An Anniversary That Went Unnoticed by Most

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fountainhall

An Anniversary That Went Unnoticed by Most

Post by fountainhall »

May 7 marked an anniversary, one that few in the west recall.

In wartime, deliberate acts of terror and murder are not unusual. The Nazi blitz of London and the carpet bombing of Coventry were intentional. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour was intentional. The American fire bombing of Tokyo was intentional. The British/American fire-bombing that all but destroyed Dresden was intentional. In four out of these five actions, the many hundreds of thousands who died were civilians.

Accidents also happen. British bombers regularly crashed in Europe during World War 2 killing many hundreds of civilians on the ground. Accidents will always happen. Yet some are in effect deliberate actions cloaked in the secrecy of an accident.

20 years ago the Balkan War was in full swing. President Clinton had been persuaded by Tony Blair that the US as a NATO ally had to become involved. And it was very much thanks to that US contribution that the various wars ended more quickly than might have been the case. One act, though, remains to this day a major controversy. Was it an accident or was it a deliberately planned operation?

The incident that has resulted in a decades-long post mortem took place on the night of May 7, 1999. With NATO acquiescence, US Stealth bombers launched an attack on Belgrade. Five precision-guided bombs made direct hits on the Chinese Embassy – intended like all Embassies as a no-go target.

In the days following the attack, excuses were thick on the ground. NATO intelligence officers claimed the Embassy compound was being used as a rebroadcast station for the Yugoslav Army. The Chinese were outraged and there were riots in Beijng and Shanghai. Observers noted that these were spontaneous and not directed by the government. Yet almost certainly the Embassy was indeed being used to bolster Milosevic and his thugs.

The US paid compensation for the destruction of the Embassy and to the kin of those killed in the attack. The Chinese paid for the damage to the embassy in Beijing. Had things been left there, probably everything would be long forgotten. But the media sensed ‘fake’ news and continued pressing. First it was claimed that the real target had been a Yugoslav government facility 350 meters down the road. Odd that five pre-programmed bombs would all hit the wrong target!

Two days after the bombing, the Secretary for Defence, William Cohen, came out with a more outrageous excuse. The air force had been using out of date maps supplied by the CIA which showed a wrong location for the Chinese Embassy.
To compound the initial error, [CIA Chief George] Tenet said, intelligence and military databases used to cross-check targets did not have the embassy's new location listed, despite the fact that many US diplomats had actually been inside the building

. . . The crux of the CIA's explanation was hard for many to believe: the world's most advanced military had bombed a fellow UN Security Council member and one of the most vocal opponents of the NATO air campaign because of a mapping error. China was having none of it.
Tenet’s explanation was further derided. The US was using satellites as they programmed their bombs,
Tenet publicly said that satellite images gave no indication the target was an embassy - "no flags, no seals, no clear markings" - when in fact all three were present.
China continued to maintain the bombing had been intentional. And there are other reasons why it might have been deliberate. China was not only publicly on the side of the Serbs, it may have been supplying some military materials. And what did the Chinese want in return? Parts of the F-117 Stealth fighter that Serbian forces had shot down earlier in the NATO campaign. China then was far from the economic and military power it is today. Its focus was on getting wealthy. But the opportunity to examine at least part of the US Stealth technology would be invaluable. It has also been alleged that the Chinese were testing its own technology to attempt to track Stealth bombers that are normally undetectable.

A deliberate act of war? An accident? We will probably never know. The British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was quick to say- -
"It was a tragic mistake. It was an error that should never have happened"
China continues to make propaganda about the incident. Yet perhaps between the weeping and the wailing, some in Beijing are secretly smiling. After all, China probably gained some invaluable information as a result of that encounter.

Various sources including
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48134881
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/britain ... o-1.239941
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