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If the KLA is financed by organized crime does that not put it on
a par with Russia, China and the United States? Is this an
economic analaysis or an endorsement of one religio-ethnic
groups' libel or another.
I have personally been no less dismayed by the lack of
intellectual rigour on all sides of this discussion than by the
war itself.
What is the news value in a statement such as this? To suggest
that the Milosovic regime has some legitimacy? I am quite
willing to challenge the authority of the U.S. and its minions to
make war on Yugoslavia but I am equally bound -- unlike many of
the other correspondents' whose works I have read lately -- to be
equally critical of a supposedly federal government which sets
about cleansing a province of its citizenry of a particularly
ethnicity or religion.
Further, the comparisons I have seen to the Quebec situation are
all quite odious. When the Kosovars have a third of the seats in
an almost democratic federal Parliament and more often than not
hold the controlling vote for Prime Minister then we can start to
draw such analogies.
We seem to be slipping into one of those appalling situations of
"the enemy of my enemy is my friend" without regard to any
intellecutal integrity. Sadly, those lists to which I subscribe
on which some contributors support NATO intervention in the
mistaken belief that it is related to commpassion for human
suffering are putting out statements no less specious than the
ones which follow below.
Michael Posluns.
--
Michael W. Posluns,
The StillWaters Group,
First Nations Relations & Public Policy.
Please note new address: mposluns@accglobal.net
Phone 416 656-8613
Fax 416 656-2715
36 Lauder Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario,
M6H 3E3.
We offer Canadian parliamentary debates by topics and bills.
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Subject: Fwd: KLA financed by Organised Crime
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This is another long article, but if the Canadian government commits us to
war in alliance with the USA, we need to know the sordid record of
international crime interwoven into the many US undeclared wars in Latin
America and South-East Asia, and share their guilt in the common-criminal
dimension [apart from the violation of International Law] of the present
European war.
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KOSOVO "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" FINANCED BY ORGANISED CRIME
by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and author of
"The Globalization of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms,"
Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997.
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, 1999. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to post this text on non-commercial internet sites,
provided the essay remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To
publish this text in printed and/or other forms contact the author at
chossudovsky@sprint.ca
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heralded by the global media as a humanitarian peace-keeping mission,
NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes far beyond the
breach of international law. While Slobodan Milosevic is demonised,
portrayed as a remorseless dictator, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is
upheld as a self-respecting nationalist movement struggling for the rights
of ethnic Albanians. The truth of the matter is that the KLA is sustained
by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United States and its
allies.
Following a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public opinion has been
carefully misled. The multibillion dollar Balkans narcotics trade has
played a crucial role in "financing the conflict" in Kosovo in accordance
with Western economic, strategic and military objectives. Amply documented
by European police files, acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to criminal syndicates in Albania, Turkey
and the European Union have been known to Western governments and
intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s. "...The financing of the Kosovo
guerilla war poses critical questions and it sorely test claims of an
"ethical" foreign policy. Should the West back a guerilla army that
appears to partly financed by organised crime." 1
While KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European Police Organization based
in the Hague) was "preparing a report for European interior and justice
ministers on a connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs."2 In
the meantime, the rebel army has been skilfully heralded by the global
media (in the months preceding the NATO bombings) as broadly
representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year "freedom fighter") appointed as
chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has become the de facto helmsman
of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this
despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA
puppets to rubber-stamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo
into an occupied territory under Western Administration.
Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had
described the KLA last year as "terrorists". Christopher Hill, America's
chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet agreement "has also been
a strong critic of the KLA for its alleged dealings in drugs."3 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." 4
While backing a "freedom movement" with links to the drug trade, the West
seems also intent in bypassing the civilian Kosovo Democratic League and
its leader Ibrahim Rugova who has called for an end to the bombings and
expressed his desire to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav
authorities.5 It is worth recalling that a few days before his March 31st
Press Conference, Rugova had been reported by the KLA (alongside three
other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been killed by the Serbs.
Covert Financing of "Freedom Fighters"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Remember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to
other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan
where "freedom fighters" were financed through the laundering of drug
money. Since the onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies
have developed a complex relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In
case after case, drug money laundered in the international banking system
has financed covert operations.
According to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was
established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was
funded by the narcotics trade as part of Washington's military strategy
against the combined forces of the neutralist government of Prince
Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao.6
The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in
Central America and the Caribbean. "The rising curve of cocaine imports to
theUS", wrote journalist John Dinges "followed almost exactly the flow of
US arms and military advisers to Central America".7
The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert
support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern
Florida. And as revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and
Credit International (BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that
covert operations were funded through the laundering of drug money. "Dirty
money" recycled through the banking system--often through an anonymous
shell company-- became "covert money," used to finance various rebel
groups and guerilla movements including the Nicaraguan Contras and the
Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time Magazine report: "Because the
US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger
missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of
Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the
largest US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an
embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being
pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin
trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer.8 America and
Germany join Hands
Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in
establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their
intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence
analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was
established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and Germany's Bundes
Nachrichten Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role in installing
a right wing nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).9 The
task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: "They
used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with
drug money".10 According to Whitley, the CIA was, subsequently
instrumental in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.11
The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with Bonn's intent
to expand its "Lebensraum" into the Balkans. Prior to the onset of the
civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich
Genscher had actively supported secession; it had "forced the pace of
international diplomacy" and pressured its Western allies to recognize
Slovenia and Croatia. According to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both
Germany and the US favoured (although not officially) the formation of a
"Greater Albania" encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia.12
According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its
allies "to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa."13
Islamic Fundamentalism in Support of the KLA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonn and Washington's "hidden agenda" consisted in triggering nationalist
liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of
destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out "by
turning a blind eye" to the influx of mercenaries and financial support
from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.14
Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Koweit had been fighting in
Bosnia.15 And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen
mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting
alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were
reported to be training the KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics.16
According to a Deutsche Press-Agentur report, financial support from
Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former
Albanian chief of the National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim
Gazidede.17 "Gazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in
March of last year [1997], is presently [1998] being investigated for his
contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations."18
The supply route for arming KLA "freedom fighters" are the rugged
mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also
a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western
Europe with grade four heroin. 75% of the heroin entering Western Europe
is from Turkey. And a large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey
transits through the Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), "it is estimated that 4-6 metric tons of heroin
leave each month from Turkey having [through the Balkans] as destination
Western Europe."19 A recent intelligence report by Germany's Federal
Criminal Agency suggests that: "Ethnic Albanians are now the most
prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer
countries."20
The Laundering of Dirty Money
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans
narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged
links to the Turkish State are said to control the trafficking of heroin
through the Balkans "cooperating closely with other groups with which they
have political or religious ties" including criminal groups in Albanian
and Kosovo.21 In this new global financial environment, powerful
undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links
to prominent political figures and officials of the military and
intelligence establishment.
The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large
amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling
operations per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those
in financial centres in Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions
in a multibillion dollar money laundering operation. These interests have
high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western
European markets.
The Albanian Connection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the
beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came to power, headed by
President Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border
trade had unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had
developed largely as a result of the embargo imposed by the international
community on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece
against Macedonia.
Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy
following the IMF's lethal "economic medicine" imposed on Belgrade in
1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs
were driven into abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment
which fostered the progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of
unemployment increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western
sources). Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering
ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths "barely out of their
Teens" from an impoverished population, were drafted into the ranks of the
KLA...22
In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had
created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of State
institutions. Drug money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids
(ponzi schemes) which mushroomed during the government of former President
Sali Berisha (1992-1997).23 These shady investment funds were an integral
part of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania.
Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian
mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western
business interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs
and arms were recycled towards other illicit activities (and vice versa)
including a vast prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian
criminal groups operating in Milan, "have become so powerful running
prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the Calabrians in
strength and influence."24
The application of "strong economic medicine" under the guidance of the
Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking
Albania's banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian
economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals
to carefully position themselves. Several Western oil companies including
Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes rivetted on
Albania's abundant and unexplored oil-deposits. Western investors were
also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper, gold, nickel
and platinum... The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the
background on behalf of German mining interests. 25
Berisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved
in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement
with Germany's Preussag (handing over control over Albania's chrome mines)
against the competing bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in
association with Rio Tinto Zimbabwe (RTZ).26
Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into the
privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of State assets by the
mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had led virtually
overnight to the development of a property owning class firmly committed
to the "free market". In Northern Albania, this class was associated with
the Guegue "families" linked to the Democratic Party.
Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha
(1992-97), Albania's largest financial "pyramid" VEFA Holdings had been
set up by the Guegue "families" of Northern Albania with the support of
Western banking interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997
for its ties to the Mafia which allegedly used VEFA to launder large
amounts of dirty money.27
According to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior
members of the Albanian government during the Presidency of Sali Berisha
including cabinet members and members of the secret police SHIK were
alleged to be involved in drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into
Kosovo:
(...) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband
cigarettes all are believed to have been handled by a company run openly
by Albania's ruling Democratic Party, Shqiponja (...). In the course of
1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office
to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes.
(...) Drugs barons from Kosovo (...) operate in Albania with impunity, and
much of the transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from
Macedonia and Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by
Shik, the state security police (...). Intelligence agents are convinced
the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way to the top and have
had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports.28
The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the
presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the
Albanian-Macedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West
had turned a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to
finance the purchase of arms (often in terms of direct barter):
"Deliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the Greek embargo [in 1993-4]
can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of kalachnikov rifles to
Albanian `brothers' in Kosovo".29
The Northern tribal clans or "fares" had also developed links with Italy's
crime syndicates.30 In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling
arms across the Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At
the outset in 1992, the weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small
arms including Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7
calibre heavy machine-guns, etc.
The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop
a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more
sophisticated weaponry including anti-aircraft and antiarmor rockets.
According to Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA
"funnelled through a so-called "Government of Kosovo" based in Geneva,
Switzerland. Its Washington office employs the public-relations firm of
Ruder Finn--notorious for its slanders of the Belgrade government".31
The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables
it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the
Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to "concentrate on
heavy weapons training - rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber
cannons, tanks and transporter use, as well as on communications, and
command and control". (According to Yugoslav government sources.32
These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were
consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there
has been a "deafening silence" of the international media regarding the
Kosovo arms-drugs trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical
Drug Watch: "the trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged
on its geostrategic implications (...) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons
trafficking is fuelling geopolitical hopes and fears"...33
The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the
signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome
"marriage of convenience" with the mafia. "Freedom fighters" were put in
place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to "finance the
Kosovo conflict" with the ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade
government and fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an
entire country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in
the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the deaths of
civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian
populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns
and villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.
NOTES
1. Roger Boyes and Eske Wright, Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels The
Times, London, Monday, March 24, 1999.
2. Ibid.
3. Philip Smucker and Tim Butcher, "Shifting stance over KLA has betrayed'
Albanians", Daily Telegraph, London, 6 April 1999
4. KDOM Daily Report, released by the Bureau of European and Canadian
Affairs, Office of South Central European Affairs, U.S. Department of
State, Washington, DC, December 21, 1998; Compiled by EUR/SCE
(202-647-4850) from daily reports of the U.S. element of the Kosovo
Diplomatic Observer Mission, December 21, 1998.
5. "Rugova, sous protection serbe appelle a l'arret des raides", Le Devoir,
Montreal, 1 April 1999.
6. See Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia Harper and
Row, New York, 1972.
7. See John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of
Manuel Noriega, Times Books, New York, 1991.
8. "The Dirtiest Bank of All," Time, July 29, 1991, p. 22.
9. Truth in Media, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999; see also Michel Collon, Poker
Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997.
10. Quoted in Truth in Media, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999).
11. Ibid.
12. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4
13. Sean Gervasi, "Germany, US and the Yugoslav Crisis", Covert Action
Quarterly, No. 43, Winter 1992-93).
14. See Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1993.
15. For further details see Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO,
Brussels, 1997, p. 288.
16. Truth in Media, Kosovo in Crisis, Phoenix, 2 April 1999.
17. Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 13, 1998.
18. Ibid.
19. Daily News, Ankara, 5 March 1997.
20. Quoted in Boyes and Wright, op cit.
21. ANA, Athens, 28 January 1997, see also Turkish Daily News, 29 January
1997.
22. Brian Murphy, KLA Volunteers Lack Experience, The Associated Press, 5
April 1999.
23. See Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3, see also Barry James,
In Balkans, Arms for Drugs, The International Herald Tribune Paris, June6,
1994.
24. The Guardian, 25 March 1997.
25. For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, La crisi albanese,
Edizioni
Gruppo Abele, Torino, 1998.
26. Ibid.
27. Andrew Gumbel, The Gangster Regime We Fund, The Independent, February
14,
1997, p. 15.
28. Ibid.
29. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3.
30. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 66, p. 4.
31. Quoted in Workers' World, May 7, 1998.
32. See Government of Yugoslavia at
<http://www.gov.yu/terrorism/terroristcamps.html>http://www.gov.yu/terroris
m/terroristcamps.html.
33. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4.
Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics,
University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, K1N6N5
Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415
Fax: 1-514-425-6224
E-Mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca
Recent articles by Chossudovsky :
on Yugoslavia:
<http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/022.html>http://www.hartford-hwp.co
m/archives/62/022.html
on the Brazilian financial crisis:
<http://wwwdb.ix.de/tp/english/special/eco/6373/1.html>http://wwwdb.ix.de/t
p/english/special/eco/6373/1.html
on global poverty and the financial crisis:
<http://www.transnational.org/features/chossu_worldbank.html>http://www.tra
nsnational.org/features/chossu_worldbank.html
http://www.transnational.org/features/g7solution.html
<http://www.twnside.org.sg/souths/twn/title/scam-cn.htm>http://www.twnside.
org.sg/souths/twn/title/scam-cn.htm
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/chossd.htm
<http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/eco/>http://www.heise.de/tp/english
/special/eco/
http://heise.xlink.de/tp/english/special/eco/6099/1.html#anchor1
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