Free Republic

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Some are concerned about what NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union have nurtured there since the military and humanitarian intervention in 1999. James Jatras, a U.S.-based advocate for the Serbian Orthodox Community, put it bluntly last year when he said Kosovo was a “a beachhead into the rest of Europe” for “radical Muslims” and “terrorist elements.” It’s an assertion without evidence. “We’ve been here for so long,” said United States Army Sergeant Zachary Gore in Eastern Kosovo, “and not seen any evidence of it, that we’ve reached the assumption...

WASHINGTON — An American ambassador helped cover up the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition that a Pentagon contractor bought to supply Afghan security forces, according to testimony gathered by Congressional investigators. A military attaché has told the investigators that the United States ambassador to Albania endorsed a plan by the Albanian defense minister to hide several boxes of Chinese ammunition from a visiting reporter. The ammunition was being repackaged to disguise its origins and shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company. The ambassador, John L. Withers II, met with the defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, hours before...

PRIŠTINA -- A movement whose goal is the unification of "all Albanian territories" was founded in Priština today. The organization, dubbed Movement for Unification, also appointed Avni Klinaku as president. "The main goal of this party is the unification of Albanian territories into one country and the resolution of the social problems of the citizens of Kosovo," Klinaku told the founding assembly. Klinaku was also the founder of the National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo, an organization which was one of the founders of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.

What Serbia's election says about the European Union's enlargement A BRITISH tabloid set a high standard for bombast when it once took credit for the re-election of a Tory government with the headline: “It's The Sun Wot Won It”. This week European Union leaders were taking credit for another election upset: the unexpected success of the pro-European coalition led by the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, in the general election on May 11th. The Serbs had “clearly chosen Europe,” said the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner. Jan Marinus Wiersma, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, declared that the election was...

MOSCOW — The United States Army has begun a broad review of procedures used to supply security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq with foreign arms, prompted by an allegation of fraud and questions about the competence of the main private supplier of ammunition to Afghanistan. The company, AEY Inc. of Miami Beach, was suspended last month after Army investigators accused it of shipping aged Chinese rifle cartridges and claiming they were Hungarian. The Army decided to review its contracting procedures as several arms-industry officials said that long before the suspension, it was clear the Army had erred by not recognizing...

Cindy McCain's hair is a mess. An icy wind whips through it as she tromps across hillsides still slick from snow on the Albanian border, wearing well-worn hiking boots and carrying her Prada purse. She's looking out at mine fields and visiting schools where children must thread their way around left-over munitions. One headmaster told her he uncovered a cluster bomb when he had gone out to plant a tree. At another school, the principal said that work on a new sports field was halted when workers found more than a dozen unexploded bombs.

LAREDO, Texas — An immigrant smuggler who was leading authorities on a high-speed chase when his SUV slammed into a steel post in a wreck that killed five passengers was sentenced to 30 years in prison, officials said Tuesday. There is no possibility of parole for Fernando Lemus-Gonzalez, 33, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas. In February 2007 Border Patrol agents tried to stop Lemus-Gonzalez on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants. He led authorities on a chase through Hebbronville before losing control of the SUV and hitting the post. Five of the nine illegal...

BELGRADE- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released a new report that the axis between South American drug cartels and the Albanian mafia have reached "alarming proportions". According to reports by several intelligence agencies, Kosovo is a distribution center on the crossroads of global routes and pathways of drug trafficking. “This represents reason for concern, primarily because of the new pathways of drug trafficking, and inclusion of cocaine in the range of products offered by the groups that are active along the Balkan drug route.... The Albanian mafia has recently begun taking over the control of...

At the end of The Pickwick Papers, Samuel Pickwick decides to retire. He had founded the Pickwick Club in order to mix “with different varieties and shades of human character … Nearly the whole of my previous life having been devoted to business and the pursuit of wealth.” His curiosity satisfied at last, he declares the club dissolved. The Pickwick Club then ceases to exist. This is an unusual turn of events in human affairs. Clubs, societies, organizations, leagues, and alliances, once born, rarely die other than by violence. An uncle of mine was a pillar of a club called...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryApril 5, 2008 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: NATOTHE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I'm speaking to you from Europe, where I attended the NATO summit and witnessed the hopeful progress of the continent's youngest democracies. The summit was held in Romania, one of the 10 liberated nations that have joined the ranks of NATO since the end of the Cold War. After decades of tyranny and oppression, today Romania is an important member of an international alliance dedicated to liberty, and it is setting a bold example for other...

Former Chief Prosecutor at the International Court of Justice in the Hague has given details of suspected atrocities by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999. Carla Del Ponte's book 'The Hunt: Me and War crimes' claims that before killing Serbs and members of other ethnic communities, Kosovo Albanians removed their organs to sell for transplants. According to Del Ponte, a one-time prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the kidnapped Serbs were given a medical test. Those who passed were treated well, fed and looked after until they were brought under the surgeon’s knife. From several concentration...

UPI Outside View Commentator PITTSBURGH, March 20 (UPI) -- Fighting in northern Kosovo this week between Serbs and NATO-led troops shows that the independence engineered by the Bush administration for the breakaway Balkan province is not going according to plan. When U.S. officials encouraged the unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo's Albanians Feb. 17, we were told that an EU mission would replace the United Nations in Kosovo, and everyone would then build a multiethnic, democratic society with respect for rights of the Serbs, a minority in the province as a whole. That is not happening. The Serbs...

Moscow, March 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia has said that the recent violence in Tibet is linked with the recognition by some states of the independence of Serbia's breakaway province, Kosovo. In an interview published Tuesday in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence by many countries, including the US and the majority of the European Union (EU) states, had 'already reverberated in many regions.' He said that the Kosovo issue was linked to recent riots in Tibet and demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. 'There are...

Defence minister quits over Albania army base blast Mar 17, 2008 By Benet Koleka TIRANA, March 17 (Reuters) - Albania's Defence Minister resigned on Monday, taking "moral responsibility" for a huge explosion at an ammunition dump that killed 16 people and injured more than 300 at the weekend. "Although I have no personal responsibility, I handed over my resignation to the prime minister," Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu said. "My resignation is an act of political reflection. These were the most difficult 72 hours of my life." The string of blasts started when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and...

TIRANA (AFP) — Powerful explosions rocked an army munitions depot near Vora, 12 kilometres (eight miles) north of the capital Tirana on Saturday, witnesses reported, injuring at least 155 people, mostly civilians. Many of the casualties arriving at local hospitals for treatment were women and children covered with blood and one doctor appealed for local people to donate blood to help the casualties. The blasts, which occurred at intervals for around an hour, blew in all the windows of the terminal building at the city's airport, just over a kilometre from the base. The initial blast was so loud it...

One hundred and sixty people, many of them Americans, are feared dead or injured after a series of large explosions at an army base on the outskirts of Tirana, the capital of Albania, officials have said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/15/nato ____________________________________________________ Many people are feared dead after a massive explosion at an Albanian Army Base. The shockwave was so powerful it damaged the city's nearby international airport, and blew out windows in houses six miles away. The blast set off a number of further blasts in ammunition stored at the army depot near Tirana. Local journalist Altin Kodra told Sky News: "The area...

Today there seems to be little if any national memory of history to influence the foreign policy of the American super-power – merely what appears to be the most expedient at the moment, whether it conforms to international law and a United Nations organization established to act as a moderating force among nations, or not. How else to view Washington’s latest project to foist a second Albanian state on the international community: Kosovo, which has been torn out of Serbian territory rich in historic meaning and tradition to a Slav Orthodox Christian people who consider it to be the very...

12 March 2008 Skopje _ The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, the key Albanian partner in the ruling centre-right coalition lead by VMRO-DPMNE, is leaving government, the party leader told media Wednesday. Menduh Taci explained that the party leadership will confirm its decision by the end of the day. The move comes after Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE head Nikola Gruevski previously rejected a list of demands the DPA chief, had given him on Monday. “If you ask me, the decision is definite,” Taci told media, after he informed the United States and European Union ambassadors, Gillian Milovanovic and Erwan Fouere...

...“One comment,” writes Malic, “on the bottom of the first page, caught my eye. I reproduce it here, because there is no direct link to it. It is from PaulAndrewKirk of Redmond, Wa.”: I have served two tours in Kosovo with the US Military and I can tell you the following as factual: 1. Almost all facets and levels of the provisional government in Kosovo are corrupt. In fact its the worst I’ve ever seen and I’ve had to deal with some pretty corrupt governments during my career. 2. Supervised independence or even full independence will not improve the miserable...

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The newly independent state of Kosovo will need an estimated $2 billion dollars in foreign aid over the next few years, about half of which should be provided by Europe, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. The rest of the money could come from the United States and such institutions as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said. He was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Helping the fledgling state, which declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17 with strong backing from Washington, will require top-level...

Restitution of Serbian Orthodox Church Property in Kosovo-Metohia ProvinceSerbian Orthodox Church is the legal owner of 5,300 hectares of land in Kosovo province. The word Metohia, an integral part of the name of southern Serbian province, is derived from the Greek word "metoch", denoting the land owned by the Church. Photo: Pec Patriarchate built in 1260, the seat of Serbian Orthodox Church, Kosovo-Metohia, Serbia. Raska and Prizren Diocese (encompassing Raska region and the province of Kosovo and Metohia) of the Serbian Orthodox Church will soon receive a decision stating the return of 5,300 hectares of land (13,097 acres) that was...

Hopes for a peaceful conclusion to the declaration of Kosovo's independence were fading as the European Union announced it had withdrawn its staff from the north of the fledgling country in the face of increasingly angry Serb protests. The civilian staff were meant to be preparing for the EU to take over responsibility for security in Kosovo from the United Nations. The announcement of the withdrawal came as the United States - which backed Kosovo's drive for independence - began to evacuate its American staff and their families from Serbia, offering US citizens the chance to join a convoy of...

BELGRADE, Serbia - A handful of protesters broke into the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, cheered on by crowds outside, in a protest at U.S. support for Kosovo's independence.

SEVERAL hundred protesters threw stones and flares at riot police protecting the US embassy in Belgrade today after Kosovo's declaration of independence, witnesses said. One policeman was injured during scuffles as riot police fought to keep the protesters, mainly hardline football fans, away from the embassy building, the witnesses said. One embassy window was smashed. The protesters marched through the middle of the capital towards the US embassy chanting "Kosovo is Serbia" and anti-American slogans. They waved Serbian flags and vowed to protest "until Kosovo is returned to Serbia". After the scuffles, protesters dispersed in nearby streets, while the police...

BRUSSELS, KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Beta says an analysis shows Kosovo's unilateral declaration will first be recognized by some Islamic countries. The news agency has had insight into the document, put together "by some EU countries", that says the province's independence declaration, rejected by Serbia, will be recognized in "three waves". Albania, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and some other Muslim countries will lead the way, the report says. This will be followed by Austria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and, the document speculates, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. The United States is also likely to recognize Kosovo very soon. The "second wave"...

The Kosovo War isn't over. At the moment, Serbian ballots take precedence over bullets; democratic electoral politics are a blessing in Serbia and Kosovo, just like they are in Iraq. But make no mistake: Sunday's first-round 2008 presidential vote in Serbia was another battle in the Kosovo War, and it will not be the last. Tomislav Nikolic, a radical Serbian nationalist and "Euro-sceptic," finished ahead of current President Boris Tadic. Tadic is a Serb nationalist but prefers regional political moderation and (despite occasionally rabid campaign rhetoric) favors EU membership. The runoff is scheduled for Feb. 3. Nikolic is the protege...

Introduction: The Missing Link Why did the US support the separatist and terrorist so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, or UCK in Shqip), which sought to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo based on ethnicity? Why did the US sponsor a criminal and illegal separatist movement that sought to ethnically cleanse non-Albanians and create an independent state of Kosova? Why was the US supporting and sponsoring the re-establishment of a fascist-Nazi Greater Albania that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had initially created? ... The recruitment of the former Nazi-fascist members of the Balli Kombetar by the CIA and MI6 in 1948...

The writer is ambassador of Serbia in Israel. If I were to say that Israel deserved to qualify for the European championship, most local football fans might agree. Israel played really well - the best ever. However, England deserved to qualify too - especially if you look back in history: They invented the game, after all. Nevertheless, neither of them will be heading to the championship because there are certain rules and conditions which preclude that from happening. If someone came along insisting that Israel and England take part in the finals anyway and made room for them by excluding...

Kosovo Albanians refused to give up the dream of independence Wednesday during the final round of talks on the future status of the province. Serbia, however, is refusing to grant anything more than autonomy. German papers fear the consequences for the region and the EU. Last-ditch efforts to find a solution to the problem of Kosovo failed on Wednesday -- as expected. Three days of talks involving Serbia, the Kosovo-Albanians and envoys from the European Union, the United States and Russia had failed to produce an agreement for the future status of Kosovo that would be palatable to both sides....

ANALYSIS: Tensions Rise in Balkans By DUSAN STOJANOVIC BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Facing a possible loss of Kosovo, Serbian nationalists are re-igniting tensions in the Balkans, a region still reeling from brutal civil wars in the 1990s. They're sending out dark hints about coming to the aid of their Serb brethren in neighboring Bosnia — a prospect that could unleash a new wave of ethnic violence. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his nationalist followers have launched a campaign against the international administrator for Bosnia, accusing him of seeking to dissolve the Serb mini-state carved out in a 1995 peace...

KIEV, Ukraine, Oct. 22, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today thanked fellow participants in the Southeast Europe Defense Ministerial conference for their support in Iraq and Afghanistan and told the group he plans to press NATO to live up to its commitments in Afghanistan. Gates, speaking with SEDM members at their 12th conference, expressed frustration that some NATO countries still haven’t followed through with troop commitments made at the 2006 NATO session in Riga, Latvia. “I am not satisfied that an alliance whose members have over 2 million soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen can’t find the modest...

Immigration authorities are asking a court to let them sedate an Albanian restaurant owner before putting him on an airplane for deportation because they believe he will again fight attempts to remove him. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a federal judge to give them permission to medicate Rrustem Neza of Lufkin, a 32-year-old asylum seeker agents couldn't deport in August because he was terrified and did not calm down. A physician from the U.S. Public Health Service would administer the sedative and a medical worker would accompany Neza during the flight. "Unless this Court enjoins Neza from any further...

While vacationing in Kos, Nick Kolyohin from Tel Aviv was cornered in alley and beat up by a group of youths yelling anti-Semitic epithets. Kolyohin stuck in Greece without his passport after attackers snatched his bag Ronny Gal Published: 10.05.07, 05:48 / Israel News While vacationing in Greece, Nick Kolyohin, 24 from Tel Aviv, was beat up by a group of youths, apparently from Albania, in a violent anti-Semitic attack. Kolyohin, who was visiting Greece with four friends aged 22-24, found himself hospitalized and fearing for his life, without his passport or any way to get home to Israel until...

This is a bit dated, but then, I had no idea... Did you realize that Albania is the first country to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile (18 tons!)?

In coming weeks, an international confrontation is likely to occur among the United States, the European Union, and Russia over an issue most Americans have long since forgotten: Kosovo, where a few hundred Americans remain deployed as part of a NATO force protecting a shaky interim peace that ended the 1999 U.S.-led intervention. For most Americans this obscure Serbian province, with its mainly Albanian Muslim population and its hundreds of Serbian Christian churches and monasteries, may be a little-remembered footnote to the breakup of Yugoslavia. However, now is the time for clear thinking about next steps if Kosovo is to...

The younger brother of the slain 11-year-old Pantelija Dakic was carrying the cross to mark his brother’s grave at the funeral. August 13, 2003, Gorazdevac, Kosovo-Metohija, Serbia.Four Years Later: Massacre of Serbian Children Unpunished Monday August 13 marks the four year anniversary since the brutal massacre of two Serbian children and wounding of four more in the Bistrica River, in the village of Gorazdevac, close to Pec in Kosovo province. The memorial service held each year for the slain boys was held today in the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Gorazdevac. Out of six Serbian boys...

Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while? With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas. As usual, though, the conventional wisdom is almost certainly wrong. Throughout its history, America has frequently used force on behalf of principles and tangible interests, and that is not likely to change. Despite the problems and setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, America remains the world's dominant military power, spends half a trillion...

1 August 2007 AMSTERDAM – The police in Zuid-Limburg have arrested a gang of Albanian human traffickers. The three men are suspected of human trafficking, hostage taking, abuse and rape. One victim, a 36-year-old woman of Yugoslavian descent, was rescued by police. She had gone into hiding months ago in Limburg with the help of police because she had been forced into prostitution by the gang. But the gang managed to find her and took her into their control once again. It was five months before she was able to alert her contact person with the police by sms text...

So, the secret is out. The “premier” of the Kosovo government, the former ringleader of the terrorist “Kosovo Liberation Army” Agim Ceku has named the date, to which the Albanian leaders of the province would time their declaration of independence. That is slated for November 28,2007, when the neighbouring Albania will celebrate its principal state holiday - Day of the Flag. But the holiday has to do with Albania but indirectly. It has long been viewed by the Albanian diaspora scattered all over the world as Day of All Albanians. To understand what Kosovo separatists mean by selecting this particular...

The brotherhood of Zociste Monastery in Metohija has declined to remove the Serbian flag from their belltower after being asked to do so yesterday by international forces in Kosovo and Metohija. The request to remove the flag was made after Albanian threats that if the monks did not do this, the monastery would be attacked. Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren said that "if someone is bothered by the flag, then they should intervene" but that the monks would not remove the flag. Members of Austrian KFOR which secures the monastery advised the monks early yesterday morning that the Albanians...

Italy’s political forces of all color and hue are alarmed by the possibility of Kosovo’s proposed independence even though some prefer to pretend otherwise, Alleanza Nazionale Senator Alfredo Mantica, deputy chairman of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, told me in Rome earlier this month. Mantica, a veteran politician who was Italy’s deputy foreign minister in Berlusconi’s coalition government, favors a pause of several months “to reflect on this issue, and to consider the consequences of opening what may well prove to be Pandora’s box.” Mantica has no doubt that Kosovo’s independence would establish an important precedent, regardless of various assurances...

They have bought the fireworks to celebrate their first Independence Day, but Kosovar Albanians' dreams are once again being deferred. Repeated attempts to persuade Serbia, and its key ally Russia, to agree to a U.N. sponsored independence plan for the Balkan province have failed. Now, despite promises this spring that the plan would be approved in May, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried has told Kosovar leaders that they may now have to wait until 2008 before their dream is fulfilled. Nor is that a sure thing. Kosovo's Prime Minister and former rebel commander Agim Ceku...

Richard Hodges, Professor of World Archaeology at the University of East Anglia, directed the first excavations in 1994... Thirteen years on, the English lords still support the work at Butrint, along with another multi-millionaire, David Packard of the Hewlett Packard computer fortune. Between them about £500,000 is being spent on Butrint every year... At the foot of the acropolis there is a well-preserved Greek temple with Roman additions. And alongside the massive walls of an early Christian church, I could make out the double circle of pillars of a Baptistery in the centre of a perfectly preserved intricate mosaic floor....

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht is quoted in the paper as saying that many members of the Security Council and of the EU think that unconditional negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade should begin. This, says the paper, means dropping a clause in the draft resolution for Kosovo which specifies automatic approval of the Ahtisaari's package after 120 days of negotiations. The move is categorized by the paper as another concession to Russia which is much greater than before. "It is such a great concession that it is not known how the Unity Team and the Kosovo citizens will receive...

Here is a link for a video that appears to show Bush's watch disappearing, while he is shaking hands in the crowd. Its a foreign site. http://www.nos.nl/nosjournaal/artikelen/2007/6/12/120607_bush_horloge.html

George W. Bush, Hero of Albania! At least there's one place in the world where they show the Decider some love. That was a wonderful reverse-Borat moment Sunday, with the joyous townspeople of Fushe Kruje yelling "Bushie! Bushie!" and Albania's prime minister gushing over the "greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times." The crowd pressed in for autographs, photographs, a presidential peck on the cheek. Years from now, in his dotage, Bushie will feel warm all over when he recalls those magical hours in Albania. How they adored him! Outside of greater Tirana, however, the...

And while the merry Serbs are reveling in their “Prayer” sweeping the Eurovision Song Contest and busy themselves with cheering their young tennis stars making a grand entrance on the international tennis scene, Albanian Muslims from Kosovo province prefer obsessing with imaginary corpses. Kosovo Albanian separatists, famous for their engaging Nosferatu personalities, seem determined…to invent mass graves throughout Serbia, at the very start of a tourist season, where they can allege the remains of their dear KLA-terrorist fathers and sons are buried by the Serbs. … Alas, four full days of digging under the watchful eye of NATO/Albanian/Soros necromancers have...

For a single day, George W. Bush knew what it felt like to be Bill Clinton. In Albania on Sunday, Bush for the first time got the Clinton treatment—being adored, cheered, hugged, reached for, applauded. And little wonder: Bush reiterated American support for Kosovo independence, gratifying the jihad-enabling Albanian goal for a “Greater Albania.” His reception in Tirana is the kind of instant gratification you get when you pursue fluffy, Clinton-like policies, in this case an actual Clinton policy—instead of sticking to your guns and doing the harder thing, the right thing. Bush is experiencing the adulation that comes with...

Feedback Email this page Print Version Albania, Israel to boost relations 28/03/2006 Prospects for greater co-operation were highlighted during a recent visit by an Israeli Foreign Ministry delegation, led by the ministry's deputy director, Ambassador Mark Sofer. By Erlis Selimaj for Southeast European Times in Tirana – 28/03/06 “We are looking forward to boost relations in the marketing field, health and agriculture. These fields are identified as of interest for both countries”, said Israeli diplomat Mark Sofer. [File] Albania and Israel are seeking to boost their political and economic ties, with Israeli firms considering investment in a number of sectors,...

Bush’s wristwatch disappeared while he shakes hands with Albanian citizen 11 June 2007 | 19:22 | FOCUS News Agency Tirana. US President George Bush lost his wristwatch while he was shaking hands with Albanian citizen yesterday on his visit to Albania, Spanish agency EFE informed according to local TV channels information. Televisions broadcast a video that shows that while Bush greeting Albanian citizens, his watch disappears. Although the White House denies information that US President has lost his watch.