This article titled “Serbia arrests Ratko Mladic to ‘lift stain’ of Bosnia atrocities” was written by Ian Traynor, Europe editor, for The Guardian on Thursday 26th May 2011 19.11 UTC

Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect, General Ratko Mladic, was arrested in a north Serbian village 16 years after commanding the worst atrocity on the continent since the Nazi era.

The surprise arrest of the genocide suspect, wanted for the mass murder of almost 8,000 men in Srebrenica, turned a page in the history of the Balkans, offering Serbia closure on decades as a virtual international pariah and giving the country a chance to take its place as a pivotal regional democracy eventually anchored in the European Union.

“We have lifted the stain from Serbia and from Serbs wherever they live,” said President Boris Tadic, announcing the arrest of the fugitive who had been living in a cousin’s cottage in a village north-east of Belgrade under the alias Milorad Komadic. “We have ended a difficult period in our history,” Tadic added.

The 69-year-old retired general, who commanded the Bosnian Serb military during the 1992-95 war and earned a fearsome reputation as the Butcher of Bosnia, was taken to a special court in Belgrade pending extradition to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Mladic appeared in court on Thursday night, looking frail and walking slowly. He wore a baseball cap and could be heard on state TV saying “good day” to those present.

Mladic’s lawyer said the judge cut short the questioning because the suspect’s “poor physical state” left him unable to communicate. “He is aware he is under arrest, he knows where he is, and he said he does not recognise The Hague tribunal,” said attorney Milos Saljic.

Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said that Mladic is taking a lot of medicine, but “responds very rationally to everything that is going on”.

Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader arrested three years ago, is on trial in The Hague on similar charges to Mladic. To speed the proceedings, there will be attempts to merge the two trials into one, sources said.

In a message from his cell on the Dutch coast, Karadzic said he was “very sorry” for Mladic’s “loss of freedom”.

According to officials in Belgrade and accounts to the Serbian media, Mladic wore no disguise and put up no resistance when detained by the Serbian security service in the village of Lazarevo. The general was said to have suffered a stroke, and to be paralysed in one arm. “I am Ratko Mladic,” he reportedly said when arrested.

Local people took to the streets to show their support for Mladic, singing Serbian nationalist songs. “To us, Mladic is a hero, a military hero,” said one, who would only give his name as Paul. “He protected us from Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, even Slovenia. He saved our families,” he said.

The image of a frail and sickly rural retiree was a far cry from the strutting, imperious commander of the 1990s who was a monstrous figure to the Muslims of Bosnia and whose name is synonymous with the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 when Mladic’s forces overran the Bosnian Muslim “safe haven” hill town, then methodically rounded up the males and murdered almost 8,000.

Mladic will be allowed to appeal against extradition, meaning it could be at least a week before he is flown to the Netherlands. The Serbian government is under strong international pressure to get Mladic to The Hague. Tadic said preparations were under way to send Mladic to the Netherlands.

“Mladic will face the charges against him in the international tribunal,” said Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief.

Serge Brammertz, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, said: “We await arrangements for his transfer to The Hague where he will stand trial.”

Barack Obama, in France for the G8 summit, said Mladic must answer to his victims and the world in a court of law.

The arrest represents a huge boost to Serbia’s attempts to move on from a violent past and to try to catch up with other parts of the Balkans in the race towards integration in the EU and possibly Nato.

The arrest came as a coda to the experiment in international justice that has been the Hague tribunal for almost 20 years. Only one of 161 people charged with war crimes remains at large – Goran Hadzic, a wartime leader of the Croatian Serbs.

The continued liberty of Mladic, the most notorious of the Balkan warlords of the 90s, has been the biggest block on Serbia’s international ambitions for years. Following the arrest and extradition in 2008 of Karadzic, as well as the transfer of the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague in 2001, Belgrade is confident it is now washing away the stigma of war crimes.

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe for decades and the only event in Bosnia that the tribunal has judged to have been an act of genocide in a war that left 100,000 dead, two thirds of them Bosnian Muslims.

Mladic also faces charges of orchestrating a campaign of terror against the civilian population of Sarajevo, the city his forces kept under siege for more than three years during which 10,000 were killed, of taking UN peacekeepers hostage, and of “the murders, persecution, forcible transfer, detention and mistreatment of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the campaign to permanently remove such persons from the territory under the control of [his] forces”.

Munira Subasic, who heads the association of Bosnian women who lost sons, fathers and husbands at Srebrenica, said: “I’m sorry for all the victims who are dead and cannot see this day.”

When Mladic was indicted by the tribunal in 1995, the judge described the alleged crimes as “truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history”.

The prosecution evidence, said Judge Fouad Riad, pointed to deeds of “unimaginable savagery … men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers’ eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson”.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary general, said: “Mladic played a key role in some of the darkest episodes of Balkan and European history.”

Additional reporting by Kevin Burden in Lazarevo.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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The media was absolutely hysterical over the Abu Ghraib scandal. The NY Times ran a front page story about it for weeks and weeks. There were not enough pages in the Washington Post to fit all the Abu Ghraib coverage. The WaPo could have changed its name to Abu Ghraib Daily they wrote so many stories about it. I don’t necessarily take issue with that because it was a big story and an important story. But a strange thing has happened.

Flash forward to 2011 and a similar story has been unearthed only this time in Afghanistan and this time under Obama. If you don’t know anything about it don’t blame yourself. The US media has decided war crimes aren’t such a big deal when they happen under a president they voted for.

A handful of US soldiers went rogue and began murdering civilians for sport and collecting body parts from them as trophies. One would think the left wing press would be foaming at the mouth to get a hold of that one, eh? Not so much.

The Guardian and Der Spiegel broke the story and claim to have more than 4,000 photographs of the horror. Again, one would imagine The NY Times salivating at the thought. In reality, not so much.

Does anyone really believe this story would be ignored if it happened under Bush? Or any Republican president?

After fighting tooth and nail to keep from it Naomi Campbell was finally forced to testify against former Liberian dictator and mass murderer Charles Taylor.

Campbell was called to testify about some blood diamonds she was given by Charles Taylor at a fancy charity benefit in South Africa back in 1997.

Personally, I think Naomi Campbell is a spoiled, stuck-up bitch who thinks the rules don’t apply to her. Considering her romance with the likes of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez I have no doubt she knew who Taylor was and just didn’t care.

It’s especially hypocritical for a black supermodel to support charities that help Africa while accepting a gift from a monster like Charles Taylor. He’s responsible for the rape, torture, dismemberment, and murder of hundreds of thousands of Africans. Taylor’s child soldiers were encouraged to eat the hearts of the people they killed to absorb their strength. The kind of animalistic savagery that took place in Liberia and Sierra Leone throughout the 1990’s literally defies imagination.

It’s not even remotely believable that a woman who practically drips with diamonds most of the time had never seen a raw uncut diamond. I would imagine Naomi Campbell would know more about diamonds than most people.

Campbell’s friend who was at the charity function with her has told a very different version of events. Charles Taylor told Campbell during dinner that he was going to send someone to her room that evening with a gift of diamonds.

Here’s an interesting documentary about blood diamonds:

I really wish this whole thing would just go away. Not because I think anyone is going to be prosecuted, but because of the absurdity of it all.

The newly released CIA memos did exactly what Obama intended them to do, inflame his kooky left-wing base.

Obama has said all along his intention is to “look forward” rather than get caught up in phony manufactured issues from the Bush era.

He gave reassurance to the CIA that no one at the agency will be prosecuted for keeping us safe for the last seven years.

However, he left the door open for his Attorney General to prosecute former Bush lawyers for their advice that led to enhanced interrogation.

It’s hysterically funny to imagine the Justice Department prosecuting members of the previous Justice Department for giving the president legal advice.

Obama is too much of a committed a liberal to allow his socialist agenda to go down the shitter for a couple of show trials. The opportunity to turn America into France may never come again.

They have no leg to stand on legally anyway, and it would set a horrible precedent that republicans would be sure to get even with once back in power.

Secondly, the opinions issued by the Bush era lawyers regarding interrogation were completely legitimate.

Moreover, democrats will have to put Nancy Pelosi and other top democrats on trial as well since we know they were fully briefed on interrogations including waterboarding as far back as 2002.

At the end of the day, all the newly released memos did was confirm what most clear thinking Americans already knew anyway — that there was no torture.

As someone who’s pro-torture, I was somewhat disappointed by what I read.

The techniques described in the memos were highly effective enhanced interrogation techniques and nothing more.

Only big pinko pussies would call anything described in those memos as “torture.”

Obama is just keeping this thing hanging out there as a bone for the kooks in his party to gnaw on while he works on getting his agenda passed.

When it comes to prosecuting Bush officials, allow me to borrow a line from the former president and say, bring it on.

-Chris Jones

The cowardly far-left is rejoicing over the news that 5 Blackwater contractors are being charged with manslaughter for a shooting that took place in Iraq.

The five guards are charged with manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence. Though they are charged in a sealed indictment in Washington, they surrendered at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. The Justice Department is preparing to make the charges public later Monday.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed in the September 2007 shooting. Witnesses said the heavily armed U.S. contractors opened fire unprovoked, killing innocent motorists and children at a crowded intersection.

Blackwater says the contractors returned fire after being ambushed by armed insurgents. Just like the Haditha marines, this prosecution is about politics and nothing else.

Those contractors were operating in a war zone where ambushes were happening hundreds of times a day. If they say they were ambushed — then they were ambushed.

A bunch of suits at the DOJ don’t know what the hell happened that day and therefore should give the benefit of the doubt to Blackwater.

The far-left loves to vilify Blackwater in the same way they vilify president Bush and the war on terror in general. They’re are despicable cowards, who only have the freedom to bitch and complain and vilify because of those who fight on their ungrateful behalf.

The men and women of Blackwater are patriots and all good Americans should stand behind them.

The entire world has focused their attention on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The slightest perceived human rights violations by the U.S. are broadcast around the world and met with international condemnation. However, what the world has failed to notice or condemn are the very real war crimes taking place in Chechnya.

Russia has been slaughtering civilians there for years with impunity. Russian aircraft routinely carpet bomb villages killing hundreds of men, women, and children. Russia also uses Chechnya as a testing ground for new weapon systems.

Russia’s poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led Army, commits every atrocity imaginable on a daily basis. Robbery, murder, rape, looting, torture, and kidnapping, are just a few of the things Russia’s Army is known for. Civilians there claim that Russian soldiers often kidnap Chechen citizens and hold them for ransom. If the family is unable to pay, the soldiers simply murder the person and dump their body. Soldiers in Chechnya are usually extremely intoxicated which leads to frequent suicides and accidental deaths as well.

The atrocities taking place in Chechnya are almost beyond belief, yet rarely does the international community even acknowledge that a war is even taking place there.

If human rights organizations are really serious about human rights then they should stop worrying about detainees in Gitmo and start worrying about the wholesale slaughter of civilians in Chechnya.

The extent to which Russia has devastated Chechnya can best be summed up in two photographs.

Photos of Chechnya’s capital Grozny:

Before the war

After the war

You can also watch an excellent documentary about Russian atrocities in Chechnya HERE.

MADRID, Spain (AP) – A judge indicted three U.S. soldiers Friday in the 2003 death of a Spanish journalist who was killed when their tank opened fire at a hotel in Baghdad. Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp were charged with homicide in the death of Jose Couso and “a crime against the international community.” This is defined under Spanish law as an indiscriminate or excessive attack against civilians during war.

At the time of the incident, all were from the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Ga. Judge Santiago Pedraz asked U.S. authorities to notify them of the indictment.

Couso, who worked as a cameraman for the Spanish TV network Telecinco, died on April 8, 2003, after a U.S. Army tank crew fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, where many journalists were staying. Taras Portsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters, was also killed.

Following the incident, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said the troops responded after drawing hostile fire from the hotel. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the use of force was justified.

According to the five-page indictment, DeCamp ordered the shot, and Wolford then authorized Gibson to carry it out.

“The people indicted knew and were aware that the Palestine Hotel was occupied by civilians, without there being a proved threat (sniper or otherwise) against themselves or the U.S troops, therefore, the tank shot that caused the death of Mr. Couso would constitute an attack, retaliation, or violence threat or act aimed at terrifying journalists,” the indictment said.

DeCamp, who is now an adjunct professor of mathematics at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., did not immediately return a telephone message left at his home. The school said he retired from the Army in July 2005.

Pedraz has issued several arrest warrants against the three, but the United States has made clear it will not hand them over.

The three men still run the risk of arrest under a Spanish-issued international warrant should they travel to any country that has an extradition treaty with Spain.

Under Spanish law, a crime committed against a Spaniard abroad can be prosecuted here if it is not investigated in the country where it was allegedly committed.

In a separate case in Italy that has strained relations between Washington and Rome, former Spc. Mario Lozano, 37, of New York City went on trial in absentia earlier this month for the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Iraq two years ago.

The agent, Nicola Calipari, was shot March 4, 2005, on his way to the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena. Sgrena and another agent who was driving the car were wounded.

Lozano, who was indicted in February on charges of murder and attempted murder, has defended his actions in comments to the U.S. media, saying he had no choice but to fire. He says he flashed a warning light signaling the vehicle to stop and that he shot first at the ground, and then at the car’s engine.

The judge has adjourned the proceedings until May 14 for technical reasons.

Also in Italy, prosecutors in February indicted 26 Americans, all but one believed to be CIA agents, accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003.

Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr, suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic causes, was flown to Egypt as part of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, and he was held in a prison where he has said he was tortured.

The 26 Americans have left Italy, and U.S. official have said they would not be turned over for prosecution even if Rome requests it. The trial is expected to start in June.

Resistance to the war in Iraq ran high in both Spain and Italy.

Spain was the scene of major protests before and during the early months of the U.S.-led invasion, with huge demonstrations in Barcelona and Madrid.

[Breitbart]