FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE INVOLVEMENT IN THE BALKANS
Adapted
by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from Ioannis Michaletos
Since the early 1990s, Bonn and
Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of
influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated.
According to intelligence sources, covert support to the KOSOVO rebel army was
established as a joint endeavor between the CIA and GERMANY’S Bundes Nachrichten
Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role in installing a right wing
nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in CROATIA). The task to create and
finance the KLA was initially given to GERMANY. Allegedly they used GERMAN
uniforms, East GERMAN weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money. The
CIA on the other hand was, subsequently instrumental in training and equipping
the KLA in ALBANIA.
ALLEGEDLY, GERMANY AND THE USA FAVORED THE FORMATION OF A
“GREATER ALBANIA”
The covert activities of GERMANY’S
BND were consistent with Bonn’s intent to expand its “Lebensraum” into the BALKANS.
Prior to the onset of the civil war
in BOSNIA, GERMANY and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively
supported secession; it had “forced the pace of international diplomacy” and
pressured its Western allies to recognize SLOVENIA and CROATIA. According to
Geopolitical Drug Watch, both GERMANY and the US favored (although not
officially) the formation of a “GREATER ALBANIA” encompassing ALBANIA, KOSOVO and
parts of FYROM. According to Sean Gervasi, US economist, GERMANY was seeking a
free hand among its allies “to pursue economic dominance in the whole of
“MITTELEUROPA“.
See: “GREATER ALBANIA” http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/greater-albania-united-states-project.html
THE EMERGENCE OF “BALKAN JIHAD” AND ITS PROGRESS IN THE
REGION
After the 9/11, a worldwide “War on
terror” begun in order to disband and neutralize Islamic terrorist networks
across the globe. The main focus of the largest anti-terrorist campaign in
history is focused in the MIDDLE EAST area, as well as in AFGHANISTAN.
The BALKAN Peninsula is EUROPE’S
“turf “where this campaign also took place, with numerous arrests and a
continuous effort into riding fundamentalist cells out of the area. The
question arising though, is how did the extremists gain a foothold in South
Eastern EUROPE in the first place, and what was the reaction of the IC
(International Community) over the previous years?
THE PRESENCE OF ISLAM IN THE BALKANS DATES BACK TO THE 13TH
CENTURY.
In order to create the much needed
mercenary armies, against the then archenemy, the FRANCS, BYZANTINE Emperors
allowed Muslim TURKS into modern day BULGARIA. They were used mainly as cavalry
forces due to their excellent techniques in that kind of war. Over the coming
decades the antagonism between the FRANCS and the VATICAN from one side and the
BYZANTIUM from the other, led to the final conquest of Constantinople by the OTTOMAN
TURKS in 1453. Gradually virtually the whole of the BALKANS came under Muslim
dominance and were included in the Dar al Islam territory stretching from the
Hindu river and up to Gibraltar.
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| Bogomils expansion |
In BOSNIA in particular the sect of Bogomils
–Eastern Orthodox sect-, converted to Islam for a variety of societal and
spiritual reasons. Since the Bogomils were the affluent class of the central BALKANS
they soon became the ruling class over millions of Christians of mostly Slavic
descent.
In ALBANIA the Islamic takeover had
a dramatic effect and in a matter of 150 years 2/3rds of the population
converted from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism to Islam. The main
reason for such a large proselytism in ALBANIA had been the traditional
adherence towards stronger rulers that the mountainous ALBANIANS had since
their early history. During the time of the Roman Empire, the ALBANIANS served
as elite corps in the Armies of the Emperors Empires –i.e. Diocletian was of ALBANIAN
descent- and tended to absorb the cultural and religious norms of their
regional superintendents.
The same was the case in the more or less GREEK
dominated Byzantium. As soon as the “Eastern Roman Empire” waned in favor of
the Western one; there was a mass conversion to Catholicism in the early 13th
century.
The historical collective path of
the ALBANIAN people can be compared with that of the mountainous SWITZERLAND,
that absorbed influences and norms from the much larger and influential
neighbors (GERMANY, FRANCE, and ITALY ).
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA IN 1992 - TRYING TO ESTABLISH THE FIRST
ISLAMIC STATE IN EUROPE?
It is against this historical
background that the Islamic fundamentalist drama in the BALKANS evolved in the
1990s. Evan F. Kohlmann, author of Al-Qaeda’s Jihad in EUROPE: The AFGHAN-BOSNIAN
Network argues that “key to understanding Al Qaida’s EUROPEAN cells lies in the
BOSNIAN war of the 1990s”. Using the BOSNIAN war as their cover, AFGHAN-TRAINED
Islamic militants loyal to Osama bin Laden convened in the BALKANS in 1992 to
establish a EUROPEAN domestic terrorist infrastructure in order to plot their
violent strikes against the UNITED STATES.
So, the outbreak of the civil war in
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA in 1992 presented an unparalleled opportunity for the
international Mujaheedin to storm EUROPE, establish safe havens in the area and
thus initiate re-conquest of regions they previously ruled. The leader of BOSNIA,
Alia Izebegovic was eager to obtain as much assistance as possible and didn’t
hesitate in providing the necessary framework by which Islamic ties were forged.
In the same year, a variety of
Islamic mercenaries flocked into the Balkans in order to support the “Holy
cause”, meaning the establishment of the first Islamic state in Europe. See: http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/islamic_terrorism.htm
The end of the war in 1995 saw quite a few of those mujahedin, acquiring BOSNIAN
citizenship and establishing the first Islamic community in the village of
Bocinja Donja. See: http://www.balkanpeace.org/index.php?index=/content/wtb/wtb12.incl
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| SANDŽAK Region |
During 2006 and 2007, hundreds of
citizenships were revoked by Islamists residing in BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA.
Nevertheless the whereabouts of most of them remain unknown, raising fears for
potential terrorist acts in the future and on European soil. Furthermore, Novi
Pazar a town in SANDŽAK, an area in SOUTHERN SERBIA; which has become a core for
Islamic fundamentalism, linked with Al-Qaeda cells. Novi Pazar is the focus of
the Islamist attempt to build a ‘land bridge “from ALBANIA and KOSOVO to BOSNIA.
Background Information:
SANDŽAK
REGION, NOT ONLY THE GATEWAY FOR BALKANS ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATES, BUT ALSO
FOR SPREADING WAHHBISM TO EUROPE?
See:
ORGANIZED
CRIME AND “GREY” ECONOMY OF BIH AND SANDŽAK
See:
EXTREMISTS
ESTABLISH FOOTHOLD IN THE BALKANS
See:
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| overwrite Sandzak stamp |
Further to the East, in southern SERBIA’S
Raška Oblast, are three other concentrations of Muslims: Sjenica and Pester
area (lightly populated but mostly Muslim), Prijepolje (some 50 percent Muslim)
and — very close to the BOSNIA border where REPUBLICA SRPSKA controls the
slender Gorazde corridor — Priboj (also some 50 percent Muslim). The land
between is SERBIAN farmland, but the Islamist goal is to link the cities as
“evidence” that the entire region is, or should be, Muslim territory. The same
strategy worked successfully in BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, where SERBIAN farmers were
driven off their lands during the civil war.
Just south of the SERBIAN area of
Raška Oblast is the MONTENEGRIN part of Raška region, where, 60 to 80 percent of
Bijeljo Polje inhabitants are Muslims. Pijevlja, close to the BOSNIAN border, is
40 percent Muslim. These MONTENEGRIN towns, like those of the WESTERN SERBIAN Raška
region, are the key to the illicit arms and narco-trafficking across the
Gorazde Corridor to BOSNIA.
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