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[Emperor's Clothes]
AMERICA AT WAR IN MACEDONIA
by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of
Ottawa [14 June 2001]
[See map at
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
. ]
Washington's covert war in Macedonia aims to
consolidate America's sphere of influence
in southeastern Europe. At stake is the strategic
Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania transport, communications
and oil pipeline "corridor" which links the Black Sea
to the Adriatic coast. Macedonia stands at the
strategic crossroads of the oil pipeline corridor.
To protect these pipeline routes, Washington's goal is
to install a "patchwork of protectorates" along
strategic corridors in the Balkans. The promise of
"Greater Albania" used by Washington to foment
Albanian nationalism is part of the
military-intelligence ploy. Amply documented, the
latter consists in
financing and equipping the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and its National Liberation Army (NLA) proxy
to wage the terrorist assaults in Macedonia.
The development of America's sphere of influence in
Southeastern Europe --in complicity with Britain--
supports the interests of the oil giants including
BP-Amoco-ARCO, Chevron and Texaco. Securing
control and "protecting" the pipeline routes is
paramount to the success of these multi-billion dollar
ventures:
AA successful international oil regime is a
combination of economic, political, and military
arrangements to support oil production and
transportation to markets.1
The Anglo-American consortium which controls the AMBO
Trans-Balkan pipeline project linking the
Bulgarian port of Burgas to Vlore on the Albanian
Adriatic coastline largely excludes the participation of
Europe's competing oil giant Total-Fina-Elf. 2 In
other words, US strategic control over the pipeline
corridor is intent upon weakening the role of the
European Union and keeping competing European
business interests at arms' length.
WHO IS BEHIND THE TRANS-BALKAN PIPELINE?
The US based AMBO pipeline consortium is directly
linked to the seat of political and military power in
the United States and Vice President Dick Cheney's
firm Halliburton Energy.3
The feasibility study for AMBO's Trans-Balkan Oil
Pipeline, conducted by the international engineering
company of Brown & Root Ltd. [Halliburton's British
subsidiary] has determined that this pipeline...will
become a part of the region's critical East-West
corridor infrastructure which includes highway, railway,
gas and fiber optic telecommunications lines.4
And upon completion of the feasibility study by
Halliburton, a senior executive of Halliburton was
appointed CEO of AMBO. Halliburton was also granted a
contract to service US troops in the Balkans
and build "Bondsteel" in Kosovo, which now constitutes
"the largest American foreign military base
constructed since Vietnam".5 Coincidentally, White and
Case LLT, the New York law firm that President
William J. Clinton joined when he left the White House
also has a stake in the AMBO pipeline deal.
MILITARISATION OF THE PIPELINE CORRIDORS
The AMBO Trans-Balkans pipeline project would link up
with the pipeline corridors between the Black
Sea and the Caspian Sea basin, which lies at the hub
of the World's largest unexplored oil reserves
(See map of
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
). The militarisation of these
various corridors is an integral part of Washington's
design.
The US policy of "protecting the pipeline routes" out
of the Caspian Sea basin (and across the Balkans)
was spelled out by Clinton's Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson barely a few months prior to the 1999
bombing of Yugoslavia:
"This is about America's energy security... It's also
about preventing strategic inroads by those who
don't share our values. We're trying to move these
newly independent countries toward the west... We
would like to see them reliant on western commercial
and political interests rather than going another
way. We've made a substantial political investment in
the Caspian, and it's very important to us that
both the pipeline map and the politics come out
right."6
The Anglo-American oil giants, including
BP-Amoco-Arco, Texaco and Chevron --supported by US
military might-- are competing with Europe's oil giant
Total-Fina-Elf (associated with Italy's ENI) which
is a big player in Kazakhstan's wealthy North East
Caspian Kashagan oil fields. The stakes are high:
Kashagan is reported "so large as to even surpass the
size of the North Sea oil reserves."7 The
competing EU based consortium, however, lacks a
significant stake and leverage in the main pipeline
routes out of the Caspian Sea basin and back (via the
Black Sea and through the Balkans) to Western
Europe. The key pipeline corridor projects --including
the AMBO project and the Baku-Cehyan project
through Turkey to the Mediterranean-- are largely in
the hands of their Anglo-American rivals, which
rely heavily on US political and military presence in
both the Caspian basin and the Balkans.
Washington's design is to eventually distance all
three AMBO countries, namely Bulgaria, Macedonia
and Albania from German-EU influence through the
installation of full-fledged US protectorates. In
other words, US militarisation and geopolitical
control over the projected pipeline linking Burgas in
Bulgaria to the Adriatic port of Vlore in Albania is
intent upon undermining EU influence as well as
weakening competing Franco-Belgian-Italian oil
interests.
Negotiations concerning the AMBO pipeline have been
supported by US government officials through
the Trade and Development Agency's (TDA) South Balkan
Development Initiative (SBDI) "designed to
help Albania, Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia further
develop and integrate their transportation
infrastructure along the east-west corridor that
connects them."8
The TDA points to the need for the three countries to
"use regional synergies to leverage new public
and private capital [from US companies]" while
underscoring the responsibility of the US government
"for implementing the initiative." With regard to the
AMBO pipeline, it would appear that the EU has
largely been excluded from the planning and
negotiations. "Memoranda of understanding" (MOU) have
already been signed with the governments of Albania,
Bulgaria and Macedonia which strip the
countries' national sovereignty over both the pipeline
and the transport corridors by providing
"exclusive rights" to the Anglo-American consortium:
" ...[The] MOU states that AMBO will be the only party
allowed to build the planned Burgas-Vlore oil
pipeline. More specifically, it gives AMBO the
exclusive right to negotiate with investors in and
creditors of the project. It also obligates ... [the
governments of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania] not
to disclose certain confidential information on the
pipeline project.9
"EAST-WEST CORRIDOR 8"
The AMBO pipeline project is linked up with another
strategic project entitled "Corridor 8", initially
proposed by the Clinton Administration in the context
of the "Balkans Stability Pact". Of strategic
importance to both the US and the European Union,
"Corridor 8" includes highway, railway, electricity
and telecommunications infrastructure. In turn, the
existing infrastructure in these sectors is slated for
deregulation and privatisation (at rock bottom prices)
under IMF-World Bank supervision.
Although rubber-stamped by EU transport ministers as
part of the process of European economic
integration, "Corridor 8" feasibility studies were
conducted by US companies financed directly by the
TDA. In other words, Washington seems to have set the
stage for the takeover of the countries'
transport and communications infrastructure. American
corporations including Bechtel, Enron and
General Electric (with financial backing from the US
government) are competing with companies from
the European Union.
Washington's design is to open up the entire corridor
to US multinationals in a region situated in the
European Union's "economic backyard", where the power
of the Deutschmark tends to dominate over
that of the US dollar.
"EU ENLARGEMENT"
In early 2000, the European Commission began
negotiations on EU associate membership status with
Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania. And in April 2001, at
the height of the terrorist assaults, Macedonia
became the first country in the Balkans to sign a
so-called "stabilisation and association agreement"
(SAA) constituting an important step towards full EU
membership. The agreement provides the basis
for "trade liberalisation, political co-operation,
economic and institutional reform and transplantation of
EU legislation." Under the SAA, Macedonia would (de
facto) be integrated into the European monetary
system, with full access to the EU market.10
The terrorist assaults coincided chronologically with
the process of "EU enlargement", gaining
momentum barely a few weeks before the signing of the
historic "association agreement" with
Macedonia. Amply documented, the US has military
advisers working with the terrorists. Was this a
mere coincidence?
Also, Robert Frowick, "a former US diplomat", was
appointed to head the OSCE mission in Macedonia in
mid-March, again barely a few weeks before the signing
of the "association agreement." In close liaison
with Washington and the US embassy in Skopje, Frowick
initiated a "dialogue" with NLA rebel leader Ali
Ahmeti. He was also instrumental in brokering an
agreement between Ahmeti and the leaders of the
Albanian parties, which form part of the government
coalition.
This agreement negotiated by Frowick has largely
contributed to destabilising political institutions,
while at the same time jeopardising the process of EU
enlargement.11 Moreover, the deteriorating
security situation in Macedonia has provided a pretext
for increased US political, "humanitarian" and
military interference, while contributing to weakening
Skopje's economic and political ties to Germany
and the EU. In this regard, one of the "binding
conditions" of the "association agreement" is that
Macedonia conform to "EU standards on democracy".12
Needless to say, without a "functioning
government" in Macedonia, the EU association process
with Brussels cannot proceed.
The puppet governments installed in Tirana, Skopje and
Sofia, while largely responding to US diktats,
are currently being swayed in the direction of the
European Union. Washington's intent is ultimately to
curb Germany's "Lebensraum" into Southeastern Europe.
While paying lip service to "EU enlargement",
the US has consistently favoured "NATO enlargement" as
a means to pursuing its strategic interests in
Eastern Europe and the Balkans, while Germany and
France have opposed it.
While the tone of international diplomacy remains
mannerly and polite, US foreign policy under the
Bush administration has become distinctly
"anti-European". According to one observer:
"At the heart of the Bush team, Colin Powell is
[considered] the friend of the Europeans, while the
other ministers and advisers are considered arrogant,
hard and indisposed to listen or to give the
Europeans a place."13
GERMANY AND AMERICA
Amply documented, the CIA is behind the KLA and the
NLA rebels, who are waging the terrorist
assaults against the Macedonian security forces. While
the CIA's German counterpart the Bundes
Nachrichten Dienst (BND) collaborated with the CIA in
overseeing and financing the KLA prior to the
1999 war, recent developments suggest that the BND is
not involved in Washington's
military-intelligence ploy in Macedonia.14
Barely a few weeks before the signing of the
"association agreement" with the European Union,
German troops stationed in Macedonia in the Tetovo
region were (mid March 2001) "accidentally"
targeted by the NLA. While the Western media --echoing
in chorus the official statements-- maintains
that German troops were "caught in the cross-fire",
reports from Tetovo suggest that the NLA shelling
"was deliberate." In any event, the incident would not
have occurred had Germany's BND been working
with the rebel army:
"Up to 600 German troops were forced to leave Tetovo
overnight after their barracks... were caught in
crossfire... [They] were too lightly armed to defend
themselves against the Albanians. The Germans
will replace the departing troops with a Leopard tank
squadron [belonging to the
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie division stationed in
Nordrein-Westphalen]. ...[T]he new [German] firepower
may be used to knock out Albanian positions now
established around Tetovo,..." 15
In a bitter irony, two of the commanders responsible
for the terrorist assaults in the Tetovo region had
been trained by British Special Forces:
"Embarrassingly for KFOR, it emerged that two of the
Kosovo-based commanders leading the Albanian
push [into the Tetovo region] were trained by former
British SAS and Parachute Regiment officers in the
days when NATO was more comfortable with the fledgling
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). A former
member of a European special forces unit who
accompanied the KLA during the Kosovo conflict said
that a commander with the nom de guerre of Bilal was
organising the flow of arms and men into
Macedonia, and that the veteran KLA commander Adem
Bajrami was helping to co-ordinate the assault
on Tetovo. Both were taught by British soldiers in the
secretive training camps that operated above
Bajram Curri in northern Albania during 1998 and
1999."16
These same British trained rebel commanders view
Germany as the "enemy" because Bundeswehr
troops stationed in Macedonia and Kosovo --rather than
providing "protection" to NLA "freedom
fighters" in the same way as their British and
American KFOR counterparts-- frequently detain
"suspected terrorists" at the border:
"A spokesman for the Albanians' National Liberation
Army (NLA) in Pristina warned the Bundeswehr its
involvement would constitute 'a declaration of war by
the Federal Republic of Germany'". 17
In response to NLA threats, the Bundeswehr sent in its
own Special Forces, the Fallschirmj�ger
(Parachutists) to work with its
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie squadron.18 German Defence
Minister Rudolf
Scharping confirmed that "he was ready to send more
tanks and troops to bolster Bundeswehr
forces".19 Yet in recent developments, Berlin has
chosen to withdraw most of its troops from the
Tetovo region and not in any way challenge the US
military-intelligence ploy in support of the NLA
rebels. Some of these German troops are now stationed
on the Kosovo side of the border.
While the NLA received a shipment of brand new
advanced weaponry "made in America", Germany
donated (mid-June) to the Macedonian Security forces
all terrain vehicles as well as weapons "for
sophisticated infrared tracing in the battlefield."
According to a report from Macedonia, the small
contingent of German troops which still remains in the
Tetovo region "was under heavy attack from the
terrorists who attacked them with mortar from the
mountains above Tetovo. That is probably the
response of yesterday's [14 June 2001] donation to our
army made by the German government".20
While divisions between "NATO allies" are never made
public, Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka
Fischer --in a strongly worded statement to the
Bundestag directed against "the Albanian extremists in
Macedonia"-- has called for "a long-term arrangement,
aimed to make the whole region closer to
Europe." (i.e. free of US encroachment). The German
position is in marked contrast to that put forth by
the US, which requires the Skopje government to grant
amnesty to the terrorists, modify the country's
constitution and incorporate the NLA rebels in
civilian politics:
"The pact reportedly called for the rebels to stop
their fight in exchange for amnesty guarantees. The
rebels would also have the right to veto future
political decisions regarding ethnic Albanian rights. The
accord was reportedly mediated by Robert Frowick, a
former U.S. envoy who currently served as a
Balkan representative for the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe." 21
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN AXIS
The clash between Germany and America in the Balkans
is part of a much broader process which affects
the heart of the Western military-industrial complex
and defence establishment.
>>From the early 1990s, the US and Germany have acted
jointly as NATO partners in the Balkans,
coordinating their respective military, intelligence
and foreign policy initiatives. While maintaining in
their public statements a semblance of political
unity, serious divisions started to emerge in the wake
of the Dayton Accords (1995), as German banks
scrambled to impose the Deutschmark and take over
the monetary system of Yugoslavia's successor states.
Moreover, in the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia,
the US has reinforced its strategic, military and
intelligence ties with Britain, while Britain has
severed many of its ties (particularly in the area of
defence and aerospace production) with Germany and
France.
Launched in early 2000, U.S. Defense Secretary William
Cohen and his British counterpart, Geoff Hoon,
signed a "Declaration of Principles for Defense
Equipment and Industrial Cooperation''. 22 Washington's
objective was to encourage the formation of a
"transatlantic bridge across which the DoD
[US Department of Defense] can take its globalization
policy to Europe."23
The US defence industry --which now includes British
Aerospace Systems (BaeS)-- is clashing with the
Franco-German defence consortium EADS --a conglomerate
composed of France's Aerospatiale Matra,
Deutsche Aerospace, which is part of the powerful
Daimler group, and Spain's CASA. In other words, a
major split in the Western military-industrial complex
has occurred with the US and Britain on one side
and Germany and France on the other.
Oil, guns and the Western military alliance are
intimately related processes. Washington's design is to
eventually ensure the dominance of the US
military-industrial complex in alliance with the
Anglo-American oil giants and Britain's major defense
contractors. These developments evidently also
have a bearing on the control over strategic
pipelines, transport and communications corridors in the
Balkans, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
In turn, this Anglo-American axis is also matched by
increased cooperation between the CIA and
Britain's MI5 in the sphere of intelligence and covert
operations as evidenced by the role played by
British SAS Special Forces in training KLA rebels.
WAR, "DOLLARISATION" AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER
"Protection" of the pipelines, covert activities and
the recycling of drug money in support of armed
insurgencies, militarisation of strategic corridors,
defence procurement to "Partnership for Peace" (PfP)
countries are all an integral part of the
Anglo-American axis and its quest to dominate oil and gas
routes and transport corridors out of the Caspian sea
basin and from the Black sea across the Balkans.
More generally, what is happening in the broader
region linking Eastern Europe and the Balkans to the
former Soviet republics is a relentless scramble for
control over national economies by competing
business conglomerates. And behind this process is the
quest by Wall Street's financial establishment
--in alliance with the defence and oil giants-- to
destabilise and discredit the Deutschmark (and the
Euro) with a view to imposing the US dollar as the
sole currency for the region.
Control over "money creation" --imposing the rule of
the US Federal Reserve system throughout the
World-- has become a central feature of US
expansionism. In this regard, Washington's
military-intelligence ploy not only consists in
undermining "EU enlargement", it is also intent upon
weakening and displacing the dominion of Germany's
largest banking institutions (e.g. Deutsche Bank,
Commerzbank and WestDeutsche Landesbank) throughout
the Balkans.
In other words, the New World Order is marked by the
clash between Europe and America for "colonial
control" over national currencies. And this conflict
between "competing capitalist blocks" will become
increasingly acute when several hundred million people
from Eastern Europe and the Balkans to Central
Asia start using the Euro as their "de facto" national
currency on January 1st 2002.
See map at
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
).
NOTES
1 Robert V. Baryiski, The Caspian Oil Regime: Military
Dimensions, Caspian Crossroads Magazine
,Volume 1, Issue No. 2, Spring 1995.
2. Reference to the European Union in this article
should be interpreted as the "European Union minus
Britain".
3 See Albanian Telegraph Agency, Tirana 28 July 1998
and Milsnews, Skopje, 23 January, 1997 available at
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a379fb721329c.htm.
4. Milsnews, op cit.
5. See Karen Talbot's incisive analysis: "Former
Yugoslavia: The Name of the Game is Oil, People's
Weekly World, May 2001 at
http://www.ecadre.net/pages/news/stories/990197752.shtml
, see also
Marjorie Cohn, "Pacification for a pipeline:
explaining the US Military presence in the
Balkans, The Jurist, Legal Education Network, June 2001,
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumnew22.htm.
6. George Monbiot, A Discreet Deal in the Pipeline,
The Guardian, 15 February 2001.
7. Richard Giragosian, "Massive Kashagan Oil Strike
Renews Geopolitical Offensive In Caspian", The
Analyst, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns
Hopkins University-Paul H. Nitze School
of Advanced International Studies, 7 June, 2000,
http://www.soros.org/caucasus/0059.html.
8. See the Trade and Development (TDA) by Region at
http://www.tda.gov/region/sbdi.html.
9. Alexander Gas and Oil Connections,
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nte04224.htm,
October 2000.
10. Under so-called "asymmetric trade preferences"
with the EU.
11. For further details on the role of Robert Frowick,
see Michel Chossudovsky, "Macedonia:
Washington's Military-Intelligence Ploy". June 2001
12. See AFP, 10 April 2001.
13. According to Pascal Boniface, director of the
Paris Institute of International and Strategic Relations,
UPI, 11 April 2001.
14. For details on CIA-BND support to the KLA see
Michel Chossudovsky, "Kosovo Freedom Fighters
Financed by Organised Crime", Covert Action Quarterly,
Fall 1999 also available at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html),
15 Tom Walker, NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster,
Sunday Times, London, 18 March 2001,
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. See Deutsche Fallschirmj�ger nach Tetovo, Spiegel
Online, 24 March 2001, see also, Bundeswehr
verlegt Soldaten ins Kosovo, Spiegel Online, 23 March
2001.
19. Deutsche Press Agentur, 19 March 2001,
20. Information transmitted to the author from Skopje,
June 2001.
21. Facts on File, World News Digest, 30 May 2001.
22. Reuters, 5 February 2000.
23. The agreement was signed (according to a Pentagon
official quoted in Muradian) shortly after the
creation of British Aerospace Systems resulting from
the merger of BAe with GEC Marconi. British
Aerospace (Bae) was already firmly allied to America's
largest defense contractors Lockheed Martin and
Boeing. For further details see Vago Muradian,
Pentagon Sees Bridge to Europe, Defense Daily, Vol.
204, No. 40 Dec. 01, 1999.
Recent articles by the author on the Balkans:
"Washington Finances Ethnic Warfare in the Balkans",
April 2001, at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/fin.htm
or
http://www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/extra/x0404mc.htm
"Economic Terrorism", May 2001 at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/eco1.htm or
http://alainet.org/active/show_news.phtml?news_id25
.
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, June 2001.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to
post this text on non-commercial community internet
sites, provided the essay remains intact and the
copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in
printed and/or other form, contact the author at
chossudovsky@..., fax: 1-514-4256224.
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[Emperor's Clothes]
AMERICA AT WAR IN MACEDONIA
by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of
Ottawa [14 June 2001]
[See map at
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
. ]
Washington's covert war in Macedonia aims to
consolidate America's sphere of influence
in southeastern Europe. At stake is the strategic
Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania transport, communications
and oil pipeline "corridor" which links the Black Sea
to the Adriatic coast. Macedonia stands at the
strategic crossroads of the oil pipeline corridor.
To protect these pipeline routes, Washington's goal is
to install a "patchwork of protectorates" along
strategic corridors in the Balkans. The promise of
"Greater Albania" used by Washington to foment
Albanian nationalism is part of the
military-intelligence ploy. Amply documented, the
latter consists in
financing and equipping the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and its National Liberation Army (NLA) proxy
to wage the terrorist assaults in Macedonia.
The development of America's sphere of influence in
Southeastern Europe --in complicity with Britain--
supports the interests of the oil giants including
BP-Amoco-ARCO, Chevron and Texaco. Securing
control and "protecting" the pipeline routes is
paramount to the success of these multi-billion dollar
ventures:
AA successful international oil regime is a
combination of economic, political, and military
arrangements to support oil production and
transportation to markets.1
The Anglo-American consortium which controls the AMBO
Trans-Balkan pipeline project linking the
Bulgarian port of Burgas to Vlore on the Albanian
Adriatic coastline largely excludes the participation of
Europe's competing oil giant Total-Fina-Elf. 2 In
other words, US strategic control over the pipeline
corridor is intent upon weakening the role of the
European Union and keeping competing European
business interests at arms' length.
WHO IS BEHIND THE TRANS-BALKAN PIPELINE?
The US based AMBO pipeline consortium is directly
linked to the seat of political and military power in
the United States and Vice President Dick Cheney's
firm Halliburton Energy.3
The feasibility study for AMBO's Trans-Balkan Oil
Pipeline, conducted by the international engineering
company of Brown & Root Ltd. [Halliburton's British
subsidiary] has determined that this pipeline...will
become a part of the region's critical East-West
corridor infrastructure which includes highway, railway,
gas and fiber optic telecommunications lines.4
And upon completion of the feasibility study by
Halliburton, a senior executive of Halliburton was
appointed CEO of AMBO. Halliburton was also granted a
contract to service US troops in the Balkans
and build "Bondsteel" in Kosovo, which now constitutes
"the largest American foreign military base
constructed since Vietnam".5 Coincidentally, White and
Case LLT, the New York law firm that President
William J. Clinton joined when he left the White House
also has a stake in the AMBO pipeline deal.
MILITARISATION OF THE PIPELINE CORRIDORS
The AMBO Trans-Balkans pipeline project would link up
with the pipeline corridors between the Black
Sea and the Caspian Sea basin, which lies at the hub
of the World's largest unexplored oil reserves
(See map of
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
). The militarisation of these
various corridors is an integral part of Washington's
design.
The US policy of "protecting the pipeline routes" out
of the Caspian Sea basin (and across the Balkans)
was spelled out by Clinton's Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson barely a few months prior to the 1999
bombing of Yugoslavia:
"This is about America's energy security... It's also
about preventing strategic inroads by those who
don't share our values. We're trying to move these
newly independent countries toward the west... We
would like to see them reliant on western commercial
and political interests rather than going another
way. We've made a substantial political investment in
the Caspian, and it's very important to us that
both the pipeline map and the politics come out
right."6
The Anglo-American oil giants, including
BP-Amoco-Arco, Texaco and Chevron --supported by US
military might-- are competing with Europe's oil giant
Total-Fina-Elf (associated with Italy's ENI) which
is a big player in Kazakhstan's wealthy North East
Caspian Kashagan oil fields. The stakes are high:
Kashagan is reported "so large as to even surpass the
size of the North Sea oil reserves."7 The
competing EU based consortium, however, lacks a
significant stake and leverage in the main pipeline
routes out of the Caspian Sea basin and back (via the
Black Sea and through the Balkans) to Western
Europe. The key pipeline corridor projects --including
the AMBO project and the Baku-Cehyan project
through Turkey to the Mediterranean-- are largely in
the hands of their Anglo-American rivals, which
rely heavily on US political and military presence in
both the Caspian basin and the Balkans.
Washington's design is to eventually distance all
three AMBO countries, namely Bulgaria, Macedonia
and Albania from German-EU influence through the
installation of full-fledged US protectorates. In
other words, US militarisation and geopolitical
control over the projected pipeline linking Burgas in
Bulgaria to the Adriatic port of Vlore in Albania is
intent upon undermining EU influence as well as
weakening competing Franco-Belgian-Italian oil
interests.
Negotiations concerning the AMBO pipeline have been
supported by US government officials through
the Trade and Development Agency's (TDA) South Balkan
Development Initiative (SBDI) "designed to
help Albania, Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia further
develop and integrate their transportation
infrastructure along the east-west corridor that
connects them."8
The TDA points to the need for the three countries to
"use regional synergies to leverage new public
and private capital [from US companies]" while
underscoring the responsibility of the US government
"for implementing the initiative." With regard to the
AMBO pipeline, it would appear that the EU has
largely been excluded from the planning and
negotiations. "Memoranda of understanding" (MOU) have
already been signed with the governments of Albania,
Bulgaria and Macedonia which strip the
countries' national sovereignty over both the pipeline
and the transport corridors by providing
"exclusive rights" to the Anglo-American consortium:
" ...[The] MOU states that AMBO will be the only party
allowed to build the planned Burgas-Vlore oil
pipeline. More specifically, it gives AMBO the
exclusive right to negotiate with investors in and
creditors of the project. It also obligates ... [the
governments of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania] not
to disclose certain confidential information on the
pipeline project.9
"EAST-WEST CORRIDOR 8"
The AMBO pipeline project is linked up with another
strategic project entitled "Corridor 8", initially
proposed by the Clinton Administration in the context
of the "Balkans Stability Pact". Of strategic
importance to both the US and the European Union,
"Corridor 8" includes highway, railway, electricity
and telecommunications infrastructure. In turn, the
existing infrastructure in these sectors is slated for
deregulation and privatisation (at rock bottom prices)
under IMF-World Bank supervision.
Although rubber-stamped by EU transport ministers as
part of the process of European economic
integration, "Corridor 8" feasibility studies were
conducted by US companies financed directly by the
TDA. In other words, Washington seems to have set the
stage for the takeover of the countries'
transport and communications infrastructure. American
corporations including Bechtel, Enron and
General Electric (with financial backing from the US
government) are competing with companies from
the European Union.
Washington's design is to open up the entire corridor
to US multinationals in a region situated in the
European Union's "economic backyard", where the power
of the Deutschmark tends to dominate over
that of the US dollar.
"EU ENLARGEMENT"
In early 2000, the European Commission began
negotiations on EU associate membership status with
Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania. And in April 2001, at
the height of the terrorist assaults, Macedonia
became the first country in the Balkans to sign a
so-called "stabilisation and association agreement"
(SAA) constituting an important step towards full EU
membership. The agreement provides the basis
for "trade liberalisation, political co-operation,
economic and institutional reform and transplantation of
EU legislation." Under the SAA, Macedonia would (de
facto) be integrated into the European monetary
system, with full access to the EU market.10
The terrorist assaults coincided chronologically with
the process of "EU enlargement", gaining
momentum barely a few weeks before the signing of the
historic "association agreement" with
Macedonia. Amply documented, the US has military
advisers working with the terrorists. Was this a
mere coincidence?
Also, Robert Frowick, "a former US diplomat", was
appointed to head the OSCE mission in Macedonia in
mid-March, again barely a few weeks before the signing
of the "association agreement." In close liaison
with Washington and the US embassy in Skopje, Frowick
initiated a "dialogue" with NLA rebel leader Ali
Ahmeti. He was also instrumental in brokering an
agreement between Ahmeti and the leaders of the
Albanian parties, which form part of the government
coalition.
This agreement negotiated by Frowick has largely
contributed to destabilising political institutions,
while at the same time jeopardising the process of EU
enlargement.11 Moreover, the deteriorating
security situation in Macedonia has provided a pretext
for increased US political, "humanitarian" and
military interference, while contributing to weakening
Skopje's economic and political ties to Germany
and the EU. In this regard, one of the "binding
conditions" of the "association agreement" is that
Macedonia conform to "EU standards on democracy".12
Needless to say, without a "functioning
government" in Macedonia, the EU association process
with Brussels cannot proceed.
The puppet governments installed in Tirana, Skopje and
Sofia, while largely responding to US diktats,
are currently being swayed in the direction of the
European Union. Washington's intent is ultimately to
curb Germany's "Lebensraum" into Southeastern Europe.
While paying lip service to "EU enlargement",
the US has consistently favoured "NATO enlargement" as
a means to pursuing its strategic interests in
Eastern Europe and the Balkans, while Germany and
France have opposed it.
While the tone of international diplomacy remains
mannerly and polite, US foreign policy under the
Bush administration has become distinctly
"anti-European". According to one observer:
"At the heart of the Bush team, Colin Powell is
[considered] the friend of the Europeans, while the
other ministers and advisers are considered arrogant,
hard and indisposed to listen or to give the
Europeans a place."13
GERMANY AND AMERICA
Amply documented, the CIA is behind the KLA and the
NLA rebels, who are waging the terrorist
assaults against the Macedonian security forces. While
the CIA's German counterpart the Bundes
Nachrichten Dienst (BND) collaborated with the CIA in
overseeing and financing the KLA prior to the
1999 war, recent developments suggest that the BND is
not involved in Washington's
military-intelligence ploy in Macedonia.14
Barely a few weeks before the signing of the
"association agreement" with the European Union,
German troops stationed in Macedonia in the Tetovo
region were (mid March 2001) "accidentally"
targeted by the NLA. While the Western media --echoing
in chorus the official statements-- maintains
that German troops were "caught in the cross-fire",
reports from Tetovo suggest that the NLA shelling
"was deliberate." In any event, the incident would not
have occurred had Germany's BND been working
with the rebel army:
"Up to 600 German troops were forced to leave Tetovo
overnight after their barracks... were caught in
crossfire... [They] were too lightly armed to defend
themselves against the Albanians. The Germans
will replace the departing troops with a Leopard tank
squadron [belonging to the
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie division stationed in
Nordrein-Westphalen]. ...[T]he new [German] firepower
may be used to knock out Albanian positions now
established around Tetovo,..." 15
In a bitter irony, two of the commanders responsible
for the terrorist assaults in the Tetovo region had
been trained by British Special Forces:
"Embarrassingly for KFOR, it emerged that two of the
Kosovo-based commanders leading the Albanian
push [into the Tetovo region] were trained by former
British SAS and Parachute Regiment officers in the
days when NATO was more comfortable with the fledgling
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). A former
member of a European special forces unit who
accompanied the KLA during the Kosovo conflict said
that a commander with the nom de guerre of Bilal was
organising the flow of arms and men into
Macedonia, and that the veteran KLA commander Adem
Bajrami was helping to co-ordinate the assault
on Tetovo. Both were taught by British soldiers in the
secretive training camps that operated above
Bajram Curri in northern Albania during 1998 and
1999."16
These same British trained rebel commanders view
Germany as the "enemy" because Bundeswehr
troops stationed in Macedonia and Kosovo --rather than
providing "protection" to NLA "freedom
fighters" in the same way as their British and
American KFOR counterparts-- frequently detain
"suspected terrorists" at the border:
"A spokesman for the Albanians' National Liberation
Army (NLA) in Pristina warned the Bundeswehr its
involvement would constitute 'a declaration of war by
the Federal Republic of Germany'". 17
In response to NLA threats, the Bundeswehr sent in its
own Special Forces, the Fallschirmj�ger
(Parachutists) to work with its
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie squadron.18 German Defence
Minister Rudolf
Scharping confirmed that "he was ready to send more
tanks and troops to bolster Bundeswehr
forces".19 Yet in recent developments, Berlin has
chosen to withdraw most of its troops from the
Tetovo region and not in any way challenge the US
military-intelligence ploy in support of the NLA
rebels. Some of these German troops are now stationed
on the Kosovo side of the border.
While the NLA received a shipment of brand new
advanced weaponry "made in America", Germany
donated (mid-June) to the Macedonian Security forces
all terrain vehicles as well as weapons "for
sophisticated infrared tracing in the battlefield."
According to a report from Macedonia, the small
contingent of German troops which still remains in the
Tetovo region "was under heavy attack from the
terrorists who attacked them with mortar from the
mountains above Tetovo. That is probably the
response of yesterday's [14 June 2001] donation to our
army made by the German government".20
While divisions between "NATO allies" are never made
public, Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka
Fischer --in a strongly worded statement to the
Bundestag directed against "the Albanian extremists in
Macedonia"-- has called for "a long-term arrangement,
aimed to make the whole region closer to
Europe." (i.e. free of US encroachment). The German
position is in marked contrast to that put forth by
the US, which requires the Skopje government to grant
amnesty to the terrorists, modify the country's
constitution and incorporate the NLA rebels in
civilian politics:
"The pact reportedly called for the rebels to stop
their fight in exchange for amnesty guarantees. The
rebels would also have the right to veto future
political decisions regarding ethnic Albanian rights. The
accord was reportedly mediated by Robert Frowick, a
former U.S. envoy who currently served as a
Balkan representative for the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe." 21
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN AXIS
The clash between Germany and America in the Balkans
is part of a much broader process which affects
the heart of the Western military-industrial complex
and defence establishment.
>>From the early 1990s, the US and Germany have acted
jointly as NATO partners in the Balkans,
coordinating their respective military, intelligence
and foreign policy initiatives. While maintaining in
their public statements a semblance of political
unity, serious divisions started to emerge in the wake
of the Dayton Accords (1995), as German banks
scrambled to impose the Deutschmark and take over
the monetary system of Yugoslavia's successor states.
Moreover, in the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia,
the US has reinforced its strategic, military and
intelligence ties with Britain, while Britain has
severed many of its ties (particularly in the area of
defence and aerospace production) with Germany and
France.
Launched in early 2000, U.S. Defense Secretary William
Cohen and his British counterpart, Geoff Hoon,
signed a "Declaration of Principles for Defense
Equipment and Industrial Cooperation''. 22 Washington's
objective was to encourage the formation of a
"transatlantic bridge across which the DoD
[US Department of Defense] can take its globalization
policy to Europe."23
The US defence industry --which now includes British
Aerospace Systems (BaeS)-- is clashing with the
Franco-German defence consortium EADS --a conglomerate
composed of France's Aerospatiale Matra,
Deutsche Aerospace, which is part of the powerful
Daimler group, and Spain's CASA. In other words, a
major split in the Western military-industrial complex
has occurred with the US and Britain on one side
and Germany and France on the other.
Oil, guns and the Western military alliance are
intimately related processes. Washington's design is to
eventually ensure the dominance of the US
military-industrial complex in alliance with the
Anglo-American oil giants and Britain's major defense
contractors. These developments evidently also
have a bearing on the control over strategic
pipelines, transport and communications corridors in the
Balkans, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
In turn, this Anglo-American axis is also matched by
increased cooperation between the CIA and
Britain's MI5 in the sphere of intelligence and covert
operations as evidenced by the role played by
British SAS Special Forces in training KLA rebels.
WAR, "DOLLARISATION" AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER
"Protection" of the pipelines, covert activities and
the recycling of drug money in support of armed
insurgencies, militarisation of strategic corridors,
defence procurement to "Partnership for Peace" (PfP)
countries are all an integral part of the
Anglo-American axis and its quest to dominate oil and gas
routes and transport corridors out of the Caspian sea
basin and from the Black sea across the Balkans.
More generally, what is happening in the broader
region linking Eastern Europe and the Balkans to the
former Soviet republics is a relentless scramble for
control over national economies by competing
business conglomerates. And behind this process is the
quest by Wall Street's financial establishment
--in alliance with the defence and oil giants-- to
destabilise and discredit the Deutschmark (and the
Euro) with a view to imposing the US dollar as the
sole currency for the region.
Control over "money creation" --imposing the rule of
the US Federal Reserve system throughout the
World-- has become a central feature of US
expansionism. In this regard, Washington's
military-intelligence ploy not only consists in
undermining "EU enlargement", it is also intent upon
weakening and displacing the dominion of Germany's
largest banking institutions (e.g. Deutsche Bank,
Commerzbank and WestDeutsche Landesbank) throughout
the Balkans.
In other words, the New World Order is marked by the
clash between Europe and America for "colonial
control" over national currencies. And this conflict
between "competing capitalist blocks" will become
increasingly acute when several hundred million people
from Eastern Europe and the Balkans to Central
Asia start using the Euro as their "de facto" national
currency on January 1st 2002.
See map at
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html
).
NOTES
1 Robert V. Baryiski, The Caspian Oil Regime: Military
Dimensions, Caspian Crossroads Magazine
,Volume 1, Issue No. 2, Spring 1995.
2. Reference to the European Union in this article
should be interpreted as the "European Union minus
Britain".
3 See Albanian Telegraph Agency, Tirana 28 July 1998
and Milsnews, Skopje, 23 January, 1997 available at
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a379fb721329c.htm.
4. Milsnews, op cit.
5. See Karen Talbot's incisive analysis: "Former
Yugoslavia: The Name of the Game is Oil, People's
Weekly World, May 2001 at
http://www.ecadre.net/pages/news/stories/990197752.shtml
, see also
Marjorie Cohn, "Pacification for a pipeline:
explaining the US Military presence in the
Balkans, The Jurist, Legal Education Network, June 2001,
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumnew22.htm.
6. George Monbiot, A Discreet Deal in the Pipeline,
The Guardian, 15 February 2001.
7. Richard Giragosian, "Massive Kashagan Oil Strike
Renews Geopolitical Offensive In Caspian", The
Analyst, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns
Hopkins University-Paul H. Nitze School
of Advanced International Studies, 7 June, 2000,
http://www.soros.org/caucasus/0059.html.
8. See the Trade and Development (TDA) by Region at
http://www.tda.gov/region/sbdi.html.
9. Alexander Gas and Oil Connections,
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nte04224.htm,
October 2000.
10. Under so-called "asymmetric trade preferences"
with the EU.
11. For further details on the role of Robert Frowick,
see Michel Chossudovsky, "Macedonia:
Washington's Military-Intelligence Ploy". June 2001
12. See AFP, 10 April 2001.
13. According to Pascal Boniface, director of the
Paris Institute of International and Strategic Relations,
UPI, 11 April 2001.
14. For details on CIA-BND support to the KLA see
Michel Chossudovsky, "Kosovo Freedom Fighters
Financed by Organised Crime", Covert Action Quarterly,
Fall 1999 also available at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html),
15 Tom Walker, NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster,
Sunday Times, London, 18 March 2001,
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. See Deutsche Fallschirmj�ger nach Tetovo, Spiegel
Online, 24 March 2001, see also, Bundeswehr
verlegt Soldaten ins Kosovo, Spiegel Online, 23 March
2001.
19. Deutsche Press Agentur, 19 March 2001,
20. Information transmitted to the author from Skopje,
June 2001.
21. Facts on File, World News Digest, 30 May 2001.
22. Reuters, 5 February 2000.
23. The agreement was signed (according to a Pentagon
official quoted in Muradian) shortly after the
creation of British Aerospace Systems resulting from
the merger of BAe with GEC Marconi. British
Aerospace (Bae) was already firmly allied to America's
largest defense contractors Lockheed Martin and
Boeing. For further details see Vago Muradian,
Pentagon Sees Bridge to Europe, Defense Daily, Vol.
204, No. 40 Dec. 01, 1999.
Recent articles by the author on the Balkans:
"Washington Finances Ethnic Warfare in the Balkans",
April 2001, at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/fin.htm
or
http://www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/extra/x0404mc.htm
"Economic Terrorism", May 2001 at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/eco1.htm or
http://alainet.org/active/show_news.phtml?news_id25
.
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, June 2001.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to
post this text on non-commercial community internet
sites, provided the essay remains intact and the
copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in
printed and/or other form, contact the author at
chossudovsky@..., fax: 1-514-4256224.
URGENT APPEAL! 14 JUNE 2001
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