Al Qaeda in the Balkans
1. New Kosovo Violence is Start of Predicted 2004 Wave of Islamist
Operations: the Strategic Ramifications
2. Al Qaeda Roams in Serbia
=== 1 ===
New Kosovo Violence is Start of Predicted 2004 Wave of Islamist
Operations: the Strategic Ramifications
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1100906/posts
http://www.artel.co.yu/en/izbor/terorizam/2004-03-19.html
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily
Volume XXII, No. 50 Friday, March 19, 2004
Founded in 1972 Produced at least 200 times a year
� 2004, Global Information System, ISSA
Exclusive Special Report
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS, with input from GIS
Stations in Pri�tina, Belgrade and elsewhere.
The major wave of violence instigated in the Kosovo region of Serbia on
beginning on about March 14, 2004, and escalating dramatically through
March 18, 2004, is the start of the forecast series of unrest, guerilla
warfare and terrorist activity planned by radical Islamist leaders in
Bosnia, Albania, Iran and in the Islamist areas of Serbia, and directly
linked with the various al-Qaida-related mujahedin and terrorist cells
in the area.
Attempts have already been made to blame the violence on the very small
Serbian population which remains in Kosovo, but this is not credible,
and nor has the Serbian Government shown any enthusiasm to get involved
in the situation.
Sources confirm that the violence, which began on March 17, 2004, and
continued to escalate through March 18, 2004, is not an isolated
expression of frustration, but, rather, part of a planned �season� of
unrest designed explicitly to pull US and Western strategic focus away
from Iraq, and to ensure that US and Western peacekeeping forces �
which have been progressively diverted to Iraq operations and away from
Kosovo and Bosnia � will need to be held in the Balkans. The purposes
are multifold:
1. To remove US and Western focus on Iraq, thereby relieving pressure
on Iran�s clerical leadership and helping to ensure the retention of
Iranian capability to link, via Iraq, with Syria;
2. To demonstrate the failure of the Western �war on terror� and
specifically to discredit those Western leaders who supported the war
in the run-up to elections in the US and Australia;
3. To create a climate of instability around the Olympic Games,
scheduled for August 2004 in Athens, and which feature as a major
target for unrest and terrorism;
4. To consolidate Islamist control over parts of the Balkans,
specifically the so-called �green transversal�1 belt which links the
Adriatic Coast through Albania, FYR of Macedonia, the Serbian Kosovo
and Metohija region, the southern Serbia/northern Montenegro Ra�ka
(Sandzak) region, through the Gorazde Corridor into Bosnia, not only as
a terrorist corridor but also to facilitate a clear highway for
narco-trafficking and weapons shipments.
Significantly, the Serbian Government within the union of Serbia &
Montenegro, had, until the recent Serbian elections, attempted to
ignore the growing incitement to a new outbreak of violence and unrest
on the part of the Muslim community of southern Serbia (Ra�ka) and
Kosovo because it did not wish to be seen to be drawing attention to
the growing Muslim agitation. However, this action merely allowed the
process to continue to build without any major intelligence or policy
focus on the problem. The issue was compounded by the fact that two
major international oversight bodies � the Office of the High
Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and the German-controlled
command of UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) � both sided with radical
Islamists and known war-criminals also, presumably, to avoid the
appearance of being anti-Muslim.
The warnings of this wave of violence were explicitly clearly and
starkly forecast by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs reports over the past
year, and specifically on October 15, 2003, Defense & Foreign Affairs
Daily, in a report entitled Strong Warning Indicators for New Surge in
European Islamist Terrorism, which noted:
Intelligence sources in the Balkans and Middle East indicate that the
Iranian and Osama bin Laden terrorist networks, assets and alliances
built up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Southern
Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans are preparing for significant new
slate of operations. Initial operations in this �new slate� have
already begun in Kosovo, and are expected to expand in southern Serbia
in late October and into November 2003.
The intelligence, from a variety of primary sources within the Islamist
movements, points to:
1. Escalation of Islamist terrorist attacks on Serb civilians within
the predominantly Muslim region of Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian
province of Kosovo;
2. Commencement during October-November 2003 of seemingly-random
bombings of public places, including schools, in Muslim-dominated
cities in the southern Serbian/northern Montenegrin Ra�ka Oblast (this
oblast, or region � not a formal sub-state as in the Russian use of the
word �oblast� � is referred to by Islamists by its Turkish name,
Sandzak) as a prelude to wider violence in this area, and eastern
Montenegro, adjacent to the Albanian border and reaching down to the
Adriatic;
3. Coordination of incidents by the so-called �Albanian National Army�
� a current iteration of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, or UCK:
Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, in Albanian; OVK in Serbo-Croat) � in
Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with activities in
Ra�ka, led by the Bosnian radical Islamist party, SDA (Party of
Democratic Action) of Alija Izetbegovic, and all supported by Albanian
Government-approved/backed training facilities inside Albania, close to
the border with Serbian Kosovo;
4. Escalation of incidents � including threats, political action,
terrorist action � within Bosnia-Herzegovina, designed to further
polarize the Serbian and Croat population away from the Muslim
population;
5. Eventual escalation of �incidents� to create a �no-go� area for
Serbian, Montenegrin, Republica Srpska security forces and
international peacekeepers in a swathe of contiguous territory from the
Adriatic through Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Southern Serbia and
Macedonia into Bosnia-Herzegovina, effectively dissecting the Republica
Srpska state (which is within Bosnia-Herzegovina) at the Gorazde
Corridor and isolating Montenegro;
6. Using the extensive save-haven areas and �no-go� zones created by
the actions, undertake a range of terrorist actions against targets in
Greece � which is contiguous with Albania and (FYR) Macedonia � during
(and possibly before) the August 2004 Olympic Games. Specific
intelligence points to the fact that the Islamist groups have already
predetermined target opportunities during the Games.
News sources indicated on March 18, 2004, that NATO could dispatch
nearly 2,000 additional troops to Kosovo, including 750 from the United
Kingdom, to deal with the new unrest. As of March 18, 2004, after only
a few days of unrest, it was understood that 35 NATO troops had been
injured. Some 350 extra troops were already being sent in, including US
and Italians from Bosnia, as well as British forces. The UK Government
then announced it was sending 750 new troops into Kosovo. At least 14
people had been reported killed in Kosovo as a result of the new
fighting, much of which centers around the divided town of Mitrovica;
hundreds have been injured.
A crowd of Albanians, estimated at 3,000 strong, attacked the UN police
station in Mitrovica before crossing the city's main bridge and heading
into the Serbian side where there were exchanges of machinegun fire and
hand-grenades. The Albanian groups were seen to be in possession of
heavy automatic weapons and grenades. It had been claimed that the
Albanians had mobilized to attack Serbs who had allegedly chased
several boys into a river where three of them were drowned, ostensibly
in retaliation for an earlier (and confirmed) drive-by shooting in
which a Serbian youth was killed.
However, UNMIK spokesman Derek Chappell said on the night of March 18,
2004, that the survivor of the March 17, 2004, Ibar River drowning had
told his parents that he and three friends entered the river alone and
were immediately caught up in the heavy current. The boy managed to
reach the opposite bank of the river, but his three companions were
swept away. It was clear that the Albanian forces were mobilized and
ready for the assault and that the story about the drownings was merely
used as a convenient claim on which to base the attacks.
But what seemed clear was the the German-run UNMIK forces were totally
unprepared for the outbreak, despite the warnings and knowledge of
Islamist plans for such actions. As a result, UN forces were known to
have withdrawn rather than protect Serb areas and Serbian Orthodox
churches, which were supposedly to be protected as cultural heritage
sites. The Kosovo Force (KFOR) units fared somewhat better, using
rubber bullets and tear gas, but they, too, were unprepared for the
scale of the operations conducted by the Albanians.
A German spokesman had, in recent months, made clear anti-Serbian
remarks, highlighting the biased nature of the supposedly impartial
international force supposedly administering Kosovo with the support of
KFOR military units and police provided by donor nations [a Polish
police unit was in charge of the area of Metrovica when the incident
occurred]. UNMIK had, additionally, on several occasions, tried to
overturn international warrants and criminal proceedings against one of
the key Kosovo radicals, known war criminal Agim Ceku, who was now
working as the Commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), which
was, in fact, created out of the narco-terrorism organization, the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK).2
The October 15, 2003, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs report also
indicated that Ceku�s KPC was directly engaged in support of
Albanian-trained Islamist terrorists, noting:
�During the first half of August 2003, 300 Albanian-trained guerillas �
including appr. 10 mujahedin (non-Balkan Muslims) � were infiltrated
across the Albanian border into Kosovo, where many have subsequently
been seen in the company (and homes) of members of the so-called Kosovo
Protection Corps which was created out of Kosovo Albanian elements
originally part of the KLA. In fact, the Kosovo Protection Force seems
almost synonymous with the Albanian National Army (ANA), the new
designation for the KLA. The guerillas were trained in three camps
inside the Albanian border at the towns of Bajram Curi, Tropoja and
Kuks, where the camps have been in operation since 1997.�
All of the warning signs are there for an escalation of substantial
proportions, both in Kosovo and in neighboring areas. On March 18,
2004, Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily highlighted the confluence of
Islamist terrorist activities in 2004, in a report entitled Terrorism,
the Olympics and Elections: the 2004 Confluence. What that report made
clear was the fact that the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid were a
precursor for the �season� of violence, and the success of the actions
there in shaping the political outcome of the Spanish general election
gave strong impetus to the actions planned for the Olympics, the US and
elsewhere.
The campaign to paint the Serbs as the aggressors included references,
picked up by international media, that Serbia & Montenegrin forces
and/or internal security forces from the Republic of Serbia were
deployed to move back into Kosovo. Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica
said on March 17, 2004, that �our military and police units are not
deployed along the administrative line with Kosovo-Metohija�. Speaking
at a news conference after the Serbian Government's special session
held to discuss the clashes in Kosovo-Metohija, Kostunica said that
news about the army and police presence at the administrative line
dividing Kosovo province from the rest of Serbia were misinformation
spread on purpose in order to justify a further radicalization of the
situation.3
This was confirmed by intelligence sources on the ground in Kosovo;
there were no Serbian military or police deployments in the area.
Similarly, reports of the sacking of a mosque in Belgrade by Serbs was
also distorted, largely to cover the fact that a significant number of
Serbian Orthodox churches had been destroyed by the Albanians in
Kosovo: destructions which were witnessed, and not prevented, by UNMIK
forces on some occasions. There was, however, an incident at the mosque
in Belgrade, and a GIS source witnessed the incident on March 17, 2004,
and noted: �Hooligans � and that�s what they really were: drunk kids,
17 to 22 years old � pillaged the interior of the mosque as well as the
madarasa [Islamic school].� The source said that the teenagers lit a
fire in front of the mosque, but did not damage it.
UN Police Director for Information in Kosovo, Derek Chappell, noted on
March 17, 2004: �In the past weeks there have been a number of
incidents that have escalated tension. We had a hand grenade attack on
the residence of President of Kosovo last Friday, we have had four or
five hand grenades thrown on the streets of Pri�tina, we had a bomb
left on the front of UN headquarters two weeks ago and a Serbian youth
was shot in a drive-by shooting this last Monday evening [March 15,
2004]. These incidents have tended to create a feeling of fear and
uncertainty and last night we had three Albanian youngsters who drowned
in a river, allegedly as a result of being chased into the river by
Serbs, and this seems to have been the catalyst that finally drove
people into the streets and we saw this violence that erupted today
[March 17, 2004].�
However, as noted in repeated reports by GIS since mid-2004, the
escalation was planned, and � because of pressures to move US and other
forces out of the area to aid Iraq deployments � NATO intelligence and
planning officials downplayed the threat.
The matter was not helped when, in recent weeks, former US Clinton
Administration State Dept. Assistant Secretary of State Richard
Holbrooke said that the break-up of the former Yugoslavia was not yet
complete: it required that Montenegro and Kosovo be broken off to form
separate sovereign states. A number of officials from the region told
GIS that they thought that this comment must have reflected official
positions in Washington. Almost certainly the statement by Holbrooke
gave encouragement and incitement to the new wave of attacks in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, on the night of March 18, 2004, Serbia & Montenegro Pres.
Svetozar Marovic convened a special session of the Serbia & Montenegro
Supreme Defense Council, to discuss the latest escalation of clashes.
The Council issued a statement that which said that it was following
with great concern the escalation of organized violence in Kosovo and
Metohija, and was calling on, and expecting from, UNMIK and KFOR, as
well as from other international institutions, to ensure the protection
of the lives of Serbs and Montenegrins and of their property in Kosovo
and Metohija and to fulfill other commitments undertaken under
resolution 1244. The Supreme Defence Council supported the contacts of
relevant bodies of Serbia and Montenegro, the Serbian Government and
the Army of Serbia and Montenegro with international institutions and
expressed a readiness of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro to lend
assistance to the international forces for stabilizing the situation in
Kosovo and Metohija in keeping with resolution 1244, within the mandate
of KFOR and UNMIK.
The Supreme Defense Council, along with the existing activities of the
Army of Serbia and Montenegro, ordered the Chief of Staff to follow the
situation and to suggest to the Supreme Defense Council what measures
should be taken next. Apart from the chairman and members of the
Council, Acting Pres. of Serbia Predrag Markovic and Montenegrin Pres.
Filip Vujanovic, also took part in the meeting, along with Serbian
Premier Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia & Montenegro Defense Minister Boris
Tadic, Deputy Defense Minister Vukasin Maras, Chief of Staff Gen.
Branko Krga and Supreme Defense Council secretary Col. Ljunisa Jokic.
Fewer than 20,000 KFOR troops remain in Kosovo, and the few Serbs who
remain there still live in ghetto conditions; very few who fled during
the fighting in 1999 have returned to their former homes. Serbs now
represent only about 10 percent of Kosovo�s two-million population.
It would, however, be unwise to focus solely on the Kosovo incidents
without seeing them in the light of regional developments and the
larger picture, including operations in and related to the ongoing
peacekeeping operations in Iraq. Significantly, as the Kosovo operation
itself got underway, al-Qaida senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was
reportedly being besieged by Pakistan Army forces in southern
Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and his
brother Mohammed (currently in an Egyptian prison) organized and led
much of the terrorist, mujahedin and narco-trafficking arrangements in
both Bosnia and Kosovo. And these arrangements remain central to
al-Qaida and Iranian strategic operations to move from defensive
operations against the US-led Coalition forces to strongly offensive
operations in the run-up to the 2004 US elections.
Footnotes:
1. The attempt to create a Muslim belt from the Adriatic Sea up into
the heart of Europe has been known for many decades by the Islamists as
the �green transversal�, the green standing for the Muslim color
(although, ironically, it is also the color of the Orthodox
Christians), and transversal meaning a line or path on the ascendant.
The Bosnian Muslims, even during the Tito era, managed to inject the
name onto sports stadium in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia &
Herzegovina. The Zetra Stadium specifically stands for ZElena (Green)
TRAnsverszala, in Serbo-Croat.
2. See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, October 23, 2003: Slovenia
Arrests Key Kosovo Islamist, Based on Serbia-Montenegro Indictment. And
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, March 5, 2004: UN Mission In Kosovo
Continues Protection for KLA Leader Ceku. See also Defense & Foreign
Affairs Daily, February 11, 2004: Report on Albanian Criminal-Terrorist
Links Providing Key Intelligence for Olympics Security, �War on Terror�.
3.. See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, November 17, 2003: New Balkans
Islamist Weapons Supply Line Tied to 9/11 Players and Contact of
Holbrooke. And Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily report of September 17,
2004: Bosnian Official Links With Terrorism, Including 9/11, Become
Increasingly Apparent as Clinton, Clark Attempt to Justify Support of
Bosnian Militants.
=== 2 ===
Al Qaeda Roams in Serbia
http://www.artel.co.yu/en/izbor/jugoslavija/2004-05-11.html
TERRORISM / COUNTER TERRORISM
02/24/04
NACIONAL (P, S, I, CG)
Serbian daily newspaper from Belgrade
Belgrade: �Thirteen of nineteen hijackers who destroyed the World Trade
Center buildings in New York and attacked the Pentagon were in Kosovo,
Metohija, Kosovo and Bosnia. They were for a while in the house of an
American citizen of the Bosnian origin,� Dr. Miroljub Jevtic, a
Political Science Faculty Professor and expert for Islam, said to
�Nacional�. He pointed out that he had reached that �unbelievable data�
during his several-day stay in the U.S. (from where he had just
returned) from two very influential people he had met. �I could not
personally verify this information, but my sources are very well
informed. One of them belongs to the category of exceptionally well
informed and reliable people whose pieces of information should not be
doubted,� Jeftic pointed out, refusing to say who he was. The most
famous European expert on Islam stated this information so as to
confirm his and other warnings, particularly by the Military-Security
Agency, that the extreme terrorist organizations �Vehabija�, �Crvena
Ruza� (Red Rose), and �Teratikt� operated in Kosmet (Kosovo/Metohija),
Montenegro, BiH, Albania, and Macedonia and they belonged to the
network of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. �I personally do not
know COL Stojanovic, but if it happens that I meet him, I will tell him
that he is absolutely right for every stated assessment. Furthermore,
he also stated the concrete facts which confirmed all this: Fatos
Klosi, the recently replaced Security Chief of Albania, stated that
Osama bin Laden visited Albania in one Saudi Arabian delegation in
mid-eighties so as to establish his network. Professor Jeftic stated
one more fact that, he said, �was as firm as concrete� and which
confirmed that the al Qaeda terrorists were in these areas and that
their ramified network existed here. �Seik Ben Abdel Kader, the French
citizen, was sentenced before the Albanian Court in Tirana for killing
his translator, the Albanian citizen. In the course of trial, he
himself admitted that he was a member of Osama bin Laden�s terrorist
organization. He also said that he had come to Albania to prepare the
Albanian Muslims for �jihad� against Serbs in Kosmet,� Jeftic claimed.
He pointed out that the extreme organizations linked with al Qaeda were
also present in Sandzak and Montenegro. According to the al Qaeda
ideologists, these were parts of the �Islamic area�, he said. Sandzak
was physically connected with Kosmet and BiH. All those who had fought
in Bosnia in the Army of Alija Izetbegovic established their
organizations in these areas, which al Qaeda looked at as �its own�;
they did this through the SDA of Alija Izetbegovic. He said that Rozaje
and Tutin were �the most Muslim areas among all Muslims of the Serb
language�. Criticisms of Momir Stojanovic, the Military-Security Agency
Director, for the stances about the work of the extremist organizations
in the al Qaeda network in Montenegro were politicized and in the
function of fight for power preserving. �The Montenegrin government
maintains itself by collaborating with the Albanian separatists and
Muslim lobby. The reveling of such activities of extremists means the
fall of the government and later, when everything is revealed, the
criminal responsibility as well. Some one will have to go to prison for
these lapses,� Jeftic claimed. �
Al Qaeda threatens SiCG as well. The additional motive will be the
deployment of our soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. Every foreign force
that will be there will be the legitimate target from the point of view
of al Qaeda.� He also said: �Some one will be held responsible,
although this is pretty covered up. Slobodan Milosevic and his
Socialist government should be the first one responsible for this, then
DOS, which just spiced up all this. Two people from the �List for
Sandzak� are on the DS list. Sulejman Ugljanin leads this political
group. In two books of interviews, Adil Zulfikarpasic, who used to be
the Vice President of the party whose functionary Ugljanin is, said
that the party of �Sulejman Ugljanin, that is, the SDA, was organized
in fascist manner�. This indirectly shows that Zulfikarpasic could be a
court witness that the DS is in coalition with fascists,� Jeftic said.
�IP (D.V. Petrovic, pg. � 2 of 32)
[Sono state eliminare la parti non di testo del messaggio]
1. New Kosovo Violence is Start of Predicted 2004 Wave of Islamist
Operations: the Strategic Ramifications
2. Al Qaeda Roams in Serbia
=== 1 ===
New Kosovo Violence is Start of Predicted 2004 Wave of Islamist
Operations: the Strategic Ramifications
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1100906/posts
http://www.artel.co.yu/en/izbor/terorizam/2004-03-19.html
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily
Volume XXII, No. 50 Friday, March 19, 2004
Founded in 1972 Produced at least 200 times a year
� 2004, Global Information System, ISSA
Exclusive Special Report
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS, with input from GIS
Stations in Pri�tina, Belgrade and elsewhere.
The major wave of violence instigated in the Kosovo region of Serbia on
beginning on about March 14, 2004, and escalating dramatically through
March 18, 2004, is the start of the forecast series of unrest, guerilla
warfare and terrorist activity planned by radical Islamist leaders in
Bosnia, Albania, Iran and in the Islamist areas of Serbia, and directly
linked with the various al-Qaida-related mujahedin and terrorist cells
in the area.
Attempts have already been made to blame the violence on the very small
Serbian population which remains in Kosovo, but this is not credible,
and nor has the Serbian Government shown any enthusiasm to get involved
in the situation.
Sources confirm that the violence, which began on March 17, 2004, and
continued to escalate through March 18, 2004, is not an isolated
expression of frustration, but, rather, part of a planned �season� of
unrest designed explicitly to pull US and Western strategic focus away
from Iraq, and to ensure that US and Western peacekeeping forces �
which have been progressively diverted to Iraq operations and away from
Kosovo and Bosnia � will need to be held in the Balkans. The purposes
are multifold:
1. To remove US and Western focus on Iraq, thereby relieving pressure
on Iran�s clerical leadership and helping to ensure the retention of
Iranian capability to link, via Iraq, with Syria;
2. To demonstrate the failure of the Western �war on terror� and
specifically to discredit those Western leaders who supported the war
in the run-up to elections in the US and Australia;
3. To create a climate of instability around the Olympic Games,
scheduled for August 2004 in Athens, and which feature as a major
target for unrest and terrorism;
4. To consolidate Islamist control over parts of the Balkans,
specifically the so-called �green transversal�1 belt which links the
Adriatic Coast through Albania, FYR of Macedonia, the Serbian Kosovo
and Metohija region, the southern Serbia/northern Montenegro Ra�ka
(Sandzak) region, through the Gorazde Corridor into Bosnia, not only as
a terrorist corridor but also to facilitate a clear highway for
narco-trafficking and weapons shipments.
Significantly, the Serbian Government within the union of Serbia &
Montenegro, had, until the recent Serbian elections, attempted to
ignore the growing incitement to a new outbreak of violence and unrest
on the part of the Muslim community of southern Serbia (Ra�ka) and
Kosovo because it did not wish to be seen to be drawing attention to
the growing Muslim agitation. However, this action merely allowed the
process to continue to build without any major intelligence or policy
focus on the problem. The issue was compounded by the fact that two
major international oversight bodies � the Office of the High
Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and the German-controlled
command of UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) � both sided with radical
Islamists and known war-criminals also, presumably, to avoid the
appearance of being anti-Muslim.
The warnings of this wave of violence were explicitly clearly and
starkly forecast by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs reports over the past
year, and specifically on October 15, 2003, Defense & Foreign Affairs
Daily, in a report entitled Strong Warning Indicators for New Surge in
European Islamist Terrorism, which noted:
Intelligence sources in the Balkans and Middle East indicate that the
Iranian and Osama bin Laden terrorist networks, assets and alliances
built up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Southern
Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans are preparing for significant new
slate of operations. Initial operations in this �new slate� have
already begun in Kosovo, and are expected to expand in southern Serbia
in late October and into November 2003.
The intelligence, from a variety of primary sources within the Islamist
movements, points to:
1. Escalation of Islamist terrorist attacks on Serb civilians within
the predominantly Muslim region of Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian
province of Kosovo;
2. Commencement during October-November 2003 of seemingly-random
bombings of public places, including schools, in Muslim-dominated
cities in the southern Serbian/northern Montenegrin Ra�ka Oblast (this
oblast, or region � not a formal sub-state as in the Russian use of the
word �oblast� � is referred to by Islamists by its Turkish name,
Sandzak) as a prelude to wider violence in this area, and eastern
Montenegro, adjacent to the Albanian border and reaching down to the
Adriatic;
3. Coordination of incidents by the so-called �Albanian National Army�
� a current iteration of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, or UCK:
Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, in Albanian; OVK in Serbo-Croat) � in
Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with activities in
Ra�ka, led by the Bosnian radical Islamist party, SDA (Party of
Democratic Action) of Alija Izetbegovic, and all supported by Albanian
Government-approved/backed training facilities inside Albania, close to
the border with Serbian Kosovo;
4. Escalation of incidents � including threats, political action,
terrorist action � within Bosnia-Herzegovina, designed to further
polarize the Serbian and Croat population away from the Muslim
population;
5. Eventual escalation of �incidents� to create a �no-go� area for
Serbian, Montenegrin, Republica Srpska security forces and
international peacekeepers in a swathe of contiguous territory from the
Adriatic through Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Southern Serbia and
Macedonia into Bosnia-Herzegovina, effectively dissecting the Republica
Srpska state (which is within Bosnia-Herzegovina) at the Gorazde
Corridor and isolating Montenegro;
6. Using the extensive save-haven areas and �no-go� zones created by
the actions, undertake a range of terrorist actions against targets in
Greece � which is contiguous with Albania and (FYR) Macedonia � during
(and possibly before) the August 2004 Olympic Games. Specific
intelligence points to the fact that the Islamist groups have already
predetermined target opportunities during the Games.
News sources indicated on March 18, 2004, that NATO could dispatch
nearly 2,000 additional troops to Kosovo, including 750 from the United
Kingdom, to deal with the new unrest. As of March 18, 2004, after only
a few days of unrest, it was understood that 35 NATO troops had been
injured. Some 350 extra troops were already being sent in, including US
and Italians from Bosnia, as well as British forces. The UK Government
then announced it was sending 750 new troops into Kosovo. At least 14
people had been reported killed in Kosovo as a result of the new
fighting, much of which centers around the divided town of Mitrovica;
hundreds have been injured.
A crowd of Albanians, estimated at 3,000 strong, attacked the UN police
station in Mitrovica before crossing the city's main bridge and heading
into the Serbian side where there were exchanges of machinegun fire and
hand-grenades. The Albanian groups were seen to be in possession of
heavy automatic weapons and grenades. It had been claimed that the
Albanians had mobilized to attack Serbs who had allegedly chased
several boys into a river where three of them were drowned, ostensibly
in retaliation for an earlier (and confirmed) drive-by shooting in
which a Serbian youth was killed.
However, UNMIK spokesman Derek Chappell said on the night of March 18,
2004, that the survivor of the March 17, 2004, Ibar River drowning had
told his parents that he and three friends entered the river alone and
were immediately caught up in the heavy current. The boy managed to
reach the opposite bank of the river, but his three companions were
swept away. It was clear that the Albanian forces were mobilized and
ready for the assault and that the story about the drownings was merely
used as a convenient claim on which to base the attacks.
But what seemed clear was the the German-run UNMIK forces were totally
unprepared for the outbreak, despite the warnings and knowledge of
Islamist plans for such actions. As a result, UN forces were known to
have withdrawn rather than protect Serb areas and Serbian Orthodox
churches, which were supposedly to be protected as cultural heritage
sites. The Kosovo Force (KFOR) units fared somewhat better, using
rubber bullets and tear gas, but they, too, were unprepared for the
scale of the operations conducted by the Albanians.
A German spokesman had, in recent months, made clear anti-Serbian
remarks, highlighting the biased nature of the supposedly impartial
international force supposedly administering Kosovo with the support of
KFOR military units and police provided by donor nations [a Polish
police unit was in charge of the area of Metrovica when the incident
occurred]. UNMIK had, additionally, on several occasions, tried to
overturn international warrants and criminal proceedings against one of
the key Kosovo radicals, known war criminal Agim Ceku, who was now
working as the Commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), which
was, in fact, created out of the narco-terrorism organization, the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK).2
The October 15, 2003, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs report also
indicated that Ceku�s KPC was directly engaged in support of
Albanian-trained Islamist terrorists, noting:
�During the first half of August 2003, 300 Albanian-trained guerillas �
including appr. 10 mujahedin (non-Balkan Muslims) � were infiltrated
across the Albanian border into Kosovo, where many have subsequently
been seen in the company (and homes) of members of the so-called Kosovo
Protection Corps which was created out of Kosovo Albanian elements
originally part of the KLA. In fact, the Kosovo Protection Force seems
almost synonymous with the Albanian National Army (ANA), the new
designation for the KLA. The guerillas were trained in three camps
inside the Albanian border at the towns of Bajram Curi, Tropoja and
Kuks, where the camps have been in operation since 1997.�
All of the warning signs are there for an escalation of substantial
proportions, both in Kosovo and in neighboring areas. On March 18,
2004, Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily highlighted the confluence of
Islamist terrorist activities in 2004, in a report entitled Terrorism,
the Olympics and Elections: the 2004 Confluence. What that report made
clear was the fact that the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid were a
precursor for the �season� of violence, and the success of the actions
there in shaping the political outcome of the Spanish general election
gave strong impetus to the actions planned for the Olympics, the US and
elsewhere.
The campaign to paint the Serbs as the aggressors included references,
picked up by international media, that Serbia & Montenegrin forces
and/or internal security forces from the Republic of Serbia were
deployed to move back into Kosovo. Serbian Premier Vojislav Kostunica
said on March 17, 2004, that �our military and police units are not
deployed along the administrative line with Kosovo-Metohija�. Speaking
at a news conference after the Serbian Government's special session
held to discuss the clashes in Kosovo-Metohija, Kostunica said that
news about the army and police presence at the administrative line
dividing Kosovo province from the rest of Serbia were misinformation
spread on purpose in order to justify a further radicalization of the
situation.3
This was confirmed by intelligence sources on the ground in Kosovo;
there were no Serbian military or police deployments in the area.
Similarly, reports of the sacking of a mosque in Belgrade by Serbs was
also distorted, largely to cover the fact that a significant number of
Serbian Orthodox churches had been destroyed by the Albanians in
Kosovo: destructions which were witnessed, and not prevented, by UNMIK
forces on some occasions. There was, however, an incident at the mosque
in Belgrade, and a GIS source witnessed the incident on March 17, 2004,
and noted: �Hooligans � and that�s what they really were: drunk kids,
17 to 22 years old � pillaged the interior of the mosque as well as the
madarasa [Islamic school].� The source said that the teenagers lit a
fire in front of the mosque, but did not damage it.
UN Police Director for Information in Kosovo, Derek Chappell, noted on
March 17, 2004: �In the past weeks there have been a number of
incidents that have escalated tension. We had a hand grenade attack on
the residence of President of Kosovo last Friday, we have had four or
five hand grenades thrown on the streets of Pri�tina, we had a bomb
left on the front of UN headquarters two weeks ago and a Serbian youth
was shot in a drive-by shooting this last Monday evening [March 15,
2004]. These incidents have tended to create a feeling of fear and
uncertainty and last night we had three Albanian youngsters who drowned
in a river, allegedly as a result of being chased into the river by
Serbs, and this seems to have been the catalyst that finally drove
people into the streets and we saw this violence that erupted today
[March 17, 2004].�
However, as noted in repeated reports by GIS since mid-2004, the
escalation was planned, and � because of pressures to move US and other
forces out of the area to aid Iraq deployments � NATO intelligence and
planning officials downplayed the threat.
The matter was not helped when, in recent weeks, former US Clinton
Administration State Dept. Assistant Secretary of State Richard
Holbrooke said that the break-up of the former Yugoslavia was not yet
complete: it required that Montenegro and Kosovo be broken off to form
separate sovereign states. A number of officials from the region told
GIS that they thought that this comment must have reflected official
positions in Washington. Almost certainly the statement by Holbrooke
gave encouragement and incitement to the new wave of attacks in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, on the night of March 18, 2004, Serbia & Montenegro Pres.
Svetozar Marovic convened a special session of the Serbia & Montenegro
Supreme Defense Council, to discuss the latest escalation of clashes.
The Council issued a statement that which said that it was following
with great concern the escalation of organized violence in Kosovo and
Metohija, and was calling on, and expecting from, UNMIK and KFOR, as
well as from other international institutions, to ensure the protection
of the lives of Serbs and Montenegrins and of their property in Kosovo
and Metohija and to fulfill other commitments undertaken under
resolution 1244. The Supreme Defence Council supported the contacts of
relevant bodies of Serbia and Montenegro, the Serbian Government and
the Army of Serbia and Montenegro with international institutions and
expressed a readiness of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro to lend
assistance to the international forces for stabilizing the situation in
Kosovo and Metohija in keeping with resolution 1244, within the mandate
of KFOR and UNMIK.
The Supreme Defense Council, along with the existing activities of the
Army of Serbia and Montenegro, ordered the Chief of Staff to follow the
situation and to suggest to the Supreme Defense Council what measures
should be taken next. Apart from the chairman and members of the
Council, Acting Pres. of Serbia Predrag Markovic and Montenegrin Pres.
Filip Vujanovic, also took part in the meeting, along with Serbian
Premier Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia & Montenegro Defense Minister Boris
Tadic, Deputy Defense Minister Vukasin Maras, Chief of Staff Gen.
Branko Krga and Supreme Defense Council secretary Col. Ljunisa Jokic.
Fewer than 20,000 KFOR troops remain in Kosovo, and the few Serbs who
remain there still live in ghetto conditions; very few who fled during
the fighting in 1999 have returned to their former homes. Serbs now
represent only about 10 percent of Kosovo�s two-million population.
It would, however, be unwise to focus solely on the Kosovo incidents
without seeing them in the light of regional developments and the
larger picture, including operations in and related to the ongoing
peacekeeping operations in Iraq. Significantly, as the Kosovo operation
itself got underway, al-Qaida senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was
reportedly being besieged by Pakistan Army forces in southern
Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and his
brother Mohammed (currently in an Egyptian prison) organized and led
much of the terrorist, mujahedin and narco-trafficking arrangements in
both Bosnia and Kosovo. And these arrangements remain central to
al-Qaida and Iranian strategic operations to move from defensive
operations against the US-led Coalition forces to strongly offensive
operations in the run-up to the 2004 US elections.
Footnotes:
1. The attempt to create a Muslim belt from the Adriatic Sea up into
the heart of Europe has been known for many decades by the Islamists as
the �green transversal�, the green standing for the Muslim color
(although, ironically, it is also the color of the Orthodox
Christians), and transversal meaning a line or path on the ascendant.
The Bosnian Muslims, even during the Tito era, managed to inject the
name onto sports stadium in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia &
Herzegovina. The Zetra Stadium specifically stands for ZElena (Green)
TRAnsverszala, in Serbo-Croat.
2. See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, October 23, 2003: Slovenia
Arrests Key Kosovo Islamist, Based on Serbia-Montenegro Indictment. And
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, March 5, 2004: UN Mission In Kosovo
Continues Protection for KLA Leader Ceku. See also Defense & Foreign
Affairs Daily, February 11, 2004: Report on Albanian Criminal-Terrorist
Links Providing Key Intelligence for Olympics Security, �War on Terror�.
3.. See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, November 17, 2003: New Balkans
Islamist Weapons Supply Line Tied to 9/11 Players and Contact of
Holbrooke. And Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily report of September 17,
2004: Bosnian Official Links With Terrorism, Including 9/11, Become
Increasingly Apparent as Clinton, Clark Attempt to Justify Support of
Bosnian Militants.
=== 2 ===
Al Qaeda Roams in Serbia
http://www.artel.co.yu/en/izbor/jugoslavija/2004-05-11.html
TERRORISM / COUNTER TERRORISM
02/24/04
NACIONAL (P, S, I, CG)
Serbian daily newspaper from Belgrade
Belgrade: �Thirteen of nineteen hijackers who destroyed the World Trade
Center buildings in New York and attacked the Pentagon were in Kosovo,
Metohija, Kosovo and Bosnia. They were for a while in the house of an
American citizen of the Bosnian origin,� Dr. Miroljub Jevtic, a
Political Science Faculty Professor and expert for Islam, said to
�Nacional�. He pointed out that he had reached that �unbelievable data�
during his several-day stay in the U.S. (from where he had just
returned) from two very influential people he had met. �I could not
personally verify this information, but my sources are very well
informed. One of them belongs to the category of exceptionally well
informed and reliable people whose pieces of information should not be
doubted,� Jeftic pointed out, refusing to say who he was. The most
famous European expert on Islam stated this information so as to
confirm his and other warnings, particularly by the Military-Security
Agency, that the extreme terrorist organizations �Vehabija�, �Crvena
Ruza� (Red Rose), and �Teratikt� operated in Kosmet (Kosovo/Metohija),
Montenegro, BiH, Albania, and Macedonia and they belonged to the
network of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. �I personally do not
know COL Stojanovic, but if it happens that I meet him, I will tell him
that he is absolutely right for every stated assessment. Furthermore,
he also stated the concrete facts which confirmed all this: Fatos
Klosi, the recently replaced Security Chief of Albania, stated that
Osama bin Laden visited Albania in one Saudi Arabian delegation in
mid-eighties so as to establish his network. Professor Jeftic stated
one more fact that, he said, �was as firm as concrete� and which
confirmed that the al Qaeda terrorists were in these areas and that
their ramified network existed here. �Seik Ben Abdel Kader, the French
citizen, was sentenced before the Albanian Court in Tirana for killing
his translator, the Albanian citizen. In the course of trial, he
himself admitted that he was a member of Osama bin Laden�s terrorist
organization. He also said that he had come to Albania to prepare the
Albanian Muslims for �jihad� against Serbs in Kosmet,� Jeftic claimed.
He pointed out that the extreme organizations linked with al Qaeda were
also present in Sandzak and Montenegro. According to the al Qaeda
ideologists, these were parts of the �Islamic area�, he said. Sandzak
was physically connected with Kosmet and BiH. All those who had fought
in Bosnia in the Army of Alija Izetbegovic established their
organizations in these areas, which al Qaeda looked at as �its own�;
they did this through the SDA of Alija Izetbegovic. He said that Rozaje
and Tutin were �the most Muslim areas among all Muslims of the Serb
language�. Criticisms of Momir Stojanovic, the Military-Security Agency
Director, for the stances about the work of the extremist organizations
in the al Qaeda network in Montenegro were politicized and in the
function of fight for power preserving. �The Montenegrin government
maintains itself by collaborating with the Albanian separatists and
Muslim lobby. The reveling of such activities of extremists means the
fall of the government and later, when everything is revealed, the
criminal responsibility as well. Some one will have to go to prison for
these lapses,� Jeftic claimed. �
Al Qaeda threatens SiCG as well. The additional motive will be the
deployment of our soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. Every foreign force
that will be there will be the legitimate target from the point of view
of al Qaeda.� He also said: �Some one will be held responsible,
although this is pretty covered up. Slobodan Milosevic and his
Socialist government should be the first one responsible for this, then
DOS, which just spiced up all this. Two people from the �List for
Sandzak� are on the DS list. Sulejman Ugljanin leads this political
group. In two books of interviews, Adil Zulfikarpasic, who used to be
the Vice President of the party whose functionary Ugljanin is, said
that the party of �Sulejman Ugljanin, that is, the SDA, was organized
in fascist manner�. This indirectly shows that Zulfikarpasic could be a
court witness that the DS is in coalition with fascists,� Jeftic said.
�IP (D.V. Petrovic, pg. � 2 of 32)
[Sono state eliminare la parti non di testo del messaggio]