***** Copyright 2001 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All Rights Reserved The Ottawa Citizen December 15, 2001 Saturday Final EDITION SECTION: SATURDAY OBSERVER, Pg. B3 Scott Taylor in Skopje, Macedonia LENGTH: 2078 words HEADLINE: Bin Laden's Balkan connections: Al-Qaeda fighters have been quietly infiltrating the ranks of ethnic Albanian guerrilla forces in Macedonia Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo for years. BYLINE: Scott Taylor SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
BODY: As the U.S. manhunt for Osama bin Laden and his followers intensifies in the wake of the Taliban's fall, the Americans will turn their attention to other countries suspected of harbouring terrorists -- Sudan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and areas under Palestinian control.
Foremost among these trouble spots will be the Balkans, where al-Qaeda fighters have been quietly infiltrating the ranks of ethnic Albanian forces in Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo for years.
Macedonian intelligence officials say mujahedeen, or Islamic freedom fighters, especially Mr. bin Laden's followers, form the veteran core of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla army known as the National Liberation Army, or UCK, which has mounted a successful military offensive against Macedonian security forces from their base in Kosovo since last March: By the time a shaky peace was brokered in September, the UCK controlled nearly 30 per cent of Macedonian territory. Macedonian security forces attribute the success of the UCK, which was initially inexperienced and ill-equipped, to the support of as many as 120 mujahedeen among them.
On Nov. 20, when extremists from around the world were volunteering to join the ranks of the Taliban, Pakistani police apprehended five Muslim "fighters" carrying Macedonian passports at the Afghan border -- further proof, Macedonian authorities say, of Mr. bin Laden's Balkan connection. Nikola, a senior director with Macedonian intelligence services, confirmed that, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, his agency "supplied a substantive dossier to the CIA," outlining the activities of Mr. bin Laden's followers in the Balkans. The information included accounts by Macedonian civilians who had been held hostage by mujahedeen, along with photos and videos captured from Albanian guerrillas.
Ljubo Boskovski, the Macedonian minister of interior, is anxious for his police forces to return to areas controlled by the Albanian guerrillas to uncover more evidence of mujahedeen involvement. Since Nov. 13, Macedonian security forces have been exhuming a mass grave outside the ethnic Albanian village of Trebos. To date, the police have unearthed the bodies of six Macedonians (in all, 21 civilians in the area disappeared following UCK attacks). Intelligence officer Nikola believes mujahedeen perpetrated the Trebos massacre "because of the manner in which the bodies were cut up and scattered."
He also suspects Islamic extremists were behind a brutal ambush of security forces last April, in which eight policemen were shot outside the village of Vejce, and their bodies dismembered to provide the victors with grisly trophies.
The Macedonian authorities are not the only ones who suspect the mujahedeen in the Vejce atrocities. During the summer offensive around Tetovo, Albanian guerrillas admitted they had gained combat experience in previous conflicts. Twenty-three-year-old Commander "Jimmy" claimed he was a veteran of Chechnya and Kosovo, while "Snake" Arifaq bragged of service in Bosnia and displayed a scar he had received during the fighting in Croatia. The two Albanians acknowledged "volunteers" from Afghanistan and other Arab countries had helped train members of the UCK. As for the Vejce incident, Commander Jimmy said such an atrocity could "only have been committed by the foreigners because Albanians do not cut up bodies."
When the Albanian insurrection began, the Macedonian government hastily acquired a fleet of six Ukrainian helicopter gunships. "Shortly after that, our pilots reported being tracked by sophisticated (U.S.-made) Stinger missiles" said Nikola, adding that, according to Macedonian Intelligence, "the UCK received these Stingers from their mujahedeen connections in Afghanistan."
Since Sept. 11 the Macedonians have noted a shift in U.S. foreign policy. "The CIA have been much more receptive to our reports about the al-Qaeda," said Nikola. "Particularly after they discovered that one of the suicide hijackers had been active in both Kosovo and Macedonia."
Macedonian police have been working closely with their Yugoslavian counterparts to neutralize the Albanian terrorists. More importantly, as part of the U.S.-led global initiative to combat terror, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been reinstated in Interpol -- after a 10-year banishment. Intelligence officers from the Yugoslavian Army have supplied a wealth of information outlining mujahedeen activity in both Bosnia and Kosovo. Yugoslav intelligence officers believe at least 50 of the 150 mujahedeen who fought in Kosovo remain active members of the UCK.
Even before they got the information from Yugoslavia, Interpol had been tracking al-Qaeda's activities in the Balkans. On Oct. 23 this year, the agency released a report outlining Mr. bin Laden's personal links to the Albanian Mafia. Interpol alleges that a senior al-Qaeda lieutenant had been the commander of an elite UCK unit in Kosovo during the fighting in 1999, when NATO intervened to support the ethnic Albanians, largely at the urging of the U.S.
The CIA was aware of Mr. bin Laden's Albanian connections well before NATO's commitment in Kosovo, numerous media reports clearly show.
On Jan. 17, 1999, an alleged massacre of 45 Albanian Kosovars in the village of Racak made headlines around the world. Pointing to this incident (later proved by UN pathologists to have been an Albanian hoax), former U.S. president Bill Clinton proclaimed the West could no longer overlook "Serbian atrocities," setting the wheels in motion for NATO's confrontation with Yugoslavia.
That same day, Greek media outlets revealed that Taliban members were pouring into Albania, at the invitation of ex-president Sali Berisa and former head of intelligence Bashkim Gazidede. According to The Tribune, an Athens daily paper, Albanian security official Fatos Klozi confirmed that "bin Laden was one of those who had organized and sent groups to fight in Kosovo. There were Egyptians, Saudis, Algerians, Tunisians, Sudanese and Kuwaitis from different organizations among the (UCK) mercenaries."
Ten days later, on Jan. 27, 1999, the Arab-language news service Al Hayat reported that an Albanian commander in Kosovo, code-named Monia, was directly connected to Osama bin Laden. The piece also reported that "at least 100 Muslim mujahedeen" were serving with Monia's force in Kosovo.
In August 1998, the Washington Post reported that the CIA was not only aware of Mr. bin Laden's association with the Albanian regime, but that U.S. operatives had been "prominent" in the arrest of four al-Qaeda agents in Tirana. At the time, U.S. State Department officials even speculated that the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania might have been Mr. bin Laden's revenge for the Tirana arrests.
The al-Qaeda suspects detained by the CIA in Albania had been operating the Islamic Revival Foundation, "a charitable organization that official sources say provided a useful cover for the (suspects') efforts on behalf of bin Laden," the Washington Post reported.
In February 1998, the U.S. State Department had removed the UCK from their list of terrorist organizations. However later that same year, the CIA and their Albanian SHIK intelligence counterparts successfully shut down an Islamic terrorist cell operating with the help of Albanians in Kosovo.
Some of the most revealing links between Albanian fighters and Mr. bin Laden surfaced in December 1998, when al-Qaeda agent Claude Sheik Abdel-Kader was arrested in Tirana for the murder of his Albanian translator. During his trial,
Mr. Abdel-Kader confessed to being a senior commander in Mr. bin Laden's network, and claimed he had recruited a force of some 300 mujahedeen to fight in Kosovo.
European media covering the trial reported his revelation that Osama bin Laden -- although a wanted terrorist -- had travelled freely to Tirana in 1994 and 1998 to meet with senior Albanian officials. Mr. Abdel-Kader also confessed that when the Albanian regime of Sali Berisa collapsed into anarchy in 1997, state armouries and government offices were looted. According to Mr. Abdel-Kader, many of the 10,000 heavy weapons and 100,000 passports that went missing fell into the hands of al-Qaeda members.
Osama bin Laden -- stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994 -- is alleged to have retained the Bosnian passport he was issued in Vienna in 1993. According to a Sept. 1999 report in Dani, a Bosnian Muslim weekly paper, Alija Izetbegovic, then president of Bosnia, granted Mr. bin Laden a passport in recognition of his followers' contributions to Mr. Izetbegovic's quest to create a "fundamentalist Islamic republic" in the Balkans.
Dani also reported that al-Qaeda terrorist Mehrez Aodouni had been arrested in Istanbul while carrying a Bosnian passport. Like Mr. bin Laden, his citizenship had been granted "because he was a member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina army."
Canadian soldiers serving with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) were among the first to report the presence of mujahedeen among the Bosnian Muslims as early as 1992.
The Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal reported that, in 1993, Mr. bin Laden had appointed Sheik Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda's second-in-command, to direct his operations in the Balkans.
While no exact numbers exist, it is estimated that between 1,500 and 3,500 Arab volunteers participated in the Bosnian civil war. Their main area of operation was the region of Zenica, with most serving in a brigade under Gen. Sakib Mahmuljin, nicknamed "the Guerrillas." Identified by red and green "Rambo" bandannas emblazoned with a crest that read, "our road is Jihad," this unit quickly gained a reputation for brutality.
On June 27, 1993, the Sunday Times reported that even Bosnian Muslim officers had reservations about the mujahedeen volunteers. Col. Stjepan Siber, then deputy commander of the Bosnia-Herzegovina army, admitted to the Times that "It was a mistake to let (the mujahedeen) in here. They commit most of the atrocities and work against the interests of the Muslim people. They have been killing, looting and stealing."
According to reports, it was the mujahedeen who committed some of the worst atrocities of the war, under Gen. Nasir Oric in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. Beheadings of Serbian civilians were commonplace, and in some villages the mujahedeen would dynamite homes with the inhabitants trapped inside.
No attempt was made to hide such atrocities. In fact, Gen. Oric would often address the media at the site of the massacres. On one such occasion, while standing in front of mujahedeen displaying decapitated human heads as trophies, Gen. Oric pointed to a smouldering building in ruins and proudly announced to reporters, "We blew those Serbs to the moon."
Alija Izetbegovic was also proud to display the fighting prowess of his mujahedeen volunteers. Following a successful attack against Serbian positions around Vozuce on Sept. 10, 1995, the Bosnian president held a televised medal presentation. Mujahedeen warriors had served as the vanguard of the assault force, and were awarded 11 decorations for valour, including the Golden Crescent, Bosnia's highest honour.
Yugoslav intelligence estimates that citizenship was granted to more than 1,500 mujahedeen, including al-Qaeda members, following the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995. Most of those soldiers are believed to have settled in the Zenica region.
According to Miroslav Lazanski, author of the new book, Osama bin Laden Against America, al-Qaeda members still maintain two bases in Bosnia, one of them reserved for top fighters.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI and CIA agents uncovered evidence that two of the suicide hijackers had originated from this Bosnian camp. The commander of the camp, an Algerian named Abu Mali, was subsequently arrested while travelling in Istanbul on a Bosnian passport.
The U.S. military has taken a keen interest in mujahedeen activities in the Balkans since Sept. 11. Late last month, U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers visited NATO troops in Bosnia to warn them against a possible al-Qaeda retaliation attack. And on Dec. 4, the White House added two Albanian terrorist groups operating in Macedonia and Kosovo to its list of outlawed organizations.
And so, Mr. Clinton's dubious decisions in the Balkan conflagration two years ago have come back to haunt the U.S.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Scott Taylor, The Ottawa Citizen ;, Twenty-three-year-old Commander 'Jimmy,' one of an estimated 120, mujahedeen, or Islamic freedom fighters, that form the veteran core, of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla army known as the National, Liberation Army, claims he's a veteran of Chechnya and Kosovo.;, Photo: (Osama bin Laden) *****
***** Copyright 2002 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All Rights Reserved Ottawa Citizen February 22, 2002 Friday Final Edition SECTION: News; Pg. A12 LENGTH: 620 words HEADLINE: U.S. backed Albanian rebels with al-Qaeda links, book says: Author predicts renewed Balkan war SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen BYLINE: Bruce Garvey
BODY: The Balkans will likely be plunged into a new round of war as early as this spring, with fighting centred in Macedonia, according to a new book by Ottawa military writer Scott Taylor.
Diary of an Uncivil War warns that despite concessions made by the Macedonian government, ethnic Albanians and their guerrilla army, made up of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, are preparing for a major offensive in the region. The wildcard will be whether the U.S. government backs away from its support of the Albanians in their quest to take control of parts of the region they claim as theirs, Mr. Taylor writes. "While everyone is bracing for an Albanian offensive following the melting of the winter snows, what remains unclear is whether the U.S. will continue to support the guerrillas," Mr. Taylor writes. "Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that the U.S. will scale back its military presence in the Balkans. But it will not be easy for the Americans to disengage themselves from the mess they created without setting off another round of factional violence."
The ethnic Albanians and their guerrilla army are intent on carving out what they call "Greater Albania" -- an area that includes 90,000 square kilometres of Kosovo, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.
Mr. Taylor has covered the fighting and political situation in the Balkans over the past several years for the Citizen. Diary of an Uncivil War, published by Esprit de Corps books, has just been released in stores.
A news report this week from Macedonia includes warnings from western intelligence officials that former KLA guerrillas and Albanian extremists have used profits from a Taliban drug-smuggling ring to re-arm themselves. The money has been used to buy surface-to-air missiles that give the Albanians the ability to shoot down Macedonian helicopter gunships, one of that force's main deterrents against the guerrillas.
Mr. Taylor's book chronicles his first-hand observations of fighting in Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia over three years. It also outlines the strong support by former U.S. president Bill Clinton's government for the KLA, despite the links the guerrilla group has to extremist Muslim organizations such as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Mr. Taylor writes that the U.S. military has supplied the group with equipment and advisers, including former senior U.S. army officers, who have been training the Albanian guerrillas.
In some cases, the U.S. support has been blatant. In August 2001 U.S. troops were to disarm 500 KLA guerrillas and transport them to camps in Kosovo. Instead, they transported the men, still armed, to a location inside Macedonia near an ethnic Albanian stronghold. There the guerrillas promptly resumed their attacks.
But the Clinton administration's unofficial policy of supporting the ethnic Albanians and KLA has backfired and has only created instability in the region, Mr. Taylor argues.
The current crisis in Macedonia began last March, when Albanian guerrillas staged attacks from inside NATO-occupied Kosovo, using weapons that NATO was supposed to have confiscated, Mr. Taylor reports.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. also highlight the folly of Mr. Clinton's policies in the Balkans. Over the past decade, mujahedeen fighters, and in particular Mr. bin Laden's followers, have fought in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, and have benefited from the U.S. military support. Previously, Macedonian intelligence officials had tried to warn western governments that Arab and Afghan volunteers form the backbone of organizations such as the KLA.
An exclusive excerpt from Diary of an Uncivil War by Scott Taylor will appear tomorrow in the Citizen. ***** -- Yoshie
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