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Posted on 10/24/2004 10:44:24 PM PDT by DTA
Al-Qaida ally attended fund-raiser for Kerry KLA militant bonded with advisers, reportedly boasted of special favors
A militant from a group some have connected to al-Qaida and that many have claimed is involved with the international drug trade and prostitution rings, recently attended a John Kerry fund-raiser, where he wrote a check and later boasted about his getting "paid back" in future favors from the presidential candidate.
According to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Brooklyn-based Florin Krasniqi, a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, is featured in the recently released Dutch documentary "De Brooklyn Connectie" attending a Kerry fund-raiser with several KLA members, where he writes a check, and then makes clear he expects a quid-pro-quo for his donation.
"With money you can do amazing things in this country. Senators and congressmen are looking for donations. If you fund them and raise the money they need for their campaign they pay you back," Krasniqi says in the documentary.
The video later shows Krasniqi, a known KLA member and fund-raiser, purchasing weapons from an American gun store. He reminds viewers that in the past, such weapons have been smuggled into Kosovo, disguised as humanitarian aid.
Toward the end of the documentary, Krasniqi warns that "just in case NATO pulls out, or we don't get our independence peacefully, then we'll use those weapons."
Many have called the KLA, also known as the UCK, a terror organization, charging it led a violent campaign against civilian Kosovo Serbs, and linking it to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and Iran. As recently as 1998, the U.S. State Department recognized the KLA as a terrorist group.
The KLA consists of armed militias seeking to unite the Albanian populations of Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania into a greater Albania.
Some of the KLA's anti-Serb violence took place under the auspices of U.S.-led NATO, which moved into the province promising to guarantee peace and democracy. At one point KLA officials took over the running of refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia.
Many liberals, particularly the Clinton administration, have openly negotiated with KLA leader Hashim Thaci, whom they have referred to as the legitimate representative of the Kosovar people.
In fact, Thaci, who goes under the nom de guerre "Snake," attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston earlier this year. Upon returning, Thaci told the Albanian-Language Kosova Live agency, "It was a very successful visit at the Democratic Convention, where the PDK [Thaci's political party] had been invited as a guest. It was confirmed once again that the Democratic authorities would recognize and respect the will of the people of Kosova for self-determination"
At the Kerry fund-raiser, Krasniqi is seen in the documentary introducing himself and his brothers-in-arms to Gen. Wesley Clark, former Democratic presidential candidate who commanded the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Krasniqi says, "Mr. Clark. This is your group, your KLA." Clark then praises the group saying, "They fought against tremendous odds."
Kerry's senior foreign policy adviser and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs under Clinton, Richard Holbrooke, who apparently knows one of the KLA members, then comes over and jokingly says, "He almost got me killed." To which Krasniqi quips, "He would not let his Kalashnikov go. He will keep his Kalashnikov."
The KLA is a controversial organization. The group made its military debut in February 1996 with the bombing of several camps housing Serbian refugees from wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
In 1999, The Washington Times obtained intelligence documents showing what it described as a "link" between bin Laden and the KLA, including a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a center for Islamic terrorists. The reports says al-Qaida has both trained and financially supported the KLA.
German journalist and ex-Army Maj. Franz Josef Hutsch, who was in Kosovo between September 1998 and December 1999 as an embedded reporter with the KLA, recently testified at the Hague's trial of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic that bands of KLA militants had been regularly led by Afghan mujaheeden.
There have been unsubstantiated reports from SHIK, Albania's Intelligence Service, that bin Laden visited Albania himself, promising the KLA to send units to fight in Kosovo.
Credible intelligence indicates that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the U.S. State Department says sponsors terrorism, has been training KLA members and funneling millions of dollars through Bosnia and Albania to buy arms for the KLA.
This was corroborated by Director of the U.S. House Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky in a report for Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy:
"In the Fall of 1997, the uppermost leadership in Tehran ordered the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps] High Command to launch a major program for shipping large quantities of weapons and other military supplies to the Albanian clandestine organizations in Kosovo. [Ayatollah] Khamene'i's instructions specifically stipulated that the comprehensive military assistance was aimed to enable the Muslims 'to achieve the independence' of the province of Kosovo," says the report.
In 1997 "the Iranians began sending promising Albanian and UCK commanders for advanced military training in al-Quds [special] forces and IRGC camps in Iran," writes Bodansky.
It has also been established the KLA relies on funds raised by the powerful Albanian mafia, which deals in narcotics and prostitution.
Interpol has in the past estimated Kosovo Albanians have controlled 40 percent of the European heroin trade, and in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, they may have controlled as much as 70 percent of the market, with much of the money going to fund the KLA.
The London Times reported the KLA was "an outgrowth of the Kosovo Albanian mafia ... these Kosovan criminals operate the most powerful drug-running network in Europe."
Many KLA-linked Albanian gangs have also run prostitution and sex-trafficking rackets across Western Europe.
According to a recent internal British-government briefing, Albanians or Kosovars now control more than two-thirds of the "massage parlors" in London. That estimate fit with another study completed last year by Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service.
But the U.S. policy toward the KLA has been mixed. Some have warned against relations with the KLA, while the Clinton administration maintained close ties with the group.
At the 1999 signing of the Rambouillet Accords, a 3-year interim agreement to "provide democratic self-government, peace, and security for everyone living in Kosovo," the U.S. seated the KLA at the head of the Kosovo delegation.
Clinton went out of his way on more than one occasion to praise the KLA for having chosen "the road of peace" at the initial Rambouillet talks.
When confronted in 1999 with Thaci's record of violence within his own organization, State Department spokesman James Rubin said, "We simply don't have information to substantiate allegations that there was a KLA leadership-directed program of assassinations or executions."
On Nov. 15, the Hague will start the trial of three former KLA members who stand accused of crimes against Serb and ethnic Albanian civilians in a prison camp in eastern Kosovo in 1998. All three of the accused have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include torture and murder.
Exactly. This goes beyond politics. This is about our country.
BUMP
Let us get the message out!
Call the media!!
Thanks! I used to be here all the time but was away for a couple of years....but now I'm back!
Thanks, Eleni, I finally watched it this evening.
It is indeed a very frightening film. I am sending it to Orthodox priests that I know.
Every freeper should see this movie. It is a telling one about politics and evil. They laugh about killing Serbs. How evil is that?
Welcome back! Many Years!
In John Kerry's mind, terrorists are a nuisance to him. Well, Kerry is an idiot.
Destro - don't you have a series of links which establish the OBL-KLA connections. Why not post the links here ?
DTA - thks for pursuing this
Hoplite - thks for doggedly presenting Cliton-Kerry's Balkan POV here on FR for the last 5 years. It has helped illuminate the subject for us
Freepers knew long ago that Clinton and the Kosovo terrorists were in bed together.
THANKS JIM ROBINSON FOR KEEPING US CONSERVATIVES AHEAD OF THE INFORMATION LOOP !
"...'At least 70 percent of al Qaeda's senior leadership has been detained or killed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks triggered a worldwide offensive against the network, and the remaining 30 percent is largely on the run, State Department counterterrorism coordinator J. Cofer Black testified'
'As a result, several newer and smaller groups, made up predominantly of Sunni Muslims, are moving in to take the lead in the jihadist holy war agenda against the United States and its allies, which has complicated the task of stamping out the threat from Islamic militants, said Black, a former CIA counterterrorism official.'
Beyond the groups is the further problem represented by thousands of militants -- from conflicts such as Chechnya, Kashmir and Kosovo -- who migrate to other conflicts, Black told the subcommittee. The jihadists are a "ready source of recruits" for al Qaeda and its affiliates. And Iraq is a "focal point" for jihadists who are linking up with Sunnis opposed to the occupation.
"The KLA's leadership was reportedly operating from a training camp near Kukes, Albania, with other camps being located in Tropoje and Bajram Curri, both in Albania. It has been revealed by Albanian secret service agents, as well as Jane's Intelligence Review and various news organizations that at least some of these camps were being run by Osama bin Laden, and various other foreign mujahedeen. American intelligence had identified the presence of Egyptian, Afghanistani, Sudanese, Algerian, Saudi and Chechen nationals.... There is a large amount of evidence that the CIA and British intelligence began training fighters in camps in Albania. The British Special Air Service (SAS) was apparently specifically tasked with training the guerrillas, while the CIA seems to have provided monetary support....."
The Washington Times, May 4 1999
KLA rebels train in terrorist camps
"Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, 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 intelligence reports document what is described as a "link" between bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi 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. >
... 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.
A remake of the war in Serbia is coming, it seems, with or without Kerry, but his buddies are helping them prepare.
Is this news?
Isnt it more important for the MSM to manufacture another whining story about Iraq than to notice that terrorists are for Kerry?
(yes, that is sarcasm)
someone's staying away from these threads I've noticed.
Nothing surprises me anymore about the Demonats anymore. They are pathetic!
Kerry Lied Millions Died
Indeed.........those who were vocal supporters of Clinton's foreign policy mis-adventures are conspicicous (sp?) by their silence............
bttp
"Documentary reveals Albanian arms dealer donated cash to the Kerry campaign "
Reported in Scotland:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1244732004
Thanks for the ping.
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