THE
$5 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday
900 British,
Danish, and French troops moved in to take over the Trepca
complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice –
and were met with determined resistance by hundreds of mine
workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and stones, and wielding the
tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits,
shouting their defiance at this escalation of NATO's war on
the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the Trepca mining complex
is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the
Turks, and is the richest source of lead and zinc in Europe.
There is enough lignite
deposits in those mines to last for the next 13 centuries.
The capacity of Trepca's refineries ranks third worldwide.
The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last three
years we have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude
ore and produced 286,502 tons of lead and zinc and 139,789
tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and gold." We don't
need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note
Trepca's estimated value – over $5 billion. What else
do we need to know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY
CORRECT LIES
Naturally,
they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown jewels,
without coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave
it to "Unmik," the acronymic tyranny set up by the NATO-crats
to administer their conquered province, to come up with the
most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in
its sheer ludicrousness, will appeal to such enthusiasts of
the Kosovo war as the German Greens and their even flakier
American counterparts. According to a
report from MSNBC, French spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy
solemnly declared: "We've noted a significant increase in
the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the
people of Mitrovica and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had
to react."
THE
ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's
see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of
organized ethnic cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against
the defeated Serbs – as NATO not only stood by but actively
aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo –
Unmik finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the
murder, rape, and pillaging of Kosovo's embattled Serb communities,
but to the alleged threat of air pollution. Do these
people even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't
think so. Real power means that your lies don't even have
to be convincing. It means further humiliating your victims
– in the process of beating them to the ground and robbing
them blind – by constructing the flimsiest of pretexts,
the more absurd the better.
DUBIOUS
DIAGNOSIS
While
the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels
of pollution 200 times above World Health Organization standards,
the
Serbs counter that their measurements indicate ".12 milligrams
of lead per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg
of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted
level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc."
As to the medical rationale for this brazen act of thievery,
doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical about
the veracity of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic
wryly observed that "we haven't had a patient with a toxicology
problem for years. Today only soldiers and Unmik police officers
suffer problems of lead in the blood."
THE
MONEY TRAIL
Are
you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A
$5 billion prize – but who gets to claim it? Trepca
was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but now it will
be "privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this
context, it is important to realize just whom we are talking
about. . . .
THE
SOROS CONNECTION
When
George
Soros invested $150 million in the region – most
of it backed up by fail-safe US government guarantees –
he declared that this was not strictly a humanitarian effort.
While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that in the case
of his Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept
of "tough love" and insisted that the new enterprise must
be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million of the US
taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping
down on the prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures
feeding on the liver of Prometheus
– the Titan
of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth
and gave it to mankind. The
Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who
taught their metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were
punished for the sin of such extravagant gift-giving, were
obliterated by the
gods of Olympus. Our own Olympians seem determined to
visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their part,
seem to be guilty only of getting between George Soros and
$5 billion.
JOHNSTONE'S
PREDICTION
That
the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for
their plundering is not exactly astonishing. These people
are moral monsters, after all, who would have reduced Belgrade
to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the political
consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly
astonishing is that all this was predicted, down to the details,
back in February by Diana Johnstone, in a
remarkably prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com,
in which she foretold not only the expropriation of the Trepca
complex, but also exposed Soros as the source of the scheme.
Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International
Crisis Group (ICG) paper
on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article
in the Toronto Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein
– Johnstone saw it all coming, and with such stunning
accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't
written yesterday. What is especially revealing is the role
of the International Crisis Group in fomenting the takeover
of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main sugar-daddy.
In its report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such
a rich prize fall into its benefactor's hands. As Johnstone
relates:
"In
the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK
is advised to instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment
team' to report on the status of the equipment and thereupon
'advise as to what measures must be taken'... Environmental
hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and deprive
the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari
Trg, one of the richest mines in Europe, must be potentially
profitable again and should be a priority for donors interested
in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"
PHILANTHROPY
FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief
among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects
to be paid back for his "philanthropy" – with interest.
Trepca can be profitable again, but the question is: for whom.
Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or was
it pushed there? Another interesting aspect of this whole
affair is that the seizure of the Trepca complex by NATO forces
is part of the Sorosian "business strategy" designed to forestall
and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies
derived from contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report
puts it:
"In
July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre
Rozan showed up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged
to the Paris-based SCMM, of which he was a director. Rozan's
claim was based on an agreement with Belgrade, in which SCMM
took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of
Belgrade's default.
SOROSIAN
ETHNIC CLEANSING
The
ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux
et de Minéraux (SCMM) claim as being without foundation
on the somewhat questionable grounds that the French government
is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not enough,
they throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's
claim must be summarily dismissed. This being Kosovo, there
is an ethnic angle in all this, underscored by the ICG report,
"Some
Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy
however unlikely, are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of
a wider Franco-Serbian understanding, which incorporates French
KFOR acquiescence in the partition of Mitrovicë, French economic
interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard
Kouchner himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative
of the UN Secretary-General. The recent award of a GSM telecommunications
concession, regardless of the transparency of the process,
to French company Alcatel, has fueled the suspicions of such
conspiracy-theorists."
OUR
CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros
and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy
theorists," quite naturally, but that doesn't stop them from
placing the blame for everything that goes wrong in the Balkans
on Slobodan Milosevic
"To
other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement
of SCMM looks like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion
(including by encouraging exactly that Balkan and Kosovar
propensity for conspiracy-identification outlined above),
and confuse the thinking of international officials charged
with working out the problem. By putting this and other claims
to due process of arbitration, and meanwhile getting on with
what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly sidestepped.
"
ARREST
THAT MAN!
How's
that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all
part of a plot by Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient
for Soros & Company that their chief competitors turn
out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats have definitively
settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines
by force of arms, the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur
Rozan and be done with it. In any case, it is clear that the
ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the mines,
if the ICG has anything to say about it. The author of the
ICG report notes with some irritation that:
"The
UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the
Jugobanka building and continues to display Jugobanka insignia
in the very meeting room to which Kosovars are invited to
discuss Trepca – some report that they feel uneasy in such
surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building,
is demanding rent, which UNMIK has refused to pay."
OUR
ORWELLIAN AGE
Who
cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls,
the Kosovars, reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity
to anything Serbian, even a company logo. The ICG is basically
making the argument that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo must
be completed: not only churches and other historical monuments
must be destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church
left standing in Kosovo – but everything Serbian
must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational"
organization devoted to strengthening the capacity of the
international community to anticipate, understand and act
to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian age this
means a government-connected tool of corporate plunderers
devoted to anticipating the profits to be made from military
conflict, and acting to furthering the interests of war profiteers.
THE
GREEK CLAIM
Another
company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through
contracts with Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead
and zinc, and this claim is going to be "a harder problem
than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close
ties to the Greek government, and a sterling international
track record for solidity and performance, Mytineleos can
make a strong case. The report also somewhat reluctantly notes
that
"UNMIK
cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the
UN legal advisers in New York have concluded that the rights
of claimants like Mytilineos must go to adjudication. The
question arises as to which court. So far that is left in
abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves.
If all other decisions are left to depend upon the resolution
of this issue, it could be many years before Trepca starts
working again."
A
PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The
military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems
by arrogating de facto ownership of the mines to "the
international community" embodied by Unmik – and deftly
sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal
technicalities, and the risks of adjudication: just go in
there and grab it! This is how the much-vaunted "Third Way"
between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians
and their British Laborite first cousins, works in practice.
First, you invade a country; then you strip it of its assets,
and sell them off to your politically connected friends, such
as Soros – this is called "privatization," but there
is nothing "private" about it. The source of Soros's Balkan
coup is government power: the armed fist of the State, and
not the invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy
of laissez-faire capitalism, which he rails against in several
unbearably pretentious books, Soros practices what he preaches:
using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from
the plundering of a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for
shills rationalize the schemes of this modern Visigoth in
the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."
It
kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
A
QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For
years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia,
the Balkan Action Council, and a plethora of other groups
devoted to persuading US policy makers that nothing less than
American military intervention in the region could save the
Kosovar Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out
on the issue, and chided the West for "appeasing" the Serbs.
Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will be shortly. So
we have finally come up with the answer to the question that
has been haunting us for over a year: why Kosovo? The
answer consists of two words: George Soros. All you
would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know
what investment strategy to follow in era of the Third Way,
then Soros has certainly set the example.
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