{"id":2405,"date":"2022-05-26T21:37:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?page_id=2405"},"modified":"2022-05-26T21:37:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:37:40","slug":"bosnia-tragedy-sara-flounders-iac-october-1995","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/bosnia-tragedy-sara-flounders-iac-october-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"Bosnia Tragedy – Sara Flounders, IAC October 1995"},"content":{"rendered":"

TITLE: Bosnia Tragedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

SUBTITLE: The unknown Role of the U.S. government & Pentagon (pg. 7-8)<\/strong><\/p>\n

AUTHOR: Sara Flounders<\/p>\n

DATE: 10.95<\/p>\n

PUBLISHER: IAC (International Action Center)<\/p>\n

CONTENTS: Casting the Serbs as fascists<\/p>\n

How did the Serbs come to be viewed as fascists in this developing\u00a0<\/span>conflict?<\/p>\n

This characterization has now become an accepted fact, an issue beyond\u00a0debate. It makes US motives seem unimpeachable and on the side of goodagainst evil.<\/p>\n

An April 1993 interview by Jacques Merlino, associate director of\u00a0<\/span>French TV 2, with James Harff, director of Ruder Finn Global Public Affairs, a\u00a0Washington, DC-based public relations firm, explains the role of the\u00a0corporate media in shaping a political issue.<\/p>\n

Harff bragged of his services to his clients, the Republic of Croatia,\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the parliamentary opposition in\u00a0<\/span>Kosovo,\u00a0an autonomous region of Serbia. Merlino described how Harff uses a file\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0several hundred journalists, politicians, representatives of\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>humanitarianassociations, and academics to create public opinion. Harff explained:<\/p>\n

“Speed is vital… it is the first assertion that really counts. All\u00a0<\/span>denials\u00a0are entirely ineffective.”<\/p>\n

In the interview, Merlino asked Harff what his proudest public\u00a0<\/span>relations\u00a0endeavor was. Harff responded:<\/p>\n

“To have managed to put Jewish opinion on our side. This was a\u00a0<\/span>sensitive\u00a0matter, as the dossier was dangerous looked at from this angle.\u00a0<\/span>President\u00a0Tudjman was very careless in his book, “Wastelands of Historical\u00a0<\/span>Reality.”<\/p>\n

Reading his writings one could accuse him of anti-Semitism. [Tudjman\u00a0<\/span>claimed\u00a0the Holocaust never happened – S.F.]<\/p>\n

In Bosnia the situation was no\u00a0<\/span>better:\u00a0President Izetbegovic strongly supported the creation of a\u00a0<\/span>fundamentalist\u00a0Islamic state in his book, “The Islamic Declaration”.<\/p>\n

“Besides, the Croatian and Bosnian past was marked by real and cruel\u00a0anti-Semitism. Tens of thousands of Jews perished in Croatian camps, so\u00a0there was every reason for intellectuals and Jewish organizations to be\u00a0hostile toward the Croats and the Bosnians. Our challenge was to\u00a0<\/span>reverse\u00a0this attitude and we succeeded masterfully.<\/p>\n

“At the beginning of July 1992, New York Newsday came out with the\u00a0<\/span>article\u00a0on Serb camps. We jumped at the opportunity immediately. We outwitted\u00a0<\/span>three\u00a0big Jewish organizations – the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, the\u00a0American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress. In August,\u00a0<\/span>we\u00a0suggested that they publish an advertisement in the New York Times and\u00a0organize demonstrations outside the United Nations.<\/p>\n

“That was a tremendous coup. When the Jewish organizations entered the\u00a0<\/span>game\u00a0on the side to the [Muslim] Bosnians we could promptly equate the Serbs\u00a0<\/span>with\u00a0the Nazis in the public mind. Nobody understood what was happening in\u00a0Yugoslavia. The great majority of Americans were probably asking\u00a0<\/span>themselves\u00a0in which African country Bosnia was situated.<\/p>\n

“By a single move, we were able to present a simple story of good guys\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0bad guys which would hereafter play itself. We won by targeting the\u00a0<\/span>Jewish\u00a0audience. Almost immediately there was a clear change of language in\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0press, with use of words with high emotional content such as ethnic\u00a0cleansing, concentration camps, etc., which evoke images of Nazi\u00a0<\/span>Germany and\u00a0the gas chambers of Auschwitz. No one could go against it without being\u00a0accused of revisionism. We really batted a thousand in full.”<\/p>\n

Merlino: “But between 2 and 5 Aug. 1992 when you did this you had no\u00a0<\/span>proof.\u00a0that what you said was true. All you had were 2 Newsday articles.”<\/p>\n

Harff: “Our work is not to verify information. We are not equipped for\u00a0<\/span>that.\u00a0Our work is to accelerate the circulation on information favorable to\u00a0<\/span>us, to\u00a0aim at judiciously chosen targets. We did not confirm the existence of\u00a0<\/span>death\u00a0camps in Bosnia, we just made it widely known that Newsday affirmed it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

…\u00a0We are professionals. We had a job to do and we did it. We are not paid\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0moralize.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TITLE: Bosnia Tragedy SUBTITLE: The unknown Role of the U.S. government & Pentagon (pg. 7-8) AUTHOR: Sara Flounders DATE: 10.95 PUBLISHER: IAC (International Action Center) CONTENTS: Casting the Serbs as fascists How did the Serbs come to be viewed as fascists in this developing\u00a0conflict? This characterization has now become an accepted fact, an issue beyond\u00a0debate. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bosnia Tragedy – Sara Flounders, IAC October 1995”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nBosnia Tragedy - Sara Flounders, IAC October 1995 - Balkan Conflicts Research Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/bosnia-tragedy-sara-flounders-iac-october-1995\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bosnia Tragedy - Sara Flounders, IAC October 1995 - Balkan Conflicts Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TITLE: Bosnia Tragedy SUBTITLE: The unknown Role of the U.S. government & Pentagon (pg. 7-8) AUTHOR: Sara Flounders DATE: 10.95 PUBLISHER: IAC (International Action Center) CONTENTS: Casting the Serbs as fascists How did the Serbs come to be viewed as fascists in this developing\u00a0conflict? 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