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Pepe Escobar: Kosovo will be an EU – NATO protectorate with a massive US military base (2 of 3)
Story Transcript
PEPE ESCOBAR, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST: The whole soap opera involved in the unilateral and illegal independence of Kosovo immediately applauded by the US and by the three European Union giants is directly related to two key things: oil and the expansion or the worldwide empire of US military bases. There is one photo, a 1999 photo that tells the whole story in detail. Every picture tells a story, of course. In this photo we see Hashim Thaci, which used to be the head of the UCK, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was basically a terrorist outfit with al-Qaeda connections living off human trafficking and narco smuggling. Alongside with Hashim Thaci in this photo, we would find Sir Mike Jackson, who was the NATO commander on the spot at the time. Now he’s a consultant to a mercenary Blackwater-style outfit. We have Bernard Kouchner, who was the UN administrator in 1999 in the Balkans, in Kosovo especially. And now he is the foreign minister of the right-wing Sarkozy government in France. And we also had General Wesley Clark, who was NATO supreme commander at the time, and now he’s one of the main advisers to Hillary Clinton. So all these guys in this photo, they were already in 1999 telegraphing what the US and NATO and key members of NATO and European Union had in mind for Kosovo. It would be basically a protectorate. In fact, after 1999, the bombing of 1999, Kosovo was a UN protectorate. And now it’s going to be a European Union-NATO protectorate with no say in foreign policy. At the moment in Vienna they’re trying to establish how it’s going to be run, but it’s basically going to be run by a viceroy like Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003. Okay. And the objectives are very clear from a US energy security grid point of view, which is there is a continuum in this policy from Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, Bill Richardson, to Dick Cheney as Bush’s vice president. We have to control sources of oil everywhere. We have to build and control our own pipelines. These pipelines have to be protected by nearby military bases, and at least in that region, in the Balkans and Black Sea and near the Caspian, because the oil and gas will come basically from the Caspian, trying to isolate Russia and Iran. So all these people who are asking themselves why we cannot be independent, it’s very simple. They just need to look back to what happened or what’s been happening in the region since 1999 and they’ll have their reasons. They don’t have oil, most of these nations, would-be nations, territories, and no military bases, and no strategic interest for the worldwide empire of US military bases. So Kosovo will not be independent as we conceive independence; it will not be democratic, because it’s going to be ruled by Hashim Thaci, which is basically a narco thug.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Story Transcript
PEPE ESCOBAR, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST: The whole soap opera involved in the unilateral and illegal independence of Kosovo immediately applauded by the US and by the three European Union giants is directly related to two key things: oil and the expansion or the worldwide empire of US military bases. There is one photo, a 1999 photo that tells the whole story in detail. Every picture tells a story, of course. In this photo we see Hashim Thaci, which used to be the head of the UCK, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was basically a terrorist outfit with al-Qaeda connections living off human trafficking and narco smuggling. Alongside with Hashim Thaci in this photo, we would find Sir Mike Jackson, who was the NATO commander on the spot at the time. Now he’s a consultant to a mercenary Blackwater-style outfit. We have Bernard Kouchner, who was the UN administrator in 1999 in the Balkans, in Kosovo especially. And now he is the foreign minister of the right-wing Sarkozy government in France. And we also had General Wesley Clark, who was NATO supreme commander at the time, and now he’s one of the main advisers to Hillary Clinton. So all these guys in this photo, they were already in 1999 telegraphing what the US and NATO and key members of NATO and European Union had in mind for Kosovo. It would be basically a protectorate. In fact, after 1999, the bombing of 1999, Kosovo was a UN protectorate. And now it’s going to be a European Union-NATO protectorate with no say in foreign policy. At the moment in Vienna they’re trying to establish how it’s going to be run, but it’s basically going to be run by a viceroy like Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003. Okay. And the objectives are very clear from a US energy security grid point of view, which is there is a continuum in this policy from Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, Bill Richardson, to Dick Cheney as Bush’s vice president. We have to control sources of oil everywhere. We have to build and control our own pipelines. These pipelines have to be protected by nearby military bases, and at least in that region, in the Balkans and Black Sea and near the Caspian, because the oil and gas will come basically from the Caspian, trying to isolate Russia and Iran. So all these people who are asking themselves why we cannot be independent, it’s very simple. They just need to look back to what happened or what’s been happening in the region since 1999 and they’ll have their reasons. They don’t have oil, most of these nations, would-be nations, territories, and no military bases, and no strategic interest for the worldwide empire of US military bases. So Kosovo will not be independent as we conceive independence; it will not be democratic, because it’s going to be ruled by Hashim Thaci, which is basically a narco thug.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.