Posted on 03/23/2002 1:28:30 PM PST by Spar
Al-Qaida Plot Revealed in Sarajevo
Sat Mar 23,10:48 AM ET
By ALEXANDAR S. DRAGICEVIC, Associated Press Writer
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Al-Qaida terrorists planned a devastating attack on Americans in Sarajevo after meeting in Bulgaria to identify European targets, a high-ranking Bosnian official said Saturday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that intelligence reports on the meeting in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, prompted a special government session Thursday night to discuss threats against the U.S. Embassy and embassies of European countries. He did not name the countries.
At the Sofia meeting, members of al-Qaida decided that "in Sarajevo something will happen to Americans similar to New York last September," said the official. He did not say when the al-Qaida meeting was held or who attended.
The U.S. Embassy in Bosnia shut down to the public on Wednesday after receiving word of a possible terrorist threat. The embassy closed entirely on Friday.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Karen Williams declined to comment on the situation Saturday. Bosnian special police forces were seen around the compound along with normal U.S. security units.
In Sofia, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said it had received no information on such a meeting, either "from Bosnian authorities or from any other official sources." It promised an investigation if "this information proves to be serious."
On Tuesday, just a day before the U.S. Embassy received the threats, Bosnian police raided an Islamic charity, Bosnian Ideal Future, also known as Benevolentia International Foundation, seizing weapons, plans for making bombs, booby-traps and bogus passports.
On Friday, police announced they had arrested Munib Zahiragic, a Bosnian citizen and the head of the Bosnian chapter of the charity. Zahiragic is also a former member of the Bosnian Muslim secret police, AID.
Zahiragic was arrested on charges of espionage, which carries a maximum 10 years in prison. No details on whom he was supposed to be spying for were released.
As a part of the war on terrorism, Bosnia's government in January ordered an investigation into the work of foreign humanitarian agencies. Two weeks ago, investigators reported funds were missing from three Islamic charities, among them Benevolentia.
The United States recently froze the assets of Benevolentia, with head offices in Illinois and New Jersey.
The U.S. and British embassies were closed for several days in October because of terrorist threats. They reopened after local police arrested six naturalized Bosnians, all of them Algerian natives, suspected of plotting post-Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. interests in Bosnia and elsewhere.
The suspects were handed over to U.S. authorities in January, and now are being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Five of the six were employed as humanitarian aid workers; one was suspected of being Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s top lieutenant for Europe.
More than 1 million Muslims live in Bosnia, most of them native to the country but also including dozens of former Islamic fighters, or mujahedeen, who came mostly from the Middle East to fight on the Muslim side in the 1992-1995 war against the country's Serbs and Croats.
a_Turk: Wrong, the US supported Afghani civilians who were being butchered by the Russian army. That during the cold war when the USSR was probably your favourite, you shoulda just gone to live there, traitor!
Correct, but don't let him get away with the Chomsky cribbing claim that the U.S. (or its agencies) supported or worked with bin Laden. We did not. UBL was a free-lancer in Afghanistan during the Soviet War. He brought in supplies, equipment and recruits for the anti-Soviet effort in general, without tying himself to any particular organization.
UBL certainly "networked" with other Arabs in Afghanistan during the Soviet war, and earned the respect and even deference of many, but contra Lazarus he did not "lead" anyone, not even the fighters he personally recruited. Furthermore the CIA could not have worked with UBL even if they had wanted to or felt the need to. Even then UBL was urging his fellow Arabs NOT to co-operate with the U.S., and he would certainly never have done so himself.
Bin Laden genuinely believed the Afghans and the Arab fighters could and should defeat the Soviets by themselves, without American help. Retrospectively he believes that they essentially did in fact do so (i.e. that American assistance had a minimal impact, and was really unnecessary, and that the Soviets would have been driven out without the Americans pitching in). These beliefs were and are, of course, thoroughly delusional, but the point is the UBL was so deluded, and would never have accepted any sort of American help.
Notice that when you read these assertions that we "helped" or "worked with" Bin Laden, it is always in the form of a bald assertion, without specifics or documentation.
War is against Muslim. It is not against Serbia, or Russia. Even N. Korea may not come to head soon unless N. Korean regime becomes suicidal. N. Korea likes saberattling and intimidation not all-out war unlike Muslim fundamentalists. In foreseeable future, it is war against them, in several places, but one at a time. China may become another player, who wants to "liberate" Taiwan while Americans are busy or get tired. Or they simply want to weaken American power by helping fundies to fight Americans. They hate fundies. But they hate America, too. The bigger guy may be the first priority. N. Korea could tie up military assets, though. As for Russia, they are likely to snare favorable deals from Americans while Russia does not join the fray and discreetly give America maneuvering and indirect support.
Please tell us about the Kurdish civilians who are being butchered by the Turkish army.
Please tell us about the Kurdish civilians who are being butchered by the Turkish army.Proposterous. Our Kurdish citizens enjoy the same rights and privileges as all Turks under a constitution which makes absolutely no distinction between any race, religion, color, or creed. We have had Kurdish citizens in every walk of life, even a president (Turgut Ozal), God rest his soul, whom every citizen of Turkey reveres.
Hmmm...
"President Bush will meet April 23 with Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha of Bulgaria. The meeting in Washington will cover "Euro-Atlantic and regional issues of common concern,"
Could this be a trumped-up story so American pockets get picked?
All dissenters to be shot! How like Turkey, how unlike America!Good thing the US has a valunteer army! Otherwise you traitors would be the end of this great nation.
TURKEY OUT OF CYPRUS NOW!
REPARATIONS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NOW!
RESTORE CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN HAGIA SOPHIA NOW!
This is not Turkey and we are not defenseless Armenians, a_Turk.
Welcome to America, the land of the free and home of the brave.
Welcome to America, the land of the free and home of the brave.The home of the brave, and also home to a few treacherous chickens like you and the rest of your pitiful, ignorant, and cowardly following here on this thread.
Could this be a trumped-up story so American pockets get picked?It's designed to increase the Muslim angst and rally you all for orthodox Christian gain.
The coward, intellectual and otherwise here is you, who insults, and attempts to libel those you disagree with as traitors. You even try and get me banned by snitching on me with a fabricated identity charge. Coward indeed.
I thank you for painting such a vivid character picture of yourself for all to read, a_Turk.
Speaking your mind when you are in the minority is an act of bravery.Spreading your lies to influence your ignorant following all the while hiding behind the PC is the act of an underhanded coward, however.
Those you call my following (I did not know I have become so influential in so short a time as to have developed a following) held beliefs that were in the minority on this forum. After 9/11, I think no longer.Pff, Who do you think you are fooling? You are the guy that got banned for suggesting that the US was a terrorist state, and a supporter of terrorists. Your handle then was Pericles. Your style, format, and quotes are exactly the same, and this handle you use now was created right after pricless was banned!
I thank you for painting such a vivid character picture of yourself for all to read, a_Turk.You're welcome. Now you can continue to paint your "vivid" character picture as a treatcherous pansy.
but I'm quite sure that the Turkish-Arab "street" will be squarely on the side of their terrorist friends in the Gulf States.Good thinking Einstein! Now I suggest that you bet everything you have including your boyfriend on that hunch.
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