BREAKING: Wesley Clark to testify against Milosevic in December

[IndianaGreen]

BREAKING: Clark to testify against Milosevic in December

Clark is prosecution witness! He just announced it on Meet the Press!

[La_Serpiente]

1. Wow

that would be an awesome photo-op. Clark going up against a dictator.

[Zynx]

2. Sweet.

That will be a truly great photo-op.

[lemon lime]

3. I hope he is careful not to...

lend too much credibility to the down side of dictators.
We don't need him giving Bush any help with the likes of Saddam. Any obvious paralells could hurt us.

[billbuckhead]

7. Russert is cross examining Wes like he's on trial for murder

The General is doing OK, but Russert is truly GE's scummiest product.

[Dr Fate]

13. Timmy recieves orders from the Bush pin he wears behind his lapel

"There have been reports from those who were present that journalist Tim Russert was wearing a Bush For President lapel pin when he attended the traditional Al Smith Dinner in New York shortly before the election. This should be interpreted as less of an endorsement than a brownnosing. Russert was accompanied by Welch, who was a strong supporter of Bush and completely intolerant of dissent on the matter."

http://www.makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm

[Cocoa]

15. big difference

the trial shows that the Kosovo intervention resulted in the dictator being brought to justice, in stark contrast to the current non-finding o f bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

In other words, this can show the difference between success and failure.

[wndycty]

4. Do you think. . .

. . .in an effort to make Clark look bad the administration will work with the Milosevic's defense to descredit the General.

[lemon lime]

5. As dumb as he is, would Bush want to get his hand caught

in that cookie jar?

[leesa]

6. I believe James Baker III is free now!

He'll save Milosevic.

[MaineDem]

8. I don't want to think that any President would do that...

However, I put nothing - and i mean nothing - past this administration.

I've been on the receiving end of things concocted by Andy Card and umm, Kaufmann (?)and nothing surprises me anymore. Disappoints me but not surprises.

Edited for spelling.

[TacticalPeek]

11. Sorry. Bill Casey no longer on duty.

:evilgrin:

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

24. Wouldn't surprise me.

Many Americans probably don't remember much about Slobodan Milosevic by now, except that Bill Clinton played a pivotal role in his downfall. Defending Milosevic is probably beyond the administration's capabilities, but the opportunity to take a swipe at both Clark and Clinton might be too tempting for the more rabid among them to resist.

[leetrisck]

26. I believe Madeline Albright has already

testified at that trial. I'm glad Clark is going - why on earth wouldn't he?

[TheLastMohican]

30. There is no need for this

Slobo has successfully defended himself in Hague court making fools out of so many european politicians including that Carla del Ponte girl, the general prosecutor. The whole Milosevic case looks like a kangaroo court to many europeans.
No need to discredit Clark before his testimony, he will discredit himself in the court.

[Rose Siding]

9. Who handles scheduling for those trials?

Do we know? How hard can an absent candidate campaign?

[IndianaGreen]

10. The LBN is that Clark will be testifying this coming December

Clark made the announcement on Meet the Press, which is still going on.

I did a Google and I found that Clark spoke about being a witness back in 2002:

GLOBAL VIEWPOINT: What is the significance of the trial against Milosevic, which has just opened in the Hague?

CLARK: This marks the most important stage so far, a historic step forward really, in establishing the international rule of law. It is a very significant event because, for the first time, a head of state is standing trial because of the activities of his armies and in response to a finding of the United Nations that set up the Tribunal. I have been called as a witness at the trial and will testify.

http://www.digitalnpq.org/global_services/global%20viewpoint/02-12-02.html

[KittyWampus]

12. Powerful Picture

Clark could do much to mend our relations with the rest of the world.

[Dookus]

14. Imagine the comparison

Images from Iraq - death, destruction, lives destroyed.

From the Hague - a despot on trial under the rule of law.

One way is Bush's, the other Clark's.

[TacticalPeek]

17. Add a pic of a paper ballot going into the slot

and that makes a mighty fine triptych.

I watched most of a BookTV/cspan2 segment this afternoon from the Texas Book Festival, featuring a buncha writers of Bush/Rove books, including Molly Ivins, and comments from the peanut gallery by Liz Carpenter. Very good tv, and I highly recommend.

One of the points made, kinda quoting 'genius' KKKArl, was about considering the political battle as watching a tv with the sound off. Message: its the image that counts (lasts, effects voters, whatever), or the image-effect or image-idea, as opposed to the words, the issue points, etc.

Clark's foot-in-this-door is the image of the general, the leader of warriors, the defender of our country. As his campaign procedes, I hope we will see ideas such as you put forth here used to maximum effect by his team.

Looks like that show is rebroadcast tonight at 12:55 am (est?)

http://www.booktv.org/feature/index.asp?segID=4025&schedID=222

:)

[VolcanoJen]

16. The AP has picked up the story.

Here's the link, via the UK Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3395504,00.html

[IndianaGreen]

18. MSNBC: Clark to testify at war-crimes trial

For those of you that missed Wesley Clark's appearance on Meet the Press today, I highly recommend that you watch the rerun tonight at 10 PM ET on CNBC.

Some may think that Timmy Russert pitched softballs to Clark, but it is not true. Russert pitched poisoned darts to Clark, covering all of the controversial issues about Clark that have been discussed in DU.

IMHO I think Clark did an excellent job responding to all the questions, and in dispelling whatever doubts one may have had about his character and candidacy.

Clark to testify at war-crimes trial

Ex-NATO general to idle campaign for testimony at the Hague

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — Retired Gen. Wesley Clark will interrupt briefly his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to testify at the U.N. war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

CLARK SAID Sunday the Swiss chief prosecutor in the trial at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, has asked him to appear in mid-December to testify against the ousted Serb leader.

“Because of the historic importance of this proceeding — the first trial of a head of state before a war crimes tribunal — I have agreed to appear,” Clark said in a statement.

He said the U.S. government has authorized his participation.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/993417.asp?0cv=CB10

[DemVet]

19. Clark's not gonna look good.....

testifying when his own bombing campaign killed up to 500 innocent civilians. A bombing campaign, I might add, that wasn't sanctioned or authorized by the UN Security Council.

My mind isn't made up, but Howard Dean is looking better all of the time.

[mobuto]

20. Milosevic isn't going to look good

when Clark testifies on how he thwarted that madman's design to remove 1.5 million Kosovars through genocide and displacement.

500 lives lost is a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

[DemVet]

21. Maybe, but

wasn't taking out Saddam and saving Iraqi lives from him part of Bushie's excuse (in addition to the WMD thing) of going into Iraq?
I don't see the difference. I just think there was another way.

[FrenchieCat]

22. I don't think you are really looking...

Cause if you did, you would know that Clark looks extra good,

Next to anyone, Bush or Dean for that matter....

[Donna Zen]

23. The difference(s)

Clark succeeded...no oil involved...an actual coalition...over 400 American lives lost and counting vs Zero...Milosevic(a live) now subject to the rule of law.

This is very important in establishing an international court system and proving that it can work. As we know, that is something that the regime has refused to accept. Clark is participating in a process that they hate.

Did anyone else notice that Clark through in bush's "dead or alive" line when talking to the Tim-boot? That man cracks me up.

[TLM]

28. CLark did not succeed... he did not stop Slobo...

80% of the 10,000 people the serbs killed were killed after the bombing started. Clark's campaign did nothing but kill civilians... oh and 13 Serb tanks.

[mobuto]

25. No there's an enormous difference

If we had invaded to stop Saddam's massacre of the Shi'ites in 1991, or of the Kurds in the 1980s, that would be one thing.

But we didn't. There was no casus belli to justify the invasion at the time it happened.

In Kosovo, things were different. Milosevic's thugs were actively slaughtering Kosovar civilians and every indication - including Mr. Milosevic's own personal history - suggested that genocide was coming.

In Kosovo we intervened to prevent a clear and present danger to humanity. There is simply no such timely parallel in Iraq, because there was no reason to believe that Saddam was about to kill massive numbers of people.

[TLM]

27. That's 1500 civilains killed... and those are NATO's numbers.

And lets not forget Clark's own statements that targeting journalists, which is a war crime, is OK.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0923-08.htm

Given our collective recurring political amnesia, let's turn to an eye-opening August 1999 report from our British friends at The Guardian, concerning Clark's role as Supreme Allied Commander - a post viewed by Clark supporters as a major qualification to be our next president.

"NATO justified the bombing of the Belgrade TV station, saying it was a legitimate military target. 'We've struck at his TV stations and transmitters because they're as much a part of his military machine prolonging and promoting this conflict as his army and security forces,' U.S. General Wesley Clark explained - 'his,' of course, referring to Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic. It wasn't Milosevic, however, who was killed when the Belgrade studios were bombed, but rather 20 journalists, technicians and other civilians... The targeting of the studio was a war crime, perhaps the most indisputable of several war crimes committed by NATO in its war against Yugoslavia."

If you think the Guardian editors were being overly harsh in describing this as a "war crime," keep in mind that a panel of 16 judges from 11 countries who, at a people's tribunal meeting in New York before 500 witnesses, found U.S. and NATO leaders guilty of war crimes against Yugoslavia in the March 24 to June 10, 1999, "humanitarian" attack on that country.

As for Clark's reputation among the rank and file in our military establishment, the highly decorated and straight-talking Col. David Hackworth has written that Clark is "known by those who've served with him as the 'Ultimate Perfumed Prince.' (He) is far more comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die."

And we haven't even scratched the surface in discussing Clark's idealization of the Powell Doctrine, which led to NATO forces dropping tons of depleted uranium bombs on Kosovo, creating widespread civilian sickness as a result of contamination associated with DU.
___________________________________________________________




http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,208056,00.html

A month later, with Nato getting increasingly frustrated about Milosevic's refusal to buckle, Mary Robinson, the UN human rights commissioner, said Nato's bombing campaign had lost its "moral purpose". Referring to the cluster bomb attack on residential areas and market in the Serbian town of Nis, she described Nato's range of targets as "very broad" and "almost unfocused". There were too many mistakes; the bombing of the Serbian television station in Belgrade - which killed a make-up woman, among others - was "not acceptable".

Nato, which soon stopped apologising for mistakes which by its own estimates killed 1,500 civilians and injured 10,000, said that "collateral damage" was inevitable, and the small number of "mistakes" remarkable, given the unprecedented onslaught of more than 20,000 bombs.

Yet once Nato - for political reasons, dictated largely by the US - insisted on sticking to high-altitude bombing, with no evidence that it was succeeding in destroying Serb forces committing atrocities against ethnic Albanians, the risk of civilian casualties increased, in Kosovo and throughout Serbia. Faced with an increasingly uncertain public opinion at home, Nato governments chose more and more targets in urban areas, and experimented with new types of bombs directed at Serbia's civilian economy, partly to save face. By Nato's own figures, of the 10,000 Kosovans massacred by Serb forces, 8,000 were killed after the bombing campaign started.
_________________________________________________

[neuvocat]

29. How will you feel if Dean were to become the President

and make decisions that would inevitably lead to the death of hundreds, if not thousands of people? Do you really think that it can be completely avoided? Tell that to Bill Clinton.

[xultar]

31. nuf said n/t

[Robb]

32. I just love the picture of this...

"So, are you going to that fundraiser?"

"No, I got a thing."

"What kind of thing?"

"I'm testifying at the Hague. You?"

:)