Court Hears Questionable Testimony
Court Hears Questionable Testimony
In what the Prosecutor called 'an unprecedented decision,' Slobodan Milosevic's Trial Chamber accepted testimony from a witness who admitted he had no first hand knowledge of events and based his conclusions on news accounts and unspecified sources generally available in the public domain.
James Jatras described himself as a former senior analyst with the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he wrote a report titled, 'Clinton Approved Iran Arms Transfers Helped Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base,' published January 1997. He told the Court he decided to write the report following release of House and Senate subcommittee reports concluding that the Clinton Administration had given the green light for Iran to supply weapons to the Bosnian Government in violation of a UN arms embargo.
Former US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, testified quite openly earlier in the trial that the U.S. acquiesced in the transfer of weapons through Croatia to Bosnia from outside the region. At the time, the Clinton Administration had clearly stated its opposition to a continued arms embargo that left the Bosnian Government at a severe disadvantage to Serbian forces, which inherited the weapons and resources of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the fourth largest army in Europe at the time of Yugoslavia's disintegration.
Jatras testified that he wrote his 1997 report because he felt the House and Senate reports had not gone far enough in exposing what he alleged was the militant Islamic program of Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the presence of a 'Militant Islamic Network' he claimed was at work in Bosnia. However, when asked about sources on direct examination, he admitted that the existence of the Network was 'not officially confirmed.' 'Is that a complete fabrication?' he asked rhetorically. 'Is it utterly inaccurate? I'm not in a position to say.' He went further in his candor, 'I utterly agree I do not have direct knowledge of the goings on in Bosnia of this Network.' His information, he said, came from a compilation of news reports and other sources in the public domain.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice objected several times to the Court admitting evidence of dubious relevance and even more dubious reliability. He pointed out that the Court had 'regularly rejected compilations of other works' by 'summarizing' witnesses. Defence Counsel Steven Kay countered by likening Jatras' report to those of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which the Court has accepted. In response, Nice argued they were not comparable. HRW investigated the incidents on which it reported and followed a prescribed methodology in reaching its conclusions. Jatras' report was based on news articles, which the Court has steadfastly refused to admit as unreliable hearsay, the Prosecutor reminded the judges. Nevertheless, the Court allowed Jatras to continue and ultimately entered all reports into evidence, including those he authored.
On the relevance issue, the Court appeared to accept Kay's argument that issues concerning US sympathies and prejudices are important because they help explain US attitudes and actions toward the Accused. In addition, the witness raised issues about the US decision to bomb Serbia over its actions in Kosovo.
As Defence Counsel led Jatras through the House Subcommittee Report, the witness repeatedly said he was testifying (and had written his reports) not from his direct knowledge of events but from what was known or knowable to someone in a legislative context reporting on them to Congress. 'I have no first hand knowledge that the influences and activities in the report actually took place because I wasn't there,' he said.
On cross examination, Nice confronted Jatras with the fact that the House Subcommittee Report was strongly partisan and politically motivated: 'What we see is this very substantial document that actually presents five men [Republicans] on one side and three [Democrats] on the other, correct?' Jatras: 'To a great extent that is correct.' The report reflected the views of five Republicans on a special subcommittee which the House Rules Committee charged was improperly constituted to advance a partisan political agenda.
Nice also directed the Court's attention to the fact that the Subcommittee's three Democrats filed a separate, dissenting report, which concluded there was no evidence the Administration had violated the arms embargo or broken any law. The Minority Report, the existence of which Jatras had not informed the Court, criticized the entire proceedings as an 'unprecedented legislative procedure created for one purpose and one purpose only. It is a political fishing expedition designed to embarrass the Administration by creating a perceived problem where one does not exist. . . . This performance is an example of politics at its worst.' The Minority Report also found that the Clinton Administration's policy of 'looking the other way' as arms were delivered to Bosnia from abroad not only did not violate the UN arms embargo. It led to conditions necessary for the peace deal at Dayton, by allowing the significantly 'outgunned' Bosnian Government to hold onto some of its territory against a Bosnian Serb onslaught that was in danger of taking it all. Had that happened, Bosnia would have been more of a beggar at Dayton than it was. The Republicans didn't object to the legitimacy of Bosnia's need to arm itself. They disagreed about the consequences of Iran providing the weapons.
Judge Bonomy summed up his view of the document's relevance when he pronounced, 'It is an internal American domestic issue.' Jatras replied, 'Absolutely.'
In his own report on Kosovo, Jatras alleged that the U.S. planned to attack Serbia at least by fall 1998 and was waiting only for a 'trigger' event. That trigger event, he claimed, was the Racak massacre. Again, Jatras admitted he had no first hand knowledge of events.
Nice read a footnote from Jatras's report, quoting an Administration official, which appeared to be the basis for his allegation: 'We are not anywhere near making a decision about armed intervention. If some level of atrocities is reached that would be intolerable, that would be a trigger.'
During cross examination, the Court learned a little more about who James Jatras is. Even more than his obvious anti-Clinton bias, Jatras displayed a virulent anti-Islamic prejudice. Nice read from an article by Jatras in 'A Journal of Orthodox Opinion,' adapted from his speech to a conference sponsored by the far-right Rockford Institute and the pro-Serb Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies, where the witness criticized the widely held view that Islam has its roots in the same tradition as Judaism and Christianinty: 'Islam is the self-evident outgrowth of the darkness of heathen Araby,' he declared, prompting Judge Robinson to ask, 'Mr. Jatras, will historical evidence support your view that Islam is an outgrowth of the darkness of heathen Arabia?' Jatras answered that Christians refer to pre-Christian times as darkness, too.
Nice quoted more of Jatras' sentiments: 'I will leave it to the specialists to calculate which -- Islam or communism -- can claim the greatest achievement as gigantic Christian killing machines,'' he proclaimed in his speech. 'Did it ever occur to you that expressing such a view is irresponsible?' Nice inquired. 'I think it's responsible to give testimony about something that is historically accurate,' the witness responded.
Nice also quoted Jatras' disparaging remarks about the Muslim afterlife and the threat of Muslim dominance in the West through immigration and a high birth rate, a complaint often heard in Serbia about Kosovo Albanians: 'Containing the Muslim advance will be a simple matter of survival,' he told the conference. Confronted with this in court, Jatras asserted that, 'Within a period of time the U.S. and Britain will become Shariah states,' according to unnamed Muslim sources.
Jatras castigated the U.S. Catholic Conference, for issuing the following proclamation together with U.S. Protestants and Anglicans during the Bosnian war: ''We are convinced that there is just cause to use force to defend largely helpless people in Bosnia against aggression and barbarism that are destroying the very foundations of society and threaten large numbers of people,' wrote the chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference, at a time when the Muslim beneficiaries of the called-for intervention were not only roasting alive Serb POWs impaled on spits but were slaughtering Roman Catholic Croats by the hundreds in an offensive in central Bosnia,' Jatras declared. When asked about evidence to support the allegation, Jatras said he had seen a photo of someone roasted alive. While he had never been to Bosnia, he heard similar stories from Serbs who often visited him, he told the Court.
When Nice asked the witness (a member of the Greek Orthodox faith) whether he would consider former US Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (ethnically Greek like Jatras) a pagan for not following Orthodox views on abortion, he responded without hesitation, 'I certainly would.' Other revelations elicited by the Prosecutor included Jatras' close association with the Serb diaspora and such organizations as the Serbian Unity Congress, and his mother's 'tireless campaign for the Serbian cause.'
The witness's extreme views seriously undermined his credibility. While the Court allowed him to testify and accepted his reports, his testimony was of little relevance to the serious charges Milosevic faces. As Defence Counsel Kay informed the Court, he is calling the witnesses Milosevic identified. The limited number of days allotted for the Defence case requires selectivity among the 1600 plus witnesses Milosevic has said he wants to call. Unless Milosevic or his assistants provide more information on witnesses' proposed testimony, Kay will be stuck with time-wasting witnesses of questionable relevance and credibility. When asked by Nice, the Court declined to order Milosevic to provide such information. Until Kay and co-counsel Gillian Higgins have sufficient time to question and prepare witnesses themselves or Milosevic decides to cooperate with them, we can expect more witnesses like James Jatras, as the clock continues to tick away the 150 days allotted for Milosevic's defence.
James Jatras described himself as a former senior analyst with the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he wrote a report titled, 'Clinton Approved Iran Arms Transfers Helped Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base,' published January 1997. He told the Court he decided to write the report following release of House and Senate subcommittee reports concluding that the Clinton Administration had given the green light for Iran to supply weapons to the Bosnian Government in violation of a UN arms embargo.
Former US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, testified quite openly earlier in the trial that the U.S. acquiesced in the transfer of weapons through Croatia to Bosnia from outside the region. At the time, the Clinton Administration had clearly stated its opposition to a continued arms embargo that left the Bosnian Government at a severe disadvantage to Serbian forces, which inherited the weapons and resources of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), the fourth largest army in Europe at the time of Yugoslavia's disintegration.
Jatras testified that he wrote his 1997 report because he felt the House and Senate reports had not gone far enough in exposing what he alleged was the militant Islamic program of Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the presence of a 'Militant Islamic Network' he claimed was at work in Bosnia. However, when asked about sources on direct examination, he admitted that the existence of the Network was 'not officially confirmed.' 'Is that a complete fabrication?' he asked rhetorically. 'Is it utterly inaccurate? I'm not in a position to say.' He went further in his candor, 'I utterly agree I do not have direct knowledge of the goings on in Bosnia of this Network.' His information, he said, came from a compilation of news reports and other sources in the public domain.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice objected several times to the Court admitting evidence of dubious relevance and even more dubious reliability. He pointed out that the Court had 'regularly rejected compilations of other works' by 'summarizing' witnesses. Defence Counsel Steven Kay countered by likening Jatras' report to those of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which the Court has accepted. In response, Nice argued they were not comparable. HRW investigated the incidents on which it reported and followed a prescribed methodology in reaching its conclusions. Jatras' report was based on news articles, which the Court has steadfastly refused to admit as unreliable hearsay, the Prosecutor reminded the judges. Nevertheless, the Court allowed Jatras to continue and ultimately entered all reports into evidence, including those he authored.
On the relevance issue, the Court appeared to accept Kay's argument that issues concerning US sympathies and prejudices are important because they help explain US attitudes and actions toward the Accused. In addition, the witness raised issues about the US decision to bomb Serbia over its actions in Kosovo.
As Defence Counsel led Jatras through the House Subcommittee Report, the witness repeatedly said he was testifying (and had written his reports) not from his direct knowledge of events but from what was known or knowable to someone in a legislative context reporting on them to Congress. 'I have no first hand knowledge that the influences and activities in the report actually took place because I wasn't there,' he said.
On cross examination, Nice confronted Jatras with the fact that the House Subcommittee Report was strongly partisan and politically motivated: 'What we see is this very substantial document that actually presents five men [Republicans] on one side and three [Democrats] on the other, correct?' Jatras: 'To a great extent that is correct.' The report reflected the views of five Republicans on a special subcommittee which the House Rules Committee charged was improperly constituted to advance a partisan political agenda.
Nice also directed the Court's attention to the fact that the Subcommittee's three Democrats filed a separate, dissenting report, which concluded there was no evidence the Administration had violated the arms embargo or broken any law. The Minority Report, the existence of which Jatras had not informed the Court, criticized the entire proceedings as an 'unprecedented legislative procedure created for one purpose and one purpose only. It is a political fishing expedition designed to embarrass the Administration by creating a perceived problem where one does not exist. . . . This performance is an example of politics at its worst.' The Minority Report also found that the Clinton Administration's policy of 'looking the other way' as arms were delivered to Bosnia from abroad not only did not violate the UN arms embargo. It led to conditions necessary for the peace deal at Dayton, by allowing the significantly 'outgunned' Bosnian Government to hold onto some of its territory against a Bosnian Serb onslaught that was in danger of taking it all. Had that happened, Bosnia would have been more of a beggar at Dayton than it was. The Republicans didn't object to the legitimacy of Bosnia's need to arm itself. They disagreed about the consequences of Iran providing the weapons.
Judge Bonomy summed up his view of the document's relevance when he pronounced, 'It is an internal American domestic issue.' Jatras replied, 'Absolutely.'
In his own report on Kosovo, Jatras alleged that the U.S. planned to attack Serbia at least by fall 1998 and was waiting only for a 'trigger' event. That trigger event, he claimed, was the Racak massacre. Again, Jatras admitted he had no first hand knowledge of events.
Nice read a footnote from Jatras's report, quoting an Administration official, which appeared to be the basis for his allegation: 'We are not anywhere near making a decision about armed intervention. If some level of atrocities is reached that would be intolerable, that would be a trigger.'
During cross examination, the Court learned a little more about who James Jatras is. Even more than his obvious anti-Clinton bias, Jatras displayed a virulent anti-Islamic prejudice. Nice read from an article by Jatras in 'A Journal of Orthodox Opinion,' adapted from his speech to a conference sponsored by the far-right Rockford Institute and the pro-Serb Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies, where the witness criticized the widely held view that Islam has its roots in the same tradition as Judaism and Christianinty: 'Islam is the self-evident outgrowth of the darkness of heathen Araby,' he declared, prompting Judge Robinson to ask, 'Mr. Jatras, will historical evidence support your view that Islam is an outgrowth of the darkness of heathen Arabia?' Jatras answered that Christians refer to pre-Christian times as darkness, too.
Nice quoted more of Jatras' sentiments: 'I will leave it to the specialists to calculate which -- Islam or communism -- can claim the greatest achievement as gigantic Christian killing machines,'' he proclaimed in his speech. 'Did it ever occur to you that expressing such a view is irresponsible?' Nice inquired. 'I think it's responsible to give testimony about something that is historically accurate,' the witness responded.
Nice also quoted Jatras' disparaging remarks about the Muslim afterlife and the threat of Muslim dominance in the West through immigration and a high birth rate, a complaint often heard in Serbia about Kosovo Albanians: 'Containing the Muslim advance will be a simple matter of survival,' he told the conference. Confronted with this in court, Jatras asserted that, 'Within a period of time the U.S. and Britain will become Shariah states,' according to unnamed Muslim sources.
Jatras castigated the U.S. Catholic Conference, for issuing the following proclamation together with U.S. Protestants and Anglicans during the Bosnian war: ''We are convinced that there is just cause to use force to defend largely helpless people in Bosnia against aggression and barbarism that are destroying the very foundations of society and threaten large numbers of people,' wrote the chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference, at a time when the Muslim beneficiaries of the called-for intervention were not only roasting alive Serb POWs impaled on spits but were slaughtering Roman Catholic Croats by the hundreds in an offensive in central Bosnia,' Jatras declared. When asked about evidence to support the allegation, Jatras said he had seen a photo of someone roasted alive. While he had never been to Bosnia, he heard similar stories from Serbs who often visited him, he told the Court.
When Nice asked the witness (a member of the Greek Orthodox faith) whether he would consider former US Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (ethnically Greek like Jatras) a pagan for not following Orthodox views on abortion, he responded without hesitation, 'I certainly would.' Other revelations elicited by the Prosecutor included Jatras' close association with the Serb diaspora and such organizations as the Serbian Unity Congress, and his mother's 'tireless campaign for the Serbian cause.'
The witness's extreme views seriously undermined his credibility. While the Court allowed him to testify and accepted his reports, his testimony was of little relevance to the serious charges Milosevic faces. As Defence Counsel Kay informed the Court, he is calling the witnesses Milosevic identified. The limited number of days allotted for the Defence case requires selectivity among the 1600 plus witnesses Milosevic has said he wants to call. Unless Milosevic or his assistants provide more information on witnesses' proposed testimony, Kay will be stuck with time-wasting witnesses of questionable relevance and credibility. When asked by Nice, the Court declined to order Milosevic to provide such information. Until Kay and co-counsel Gillian Higgins have sufficient time to question and prepare witnesses themselves or Milosevic decides to cooperate with them, we can expect more witnesses like James Jatras, as the clock continues to tick away the 150 days allotted for Milosevic's defence.
