Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

West feeling the fallout of efforts to aid Bosnian Muslims a decade ago
Starts and Stripes ^ | April 14 2002 | Gregory Piatt

Posted on 04/18/2002 9:43:11 AM PDT by swarthyguy

Many of the foreign Muslim fighters who participated in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina flowed into the region with U.S. and NATO knowledge through an arms pipeline that evaded a U.N. embargo.

Now, the West is feeling the fallout of its attempts to help the Bosnian Muslims in their fight. Some of the Mujahedeen, many who came into Bosnia under the guise of working for an aid agency and stayed, are believed to have contacts with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network, which sent fighters to the country and funded the pipeline.

"There was minimal concern among the allies [about the flow of arms and Mujahedeen during the Bosnian war]," said Robert Hunter, U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from 1993 to 1998 and now an analyst with the think tank Rand in Washington, D.C.

Some of the Mujahedeen, who fought and stayed after the war, remain a threat to NATO peacekeepers — including 3,100 U.S. troops, CIA Director George Tenet told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee last month.

"U.S and other international forces are most at risk in Bosnia, where Islamic extremists from outside the region played an important role in the ethnic conflicts of the 1990s," Tenet said in his March 19 testimony. "There is considerable sympathy for international Islamic causes among the Muslim community in Bosnia."

Much of this sympathy comes from local groups organized by some of these fighters, which have indirect links to terrorist groups, a former colonel with the Bosnian army’s military intelligence unit told the Stars and Stripes.

The colonel, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation, said he was told to monitor the Mujahedeen during the last years of the war. He said there were about 500 Mujahedeen who came to help Bosnia from 1993 until the end of the war.

The colonel broke down the Mujahedeen into three types:

¶ Holy Warriors — those who came to die as "kamikazes" for the Islamic cause.

¶ Criminals — those who "are not real Muslims but came to profit from the war." This is the largest group that stayed in the country, and many now "work or have worked for aid agencies and get paid a lot of money." These Mujahedeen use "sweet words" to recruit local people to extremist groups. It’s in this group that "the terrorists hide because they are not real Muslims."

¶ Fundamentalists — this group is the "most dangerous for Bosnia because they want to set up a fundamentalist state."

"Many people think that most of these fighters came from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey, but from what I saw, most came from Sudan, Libya and Egypt," the colonel said. "Most of them were Sunni Muslims."

Bin Laden, who was living in Sudan at the time of the Bosnian war, is a member of the Sunni sect of Islam and had a hand in bringing the fighters into Bosnia along with funding the embargo-breaking arms pipeline, wrote bin Laden expert Peter L. Bergen in "Holy War Inc.," a book about the al-Qaida.

"A Vienna-based charity linked to bin Laden, Third World Relief Agency, funneled millions of dollars in contributions to the Bosnians," wrote Bergen, who has interviewed bin Laden and is a CNN analyst.

"Al-Qaida trained Mujahedeen to go and fight in Bosnia during the early ’90s, and bin Laden’s Services Office also maintained an office in neighboring Croatia’s capital, Zagreb."

The Mujahedeen came into Bosnia from Croatia, the colonel said. "They came into Croatia at the ports of Split and Rijeka. Those were big centers."

Along with the fighters, the arms pipeline came through Croatia and was funded by Third World Relief Agency, the Washington Post reported in a September 1996 story. The wartime Bosnian government depended on the Third World Relief Agency, which obtained and paid for weapons from Iran and other countries along with supplying fighters, the Post reported.

With a U.N. arms embargo in place, the Bosnian Muslim government was driven into alliances with some of the world’s most radical states that were then on a U.S. State Department watch list of countries that support terrorism as well as terrorist movements, the Post story said.

Now, many of the Mujahedeen and weapons bought and shipped by Third World Relief Agency remain in the Balkans. Peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo are faced with trying to locate these weapons and apprehend the fighters.

Many of those weapons turned up in Kosovo in the late 1990s and during last year’s Albanian insurgency in Macedonia, Kosovo peacekeeping force officials have said.

During his Senate testimony in March, Tenet said the Mujahedeen who remain in Bosnia, aided by weak border controls, large amounts of weapons and organized crime in the Balkans, pose an "ongoing threat to U.S. forces there," as well as to the stability of the area.

Report: No evidence of U.S. weapons assistance

In 1996, an investigative report by the Los Angeles Times accused the Clinton administration of funneling money to buy weapons for the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the Times, the plan was similar to one used by the Reagan administration to fund the Contras in Nicaragua through Iran in the Iran-Contra affair from 1983-88. It supposedly involved an effort in 1994 to fund weapons assistance or to encourage other nations, namely Iran, to break the international embargo on supply weapons to the Bosnian Muslims through Croatia.

In a November 1996 report, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found no evidence that the administration was involved in any such covert activity.

The committee did find that the Clinton administration knew about the Third World Relief Agency — a Muslim organization that also had ties to Osama bin Laden and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical Egyptian cleric convicted of masterminding the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 — and its activities beginning in 1993.

The United States took no action to stop the organization’s fund-raising, transportation of fighters or arms purchases because of the administration’s sympathy for the Muslim government and ambivalence about maintaining the arms embargo.

The Clinton administration didn’t break any laws when it adopted a "no instructions" policy or when it remained silent when Croatian President Franjo Tudjman asked the U.S. for its view in 1994 on Iran using the Third World Relief Agency to ship weapons through Croatia to Bosnia, the Senate committee said.

The closest the administration came to breaking the law was when Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who was then the director of Strategic Plans and Policy on the Joint Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explored options with Bosnian leaders about lifting the U.N. embargo, encouraging greater third-party arms flows and the clandestine flow of embargo-breaking arms, the committee said in its report.

Clark, who went on to become NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, told the committee he had viewed the discussions as an exploration of overt policy options because he had no authority to develop covert options.

The committee report said that while Clark told Bosnian officials that he had no authority, his positive tone on covert embargo-busting might have given those officials a stronger impression than he intended.

While the administration eventually stopped enforcing the embargo, it is "ludicrous" to think that it broke any laws, said Robert Hunter, U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from 1993 to 1998.

— Gregory Piatt


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; bosnia; campaignfinance; muslims; qaeda; terror
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-59 next last
Lots of points of discussion regarding the US turning a blind eye and even encouraging fundy islamatic activity.
But the fact that this appears in the Stars and Stripes is significant, IMO, as is almost an expression of mea culpa, particularly the sidebar report's references to Gen. Wesley Clark and to the policy.
1 posted on 04/18/2002 9:43:11 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy
OOps, Stars and Stripes, not starts.
2 posted on 04/18/2002 9:44:13 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy; *Balkans; vooch; Hoplite; seamole; Travis McGee; Black Jade
Mujahedeen used to live in this house in the village of Bocinja. Those who took over homes illegally were evicted from the Serb village, but some of their Bosnian followers still reside in several houses they bought from the pre-war Serb residents. The house with loudspeakers now serves as the village mosque.

A town sign greets entrants to the village of Bocinja in Bosnia and Herzegovina where foreign Islamic fighters — Mujahedeen — used to live.

Great post swarthyguy! I am glad I am not the only one posting the connections anymore.

Stars and Stripes, eh? What took "them" so long?

We on FreeRepublic have been saying this from day one.

For background go to BIN LADEN GATE

Regarding the sidebar article Report: No evidence of U.S. weapons assistance Evidence that that there was such assistance can be found in this posted article (also linked via the BIN LADEN GATE thread) Argentina's Menem to be freed in arms case (Clinton used him to smuggle arms to Bosnian Muslims)

The truth is breaking free and the those traitors in our govt in this and the past administration will have much to answer for. I expect many sudden "suicides" in the near future.

3 posted on 04/18/2002 4:41:12 PM PDT by Spar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spar
Well Actually it had been posted earlier today but not with the stars and stripes headline but with the word mujahideen in the headline that had been composed by the poster.
Thanks for the comp. Regards
4 posted on 04/18/2002 4:43:53 PM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tropoljac; vooch; Hoplite; bluester; Torie
"Al-Qaida trained Mujahedeen to go and fight in Bosnia during the early ’90s, and bin Laden’s Services Office also maintained an office in neighboring Croatia’s capital, Zagreb."

The Mujahedeen came into Bosnia from Croatia, the colonel said. "They came into Croatia at the ports of Split and Rijeka. Those were big centers."

5 posted on 04/18/2002 4:48:18 PM PDT by Spar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spar
Also one of the regrettable things is AntiWar.com's jihad against the US. THey were very good in getting out information during the Balkan crisises and also from my pov during the Kargil War of 1999. But they seem to have completely internalized the 'root causes' with the US being the root of all evil. Oh well, I guess BushInc., the Zionists and the HinduFascists with a Catholic Def. Minister will have to carry the day/decade/century.
6 posted on 04/18/2002 4:50:38 PM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: browardchad; WALLACE212; AzJP; Huck; MarkWar; foreverfree; Zack Nguyen; Argus; pythagorean...
fyi
7 posted on 04/18/2002 6:24:11 PM PDT by Spar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy
The BIN LADEN GATE link I provided originated with Accuracy In Media NOT antiwar.com
8 posted on 04/18/2002 6:25:54 PM PDT by Spar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: All

Broadcasting live RIGHT NOW! "Trueblackman" will be broadcasting his inaugural show on RadioFR! Tonight it's a FREEPFORALL! TBM will be discussing several current issues! Call in with your questions and topics!

Click HERE to listen LIVE while you FReep!

RadioFR is brought to you by the Free Republic Network!

9 posted on 04/18/2002 6:31:42 PM PDT by Bob J
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy
He said there were about 500 Mujahedeen who came to help Bosnia from 1993 until the end of the war.

It's nice to finally have a number to play with - but this one really puts a damper on claims of an entire Brigade of Mujahadeen in Bosnia.

Guess we'll have to settle for a Battalion.

10 posted on 04/18/2002 7:46:00 PM PDT by Hoplite
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jmurphy4413
ping
11 posted on 04/18/2002 8:12:01 PM PDT by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy
Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base

Perhaps most threatening to the SFOR mission -- and more importantly, to the safety of the American personnel serving in Bosnia -- is the unwillingness of the Clinton Administration to come clean with the Congress and with the American people about its complicity in the delivery of weapons from Iran to the Muslim government in Sarajevo. That policy, personally approved by Bill Clinton in April 1994 at the urging of CIA Director-designate (and then-NSC chief) Anthony Lake and the U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith, has, according to the Los Angeles Times (citing classified intelligence community sources), "played a central role in the dramatic increase in Iranian influence in Bosnia."

12 posted on 04/18/2002 9:38:34 PM PDT by F-117A
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: swarthyguy
I hope this gets picked up by the "mainstream" media. But I'm not betting on it
13 posted on 04/18/2002 10:20:58 PM PDT by Michael2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hoplite; swarthyguy; Travis McGee; F-117A; Michael2001
It's nice to finally have a number to play with

NATO analysis lists 9 Islamic terrorist organizations in Bosnia "some 6,000 terrorists"

14 posted on 04/18/2002 11:16:16 PM PDT by Spar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Spar
Try this
15 posted on 04/19/2002 4:31:05 AM PDT by F-117A
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Spar
>Many of the foreign Muslim fighters who participated in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina flowed into the region with U.S. and NATO knowledge through an arms pipeline that evaded a U.N. embargo. Now, the West is feeling the fallout of its attempts to help the Bosnian Muslims in their fight.

Gee. Where have we heard this before... (Possibly someone in power should reconsider the always ill-advised notion that "The enemy of my enemy is my friend...")

Spar -- I'm interested in the whole Serb situation, but I confess that I'm overwhelmed by the complexity of it, and the intense passions on all sides. Do you -- or any lurkers -- know of any thread or site that presents a well-organized and reasonably concise overview of what happened there, and the fallout?

Mark W.

16 posted on 04/19/2002 7:25:00 AM PDT by MarkWar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Michael2001
Fat chance; now its RobertBlakeTV all the time. THe Church of the nativity Seige is sidelined; there's nothing going on in Afghanistan, only those foreign troops ie UK going after alqaeda. What a TVmedia; one middling hollowwood actor and all our blowdried fluffbranins are all googoo over the case.
17 posted on 04/19/2002 8:51:19 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Spar
OK my apologies; i saw it on aw.
18 posted on 04/19/2002 8:52:23 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MarkWar
Serbianna.com is a good start; onesided, yes but good detail. & do you really want to hear adnauseum about how the muslims were mistreated.
Brig. Gen Satish Nambiar of the Indian army detail of the UN peacekeeping force in an article detailed his doubts about the infamous market bombing of 95 in Sarajevo was conducted by the bosnian muslims and cleverly blamed on the Serbs. You may recall this eventually led to the Dayton Accords.
19 posted on 04/19/2002 8:56:25 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Hoplite
But they've married and are now producing lots of little jihadis....
20 posted on 04/19/2002 8:57:42 AM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-59 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson