Oliver North and the Contras<\/strong>? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan where \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d were financed through the laundering of drug money. Since the onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case, drug money laundered in the international banking system has financed covert operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was funded by the narcotics trade as part of Washington\u2019s military strategy against the combined forces of the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao.6<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in Central America and the Caribbean. \u201cThe rising curve of cocaine imports to the US\u201d, wrote journalist John Dinges \u201cfollowed almost exactly the flow of US arms and military advisers to Central America\u201d.7<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern Florida. And as revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were funded through the laundering of drug money. \u201cDirty money\u201d recycled through the banking system\u2013often through an anonymous shell company\u2013 became \u201ccovert money,\u201d used to finance various rebel groups and guerilla movements including the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time Magazine report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan\u2019, said a US intelligence officer.\u201d8<\/p>\n\n\n\n
America and Germany join Hands<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and Germany\u2019s Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role in installing a right wing nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).9 The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: \u201cThey used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money\u201d.10 According to Whitley, the CIA was, subsequently instrumental in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.11<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The covert activities of Germany\u2019s BND were consistent with Bonn\u2019s intent to expand its \u201cLebensraum\u201d into the Balkans. Prior to the onset of the civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively supported secession; it had \u201cforced the pace of international diplomacy\u201d and pressured its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. According to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured (although not officially) the formation of a \u201cGreater Albania\u201d encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia.12 According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies \u201cto pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa.\u201d13<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Islamic Fundamentalism in Support of the KLA<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Bonn and Washington\u2019s \u201chidden agenda\u201d consisted in triggering nationalist liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out \u201cby turning a blind eye\u201d to the influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.14<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Koweit had been fighting in Bosnia.15 And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics.16<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a Deutsche Press-Agentur report, financial support from Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.17 \u201cGazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently [1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations.\u201d18<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supply route for arming KLA \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d are the rugged mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western Europe with grade four heroin. 75% of the heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), \u201cit is estimated that 4-6 metric tons of heroin leave each month from Turkey having [through the Balkans] as destination Western Europe.\u201d19 A recent intelligence report by Germany\u2019s Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: \u201cEthnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries.\u201d20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Laundering of Dirty Money<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged links to the Turkish State are said to control the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans \u201ccooperating closely with other groups with which they have political or religious ties\u201d including criminal groups in Albanian and Kosovo.21 In this new global financial environment, powerful undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling operations per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion-dollar money laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western European markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Albanian Connection<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came to power, headed by President Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border trade had unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely as a result of the embargo imposed by the international community on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece against Macedonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy following the IMF\u2019s lethal \u201ceconomic medicine\u201d imposed on Belgrade in 1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western sources).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths \u201cbarely out of their Teens\u201d from an impoverished population, were drafted into the ranks of the KLA\u202622<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of State institutions. Drug money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha (1992-1997).23 These shady investment funds were an integral part of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western business interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled towards other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal groups operating in Milan, \u201chave become so powerful running prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the Calabrians in strength and influence.\u201d24<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The application of \u201cstrong economic medicine\u201d under the guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania\u2019s banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position themselves. Several Western oil companies including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes rivetted on Albania\u2019s abundant and unexplored oil-deposits. Western investors were also gawking Albania\u2019s extensive reserves of chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum\u2026 The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the background on behalf of German mining interests. 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Berisha\u2019s Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement with Germany\u2019s Preussag (handing over control over Albania\u2019s chrome mines) against the competing bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio Tinto Zimbabwe (RTZ).26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into the privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of State assets by the mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had led virtually overnight to the development of a property owning class firmly committed to the \u201cfree market\u201d. In Northern Albania, this class was associated with the Guegue \u201cfamilies\u201d linked to the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha (1992-97), Albania\u2019s largest financial \u201cpyramid\u201d VEFA Holdings had been set up by the Guegue \u201cfamilies\u201d of Northern Albania with the support of Western banking interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the Mafia which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty money.27<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior members of the Albanian government during the Presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet members and members of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(\u2026) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband cigarettes all are believed to have been handled by a company run openly by Albania\u2019s ruling Democratic Party, Shqiponja (\u2026). In the course of 1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes. (\u2026) Drugs barons from Kosovo (\u2026) operate in Albania with impunity, and much of the transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by Shik, the state security police (\u2026). Intelligence agents are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way to the top and have had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports.28<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the Albanian-Macedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West had turned a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase of arms (often in terms of direct barter): \u201cDeliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the Greek embargo [in 1993-4] can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of kalachnikov rifles to Albanian `brothers\u2019 in Kosovo\u201d.29<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Northern tribal clans or \u201cfares\u201d had also developed links with Italy\u2019s crime syndicates.30 In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling arms across the Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7 calibre heavy machine-guns, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more sophisticated weaponry including anti-aircraft and antiarmor rockets. According to Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA \u201cfunnelled through a so-called \u201cGovernment of Kosovo\u201d based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its Washington office employs the public-relations firm of Ruder Finn\u2013notorious for its slanders of the Belgrade government\u201d.31<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to \u201cconcentrate on heavy weapons training \u2013 rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and transporter use, as well as on communications, and command and control\u201d. (According to Yugoslav government sources.32<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a \u201cdeafening silence\u201d of the international media regarding the Kosovo arms-drugs trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cthe trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic implications (\u2026) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical hopes and fears\u201d\u202633<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome \u201cmarriage of convenience\u201d with the mafia. \u201cFreedom fighters\u201d were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to \u201cfinance the Kosovo conflict\u201d with the ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an entire country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns and villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NOTES<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
1. Roger Boyes and Eske Wright, Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels The Times, London, Monday, March 24, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Philip Smucker and Tim Butcher, \u201cShifting stance over KLA has betrayed\u2019 Albanians\u201d, Daily Telegraph, London, 6 April 1999<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. KDOM Daily Report, released by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Office of South Central European Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, December 21, 1998; Compiled by EUR\/SCE (202-647-4850) from daily reports of the U.S. element of the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, December 21, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. \u201cRugova, sous protection serbe appelle a l\u2019arret des raides\u201d, Le Devoir, Montreal, 1 April 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. See Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia Harper and Row, New York, 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. See John Dinges, Our Man in Panama, The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of Manuel Noriega, Times Books, New York, 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. \u201cThe Dirtiest Bank of All,\u201d Time, July 29, 1991, p. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. Truth in Media, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999; see also Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. Quoted in Truth in Media, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11. Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
13. Sean Gervasi, \u201cGermany, US and the Yugoslav Crisis\u201d, Covert Action Quarterly, No. 43, Winter 1992-93).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14. See Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15. For further details see Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997, p. 288.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
16. Truth in Media, Kosovo in Crisis, Phoenix, 2 April 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17. Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 13, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
18. Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
19. Daily News, Ankara, 5 March 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
20. Quoted in Boyes and Wright, op cit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
21. ANA, Athens, 28 January 1997, see also Turkish Daily News, 29 January 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
22. Brian Murphy, KLA Volunteers Lack Experience, The Associated Press, 5 April 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
23. See Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3, see also Barry James, In Balkans, Arms for Drugs, The International Herald Tribune Paris, June 6, 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
24. The Guardian, 25 March 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
25. For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, La crisi albanese, Edizioni Gruppo Abele, Torino, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
26. Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
27. Andrew Gumbel, The Gangster Regime We Fund, The Independent, February 14, 1997, p. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
28. Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
29. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
30. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 66, p. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
31. Quoted in Workers\u2019 World, May 7, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
32. See Government of Yugoslavia at http:\/\/www.gov.yu\/terrorism\/terroristcamps.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
33. Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original source of this article is Global Research<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Copyright \u00a9\u00a0Prof Michel Chossudovsky<\/a>, Global Research, 2025<\/p>\n\n \n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost Twenty-five\u00a0years ago,\u00a0marks the beginning of NATO\u2019s aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia (March 24, 1999- June 10, 1999). The bombings which lasted for almost three months, were followed by the military invasion (under a bogus UN mandate) and illegal occupation of\u00a0the province of Kosovo. This marked the beginning of the NATO war on Yugoslavia. 21 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[17657,43959,9320,16438,3739,43958],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-91076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-aerial","tag-bombardment","tag-nato","tag-remembering","tag-war","tag-yugoslavia"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NATO War on Yugoslavia: Remembering the Aerial Bombardment - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Almost Twenty-five\u00a0years ago,\u00a0marks the beginning of NATO\u2019s aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia (March 24, 1999- June 10, 1999). The bombings which lasted for almost three months, were followed by the military invasion (under a bogus UN mandate) and illegal occupation of\u00a0the province of Kosovo. This marked the beginning of the NATO war on Yugoslavia. 21 years […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-02-16T05:35:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":540,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Kosovo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"21 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"NATO War on Yugoslavia: Remembering the Aerial Bombardment","datePublished":"2025-02-16T05:35:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076"},"wordCount":4129,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Kosovo.jpg","keywords":["Aerial","Bombardment","NATO","Remembering","war","Yugoslavia"],"articleSection":["Activist"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91076","name":"NATO War on Yugoslavia: Remembering the Aerial Bombardment - 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