-Caveat Lector- <<Can't "Just Say No", can't "Just Say Yes", CAN say "never identified credible evidence" as a guess ... >> >From Morrock > THE MORROCK NEWS SERVICE > > Powell > John David Powell is a former broadcast/print journalist and > public radio network commentator. He now lives in Texas where he > is a writer and a communications professional. His email address > is [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he has a Web page at > http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/3518/ > > Previous Powell columns > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > Collusion or stupidity > > > > By JOHN DAVID POWELL > TMNS Correspondent > June 29, 1999 > > > > > "The U.S. government has never identified credible evidence of > these drug-running charges." -- State Department spokesman James > Rubin > > The KLA is no "choirboy circle." -- Secretary of Defense William > Cohen > > One does not know whether to laugh at or to be afraid of Rubin’s > comments about the Kosovo Liberation Army. Rubin told reporters > on June 23 that news reports of drug money buying KLA weapons are > not corroborated by American intelligence agencies. > > These are the same intelligence agencies, remember, that didn’t > know there was a building full of Chinese diplomats sitting in > downtown Belgrade. > > Cohen knows the KLA. In early April, American officials and KLA > leaders held secret talks about supplying the terrorists with > heavy weapons and other support, according to the April 26, 1999, > issue of U.S. News & World Report. Cohen later told Republican > senators the KLA was no "choirboy circle," according to the > magazine. > > There is an outside chance U.S. intelligence agencies are not up > to speed with the KLA. Writing in the May/June 1999 issue of > Foreign Affairs magazine, former New York Times Balkans Bureau > Chief Chris Hedges writes that American spies were busy tracking > militant Islamist groups and Iranian agents in Bosnia and failed > to see the KLA’s rise. > > "Indeed, some diplomats argued as late as last year about whether > the shadowy group really existed -- even as small armed bands > roamed Drenica in central Kosovo," Hedges reports. > > Stories about the Balkan Connection have been around at least > fourteen years. The Wall Street Journal reported September 9, > 1985, on heroin trafficking "conducted by, among others, a > loosely organized group of ethnic Albanians, centered in New > York." U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials claimed the Balkan > Connection moved as much as forty percent of the U.S. heroin > supply, according to the WSJ. > > Jump nine years to November 1, 1994. The Guardian (UK) reported > Europe’s police chiefs feared the Balkan Connection would > strengthen Kosovo Albanian drug syndicates. "We have enormous > problems with Kosovars and Albanians," said Bernard Soldini, > deputy director of Lausanne’s anti-drug force. > > The Swiss were not alone, according to the paper. "Albania is now > a priority for us," said Bernard Frahi with the United Nations’ > drug control program. > > The Observatire Geopolitique Des Drogues, a Paris-based > narcotics-monitoring group that does research for the European > Commission, released a report in June 1994 that claimed Albanian > groups in Kosovo were trading heroin for weapons for use in a > brewing conflict. The report said a large influx of arms "is > fueling geopolitical hopes and fears," and added Albanian leaders > "are inherently in favour of an uprising in Kosovo." > > Exactly four years later -- June 9, 1998 -- Agence France-Presse > reported a group of Kosovars smuggling arms back to their > province were caught by Italian police in a country-wide > anti-drug operation. > > "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," AFP reported. > > Milan’s Corriere della Sera reported on October 15, 1998, that > the Albanian Mafia was helping the KLA, and quoted Italian crime > fighters as saying they successfully neutralized a network of > Albanian drug traffickers. > > Quoting an unnamed Special Operations Section source, the > publication reported Milan was the site for talks between Kosovar > leaders and Tirana-based Albanian gangs. > > Independence was not the only goal of the KLA and the drug > traffickers, according to the source. "On the basis of phone > calls that we have intercepted, we have discovered that the drugs > are not only a source of wealth, but also a tool in the struggle > to weaken Christendom." > > On March 24, just before the start of NATO’s air campaign, > London’s The Times reported Europe’s senior law enforcement > officers believe the KLA is a Marxist-led force funded by drug > money. > > An investigation by the paper revealed Swedish, German and Czech > police, along with Europol, the European police authority, were > conducting separate probes into evidence drug money fueled the > KLA’s rocket-rise from obscurity to power. > > Europol, according to The Times, was preparing a report for > interior and justice ministers on a connection between the KLA > and Albanian drug gangs. > > According to The Washington Times of June 4, a secret > intelligence report by NATO’s Office of Security said the KLA had > received smuggled weapons paid for by money raised through the > sale of drugs and sex. > > "Some funds from the drug trade, in which the Albanians > traditionally acted as couriers and more lately as suppliers, > reportedly are being used to purchase weapons for the [KLA]", the > report was quoted as saying. > > The 24-page report apparently included the United States among > five countries that believe the KLA is aligned with an organized > crime network that smuggles heroin into Western Europe and the > U.S. > > Why, then, would Rubin and the State Department play dumb? > Politics. Washington will do anything to keep Americans from > dying in the Balkans, and that includes supporting KLA drug > trafficking and terrorism. > > The alternative to admitting criminal collusion is to claim > stupidity. It’s not a happy choice for anyone. A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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