21st Century Privatized Warfare: Will Russia Pay the Price? Part 1

June 4, 2016 - 

Artem Dobrovolsky, PolitRussia-

Translated by J. Arnoldski 

According to the IRIN agency which deals with covering situations in problematic regions, in recent years around 40 armed conflicts have been ongoing in the world. Many have lasted for years, and some for decades. The number of victims of such conflicts exceeds tens of thousands of people. Over such long periods of time, the participants in such bloodshed begin to forget who and why they’re fighting, and the numbers of participants are supplemented by various volunteers, some of whom are real military men in disguise. Some of them are genuine idealists who believe in their rightness, but an increasing number of them are mercenaries. Sometimes they are presented as idealists, but many are acting according to contracts as hired military specialists. These people are the representatives of so-called private military companies (English abbreviation - PMSC’s - “private military and security companies”). 

A PMSC is a private, commercial structure staffed by highly-qualified technical specialists controlled by the state and acting in the interests of the state. Herein lies the notion of the fundamental difference between classic mercenary groups and terrorists. But as time passes, PMSC’s are beginning to resemble the latter. 

The main document which regulates the activities of private military companies is the so-called “Montreux Document” adopted by the UN on September 17th, 2008. According to this document, “PMSCs are private business concerns that provide military and/or security services, irrespective of how they describe themselves. Military and security services include, in particular, the provision of armed guards and the protection of persons and objects, such as convoys, buildings and other places; maintenance and operation of weapons systems; prisoner detention; and advice to, or training of, local forces and security personnel.” In this same document, it is specified that states have the right to conclude agreements with any PMSC’s. In such a case, however, they (the state-contractor) bear the responsibility of the actions of the structures hired by them, including for violations of international law.

The history of the emergence of “privateers”

One of the chronologies tracing the development of PMSC’s suggests three periods: 1940-1970’s; 1980-1990’s, and from the 1990’s to this day. The borders of such are of course highly circumstantial given that it is very difficult to define strict time frames for the transition from one state to another.

The appearance of paid mercenaries is noted after the Second World War when thousands of people internally devastated but professionally trained to kill were left discharged. A demand appeared for these professionals, and the first commercial units demonstrated themselves to be a unified and formidable force during the suppression of the wave of national liberation movements in Africa. The result was a prohibition of mercenary activities at the UN level. This ban was signed in the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention concerning the defense of war victims in 1949. However, some countries, and in particular the US, did not ratify this document.

The remaining mercenaries were transformed into security services, who worked to defend both individual companies or entire governments. Private security companies gradually became a serious force for accomplishing “dirty work”, such as carrying out the orders of special forces or terrorist organizations.

Starting with the 1990’s, the role of already fully-fledged PMSC structures in local and regional conflicts dramatically increased. This was contributed to by the mass reduction of  the number of servicemen in both Western countries in the 1980’s and in the post-soviet space after the collapse of the USSR. Since then, PMSC’s have only increased their influence and combat effectiveness and have participated in military and peacekeeping operations alongside various facets of armed forces. 

If in the early 1990’s only one “privateer” existed for every 50 military personnel, then in 2012 this ratio decreased to 1:10 and this trend has only continued. In Afghanistan and Iraq alone there are several hundred private military and security companies working which feature more than 265,000 private contract personnel.

In 2012, there were more than 450 private military companies in the world covering all areas of activities relative to the various types of private companies. States gradually began to opt for the practice of outsourcing, i.e., delegating the carrying out of military and intelligence operations to PMSC’s staff forces. Parts of the function of armies and police forces were transferred to these entities. In contemporary international peacekeeping operations, these companies are subject to the law to the same extent that armed forces are.

Three categories of private military contractors (also known as PMSC’s) exist:

1. “Suppliers”: their actions (at least according to the charter) are purely defensive as they provide training and private security services in conflict zones
2. “Consulting” firms: these represent consulting services offered by retired senior officers with administrative capabilities 
3. Material-technical support companies: these companies guarantee supplies and logistics with the aid of hired civilian builders and engineers with work experience in combat zones. In relation with the development of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, a new field of activities has been taken up by PMSC’s which includes maritime services, i..e, fighting piracy, escorting ships, and negotiating the transfer and ransom of captured ships and crews.

On this note, the Russian political analyst Veronica Krasheninnikova remarked on the pages of the magazine “Russia in Global Politics” in 2008 on the professional level of the commercial military companies and their high status:

“Military contractors bear little resemblance to the dashing mercenaries that flourished in the 1980’s-’90’s in Africa. Their companies have become objects for the investments of the richest corporations from the Fortune-500 list. They are well integrated into the establishment and their senior positions are occupied by former high-ranking civil servants.”

Back in 1992, the secretary of defense of the USA, Richard Cheney, instructed the Brown and Roots company (now named Kellogg, Brown, and Root) to study the scenario of utilizing private military contractors in conflict zones. In 1995, Cheney headed the parent company Halliburton until returning to public service in 2000.

The largest Western PMSC’s

Of the more than 400 private companies who earn money for war, only some are widely known. Let’s list a few of the most famous such PMSC’s:

Academi (USA) - this company was founded by the retired US Navy Seals officer Erik Prince. It has at its disposal a modern training arena, helicopters, boats, and patrol ships which are used by the US Coast guard. This company builds training facilities for schooling its own employees and also works on contracts with the US armed forces and intelligence agencies to train their personnel. 

Formerly called Blackwater, this company became widely known after the incident in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April 2003 when its employees came into conflict with the local population which triggered them to open fire. As a result of clashes, 4 employees of the company were captured by extremists and brutally murdered. In response, troops of the united coalition stormed the city which led to numerous victims among the civilian population. In 2007, the company received more than one billion dollars from the American government for performing special operations on Iraqi territory. Academi has a representative office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 

Kellogg, Brown, and Root (USA) - This company is the structural division of the former vice president of the USA Dick Cheney’s Halliburton which actively participated in the Yugoslav conflict as a logistical company and as the main agency which trained local police. This agency also deals in the defense of oil fields and industrial sites in Iraq.

Groupe-EHC (France) - Established in 1999 by former officers of the French Army, this was the first French military company, and is represented in the USA. This company works in high-risk regions, particularly in former French colonies and African countries. It has work experience Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Poland.

MPRI International (Military Professional Resources) Inc. (USA) - This company provides a wide range of comprehensive services for the US armed forces and foreign governments in more than 40 countries. The company provides training and support programs for special forces, programs for stabilizing conflict situations in various regions, and services in educating and training in managing state military personnel, analytical support, special operations, etc. MPRI leads security programs in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Equatorial Guinea.

In addition to its main functions, MPRI International assists public agencies in developing strategies for the effective analysis of information, supports the conduction of research, and evaluations of public opinion. It runs a program for combatting corruption which includes the establishment and operation of a special institute of general inspectors in ministries and departments for identifying corruption in both stable and unstable conditions.

At the moment, the company’s management is headed by General Carl Vuono, the former chief of staff of the expeditionary forces of the US Armed Forces during the operations in Panama and “Desert Storm", and General E. Soyster, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency the US’s military intelligence.

Participation in conflicts

PMSC’s have participated in almost all modern global conflicts. In February 1994, the president of Bosnian Muslims, Alija Izetbegovic, and Croatia’s president Franjo Tudjman, were forced under US pressure to sign an agreement on the cessation of hostilities between Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war of 1993-1994 in exchange for PMSC’s committing to guarantee military resistance against the Serbs. The realization of these provisions on behalf of the US State Department fell to MPRI International.

PMSC’s consisting of retired American officers managed to, in the shortest possible period, train the top echelons of the Croatian and Bosnian militaries. The sufficiently high military success of the offensive operations conducted by Croat and Bosnian troops in the spring-autumn of 1995 (the so-called “Balkan Blitzkrieg”) against the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina was to the credit of private military company specialists directly involved in the conflict. Another, no less famous PMSC, DYNCORP Inc., actively participated in policing operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

During the Yugoslav conflict in 1994, MPRI International organized the training of the high command of armed formations in Croatia and Bosnia and developed and employed an effective system of rapid communication between their headquarters and NATO soldiers.

MPRI played a key role in organizing the Croatian Army’s “Storm” massacre operation in Serbian Krajina in the spring and fall of 1995. 

After the end of the active phases of the conflict, the company continued to work with the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) and then worked with Albanian armed groups in Macedonia in 2000-2001, as well as with government forces in Liberia and Colombia.

Thus, the US, without officially interfering in political process, achieved impressive results. According to their programs for training reserve officers, MPRI employees work in military educational institutions as teachers and administrators. The company’s specialists prepare manuals for the Pentagon to use in cooperation with PMSC’s in carrying out military operations. The company’s specialists have also dealt with the selection of weapons and their procurement (including preparation and implementation contracts), the reforming of the Georgian Armed Forces according to the brigade model adopted in most NATO countries, the training of soldiers and non-commissioned officers (at the Camp Yankee base in Kuwait before their deployment as coalition soldiers to Iraq), the preparation of staff officers, the development of Georgian military doctrine, educational manuals and training programs for soldiers, the holding of military exercises, and the development of military operation plans against the independent states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The real takeoff for PMSC’s was NATO’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The main source of income for PMSC’s was logistical support, for the guarantee of which in Iraq 138 billion dollars was spent. In 2008, the number of American troops numbered 160,000 persons, while the employees of PMSC’s numbered around 180,000.

PMSC’s have been criticized a number of times for their excessive brutality against civilian populations. One of the most infamous incidents involving mercenaries took place on September 16th, 2007 in Baghdad when employees of Blackwater formed part of the convoy of the US State Department. Shooting suddenly started (to be more precise, a single shot), after which they proceeded to kill 17 civilians.

There exist several versions as to the reasons for this situation. Of course, the employees of the company justify themselves by the fact that a number of them were threatened by an explosive device after which they opened fire in self-defense. According to the Iraqis, there was no attack on the convoy, but rather one of the escorts merely lost his mind as the passing convoy refused to stop at the request of Iraqi police.

The consequence of the massacre was the deprivation of the company’s license for a whole week. The investigation did not find confirmation of an attack on the convoy. The Iraqi government initiated the withdrawal of Blackwater from the country only then to renew the contract after some time. Subsequently, the company was disbanded and rebuilt under a different name. Now Blackwater is known as Academi and is successfully continuing its activities around the world.

The inhuman treatment of civilians is far from the only accusation which has been presented to PMSC’s. These agencies are also suspected of money laundering, arms smuggling, and not to mention performing secret, illegal assignments for special forces.

Money laundering is rather simple as the funds that come into the possession of these companies are enormous and tracking the flow of cash flow is extremely difficult. Money directly used “on the ground” can be signed off for anything from “irrevocable losses” to “broken weapons”, “medical needs,” and so on. The list can be continued indefinitely. 

One of the most prominent specialists and masters of money laundering was the former defense secretary of the US, Dick Cheney. We will mention only one accusation from the long list (none of which, of course, have been disproven): an audit of Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a subsidiary company of Dick Cheney’s oil services of Halliburton, revealed an inflation of 67 million dollars for the project of creating a network of cafeterias for the US military in Iraq. 

Continued in Part 2 

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The US wants to turn Skopje into the Balkan Kiev

April 15, 2016 -

Andrew Korybko, Katehon -

The Republic of Macedonia fell victim to the US’ latest regime change destabilization against it, with “opposition protesters” rioting in the capitalWednesday night and even ransacking one of the President’s offices. While Hybrid War tension has been building for some time already and was described by the author in numerous publications before, the spark that pushed them into acting was President Ivanov’s surprise declaration of amnesty for all the people under investigation as part of the “wiretapping scandal”, with the Macedonian leaderremarking that this is a necessary step in order to move the country forward and out of the political quagmire. The Color Revolution elements inside of the country exploded into fury at the announcement, enraged that their attempt to use the newly created and McCarty-esque “Special Prosecutor’s Office” as an anti-government witch hunting weapon had been dramatically foiled. 

The Enemy Within

In response to the sudden spoiling of its ‘constitutional coup’ plans, the US ordered its subordinate Soros-affiliated “NGO” networks and the “opposition” to turn up the heat against the authorities and initiate the progressive rollout of their second preplanned Hybrid War putsch, setting the Color Revolution wheels into motion in advance of what is expected to be a forthcoming Unconventional Warfare complementary campaign. An unpopular spectrum of anti-government “activists” – including ‘Liberal-Democrats’, Cultural Marxists, and Europhiles (essentially one in the same) – flooded into Skopje in a frenzied effort to turn it into the Balkan Kiev, but once more, the professionalism of the security services and the patriotism of the population played a large role in mitigating the immediate escalation of the urban hostilities and in preventing them from getting totally out of control. The threat still remains and the US’ intention to overthrow the Macedonian government is now out in the open and utterly undeniable to all objective observers at this point, but the hooligans were so far unsuccessful in their plan to exploit their series of violent provocations and create an opening to embed themselves in the middle of the city. 

Having taken a day to assess the events of 13 April, they can be seen in hindsight as an unofficial declaration of the US’ second Hybrid War aggression against Macedonia, pushed forwarded a bit from its original launch date due to President Ivanov’s surprise announcement but still close enough to the 5 June early elections to be able to destabilize them. Washington summoned the country’s internal political enemies out into the street in a treasonous act of anti-government defiance in order to intimidate the rest of the country and gin up more support for the movement among society’s most radical elements. The brief period of rioting was also meant as a signal to the Wahhabi/Irredentist Albanians that are under the US and Tirana’s influence (and for some of them, their direct employ) to prepare for launching the next stage of the Hybrid War. This could likely see them staging a Kumanovo-style attack that would in turn activate the Western mainstream media-manipulated narrative that the Macedonian Crisis is a Huntingtonian ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between Muslim Albanians and Orthodox Macedonians, which in any case would complicate the political turmoil by introducing strong shades of identity conflict.  

Nasty Neighbors

Despite being of critical importance to the stability of the entire Balkan region, the Republic of Macedonia cannot depend on its neighbors for help in overcoming the destabilization, and if anything, all of them besides Serbia have hostile intentions towards it. Before continuing, it’s necessary to expand a bit on Serbia’s projected reaction to all of this, since it’s the first country that would be most immediately affected if Macedonia is thrown into mayhem and at least one million immigrantsconsequently exploit this state of affairs in order to flood across its borders. At the same time, however, Serbia is in no practical position to constructively assist its southern neighbor, and even if it did, it’s all but assured that such moves would instantly and deliberately be misconstrued by the West and each of the two countries’ domestic “opposition” movements and transformed into an anti-government rallying cry . Faced with this reality and the much higher subjective priority that Serbia places on its own internal stability and that of Republika Srpska (which is being rattled by Sarajevo’s institutional attacks against it), Belgrade would probably limit any prospective support to Skopje to the diplomatic-informational realm. 

Greece:

To address the nastiness of the rest of Macedonia’s neighbors which believe they have a stake in the country’s destabilization and potentially even ultimate dissolution, it’s necessary to first and foremost speak about Greece, which has ratcheted up bilateral tension lately by allowing repeated NGO-organized immigrant invasion attempts of the Macedonian border. The lingering “name dispute” is what’s to blame for the Greek authorities’ eagerness to subvert their northern neighbors, believing that if the massive pressure incurred by this cresting human wave can succeed in toppling the authorities and installing Zoran Zaev’s pro-US puppet regime in its place, the new “government” might ‘compromise’ on the Republic of Macedonia’s constitutional name and thereby satisfy Athens’ longstanding will. In order to fulfill the mission that it’s been obsessed with for over two decades now, some Greek authorities are utilizing the tens of thousands of Mideast immigrants that are inside the country’s borders as “Weapons of Mass Migration” against Macedonia, anticipating that they can be employed (both figuratively and literally) as battering rams for pushing forward the US’ regime change agenda and tangentially achieving their own self-interests in the process. 

Bulgaria:

The other two neighbors that are interested in the Macedonian state’s downfall are Albania and Bulgaria, each of which have their own “Greater”/Irredentist aspirations to promote. Nearly a year ago during the last major Hybrid War disturbance in the country, the author wrote about how these two states were poised to exploit Macedonia’s misfortunes in seeking to tear it apart and geopolitically divide it between them, whether formally or via de-facto spheres of influence. The next day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned his Albanian and Bulgarian counterparts against pursuing this dastardly plot, and shortly thereafter the state-to-state tension lightened to a degree and Bulgaria’s “anti-terrorist/anti-refugee” border buildup was revealed to be the naked instrument of bullying pressure that the author predicted it was in the first place. Still, despite backing down from formally trying to unbalance the state and strategically distract the Macedonian authorities, nationalist elements in Bulgaria remain dedicated to turning what they view to derogatorily be an extension of their own country into an outright protectorate or re-annexed territory, and it can’t be dismissed that similar pressures such as the ones from last year will be repeated in the current scenario. Positive media coverage of the “opposition” and any forthcoming extremist Albanian elements would also function in a ‘softer’ but similar way in helping to promote Sofia’s ultimate objectives. 

Albania:

This brings the analysis around to examining Albania’s role in all of the intrigue, which is the most negative one of them all. Amidst its current immigrant outflow and dwindling domestic conditions, the Tirana elite are eager to redirect rising animosity to their rule towards the convenient distraction of promoting “Greater Albania”. Last year the Kumanovo terrorists were reported to have come from the NATO-occupied Serbian Province of Kosovo, and this time it’s believed that any extreme political-insurgent elements within the country will have the full behind-the-scenes support of the Albanian establishment. When it comes to the potential for Wahhabi terrorists and Daesh cells to rear their heads amidst any future conflict, Tirana would probably play a backseat role to all of that by allowing its Turkish ally to take the lead in handling these sorts of terrorists operations, just as it has battletested experience in doing over the past half a decade against Syria, and likely offering up its territory for this purpose. Furthermore, the US already has a brand-new terrorist organization waiting in the wings to act, the “Albanian National Army” that just sprouted up in occupied Kosovo and conveniently, in the reported words of one of its ‘commanders’, “considers NATO to be its friend”. The Albanian-American-Turkish terrorist nexus along the non-Tirana-administered areas of the envisioned “Greater Albania” (NATO-occupied Kosovo and western Macedonia) will definitely play a determining factor in any forthcoming Hybrid War scenarios and presents the utmost greatest threat to regional stability. 

Chaos At The Gates

Targeting Multipolarity:

The Republic of Macedonia is at the literal forefront of the US’ War on Europe, as the author explained in a prior piece for Katehon pertaining to the Immigrant Crisis. It’s recommended that the reader review the aforementioned citation if they’re not yet familiar with the author’s analysis on this topic, but the general idea is that the US is employing “Weapons of Mass Migration” in order to place the EU into a permanent state of Hybrid War tension and facilitate the Color Revolution removal of leaders that have pragmatic engagement with Russia and China. On a more regional level, the US is targeting the Republic of Macedonia and Serbia because they’re the key bottleneck states in actualizing China’s Balkan Silk Road project, which if completed, would complement Russia’s currently suspended Balkan Stream gas pipeline and together create the infrastructural backbone of a multlipolar future for Europe. 

Regional Tidal Wave:

Hybrid War in and of itself is destabilizing for any country and region that suffers from its most intense manifestations, but the most direct and debilitating form of chaos that it immediately leads to is an outflow of immigrants/refugees/undercover terrorists to and from the battlespace. This takes on a particular significance in the present day given the ongoing Immigrant Crisis and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s February dire warning to the world that “hundreds and thousands of extremists enter Europe under the guise of being refugees.” The Republic of Macedonia is literally on the frontlines of this crisis and has amazingly stood strong in the face of the overwhelming odds against it, but faced with the recent commencement of Hybrid War within its borders and the possibility of the Color Revolution disturbances transforming into an all-out Unconventional War, it’s uncertain at this time how effectively it’ll be able to hold out. 

Structural Vulnerabilities: 

Greece’s repeated border subversions and the culpability that some of its government authorities and hosted NGOs have in worsening the Immigrant Crisis and funneling its most destabilizing elements northward to Macedonia can expectedly be taken to mean that the security services will have their work cut out for them in juggling the nascent Color Revolution threat, snuffing out any Unconventional Warfare ones infiltrating in from Albania and/or NATO-occupied Kosovo, and securing the border from an outright immigrant invasion. Furthermore, if Bulgaria once more decides to provocatively send troops to the Macedonian border amidst a rapidly escalating climax of the situation, then it could have the effect of stretching the Macedonian authorities’ concentration much too thin and opening up strategic vulnerabilities on one of these multiple fronts that could then be instantaneously exploited by the US and its allies in accordance to their many preplanned and forecasted scenarios. The end result of a successful regime change in Macedonia would be the barbarian-like storming of the country’s territory and an uncontrollable surge of up to one million immigrants right through the heart of the Central Balkans, precisely at the moment in time when the regional states had begun to finally breathe a collective sigh of relief that the worst point of the crisis was behind them. 

Reinforcing The Front:

In dealing with this possible eventuality, it’s necessary that the Macedonian authorities receive some sort of multilateral physical support from the same stakeholders that most immediately have something to lose if the government falls and becomes a doormat for the US’ “Weapons of Mass Migration” to invade Europe. Right now, as the author previously analyzed in an article for The Saker, the status quo equilibrium and the de-facto closure of the “Balkan Corridor” is presently maintained by joint the Austrian-Hungarian leadership that brought all of the Balkan states together and got them to overlook their bickering in favor of pursuing a collective and coordinated solution to the problem that plagues them all. The most effective way to proactively counter the chances that the incipient Hybrid War in Macedonia will demolish the border ‘floodgates’ and inundate Europe with an uncontrollable flow of “Weapons of Mass Migration” is for this temporary Central European-led security structure to take on a heightened role (by official Macedonian invitation, of course) in patrolling the Greek border and thus giving the authorities more flexibility in responding to the US’ other provocations. 

Concluding Thoughts

Macedonia convincingly appears to be on the brink of a large destabilization, a second Hybrid War that’s directly targeting its government but is also indirectly aimed at destroying the prospects that Russia and China have for progressively liberating Europe from unipolarity. Washington has thrown down the gauntlet, as expected, in using its proxies to send a strong message to Skopje that its democratic security methods in foiling the “Special Prosecutor Office’s” ‘constitutional coup’ plot and in protecting Europe from the uncontrollable ravages of the Immigrant Crisis will be met with the harshest asymmetrical response possible. 

The growing threat that a full-scale Hybrid War will break out in the Republic of Macedonia is very high, and the Moscow-based Katehon think tank wisely suggeststhat harsh anti-riot measures be immediately implemented in order to contain the Color Revolution threat. If the authorities can get a handle on dealing with this latest destabilization before it gets out of control, then they’ll be in a better position for responding to any predicted “Greater Albania” and/or Daesh terrorist attacks that might break out before the 5 June early elections. If these two pressing internal threats can be effectively neutralized, then Macedonia won’t be as vulnerable to the direct subversion that its Albanian, Bulgarian, and Greek neighbors are plotting against it with American and Turkish ‘Lead From Behind’ assistance.  

If worst comes to worst, then Macedonia could greatly benefit from multilateral assistance in reinforcing its border with Greece so that its security services could more easily react to internal provocations as they arise, which would thus enable the government to put down any destabilizing domestic disturbances while relying on its international partners and equal strategic stakeholders in protecting the southern border from a “Weapons of Mass Migration” invasion into all of them. The less than two-month period before the election will be absolutely critical for the stability of the Balkans and the rest of Europe, but if history is any indication, then just as they did last year around this time, the Macedonian people will legendarily succeed in knocking out the Hybrid War threat that the US is once more siccing on them and ultimately landing Uncle Sam another embarrassing black eye. 






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The Roots of Independent Croatia

April 10th, 2016 ~ Fort Russ ~
From Katehon ~ By Novak Drašković 

Croatia's Ante Pavelic and Adolf Hitler of Germany

75 years ago, on the 10th of April, the Independent State of Croatia was formed as the state of the Croatian people under the patronage of Hitler's Germany.

The state was proclaimed only 4 days after the Axis powers invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on the same day that German troops entered Zagreb. German soldiers were greeted as "liberators" with unprecedented awe and excitement from the Croatian crowd.

Hitler recognized its statehood 2 days after it was proclaimed, on 12th of April 1941, making it a member of his New European order.

From an official standpoint, the Independent State of Croatia was constituted like the monarchy of King “Tomislav II", who played the role of a lesser Italian nobleman, acting as a king who never visited his own kingdom. In reality, the Independent State of Croatia was a fascist dictatorship ruled by Poglavnik (the Croatian equivalent of the Italian Duce or German Fuhrer) Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Croatian Ustashe movement.

During the four years of its existence, this state became notorious as one of the most brutal and monstrous creations in the history of mankind. In those brief four years, the Independent State of Croatia and its apparatus committed genocide the likes of which had never been seen before, killing between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Serbs on the territories it occupied.

This number includes hundreds of thousands of murdered children and under-aged boys and girls, most of whom were killed in the first and only system of child extermination camps ever seen, as well as entire families, households, and villages wiped off the face of the earth. Most of the Orthodox Serbian priests were also killed in the genocide. 

The independent state of Croatia developed a system of concentration and extermination camps, which, with its sheer scale and efficiency, rivalled that of Germany.

Among camps such as Jadovno, Stara (old) and Nova (new) Gradiska, the Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest and most notorious and is regarded as the place where the worst Serbian suffering in history occurred. Besides over 80,000 documented names, there were hundreds of thousands of undocumented Serbians, Jews, and Roma.

Even though some of the historians, jurists, and social commentators denote the Independent State of Croatia as being a Quisling creation, this epithet is neither precise nor quite accurate. The state was formed with both the military and political support of national-socialist Germany and fascist Italy, but throughout its existence it had the overwhelming support and contribution of the great majority of Croats.

After the Second World War, with the help of the Titoist ideology of leveling the blame for the war crimes and making the relations of the victim vs. the felon relative, as well as continuing the policy of restriction and confinement of the Serbian people that was in its own way carried by the Independent State of Croatia, Croatian people and the state were left unpunished, both politically and legally, and gained their own socialist republic that included territories in which the Serbs were a majority, even after the genocide that they had suffered.

The Croatian national dream of removing Serbs from the territories the Croats consider as their own was made a reality at the end of the 20th century during the Yugoslav wars. In these conflicts, Croats were able to carry out the last part of the old Ustasha agenda by expelling the final third of the Serbs (after killing and converting the other two thirds) from their historic territories of Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Krajina.

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US's Kangaroo Court Foiled: Serbia's Seselj Acquitted of all Charges

March 31st, 2016 - Fort Russ News - 

By: Joaquin Flores, editor - 

Today, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) surprised many today with its announcement of the verdict of the leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj - he was acquitted of all charges, with the court finding no criminal wrong doing on his part. He was accused of financing, managing, and supporting the Serb volunteer units and inciting ethnic hatred during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the early 1990's. His trial and imprisonment had long been a focus of Serbia's heated internal political scene, which is split over the issue of European integration and NATO, or increased ties with the Eurasian Union and the CSTO. Seselj is seen as a symbol of Serbia's resistance to foreign military and economic domination.

His acquittal comes as a surprise, not because of the strength of the evidence against him, but indeed the opposite. Previous convictions of other Serbs had been carried out by just as much evidence, which is to say, very little. 

The trial of Vojislav Seselj

Unlike many of the others accused by the Hague Tribunal, Seselj did not hide from the court, but turned himself in to the Hague 10 days after the drawing up of the charges against him on 24 February 2004. Seselj wanted to defend his innocence in court and turn the trial into a trial against the Hague Tribunal. The prosecution lasted for 11 years and the Hague Tribunal has failed to provide conclusive evidence of Seselj's guilt. In 2014, Seselj was freed for health reasons (cancer), but proceedings against him continued. Vojislav Seselj had no plans to attend today's sentencing, as he believes that from a moral perspective he already defeated the Hague Tribunal a long time ago. Seselj's defiance of the ICTY proceedings often took place at the proceedings themselves, and these now famous - intelligent and often humorous -  indictments of the entire proceedings and indeed the entire Atlanticist legal order were recorded on film, having now become a component of popular Seselj lore and canon.

Intrigue and controversy behind his early release

His early release in November 2014 also came as a surprise, at a politically sensitive time in Serbia. Seselj had consistently maintained his innocence, and questioned the grounds of his arrest and the legitimacy of the entire procedure for the duration of his detention, pre-trial procedures, and trial. He voluntarily surrendered in 2004, and used his platform not only to prove effectively that the charges against him were false, but to ridicule and mock the criminality and incompetence of the court itself. 

The best theory behind his early release relates to Russia and the ongoing conflicts in the world which involve both the US and Russia at seemingly opposite ends, as well as the Color Revolution/Spring tactic. It is clear that the US has the most clout over the proceedings of the ICTY, as the court itself is widely viewed as a kangaroo court where the prosecution and the judges work on the same side, to arrive at a politically pre-determined verdict, on the foundation of victor's justice. Both the US and Russia see Seselj as a potential game changer for Serbian politics, but have opposing goals in mind. 

Both players understand that the actions of Seselj will figure into the stability and legitimacy of the present Serbian government of the Progressive Party. We must recall that the role of Russian doctors claiming an illness is not new; this was used with Milosevic's case, in failed attempts to have him released from prison due to his illness. There then came some coherent evidence that Milosevic's early death was brought about directly by the ICTY or its handlers, as Milosevic's defense strategy was prevailing over the kangaroo court at the Hague, even with all mechanisms stacked in its own favor. 

There is little reason to conclude that the US would have agreed to the release of Seselj if it was not part of some compromise or deal with the Russians, who provided both the diplomatic framework and medical justifications for his early release in November 2014. That means that to understand this, we cannot compartmentalize this case, and instead look at this as part of a larger global conflict, which involves live-fire conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. 

Seselj's release in November can then be seen as part of a larger negotiation connected with ceasefires or prisoner exchanges, but also in the context of any aim to destabilize Serbia. 

But it would also be an error to view this entirely in terms of Russians having some interest in his release, with the Americans entirely wanting him to be imprisoned. Rather, the US also had an angle in releasing Seselj. What was it?

The US and Russia both wanted Seselj released

Vucic is sitting in two chairs, and finds himself in a unique situation, but one similar to both Yanukovych of Ukraine and Assad of Syria. The facts and circumstances which have emerged tend strongly to confirm the view that Vucic is no longer seen by the West as someone who can remain at the head of the government. Despite his gestures, which are fiercely opposed by the fractured nationalist and patriotic bloc, he has not made significant progress in reducing Serbia's sovereignty in a number of key areas such as NATO and the EU. Furthermore, as the US has decided to move into a failed state model for the 2nd world countries of certain regions, it is likely that the West Balkans is such a region, for reasons relating both to Serbia's strategic culture and Serbia's strategic use of culture, energy markets, and geopolitical alliances. 

Stability and prosperity for certain regions do not fit into the US grand-strategy, and the US seeks a relative advantage by setting back others in areas where they found themselves unable to get ahead. This is difficult for many Serbians to understand, because Vucic has long been vilified for his attempts at being in the good graces of the West. 

It was hoped by the Atlanticist powers behind Seselj's early release that he would immediately engage in the politics he has been known for: resounding attacks against a corrupt and entrenched political establishment led by Prime Minister Vucic, which he views as bent on undermining the sovereignty and security of Serbia. Instead, Seselj frustrated them, and has refrained from attacking Vucic, who many see as farther from Seselj politically, and contrary to this did two things, which seem contradictory and frustrated the Atlanticist plot. He began attacking Serbia's now deposed political establishment of the Democratic Party, which is viewed by nearly everyone  as being closer to the West than Vucic, even if by a degree or two. At the same time he did something entirely at odds with that - in attacking President Nikolic, who is nevertheless viewed by the public as being closer politically, even if by a degree, both to Seselj and to Russia. 

The US is attempting to forge a liberal + nationalist alliance in Serbia, a standard practice for them in the Color/Spring tactic. The details vary in each country, based on profound differences rooted in culture, politics, and history. In Ukraine, nationalists were anti-Russian and saw themselves as a continuation of European identity, even where at times this clashed with Europe's new liberal self-conception and instead relied on older continental incarnations of European power such as the Third Reich. In Serbia it is quite different, nationalists are pro-Russian and specifically anti-EU and anti-NATO. Furthermore, Serbia has already experienced a decidedly pro-Western coup in the past, using the Color/Spring tactic. This means that any tactic, applied again to Serbia, must take into account and figure around those points which Serbians may already be inoculated against. 

The credibility of Seselj and the Serbian nationalist's reverence for him was sought by the Atlanticists to be used as a tool against the government of Vucic. 

One of the main operating and proven ideas is that vague or open ended political slogans can be co-opted for any purpose by those with better power at projecting their message, and connecting the dots for the masses.  In other words, without tremendous media power, one cannot control the consequences of their own statements if vague or when made with provisos, which part of that statement would be redacted,  or conversely which part highlighted and echoed, and so on.

Any vague 'anti-Vucic' remarks that Seselj was encouraged to make, can then have its conclusions drawn out and solutions created by other nationalist leaders with Western backing. 

The Russians on the other hand were several moves ahead on this play. They saw that while Seselj's release would invigorate Serbian nationalism, that this could easily and most naturally be directed towards its own aims, with a much less convoluted plot when compared to the American. Instead, Seselj was advised, or naturally intuited based on his own knowledge of realpolitik, to attack the liberals (in power for the decade following the bombing of Belgrade) and Nikolic, the current president. This clearly gave Vucic a pass, who in response elevated Seselj somewhat officially to that of the 'Third force' in Serbian politics. 

                              pro-Seselj demonstration

Why Vucic must go

Presently the government of Serbia is trying to conduct its most balanced foreign policy since the Yugoslavia period. This means that it conducts diplomacy and international dealings in a way that reflects the realities of Russia's resurgence as well as the EU's prominent though waning economic  clout, combined with US military superiority in the Balkans through NATO, including Camp Bondsteel in the occupied Kosovo region of Serbia. 

This attempt at a balanced policy creates political problems at home, with US and EU backed liberals - a minority numerically but with ties to finance, media, and light industry - seeing the Progressive Party government of Vucic as swerving dangerously off track from EU ascension, and wary of the government's economic deals with China, Russia, and the increasing Russian presence in Serbia's deep state, security apparatus, military agreements, observer status in CSTO, Serbia's refusal to play the sanctions game against Russia, and the general refusal to engage in the US dominated political narrative of 'isolated Russia'.

Serbian patriots, that is 'nationalists', on the other hand, have an opposite view. They see Vucic's conciliatory tone on subjects like Kosovo, attempts to woo foreign EU investment, as well as his statements and official policy of EU integration (though in fact there has been little if any forward movement), as well as making a passage and tax deal that favors NATO's presence, as evidence that he is against Serbia's sovereignty and is actively working with Serbia's moral and geostrategic opponents. 

The Serbian patriotic scene readily, and rightly, embraced both Assad of Syria and Gaddafi of Libya, and supported their resistance to the Color/Spring tactic, and understood it in such terms. What was absent from their collective analysis, or rather, what has failed to be underscored as it relates to Serbia, is that Vucic is in a similar situation in certain important aspects, as was Yanukovych or Assad.  In the case of Assad - there were, at the beginning, very real 'pro-Syrian' objections to Assad's governance, primarily rooted in the concessions and relationship that he built with western powers in the years directly following the US invasion of Iraq. 

Not only since the collapse of the USSR, but more so after the US's middle-east incursions, Syria sought branding as one of the 'moderate' countries in the region, which agreed to social and economic reforms in Syria, bringing in further IMF debt and forfeiting important social-government work to foreign controlled NGO's, who eventually won the hearts and minds of a sizable minority of the country's population, leading to the formation of the coalition and the FSA. 

It has been a failure on the part of Serbians to understand that prior to being scheduled for offing, Assad had attempted to maintain balanced relations with Russia, China, and Iran on the one hand, and Turkey, the EU, the US and other players on the other. While Vucic has committed to policies which critics are right to point out, the alternative supported by the west involving his removal would result in not only an end to the Progressive Party government, but to the Serbian state itself. 

This last part is critical: Serbia is in a delicate position where it has the possibility of either gaining Republika Srpska and regaining Kosovo, while maintaining regions like Vojvodina, or by fracturing and shattering further, as part of a precursor to an actual conflict between devolving local powers and hostile regional states.

Seselj refused to play a role in the Color/Spring script

The Color/Spring tactic is an active and adaptive method. The organizations which move it are capable of self-awareness, meaning they are aware that there are active attempts to subvert or derail the tactic, and the tactic adapts to this threat as a living or sentient entity would. This means that the tactic has undergone several evolutions since it was first introduced many decades ago during the Cold War, to the point where it can even adapt to political mechanisms and movements (such as in Serbia) that are aware of its methods and tactics and have therefore built some level of immunity to it. 

That means that instead of using the public's relatively non-existent pro-Western and anti-Russian sentiments towards a catalyzed 'Majdan'-like spring/occupy/color tactic, another track is being taken. The idea for Serbia is to attack Vucic for his inability to make a coherent and uniform pro-Russian policy. The result of the attack is his desired downfall, and his replacement by an actually anti-Russian government, with the possibility of the dismantling of the state both in terms of territory and the military-security apparatus. 

Because Seselj apparently understood the plot that he was expected to play a part in, and saw the trap, he was able to avoid it. This caused the ICTY to call for his return, something which the government of Serbia was wise to gesture their unwillingness to cooperate with. Had they returned him, it would have meant the creation of an occupy/spring tent encampment at the steps of government offices, with the call for Vucic to step down. 

For these reasons, today's acquittal of Seselj is both a surprise and, just as his conviction would have been, a political maneuver on the part of the ICTY and its NATO backers, which analysts will be attempting to reconcile and explain in the coming period.

The best theory so far is this: Seeing that Vucic would not hand Seselj back months ago after the urging of the ICTY and complaints by Croatia, and would not even send him for today's verdict, the West would not further their position by convicting Seselj. In fact, Vucic's refusal to hand Seselj back after such a conviction would further bolster his credibility in the eyes of the fractured nationalist bloc, and would work against the West's aims to undermine his authority, and the project to remove Vucic from power through some popular protest-type movement, connected to next month's elections in Belgrade. By simply acquitting Seselj, Vucic cannot demonstrate his fealty to the Serbian cause by refusing to hand him over. Vucic has been robbed of this opportunity, even though it provides Seselj the legal guarantees required to position himself as a viable alternative candidate for the remainder of his career.

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