The Freezer Truck Hoax How NATO framed Slobodan Milosevic * In Four Parts *
Part I NATO's Problem by Francisco J. Gil-White [Posted 19 September 2002]
=======================================
During the war on Yugoslavia, NATO justified its shower of bombs by claiming
that Slobodan Milosevic was in the process of killing as many as 100,000
Albanian civilians.[1]
In late May 1999, during the bombing, the Hague Tribunal issued an
indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for “war crimes.”[2] Then after the
bombing, from June until November 1999, NATO and UN investigators scoured
Kosovo NATO looking for evidence of mass murder so they could send Milosevic
to The Hague.
There was only one problem NATO produced no evidence.
[START REUTERS QUOTE]
"UN investigators have exhumed 2,108 corpses in Kosovo so far, but the true
number of ethnic Albanian victims may be much higher, the chief UN [War
Crimes Tribunal] prosecutor Carla del Ponte said on Wednesday."[3]
[END REUTERS QUOTE]
NATO had claimed up to 100,000 Albanian civilians were killed by Milosevic's
forces. But 2108 is only 2% of 100,000. Could NATO really be off by 98%? No,
it was worse.
*Before* the onset of bombing, NATO estimated that fighting between the
Yugoslav Army and the Kosovo Liberation Army terrorists, or KLA, had
resulted in 2000 deaths on all sides. [4] So, if they found 2108 corpses in
their post-bombing investigation, then by NATO's own numbers no more than
108 people had died during NATO's attack.
So, NATO had produced 108 out of the claimed 100,000? That is, they were off
by only 99.9%? No. It was worse.
First, Del Ponte’s 2108 figure was of “exhumed corpses.” Thus it included
not only Albanian civilians, but Serbian civilians, KLA combat deaths,
Serbian combat deaths, NATO-bomb victims, KLA victims—everyone.
Moreover, we know that NATO dropped bombs primarily on civilian targets,
including convoys of tractors and cars full of…*Albanian civilians* (see
APPENDIX).
Finally, the KLA several times proudly claimed responsibility for terrorist
attacks against uncooperative Albanian civilians.[5]
So we can't assume the "extra" 108 were all Albanian civilians and we can't
assume they were killed by Serbian forces. We can't assume anything.
So what do we have? That, *using NATO’s own numbers*
1. NATO’s estimate of murdered Albanian civilians was off by 100%.
2. NATO’s bombs and KLA terrorism can easily account for any Albanian
civilians who might be among del Ponte’s exhumed corpses.
Hence NATO's problem. Because the Hague Tribunal meant to put *Slobodan
Milosevic* on trial for war crimes—not NATO, and not the KLA.
You may well ask why is this a ‘problem’? Why not just drop the charges
against Milosevic and try NATO and its ally, the KLA, for war crimes?
Because that's not the fucntion of the Hague Tribunal. It was set up
illegally and is funded by NATO for the specific purpose of putting Serbs on
trial, not NATO officials. And thus on 13 June 2000, the Hague Tribunal
announced “that no investigation [will] be commenced by the OTP [Office of
The Prosecutor] in relation to the NATO bombing campaign.”[6] (click here,
and here).
And that is why, in her November 1999 press conference, Carla del Ponte, The
Hague's chief prosecutor, expressed the hope (!) that “the true number of
ethnic Albanian victims may be much higher.”
But del Ponte’s hoped-for corpses did not materialize, and by August 2000,
as the UN anmd NATO forensic experts wrapped up their investigations, the
*total* body count was still…“under 3,000.”[7] Without the promised
cartloads of murdered Albanians, how were they going to get Milosevic to The
Hague?
NATO took a year trying to solve that one. And then they came upo with a
solution. They suiddently realized that Milosevic’s forces had used freezer
trucks to haul thousands of murdered Albanians out of Kosovo, hiding the
bodies in Serbia.
Presto! Problem solved.
Never mind that before April 2001, in over two years of investigations, this
‘theory’ *was never even heard of*—not even hinted at; never mind that this
'theory' was *patently absurd*; never mind that this 'theory' was every so
convenient for NATO.
Never mind that not *one shred* of evidence ever existed to support this
'theory'…
On the ‘strength’ of this 'theory', Milosevic was illegally abducted and
sent to The Hague.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Up next I will do the following (if there is no link, I am still working on
that part)
PART 2. — I Examine the freezer-truck story on its own terms and show that
it defied all reason.
PART 3. — I show that the story was, in every respect, *utterly false*.
To be precise, I will show that the whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by
the new, NATO-installed government in Belgrade, in order to send Milosevic
to The Hague and please their masters. I will give proof.
PART 4. — I Examine how the mainstream Western press *consciously lied* to
the public concerning these allegations.
I will show how the media enthusiastically and lyrically grew and developed
the freezer-truck story, communicating with every turn of phrase that all
its important details were established fact, *always disregarding available
contrary evidence* including evidence the press itself had already published.
To trace the details of the freezer-truck story is to get an education in
the structure and operation of a vast propaganda system, colloquially known
as the Western free press.
FOOTNOTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
[1] The Times (London), November 2, 1999, Tuesday, Features, 553 words,
Kosovo’s corpse count.
[2] In late May 1999, the Hague Tribunal decided to indict Slobodan
Milosevic for war crimes. See The New York Times, May 27, 1999, Thursday,
Late Edition - Final, Section A; Page 1; Column 6; Foreign Desk, 1323
words, "Crisis In The Balkans The Indictment; Tribunal Is Said To Cite
Milosevic For War Crimes," By Roger Cohen, Brussels, May 26
[3]Reuters, 11-10-99
[4] “In Kosovo, an estimated 2000 people died from February last year until
March this year under President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic
Albanian rebels.” The Daily Telegraph, June 5, 1999, Saturday, WORLD; Pg.
20, 1026 words, Last hours of an evil dream - But NATO leaders still wary
of Milosevic, Tom Hundley
[5] Here is an example “The clandestine Albanian separatist movement Kosovo
Liberation Army (UCK) has vowed 'multiple vengeance for the innocent deaths'
in the Serbian region's central Drenica area, in a statement published
Wednesday…The UCK, a group that wants the province to secede, has claimed
responsibility for numerous deadly attacks against Serbian civilians and
Albanians loyal to the Belgrade regime.” Agence France Presse, March 04,
1998, International news, 243 words, "Albanian separatists vow 'multiple
vengeance'"
[6] “On the basis of the information available, the committee recommends
that no investigation be commenced by the OTP in relation to the NATO
bombing campaign or incidents occurring during the campaign.”
This is the last, concluding line in ICTY, Final Report to the Prosecutor
by the Committee established to Review the NATO bombing Campaign Against the
FRY, PR/P.I.S./510-E, 13 June 2000
This document may be found in Krieger, H. (2001). The Kosovo conflict and
international law An analytical documentation 1974-1999, Cambridge
International Documents Series, Volume II. Cambridge Cambridge University
Press. (pp.340-352).
[7] The Guardian, August 18, 2000, 989 words, "Serb killings
‘exaggerated’ by west Claims of up to 100,000 ethnic Albanians massacred in
Kosovo revised to under 3,000 as exhumations near end," Jonathan Steele
* Francisco J. Gil-White is Assistant Professor of Psychology at University
of Pennsylvania and a fellow in the Solomon Asch Center for Study of
Ethnopolitical Conflict. He specializes in ethnicity and the psychology of
ethnic conflict. He is Deputy Editor of Emperor's Clothes.
To subscribe to the Emperor's Clothes email list go to
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* JUDGMENT * Video Proves We Were Lied to about Yugoslavia
=======================================
In August 1992 millions of people were shocked to see photographs
distributed by ITN, the British news giant. The photographs were taken from
video footage shot by an ITN film crew that summer in Bosnia, Yugoslavia.
Travelling with the approval of the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic,
the ITN people visited two controversial locations. One was a detention
center set up in a mining company in Omarska. The other was a refugee center
in the town of Trnopolje.
The pictures were broadcast around the world beginning August 6th. They were
accompanied by sensational commentary.
For example Ian Williams, one of the leaders of the British film team,
appeared on Public Television's MacNeil Lehrer report. Mr. Williams called
the Trnopolje refugee center a "camp," as in concentration camp, saying it
was "at the center of allegations of atrocities." Said Williams
"Conditions at this camp were appalling. In 100 degree heat hundreds of men
were forced to eat and sleep outside in the field behind barbed wire."
The photographs did seem to depict concentration camp victims behind barbed
wire. Newspapers and TV stations worldwide broadcast those pictures as
evidence that the Serbs were running death camps in Bosnia.
But Ian Williams was a liar.
The photographs had been staged and doctored to create the illusion
concentration camp victims. This is proved in the movie, 'JUDGMENT!'
Note that we did not write, "argued." We wrote, "proved." Our film proves
that Ian Williams and the ITN people who produced and distributed the "death
camp" pictures deliberately lied to the world. They share responsibility for
the demonization of the Serbian people and they share responsibility for the
Bosnian war which killed thousands just as sure as if they pulled the trigger.
On 6 August 1992, twenty minutes after the doctored photos were first
broadcast, George Bush, Sr., held a press conference. President Bush
demanded that the Serbs be harshly punishment
"tighten[ing] economic sanctions on Serbia so that all understand that there
is a real price to be paid for the Serbian government's continued aggression."
Economic sanctions have been described as harsher than war. Virtually every
resident of Serbia has a tragic story about the suffering caused by those
sanctions.
Mr. Bush also announced that the U.S. would recognize Croatia, Slovenia and
Bosnia as independent states. He thus approved the break-up of Yugoslavia
and guaranteed that the civil war in Bosnia would get worse.
[Regarding the assertion that Bush held his press conference 20 minutes
after the ITN pictures were shown on TV, see "Holocaust images of Bosnia
prison camps make the West sit up," in The Straits Times, 16 August 1992]
Isn't this remarkable? Some pictures are shown on TV. Within minutes,
President Bush contacts his cabinet members, who also happen to have seen
the pictures; they decide that the pictures are legitimate; they work out a
series of draconian anti-Serb policies including the recognition of no fewer
than three countries; they call a press conference; and they do it all
within 20 minutes.
Isn't it more likely that the release of these pictures was carefully timed
to precede Mr. Bush's press conference so that he could take advantage of
the emotional impact to justify extreme, anti-Serbian measures?
The ITN people were allowed to film virtually without chaperones. This
unwarranted trust demonstrates the amazing naivete of the Bosnian Serb
leadership. Fortunately, a Serbian Television (RTS) crew accompanied the ITN
people, filming beside them, sometimes even mistakenly filming the ITN crew.
Using this footage, 'JUDGMENT!' shows, step by step, how a humanitarian
refugee center (at Trnopolje) and a humanely run detention center (at
Omarska) were made to look like cruel death camps. The lie that fooled the
world is re-created before your eyes.
The film includes interviews with Muslims at the detention center in Omarska
and the refugee center in Trnopolje. Listening to those interviews one has
the tragic feeling that, absent outside interference, there would never
would have been a war in Bosnia.
Part Two
This is How NATO framed Slobodan Milosevic, but don't stop there let's
relook at Bin Ladden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. You tell me ... is
there a patten here or what? Neal
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AND THE FREEZER TRUCK HOAX by Francisco J. Gil-White and
Jared Israel [Posted 23 September 2002] This is also the Appendix to "The
Freezer Truck Hoax How NATO framed Slobodan Milosevic, Part 1" which can be
read at http//emperors-clothes.com/milo/freezer1.htm
=======================================
According to the Freezer Truck Story, Yugoslav forces transported dozens of
freezer trucks full of murdered Albanian civilians over hundreds of
kilometers of roads, many of them partly bombed-out, and often over
mountains, out of Kosovo and deep into upper Serbia.
This was done, we are told, in the midst of around-the-clock NATO bombing.
The idea of trying to hide bodies by transporting them hundreds of miles in
freezer trucks (Mercedes Benz, no less!) is grotesquely absurd. But in
addition we must factor in the risk, given what NATO was doing at that time
to Serbia, including Kosovo.
This is described in text and pictures in the "White Book on NATO Aggression
Against Yugoslavia." The White Book is based on evidence compiled by
forensic technicians and magistrates and was published by the Yugoslav
government. You may access it at
http//www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosovo_crisis/destruction/white_book2/
The White Book makes clear that NATO could bomb anything that moved in
Kosovo. Anything.
Had Serbian forces attempted to drive dozens of slow-moving freezer trucks
cross-country, some surely would have been bombed while others would have
been ambushed by Kosovo Liberation Army terrorists. The KLA terrorists had
excellent rapport with the Western media. Within hours the news would have
been broadcast worldwide. Anybody attempting such a hair-brained cover-up
could be certain that some of their trucks would be bombed and others would
end up illustrating a Carlotta Gall article in the New York Times.
* NATO Bombs an Albanian Refugee Column *
The first case the White Book explores is the bombing of a column of
Albanian refugees who, according to Yugoslav officials, were attempting to
return to their homes when NATO incinerated them.
This internationally reported war crime took place 13 April 1999 near
Djakovica in the Kosovo section of Serbia.
As you may recall, NATO first denied it had bombed the refugees, suggesting
that the slaughter was the work of Yugoslav forces. In response, the
Yugoslav government brought reporters to the scene. They examined pieces of
missiles and identified US markings.
This was a bit embarrassing, but no problem NATO simply changed the
official story. According to the new story, yes, NATO pilots did bomb the
refugees, but it was a mistake. They had attacked military vehicles
responsible for burning an Albanian village and in the confusion they also
bombed a refugee convoy. (Thus the Serbs, not NATO, were ultimately
responsible...)
To back up the new story, NATO held a press conference in which they played
a tape of a voice, supposedly that of the pilot, explaining the confusion
that led up to bombing the refugee column. Here's how Deutsche
Presse-Agentur reported the NATO press conference
"*In a tape recording played at the daily briefing at NATO headquarters, the
unidentified NATO pilot* made no mention of tractors or other signs of
civilian life during the attack.
"He said he was convinced he was targeting Yugoslav forces responsible for
the burning of villages." --Deutsche Presse-Agentur (our emphasis) April 15,
1999, "Convoy tragedy 'will not undermine NATO resolve'"
Because of what NATO would say in their *next* story, it is important to
determine whether the mass media (such as Deutsche Presse-Agentur) was
correct in reporting that NATO had indeed claimed that the voice on the tape
was the *actual voice* of the *actual pilot* involved in the attack.
Just to be clear on this, here is an excerpt from the press conference at
which the tape was played. In the excerpt a reporter asks General Giuseppe
Marani some questions about the supposed pilot's description of the attack.
This part is irrelevant. The important things to notice are that
a) by asking a question about what "the pilot said," the reporter showed he
believed he had just heard a tape of the *actual pilot who attacked the
convoy* and,
b) Note that in response to the reporter's question, General Giuseppe Marani
did *not* say, "that was not the actual voice of the actual pilot." Instead
he also spoke of what "the pilot said" thus confirming that the voice on the
tape did indeed belong to the pilot who had dropped bombs on a column of
refugees
[START, Excerpt from "NATO Briefing Regarding Military Action In Yugoslavia"
- 15 April 1999]
"QUESTION I also note that *the pilot said* that he saw three dark green,
two-and-a-half ton vehicles, which are obviously not tractors with trailers
behind them or horses and carts. Is there some discrepancy here? Are we
talking about two possible different incidents?
GEN. MARANI *The pilot said* he saw the houses burning on a road north of
the road that we are talking about. [Our emphasis]
[END, Excerpt from "NATO Briefing Regarding Military Action In Yugoslavia" -
15 April 1999]
Unfortunately for NATO, the tape story also had problems. First, some of the
Western reporters whom the Yugoslavs brought to the scene of attack actually
reported that they saw no evidence of anything but a civilian convoy.
Second, a few of the reporters interviewed Albanian survivors who said there
were no military vehicles present. And Serbian TV (RTS) was broadcasting
these facts around the world 24 hours a day. (RTS was bombed a few days
later...)
So NATO did another flip-flop, claiming they had never meant to say this was
the *actual* tape of the *actual* pilot. Rather, they had only presented the
tape as an *example* of what such a pilot might have said about such an
incident!
This remarkable claim was made by none other than General Giuseppe Marani,
the very NATO spokesperson who, in the excerpt from the press conference,
quoted above, referred to the tape as being what "the pilot said"!
Here's the admission that the tape was fiction
[START tortured admission from Agency France Presse]
"Alliance officials admitted that a pilot's statement they released last
week did not correspond to the specific incident for which NATO has accepted
responsibility.
"This is contrary to what the world's media was given to believe on Thursday
when NATO broadcast a recording of a pilot talking about how he had taken
the decision to bomb what he believed to be a military vehicle.
"NATO spokesman Brigadier General Giuseppe Marani said the purpose of the
broadcast was 'to clarify the process of a pilot involved in an action of
that type.'
"The alliance had not meant to imply there was 'a relationship between that
pilot and the narrative on the tape and specific events on the ground.'" -
Agence France Presse, April 18, 1999
[END tortured admission from Agency France Presse]
In the popular image of the "free press," reporters are hell-bent on
exposing wrongdoing by the powers-that-be. But note, in the real world, the
strained gentleness of AFP's words. Phrases like,
"Alliance officials admitted that a pilot's statement they released last
week did not correspond to the specific incident [!] for which NATO has
accepted responsibility.
and
"contrary to what the world's media was given to believe..."
And consider the remarkable headline which AFP gave this piece. Please keep
in mind that, with any news article, most people read *only* the headline,
making it crucial. What would have been an accurate headline? How about
"NATO Admits Pilot Tape a Hoax," or, "NATO Botches Pilot Tape Lie."
Perhaps you may think of a better headline but we doubt you can equal the
one that AFP came up with. Here it is
"NATO pilot was not responsible for bombing of refugee convoy."
Isn't that wondrous? It manages to be literally true - that is, since the
tape was a hoax it follows that *that particular* NATO pilot (or whoever was
the voice on the tape!) did not bomb the refugees - while at the same time
communicating a lie - that *NATO* cannot be held responsible for bombing the
refugees.
One might ask, why *did* NATO bomb these particular refugees?
Yugoslav officials stated that the refugees were attempting to return home.
According to Kosovo historian Cedomir Prlincevic, in the spring of 1999 the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fascist-terrorists were attempting to take
control of the clans that exert an all-powerful influence over Albanians in
Kosovo. He explains the special features of Albanian culture which rendered
these centralized clans especially susceptible to violent coercion. The text
of his interview, "Why Albanians Fled Kosovo During NATO Bombing," can be
read at http//emperors-clothes.com/interviews/keys.htm
According to Prlincevic, the KLA had ordered all Albanians out of Kosovo.
The KLA, and its NATO handlers, filmed the exodus and, using carefully
selected interviews, convinced the world that the Serbs were "cleansing" the
province of Albanians, thus seeming to justify the NATO bombing.
The KLA served as bombing spotters for NATO air attacks. If indeed these
Albanians had rejected KLA orders to vacate and were trying to return home,
it is possible that the KLA called in a NATO air strike as an object lesson
to other refugees who might also be thinking of returning home. This would
explain why, on a perfectly clear day, NATO bombed what was obviously a
refugee column. The bombing would serve as a warning to Albanians. The
denial would mitigate bad publicity in the West.
To see the horrifying results of what was perhaps NATO's object lesson go to
http//www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosovo_crisis/destruction/white_book2/01.htm
-- Francisco Gil-White & Jared Israel
Note In case the "White Book on NATO Aggression" should become unavailable
at the url given above, try the following
http//www.aeronautics.ru/archive/yugoslavia/milosevic/bela/bela/00.htm
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=======================================
JUDGMENT! Video Exposes the Phony 'Death Camp' Pictures that Fooled the
World... =======================================
In August 1992, millions of people were shocked to see photographs of a
supposed Bosnian Serb death camp.
The photos were produced by ITN, the British TV news giant, from footage
shot by an ITN film crew which spent 15 hours in Bosnia.
Most of the photographs featured a tall, painfully thin man, stripped to the
waist, apparently penned in behind barbed wire.
Travelling with the authorization of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb
leader, the ITN crew filmed at a detention center in Omarska and a refugee
center in Trnopolje. The ITN photos were broadcast worldwide beginning
August 6th, accompanied by sensational captions and comments.
For example Ian Williams, one of the journalists who accompanied the ITN
crew, appeared on U.S. Public Television's MacNeil-Lehrer Report on August
6th. Mr. Williams referred to the Trnopolje refugee center as a "camp," as
in concentration camp, saying it was "at the center of allegations of
atrocities." Williams claimed that
"Conditions at this camp were appalling. In 100 degree heat hundreds of men
were forced to eat and sleep outside in the field behind barbed wire." --
MacNeil-Lehrer Report, 6 August 1992
And indeed, the ITN photos seemed to show people living outside, caged like
animals behind barbed wire. But Mr. Williams knew this impression was false.
He knew the Muslim refugees were moving about freely, that it was the ITN
people who were filming from inside a small barbed wire enclosure. He knew
the ITN pictures had been doctored to create the illusion of a death camp.
This is *proved* in the Emperor's Clothes video, 'JUDGMENT!'
How can 'JUDGMENT!' have proved this?
By luck, a news crew from Serbian State Television (called RTS) covered the
ITN visit. They went wherever ITN went, filming what ITN filmed and filming
the ITN crew as well. Thus there is a visual record of what the ITN people
did and what they actually saw. Using this footage, the 'JUDGMENT!' video
shows, step by step, how pictures of a humanitarian refugee center at
Trnopolje were transformed into 'death camp' photos that fooled the world.
The 'JUDGMENT!' video proves that Ian Williams, now the UN correspondent for
the NATION magazine, and other journalists who traveled to Bosnia with ITN,
lied to the public.
Mr. Bush Responds with Superhuman Speed
On 6 August 1992, just *20 minutes* after the pictures were released, George
Bush held a press conference at a Colorado Air Base
"Reports say that 20 minutes after the ITN footage was shown in the United
States, President George Bush changed his hands-off policy and promised to
'press hard for quick passage' of a UN Security Council resolution
authorising the use of force in the Balkans." -- "The Straits Times, August
16, 1992 "Holocaust images of Bosnia prison camps make the West sit up," by
Lee Siew Hua
Bush demanded that the Serbs be harshly punished, including
"tighten[ing] economic sanctions on Serbia so that all understand that there
is a real price to be paid for the Serbian government's continued aggression."
Bush also announced that the U.S. would recognize Croatia, Slovenia and
Bosnia as independent from Yugoslavia. He thus approved the break-up of
Yugoslavia and guaranteed that the Bosnian war would continue.
Consider the remarkable speed with which President Bush reacted.
Some photos are shown on TV.
Immediately, President Bush contacts his cabinet members, who,
coincidentally, have also seen the photos.
They confer. Somehow they determine that the pictures are genuine.
They contact leaders of, at least, Germany and England, possibly other
countries. They plan draconian anti-Serb measures including economic
sanctions that will cut Serbia off from the world.
They contact congressional leaders. They agree that Bush will announce the
US intent to recognize no fewer than three new Yugoslav secessionist states.
They call a press conference at a Colorado Air Base. They write a press
release. They compose Mr. Bush's statement.
The mass media receives the press release. Film crews travel to the Air base
and set up their equipment.
And all this is done in...20 minutes?
Isn't it more likely that the timing of the TV broadcast of these pictures
was coordinated between ITN and either the State Department, the CIA or some
similar body? That Bush scheduled his press conference to be held just after
the pictures were shown so ordinary people would believe that these terrible
pictures compelled President Bush to endorse extreme measures?
Perhaps ITN's trip to Bosnia, supposedly to "investigate claims that
concentration camps had been set up" (Strait Times), was planned from the
outset as a hunt for footage which could be used to produce such doctored
evidence.
ITN had a prior history of aggressively anti-Serbian coverage of the
break-up of Yugoslavia. So one might ask, why did the Bosnian Serb
leadership give ITN access to Trnopolje and Omarska, about which the Western
media (for example, NEWSDAY, 21 July 1992) were already spreading nightmare
tales? Perhaps they hoped that if they just let the ITN people see for
themselves, ITN would be fair. They did not comprehend the moral standards
of the people with whom they were dealing.
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