Kosovo Ex-President Thaci Pleads Not Guilty to War Crimes

Balkan Insight ^ | November 9, 2020 | Marija Ristic

[MurrietaMadman]

In his first appearance before the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers on Monday, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army turned top politician Hashim Thaci rejected charges accusing him of wartime crimes.

“I read them and I do not agree with any of them,” said Thaci, who stepped down as Kosovo’s president last week before he was sent to The Hague for trial.

“The indictment is completely without basis and I plead not guilty,” he added.

Thaci’s defence lawyer David Hooper complained to the presiding judge that the defence team received late notice of the indictment.

He also noted that allegations of organ-harvesting made by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty in a report that eventually led to the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers are not in the indictment.

“Nothing in this indictment speaks of organ-harvesting… he [Thaci] knew the charges are nonsense and he assisted in setting up this court,” Hooper said, referring to the process of establishing the court under Kosovo’s legislation, which Thaci publicly supported.

[MurrietaMadman]

Funny where rabbit holes lead to

[nickcarraway]

I thought the United States was supposed to prevent any kosovar’s from being charged with war crimes?

[ConservativeMind]

We fought for the wrong side.

[MurrietaMadman]

I was looking up Coomer/Dominion last night when I was diverted to an old FR thread where I was reminded of the time Clinton was bombing Kosovo.

I recovered this https://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/fr033199.htm from that old thread to back up some work based on https://medium.com/@georgeeliason/joe-biden-the-show-is-over-the-tools-and-programming-for-a-sustainable-us-coup-2f514ad9198c

There was a section of that fas.org page that caught my attention.

By the time the NATO airstrikes began, the Clinton Administration's partnership with the KLA was unambiguous:

"With ethnic Albanian Kosovars poised to sign a peace accord later Thursday, the United States is moving quickly to help transform the Kosovo Liberation Army from a rag-tag band of guerrilla fighters into a political force. . . . Washington clearly sees it as a main hope for the troubled province's future. 'We want to develop a good relationship with them as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization,' deputy State Department spokesman James Foley said. 'We want to develop closer and better ties with this organization.'

"A strong signal of this is the deference with which U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright treats the Kosovar Albanians' chief negotiator Hashim Thaci, a 30-year-old KLA commander. Albright dispatched her top aide and spokesman James Rubin to Paris earlier this week to meet with Thaci and personally deliver to him an invitation for members of his delegation to visit the United States. Rubin, who will attend the ceremony at which the Kosovar Albanians will sign the accord, is expected to then return to Washington with five members of the delegation, including Thaci. Thaci and Rubin have developed a 'good rapport' during the Kosovo crisis, according to U.S. officials who note that Thaci was the main delegate they convinced to sign the agreement even though the Serbs have refused to do so. [ . . . ]

" [W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become.' Foley stressed that the KLA would not be allowed to continue as a military force but would have the chance to move forward in their quest for self government under a 'different context.' 'If we can help them and they want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I think it's nothing that anybody can argue with.' "

Such an effusive embrace by top Clinton Administration officials of an organization that only a year ago one of its own top officials labeled as "terrorist" is, to say the least, a startling development.

There was also questions here about the KLA really being terrorists so here's a record of Clinton's pals behavior before the Clinton State dept cleaned it up.

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=western_support_for_islamic_militancy_2124

Honest, I had no idea about that body parts connection but you gotta admit, it makes sense.

It does make sense that the democrat party has to steal and make up votes. What American would vote democrat?

[Sioux-san]

Conservative MInd:
That’s the truth. I thought so and said so at the time, and not too many here or else agreed. Milosevic never got his day in court to defend himself, but lots of time was spent unjustly maligning him and the Serbian people. Disgusting. Why are we always on the wrong side with our Government??? Because we always hook up with UK/NATO - Tony Blair, what snake hole are you hiding in? Hill and Bill, having you two sequestered in Chappaqua together in the same house is a punishment, but not nearly sufficient for the evil you two have put on innocent people around the world.
Oh, and let’s not forget the George Soros connection of getting the Chaos of War to act as cover for his Team’s plundering of the resources.