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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair has not played for two days because his back tightened up, possibly from his long commute in Arizona, but is expected to be ready for Opening Day."He said, 'I could've played today,'" Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Sunday. "Backs are like that." LaHair, who is batting .295 this spring with no home runs, was in the early lineup posted on Saturday for Sunday's game against the Angels in Tempe. But on Sunday, Blake DeWitt started at first base and LaHair received treatment for his back. What happened? "I don't know," LaHair said on Sunday in Mesa, Ariz. "I have a [one]-hour ride to the field and back every day, and sitting in that one position, it tightened up a little bit. It's no big deal." LaHair said he hoped to play on Monday or Tuesday, when the Cubs will play their final Cactus League games in Arizona. He expected to be ready for the season opener on Thursday against the Nationals at Wrigley Field. The first baseman, who belted 38 home runs last year for Triple-A Iowa, has yet to connect this spring. Sveum said he wasn't worried about LaHair's performance. "People forget that home runs come in bunches, and you need 600 at-bats to hit 25 to 35 home runs," Sveum said. "He's hitting plenty of balls off the wall. The day he went down [to the Minor League camp] and got seven at-bats, he hit three balls off the wall. Home runs aren't as important to drive runs in as slugging percentage is. Slugging percentage is the key." So far, LaHair has seven doubles and a .410 slugging percentage this spring.
Marmol hitting stride as opener approaches
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Carlos Marmol did not allow a baserunner on Saturday and has shown better command of his pitches. It's good timing for the Cubs closer."His last few outings, his slider is definitely crisp," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Sunday of the right-hander. "More importantly is the fastball. He's gotten ahead with it or gotten back in the count with it. "He's staying away from two-ball counts or 3-1 counts and putting himself in a situation where if he goes 1-0, he gets back in the count with a fastball and then can throw his slider. He's feeling a lot better with the new fastball grip." In his last six outings, Marmol has given up two hits and walked three while striking out four. Sveum will likely use Marmol for one inning during the season, maybe four outs if needed. "Winning the game is most important, obviously, but in the scheme of things, the least amount of pitches we can get these guys to throw the better," Sveum said. "If he's going into games and having quick innings without 20 to 30 pitch innings, yeah, we can use him for four outs. "There will be those nights when Kerry Wood might be off and [Marmol] has had his rest and he has a day off the next day -- all those kind of things come into play when you're dealing with the bullpen and using the closer for four, five outs."
Cubs waiting until 11th hour to set bullpen
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Cubs have eight relief pitchers in camp, but they have only seven spots available and most likely won't make a final decision until Wednesday, when 25-man rosters need to be set."I wouldn't say we're any closer, no [to a decision]," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said on Sunday. "There are still performances to be done." The Cubs have Cactus League games Monday and Tuesday before breaking camp to head to Chicago for Thursday's season opener against the Nationals. The eight pitchers include Carlos Marmol, Kerry Wood and James Russell, who are set. Rodrigo Lopez appears to be the leader for the role as long man. Others still competing include Manuel Corpas, Rule 5 Draft pick Lendy Castillo, Rafael Dolis and recently acquired Shawn Camp. Camp gave up one hit and struck out three over 1 2/3 innings on Sunday against the Angels. Lopez gave up three hits and walked two over two innings on Saturday against the Angels, striking out three. "I don't think he was as sharp as he could've been, but then he found it and made the pitches he was trying to make to get out of it," Sveum said of the right-hander. "To get into the mess, he was off, and then he made the pitches he had to. That's kind of what he's always been capable of doing, and I think that's what keeps him around. He's a guy who never has overpowering stuff, but one of those guys who finds a way to make the pitches when he has to. That's always a good sign."
Extra bases
Matt Garza, the Cubs' No. 2 starter, tuned up for the season on Sunday with four innings in a Minor League game at Fitch Park in Mesa.
Garza gave up two hits and struck out six, throwing 51 pitches. He then went to the bullpen to throw some more. The right-hander's next start will be Saturday against the Nationals at Wrigley Field.
Alfonso Soriano batted fourth on Sunday and Sveum said he may keep the left fielder there and put LaHair in the No. 5 spot. It's an option.
"Toying with it is a good word," Sveum said of his lineup.
Ian Stewart will make his first Opening Day start with the Cubs on Thursday, ending Aramis Ramirez's eight-year run at third base. Trivia question: Who started at third in 2003 before Ramirez's arrival? Mark Bellhorn.
Stewart also will celebrate his 27th birthday on Thursday. Only two Cubs players have celebrated a birthday by playing on Opening Day. Ross Barnes did so on May 8, 1877, when he turned 27. He went 2-for-4 and scored twice. On April 2, 2001, Jon Lieber took the loss on his 31st birthday, a 5-4 decision to the Expos.
Thursday also is backup catcher Steve Clevenger's birthday. He'll be 26.
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. She writes a blog, Muskat Ramblings, and you can follow her on Twitter@CarrieMuskat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Doko Demo Issho
Title Data
- Genre:
- Miscellaneous > Puzzle > General
- Developer:
Release Data
Data and credits for this game contributed by koukoukou, Blueberry Buttface, and oliist.
Know Something We Don't?
You can update or add release data for this game using our Data Submission Form, or submit credits using our Credit Submission Form.

subset: commoncrawl


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UK mobile Wi-Fi
I have had mobile wi-fi on a 24month contract on three. I live in the south-west where there is no LTE yet.
However the HSDPA speeds on my previous mobile wi-fi reached around 18mps consistently where I live.
Now my contract is up, is it worth renewing my three contract (getting the new mi-fi along with it) or switching to EE?
I plan to go to university next year, everywhere I have applied EE says they have planned 2014 LTE coverage (as does three).
Is it worth getting the LTE enabled mi-fi now or getting the faster three mi-fi, which will only support 3G+?


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Hey Iowa, do you like apples?
For a first time post here on Sippin' On Purple, I think "Rooting Interests" had the desired effect, overall. I mean, after all:
- Northwestern shocked the nation (but not Cats fans) by beating Iowa.
- Wisconsin held on against Indiana, making it less likely the Hoosiers get to 6 wins (and making Northwestern's November 21st game against Wisconsin -- who will potentially be 9-2 and ranked in the top 15-20 -- even bigger, leading to the 2:30 pm kickoff -- GET YOUR TICKETS NOW CATS FANS!)
- The Illini snuck past Minnesota, putting us (temporarily) ahead of the Gophers by a game
- Purdue beat reeling Michigan, which means A) the Wolverines will not be going bowling (I don't see them beating Wisconsin or OSU to get the all-important 6th win), and B) we're one more Purdue upset over Michigan State to Purdue pulling the sweep of the state of Michigan and potentially dooming BOTH teams to non-bowl seasons (MSU has 5 wins, with Purdue and Penn State left) -- putting the Cats in even better bowl position.
- And Navy beat "That School in South Bend", leading to arguably the greatest trash talk of all time by none other than Pat Fitzgerald (which he told to Stewart Mandel at SI.com -- "Even though we're similar academically, we're in a little different boat as Stanford and Notre Dame," said Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. "We've been consistently winning since 1995. They're still saying they can do it, but we're doing it."
Sure OSU beat Penn State (which makes it harder for NU to improve its bowl position, due to the fact that Penn State's loss makes it less likely that the Big Ten gets 2 BCS teams), Western Michigan was crushed by Sparty, none of our non-conference foes won, Vandy couldn't pull out an upset of the Gators, and "that school in Palo Alto" pulled out an impressive win over Oregon.
Still -- a pretty good week for Northwestern's Rooting Interests.....Week 11 Rooting Interests to follow later this week!


text: I tried to love this CD because it is the return of Dave Lombardo but it just leaves almost NO impression on me. Kerry King has been writing most of the Slayer material for the past decade and quite frankly I think it is dry and uninteresting. Jeff Hanneman was the driving force behind the great days of Slayer and I don't know if he is just getting bored with the band or if he has lost his magic for writing great songs. Jeff has abondoned most of the song writing leaving King in charge. Sorry Kerry, but you are a subpar song writer at best. Your lyrics are juvenile and your wah guitar leads are annoying. I have a feeling that unless Jeff Hanneman gets inspired to write some new material we are doomed to listen to Kerry King's C level version of Slayer. JEFF WHERE ARE YOU????


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Flat and vacant 597m2 block ready and waiting for your creative touch to build the home you have always dreamed about.
Ideal for a growing family this block has parks, beaches and schools just minutes away, not to mention the public transport service provided to the area.
Nestled in a rapidly expanding beachside subdivision just minutes from the excitement of the Bunbury CBD.
Value like this is hard to find- call today!
124 Norton PromenadeDALYELLUP
SOLD(List Price: $148,000)
Mal Hancock


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Isn't that a Dairy Queen special?
Record breaking snowfall! It's been doing this ALL day.
Started around 2 am...heard the wind...looked outside and
was like "why hello there global warming...."
Just check this out:
My house today. My hubby took this for me...
that thing on the left isn't a thing. Well it is...
it used to be a palm tree.
It got scared of the powdery white stuff, obviously!
those little things?
cute doggie paws...wait...where are they?
Under all that?
Here they are!
Well 2 of them...
running for dear life. No actually..guess what they are doing?
it was so funny...they'd jump up and bite the flakes.
I was DYING laughing ...
here's the oldest:
(sorry for the blurries...the snow was in my face
and they dogs were moving FAST!)
He's a middle sized, 20 lb dog.
Do you see his leg?
It's ALL THE WAY DOWN.
This is Texas...right?
I'm not sure how old I was the last time
I saw snow like this.
Was I even HERE then?
I haven't built a snowman yet.I need to.
I wanted a heart shaped one.
That would be hard though, huh.
Sorry if I've bored the badonkers out of you...
Just can't get OVER this madness.
Where's the man who said this was Global Warming?Lemme go shake his hand....(or hers? LOL)
OHH, wait.
You had a reason for coming here, didn't you.
Not to see snow, because you've seen it all
before, yes? Well...have I got something to show you!
First off...have you checked out this month's GOODNESS
of a kit at "The Girls Loft?" Let me show you....
Delicious, right? I mean...REALLY!!!
*YOU.MUST.HAVE* (go ahead, click the link, get it....♥)
Here's a few sneaks of what I did with the kit:
can't wait to share with you!
Enjoy your love weekend...
Tonight, as we hit the hay...
it's hit 10 inches snowfall and still
In fact, it's been snowing now for
24 hours.
I got out tonight as it was just 8.34 inches
and got these:
(rented them both on ITunes yesterday to
watch while creating...fell in love and had to have.)
This is our ♥ Day.
this + some italian dish + some sort of chocolate dish
= happiness.
May your ♥ be full of
all things love like, chocolate like,
flowery like...whatever you like.


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Military children can often pick up on leadership skills, which seemingly seep into the homes of military communities.
> read more
Some tips provided by Fort Riley to help transition smoothly from summer to school.
Some quick tips for getting your school lunches ready.
MWR Home | MWR Employee Portal | Jobs | FOIA | No Fear Act | Army OneSource | IMCOM | AAFES Shopping | DECA


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I decided to take some time and learn how to more efficiently use my Spellbinder Nestabilities. I did take an online class at My Creative Classroom to learn some new techniques too. I am much more confident now in cutting and embossing with my Nestabilities and made a bunch of cards. I just now had the time to take some pics and upload them. You can click on any of the pictures for a closer look. Lots of layers witih stitching and inking and little hidden details.
I was even more excited that most of these I made from my scrap piles and left-over kits and I was able to replenish my card stash. I think I'm on a roll and am going to go make some more cards.
Thanks for stopping by,


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About the Author
Hub Arkush
Publisher and editor
Recent posts by Hub Arkush
Related Stories
I have long been fascinated by the Comeback Player of the Year Award. Doesn't everybody love the Cinderella story about the person who overcomes huge odds to achieve great success? I do, but I've never been quite sure about one thing: Should a player qualify if the hurdles he's overcome are of his own making?
Michael Vick was in jail during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Upon his return to the NFL, no one was terribly surprised when all he accomplished in '09 was 13 pass attempts, one TD and 24-95-2 rushing as a gimmick player in the Eagles' offense. This year, he's the NFL's top quarterback with a 108.7 passer rating and 55-373-5 rushing. Vick's is arguably one of the more remarkable comebacks in NFL history, and if he keeps it up for three or four more weeks, he should be the NFL's MVP. But I believe the fact his comeback is from nothing more than his own felonious behavior disqualifies him as the Comeback Player of the Year.
Seahawks WR Mike Williams was the 10th player chosen in the 2005 draft by the Lions. Over three NFL seasons with the Lions, Titans and Raiders, he managed just 44 catches for 539 yards, focusing more on partying than football and seeing his weight balloon to 270 pounds or more. Williams was was out of the league from 2008-09 before convincing his USC coach, Pete Carroll, to give him another chance. He showed up at training camp at his old playing weight of 235 and has been as low as 230 during the season. He currently has 52 catches for 654 yards. But should he be honored for coming back from his own excess, for which he has absolutely no one to blame but himself? I think not.
LaDainian Tomlinson cemented his place in Canton several years ago, but it looked like his career would end ingloriously in San Diego when his yards-per-carry fell to 3.8 in '08 and 3.3 in '09. Worse, after averaging 396 touches from 2001-08, L.T. managed just 243 touches in 2009. Reborn this year with the Jets, L.T. has 196 touches through 10 games and is gaining 4.5 per rush. Tomlinson did have some toe problems in 2009 and is definitely much improved this year. Yet he is no longer able to dominate as he once did, and his 93 yards on 30 carries over Weeks Nine and 10 suggest the season is catching up with him. There's no Cinderella in the Jets' backfield.
Vikings LB E.J. Henderson fractured his left femur in a Dec. 6, 2009, game vs. the Cardinals, an injury so gruesome that many wondered if his career was over. But following surgery to repair the thighbone with a titanium rod, Henderson reported to the opening of training camp eight months later and has started every game for Minnesota.
Wes Welker tore both the ACL and MCL in his knee on Jan. 3, 2010, in the Patriots' final regular-season game of '09. After reconstructive surgery, Welker overcame what is normally a 12- to 18-month rehabilitation process to report to New England's training camp on opening day and start the first game of the 2010 season. Welker has 57 catches for 502 yards and four TDs.
Bears LB Brian Urlacher dislocated his right wrist in the first half of the Bears' 2009 season opener in Green Bay. The damage was so severe that surgeons feared if they didn't operate within 24 hours, a full recovery for Urlacher might be impossible and his career might be over. The Bears are arguably the biggest surprise of the 2010 season at 7-3, and the Urlacher-led defense is near the top of the NFL in points allowed while its leader is a certain Pro Bowler and candidate for Defensive MVP.
Form your own conclusions and use your own criteria, but assuming all these players continue to play to form over the next three or four weeks, my vote will go to Welker or Urlacher based on their challenges, production and impact on their teams. Regardless of whom you choose, the best thing about the 2010 NFL season may very well be what these six players have achieved and the odds they've overcome to do it.


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Searching for news on the program that is quickly assembling a roster that could top the SEC, but yet plays in the ACC.
FSU officials say OU game is nearing sellout - Crimson And Cream Machine
OU fans shocked the game is not sold out.
2011 SB Nation Preseason ACC Football Poll - Gobbler Country
The ACC bloggers of SB Nation came together and voted in an ACC Preseason Poll. The results were drastically different than the one from the ACC Football Kickoff, but equal representation produced a big difference for one team.
After The Defensive Surge (Fun Stat Nerd Tidbit: Missouri) - Football Study Hall
A look at what happens the year after a college football defense improves significantly.
Five Good Minutes: Clemson Football Preview With Shakin The Southland - BC Interruption
An early preview of Clemson.
Out of Curiosity | Recruiting Defensive Linemen is Kind of a Crapshoot - Roll 'Bama Roll
Why does Jimbo over-recruit the defensive line? Because these guys bust quite often and often have academic troubles.
2011 Season Preview: The Missouri Tigers And The Living, Breathing Spread - SBNation.com
Thanks to their defensive success in the red zone, Mizzou's YPP margin was almost unsustainably positive in 2010. It appears that strong redzone defense is sustainable as a whole, but the combination of Mizzou's less-than-explosive passing game and their porous run defense (over the second half of the season) gave them little margin for error.
In all, this is an extremely experienced team that has begun to establish a proven track record. If James Franklin clicks, the Tigers could threaten for, at the very least, second place in the Big 12. In fact, the Football Outsiders Almanac 2011 projects them to possibly do just that. But the front-loaded schedule could be an obstacle for a new quarterback -- in Franklin's first five games, he will face trips to Arizona State, Oklahoma and Kansas State. If the Tigers survive that stretch, things become more favorable. They have to travel to Texas A&M for the second straight year, but they host Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech. The numbers now give the Tigers the benefit of the doubt, but Franklin, the receiving corps and secondary both have to prove their bona fides.
U.N.C. couldn't drop on this list soon enough once Davis was dismissed. All the talent in the world won't be enough for this team to keep it together… right? Say one thing about these Tar Heels: they've tasted adversity, having entered last fall under a cloud of N.C.A.A. sanctions and without several key starters, and should be commended for how they battled back to post another eight-win finish. It was impressive. But the turmoil facing last year's team pales in comparison to mess on Carolina's plate heading into 2011: without Davis, I can't see U.N.C. coming close to reaching its full potential. Where was U.N.C. slated to land prior to Wednesday's news? I was thinking right on the verge of the Top 25, if not in the 21-25 range, thanks to nice talent offensively and a front four more than capable of lifting the defense into the upper echelon of the country. None of that has changed, to be fair. Renner has all the tools to succeed; Houston has some rust, but he's a big, physical, pounding back with a track record of productivity; the offensive line has the size to impose their will in the running game; and there's talent and experience at wide receiver. The defense has the talent to dominate the line of scrimmage, which will do wonders for a secondary under a microscope. So if Davis had returned, you can see why some were touting U.N.C. as the team most likely to win the A.C.C. if Florida State and Virginia Tech faltered. Forget about that. It's not going to happen anymore, not when this ship has lost its man at the helm. The Tar Heels will be fine, but they're not going to have the season most expected. What about 2012? 2013? 2014 and beyond? Unless U.N.C. avoids massive N.C.A.A. penalties and can go out and get a Rich Rodriguez, this program is going away for a long time. It was fun while it lasted.


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Villas-Boas: Tottenham want to keep Bale
The Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has said they don't want to sell Gareth Bale despite the club failing to qualify for the Champions League. It had been predicted that Bale would move to a bigger club who are in the competition, but Villas-Boas denied Spurs were planning to sell him.
– Andre Villas-Boas, Tottenham Manager
"No, I don't think so. This has been an ongoing question. We have to keep our ambitions high, hold on to our best players. For us to make it better in the future we have to hold on to the best."


text:
New day. New Daily Deals. Get them before they are gone!
New Customer ? Start Here.
Can't find what you're looking for? Shop all ink and toner cartridges by brand
New day. New Daily Deals. Get them before they are gone!
Item: IM1RW2206 Model: 35FCREADBK3
Startech.com® 22-in-1 USB 2.0 internal media memory card reader is suitable for quickly accessing memory cards of any portable media device. Card reader supports most popular card types including compact flash and secure digital multimedia card.
|Flash Memory Card Product Type
This Web site is intended for use by US residents only. See International Sites. See our delivery policy for full details. Copyright 1998-2014, Staples, Inc., All Rights Reserved.


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Twinlab® Daily Two Caps with Iron is a multivitamin/mineral supplement that provides 23 key nutrients' including at least 100% of the daily value for antioxidant vitamins C' E and beta-carotene. Our formula is a convenient and effective way to help you get your daily serving of the nutrients you need to support optimal health.
Capsules are easier to swallow than hard tablets and dissolve faster to assure maximum absorption. Unlike many tablets' each capsule is free of coatings and colors. No added salt or preservatives.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These products are not meant to diagnose' treat or cure any disease or medical condition. Please consult your doctor before starting any exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using these or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition.
Serving Size: 1 Capsule
Amount Per Serving / % DV
Vitamin A (100% as beta carotene) 12500 IU / 250%
Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid) 250mg / 417%
Vitamin D (as cholecalciferol) 200 IU / 50%
Vitamin E (as d-alpha tocopheryl acid succinate) 200 IU / 667%
Thiamin (as thiamin mononitrate) 12.5mg / 833%
Riboflavin 12.5mg / 735%
Niacin (as niacinamide) 50mg / 250%
Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine hydrochloride) 12.5mg / 625%
Folic Acid 200mcg / 50%
Vitamin B12 (as cyanocobalamin) 50mcg / 833%
Biotin 150mcg / 50%
Pantothenic Acid (as d-calcium pantothenate) 25mg / 250%
Iron (as ferrous fumarate) 5mg / 28%
Iodine (as potassium iodide) 75mcg / 50%
Zinc (as zinc picolinate) 15mg / 100%
Selenium (as sodium selenate) 100mcg / 143%
Copper (as copper gluconate) 1mg / 50%
Manganese (as manganese gluconate) 2.5mg / 125%
Chromium (as chromium chloride) 100mcg / 83%
Molybdenum (as sodium molybdate) 75mcg / 100%
PABA 12.5mg / †
Choline Bitartrate 12.5mg / †
Inositol 12.5mg / †
†Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: Gelatin' calcium carbonate' croscarmellose sodium' magnesium stearate' medium chain triglycerides' silica' soy' lecithin' magnesium silicate' potassium citrate' magnesium oxide' vegetable stearic acid' calcium citrate' magnesium aspartate' potassium aspartate.
Take one capsule twice daily' preferably with a meal. Multiple servings per day result in better utilization of nutrients for optimal health.
Accidental overdose of iron-containing products is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in children under 6. In case of accidental overdose' call a doctor or poison control center immediately.
If you are pregnant or nursing' taking any medication' or have any medical condition' consult a health care professional before use.
Keep this product out of reach of children.
Allergy / Dietary Needs
- GMP Certification
- Salt Free
- No Added Sugar
- Preservative Free
- Coatings Free


text:
Customers say they are out of thousands of dollars, after Forever Young Medical Laser Spa suddenly shut down two locations, this week.
Customers who came to the med spa's Hillsboro location, looking for answers and money on Thursday morning, found only a crew moving furniture out the back door.
"They took $2,000 cash from me, and promised about fifty different medical procedures they were going to perform for me," said Ronnie Davis, who said she received only a handful of procedures, since paying.
"I wasn't very happy with them in the first place. This is just icing on the cake, that they closed the doors on me," she said."
Some employees tell Fox 12, they learned the business would close at the end of the week, but were surprised when the owners shut down Wednesday. Other employees said they were in the dark. All are waiting to be paid, for the last days they worked.
Forever Young was the subject of 60 complaints made to the state Department of Justice since 2009, most concerning refunds, according to a DOJ spokesman.
The DOJ opened an investigation into Forever Young last winter, which will continue despite the closure.
A letter posted on the door of the spa's now-closed Beaverton location, blamed the investigation for the closure, along with other reasons.
"It wasn't just one thing that led us here, but instead, a flurry of regulatory changes and inquiries from state agencies, over the past several months, along with negative publicity, which damaged our reputation beyond repair, that has drained our business and has led us to the incredibly painful decision today, to close our doors at the end of this week," the letter read. It was signed "Forever Young Ownership."
A different company, Tan Republic, is attempting to honor contracts for Forever Young customers.
An attorney for Forever Young asked the company to take over their client database earlier this week, said spokesman Peter Lamka, who said they are still waiting to receive the database.
Tan Republic only offers tanning services, so they are trying to find a way to help Forever Young clients, who pre-paid for laser services, said Lamka.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice says Forever Young customers should demand their money back from the company.
Oregon law requires health spa contracts to have cancellation policies, that refund customers if the spa goes out of business. The law also says customers can get full refunds, within three days of signing a contract.
Customers can file complaints with the Department of Justice, the Better Business Bureau or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Copyright 2013 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.


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Governor Brian Sandoval says Nevada's money will not be used to re-open national parks and other federal areas during the shutdown.
A spokeswoman for the governor said the Silver State already faces critical funding decisions.
The governor has warned dozens of programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance and aid to women, infants and children are at risk.
Nevada state parks remain open, but the state can not afford to pay for operations at federal parks right now.
Meanwhile, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock says the state will not pick up the tab to reopen Glacier National Park during the federal government shutdown. The Democrat told Lee Newspapers of Montana on Thursday that it's long past time for Congress to end "this reckless and job-killing shutdown." Earlier Thursday, the Obama administration said it would allow states to use their own money to reopen some national parks after a handful of governors made the request. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday he reached an agreement to pay $166,000 a day to the Interior Department to open Utah's five national parks.
Colorado's governor has struck a deal with federal officials to reopen one of its national parks, becoming the second state to accept an offer to send money to the federal government to save lucrative tourist seasons. Federal officials announced Friday that Colorado has agreed to pay about $360,000 to reopen Rocky Mountain National Park through Oct. 20. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead's office said that state would not pay to reopen Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks.
Arizona and New York have reached deals with the Interior Department to reopen Grand Canyon National Park and Statue of Liberty National Monument using state funds until the federal government reopens. A spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer confirmed the Grand Canyon deal late Friday afternoon, meaning the park should reopen Saturday. The governor had wanted to only partially reopen the park, but the deal includes the entire park. Brewer spokesman Andrew Wilder says Arizona will pay less than the $112,000 a day the Interior Department wanted. Meanwhile, the National Park Service announced that it has entered into an agreement with the state of New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state will pay $61,600 a day to fully fund National Park Service personnel and keep the Statue of Liberty open.
(The Associated Press also contributed to this report.)
KTVN-TVPhone: (775) 858-2222Fax: (775) 861-4298
Mailing Address:4925 Energy WayReno, NV 89502


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The facts behind the "massacre"
in the village of Racak in Kosovo
Thanks to the report of a special team of journalists with the Kragujevac daily LID, Tiker News Agency reproduces a part of the report from a special issue of this newspaper.
The events in the Kosmet village of Racak marked the beginning of the year in our part of the world. The stories from the Sarajevo marketplace of Markale and from Vase Miskina Street were repeated. The scenario was almost completely identical. The Serbs need to be accused of misdeeds and a massacre of civilians in order to find justification for their renewed punishment. In the first two cases, the world learned the truth too late, only after the Serbs had already been punished for something that they did not do. In the hope that we have learned something from previously lost battles in the media war, we have prepared for the readers of LID a special report, "The Racak File", in which we will attempt, on the basis of sources available to us, to unmask the initiators behind the new conspiracy against the Serbian people.
A Film refutes Walker and terrorists
Eyewitness accounts by Albanians are refuted by film shot by reporters of Associated Press, the French paper stresses, stating that the gully where the bodies were was discovered only on the day after the fighting, even though observers were present in Racak within half an hour after the fighting ended. The French daily Figaro today [Jan. 23] casts doubt on the statements of OSCE regarding events in the village of Racak, asking the question whether terrorists of the KLA staged the so-called massacre in an attempt to turn their military defeat into a political victory.
In a text bearing the heading "Kosovo - Shadow of Doubt Falls on a Massacre", Figaro writes that the version offered to the world by OSCE regarding events in Racak should be re-examined and that, by analyzing available facts, an answer should be found to the question of what really happened in Racak. The available facts - film shot both during the fighting at Racak and yesterday on location by Renaud Girard, special reporter for Figaro - refute the claims of OSCE and of the Albanian separatists that Serbian security forces massacred 45 civilians on Friday, points out the French daily.
William Walker with his hands in his pockets conducting a so-called "investigation of the massacre". Walker refused to allow representatives of the domestic media to be present during his "investigation process" and personally selected the teams of reporters who could accompany him
Yugoslav experts in forensic medicine, who yesterday began to perform autopsies of the bodies of those killed in Racak, declared that "not one of the bodies showed evidence that the victim was executed," writes Figaro.
Since questions exist as to what actually happened in Racak, this paper felt that it was important to try to reconstruct the chronology of events on the critical date. According to Figaro, at dawn the Serb police surrounded and attacked the village of Racak, known to be a base of the separatist KLA. The police had nothing to hide, since at 8:30 a.m. they invited a television crew (two reporters of the American Associated Press) to film the operation. Members of the OSCE mission were also present: on location were two vehicles with American diplomatic plates. The OSCE observers stayed on location the whole day, situated in a valley from where they were able to observe the village, writes Figaro.
At approximately 3:00 p.m., a police report was made public via the International Press Center in Pristina, which stated that, during the course of fighting at Racak, 15 "KLA terrorists were killed and a significant quantity of weapons was confiscated". At 3:30 p.m. the police forces, accompanied by the television crew of Associated Press, left the village, taking with them a heavy artillery piece of 12.7 mm caliber, two hand-held artillery pieces, two sniper rifles and approximately 30 Kalashnikovs manufactured in China. At 4:30 p.m., a French reporter drove through the village, where he encountered three orange OSCE vehicles. The international observers were calmly talking with three adult Albanians in civilian clothes. They were looking for possible injured civilians. Upon returning to the village at 6:00 p.m., the French reporter saw the observers taking away two women and two old men, who were very lightly injured.
The observers, who did not appear to be too excited, did not say anything significant to the reporter. They only said that they "were not able to assess the outcome of the fighting".
The spectacle of bodies of Albanian civilians in a gully, which shocked the world, was not discovered until the next day, at about 9:00 a.m., when reporters appeared on location, who were soon followed by OSCE observers, writes Figaro.
The village at that moment was under the control of armed members of the KLA, who were directing foreign visitors toward the scene of the so-called massacre. Around noon, William Walker, the chief of the OSCE mission in Kosovo, appeared and expressed his indignation regarding what he had seen, the paper reminds us. All eyewitness accounts from Albanians, according to Figaro, confirm one version of the story: in the middle of the day, the police raided the village, separated women from men, and took the latter into the hills where they subsequently killed them.
It is disturbing, however, that these eyewitness accounts are in complete contradiction with the film shot by the Associated Press crew, stresses the French paper. The film shows an empty village which the police had raided in the morning, moving along the walls of the houses for protection. Shooting began because the police encountered resistance from the trenches which the KLA separatists had dug nearby. The fighting was more intense on the higher ground around the village. Standing in a sheltered place by the mosque, the AP reporters concluded that the KLA separatists, who were surrounded, were desperately trying to break out. About 20 of them succeeded in doing so, a fact which the police confirmed.
"What, in fact, happened? Did the KLA during the night collect the bodies of those killed in the fighting in order to prepare the spectacle of a so-called cold-blooded execution? Another disturbing fact is that on Saturday morning the reporters found very few cartridge shells around the gully where the so-called massacre took place", concludes Figaro.
The report by Figaro's journalist generated a great deal of interest in France: Girard was interviewed by Evropa-1 Radio and by France Info Radio, and many French and Swiss radio stations requested permission to retransmit the interview. Radio Frans Info today [Jan. 23] transmitted this interview every hour.
It is becoming increasingly clear that many details of events in the village of Racak, which have been the direct cause of the newest tensions in Kosovo and Metohija and the launching of a media campaign, did not happen as the world until now had been told that they happened, it is stressed in London. After the two French reporters, the London Guardian also leaves much room for doubt in the current version of those events. The paper quotes the statement of officials of the international verification mission, who wished to remain anonymous, to the effect that they were convinced that some of the bodies of the deceased at Racak were later moved.
Foreign and domestic experts have determined the unnatural position of the bodies of the victims and the absence of empty cartridge shells in the location where the victims were reportedly killed.
The verifiers, notes the Guardian, inspected 15 bodies of those killed at Racak and determined that some of them were moved. "We do not know who moved them or why," one of those officials stated. In addition to this, a reporter at the Guardian quotes the statement of a British member of the verification mission, Neal Strechan, who said he was officially invited to Racak, which represents the first public admission that the verifiers were duly informed.
Strechan says that a local Albanian, who was injured, told him that there were 20 bodies in the village. That was all he knew and, he emphasized, he "could not tell him any more than that".
All this promises to cast serious doubt upon the official reports of the verification mission in Britain, as well, and brings into question the true intentions of the very aggressive media and political campaign.
On January 19, the Greek daily Exusia, in article entitled "Serb killed by 'unarmed' Albanians", notes that "in yesterday's fighting near the village of Racak, William Walker again failed to 'see' the Albanian terrorists".
Terrorist weapons found close to the village of Racak after the intervention of security forces and documented by members of the international mission.
The reason for the latest fighting, writes Exusia, was an attack, according to Walker, by "unarmed" Albanians on a team of Serbian specialists who were attempting to investigate. The paper informs us that in yesterday's fighting with Albanian terrorists, another member of the Serbian police forces was killed and two others were injured.
A member of the so-called KLA provides security for the "investigation mission" of William Walker.
"Regardless of the fact that the Albanian side is responsible for the latest fighting, warnings continue to be directed only to Belgrade, along with the threat that NATO forces will be activated for military intervention," writes the daily Exusia.
The French daily Le Monde, in the Thursday, January 21, issue, questions assertions of a "cold-blooded massacre" of Albanian civilians after the fighting between Serbian forces with the terrorists on January 15 in the village of Racak in Kosmet.
The accusation is irrevocable, writes Le Monde, but adds that unanswered questions remain nonetheless. How did the Serbian police manage to gather a group of men and to peacefully lead them to the place of execution when they were under constant fire by the terrorists?
How is it possible that the people living in the village, who returned before nightfall and the observers who spent over two hours in the village did not see the gully in which the bodies were found?
The residents of the abandoned village of Racak did not recognize among the victims of the so-called "massacre" any of their neighbors from the village
Why were so few cartridges found surrounding the bodies and why was there so little blood in the location where 23 people were found with multiple bullets in their heads?
Were the bodies of Albanians killed in the fighting with the Serbian police later gathered in a single place in order to create a horrific spectacle which was supposed to elicit the condemnation of public opinion?
Was the adamancy and speed of the reaction of the Belgrade government, which gave the head of the verification mission 48 hours to depart from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, indicative of its certainty in what it claimed, asks Le Monde. The French daily states that only an international investigation can establish the truth beyond all shadow of a doubt. In Pristina, the arrival of Finnish and Belorussian forensic experts is expected who will assist their Yugoslav colleagues in expert assessment of the bodies, writes the paper.
In the early morning hours of January 15, members of the police surrounded the village of Racak, district of Stimlje, with the goal of arresting a terrorist group which, five days before, had killed a policeman, Svetislav Przic.
That terrorist group had carried out multiple criminal acts of terrorism as per Article 125 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and was responsible for the murders of policemen Sinisa Mihajlovic, Nazmija Aluri and Svetislav Przic, members of the police reserve forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at Urosevac, PC Stimlje (killed in attacks on September 10 and October 29, 1998, and on January 10, 1999); Sasa Jankovic and Ranko Djordjevic, members of the police reserve forces of Ministry of Internal Affairs at Gnjilane (killed on August 2 and October 12, 1998); and the murder of civilians Miftar Reseni (on December 31, 1998) and Enver Gasi (January 2, 1999). The same terrorist group kidnapped members of the ethnic Albanian and Roma [Gypsy] communities in the districts of Urosevac and Stimlje, and set fire to the house of an ethnic Albanian, Djemalj Batici of Racak (on November 18, 1998).
Security forces informed officials of the international observation mission at the beginning of the campaign against the terrorists and it was watched by observers and reporters of foreign news agencies.
Upon entering the village of Racak, terrorist groups attacked the members of the police from trenches, barricades and fortifications using automatic weapons, and hand-held missile and grenade launchers. During the attack, policeman Goran Vucicevic was injured and many official vehicles belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia were damaged. Members of the police used weapons in order to fend of the attack and break up the terrorist groups. Several tens of terrorists were killed in the fighting, most of whom were in uniforms bearing the markings of the terrorist KLA. On this occasion, members of the police confiscated: a Browing heavy artillery piece of 12.7 mm caliber, two hand-held artillery pieces, 36 automatic rifles, two sniper rifles, and a large quantity of munitions and hand grenades, radio stations, and other military equipment and supplies.
During the course of this police action, terrorist Sadik Mujota (born in 1943) from the village of Malopolje, district of Stimlje, was killed, as well as his daughter who was an active member of the so-called KLA terrorist organization. Mujota, along with his brothers, three sons and a daughter, headed a terrorist group consisting of many people which participated in carrying out multiple terrorist attacks on members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia and the Yugoslav Army in the region of the district of Stimlje. The OSCE KVM was advised of the beginning of the action to arrest the terrorists and was present on location. Immediately following the police action, an investigative team headed by an investigating judge of the Pristina District Court, Danica Marinkovic, and by the Deputy District Public Prosecutor, Ismet Sufto, appeared on location but the terrorists who were on the surrounding highlands opened fire and made it impossible to conduct the investigation. The following day, January 16, 1999, the investigation was again rendered impossible because OSCE KVM insisted that the investigating judge conduct the investigation without the presence of the police, with the explanation that fighting might ensue.
During this (classic) police operation of finding and arresting a terrorist group which had committed terrorist attacks, murder and kidnapping of members of the police, and of civilians, in the regions of Urosevac and Stimlje, the head of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, William Walker, immediately accused "Yugoslav security forces" of massacring 45 civilians in the village of Racak, an act of which he was "personally convinced" and sent an ultimative demand that investigators from the Hague Tribunal be permitted to come to Kosovo and Metohija within 24 hours. At the same time, Walker personally visited the village of Racak, without informing the Yugoslav authorities, accompanied by reporters whom he hand-picked.
By his behavior, his incorrect and malicious interpretations and disrespect for the authority of Yugoslav officials and laws, Walker overstepped his mandate of verifier and the agreement with OSCE in the worst possible manner. On January 17, 1999, the chairman of the Coordinating Team of the Federal Government's Commission for Cooperation with OSCE Kosovo and Metohija Verification Mission, Dusan Loncar, sent a note of protest to the head of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, William Walker, because of his inappropriate behavior and particularly because he made it impossible to conduct an investigation in the village of Racak by authorized, legally empowered authorities.
The investigation, which was scheduled for January 17, 1999, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and to which Walker (KVM) were invited to verify the process by which the investigation was performed, was never begun due to the fact that the Albanian terrorists opened fire from mortars and heavy artillery from the region of the villages of Rance and Petrovo. On that occasion, one of the fired mortar shells fell close to the investigating judge, Mrs. Danica Marinkovic, while other shells fired by the terrorists posed an immediate danger to the lives of the policemen protecting the investigating judge.
An official protest was sent to Walker due to the impossibility of performing the investigation by the investigating judge and it was asked that the verifiers limit their engagement to the function of verifying the process and the work of our investigating judge and her protection force.
On Friday, the day before American ambassador William Walker sensationally "discovered" the so-called massacre in the village of Racak in Kosmet, State Secretary Madeleine Albright held a meeting behind closed doors in Washington, at which she revealed to a few members of the team close to her that the agreement on normalization of relations in Kosmet was due to fall apart at any moment, The New York Times wrote on January 19.
The New York paper cites the statement of an anonymous official in the American administration who pointed out that Albright, obviously, had reliable information regarding events in Racak and practically announced them.
Last Sunday, the American secretary of state, claims the same source, revealed to functionaries of the White House and the Pentagon that "the administration is facing a critical moment" with respect to reaching a decision on Kosmet and outlined that Washington had three options: to give up, to continue "wallowing in the mud" or to take "decisive action". The secretary of state, claims the New York paper, told her colleagues that she favored "strong pressure".
Today's text in The New York Times clearly shows that Washington knew in advance of the whole scenario of the so-called massacre in the village of Racak, which is now being used to justify new pressures on Yugoslavia and Serbia.
America is prepared to punish the Serbs. Regardless of the facts, the threat remains intact.
More than symptomatic is the fact that Madeleine Albright, in warning the functionaries in the Pentagon and the White House that the climax of the Kosmet crisis was soon coming, delivered a series of compliments regarding the head of the OSCE verification mission in Kosmet, William Walker, who, only one day later, would take upon himself the key role in the realization of the scenario of the so-called massacre.
The director of the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina, Dr. Slavisa Dobricanin, stated on Wednesday that a team of eminent pathologists had already performed autopsies of five bodies brought from the village of Racak, and that the bodies bore signs of injury caused exclusively by firearms.
In a statement before numerous domestic and foreign reporters, Dobricanin stressed that the bodies which had been autopsied bore no sign of injuries "which would support that they had been massacred or otherwise tampered with, except for injuries resulting from small rodents, most probably mice, and birds".
He reminded that 40 bodies were delivered to the Institute for Forensic Medicine the day before yesterday, that a team of eminent forensic experts had been formed, among whom were two forensic pathologists from Belorussia, and that it had begun to work on autopsying the bodies upon the order of the investigating judge, Danica Marinkovic.
The work, added Dobricanin, was expected to last for several days, and the full results would be known after additional analysis, after which a public statement would be made. According to Dr. Dobricanin, two members of the OSCE verification mission in Kosovo and Metohija were constantly present at the autopsy and a team of Finnish pathologists, who were already in Belgrade, were expected to arrive the following day.
"We will continue working on the rest of the bodies together with them," said Dobricanin and added that the Finnish experts would bring with them "all materials necessary for further work". Besides Dobricanin, the team of pathologists consists of experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Novi Sad, the Nis Institute, and the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Belgrade.
Vice-President of the OSCE Parlamentary Assembly,
Willy Weimer, vice-president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told the private German television station NTV that he rejects with disgust manipulation by television pictures intended to provoke an intervention by NATO in Kosovo and Metohija. "Everything is directed toward causing a certain reaction so that, once we see certain pictures, we get the wish to immediately issue orders to our soldiers to go into action. I am deeply disturbed by these shameful manipulations of our feels of humanity," declared Willy Weimer on Tuesday, in the contact program "Headlines" ("Schlagzeilen").
Among the first proofs of manipulation, analysts noticed the fact that the "relatives" of the victims wore black with black mourning bands which is not a religious nor a traditional Muslim expression of mourning.
Answering a question with regard to events in the village of Racak, Willy Weimer said that he "knew full well the extent of the Serbs' responsibility" but that he knew even better the responsibility of the Albanian terrorists who, he said "contributed significantly to OSCE's not being able to perform its duties for the past several months".
The federal government, in a special session held on January 18 which was chaired by premier Momir Bulatovic, discussed the latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija and the increased pressures from abroad on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The federal government concluded that a new campaign was underway by the international community and decisively rejected as unfounded the untruthful and malicious declarations regarding events in the village of Racak, the implication of which was to accuse government officers. As a separate item, the federal government reviewed the activities of William Walker, the director of the OSCE verification mission in Kosovo and Metohija, and assessed that that they were in flagrant violation of the provisions of the Agreement regarding the OSCE mission. His activities far exceeded his mandate as director of the mission, as defined by the Agreement regarding the OSCE mission which he heads.
William Walker immediately determined who was guilty: the Serbs had carried out a "massacre".
The agreement indicates (in section 8 of part one) that the responsibilities defined by the Vienna Convention regarding diplomatic relations of 1961 would be honored. Starting from the point of honoring the provisions determined by the Vienna Convention, the federal government, on the basis of the agreement regarding the OSCE verification mission for Kosovo and Metohija (part one, section 8) in which it is precisely defined that the mission has diplomatic status on the basis of the Vienna Convention and Article 9 of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, decided to declare William Walker an undesirable person (persona non grata) which implies that he had the responsibility to leave the territory of FR Yugoslavia within 48 hours.
William Walker: The Serbs are to blame and
the world will believe what I say!
After this decision was reached, leaders of international organizations and numerous diplomatic representatives contacted the highest representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the federal government decided at a session held on January 21 to "freeze" the previous decision regarding the declaration of Walker to be persona non grata.
Since agreements were concluded between the President of the FRY, Slobodan Milosevic, and US special representative, ambassador Richard Holbrooke, during the period from October 13, 1998, and January 14, 1999, in the region of the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, Albanian separatists carried out a total of 599 terrorist attacks and provocations, of which 186 were against civilians, while 413 were against members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic of Serbia.
In these attacks, a total of 53 persons were killed (37 civilians and 16 policemen) and 36 persons suffered serious bodily injury (13 civilians and 23 policemen). A total of 43 persons were kidnapped (39 civilians and 4 policemen); of those, three were killed (one civilian and two policemen), while the fate of the other 22 civilians and one policeman remains unknown.
The investigating judge Danica Marinkovic on January 18 visited the place of the event, continued the investigation and collected evidence regarding the facts of the event. Within that framework, Yugoslav forensic experts working with Finnish forensic experts and Belorussian pathologists continue to work on the identification of the bodies and the determination of the cause of death under the constant observation of representatives of the international mission and while the process is being videotaped.
Every day several Serbian families leave their homes in the region of villages under the pressure and threats of the so-called KLA; in Kosovo we see the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from this southern Serbian province.
The Serbs are leaving ... the Albanians are staying...
WHO is really the victim in Kosovo?
Copyright 1999 by LID/Tiker. All rights reserved
Le Figaro, Paris 20. January 1999
English: "KOSOVO: OBSCURE AREAS OF A MASSACRE"
Le Monde, Paris 21. January 1999
French: "Les morts de Racak ont-ils vraiment été massacrés froidement?"
English: "Were the Racak dead really clodly massacred?"
Die Welt, Berlin 21. January 1999
German: "Der Krieg um die 40 Toten von Racak im Kosovo Massaker oder "nur" die Opfer eines Tages?"
Liberation, Paris 21. January 1999
French: "Neuf questions sur les morts de Racak"
English: "Nine questions concerning the Racak dead"
International Action Center, New York, Paris 21. January 1999
English: "Who is William Walker: "WARHAWK BEHIND U.S. KOSOVO POLICY -
Last updated 99.02.06
Source: www.srpska-mreza.com/Kosovo/hoax/Racak/Tiker/RacakFile.html
To understand the Kosovo separatist conflict of 1998-1999, the background must be analyzed and examined. Did the Kosovo conflict emerge sui generis? What was the context and background of the conflict? To understand that, the decade before must be analyzed, the 1980s. Kosovo in the 1980s is where the conflict arose.
From 1981 to 1989, 20,000 Kosovo Serbs are estimated to have fled from Kosovo. There was a massive campaign to drive out the Kosovo Serb population through ethnic murders, rapes, attacks, beatings, desecrations of churches, cemeteries. From 1982 to 1984, 10 rapes were committed, while 11 attempted rapes were committed against Serbian women by Albanian men. In this period, 286 crimes were committed against Kosovo Serbs, while 1,249 misdemeanors were committed against Kosovo Serbs.
A Kosovo Albanian Muslim leader, Fadil Hoxha, incited Kosovo Albanians to rape Kosovo Serb women. Kosovo Albanian Muslims engaged in a systematic and planned policy or campaign to expel Kosovo Serb Christians from Kosovo. This ethnically and religious motivated campaign of genocide against Kosovo Serbs has been largely suppressed and censored in the US and the West. Through the infowar technique of "emphasis", these human rights abuses have been de-emphasized and buried and spin doctored away.
A systematic and planned campaign of ethnic and religious terror whose goal was genocide has been erased and deleted from the historical record. How was this done? What really happened in Kosovo during the 1980s that set the stage for the Kosovo conflict of 1998-1999? Do we know? Can we know?
II. Arson or Accident?: Pec Patriarchate Burned
On March 16, 1981, the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate was burned in Pec in Kosovo-Metohija. The fire had started on Sunday. Was it arson or an accident? Could a candle have started the blaze? Was the attack ethnically and religiously motivated, a hate crime meant to terrorize the Serbian Orthodox population and to drive them out of Kosovo?
Why is it important? The Pec Patriarchate had been the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 13th century to the abolition of the Pec Patriarchate in 1766. The Pec Patriarchate was regarded as the spiritual center of the Serbian Orthodox and had been the seat of the Serbian Patriarchs since 1346.
The fire burned large areas of the monastery complex, a series of structures. It was started simultaneously in two separate locations. The konak, or residential living quarters, and religious artifacts were destroyed. The fire destroyed the winter church of the monastery complex.
In the period between 1960 and 1981, the Albanian separatists plundered and destroyed the Serbian monasteries of Devic and at Decani. Christian churches were targeted by Albanian Muslim separatists to destroy evidence of the Serbian cultural and religious presence in Kosovo.
Andras J. Riedlmayer, the director of the Documentation Center of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard's Fine Arts Library, stated in his 2002 testimony at the Hague that he had heard of the 1981attack on the Pec Patriarchate but dismissed it as an accident: "That period was not part of our study, but yes, I've heard reports of that. I've also read that police at the time claimed that it---the fire at the konak---was accidental."
The New York Times reported on the burning of the Pec Patriarchate in the story "Sacred Serbian Site Damaged by Blaze" by Marvine Howe:
No one has ever been arrested or charged for the attack. No independent investigation has ever been conducted. The konak was rebuilt on October 16, 1983. The causes for the fire remain unknown. It becomes an epistemological game. Some "claim" or "allege" arson while Albanians "claim" an accident. What is the real story? It all depends on whom you ask. The answer is a function of self-interested motivations and concerns. Was it "arson" or was it an "accident"? Serbian sources "claim" it was purposely set on fire by Albanian Muslims in a terrorist attack to drive out the Kosovo Serb population. Albanian sources and their supporters in the US "claim" that it was an "accident".
III. "We Want a Unified Albania": The 1981 Riots
On April 3-4, 1981, ethnic Albanian demonstrations in Kosovo turned into an armed rebellion to create a Greater Albania. The demonstrations were motivated by separatism and secession. The rioters wanted union with Albania and expressed support for Albanian Communist dictator Enver Hoxha. The slogans the Albanians displayed during the riots were: "We are Albanians and not Yugoslavs", "We are the children of Skanderbeg and the army of Enver Hoxha", "We Want a Unified Albania", and "Kosovo-Republic". This is what the Yugoslav media reported. In the US and Western media accounts, the Albanian majority was supposedly seeking greater rights and freedoms. The ultra-nationalist placards were dismissed and spin-doctored or "air brushed" out of the picture.
There was never any secret what the objective was. Beginning with the demonstrations in 1968, Kosovo Albanians wanted the right to secede from Yugoslavia. They wanted to create an ethnically pure "Kosovo", an ethnic Albanian statelet. In a Radio Free Europe report from December 3, 1969, this creeping secessionism was noted in the article "Cooperation between Tirana University and the new University of Prishtina":
The greater autonomy that was granted to Kosovo only resulted in greater aspirations for full independence from Serbia and Yugoslavia. The Communist Yugoslav regime created an atmosphere of rising expectations in Kosovo. The more the Serbs gave, the more the Albanians wanted, the more the Albanians took. It was an absurd and paradoxical cycle that was predictably going to lead to disaster.
The "Albanianization" of Kosovo continued during the 1970s and 1980s as ethnic Albanians took control over the political, economic, educational, and cultural aspects of Kosovo. From 1971 to 1981, Albania sent to Kosovo 240 university teachers, together with textbooks written in the Albanian or Shqip language. Albanians had the right to their own Assembly, to their own Executive Council, to their Presidency, to their own Supreme Court, to their own Constitutional Court, to their Ministry of the Interior, and their own University in Pristina. The "Albanianization" of the Kosovo police began after 1966.
Granting Kosovo greater autonomy only whetted the Albanian appetite to go for it all and create a Greater Albania, a "Kosova" statelet or "Republic". The 1981 riots proved this and made it abundantly clear to all. As a result, Albanian Communist Party leader in Kosovo Mahmut Bakali resigned.
How were these Albanian ultra-nationalist disturbances and separatist riots explained in the US and the West? Eric Bourne dismissed the crisis in a Christian Science Monitor article of May 7, 1981. He described Kosovo-Metohija as a "onetime Serb colony" and "the problem child" of Communist Yugoslavia but conceded that it was Albanian "extremist nationalist riots" that had sparked the violence and that the "latest unrest repeated the demand that Kosovo be made a republic and incorporate Albanian populations in the neighboring republics of Macedonia and Montenegro." The objective was a Greater Albania although Bourne was careful not to admit that. Bourne asked: "Since 1974, Kosovo has had autonomy in all domestic affairs. Why not then republican status? It seems a simple enough solution." The only problem with it is that the next step is secession and an independent Albanian state of "Kosova". How do you solve the illegal immigration problem in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas? It is "simple enough." Give those states back to Mexico. Bourne's solution is no solution at all, just mindless drivel. Bourne gives us a clear picture of what the US stance on this issue was in 1981. Bourne reports what the US government wants him to report.
Bourne and other US and Western journalists were not interested in the plight of the Serbian Orthodox "minority" in Kosovo. Not one whit. The US media did not get to experience the systematic terror campaign organized by Albanian separatists. The Serbian Orthodox Abbes Hilaria in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste had to keep a rifle to protect herself from separatist Albanian attacks to drive her out of Kosovo. The Albanian dominated police refused to provide protection from criminal attacks and looting directed at the monastery. She had to use a hunting rifle and to fire warning shots in the air to deter the attacks on the convent, Albanians blinded her cattle. She was photographed showing reporters her blinded cattle. The objective was to terrorize Kosovo Serb Christians to drive them out of Kosovo.
The series of ethnically motivated murders began with the murder of Danilo Milincic from the Kosovo village of Samodreza, near Vucitrn, on June 2, 1981. In 1941, when Adolf Hitler annexed Kosovo to Albania and created a Greater Albania, illegal settlers or "immigrants" came from Albania and forced the Milincic family out of Samodreza. In 1960, the father of Danilo, Slavoljub Milincic, was killed on his own property in Samodreza. He was killed by a gun shot. The murderer has never been apprehended. In 1982, his son, Danilo Milincic, was violently killed by an "immigrant" or settler from Albania, Ferat Mujo. Mujo killed Milincic in front of his own house. This was an ethnically motivated murder to drive out Christian Kosovo Serbs.
On April 16, 1982, 21 Serbian priests and monks addressed an appeal to the Yugoslav government that focused on the human rights violations against Kosovo Serbs in Kosovo:
"It may be said without exaggeration that systematic genocide is gradually being perpetrated against the Serbian people in Kosovo! Because, if this were not the case, what do the theses about an 'ethnically clean Kosovo' mean which, regardless of everything, is being implemented without interruption? Or what do the words, often repeated in villages and hamlets, monasteries and churches and even in towns mean: 'What are you waiting for? Move away, this is ours!'"
Albanian separatists had targeted Serbian Orthodox Churches even after the end of World War II. In March, 1952, the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Duganjevo near Urosevac was destroyed. In 1949, the Serbian Orthodox Memorial Church in Djakovica was dynamited and blown up on a major Serbian Orthodox Christian holiday, St. Sava's Day. According to the report by the delegation of priests: "Various Albanian facilities were erected on the foundations of Serbian churches and cultural monuments if they were not completely destroyed."
IV. "[F]ound …with a broken bottle up his anus": Sodomy or Homosexual Accident?
One of the most inflammatory and disgusting incidents against Kosovo Serbs occurred in 1985. Djorde Martinovic became a symbol of the human rights abuses committed against Kosovo Serbs. He became a "martyr" for Kosovo Serb Christians. In a painting by Miodrag Popovic, 1 Maj. 1985, Martinovic was shown being crucified like Jesus Christ by Albanian Muslim separatists. His case became symbolic of a perceived sense of Serbian Christian "martyrdom" in Kosovo. Wouldn't you be outraged and angry if someone shoved a bottle up the ass of an American? In other words, this horrific attack came to symbolize Serbian grievances and a sense of victimization in Kosovo. For this reason, the story needed to be quashed. It had to be made to appear like it was all made up. Fearing a backlash, the Yugoslav government and the US and the Western media colluded in manipulating and censoring and falsifying the incident. What followed was a massive cover-up by the Communist Yugoslav government.
What happened in the Martinovic case? It all depends on who tells it. This is one version or "narrative" of the "storytelling". Djordje Martinovic was ambushed by several Albanians who attacked him while he was working in the field on his own private property. He was placed on a stake or spike. He was then sodomized with a bottle, impaled with a bottle. The Albanian attackers forced the bottle in his anus. Martinovic managed to run to a nearby road where he was able to flag someone down. He was taken to the hospital in Pristina where he received emergency surgery. His injuries were serious.
This is where the plot thickens. He was then visited by Novak Ivanovic, an official from the civil branch of the Yugoslav Army, the JNA. Ivanovic then told him that he had not been sodomized by ethnic Albanian Muslims in an ethnically and religiously motivated hate crime. This is only what appeared to be the case on the surface. He told Martinovic that he was a homosexual and that he had inflicted the injury on himself. It was a self-inflicted injury. The bottle was a dildo Martinovic used in homo-erotic self-gratification. Once the exercise in homosexual auto-eroticism went awry, Martinovic decided to blame the Albanian separatists. That was quite a story.
After a year passed, Novak Ivanovic gave an interview in the publication "Intervju" admitting that the whole homosexual "explanation" was concocted and fabricated on the orders of a General of the Yugoslav Army or JNA. The homosexual angle was a hoax. This is the part of the story that never seemed to reach the US and Western media. The US media stuck with the discredited homosexual angle because it could be true even though shown to be false.
Martinovic obtained the signatures of five doctors in Pristina that attested to the fact that such an injury could not be self-inflicted. He was operated on by British surgeon Peter Holly twice in London who also confirmed that a self-inflicted injury was not possible. A Slovenian doctor in Yugoslavia, in an effort to buttress the Communist regime, however, had argued that a self-inflicted injury was possible. This injury became politically charged. The Communist regime did not want to acknowledge that a Kosovo Serb, a Serbian Christian, was sodomized in an ethnically and religiously motivated hate crime. To do so would only strengthen Serbian "nationalists" within Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Communist regime then falsified the evidence and the facts, indeed, made up its own "reality". This was all done in the name of preserving Yugoslavia and in covering up any Serbian grievances.
We would call this "reality control" today, PR and spin. We are no strangers to "reality control" in the US and the West. This perhaps best explains why these outlandish and outrageous lies and fabrications were accepted in the US and the in the West as etched-in-stone facts and as truths. Who would believe Djordje Martinovic anyway? He is a Serb. He is a Christian. And he is a homosexual too. Or is he?
Yugoslav interior minister Stane Dolanc, who was from Slovenia, made the "official" conclusions on Television Ljubljana in 1987: "The Djordje Martinovic case is over. My police have shown that the injury was self-inflicted and there is no legal recourse. Djordje is the first Serbian Samurai who has committed on himself hara-kiri." Preposterous? Outrageous nonsense? Not so to the US and Western media. It could happen?
In the May 22, 2004 article "Chronicle of an enduring enmity" in the Guardian Unlimited, Nicholas Lezard recalled the Djordje Martinovic tragedy in the context of the broader conflict between Christianity and Islam. Lezard reviewed the book Infidels by Andrew Wheatcroft, which analyzed centuries of confrontation and conflict between Christendom and Islam. Lezard queried: "How could we have imagined this conflict could ever have gone away?" Lezard then wrote about the Martinovic sodomy in the context of Christian-Muslim relations:
"When the Serb Djordje Martinovic claimed in 1985 that two Albanians had shoved a bottle up his bum, some newspapers pointedly referred to the old Ottoman punishment of impalement, even though it was possible Martinovic had performed the deed himself for private reasons."
He could also have been the victim of an alien abduction. Lezard played the spin game too. Anything is possible, especially when you want to engage in a bit of "reality control" and spin. The key to the game is to create ambiguity and uncertainty. Then the game is won. It becomes a farce of he said/she said. Facts are suspended and meaning is deferred. Ultimately, we get to decide the facts for ourselves. We create our own "reality". That is where all the fun is. Ignorance is, indeed, bliss. Who needs reality when we can manufacture and create our own reality? This is the key in understanding the Kosovo conflict.
In 1990, a court in Belgrade found the Yugoslav government liable and that Martinovic be awarded 100,000 Marks in damages. He never received that award. The court did, however, exonerate Martinovic. But no one noticed. Or cared.
Djordje Martinovic died on September 6, 2000 in Citluk near Krusevac. His wife was Jagodinka. He had three sons, Srecko, Dragan and Gradimir, and one daughter, Olga.
V. Rape as an Instrument of Terror
Albanian separatists in Kosovo used rape, sexual assault, against men and women in Kosovo. From 1982 to 1984 alone, 10 rapes against Kosovo Serb women committed by Albanian Muslim men were reported by the police in Kosovo. There were 11 attempted rapes against Kosovo Serb women by Albanian Muslims.
Was there a planned, systematic, and organized policy of rape as an instrument of terror in Kosovo? David Binder reported in The New York Times on November 1, 1987 that Fadil Hoxha, the political leader of Kosovo Albanians, had advocated that Kosovo Serb women be raped by Albanian Muslims. He was inciting rape against Christian women by Albanian Muslim men to create an ethnically pure Muslim "Kosova". Can it get any more outrageous than that? How was this incitement of rape and genocide spun in the West? The spin doctors in the West concluded that Hoxha had "joked" at an official dinner in Prizren that Kosovo Serb women should be systematically raped. Can you "joke" about rape and genocide?
Who was Fadil Hoxha? He was one of the most prominent "Kosovar" Muslim political leaders in Kosovo during the Communist period. He had served as the president of the Assembly of the Kosovo Autonomous Province for two terms, first from July 11, 1945 to February 29, 1953, then a second term from June 24, 1967 to May 7, 1969. In 1967 he was appointed to the Yugoslav Communist Party Presidium. In 1974 he became a member of the Federal Presidency of Yugoslavia. During 1978-79 he held the rotating position of president of the Federal Presidency. He was regarded as a "father-figure" for the Albanian Muslim separatists and secessionists.
How do you explain the incitement to rape and genocide by a top Albanian Muslim leader in Kosovo?
VI. Desecration of Christian Graves and Cemeteries
One of the most horrific human rights abuses against Kosovo Serb Christians was never even covered by the US or Western media. This was a crime committed by Albanian Muslim separatists against Kosovo Serbs.
On September 27, 1988, five Albanian Muslim "Kosovars" dug up the bodies of two Kosovo Serb infants, Radojko and Dragica Petrovic. They were twins who had died at birth. The Albanian Muslims then scattered the remains of the bodies all over the grave in the Orthodox Christian cemetery in Grace near Vucitrn. This attack occurred on an Orthodox Christian holy day, the Day of the Glorification of the Holy Cross. This was a horrific ethnically and religiously motivated hate crime committed by Albanian Muslims against Serbian Christians. This crime was well-documented and substantiated by the police. Needless to say, it was virtually censored in the US and Western media. How do you spin or manipulate such horrendous human rights abuses? When you cannot manipulate or spin the facts, you ignore or dismiss the incident entirely, in toto. That was what the US and Western media did in this instance.
Kosovo Serb Dmitrije Petkovic, who lived in a village near Pristina, was a target of these attacks. He explained in a December 4, 1984 Ilustrovana Politika interview: "It is clear that this is the work of Albanian irredentist to force us to leave Kosovo, but I, my wife Krstana, my four sons and two daughters are determined to stay on our land. No one will chase us away..."
The attacks against Serbian churches, cemeteries, gravestones, and monuments were not random and arbitrary and accidental. It was all part of a systematic, planned, and organized campaign to drive Kosovo Serbian Christians out of Kosovo. The implications were obvious. And yet the US and Western media and pundits, the "international community", missed it even though it was right under their very noses. How do you miss such egregious human rights violations that amount to genocide? Is it possible?
VII. Epistemological Analysis: Who do you believe?
Who is telling the truth? Who do you believe? What is the "truth" here? What are the "facts"? The Kosovo conflict is a classic case where epistemology is part of the issue. In other words, we never know what the facts are. We never know what the "reality" is. He said this and that. He claimed and alleged this and that. Some assert and maintain the following "facts". According to this or that source, these are the contradictory "facts". It is like an insane asylum. We are in a madhouse with a series of unending mirrors like in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Which mirror reflects "reality", "facts", and the "truth". We do not know. We cannot know. Images are reflected endlessly and infinitely. Are we losing our minds? Are we going mad? Someone must be playing with our minds.
Croat journalist Krsto or Christopher Cviic wrote about the Martinovic sodomy in "A Culture of Humiliation" on June 22, 1993 in The National Interest:
"I keep returning to an incident from my personal experience that, to me at any rate, symbolizes and encapsulates the attitudes that have led to the present disaster. On May 1, 1985, a 59-year-old Serbian farmer by the name of Djordje Martinovic was found in a distressed condition with a broken bottle up his anus in his own province of Serbia, one with a large ethnic Albanian majority. Almost overnight, this elderly man, who supplemented his farm income by working as a storekeeper for the Yugoslav Army in Gnjilane, became the center of a fierce controversy that quickly grew into a cause celebre.
According to reports claiming to be based on Mr. Martinovic's own evidence and published in Belgrade, Serbia's capital, Mr. Martinovic had been attacked from behind by a group of masked men speaking Albanian, who then allegedly tied him up and brutalized him. The other version, in Kosovo's Albanian-language press and in the media in some non-Serbian parts of Yugoslavia, was very different. According to that account, Mr. Martinovic was a homosexual who had suffered an accident while in the act of self-gratification and, in order to avoid bringing dishonor on himself and his family in a very old-fashioned society, decided to invent the alleged attack."
Cviic suspends his judgment and reports the attack as if no explanation can be found for it. It remains a mystery of mysteries? An enigma inside a conundrum? Cviic engages in all the journalistic tricks of manipulation and "reality control" and spin. For instance, he uses the passive tense in describing the attack against Martinovic, who is "found with a broken bottle up his anus". This is a passive construction implying no active agency. He just woke up one day and found a bottle up his ass. A body was found not breathing. A corpse was found dead. Cviic is playing the journalist game. He knows consciously that it is a cynical game because he discusses it himself:
"I arrived in Kosovo shortly thereafter while researching a story on the national question in Yugoslavia for The Economist and was one of the first Western correspondents to write about 'the Martinovic affair.' The atmosphere I found there reminded me of Kurosawa's famous film "Rashomon" I had seen while still living in Yugoslavia in the early 1950s, in which a single violent incident is told in several completely different versions. I wanted to talk to Mr. Martinovic but could not: he had been taken out of the hands of the Kosovo authorities, whisked off to the Yugoslav Army's Medical Academy in Belgrade and kept incommunicado there pending further clinical and psychiatric investigations.
Four years after this bizarre and gruesome incident, in June 1989, Serbia re-annexed Kosovo, thus regaining full control over its police and judiciary. Intriguingly, the Martinovic file remained closed. The new Serbian authorities have so far failed--to my knowledge anyway--to do what they might have been expected to do in such a highly publicized case. They have not reopened the investigation with a view to catching the alleged perpetrators, bringing them to justice and vindicating the old man's honor. This suggests that the attack theory might after all have been an anti-Albanian fabrication, as the local Albanians had claimed from the start. But, whatever the true facts of the case, they do not seem to matter any more--at least not to the present generation of Serbs. The martyrdom of Djordje Martinovic, in the highly stylized form of the crucifixion in the Academy of Sciences picture, has become part of the Serbs' vision of themselves as perpetual victims of cruel historical circumstances--an idea born in Kosovo more than 600 years ago.
It was in Kosovo Polje (the Field of Blackbirds), not far from where Djordje Martinovic suffered his mysterious humiliation…."
Cviic uses ironic quotes or quotation marks when he uses the term Albanian "terror". This is an obvious ploy that de-legitimizes the Serbian "claims". Having a bottle shoved up your anus is not "terror" when you cannot prove it. The game here is pretty clever. We are in awe. It does get rather silly after a while once you figure out what is going on. Is there any reason we should suspect bias and self-interest here? Who is Cviic? He is a Croatian Roman Catholic. During World War II Croatian ultra-nationalists have been "accused" or alleged" to have murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbian Orthodox Christians. Cviic may be biased?
The absurdity of the Cviic "narrative" is that he tells you that you cannot believe anyone but then expects you to believe him. I would never lie to you. But those other people may. This begs the obvious question: Why should I believe you? The approach is paradoxical and contradictory. We don't know who to believe. And, of course, that is all part of the game.
Julie Mertus takes this outlandish approach in Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War. Her "analysis" is so laughable and biased that one does not even need to read the book. Here is how the story ends: Everything the Serbs "claim" is merely "myth"; conversely, everything Albanians claim are "truths". This is simplicity itself. Why didn't I think of that? No, this is not a joke. This is supposed to be highfalutin historical scholarship and research. This is the best and the brightest at work. This is what they teach you in American universities and colleges.
Mertus would interview Albanian sources and their statements would be used as "truths" and as "facts" while Serbian statements would be dismissed as "claims", "allegations", and "assertions". How are we supposed to believe what Albanian Muslims say? Don't they have a stake in a Greater Albania or independent "Kosova"? Don't they get all the Serbian property for free? Don't the Albanian Muslims get to create a second Muslim Albania statelet? Why are they not biased and self-interested? Julie Mertus assumes her readers are too stupid to figure it out. It ain't rocket science.
The "analyses" by Mertus, however, are what we have for the history of Kosovo in the 1980s. This is what the "history" will be for Kosovo. This mindless drivel is what will be accepted as the true and accurate account of Kosovo. This is more than a question of spin or bias. This is an issue of humanism. Are we that brain dead that we cannot tell when our minds are manipulated and screwed with?
In the preface to her book, Mertus admits that she is advocating the Albanian Muslim side in the conflict, but without actually saying it. What a big surprise. But is this what a "scholar" and an "expert" should be doing? In the guise of objectivity and analysis, she is totally biased and offers propaganda instead of analysis. The book is totally nonsensical and one-sided and prevents any understanding of what occurred in Kosovo during the 1980s.
Kosovo in the 1980s is essentially an epistemological issue. We never know what really happened. We suspend judgment and defer meaning. The approach that the US media used can be compared to the multiple viewpoints or perspectives approach of narration or "narrative" in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), a technique later "borrowed" by Akira Kurosawa in Rashomon (1950).
We never know who Charles Foster Kane was. We get contradictory appraisals of the man and his career. Who was Citizen Kane? After his death, there were conflicting and contradictory accounts.
Some "claimed" Kane was a fascist: The Chicago Globe called Kane "U.S. Fascist No. 1":
Policies Swayed World
Stormy Career Ends for "U.S. Fascist No. 1"
The Minneapolis Record Herald claimed he sponsored democracy:
Publisher Gave Life to Nation's Service during Long Career "
In front of a Congressional investigating committee, Walter Parks Thatcher recalled:
"Mr. Charles Foster Kane, in every essence of his social beliefs, and by the dangerous manner in which he has persistently attacked the American traditions of private property, initiative, and opportunity for advancement, is in fact, nothing more or less than a Communist!"
In New York's Union Square, where a boycott of Kane newspapers is advocated, a speaker declares:
"The words of Charles Foster Kane are a menace to every working man in this land. He is today what he has always been---and always will be---a Fascist!"
Kane described himself as follows: "I am, have been, and will be only one thing--an American."
Who was Kane? We never find out. The problem is that we do not know which "narrative" to accept as factual or truthful or even accurate. In a multiplicity of viewpoints, who can you believe? Who is telling the truth? Who is pulling your leg? We never find out in Citizen Kane.
But do we know what the facts and the truth are in the Kosovo conflict? How do you connect the dots? Who can you believe?
VIII. In the eye of the beholder?
We never find out who Charles Foster Kane is or was. Does a sled with the word "Rosebud" explain who or what Kane was? We have multiple viewpoints and perspectives but we don't know which one to give credence and priority to. There are also differing layers and depths to what we see or perceive. In Edgar Allan Poe's detective story The Purloined Letter, the purloined letter is in plain sight, right in front of the Parisian police. The police see the letter in plain view. But they also do not see the letter. They see the letter but they ignore it or dismiss it. Their senses tell them that the letter is not what it seems or appears to be. How do we give meaning to our perceptions? Can our perceptions be tricked or deceived? Are we guided by pre-determined assumptions and impulses?
Who do we believe? What do you believe? How near or far should we be? How do we figure out who he is, who he really is? Similarly, we never find out what the actual situation in Kosovo is or was. Everyone has their own opinion or assessment. If Serbian sources are cited, they are prefaced with the terms "according to", "claims", "alleges", "asserts", "reports". They are usually self-motivated or self-interested allegations which are little more than "myths" and "propaganda" and spurious "claims". Information from Albanian sources, on the other hand, are facts, etched is stone facts, chiseled in marble and granite "truths", to be taken at face value truisms and self-evident. Serbian "claims" or "myths" are juxtaposed to Albanian "facts" and "truths". Serbian myths were juxtaposed against Albanian truths. Whatever the Serbs "claimed" or "reported" or "alleged" or "said" was deemed a myth. Conversely, anything and everything an Albanian Muslim said or wrote was etched-in-stone, chiseled-in-granite, gospel "truth", a priori true and factual because an Albanian or Shqiptar had uttered them. Laughable? Psychotic and delusional? If it is psychotic and delusional, then this applies to the foremost US "experts" and "scholars" and think tank pundits and "analysts".
There is a suspension of disbelief in the Kosovo crisis. We delude ourselves into believing that we do not understand what is going on. We know perfectly well what is going on. In 1941, after Adolf Hitler created a Greater Albania, Kosovar Albanian Muslim political leader Dzafer Deva from Kosovska Mitrovica declared: "The freedom has come. Yugoslavia is no more. The Greater Albania has been created. Serbs ought to be expelled from the Balkans or killed." The Kosovo crisis was always about separatism and secession.
From 1981 to 1989, an estimated 20,000 Kosovo Serbs were driven out from Kosovo. Many were settled in refugee camps in Belgrade. Kaludjerica, near Belgrade, was a town settled by Serbian refugees from Kosovo in the 1980s. Kosovo Serbs were murdered, raped, beaten, attacked, and terrorized to leave their homes and property in Kosovo. Serbian churches, gravestones, cemeteries, and religious and cultural and historical monuments were vandalized, desecrated, and destroyed. Serbian priests and nuns were attacked, beaten, and abused. Why was this systematic, planned, and organized campaign of genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian population of Kosovo suppressed and censored in the US and the West?


text:
Sotto il cielo di Roma
By Armando Corsi
A metropolis in constant transformation between social and architectural contrasts. An urban vision among the most famous and lesser known places of this great city. That's Rome!
About the Author
Publish Date March 29, 2011
Dimensions Large Square 66 pgs
Premium Paper, matte finish
Category Fine Art Photography
Tags street photography, black and white, monument, rome, city, cityscape, urban, italy, metropolis, architecture
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