The Ottawa Citizen // Saturday Observer// Dec. 15, 2001

Page B3

Bin Laden’s Balkan Connections

Dateline: Skopje, Macedonia

By Scott Taylor

With the swift collapse of the Taliban regime, the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan has been reduced to an Osama bin Laden manhunt cum mop-up of the Al-Qaeda network. As U.S. jets pound the cave entrances around Tora Bora, Special Forces teams are closing in on the last redoubts of Taliban fanatics. Following the quick success in Afghanistan, President George Bush has already warned Americans to prepare for a "wider war" aimed at punishing those nations which "harbour terrorism." Although there was no proven link between Iraq and the anthrax scare, in recent speeches Bush has repeatedly singled out Saddam Hussein as "an enemy of the U.S." Similar ominous threats have been levelled at the governments of Sudan, Libya, Syria and the leaders of Palestinian extremist groups.

While it is believed that Saudi-born Osama bin Laden remains surrounded in Afghanistan, U.S. Intelligence agencies cannot be sure of his exact whereabouts. What is known is that his extensive Al-Qaeda terrorist organization still has operating cells around the world.

As the U.S. dragnet is cast ever wider, it can only be a matter of time before the counter-terrorist effort revisits the Balkans. Over the past decade, Mujahadeen fighters – and in particular, bin Laden’s followers – have practiced their brutal brand of terror in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and are currently believed to be participating in Macedonia’s civil unrest.

On 20 November, while the Taliban was still offering organized resistance and extremists from around the world were volunteering to join their ranks, Pakistani police apprehended five of these Muslim "fighters" carrying Macedonian passports at the Afghan border.

For Macedonian Intelligence officials, these arrests were only further proof that Mujahadeen formed the veteran core of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla army known as the UCK. Since March of this year, the UCK have mounted a very successful military offensive against Macedonian security forces. By the time that a shaky peace plan was brokered in September, the UCK controlled nearly 30 per cent of Macedonian territory. Originally inexperienced and ill-equipped to fight a guerrilla war, the Macedonian security forces have maintained since the outbreak of hostilities that up to 120 Mujahadeen were active in the UCK ranks.

Nikola, a senior director with Macedonian Intelligence, confirmed that following the 11 September terrorist attacks, his agency has "supplied a substantive dossier to the CIA," outlining bin Laden’s Balkan activities. The information forwarded to the CIA included eyewitness accounts offered by Macedonian civilians who had been held hostage by Mujahadeen, along with incriminating photographs and videos, which security forces captured from the UCK-Albanian guerrillas.

Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljubo Boskovski is anxious for his police forces to return into the areas presently controlled by the Albanian guerrillas in order to uncover additional evidence. Since 13 November, Macedonian security forces have been conducting an exhumation at a mass grave outside the ethnic Albanian village of Trebos. To date, the police have unearthed the bodies of six Macedonians, from a total of 21 civilians who have disappeared following UCK attacks. Intelligence officer Nikola believes it was Mujahadeen fighters who perpetrated the Trebos massacre "because of the manner in which the bodies were cut up and scattered."

Nikola also suspects that Mujahadeen fanatics perpetrated a brutal ambush against security forces last April. In this incident, eight policemen were shot outside the village of Vejce, their bodies viciously dismembered to provide the victors with grisly trophies. The Macedonian authorities are not the only ones to affix the blame for the Vejce ambush on the Mujahadeen.

During the summer offensive around Tetovo, Albanian guerrillas eagerly admitted they had gained combat experience in previous conflicts. Twenty-three-year old Commander "Jimmy" claimed he was a veteran of Chechnya and Kosovo, while "Snake" Arifaq bragged of service in Bosnia and displayed a scar he received during the fighting in Croatia. Both of these Albanians acknowledged the involvement of Arab/Afghan "volunteers" in training members of the UCK. As for the Vejce incident, Commander Jimmy said such an atrocity could "only have been committed by the Foreigners [Mujahadeen serving in the UCK] because Albanians do not cut up bodies."

Once the UCK insurrection began in March, the Macedonian government hastily acquired a fleet of six Ukrainian helicopter gun ships to provide their troops with tactical air support. "Shortly after that, our pilots reported being tracked by sophisticated [U.S.-made] Stinger [anti-aircraft] missiles," said Nikola. "It is the information [of Macedonian Intelligence] that the UCK received these Stingers from their Mujahadeen connections in Afghanistan."

American advisors and covert military aid have also contributed to the UCK’s combat effectiveness, but since 11 September the Macedonians have noted a shift in U.S. foreign policy. "The CIA have been much more receptive to our reports about the Al-Qaeda," said Nikola. "Particularly after they discovered that one of the suicide hijackers had been active in both Kosovo and Macedonia."

Given their common goal of neutralising Albanian terrorists, Macedonian police have been working closely with their Yugoslavian counterparts. More importantly, as part of the U.S.-led global initiative to combat terror, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been reinstated to the ranks of Interpol – after a ten-year banishment. As a result, Intelligence Officers from the Yugoslavian Army have been able to supply their international colleagues with a wealth of information outlining Mujahadeen activity in Bosnia and Kosovo. Yugoslav Intelligence believes that at least 50 of the 150 Mujahadeen that fought in Kosovo are still active members of the UCK.

Even without this Yugoslav co-operation, Interpol was already tracking the Al-Qaeda’s Balkan activities. On 23 October this year, Interpol released a preliminary report outlining bin Laden’s personal links to the Albanian Mafia. In this report, Interpol alleges that a senior Al-Qaeda lieutenant had been the commander of an elite UCK unit in Kosovo during the fighting in 1999.

While U.S. President Bill Clinton’s regime was the driving force to garner NATO support for the UCK, numerous media reports clearly show that the CIA were well aware of bin Laden’s Albanian links prior to NATO’s commitment in Kosovo.

On 17 January 1999 the international press was filled with news of an alleged massacre of 45 Albanian Kosovars in the village of Racak. Clinton seized upon this particular incident (later disproved, by UN pathologists, to have been an Albanian hoax) to proclaim that the West could no longer overlook "Serbian atrocities." With Clinton’s statement, NATO was irrevocably launched on the path towards its confrontation with Yugoslavia.

Although lost in the U.S. media hype, Greek media outlets that same day were detailing the Taliban’s widespread entry into Albania at the invitation of ex-President Sali Berisa and former head of Intelligence Bashkim Gazidede. According to The Tribune, an Athens daily newspaper, Albanian security official Fatos Klozi confirmed that "bin Laden was one of those who had organized and sent groups to fight in Kosovo. There were Egyptians, Saudis, Algerians, Tunisians, Sudanese and Kuwaitis from different organizations among the [UCK] mercenaries."

Ten days later, on 27 January 1999, the Arab-language news service Al Hayat reported that an Albanian commander in Kosovo, code-named "Monia," was directly connected to Osama bin Laden. The Al Hayat piece also proudly proclaimed that "at least 100 Muslim Mujahadeen" were serving with Monia’s force in Kosovo.

The Washington Post reported in August 1998 that the CIA were not only aware of bin Laden’s association with the Albanian regime, but that U.S. operatives had been "prominent" in the arrest of four Al-Qaeda agents in Tirana. At that time, U.S. State Department officials even speculated that the bombings of their embassies in Kenya and Tanzania might have been bin Laden’s revenge for the Tirana arrests.

The Al-Qaeda suspects detained by the CIA in Albania had been operating the Islamic Revival Foundation, "a charitable organisation that official sources say provided a useful cover for the [suspects] efforts on behalf of bin Laden," reported the Post.

In February 1998, the U.S. State Department had removed the UCK from their list of terrorist organisations. However later that same year, the CIA and their Albanian SHIK intelligence counterparts co-operated to successfully shut down a Mujahadeen Jihad cell operating in conjunction with the Albanians inside Kosovo.

Some of the most revealing links surfaced in December 1998 when Al-Qaeda agent Claude Sheik Abdel-Kader was arrested in Tirana for the murder of his Albanian translator. During his trial, Abdel-Kader confessed to being a senior commander in bin Laden’s network, and claimed he had recruited a force of some 300 Mujahadeen to fight in Kosovo. European media covering the trial reported Abdul-Kader’s revelation that Osama bin Laden – although a wanted terrorist – travelled freely to Tirana in 1994 and 1998 to meet with senior Albanian officials. Abdel-Kader also confessed that when the Albanian regime of Sali Berisa collapsed into anarchy in 1997, state armouries and government offices were looted. Many of the 10,000 heavy weapons and 100,000 passports that went missing conveniently fell into the hands of the Al-Qaeda.

Osama bin Laden – stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994 – is alleged to have retained the Bosnian passport he was issued in Vienna in 1993. The granting of official travel documents to bin Laden was first reported 24 September 1999 by Dani, a Bosnian Muslim weekly newspaper. The rationale behind bestowing citizenship on a wanted terrorist was that Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic had been thankful for the Mujahadeen’s contribution in his quest for a Balkan "fundamentalist Islamic Republic."

It was also reported by Dani that Al-Qaeda terrorist Mehrez Aodouni had been arrested in Istanbul while carrying a Bosnian passport. Like bin Laden, his citizenship had been granted "because he was a member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army."

Canadian soldiers serving with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) were among the first to report the presence of Mujahadeen in the ranks of the Bosnian Muslims as early as 1992.

The Asian Wall Street Journal reported that, in 1993, bin Laden had appointed Al Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, to direct all his operations in the Balkans.

While no exact numbers exist, it is estimated that between 1500 and 3500 Arab volunteers participated in the Bosnian civil war. Their main area of operation was in the region of Zenica, with most Mujahadeen serving in the 7th Brigade of General Sakib Mahmuljin’s 3rd Corps, nicknamed "the Guerrillas." Identified by red and green "Rambo" bandannas emblazoned with the crest "our road is Jihad," this unit earned a reputation for criminal brutality.

On 27 June 1993, the Sunday Times reported that even Bosnian Muslim officers had reservations about the Mujahadeen volunteers. Colonel Stjepan Siber, then-Deputy Commander of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army, admitted to the Times that "It was a mistake to let [the Mujahadeen] in here… They commit most of the atrocities and work against the interests of the Muslim people. They have been killing, looting and stealing."

According to reports, it was the Mujahadeen who were serving with General Nasir Oric in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica who committed some of the most barbaric atrocities of the war. Beheadings of Serbian civilians were commonplace, and in some villages the Mujahadeen would dynamite homes with the inhabitants trapped inside.

No attempt was made to hide such atrocities. In fact, General Oric would often address media at the site of the massacres. On one such occasion, while standing in front of Mujahadeen brandishing human head trophies, Oric pointed to a flaming ruin and proudly said to reporters, "We blew those Serbs to the moon."

Alija Izetbegovic was also proud to display the fighting prowess of his Mujahadeen volunteers. Following a successful attack against Serbian positions around Vozuce on 10 September 1995, the Bosnian President held a televised medal presentation parade. The Mujahadeen had provided the vanguard of the assault force, and were awarded 11 decorations for valour, including the Golden Crescent, Bosnia’s highest honour.

Yugoslav Intelligence estimates that over 1500 Bosnian citizenships were granted to Mujahadeen/Al-Qaeda fighters following the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995. Most of those soldiers are believed to have settled in the Zenica region.

According to Miroslav Lazanski, author of the new book Osama bin Laden Against America, Al-Qaeda still maintain two operational bases in Bosnia. One of these contains only the best fighters and was commanded by an Algerian, Abu Al Mali.

Following the 11 September attacks, FBI and CIA agents uncovered evidence that two of the suicide hijackers had originated from this Bosnian camp. Abu Mali was subsequently arrested while travelling in Istanbul on a Bosnian passport.

It is evident from recent events that the U.S. military is also well aware of the continued Mujahadeen presence in the Balkans. General Myers visited NATO troops stationed in Bosnia in late November to warn them against a possible Al-Qaeda retaliation attack. In addition, on 4 December, the White House added two Albanian terrorist groups operating in Macedonia and Kosovo to their list of outlawed organisations.

President George Bush’s campaign against bin Laden’s terrorists would appear to have come full circle to confront the Clinton administration’s dubious Balkan legacy.