Antiwar.com Blog

As Justin said, the possiblity has indeed been raised that the explosives used in the London came from the Balkans; the first rumor was that explosives were Serbian, but just as the accusations in the run-up to the Iraq invasion that Serbs “supplied Saddam”, this proved to be spurious.

According to one retired colonel of the Yugoslav army, the explosives used in London could have come from a factory in northern Montenegro – but these have been in possession of all sides in the 1991-95 wars, and some have even reached the KLA terrorists in Kosovo and Macedonia. One of the persons under investigation by the Brits lived with the mujahedin in northern Bosnia, who certainly had access to these explosives.

However, now that the London bombings cannot be pinned on Serbs, trust the legacy media to completely bury the Bosnian/Kosovo angle, and never so much as mention the possibility that Bosnian Muslims were anything but pure, innocent victims of evil Serb aggression. Certainly, claims that the ruling Muslim party has numerous connections with Islamic extremist groups and governments will either never be raised, or will be dismissed out of hand.

Four of the London bombers have been identified: they are Hasib Hussein, 19, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, “Rashid Facha, a British-born Pakistani in his twenties; and Jacksey Fiaz, about 35.”

Juan Cole tosses us this interesting lead from Al-Sharq al-Awsat:

“There are reports that the 4 bombers received al-Qaeda-type commando training, and that another 100 persons have been put under surveillance. Via the Times of London it says that the explosive used were “military” and may have come from the Balkans. [The bomb-maker may have run the cell and may be at large.]”

A Balkan connection, eh? Why am I not surprised?

To all the partisan Democrats who are screaming “Why didn’t they prosecute Bob Novak while poor little Judy Miller sleeps on a mattress in jail?” — well, here’s your answer:

“Columnist Robert Novak provided detailed accounts to federal prosecutors of his conversations with Bush administration officials who were sources for his controversial July 11, 2003 column identifying Valerie Plame as a clandestine CIA officer, according to attorneys familiar with the matter.”

Hat tip: Laura Rozen

Are you happy now? I didn’t think so …

For my own take on the Novak-Plame imbroglio, go here. A snippet:

“Let’s get one thing clear: Novak committed no crime. He merely reported one. The criminals are the “senior administration officials” who whispered secrets in his ear with the knowledge that they would almost certainly see print. To all those supposedly “antiwar” Republican-haters, who write Novak off as a shill for the Bush administration: without Novak’s reporting, the machinations of the neocons would still be taking place in the dark. His column shone the spotlight on their intrigues, and in no way did he denigrate or dismiss Joe Wilson. As Jack Shafer put it in Slate:

“‘Whatever the leakers’ objective, Novak did not serve them very well. I defy anyone to read Novak’s now-famous column and summarize it coherently. The brief discussion of Plame and her shadowy occupation seems gratuitous in the larger frame of the article, which, if anything, sympathizes with Wilson’s view that the case for war wasn’t properly made.”

Robert Kuttner gets it right.

I should have noted this Monday, when I first read the article, but was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of articles about Srebrenica – the vast majority repeating exactly the same tired propaganda – that I haven’t got around to it. But this article, in the London Sunday Times, was somewhat different – not just because it admitted there was a history of massacres on both sides in Srebrenica, or that Serbs and Muslims in the area still very much hate each other, or even that most of the dead came from a military column, and were therefore not “civilians.” What caught my eye was the “factoid” at the end, “How a safe haven turned into hell.” Look carefully at the numbers. Continue reading “Fuzzy Math and “Genocide””

Finally, we have a video link to view Justin Raimondo’s appearance on MSNBC on June 17. Many thanks to Brandon Snider, who put in a lot of time and effort to get these files ready to present on the Web.

Justin appeared on MSNBC to talk about recruitment troubles.

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Say something the Montenegrin separatists don’t like, and you may find yourself shot – or accused of terrorism. Last spring, the editor of a Podgorica newspaper who wrote about president/prime minister Milo Djukanovic’s shady adventures in cigarette-smuggling was gunned down. The recent accusation of terrorism came at the expense of Srdja Trifkovic, Chronicles editor, prolific historian and commentator, after his recent appearance at a forum opposing Montenegrin separatism.

According to Trifkovic’s colleague (and author of a great history of Montenegro) Thomas Fleming, papers close to the government accused Trifkovic of authoring a death threat to Djukanovic; the purported threat is a crude and sloppy forgety – which did not prevent the leading Empire-glorifying daily in Belgrade (the Jacobin Danas) from eagerly parroting the charge.

Aware that American money won’t keep their criminal gang in power forever, that support for “independence” has consistently remained low (were it not so, the referendum Djukanovic keeps threatening to call would have taken place years ago), that their attempts to establish separate”Montenegrin” nation, culture, church, history and language have been recognized as a demented joke, and that the only way to avoid Italian smuggling indictments is diplomatic immunity, Djukanovic and his cronies have become desperately delusional enough to believe they could shape reality through propaganda.

Earth to Milo: it doesn’t work, not even for the American Empire. Sooner or later, reality bites back. Looks like his time is just about up.

[As a side note, Dr. Fleming’s condemnation of this smear campaign soon drew the attention of rabid Islamists (see writeback), whose absurd and hysterical charges against Dr. Trifkovic also named yours truly. Though signed “CAIR,” the post actually reeked of Stephen Schwartz.]