OT: Who Is The KLA, And Why Are We Siding With Them?

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I've done a little research on the Kosovo Liberation Army that we're supporting in Yugoslavia, and I've found some interesting tidbits on the Net which I will pass along.

And before all you whiners say "What's this got to do with Y2K?" let me say that it has a LOT to do with Y2K. It demonstrates just how our government tries to deceive us on a daily basis. Do you think they will be any more honest and forthcoming about the true status of Y2K remediation? The KLA - terrorists or freedom fighters?
June 28, 1998
By BBC's Nened Sebak in Belgrade:

The United States special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, held talks on Friday with two men who claim they are political leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

But only a few months ago Ambassador Gelbard described the KLA as a terrorist organisation.

"I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists," he said earlier this year.

At the time, the KLA was believed to number just several hundred armed men.

Mr Gelbard's words were interpreted in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, as a green light for a security forces operation against the KLA and the special police conducted two raids in the Benitsar region in March....

An Accomplice to War in Kosovo?
August 5, 1998
by Gary Dempsey (foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute)

...Moreover, inviting the KLA to join the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team is downright hypocritical. In February, U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard asserted that the KLA "is, without any questions, a terrorist group." But now Washington wants the Yugoslav government to bargain with the KLA. That is a policy Washington would never consider for itself -- negotiating with a group that it had identified as a terrorist organization....

The United States as Global Cop: Arresting Consequences
February 26, 1999
by Ivan Eland (director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute)

...In the disputes over Kurdistan and Kosovo, the grievances are long-standing and the antagonists on both sides have used brutal tactics. Such ethnic conflicts are spawning grounds for terrorist groups. If the United States is perceived as coercing the Kosovar Albanians into settling for autonomy rather than independence, the KLA (which has links to arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden) may begin to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. targets at home and abroad....

U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing
Monday, June 29, 1998
Briefer: Lee Mcclenny

...QUESTION: I wouldn't ask, and I would hope not, but I wouldn't ask if it wasn't clear to me. And secondarily, can you clear up once and for all what Bob Gelbard meant when he called this group a terrorist organization, and why are you meeting secretly with them?

MR. MCCLENNY: We've been down this road a whole bunch of times. We meet in private with lots of people at lots of times at lots of events and lots of organizations. I think what Ambassador Gelbard meant when he referred to acts by this group was that they have committed terrorist acts.

QUESTION: He called them a terrorist organization. When you say terrorist acts, as you all keep repeating, incorrectly, what he said. He said "terrorist organization."

MR. MCCLENNY: I don't have the transcript in front of me. Our view is that the KLA has committed terrorist acts, and we've defined those on a couple of occasions here. We've been back over this ground any number of times, and I don't think there's, frankly, a great deal of utility in beating this to death....

***********************************

Less than a year ago, our government considered the KLA a terrorist organization. The KLA has ties to Islamic terrorist groups, including Osama bin Laden (who WJC only recently tried to blow up with cruise missiles), as well as rumored ties with the European drug trade.

I'll repeat my question: Why are we siding with these terrorists?

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), April 05, 1999

Answers

It gets the China Espionage scandal off the front page.

It gives Slick cover for the future plans he has to cancel the 2000 elections. (Just check Gore's latest poll ratings against Dole or Bush... and you might understand WHY the Democrats are probably HOPING Clinton stays king.)

It gives him status to be the "Saviour" and "Hope" of the New World Community - - as he wanted to be.

Also because he has done so in the past. Overlooking drug dealings with fun folks like Dan Lassiter. Hiring thugs to be in charge of 900 stolen FBI files - Craig Livingstone, fraud perps like Web Hubbel for Attorney General and other non-taxpaying Attorney-General nominees.

What's the saying?.... You are known by the company you keep?

Personally I like...Judge a man by his fruits....

Either way we have the American version of Adolph Hitler running our nation.

We get what we deserve.

And I'm afraid it will be soon....

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), April 05, 1999.


Whatever our earlier official views of the KLA, it's clear that they are no longer an effective force in Kosovo. They have only small calibre weapons, no supply trains, no overall organization, and are being scoured out of Kosovo. Our Dept. of State at Rambouillet pretended the KLA was a government, which it never was.

But the Law of Unintended Consequences has struck again. NATO's assault accelerated the Serbian house-cleaning program, and now we have to deal with 800 or 900 thousand displaced persons, or watch them die while Albania and Macedonia collapse, bringing in Greece and Turkey, traditional enemies. The KLA now is a gnat among hyenas, the problem has gone way beyond them.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), April 06, 1999.


Excuse me, but my understanding is that this a y2k forum; please take your political posts elsewhere !

-- Yan (no@no.no), April 06, 1999.

Amen, Yan.

-- Yin (no@no.no), April 06, 1999.

Yan, is it also your understanding that Y2k will occur in a vacuum?

Nabi, I don't see all those refugees who have fled their villages as being part of the KLA. Also, I believe the majority of those Ethnic Albanians put their faith in Islam. Does that make them all terrorists or are you stereotyping just a bit? Also, is it your position that because the KLA is a terrorist group then that gives Milosevic the justification he needs to shell villages?

Futhermore, I believe that the position of NATO is not that they are "siding" with the KLA but rather that they are siding with the Ethnic Albanians and other minorities that are being targeted by the Serbian military and paramilitary forces.

Yan, the world will be impacted by y2k and we live in the world so we'll all be impacted by the disruptions of y2k that happen around the world. Yugoslavia is in the world so it is relevant to the discussion. Our military is not compliant and we may be in a war when the roll over occurs so our military is relevant to y2k.

Mike ========================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), April 06, 1999.



Wow Mike ... that's one very impressive s t r e t c h !

The problem is that all this peripheral (and probably very transitory) stuff only serves to dilute and confuse the true purpose of this forum.

-- Yan (no@no.no), April 06, 1999.


Well let's see.

Mike Tyson was a terrorist.

So was King Kong.

But if there were a fight between Mike Tyson and King Kong, where Kong was killing most of Tyson's folks, and Tyson was killing a few of Kong's folks; if anyone were to come in and referee; the choice would be obvious. Lesser of the two evils. Common sense. Don't like either of the fighters, but what's the human cost here?

Ask any WW II veteran who was part of the liberation of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, etc. why it's our business. They'll tell you right quick why it's our business, in no uncertain terms. Ever looked at any of those pictures? It's going on right now in Kosovo. Went on in '95 in Bosnia. High time somebody did something about it.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), April 06, 1999.


Yin and Yan (for you are related by cousin at birth I'm sure) - please stop wasting our time - TIME is precious and is running out, enough time is not available (as in y2k) to remidiate your jelly sacks.

Sorry.

Back of the queue - we'll see what we can do for you later...

OI Flint, Flint... where are you ...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 06, 1999.


http://www.lbbs.org/current_bombings.htm

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), April 06, 1999.

What you mean "we", white man? (From old Lone Ranger/Tonto joke.)

But KLA is big drug org -- could he be supplying "nose candy" to our Prez? Or just $?

-- A (A@AisA.com), April 06, 1999.



Nabi's terrible prejudice surfaces once again. Whats new. You see, the KLA must be evil in his eyes because they are Islamic. Only fundamental Christians are right in Nabis sight. Somehow Nabi manages to look past the million or so people that have been kicked out of their homes, raped or murdered and passes that off as unimportant by using the KLA as an excuse not to help them.

Nabi, do you like Milosevic because like you, he's a 'Christian'?

-- nabirapper (wakeupnabi@hellonabi.edu), April 06, 1999.


nabirapper,

May I ask where my "terrible prejudice" surfaced in this post? I am a believer in Yeshua HaMashiach; calling me a fundamental Christian is actually pretty funny. Most fundamental Christians would find very little to agree with me on, and vice versa.

I have nothing against the Islamic peoples. They are God's children also (Isa. 19:25). However, I will admit that I am not too enamored with the agenda of those Islamic groups who think that murder and terrorism are the way to further their agenda. But then again, I'm not too fond of any group, Christian, Muslim, etc., that initiates violence to achieve their objectives.

Regarding the situation of the Kosovar refugees, it tears my heart out to see people suffering, regardless of WHO they are. My prayers are with them all.

But you missed the point of my post entirely. A representative of our government declared the KLA a terrorist organization in early 1998, with good reason. Likely taking that announcement as a green light, the Yugoslavian government began military action against them. Then we switched course and began treating them as a legitimate entity representing the Kosovar-Albanian peoples.

If you will read the entire State Department press briefing that I quoted from, you'll see the word games the briefer played with those questioning why we were suddenly changing our position on the KLA. Suddenly the KLA was useful to the administration, so they redefined them and acted like their previous assessment had never happened. The Clinton administration has perfected this technique.

The whole point of the post (besides the obvious question I posed) is that WE CANNOT TRUST OUR GOVERNMENT TO TELL US THE TRUTH!!!

That's why this post IS indirectly related to Y2K. There is a lot of information coming from the government about their Y2K readiness. This example shows us why we should NOT believe them when they tell us all will be well.

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), April 06, 1999.


Yan can't stand any "anti-government" sentiment, can he?

Wonder who he is, and why he can click to a new thread, but feels compelled to squelch all political discussion?

Prepared.

-- Prepared (damnthose@shills.now), April 06, 1999.


We're not siding with the KLA, you moron. Can't you read?

We're not arming them, we don't support them. We wanted Kosovo to remain part of Yugoslavia, not independent, like the KLA wants.

Jesse Helms and some other rightwingers have come out saying we should side with the KLA (arm and support them). So far Clinton has refused to do this. Read the papers. Jeez.

-- Nope (nope@xx.com), April 07, 1999.


Nabi - thank you.

Wag the finger.

Look stern into the camera.

".. with THAT woman.."

You are ALL a bunch of hypocrites that defend Clinton - live with it if you must, I'll buy you a pint regaardles...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 07, 1999.



Chicken Little: I'm not clear on which is the "lesser of two evils" -- Kong or Tyson.

-- A (A@AisA.com), April 07, 1999.

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