Hillary Clinton: Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations “Have Been For Most Part Peaceful.”

In response to Belorussian complaints to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Hillary Clinton issued, through the US Mission to the OSCE, the statement below regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement and government handling of it. It’s an interesting read as Secretary Clinton (and the bevy of person who actually wrote) take pride in what Occupy Wall Street means saying:

We note that these demonstrations have shown in practice our respect for the universal right of the people to join together peacefully in order to voice their common concerns in exercise of their freedoms of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly, consistent with the rights guaranteed them by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

 After describing the protests as being “for the most part peaceful,” the statements pivots   nd attacks the Belorussians saying:

In reaffirming our respect for the freedoms of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly, we note the stark contrast between the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, which have reaffirmed the right to political expression, and the regrettable situation in Belarus, in which political prisoners have been imprisoned and mistreated because of their beliefs.”

The statement concludes with call on Belarus to “release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally, to include the full rehabilitation of their civil rights,” while pledging to “hold accountable those Belorussian officials responsible for repressive actions”.

    State Department Cable: Hillary Clinton Describes OWS As Mostly Peaceful     

A Croatian, Culinary Clash

During the opening week of 1980, Chicago was the scene of an aborted terrorist campaign directed against Croatian emigres supportive of Yugoslavia. On January 4^th 1980, a bomb was discovered in the parking lot used by customers of the Golden Shell restaurant, which was patronized by Yugoslavs and located within an ethnic Croatian neighborhood. Around noon, January 5^th 1980, a Chicago employee sanitation was killed when an improvised explosive device placed in the alley behind the Continental Club detonated. Like the Golden Shell, the Continental Club was patronized largely by Yugoslavs.¹

The investigation made little progress. One of the biggest impediments appears to the fact that no claims of credit were received for the bombings and no communiques were issued. Upon, however, consultation with other FBI field offices and the initial examination of the crime scenes, Croatian National Resistance members were immediately suspected.² This initial impression was bolstered by a source who had “furnished reliable information,” the owner of the Golden Shell was disliked by Otpor members who disapproved of her decision to advertise on pro-Yugoslav radio shows. The source also informed the FBI that the Continental Club had occurred Otpor's disfavor because its ownership was pro-Yugoslav and Yugoslav diplomatic personnel were a common presence in the restaurant.³ Another “confidential source who has furnished reliable information in the past” alerted the FBI that spoke with a [redacted] individual who told the Otpor member that the FBI had questioned her about Otpor and the [redacted] individual's relationship with it.

While the [redacted] (probably the owner or the manager of the Golden Shell) stated she had no problems with any Yugoslav groups prior to the bombing attempt⁴  [Redacted] reported that the [redacted] of the Golden Shell had been previously condemned over her decision to advertise the restaurant as “Yugoslav” as opposed to “Croatian” and she had been approached with demands to display pro-Croatian posters in the windows.⁵ 

The Continental Club had recently had a Yugoslav entertainer at the club, something that angered members of the Serbian and Croatian communities.⁶  On January 6^th, the Kragujevic Lounge received a threatening phone call from a male “Serbian” voice who shouted profanity over the loyalty to Tito at the [redacted] recipient of the phone call.⁷  Based on the prior two attacks, it appears an accurate, but not totally safe to bet this was a follow-up to the prior two attacks.

Ultimately, even a plan to employ hypnotism failed to produce any results in this investigation and judging from the file the investigation ended in 1981.  Below is almost all of the FBI file on the matter. Feel free to explore and possibly solve this mystery yourself.

NEWBOMB FBI File

11/6/1980 Memorandum from Chicago (field office) to Director Subject: ATTEMPTED BOMBING AT THE PARKING LOT OF THE GOLDEN SHELL RESTAURANT 1-3

2Chicago Field Office FD-263 for the period between 1/5-2/5/1980 Case” NEWBOM cover page B.

31/9/1980 FBI transcription of notes on witness interview

41/14/1980 transcript of witness interview notes Description of witness based on description of establishment as [hers]

5Transcribed notes from 1/14/1980 investigation by [redacted] SA

6Transcribed notes from 1/8/1980 investigation by [redacted] SA

71/8/1980 transcribed notes from interview with [redacted]

The Yugoslav Communists Reflect on American Communists

The Yugoslav Communists were harsh critics of American Communists. As shown by this 11/9/1965 cable from the US Embassy in Belgrade, the Yugoslav Communists viewed the Communist Party USA as an "alien body" within the United States due to the Communist Party USA's adherence to Moscow's dictates. The Yugoslavs also felt that the Communist Party USA was flawed in its analysis of American society. The opinion of the Communist Party USA was so low, that the Yugoslavs avoided it and opted to establish direct relations with the American trade unions.

Yugoslav Government Thoughts on USCP