Secret HistoryS


Putin

NATO's illegal 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia 'a huge tragedy' - Putin


RT
Sun, 24 Mar 2024 15:51 UTC
FILE PHOTO. Novi Sad during the bombing, 1999, Yugoslavia.
© WikipediaFILE PHOTO. Novi Sad during the bombing, 1999, Yugoslavia.
The West's military action was completely unacceptable, President of Russia has said on 25th anniversary

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has said that the US-led NATO alliance had started a war in the center of Europe in 1999, when it launched its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

A quarter century on, the agression deserves nothing but condemnation, Putin added.

Comment:
1) The film, Belgrade, referred to in the article, can be found as "«Белград» Документальный фильм, 2024", (Duration, 59:23) uploaded to several platforms on March 24, 2024, including on YouTube, where the autogenerated Russian can be translated into English subtitles:


The description below this upload, if machine translated is:
''Belgrade'' documentary film 2024

'Belgrade' documentary film by Andrei Kondrashov of the TV channel 'Russia 1'.
25 years ago, NATO troops began bombing Yugoslavia as part of Operation Allied Force. The alliance's airstrikes lasted 78 days and hit not only military but also civilian infrastructure.
The operation took place without the approval of the UN Security Council, which was a gross violation of international law and, in fact, an act of aggression against a sovereign country.
Those events claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, marked the beginning of the end of the existence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and also caused colossal environmental damage to the territory of modern Serbia.
2) Joe Biden was in favour of bombing Belgrade in 1998-1999


3) Other clips and documentaries
There are a few, and sometimes if you go to the channels, there are other uploads in related genres.
The following are ordered according to the time they cover and date of publication.
a) Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War (documentary) (YouTube, 1999)

b) "Sarajevo Ricochet" is a one hour documentary . The original (including Norwegian comments) can be found in six clips on this channel, along with the other Norwegian production, "Srebrenica: A Town Betrayed", uploaded in seven parts. Clips from Sarajevo Ricochet, with English commentary appear in: Exclusive: U.S. Policy on Bosnia Arms Trafficking

c) Srebrenica: A Town Betrayed (Documentary) (Jul 2015 SOTT.net article with a link to the video.)
d) The Weight of Chains: US/NATO Destruction of Yugoslavia (Documentary) (SOTT article with link, 2010)
The Weight of Chains 2 | Težina lanaca 2 (YouTube link uploaded 2018) On the YouTube page of the producer, Boris Malagurski, there is also a third episode: Težina lanaca 3 (2019), (The Weight of Chains 3), some parts are in English, but the autogenerated English translation did not work. However, the director has a link to Vimeo, where you can find it.

e) Stolen Kosovo (2008) is mentioned in SOTT articles: The 'Real Butcher of the Balkans' was NATO and in Madeleine Albright's scrap with pro-Serbian activists in a Prague bookstore. It appears on YouTube as Serbia - Stolen Kosovo [Multisubs] Czech documentary by Václav Dvořák
This version is 1:02:51, about five minutes longer, and has credits at the end. One channel, serbia4kosovo has parts, but also so many other clips from documentaries about the history of the conflict.

f) Michael Parenti - To Kill A Nation A talk by Michael Parenti, author of To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia:
g) Documentary: Зaшto? (Why?) - Revisiting NATO atrocities in Yugoslavia (Mar 2014)
h) Critical Moves: Crime In Yugoslavia, The Successful War Model Of Nato? (TeleSUR English, 2019) NATO was later active in other places, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine...
The spread of Balkanization: US Empire's strategy of barbaric dismemberment of sovereign states began in Yugoslavia (May 2016)
The NATO-led balkanization of South America and the role of aligned fifth columns destabilizing the world (Jul 2018)
Dragana Trifković in the UN Security Council: Western weapons in Ukraine are killing civilians regardless of whether they speak Russian or Ukrainian (Sep 2022),
How NATO undid decades of post-colonial development in mere months (Mar 2024)
i) How did NATO destroy Yugoslavia? 78 days of bombing, YouTube link (Dec 2023) The description of the video.
The headlines are slogans chanted by people taking to the streets. While Christmas arrives, the people of Gaza continue to live through war and violence with no respite for holidays. In this episode, Jan Oberg shares his firsthand experiences from over two decades ago in Yugoslavia, witnessing a sense of déjà vu - the bombings and wars, the lies and deceit, and the destruction of peace, leaving hundreds of thousands displaced. Jan Oberg delves into the recurring pattern of NATO and the United States engaging in warfare, posing the question: Why do they repeatedly become war peddlers? Who did the West pump weapons to? Did they ever pay compensation? Did they ever say they apologize for what they did?
The above video has a viewer comment with a list of assertions that could be tested, but even without sources are hardly surprising at all:
US/UK and NATO helpers did a perfect job in Yugoslavia in 1999. In Serbia today, the Italians took over the entire automotive manufacturing industry, Austrian and Italian banks dominate, US Steel took metals, Germans took the machine and tools sector, Dutch and Swiss bought majority of products brands, Austrians hold major mobile market share, Norwegians are about to take electric grid and the Germans the local telecom. Also for scraps the Arabs took the only major agro business, the Russians took oil and China took the copper and gold mines. Private ownership in Serbian hands reduced to restaurants, a few small farms and hair salons. Its not left-right anymore but global corporate empire and neo-colonialism.
There is a connection between what happened in Yugoslavia in the 1990ies and our world of today.

4) Articles about the war in Yugoslavia and the aftermath
Below is a list of links to some SOTT articles.
One of the most influential contemporary historians and professor at Yale University, Samuel Moyn, says that during the bombing of Yugoslavia, he worked at the White House as an intern and "planted" stories that were published in the Washington Post.
...Levi saw his first hot spot in 1971 as he travelled to East Pakistan to cover the war for separation of would-be Bangladesh from Pakistan. He has seen many flash points afterwards. In 1981 he made a trip to Afghanistan to meet the mujahedeen fighting the Soviet Army. In 1999 he ardently called for bombing Yugoslavia. In 2001 he supported the US intervention into Afghanistan. During the Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia in 2008 he interviewed the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. In 2011 he was a fierce supporter of Libya's destruction. Back then he started to vigorously call for toppling the «bloody regime of Bashar Assad».
Engdahl cited Washington Post writer Michael Dobbs' first-hand account of how the Clinton administration engineered Slobodan Milosevic's removal after he survived the 1990s Balkan wars, 78 days of NATO bombing in 1999, and major street uprisings against him. A $41 million campaign was run out of American ambassador Richard Miles' office. It involved "US-funded consultants" handling everything, including popularity polls, "training thousands of opposition activists and helping to organize a vitally important parallel vote count."

Thousands of spray paint cans were used "by student activists to scrawl anti-Milosevic graffiti on walls across Serbia," and throughout the country around 2.5 million stickers featured the slogan "Gotov Je," meaning "He's Finished."

Preparations included opposition leader training in nonviolent resistance techniques at a Budapest, Hungary seminar - on matters like "organiz(ing) strike(s), communicat(ing) with symbols....overcom(ing) fear, (and) undermin(ing) the authority of a dictatorial regime." US experts were in charge, incorporating RAND Corporation "swarming" concepts.

GPS satellite images were used to direct "spontaneous hit-and-run protests (able to) elude the police or military. Meanwhile, CNN (was) carefully pre-positioned to project images around the world of these youthful non-violent 'protesters.' " Especially new was the use of the Internet, including "chat rooms, instant messaging, and blog sites" as well as cell phone verbal and SMS text-messaging, technologies only available since the mid-1990s.

Milosevic was deposed by a successful high-tech coup that became "the hallmark of the US Defense policies under (Rumsfeld) at the Pentagon." It became the civilian counterpart to his "Revolution in Military Affairs" doctrine using "highly mobile, weaponized small groups directed by 'real time' intelligence and communications."

Belgrade was the prototype for Washington-instigated color revolutions to follow. Some worked. Others failed.
With this explanation in mind, consider the description provided by Ian Traynor of the Guardian regarding the "revolutions" and "mass movements" which was taking place in Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, and Georgia in 2004 and the time of the writing of his article. Indeed, Traynor's depiction of the methodology used by the Foundations, NGOs, and government agencies stirring up dissent and popular revolt is equally illuminating. Traynor writes,
In the centre of Belgrade, there is a dingy office staffed by computer-literate youngsters who call themselves the Centre for Non-violent Resistance. If you want to know how to beat a regime that controls the mass media, the judges, the courts, the security apparatus and the voting stations, the young Belgrade activists are for hire.
They emerged from the anti-Milosevic student movement, Otpor, meaning resistance. The catchy, single-word branding is important. In Georgia last year, the parallel student movement was Khmara. In Belarus, it was Zubr. In Ukraine, it is Pora, meaning high time. Otpor also had a potent, simple slogan that appeared everywhere in Serbia in 2000 - the two words "gotov je", meaning "he's finished", a reference to Milosevic. A logo of a black-and-white clenched fist completed the masterful marketing.

In Ukraine, the equivalent is a ticking clock, also signalling that the Kuchma regime's days are numbered.

Stickers, spray paint and websites are the young activists' weapons. Irony and street comedy mocking the regime have been hugely successful in puncturing public fear and enraging the powerful.

These slogans and symbols are the product of mass marketers employed by State Departments and intelligence agencies for the sole purpose of destabilizing and/or overthrowing a democratically elected or unfavorable (to the oligarchy)government.
The details and techniques of the manipulation of mass numbers of people have only continued to become more and more advanced and sophisticated, particularly with the advent of social media.
The comment to the above article reads:
The above article is largely NATO propaganda along the lines of "history is written by the victors (or aggressors)". For a more accurate account of what has come to be called the "Bosnian war" see the articles at this link. [External source.]
Today, Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo are American client states. But the process of Washington colonizing the Balkans is not yet complete. Standing in the way of the US achieving full mastery over the region are Serbia and Russia.
Much can be learned from studying the case and demise of Yugoslavia. Maybe some people will even feel that it is more accessible to learn about what happened to Yugoslavia, than trying to relate to cases closer to the present time.

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Info

Human activity on Curaçao began centuries earlier than previously believed

oguz kayra
Arkeonews Net
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:10 UTC
Curaçao Site
© Journal of Coastal and Island ArchaeologyFigure 1. (A) Map of Curaçao and the Caribbean showing locations mentioned in the text (base map: Google); (B) the Saliña Sint Marie landscape investigated by the CCLP, outlined in red (image: GoogleEarth); (C) view of Saliña Sint Marie surrounded by uplifted limestone terraces; (D) the C-1426 rockshelter site, facing South (Photo: C. Giovas).
New research co-led by Simon Fraser University and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM Foundation) in Curaçao extends the earliest known human settlement of Curaçao by centuries, adding pieces to the puzzle of pre-Colombian Caribbean history.

A team of international partners has been collaborating on the Curaçao Cultural Landscape Project since 2018 to understand the long-term biodiversity change of the island and its relationship to human activity.

Findings from the team, published in the Journal of Coastal and Island Archaeology, place human occupation of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean, as far back as 5735 - 5600 cal BP — up to 850 years earlier than previously thought.

This updated timeline was determined by radiocarbon dating charcoal collected from an Archaic period site at Saliña Sint Marie — what is now the earliest known archaeological site on the island — using accelerated mass spectrometry.

Christina Giovas, an associate professor in SFU's Department of Archaeology and co-lead on the study, explains that the settlement of the Caribbean and the origin of its peoples is still highly debated. "What this new information does is push the initial exploration in this region back to a time where other islands to the north of Curaçao are also being settled. This suggests that the movement of people from the continental mainland into those more northern islands might have entangled with some of the movement of the people into Curaçao," says Giovas.
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Blue Planet

4,000-year-old teeth highlight the harm agricultural diets have had on humans over the centuries

Trinity College Dublin
Phys.org
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:32 UTC
Killuragh Cave, Ireland.
© Sam Moore, Owner Marion Dowd.Killuragh Cave, Ireland.
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have recovered remarkably preserved microbiomes from two teeth dating back 4,000 years, found in an Irish limestone cave. Genetic analyses of these microbiomes reveal major changes in the oral microenvironment from the Bronze Age to today. The teeth both belonged to the same male individual and also provided a snapshot of his oral health.

The study, carried out in collaboration with archaeologists from the Atlantic Technological University and University of Edinburgh, is published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The authors identified several bacteria linked to gum disease and provided the first high-quality ancient genome of Streptococcus mutans, the major culprit behind tooth decay.

Comment: There's a plethora of research showing the deleterious impact agriculture has had on human health. However, in our own era, it appears that it's not only the increase of grains, fruits, vegetables, and sugar that is harming health, but the reduction of animal protein and fats, which have been replaced with toxic vegetable and seed oils alongside inferior vegetable proteins. In addition, industrial agricultural practices that degrade plant and soil health have been shown to reduce nutrient content:

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Dig

Plant material on obsidian blades on Rapa Nui suggests settlers there visited South America and returned

Bob Yirka
Phys.org
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:47 UTC
easter island
© Andreas Mieth, Uni KielEaster Island in the south-east Pacific was probably discovered by Polynesians around the 8th or 9th century AD. The island is famous for its unique stone sculptures called moai.
A team of archaeologists affiliated with several institutions in Chile reports evidence that early settlers on the island of Rapa Nui sailed to South America, interacted with people living there and then returned. In their study, published in PLOS ONE, the group analyzed plant material found on obsidian blades made by the early settlers.

Prior research has shown that there were people living on Rapa Nui during the years 1000 to 1300, though their origin is still not known — those early settlers are most famous for their giant stone carvings of human figures.

In this new study, the research team found evidence that some of the settlers sailed all the way to the coast of South America and back. Such a voyage would have entailed sailing one way for 3,700 kilometers and likely would have taken anywhere from one to two months, depending on the weather.

Prior research has found that the oral history of the Rapu Nui people includes reports of at least one trip made by the early settlers to South America. In this new effort, the research team followed up on such reports by digging up and studying obsidian blades at a site called Anakena, the earliest known settlement on the island. The researchers found very small amounts of plant material on the blades, evidence that they were used to process plant-based food.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: The ruins of Yugoslavia: How Russia learned that NATO poses a serious threat

Roman Shumov
RT
Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:06 UTC
NATO bombs belgrade yugoslavia
© Yannis Kontos/Getty ImagesBuilding ablaze after the NATO bombing on April 2, 1999, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
The alliance's strikes on Belgrade in the spring of 1999 forever changed relations between the West and Moscow

On the evening of March 24, 1999, student Elena Milincic was at home with her sister and a friend in Belgrade. Suddenly, the quiet evening was interrupted by an air-raid siren. The girls quickly hid under the table. It wasn't the safest place, but they got lucky - their part of the city wasn't attacked. Over the next 77 days, these girls and other Belgrade residents got a lot better at hiding from the bombs which threatened to kill them every day. The bombing was part of NATO's military operation against Yugoslavia - the campaign that shook up the world order, and not just in the Balkans.

Preconditions for bloodshed

The Kosovo problem goes back many centuries. Located in the southwest of Serbia on the border with Albania, the Kosovo region was historically inhabited by two Balkan peoples: Serbs and Albanians. The Serbs consider the region a major part of the country's history and culture. However, Albanians have also lived there for centuries.

By the mid-19th century, there were about as many Albanians as Serbs in Kosovo. Ethnic strife was a common problem in the Balkans. Retaining their particular cultural characteristics, Serbs, Albanians, Croats, Gypsies, and Muslim Serbs lived side by side for centuries. Conflicts between them, nonetheless, resulted in brutal massacres.

Comment:

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Blue Planet

Artist tattooed himself to solve mystery tools and technique used on Otzi the iceman 5,300 years ago

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Sat, 23 Mar 2024 17:19 UTC
otzi tattoo
© (Deter-Wolf et al., Exarc, 2022)Tattoos on Riday's leg the day they were made (left) and six months later (right).
A man who died around 5,300 years ago was tattooed using methods fascinatingly similar to modern ones.

Ötzi the Iceman, whose exceptionally mummified remains were found decades ago in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, was covered in tattoos. Scientists carefully studying his remains have counted 61 carbon pigment markings on his lower back, abdomen, left wrist, and lower legs.

The accepted explanation for the application of these tattoos was soot rubbed into cuts made in Ötzi's skin. Now, a team of scientists and tattoo artists has called this into significant question. How? By creating tattoos with different methods, letting them heal, and comparing the results with the tattoos on Ötzi.

Comment: See also:

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Better Earth

'Honey glazed venison': The surprisingly sophisticated lives of the stilt-house, marshland dwellers of England 3,000 years ago

Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Heritage Daily
Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:02 UTC
must farm
© Cambridge Archaeological Unit
A major report on the remains of a stilt village that was engulfed in flames almost 3,000 years ago reveals in unprecedented detail the daily lives of England's prehistoric fenlanders.

Must Farm, a late Bronze Age settlement, dates to around 850BC, with University of Cambridge archaeologists unearthing four large wooden roundhouses and a square entranceway structure - all of which had been constructed on stilts above a slow-moving river.

The entire hamlet stood approximately two metres above the riverbed, with walkways bridging some of the main houses, and was surrounded by a two-metre-high fence of sharpened posts.

The settlement was less than a year old when it was destroyed by a catastrophic fire, with buildings and their contents collapsing into the muddy river below. The combination of charring and waterlogging led to exceptional preservation. The site has been described as "Britain's Pompeii".

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:


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Shamrock

8,200-yr-old rice pollen found in China may be oldest evidence of rice cultivation yet


Global Times
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 17:19 UTC
rice microscope
Through studying pollen substances discovered in mud, a recent Chinese research project has interestingly uncovered that ancient people in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, may have started consuming rice more than 8,000 years ago.

The project is led by archaeological expert Shu Junwu, who is also a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, China Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS).

A rice-like type of pollen was extracted from a dark soil sample that Shu had "unexpectedly" discovered seven years ago.

The unexpected nature of the find is due to Shu accidentally seeing the soil exposed during a local geologic prospecting project. It appeared to be extremely black and blended with plant residue.

Comment: Notably this coincides with another recent study: Archaeologists discover 8600-year-old bread at Çatalhöyük - May be the oldest bread in the world

However, there's evidence of the use of rice even further back: Ancient pottery unearthed in China reveals 9000-year-old traces of 'hunter-gatherer' rice beer

See also:

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Info

7,000-year-old canoes reveal early development of nautical technology in Mediterranean

Leman Altuntaş
Arkeonews Net
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 01:19 UTC
7,300-year-old canoe
© Gibaja et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299765.The 7,300-year-old canoe Marmotta 1 on display in the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome. It is a huge dugout canoe made from an oak trunk about 10.43 m long, 1.15 m wide at the stern, and 0.85 m wide at the bow. It is 65 to 44cm high, depending on the part of the canoe.
The discovery of five "technologically sophisticated" canoes in Italy has revealed that Neolithic people were navigating the Mediterranean more than 7,000 years ago. The canoes date from between 5700 BC and 5100 BC and are the oldest in the region.

In research published in the journal PLOS ONE, archaeologists describe the discovery, at the Neolithic (Late Stone Age) lakeshore village of La Marmotta, about 30 km northwest of central Rome.

The quality and complexity of these prehistoric vessels suggest that several significant advances in sailing occurred during the late Stone Age, paving the way for the spread of the ancient world's most important civilizations.

The authors note that the spread of Neolithic culture through Europe was chiefly carried out along the shores of the Mediterranean.

"Many of the most important civilisations in Europe originated on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea," they write. "Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians plied that practically enclosed sea to move rapidly along its coasts and between its islands."

The writers say Neolithic communities occupied the whole Mediterranean between 9,500 and 9,000 years ago. They reached the Atlantic coast of Portugal by about 5400 BCE.

"It is clear that the Mediterranean Sea must have often been used for travel, as boats allowed rapid movements of population, contacts and exchange of goods," the authors say.

It's well known that maritime trade links existed in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic, although until now it was unclear how adept these early mariners were at handling the waves.

Navigating through this uncertainty, the authors of a new study have analyzed five dug-out canoes that were discovered at a 7,000-year-old settlement that now lies at the bottom of an Italian lake.
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Better Earth

Intriguing artificial cranial deformation discovered in Viking women


Medievalists
Wed, 20 Mar 2024 18:38 UTC
cranial deformation viking
© Mirosław Kuźma/Matthias ToplakDrawing of the grave of the female individual with an artificially modified skull in grave 192 from Havor, Hablingbo parish, Gotland
A recent study delves into the discovery of three women from Viking-Age Gotland who underwent skull elongation. This investigation sheds light on the fascinating tradition of body modification prevalent among the Norse and Vikings.

The study, authored by Matthias Toplak and Lukas Kerk and published in the journal Current Swedish Archaeology, investigates archaeological findings from Gotland, where half of all documented cases of male teeth filing have been discovered. Alongside the intriguing possibility of Viking tattoos, these practices represent the known forms of body modification taking place in early medieval Scandinavia.

Dating back to the latter part of the eleventh century, all three women were interred in different locations across Gotland. Their skull modifications bestowed upon them a distinctive and remarkable appearance, elongating their heads. Further details are discerned in two of the cases: one woman passed away between the ages of 25 and 30, while the other was between 55 and 60 years old. The drawing below, based on excavation reports, is an artistic rendering of how this older woman would have looked when she was buried.

Comment: It's notable that evidence of cranial deformation, as well as natural, unusually shaped, skulls - that, one would assume, are what people were were attempting to imitate - have been found in sites that date as far back as 10,000 years ago, and across much of the planet:

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