"It is a horrible irony that the very same people who believe they are
defending an innocent group against persecution have instead been enrolled
through the technique of the "Big Lie" to become cheerleaders to the moral
successors of the Third Reich." - Ken McCarthy

May 6, 1999

I have received more hate mail, more angry denunciations, more
"take me off your list" for my reporting on Yugoslavia than
any single subject I've covered. This is very odd because nearly
all the things I've reported that have engendered such a response have
eventually ended up front page news - a month or so later.

Here is a polite excerpt of a typical angry response I
received today:

"I'm surprised that you would suggest the genocide of Albanians
by the Serbs is some  kind of manufactured lie."

First, I've never suggested that. I've only reported what
the German Foreign Affairs Office (equivalent to our State Department)
said on the matter before the NATO assault began. Here it
is for anyone who missed it:

"Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have neither been nor are
now exposed to regional or  countrywide group persecution
in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." (Thesis 1)

Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at MŸnster,
March 11, 1999 (Az: 13A 3894/94.A

Here's where you can read excerpts of a year's worth of
research that preceded this conclusion:

http://zmag.org/germandocs.htm

Second, I have pointed out that the evidence of
deliberate state sponsored genocide in Yugoslavia
that has been presented to the public so far
has been flimsy at best. The report of a New
York Times reporter of what a NATO spokesman
says someone else reported to him who received
his information from someone else who says he
got it directly from someone who spoke to an eye
witness is not evidence. God help all of us if it is.

There is a segment of the population that has, like
Pavlov's dogs, heard the word "genocide" and swallowed
NATO disinformation campaign whole and become cheerleaders
for the bombing and the impending ground war. Haven't
these people ever heard of the "Big Lie?"

"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for
the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily
deceived than they are consciously or intentionally bad. The primitive
simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to the big lie than
a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be
ashamed to tell a big one."

"Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked, later
on, whether he told the truth or not. It is not Right that matters but Victory.
Have no pity. Adopt a brutal attitude. . . . Right is on the side of the
strongest."

These are the statements of Adolph Hitler. He was not the first
to use the "Big Lie" as a justification for naked aggression -
nor was he the last as NATO's obscene assault on Yugoslavia demonstrates
on a daily basis.

Here is a letter I have taken to sending to every newspaper that continues
to parrot the NATO/White House line that the Albanians have suffered
genocide at the hands of the Yugoslavian government. If you agree
with my sentiments,  you might send something similar.

News media lies prolong the suffering of the innocent. The
first victims of war are always children and the elderly
and others least able to defend themselves. The death toll
of our last "adventure" (in Iraq which is ongoing, new bombs
dropped last night) is estimated to be as high as 1,000,000
civilian casualties as the result of contaminated water,
starvation, and lack of medical care.

May 6, 1999

Dear Editor:

	The Third Reich and the holocaust it was responsible for was made
possible in large part by the European and US news media. Through a
combination of sloth, venality, and cowardice, it failed to report facts
that were available to anyone who cared to look.

	It is for this reason that I implore you to stop repeating the
claims of NATO and the Pentagon against the Yugoslavian government, and
therefore its people,  until you have personally reviewed the evidence.


	Only one credible organization, the German Foreign Office (the
equivalent of our State Department), has studied the situation in Kosovo
and published its results. Their conclusion:

	"Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have neither been nor are now exposed
to regional or  countrywide group 	persecution in the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia." (Thesis 1)

	Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at MŸnster, March 11,
1999 (Az: 13A 3894/94.A

	The study was requested by a German Court involved in deciding
immigration policy. Note the date of the conclusion.

	Another German court, reviewing earlier the results of earlier
research came to this conclusion.

	"The Foreign Office's status reports of May 6, June 8 and July 13,
1998, given to the plaintiffs in the 	summons to a verbal deliberation,
do not allow the conclusion that  there is group persecution of
	ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Not even regional  group persecution,
applied to all ethnic 	Albanians from a specific part of Kosovo,  can be
observed with sufficient certainty. The violent 	actions of the
Yugoslav  military and police since February 1998 were aimed at separatist
	activities and are no  proof of a persecution of the whole Albanian
ethnic group in Kosovo or in a part 	of  it. What was involved in the
Yugoslav violent actions and excesses since February  1998  was a
	selective forcible action against the military underground movement
(especially the KLA)  and 	people in immediate contact with it in its
areas of  operation. ...A state program or persecution 	aimed 	at the
whole ethnic group of Albanians exists neither now nor earlier."

	IV: Opinion of the Bavarian Administrative Court, October 29, 1998
(Az: 22 BA 94.34252):

	It is a horrible irony that the very same people who believe they
are defending an innocent group against persecution have instead been
enrolled through the technique of the "Big Lie" to become cheerleaders to
moral successors of the Third Reich.

	You now have in your hands a credible report that contradicts the
very serious and inflammatory claims against Yugoslavia that appear on your
editorial pages. What are you going to do about it?