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Al Qaida 'Active in Kosovo' Claim Serbs
scotsman.com ^ | Sun 1 Feb 2004 | PA

Posted on 02/01/2004 12:22:13 PM PST by Destro

Sun 1 Feb 2004

3:48pm (UK)

Al Qaida 'Active in Kosovo' Claim Serbs

"PA"

The head of Serbia-Montenegro’s military intelligence claimed today that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida and other terrorist groups are present in the Balkans and planning to increase their activity there.

In an interview with the official Tanjug news agency, Colonel Momir Stojanovic also claimed that the ultimate aim of al Qaida and other extremist Islamic groups is to carve out an independent Muslim state in the Balkans.

“We have information that al Qaida has strongholds in Kosovo, northern Albania ... and that they are active in western Macedonia,” Stojanovic, the head of the Military Security Agency of Serbia-Montenegro’s army, said. All areas are heavily populated by ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslims.

“The strategic aim of the Muslim extremists in the area is to create an Islamic state in the Balkans,” which would include Muslim-dominated areas in the region, Stojanovic added.

There was no immediate comment to Stojanovic’s claims from UN-run Kosovo or Albania, but the Macedonian Defence Ministry said it had no evidence of any al Qaida on its territory.

Claims that Islamic terrorists are present in the Balkans have surfaced before.

Serbian officials have repeatedly said that ethnic Albanian nationalists have established close ties with radical Islamic groups and that extremist fighters fought Serb troops during the Kosovo war in 1998-99.

In neighbouring Bosnia, rumours have also surfaced of al Qaida activity, but the international peacekeepers stationed there since the end of the country’s 1992-1995 war have never found any such evidence.

During the Bosnian war, Serb leaders claimed they were fighting to keep Muslims from establishing an Islamic regime in the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian Muslim leaders dismissed those claims as absurd, arguing that their people are secular and European.

Stojanovic also predicted that terrorist activity in the Balkans, including Serbia-Montenegro, would increase in the ”upcoming period.”

The United States and its allies have warned in the past that international soldiers deployed in the Balkans could be attacked by al Qaida or other terrorist organisations targeting Western targets throughout the world.

However, there have been no major attacks or any other indication of terrorist activity so far in the Balkans, which is still recovering from wars in the 1990s.

Thousands of international troops, including US soldiers, have been deployed in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia as part of international peacekeeping efforts.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: albania; alqaedabalkans; balkans; campaignfinance; kosovo; macedonia; serbpropaganda
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1 posted on 02/01/2004 12:22:15 PM PST by Destro
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To: *balkans
bump
2 posted on 02/01/2004 12:22:28 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
Al Qaida 'Active in Kosovo'

THANK YOU BILL CLINTON!

THANK YOU MADELINE ALBRIGHT!

THANK YOU WESLEY CLARK!

THANK YOU FOR CREATING AN AL QUEDA STATE IN EUROPE!

GREAT JOB!

3 posted on 02/01/2004 12:28:43 PM PST by montag813
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To: montag813
Two of the fighters who took part in defending Bosnian Muslims from Serbs and Croats in 1995 were young Saudis named Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. They went on to play an organizing role in the Sept. 11 attacks and died on the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
4 posted on 02/01/2004 12:28:53 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
There will eventually be an Islamic state in the Balkans which we will have played a prominent role in creating. When that snake-pit comes to fruition and becomes a host for terrorist activity we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.

Worldwide these guys kill more in a good week than Milosevic could in a lifetime. And if they had their way the numbers would be much higher.
5 posted on 02/01/2004 12:57:48 PM PST by bereanway
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Destro
Could it be that the reason Serb soldiers are in Afghanistan is so they can get training in advanced counter-insurgency tactics? From what I've read, there seems to be a gradual (but quiet) increase in American military aid to the new Serbian government.
7 posted on 02/01/2004 1:05:07 PM PST by Modernman ("The details of my life are quite inconsequential...." - Dr. Evil)
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To: bereanway
When that snake-pit......becomes a host for terrorist activity we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.

You must mean: "......have no one to blame but Clinton.", don't you?

8 posted on 02/01/2004 1:42:50 PM PST by expatpat
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To: Modernman
I think in the final analyst the real reason for a US military base in the Kosovo region will be to provide a strong presence against the radical muslims of Kosovo and other islamic weirdos who are their friends... ie. bin laden's group.
9 posted on 02/01/2004 2:59:35 PM PST by Lion in Winter
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To: Destro; FormerLib
"Two of the fighters who took part in defending Bosnian Muslims from Serbs and Croats in 1995 were young Saudis named Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.

They went on to play an organizing role in the Sept. 11 attacks and died on the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon. "

Now, isn't THAT sumptin'!!!

10 posted on 02/01/2004 3:03:35 PM PST by Lion in Winter
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To: expatpat
Yeah, you're right. I guess I was speaking as an American citizen who disagreed vehemently with what Clinton did. Simple frustration.
11 posted on 02/01/2004 3:15:53 PM PST by bereanway
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones; NYC Republican; Hoplite; mark502inf
A ping to post 4: I'm sure it's all really the Serbs fault, huh?
12 posted on 02/01/2004 3:25:27 PM PST by FormerLib (We'll fight the good fight until the very end!)
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To: Destro
Al Qaida 'Active in Kosovo' Claim Serbs>>>

Operative word: "Claim Serbs"

Of course, the following headlines can also be used:

Earth Flat, Claim Serbs

Pi = 3, Claim Serbs

V Corps at Srebrenica Didn't Do Nothin', Nobody Saw Them, You Can't Prove Anything, Claim Serbs

13 posted on 02/01/2004 3:35:17 PM PST by Ronly Bonly Jones (The more things change...)
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones
The Serbs are following up on American intel: The United States and its allies have warned in the past that international soldiers deployed in the Balkans could be attacked by al Qaida or other terrorist organisations targeting Western targets throughout the world.
14 posted on 02/01/2004 3:45:33 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Ronly Bonly Jones; Destro
Grass is green, claim Serbs!

And Bonly-boy scrambles for Clintonista claims that it is red! LOL!
15 posted on 02/01/2004 3:51:40 PM PST by FormerLib (We'll fight the good fight until the very end!)
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To: Modernman
The Serbs haven't made it to Afghanistan yet, in large part due to individuals like Stojanovic, around whom the stench of war crimes in Kosovo lingers too strongly.

Furthermore, his statements are less than creditable in light of the lack of attacks on US forces in the region, as compared to our experience in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Serbia is being coaxed into NATO, via the pfp, but if Mladic isn't turned over come March, we're back at square 1 and Serbia will be back out in the cold as far as economic and military relations with the US go.

16 posted on 02/01/2004 4:12:13 PM PST by Hoplite
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To: FormerLib
Here's what the Clinton administration's SD told us in 1998.
17 posted on 02/01/2004 4:23:30 PM PST by Balto_Boy
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To: Hoplite; Modernman
a lot good NATO's pfp did FYROM.Did NATO arms come to the rescue? (as they did to the Albanian guerillas outside of Skopje).
18 posted on 02/01/2004 4:25:24 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
NATO didn't have to intervene militarily in Macedonia - the warring parties were talked down and are now hammering out their differences in the Macedonian parliament.

Not quite what you'd like to have seen, but given the way things have turned out in the Balkans, it sucks to be you, doesn't it.

19 posted on 02/01/2004 4:34:54 PM PST by Hoplite
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To: Hoplite
So when you join NATO pfp you join a diplomacy club or a military alliance? I guess the tanks are for show. How things have turned out in the Balkans? Like White Slavery - drug trading empires - presence of al-Qaeda - destabalized? Militarized? Factionalized?
20 posted on 02/01/2004 4:40:54 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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