Global Voices: Dubious CIA plot theory by former Yugoslav army colonel finds a platform in Serbian m

[TomSea]

8 August 2019
Dubious CIA plot theory by former Yugoslav army colonel finds a platform in Serbian media · Global Voices


Vreme weekly article “How Colonel Karan won the special war against Serbia” analyzing the conspiracy theory about spy center in a car dealership, and toy cars. Photo by Meta.mk News Agency, CC BY.

This story originally appeared on Meta.mk News Agency,   a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Several Serbian media outlets have recently published an op-ed by a retired military officer in which he promotes a theory that many people see as conspirational or false. The theory claims that the intelligence services of the Balkan countries have congregated in a car dealership in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, to plot the assassination of Serbian opposition leaders and then blame the government for it, as part of a plot to bring down Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

The op-ed is signed by Ljuban Karan, a 66-year-old retired KOS (Counterintelligence service of the ex-Yugoslav People’s Army) colonel, and was originally published by the Serbian weekly newspaper Pečat on July 19. The article was then republished by several Serbian media outlets, such as Novi Standard, the tabloid Informer, and the Večernje Novosti, which is a state-owned newspaper whose editor-in-chief, Milan Vučelić, is also the owner of Pečat.

The op-ed is titled “Noose for Serbia” (original: „Омча за Србију“) and discusses the existence of a “special warfare” against Serbia lead by NATO, and a “new secret operation – Noose, which involves an elaborate plan for Serbia’s ruin,” as the article says. Karan says he has analyzed the possible scenarios for the demise of Vučić, and warns of the possible political assassinations of opposition figures (for which, he says, the government will be blamed). He writes:

Read more at: https://globalvoices.org/2019/08/08/dubious-cia-plot-theory-by-former-yugoslav-army-colonel-finds-a-platform-in-serbian-media/

Take it or leave it.  I thought this was an interesting article.

As far as I can tell, Global Voices is not leftists but is citizen journalists. I could be wrong about editorial slant but they don't seem to bad to me. So more for the "Serbia Watchers", things like this seem possible in so-called Eastern Europe, if Serbia qualifies for that.