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Saturday 2 August 2008

Karadzic protected by US until he broke 'deal': Belgrade report

BELGRADE (AFP) — Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was protected by the United States until a CIA phone bug caught him breaking the terms of his 'deal', Serb newspaper Blic reported Saturday, quoting a US intelligence source.

Partly echoing what Karadzic himself told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in his opening written submission, the paper claims Karadzic was secretly granted immunity in return for keeping a low profile.

"Karadzic, indicted for genocide and war crimes, was under the US protection until 2000, when the CIA intercepted his telephone conversation that clearly proved he personally chaired a meeting of his old political party," the daily quoted a "well-informed US intelligence source" as saying.

In a submission to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Karadzic said the US peace negotiator in Bosnia, Richard Holbrooke, had promised he would avoid trial if he withdrew from public life.

Holbrooke has insisted that no such deal existed.

The Blic source said: "I'm not sure there was a written document confirming so, but I do have Holbrooke's admission of verbal guarantees given to Karadzic from the highest level of the US."

"During the year 2000, at the time of the (November general) elections in Bosnia, the CIA learned that Karadzic was still leading the SDS (the Serbian Democratic Party, founded by Karadzic), despite their deal that he was not to interfere in political life," the source added, cited by the newspaper.

"In 2000 there was a SDS meeting in (the eastern Bosnian town of) Bijeljina, chaired personally by Karadzic. He was providing instructions to members and the leadership who to be replaced and who to be appointed to which position," it said.

Karadzic "was personally engaged in all activities of the SDS," the source said.

"In America they went crazy realizing Karadzic was making a fool of them," it said, adding that "the Americans and CIA then withdrew the informal protection enjoyed by Karadzic."

The suspect also was granted the immunity from the arrest by other intelligence services, such as the French and British one, as a part of the deal with the CIA, the daily said.

Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last month and transferred to the ICTY to tried for his role in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

source:http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gh27P57jrlg3Iw7PUoDDBcyYLUKg

Mystery of Kecksburg UFO incident lost in NASA archives for good

Leonard David, an observer of one of the largest space exploration websites, space.com, updated his blog with new details about the investigation of a mysterious incident which took place in USA’s Pennsylvania. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has lost the case vs. journalist Leslie Kean about violating the principles of freedom of information.

Leslie Kean had been investigating the mystery of the Kecksburg UFO incident for four years. An unidentified flying object supposedly crashed not far from a small village in Pennsylvania in December 1965. Eyewitnesses of the incident said that they could see a ball of fire in the night sky. Some of them said that the object had performed a controlled landing.

Local newspapers and radio channels reported that military men encircled the area of the incident, conduct the investigation and then left without any explanations. However, rumor has it that spokespeople for local authorities had visited the site of the UFO crash before the military men arrived. They said that the object, which either crashed or landed in Kecksburg, was an acorn-like object the size of a baby car. The body of the object was covered with inscriptions reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

NASA provided packs of documents to Leslie Kean prior to the trial, but the documents had nothing to do with the case. It was obvious, which made Judge Emmet Sullivan agree on that. The judge’s refusal to close the case pushed NASA towards looking for more reliable.

Full story at source: http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/105643-0/