History of misinformation tarnishes Clark's military record
--- LINKS:
CHECK THE GENERAL'S SENSES
http://www.webheaven.co.yu/nato/general.htm
Wesley Clark farà domani il contrario di ciò che ha fatto ieri?
in english:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2822
en francais:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2811
in italiano:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2825
Wesley Clark, un “nuovo patriota” verso la Casa Bianca
http://www.clorofilla.it/articolo.asp?articolo=3316
Wesley Clark for President? A Ticket to Armageddon
(by TV Weber)
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/weber/007.shtml
NY Sun: Clark's Misinformation Problem
(by Thomas Lipscomb)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/996650/posts
--- MORE FROM OUR PREVIOUS MAILINGS:
Wesley Clark War Crimes amply documented
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2822
War Criminal Wesley Clark for President?
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2795
===
Chicago Sun-Times - Other views
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-clark06.html
History of misinformation tarnishes Clark's military record
October 6, 2003
BY THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
The latest entry in the Democratic presidential candidate lineup has
rocketed to become the top candidate within two weeks of his
announcement. Wesley Clark is a retired general and a Rhodes scholar,
and he served as NATO commander during the Kosovo War as well as a CNN
commentator during the Iraq war this spring. His words of July 11 sound
like the kind of straight talk that could reassure Americans
increasingly uncertain about the direction of the war in Iraq: "When I
was in the military," he said, "I took an oath to uphold the
Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution that says you can
mislead people."
But in one astonishing statement three days before Clark announced his
candidacy, Clark's former boss, Gen. H. Hugh Shelton, raised the most
serious questions about Clark's military record, which is, of course,
all he really has to run on. Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff on 9/11, said: "I've known Wes a long time. I will tell
you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and
character, issues that are very near and dear to my heart."
According to military historian Thomas Fleming, "This is the most
critical statement by one senior military officer on the record on the
conduct of another in the history of the United States armed forces."
Shelton is not alone in his opinion. Clark is widely disliked in the
Army. Many commentators wondered at the time why Clark "came out of
Europe early." It was unheard of for Clark or any NATO commander to be
relieved months before his tour was up and quickly retired. Now Shelton
has revealed that the reason Clark was relieved involved issues of
"integrity and character." Within the military code there could be no
more damning statement.
There are clues to Shelton's indictment from Clark's Kosovo campaign.
The war began after a chorus of charges that the Serbians were
unleashing genocidal holocaust upon Kosovars, Albanians and other
largely Muslim minorities. And the NATO commander's headquarters
rapidly became an echo of the "five o'clock follies" of press
misinformation at Army headquarters in Saigon two decades earlier.
Here are a few examples: There were supposed to be 100,000 prisoners
detained by the Serbs in a soccer stadium in Pristina. An Agence France
Presse reporter dropped by the stadium a few days later and admired its
green grass and empty seats with the single caretaker on the site.
NATO headquarters passed along Albanian allegations that Serbian
victims were being incinerated at a Trpca mine smelter. But when
interviewed by reporter Ben Works, NATO officers admitted they had
monitored the site during the entire war and the smelter had never been
fired up.
Even the NATO bomb-damage assessment team Clark sent in after the truce
found that instead of the several hundred Serbian tanks Clark had
claimed were destroyed by his air war, there were only 12 and about as
many personnel carriers. As for atrocities, according to Works, Clark's
team found "no credible indications of large scale atrocities or any
other pattern of smaller scale crimes against humanity."
If Clark was singularly unsuccessful in his high-altitude air war on
the Serb forces, which he had predicted would bring victory in a few
days, it caused a lot of civilian casualties. Besides blowing up the
Chinese Embassy, some civilian convoys, a lot of radio and TV
facilities, and an amazing number of chicken coops, one incident stands
out. A train loaded with civilians was crossing a bridge near Grdelica
when it was attacked by NATO F-15s. A dozen were killed and many
wounded. In briefing the press Clark termed it "unfortunate." Clark ran
gun camera photo footage. "You can see if you are focusing on your job
as a pilot how suddenly that train appeared." NATO was claiming their
target was the bridge and the train was moving so fast they couldn't
reinstruct the missile in time to avoid the train.
Looking at the film the train does appear to suddenly jump into the
frame. There was only one problem: According to the Ottawa Citizen's
Scott Taylor, the film had been doctored. The F-15s had made two passes
and hit the bridge the first time, knocking out the train's electrical
power. On the second pass, they hit the train. The two segments were
spliced together so it looked like the stationary train was moving.
This is not the only time Clark suffered from the failure of monitoring
cameras. Cameras also failed at the tragic bombing at the village of
Korisa which killed 87 Albanian civilians, and at the final assault on
the Koresh compound at Waco. Eighty six civilians were killed in the
assault, in which 17 armored vehicles and personnel as well from the
First Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood commanded by Clark participated.
Mistakes happen. Subordinates send up bad or intentionally skewed
information. The fog of war makes any headquarters press communications
difficult at best. But if Shelton and Defense Secretary Bill Cohen were
receiving reports as misleading as the ones furnished to the press by
Clark's headquarters it couldn't have made their task any easier.
Clark is the leading Democratic candidate for president. He is also the
only candidate who is registered with several agencies, including the
Defense Department, as a paid lobbyist. To avoid a possible conflict of
interest, did he tell CNN he was a registered Defense lobbyist when he
signed on as their on-air military commentator? According to CNN
spokesman Mark Furman, "We did not know." When CNN fired him, Clark
blamed the influence of President Bush, which CNN denied.
Perhaps for Wesley Clark, like Bill Clinton, another brilliant Rhodes
Scholar Arkansan who served as Clark's commander in chief, it may
depend on what the word "mislead" means.
Thomas H. Lipscomb is chairman of the Center for the Digital Future in
New York.
--- LINKS:
CHECK THE GENERAL'S SENSES
http://www.webheaven.co.yu/nato/general.htm
Wesley Clark farà domani il contrario di ciò che ha fatto ieri?
in english:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2822
en francais:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2811
in italiano:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2825
Wesley Clark, un “nuovo patriota” verso la Casa Bianca
http://www.clorofilla.it/articolo.asp?articolo=3316
Wesley Clark for President? A Ticket to Armageddon
(by TV Weber)
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/weber/007.shtml
NY Sun: Clark's Misinformation Problem
(by Thomas Lipscomb)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/996650/posts
--- MORE FROM OUR PREVIOUS MAILINGS:
Wesley Clark War Crimes amply documented
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2822
War Criminal Wesley Clark for President?
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2795
===
Chicago Sun-Times - Other views
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-clark06.html
History of misinformation tarnishes Clark's military record
October 6, 2003
BY THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
The latest entry in the Democratic presidential candidate lineup has
rocketed to become the top candidate within two weeks of his
announcement. Wesley Clark is a retired general and a Rhodes scholar,
and he served as NATO commander during the Kosovo War as well as a CNN
commentator during the Iraq war this spring. His words of July 11 sound
like the kind of straight talk that could reassure Americans
increasingly uncertain about the direction of the war in Iraq: "When I
was in the military," he said, "I took an oath to uphold the
Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution that says you can
mislead people."
But in one astonishing statement three days before Clark announced his
candidacy, Clark's former boss, Gen. H. Hugh Shelton, raised the most
serious questions about Clark's military record, which is, of course,
all he really has to run on. Shelton, who was chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff on 9/11, said: "I've known Wes a long time. I will tell
you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and
character, issues that are very near and dear to my heart."
According to military historian Thomas Fleming, "This is the most
critical statement by one senior military officer on the record on the
conduct of another in the history of the United States armed forces."
Shelton is not alone in his opinion. Clark is widely disliked in the
Army. Many commentators wondered at the time why Clark "came out of
Europe early." It was unheard of for Clark or any NATO commander to be
relieved months before his tour was up and quickly retired. Now Shelton
has revealed that the reason Clark was relieved involved issues of
"integrity and character." Within the military code there could be no
more damning statement.
There are clues to Shelton's indictment from Clark's Kosovo campaign.
The war began after a chorus of charges that the Serbians were
unleashing genocidal holocaust upon Kosovars, Albanians and other
largely Muslim minorities. And the NATO commander's headquarters
rapidly became an echo of the "five o'clock follies" of press
misinformation at Army headquarters in Saigon two decades earlier.
Here are a few examples: There were supposed to be 100,000 prisoners
detained by the Serbs in a soccer stadium in Pristina. An Agence France
Presse reporter dropped by the stadium a few days later and admired its
green grass and empty seats with the single caretaker on the site.
NATO headquarters passed along Albanian allegations that Serbian
victims were being incinerated at a Trpca mine smelter. But when
interviewed by reporter Ben Works, NATO officers admitted they had
monitored the site during the entire war and the smelter had never been
fired up.
Even the NATO bomb-damage assessment team Clark sent in after the truce
found that instead of the several hundred Serbian tanks Clark had
claimed were destroyed by his air war, there were only 12 and about as
many personnel carriers. As for atrocities, according to Works, Clark's
team found "no credible indications of large scale atrocities or any
other pattern of smaller scale crimes against humanity."
If Clark was singularly unsuccessful in his high-altitude air war on
the Serb forces, which he had predicted would bring victory in a few
days, it caused a lot of civilian casualties. Besides blowing up the
Chinese Embassy, some civilian convoys, a lot of radio and TV
facilities, and an amazing number of chicken coops, one incident stands
out. A train loaded with civilians was crossing a bridge near Grdelica
when it was attacked by NATO F-15s. A dozen were killed and many
wounded. In briefing the press Clark termed it "unfortunate." Clark ran
gun camera photo footage. "You can see if you are focusing on your job
as a pilot how suddenly that train appeared." NATO was claiming their
target was the bridge and the train was moving so fast they couldn't
reinstruct the missile in time to avoid the train.
Looking at the film the train does appear to suddenly jump into the
frame. There was only one problem: According to the Ottawa Citizen's
Scott Taylor, the film had been doctored. The F-15s had made two passes
and hit the bridge the first time, knocking out the train's electrical
power. On the second pass, they hit the train. The two segments were
spliced together so it looked like the stationary train was moving.
This is not the only time Clark suffered from the failure of monitoring
cameras. Cameras also failed at the tragic bombing at the village of
Korisa which killed 87 Albanian civilians, and at the final assault on
the Koresh compound at Waco. Eighty six civilians were killed in the
assault, in which 17 armored vehicles and personnel as well from the
First Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood commanded by Clark participated.
Mistakes happen. Subordinates send up bad or intentionally skewed
information. The fog of war makes any headquarters press communications
difficult at best. But if Shelton and Defense Secretary Bill Cohen were
receiving reports as misleading as the ones furnished to the press by
Clark's headquarters it couldn't have made their task any easier.
Clark is the leading Democratic candidate for president. He is also the
only candidate who is registered with several agencies, including the
Defense Department, as a paid lobbyist. To avoid a possible conflict of
interest, did he tell CNN he was a registered Defense lobbyist when he
signed on as their on-air military commentator? According to CNN
spokesman Mark Furman, "We did not know." When CNN fired him, Clark
blamed the influence of President Bush, which CNN denied.
Perhaps for Wesley Clark, like Bill Clinton, another brilliant Rhodes
Scholar Arkansan who served as Clark's commander in chief, it may
depend on what the word "mislead" means.
Thomas H. Lipscomb is chairman of the Center for the Digital Future in
New York.