Posted on 09/20/2005 8:05:26 AM PDT by Alex Marko
The U.S. government has moved to financially isolate a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and other terror leaders to finance jihadist groups in Albania.
Monday's order from the Treasury Department prohibits Americans from doing business with Abdul Latif Saleh, 48. It also freezes any assets Mr. Saleh may have within U.S. jurisdiction.
The Treasury says Mr. Saleh received $600,000 dollars from Osama bin Laden to "encourage the establishment" of Albanian extremist groups.
It says Mr. Saleh founded and organized an organization that seeks to destabilize Albania by fomenting conflict among the country's religious groups.
The Treasury says Mr. Saleh, who has both Jordanian and Albanian citizenship, was expelled from Albania. It says his last known residence was in the United Arab Emirates.
Some information for this story provided by AP.
How about the CIA gets busy and does what they need to do?
And that would be?
It's called wet work.
(whisper) Make sure he ends up in a ditch somewhere. (Shhhhh...) Don't tell anybody...
You must be wrong there, Alex, for our President Clinton would never have allowed us to ally ourselves with Muslim ruffians. What balderdash will you outrageous Serb-Symps come up with next?
The Albanians only want to be left alone to enjoy their unique culture, their page in the history of Europe, and to prosper within the Greater Albania.
Can a klong be an alternate?
"Can a klong be an alternate?"
A klong?? I'm sorry, I only received a public education and never went to college. Well, since "klong" sounds like the sound your head makes when you get hit by a heavy blunt object, I would say that "klonging" the dude is perfectly acceptable.
First of all, i'm albanian myself. Secondly, the majority of the alleged terrorist links are with the Kosovar albanians, which in fact, Albanians from albania despise.
>>>Secondly, the majority of the alleged terrorist links are with the Kosovar albanians, which in fact, Albanians from albania despise
Well, Alex and I strongly disagree on how Albanians feel about Kosovars, but the fact remains that Kenny's rant on "Muslim ruffian" Albanians is just plain ignorant in light of the fact the US has never had anything but diplomatic and economic involvment with Albania. This has been repaid by Albania through a strong support of US policies, including being one of only four countries to contribute troops to the combat phase of Operation Enduring Freedom.
you can strongly disagree all you want.
1. You are not albanian, nor have you probably even visted albania.
2. Albanians in albania are far different from the Kosvars. Its like comparning San Fransisco with Georgia.
Wow Alex, after the nice little exchange we had here ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1311201/posts ) you are now turning around and accusing me of falsifying my Albanian heritage.
After claiming to be Tosk Albanian and writing in a syntactically-incorrect Geg dialect, you claimed to be an Albanian-American who had hung around Gegs your whole life.
Fine, we'll accept that explanation of the inconsistency. What puts the nail on the coffin for me is this thread ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473517/posts?page=15#15 ) where you said:
"Rest assured i'm 110% albanian. The 'u' was changed to 'o' when my dad came over in the 60's for some unknown reason. And no, i'm not catholic, i'm orthodox"
Alex, you should now that Marku is a Geg Catholic last name, in the Orthodox South it is always used in the form Marko.
http://www.president.al/english/pub/info.asp?id=953
http://genforum.genealogy.com/albania/messages/600.html
http://www.southeasteurope.org/subpage.php?sub_site=30&w_id=184
http://foreignaffairs.tripod.com/armillotta/football034.html
Conclusion: you are an impostor. As for my own Albanian heritage, it is very easy to verify as I can write Albanian all day, and not that BabelFish bs you bring around.
In fact, the Albanians in Albania hosted many an Islamic terrorist. In fact, the Albanians have supplied the KLA, the Chechens, and Allah knows what other Islamic-based bandit gangs, from their vast arms dumps left over from the time they were allied to the CHICOM. In fact, Albania's largest source of foreign exchange is a toss-up between stolen cars and stolen car parts and the heroin trade. In fact, Albania, at the moment, is the HQ for a European crime wave based on brothel operations, extortion rackets, kidnapping, heroin, arms traffic, and people-smuggling, the combined proceeds of which dwarf any legitimate economic activity in the country. That's not just my opinion, that's Interpol's take on the situation.
When it comes to Kosovo, I suppose you are ignorant of the desire to integrate Kosovo with Albania? I suppose you also wish to ignore the concept of the "Greater Albania," which is an especially obnoxious form of the megalomania that seems to infect the Balkans, but which is a convenient cover for the export of an exploding Islamic population (no pun intended)with no visible means of support in the "homeland."
The politically correct view is that the Albanians in Kosovo (and the Bosnians) were victims in the crack-up of Yugoslavia. However, anyone who knows anything about the region knows there are certainly no angels here, but that the Albanians are certifiably devilish.
Viz there are people in Albania fighting to end their nation's official and semi-official ties with world-wide Jihad. There is the tension between the Christian element, the Marxists, and the Muslims, which is unresolved, though. How that is going to get handled is anyone's guess.
The country itself could become very strong economically, based on what is a quite incredible array of natural resources, and of course Albania does have a very strategic location.
However, as Europe's last truly tribal society, complete with blood feuds (even if that aspect is fading fast), and as a former primitive outpost of the Ottoman Empire, riven by internecine rivalries, Albania is a problem area that needs economic development, accompanied by strong external management and containment, probably by the EU. Please forgive that politically incorrect and old-fashioned view.
>>>However, as Europe's last truly tribal society, complete with blood feuds (even if that aspect is fading fast), and as a former primitive outpost of the Ottoman Empire, riven by internecine rivalries, Albania is a problem area that needs economic development, accompanied by strong external management and containment, probably by the EU. Please forgive that politically incorrect and old-fashioned view.
That's something I can agree with.
Here's where I disagree: I really do think the evidence suggests that Albanian officialdom has quite a bit more to do with criminal activity than it ought to. I have it on pretty good authority that the illegal sectors or "black" economy consistently out-earn the legitimate economy in Albania. Ethnically speaking, the Albanians take a back seat to no one in the international OC competition. Bravo for such a a small, poor country!
I am sure, from my perusal of other sources, that the notion of "Greater Albania," while perhaps a bit of a canard to anyone with half-a-brain, is not considered ludicrous by many Albanians. Perhaps you run with a more intellectual, international group. The notion of an independent Kosovo appears to be a temporary expedient, while getting "the union with Albania plebiscite" together. Given the Albanian birthrate in Kosovo, this will not take long, and I am taking bets.
Yes, we feel a sense of having been wronged at the genesis of our nation by having been separated from our kin in other geopolitical entities. My family was certainly separated in two when their kin in what is today Sveti Naum was left outside Albania
I submit Gerald, that you may feel these irredentist sentiments a bit less than the folks on the ground. This feeling is not a good thing in the Balkans, because every group there feels the same thing.
What about the Islamic influence? Do not the Islamic Albanians harbor elements you would deem unhealthy for a modern state? I will, at your suggestion, study this religious question more closely. I admit to a most un-Christian antipathy toward Islam's more energetic manifestations of ill will toward the rest of human kind. As for the harboring of HAMAS and al-qaida, this has been well documented by reputable intelligence. This goes equally for Bosnia. You claim it's over in Albania? OK. I know it's not over in Bosnia. You think I am overly worried by this Euro-Jihad stuff? My boy, I certainly hope you are right!
Albania was never a US ally. Some ethnic Albanians -- the overwhelming majority of whom are secular -- were facing persecution in Kosovo. It is when the US and other Western Countries were failing to help them, that a few were turned, out of desperation, to asking the Jihadis for help.
... and when the Albanians in Kosovo, with whom we most certainly formed an alliance, had been persecuting the Serbs in that unhappy province, as had been documented for some years by no less than the NYT, did we protect the Serbs from persecution? And what about now, when the Kosovar Albanians continue their agression against not only the Serbs, but the other ethnic groups in the province?
One ought to resist being a champion of the Serbs, but just how does the US go about choosing an ally in a region such as this? What exactly is fair? Albanians most certainly massacred Serbs, Croats most certainly massacred Serbs, Bosnians most definitely massacred Serbs. And frankly, about the only folks whom the Serbs did not themselves massacre were Montenegrins. Und so du, mein alter kaker, like Bill Clinton and Dick Holbrooke, are going to tell us what side to be on in the Balkans?
The Serbs have lost Kosovo to the Albanians who became the majority there by means of a truly explosive birthrate, helped along by ethnic cleansing. The bloody reaction of the Serbs, cost them world, and especially EU opinion. Even worse, IMHO, it put us on the side of the Albanians in Kosovo, who have not stopped their depredations.
The issue here is "How much are the Albanians in Albania helping their kinsmen in Kosovo?" I say a lot. Gerald says, "Not Much." Now you say "Most Kosovar Albanians are not true Muslims. Secular." I say they are Muslim enough to destroy Christian villages, despoil monasteries and burn churches. They are Muslim enough to host terrorists.
How much more Muslim do you want them?
I agree that the Balkans are complicated and I don't buy into the whole "KLA are saints" shtick. That said, in 1999, the greatest threat and the greatest danger to regional stability was Mr. Milosevic, and it was proper for the West to have opposed him. Today Milosevic is gone and Serbia is more-or-less begining to open up, and I think that changes things. Serbia could be a strong force for regional stability, but first it has to open up to modernity. I would agree that NATO and the UN should protect whatever Kosovar Serbs remain.
I only wish we could handle the Balkans from our Freep keyboards.
$600,000 received from Osama bin Laden is nothing compared to 900 million $ launder trough Croatia.
CROATIA: BANKS LAUNDER 900 MILLION FOR AL-QAEDA, PRESS REPORTS
Zagreb, 20 Sept. (AKI) - The al-Qaeda terrorist network laundered at least 900 million dollars through two Zagreb banks in the early 1990s to finance Bosnian Muslims in the 1992-1995 civil war, but also various terrorist activities, Zagreb weekly Nacional alleged in a report Tuesday. The paper sources its story to the secret testimony of an unnamed Croatian citizen, who testified as a protected witness in New York trial of Yemen Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moyad, recently sentenced to 75 years for financing al-Qaeda, Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organisations.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1488018/posts
Unfornately, that claim is inconvenient to the blame America-firsters, because Croatia is Catholic, not Muslim. And we all know how committed Croat leaders like Franjo Tudjman and Ante Gotovina have been to democracy and human rights...
Can ya beat that, Catholic Croats getting together with Muslim Bosnians to support their attacks on the Orthodox (which ought to be Catholic enough for any man)Serbs? Of course using impeccable Balkan logic, we ought to help out by bombing the crap out of Serbia.
But wait, there was a moment in recent time when the Serbs were working with the Croats AGAINST the Bosnians. What? Bomb everybody? Are we sure we have a dog in this fight?
God? Why did Tito have to die? Is he still dead? Is there another one somewhere?
"It says his last known residence was in the United Arab Emirates."
Isn't this all mossad needs to know?
Amen to that.
The KLA are NOT saints. I am albanian myself and i despise the KLA. They have had funding from Iran, Saudis and bosnian muslims. It doesnt take a genius to figure out what 3rd and 4th party would like to use Kosovo for. The KLA are mobsters that sell women, run drugs and arms which then gets filtered thru to terrorists within the balkans and to the middle east.
The KLA are a bunch of gangsters. I just find the idea put forth by a bunch of posters on FR that you can reduce the Balkans simply to Christian = Good and Muslim = Bad more than slightly ridiculous.
They have had funding from Iran, Saudis and bosnian muslims.
So? The KLA are gangsters. They're not jihadis. They'll take money from whomever, but they're not about to start blowing themselves up for a larger goal.
Blow themselves up...no. Declare a quasi-jihad in eastern Macedonia and southern serbia..yes. They just recieved albanian students educated in saudi wahabbism.
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