The
Kosovo Liberation Army: Does Clinton Policy Support Group
with Terror, Drug Ties?
From 'Terrorists' to
'Partners'
U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee
Larry E. Craig, Chairman - Jade West, Staff Director
March 31, 1999
Publications Issue List Vote Analysis Main Page
On March 24, 1999, NATO initiated air attacks on
Yugoslavia (a federation of two republics, Serbia and
Montenegro) in order to impose a peace agreement in the
Serbian province of Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian
majority. The Clinton Administration has not formally
withdrawn its standing insistence that Belgrade sign the
peace agreement, which would entail the deployment in Kosovo
of some 28,000 NATO ground troops -- including 4,000
Americans -- to police the settlement. But in recent days
the Clinton public line has shifted to a demand that
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic halt the offensive he
has launched in Kosovo, which has led to a growing
humanitarian crisis in the region, before there can be a
stop to the bombing campaign.
One week into the bombing campaign, there is widespread
discussion of options for further actions. One option
includes forging a closer relationship between the United
States and a controversial group, the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), a group which has been cited in unofficial reports
for alleged ties to drug cartels and Islamic terrorist
organizations. This paper will examine those allegations in
the context of the currently unfolding air campaign.
Results of Week One
The air assault is a product of a Clinton policy, which
for months has been directed toward intervention in Kosovo,
in either the form of the use of air power or of the
introduction of a peacekeeping ground force -- or of air
power followed by a ground force. [For details on the
turbulent history of Kosovo and of the direction of Clinton
policy leading to the current air campaign, see: RPC's
"Senate
to Vote Today on Preventing Funding of Military Operations
in Kosovo: Airstrikes Likely This Week," 3/23/99;
"Bombing,
or Ground Troops -- or Both: Clinton Kosovo Intervention
Appears Imminent," 2/22/99; and "Bosnia
II: The Clinton Administration Sets Course for NATO
Intervention in Kosovo," 8/12/98.] Just hours before
the first bombs fell, the Senate voted 58 to 41 (with 38
Republicans voting in the negative) to authorize air and
missile strikes against Yugoslavia (S. Con. Res. 21). The
Senate then approved by voice vote a second resolution
expressing support for members of the U.S. Armed Forces
engaged in military operations against Yugoslavia (S. Res.
74).
Prior to the air campaign, the stated goal of Clinton
policy, as noted above, was Belgrade's acceptance of the
peace agreement signed by the Kosovo Albanian delegation
(which included representatives of the KLA) on March 17.
Now, more than a week into the air campaign, that goal
appears even more elusive as the NATO attack has rallied
Serbian resistance to what they see as an unjustified
foreign aggression.
Since the NATO bombing campaign began, Serbian security
forces also have intensified an offensive in Kosovo that
began as the airstrikes appeared inevitable. According to
numerous media reports, tens of thousands of Albanians are
fleeing the Serb army, and police forces and paramilitary
groups that, based on credible allegations, are committing
widespread atrocities, including summary executions,
burnings of Albanian villages, and assassination of human
rights activists and community leaders. Allied officials
have denounced the apparently deliberate forced exodus of
Albanian civilians as ethnic cleansing and even genocide.
But according to some refugee accounts, the NATO bombing is
also a factor in the exodus: "[M]ost residents of
the provincial capital say they are leaving of their own
accord and are not being forced out at gunpoint, as
residents of several western cities and villages in Kosovo
say has been happening to them. . . . Pristina residents who
made it to Macedonia said their city is still largely
intact, despite the targeting of ethnic Albanian businesses
by Serbian gangs and several direct hits from NATO air
strikes in the city center" ["Cause of Kosovar Exodus
from Pristina Disputed: Serbs Are Forcing Exit, Some Claim;
Others Go on Own," Washington Times, 3/31/99].
At the same time, the Clinton Administration, consistent
with its track record on Kosovo, has ignored credible but
unconfirmed evidence from sources not connected to
Milosevic's Serbian government that the NATO campaign has
resulted in far more civilian damage than has been
acknowledged.
Making Things Worse?
The Clinton Administration and NATO officials flatly
reject any suggestion that their policy has exacerbated an
already bad situation on the ground in Kosovo. With
neighboring Albania and Macedonia in danger of being
destabilized by a flood of refugees, questions are being
raised about NATO's ability to continue the campaign unless
positive results are evident soon:
"With critics arguing that the NATO campaign has made things
worse, the alliance must slow the Serbs' onslaught or watch
public support and alliance unity unravel. U.S. and NATO
officials angrily rebutted the critics, arguing that Mr.
Milosevic, the Serbian leader, and his forces were already
on the rampage before NATO strikes began." ["NATO Is Set
to Target Sites in Belgrade," Wall Street Journal,
3/29/99]
If the immediate NATO goal has now shifted to stopping
the Serb offensive in Kosovo, observers point to three
likely options [WSJ, 3/29/99]:
"Option One is to continue the air campaign,
increasingly targeting Serb frontline troops [in
Kosovo], but it could be days before the onslaught is
really slowed." This option, which NATO has already begun to
implement, is likely to entail greater risk to NATO aircraft
and crews, due to the lower and slower flightpaths needed to
deliver tactical strikes. Still, most observers doubt the
offensive can be halted with air power alone. Late reports
indicate increased bombing of targets in Belgrade, the
capital of both the Yugoslav federation and the Serbian
republic.
"Option Two is to start considering intervening on the
ground." In recent days, the Clinton Administration has
begun to shift its position on NATO ground troops from a
categorical assurance that ground troops would go in only to
police a peace settlement to hints that they might,
depending on some unspecified "conditions," be introduced
into a combat environment. For example, in comments on March
28, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Henry Shelton
suggested that certain "assessments" had been made, but that
there was as yet no political agreement on ground
troops:
"There have been assessments made, but those assessments
were based on varying conditions that existed in Kosovo...
At this point in time, there are no plans per se to
introduce ground troops." [NBC's "Meet the Press,"
3/28/99]
"Option Three: arming the separatist Kosovo Liberation
Army to carry the war on the ground while NATO continues
it from the air." This option, which would make NATO the
overt air force of the KLA, would also dash any possibility
of a solution that would not result in a change in Balkan
borders, perhaps setting off a round of widespread regional
instability. Clinton Administrations officials have begun to
suggest that independence may now be justified in view of
the Serb offensive. The KLA has been explicit in its
determination to not only achieve an independent Kosovo but
to "liberate" Albanian-inhabited areas of Montenegro
(including the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica), Macedonia
(including the Macedonian capital, Skopje), and parts of
northern Greece; most of these areas were in fact annexed to
Albania under Axis occupation during World War II. (For a
visual representation of the areas claimed by the KLA, see
the map at the website of the pro-KLA Albanian-American
Civic League at www.aacl.com
Note that arming and training the KLA, as called for in
Option Three, would highlight serious questions about the
nature of the KLA and of the Clinton Administration's
relationship with it.
The KLA: from 'Terrorists' to
'Partners'
The Kosovo Liberation Army "began on the radical fringe
of Kosovar Albanian politics, originally made up of diehard
Marxist-Leninists (who were bankrolled in the old days by
the Stalinist dictatorship next door in Albania) as well as
by descendants of the fascist militias raised by the
Italians in World War II" ["Fog of War -- Coping With
the Truth About Friend and Foe: Victims Not Quite Innocent,"
New York Times, 3/28/99]. The KLA made its military
debut in February 1996 with the bombing of several camps
housing Serbian refugees from wars in Croatia and Bosnia
[Jane's Intelligence Review, 10/1/96]. The KLA
(again according to the highly regarded Jane's,) "does not
take into consideration the political or economic importance
of its victims, nor does it seem at all capable of seriously
hurting its enemy, the Serbian police and army. Instead, the
group has attacked Serbian police and civilians arbitrarily
at their weakest points. It has not come close to
challenging the region's balance of military power"
[Jane's, 10/1/96].
The group expanded its operations with numerous attacks
through 1996 but was given a major boost with the collapse
into chaos of neighboring Albania in 1997, which afforded
unlimited opportunities for the introduction of arms into
Kosovo from adjoining areas of northern Albania, which are
effectively out of the control of the Albanian government in
Tirana. From its inception, the KLA has targeted not only
Serbian security forces, who may be seen as legitimate
targets for a guerrilla insurgency, but Serbian and Albanian
civilians as well.
In view of such tactics, the Clinton Administration's
then-special envoy for Kosovo, Robert Gelbard, had little
difficulty in condemning the KLA (also known by its Albanian
initials, UCK) in terms comparable to those he used for
Serbian police repression:
" 'The violence we have seen growing is incredibly
dangerous,' Gelbard said. He criticized violence
'promulgated by the (Serb) police' and condemned the actions
of an ethnic Albanian underground group Kosovo Liberation
Army (UCK) which has claimed responsibility for a series of
attacks on Serb targets. 'We condemn very strongly terrorist
actions in Kosovo. The UCK is, without any questions, a
terrorist group,' Gelbard said." [Agence France Presse,
2/23/98]
Mr. Gelbard's remarks came just before a KLA attack on a
Serbian police station led to a retaliation that left dozens
of Albanians dead, leading in turn to a rapid escalation of
the cycle of violence. Responding to criticism that his
earlier remarks might have been seen as Washington's "green
light" to Belgrade that a crack-down on the KLA would be
acceptable, Mr. Gelbard offered to clarify to the House
Committee on International Relations:
"Questioned by lawmakers today on whether he still
considered the group a terrorist organization, Mr. Gelbard
said that while it has committed 'terrorist acts,' it has
'not been classified legally by the U.S. Government as a
terrorist organization.' " [New York Times,
3/13/98]
The situation in Kosovo has since been transformed: what
were once sporadic cases of KLA attacks and often
heavy-handed and indiscriminate Serbian responses has now
become a full-scale guerrilla war. That development appeared
to be a vindication of what may have been the KLA's strategy
of escalating the level of violence to the point where
outside intervention would become a distinct possibility.
Given the military imbalance, there is reason to believe the
KLA -- which is now calling for the introduction of NATO
ground troops into Kosovo [Associated Press,
3/27/99] -- may have always expected to achieve its
goals less because of the group's own prospects for military
success than because of a hoped-for outside intervention: As
one fighter put it, "We hope that NATO will intervene, like
it did in Bosnia, to save us" ["Both Sides in the Kosovo
Conflict Seem Determined to Ignore Reality," New York
Times, 6/22/98].
By early 1999, the Clinton Administration had completely
staked the success of its Kosovo policy on either the
acceptance by both sides of a pre-drafted peace agreement
that would entail a NATO ground occupation of Kosovo, or, if
the Albanians signed the agreement while Belgrade refused,
bombing of the Serbs. By committing itself so tightly to
those two alternatives, the Clinton Administration left
itself with as little flexibility as it had offered the
Albanians and the Serbs.
At that point for the Administration, cultivating the
goodwill of the KLA -- as the most extreme element on the
Albanian side, and the element which had the weapons capable
of sinking any diplomatic initiative -- became an absolute
imperative:
"In order to get the Albanians'... acceptance [of the
peace plan], Ms. Albright offered incentives intended to
show that Washington is a friend of Kosovo...Officers in the
Kosovo Liberation Army would . . . be sent to the United
States for training in transforming themselves from a
guerrilla group into a police force or a political entity,
much like the African National Congress did in South
Africa." [New York Times, 2/24/99]
The Times' comparison of treatment of the KLA with that
of the African National Congress (ANC) -- a group with its
own history of terror attacks on political opponents,
including members of the ethnic group it claims to represent
-- is a telling one. In fact, it points to the seemingly
consistent Clinton policy of cultivating relationships with
groups known for terrorist violence -- not only the ANC, but
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) -- in what may be a strategy of
attempting to wean away a group from its penchant for
violence by adopting its cause as an element of U.S.
policy.
By the time the NATO airstrikes began, the Clinton
Administration's partnership with the KLA was
unambiguous:
"With ethnic Albanian Kosovars poised to sign a peace accord
later Thursday, the United States is moving quickly to help
transform the Kosovo Liberation Army from a rag-tag band of
guerrilla fighters into a political force. . . . Washington
clearly sees it as a main hope for the troubled province's
future. 'We want to develop a good relationship with them as
they transform themselves into a politically-oriented
organization,' deputy State Department spokesman James Foley
said. 'We want to develop closer and better ties with this
organization.'
"A strong signal of this is the deference with which U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright treats the Kosovar
Albanians' chief negotiator Hashim Thaci, a 30-year-old KLA
commander. Albright dispatched her top aide and spokesman
James Rubin to Paris earlier this week to meet with Thaci
and personally deliver to him an invitation for members of
his delegation to visit the United States. Rubin, who will
attend the ceremony at which the Kosovar Albanians will sign
the accord, is expected to then return to Washington with
five members of the delegation, including Thaci. Thaci and
Rubin have developed a 'good rapport' during the Kosovo
crisis, according to U.S. officials who note that Thaci was
the main delegate they convinced to sign the agreement even
though the Serbs have refused to do so. [ . . .
]
" '[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a
lot of help that we can provide to them if they become
precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see
them become.' Foley stressed that the KLA would not be
allowed to continue as a military force but would have the
chance to move forward in their quest for self government
under a 'different context.' 'If we can help them and they
want us to help them in that effort of transformation, I
think it's nothing that anybody can argue with.' "
Such an effusive embrace by top Clinton Administration
officials of an organization that only a year ago one of its
own top officials labeled as "terrorist" is, to say the
least, a startling development. Even more importantly, the
new Clinton/KLA partnership may obscure troubling
allegations about the KLA that the Clinton Administration
has thus far neglected to address.
Charges of Drugs, Islamic Terror --
and a Note on Sources
No observer doubts that the large majority of fighters
that have flocked to the KLA during the past year or so
(since it began large-scale military operations) are
ordinary Kosovo Albanians who desire what they see as the
liberation of their homeland from foreign rule. But that
fact -- which amounts to a claim of innocence by association
-- does not fully explain the KLA's uncertain origins,
political program, sources of funding, or political
alliances.
Among the most troubling aspects of the Clinton
Administration's effective alliance with the KLA are
numerous reports from reputable unofficial sources --
including the highly respected Jane's publications -- that
the KLA is closely involved with:
* The extensive Albanian crime network that extends
throughout Europe and into North America, including
allegations that a major portion of the KLA finances are
derived from that network, mainly proceeds from drug
trafficking; and
* Terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of
radical Islam, including assets of Iran and of the notorious
Osama bin-Ladin -- who has vowed a global terrorist war
against Americans and American interests.
The final two sections of this paper give samples of
these reports. (Many of these reports are available in full
at www.siri-us.com, the website of an independent think tank
called the Strategic Issues Research Institute of the United
States, under "Background Issues".) In presenting samples of
such reports for the consideration of Republican Senators
and staff, RPC does not claim that these reports constitute
conclusive evidence of the KLA's drug or terror ties. Nor
are these reports necessarily conclusive as to the policy
advisability of the Clinton Administration's support for
that organization. They do, however, raise serious questions
about the context in which decisions regarding American
policy in the Balkans are being made by the Clinton
Administration.
All of these sources are unclassified and unconnected to
official agencies of the U.S. government, although some
quote sources in intelligence agencies. Possible objections
could be raised that the relevant U.S. government agencies
may not have made available similar reports concerning the
KLA. While it is not possible to discuss, in the context of
this paper, what information is or is not available from
classified sources, the author of this paper offers what he
regards as two helpful observations. First, one should
recognize that the absence of reporting on a given topic may
indicate that the information has not been obtained,
assembled, or disseminated by the agencies in question, but
not necessarily that it does not exist. That is, silence by
official sources does not constitute disproof of unofficial
sources.
The second and more troubling observation is that the
Clinton Administration has demonstrated, to an unprecedented
degree, an unfortunate tendency -- in some cases possibly
involving an improper politicization of traditionally
non-political government agencies -- to manage or conceal
inconvenient information that might call into question some
of its policies. Examples of this tendency include:
China espionage: Numerous critics have faulted the
Clinton Administration's less-than-forthcoming attitude
towards the investigation of possible negligence regarding
Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets; obstruction efforts
may have included misuse of the classification process.
[For details, see RPC's "Contradictions Abound: Did the
Administration Respond 'Vigorously' to Chinese Nuclear
Espionage?" 3/24/99; "The Public Record: China's Theft of
U.S. Nuclear Secrets," 3/12/99; and "Commentators Hit
Clinton Administration on Nuclear Technology Theft and
Suspicious China Ties," 3/12/99.] The effectiveness of
the current Kosovo crisis in getting the China espionage
scandal off Page 1 has not gone unnoticed: "In the days
leading up to the initiation of hostilities with Serbia, it
had become increasingly apparent that the usual
administration damage control techniques (official denials,
misleading statements, obstruction of inquiries, attacks on
the accusers, etc.) were not working in the face of
cascading revelations that the Clinton team had abysmally
failed to address [Chinese] penetration of America's
nuclear weapons laboratories.... The only option: change the
subject, regardless of the cost in American lives, national
treasure, and long-term interests" [Frank Gaffney, Jr.,
Center for Security Policy, "Hidden Trigger on Guns of
Intervention?" Washington Times, 3/30/99].
Mexico drug certification: The Clinton
Administration has consistently certified that Mexican
authorities are cooperating with U.S. anti-drug efforts --
despite strong evidence to the contrary. [See, for
example, Los Angeles Times, 3/25/99; Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, 2/27/99; and The San Francisco Chronicle,
2/26/99].
Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia: The Clinton
Administration concealed its active cooperation with the
Iranians for arms shipments to the Muslim fundamentalist
regime of Alija Izetbegovic in Bosnia in violation of the
United Nations arms embargo on the former Yugoslavia.
[For details on the Clinton Administration's active
connivance with the Iranians, see RPC's "Clinton-Approved
Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant
Islamic Base," 1/16/97.] This track record undermines
the Clinton Administration's insistence that Russia, as a
permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, is obligated
to observe the same embargo with respect to Serbia [as
stated by State Department spokesman James Rubin, daily
briefing, March 24, 1999].
Eradication of the Serbs in Krajina: The Clinton
Administration has stalled efforts to investigate what has
been called the "biggest ethnic cleansing" of the Balkan
wars, one which the Clinton Administration may itself have
helped to facilitate:
"Investigators at the international war crimes tribunal in
The Hague have concluded that the Croatian Army carried out
summary executions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian
populations and 'ethnic cleansing' during a 1995 assault
that was a turning point in the Balkan wars, according to
tribunal documents. The investigators have recommended that
three Croatian generals be indicted, and an American
official said this week that the indictments could come
within a few weeks. . . . Any indictment of Croatian Army
generals could prove politically troublesome for the Clinton
Administration, which has a delicate relationship with
Croatia, an American ally in preserving the peace in Bosnia
with a poor human rights record. The August 1995 Croatian
offensive, which drove some 100,000 Serbs from a large swath
of Croatia over four days, was carried out with the tacit
blessing of the United States by a Croatian Army that had
been schooled in part by a group of retired American
military officers. Questions still remain about the full
extent of United States involvement. In the course of the
three-year investigation into the assault, the United States
has failed to provide critical evidence requested by the
tribunal, according to tribunal documents and officials,
adding to suspicion among some there that Washington is
uneasy about the investigation. Two senior Canadian military
officers, for example, who were in Croatia during the
offensive, testified that the assault, in which some 3,000
shells rained down on the city of Knin over 48 hours, was
indiscriminate and targeted civilians. . . . A section of
the tribunal's 150-page report is headed: 'The Indictment.
Operation Storm, A Prima Facie Case.': 'During the course of
the military offensive, the Croatian armed forces and
special police committed numerous violations of
international humanitarian law, including but not limited
to, shelling of Knin and other cities,' the report says.
'During, and in the 100 days following the military
offensive, at least 150 Serb civilians were summarily
executed, and many hundreds disappeared.' The crimes also
included looting and burning, the report says." ["War
Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops 'Cleansed' the Serbs,"
New York Times, 3/21/99]
The Krajina episode -- the largest in the recent Yugoslav
wars, at least until this week in Kosovo -- exposes the
hypocrisy of the Clinton claims as to why intervention in
Kosovo is a humanitarian imperative:
"Within four days, the Croatians drove out 150,000 Serbs,
the largest [until this week] ethnic cleansing of
the entire Balkan wars. Investigators in the Hague have
concluded that this campaign was carried out with brutality,
wanton murder, and indiscriminate shelling of civilians. . .
. Krajina is Kosovo writ large. And yet, at the same time,
the U.S. did not stop or even protest the Croatian action.
The Clinton Administration tacitly encouraged it."
[Charles Krauthammer, "The Clinton Doctrine," Time
magazine, 4/5/99]
In short, the absence of official confirmation of the
reports cited below can hardly be considered the last word
in the matter. And given this Administration's record, one
might treat with some degree of skepticism even a flat
denial of KLA drug and terror ties -- which thus far has not
been offered. As the Clinton Administration searches for new
options in its Kosovo policy, these reports about KLA should
not be lightly dismissed.
Reports on KLA Drug and Criminal
Links
Elements informally known as the "Albanian mafia,"
composed largely of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, have for
several years been a feature of the criminal underworld in a
number of cities in Europe and North America; they have been
particularly prominent in the trade in illegal narcotics.
[See, for example,"The Albanian Cartel: Filling the
Crime Void," Jane's Intelligence Review, November 1995.]
The cities where the Albanian cartels are located are also
fertile ground for fundraising for support of the Albanian
cause in Kosovo. [See, for example, "Albanians in Exile
Send Millions of Dollars to Support the KLA," BBC,
3/12/99.]
The reported link between drug activities and arms
purchases for anti-Serb Albanian forces in Kosovo predates
the formation of the KLA, and indeed, may be seen as a key
resource that allowed the KLA to establish itself as a force
in the first place:
"Narcotics smuggling has become a prime source of financing
for civil wars already under way -- or rapidly brewing -- in
southern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, according to
a report issued here this week. The report, by the
Paris-based Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues, or
Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs, identifies belligerents
in the former Yugoslav republics and Turkey as key players
in the region's accelerating drugs-for-arms traffic.
Albanian nationalists in ethnically tense Macedonia and the
Serbian province of Kosovo have built a vast heroin network,
leading from the opium fields of Pakistan to black-market
arms dealers in Switzerland, which transports up to $2
billion worth of the drug annually into the heart of Europe,
the report says. More than 500 Kosovo or Macedonian
Albanians are in prison in Switzerland for drug- or
arms-trafficking offenses, and more than 1,000 others are
under indictment. The arms are reportedly stockpiled in
Kosovo for eventual use against the Serbian government in
Belgrade, which imposed a violent crackdown on Albanian
autonomy advocates in the province five years ago."
["Separatists Supporting Themselves with Traffic in
Narcotics," San Francisco Chronicle, 6/10/94]
At the same time, many Albanians in the diaspora have
made voluntary contributions to the KLA and are offended at
suggestions of drug money funding of that organization:
"Nick Ndrejaj, who retired from the real estate business,
lives on a pension in Daytona Beach, Fla. But the retiree
has managed to scrape up some money to send to the Kosovo
Liberation Army, the rebel force that is opposing Yugoslav
strongman Slobodan Milosevic. 'It's hard, but we have had to
do this all our lives,' says the elderly man. Mr. Ndrejaj is
one of many Albanians in America who are sending all they
can spare to aid their beleaguered compatriots in central
Europe. The disaster in Kosovo is uniting the minority into
a major fund-raising and congressional lobbying effort.
[ . . . ]
"Typical of the donors is Agim Jusufi, a building
superintendent on Manhattan's West Side. Mr. Jusufi gets a
weekly paycheck. He describes himself as an ordinary
'working man.' However, he has donated $5,000 to the KLA.
'It is always stressed that we should donate when we can,'
he says, 'We are in a grave moment, so we are raising
money.' Jusufi bridles over reports that drug money funds
the KLA. There has been an Albanian organized-crime element
involved in the drug trade for decades. But, he says, in
this country, the money comes from hard-working immigrants.
'We have canceled checks to prove it,' he says. "
["Pulling Political and Purse Strings," Christian
Science Monitor, 3/31/99]
Without access to the KLA's ledgers, it is hard to
estimate what part of the group's funds might come from
legitimate sources and what part from drugs. One unnamed
intelligence source puts the percentage of drug money in the
KLA's coffers at one-half ["Drugs Money Linked to the
Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London), 3/24/99]. The
following is a sample of the reports linking the KLA to
funding by narcotics-smuggling crime organizations:
"The Kosovo Liberation Army, which has won
the support of the West for its guerrilla struggle
against the heavy armour of the Serbs, is a
Marxist-led force funded by dubious sources,
including drug money. That is the judgment of
senior police officers across Europe. An
investigation by The Times has established that
police forces in three Western European countries,
together with Europol, the European police
authority, are separately investigating growing
evidence that drug money is funding the KLA's leap
from obscurity to power. The financing of the
Kosovo guerrilla war poses critical questions and
it sorely tests claims to an 'ethical' foreign
policy. Should the West back a guerrilla army that
appears to be partly financed by organised crime?
Could the KLA's need for funds be fuelling the
heroin trade across Europe? . . . As well as
diverting charitable donations from exiled
Kosovans, some of the KLA money is thought to come
from drug dealing. Sweden is investigating
suspicions of a KLA drug connection. 'We have
intelligence leading us to believe that there could
be a connection between drug money and the Kosovo
Liberation Army,' said Walter Kege, head of the
drug enforcement unit in the Swedish police
intelligence service. Supporting intelligence has
come from other states. 'We have yet to find direct
evidence, but our experience tells us that the
channels for trading hard drugs are also used for
weapons,' said one Swiss police commander. . . .
One Western intelligence report quoted by Berliner
Zeitung says that DM900 million has reached Kosovo
since the guerrillas began operations and half the
sum is said to be illegal drug money. In
particular, European countries are investigating
the Albanian connection: whether Kosovan Albanians
living primarily in Germany and Switzerland are
creaming off the profits from inner-city heroin
dealing and sending the cash to the KLA. Albania --
which plays a key role in channelling money to the
Kosovans -- is at the hub of Europe's drug trade.
An intelligence report which was prepared by
Germany's Federal Criminal Agency concluded:
'Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group
in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer
countries.' Europol, which is based in The Hague,
is preparing a report for European interior and
justice ministers on a connection between the KLA
and Albanian drug gangs. Police in the Czech
Republic recently tracked down a Kosovo Albanian
drug dealer named Doboshi who had escaped from a
Norwegian prison where he was serving 12 years for
heroin trading. A raid on Doboshi's apartment
turned up documents linking him with arms purchases
for the KLA." ["Drugs Money Linked to the
Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London),
3/24/99]
"Western intelligence agencies believe the
UCK [KLA] has been re-arming with the aid
of money from drug-smuggling through Albania, along
with donations from the Albanian diaspora in
Western Europe and North America. . . . Albania has
become the crime capital of Europe. The most
powerful groups in the country are organized
criminals who use Albania to grow, process, and
store a large percentage of the illegal drugs
destined for Western Europe. . . . Albania's
criminal gangs are actively supporting the war in
Kosovo. Many of them have family links to Albanian
groups in Kosovo and support them with arms and
other supplies, either out of family solidarity or
solely for profit. These links mean the UCK
fighters have a secure base area and reasonably
good lines of communiction to the outside world.
Serb troops have tried to seal the border but with
little success." ["Life in the Balkan
'Tinderbox' Remains as Dangerous as Ever,"
Jane's Intelligence Review, 3/1/99]
"Drugs traffickers in Italy, in Germany, in
Spain, in France, and in Norway: Kosovo Albanians.
The men from the Special Operations Section
[ROS] of the carabinieri [i.e., Italian
national police], under the leadership of
General Mario Mori, have succeeded in neutralizing
a fully fledged network of Albanian drugs
traffickers. The leader of this network is a
certain Gashi Agim, aged 33, originally from
Pristina, the capital of the small region that is
being torn apart by the struggle between on the one
hand the local population, 90 percent of whom are
of Albanian ethnic origin and who are calling for
independence from Serbia, and [the Yugoslav
government] on the other . . . Gashi was
arrested early this summer along with 124 drugs
traffickers. 'Milan at this juncture has become a
crossroads of interests for many fighting groups,'
a detective with the ROS explained. 'These groups
include also the Albanians from Kosovo who are
among the most dangerous traffickers in drugs and
in arms. . . . The war in Kosovo has partly slowed
down the criminals' business because many Albanians
have been forced to take care of their families.
Some of them are activists in the armed movement of
the KLA fighters and have gone home to fight. They
feel Albanian. They are fighting to achieve
annexation to Albania. And it is precisely there
that at least a part of the sea of money that the
Albanian drugs traffickers have amassed is reported
to have ended up, to support the families and to
fund both certain political personalities and the
anti-Serb movement. In spring, a number of Albanian
drugs traffickers actually went as far as to take
part in the organization of a rally in favor of
independence for Kosovo. . . . Drugs, arms, and the
Koran: Could this be the murderous crime mix of the
next few years?" ["Albanian Mafia, This Is
How It Helps The Kosovo Guerrilla Fighters,"
Corriere della Sera (Milan, Italy),
10/15/98]
"A group of Kosovo Albanians smuggling arms
back to their troubled province were among 100
people arrested in a massive, countrywide anti-drug
operation in Italy, police here said Tuesday. All
the 100 -- 90 of whom were arrested in Italy, the
rest in other European countries -- face weapons
charges related to international drug trafficking.
Anti-Mafia prosecutors in Milan, who conducted the
operation with paramilitary police units,
identified eight criminal structures active on an
international scale. One hundred kilos (220 pounds)
of heroin and cocaine was seized in the bust across
several Italian regions. Investigators said the
groups used Milan as a base, with cafes,
restaurants, garages and other firms acting as
fronts. The Kosovar Albanian gang allegedly used
drug money to buy the weapons in Italy, which were
then sent to Kosovo where a three-month conflict is
pitting Serbian forces against armed ethnic
Albanians seeking independence. Another separate
group of Egyptians with links to Calabrian and
Albanian gangs were arrested on suspicions of
laundering money through Switzerland for use by
fundamentalists in Egypt." ["Major Italian
Drug Bust Breaks Kosovo Arms Trafficking," Agence
France-Presse, 6/9/98]
"The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has claimed
responsibility for more than 50 attacks on Serbs
and Albanians loyal to the Belgrade government, but
little is known about the separatist group. . . .
Details of the KLA, which the United States calls a
terrorist organization, are sketchy at best.
Western intelligence sources believe there are no
more than several hundred members under arms with
military training. Serbian police estimate there
are at least 2,000 well-armed men. The KLA is said
to rely heavily on a huge network of informers and
sympathizers, enabling it to blend easily among the
population. The Western sources also believe the
core of the organization consists of Albanians who
fled into exile in the 1970s and based their
operation in Switzerland, where its funding is
gathered from all over the world. 'If the West
wants to nip the KLA in the bud, all it has to do
is crack down on its financial nerve center in
Switzerland,' one source said. Part of the funding,
this source believes, comes from the powerful
Albanian mafia organizations that deal in
narcotics, prostitution and arms smuggling across
Europe. The KLA has admitted having training bases
in northern Albania, which the Albanian government
does not condone but is powerless to stop."
["Speculation Plentiful, Facts Few About
Kosovo Separatist Group," Baltimore Sun,
3/6/98]
"The bulk of the financing of the UCK
[KLA] seems to originate from two sources:
drug-related operations and Kosovo Albanian emigres
in the West. The former Yugoslavia has always been
on the main European drug transit route. With the
break-up of that country, the route has been
somewhat modified; West-Europe-bound narcotics now
enter Macedonia and Albania and are then
distributed towards Western Europe through Kosovo,
Montenegro, Bosnia, and Croatia."
[Jane's Intelligence Review, "Another
Balkans Bloodbath? -- Part One," 2/1/98]
"Socially organized in extended families
bound together in clan alliances, Kosovar Albanians
dominate the Albanian mafia in the southern
Balkans. Other than Kosovo, the Albanian mafia is
also active in northern Albania and western
Macedonia. In this context, the so-called 'Balkan
Medellin' is made up of a number of geographically
connected border towns . . . . If left unchecked,
this growing Albanian narco-terrorism could lead to
a Colombian syndrome in the southern Balkans, or
the emergence of a situation in which the Albanian
mafia becomes powerful enough to control one or
more states in the region. In practical terms, this
will involve either Albania or Macedonia, or both.
Politically, this is now being done by channelling
growing foreign exchange (forex) profits from
narco-terrorism into local governments and
political parties. In Albania, the ruling
Democratic Party (DP) led by President Sali Berisha
is now widely suspected of tacitly tolerating and
even directly profiting from drug-trafficking for
wider politico-economic reasons, namely the
financing of secessionist political parties and
other groupings in Kosovo and Macedonia."
["The Balkan Medellin," Jane's 3/1/95;
Albanian then-president Berisha lost power in 1997
and is now a known KLA patron in northern
Albania.]
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Reports on Islamic Terror
Links
The KLA's main staging area is in the vicinity of the
town of Tropoje in northern Albania [Jane's
International Defense Review, 2/1/99]. Tropoje, the
hometown and current base of former Albanian president Sali
Berisha, a major KLA patron, is also a known center for
Islamic terrorists connected with Saudi renegade Osama
bin-Ladin. [For a report on the presence of bin-Ladin
assets in Tropoje and connections to anti-American Islamic
terrorism, see "U.S. Blasts' Possible Mideast Ties: Alleged
Terrorists Investigated in Albania, Washington Post,
8/12/98.]
The following reports note the presence of foreign
mujahedin (i.e., Islamic holy warriors) in the Kosovo war,
some of them jihad veterans from Bosnia, Chechnya, and
Afghanistan. Some of the reports specifically cite assets of
Iran or bin-Ladin, or both, in support of the KLA. To some,
"mujahedin" does not necessarily equal "terrorists." But
since the foreign fighters have not been considerate enough
to provide an organizational chart detailing the exact
relationship among the various groups, the reported presence
of foreign fighters together with known terrorists in the
KLA's stronghold at least raises serious questions about the
implications for the Clinton Administration's increasingly
close ties to the KLA:
"Serbian officials say Mujahideen have formed
groups that remained behind in Bosnia. Groups from
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Chechnya are also involved
in Albanian guerrilla operations. A document found
on the body of Alija Rabic, an Albanian UCK member
killed in a border crossing incident last July,
indicated he was guiding a 50-man group from
Albania into Kosovo. The group included one Yemeni
and 16 Saudis, six of whom bore passports with
Macedonian Albanian names. Other UCK rebels killed
crossing the Albanian frontier have carried Bosnian
Muslim Federation papers." [Jane's
International Defense Review, "Unhealthy
Climate in Kosovo as Guerrillas Gear Up for a
Summer Confrontation," 2/1/99]
"Mujahidin fighters have joined the Kosovo
Liberation Army, dimming prospects of a peaceful
solution to the conflict and fuelling fears of
heightened violence next spring.. . . . Their
arrival in Kosovo may force Washington to review
its policy in the Serbian province and will deepen
Western dismay with the KLA and its tactics. . . .
'Captain Dula', the local KLA commander, was
clearly embarrassed at the unexpected presence of
foreign journalists and said that he had little
idea who was sending the Mujahidin or where they
came from; only that it was neither Kosovo nor
Albania. 'I've got no information about them,'
Captain Dula said. 'We don't talk about it.' . . .
American diplomats in the region, especially Robert
Gelbard, the special envoy, have often expressed
fears of an Islamic hardline infiltration into the
Kosovo independence movement. . . . American
intelligence has raised the possibility of a link
between Osama bin Laden, the Saudi expatriate
blamed for the bombing in August of US embassies in
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and the KLA. Several of
Bin Laden's supporters were arrested in Tirana, the
Albanian capital, and deported this summer, and the
chaotic conditions in the country have allowed
Muslim extremists to settle there, often under the
guise of humanitarian workers. . . . 'I interviewed
one guy from Saudi Arabia who said that it was his
eighth jihad,' a Dutch journalist said."
["U.S. Alarmed as Mujahidin Join Kosovo
Rebels," The Times (London),
11/26/98]
"Diplomats in the region say Bosnia was the
first bastion of Islamic power. The autonomous
Yugoslav region of Kosovo promises to be the
second. During the current rebellion against the
Yugoslav army, the ethnic Albanians in the
province, most of whom are Moslem, have been
provided with financial and military support from
Islamic countries. They are being bolstered by
hundreds of Iranian fighters, or Mujahadeen, who
infiltrate from nearby Albania and call themselves
the Kosovo Liberation Army. US defense officials
say the support includes that of Osama Bin Laden,
the Saudi terrorist accused of masterminding the
bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam. A Defense Department statement on August 20
said Bin Laden's Al Qa'ida organization supports
Moslem fighters in both Bosnia and Kosovo. . . .
The KLA strength was not the southern Kosovo
region, which over the centuries turned from a
majority of Serbs to ethnic Albanians. The KLA,
however, was strong in neighboring Albania, which
today has virtually no central government. The
crisis in Albania led Iran to quickly move in to
fill the vacuum. Iranian Revolutionary Guards began
to train KLA members. . . . Selected groups of
Albanians were sent to Iran to study that country's
version of militant Islam. So far, Yugoslav
officials and Western diplomats agree that millions
of dollars have been funnelled through Bosnia and
Albania to buy arms for the KLA. The money is
raised from both Islamic governments and from
Islamic communities in Western Europe, particularly
Germany. . . . 'Iran has been active in helping out
the Kosovo rebels,' Ephraim Kam, deputy director of
Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic
Studies, said. 'Iran sees Kosovo and Albania as
containing Moslem communities that require help and
Teheran is willing to do it.' But much of the
training of the KLA remains based in Bosnia.
Intelligence sources say mercenaries and volunteers
for the separatist movement have been recruited and
paid handsome salaries. . . . The trainers and
fighters in the KLA include many of the Iranians
who fought in Bosnia in the early 1990s.
Intelligence sources place their number at 7,000,
many of whom have married Bosnian women. There are
also Afghans, Algerians, Chechens, and
Egyptians." ["Kosovo Seen as New Islamic
Bastion," Jerusalem Post, 9/14/98]
". . . By late 1997, the Tehran-sponsored
training and preparations of the Liberation Army of
Kosovo (UCK -- Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves -- in
Albanian, OVK in Serbian), as well as the transfer
of weapons and experts via Albania, were being
increased. Significantly, Tehran's primary
objective in Kosovo has evolved from merely
assisting a Muslim minority in distress to
furthering the consolidation of the Islamic
strategic axis along the Sarajevo-to-Tirane line.
And only by expanding and escalating subversive and
Islamist-political presence can this objective be
attained. . . In the Fall of 1997, the uppermost
leadership in Tehran ordered the IRGC
[Revolutionary Guards] High Command to
launch a major program for shipping large
quantities of weapons and other military supplies
to the Albanian clandestine organisations in
Kosovo. [The supreme Iranian spiritual leader,
the Ayatollah] Khamene'i's instructions
specifically stipulated that the comprehensive
military assistance was aimed to enable the Muslims
'to achieve the independence' of the province of
Kosovo. . . . [B]y early December 1997,
Iranian intelligence had already delivered the
first shipments of hand grenades, machine-guns,
assault rifles, night vision equipment, and
communications gear from stockpiles in Albania into
Kosovo. The mere fact that the Iranians could
despatch the first supplies within a few days and
in absolute secrecy reflect extensive advance
preparations made in Albania in anticipation for
such instructions from Tehran. Moreover, the
Iranians began sending promising Albanian and UCK
commanders for advanced military training in
al-Quds [special] forces and IRGC camps in
Iran. Meanwhile, weapons shipments continue. Thus,
Tehran is well on its way to establishing a
bridgehead in Kosovo. . . The liberation army was
to be only the first phase in building military
power. Ultimately, the Kosovo Albanians must field
such heavy weapons as tanks, armoured personnel
carriers, artillery, and rocket launchers, if they
hope to evict the Serbian forces from Kosovo. . . .
The spate of UCK terrorism during the Fall of 1997,
. . . should be considered intentional provocations
against the Serbian police aimed to elicit a
massive retaliation that would in turn lead to a
popular uprising. Thus, the ongoing terrorism
campaign in Kosovo should be considered the initial
phases in implementing the call for an uprising.
Iran-sponsored activists have already spread the
word through Kosovo that the liberation war has
already broken out. If current trends prevail, the
increasingly Islamist UCK will soon become the main
factor in overturning the long-term status quo in
the region. Concurrently, the terrorist activities
have become part of everyday life throughout
Kosovo. Given the extent of the propaganda campaign
and the assistance provided by Iran, the spread of
terrorism should indeed be considered the beginning
of an armed rebellion that threatens a major
escalation." ["Italy Becomes Iran's New
Base for Terrorist Operations," by Yossef Bodansky,
Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy
(London), February 1998. Bodansky is Director of
the House Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare. This report was written in
late 1997, before the KLA's offensive in early
1998.]
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