In 1999, the Clinton administration orchestrated a war against the sovereign nation of Serbia. Clinton justified his actions, by making claims of "genocide" and "mass graves" against the Serbian government. Those claims have since been proven to be unfounded. The Clinton administration claimed that the Serbs were engaged in ethnic cleansing and announced that Milosevic had murdered more than 100,000 innocent people. In reality, less than 3,000 bodies have been recovered since 1999. Around 500 of those are believed to be KLA fighters, and many of the rest were more than likely killed in the daily U.S. led bombing raids. In February 2007, the International Court of Justice formally cleared Serbia of any charges of genocide. Of course, the decision came a year too late for Milosevic. President Clinton actually placed our military side-by-side with terrorists. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was made up of mercenaries and foreign nationals mostly from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. In Feb. of 1999, Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) said: "We are in essence becoming the Air Force for the KLA." Serbia did not pose any threat to the U.S. and the actions taken by Milosevic were an internal security matter. The Serbian military was fighting against Muslim the KLA. However, the liberal media never once questioned Clinton's motives nor do they to this day. Bill Clinton convinced NATO to join in the fight against the people of Serbia. In doing so, NATO actually violated the terms of their own charter. Not one NATO member nation had been attacked by Serbia, yet most of them sent troops to march on that country. The United States was attacked on 9/11, yet NATO is now nowhere to be found. The air-war which was directed by Gen. Wesley Clark, targeted civilians. Under Clark's orders, U.S. warplanes bombed schools, hospitals, churches, office buildings, and private homes. They even bombed a nature park! In Belgrade, all three bridges which spanned the Danube were destroyed. They knocked out power and water to the Serbs. The bombing went on for 79 days. While the U.S. was criticized for continuing operations in Iraq during the Muslim holy period of Ramadan...Not a word of dissent was heard, when Clinton bombed the Serbs on Easter Sunday! So what was accomplished by Clinton’s war crimes against the people of Serbia? Since 1999, the Muslim terrorists of the KLA have demolished 100 Serbian churches in Kosovo and displaced 250,000 Serbs. These atrocities could not have been accomplished without the help of Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Gen. Wesley Clark. Because of their actions, Kosovo is now a haven for Muslim terrorists and the main distribution point for the world’s opium trade. The U.S. led was against the people of Serbia was a crime for which Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Gen. Wesley Clark should stand trial. However, do not expect the corrupt U.N. nor the left-wing press to ever hold them accountable. We now have a press more concerned with the sex lives of reality TV stars John and Kate Gosselin, than with the motivations behind an unprovoked was of aggression which left a sovereign nation in ruins, a head of state dead under mysterious circumstances, and that nation’s capital controlled by Muslim terrorists and international drug dealers.
What if Congress apologized for slavery and nobody cared? The Senate on Thursday followed the House in voting to apologize for slavery and the Jim Crow segregation that followed it. In other words, it only took almost 150 years and the election of an African-American who is not descended from slavery to move Congress to apologize for slavery. Thanks, senators, but you're a little late. As "senior black correspondent" Larry Wilmore quipped on "The Daily Show": "I thought [ Barack] Obama's election was our apology." He was joking, but not by much. After all, part of the appeal of Obama's White House victory was its symbolic message of post-racial optimism: We were ready as a diverse nation to stand together as Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed, put our ugly racial past behind us and look to a better future. By contrast, the slavery apology issue erupts at a convenient time for Congress but it's an inconvenient distraction, at best, for Obama. After all, talk of slavery apologies leads inevitably to the more volatile "dollars-and-sense" issue of reparations for the damage slavery left behind. Did somebody say "preferential treatment"? To ease its passage, the Senate resolution contains a significant escape clause: It is not to serve as a basis for any lawsuit against the United States. That means the measure did not have to address the racially divisive issue of whether we, the descendants of American slavery, are owed any financial reparations. The House passed a similar apology last July, but it did not contain a no-reparations clause like the Senate version. That's led to a talk of reconsideration of the measure in the House to conform to the Senate version. The House will address it this week. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus oppose the change. That could lead to an awkward situation of black members of Congress opposing a slavery apology. That's what you get, ladies and gentlemen, for trying to score good feelings on the cheap. But how do you put a price on that? The damage of slavery and segregation can best be undone by Americans keeping our promises to the next generations. We need to help every American child have access to decent schools, housing and nutrition -- regardless of race, creed or ancestral conditions of servitude.
The US military has cancelled an annual NATO-led military exercise in the Black Sea run for more than a decade. The exercises have been a constant irritation to Russia, and their reported cancellation would represent a victory for Ukraine's anti-NATO activists. They oppose the annual war-gaming exercise on the grounds that the NATO-led exercise undermines Ukraine's declared neutrality. The Sea Breeze air-sea-land maneuvers scheduled for July 13-26 off Ukraine's south coast and inland would not take place as planned, according to a formal message sent by the US naval command to Ukraine's government. The Ukrainian parliament's refusal in April to approve the maneuvers - a vote passed by the legislature in previous years without difficulty - made the presence of US and NATO forces in Ukraine and its territorial waters this July politically impossible. The US-sponsored exercise, which began in 1997 had included as many as two dozen NATO warships, augmented with combat vessels from Black Sea nations attempting to develop better relations with NATO including Ukraine, Georgia, and Bulgaria. The 2009 Sea Breeze was intended to be the biggest exercise of its kind yet, with 16 nations contributing warships. The Kremlin routinely rejected the claims, saying the exercises were the beginning of systematic NATO naval encroachment into the historically Russian-controlled Black Sea. NATO and Russian naval forces operating in the Black Sea tripled in size in August last year, during Russia's war with Georgia over South Ossetia, leading to a Cold War-style stand off between the two fleets until combat was over. Polls show Ukrainians generally opposed to NATO, seen by many Ukrainians as an offensive alliance for its air bombardment of Serbia, and ground operations in Afghanistan.
A U.N. mediator orchestrated a new round of talks in the name dispute between Greece and Macedonia,a former Yugoslav republic. Mathew Nimetz, a special United Nations envoy held a new round of talks with ambassadors of Greece and Macedonia in Geneva Monday and announced he will visit Skopje July 6-7 and Athens July 7-9 for talks with leaders of the two neighboring countries, the Greek Kathimerini daily reported. Nimetz held his last meeting with Greek and Macedonian envoys on the 18-year-long name dispute in New York in February. In the meantime, Greece blocked Macedonia's admission to NATO in April. Greece objected to the Skopje government using the name of Macedonia when it seceded from the former six-republic Yugoslav federation in 1991. Athens argues the name of Macedonia could bear territorial claims involving the northern Greek province of the same name. Greece sticks to calling Macedonia the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, the name under which it was admitted to the United Nations. Despite efforts by international mediators, the two countries have been unable to reach a compromise on the name dispute.
Somali pirates freed Dutch freighter the Marathon on Tuesday, however one of the Ukrainian crew was shot dead by the pirates, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. The 2,575-tonne Marathon, with eight Ukrainian citizens aboard, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden when it was seized on May 7. On Monday pirates in Somalia said they had freed the seven crew members of a captured Seychelles research yacht, the Indian Ocean Explorer which was seized at the end of March near the Seychelles' island of Assumption. Here are details of some ships believed to be under pirate control and some facts about the increase in piracy: JAIKUR-I: Seized Oct. 2, 2008; MASINDRA 7: Seized on Dec. 16, 2008; SERENITY: The catamaran: Seized in March 2009; INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009; HANSA STAVANGER: Seized April 4, 2009; WIN FAR 161: Taiwanese tuna boat, seized April 6, 2009; SHUGAA-AL-MADHI: Seized April 9, 2009; MOMTAZ 1: Seized April 10, 2009; BUCCANEER: Seized April 11, 2009; IRENE E.M.: Seized April 14, 2009; POMPEI: Seized April 18, 2009; ARIANA: Seized May 2, 2009; VICTORIA: Seized on May 5, 2009; CHARELLE: Seized on June 12, 2009; PIRACY KEY FACTS: -- In 2008 there were 293 incidents of piracy against ships worldwide, 11 percent up on the year before. Attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden almost trebled. -- In 2008, there were 111 incidents including 42 vessels hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. So far in 2009, there have been 31 successful hijackings from 143 attempted attacks. -- Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal.
When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones. The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care. “The church was crawling with people – the worshipers stood not only inside the church, but also outside, as the building is very small, when suddenly a few young men started throwing stones at the direction of our courtyard.” The church had also been attacked earlier that week, during a wedding ceremony. Stones and rotten eggs were thrown from the street, hitting guests as they arrived. The same night, the Rev. Roman Radwan, priest of St. Nicolay church, filed a complaint at the police station. An officer issued a document to confirm that he had filed an official complaint and sent him home, promising that measures would be taken. But within 24 hours, the attackers again appeared at the church’s doorway and no police were present to deter them – although the police station is located a few dozen meters from the church. Established in 2005, the church building was constructed to meet the needs of Christians who do not belong to the Arab Christian minority, mostly Russians who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Besides the Christians, these immigrants included other non-Jews, as well as atheistic Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity. Most of the Russian and Russian-Jewish Christians in Israel belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and find it difficult to adjust to Greek or Arabic services common in the Greek Orthodox churches of Israel. Since St. Nicolay’s church opened its doors, hundreds of worshipers from across Israel have visited it. “Many people fear they might pass away without seeing a priest, or they dream of a Christian wedding service,” said Radwan, an Israeli-Arab whose family once owned the land on which the St. Nicolay church is located. “Here we can answer their needs. We do not want to harm anyone and wish that no one would harm us.”
Pope Benedict XVI will welcome U.S. President Barack Obama to the Vatican July 10 for an audience scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Obama will visit Italy July 8-10 to participate in the Group of Eight summit, a meeting of leaders of the world's wealthiest nations. The meeting will be held in L'Aquila, site of a devastating earthquake in April. After the G-8 summit, the president and his wife, Michelle, are scheduled to fly to Ghana, arriving late July 10. Although Pope Benedict usually meets heads of state and government in the morning, the Vatican agreed to host Obama's first visit to the papal palace the evening before he flies to Africa. It is not clear whether Miguel Diaz, a theology professor tapped by Obama to be the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, will be present for the meeting. As of June 23, the Senate hearing for the new ambassador's confirmation was not on the public schedule of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Discussions between popes and U.S. presidents usually focus on common concerns regarding world events and the church's concerns over issues or policies with special moral relevance. So in addition to discussing ongoing tensions in the Middle East, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in Iraq, Pope Benedict likely will bring up his concerns regarding abortion policy in the United States and renewed government permission for embryonic stem-cell research.