There was a major riot in Belgrade Thursday as nearly 150,000 Serbs protested at the US Embassy. Someone on the inside may have been killed. A charred body was found.

I warned of the dangers or violence and conflict in this blog last Thursday and again on Friday before Kosovo declared independence. I was particularly concerned about how this issue would be exploited by the nationalist right which just narrowly lost an election, and how it could lead to the destabilization of Serbia’s pro-western and democratic election. It is now happening. Did The Bush Administration understand what would happen when it pressed for Kosovo independence? Did they care. It was like throwing red meat to angry lions.

AP Reported last night: “ Angry Serbs broke into the U.S. Embassy and set fire to an office Thursday night as rioters rampaged through Belgrade’s streets, putting an exclamation point of violence to a day of mass protest against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

At least 150,000 people rallied in Belgrade, waving Serbian flags and signs proclaiming “Stop USA terror,” to denounce the bid by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority to create their own state out of what Serbs consider the ancient heartland of their culture.”

Notice how this story does not identify the political affiliation of the rioters. These crowds also ransacked a McDonald’s, looted stores and fought with police.

B92 UNDER ATTACK

Belgrade’s leading independent media outlet and supporter of free press and human rights is also under attack. This is why US media reports about “THE SERBS” is so misleading.

Belgrade, February 21, 2008 - B92 has been exposed to numerous attacks and threats from the beginning of its work, due to our objective and professional approach to reporting on the issues that public in Serbia should know about, and we’ve done so without making reality better and without suppressing and avoiding facts.

Attacks and threats towards B92 were always intensified during dramatic events our society had faced. Especially as B92 is among rare, maybe the only broadcaster in Serbia, that dared to treat the issues others kept silent about, through its programmes such as series “Insider” or “B92 investigates”. It is evident that there are people who want the silence to continue.

Unfortunately, this is the case now when the protests over the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence are being directed toward media outlet that tries to keep its unbiased and professional approach, while investigating things that stand behind the news.
For the last couple of days, those threats had seriously escalated, both via electronic messages as well as on Internet forums, where B92 receives open threats from people who discuss their plans of setting our building on fire, which is, by the way, public property, as B92 rents it. They even went one step further, producing video clips in which our journalists are being shot at. On Sunday night, the window of B92 Shop downtown was broken. Moreover, the statements of local representatives who justify violence in Belgrade and throughout Serbia, presenting it as democratic, only stir additional violent outbursts instead of calming things down, by clearly condemning such attacks.

THERE’S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS

Yesterday I reported the claim that oil was discovered in Kosovo and suggested that may be one reason the US-UK-and France were so quick to recognize the statelet.

Now, I have just come across this. Ummmmm….

Afghanistan sitting on a gold mine: minister

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves — perhaps the richest in the region — that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says.

Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal – as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies — are largely untapped and still being mapped, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel told

FORMER TOP GUANTANAMO ATTORNEY CLAIMS TRIALS MAY BE RIGGED:

In October 2007, Col. Morris Davis resigned as chief prosecutor for Guantanamo Bay’s military commissions upon concluding that “full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system.” He quit just hours after he learned he was to be placed under the command of President Bush’s appointee and torture advocate William J. Haynes

WP: U.S. Payoffs To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny

Once a month, Pakistan’s Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border….

M& GUARDIAN (SOUTH AFRICA) US not seeking military power in Africa

In a country teeming with resources the world covets, United States President George Bush sought on Wednesday to soothe African fears about American interests on the continent. He said the US is not aiming to make Africa into a base for greater military power or a proxy battleground with China.