Hundreds of Serbs died in the fighting.

The CIA reportedly planned the operation at the Sepurine military base near the Adriatic port of Zadar. The information, which came from Gen. Ante Gotovina`s defense team, states that the operation was prepared with the knowledge of top Croatian leaders and then U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Globus reported that George Tenet, who later became CIA chief, had \'directly\' worked with Gotovina to prepare the military operation. Clinton allegedly wanted to punish the Serbs for their July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims by crushing their revolt in Croatia.

In 1991, Serbs in Croatia rose up after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia; four years later the Serbs controlled one-third of Croatia`s territory, where they proclaimed the Republic of Srpska Krajina.

Globus reported that Tenet and at least 12 American military experts had worked with Gotovina in Sepurine in planning the military operations. Among the U.S. contributions were jamming Serb communication systems and reconnaissance flights for the Croats.

On Dec. 7 Gotovina was arrested in Spain and transferred to the custody of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. On Dec. 12 Gotovina pled not guilty to the charges against him.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International