Whilst his military strategies weren't always impressive, President Milosevic was in Jamie's words "a master of talk", a "Pied Piper of Hamlin". Milosevic's strength lay with his ability to justify his actions to the Serbian people. The longer he could hold onto Kosovo, the better he looked. Yet President Milosevic realised, after months of NATO bombings, that to continue the war would involve the sacrifice of all his status, all of his credibility.

Milosevic could survive continual bombardment, massive economic sanctions, and even global diplomatic pressure But could he survive a Briefing in front of the world's media? Could President Milosevic win against the master of briefings, Jamie Shea?

The first hint of a public challenge was laid by Jamie on April 16:
 

"For the others I think you should seek your explanation in Belgrade, as much as you should at NATO headquarters
and I hope you will do so."

"I'd love to see President Milosevic stand in my place answering some of your questions on some of the other incidents that we have reported on. I wonder how he would do faced with those questions and what kind of answers he would give?"
 

"I think the time has come to take a closer look at the Serb state media. It is not really a media at all, it is part of President Milosevic's war machine and over the last few weeks as I have been standing here I have been aware that as the Spokesman of this Alliance I have under pressure, day and night, to explain and justify NATO's actions to all of you here, and via you to public opinion at large, and to face your very justified and very appropriate questions.
But it also has struck me that President Milosevic doesn't have to justify anything."

"We have to check our facts, we have to correct our mistakes, we have to tell the truth, that is well known, but Milosevic is under no such restriction. There aren't any such things as objective facts in Serbia and Milosevic's media re-writes history as it happens."

"Now the reason why this situation has happened is because the media in Serbia is President Milosevic's personal fiefdom. His daughter controls a radio station in Belgrade, his son owns several in the provinces and his wife controls a good portion of the print media. And therefore it is hardly surprising that whereas our TV screens have thankfully been deluged day in and day out with pictures of the hundreds and thousands of Kosovars who have been forced to leave, virtually none of this has been seen inside Serbia itself."
 

"So I just wanted to point this out because I intend in these briefings over the next few days to continue to highlight what I consider the disparity between an operation which is doing its best to be truthful, and one which clearly doesn't even accept the truth as a starting point."
 

"...honestly Bill, this is the one time that you really should have an MOD briefing twice a day in Belgrade, like you have two briefings a day here, so that you can ask the Yugoslavs, not me, you are sending the question to the wrong address, but so you can ask the Yugoslavs: What is the great master plan behind this humanitarian tragedy?"
 

"I saw that his hair looked rather greyer than when I had last seen him, even a little bit further back on his forehead than what I had seen before."
 

" I wish he would convene a press conference so that you could go and ask him that question by a live link from NATO headquarters even because it would be good to know. He does have a habit, as you know, of agreeing to principles which he then tries to work back as it were on the details, that is why we have said right from the word "go" that we had to be vigilant, that we weren't going to count any chickens around this place before they had all hatched because we do have that experience with Milosevic over several years."
 

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