Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 20

("Quid coniuratio est?")


BOSNIA: HOW THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND MEDIA HAVE FAILED AND MISLED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE


Special thanks to my "Chicago connection" for sending a videotape of a public access program, "Broadsides", which was taped on June 6, 1995. Host is Mr. Sherman Skolnick of the Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts; co-host is Mr. Robert E. Cleveland, an attorney and associate of Mr. Skolnick. Guests are James Nagle, an attorney with the law firm of Querry & Harrow, Andrew B. Spiegel, also an attorney, and Mike Pavlovic, a Serbian-American.

Pardon spelling errors. If you know the correct spellings, please let me know.

Contact info: Andrew B. Spiegel, PO Box 396, Wheaton, IL 60187

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[...continued...]

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So what are you saying? You're saying there's a symbolism: they want the world to pay attention to what's happening. They says, "Hey! We're not gonna harm these people but we're grabbing these people to make a point that our viewpoint is not being heard for some reason!" So now everybody says, "Why did you grab these people? They've got the 'U.N. thing?'" Is that it?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
And the news media cannot afford -- going back to my wrestling analogy -- they can't afford to portray the "bad guys" as the "good guys"; they have to stay the "bad guys" to keep this story...

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So your view, as would-be peacemakers, is that there are bad guys and good guys in that area, right?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
There are bad guys. There are good guys. And there are great guys.

JAMES NAGLE:
To answer the question that you keep asking: "Why won't the United States sit down and talk with Karadzic?" Their position at this point [June 1995] is, they don't recognize him. Before Nixon went to China, we didn't recognize China. Did that mean that there were not a billion Chinese living over there?

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
This is not clear to a lot of Americans. Who does our State Department, our government, recognize?

JAMES NAGLE:
They have been dealing with, at this point, Milosovich, who is the leader of Yugoslavia, the former head of the Yugoslav Communist Party. And he is the one that the U.S. recognizes. And that's where our "declaration of independence" comes in...

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Which one of them is accused of being a war criminal?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Well, ironically enough, Milosovich was accused as a war criminal until they started negotiating with him! They started negotiating with him and suddenly he's not a war criminal, it's just Karadzic and Miladich(sp?).

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So in other words, the one you went to negotiate with to try to make a peace understanding, constitution and all that, is not recognized. And he's not recognized, why? Because the State Department doesn't take him seriously?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Well, because for one thing, as far as I'm concerned, from an international law basis, they have not declared themselves as an independent country. If they are of the constituent republic of Yugoslavia, then the person to talk to is Milosovich.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Under the Logan Act, no American citizen, private citizen, is supposed to negotiate foreign policy. So you went over there, negotiating foreign policy.

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Not only were we not negotiating foreign policy, but I think it's clear even to the casual observer of the situation that there is very little foreign policy of the United States.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
[laughs] There's no foreign policy, therefore they couldn't violate the Logan Act because there isn't any foreign policy one way or the other! Right? Is that fair?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
I think so.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So where do you think the thing is going? I mean, what is the hopeful sign? We've seen all the bloodshed, plenty of it, on the television: bodies, buildings bombed. What is the hopeful sign?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Well, the hopeful sign is that the Republic of Srpska and Republic of Croina will adopt the "declaration of independence", adopt the "constitution", and create a democratic form of constitutional government where people can live freely regardless of race, religion or creed. And if they do that then, hopefully, it will bring peace to that troubled area of the world.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well the point of the matter is that that area (you mentioned about democracy and all that): Have they ever had democracy there?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
They have a democratic form of government in the Republic of Srpska now.

And before we run out of time, let me tell you that we have tapes of the Croatian genocide in Bukovar(sp?) and the Croatian genocide perpetrated against the Serbs from 1941 to 1990. And the post office box has been flashed from time to time on the screen. If people are interested in obtaining those tapes, they should write there for further information. [Andrew B. Spiegel, PO Box 396, Wheaton, IL 60187]

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
You're on an educational mission, all three of you.

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Right.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And all three of you would go back, to try again, even though you've been rebuffed by the mainstream media...

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
I think that another point that should be made is that the Bosnians have hired a public relations firm to handle their side of the story. And they're just putting out all this information that is pro-Bosnian -- which is one of the reasons why the news media is so slanted.

ROBERT CLEVELAND:
Let me ask you this: When you went over there and were doing these things pro bono, so to speak, for [their] government and for [their] president, weren't you on their local TV and in their local paper, their media? Didn't they play that up over there?

JAMES NAGLE:
We were on their local TV; we were on their local radio -- both in the Republic of Srpska and in Yugoslavia.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So you were played up as heroes there. And you should have been played up as peacemakers in the United States.

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Correct. When we left, I thought that we would get all kinds of news media coverage.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So if the three of you wanted to smuggle into the country and sell them some exotic weapons, you might have been better off; you would have been accepted by the United States if you were really three arms merchants.

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
The exotic piece of equipment that we tried to bring into the Republic of Srpska was a popcorn maker, which...

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
That they wouldn't allow into the country!?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
...which the Hungarian border guards said was "a violation of U.N. sanctions."

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
By what stretch of the imagination were they gonna turn it into a weapon?

ANDREW SPIEGEL:
Well, when we tried to convince them that this was humanitarian relief, and not something that was covered by U.N. sanctions, we were talking about Bill Clinton. And it turns out, we learned later, we should have been talking about "Ben Franklin" [$100 bills] and how many of them we'd have to give them to let us bring it through.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Let's ask our Serbian-American representative here, what do you think? Is there peace possible in the area? Or are they going to go on killing each other for another thousand years?

MIKE PAVLOVIC:
If we want to solve the problem, we can solve the problem. Twenty-four hours. I know. I am sure. But America should see all sides. They recognize only two sides and show on television two sides. On the Serbian side, they never show anything good -- only bad. Now, they must sit around the table and work together, and negotiate. And I know that we can solve the problem. We stop killing and negotiate. If we must negotiate for ten years, we should negotiate for ten years. And then, make economical war to be able... see how can economically go forward. And then we build again, together.

SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I want to thank our three illustrious peacemakers. I hope you go back there and make peace. I appreciate you came on our program. And I thank everybody for watching "Broadsides". And call up your local newsfakers and ask them why these three have not been played up as heroes in their own country, the United States.


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