Free Republic

A Silver Spring man convicted of falsifying immigration documents had threatened to blow up the White House, the U.S. Treasury building, a federal courthouse and a Metro stop, vowing to "slaughter the enemies of Islam," federal prosecutors said Monday in court. Lajqi, an ethnic Albanian who came to the United States through Mexico in the mid-1980s, is a self-described "extremist militant," who said he was trained by Bosnian Muslim rebels, according to court papers. He was angry about American military involvement in Kosovo in the 1990s, and "blamed all Albanian deaths in Kosovo on the United States," the court papers...

Ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo gave detailed testimony in 2003 on an alleged program to kill Serb captives, sell their organs, and bury hundreds of victims to hide evidence of civilian killings, according to a U.N. document obtained by The Associated Press.....

A classified document obtained by FRANCE 24 suggests the United Nations knew about organ trafficking in postwar Kosovo as early as 2003, five years before prosecutors in The Hague first raised the issue. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was expected to deliver a report on the situation in Kosovo to the Security Council in New York on Wednesday, reaffirming UN support for investigations into human organ trafficking during Kosovo’s postwar period. But a classified document obtained by FRANCE 24 indicates the UN knew of trafficking well before the issue was first raised by Carla del Ponte, a former prosecutor at...

Check out the Drudge Report. It appears that while our media is focused on Egypt, unrest is breaking out in other Moslem countries. Drudge has articles on three separate countries - Yemen, Albania, and Jordan - where protests are occurring right now.

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have started a silent protest in the Albanian capital Tirana, a week to the day after clashes during an opposition rally killed three. The demonstrators, headed by the leadership of the opposition Socialists and the families of the victims, started a march on the government buildings. People continued to pour into the downtown area near the government, bringing traffic in central Tirana to a standstill. Many protesters carried flowers.

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez assured Wednesday in Madrid Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic that her country will stick to its decision not to recognize Kosovo's independence. In a meeting with Jeremic, Jimenez also expressed support for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, according to Spanish news agency EFE. The talk focused on the situation in Kosovo, bilateral relations -- which the two ministers agreed were excellent -- and Serbia's integration in the European Union, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said. The Spanish minister thanked Jeremic on Serbia's constructive attitude regarding dialogue with Pristina, which they agreed should start as soon as...

The United States has signed a deal with Bhutan giving US citizens in the country immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the State Department said Tuesday. The deal with Bhutan brings to 34 the number of countries with which the United States has signed so-called "Article 98" agreements exempting US citizens from the court's jurisdiction, said Lynn Cassel, a department spokesman. Bhutan and Bosnia-Herzegovina both agreed to the pacts on May 16 but the deal with Thimphu was not announced until Tuesday. Washington refuses to support the ICC, arguing that it could become a forum for politically...

...Contemporary proponents of the Greater Albania employ a two-pronged strategy to gather supporters. "We are a social-welfare movement." Vetevendosje chief Kurti said. He seeks to draw support from the reservoir of energetic young people, frustrated by economic hopelessness, poverty and unemployment. The other direction of Vetevendosje action is to play up allegations of discrimination of Albanians in Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro....

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo082410.htm Two Additional Arrests Made of Members of Violent International Organized Crime Group Albanian Government Aide Arrested; Newly Unsealed Indictment Charges 17 Defendants with Murder, Kidnapping, and Other Racketeering Offenses PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the arrests of FLORIAN VESHI and ALMIR RRAPO for their roles in a racketeering enterprise that engaged...

SNIPPET: "Dr. Zakir Naik is a 44 year-old Muslim preacher born in India. He has gained a significant international following by establishing a satellite television network, Peace TV, which promotes Wahhabi Islam; it is based in Mumbai/Bombay, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, and has a supporting organization, the Islamic Research Foundation. Naik has mainly broadcast his message in English as well as Urdu. But Peace TV is an ambitious enterprise that now aims at Albanian Muslims, among others. Zakir Naik is distinguished by one characteristic: incitement of provocative disdain for any other Muslims than Wahhabis and Pakistani jihadists, as well as...

Note: The following text is a quote: Seven Charged with Terrorism Violations in North Carolina RALEIGH, NC—Seven individuals have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division; George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; and Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Division, announced today. On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned a sealed seven-count indictment against the...

June 17, 2010 NOTE The following text is a quote: Kosovar National Charged with Terrorism Violations RALEIGH, NC—Bajram Asllani, 29, a resident of Mitrovica, Kosovo, has been charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Division; and Robin Pendergraft, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, announced today. Asllani, also known as “Bajram...

  CONSPIRACY TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT OR RESOURCES TO TERRORISTS (1 COUNT); CONSPIRACY TO KILL, KIDNAP, MAIM, OR INJURE PERSONS OR DAMAGE PROPERTY IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY (1 COUNT) BAJRAM ASLLANI Photograph taken in 2010    Aliases: Ebu Hatab, Bajram Aslani, Bajram Asslani Var Aslani, Bajram Asslani, Aslani Bajram, Bajram Aslami, Bajram Aslanni, Bajram Hajriz Asllani, Bayram Aslani DESCRIPTION   Dates of Birth Used:  August 12, 1980; August 12, 1989; November 11, 1970; December 8, 1980 Hair: Dark Brown Place of Birth: Mitrovica, Kosovo Eyes: Brown Height: 5'7" Sex: Male Weight: Unknown (heavy-set build) Complexion: Medium NCIC: T920777787 Nationality:...

Since the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989, the countries involved have explored different ways of dealing with the past. Albania took a different path to many, something which is still affecting it today, says the BBC's Iain MacInnes.> We met Ramiz Alia, the former leader of the Communist Party of Albania and, later, the first president of the post-communist Republic of Albania. Enver Hoxha, who led Albania from World War II until his death in 1985, designated Mr Alia as his successor as party leader. Mr Alia, who remained in power until 1992, has some regrets...

Something happened after President Clinton's 1999 war in Kosovo: It never ended. Its continuation was characterized by anti-Serb arson, kidnappings, bombings of NATO-escorted civilian buses and efforts to kill everyone from schoolgirls to octogenarians, plus the rare peacekeeper who tried to prevent any of this. Toward the end of 1999, several major newspapers reported on findings that mass graves such as the infamous Trepca zinc mine turned up empty, as did the stadium we were told was being used as a concentration camp. Anyone reading this one-time follow-up also would have learned that the "cleansing" of 800,000 Albanians had more...

A UN official has urged Albania to stop hampering efforts to investigate claims that hundreds of Serbs were tortured and murdered for their organs in the country during the Kosovo war. Belgrade says the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted up to 500 Serb civilians and took them to neighbouring Albania for organ removal during the 1998-9 conflict with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces. The allegations were first made public in a memoir by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who said her office had received information about a possible Albanian trafficking network selling human organs abroad for transplanting....

The New Year's Eve massacre in Finland was described by police as a case of domestic violence, a bloody crime of passion. And so it was:a middle-aged man rebuffed by his ex-girlfriend broke a restraining order, killed her, then shot four of her colleagues at a supermarket before, it seems, taking his own life. But behind the horrific crime of an apparently deranged individual there was the deep-rooted problem of social exclusion. The clue is in the name of the suspected gunman: Ibrahim Shkupolli. Finnish sources say he was a Pristina-born Kosovo Albanian, one of the many who have settled...

Shots have been fired at a shopping centre in the town of Espoo, near the capital of Finland, Helsinki. An eyewitness said at least one person was left lying on the floor after shooting broke out, the national broadcaster YLE said on its website.

A sixth person has been found dead following the shootings in a town near Helsinki, Finland, police said Thursday. They said it is believed the sixth victim is the shooter, who police had previously identified as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli. Shkupolli, who police said had lived in Finland "for some time," is believed to have killed at least four people at a shopping center near the Finnish capital Helsinki. Finnish police confirmed the shooting happened at 10:08 a.m. (3:08 a.m. ET), leaving three men and one woman dead. CNN affiliate MTV3 and state broadcaster YLE reported that five people were killed....