Doug Henwood wrote:
JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
>I agree with Brad. Imperialism is at least as stupid as it is evil. I mean,
>look, we sent a man with a cake shaped like a key to see if he could pry the
>American hostages loose from Iran.
Uh, guys, sure bureaucracies screw up, and the U.S. military is the
biggest bureaucracy known to humanity, but the Observer/Politiken
story is based on interviews with people who said the bombing was
deliberate.
--- That's right. Here's a list of the Observer/Politiken's sources--for their *first* story--based on conversations with the reporters: * A European NATO military officer serving in an operational capacity at the four-star level - a source at the highest possible level within NATO--confirmed three things: (1) That NATO targeted the Chinese embassy deliberately; (2) That the embassy was emitting Yugoslav military radio signals; and (3) That the target was not approved through the normal NATO channels but through a second, "American-only" track. * A European NATO staff officer at the two-star level in the Defense Intelligence office confirmed the same story. * Two U.S. sources: A very high-ranking former senior American intelligence official connected to the Balkans - "about as high as you can get," according to one reporter -- confirmed that the embassy was deliberately targeted. A mid-ranking current U.S. military official, also connected to the Balkans, confirmed elements of the story and pointedly refused to deny that the embassy had been bombed deliberately. * A NATO flight controller based in Naples and a NATO intelligence officer monitoring Yugoslav radio broadcasts from Macedonia each confirmed that NATO's signals intelligence located Yugoslav military radio signals coming from the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. When they informed their superiors, they were told that the matter would be handled further up in the chain of command. Two weeks later, the embassy was bombed. * An official at the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency told the reporters that NATO's official explanation, which involves a faulty map of Belgrade, is a "damned lie." The Alliance claims it was targeting the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement which had once been located at that site. But Holsoe discovered through simple open-source inquiries that no building was ever on that site before the embassy. The Yugoslav office for supplies is in fact 500 meters down the street and was struck later by NATO. According to Helsoe, "nearly everyone involved in NATO air operations or signals command knows that the embassy bombing was deliberate." (Pacific News Service, 10/20/99) --- In the Observer/Politiken's follow-up story, they wrote: "Five weeks ago the Observer reported evidence gathered from sources within NATO -- serving military officers who would be instantly sacked if named. Our account was denied by the CIA, by Albright and by Cook, who said there was not a "shred of evidence to support this rather wild story." "The Observer has gone back to its original sources, and also spoken to other serving officers, from NATO colonels to intelligence officers to a military officer with the rank of a general. All are in agreement. The Chinese Embassy was deliberately bombed." --- The reporters have also spoken to officials in the Danish and British foreign ministries who confirmed the story to them.