Posted on 03/23/2002 1:28:30 PM PST by Spar
Bulgaria denies report of al-Qaeda plot to hit US in Bosnia
AFP
The head of Bulgaria's counter-espionage service denied a Bosnian newspaper report which said that the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda was working in Sofia with the aim of attacking US nationals in Bosnia.
"This information is paradoxical, there is no truth in it," said Ivan Chobanov, who was quoted on Bulgarian radio.
Interior Ministry Secretary General Boiko Borisso added that "Bulgaria's security services have not worked on an al-Qaeda cell in Bulgaria".
"Bulgaria's foreign ministry has not been informed by Bosnian authorities, or by other official sources, of preparations for terrorist attacks against American sites in Europe going on in Sofia," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry "will try to verify this information and has asked its embassy in Sarajevo to ask the Bosnian authorities about it," the statement said.
The Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that Bosnia's Muslim-Croat government had received information that members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Sofia were planning a terrorist attack against Americans in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.
The report said the attack could be similar in scale to those which hit the United States on September 11 last year.
It came after the US embassy in Sarajevo and in the southern city of Mostar decided on Friday to close down its offices due to unspecified security threats.
Bosnia's government held an emergency meeting on Friday in Sarajevo to discuss the security situation following the US embassy closure, an official told AFP.
The United States blames bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network for the September 11 attacks, in which hijackers slammed airplanes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, leaving some 3,000 dead.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020323/1/2mw8s.html
Sort of like what our ruling class is beginning to look like..........inbred and archaic! Time to throw the bums out and stop this passing of the baton to other family members.
Will we ever, ever learn?Looking at the absolute crap you posted, I hope it's very very soon :)
Yeah, the U.S. has a long and inglorious history of supporting bin Laden and Mulsim terrorists.The US has been the supporter of underdogs and (that means as well as) anyone who needed help in their wars against the USSR in the cold war. Can't appreciate international politics, diplomacy, and intrigue, suggest you take a break from Sunday school. Who the hell are you to suggest that the US is a supporter of terror!
We supported Muslim terrorists in the Balkans.Wrong, the US supported Bosnian civilians who were being butchered by the Yugoslav army.
We supported Muslim terrorists in Chechnya.Wrong, the US supported Chechnian civilians who were being butchered by the Russian army.
We supported Muslim terrorists (led by bin Laden) in Afghanistan (in the 80's).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!
We supported Muslim terrorists in Iraq (also in the 80's).Wrong, the US supported a military balance to Iran, until Saddam started to flip.
We continue to support the hub of Muslim terrorism -- the Saudi Regime.Wrong, the US kept it's energy interests in it's pocket, the cheapest way possible. The alternative would have been harder times for you, which might have produced a better man instead of the backstabbing whimp you are!
We continue to spew forth the nonsense that "Islam is a religion of peace."The only spewing of sewage is what's coping from your IP address.
Will we ever, ever learn?I'll say that you and those like you will never never learn, inspite of all the good the USA has done for you. You should not have done all those drugs I suppose.
But with US policy in the past, especially during the cold war, this was not limited to any Muslim group. In fact I'd say the Muslim groups were a minority. We got burned in Vietnam. We're in the process of getting burned by our EU "allies". We've been burned by our Central American attempts. We got burned with Cuba.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but remember at those times we had a bigger enemy which is why the US was picking the lesser of the two evils. That being the USSR at the time.
I seem to recall those Afghan civilians were fighting an invasionary and occupational USSR army at the time. Not only fought them to a stand still, but forced them to retreat.
Perhaps if they joined everyone else in the post Stone Age, they'd have a better life.
They may have had a better chance if the US hadn't bailed on them after the USSR withdrew. Fighting an invasion within your own country for almost 10 years will do that to you.
We get only 17% of our oil from Saudi Arabia
Who also happens to set the lead OPEC follows.
The House of Saud uses the money they get from U.S. taxpayers to fund terrorist operations all throughout the world.
Can't argue with that part. Just remember that come election day, and those politicians who are blocking attempts for America to drill within her own borders. Not only Alaska, but we've got one of the biggest reserves laying off of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.
And as I pointed out, most (if not all) of our mistakes have been when we've made our bed with Muslims
I'd disagree with that one, as mentioned earlier. The US has made many mistakes in policy, looking back at it from present day knowledge. Yes, some of them were with Muslim groups. However there are just as many, if not more, with non-Muslim groups as well.
Heck why go that far to "hide" in a country that is arresting Al-Qaeda members. Just mosey on over to some of our EU "allies" who refuse to recognize known terrorist groups and refuse to freeze their financial assets.
We don't have to go far at all. I find it a funny twist of kharma (and very telling) that today Americans hunt for Chechens in Afghanistan
and just a few years ago Chechnya rebuilds — from Turkey
Russia's rebels find that, to reestablish government, telephone service is a must
By THOMAS GOLTZ
ISTANBUL — A handful of Chechen and "Chechenized" bureaucrats are working against the clock to cement commercial and political ties between the breakaway Russian republic and the rest of the world. What's unusual is that they're doing so here — from a three-story Turkish villa in the wooded heights above the Bosporus.
Istanbul has become the de facto, if not de jure, seat of government of Chechnya. Now that the guns are silent, Checnya's leaders hope to move as quickly as possible from being a guerrilla movement to becoming a functioning government — and to do that, working telephones are needed. Istanbul has got them; Grozny, the official Chechnyan capital, does not.
"Qatar is on the phone," shouts a secretary, and Mansour Jachimczyk interrupts a conversation with an American woman in New York who specializes in "negotiation deadlock" to take the call from the Gulf, slipping from English into Russian and then into his native Polish before going back to English again.
Krakow-born but Muslim-convert Jachimczyk is a man of many languages and many titles. His business card reads "Secretary General of the International Roundtable for the Reconstruction of Chechnya, Peace in the Caucasus and Democracy in Russia and Chief Advisor to the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria on Foreign Affairs and International Relations."
"One of our major projects right now is to create sister-city relationships between Grozny and other Chechen towns with major cities in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and America," Mansour explains. "Thus, if war resumes, there will be a ready network in place to protest to a number of different governments."
A renewal of war appears, for the moment at least, unlikely. Up to 20,000 Russian troops have left the battle-scarred republic while the pro-independence rebels are slowly establishing complete control of Grozny, the capital. Still, Grozny, and much of the rest of Chechnya, has been devastated. Communications from Grozny have been completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, "consulates" have been established in a score of foreign capitals, with most of the "ambassadorships" having been appointed from the Istanbul office to devoted supporters of the Chechen cause like Mansour. A series of conferences bringing together scholars, human-rights activists and politicians are also in the works. One was already held in Istanbul; the next is planned for Warsaw in December, then Tokyo, London and Washington in the spring of 1997.
The minister of foreign affairs, Rouslan Chimaev, and the minister of health, Dr. Umar Hambiev, make Istanbul the main seat of their activities, while other high-ranking officials in the Chechen government come and go with frequency. The equivalent of the head office of the Chechen information and news service is now based in Istanbul as well.
The mansion overlooking the Bosporus is also the occasional domicile of Alla Dudayev, the Russian-born widow of the late president of Chechnya, Djokhar Dudayev, who still remains the most resonant symbol of Chechen resistance to Russian rule in the breakaway republic. "My husband was only one of many, many martyrs who died for Chechen independence," says Mrs. Dudayev. "Our task now is to make sure their deaths were not in vain."
Another reason for the Chechnya-Istanbul connection is that Istanbul is a friendly venue for a government not recognized by anyone else in the world. Not only is public opinion in mainly Muslim Turkey squarely on the side of the Chechens, but the city is home to a large and very active diaspora community who emigrated from Chechnya to the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century.
"I think we can be proud of our contribution to the Chechen struggle over the past few years," says Fazil Ozen, chairman of the Chechen Solidarity Committee in Istanbul, which has funneled millions of dollars (and not a few fighting men) into Chechnya since 1994.
Communication between Istanbul and Grozny, however, remain problematic. While satellite telephone links are possible (the Soviet-era telephone system was bombed to bits during the war), physically getting in and out of Chechnya still requires sneaking in and out, often over the mountains. "It is pretty tough going sometimes, especially if you are carrying a lot of luggage," says minister of health Dr. Hambiev, dressed in a black suit and looking more like a banker than a front-line surgeon, which he was during the war.
Meanwhile, multi-lingual Mansour Jachimczyk is back on the mobile telephone, making last minute arrangements for Foreign Minister Chimaev's trip to France, which, he hopes, will be the first country to officially recognize Chechnya as an independent state. Israel and Poland are the other chief candidates for that honor.
"Someday, I will slow down and be able to go home and build my house, as planned," he says, reaching for his attaché case and heading for the Mercedes waiting outside the door.
Where is that?
"Chechnya."
Thomas Goltz, a long-time foreign correspondent, was a finalist for the Rory Peck Prize for his documentary on the town of Samashki in Chechnya, which was broadcast on PBS in 1996. His book on Azerbaijan, "Requiem for a Would-Be Republic," will be re-issued by ME Sharpe (USA) early next year.
© Pacific News Service
Muslim scum, like you.You're too far gone. What a moron.
Yes, that was part of it. However we also did not have the support of the local population. We had their political support of South Vietnam, but very little amongst the common citizens. It seems they didn't appreciate the value of freedom to fight for it themselves, until it was too late and we were pulling out.
We're getting burned diplomatically by our EU "allies."
That remains to be seen. Even after the Gulf War, both France and Germany have been assisting Saddams nuclear program.
B) when they get hit with terrorism as well.
If the terrorist groups were smart, they'd not bother. As long as they keep it focused on the US, the EU will continue their whiney ways. Why give them reason to change their minds, when they're practically fighting the diplomatic front for the terroists?
Anyway, we're aware now.....one can only hope.
And, more importantly, learn from it.
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