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David Rohde, Srebrenica and the New Justice
by Jared Israel (24-7-00)

[Note: An Internet exchange involving Srebrenica media star David Rohde culminated in his taking our argument to the 'New York Times.' Rohde achieved 'NY Times' status by loudly broadcasting Clinton-Albright-et al's smear campaign against the Bosnian Serbs. Will we get to reply to Rohde in the 'Times?' I don't know, but we're going to try. In the meantime, here are some thoughts on Rohde's 'NY Times' article which, frankly, I found shocking. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked anymore. I'm too old.
- Jared Israel]

David Rohde's latest article is entitled "The Battle of Srebrenica Is Now Over the Truth," and one wonders, "Is he trying to be funny?" In the article, Rhode substitutes the manipulation of prejudicial language for facts and analysis (that is, for journalism). In so doing he defines himself: he is not a journalist at all; he is an advertising man. True, he writes ad copy for the richest client in the world, the American Establishment, but it is advertising copy nonetheless and the outfit he works for is nonetheless only the most influential advertising agency in the world, the 'NY Times.'

In the article, Rhode has two goals: First, to leave readers with the impression that the Srebrenica massacre story has been proven true beyond reasonable doubt and, second, to discredit those of us who have used the Internet to ferret out and disseminate information about Srebrenica, information which has raised a whole mess of doubts concerning the Srebrenica charges, from which Mr. Rohde has constructed a lucrative career. These Internet Critics include Emperor's Clothes, perhaps especially Emperor's Clothes, for a couple of us just had an unpleasant exchange with David Rhode. Unpleasant for Mr. Rhode that is; he doesn't like losing. And why should he? He is paid to win.

A bit later we have reprinted an excerpt from Rohde's article. In it he takes on his critics in his customary manner; that is, he smears us.

APPEAL TO PREJUDICE

Rhode writes that the Srebrenica Critics are "some American and European leftists." In fact we include people from all over the political spectrum. It is not political ideology that unites us but a distaste for lies. But if the leftist label is inaccurate it is nonetheless handy; for it allows readers to dismiss the Critics as ideological zealots who need not be taken seriously.

Appeal to prejudice # 1: Rhode asserts that our views "radiate out from Belgrade." This is pretty silly stuff. Does Rohde view Belgrade as the hub of some political Empire, dispensing billions of dollars and employing an army of agents to subvert other countries? Has he confused Belgrade with Washington? The articles that launched the Internet critique of Srebrenica didn't come from Yugoslavia at all, they came from George Pumphrey (an American political analyst in Berlin) and Abe de Vries (a journalist in the Netherlands) and Diana Johnstone (an American political analyst in Paris.)

Appeal to prejudice # 2: Rohde misrepresents our arguments, saying we support "Serb nationalist claims that Western governments and journalists exaggerated Serb war crimes." Aside from the pointless "Serb nationalist" bait - who cares whether they are nationalists or dentists as long as they are in fact being falsely accused by Mr. Rohde and his friends - aside from this silly bait, we do not say that Mr. Rohde's claims are exaggerated. We say they are lies. We say that NATO has produced no evidence that Serbian forces massacred anyone at Srebrenica. We say that a person (or a people) should be viewed as innocent until proven guilty, that this business of positing a crime and then spending five years failing to produce any evidence that it occurred is nightmare Justice. Meanwhile, we have done a little looking ourselves and discovered that there is real proof that Islamist terrorists (the 'Bosnian Muslim Army') used the UN safe haven in Srebrenica to launch raids on nearby villages, mutilating and killing several thousand Serbs and moderate Muslims. Here is the confession of the commander of that 'Muslim Army,' one Nasir Oric:

• "[On the video tape I saw] burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads, and people fleeing. [Commander] Oric grinned throughout, admiring his handiwork. 'We ambushed them,' he said when a number of dead Serbs appeared on the screen.

• "The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by explosives: 'We launched those guys to the moon,' he boasted. When footage of a bullet-marked ghost town appeared without any visible bodies, Oric hastened to announce: 'We killed 114 Serbs there.' Later there were celebrations, with singers with wobbly voices chanting his praises." (Toronto Star, 7/16/95)

Note that Oric's ' troops' slaughtered villagers, that is civilians, not soldiers. In this they are rooted in a venerable tradition. During War II, the Nazi Islamists in the same area killed Serbian, 'Gypsy' and Jewish civilians by means of mutilation, using so-called "cold weapons" - knives, hammers, axes. They liked to be photographed displaying 'trophies' acquired in this manner, that is, holding the severed heads of their victims.

Here again is Commander Oric:

• "Nasir Oric's war trophies don't line the wall of his comfortable apartment. They're on videocassette tape: burned Serb houses and headless Serb men, bodies crumpled in a pathetic heap.

• '"We had to use cold weapons that night,' Oric explains as scenes of dead men sliced by knives roll over his 21-inch Sony...Reclining on an overstuffed couch, clothed head to toe in camouflage fatigues, U.S. Army patch proudly displayed over his heart…commander Oric is the toughest guy in this town the Muslim [of Srebrenica], which the U.N. Security Council has declared a protected 'safe area.'" ('Washington Post,' 16/02/94)

Note, first of all, that the above articles were written during the period (1993-1995) that Srebrenica was a so-called UN safe haven, when the Islamist 'Army' was supposedly disarmed and therefore at the mercy of the bad Serbs.

Note, second of all, that the Bush and Clinton administrations strongly supported (and still support) the Islamist regime in Sarajevo. (The Western press calls the Sarajevo regime 'Muslim' but the correct word is 'Islamist.' The press shuns the term 'Islamist' because it has an unappealing ring, suggesting an intolerance of differing ideologies and a goal of creating a purely Islamic state. Unfortunately for the media, Bosnian 'President' Alijah Izetbegovic wrote a book. Republished in 1990 (as part of Izetbegovic's Presidential election ampaign), it explains his views:

"...There can be no peace or coexistence between the "Islamic faith" and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of activity of any strange ideology on its own turf…and the state should be an expression …of the religion. ..." ('Islamska Deklaracija,' p. 22)

Izetbegovic's views were not those of most Bosnian Muslims. Thus in the 1990 elections he came in behind Fikret Abdic, a secular Muslim politician whose forces were militarily allied with the Bosnian Serbs during the fighting from 1992 to 1995. or more on Mr. Abdic, see http://emperor.vwh.net/docs/abdic.htm

Note third of all, that Commander Oric was not some sort of renegade. He and his killers were an official part of the Islamist regime's army. Did Oric wear a US army patch 'proudly displayed' over his terrorist heart by way of recognition of all the support Uncle Sam gave the Islamists?

Note fourth of all that the Post writer expresses no horror concerning Oric's unbelievable crimes. Is that because the victims were Serbs?

PROOF BY DEFINITION

Getting back to Mr. Rohde, he also attempts to dismiss the Critics by labeling us "revisionists." This is a big word which shows Rohde has been hitting the books. Here is the dictionary definition:

Despite their control of the Western media, despite their control of NATO's armed forces, despite hiring an army of forensic experts and a full stable of War Crimes Tribunal employees - despite all this, the US elite has yet to provide a shred of evidence that the Bosnian Serbs committed war crimes at Srebrenica. But Mr. Rohde finesses this problem: he names us revisionists. Since a revisionist is one who revises the "accepted" view of "historical events," by so defining us Mr. Rohde 'proves' the Srebrenica charges are true. Neat, huh?

Having thus flailed his opponents with a variety of labels ("leftist", "Belgrade", "nationalists" and of course "revisionists") Mr. Rohde concludes with the following coup de grâce:

• "In the case of Srebrenica," says Rhode, "the slow pace of efforts to recover and count bodies has created an opening for denials of what occurred five years ago."

Indeed.

One might think that the failure to produce evidence that a crime has occurred should lead one to question the validity of the criminal charge; but that is old fashioned . In the New World Order system of Justice, NATO need only charge an individual or group with criminal guilt for guilt to be assured and the nonexistence of the crime in question in no way mitigates the guilt of the accused, especially if said crime is heinous. Thus fictional murder is a good deal worse than fictional theft and fictional Genocide is the worst crime of all, putting one in the category, 'similar to Hitler.'

A lack of evidence of guilt, or the presence of evidence of innocence, in no way constitutes legal remedy for a criminal charge; it is simply an annoyance since it encourages in some people (such as writers at Emperor's Clothes) a psychological aberration: the denial of guilt.

Here's the excerpt from Rohde, followed by further comments. A link to the entire article is provided at the end.

• "In that uncertain atmosphere, the bodies have become part of a broader propaganda battle, being waged across the former Yugoslavia, Europe and the United States. Aided by the Internet, a revisionist interpretation of the war has begun to radiate out from Belgrade; some American and European leftists, who a year ago took exception to NATO's bombing of Kosovo, are now backing Serb nationalist claims that Western governments and journalists exaggerated Serb war crimes not only in Kosovo but in Bosnia as well.

• "In the case of Srebrenica, the slow pace of efforts to recover and count bodies has created an opening for denials of what occurred five years ago. After Bosnian Muslims turned their heavy weapons over to United Nations peacekeepers in exchange for having Srebrenica declared a protected "safe area" in 1993, Dutch peacekeepers and United Nations commanders did little to protect the town when Bosnian Serb forces attacked in 1995." ('NY Times, Week in Review' July 9, 2000)

A LOADED DECK

Aside from the attacks on us revisionists, Rohde's article is structured so that the casual reader will leave with a comfortable reaffirmation of Serbian guilt. He begins:

• "For two years, thousands of bodies packed in white plastic bags have been awaiting burial in central Bosnia."

This sensationalist sentence sets the tone. In the next paragraph he informs us that "rats were allowed to feast on the bodies" (note, they didn't just knaw on the cadavrs, horrible enough; they feasted). Another paragraph refers to "7000 Muslim soldiers" who were definitely massacred. It is only later that we learn a) the very existence of a massacre is challenged by "revisionists" and b) "to date, 1,866 bodies [not thousands] have been recovered from mass graves, according to tribunal investigators." And Rohde never mentions that: "After five years we have found 160 mass graves, but we have no idea who the people are." ("Mail on Sunday," June 18, 2000).

Five years of digging. Five years of Rohde slandering the Serbs. No idea who the bodies are. They could be massacred Muslims. They could be massacred Serbs. They could be dead Serbain soldiers, or dead terrorists, or just plain dead people, just poor dead souls, people who died, as we all die, sooner or later.

There you have it, folks. Five years later. No evidence. So what?

***

The full text of Rohde's article can be read at www.nytimes.com/library/review/070900srebrenica-review.html

For most informative exchanges between Prof. Drasko Jovanovic, David Rohde, Jared Israel and Max Sinclair, See 'Mr. Rohde, Srebrenica, and a little historical reality' or go to www.emperors-clothes.com/letters/mrrohde.htm

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