German Intelligence and the CIA supported Al Qaeda sponsored Terrorists in Yugoslavia
www.globalresearch.ca 20 February 2005 The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BEH502A.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Both the CIA and German intelligence (BND) supported the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda. This report by the German TV ZDF Network, reviewed by Mira Beham, is revealing in many regards. First the report corroborates earlier analysis on the role of the BND and the CIA in supporting the KLA, several years prior as well as in the wake of the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. Second, it further documents and confirms the KLA's links to Al Qaeda and the role of the latter in the Kosovo conflict: "What German journalists and their Dutch colleagues at VPRO Radio Television investigated has a long tradition. Since the beginning of the 1990s the BND has maintained contacts with the KLA, which was then considered to be a terrorist organization. Although we have to admit that the KLA has stronger ties with the CIA than the BND. Commander Hoxha had ties with the CIA, the BND and with the Austrian military intelligence service which has devoted great attention to this region and has very good connections with the KLA." Despite its links to organized crime and Al Qaeda, the KLA rebel army had been skillfully heralded by the Western media in the months preceding the 1999 NATO bombings as broadly representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Its leader Hashim Thaci had been "designated" (by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) as chief negotiator at the Rambouillet peace talks. The fact of the matter is that the Atlantic Alliance had been supporting a terrorist organization. The KLA was not supporting the rights of ethnic Albanians. Quite the opposite. The activities of this terrorist organization on the ground, in Kosovo, provided NATO and the US with the pretext to intervene on humanitarian grounds, claiming that the Serb authorities had committed human rights violations against ethnic Albanians, when in fact the NATO sponsored KLA was involved in terrorist acts on behalf of NATO, which triggered a response from the Serb police and military. "Just War" Broadly speaking, the bombing of Yugoslavia had the support of Western public opinion, on humanitarian grounds. NATO's mandate was broadly accepted. The geopolitics behind the war were never brought out. The militarisation of the Balkans and the setting up a US military presence was not an issue. No coherent antiwar movement was launched in relation to Yugoslavia, despite the fact that the invasion of Kosovo was in violation of international law. A disinformation campaign had been launched. Several leftist intellectuals and civil society activists claimed that this was a "just war". The KLA, despite its shady connections was also supported by several sectors of the progressive left, which had described the KLA as a "Liberation Movement". In retrospect, the antiwar movement developed belatedly in relation to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. NGOs and trade union organizations broadly endorsed the just war interpretation, both in relation to Yugoslavia (1999) and Afghanistan (2001), without understanding how in both cases, the US had fabricated a pretext, based on a phony humanitarian mandate. The interrelationship between the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were misunderstood. The pretext for invading Kosovo had been fabricated, yet public opinion was led to believe that NATO had come the rescue of ethnic Albanians. In the words of Richard Falk: The Kosovo War was a just war because it was undertaken to avoid a likely instance of "ethnic cleansing" undertaken by the Serb leadership of former Yugoslavia, and it succeeded in giving the people of Kosovo an opportunity for a peaceful and democratic future. It was a just war despite being illegally undertaken without authorization by the United Nations, and despite being waged in a manner that unduly caused Kosovar and Serbian civilian casualties, while minimizing the risk of death or injury on the NATO side. The Afghanistan War was again controversial in relation to the just war tradition. It seems to qualify as an instance of defensive necessity in view of the high risks of harm associated with the heavy al Qaeda presence in the country, and its demonstrated capacity and will after September 11 to inflict severe harm on the United States in the future. Again, as with Kosovo, the means used and the ends raised serious doubts about the just means and just ends of the war. The American failure to assume the risks of ground warfare in order to carry out the mission of destroying the al Qaeda presence, as well as the failure to convert the battlefield outcomes into a durable peace, raise doubts about the overall justice of the war. When it comes to the Iraq War there seems to be little doubt that the war is generally regarded as an unjust war, despite its effect of freeing the Iraqi people from the oppressive rule of Saddam Hussein. (interview with Richard Falk, http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2003/08/01_falk_interview.htm , August 2003) Macedonia August 2001: Central to an Understanding of 9/11 The reference in the report to Macedonia is crucial to an understanding of 9/11 and the war on terrorism, because it confirms that US military advisers had integrated a terrorist paramilitary organization linked to Al Qaeda, barely a few weeks before 9/11. Moreover, it also confirms that US paratroopers were sent in to save the Al Qaeda sponsored fighters and their US military advisers. "Samedin Xhezairi, also known as Commander Hoxha, joined the Kosovo Liberation Army when armed conflict in Kosovo began, fighting in three operation zones. He was a fighter in Chechnya, trained in Afghanistan and acted as the commander of the Mujahideen 112th Brigade operating in the summer of 2001 in the region of Tetovo [Macedonia]. In August of the same year 80 members of the 3/502 battalion of U.S. paratroopers evacuated him from Aracinovo [Macedonia], together with his Albanian extremists and 17 instructors of the U.S. private military company MPRI which was training the Albanian paramilitary formations." In other words, the US military was collaborating with Al Qaeda, which according to the Bush administration was involved in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Yet, the US military was working hand in glove with "enemy number one" barely a few weeks before 9/11, and we are led to believe that the Bush administration is committed to waging a battle against Al Qaeda. CONTINUED......................... http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BEH502A.html Serbian News Network - SNN news@antic.org http://www.antic.org/
