WHO SHOULD PAY?
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BILL GERTZ
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 9, 1999
The State Department is trying to get the Pentagon to pick up the millions of dollars in costs for helping the 1.3 million
displaced Kosovar Albanians being forced from their homes and out of the country. The Pentagon is adamant: No.
State officials say the refugees are covered by the Geneva Convention, but the Pentagon says the laws of war do not cover these
refugees.
State is organizing the scheduled flight of some 20,000 refugees from the Balkans to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
aboard U.S. military and commercially chartered aircraft. State also tried to get the Pentagon to pick up the costs of Haitian
refugees who fled that island and also were resettled for a time at Guantanamo.
"Once again the State Department and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright created a mess and they want the Pentagon to pick up
the pieces," said one official.
According to Pentagon officials, it was Mrs. Albright who was the driving force within the Clinton administration for launching
air strikes against Serbia, a strategy that the military went along with.
Inside the Pentagon, the secretary of state's minions have been dubbed "Albright's Raiders" for their penchant to advocate
military power with little thought for the consequences or costs.
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