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So let me get this straight - Al Qaeda, who has supposedly been co-located with our forces in Bosnia since 1996 and Kosovo and Albania since 1999, is sending fighters and equipment from the Balkans, where attacking US forces would be easy for them, to Iraq, where they are as fish out of water due to cultural and linguistic differences with the locals.

Notwithstanding the stupidity of these allegations, NATO has addressed them recently, and the lack of any attacks against US forces in Bosnia or Kosovo gives the lie to this BS - if you want to see what happens when Al Qaeda is in the neighborhood of US forces, Afghanistan provides a perfect example - and compared to the Balkans it is night and day.

I note that Al Qaeda related individuals have been apprehended in Bosnia, Algerians mostly, and that they were handed over by the Bosnian government to SFOR and are now currently in Gitmo.

In short, the Balkan connection to Al Qaeda is more hype than substance, and isn't pushed in the service of American interests.

From http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15672143.htm :

NATO says no evidence of militants in Bosnia

15 Jan 2004 17:36:34 GMT

SARAJEVO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - NATO's new secretary-general denied on Thursday recent media reports that al Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups were present in Bosnia.

"We have no firm evidence that international terrorists are operating, training or recruiting in Bosnia-Herzegovina," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during his first trip since taking the position last week...

OK. But where are they getting the SA-16s from?

"So let me get this straight - Al Qaeda, who has supposedly been co-located with our forces in Bosnia since 1996 and Kosovo and Albania since 1999, is sending fighters and equipment from the Balkans, where attacking US forces would be easy for them, to Iraq, where they are as fish out of water due to cultural and linguistic differences with the locals."

I think that if that is true, the AQ members would be ethnically Arab or at least the majority of them...namely from the ranks of the Mujahideen who came over in the '90s. Again, if that is true. In other words, the cultural and linguistic difference wouldn't matter relatively much and I am not saying that Arabs are all the same.

"and the lack of any attacks against US forces in Bosnia or Kosovo gives the lie to this BS"

Probably because our security is good, and/or we are lucky so far.

"you want to see what happens when Al Qaeda is in the neighborhood of US forces, Afghanistan provides a perfect example - and compared to the Balkans it is night and day."

AQ supported forces, maybe some actual AQ gave us a pretty nasty surprise over in Somalia, so DO NOT underestimate them.

"I note that Al Qaeda related individuals have been apprehended in Bosnia, Algerians mostly, and that they were handed over by the Bosnian government to SFOR and are now currently in Gitmo."

Of course, however, I never liked IZetbegovic, though I'm certainly no fan of Milosevic, Tudjman, or Karadzic, either. it was Izetbegovic's government that let the bastards in the door in the first place. Thank God there is a moderate government in Sarajevo.