War in Kosovo :

On Feb.7, 2001, the German state TV Channel 1 (ARD) broadcasted the report "Es begann mit einer Lüge - It All Started With a Lie" about the Kosovo war, stating that the war was started and upheld by means of public lies. Rudolf Scharping's (German defense minister), NATO spokesman Jamie Shea's and chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's assertions that in order to intervene against a humanitarian catastrophe war could not be avoided, were extensively quoted, and it was made clear that in doing so they have consciously spread the untruth in order to push this war through in the public. The program largely corresponded to what we had written two years ago:
 

"The NATO Attack - they turn black into white!

NATO is conducting heavy air strikes against Yugoslavia, is deploying its heavy war machinery in order to force this country to its knees.
.  .  .  .  .
The media are reporting about that in an incredibly twisted manner which however does in this matter not occur for the first time. Our whole state, the Federal Republic of Germany, once again proves to becompletely included in NATO, as most of the other European states acting in a similar way.

Even certain conservative politicians and journalists close to NATO are stating that the proceeding is incompatible with international law, with the UN charter and the NATO charter itself. In spite of this FRG politicians of different sorts assert that it is the case of aggression fromthe part of Yugoslavia. Turn black into white." (NE special #37,  26.03.1999)

or also:

"If it's about war-mongering, when self-righteousness and opponent's condemnation as devilish are raised to the absurd, German propaganda doesn't like to be surpassed. In former times it was all the same, for example 60 years ago. As for ARD, ZDF, Schroeder, Scharping, Fischer etc.: what they are showing now in relation with the flight movement in Kosovo belongs to the same thought." (NE special #38, Apr.2, 1999 [only in German])

In the program it was mainly Scharping who was under attack. But by no means there had only been Scharping defending this war. There were many mouths emitting the lies that Milosevic was the only one to cause this war and that therefore NATO could display its whole belligerent apparatus. In the first place, anyway, US president Clinton should be mentioned who had screamed in this way at the top of his voice, in the second his foreign minister Albright, and then of course also Schroeder as well as French president Chirac, and finally also Scharping and Joseph Fischer (the German foreign minister), who massively committed themselves in this matter. It was a product of NATO's whole political scene, and not of this alone: the media went flat out from every direction, too, in order to hammer this opinion into the public in a totalitarian manner. So, the uncovering must not denounce now only one or two persons who now have fallen out of favor, and spare the true main culprits and the whole apparatus.

Neither the so-called Rambouillet treaty, a colonialist dictate right from the start and supported by the entire political world, was mentioned by a single word in this program. By no means only the unsecured news about Racak or about the so-called horseshoe operation or about the events in the Rugovo village had generated this war, but it had been prepared all along the line for years. It was the totalitarian propaganda of the Western system which had made this imperialist aggressive war possible, and the Social Democrats (SPD) as well as the Greens, as well as the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), not to forget the Free Democrats (FDP), have told a pack of lies in order to justify this war.

It's welcome in this respect that a part of what had been stated already then is now confirmed upon this level. If, though, such partial uncovering serves for furthering new turns and new aggressions in the US' and NATO's global military strategy, and for attacking certain hurdles for this way, it is dubious.

About the methodology of the media also the following has to be said: also after the war against Iraq there were such programs by Channel 1 as well as independently by Channel 2 (ZDF), approximately nine months after, in which both of them accused themselves of lies. This is a certain form of the ritual: during the war, one lies with all one's strength, being conscious however of not being able to maintain the lie forever, and later after some time a kind of remorseful confession about how one has lied is offered - but nothing of the results of the war is changed. This serves as a fig leaf, and it is alleged in this way that the diversity of opinions is existing, but the terror continues and is even intensified. It is important to see through this methodology. Therefore we demand from the TV not only to make such uncoverings as: the war started with a lie, but it has to be said that it was prepared by means of lies, that it was started with lies, continued and finished by means of lies - the lies of the broadcasting companies not being second to anyone's else.

In the conclusion the film said about this propaganda that lies in wartime are weapons as they kill the truth. This is not completely correct as there always have been forces and persons who opposed this massive disfigurement of truth. Truth was always present in the society, but the media apparatus fanatically attempted to tread it out.

Neue Einheit editorial staff