BILL COZIES UP TO SLOBBO IN SECRET TAPES By BILL HOFFMANN
February 7, 2002 -- In a major embarrassment for Bill Clinton, newly released tapes reveal the former president in a friendly chat with Slobodan Milosevic, treating the Butcher of Belgrade like a good ol' boy.
"It's nice to hear your voice!" Clinton gushes to Milosevic in a call from Air Force One after visiting U.S. troops in Bosnia in January 1996.
Later, in another chat, Clinton schmoozes with Slobbo, telling the then-Yugoslav president he's absolutely essential to Bosnia's future.
"We support normalization of relations and I know it cannot go ahead without you," Clinton stresses about the Dayton peace accord, which Milosevic helped clinch to end the war in Bosnia.
The leaked transcripts, published by the Croatian weekly Globus, are from wiretapped calls secretly recorded by Croatian military intelligence.
Milosevic is due to go on trial next week before the U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands.
He's charged with crimes against humanity and genocide in the coldblooded killing of thousands.
On other tapes, Milosevic even tells his aides that he enjoyed his conversations with the amiable Clinton.
"He spoke really nicely," the Serbian mass killer tells his sidekick Milan Milutinovic, an indicted co-conspirator who is still at large - and is, in fact, president of Serbia.
Milutinovic, nicknamed "Tunafish" for his terrible breath, quips that Clinton must have hid in Air Force One's toilet to make phone calls.