The Lincoln connection with an Abu Ghraib stop-over

Censorship.
World-wide brain-washing.
Outcome of the most recent developments is that the corporate media stopped reporting on the trial, thus turning it into a de facto secret kangaroo court from my prior article titled Kangaroos on parade at:baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9755/index.php Now the prosecution is attempting to limit Milosevic's active defense case and bring the trial to a close as rapidly as possible.

The endless (and endlessly painful) trial of Slobodan Milosevic is getting more bizarre by the day. The prosecution is now strictly in the “damage control business”. Their case being presented left much doubt as to Milosevic’s guilt, crimes, responsibility, etc. in spite of the mass-media’s constant demonizing of all things Serbian and sentencing a nation through Slobodan Milosevic.

I need to make myself clear on the fact, that I personally believe Milosevic is guilty, but not of the charges brought against him. The prosecution just got out of hand trying to pin every conceivable failure of Western “diplomacy” onto Milosevic’s huge laundry list of charges. Had they gone with only what they could prove, this mockery of a trial would be over by now and Milosevic would be serving some sentence of probation or “conditional release” – not much more.

I have two events to report on:
a) Hague conference: Emerging issues in International Law (February 26, 2005)
b) Global research, Canada October 2004 by Tiphaine Dickson

A) The Lincoln connection can be found fairly easily in the words of Ramsey Clark’s contribution to the Conference (Feb. 26): “Clark compared the situation in Yugoslavia to that of the U.S. Civil War, although in the Balkans the reactionary side won." He [Milosevic] was blamed for doing what Abraham Lincoln did in the American Civil War--and that was trying to preserve the Union. Lincoln said many times that his sole purpose was to preserve the Union, yet here the United States' sole purpose was to destroy Yugoslavia, so that the 'end of history' would appear real," said Clark.
"To do that you had to demonize and destroy the leadership that aimed to preserve the Yugoslav union," he added. "And to have its way the United States had to corrupt the United Nations and international justice." - Professor Valkonov pointed, so you have a very simple but accurate overview. The outcome is of these two events is probably the most pronounced peril to the ideas of liberty and democracy world-wide. I contend the international media went to sleep or imposed strict censorship ever since it became obvious that the prosecution has done poorly, and the defendant seems to be gaining momentum.

B) Having submitted her paper in writing Ms. Dickson points out the following: “Writing in the pages of International Herald Tribune ("Enough of Milosevic’s Antics" July 13, 2004), David Scheffer, former Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues under Secretary of State Albright, dehumanizes Milosevic, and urges the ICTY to reassert its "authority" over him. Writes Scheffer: "When he was the presiding judge, the late Richard May deftly handled Milosevic’s exercise of his right to self-representation by giving him enough leash every day to speak his mind and then jerking that leash when he overstepped his bounds." The metaphor of "leash jerking" is powerfully deployed here in light of the painfully recent Abu Ghraib prison atrocities in Iraq, immortalized by the infamous photograph of Pfc. Lynndie England holding a naked human being on a leash. Is Scheffer urging the ICTY to become more like Abu Ghraib, but in the judicial, rather than military theatre of operations?”

Now, isn’t that so dandy. On one hand you have the pictures of cruelty towards the Iraqi prisoners that have been condemned by the entire world but you also have a Western journalist (David Scheffer, mildly associated with Allbright – who should be held more responsible for the crimes in former Yugoslavia than anybody else) suggesting this “leash-jerking routine”. To sum it up “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

The saddest outcome being the collective loss of truth for all of us, once the media starts creating villains, heroes, leaders and failures, we might as well turn to Hollywood – they’ve been in that business much longer than the media, and Hollywood’s results are also financially more lucrative, so let’s dump all the media and live in the world created by Hollywood. Isn’t the sum total of all this just plain old censorship? No? OK, I’ll settle for brain-washing. Same outcome: corporate media stopped reporting on the trial, thus turning it into a de facto secret kangaroo court. Now the prosecution is attempting to limit Milosevic's active defense case and bring the trial to a close as rapidly as possible. Back to the “damage control issues”.

Iliya Pavlovich