New Federalist

 

Despite BIN Laden links, NATO sticks to KLA.

 

By Umberto Pascali

Sept 19 (EIRNS) -- Evidence of the connections between Osama bin Laden and the

Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is piling up in the Macedonian media. Of course the drug

and terrorist axis that links up Afghanistan, where Bin Laden resides and Kosovo is

hardly a revelation. As this newspaper and {EIR} magazine have repeatedly reported,

the big "secret" of the KLA is that the narco-terrorist gangs deployed under such

acronym are integral part of the so-called Albanian or Kosovo mafia whose main

lucrative activity – besides exploitation of prostitution, traffic of weapons and traffic of

refugees et al. – is the distribution of 80% of the heroin consumed in Europe. Such

heroin comes from the Afghanistan's opium.

            It is also well known that Bin Laden has been "invented" originally by US and

British agencies as "freedom fighter" against the Russians in Afghanistan and his

international gangs had been given – by those agencies – green light to cultivate and

smuggle opium as a way to finance their war. In this sense the difference between the

modus operandi of the KLA and the Afghanistan Taliban is very similar.

            "It is understandable that the Macedonians are now doing everything to attract

attention to the international connection of the KLA," says a well-informed Balkan

observer.

            "The Macedonians have seen the US and the British supporting directly or

through NATO the KLA destabilization against their country, and now, after Bin Laden

has become the biggest target of the frantic vendetta campaign following the

September 11 massacres, now they hope that finally the US understand what they have

been through. They hope to finally join forces and save the country from narco-

terrorism. Unfortunately they are naпve. In fact while promoting the war hysteria using

Bin Laden as a pretext, the Anglo-Americans and NATO are also escalating their support

for the Bin Laden connected KLA."

 

"KLA's  better with Westerners"

 

In fact on Sept 18 and 19, NATO officials launched a campaign insisting, to use

the words of George Soros supported Radio Free Europe, that "Albanians [i.e. KLA] have

generally been much more adept than the Macedonians in handling the Westerners."

The announced war preparations targeting possibly Afghanistan and other Middle East

countries did not change in the least the Anglo-American determination to continue the

Macedonian operation, and the support for the KLA. "The situation in Macedonia is not

affected by the tragedies in new York and Washington," US Macedonian envoy, James

Pardew stated on Sept 19th. Washington "remains focused on the situation in

Macedonia."

            Ambassador Pardew -- better known in Macedonia as "the cow boy" for the

brutal attitude he display against those forces who try to resist the destruction of the

country's national sovereignty – did not hint to the fact that his co-mediator to European

envoy, Francois Leotard is not there anymore. In fact, among the deafening silence of

the media, leotard resigned last Sept 10, just after a long phone conversation between

the president of his country, Jacques Chirac of France and his Russian counterpart,

Vladimir Putin.            

            The two Presidents discussed about Macedonia and agreed on a closer

cooperation "with the aim of preserving the Balkan country's stability, territorial integrity

and the inviolability of its borders," according a statement issued by the Kremlin. In

other words, a line totally opposite to the tactical and strategic aims of the KLA and his

puppet masters. Leotard, reportedly, expressed his strong disagreement with the line

pursued by the leadership of NATO in Macedonia.

            Pardew also forgot to notice that there is also an other "problem." The German

Defense Minister, Rudolf Scharping – that the anglophile lobby in Germany has tried

unsuccessfully to "Watergate" – in a closed-door session of the parliament defense

Committee accused openly the British to have undermined the deployment of German

soldiers in Macedonia. And the list of the "problems" inside NATO could continue.

            What many "naпve Macedonians" do not understand is that the war hysteria

whipped up by CNN and the other media inside the US, do not indicate a decision to

finally destroy the narco-terrorist machines that have been set up by that very Anglo-

American groups in Ibero-America, Europe and Asia. In fact, while so many

Macedonians participated in vigils in front of the US Embassy in Skopje, to "pray for the

Suffering America," top US NATO officials continued their campaign to present the KLA

terrorists not only as acceptable, but indeed much better than the Macedonians against

whom they had carried our a murderous eight months long assault.

            State Secretary Colin Powell himself intervened to make clear that, if a proposed

popular referendum – presently debated by the parliament -- is approved, it would

increase the possibility of a new war.  The referendum, if approved by the Parliament

would let the Macedonian citizens decide on the Macedonia Constitution changes

imposed by the "international community." It was the last of a series of high-level

interferences in the internal affairs of Macedonia.

 

NATO to stay

 

Still. While in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sept 18, Macedonia Prime Minister Ljubco

Georgievski, restated his hope that after the horrible attacks of Sept 11, NATO will

change its policy towards "terrorism" in Macedonia. "The international community was

not energetic enough in dealing with terrorism in Macedonia. It flirted with the

terrorists." Two days before, in an interview with the German weekly {Der Spiegel},

Georgievski stressed that  "NATO should leave [Macedonia] at the end of its operation"

that is on Sept 26. The Prime Minister revealed that "paradoxically" NATO "is pressuring

us for an extension of its mandate…. We are under pressure, but not the terrorists…"

            But on Sept 19 a NATO spokesman stated that the Macedonian governments had

requested a new NATO mandate. Even more "paradoxically" than before, the

announcement was not made by the Macedonians but by NATO.