The more things change...... Well, you know the rest of it. Nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama promises peace and pie in the sky. On the foreign policy front, hardliners in the U.S. worried the 'liberal' Obama would sell out the U.S. to all its enemies. As proof, they pointed warily at his 'reset' intentions with Russia. But reality is often at odds with rhetoric. In eastern Europe, the Obama administration continues to pursue an essentially expansionist policy not much different than the bumbling, footloose cowboy Bush Junior. Despite the flowery rhetoric, however, the essentials of the two U.S. leaders are almost indistinguishable. The latest proof? Romania has announced talks are now underway with Washington on deploying some 20 interceptor rockets on that eastern European country's territory.
It's a story the media would seem to want to get its clacking fingers into. Spies, secret torture bases, alleged terrorists. Very sexy stuff. There's only one problem. The side alleged to have been engaged in this cloak-and-dagger stuff is the United States. Exposure of such inconvenient facts would belie the United States reputation as an upholder of law and order. That's why you won't find the Western press digging into the stories and rumors of CIA black sites in eastern Europe. It just doesn't jive with the accepted narrative. Despite that, bits and pieces of information do get out there, adding pieces to the puzzle. The latest being official records confirming that CIA flights did land in Poland, despite previous government denials in Warsaw.
They are some of the gorier allegations to come out of the Kosovo conflict. In the summer of 1999 as the war was entering its final days it's alleged Kosovo Albanians first kidnapped then transported some 300 people, namely Serbs, to Albania where their organs were "harvested" for sale abroad.
The chilling allegations briefly grabbed headlines in 2008 when former chief UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte published lots of circumstantial evidence in her book, "The Hunt." Now, Serb investigators say they have witnesses to some of the gruesome deeds and further information on who some of the victims may have been.
Believe it or not, the type of reactor once found in the nuclear house of horrors, Chernobyl, is still churning out power in Europe. But the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithunia, which provides 70 percent of the power of that small Baltic state, is living on borrowed time. Under an agreement with the EU, Lithuania will pull the switch on Ignalina on New Year's eve. While Europe will be rid of one more dangerous nuclear site, Lithuania is stuck with a problem. Where to get the power Ignalina provided in bunches.
