By
Gary Wilson
When the U.S. news media began to report that a massacre had
taken place on Jan. 15 in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province, most
relied for their information on statements by U.S. Ambassador
William Walker.
On Walker's say-so, U.S.-NATO warplanes could begin bombing
this small country, which has already had large pieces torn out
of it in recent years.
It's important that the world know who Walker is: a U.S.
State Department veteran who directed the dirty war against El
Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s and lied about every aspect
of it.
Walker, now the head of a NATO-imposed inspection team in
Kosovo, said he had visited the site of the alleged massacre
and declared that he knew all the facts. He was the judge, jury
and executioner all in one.
Not even a district attorney in any United States city could
so boldly make such a declaration. Guilty first. Evidence
later.
The Yugoslav government ordered Walker's expulsion. The U.S.
media all said this was in order to cover up what had really
happened. But that's turning reality on its head. It was Walker
who spoke out before the facts could be known. He thus
guaranteed that Washington's version of what happened became
the official version.
That's a real cover-up.
Who is Walker?
Who is Ambassador Walker? Is he the Richard Butler of
Kosovo, as many in the Balkans now believe?
Butler, an Australian acting as the head of the United
Nations inspection force in Iraq, has secretly worked for U.S.
military and intelligence services. Members of the UN Security
Council have even charged him with fabricating his last report
to fit the needs of Washington in order to justify the
Pentagon's December bombing campaign against Iraq.
Walker heads up a NATO inspection team in Kosovo. Who makes
up the team? "Sizable numbers have military backgrounds; a
lesser number, but also a sizable number, have police
backgrounds," Walker said at a State Department news conference
Jan. 8 (official transcript, U.S. Information Service).
When asked if the Kosovo team was a spy team like the UNSCOM
group in Iraq, Walker replied, "I hope everyone on my mission
is trying to gather as much intelligence as they possibly
can."
Questioned again, "Are you reporting it back to Washington?"
Walker replied, "A lot of it comes back to Washington, but it
goes to all the capitals [of the NATO powers]."
Sounds a lot like what's been happening in Iraq.
Is Walker someone who can be trusted to tell the truth about
what is happening in Kosovo? Or does his past history show that
he is the master of the political lie and cover-up?
Walker is commonly portrayed in the U.S. media as a career
diplomat now caught in the Balkan quagmire. But that's not
quite the reality.
Walker does have a long career in the U.S. State Department.
It is how he spent that career that sheds some light on what he
is doing today.
An aide to Eliot Abrams and Oliver North
Walker began his diplomatic career in 1961 in Peru. In 1985
he was made deputy assistant secretary of state for Central
America. He was a key operator in the Reagan White House's
operation to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, run by Lt.
Col. Oliver North and Assistant Secretary of State Eliot
Abrams. Walker was a special assistant to Abrams, according to
charges filed in U.S. District Court by Independent Counsel
Lawrence Walsh.
According to the court record, Walker was responsible for
setting up a phony humanitarian operation at an airbase in
Ilopango, El Salvador. It was secretly used to run guns,
ammunition and supplies to the contra mercenaries attacking
Nicaragua.
Independent Counsel Walsh believed that Walker was one of
the key players in Oliver North's operations, according to
court records.
Later, from 1988 to 1992, Walker was the U.S. Ambassador to
El Salvador. That was the period when military death squads
reigned. Many in these death squads were trained at the U.S.
military's School of the Americas at Ft. Benning near Columbus,
Ga.
`Silent participant' in killing of Jesuits
A document presented last Nov. 16 by anti-war activists at a
protest outside the School of the Americas gave details of one
of the massacres:
"On Nov. 16, 1989, an armed group of men from El Salvador's
U.S.-trained Atlacatl military battalion, most of them SOA
graduates, entered a dormitory of the José Simeón
Cañas University of Central America at 2:30 to 3 a.m.
They dragged six priests from their beds and then shot them in
the head. Then they killed the priests' cook and her
15-year-old daughter."
The priests were believed to be sympathetic to the
liberation army fighting against the U.S.-backed government.
The Jesuits have charged that Walker was a "silent participant"
in the massacre.
Years later, on May 6, 1996, Walker headed a ceremony in
Washington to honor 5,000 U.S. soldiers who had secretly fought
in El Salvador. At the time Walker was ambassador, the official
story was that there were only 50 U.S. military "advisers" in
El Salvador. (Washington Post, May 6, 1996)
An experienced liar
So Walker is not someone used to telling the truth. He could
not honestly be characterized as an independent observer or a
human rights advocate.
He is probably up to his old tricks in Kosovo. This time,
his actions give backing to a different contra army, the contra
"Kosovo Liberation Army."
Some European newspapers have begun to refer to NATO as the
KLA Air Force.
Walker's actions are clearly meant to destabilize the
Yugoslav government. His statements could be used to justify a
NATO military attack, if the U.S. government decides to do
that.
On Jan. 12, three top Yugoslav officials, including a
prominent opponent of the government of Slobodan Milosevic,
held a news conference to show a top-secret CIA document on
U.S. plans to oust Milosevic. The document said that $35
million was to be funneled to opposition groups in
Yugoslavia.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill calling for the overthrow
of Milosevic.
A war is being waged against the government of Yugoslavia.
The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, which has adopted the
uniform of the fascist occupiers of the region during World War
II, has backing from the United States, Germany and Israel. On
news of the alleged massacre, right-wing Israeli Arial Sharon
wrote a statement that was passed by parliament condemning the
Yugoslav government and calling for its ouster.
No one should get caught up in the media hysteria of the
moment. The truth of what happened in the Kosovo village of
Racak may never be fully known. Yugoslav forensic teams were
prevented by the KLA from visiting the site or examining the
bodies before Walker made his statements.
The story given out to the world has come through Walker and
his team of military "experts."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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