Introduction by the Publisher

This book contains the first volume of a prophetic trilogy on nuclear espionage, counter-intelligence and the East-West conflict entitled Operation Twins. It was written around 1982 by the Serbian writer-in-exile Slobodan R. Mitric, a black belt Karate master and one-time Yugoslav Secret Service agent, who defected to the West in 1973. Illustrated by 5 original maps and detailed descriptions of (former secret) US and USSR nuclear missile bases, Mitric’s literary novel and thriller is supplemented by 20 appendices containing – at least in this form – hitherto unpublished newspaper articles, translated letters and official documents that shed light on the dramatic course of life and work of the author, who is better known in this country as Karate Bob. The book ends with a glossary of (foreign) terms, marked as such with an asterisk (*), and a note on various books, video documentaries (mostly in Dutch), a play and a film scenario by the author based on this novel, of which the title pages are shown on the inside page of the back cover. This mosaic of the author’s creative work includes the cover of the original Serbian version of volume 1 of Operation Twins: a double eagle rescuing the earth with its protective claws against the background of the US Congress and the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. This Serbian original version entitled Operacija Blizanci was – after the next two volumes, according to the author, had been confiscated by the CIA in 1987– finally printed and published in 1999 in a limited edition by L’Atelier de la Liberté, a “Workshop for Freedom” set up by the author and his wife, the artist Iris de Vries-Mitric in Amsterdam.

Already conceived around 1973, Slobodan Mitric wrote down Operation Twins at the request of certain influential political and military leaders in the US, such as Congressman Philip Crane and General R. Healey, to whom this book is also dedicated. It was accepted as an academic dissertation, on the basis of which he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Law from the Arizona College of Police Science in 1986 (see app. 11). In that year he was also appointed European Director of Reserve Police-International, after having served already as a director for The Netherlands since 1982 (see app. 14 and the dedication on p. 6), all on a voluntary basis for this non-profit, non-governmental crime-busting organization. This outstanding theoretical and practical work led to an invitation to the author to come to the US. However, this was thwarted by, among others, the Dutch Government, which in 1986 stood on the point of extraditing him to his home country Yugoslavia, where a death sentence was awaiting him for refusing in 1973 to carry out a secret state assignment to execute a certain Vlado Dapcevich, one of Tito’s opponents, in Brussels (app. 4 and 5). The extradition was averted at the last moment – the airplane stood ready for take-off – by an emergency court injunction, an urgent appeal by the Dutch Red Cross and the timely intervention by 41 US senators and congressmen, including Senator Dole and Congressman Crane (app. 12 and 13).

Mitric had gained this high-level support from America not only on the strength of his novel, but also because of the counter-intelligence fieldwork and nuclear anti-terrorism he had been carrying out as the Dutch (later European and finally World) Director of Reserve Police-International (app. 19 en 20). These top American lawmen and politicians threatened namely to break off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands, if Mitric, who in the meantime had slashed his wrist in a desperate attempt to commit suicide, were handed over to the Yugoslavian authorities to face certain execution there for committing state treason and divulging state secrets (app. 3). Prior to that he had in connection with his extensive undercover work in an international plutonium theft in this country closed a 3 million US dollar contract with former Dutch Prime Minister Lubbers, presently UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland, a contract, which, according to a recent letter by Mitric to Dr. Lubbers, still has not been honored by the latter, to the detriment of the former (app. 9).

In 1992, the publisher of this book wrote a 15-page article entitled “Democracy on Trial” with as many enclosures, based on a close study of legal documents given to him by Mitric’s lawyer at that time Dr. Korvinus and of original material from Mitric’s large archive. In this article an initial attempt was made to rehabilitate Mitric's reputation by refuting the various trumped-up charges against him and by having reversed the unjustified prison sentences resulting from highly questionable court cases in Sweden as well as in the Netherlands, where he has repeatedly been the victim of character assassination. The article was refused for publication however by the English weekly The Observer and was later published by Mitric in his own multi-language magazine The Serbian Army that he published in his capacity as Defense Minister of the Free State of Serbia (app. 17). It was also in this journal that his repeated and explicit early warning signals concerning the 9/11 disaster, which had already been sent to the CIA from 1986 onwards (!) in an effort to prevent this disaster, were published and widely circulated, albeit all to no avail (app. 8)…

The dramatic background to this novel and the outrageous slings and arrows of misfortune suffered on the part of the author in his mission to bear witness to the truth against all odds, cannot begin to be sketched completely in this brief introduction. This dramatic behind-the-scenes-scenario will have to be revealed at a later stage. However, it pales in comparison with the dramatic confrontation that is drawn up in the novel itself. According to the author in his summary, his doctoral dissertation reached the highest echelons of power in the US, where it reputedly was responsible for a wholesale cleanup in the rank and file of the Secret and Intelligence Services. It even led, again according to the author, to a joining of hands in the outer space research programs of East and West. But that an apocalyptic star wars scenario, as described in this novel (and in the remaining two volumes), remains not altogether unthinkable is shown by US legislation and efforts to renew the plans introduced by former President Reagan to build a defensive missile shield around America and by recent reports from Russia that a whole new generation of weapons of mass destruction has come from the drawing board.

Even more realistic and still very topical, if not more so than before the end of the Cold War is what can further be read out of this literary thriller. This is the chilling fact that the ultimate powers over the fate of mankind on earth do not rest within the hands of the elected governments and thereby the people, but within warring factions of the Secret and Intelligence Services and their inside supporters within the military-industrial complex. This is something about which General Eisenhower already warned at the end of his career as president of the USA and which recent books such as Nuclear Terrorism – The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe by Graham Allison hint at, but which books such as Inside Job – Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies by Jim Marrs, Cover Up – What the Government Is Still Hiding about the War on Terror by Peter Lance, and related (alternative, i.e. non-governmental) websites increasingly begin to suspect and pinpoint. The real war is not so much being fought out on the battlefield, but – out of reach of the public and mass media – on the cryptic field of human intelligence and counter-intelligence. Or in other words: to the extent that the conflict within is sublimated, the conflict without is aggravated.

The trilogy Operation Twins covers this battlefield of the human mind and soul during the last three days of the second millennium. Volume I deal with events happening and leading up to December 29, 1999. And even though much from the Serbian original may be lost in translation – for circumstances did not permit it to be translated by professionals – and even though the novel should have been published twenty years ago, it can still provide a good, exciting and even enthralling read. The other two volumes take place on December 30 and 31, 1999 and beyond, but have not yet seen the light of day, except that is for the cover of vol. 2, which has been used here in a modified form as the title page of this book and which also served as the cover for the disbanded film scenario.

It goes practically without saying that for what is, above all, stated or implied in the summary and appendices only the author himself can be responsible. The publisher – a relative amateur on this difficult and potentially dangerous field on which the author has been threading for decades – cannot vouch for the truth of all of the, at times, truly staggering and far-reaching statements of this warrior prophet, but he can certainly attest to the absolute honesty and personal integrity of this man, whom he has known through thick and thin since 1987. In this appraisal he seems to be in the good company of those of Mitric’s compatriots, who accorded him a “Certificate of Honor for his Struggle for Freedom” (app. 18), although there are others, even churchmen, who out of regrettable misunderstanding or worse view him distinctly otherwise (app. 15).

For further information on this book, the author and the work of the publisher the English sections may be consulted of the recently renewed and expanded website of the Willehalm Institute, which was founded in 1985 in Dornach/Arlesheim, Switzerland and which is named after the historic Patron Saint of the Knights, Guillaume d’ Orange, a paladin of Charles de Great and original founder of the House of Orange.

Robert J. Kelder

Founding Dir. Willehalm Institute

Amsterdam, January 1, 2005