"Dole has become a hero to the legions of fanatic Croat nationalists who see Tudjman as a latter-day Ante Pavelic, the leader of a pro-Hitler puppet state in the Second World War. Pavelic's Ustashe followed the orders of the Franciscans and of Croatia's minister of the interior, Andrija Artukovic, in murdering some 700,000 Serbs, 30,000 Jews and an unknown number of gypsies, most of them in the death camp of Jasenovac."

From - Counterpunch

[P. O. Box 18675, Washington, DC 20036]

Reprinted WITH PERMISSION -----------------

October 1, 1995

By Alexander Cockburn and Ken Silverstein

What nation,

without a word of reporting, comment, or rebuke from the media

* rallied to the cause of a documented anti-Semite;

* armed his forces in the largest secret transfer of military equipment

since the Iran-Contra;

* helped draw up plans and gave the final okay for the eviction

of 170,000 people from their homes?

The answer, of course, is the United States, in supervising the onslaught of President Franjo Tudjman's Croatia on the Krajina, with consequent killing and ethnic cleansing, the largest of the entire war thus far. These feats were cheered on, or at least excused, by the vast majority of liberals in Western Europe and the US.

The most ardent public supporter of Tudjman's Croatia in the US has been Senator Bob Dole. Hungry for both campaign funds and for a foreign policy cared to flourish in his stumbles towards the Republican presidential nomination, Dole has become a hero to the legions of fanatic Croat nationalists who see Tudjman as a latter-day Ante Pavelic, the leader of a pro-Hitler puppet state in the Second World War. Pavelic's Ustashe followed the orders of the Franciscans and of Croatia's minister of the interior, Andrija Artukovic, in murdering some 700,000 Serbs, 30,000 Jews and an unknown number of gypsies, most of them in the death camp of Jasenovac.

Guiding Dole through the intricacies of Balkan politics and linking him to Tudjman's agenda has been his staff assistant Mira Baratta. This 35-year old woman was singled out for praise from the floor of the chamber by Senator John Warner on the day in late July when Dole helped terminate the (entirely bogus) arms embargo on Bosnia.

Baratta's grandfather was a Nazi officer in Mostar, and a supporter of Pavelic. For years her father, Pero Radijelovic, ran a weekly Croat radio program in Los Angeles in which he imparted information supplied by his daughter, coyly labeled "exclusive information from a very special source". Radijelovic has hailed Pavelic as "the greatest man in Croatian history" and he acted as master of ceremonies at a banquet for Tudjman in Los Angeles. The honorary chairwoman of the event was Artukovic's widow; Artukovic himself was extradited from Los Angeles to the Yugoslav federation in the 1980s and condemned to death for war crimes. He died in prison.

The importance of Balkan money to Dole;s campaign finances may be judged by the boasts of former Congressman Joseph DioGuardia at a banquet of the fiercely anti-Serb American Albanian lobby in 1987. As reported by Mark Lupesina of the Yugoslav magazine Interview, DioGuardia said "I have raised a big bundle of money for Dole's PAC." In a speech at the banquet, Dole acknowledged those present for their very substantial contributions.

Baratta guided Dole in a trip to the former Yugoslavia in 1990, and supplied him with prompts during interviews, as well as public statements such as his press release lauding Tudjman's Croatia as "an example of democratic freedom" in contrast to the "Bolshevik" government of Serbia.