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This week, the Globe and Mail asked General Lewis McKenzie (Retired) to write the obituary of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. It was a good idea. The two men had crossed paths more than once on the global stage of the Great Game. McKenzie declined. Holbrooke had just died and the general knew that what he had to say would hardly produce the standard panegyric. When I caught up with McKenzie, he was shoveling snow after a spell away from home. I asked for an interview and to my surprise, he agreed. “I’m just going to tell you what I thought...

Dear Mr. President, Major Malik Nadal Hasan falsely swore to uphold the United States Constitution when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. For this he should be court-martialed. He should also be stripped of his U.S. citizenship, as well as tried for hate crimes and murder. You swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, but violate this by permitting entry into the USA of persons sworn to overthrow our system of government. This includes all adherents of any faith or code that calls for the destruction of the United States Constitution, a goal that is repeatedly spelled out in the...

Bijeljina/Beograd (Belgrade) - A Bosnian TV station has broadcast part of an alleged new video apparently showing gruesome crimes perpetrated againt Bosnian Serbs by a unit of Muslim fighters during Bosnia's 1992-1995 civil war. The footage, broadcast by BN TV apparently shows the 'El Mujahadid' unit "sharpening axes" which they later allegedly used to behead a Bosnian Serb soldier. The video also reportedly shows footage of the mujahadeen in playing football using a decapitated head instead of a ball, Serbian news agency Tanjug reported. It contains chilling scenes showing mutilated corpses and mujahadeen tying up and abusing prisoners of war....

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The tomb of Bosnia's wartime president and top Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic was blown up in an explosion early on Friday in Sarajevo's Old Town, the police said. "The tomb of Bosnia's first president, Alija Izetbegovic, was damaged by an explosive device," a duty officer said. He said the explosion occurred around 3:05 a.m. (2:05 a.m. British time). Nobody was injured and surrounding buildings were only slightly damaged. State and regional prosecutors were notified and an investigation is under way, officer Jerko Budimir said. The police cordoned off the Muslim cemetery where Bosnian army soldiers killed during...

James Bissett is former Canadian Ambassador to the former Yugoslavia and writes from Ottawa. Balkan realities Tod Lindberg is right that the EU and NATO countries should not turn their backs on Balkan countries wishing to share in the peace and prosperity of the new Europe. However, he is wrong to suggest that it was only Slobodan Milosevic's "genocidal policies" that set the Balkans in flames in the early 1990s and wrong to condemn Serbian determination to maintain Kosovo as an integral part of its territory ("Where Milosevic's butchery held sway," Op-Ed, July 11). It has become fashionable to blame...

Catalin Harnagea, former director of the Romanian post-communist espionage service, or SIE, gave an exclusive interview to Jurnalul national disclosing less known facts about the war in former Yugoslavia, particularly the involvement of terrorist groups in the fighting and the setting up of training camps for them. Jurnalul National: Mr. Harnagea could you share with us less known facts about the early ‘90s in the former Yugoslavia? Catalin Harnagea: During my holding the top office at SIE there was information that along nationals of the former Yugoslavia also fought and trained terrorist groups. At the time the public attention was...

COMMENTARY Jeffrey T. Kuhner's Commentary column asked about the prospect for an "Islamist state in Europe" (The Washington Times, Dec. 18). It is not a question of "if," but of "when." We need only look at what is happening in Europe. Today there are more practicing Muslims than practicing Anglicans in England. In one demonstration in front of British Parliament, signs were carried reading, "Islam, our religion today, your religion tomorrow." France is a basket case, plagued with riots between Muslim youths and the government. Young non-Muslims girls there are accosted on the streets for not covering their hair. In...

What took so long for it to become obvious that Bosnia and other parts of the Balkans are the launching pad for terrorist attacks in Europe? The Washington Post writes on 1 December, "Terrorist Cells Find Foothold in Balkans." What a revelation! The fact is, Bosnia became a launching pad as far back as 1992 when the Bosnian Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic - the government that was supported by the Clinton administration - issued a passport to Osama bin Laden which he used to visit Bosnia and Kosovo on several occasions. More and more newspapers are finally beginning to...

Chuck Morse's latest book, "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism, Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini," provides the clearest, most incisive history of how Islamo-fascism and Jihad terrorism have become the dominant political philosophy in the Arab world. It is the untold story of how Nazism took root in the Islamic world through the untiring efforts of the mufti of Jerusalem, whose aim it was to destroy the Jews in Palestine. Morse writes: The Nazi Holocaust appears to have kicked into high gear on Nov. 25, 1941, during a Berlin meeting between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini...

A secret report to the United Nations by French investigator Jean-Charles Brisard names seven prominent Saudi financiers of terror; the number matches the seven Saudis mentioned in a 11/26/02 Washington Post article, though it's not known if all the names are the same. The Saudis mentioned by Brisard are: Khalid bin Mahfouz; Yassin al-Qadi; Saleh Abdullah Kamel; Abdullah Suleiman al-Rajhi; Adel Abdul Jalil Batterjee; Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi; and Wa'el Hamza Julaidan (who has had his assets frozen by the US [State Department, 9/6/02]). Brisard says al-Qaeda has received between $300 million and $500 million over the last 10 years from...

Former Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic was under war crimes investigation until his death, the Hague tribunal has revealed on the day of his funeral. The inquiry will now be halted, said tribunal spokeswoman Florence Hartmann, who did not reveal exactly what crimes the wartime government head had been accused of. The statement came as an estimated 100,000 mourners gathered in the capital, Sarajevo, for Mr Izetbegovic's funeral. Mr Izetbegovic, who led the Bosnian Government during the war of the early 1990s, died in hospital at the weekend, aged 78. Dozens of countries sent representatives to the funeral. Coaches carrying thousands...

Former Bosnian President Izetbegovic Dies Former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic Dies of Complications After Fall at Age 78 The Associated Press SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina Oct. 19 — Alija Izetbegovic, who led Bosnia's Muslims during the 1992-95 war for independence then became one of the multiethnic republic's first postwar presidents, died Sunday, a hospital official said. He was 78. Izetbegovic died of complications that developed after he was hospitalized for injuries sustained from a fall in his home, said Dr. Ismet Gavrankapetanovic, the head of Sarajevo's Kosevo clinic. "The former president of Bosnian-Herzegovina died in the Kosevo hospital today," Gavrankapetanovic was quoted...

NEW YORK - Besieged by claims resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, dozens of insurance companies filed lawsuits Wednesday seeking $300 billion in damages from terrorist groups and companies and countries accused of supporting terrorism. In the two lawsuits, filed in New York and Washington, D.C., the companies sought to recover money paid out, or set aside to be paid, as a result of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. The lawsuits maintain the companies are entitled to collect damages and recover claims under multiple federal laws. The defendants include the organizations al-Qaida, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and...

How we trained al-Qa’eda Brendan O’Neill says the Bosnian war taught Islamic terrorists to operate abroad For all the millions of words written about al-Qa’eda since the 9/11 attacks two years ago, one phenomenon is consistently overlooked — the role of the Bosnian war in transforming the mujahedin of the 1980s into the roving Islamic terrorists of today. Many writers and reporters have traced al-Qa’eda and other terror groups’ origins back to the Afghan war of 1979–1992, that last gasp of the Cold War when US-backed mujahedin forces fought against the invading Soviet army. It is well documented that America...

<p>The Treasury Department said Monday that it would decline to provide the Senate with a list of Saudi individuals and organizations the federal government has investigated for possibly funding al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.</p> <p>The action was the second in two weeks to set the White House and Congress at odds over the Saudis and federal intelligence-gathering related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.</p>

Portraits of Terrorists' Allies In Government: Richard Holbrooke Holbrooke Meets with Albanian Terrorists, Snubs Serb Bishop"Thugs of the World Unite!" - New NWO Slogan? PHOENIX, ARIZONA-------------------------------Topic: BALKAN AFFAIRS--------------------------------------- PHOENIX - Richard Holbrooke, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and evidently America's permanent ambassador to Mira Markovic, met on Wednesday (June 24) with Albanian terrorists in Kosovo while snubbing a Serb Bishop. That's as if the American envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, were to meet with the Hezbollah or Hamas terrorists right after conferring with Benyamin Netanyahu. In other words, it was a clear and...

BILL CLINTON made a very quiet visit to Greece this month – so quiet that virtually no one knew about it. I’ve been in Greece since June 26, and have seen nothing on the TV news. Why all the secrecy? Perhaps safety concerns played a role. When Clinton last visited Greece in 1999, an estimated 10,000 rioters – angry over Clinton’s war on Yugoslavia – battled police in Athens, smashing windows and throwing firebombs. Perhaps chastened by that experience, Clinton slunk in and out of Greece this month under cover of a veritable press blackout. It seems that Bubba was...