It isn't unpatriotic to seek the truth. It is not -- as Bill Clinton asserts -- sending the wrong message to President Slobodan Milosevic. If the people of NATO countries are not outraged enough by the truth to support waging war against Slobodan Milosevic -- then it is certainly sending the wrong message to Belgrade by trying to drum up support through lies!

APJ readers do not have to take my word for it, nor do they have to agonise over the credibility of several Western news organisations. Search the internet for 'port authority' or something similar. Find the email address of a harbour master with experience of oil discharge operations. And ask the two following questions: If a port is regularly servicing 10 tankers a day -- how quickly could they completely clear the port and estuary of any evidence that a massive discharge operation had been taking place there? What sort of port facilities would be needed to efficiently offload 10 small tankers every day?

The fact is, several journalists arrived in the port of Bar within a few hours of NATO military commander General Wesley Clark's assertion that the port was servicing about 10 tankers a day. They found two freighters loading wood products for export. Nary a tanker in sight. The Bar port authority dismissed any suggestion that they could service 10 tankers a day. I'll eat my words if NATO can come up with credible photographic evidence of a sudden and mass evacuation of Bar by oil tanker captains.

Another dramatic development today was on the diplomatic front. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in Moscow in his latest attempt to secure a negotiated resolution. After a few hours of talks, Russia's top man on Kosovo, Viktor Chernomyrdin, was on a plane heading for NATO capitals with 'concrete' proposals for a peace settlement.

I doubt today's coincidental announcement by the International Monetary Fund that they had reached 'in principle' a deal under which they could resume lending money to Moscow had anything to do with Annan's obvious influence over Chernomyrdin -- therefore I won't mention it. I will mention the fact that after five weeks of bombing NATO has not achieved its stated goals. If any APJ reader can correct me on that, once again, I will eat my words.

After the outrageous dismissal of Moscow brokered peace efforts a few weeks ago, suddenly the Russian capital seems to be the centre of the diplomatic effort to secure peace. What could have provoked such a change in attitude? The words 'Nato failure' spring immediately to mind.

Even as I write, I am watching the early evening briefing from the British Ministry of Defense in London.

Bear with with me, this is being written 'live'.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook says the sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic demonstrates Belgrade's attitude to truth. Cook says obviously, Belgrade can't face the truth. Yeah, right. Neither can NATO.

Cook also mentioned the Serb opposition leader who gave an interview to the BBC's John Simpson. The Serbs banned the interview from being broadcast because it contained too much criticism of the Belgrade regime. Cook challenged Belgrade to let the 'truth' be known and allow the BBC to broadcast the interview. Let me make this clear, the John Simpson who conducted the interview with the opposition leader isn't the same John Simpson who was recently accused by the British government of being pro-Serb in his reporting. The John Simpson that is in today's news isn't the John Simpson that Britain wanted the BBC to withdraw from Belgrade.

They are twins. And they both work for the BBC. One John Simpson broadcasts 'truth' that NATO doesn't like, his twin, John Simpson, broadcasts 'truth' that NATO does like. Is that clear?

As Cook disingenuously remarked, this is Press Freedom Day. Give the Simpson twin a chance! And Cook also made yet another feeble attempt to convince the assembled journalists that the Serbs don't have a clue about the terrible things that are being done in their name. Forget the thousands of Serbs who have satellite dishes and can tune into CNN/BBC World etc.. can I suggest that somebody please give Cook a computer, a modem, and an internet account!

I've been in the business for a while so I do know that the technically challenged Serb out in the countryside can dust off the 'wireless' and tune into any number of radio broadcasts from outsite Serbia. Trust me, they know.

As an announcer who has sat down to do a broadcast with an 'approved' script (Thailand) with an armed soldier standing next to the mixer board, I find it offensive that people like Cook can suggest that the people listening to my news update had no other choice (or intelligence) but to listen and 'believe'. That, frankly, is bullshit.

I certainly ain't pro-Serb, but day by day I am becoming even less pro-NATO.