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p.7X>4HD,K#} p.76TdY,$ټ PE37PtSdY,-S_ pi72gC,,^5XgxPP(7XPZ>(,^(h>xPP(7hP> )k:7,K)k p.7> b Q+),K7Q p.7< 2gC,,pXgx<7XX6HP,? p7{{%{A++^"4|Jx ^PP|PllPPPlPPh|T`|tlllllPlhpPx@@@\\XxxdlllPPl@lllllhppppT@T@T@T@xl~xuluuuhh~upp~ux~xxxx=@T@T@T@`u4uW|@|hh~~~NN\lt\lt\dN~~xhdh|@\t\XxxPllPPPWddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddNlPhppdddhlldPP@@lllPld"ll> lHHPlxhPx|l\lllllll|xl|ld|T8llxh||ddx|l|88||PP|||||||||||||||||||lllllll||||||||||||||||||||888888888888|||||||PTl`H o ۟ESES ,.,. 6&6&Estndaros_HP_LJ4Sib6&finitif@p@@FF MMx6&Estndaros_HP_LJ4Sib `\  #XpiP;rEXP# \   #XgxPP(75XP#X01Í Í\X01ÍÍ. }W Z? ] Kosovo `Freedom Fighters' Financed by Organised Crime by Michel Chossudovsky`"#Hă   yIdddy=#Xw PE37XP#ъ  t j KOSOVO `FREEDOM FIGHTERS' FINANCED BY  t6 #NORGANISED CRIME  X by Michel Chossudovsky  Yl Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and author of The Globalization of  YW EPoverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World Network, Penang and Zed  nBooks, London, 1997.   Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, 1999 ! All rights reserved  B  Department of Economics  University of Ottawa JOttawa, K1N6N5, CANADA  Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415 !Fax: 1-514-425-6224  Ys  E-Mail: s S ԍRecent article by Chossudovsky: on Yugoslavia: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/022.html.  B  OPermission is granted to post this text on noncommercial internet sites, provided the essay  remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in printed and/or other forms contact the author at ]Ԛ : *# p.7 #}#   v kkHeralded by the global media as a humanitarian peacekeeping mission, NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes far beyond the breach of international law. While Slobodan Milosevic is demonised, portrayed as a remorseless dictator, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is upheld as a selfrespecting nationalist movement struggling for the rights of ethnic Albanians. The truth of the matter is that the KLA is sustained by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United States and its allies. kkFollowing a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public opinion has been carefully misled. The multibillion dollar Balkans narcotics trade has played a crucial role in financing the conflict  in Kosovo in accordance with Western economic, strategic and military objectives. Amply documented by European police files, acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to criminal syndicates in Albania, Turkey and the European Union have been known to Western governments and intelligence agencies since the mid1990s.  Jd$ Xkk8The financing of the Kosovo guerilla war poses critical questions and it sorely test claims of an ethical  foreign policy. Should the West back a guerilla army that appears to partly  U& financed by organised crime.&y7 S;* ԍRoger Boyes and Eske Wright, Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels  The Times, London, Monday, March 24, 1999.ƹ k&=o.o.o.ԌkkWhile KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European Police Organization based in the Hague) was preparing a report for European interior and justice ministers on a  U connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs. )1 Sx ԍIbid.) In the meantime, the rebel army has been skilfully heralded by the global media (in the months preceding the NATO bombings) as broadly representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. kkWith KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year freedom fighter ) appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has become the de facto helmsman of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA puppets to rubberstamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under Western Administration. kkIronically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had described the KLA last year as terrorists . Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet agreement has also been a strong critic of the KLA for  U its alleged dealings in drugs. y1 S ԍPhilip Smucker and Tim Butcher, Shifting stance over KLA has betrayed' Albanians , Daily Telegraph, London, 6 April 1999 Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:  J Xkk8the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, 8 KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process which has continued since the NATO bombings]8 [T]he KLA harassment has reached  UZ such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are ready to flee.dZRG S/ ԍKDOM Daily Report, released by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Office of South Central European Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, December 21, 1998; Compiled by EUR/SCE (2026474850) from daily reports of the U.S. element of the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, December 21, 1998.dƹ k kkWhile backing a freedom movement  with links to the drug trade, the West seems also intent in bypassing the civilian Kosovo Democratic League and its leader Ibrahim Rugova who has called for an end to the bombings and expressed his desire  U to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav authorities. 1 S% ԍ Rugova, sous protection serbe appelle a l'arret des raides , Le Devoir, Montreal, 1 April 1999. It is worth recalling that a few days before his March 31st Press Conference, Rugova had been reported by the KLA (alongside three other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been killed by the Serbs.0 o.,,!!Ԍ W   Covert Financing of Freedom Fighters  ă kkRemember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan where freedom fighters  were financed through the laundering of drug money. Since the onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case, drug money laundered in the international banking system has financed covert operations. kkAccording to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was funded by the narcotics trade as part of Washington's military strategy against the combined forces of the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet  U Lao. 1 S6 ԍSee Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, Harper and Row, New York, 1972. kkThe pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in Central America and the Caribbean. The rising curve of cocaine imports to the US , wrote journalist John Dinges followed almost exactly the flow of US arms and  U  military advisers to Central America . y1 SE ԍSee John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of Manuel Noriega , Times  S. Books, New York, 1991. kkThe military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern Florida. And as revealed in the IranContra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were funded through the laundering of drug money. Dirty money  recycled through the banking system " often through an anonymous shell company " became covert money,  used to finance various rebel groups and guerilla movements including the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time Magazine report: kk Because the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind  U eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer.g 1 Sq& ԍ The Dirtiest Bank of All,  Time, July 29, 1991, p. 22.g  W ! ]  America and Germany join Hands ă kkSince 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 analyst John Whitley, covert support tor$ o.,,!! the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour 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 Croa U tia). 1 Sx ԍ Truth in Media , Phoenix, 2 April, 1999; see also Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997. The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part,  U with drug money .c b1 S ԍQuoted in Truth in Media , Phoenix, 2 April, 1999.c According to Whitley, the CIA was, subsequently instrumental  U in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.) 1 S ԍIbid.) kkThe 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 the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured (although not officially) the formation of a Greater Albania  encompassing Albania, Kosovo and  U" parts of Macedonia.Y "1 S ԍGeopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4Y According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuro U pa. u1 SM ԍSean Gervasi, Germany, US and the Yugoslav Crisis , Covert Action Quarterly, No. 43, Winter 199293.  W   Islamic Fundamentalism in Support of the KLA ă kkBonn and Washington's hidden agenda  consisted in triggering nationalist liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out by turning a blind eye  to the  U influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.P 1 S" ԍSee Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1993.P kkMercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Koweit had been fighting in  UP Bosnia.P 1 S& ԍFor further details see Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997, p. 288. And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the  U> KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics.j>q1 Sq+ ԍ Truth in Media, Kosovo in Crisis , Phoenix, 2 April 1999.j>"o.,,!!ԌkkAccording to a Deutsche PressAgentur report, financial support from Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the  U National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.L1 S~ ԍDeutsche PresseAgentur, March 13, 1998.L Gazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently  U [1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations. )y1 S# ԍIbid.) kkThe supply route for arming KLA freedom fighters  are the rugged mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western Europe with grade four heroin. 75% of the heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), it is estimated that 46 metric tons of heroin leave each month from Turkey having [through the  U. Balkans] as destination Western Europe. K. *1 S ԍDaily News, Ankara, 5 March 1997.K A recent intelligence report by Germany's Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer coun U tries. G1 S ԍQuoted in Boyes and Wright, op cit.G  W   The Laundering of Dirty Money ă kkIn order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged links to the Turkish State are said to control the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans cooperating closely with other groups with which they have political or religious ties  including  U criminal groups in Albanian and Kosovo.v1 S4 ԍANA, Athens, 28 January 1997, see also Turkish Daily News, 29, January 1997.v In this new global financial environment, powerful undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence establishment. kkThe narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling operations per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion dollar money laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western European markets.,= o.,,!!Ԍ W  The Albanian Connection ă kkArms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came to power, headed by President Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border trade had unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely as a result of the embargo imposed by the international community on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece against Macedonia. kkIndustry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy following the IMF's lethal economic medicine  imposed on Belgrade in 1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western sources). kkPoverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths barely out of their Teens  from an impoverished  U  population, were drafted into the ranks of the KLA8} 1 S ԍ Brian Murphy, KLA Volunteers Lack Experience, The Associated Press, #5 April 1999.} kkIn neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of State institutions. Drug money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha (1992 Ub 1997).by1 S ԍSee Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3, see also Barry James, In Balkans, Arms for  S Drugs , The International Herald Tribune, Paris, June 6, 1994. These shady investment funds were an integral part of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania. kkDrug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western business interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled towards other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal groups operating in Milan, have become so powerful running prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the  U Calabrians in strength and influence. F1 S}$ ԍThe Guardian, 25 March 1997.F kkThe application of strong economic medicine  under the guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania's banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position themselves. Several Western oil companies including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes rivetted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oildeposits. Western investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper,$o.,,!! gold, nickel and platinum8 The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the  U background on behalf of German mining interests.1 S ԍFor further details see Michel Chossudovsky, La crisi albanese, Edizioni Gruppo Abele, Torino, 1998. kkBerisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement with Germany's Preussag (handing over control over Albania's chrome mines) against the competing bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio Tinto  UR Zimbabwe (RTZ).)Ry1 S ԍIbid.) kkLarge amounts of narcodollars had also been recycled into the privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of State assets by the mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had led virtually overnight to the development of a property owning class firmly committed to the free market . In Northern Albania, this class was associated with the Guegue families  linked to the Democratic Party. kkControlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha (199297), Albania's largest financial pyramid  VEFA Holdings had been set up by the Guegue families  of Northern Albania with the support of Western banking interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the Mafia  U which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty money.*1 S ԍAndrew Gumbel, The Gangster Regime We Fund , The Independent, February 14, 1997, p. 15. kkAccording to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior members of the Albanian government during the Presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet members and members of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:  J Xkk(8) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband cigarettes all are believed to have been handled by a company run openly by Albania's ruling Democratic Party, Shqiponja (8). In the course of 1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes. (8) Drugs barons from Kosovo (8) operate in Albania with impunity, and much of the transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by Shik, the state security police (8). Intelligence agents are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way  U@ to the top and have had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports.)@RG S$ ԍIbid.)ƹ k kkThe trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the AlbanianMacedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West had turned a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase of arms (often in terms of direct barter): Deliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the"o.,,!! Greek embargo [in 19934] can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of  U kalachnikov rifles to Albanian `brothers' in Kosovo .V1 S ԍGeopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3.V kkThe Northern tribal clans or fares  had also developed links with Italy's crime  Ud syndicates.Ody1 S ԍGeopolitical Drug Watch, No 66, p. 4.O In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling arms across the Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including Kalashnikov AK47 rifles, RPK and PPK machineguns, 12.7 calibre heavy machineguns, etc. kkThe proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more sophisticated weaponry including antiaircraft and antiarmor rockets. According to Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA funnelled through a socalled Government of Kosovo  based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its Washington office employs the publicrelations firm of Ruder Finn " notorious for its slanders  U of the Belgrade government .P *1 S ԍQuoted in Workers' World, May 7, 1998.P kkThe KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to concentrate on heavy weapons training rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and transporter use, as well as on communications, and command and control . (According to  U Yugoslav government sources.)t!1 S ԍSee Government of Yugoslavia at http://www.gov.yu/terrorism/terroristcamps.html.t kkThese extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a deafening silence  of the international media regarding the Kosovo armsdrugs trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch: the trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic implications (8) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical  U< hopes and fears 8Z"<1 S$ ԍGeopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4.Z kkThe fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome marriage of convenience  with the mafia. Freedom fighters  were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to finance the Kosovo conflict  with the ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an entire country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in"= "o.,,!! the deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns and villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.