[Destro]

I figure because al-Qaeda had to share Bosnia with their old pal NATO they kept a low profile. Moving south into Albania allowed for fewer restrictions on movements--easy access to weapons and life there is cheap.

[Angelus Errare]

True enough, but it's a lot easier to transport jihadis and arms to Kosovo from Albania rather than Bosnia. Remember, NATO didn't know what al-Qaeda was until 1998 despite the existence of ample evidence to the contrary, including the proto-9/11 Oplan Bojinka. Heck, even after the Moscow hostage seige you'll still run into people who refuse to believe that Basayev are part of the terror machine despite the fact that Barayev's thugs were getting orders from their controllers in the Gulf and sent their video cassette not to BBC or CNN International, but to al-Jazeera, the favored loudspeaker for Islamic terrorists from Tirana to Jakarta.

NATO wouldn't know al-Qaeda after the Bosnian War if bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had hosted a terrorist summit right under their noses.