“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” ignsJ of tlje Wimt^rnVol. 2 No. 12 December 2000rnAs Slobodan Milosevic fought for hisrnpolitical life in Belgrade, Secretary ofrnState Madeleine Albright condemned himrnand expressed support for his oppositionrn—while at the same time acting as ifrnthe State Department would do everythingrnin its power to help Milosevic survive.rn”Kostunica not Clinton administration’srnman,” reported UPI’s Martin Sieffrnon September 25, a day after the Yugoslavrnpresidential election. The former professorrnis “far from welcome to the Clintonrnadministration”:rnKostunica is not pro-American.rnHe i s as virulent a c r i t i c ofrnrecent U.S. policies as Milosevicrnhimself. And he has saidrnhe i s determined not to give anrninch on the Kosovo issue . . .rnFrom the Clinton administratrni o n ‘ s point of view, the troublernwith Kostunica is preciselyrnthat he does appear to . . .rnexpress the democratic aspirationsrnof the Serbian people.rnThe only trouble is that theyrnare not the aspirations thatrnthe Clinton administrationrnwould like them to be.rnSieff’s assessment was supported by arnstream of otherwise inexplicable officialrn”leaks” from Washington about the millionsrnof dollars supposedly given by thernU.S. government to the opposition in Serbia.rnThe opening shot came on Septemberrn19, just five days before the election, in arnfront-page story in the Washington Postrnthat seemed to reinforce Milosevic’s contentionrnthat the opposition was in the payrnof the Western powers. The story wasrnswiftly translated into Serbian and carriedrnby the Milosevic-controlled media. Oppositionrnsupporters were outraged. AsrnReuters reported from Belgrade onrnSeptember 26:rn”We do not need t h e i r help.rnStatements like this are notrnhelping the opposition atrna l l , ” said Gordana, a 35-yearoldrnc i v i l engineer. “If theyrnwant Milosevic to leave, theyrnshould keep q u i e t , ” she said.rn”They should remember that althoughrnthe majority of c i t i ­zensrnare against Milosevic, wernhave not forgotten that theyrnbombed u s . “rnOne of the three leading French dailies.rnLiberation, reported on September 23 thatrnAmerican “confessions” of covert supportrnto the opposition were a boon to Milosevic,rnwho constantly accused his pohticalrnopponents of being a fifth column:rnOn that pretext he repressesrn. . . unfriendly media or organizations.rnAll admittedlyrnwere flooded [with] Europeanrnand American money. “Faxes,rnsurveys, polls, plane t i c k e t s ,rnphotocopiers, seminars abroad,rnmedia . . . All that is paid byrnus, and back-up stations inrnHungary,” t e s t i f i e s a formerrnemployee to the State Department,rnwho had worked on the assistancernto the Balkans . . .rnOn September 29, as the post-electionrnstruggle in Belgrade intensified, Americanrndiplomats in Budapest provided the AssociatedrnPress with more pro-Milosevic ammunition.rnAs the AP’s George Jahn reportedrnfrom the Hungarian capital:rnThe United States funneled $35rnmillion to opponents of YugoslavrnPresident SlobodanrnMilosevic in l i t t l e more than arnyear as part of efforts tornweaken him that culminated inrnhis apparent electoral defeat.rn. . . U . S . diplomats in the regionrnsay much of the Americanrnmoney was spent on computersrnfor human rights groups,rntransmitters for independentrnB2-92 radio and other non-governmentalrnradio stations andrnother basics for student organizationsrnand labor unions,rnsuch as fax machines and t e l e ­phonesrn. The funds even paidrnfor a rock band that played atrnevents to mobilize votersrnahead of the Sept. 24 electionsrn. . . More money appears to bernon the way. The House of Representativesrnpassed a b i l lrnMonday authorizing $60 millionrnfor further pro-democracy actrni v i t i e s in Serbia.rnIn fact, that bill—H.R. 1064—was designedrnto continue the sanctions regardlessrnof whether Milosevic fell from power.rnUnder H.R. 1064, the sanctions are to bernkept in place until Milosevic’s successorrncomplies with every demand from Washington,rnincluding the delivery of all indictedrnwar criminals to The Hague. The intentrnof the bill was apparent from the commentsrnmade by Sen. Joseph Biden (DDE)rnwhen he introduced it:rnTo be blunt: respect for Daytonrnand cooperation with The HaguernTribunal must be litmus t e s t srnfor any democratic governmentrnin Serbia. . . . [If] Mr. Kostunicarncomes to power andrnthinks that his undeniable andrnpraiseworthy democratic credentialsrnwill enable him tornpursue an aggressive Serbianrnn a t i o n a l i s t policy with arnkinder face, then we must disabusernhim of t h i s notion . . .rnShould our West European a l ­lrni e s choose to embrace a post-rnMilosevic, democraticallyrnelected, but u l t r a – n a t i o n a l i s ­trni c Serbia, then I would say tornthem good luck . . .rnWhen Russian President VladimirrnPutin invited both Milosevic and Kostunicarnto Moscow on October 2, the AssociatedrnPress immediately reported the StaternDepartment’s demand that Russia turnrnMilosevic over to The Hague Tribunal uponrnhis arrival in Moscow, quoting StaternDepartment spokesman Philip Reeker:rn”There’s an indictment thatrn28/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn