Sibelgate: New installment on the Balkans

The Next Two Balkan Wars

An excerpt from Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Can you explain more about what money you are talking about?

SE: The most significant information that we were receiving did not come from counter-terrorism investigations, and I want to emphasize this. It came from counter-intelligence, and certain criminal investigations, and issues that have to do with money laundering operations.

You get to a point where it gets very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one. In certain points - and they [the intelligence community] are separating those portions from just the terrorist activities. And, as I said, they are citing "foreign relations" which is not the case, because we are not talking about only governmental levels. And I keep underlining semi-legit organizations and following the money. When you do that the picture gets grim. It gets really ugly.

An excerpt from The Highjacking of a Nation, Part 2: The Auctioning of Former Statesmen & Dime a Dozen Generals by Sibel Edmonds, November 29, 2006:

Long gone are the days when generals were content to retire and go back home where they held their heads high as honorable patriots and heroes who had served their nation; where they marched in their towns' parades as proud distinguished men and women who had fulfilled their duty to the people. Today, as we clearly see, they perceive themselves and their authority as a commodity; they go about marketing their worth (nationally and internationally; foreign and domestic) long before they leave their positions as public servants.

Bush OKs supplying arms to Kosovo, Global Research, March 20, 2008, in its entirety:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush authorized Wednesday supplying Kosovo with weapons, signaling the establishment of government-to-government relations after recognizing its independence, the White House said.

In a memo to the State Department made public by the White House, Bush said: "I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defense services to Kosovo will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."

A senior official said the authorization followed US recognition of Kosovo's independence and was part of the normal process of establishing relations with a new government.

In a comment apparently meant to allay concerns from Serbia and its ally Russia, the official stressed the military restrictions imposed on Kosovo under a plan by former UN special envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari.

Under the Ahtisaari plan [!!!!?], which is the basis for Kosovo's supervised independence, Kosovo is allowed a lightly armed 2,500-person security force under NATO oversight and training.

Kosovo, an Albanian-dominated Serbian province under UN administration since 1999, unilaterally declared its independence on February 17. The United States recognized it on March 18, despite strong opposition from Serbia and Russia.

The US official, who asked not to be identified, said the US weapons deliveries were preparing the ground for the future, adding that the United States had struck similar relations with other countries in the region.

Furthermore, the official said, provisions of defense equipment and services would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The official said that providing military equipment to Kosovo would improve security relations and engagement with Kosovo, promote security and stability throughout the Balkans, improve Kosovo's capacity to take part in peacekeeping activities, to detect, deter and defeat terrorists, and to deal with humanitarian emergencies

An excerpt from The Highjacking of a Nation, Part 2: The Auctioning of Former Statesmen & Dime a Dozen Generals by Sibel Edmonds, November 29, 2006:

The foreign influence, the lobbyists, the current highly positioned civil servants who are determined future 'wanna be' lobbyists, and the fat cats of the Military Industrial Complex, operate successfully under the radar, with unlimited reach and power, with no scrutiny, while selling your interests, benefiting from your tax money, and serving the highest bidders regardless of what or who they may be. This deep state seems to operate at all levels of our government; from the President’s office to Congress, from the military quarters to the civil servants' offices.

An excerpt from Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda?

SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

This image is from a report filed by the Albanian American Public Affairs Committee (AAPAC), which is the political action committee affiliated with the Albanian American Civic League (AACL) and former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi. For background connecting AAPAC and the AACL to Albanian organized crime, see The Balkan Connection, Part 2 and McCain's Ties to Islamic Terrorists -- and Heroin Traffickers?



An excerpt from An Interview with Sibel Edmonds, Page Two by Chris Deliso, July 1, 2004:

SE: I can't say anything specific with regards to these departments, because I didn't work for them. But as for the politicians, what I can say is that when you start talking about huge amounts of money, certain elected officials become automatically involved. And there are different kinds of campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared.

In addition to arming narcotraffickers who essentially run the government of Kosovo, the Bush Administration is setting the stage for the next two wars in the Balkans, as Greater Albania gets established in the hands of organized crime. This map shows how Montenegro and Macedonia will be the next nations dismembered:



This will be due to alleged persecution of ethnic Albanian minorities in both nations. I encourage you to browse the AACL's website from which I have taken both of these images:





As I have previously addressed, though more so in the case of the latter, both Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain are deep in the pockets of Albanian organized crime; both will support continued Albanian nationalism and expansionism at the expense of other Balkan nationalities, and both will work to ensure that it will be not honest Albanians, but rather Albanian organized crime factions that benefit.

Meanwhile, President Bush is doing now, on the payroll of the US government, that which will endear him to his heroin-trafficking friends and make for a soft retirement from public service -- exactly in the manner described by Sibel Edmonds in the context of her case.

From the office of the President,
Right down to me and you,
Me and you.
It's a losing proposition,
But one you can't refuse.
It's the politics of contraband,
It's the smuggler's blues,
Smuggler's blues.

Posted by Yankee Doodle at 11:00 AM

Smuggler's Blues, Part 2
from Stop Islamic Conquest by Yankee Doodle
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds (Page Two), 2004

SE: You might have an organization supposed to be promoting the cultural affairs of a certain country within another country. Hypothetically, say, an Uzbek folklore society based in Germany. The stated purpose would be to hold folklore-related activities – and they might even do that – but the real activities taking place behind the scenes are criminal.

CD: Such as?

SE: Everything – from drugs to money laundering to arms sales. And yes, there are certain convergences with all these activities and international terrorism.



It's the lure of easy money,
It's gotta very strong appeal.


The Candidates on Kosova ... and perhaps beyond, 2008

(D) Senator Hillary Clinton who insisted that her husband initiate the NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 has repeatedly declared that the bombing of Serbia was "a success". She has been the honored guest to of many Albanian fundraisers and is hailed as someone that would continue her husband’s legacy as a friend and defender of Albanians. Hillary receives 63% of her campaign donations from individuals who donate $2300 or more and 37% from those who donate the maximum $4,600; in short, she is a "big money" candidate. Hillary Clinton is a socially liberal and aggressively interventionist.



Perhaps you'd understand it better
Standin' in my shoes,


McCAIN AND THE KLA CONNECTION, 2000



It's the ultimate enticement,
It's the smuggler's blues,


McCAIN AND THE KLA CONNECTION, 2000

The caption accompanying the above photo says McCain was in New York doing some fundraising, and it is fair to ask: how much money did he get from the Albanian lobby? As the great "reform" candidate who denounces the influence of "special interests" and the power of money in politics, McCain had better tell us exactly how much the Albanian lobby has thrown his way – and to what effect. Of all the lobbyists in Washington, it is the "special interests" represented by the agents of foreign powers that pose the greatest threat to the integrity of the Presidency.



Smuggler's blues.



The Turkish Lobby, Obstruction of Justice and Henry Waxman, 2008

While we're at it, notice who took a great deal of money from the Turkish lobby for her Presidential bid.





See it in the headlines,
You hear it ev'ry day.


The Turkish Lobby, Obstruction of Justice and Henry Waxman, 2008

And whose smiling face do we see on the list?



They say they're gonna stop it,
But it doesn't go away.


More heroin from Afghanistan pouring into U.S. cities, 2007

U.S. Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, a Republican who represents suburbs north of Chicago, said the Bush administration had been slow to respond to indications that more heroin from Afghanistan was coming to the United States. U.S. law enforcement officials also have told him privately that Afghanistan's share of the American heroin market is growing, he said.



They move it through Miami, sell it in L.A.,


Embassy of Afghanistan quoting "Unlikely allies: U.S., Iran separately fighting a common foe -- the Afghan drug trade", 2006

"As far as Pakistan, we don't have much cooperation," Haidari said. "They have not been as effective as we would have hoped. Not only traffickers but also terrorists regularly cross borders and attack.

"We are getting assistance more from Iran. One reason is they have a more established, cleaner counter-narcotics police force. They are watching for drug traffickers coming in from the Afghan side, and interdict them and arrest them and put them in jails in Iran."



They hide it up in Telluride,
I mean it's here to stay.


More heroin from Afghanistan pouring into U.S. cities, 2007

"More heroin is definitely coming in from Afghanistan," said Kirk, who's visited Afghanistan as a reserve naval intelligence officer. "The problem is the official reporting lags as to what we're actually seeing in the streets."

The increase in the U.S. supply of Afghan heroin is further evidence that Afghanistan is awash in illicit opium and plagued by official corruption.



It's propping up the governments in Columbia and Peru,


Heroin Heroes, 2000

Now free of the war and the repressive Yugoslav police machine, drug traffickers have reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power -- and in the spotlight -- the top trafficking families have begun to seek relative respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The Kosovars are trying to position themselves in higher levels of trafficking," says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like to move up like any other business, and the Kosovars are becoming business leaders. They have become equal partners with the Turks."

Italian national police discovered this new Kosovar outreach last year when they undertook "Operation Pristina." The carabinieri uncovered a chain of connections that originated in Kosovo and stretched through nine European countries, extending into Central Asia, South America, and the United States.



You ask any D.E.A. man,
He'll say "There's nothin' we can do,"



UN World Drug Report, 2007 page 45

The route from Afghanistan continues to go mainly via Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and the Balkan countries to distribution centres in West Europe. However, alternative routes have also been established to circumvent the border between Turkey and Bulgaria, some via Ukraine to Romania and along the Balkan route to West Europe.



From the office of the President,
Right down to me and you, me and you.


McCAIN AND THE KLA CONNECTION, 2000

THE DIOGUARDI-McCAIN CONNECTION

There they are, the two of them, DioGuardi and McCain, side by side: one who would carve an Albanian empire in the midst of the blood-soaked Balkans, and the other who would be President of the United States. It is a disturbing juxtaposition, to say the very least.



It's a losing proposition,
But one you can't refuse.


Corruption and Organized Crime in Kosovo: An Interview with Avni Zogiani, 2008

John Rosenthal: Your organization focuses on the links between organized crime and politics in Kosovo. Can you give us some idea of the nature of the problem and the particular forms organized crime takes in Kosovo?

Avni Zogiani: You've had cases where politics was mixed with organized crime in a very blatant manner: for example, cases of high officials who were found to be involved in arms smuggling or in money laundering. Because of the lack of integrity of the public sphere in general and especially the political institutions, very often you will find that a part of the money that goes to organized crime comes in fact from public funds. This is one aspect of the problem. Another aspect is human trafficking: women are brought to every corner of Kosovo to be sold into prostitution. Human trafficking in Kosovo is a very big deal and also drug trafficking is a big deal.



It's the politics of contraband,
It's the smuggler's blues,


John McCain armed Kosovo Islamic terrorists, 2008



Smuggler's blues.


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Mar 4, 2008 (3 days ago)
Smuggler's Blues, Part 1
from Stop Islamic Conquest by Yankee Doodle
UN World Drug Report, 2007 page 10

At least in the short-term, conditions in the world's heroin markets will be determined by what happens in southern Afghanistan, as the country was responsible for 92 per cent of global opium production in 2006. For no other drug is production so concentrated in a single area. This concentration went hand in hand with a remarkable long-term progress in eliminating other sources of supply, principally in South-East Asia.



There's trouble on the streets tonight,
I can feel it in my bones.


UN World Drug Report, 2007 page 37

There are indications that a small but increasing proportion of opiates from Afghanistan are being trafficked to North America, either via eastern and western Africa, or via Europe.



I had a premonition,
That he should not go alone.


Top-quality heroin floods U.S. as Afghan poppy trade grows, 2006

Not only is more heroin being produced from Afghan poppies, it is also the purest in the world, according to the DEA's National Drug Intelligence Center which monitors heroin coming into the United States.



I knew the gun was loaded,
But I didn't think he'd kill.


Heroin Heroes, 2000

Law enforcement officials in Europe have suspected for years that ties existed between Kosovar rebels and Balkan drug smugglers. But in the six months since Washington enthroned the Kosovo Liberation Army in that Yugoslav province, KLA-associated drug traffickers have cemented their influence and used their new status to increase heroin trafficking and forge links with other nationalist rebel groups and drug cartels.



Everything exploded,
And the blood began to spill.


Fresh cheap heroin headed for New England, 2008

The booming poppy harvest in Afghanistan could soon become New England's heroin problem.

Boston drug enforcement agents are bracing for what could be a shift in the way heroin flows into New England.

If it happens, according to current and former Drug Enforcement Administration agents, prices on the street will drop and the potency of competing products will spike. Last summer, according to a DEA spokesman, changes in Northeast heroin potency caused a rash of overdose deaths.



So baby, here's your ticket,
Put the suitcase in your hand.


Fresh cheap heroin headed for New England, 2008

"The Afghan heroin is absolutely going to - if it hasn't started flooding the market yet - it's going to get here," Levine said. "It's going to get to New England."

[snip]

Southwest Asian heroin is still a small player in the United States, according to the NDIC, but Levine said competition from Afghan heroin would be significant.

"Afghan heroin is huge, it's a huge market," he said. "The State Department is trying to downplay it and say it's not going to be a huge problem, and they've got a vested interest in that because ... heroin is supporting those allies of our war in Afghanistan."



Here's a little money now,
Do it just the way we planned.


Heroin Heroes, 2000

The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so than Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads, and the sophisticated weapons -- many of these have been bought by drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global Drugs Monitor (OGD), a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.



You be cool for twenty hours
And I'll pay you twenty grand.


John McCain armed Kosovo Islamic terrorists, 2008

Americans of Albanian heritage collected a million dollars in one evening for the presidential campaign of Republican Senator John McCain, said the Albanian American Civic League yesterday, the lobby group headed by former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. A reception for McCain was held January 22 at the Saint Regis Hotel in Manhatten, and the senator, who is now leading in the runoff for the Republican party candidacy in the November elections, cut his campaign in Florida by one day to attend this gathering.

"Even in 1998 when we had problems with Milosevic, McCain did everything that we asked of him to the benefit of the Albanian people, including arming the KLA", announced DioGuardi. "We are American Albanians and we need a leader who will strengthen this country... We must support John McCain because he did everything we asked of him for Kosovo, from supporting the Kosovo Liberation Army to supporting the independence of Kosovo."



I'm sorry it went down like this,
And someone had to lose,


More heroin from Afghanistan pouring into U.S. cities, 2007

But internal drug-enforcement reports indicate that U.S. authorities are seizing more Afghan heroin at U.S. ports and from low-level dealers in American cities.

The reports contradict the public statements of drug enforcement officials, who maintain that the amount of heroin reaching the United States from Afghanistan hasn't increased.



It's the nature of the business,
It's the smuggler's blues.


Top-quality heroin floods U.S. as Afghan poppy trade grows, 2006

The jump in deaths was especially prevalent among users older than 40, who lack the resilience to recover from an overdose of unexpectedly strong heroin, according to a study by the county's Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology.

"The rise of heroin from Afghanistan is our biggest rising threat in the fight against narcotics," said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. "We are seeing more seizures and more overdoses."



Smuggler's Blues


Top-quality heroin floods U.S. as Afghan poppy trade grows, 2006

The Department of Homeland Security also has found evidence of increasing Afghan heroin in this country. The agency reported skyrocketing numbers of seizures of heroin arriving at U.S. airports and seaports from India, not a significant heroin-producing country but a major transshipment point for Afghan drugs. The seizure of heroin packages from India increased from zero in 2003 to 433 in 2005 -- more than 80 percent of total heroin mail seizures that year.



The sailors and pilots,
The soldiers and the law,


Embassy of Afghanistan quoting "Unlikely allies: U.S., Iran separately fighting a common foe -- the Afghan drug trade", 2006

Just a few days ago, the United States announced that 11,000 new coalition troops would attack insurgents in the drug-ridden provinces in the south. Three straight years of bumper crops have flooded Iran and Western Europe with Afghan heroin, a trail now leading to the United States as well, with Chicago the chief distribution center and nearby cities such as St. Louis affected.

Missouri and Illinois officials say the highly pure heroin is attracting younger, affluent users and causing a spike in overdoses.



The pay offs and the rip offs,
And the things nobody saw.


The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule, 1999

Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:

" ... the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, ... KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process which has continued since the NATO bombings]... [T]he KLA harassment has reached such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are 'ready to flee'."



No matter if it's heroin, cocaine, or hash,


And the Winner is . . . the Albanian Mafia, 1999

Smuggling is the Albanian mafia's core competency, and over the past decade the Albanians have steadily come to dominate smuggling to and within Europe, even overshadowing their erstwhile mentors, the Italian mafia. Smugglers are smugglers, and the commodity on any given day shifts with demand, whether it is narcotics, weapons, fuel, stolen goods—or people.



You've got to carry weapons
Cause you always carry cash.


Heroin Heroes, 2000

As the war in Kosovo heated up, the drug traffickers began supplying the KLA with weapons procured from Eastern European and Italian crime groups in exchange for heroin. The 15 Families also lent their private armies to fight alongside the KLA. Clad in new Swiss uniforms and equipped with modern weaponry, these troops stood out among the ragtag irregulars of the KLA. In all, this was a formidable aid package. It's therefore not surprising, say European law enforcement officials, that the faction that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under Hashim Thaci -- was the group that maintained the closest links to traffickers. "As the biggest contributors, the drug traffickers may have gotten the most influence in running the country," says Koutouzis.



There's lots of shady characters,
Lots of dirty deals.


An Interview with Sibel Edmonds (Page Two), 2004

SE: I can't say anything specific with regards to these departments, because I didn't work for them. But as for the politicians, what I can say is that when you start talking about huge amounts of money, certain elected officials become automatically involved. And there are different kinds of campaign contributions - legal and illegal, declared and undeclared.



Ev'ry name's an alias
In case somebody squeals.


More heroin from Afghanistan pouring into U.S. cities, 2007

However, U.S. officials have privately told their Afghan counterparts and some American lawmakers that they've detected an increase in the amount of heroin from Afghanistan.

"We have talked about these problems and this increase," said M. Ashraf Haidari, the first secretary of the Afghan Embassy in Washington. "It's logical that where there is demand there is a supply. Drugs from Afghanistan are making their way to the United States."

Mar 3, 2008 (4 days ago)
Fares, Part 2
from Stop Islamic Conquest by Yankee Doodle
We continue from Part 1 reviewing a 1999 paper entitled And the Winner is . . . the Albanian Mafia by Frank Cilluffo and George Salmoiraghi:

In recent years passage through the Balkans into Europe has grossly overshadowed previous drug channels from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle. This principal drug-shipping channel, known as the Balkan Route, is worth an estimated $400 billion a year and handles 80 percent of the heroin destined for sale in Europe. Opium grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the heart of the Golden Crescent) is processed in Turkey, then travels through the former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic to reach other parts of Europe. The Balkan Route then links to England through the French port of Calais, where Albanian gangs have secured their position. In the Channel ports, the Albanians hire facilitators who, to confuse sniffing patrol dogs, disguise the smell of smuggled cargo by loading their vehicles with meat, pet food, and fresh flowers. The clans profit doubly by piggybacking illicit trafficking operations—for example, shipping oil to Macedonia, dodging the Greek embargo, and using the shipment to cover the added cargo of heroin. And people seeking passage into Europe make ideal drug-carrying mules for the fares.



In the above paragraph, one should both notice the importance of the Balkan Route, and keep in mind that the report is from 1999.

Skipping now another document we looked at in Part 1, EUROPOL DRUGS 2006, we see how things have changed since 1999 in the Golden Crescent:

Afghanistan is the major supplier of heroin for the European markets. In addition to opium poppy cultivation, the country has developed into a major processor of the final product: heroin. UNODC estimates that 72% of opium is converted to heroin in Afghanistan. Some 10.000 tonnes of chemicals, including 1.000 tonnes of acetic anhydride are needed for this process. The Tajik Drug Control Agency estimates that there are more than 400 heroin laboratories in Afghanistan, with 80 of them situated along the border to Tajikistan.

snip

Trafficking of heroin towards the European Union continues to be dominated by Turkish and associated criminal groups. These groups make use of facilitators in Southwest Asia to liaise with domestic criminals or brokers who can purchase large quantities of heroin directly from source countries. Very rarely do heroin consignments travel the whole way from Afghanistan to Europe in a single journey; they are bought and sold by different criminal groups along the route.



Afghanistan is the main supplier of heroin for Europe, although now, instead of processing the final product in Turkey, it is processed on the spot in Afghanistan. This makes business for the narcotraffickers a great deal easier, as heroin itself is easier to transport than bulkier unrefined opiates.

Notice, however, that Turkish groups continue to dominate the movement of heroin toward Europe. This reminds us of the Sibel Edmonds case, where Edmonds, working as a translator of Turkish-language (and other) materials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington Field Office in the wake of 9/11, was dealing with a backlog materials -- many from about the same time as the 1999 Cilluffo and Salmoiraghi report. The information Edmonds saw was startling for many reasons, not the least of which was that it indicated that front companies for these Turkish organized crime groups had US government officials, in the State and Defense Departments, in Congress -- from both parties -- and in the FBI on their payroll. These US government officials received bribes and promises of a cushy future in return for using their position in the government to further the interests of Turkish organized crime.

Notice also that consignments of drugs change hands as they travel from Afghanistan to the streets of Sweden, the UK and elsewhere.

Continuing with EUROPOL DRUGS 2006:

The liaison between organised crime groups trafficking different commodities is expected to continue. This cooperation refers, for instance, to South American criminal groups exchanging cocaine for heroin with Turkish traffickers, who, in turn, liaise with indigenous wholesalers of amphetamine type stimulants. Thus, heroin may be transported in multi-drug consignments, which include synthetic drugs, cocaine and cannabis. Heroin trafficking is sometimes also associated with the trafficking of human beings and/or illegal immigration to increase efficiency and profit.

Iran and Turkey are amongst the most important transit countries of Afghan sourced heroin destined for the European Union. Iranian law enforcement efforts concentrate on the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan and on internal trafficking, rather than on drugs leaving the country into Turkey. In 2004, Iranian law enforcement agencies seized some 4 tonnes of heroin, 12 tonnes of morphine base and 174 tonnes of opium.



Iran has a problem with narcotics addiction, but the government in Tehran, for all its shortcomings, has been helpful in the War on Drugs -- a war that has been dramatically eclipsed by the advent of the "War on Terror" and by the appearance of Iran's name on the "Axis of Evil" list, an appearance that occurred despite the fact that Iran was not implicated in the events on 9/11 that sparked the War on Terror.

Continuing with EUROPOL DRUGS 2006:

Equally, Turkish law enforcement priorities are on the situation in the country and on the exportation of heroin via the Istanbul area along the Balkan Routes into Western Europe. In 2004, Turkish law enforcement agencies seized 6,515 kg of heroin and 4,491 kg of morphine base.

snip

Turkey remains, due to its geographical position, the main corridor for heroin trafficking towards the European Union. The country serves as a starting point for the Balkan Routes. Most heroin from Southwest Asia reaches Europe via these routes.

Whilst awaiting onward transportation into Western Europe, heroin is often stockpiled in countries along the Balkan Routes. The dual use of the Balkan Routes for smuggling heroin to and ecstasy from the European Union is noteworthy.

snip

Even though the 'Silk Route' via central Asia is emerging, with indications of increased trafficking activities, it can be expected that the Balkan Routes will remain the most prominent supply routes for heroin in the coming years.

The Balkan Routes continue to be the most important for getting Afghanistan heroin to European markets!

Returning now to the final excerpts of Cilluffo and Salmoiraghi's And the Winner is . . . the Albanian Mafia from 1999:

The fares run a multinational operation. The Albanian clans are dispersed in Kosovo and Macedonia as well as Albania proper. Moreover, the Kosovo Albanian clans have confederated with their counterparts in Turkey and Bulgaria. Recent arrests also demonstrate that the fares use Czech couriers to deliver heroin to Britain-based English and Turkish dealers. The smugglers forged alliances with their criminal counterparts in Italy, including La Cosa Nostra. It is an open secret that the Italian Mafia relocated to Vlore, a coastal town in southern Albania, after the recent Italian crackdown on organized crime. But in many places the Albanians have begun to outmaneuver their various competitors. Already in the Turin region, according to Italian authorities, the Albanians supplanted all of the other foreign criminal groups—from Nigerians to Moroccans—that had been operating in the area. The Albanians and the Italians simultaneously have a symbiotic and competitive relationship. The fares take business from the mafia, but they also provide invaluable services. Despite this bifurcated existence, the Italians fear that the fares will use the exodus of refugees as a means of staking out an even larger sphere of influence in southern Italy. A British Home Office report warns that the Albanian clans are exceptionally vicious and "make the Italian Mafia look like a whist drive."

"A British Home Office report warns that the Albanian clans are exceptionally vicious and 'make the Italian Mafia look like a whist drive.'"

The paper states that the Albanian clans are "in Kosovo and Macedonia as well as Albania proper" -- actually, they are spread beyond that, but those three places are perhaps most significant.

The fares' success illustrates the extent to which the state has slipped into ungovernability. An estimated 10 percent or more of Vlore's population is involved, either directly or indirectly, in smuggling. Individual operators can realize $13,000 from a good night's haul, whereas criminal gangs can generate $400,000. The growing number of expensive Italian and German cars in Albania are signs of a thriving smuggling industry, and a recent report by investigative journalist Frank Viviano reveals that two-thirds of the cars on the streets of Vlore and Durres are stolen. Smugglers transport their merchandise throughout Central and Eastern Europe in Italian cars, reported as stolen to defraud insurers. After one or two trips, the courier receives the car as a bonus. Stolen cars are everywhere, not only with the gangsters themselves. Europe's Geopolitical Drug Watch revealed the extent of the illegal automobile enterprise by highlighting the arrest of the president of the Albanian central bank for driving a stolen car while vacationing in Italy.

The clans continue to thrive because political deterioration in Albania has created an ideal working environment for the illicit traffic. Organized crime thrives on a weak government, a lack of antidrug legislation, poorly equipped police forces, a cash-based economy, and fragile banking regulations. Albania has all of these.

It is not just Albania that has these fine qualities. As Serbian authority was being eroded in Kosovo, Kosovo increasingly developed as a haven for smugglers and lawlessness. To be sure, the international forces moved into Kosovo, and they we were well-equipped, but the authorities who had been attempting to deal with the smuggling have seen their efforts undercut.

Communist rule isolated Albania for 47 years. With its mottled patterns of corruption and abuse, Albania is still trying to shed its Communist skin. After becoming a democracy in 1991, Albania attempted to establish a market economy as well. The economy collapsed in 1997, following the dramatic failure of a series of pyramid schemes backed by government assurances of corporate viability, and has not yet recovered. The economic plunge led to rioting and looting—a general fog of lawlessness that has not yet dissipated and seems to be getting thicker. Corruption extends to the very top, so much so that the Albanian parliament has been dubbed the "Kalashnikov parliament" because of its apparent indifference to organized crime and close ties to weapons dealers.

Albania's weak political system has not provided government offices the tools to fight the fares. Thwarted by powerful interests, parliament was slow to pass antidrug legislation, while there was a lack of political will to enforce the measures it did enact. The Albanian police are ill-prepared to stem the smuggling tide. They are poorly equipped and trained, and divisions such as the financial crime unit are staffed by people lacking the necessary qualifications. The police also do not receive strong support from the other branches of government; rarely were the arrested tried and sentenced by the courts. Corruption flourishes in a country demoralized by low wages, unenforced legislation, and leadership that was for sale. Many police officers were simply paid off not to enforce the laws.

The humanitarian aid flowing into Albania as a result of the Kosovo war has arrived in this governance vacuum. The intended recipients have not always been the beneficiaries. Much has been diverted and sold by top officials and their relatives at usurious prices. Meanwhile, as a result of the Kosovo war, the Albanian government has already spent its entire annual budget. The government is broke and broken. In contrast, the fares are pulling in money hand over fist and expanding their operations, using their human smuggling network to further tie into criminal operations.

Of course, the Albanian network exists far beyond Albania and the Balkans; criminal elements can be found within the diaspora of ethnic Albanians throughout Europe and in North America. It is worth recalling the role of Albanian gangs in the Channel ports, described above.

The consequences of organized crime's insidious penetration of the Albanian government continue to reveal themselves. As President Clinton and the G-8 nations look to the future and turn their focus on reconstruction efforts, at the top of the list should be laying the foundation for a stronger society in Albania, underpinned by the rule of law. Washington needs to move beyond the limited options of dollar diplomacy and Tomahawk missiles—the foreign policy elixir of the past six-and-a-half years. Dollars and missiles have treated the symptoms but not the source of Albania's political and economic malaise. The United States must ensure that it provides the majority of decent Albanians with the tools to better help themselves. And in doing so, it must embrace transparency and accountability in the use of humanitarian and reconstruction funds to prevent a repeat of the rampant looting occurring in Russia. The end of military action cannot be the end of interaction.

It would be tragic, if in winning back Kosovo, the West loses Albania to the mafia.



It is not just Albanian proper that may get lost -- it is "Greater Albania" that is at risk. The West has, in violation of international law and over the objections of Russia and Serbia, just handed Kosovo over to narcoterrorists-cum-government leaders in newly-independent "Kosova", and the United States government continues to push a policy that favors narcotraffickers and smuggling, as well as Islamic extremist terror. With "Kosova" independent, this "successful" policy will inevitably lead to more crises in the Balkans, and the dismemberment of more Balkan nations in favor of Albanian organized crime.

Although this two-part series has ended, we will continue our study of this matter in upcoming posts. In particular, we will examine the ties between Albanian organized crime, and the US Senator from Arizona and Republican Presidential candidate John McCain -- and, we will look at why Macedonia and perhaps Montenegro are likely the next dominoes to fall in the Balkans, should McCain (or Democrat rival Senator Hillary Clinton) be elected.

I leave you now with an image from a webpage entitled McCAIN AND THE KLA CONNECTION by Justin Raimondo, February 25, 2000:

Democrats are war criminals, too

History is Lies
Looting Kosovo

By: Carlton Meyer
Date: 04-03-2008

Readers interested in Rui Rosa's article on the Balkans may also like to read Carlton Meyer's "Looting Kosovo" first published June 29, 2007.Most Americans are quick to blame President George Bush for America's
imperial ambitions in the post-Cold War world. They assume that
electing a Democrat President will return the USA to its traditional
role as leader of the world, not ruler of the world. However,
Americans should recall that a Democrat administration under President
Clinton had already begun expanding the empire. They organized an
unprovoked attack on Serbia until it ceded control of its southern
province of Kosovo. As soon as U.S. troops arrived, they began to
build large, permanent military bases while Serbian government property
was looted. This was an effective demonstration of American power, yet
it may soon devolve into a disaster.


Follow this link: http://www.sandersresearch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1265

(c) Copyright Sanders Research Associates Limited, 2007
All rights reserved.

The United Nations Contributed to the Establishment of a Mafia-State in Kosovo By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8183

Global Research, March 1, 2008

International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia - 2000-06-10

The EU, the US, NATO and the UN Mission in Kosovo bear responsibility in the criminalization of Kosovo State institutions. The following article, written in March 2000, focusses on the formation of a Kosovar Mafia State integrated by former members of the KLA. With the February 2008 declaration of Independence, this process has reached its completion. Kosovo is not a mafia state in its own right, it is a US/EU protectorate under NATO military rule. The government of Kosovo, which has extensive links to organized crime, serves the interests of the US-NATO occupation. Michel Chossudovsky, 1 March 2008 June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia THE UNITED NATIONS APPOINTS AN ALLEGED WAR CRIMINAL IN KOSOVO By Professor Michel Chossudovsky Professor Michel Chossudovsky (Canada), an expert historian and economist who has taken part in many international forums on the Balkans, showed the criminal role of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and its ties to U.S. and German intelligence services, ties to NATO and the United Nations Rep. Bernard Kouchner. Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics, University of Ottawa, author of a forthcoming book entitled "War, Globalization and the New World Order" The United Nations in a recent [2000] report submitted to Secretary General Kofi Annan now concedes that the Kosovo Protection Force (KPC) (inaugurated under UN auspices in September 1999) has been involved in "criminal activities-killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal policing, abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political neutrality and hate speech"1. More on link ...

Jan Mainus Logt: Kosova in the EU

Ten kilometres high

Kosovo is keeping us all busy right now. I was in Slovenia for talks with some friends from the Balkan region and it was the subject on everyone's lips. This Sunday will see the unilateral declaration of independence. It seems inevitable now that all talks with Belgrade have come to nothing.

We cannot expect the Kosovans, after all that happened (Milosovic etc) to go back to Serbian rule. This is the reality that informs our social democratic debates about south east Europe with colleagues here.

But it's not east for anyone. Macedonian party leaders for example are worried about the political consequences for their country. With a large Albanian minority, that Kosovo wants to recognise, but also with traditionally good relations with Serbia.

Take the Serbians in Bosnia-Herzegovina. How should they react? The political stability of several countries depends on whether Belgrade reacts hard, politically and economically.

In the plane back, I have a wonderful view of sunlit Balkan boundary mountains . Someone suggested to me that the mountain borders replicate themselves in people's minds, a reluctance to engage with the outsie world. I think that's nonsense but it mae me think about the stubborn position of the Serbian government. That is will not accept Kosovan independence makes sense to me, but to then isolate itself from Europe is something I do not understand.

We talked a lot in Ljubljana about the EU's role and what it should be. The EU has the difficult job of maintaining stability in the region. It can best do this by supporting these countries in their bids for EU accession. And this goes for Serbia. And there must be investment in Kosovo. The EU operation there has to get going.

The unilateral declaration of independence is unavoidable but I don't agree with it. Noboby ever wins from such processes. The EU won't recognise Kosovo. Its member states also. And the European Parliament the same. We should concentrate on what is now the EU's biggest ever foreign policy engagement and do it well.

Add a comment

Posted by Jan

Opening a Pandora's Box: Kosovo "Independence" and the Project for a "New Middle East"

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Globalresearch
February 20, 2008

Western public opinion has been misled. Unfolding events and realities on the ground in the former Yugoslavia have been carefully manipulated.

Germany and the U.S. have deep-seated geo-strategic interests in dividing Yugoslavia. Washington, D.C. and Berlin have also been the first governments to recognize the secessionist states, which resulted from the breakup of the Yugoslav federation.

The Broader Implications of Kosovo "Independence"

The February 2008 declaration of independence of Kosovo is a means towards legitimizing the dissolution and breaking up of sovereign states on a global scale.

Eurasia is the main target. Kosovar "independence" is part of a neo-colonial program with underlying economic and geo-political interests. The objective is to instate a New World Order and establish hegemonic control over the global economy.

In this sense Kosovo provides a blueprint and a "dress-rehearsal" which can now be applied to restructuring the economies and borders of the Middle East, under the Project for a "New Middle East."

The restructuring model that is being applied in the former Yugoslavia is precisely what is intended for the Middle East — a process of balkanization and economic control.

Kosovo’s Pseudo-Declaration of Independence

On February 17, 2008, the secessionist province of Kosovo declared unilateral independence from the Republic of Serbia. The occasion was declared through an extraordinary gathering of the Kosovar Parliament and its executive bodies. Belgrade has not had any control over Kosovo since 1999, when NATO went to war with Serbia to impose control over Kosovo under humanitarian arguments.

President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, and the Speaker of Parliament Jakup Krasniqi all marked the occasion with speeches inside and outside of the Kosovar Parliament.

Many in Kosovo’s ethic Albanian majority celebrated what they believed was a shift towards self-determination. The truth of the matter is that the Kosovar declaration of independence was a declaration of dependency and the surrounder of Kosovo to colonial forces.

Without any remorse Kosovar leaders have transformed their land into a colonial outpost of Franco-German and Anglo-American interests. February 17, 2008 also marked the day that Kosovo further entrenched itself as a NATO-E.U. protectorate. Under the so-called independence" roadmap, NATO and E.U. troops and police officers will formally administer Kosovo.

In reality, Kosovo would have had greater independence as an autonomous province in an agreement of autonomy with Serbia, which had been envisaged in bilateral talks between Belgrade and Pristina. The majority of Kosovars would have been satisfied under such an agreement.

However, the talks were never meant to succeed for two obvious reasons:

1) the leadership of Kosovo are agents of foreign interests that do not represent the Kosovar populaiton;

2) the U.S. and E.U. were determined to establish another protectorate in the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo: Another phase in the Economic Colonization of the former Yugoslavia

One of the leading global academic figures who has thoroughly documented the foreign-induced disintegration of Yugoslavia and the situation in Kosovo is Michel Chossudovsky. He has documented the economic and geo-strategic motives that have acted as the fingers pulling the strings that have caused the collapse of Yugoslavia and the drive for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. His work unmasks the truth behind the downfall of Yugoslavia and the tactics being used to divide nations and peoples who have lived together in peace for hundreds of years.

A glance at the restructuring of Bosnia-Herzegovina must be made before further discussing the case of Kosovo.

Bosnia’s constitution was written at a U.S. Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio by U.S. and European "experts."

Chossoduvsky appropriately labels Bosnia-Herzegovina as a neo-colonial entity. NATO troops have dominated Bosnia-Herzegovina, closely followed by the imposition of a new political and economic framework and model.

Chossudovsky’s work also reveals that the real head of the Bosnian government, the High Representative, and the head of the Bosnian Central Bank are both foreigners that are hand-picked by the European Union, the U.S., and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). [1] This is a clear re-enactment of a colonial administration.

This model has also been replicated with some variations in several of the former republics of the Yugoslav federation. The major obstacle to the full implementation of this agenda is the popular will of the local people in the former Yugoslavia, especially the Serbs.

Serbia, like an island of resistance, is the last bastion of independence left in the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans, but even in Serbia a modus vivendi exists where the local people have made a one-sided accommodation with the foreign economic agenda to allow their way of life to go on for a little longer. However, this accommodation is not meant to last.

The same Political and Socio-Economic Model is being applied in the Balkans and the Middle East
The process in Iraq is no different than the model applied in the former Yugoslavia. Divisions are fueled by foreign catalysts, the economy is destabilized, national dissolution is induced, and a new politico-socio-economic order is established.

Foreign interference and military intervention have also been justified on bogus humanitarian grounds. It is no coincidence that a "High Representative" was appointed by the American-led coaltion to govern occupied Iraq, thereby replicating the Bosnia-Herzegovina model, which is characterised by a E.U. appointed "High Representative." The pattern should start becoming startlingly familiar!

The parallels between Iraq and the former Yugoslavia are endless.

In the wake of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, the U.S. and Britain established the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), which evolved into the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The head of the Coalition Provisional Authority was also called "Special Representative," "Governor," "Special Envoy," and "Consul."

The justifications for setting up the occupying administration in Iraq, similarly to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where originally humanitarian and national stabilization. However, the main objectives of the Coalition Provisional Authority were to decentralize the state and implement a mass privatization program of Iraqi resources and wealth.

It is no coincidence that Bosnia-Herzegovina was divided alongside ethnic and religious lines: Serb, Croat, and Bosniak; Christians and Muslims. To these various ethnic-religious divisions further sectarian divisions were also added amongst the Christians: Eastern Orthodoxy versus Roman Catholicism.

A similar strategy of "divide and rule" was applied in Iraq. In Iraq the same pattern is being replicated alongside ethnic and sectarian lines: Arabs, Kurds, Turcoman, Assyrian, and others; Shiites versus Sunnis. Just like in the former Yugoslavia the centralized economic system of Iraq was also shattered by the occupying administration. Under the Anglo-American occupation and its Coalition Provisional Authority foreign corporations entered Iraq in a second wave of foreign invasion, an economic takeover.

This neo-colonial project is based on two inderdependent building blocks: a military stage executed by NATO and a process of political, social, and economic restructuring executed by the U.S. and E.U. with the help of corrupt local leaders in the occupied countries. The shock and awe of war opens the door for destabilization followed by "nation building" or the restructuring process, which even attacks the cultural and social roots of the target nation-state. The important cultural and historic aspects unifying the occupied nation-states have also been systematically attacked and errased.

The Economic Colonization of Kosovo

The economic affairs of Kosovo are to be exclusively under the hands of the E.U. in partnership with the United States. The euro was already being used in Kosovo, despite of the protests of Belgrade, as the official currency for a number of years before 2008. The utilization of the euro was part of the process of untying the Kosovar economy from the rest of the Serbian economy and a means of establishing control over the sovereignty of Kosovo via monetary and financial means.

The Kosovar flag has been designed to match both the flags of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the European Union. The Bosnian flag was also designed to match the flag of the European Union. To many these in the Balkans these flags are symbols of vassaldom and the protectorate status of these territories.

This unraveling process involving military means has been the modus operandi throughout the former Yugoslavia. The key players behind this process are the usual players; the U.S., Germany, Britain, and France, which have been sharing the spoils of war and economic colonization in the former Yugoslavia. NATO and the E.U. have been the agents of this process on behalf of all four Western powers.

An Illegal Precedent: Paving the Way for the Dismantlement of other Nation-States

In the realm of international law, a Pandora’s Box has been opened. A new form of interventionism which threatens nation-states has emerged. Worldwide, nations have been divided into two camps in regards to Kosovo: those that recognize it at the expense of international law and those that do not recognize Kosovar independence.

There are profound implications in regards to the events in Yugoslavia. The law of the jungle and the concept that "might is right" have been unveiled as the true ideals of E.U. and American foreign policy. From Somalia, Sudan, and Iraq to the Russian Federation and Central Asia, a dangerous precedent has been established. The latter is intent upon fracturing and dividing.

The E.U. and NATO have also threatened Belgrade and the Serbian people with military action if they try and keep Kosovo. NATO had prepared for Kosovar independence through the holding of war games in late-2007. As Germany has admitted, negotiations for a solution were never taken seriously by Western powers from the start. NATO’s military preparations for the secession of Kosovo suggests that the negotiations were a diplomatic game, which was never intended to succeed.

The global ramifications of E.U.-U.S. interventionism and open disregard for fundamental international laws are significant. Nations combating secessionist movements worldwide have voiced disapproval of the Kosovar declaration of independence, while expressing apprehension in regards to the enthusiastic support shown by American, German, British, and French officials.

China has voiced disapproval out of fears that Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) may declare independence under the precedent set by Kosovo. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Spain, Georgia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Russia have all voiced opposition because of their own secessionist movements such as the Tamil Tigers and the Basque separatist group ETA.

Ramifications of the Kosovo Precedent in the Caucasus and the Former Soviet Space

While fully acknowledging the fact that the Kosovo precedent is internationally illegal, Moscow has nonetheless used the Kosovo precedent against Georgia. Moscow’s objective is to strengthen its control in the geo-strategically important Caucasus region. Georgia has opposed the push by Kosovar Albanians for independence because of secessionist movements in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Adjara. While Adjaran separatism has declined, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have standing armies with close ties to Moscow and are virtually independent.

Russia is arguing that if the U.S. and E.U. recognize the independence of Kosovo, then the independence of Abkhazia and South Oesstia must also be recognized based on the same principle.

The Kosovar declaration of independence also has ramifications for Trans-Dniester (also known as Transnistria or Transdniestria), a tiny breakaway Russian-majority portion of Moldava bordering Ukraine.

The effects of Kosovar independence have also been watched carefully by the leaders of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, because of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. In the cases of Trans-Dniester, Nagorno-Krabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, all four breakaway republics believe they have far stronger cases for lobbying for official recognition by the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.), Russia, and the United Nations.

Preparing a Dangerous Precedent for the Middle East and Beyond

The ghosts of Versailles and earlier schemes that the model in Yugoslavia and the Middle East is replicating still hunt humanity. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s seemingly good intentioned declaration of creating an arc of "national self-determination" stretching from the Baltic Sea and the Balkans to the Middle East after the First World War is coming into fruition.

Since the First World War, the larger and more powerful states of Eastern Europe and the Middle East have progressively been carved up into smaller and weaker states. This process was part of a colonial project to control the Eurasian Heartland that still survives. [2]

The board is being set for the recognition of new states in a redrawn Middle East in total disregard for international law. The Kosovar declaration of independence from Serbia is part of the broader post-Cold War balkanization and dismantlement of Yugoslavia. The legitimization of Kosovar independence through international recognition serves to extend Anglo-American and Franco-German influence across Eurasia and the globe. This model is tied in a straight line with the forthcoming plans in the Middle East to breakup countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Iran in fragmented and easy to control protectorates managed by the E.U., the U.S., and Israel.

Russia and China also are aware of the real danger of plans to divide their territories as has been advocated for years by Anglo-American policy makes in Washington, D.C. and London going back to before the First World War. Iran is also aware of a Kosovo-like scenario planned for its predominately Arab regions in Khuzestan. The declaration of independence was also closely watched by the Kurdish Regional Government of Northern Iraq.

The synchronization of other global events with Kosovo Independence: Coincidence?

The "Arc of Instability" is yet again being exasperated and agitated. In Pakistan threats of civil war and balkanization loom large. In the Levant one of Hezbollah’s top officials, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in Syria by a car bomb similarly to those killing Lebanese politicians.

Most probably Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated by the Mossad, the intelligence agency of Israel. American, Jordanian, Saudi, French, British, and German intelligence were almost all likely to be involved. It is an open secret that all these intelligence agencies have been collaborating together in Lebanon against Hezbollah and have been behind attempts to assassinate Hezbollah leaders. The timing of the assassination is extremely suspicious.

Mughniyeh’s assassination also came just before the anniversary of the Hariri Assassination and could have been meant to further galvanize political tensions in Lebanon and create a sectarian divide amongst the Muslims of Lebanon. Israel has denied being behind the assassination, but it is now talking about a new war with Lebanon that it conveniently plans to blame Hezbollah for starting with the help of Syria and Iran.

The rupture of multiple conflicts and crises can be a means to also encircle and envelope the westernmost periphery of Russia within an arc of conflict or in other words there may be a deliberate attempt to supersaturate the "Arc of Instability" to paralyze Russia and other opposing players.

A Prepackaged Solution: Supranationalism?

The leadership in Serbia is playing a balancing act between its people and foreign interests. The Serbian people are against the foreign agenda in their region, but the leadership in Serbia is the spawn of a Western-funded and supported Velvet Revolution that occurred in 2000 and ousted Slobodan Milosevic. A large portion of Belgrade’s leadership supports the foreign agenda and has been co-opted into the neo-liberal restructuring project for the Balkans. The fact that the U.S. and the E.U. became major paymasters for Serbia after the Kosovo War is a mere testimony to this.

Surpanationalism or entry into the E.U. or a larger supranational entity for both Serbia and Kosovo is most probably going to be presented as the solution for Kosovar independence. Similarly such a solution may also be presented for a balkanized Middle East through such projects as the Mediterranean Union. Supranationalism is also being pressed as an answer to the unification of Cyprus under the Mediterranean Union.

Returning to Serbia and Kosovo, many of the leaders of Serbia are opposing Kosovar secession, but this is merely a façade that is meant to occupy the minds of the Serbian general public. These same leaders are taking a soft stance on the issue and also moving towards integration into the European Union. To them supranationalism is a solution.
On the Eve of the New World Order: Welcome to the Rule of the Jungle

While the E.U. pushes for a bridge to end national and ethnic divisions amongst its own members it does the opposite in the cases of Kosovo and other regions. Is not the American Civil War marked with honour, because the Union States fought a war to keep the Confederate States within the "American Union" by force?

Whatever the case, the hypocrisy of the E.U. and the U.S. in international relations is exposed by the recognition of Kosovar independence. Firstly, it is a breach of international law, but also it is insincere and for self-serving motives and not because of genuine principles or concerns for the people of Kosovo.

In addition, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has a far more legitimate case of being recognized in addition to its own functioning institutions and maturity. Although there is a secure and stable means to peacefully address the desires of the Basque and the Catalans in the Pyrenees and the Flemish in the Flanders region of Belgium, these separatist movements are also ignored.

The Armenian majority in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence on December 10, 1991. Yet, the self-proclaimed and functioning breakaway republic enjoys no backing from either the U.S. or the E.U. unlike Kosovo. What sets Northern Cyprus, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Trans-Dniester apart from Kosovo? The answer is: Anglo-American and Franco-German interests represented through the E.U. and NATO are the forces behind self-serving "exceptionalism" — the same force that permitted the Nazis to believe that they could colonize Eastern Europe and the Eurasian Heartland without guilt.

American and European Union leaders have argued that the Serbs are no longer morally capable of managing the affairs of Kosovo. What gives the governments of the U.S., Germany, France, and Britain any moral capability after years of blood baths and a deficit in credibility? If these claims where based on any principle then what about the case of the Palestinians? Does Israel have any moral capability to occupy the Palestinians? Yet, the occupation continues. Ironically it is not Serbian troops who occupy Kosovo, but NATO troops and tanks.

NOTES

[1] Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, (Montreal, Global Research, 2003), pp.257-277.

[2] Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, The "Great Game:" Eurasia and History of War, Global Research, December 3, 2007.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is an independent writer based in Ottawa specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

:: Article nr. 41322 sent on 20-feb-2008 18:15 ECT

www.uruknet.info?p=41322

Link: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8132

E.U. Police and Military Intervention to enforce Secession from Serbia

Remember who I focussed on this yesterday??

People HATE what the Clintons and Gore did there - and they are NOT going to forget. The Belgrade US embassey was beseiged yesterday ,, I have posted a video of the rioting and you can hear the cannons going off on it. VERY VERY Frightening stuff.

HE does't mention that the reason people are upset is that NO ONE TAKES ANY BLOODY BLAME for the genocide which is fundamental to understanding what is going on there.

The memory of WAR CRIMES lasts for centuries.

Veeger



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Globalresearch.ca <crgeditor@yahoo.com>
Date: Feb 18, 2008 4:27 PM
Subject: CRG Newsletter - E.U. Police and Military Intervention to enforce Secession from Serbia

E.U. Police and Military Intervention to enforce Secession from Serbia By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8100

Global Research, February 16, 2008

The Kosovo Parliament endorsed the Independence of Kosovo in a special session on Sunday the 17th of February. The European Union is sending in a police and military intervention force into Kosovo in derogation of Serbia's sovereignty and in violation of of international law. This mission has all the features of an illegal occupation force by a foreign power, with a view to enforcing secession and installing an "Independent" Kosovo which will essentially function as an EU-US protectorate under military rule. The European Union approved on Saturday the deployment of a 1,800-member "policing and administration mission" to Kosovo. Out of the 1500 police, some 700 SWAT experts ":trained in crowd and riot" control will be dispatched to Kosovo. The mission is to be carried out under the European security and defense policy (ESDP). It will assist the Kosovar government, which is largely integrated by former KLA war criminals. It will provide support to the police and judicial authorities "in their progress towards sustainability and accountability". The EU police mission is slated to take over several functions currently under the mandate of the UN Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK) including police, justice and border police. "Once it reaches full operational capability the mission will have around 1900 police officers, judges, prosecutors and customs officials and approximately 1100 local staff and will be based in headquarters in Pristina. The EU-LEX mission will be under the authority of a retired French general Yves de Kermabon. Morevoer, Brussels has appointed an EU Special Representative (EUSR) for Kosovo to be headed by Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith. Fait accompli From one day to the next, the EU takes over the functions of a UN "peace-keeping mission", in derogation of United Nations procedures. It would appear that the Secretary General of the UN has been consulted on the matter and has given the green light. No formal decision has been taken by the UN to hand over its authority to a military-civilian EU "peacekeeping" adminstration. The communiqué states that EU-LEX will assist Kosovo in "further developing and strengthening an independent multiethnic justice system and multiethnic police and customs service ... free from political interference." The "customs service" pertains to the enforcement of a militarized border between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, with a view to preventing Serbia from exercising its sovereignty over the province of Kosovo. "In a legal text published Saturday, the EU said the mission, EU-LEX, will "assist the Kosovo institutions, judicial authorities and law enforcement agencies in their progress toward sustainability and accountability." EU support for Kosovo "Independence" was announced in advance of a EU Foreign Ministers meeting slated for February 18th. It is slated to be ratified by an emergency session of the Kosovo parliament. British Troops to the Balkans In addition to the EU-LEX mission, more than 1000 British troops have been sent to Kosovo to join the 15,000 strong NATO garrison in occupied Kosovo. According to the Daily Telegraph: "The imminent departure of the 1st Bn Welsh Guards to Kosovo has been ordered in response to fears that the newly formed independent state could slide into "ethnic cleansing". But last night MPs and former military chiefs described the move as "irresponsible" and "demented", accusing the [British] Ministry of Defence of being "bankrupt".(16 February 2008) The US will be sending 1000 "non-EU experts" which will also include a new influx of private security and military contractors. The NATO garrison of more than 15,000 troops in Kosovo together with private mercenaries under contract to NATO and the UN, are on hand to enforce the installation of an independent Kosovar government, which is known to have extensive links to organized crime. The main task of this military-police contingent will be to secure the borders of the newly "independent State". The Russian Foreign Ministry "said on Friday that only the UN Security Council can make a relevant decision to change the format of the international mission in Kosovo." "We are convinced that Security Council resolution 1244 is valid. And we draw the attention of our EU partners, who have said a great deal lately about their desire and decision to send an additional mission to the territory, that a change in the international makeup in Kosovo is possible only on the basis of a relevant decision by the Security Council," Mikhail Kamynin, a spokesman for the Russian ministry, said. (Rian Novosti, 16 Fe Kosovo "independence" as well as the sending of EU police and military to the Serbian province constitutes a violation of international law.

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Today in Belgrade

Photo by Balkan Insight

17 February 2008 Belgrade _ Hundreds of protesters clashed with Serbian police on Sunday evening, hours after Kosovo’s leaders unilaterally declared the province’s independence from Serbia.

At least 12 protesters, mainly fans of local soccer clubs and skinheads, were injured and arrested in several skirmishes in the Serbian capital.

The crowd damaged the Slovenian embassy, a McDonald’s restaurant and about a dozen shop windows.

“We hate the West, we hate Western values and civilization,”

said a club-wielding protestor who identified himself as Nikola.

They chanted «Kosovo is Serbia» and slogans against Kosovo Albanians, Serbian President Boris Tadic and pro-Western opposition leaders, but also against conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Masked thugs chanted the name of the Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, accused of genocide in the Bosnian 1992-95 war, who is still at large.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a skirmish at the downtown Terazije square, forcing the crowd to disperse, leaving overturned garbage containers, broken glass, stone fragments and other debris behind.

Eyewitnesses said that protesters stoned the Belgrade headquarters of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, the only Serbian political party that has supported the possibility of Kosovo’s independence, and a nearby café.

B92 television reported that at 9 pm several groups were still in the streets, regrouping and returning to places from which police had earlier chased them away. The station reported that at least 11 policemen had been injured in clashes.

The protesters also smashed windows at the embassies of France and Brazil, according to local media and eyewitnesses, where later re-reinforced police protected and restore order.

«Then police started fighting back at demonstrators,» said a journalist from a Belgrade daily «Alo» who himself got beaten by police but was not seriously hurt.

He said that protesters were smashing everything they came across before police stepped in

Although officials have publicly called for calm, B92 also reported that journalists had seen officials of Democratic Party of Serbia, the party of Vojislav Kostunica, the current prime minister, among protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad.

Also spotted, according to the report, were representatives from the Socialist Party of Serbia, the party previously led by Slobodan Milosevic, the late wartime president.

Protesters in Novi Sad threw stones at two bakeries and a local McDonald’s restaurant.

A strong police presence was expected to remain in place in downtown Belgrade through Sunday night, guarding government buildings and embassies

Earlier in the evening, protesters had blocked the United States embassy in downtown Belgrade, pelting the embassy building and police with stones and signal torches. At least one policeman was carried away in an ambulance.

Serbian police in full riot gear had cordoned off the embassy and managed to push protestors away from the embassy.

“We want to show we hate Yanks and Shiptars,” said a young protester who identified himself only as Dejan. “Shiptar” is a derogatory Serbian term for Kosovo Albanians.

The protest was staged despite repeated warnings from top officials, including Serbia’s president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker, who urged people to remain calm while promising that they would employ peaceful means to annul Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

“Serbia will not turn to violence. This is the only approach that will allow us to fulfill our legitimate goal aimed at preserving integrity of the country,” Boris Tadic, the president, said in a statement .

In an emotional address to the nation, Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister, said that the United States had “humiliated and forced Europe Union to discard its basic principles.”

“Europe bowed before America and it will be held responsible for all the consequences that will arise from Kosovo’s independence,” Kostunica said.

Meanwhile, Tadic’s office announced he would travel to New York to take part in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, called by Russia.

Serbia and Russia staunchly oppose Kosovo’s independence, which has been backed by the US and most EU member states.

Also see:

Here are some other links: Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1 ... , And an other Video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ebb_1203277087 .
That's what happens when some people don't like reality. If you slaughter people, you just can't assume that they'll like you after all... Especially not if you're not sorry at all.

• Protesters Stage Anti-US Rally in Belgrade
• Security in Serbia’s South Stable
• Albania Hails Kosovo Independence
• Bosnia Remains Calm but Tense over Kosovo Independence
• Mixed Reactions in Romania to Kosovo Independence
• Protesters in Belgrade Block US Embassy
• Montenegro: Mixed Emotions on Kosovo
• Macedonia’s Albanians Celebrate Kosovo Independence
• Albania: US, EU states first to recognize Kosovo
• Kosovo's Obelisque of Independence

SIBELGATE: Kosovo: The US and the EU support a Political Process linked to Organized Crime

Canada! Wake UP!!

By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8055

Global Research, February 12, 2008

Our orientations are clear. The building of the state of Kosova, economic development, economic and social well-being and rigorous measures against corruption, organized crime and negative behavior, so we can have improved security and integrate Kosova into European Union structures. (Hashim Thaci, chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Prime Minister of the Kosovo provisional government, former KLA leader and known criminal) The PDK, led by Hashim Thaci, former Kosovan Liberation Army commander, took control of many municipalities after the war. The party has close links with organized crime in the province. (The Observer, 29 October 2000) Mr. Thaci, nicknamed "the Snake" during his KLA days, is a sharp-suited 32-year-old former rebel commander with poor oratory skills, links to organized crime and a determination to preserve relations between his party and the United States (The Scotsman, 20 October 2000) I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists," US Special Envoy and Ambassador Robert Gelbard Hashim Thaci founded the "Drenica-Group" an underground organization that is estimated to have controlled between 10% and 15% of all criminal activities in Kosovo (smuggling arms, stolen cars, oil, cigarettes and prostitution). Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia The US, the EU and the UN are supporting a Kosovo government headed by a known criminal, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. The position of Prime Minister was created by so-called Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) established by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Under UN mandate, the purpose of the provisional government is to provide 'provisional, democratic self-government' in advance of a decision on the political status of Kosovo. What this signifies is that the United Nations has not only set the stage for an "Independent" Kosovo government in violation of international law, it has installed a Kosovo government integrated by the members of a criminal syndicate. All three Kosovo Prime Ministers, Ramush Haradinaj, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci are war criminals. Hashim Thaci and EU Secretary-General Javier Solana The Kosovo Democratic Party headed by former KLA Commander Hashim Thaci is essentially an outgrowth of the former Kosovo Liberation Army. US-NATO covert support the KLA, goes back to the mid-1990s. Iin the year preceding the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, the KLA was quite openly supported by the Clinton administration. KLA leader Hashim Thaci was a protégé of Madeleine Albright. He was chosen by Albright to play a key role on Washington's behalf at the 1998 Rambouillet negotiations. . Madeleine and Hashim The links of the KLA to organized crime have been documented by Interpol and the US Congress. The Washington Times in an article published in May 1999 describes the KLA and its links to the Clinton administration as follows: Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army [headed by the current Kosovo Prime minister Hashim Thaci] , which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans. The KLA members, embraced by the Clinton administration in NATO's 41-day bombing campaign to bring Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the bargaining table, were trained in secret camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, according to newly obtained intelligence reports. The reports also show that the KLA has enlisted Islamic terrorists -- members of the Mujahideen --as soldiers in its ongoing conflict against Serbia, and that many already have been smuggled into Kosovo to join the fight. .... The intelligence reports document what is described as a "link" between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire, and the KLA --including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports said bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, has both trained and financially supported the KLA. (Washington Times, May 4, 1999, see complete article below) The Christian Science Monitor in an August 14, 2000 report describes the criminal network controlled by Thaci: UN police suspect that much of the violence and intimidation has come from former KLA members, especially those allied with Hashim Thaci, the former KLA leader and head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, one of the KLA's political offshoots. In one recent incident, the shop of an LDK activist in Mr. Thaci's home village was sprayed with automatic gunfire - the second such attack since November. Thaci's party potentially has much to lose in the elections, which are for municipal offices only. After Serb forces withdrew last year, the KLA occupied town halls and public institutions across Kosovo and set up its own provincial government. Although the UN has gradually asserted its own authority and placed representatives of other political groups in local governments, in places like Srbica ex-KLA members affiliated with Thaci's party still exercise virtual complete control. "These guys are not going to give up power that easily," says Dardan Gashi, a political analyst with the International Crisis Group, a US-based research organization with an office in Pristina. UN police also suspect organized crime is involved in some of the violence. They say that criminal groups engaged in racketeering, smuggling, and prostitution rely on close links to some people in power. The prospect of losing these connections - and the income they generate - may make them ill-disposed toward the LDK. Officials say the problem is the worst in the Drenica region of Kosovo, the KLA's heartland and a stronghold of Thaci's party. Srbica, where Koci is the local LDK president, is one of the main towns in Drenica. (emphasis added) The Heritage Foundation: Support the KLA-KDP, despite its Criminal Connections The Heritage Foundation in a May 1999 report acknowledges that the KLA is a criminal organization. It nonetheless called for the support of the KLA should by the Clinton administration: Should the U.S. harness the KLA's military potential against Milosevic's brutal regime, despite the KLA's unusual ideological roots and apparent ties to organized crime? ... The KLA does not represent every group seeking an end to Milosevic's brutal campaign and is known to have committed some atrocities of its own, it is the most significant force resisting Yugoslav aggression within Kosovo. Moreover, the scale and scope of its crimes have been dwarfed by the systematic campaign of terror unleashed by Yugoslav military, paramilitary, and police forces inside Kosovo. which Washington has done consistently since the 1999 war. (Heritage Foundation Report, 13 May 1999) Shunning the KLA now will deprive the United States of the benefits of cooperating with a resistance force that is capable of ratcheting up the pressure on Milosevic to negotiate a settlement (Ibid) The Heritage Foundation supports the Kosovo Democratic Party (KDP) which is integrated by former members of the KLA. The KDP has retained its links to organised crime. This position broadly summarizes the attitude of the "international community" in relation to Kosovo. More recently, the Heritage Foundation, which plays a behind the scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy, has been pushing for Kosovo "Independence" Hashim Thaci Hashim Thaci with another war criminal: Tony Blair The evidence amply confirms that the prime minister of Kosovo never severed his links to organized crime. A known criminal is being protected by the United Nations: He was arrested in Budapest in July 2003 on an Interpol warrant and was immediately released, following a request from the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). This is not an isolated event. There is evidence that the UN Mission and its international police force have protected the former KLA, which in the wake of the 1999 NATO bombing was relabeled the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) under a formal UN mandate. According to Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic, "the prosecution at the Hague war crimes tribunal has over 40,000 pages of evidence against former Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci, (quoted by Radio B92, Belgrade, 3 July 2003). In April 2000, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "ordered The Hague chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte to omit from the list of war crime suspects Hashim Thaci" (Tanjug, 6 May 2000). Carla del Ponte subsequently claimed that there was not enough evidence to indict Thaci on war crimes. . More generally, the UN Mission has acted as an accessory in protecting a criminal syndicate. In November 2003, criminal proceedings against several former KLA commanders were initiated in Belgrade. These included Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku and Ramush Haradinaj. .Both Haradinaj and Ceku's names are on Interpol lists. Agim Ceku Agim Ceku is known for having committed extensive war crimes in the Krajina region of Croatia in the mid-1990s involving the massacre and ethnic cleansing of the Serb population. He was a former brigadier general in the Croatian Army and a key planner of Operation Storm, which led to the expulsion of several hundred thousand Serbs from Krajina region of Croatia. In 1999, he was appointed Commander of the KLA, with the approval of the US and NATO. He was subsequently appointed Commander of the UN sponsored Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) (on a UN payroll) and became Prime Minister of Kosovo in 2006, succeeded by Hashim Thaci, the current Prime Minister In Kosovo, he has continues to have links to organized crime syndicates. According to a London Observer, the KPC which was headed by Ceku, was involved in acts of torture as well protecting prostitution in Kosovo. (March 14, 2000 , Atlanta Journal-Constitution) From Left to right: Hashim Thaci, Bernard Jouchner, General Michael Jackson, Agim Ceku, General Wesley Clarke Condoleeza Rice meets Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku (left) The Western Media: Disinformation concerning the Nature of the Kosovo government The Kosovo government is tied into organized criminal syndicates involved in narcotics and human trafficking. The fact that all three Kosovo Prime Ministers, Ramush Haradinaj, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci are war criminals has not been acknowledged in recent press reports regarding the Independence of Kosovo. The EU and the US are supporting the criminalization of Kosovo politics. We bring to our readers attention two articles published in the Washington Times. The first article was published in May 1999 describes the KLA as a criminal organization. The second article published in February 2008 highlights the role of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, a "former criminal" in the process of Kosovo independence. KLA rebels train in terrorist camps By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES May 4, 1999 Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army [headed by the current Kosovo Prime minister Hashim Thaci] , which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans. The KLA members, embraced by the Clinton administration in NATO's 41-day bombing campaign to bring Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the bargaining table, were trained in secret camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, according to newly obtained intelligence reports. The reports also show that the KLA has enlisted Islamic terrorists -- members of the Mujahideen --as soldiers in its ongoing conflict against Serbia, and that many already have been smuggled into Kosovo to join the fight. Known to its countrymen as the Ushtria Clirimatare e Kosoves, the KLA has as many as 30,000 members, a number reportedly on the rise as a result of NATO's continuing bombing campaign. The group's leadership, including Agim Ceku, a former Croatian army brigadier general, has rapidly become a political and military force in the Balkans. The intelligence reports document what is described as a "link" between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi millionaire, and the KLA --including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports said bin Laden's organization, known as al-Qaeda, has both trained and financially supported the KLA. Many border crossings into Kosovo by "foreign fighters" also have been documented and include veterans of the militant group Islamic Jihad from Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. Many of the crossings originated in neighboring Albania and, according to the reports, included parties of up to 50 men. Jane's International Defense Review, a highly respected British Journal, reported in February that documents found last year on the body of a KLA member showed that he had escorted several volunteers into Kosovo, including more than a dozen Saudi Arabians. Each volunteer carried a passport identifying him as a Macedonian Albanian. Bin Laden and his military commander, Mohammed Atef, were named in a federal indictment handed up in November in New York for the simultaneous explosions Aug. 7 at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The indictment accused the two men of directing the attacks, which injured more than 5,000 people. The indictment said bin Laden, working through al-Qaeda, forged alliances with government officials in Iran, the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and an Iranian terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. He was indicted earlier this year by a federal grand jury in New York for his suspected terrorist activities. The al-Qaeda is believed to have targeted U.S. embassies and American soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. The organization also is accused of housing and training terrorists, and of raising money to support their causes. The State Department, along with other federal agencies, offered a $5 million reward last year for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the two men. Mr. Clinton ordered a retaliatory attack on training bases controlled by bin Laden in Afghanistan and a chemical factory near Khartoum, Sudan, after the bombings. Last year, while State Department officials labeled the KLA a terrorist organization, saying it bankrolled its operations with proceeds from the heroin trade and from loans from known terrorists like bin Laden, the department listed the group as an "insurgency" organization in its official reports. The officials charged that the KLA used terrorist tactics to assault Serbian and ethnic Albanian civilians in a campaign to achieve independence. The KLA's involvement in drug smuggling as a means of raising funds for weapons is long-standing. Intelligence documents show it has aligned itself with an extensive organized crime network in Albania that smuggles heroin to buyers throughout Western Europe and the United States. Drug agents in five countries believe the cartel is one of the most powerful heroin smuggling organizations in the world. The documents show heroin and some cocaine is moved over land and sea from Turkey through Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia to Western Europe and elsewhere. The circuit has become known as the "Balkan Route." The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent report that drug smuggling organizations composed of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were considered "second only to Turkish gangs as the predominant heroin smugglers along the Balkan Route." Greek Interpol representatives have called Kosovo's ethnic Albanians "the primary sources of supply for cocaine and heroin in that country." France's Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs said the KLA was a key player in the rapidly expanding drugs-for-arms business and helped transport $2 billion in drugs a year into Western Europe. German drug agents said $1.5 billion in drug profits is laundered annually by Kosovo smugglers, through as many as 200 private banks or currency-exchange offices. Jane's Intelligence Review estimated in March that drug sales could have netted the KLA profits in the "high tens of millions of dollars." It said the KLA had rearmed itself for a spring offensive with the aid of drug money, along with donations from Albanians in Western Europe and the United States. The KLA were identified as a terrorist organization by US special envoy Robert Gelbard. Published in Washington, D.C. 5am -- May 4, 1999 www.washtimes.com Kosovo independence seen likely for Feb. 17 By Dusan Stojanovic February 9, 2008 THE WASHINGTON TIMES Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, said yesterday that his government has received information indicating the Kosovo province's Albanian leadership will "illegally" declare independence soon. BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Serbian minister for Kosovo said yesterday that his government has learned the province's ethnic Albanian leadership will declare independence on Feb. 17. Western diplomats said they expected the move a day later. Slobodan Samardzic said Serbia's government has received "relevant information" that Kosovo's government will "illegally declare unilateral independence of Kosovo on Sunday, Feb. 17." He did not specify the source of information and Belgrade remains fiercely opposed to the loss of the province. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will declare independence from Serbia "in a matter of days," but never specified the exact date. Serbia regards the province as the cradle of its statehood, and expressions of nationalist anger have increased as the independence declaration approached. Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci [former leader of the KLA] would not comment on the Feb. 17 date, but insisted Kosovo's split from Serbia was "a done deal." "I can only confirm today that we have the confirmation from some 100 states which say they are ready to recognize Kosovo's independence," Mr. Thaci said in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. In Munich, Serbian President Boris Tadic, considered a relatively pro-Western moderate, told a major security conference there would be no winners if Kosovo's leaders pressed ahead without a negotiated deal. "If such negotiations don't occur, I fear all three parties will end up paying an extremely high price," Mr. Tadic said, referring to Kosovo's Albanians, Serbia and the international community. "That is something none of us can afford." Bishop Artemije, spiritual leader of Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox minority, said his community would not recognize any independence declaration from Pristina and would remain loyal to Belgrade. "Independence is not the only option," he said in an interview with The Washington Times on a U.S. visit this week. "The West tells us to compromise, but the only choice we are given is capitulation." State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday the Bush administration wants to see the final status of Kosovo "resolved and resolved in the not-too-distant future." But he said he could not discuss the "intentions of the leadership either in Serbia or in Kosovo." Serbia's main ally, Russia, opposes Kosovo's independence, asserting it would set a precedent worldwide. Other EU states, including Romania and Cyprus, also have deep reservations, fearing it would spark new ethnic violence in the Balkans and encourage other separatist movements. But the U.S. and a clear majority of EU nations are expected to back Kosovo's statehood, saying the U.N.-run southern province, where 2 million Albanians represent an overwhelming majority, is a special case that deserves to be independent from Belgrade. As nationalist tensions rose sharply, an explosion shook a shopping mall yesterday in Serbia. No one was injured and the explosion caused only minor damage. Mr. Samardzic's statement was issued after a meeting with a senior European Union official, Stefan Lehne, who was in Belgrade to clarify the bloc's plans to send an EU policing and administrative mission to Kosovo. Serbia has rejected the mission, saying it would be a prelude to the province's independence. • Staff writer David R. Sands contributed to this story from Washington.

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