Raid on agency in Bosnia points to al-Qaeda link

Financial Times (UK) ^ | February 22, 2002 | Judy Dempsey

[Canuck1]

Raid on agency in Bosnia points to al-Qaeda link
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Published: February 21 2002 21:13

A Bosnia-based Saudi aid agency raided last October by Nato troops contained computer files with photographs of terrorist targets, maps of Washington's government buildings and materials for forging US State Department identification badges.

Western diplomats said the findings, finally confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation among diplomats and Bosnian officials, suggested that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda cells were still in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

More than 3,000 Islamic fighters signed up with the Bosnian Muslim army to fight Croat and Serb forces during the early 1990s. After the 1995 Dayton peace accords, most of the fighters were ordered to leave but diplomats estimate that more than 300 remained, most of them taking up Bosnian citizenship.

The October raids were carried out on the Sarajevo offices of the Saudi High Commissioner for Aid to Bosnia, as well as in the town of Zenica. Six suspects were arrested, including Bensayah Belkacem, who allegedly headed al-Qaeda's operations in Europe.

All six were held by the Bosnian authorities until last month, but were released when the federal judicial authorities and the human rights chamber, which comprises six Bosnian and seven international judges, released them for lack of evidence.

On their release they were seized by US officials, stripped of their Bosnian citizenship and transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite sharp criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sarajevo. Madeleine Rees, head of the UNHCR's Sarajevo office, said: "We can't have a dual system applying here. There is either the rule of law or there is not."

Western intelligence sources say Bosnia-Herzegovina is an ideal base for the al-Qaeda network, as the central authorities are still weak, policing is poor and borders are porous.

The weak infrastructure has facilitated crime, particularly in trafficking of women, weapons and drugs, which local and international police forces have had little success in curbing.

[vooch]

Kfor pays KLA/KPC salaries, appoints the KLA/KPC commanders, provides supplies, provides military style training, and

Clinton in his official report to Congress stated that Kfor provides operational direction

Therefore, if Milosevic is guilty of crimes committed by the Tigers, etc because he suppoededly provided some indirect financing to them......then Kfor and its commanding officers are certainly guilty of KLA/KPC crimes for the KLA/KPC-Kfor relationship is far deeper than the ICTY alleges for Milosevic-Tigers.

It is a very slippery slope here and the War Party should be very careful what happens at the ICTY

[Wraith]

Kfor pays KLA/KPC salaries, appoints the KLA/KPC commanders, provides supplies, provides military style training, and Clinton in his official report to Congress stated that KFOR provides operational direction

Vooch you can give a misbehaving child direction provide a weekly allowance but the question is does the misbehaving child listen to the direction? We know what Arkan and his tigers did. We know of the close relationship between Milosivic and Arkan right up until Arkan became a liability. You have to different types of relationships here, the Milosivic/Arkan relasionship based on common nationalistic goals and the KFOR/UCK relationship of which the UCK is very manipulating within its relationship with the U.S. KFOR and KFOR/UN in general. Prove that the U.S. has directed the UCK to go into Macedonia and kill people there? It will be interesting to hear Milsoivic explain his relationship with Arkan and as the leader of Serbia allowed Arkan to operate?. You are right about one thing it will be interesting to see what the ICTY has to conclude in all this. Nice try though.

[Spar]

Under ICTY rules, if those with command responsibilities knew and failed to stop or arrest those that carried out criminal acts they are indictable.

[joan]

KFOR/NATO continues to train, equip, advise, and protect its proxy forces, the KLA/ANA/NLA, in the Balkans.

War on terrorism skipped the KLA - Accompanied by 17 U.S. Military Advisors inside Macedonia

Misadventures in an uncivil war

Things were really heating up. As we reached the banks of the Vardar, an American Twin Huey utility helicopter roared over us at treetop level. A grinning door-gunner gave us a thumbs-up and the kids cheered wildly.

Startled at the appearance of a NATO aircraft so blatantly violating Macedonian air space, I asked out loud, "What the hell are the Yanks doing here?"

One of the older boys looked at me sternly and said, "They're here to help us, or don't you think they should?"

I noticed that the helicopter had veered west and was heading straight towards the Grupcin ambush site.

NATO looks out for the Albanian terrorists as they ambush and wait to attack Macedonian forces.

[joan]

According to a Serb survivor who spent YEARS in a Muslim run camp, scores of top military, police, and political leaders in the Bosnian Muslim government were responsible/knew about the camps for Serbs. And many of these same people are working for the Bosnian Muslim government today.

What's more, according to this survivor, the UNPROFOR soldiers aided in this evil - securing the site for visits by Muslim leaders, for instance, and after which the inmates would be beaten worse.

Song for Carla Del Ponte

Slavko Jovicic Slavuj "...who spent precisely 1,334 days, i.e. three years and eight months, in the prison camp "Silos" in Tarcin..."

In his book "Silos" ([Serb] Oslobodjenje, 1997), Jovicic lists more than 70 political, military and police officials on whom he lays serious charges. According to Jovicic, those responsible for "Silos" include Nezir Kazic, the commander of the 109th Mountain Brigade who had the camp under his jurisdiction, and Mirsad Catic Cuperak, Mirsad Sabic, Nermin Simsic and Nezir Fiso. The warden of the camp in Hrasnica was Zijo Gagic, while the interrogator in the camps who, according to the book, tortured and beat up the inmates was Mustafa Gegaj Mujo. Security officer of the Fourth Motorized, later 109th Mountain Brigade of the First Crops of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina Zijo Catic is accused of being responsible for murders, torture and imprisonment of civilians in Hrasnica and "Silos".

In your opinion, who in the Bosniak political and military leadership knew, or had a reason to know about the existence of the camp "Silos" in Tarcin?

Vahid Karavelic, at the time the commander of the First Sarajevo Corps, knew. He spent more than ten days in the camp overseeing the work of the Serb camp inmates on the runway of the helicopter landing pad and a gas station that was supposed to serve it. He distributed ranks to the guards, prompting them thereby to maltreat us more, in order to speed up the construction. The camp was only 20 meters away from the helicopter landing pad and the building housing the headquarters of the 14th Division of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina. On four occasions, during 1994 and 1995, I saw from the distance of between 10 and 15 meters Alija Izetbegovic and recognized my pre-war colleagues among his bodyguards. Izetbegovic passed through the tunnel under the airport runway to Tarcin, from where he flew to different parts of the country in a helicopter. It is interesting that Izetbegovic used helicopters marked by red crosses, and the whole region was secured during his visits by Malaysian UNPROFOR soldiers. I got a confirmation that Izetbegovic knew about the existence of the camp "Silos", including the identity of the inmates, in 1994, when two of his escorts, Fadil Pekic and Akir Sisic paid me a visit. They promised that they would urge Izetbegovic to order that I be released and then, two hours after their departure, the camp guards beat me so badly that I spent 15 days in coma. In 1996 in Pale I found out that Haris Silajdzic also knew about the existence of the camp in Tarcin. I knew him through my work and before the war I had coffee with him at least once a week. During the election campaign Silajdzic was a guest of the then Serb Television in the Pale studio and I, to make the irony more poignant, was in charge of making sure that the guests from the Federation were safe. I shall never forget an encounter with Haris Silajdzic in the office of the editor-in-chief, full of guests and journalists. He was obviously scared when he saw me. I asked him whether he had known about "Silos" and that I had been kept in that camp. To my surprise, he said he had. He tried to excuse himself by saying that he had written four times to Izetbegovic urging that I be released. I replied that it was good that he wrote four times to Izetbegovic, because I spent four years in the camp. God forbid, he could have written five or six times...

[wonders]

Ref your #42: One of the problems with taking on a "client" is that, sooner or later, the puppet begins to pull at the strings and jerks the puppetmaster around. Observers (and sometimes participants) sometimes wonder who is jerking whom. How many such "puppets" around the world can we count?

[Wraith]

I'll keep it simple for you Joan. Sometimes a misbehaving children run away and get into a fight with a neighbor. A road trip is required to go and get the children and bring them back home for their spanking. Is this simple enough for a cement head like you?

Joan would you prefer the only inhabitants in the world to be only Serbs. Would you get rid of everyone else because all they do is conspire against you and your fellow Serbs, the only people to be mistreated in the Balkan war?

Do you base you paranoia (maybe you should start taking your meds again) on the Serbian Propaganda and the strange websites which of course you believe is the only truth. After all uncle Slobo would not lie to you would he? Serb Politicians don't misrepresent the truth do they Joan. Only the west does right? Must be hard swimming with a head as thick as cement.

P.S. Serbia is a prospect for joining NATO joan who will you believe then? I would suggest a quiet little house on a mountain somewhere and some newspapers from the good old days so you can continue to hate the rest of the Non Serb world which is apparent in you inability to acknowledge it.

[Wraith]

< p> The puppet analogy is a good way to put it but alas to complicated for Joan. Its a Balkan thing I guess.

[Wraith]

I don't have a clue what you are after on the FR. Maybe when you are ready comeback.

[Wraith]

Cool, let the indicments continue.

[joan]

Joan would you prefer the only inhabitants in the world to be only Serbs. Would you get rid of everyone else because all they do is conspire against you and your fellow Serbs, the only people to be mistreated in the Balkan war?...

P.S. Serbia is a prospect for joining NATO joan who will you believe then? I would suggest a quiet little house on a mountain somewhere and some newspapers from the good old days so you can continue to hate the rest of the Non Serb world which is apparent in you inability to acknowledge it.

You are the cement head. I am not Serbian at all. You do a whole bunch of false assuming all the time.

Anyhow, that concentration camp survivor doesn't seem to get his day in court in the Hague, and the atrocities against him happened long before the Kosovo war - started in 1992. He also gives his full name and has put himself at risk of being killed for the truth.

I think it is important to acknowledge the concentration camps that Muslims and Croats had of Serbs because I definitely believe they existed in great numbers and were organized by the separatists to ethnically cleanse Bosnia and Croatia and murder the Serbs, who didn't agree to the breakup of Yugoslavia as the Croats and Muslims intended. Also it is important to emphasize because, as far as the sheeple are concerned, they probably never heard of such happenings.

[wonders]

Actually, joan is quite adept at untangling complicated situations. Her thirst for Justice is such blazing light, it's sometimes easy to overlook all the nuances of its flickering glow.

The Sword of Justice might just swing down against having puppets at all, you know -- and we all know they can become quite bothersome, not to mention expensive (wasn't Saddam Hussein once a puppet who got too big for his britches, for example?) I realise this is not fashionable Realpolitik, and the "realists" would poo-poo such a concept as Justice but... what can I say ... who's really seeing the Real and who is decieved by "shadows which appear as substance"? Now there's a thought to go to sleep on < wink >) Sorry to wax so philosophical. Happens sometimes after a nice fish dinner.

Anyway, our Founding Fathers did have a point. We should beware foreign entanglements. They can come back to bite you (bin Laden being a prime example).

[Wraith]

3 Slivos and then the coffee, I know the routine MG. Been around enough Serbs to know. Actually was around more Serbs the Muslims or Croats but got to know the whole Zoo back in 92/93. Even ran into some of Arkans little monsters trying to look like Silvester Stalone. What is it you are trying to say to the world? I seen the Kajina Serbs overrun Behac. Muslim civilians against armor, T-55s, Old but worked just fine. You know a T-55 by the space between one of the road wheels. You are really boring me and my finger is ready to press the ignore button.

[Wraith]

How so but the world has got to complicated that ignoring it could also get us nuked by some third world country with a newly purchased toy. I personally wish everyone could get along but that’s not reality. Joan really complicates things especially if you ask a simple question. Have a good one.

[joan]

Do you mean Bihac, or is Behac another place. Wasn't Bihac a place where Muslims fought with other Muslims - Abdic's against Izetbegovic's.

In an interview Ed Joseph said this: "And in Bihac more Moslems were killed by Moslems than by any other ethnic group."

Here's more of the context of which this was said.

Bosnia Interview

Ed Joseph's biography is a fair proxy to the history of the Balkan since 1992, the year he landed in Sarajevo, then the beseiged capital of crumbling Bonia-Herzegovina. He was in all the flashpoints ever since: Knin, Mostar, Bihac, Tuzla, Zepa (where he oversaw the evacuation together with the infamous General Ratko Mladic). He held senior positions in the UN, NATO, and OSCE. In 1999, during the Kosovo war working with Catholic Relief Services, he was the camp commander of the most media hyped refugee camp in the world, Stenkovec-1 in Macedonia. He then became the Deputy Administrator of the hotly disputed Mitrovica area in Kosovo. In between these two assignments, he was an advisor to the arbitration panel for the hotly disputed town of Brcko, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is also a visiting scholar with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Q: Isn't this a vindication of the "ancient ethnic hatreds" theory?

A: I reject this. Yes, in Bosnian villages especially there were some examples of long-standing "blood and vengance", and Tito's Yugoslavia left every nation with some imagined or real grievance. But overall the tradition of interaction and co-existence were predominant. And we forget that some of the "warring factions", as we used to call them in Bosnia, had little history of outright fueding.

Why did the Croats attack the Moslems in Bosnia? They were not traditional enemies. And in Bihac more Moslems were killed by Moslems than by any other ethnic group.

[wonders]

How so but the world has got to complicated that ignoring it could also get us nuked by some third world country with a newly purchased toy.

Agreed. How the world came to such a state is a matter for another discussion. Weren't things so much simpler during the Cold War? (sigh)

I personally wish everyone could get along but that’s not reality.

Agreed again.

Joan really complicates things especially if you ask a simple question.

Some of us look at what has transpired/is happening in the Balkans from the point of view of Justice, what is right and wrong. Some of us look at it as part of the Big Chess Game. Some of us switch back and forth (which can make one feel rather schizo at times!). There's room here for both points of view.

Or maybe I'm still trying to play "little peacemaker." < blush > I like and respect both you and joan, think you both have much to contribute here. (Sigh) As you said, I wish we could all get along, but that's not reality.