post-war detente between East and West.

In a thought-provoking address, he distinguished between globalization, which is a technical process, and globalism, which he called “the ideology of imperialism”and it was this ideology which was behind the attack on Yugoslavia and the other wars. While many speakers lambasted the EU, Zahariev said the idea of European unity is not imperialistic per se and that what we really need is to emancipate the EU from neoliberal capitalism.

The question is: is this really feasible given the strong links the EU has to corporate power and finance capital?

©  Neil Clark

Some of the loudest applause at the entire conference came after Dia Nader de El-Andari, the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Serbia, declared “No pasaran!” after a stirring address. In 1999, it was Yugoslavia in the crosshairs of the imperialists, now it’s Venezuela, with the US having the temerity to warn Russia, Venezuela’s ally, to get out.

Cross-continent solidarity was also expressed by Chris Matlhako, of the South African Communist Party. He called for the dismantling of US military bases, NATO and their allies in Africa and elsewhere on the globe, and detailed the disastrous impact of the NATO assault on Libya, which has been a big boon to terrorist groups. “We must work hard to block the US and its allies unilateralism in the world today,” he declared.

READ MORE: ‘Forgive, but not forget’: Serbia won’t be in NATO, leaders say 20yrs after Yugoslavia bombing

President of the Serbian Generals and Admirals Club, Milomir Miladinovic, reminded delegates that despite the 78-days of bombing, Yugoslavia was not defeated militarily in 1999. “We fought a glorious victory against the aggressor, these were heroic days in the face of the much bigger enemy”, he said.

According to Miladinovic, the JNA (Yugoslav National Army), lost just 17 tanks and 30 artillery pieces and withdrew from Kosovo practically intact. And the aggression from NATO didn’t come cost-free with the Yugoslav forces and their “obsolete” equipment successfully taking down a US F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber, appropriately enough called ‘Something Wicked’. That was a great moment for those who always support David against Goliath and love it when the underdog lands a blow. In a nice postscript, the retired army officer whose unit shot down the plane is now friends with the US pilot.

The conference ended with me reading out the Belgrade Declaration. “The history will note the fact that in 1999, blindly following alien geopolitical interests, Europe fought itself.” 

Never forget the great crime NATO committed twenty years ago, and what it led to.

Follow Neil Clark @NeilClark66 and @MightyMagyar

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Is Washington Preparing the Groundwork for a Maidan Scenario in Venezuela?

ROBERT BRIDGE | 01.04.2019 | WORLD / AMERICAS

Venezuela is home to the largest oil deposits in the world, which makes the political stakes involved much higher than they would be otherwise. Enter Juan Guaidó, Washington’s puppet leader in Caracas, who will be attempting to rally the country against legitimate (i.e., democratically elected by the people) President Nicolas Maduro next month.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has announced that April 6 will kick off a nationwide "tactical actions" as part of the so-called Operation Freedom protests, which are designed to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

"On April 6 will be the first tactical actions of the # Operation Freedom across the country," Guaidó declared over Twitter this week. "That day we must be ready, prepared and organized, with the Aid and Freedom Committees already formed. The rescue of Venezuela is in our hands!"

Is this the start of Maidan 2.0?

But first, who is Juan Guaidó? That’s a questioning worth pondering momentarily because just a few months ago, the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans – 81 percent of the population – had never heard of the young man before. That all changed when Guaidó, 35, was awakened by a phone call from none other than US Vice President Mike Pence. Literally overnight he had become the poster boy of the political opposition in Venezuela and leader of the National Assembly. “Juan Guaidó is a character that has been created for this circumstance,” Marco Teruggi, a sociologist and leading observer of Venezuelan politics, told the Grayzone. “It’s the logic of a laboratory – Guaidó is like a mixture of several elements that create a character who, in all honesty, oscillates between laughable and worrying.”  

In fact, Washington recognized Guaidó more than just an opposition leader; it recognized him, without a drop of legality, as the de-jure president of the Latin American country (Just this week, Guaidó's wife Fabiana Rosales was the guest of honor at the White House, as the media referred to her as "first lady" and "first-lady-in-waiting").

Meanwhile, the US media has wasted no time placing the laurels on Guaidó’s young, inexperienced head, declaring the quiet coup d’ etat the "restoration of democracy" in a land where the election process, which provides its voters with a digital receipt, is considered to be the most transparent and reliable in the world. In other words, if Maduro is in office, which he is, it is due to the will of the people, not the will of Mike Pence.

So what should Venezuela expect on April 6 with the commencement of Guaidó’s organized protest? Anything is possible, but the likelihood of some sort of event or incident that will heighten the tensions in the country cannot be discounted. It certainly does not help that Trump's national security advisor John Bolton warned in the past of "serious consequences" if any harm comes to Guaidó.

"Let me reiterate – there will be serious consequences for those who attempt to subvert democracy and harm Guaidó," Bolton tweeted back in January. Those sorts of threats must be treated with extreme caution and due consideration. Suffice it to recall what followed like clockwork in Syria after such red-line threats were delivered about what would happen in the event of a chemical attack. Unsurprisingly, a chemical attack would eventually occur, whereupon the United States would immediately blame the event on the government, as opposed to the ragtag terrorist rebels who had infinitely more reason for resorting to such methods, and more so following such declarations from the US. In other words, should anything untoward happen to Guaidó, the West would have its perfect pretext for whatever follows next, which are better left to the imagination.  

Although it appears as though Juan Guaidó’s popularity is on the wane – his motorcade was attacked by a pro-Maduro crowd just this week, while turnout for his anti-government marches has been reportedly dwindling – Caracas took the step of barring him from holding public office for 15 years due to irregularities in his financial records. According to the State Comptroller, Juan Guaidó has taken 90 internationaltrips without indicating who provided the estimated $94,000 in expenses. 

"We're going to continue in the streets," Guaidó responded.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, a number of government officials are taking a very unhealthy interest, if not suspicious interest, in what is happening in Caracas. Senator Marco Rubio, for example, sounds worse than any opposition figure in Venezuela, and tweets about practically nothing else than what is happening south of the border. On one particularly lamentable occasion, Rubio was delusional enough to actually post before-and-after images of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The first showed him in power, the second just moments before being brutally murdered by a street mob. It boggles the mind to think that this man, who has a strange penchant for quoting Bible verse while fomenting for violent upheaval, stood on a platform as a Republican presidential hopeful.

In any case, there have been several events that strongly suggest that the United States has some sort of plan to bring about the crisis that could lift Guaidó into power, as well as open up the Latin American oil industry to foreign private interests, as he has already promised to do.

First, there is the well-documented incident from last month in which a ‘humanitarian supply’ truck, attempting to cross into Venezuela from Colombia, was torched. The US quickly blamed the incident on Maduro, however, video footage seems to indicate that it was actually anti-government protesters who carried out the attack with the use of Molotov cocktails.

Meanwhile, the beleaguered Latin American country has suffered a spate of electricity blackouts this month, which Maduro has been quick to blame on the United States. Guaidó, of course, blamed the outages on the "incompetence" of the Maduro government. However, Maduro may be forgiven for seeing the hand of the United States every time the lights go out. In fact, such things were discussed years ago, as revealed in a Wikileaks email dump that show even during the reign of Hugo Chavez, the problem of energy supplies was considered as a crowbar to break down the government. The following email was from Stratfor, which provides intelligence analysis.

"A key to Chavez’s current weakness is the decline in the electricity sector. There is the grave possibility that some 70 percent of the country’s electricity grid could go dark as soon as April 2010… This could be the watershed event, as there is little that Chavez can do to protect the poor from the failure of that system. This would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate."

Now, to what degree, if any, the United States may be tempted to hack/attack the Venezuelan power grid is anybody’s guess, but it certainly does not seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. And this could explain why the United States is so rattled by the presence of some 100 Russian cyber specialists in Venezuela, which arrived last week.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia’s relations with Venezuela are conducted “in strict accordance with the Constitution of this country and in full respect of its legislation.”

Understandably, the last thing that Moscow would like to see is yet another regime change fiasco, this time in Caracas, similar to the one that occurred on its border in Ukraine with the Maidan uprising, which continues to wreak havoc on global relations. In that sense, the global community can only hope that common sense and scruples wins out over opportunism and rogue politics, all in the name of oil profits.

Tags: Venezuela  Guaido 

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/01/is-washington-preparing-the-groundwork-for-maidan-scenario-in-venezuela.html

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Hitler rehearsing his speech in front of the mirror, 1925

I remember comparing these pics with Hitler Lite  Vajpayee , years ago  . 

Just multiply by 56 now

Hitler rehearsing his public speech in front of the mirror.

Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, strikes a pose for photographer Heinrich Hoffmann whilst rehearsing and listening his recorded speech. 

The album, features black and white images of the Nazi leader in a series of poses, using expressive face and hand gestures, which he would practice and review before addressing the German public. They capture the meticulous training Hitler undertook to perfect his famous speeches, and give a rare insight into his vanity and controlling personality. Once he saw the pictures, he would decide whether to incorporate the various gestures and poses into his speeches and appearances.

The photos were reportedly taken in 1925, soon after Hitler was released from a nine-month stint in prison during which he dictated his autobiography, Mein Kampf. After seeing the photographs, Hitler requested Hoffmann to destroy the negatives, but he didn’t obey. They were published in his memoir, “Hitler was my friend”, which came out in 1955. Hoffmann, who introduced Hitler to his then-studio assistant Eva Braun, survived the war and spent four years in prison for Nazi profiteering. He died in 1957, aged 72.

Roger Moorhouse, a historian who wrote the introduction to the photographer’s book, said:

“It makes perfect sense that he would be doing this. We have this image now of Hitler almost as a buffoon, but he had a lot of charisma and his speeches made people sincerely believe he would lead them back to greatness. He was an absolutely spellbinding public speaker and these pictures show that it was something he worked very hard on. When you listen to his speeches now, he sounds like a ranting, raving maniac, but we know that it came across in a very persuasive way. These pictures give an important insight into how he practiced. He was a showman and rehearsed his gestures to get a particular reaction from his audiences.

He experimented with his own image and asked Hoffmann to take photographs for him to review. Then he’d look at them and say “no, that looks silly” or “I’m never doing that again”. He used Hoffmann as a sounding board, but never intended the images to be published. Hitler was a very modern politician in that way. He was concerned about how he looked and his public persona.”

Egon Hanfstaengl, the son of Hitler’s foreign press officer, said in a documentary, “Fatal attraction of Hitler”: “He had that ability which is needed to make people stop thinking critically and just emote”.

The photos, taken by his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, were apparently intended to give the Führer an insight into how he looked to the German public.

These photos aided Hitler’s self-analysis and improved his hold over an audience.

The shots were taken shortly after his release from prison in 1925.

Adolf Hitler didn’t want anyone to see these photos so he ordered his photographer to destroy them.

He used them to practice the most charismatic postures.

The vetoed pictures were reportedly stored in Hoffmann’s studio until his arrest at the end of the war and disappeared into various archives.

Hoffmann introduced Hitler to his then-studio assistant Eva Braun.

Nazis didn’t wanted these photos to be published.

They were published photographer’s memoir “Hitler was my friend”, which came out in 1955.

They offer a rare insight into his vanity and controlling personality.

He was concerned about how he looked and his public persona.

“He had that ability which is needed to make people stop thinking critically and just emote.”

The Nazi leader banned them from being published for being “beneath one’s dignity”.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/hitler-rehearsing-speech-front-mirror-1925/

Gazans Mark One Year Anniversary of March of Return Rallies

US praises 'Israeli restraint' for not killing large numbers of demonstrators

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMarch 31, 2019CategoriesNewsTagsGaza, Israel

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of demonstrators marked the one-year anniversary of the March of Return protest rallies, which were begun in the Gaza Strip on the previous Palestinian Land Day, and have continued weekly since them.
Demonstrators routinely march near the Israeli border fence, and are often shot with live ammunition by Israeli snipers for doing so. The anniversary rally was expected to be a particularly violent day, but ultimately was a comparatively normal day, with Israel killing only four demonstrators, who they accused of rock throwing. Dozens of others were hospitalized, mostly shot with live ammunition. 

That Israel managed to kill four protesters, three teenagers, was enough that the US issued a statement praising them for “restraint,” while Israel praised the “restrained” Gazans for only provoking them to kill four of them. Officials made a point of saying that the expected “escalation” by the Palestinians didn’t happen, and that this was “not something extraordinary.”

The lower death toll than expected is particularly surprising because of the timing, as an upcoming Israeli election has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keen for shows of force, and the Palestinians are always a popular target for that. 
Instead, the anniversary rally has ended with hope for an easing of tensions, with Israel opening a border crossing into Gaza, and also easing restrictions on Gaza fishermen for the time being.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/03/31/gazans-mark-one-year-anniversary-of-march-of-return-rallies/

UN Investigates British Involvement in Yemen War, Use of Child Soldiers

Daily Mail confirms passing information on child soldiers to UN

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMarch 31, 2019CategoriesNewsTagsUN, Yemen

Last weekend’s revelation that British special forces were wounded in combat in Yemen initially sparked some major inquiries in parliament, as Britain long insisted they weren’t involved in the Yemen War. Now, the investigations are going international. 

According to the Daily Mail, who broke the initial story, the United Nations is now launching an investigation into the British special forces’ involvement in Yemen, and in particular how it relates to Yemeni child soldiers. 

Children as young as 13 are routinely allowed to fight for pro-Saudi militias, and the British forces are also apparently involved with them. The Daily Mail said they’d passed information about those ties to the UN.

The British government is so far trying to avoid talking about its role in the Yemen War by saying they don’t consider themselves involved in the Yemen War. That’s going to be a tough position to maintain, however, with parliament sniffing around for specifics. 

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/03/31/un-investigates-british-involvement-in-yemen-war-use-of-child-soldiers/

Several of Khashoggi’s Killers Were Trained in US

Leader of kill team, others participated in 'ongoing' training program

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMarch 31, 2019CategoriesNewsTagsSaudi Arabia, Trump

In a further blow to US-Saudi ties, reports emerged this weekend on the October murder of Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi kill team. The kill team’s leader, Maher Mutreb, and other members, had apparently been trained by the US government in the past. 

It’s a familiar story, heard often enough when the US aligns itself with a country with a flimsy human rights record. The trainees were part of ongoing routine training operations meant to increase the ties of rank and file Saudi figures with the US security state. 

During his training Mutreb, a colonel in the Saudi apy agency, apparently went so far as to try to befriend Khashoggi, likely gathering more intelligence on him, but likely also making his murder all the more uncomfortable. 

While the Trump Administration has time and again shrugged off Khashoggi’s murder as not worth risks to US-Saudi ties, and business relationships, Congress doesn’t feel that way at all. This new revelation is almost certain to add to Congressional calls to further stem ties with the Saudi government, specifically so US training and equipment aren’t involved in routine atrocities such as this. 

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/03/31/several-of-khashoggis-killers-were-trained-in-us/

Yemen’s Food Prices Soar as Saudi Blockade Limits Imports

Transport costs make even basic foods unaffordable far from the coast

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMarch 31, 2019CategoriesNewsTagsYemen

Four years into the Saudi War in Yemen, the invasion has turned the poorest country in the Middle East into one constantly on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. This is in no small part driven by a Saudi naval blockade, which has severely limited food imports. 

In the past year, food imports were down some 60% from pre-war levels. Given that Yemen, before the war, had to import about 90% of its food, there isn’t exactly a way for locals to get around this lack of imports. 

Locals in the capital city of Sanaa say that the prices there have soared, both because of the shortage of supplies, and the high transportation costs for getting foods from the port city of Hodeidah into the capital. 

“Many people cannot afford to buy a kilogram of tomatoes,” noted the local vegetable shop owner. That may not sound like much in and of itself, but millions of people are seemingly always just a slightly worse supply problem away from mass famine.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/03/31/yemens-food-prices-soar-as-saudi-blockade-limits-imports/