KOSOVO

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDElxI6QixsmqA7HSlkoi5Kz4KaZMXYL6b_Dpj0OHr3kcQbs0Qw0hxbUiuWRzv8reKL5YEYdm_djyVYR2dA7jhaexpl1p8Wsxju8BXk_QRgu7PDLfgG65sFYSsWJ8NL7mc7jgQjkKYfqq5/s1600/kosovo-flag1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDElxI6QixsmqA7HSlkoi5Kz4KaZMXYL6b_Dpj0OHr3kcQbs0Qw0hxbUiuWRzv8reKL5YEYdm_djyVYR2dA7jhaexpl1p8Wsxju8BXk_QRgu7PDLfgG65sFYSsWJ8NL7mc7jgQjkKYfqq5/s320/kosovo-flag1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Washington’s Kosovo Strategy </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><b>By F. William Engdahl </b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In one of the more bizarre foreign policy announcements of the Obama Administration, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that Washington will “help” Kosovo to join NATO as well as the European Union. She made the pledge after a recent Washington meeting with Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Washington where she praised the progress of the Thaci government in its progress in “European integration and economic development.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Her announcement no doubt caused serious gas pains among government and military officials in the various capitals of European NATO. Few people  appreciate just how mad Clinton’s plan to push Kosovo into NATO and the EU is. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Basic Kosovo geopolitics</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The controversial piece of real estate today called Kosovo was a part of Yugoslavia and tied to Serbia until the NATO bombing campaign in 1999 demolished what remained of Milosevic’s Serbia and  opened the way for the United States, with the dubious assist of EU nations, above all Germany, to carve up the former Yugoslavia into tiny, dependent pseudo states. Kosovo became one, as did Macedonia. Slovenia and Croatia had earlier split off from Yugoslavia with a strong assist from the German Foreign Ministry.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7gC-AA11xvQX9crAsXZpeGxmxqo0OLOeXpWiq5K8lkngAuiEWpL5EU1Af-UgbBooRAmH9hTQOfnxJNzlviaNcCaI-gR4IgbMoYRlFNWEUI-FG3XdpxJjItm2yKr6zDyJ_duAJ43MAYTu/s1600/timthumb.333php.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7gC-AA11xvQX9crAsXZpeGxmxqo0OLOeXpWiq5K8lkngAuiEWpL5EU1Af-UgbBooRAmH9hTQOfnxJNzlviaNcCaI-gR4IgbMoYRlFNWEUI-FG3XdpxJjItm2yKr6zDyJ_duAJ43MAYTu/s320/timthumb.333php.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Some brief review of the circumstances leading to the secession of Kosovo from Yugoslavia will help locate how risky a NATO membership or EU membership would be for the future of Europe. Hashim Thaci the current Kosovo Prime Minister, got his job, so to speak, through the US State Department and not via free democratic Kosovo elections. Kosovo is not recognized as a legitimate state by either Russia or Serbia or over one hundred other nations. However, it was immediately recognized when it declared independence in 2008 by the Bush Administration and by Berlin.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Membership into the EU for Kosovo would be welcoming another failed state, something which may not bother US Secretary Clinton, but which the EU at this juncture definitely can do without. Best estimates place unemployment in the country at as much as 60%. That is not just Third World level. The economy was always the poorest in Yugoslavia and today it is worse. Yet the real issue in terms of the future of EU peace and security is the nature of the Kosovo state that has been created by Washington since the late 1990’s.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Mafia State and Camp Bondsteel </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Kosovo is a tiny parcel of land in one of the most strategic locations in all Europe from a geopolitical standpoint of the US military objective of controlling oil flows and political developments from the oil-rich Middle East to Russia and Western Europe. The current US-led recognition of the self-declared Republic of Kosovo is a continuation of US policy for the Balkans since the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Serbia—a NATO “out-of-area” deployment never approved by the UN Security Council, allegedly on the premise that Milosevic’s army was on the verge of carrying out a genocidal massacre of Kosovo Albanians. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLJ5SSkeEl1aMCgRlQAhlKRWUYcc2MOeJR2o5ih_igqqtrHa4Wj8K_ry0otKxJ4ld3O2PD40nhxt-UiPyVkeycHrV_5wEEmgVvh3N42FO8Ha5SsbVz-F3-62-c9WORhzE7yaIUs_VyJDq/s1600/Pogled_na_Bondstil_iz_vazduha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLJ5SSkeEl1aMCgRlQAhlKRWUYcc2MOeJR2o5ih_igqqtrHa4Wj8K_ry0otKxJ4ld3O2PD40nhxt-UiPyVkeycHrV_5wEEmgVvh3N42FO8Ha5SsbVz-F3-62-c9WORhzE7yaIUs_VyJDq/s400/Pogled_na_Bondstil_iz_vazduha.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Some months before the US-led bombing of Serbian targets, one of the heaviest bombings since World War II, a senior US intelligence official in private conversation told Croatian senior army officers in Zagreb about Washington’s strategy for former Yugoslavia. According to these reports, communicated privately to this author, the Pentagon goal already in late 1998 was to take control of Kosovo in order to secure a military base to control the entire southeast European region down to the Middle East oil lands. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Since June 1999 when the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered Kosovo, then an integral part of then-Yugoslavia, Kosovo was technically under a United Nations mandate, UN Security Council Resolution 1244. Russia and China also agreed to that mandate, which specifies the role of KFOR to ensure an end to inter-ethnic fighting and atrocities between the Serb minority population, others and the Kosovo Albanian Islamic majority. Under 1244 Kosovo would remain part of Serbia pending a peaceful resolution of its status. That UN Resolution was blatantly ignored by the US, German and other EU parties in 2008. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Germany’s and Washington’s prompt recognition of Kosovo’s independence in February 2008, significantly, came days after elections for President in Serbia confirmed pro-Washington Boris Tadic had won a second four year term. With Tadic’s post secured, Washington could count on a compliant Serbian reaction to its support for Kosovo.   </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Immediately after the bombing of Serbia in 1999 the Pentagon seized a 1000 acre large parcel of land in Kosovo at Uresevic near the border to Macedonia, and awarded a contract to <b>Halliburton when Dick Cheney was CEO there, to build one of the largest US overseas military bases in the world, Camp Bondsteel, with more than 7000 troops today.</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Pentagon has already secured seven new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania on the Black Sea in the Northern Balkans, including the Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer airbases in Bulgaria and Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania, which are used for "downrange" military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Romanian installation hosts the Pentagon's Joint Task Force–East. The US's colossal Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and the use and upgrading of Croatian and Montenegrin Adriatic harbors for US Navy deployments complete the militarization of the Balkans.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6896989063397229776#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></a></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The US strategic agenda for Kosovo is primarily military, secondarily, it seems, narcotics trafficking. Its prime focus is against Russia and for control of oil flows from the Caspian Sea to the Middle East into Western Europe. By declaring its independence, Washington gains a weak state which it can fully control. So long as it remained a part of Serbia, that NATO military control would be politically insecure. Today Kosovo is controlled by NATO, whose KFOR has 16,000 troops there for a tiny population of 2 million. Its Camp Bondsteel is one of a string of so-called forward operating bases and "lily pads" as Donald Rumsfeld called them, for military action to the east and south. Now formally bringing Kosovo into the EU and to NATO will solidify that military base now that the Republic of Georgia under US protégé Saakashvili failed so miserably in 2008 to fill that NATO role. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Heroin Transport Corridor</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">US-NATO military control of Kosovo serves several purposes for Washington’s greater geo-strategic agenda. First it enables greater US control over potential oil and gas pipeline routes into the EU from the Caspian and Middle East as well as control of the transport corridors linking the EU to the Black Sea. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It also protects the multi-billion dollar heroin trade, which, significantly, has grown to record dimensions in Afghanistan according to UN narcotics officials, since the US occupation. Kosovo and Albania are major heroin transit routes into Europe. According to a 2008 US State Department annual report on international narcotics traffic, several key drug trafficking routes pass through the Balkans. Kosovo is mentioned as a key point for the transfer of heroin from Turkey and Afghanistan to Western Europe. Those drugs flow under the watchful eye of the Thaci government. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Since its dealings with the Meo tribesmen in Laos during the Vietnam era, the CIA has protected narcotics traffic in key locations in order partly to finance its covert operations. The scale of international narcotics traffic today is such that major US banks such as Citigroup are reported to derive a significant share of their profits from laundering the proceeds.  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">One of the notable features of the indecent rush by Washington and other states to immediately recognize the independence of Kosovo is the fact that they well knew its government and both major political parties were in fact run by Kosovo Albanian organized crime. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisc-1nnQlawT0zKUb4IlfiGi4HZlpeplkNBZHjVCiPjxXMkXVCKZ3AIW0WZBGQPOTmKgYhc1GaXkfvOMo-8foZB96djCmeM5iZ70qQ0RvaIIJh79UvHqW1RL38RWripbEcgqcJmr2M6Ok2/s1600/uck-memorial-sharr-1_JPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisc-1nnQlawT0zKUb4IlfiGi4HZlpeplkNBZHjVCiPjxXMkXVCKZ3AIW0WZBGQPOTmKgYhc1GaXkfvOMo-8foZB96djCmeM5iZ70qQ0RvaIIJh79UvHqW1RL38RWripbEcgqcJmr2M6Ok2/s320/uck-memorial-sharr-1_JPG.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister of Kosovo and head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, is the former leader of the terrorist organization which the US and NATO trained and called the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, or in Albanian, UCK. In Kosovo crime circles he is known as Hashim “The Snake” for his personal ruthlessness against opponents. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In 1997, President Clinton’s Special Balkans Envoy, Robert Gelbard described the KLA as, “without any question a terrorist group.” It was far more. It was a klan-based mafia, impossible therefore to infiltrate, which controlled the underground black economy of Kosovo. Today the Democratic Party of Thaci, according to European police sources, retains its links to organized crime. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A February 22, 2005 German BND report, labeled Top Secret, which has since been leaked, stated, <i style="color: blue;">“Über die Key-Player (wie z. B. Haliti, Thaci, Haradinaj) bestehen engste Verflechtungen zwischen Politik, Wirtschaft und international operierenden OK-Strukturen im Kosovo. Die dahinter stehenden kriminellen Netzwerke fördern dort die politische Instabilität. Sie haben kein Interesse am Aufbau einer funktionierenden staatlichen Ordnung, durch die ihre florierenden Geschäfte beeinträchtigt werden können.“ </i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><i style="color: blue;">(OK=Organized Kriminalität)</i>. (Translation: “Through the key players—for example Thaci, Haliti, Haradinaj—there is the closest interlink between politics, the economy and international organized crime in Kosovo. The criminal organizations in the background there foster political instability. They have no interest at all in the building of a functioning orderly state that could be detrimental to their booming business.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The KLA began action in 1996 with the bombing of refugee camps housing Serbian refugees from the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. The KLA repeatedly called for the “liberation” of areas of Montenegro, Macedonia and parts of Northern Greece. Thaci is hardly a figure of regional stability to put it mildly.  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The 44 year old Thaci was a personal protégé of Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during the 1990s, when he was a mere 30-year old gangster. The KLA was supported from the outset by the CIA and the German BND. During the 1999 war the KLA was directly supported by NATO. At the time he was picked up by the USA in the mid-1990s, Thaci was founder of the Drenica Group, a criminal syndicate in Kosovo with ties to Albanian, Macedonian and Italian organized mafias.  A classified January 2007 report prepared for the EU Commission, labeled “VS-Nur für den Dienstgebrauch” was leaked to the media. It detailed the organized criminal activity of KLA and its successor Democratic Party under Thaci. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A December 2010 Council of Europe report, released a day after Kosovo's election commission said Mr Thaci's party won the first post-independence election, accused Western powers of complicity in ignoring the activities of the crime ring headed by Thaci: "Thaci and these other 'Drenica Group' members are consistently named as 'key players' in intelligence reports on Kosovo's mafia-like structures of organised crime," the report said. "We found that the 'Drenica Group' had as its chief – or, to use the terminology of organised crime networks, its 'boss' – the renowned political operator ... Hashim Thaci."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The report stated that Thaci exerted "violent control" over the heroin trade. Dick Marty, the European Union investigator, presented the report to European diplomats from all member states. The response was silence. Washington was behind Thaci.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The same Council of Europe report on Kosovo organized crime accused Thaci’s mafia organization of dealing in trade in human organs. Figures from Thaçi's inner circle were accused of taking captives across the border into Albania after the war, where a number of Serbs are said to have been murdered for their kidneys that were sold on the black market. In one case revealed in legal proceedings in a Pristina district court in 2008 organs were said to have been taken from impoverished victims at a clinic known as Medicus – linked to Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) organ harvesting in 2000.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The question then becomes, why are Washington, NATO, the EU and inclusive and importantly, the German Government, so eager to legitimize the breakaway Kosovo? A Kosovo run internally by organized criminal networks is easy for NATO to control. It insures a weak state which is far easier to bring under NATO domination. Combined with NATO control over Afghanistan where the Kosovo heroin controlled by Prime Minister Thaci originates, the Pentagon is building a web of encirclement around Russia that is anything but peaceful.  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: x-large; line-height: 115%;">The Thaci dependence on US and NATO good graces insures Thaci’s government will do what it is asked. That, in turn, assures the US a major military gain consolidating its permanent presence in the strategically vital southeast Europe. It is a major step in consolidating NATO control of Eurasia, and gives the US a large swing its way in the European balance of power. Little wonder Moscow has not welcomed the development, nor have numerous other states. The US is literally playing with dynamite, potentially as well with nuclear war in the Balkans.     <br /><br /><i></i><b></b></span> <br /><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div></div>

KOSOVO

Washington’s Kosovo Strategy  By F. William Engdahl In one of the more bizarre foreign policy announcements of the Obama Administration, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that Washington will “help” Kosovo to join NATO as well as t…

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Weigh In & ANOTHER WWM & Miscellaneous

Another week in the weight loss journey has come and gone, this time affording me a move in the right direction.  During these last few weeks I've been really struggling with staying On Plan, and that has certainly been a reason why I haven't posted as often.  I've been gaining and losing the same 2.5-3 lbs for weeks now.<br /><br />No one, myself included, wants to hear constant re-declarations of "This is it!" and "It's a new week and I'm going to get my butt back in gear!",  only to find out as the week progresses that I'm not doing so well after all.  I need to refocus and get motivated so I can move past the 30 lbs mark.  I need to go back over the Weight Watchers material to refresh my memory of what I'm supposed to be doing.  I know what this is, but I need to re-read it.  I need to see those words in black/white and "hear" it again.  <br /><br />What I have been doing well is exercising, which is probably why the weight gain hasn't been more significant.  My weekly activity goal has moved up a day, bringing me to three total days of activity.  Most weeks, I've even went beyond those 3 days thanks to lunchtime walks with Katie and Meghan, and weekend excursions with Joel.   Girls - you really don't even know how much I appreciate our little walks!<br /><br />Guess what I received two of in the mail this week?  That's right, another Weight Watchers Magazine! <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAQU8pCW-sCbooz6k5xE6uU18gEGyiUNLIRIgBubyA3iVQUcUSUnakYB1XxdUURcUj652T5GCGM5aBA6-SXYFmC_Lm-PYun6xVxWmLPDEQTXQs9UxPj0qHnWc-zD_Nni9qsjPL_PNF5E/s1600/weight+watchers+may+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAQU8pCW-sCbooz6k5xE6uU18gEGyiUNLIRIgBubyA3iVQUcUSUnakYB1XxdUURcUj652T5GCGM5aBA6-SXYFmC_Lm-PYun6xVxWmLPDEQTXQs9UxPj0qHnWc-zD_Nni9qsjPL_PNF5E/s400/weight+watchers+may+2012.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">May/June 2012</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I FINALLY contacted customer service about this, but in the meantime you are going to benefit yet again.  The first person to leave a comment below stating that they want it wins!  Just say you want it then drop me an email with your mailing address (thebigweight@hotmail.com).   <br /><br />This weekend is going to keep me busy between the National MS Walk (there's still time to donate - just click on the button on the right), baby showers and birthday parties, not to mention a wine night with the ladies tonight - I cannot WAIT for that!<br /><br />I'm going to leave you with this ridiculous picture taken last weekend.  We were in Maryland touring some covered bridges and Joel took this pic of me looking up through the floor boards of the bridge.  I can promise you my hair is not <i>that </i>purple!  It was all lighting!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhslAKvjzk89pcywHmlAhOVRmOofKZD4jFknYpie69kY3xMahAv1aitg0y7fUZHbqFslNCJeOk8uMkBiPht3lIUcZeAeXmFxw3W64K_VIignQ0eje07RaxV75PxpOCHeCVwQELmsc6oo2A/s1600/purple+hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhslAKvjzk89pcywHmlAhOVRmOofKZD4jFknYpie69kY3xMahAv1aitg0y7fUZHbqFslNCJeOk8uMkBiPht3lIUcZeAeXmFxw3W64K_VIignQ0eje07RaxV75PxpOCHeCVwQELmsc6oo2A/s400/purple+hair.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><br />Have a great weekend!

Loss Success Walk MS weigh in Weight Watchers Magazine Weigh In & ANOTHER WWM & Miscellaneous

Another week in the weight loss journey has come and gone, this time affording me a move in the right direction.  During these last few weeks I've been really struggling with staying On Plan, and that has certainly been a reason why I haven't posted …

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Give 'Em the Old Pizzazz - Funny Face (1957)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPtny_gfVAQdWtE2utDdfEmx7prXKSAU7O1vOV_XkwTjNtRlDBvM058zeyrEzXWvlGEibSL_r9EHQdwByC21q2gK6WgU-w-KHetwW35txnBLtaJb6mn3Q9kgLtQ_R2zc_DwvZqsC5oNATK/s1600/funny+face+red+dress+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPtny_gfVAQdWtE2utDdfEmx7prXKSAU7O1vOV_XkwTjNtRlDBvM058zeyrEzXWvlGEibSL_r9EHQdwByC21q2gK6WgU-w-KHetwW35txnBLtaJb6mn3Q9kgLtQ_R2zc_DwvZqsC5oNATK/s400/funny+face+red+dress+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #990000;">Director Stanley Donen and actress Audrey Hepburn are being honored separately and together at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. The director, who will be making personal appearances at all screenings of his films, did some of his best work with the sublime Audrey as his leading lady. With a "happy birthday" to Stanley Donen who celebrates his 88th birthday today, this post is dedicated to them both... </span></i></span><br /><i>  </i><br />Pizzazz! The very word came into being with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Face</i> in 1957.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Stylish and energetic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Face</i><b> </b>is a collaboration extraordinaire involving some of the great talents of the era: Producer Roger Edens and director Stanley Donen, screenwriter Leonard Gershe, cinematographer Ray June, costumer Edith Head, couture designer Hubert de Givenchy, photographer Richard Avedon and the film's matchless stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson. Sprinkled with an assortment of Gershwin tunes, this is a movie of considerable pizzazz...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5ZN2jsdSujI2QpKuGzSPEwGQFvVLijCcuyxbH18A0jZdclAiFV4wkNomCLrUUhQvQiS2NdsLa5aHp037Vbmts31Bd0HpfSaXVNMfi__vYH_UUf6YivQGJnVlXMKVkY7ESOJhUZF2gdQB/s1600/audrey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5ZN2jsdSujI2QpKuGzSPEwGQFvVLijCcuyxbH18A0jZdclAiFV4wkNomCLrUUhQvQiS2NdsLa5aHp037Vbmts31Bd0HpfSaXVNMfi__vYH_UUf6YivQGJnVlXMKVkY7ESOJhUZF2gdQB/s200/audrey.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Audrey Hepburn as Jo Stockton</td></tr></tbody></table><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Face</i> had been a work in progress for years, but the vital element that finally brought the project together was Audrey Hepburn. Then under contract to Paramount, Hepburn was a white-hot star at the time and any picture with her name attached had a very good chance of being made. She loved both the script and the opportunity to dance with Fred Astaire and quickly agreed to do the picture.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Astaire, then nearing 60, was coming to the end of his career in musical films. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Face</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silk Stockings</i> were released within months of each other in 1957 and were his last popular movie musicals.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Though its name was taken from a '20s Gershwin musical in which Astaire had starred, the title and a few tunes were all the film had in common with the original New York show. The film's story came from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wedding Day</i>, Leonard Gershe's Broadway musical about the fashion world based on 'the aura' (rather than the life) of legend-to-be photographer Richard Avedon and his wife. Doe Avedon, a great beauty of the time, was a reluctant muse; it was her husband who turned her into a top-notch model and who guided her career.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Kay Thompson, ace vocal coach, arranger and cabaret star, had worked with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Lena Horne and many others during her years in MGM's music department. Gershe had her in mind from the start for the role of Maggie Prescott, a character closely modeled on powerhouse fashion editor and style doyenne of the era, Diana Vreeland. According to Leonard Gershe, it was Vreeland who coined the word 'bizzazz' that mutated into 'pizzazz.' Thompson as Prescott is an invigorating presence and she steals just about every scene she's in; early on, her "Think Pink!" number kicks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Face</i> into high gear...<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gVserRvKyec" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Think Pink!</span></span></i></div><br /><i>Funny Face</i> is a Cinderella tale, the kind of story that was Audrey Hepburn's bread and butter. The film begins in the offices of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Quality</i> magazine where editor Maggie Prescott (Thompson) decrees that the world of fashion shall think and wear pink (though she does not)! Soon after, she and photographer Dick Avery (Astaire) venture to bohemian Greenwich Village on a shoot...where bookstore clerk Jo Stockton (Hepburn), an ugly duckling with swan potential, is unearthed. The plot takes off from here. Cut to Paris where newly made-over model Jo wears exquisite Givenchy haute couture and is gorgeously photographed by Dick everywhere in the City of Light. Songs are sung. Dances are danced. Love blooms. A fairytale ending eventually comes to pass.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemEVIDuyxPcTXg3TX10wcoDJXUyFXiJ4P2pBPem0mf8hqE8OCQC8yYoiSVhdxNcU7uXZROOzCFDMFCXPykH-QmBD8r3SxzXwVR_GDAN6rmRcuz5W0bx8l6462RQvOywe4JRHIrMnCWFX7/s1600/funny+face+astaire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemEVIDuyxPcTXg3TX10wcoDJXUyFXiJ4P2pBPem0mf8hqE8OCQC8yYoiSVhdxNcU7uXZROOzCFDMFCXPykH-QmBD8r3SxzXwVR_GDAN6rmRcuz5W0bx8l6462RQvOywe4JRHIrMnCWFX7/s320/funny+face+astaire.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fred Astaire as Dick Avery</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">The basic storyline is nothing new, but watching Hepburn, Astaire and Thompson cut loose in New York and Paris (and in song) is so easy on the eyes and ears that in so many ways...'s wonderful.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">And there's the 'beatnik' interlude, most noteworthy for Audrey's dance routine in a subterranean Parisian club dressed in black turtleneck and capris with white socks. Though Hepburn battled Donen over the color of her socks, he won and the result is memorable.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;">Stanley Donen was never nominated for an Academy Award, although he created some of the greatest musicals in movie history - including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Singin' in the Rain</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seven Brides for Seven Brothers</i>. He also made several successful non-musicals, films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charade</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Two for the Road</i>. In 1998, the Academy honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award and in his acceptance speech he both sang and danced to Cole Porter's "Cheek to Cheek"...he still knew how to "give 'em the old pizzazz!"</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 14pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70JUAfe2Dr48tA0F1Fv2MSF_72CKQAlarV-GByOkoklG-Tv7ycEQOxACz1GHKoQmLfBaDS-JICRWWblqOkLz1ws7vjwRSW5paGgQOjwlIGT_caDk70zQ_aq5gcIBo7gF_69e5tTOjnDY9/s1600/Stanley+Donen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70JUAfe2Dr48tA0F1Fv2MSF_72CKQAlarV-GByOkoklG-Tv7ycEQOxACz1GHKoQmLfBaDS-JICRWWblqOkLz1ws7vjwRSW5paGgQOjwlIGT_caDk70zQ_aq5gcIBo7gF_69e5tTOjnDY9/s320/Stanley+Donen.jpg" width="254" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanley Donen and his Lifetime Achievement Oscar, 1998</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://youtu.be/JMC8kHycgwM" style="color: #990000;">Click here</a> to watch his acceptance of his Lifetime Achievement Award</div><br /></div></div>

Audrey Hepburn Fred Astaire Funny Face Hubert de Givenchy Kay Thompson Leonard Gershe Richard Avedon Stanley Donen TCM Classic Film Festival The Lady Eve (author) Give 'Em the Old Pizzazz - Funny Face (1957)

Director Stanley Donen and actress Audrey Hepburn are being honored separately and together at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. The director, who will be making personal appearances at all screenings of his films, did some of his b…

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