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This page originates from:  

The articles collected by: Mr. Benjamin Crocker Works, Director
SIRIUS: The Strategic Issues Research Institute
www.siri-us.com
E-mail: BenWorks@aol.Com
The original page is at: Sirius Kosovo Archive ***

Bob Dole and Yugoslavia;
"Concurrent Resolution 150" and Other Puzzle Pieces

Special Report Feb. 28, 1999

Archive Updated, May 6, 1999

"Follow the money trail," they said during the Watergate Scandal. In June 1986, more than four years before the suspension of Kosovo's Albanian-Muslim dominated autonomous government, Senator Robert ("Bob") Dole of Kansas was the Republican Majority leader in the US Senate. On June 18th of that year, he submitted the inflammatory Concurrent Resolution #150, the complete text of which is reprinted below (Exhibit #1), along with Senator Dole's introductory speech. Joseph DioGuardi, a conservative Republican of Albanian ancestry from New York's metropolitan area, sponsored a companion Resolution in the House of Representatives, ("concurrent" means a resolution is deliberately submitted in both houses) to be found elsewhere in the same volume of the Congressional Record for June 18, 1986. (A xerox copy on file.)

The Mafia has an old saying in America; "an honest politician is one who stays bought." Bob Dole did not become a supporter of Albanian Rights and independence overnight, but it is uncertain to me just when he began to support the dismantling of Yugoslavia. His motives are suspect because at the time of his resolution, the Kosovo autonomous government still operated --it was "closed down" three years later, in 1989-- and it was Serbs and other non-Albanian Muslims being forced out of their homes. Note that four years earlier, The New York Times had reported a wide-spread persecution of Kosovo's Serbs by the local Albanian majority, and that this was continuing at the time of Dole's proposed concurrent resolution:

The New York Times, Monday, July 12, 1982

Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia

"Serbs .... have... been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region.

"The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform, ...first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania. "

"Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade... The exodus of Serbs is admittedly one of the main problems... in Kosovo..."

By 1989, when Mr. Milosevic consolidated his power in Serbia, another 170,000 Serbs had been chased out of their homes and out of the province by Albanian Muslims --who are as xenophobic and chauvinistic as any people on the face of the Earth. Other minority populations; Catholic Albanians, Turks, Gypsies, Gorani, et al, were also suffering under increasing intimidation and discrimination.

Note, too, that in November of 1986, about four months after he introduced the resolution, the Republicans lost control of the Senate to the Democrats, giving up several key seats, when Dole could not find a "message" to support re-election of several of his colleagues. Even before, the Concurrent Resolution "died" right away in committee, but its repercussions have been felt in Yugoslavia ever since.

By 1986, Mr. Dole was already, I am told by sources on Capitol Hill, under "the spell" of his assistant, Ms. Mira Baratta, reputedly granddaughter of a Croat Ustashe (fascist) officer in World War II. Ms. Baratta, whom at least one Hill staffer refers to as "the Croatian Mata Hari," was singled out by Senator John Warner for praise in framing and helping in the passage of Senate bill S-21, of July 26, 1995, which sought to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia's Izetbegovic regime. Izetbegovic founded a fascist "Young Muslim" movement in Bosnia in 1940 and was jailed by the Tito regime in 1946 for four years for perpetrating hate crimes against Bosnia's Serbs. In 1949, his revived "Young Muslims" staged a revolt and committed substantial anti-Serb violence, for which he and three others narrowly escaped the death penalty.

It was this 1986 document and other actions in the US and elsewhere that caused novelist Dobrica Cosic and others in the Serbian Academy of Sciences to issue their "Memorandum" positing a concerted conspiracy to dismantle Yugoslavia (discussed by Mischa Glenny in "The Fall of Yugoslavia" and other narrative histories of the wars of Former-Yugoslavia). The Dole-DioGuardi resolutions prove the Serb reaction was not mere paranoia. This Dole-sponsored resolution also predates the rise of Slobodan Milosevic by more than a year, and pre-dates the termination of autonomous government in Kosovo by about three years. In effect, Mr. Dole's attempts to undermine Yugoslavia's multi-national --albeit still Communist-- Constitutional polity, made the rise of Mr. Milosevic possible, even a logical reaction to such devious pressures.

In the Fiscal Year 1990 Budget of the United States, which took effect Oct. 1, 1989, Senator Dole continued his personal campaign of sabotage against Yugoslavia by denying that sovereign republic international funding. William Dorich, an American journalist of Krajina-Serb ancestry, described that action in a February 16, 1999 speech to the World Affairs Council of Orange County, California:

"The Balkan quagmire began in 1990 in Foreign Appropriations Bill #101-513, in which Senator Robert Dole slipped in 23 sentences that denied financial aid to Yugoslavia when that nation was 31 billion dollars in debt. This bill was a direct violation of the Helsinki Act, which forbids "any act of economic or other coercion."

In fact, the mischief was well afoot by 1986 (see Exhibit #2, from Russ Belant's book Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, 1988, which takes the money trail back to at least 1981). Mr. Dole's war against Yugoslavia, fought in conjunction with the neo-fascists of Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and their politically astute cousins here in America continues. He has managed to bamboozle many others on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and in both political parties in the United States and elsewhere. In this, Dole and the governments of Croatia and Bosnia were assisted by the New York-Washington public relations firm, Ruder-Finn, and a number of former Republican Senators and Congressmen turned lobbyists, including Larry Pressler.

Mr. Dole aspired to succeed Ronald Reagan as President and the Croats and Albanians funded him generously. Marko Lopusina, New York reporter for the Yugoslav magazine Interview, described a May 1987 Dole-DioGuardi Albanian-American fund-raiser in New York City that collected some $1.25 million: "In their speeches, Dole and Dioguardi acknowledged those present for their contributions of $1.2 million for Dole and $50,000 for Dioguardi's campaign." (Interview, Jan. 1, 1988, p. 47). It is safe to say, given the overwhelming preponderance of evidence, that much of that money came from heroin sales and other Albanian Mafia activities. Fortunately New Hampshire found Dole badly wanting and found George Bush to be adequate to the task of leadership.

But in 1991 when Croatia began its war against Yugoslavia and its campaign of cleansing against the Krajina Serbs, the Bush Administration, guided by old Yugoslav hands Lawrence Eagleburger and Brent Scowcroft, still discouraged independence. Jim Baker made a forlorn last-minute trip to Belgrade to endorse union in June 1991, just after Desert Storm. But Yugoslavia was not as high priority as the collapsing Soviet Empire or Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The fix was already in. When the fighting began, the Bush Administration continued to discourage it; that meant Bush had to go.

The Administration had plenty of other enemies: it was too tough on Israel over self-rule for Palestine and other questions. It was not tough enough on China and would do nothing for exiled President Aristide of Haiti. Bill Clinton, afloat on a sea of Chinese, AIPAC and, presumably, Balkan money, won the Oval Office. Croatians poured $50 million into campaign chests of their friends, as documented below (Exhibit #3). Albanian Mafiosi, meanwhile, were dealing heroin from communities in New York's Brooklyn and Bronx boroughs, from Boston, Detroit and Chicago. From 1991 Albanian Mafia "crews" were also robbing supermarkets, ATMs and check cashing services in New York and other cities around the nation to raise campaign money and to buy arms for what became the Kosovo Liberation Army (see Exhibit #4 below).

The linkages between the Kosovo Heroin Mafia (see SIRIUS Archive KLA-Drugs) and these fundraisers is not perfect, contributions of cash leave no audit trail and checks launder through small businesses. But evidence is out there that improves the linkages and our major city police departments know what is going on. William Dorich, who is also a correspondent for The American Srbobran, a Pittsburgh-based newspaper, reports:

"Caught in a 1991 bank robbery in Pasadena, California, two Albanian criminals confessed that they were robbing banks in California `to raise money for the Albanian lobby in the United States.'"

Mrs. Dole, by the way, as President of the American Red Cross, appears to have done more than her share of mischief in seeking to prevent the free flow of medical supplies to the general population of Yugoslavia, or to the Serb population in Bosnia, while supplies flood into Kosovo for Albanian relief. In light of this, the text of the Concurrent Resolution is to me an appalling misrepresentation of events in Kosovo in the mid-1980s, but I ask the reader to judge that for yourself.

Intereference by Mr. Dole continued in the wake of the Rambouillet talks between Serbia and the Kosovo Muslim Albanians. On Monday evening, Feb. 22, he and Mme. Albright both called Adem Demaci to discuss the failure to secure an Albanian independence referendum in the agreement (Exhibits #5-6 below).

A mere two blocks from St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Manhattan, there is a statue of Roscoe Conkling at the southwest corner of Madison Square Park. Conkling said something interesting in defense of his president, Ulysses Grant, whose administration was plagued by scandals involving subordinates, though the President, himself, was honest:

"He [President Grant] will hew to the line of right, let the chips fall where they may."

- NY Senator Roscoe Conkling; Speech, June 5, 1880

Let the chips fall where they may. It is time for honest Republicans to start reining in this fiscally-driven embrace of Fascists and their neo-Fascist offspring. The Democrats, too, have ample reason to poke around in their finances, nowadays. We can start by wondering about Eliot Engel of the Bronx, and Charles Schumer.

When not conspiring against the remains of Yugoslavia and against the Serbs, Mr. Dole has chosen to market Viagra in a pseudo-public service advertising campaign speaking of his prostate surgery and "erectile dysfunction --`ED'." Mr. Clinton's phallocentrism, established by our Miss Lewinsky, is matched by Mr. Dole's (Exhibit #7 below, by Arianna Huffington).

Mr. Dole incessantly "waves the bloody shirt" with the wound he received under honorable conditions during his brief combat service with the 10th Mountain Division in northern Italy. But, since at least the mid-1980s (and likely back to his 1976 Presidential campaign), Mr. Dole has been in league with the fascist enemies of the US and their children in abetting the erection of a neo-fascist state in Croatia and a state headed by an identified Nazi youth leader, Alija Izetbegovic, in Bosnia. Dole has also attempted to steal Kosovo for the heirs of the Albanians who served in the SS Skanderbeg Mountain Division. In this scheming, Mr. Dole has betrayed his own military service and broken faith with all American and Allied veterans of World War II. It was not for this easy campaign money and twisted policy that my father and uncles fought the Germans and Japanese.

Benjamin Works

Exhibits:

  1. June 18, 1986; R. Dole, Senate Concurrent Resolution #150 and speech
  2. Russ Belant; 1989; Book: Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party
  3. Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, Mar 31, 1993, "Croatian Funds to US Politicians.
  4. A Dole aide & Johnny Chung on fundraising candidates
  5. Robert Novak, Column April 15, 1995; Dole, New Hamp. & Albanian Campaign Contributions
  6. NY Daily News, Jan. 1996; Dole's Got Baggage
  7. Excerpt on Albanian Mafia activity in US from the Journal; Transnational Organized Crime; Spring, 1996: Gus Xhudo; "Men of Purpose:"
  8. Reuters, Feb. 24, 1999; ANALYSIS-Kosovo leader Demaci maintains hard line
  9. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1999, Jane Perlez; No Winners at Kosovo Peace Talks, and Albright Seems to Lose Prestige
  10. Arianna Huffington, syndicated column, Feb. 22, 1999; "Bob Dole's Erectoral Politics"
  11. Reuters, Mar. 1, 1999; U.S. asks Dole, Soros to help on Kosovo - report
  12. IBD, March 4, 1999; The GOP's Tangled Foreign Policy
  13. March 4, 1999; Dole Statement on Kosovo Mission
  14. The Illyrian, March 4, 1999; Albanian View of Dole Mission/Message
  15. Joseph DioGuardi, May 6, 1998; Congresional Committee Testimony on Kosovo,
  16. FEC: Albanian-American PAC, Candidate Contributions, 1997-98

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE; June 18, 1986

Page 14439 (Vol. 132 Part 10, June 11-19, 1986)

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 150 - EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THE CONDITION OF ETHNIC ALBANIANS LIVING IN YUGOSLAVIA

Mr. DOLE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

S. Con. Res. 150

Whereas there are more than two million ethnic Albanians living within the borders of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;

Whereas the ethnic Albanians constitute one of the largest ethnic groups within Yugoslavia;

Whereas there are reports that several hundred ethnic Albanians have been killed in communal violence and the Government's efforts to control it

Whereas there is evidence that several thousand more have been arrested by the Yugoslavian Government for expressing their views in a non-violent manner;

Whereas most political prisoners within Yugoslavia are ethnic Albanians;

Whereas many of those arrested have been sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment ranging from one to fifteen years;

Whereas many ethnic Albanians have been denied access to full economic opportunity because of alleged "Albanian nationalist" activities;

Whereas Amnesty International, a respected international human rights organization, has published allegations of torture and assassination of ethnic Albanians in exile by the Yugoslav secret police;

Whereas the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is a signatory to the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe [CSCE, now OSCE], known as the Helsinki Final Act;

Whereas one of the provisions of the Act states that "the participating States on whose territory national minorities exist will respect the rights of persons belonging to such minorities to equality before the law, will afford them full opportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and will, in this manner, protect the legitimate interests in this sphere;"

Whereas the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has failed to protect fully the rights of ethnic Albanians, in accordance with its obligation under the Act;

Resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives Concurring, That Congress:

    1. is deeply concerned over the political and economic conditions of ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia and over the failure of the Yugoslav Government to fully protect their political and economic rights;
    2. urges the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to act so as to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms as expressed in the Helsinki Final Act and the Concluding Document of the Madrid CSCE Follow-Up Meeting are respected in regard to persons from all national and ethnic groups in Yugoslavia;
    3. calls upon the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to review in a humanitarian spirit the cases of all ethnic Albanians currently imprisoned on political charges and to release all of those who have not used or advocated violence;
    4. requests the President of the United States to direct the Department of State to convey the contents of this Resolution to the appropriate representatives of the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I rise today to submit a concurrent resolution expressing the concern of the Congress about the conditions of ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia. Congressman DIO GUARDI of New York has introduced a similar resolution in the House, and I am pleased to be working with him to focus attention on this important matter.

Mr. President, there are approximately two million ethnic Albanians living in Yugoslavia, making them the third largest ethnic group in that country. They have extensive ties of ancestry and common culture with the growing ethnic-Albanian community in the United States.

Regrettably, the Yugoslav Government has not granted to the Albanian community the full protection of their political and economic rights. While many ethnic groups in Yugoslavia have suffered at the hands of the government, the Albanian community has been singled out for particularly harsh treatment.

Under the guise of responding to the greatly exaggerated threat that ethnic Albanians might try to assert political independence from Yugoslavia, the government in Belgrade has arrested thousands of Albanians, hundreds this year alone, often for doing no more than peacefully expressing their commitment to the preservation of Albanian culture. In fact, the Helsinki Commission and other knowledgeable, independent observers have reported that more than one-half of all political prisoners in Yugoslavia are Albanian.

And when arrested these ethnic Albanians face the harshest kind of penalties. Prison sentences of from 1 to 15 years are common for offenses that may be no more than holding up a placard at a public gathering pledging to uphold elements of Albanian culture.

Many Albanians have also been fired, or denied access to particular jobs, because in some way they have expressed their Albanian heritage or manifest some element of Albanian culture. A number of university professors, for example, have been fired solely for teaching courses on Albanian history or culture.

Finally, and most disturbing of all, hundreds of ethnic Albanians have died in recent years as a result of communal strife and the government's often violent efforts to put down communal unrest. These dead have become martyrs within the ethnic Albanian community. Even admitting that the government's actions in all cases were not unprovoked, the strong evidence is that the government has vastly overreacted, as part of a conscious campaign to stamp out even any sign of Albanian ethnocentrism or any inclination for ethnic Albanians to develop a stronger political self-identification.

Mr. President, as I noted, the Albanian populations [sic!] is not the only group that suffers. But it appears that it may well be the group that suffers the most.

For that reason, I believe we have a responsibility to express our deep concern about the plight of these suffering people, in the hope that the influence we can bring to bear will encourage the Yugoslav Government to meet its solemn commitments under the Helsinki Accords to grant ethnic Albanians --and all other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia-- their full rights and freedoms.

Mr. President, I send the concurrent resolution to the desk and ask for its appropriate referral.

2. In his book, Old Nazis, the New Right and the Republican Party, Russ Bellant writes:

"When reading this study, some may be inclined to see it as a partisan attack on the Republican Party, but it was not conceived or researched from a partisan standpoint. Nor was it done with the knowledge of, or in concert with, any element of the Democratic party or any other political organization. Certain Democrats are included where warranted, but of the two parties, the fascist network has chosen the GOP as its home,"

"The Croatian Republicans are the only federation who have put their sympathies with the Axis powers into print in Republican Party literature. In Guide to Nationality Observances, a 1984 Republican Heritage Groups Council booklet, listing commemorative dates of significant to ethnic Croatia has declared by unanimous proclamation in 1941 ... Lack of Western support and Axis occupation forced the new state into an unfortunate associate with the Axis powers.' The booklet preface is signed by Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. , Chairman of the Republican National Committee."

Russ Belant, Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, (Boston: South End Press, Boston, MA; 1988, 1989 and 1991 - ISBN 0-89608-419-1 - ISBN 0-89608-418-3 pbk)

3. From Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, Mar 31, 1993, p. 3

Croatian Funds to US Politicians

The United States Congress, still reeling from a series of financial scandals involving representatives and senators, is now bracing for a new problem: the massive financial "contributions" which have been made to election funds of politicians by Croatian sources over the past two to three years. One Congressional investigator told Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy that the donations and expenditures on Washington lobbying by the Croatians over the past two years "could well exceed $50-million." Much of this came directly from Croatian lobbyists, and some from Croatian American businessmen.

Croatia has built up the most effective lobbying and public relations network on Capitol Hill since the days when the Israel and Greek lobbies were at their peak. "Many of the campaign contributions have been recorded legally," the investigator said, "but many are questionable. But what is more important is that there has been a pervasive attempt to push the United States along a line defined by foreign powers÷Croatia and Germany÷and it has not been subtle. Elected officials are being told to either support the Croatian line or face either a removal of funding or are told that funding will be given to their opponents. Or they are literally bribed into supporting the Croatian line. This was going on long before Croatia even made its open bid for recognition as an independent state." Much of the investigation focuses around conservative Republican elected officials.

4. From Stanley Hilton, Senator for Sale: An Unauthorized Biography of Senator Bob Dole.

A former aide to Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) announced,

"After many years of following the senator's career, I have come to believe that he lacks any real commitment to the conservative agenda of his own party or to any other agenda, and that he is largely a special interest slot machine, a human pendulum dancing to the tune of his highest contributors."

Compare that to Johnny Chung about the Clinton White House:

"The White House is like a subway --you have to put in coins to open the gates."

- John Chung; interview in Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1997

5. Robert Novak, column in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Saturday, April 15, 1995:

"Sen. Dole's political handlers, while ecstatic over his official campaign opening, are concerned that his schedule is too full for a 71 year-old man. Dole looked frazzled coming into New Hampshire after his Kansas announcement. His own aides concede that his worst performances have come when he is tired...

A footnote: Dole collected over $100,000 in New York City April 10 from a seldom-tapped source: Albanian-Americans, troubled by persecution of ethnic countrymen in the Balkans. Dole can thank former Rep. Joseph DioGuardi of New York, who formed the Albanian-American Civic League after leaving Congress. Dole won that group's applause for his 1990 visit to Kosovo, an Albanian enclave in the former Yugoslavia, and for trying to end the Bosnian arms embargo."

6. DOLE'S GOT BAGGAGE

By KAREN BALL Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON Bob Dole has financial skeletons rattling in his closet that threaten his ability to attack President Clinton's character.

Haunting Dole and his wife, Elizabeth, are numerous matters:

His former financial adviser Dave Owen went to jail.

A tax loophole Dole pushed brought the couple monetary gain.

He got a government set-aside for a friend, who later gave Elizabeth Dole a profit on real estate.

Dole got a sweetheart deal on a Florida co-op, compliments of an agribusiness giant he has helped with legislation.

"The appearance, the impropriety, is a tremendous issue," conceded former Kansas Gov. Mike Hayden, a Dole protege and now a lobbyist backing the Senate majority leader's presidential bid.

"What I know of it, there is no smoking gun. . . . [But] sometimes we are found guilty by association in public life," said Hayden, who himself was caught up in a fund-raising scandal linked to Owen. "I'm hesitant to say it won't be a liability."

One Dole adviser, who thinks the issue will limit the senator's ability to attack Clinton for Whitewater and cronyism said, "Sure, we know it's all going to be gone over with a fine-toothed flashlight."

Clinton campaign strategist James Carville fired a shot across the bow last week on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying in response to GOP Whitewater criticism that Dole's former financial adviser "just got out of jail."

Steve Forbes, who's running second behind Dole in key primary battlegrounds, sounded a warning, too, quipping that when Dole released his tax returns, "all [they] showed is that Bob Dole became a millionaire after 35 years in Washington."

The Doles insist they're clean and any questionable financial dealings in their past were handled by Owen secretly and without authorization when he ran Elizabeth Dole's blind trust.

Owen, who had been a long-time Dole friend, went to jail for seven months on unrelated tax fraud charges the result, he says, of a "scapegoat" probe Dole inspired after the senator's finances were first questioned by the Bush campaign in 1988.

Owen declined to be interviewed, but his actions on the Doles' behalf are documented. Critics find it unbelievable that Dole obsessed with details was not aware of Owen's actions. And regardless, there's a look of impropriety that someone serving as a financial adviser to an influential senator was lobbying the senator at the same time.

Owen has insinuated that Dole while not knowing of specific transactions had a sense of what Owen was doing. When Owen lobbied Dole for a tax loophole in 1986 and took the senator to the Topeka, Kan., insurance company that would benefit "Everyone understood what was going on," Owen told The New Yorker magazine.

Owen then turned around and bought the Doles several thousand shares of stock in that company, netting them a substantial profit, though the exact amount is unknown.

One Dole supporter, Lyn Nofziger, brushed off what he considered the coming Democratic assault. "Carville is just looking for an issue some morality stuff to neutralize Clinton's morality stuff," said Nofziger, a former aide to President Ronald Reagan. "There is a little stuff there for Dole, but I don't think there's anything dishonest."

Instead, Nofziger argues, these are perks politicians enjoy. "That's one of the things about being a senator or governor people come around and offer you deals that are not illegal, but better than what the average person might get," Nofziger said. "He's an honest, honorable man. But he's also a politician."

Dole friend David Keene said Democrats have also signaled they'd try to bring up divorce anything to muddy Dole. "That's the final refuge of a cornered rat," said Keene. He and other friends argue the financial accusations are crazy because the Doles have never been about money. They still live in the Watergate apartment Dole bought after he divorced his first wife.

The Dole campaign says all of it is old news and they're not worried, because they will try to make Campaign '96 about Clinton's record in office, not Whitewater. "We've been upfront and proactive," said Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield, adding that the information on Whitewater has been "drip, drip, drip."

"Anybody who tries to bring this up, they're going to find zero room to move because there's nothing there," Warfield said.

LOAD-DATE: January 29, 1996

7. Excerpt: TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME A Frank Cass Journal

Published by Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. (London) and The Ridgway Center for International Security Studies University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (www.pitt.edu/~rcss/ridgway.html)

Volume 2, Spring 1996, Number 1, pp. 1-20

Excerpt: MEN OF PURPOSE: THE GROWTH OF ALBANIAN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

by GUS XHUDO

[·on the rise of the Kosovo Mafia]

A second factor was, Albanians, particularly Kosovars, began to develop the sense of collective identity required for these groups to mobilise their activities. This occurred at roughly the same time the Pizza Connection case was being uncovered. In the former Yugoslav province of Kosovo, the predominant ethnic Albanian population witnessed, firsthand the rise of Serbian strongman, Slobodan Milosevic.6 Beginning in 1987, Milosevic used a virulent anti-Albanian campaign to repress the ethnic Albanian population in an effort to gain Serb support for his rise to the top of Serbia's political scene. By 1989, he had succeeded in removing the ethnic Albanian politicians from the Kosovo Parliament and replacing them with men loyal to him. By the end of that year, Kosovo's `autonomous province' status had been removed. In effect Kosovo was placed under martial law and ruled from Belgrade. Realising that Albanians would respond with violence, Milosevic increased the number of police precincts in Kosovo by sixty-three percent and police units by fifty-eight percent.7 Despite these measures, Kosovars took advantage of the situation by expanding the operations of an already existing black market. The repression continued, with arbitrary arrests, CSCE monitored expulsions by Serb authorities, and the firing and dismissal of thousands of ethnic Albanian policemen, teachers, engineers and assorted labourers, along with incidents of reported torture and beatings, events which only served to radicalise the Kosovars.8 While many mobilised and threw their support behind Ibrahim Rugova and his moderate Democratic League of Kosova [LDK], a radical right organised into a more extremist group. Levizje Komb_tar p_r _lirimin _ Kosov_s [The National Liberation Movement for Kosova, LKCK]. The LKCK has repeatedly called for armed uprising against Serb authorities. An extremely clandestine organisation, it is believed that the group uses illicit activity, especially drug trafficking, to fund its nationalist agenda and coordinates its actions with the increasing number of Kosovar emigres located in Switzerland, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and Stockholm.9 As the Serb crackdown of Kosovo continued, the black market and organised criminal activity flourished. The relaxation of border controls by Albania during the 1990-1991 period resulted in many of these criminal elements crossing the border and taking their scams and activities with them. As Albania continued to democratize, many stayed on and, eventually, under the guise of political refugees, were permitted to obtain travel visas which they made use of, travelling to capitals in Western Europe. Recognising the opportunity before them, these Kosovars coordinated their actions with emigres, the latter providing them with working capital, that they used to buy the hundreds of state-run businesses being sold cheap. It is several of these purchases that are now being used by organised crime as front companies for storage of merchandise, and as money laundering facilities.10 Taking advantage of the Albanian citizenry with phoney land deals and other scams, coupled with the endless opportunities created by the demise of communism, Kosovars were able to rake in hard currency by the millions in Albania. With a strong emigre support structure throughout Western Europe, money and deals were transacted with increasing frequency.

[·]

[In] The United States

Of particular concern to law enforcement personnel, however, has been the level of organised Albanian activity within the US. By the early to mid-1980s, Albanians in area cities and suburbs outside Detroit and New York were already involved in crimes ranging from robbery to extortion.63 Indeed, by 1985, Albanians were already gaining notoriety for their drug trafficking. This activity became predominant among the so-called Balkan Route which begins in Central Asia, through Istanbul to Belgrade and, with Sicilian and French connections, makes its way to the US. American Drug Enforcement Administration officials estimated that between 25 percent and 40 percent of the US heroin supply by 1985 was taking this route, with Albanian assistance.64

Ten years later, more organised, disciplined and out on their own, Albanian crime gangs have increased the scope of both their activities and geographic locations within the United States. By January 1995, authorities estimated that approximately 10 million US dollars in cash and merchandise had been stolen from some 300 supermarkets, ATM machines, jewelry stores and restaurants.65 By the early 1990s, groups based in the New York area, particularly the Bronx, were committing robberies with such frequency and success that local law enforcement officials realized federal assistance would be required. The FBI, however, was equally at a loss as to the nature, extent, and structure of these groups. After examination of several criminal incidents, some conclusions were made. First, it appeared that many of the thefts which occurred were carried out, in an attempt to fund either the war effort in the former Yugoslavia, or to assist fellow Albanians in Macedonia and Kosovo.66 Concern among those area authorities, as previously stated, was that this source of funding was aiding those more right wing elements that are stockpiling weapons awaiting the right time for future insurrection. Second, it appeared that the Albanians operating within the US had a series of crews separated into premier and second class units depending upon the difficulty of the job.

For example, the A-team would use oxygen tanks, and electro-magnetic core drill, rotary hammers and over one hundred metal drill rods capable of reaching temperatures between 9,000 and 10,000 degrees FÏ. With skill and precision, they could use the torches without damaging either money and/or jewels within the safe. The A-team also has an intricate network of lookouts equipped with walkie-talkies, sophisticated police scanners, and often disables alarms and area communications boxes before an operation.67 The B-team is not as sophisticated. Consisting of between four and six men, the team often carries cutters and twenty pound sledgehammers with large steel wedges, and crowbars, used for prying open safes and ATM machine doors while one or two men stand lookout along with a driver.68 While lacking in sophistication the B-team makes up for it in brutality and cunning. These men are often Albanians from Albania, Kosovo, or Macedonia looking for quick money and with little skill. Used to severe treatment, by Serb authorities or simply a hard life in their homeland, even caught, they often will gladly accept prison terms complete with a bed and three square meals a day as preferable to what they once had in their native countries.

While authorities are not certain as to who may control large sections of organised Albanian gangs, some speculation, based upon recent arrests, has led law enforcement to believe that transnational links are eminent. One such `godfather' of the Albanian mafia is reputed drug trafficker Daut Kadriovski. Based in Turkey, Kadriovski reportedly has extensive links with his lieutenants in Europe and the US. Although Australian Federal Police were after Kadriovski after he went to their embassy in Athens for a new passport after allegedly creating a drug distribution centre among the Albanian and Croatian emigre communities in Sydney and Brisbane. He evaded authorities and was seen in Germany under one of his many aliases. Within the US, his contacts include Albanians living in the Bronx and across New Jersey. Authorities also believe that Kadriovski may have links with the Grey Wolves, a fascist Pan-Islamic organization opposed to the current Turlish regime, with cells in Germany and Western Turkey.69

Despite efforts by law enforcement to curb Albanian activities, men such as Kadriovski continue to evade police. Using his lieutenants in the US, thefts and the like have increased, after a lag period during late 1995 and early 1996. Branching out from major cities, the Albanians from the Bronx, area have been accused of robberies from south Jersey, to Washington DC, to Philadelphia, Virginia, South Carolina, Detroit, and Chicago.70 By the beginning of 1996, authorities in New York had hoped that Albanian activity would decrease following the arrest of two of its regional leaders, Mirsad Pjitrovi_ and Vucksan `Ranko' Mickovi.71 Instead, coordinating their plans from such social hangouts as the Besa, Two Star and Gurra cafes in the Bronx, the Albanians actually increased their regional activities. This lending credence to the theory about a decentralized structure among these groups so that activity can continue regardless of leadership removal.72 Despite attempts to control their activities, police remain at a loss while the Albanians gain strength.

Notes:

6. Although numbers vary, it is believed that ethnic Albanians make-up 90% of the population of Kosovo, Serbs comprise the remaining 10%. The last accurate census taken was the 1981 census. Based upon those figures, it is assumed approximately two million Albanians live in Kosovo. Patrick Moore, `The Albanian Question in the Former Yugoslavia' RFE/RL [3 April, 1992], pp.7-15.

7. Ibid, p.10., and Branka Magas, `The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Breakup 1980-1992' [London: Verso Press, 1993], pp.160-161.

8. The Economist [1 July, 1989], p.47., Magas, op.cit: p.160., Liam McDowall, `Confused Signals in Kosovo', New Statesman and Society [5 March, 1993], p.13.

9. Illyria vol. 3 #182 [3 April, 1993], p.3.

10. Discussion with owner of manufacturing plant outside Tirana who was approached by certain people, as he describes them, who wished to rent space in his plant to store material. After first agreeing to do so, he was subsequently approached by Albanian local authorities who suggested he turn down the deal. [November, 1995]

[·]

63. Anthony M. DeStefano, `The Balkan Connection', The Wall Street Journal (9 September, 1985)

64. Ibid.

65. Amy Beth Terdiman, `$120,000 Burgalries Linked', The Record (9 January, 1995)

66. Jose Lambiet, `Balkan Ring Looting US', The New York Daily News (19 May, 1993)

67. Anne Keegan, `The Yugo Gang', The Chicago Tribune (3 November, 1993)

68. Karl Alizade, Head of City Safe Engineering Corporation, Jersey City New Jersey; Talk given at the Mid-Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime and Law Enforcement Network Conference. (Philadelphia: 24 April, 1996)

69. Discussion with New Jersey State Law enforcement investigator, (May, 1996)

70. Marc Carey, `Police Fearful Gangs will keep robbing Stores', The Washington Post (4 January, 1995) and, Kristi Nelson, `Immigrant Band Suspected in Break-ins', The Philadelphia Inquirer (23 March, 1995) and, William Ehart, `Burglars Loot Cape ATMs', The Atlantic City Press (26 May, 1995)

71. William Sherman and Daniel Goldfarb, `Albanian Gangs Breaking into the Big Leagues', The New York Post (11 January, 1996)

72. Point made by author at the National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Unit Conference, Guest Speaker (Ft. Lauderdale: 15 May, 1996)

8. The Dole-Demaci Conversation of Feb. 22, 1999

Reuters, Feb. 24, 1999; ANALYSIS-Kosovo leader Demaci maintains hard line

By Kurt Schork

PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Inconclusive Kosovo peace talks have ended after 17 days as they began -- with ethnic Albanian resistance icon Adem Demaci, who refused to attend, staking out a hard and apparently controlling line.

``In the end we should not rely on their (the international community and NATO) promises and threats,'' Demaci told the Albanian language daily Kosovo Sot in an interview published on Wednesday.

``We should rely on our forces and have confidence in our liberation army and in victory. We can achieve this only by joining forces with our army and not by waiting for someone to grant us our freedom.''

Western mediators breathed a sigh of relief when Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas agreed to attend the peace talks at Rambouillet, near Paris, without Demaci.

The 63-year-old former political prisoner, a survivor of nearly 28 years behind bars in various Yugoslav jails, had denounced the talks and advised the rebels to boycott.

Viewed by the West as the ultimate hardliner, a man whose attitudes were toughened beyond compromise by years of incarceration, Demaci had been the KLA political representative until turning his back on the talks.

That opened the field to Hasim Thaqi, the 29-year old head of the KLA's political directorate, who emerged as de facto leader of the ethnic Albanian delegation at Rambouillet.

Mediators, including U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, had hoped to persuade Thaqi to sign up to an autonomy deal for Kosovo that would have entailed the KLA disarming and disbanding under NATO ground troop supervision.

But Thaqi held firm and on Monday evening, as it seemed the talks would end in disarray, Albright rang Demaci and asked him to intervene.

``She tried to convince me to discuss the draft document being discussed in Rambouillet,'' Demaci said in his interview.

``She insisted that I agree and recommend to Mr Thaqi that he accept four points of a draft (agreement) that I hadn't seen. I didn't agree to such a document because the Kosovo issue is not that simple that it can be solved quickly. It is a 100-year old problem, bloody and serious.''

U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said on Tuesday that Washington continued to see Demaci as a major obstacle to the peace process in Kosovo, where some 2,000 people have been killed in the past year's fighting between Serb security forces and independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

Demaci said former U.S. Senator Robert Dole, who has visited Kosovo several times in the past year and who lobbied the Clinton administration to take decisive action, then called him and repeated Albright's request.

``I told him that such a delicate problem cannot be solved over the telephone.''

When the dust settled on Tuesday afternoon in Rambouillet the ethnic Albanian delegation had given its conditional approval to the proposed autonomy plan, contingent upon a two- week review with KLA guerrillas and ethnic Albanian civilians. [·]

9. The New York Times, Feb. 25, 1999

No Winners at Kosovo Peace Talks, and Albright Seems to Lose Prestige

By JANE PERLEZ

But it is by no means clear that all guerrilla commanders would go along. Another obstacle to a guaranteed yes is Adem Demaci, 63, self-styled political spokesman for the Kosovo Liberation Army, who refused to attend the Rambouillet talks. He has strongly criticized the agreement and on Wednesday night said the announced new provisional agreement has no legitimacy.

Demaci was a political prisoner for 28 years in Yugoslavia. He is a diehard supporter of Kosovo's independence but strongly opposed to any deal with the Serbs. On Monday night, when the talks were at their nadir, he received phone calls from Albright and Former Sen. Bob Dole.

Both asked him to support the agreement. According to an interview with Demaci published on Wednesday in a Kosovo Albanian newspaper, he told them that the problems of Kosovo could not be solved in a phone conversation.

NOTE: Dole visited Albanian leaders in Pristina on March 4, 1999 as part of the US effort to sell the Rambouillet agreement.

10. Bob Dole's Erectoral Politics

By Arianna Huffington; Filed February 22, 1999

``It may take a little courage,'' says Bob Dole in his commercial for Pfizer, the makers of Viagra. Not courage on the battlefield or the courage to make the tough political decisions but rather the courage to acknowledge -- ahem -- erectile dysfunction.

The fact that sexual dysfunction at the ripe old age of 75 is now newsworthy reveals a lot about the state of our politics and culture. Let's start with our culture.

Dole's 60-second ad is a paean to our ludicrous assumption that old age can be eradicated with hair dye, plastic surgery and pills. And Dole has made use of all three, achieving a historic Grecian Formula hat trick.

In Greece, where I hail from, the highest term of respect, normally reserved for the abbots of monasteries, is ``geronda'' -- old man. This identification of old age with wisdom is the exact opposite of our culture's treatment of old age as the ultimate liability, to be postponed by any means necessary. Dole lists `depression, heavy smoking, heavy drinking, diabetes and hypertension'' as causes of erectile dysfunction, but fails to mention the most likely cause of all: old age. After all, hormones are not supposed to be raging at the same rate at age 75 as they were at age 45, 55 or 65. That's how God and nature intended it, leaving some time before death for less earthbound preoccupations.

But we have completely lost a sense of the stages of life, of the natural progression from the ``me-me-me'' obsession of the 5-year-old to the recognition of the 75-year-old that there are larger concerns beyond one's libido. Is it too much to ask or a little less narcissism from men and women who have hit three score and 15?

A study on sexual dysfunction in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this month that surveyed men and women from 18 to 59 -- not even considering men in Dole's age group -- reached the unsurprising conclusion that men 50 to 59 were more than three times as likely to experience erection problems than men 18 to 29. Another interesting side note about the intersection of politics, academia and money is that two of the three authors of this study are paid consultants for Pfizer.

Dole, too, is a hired hand for Pfizer, which is paying him an undisclosed sum to gin up interest in a problem for which it alone has the miracle cure. It's not a bad strategy for a company that saw demand for Viagra fall from 1 million prescriptions last May to 346,000 last October. After 130 men died from Viagra-induced side effects and about half of its users discovered that the drug did not work for them as advertised, it was inevitable that demand would go flaccid. Not to worry. Pfizer had an underemployed former Presidential candidate up its sleeve.

To further imply an endorsement from the corridors of power, the ad was filmed in a plush office and before imposing white columns. The Dole/Pfizer ad tells us a lot, in fact, about the state of our politics. During the presidential race, Dole's campaign portrayed him as a man of honor, integrity and, above all, public service. ``I will seek the presidency,'' he said on the day he resigned his Senate seat, "with nowhere to go but the White House or home.'' It turns out that by home, Bob meant a sort of Home Shopping Network -- a lucrative world of lobbying and product endorsements. So the man who got as close as only a handful get to leading the Free World chose, over all other burning issues, to lend his authority to the cause of erectile dysfunction.

And the same chicanery and obfuscation that the current White House occupant has raised to an art form is apparent in practically every statement that Dole has made about his Pfizer ad. He continues to position it as a public service announcement, dismissing concerns over Pfizer's logo appearing on the ad with the improbable excuse that not ``many men know that Pfizer makes Viagra.''

He even compared his campaign to Betty Ford's fight for breast cancer awareness. As far as I know, no drug company ever paid Betty Ford. Pfizer's chairman, by contrast, is not only paying Dole but pompously praising him for making ``men's health issues a priority for 1999'' and ``advocating for Americans with disabilities.'' (So is that why all those handicapped spots are always taken?)

Dole's protestations have a familiar ring in this era of politicians who feel compelled to deny any link between the massive soft money donations they take and the public decisions they make. If Dole wants to restore credibility to his effort, he should give his Pfizer fee to charity and begin emphasizing -- if his big tobacco buddies will let him -- that teens who smoke on a regular basis can begin to experience erectile dysfunction before they hit 40.

Finally, if Bob Dole wants a role model for what to do after losing a presidential election, he may look to Jimmy Carter, whose only worry is erecting houses for the poor.

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11. U.S. asks Dole, Soros to help on Kosovo - report

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has asked former Sen. Bob Dole and financier George Soros to help persuade hardline ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo to accept a NATO-backed peace plan, Newsweek magazine said on Sunday.

An article in the Newsweek issue to be published on Monday said Albright was rudely rebuffed last week when she phoned a Kosovar leader from the chateau near Paris where peace talks were held on the restive Serbian province.

It said Adem Demaci, the political power behind the Kosovo Liberation Army, refused Albright's request not to block a plan to give limited autonomy, rather than independence, to the province. Although Kosovo is part of Serbia, most of its inhabitants are ethnic Albanians.

Demaci, who had boycotted the Rambouillet talks, curtly told Albright a phone call could not solve such a ``bloody and serious'' problem as Kosovo and hung up on her, Newsweek reported.

At Albright's request, Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, called Demaci, with as little success. Dole will soon travel to Kosovo to try to win over Demaci and other hardliners, Newsweek said.

Soros, who helps finance Kosovar news media, has also been asked to try to budge leaders in the province, Newsweek said.

Albright told friends the Rambouillet negotiations were the worst experience she had ever been through, according to the magazine. ``She is so stung by what happened. She's angry at everyone -- the Serbs, the Albanians and NATO,'' a close associate was quoted as saying.

Washington had hoped that if the Kosovars accepted limited autonomy, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could be forced to let NATO troops enter the province to guarantee the agreement.

The Rambouillet talks recessed after 17 days and were scheduled to resume on March 15.

18:48 02-28-99

12. Investor's Business Daily
March 4, 1999
SECTION: National Issue; Pg. A1

THE GOP'S TANGLED FOREIGN POLICY

By Brian Mitchell, Investor's Business Daily

They were filed just hours apart: Senate Joint Resolution 11, prohibiting airstrikes against Yugoslavia, and Senate Joint Resolution 12, authorizing airstrikes against the same.

Partisan politics?

Hardly. Both were sponsored by Republicans. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania backs airstrikes. Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire opposes them.

President Clinton's threatened war over Kosovo has left Republicans once again divided and possibly conquered.

Kosovo raises questions about America's role in the world and the proper use of U.S. forces - questions many Republicans admit the GOP isn't prepared to answer.

Republicans can carp about Clinton's perceived failures, but they can't speak with one voice about how they would do things better. They can complain about the administration's neglect of military readiness, but they can't agree on what the military should be ready to do.

The Cold War consensus on fighting communism no longer exists. Age-old fault lines have reappeared within the GOP, separating nationalists from internationalists and crusading moralists from hard-nosed practitioners of Realpolitik, or foreign policy driven by power rather than principle.

''The Republicans - like the rest of the country - are still trying to figure out what's going on after the Cold War's over,'' said Donald Devine, a Republican strategist with the American Conservative Union.

''There is a movement toward trying to define the national interest less broadly than it was before, but it's still very much of a debate within the party,'' Devine said. ''It's a very significant divide. . . . Kosovo is drawing the lines more clearly.''

To be sure, Democrats are not united. Some are leery about another involvement in the Balkans. Others, like Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, favor intervention.

Even so, the loudest voices in Congress for and against war over Kosovo belong to Republicans.

Smith - a longshot GOP presidential hopeful in the 2000 race - has argued vigorously against NATO intervention, which he sees as a clear-cut violation of Yugoslavia's national sovereignty. He also says intervention doesn't serve vital U.S. interests.

''This is a very dangerous precedent. Where do we draw the line? What happens when something happens in Ethiopia or Afghanistan or anywhere else?'' Smith said. ''The U.S. military was not meant to be a 9-1-1 humanitarian response force.''

On the other hand, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has advocated having the U.S. enter the Kosovo civil war on the side of the Albanians.

McConnell has called for recognizing Kosovo as an independent Albanian state, arming and training the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army and using NATO air power against the Serbs.

Outside Congress, retired Sen. Bob Dole has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Albanian cause. In articles and TV appearances, Dole has glorified the KLA and vilified the Serbs. He also has lobbied his former colleagues for NATO intervention.

Elizabeth Dole, a possible presidential candidate, is expected to share her husband's aggressive views, which the ACU's Devine described as ''clearly emotional and personal. It's not the result of any strategic or philosophical perspective.''

A Dole Legacy

Some observers credit Dole with forging the Senate's pro-intervention consensus on the Balkans. In July 1995, when the Clinton administration was still dithering about what to do in Bosnia, The New Republic lauded Dole as ''The Last Interventionist'' and ''the Senate's leading Bosnia hawk.''

In explaining Dole's passion, The New Republic named his aide Mira Baratta. Baratta's grandfather fought with pro-Nazi Croatian forces in World War II. Her father, Petar Radielovic, has been a leading backer of Croatian nationalist causes in the U.S. and a public defender of alleged Croatian war criminals.

In 1985, the Los Angeles Times reported that Radielovic engaged in a ''shouting and shoving match'' with Irv Rubin, head of the Jewish Defense League, outside the U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles.

The JDL was demonstrating in support of the extradition of Andrija Artukovic, former justice and interior minister of the pro-Nazi Croatian puppet government. Artukovic was the original ''Butcher of the Balkans,'' said Rubin, and was responsible for the murder of 800,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies during the war.

On Capitol Hill, Baratta was known as a passionate anti-Serb. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., publicly commended Baratta for her work in passing a Senate bill that would have lifted the arms embargo on the Bosnia Muslims.

Baratta still works for Dole out of his Washington office with the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.

A Reagan Legacy

Aside from Dole, aggressive intervention in the Balkans appeals to many self-described Reaganites who believe not just in a strong military, but also in the vigorous use of American military might for good causes abroad.

The Reaganites see intervention as a crucial test of American leadership and NATO resolve. Many former Reagan officials - U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Perle and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger - have publicly endorsed sending NATO ground troops to Kosovo.

Reaganite presidential hopefuls include publisher Steve Forbes, Family Research Council head Gary Bauer and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Forbes is close to Caspar Weinberger, who's chairman of Forbes magazine and has been the most hawkish on the Balkans. Bauer is more wary but believes the U.S. has a ''moral role'' to play in the world.

''(Bauer) believes that American values as well as American security have to be central to foreign policy,'' said Jeff Bell, senior consultant to Bauer's presidential exploratory committee.

Other Republicans hotly dispute the ''Reaganite'' name.

''Reagan was pretty adept at deploying forces only in the national security interests of the United States,'' said Sen. Smith. ''Beirut was an exception to that, but that proved to be a mistake in retrospect.''

A Taft Legacy

Smith is one of three Republican presidential hopefuls on the GOP's noninterventionist wing, which has long been linked to the late Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio. The other two are columnist Patrick Buchanan and Rep. John Kasich of Ohio.

Derided by opponents as ''isolationism,'' the Taft tradition has nonetheless enjoyed a resurgence among Republicans since the end of the Cold War.

''Clearly that's not the mainstream (position) of the Republican Party, but the party is much less resolutely internationalist than it was,'' said Christopher Layne, visiting scholar at the University of Southern California's Center for International Studies.

The Taft tradition also appeals to libertarian-leaning Republicans. ''I've never heard of a limited-government empire,'' said Ted Carpenter, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

Carpenter says adventurous foreign policy can lead to plenty of domestic problems - the heavy taxation needed to maintain a large military, excessive secrecy in the name of ''national security,'' the use of trade as a foreign-policy weapon and the needless sacrifice of human life.

A Bush Legacy

Currently out of fashion in the GOP is the trade-minded Realpolitik of former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James Baker and President George Bush.

''Clinton has mostly continued Bush's foreign policy,'' said William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard. He says the policy includes ''no fundamental strategy on getting rid of Saddam, reluctance to get involved in the Balkans, engagement sliding into appeasement on China (and) excessive belief in trade solving all problems.

''For Republicans to make foreign policy an issue in 2000, they have to be much more Reaganite and much less Bush-like,'' he said.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the current front-runner in the GOP race, has yet to reveal his inclinations. He is expected to broaden his associations beyond his father's old brain trust, though.

Bush has been meeting with former Reagan officials like Perle and former Secretary of State George Shultz and former Bush officials like National Security Council official Condoleezza Rice, who's now provost at Stanford University.

Bush's direction may become clearer after he lists the members of his presidential exploratory committee next week.

One former senior Reagan official described most of the Reagan veterans as ''more conservative'' and serious about national security, but also more interested in Mideast security because of Israel.

At present, though, the issue is Kosovo.

Speaking from the noninterventionist corner, Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly said: ''I think Kosovo is a real litmus test for Republican presidential candidates. There's just no excuse for it.''

The aggressively interventionist Weekly Standard agrees. A recent editorial said: ''The outcome of this intra-GOP battle may shape the course of Republican foreign policy for years to come, and it will certainly shape the contest in 2000.''

13. Dole Statement 3-4-99:

``It is my intention to bring this message to the leaders of the Albanian people,'' Dole's statement declared. ``I will ask the Albanian leadership to put their people first - without thought to their own position, power or personal gain.''

14. Illyria, March 4, 1999; "Dole's Commitment

_______________________________________________________________

KCC (Kosova Crisis Center) http://www.alb-net.com/
Kosovapress http://www.kosovapress.com/
Koha Ditore (ARTA) http://www.kohaditore.com/ARTA/
Radio21 (English & Albanian) http://www.radio21.net/
Kosova Information Center http://www.kosova.com/
Kosova-Info-Line (German) http://www.kosova-info-line.de/

________________________________________________________________

Dole's Dedication

Illyria, Editorial, 3/4/1999

At the start of this decade, one man, then a powerful senator, stood on the steps of the Capitol and vowed to fight for the rights of the Albanians in Kosova.

Through the loud cheers of thousands of demonstrators, Bob Dole promised he would visit Kosova and see at first hand the brutality of the Serb regime, which aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population.

Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who later would win himself the deserved nickname of the Butcher of the Balkans, had just launched a vicious attack on the Albanian people and their institutions. The move marked the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The Western world, including America, was caught by surprise -- it rejected the idea of the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation and thereby unintentionally gave a boost to the ambitions of Milosevic who quickly used force to oppose the secession of Slovenia, and later Croatia and Bosnia. He had already placed Kosova under martial law and arrested thousands who dared to oppose him.

While administration after administration appeased Milosevic in Europe and the U.S., trying to talk him into stopping the genocidal wars against the people of the former Yugoslavia, it was people like Dole who fired the early warning shots -- Milosevic needed to be confronted -- militarily if necessary, and not appeased.

Following his speech on the steps of the Capitol building, Dole later that year visited Kosova as he had promised. If he had had any doubts about Milosevic's intentions until then, they were gone after he saw people being brutally beaten before him in front of the Grand Hotel in Prishtine, Kosova's capital.

He came back, visibly shaken by what he had witnessed, testified in Congress, urging the Bush Administration to take action. Unfortunately, action never came.

Dole was then among the very few voices in support of Albanians' rights. The man who later would run for president visited Kosova again and again. His belief in the need to stop Milosevic grew stronger. Last year when hundreds of thousands of Albanians were hiding in the woods across the Kosova mountains as their villages lay in ruins amid the shelling of Serb forces, Dole, despite fragile health, visited the refugees, promising to help bring peace to their country.

Dole is on his way back to Kosova, although on Thursday Belgrade was giving him a hard time by dragging its feet on issuing him a visa. We hope this unpleasantness is only temporary, and that the world can get back to the serious business of creating peace in that troubled region.

This time Dole will urge the Albanians to accept a U.S. plan that would help stop the war and give Albanians a chance to normalize their lives -- at least temporarily, in their struggle to win full independence from Serbia one day.

This time he will not only speak on his own -- President Clinton has asked him to be his envoy in trying to persuade the Albanians that U.S. intentions are good and that the White House is serious about the issue.

Not that the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is not a respected U.S. official among the Albanians (her dedication on the issue is to be admired), but Bob Dole brings to Kosova a familiar face -- the face of a man who has fought for their rights in the past and continues to do so.

If Albanians are going to make a compromise for anyone, they should make it for Dole. Despite a few cynics and skeptics, the U.S. is the only country that has a history of sticking up for the Albanians, beginning with President Woodrow Wilson, who insisted on Albania's independence at the end of Wold War I.

Bob Dole is living proof of that American tradition and dedication. Secretary Albright and President Clinton have made the right decision in sending Dole to Kosova. Albanians should think long and hard before they turn down someone like Bob Dole. Our belief -- and hope -- is that they won't.

_____________________________________________________________

ALBANEWS Site of the Day: "Albanian Telegraphic Agency"

http://www.telpress.it/ata/ata.htm

_______________________________________________________________

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15. TESTIMONY OF HON. JOSEPH J. DIOGUARDI,
PRESIDENT, ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE
Hearing, May 6, 1998

Critique of U.S. Foreign Policy in Kosova

Mr. Chairman, on behalf of 400,000 Albanians in America, I want to thank you for holding this important hearing on Kosova. For us and for seven million Albanians living side by side in their historic lands within and outside of the current State of Albania, U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans has failed.

Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic managed to bluff and outwit the West in Bosnia until he faced military force. All that he faces today are more of the economic sanctions that he has managed to withstand for years. President George Bush's threat of force (the so called Christmas warning) kept Kosova relatively quiet for six years. As Milosevic again applies brutal paramilitary force against Albanians in Kosova, we now risk another Balkan war that this time will spill over into neighboring states.

Six years ago, in 1992, Patrick Glynn wrote in an article entitled "Yugoblunder" that "U.S. handling of the Yugoslav crisis is in fact a case study in how not to conduct foreign policy in the post-cold war world, combining lack of intellectual rigor and carelessness with what [then] Senator Al Gore has termed `moral obtuseness' about the conflicts and issues at stake. .The main factor in the Bush administration's mishandling of Yugoslavia was its devotion to geopolitical 'stability' at the expense of democratic values and human rights." This is exactly what we are facing again today in Kosova.

Incredibly, our foreign policy in the Balkans, which is failing day by day, is dependent on the cooperation of Slobodan Milosevic, who many believe should be brought up on charges for his barbaric actions in Bosnia and now in Kosova by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. In fact, on May 3, 1998, the Associated Press reported that Radovan Karadzic, the Serbian warlord already indicted for crimes against humanity in Bosnia, is preparing to corroborate Western intelligence reports linking Milosevic directly to the July 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica, which is considered to be one of Europe's worst acts of genocide since the Nazi era. Yet we continue to treat Milosevic as an equal partner on the international diplomatic stage. Is this not a continuation of the "moral obtuseness" that Vice President Gore lamented as a senator?

Are we going to repeat the failures in Bosnia that led us, finally, to use measured force three years too late, resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 innocent civilians? It is happening already in Kosova, where since the end of February, one third of this formerly autonomous province has been completely surrounded by Serbian military and paramilitary units using tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and heavy artillery. As we speak, twenty villages in Kosova are under twenty-four-hour shelling. It is ludicrous to believe the Serbian press that this is a local police action, rather than a carefully orchestrated effort by Slobodan Milosevic to continue his campaign of "ethnic cleansing" of the Albanian population of Kosova and, ultimately, of the Balkans. He has made no secret of his designs for a "Greater Serbia," and he is following in the footsteps of other Serbian ultranationalists, whose main goal and political platform has been the expulsion of the Albanians from their ancient lands in the Balkans. (To understand this, one need only read "The Expulsion of the Albanians," a plan presented to the government in Belgrade in 1937 by Dr. Vaso Cubrilovic, a prominent Serbian academician and government minister.)

One of the main failures of our U.S. foreign policy towards Kosova is the disconnect between our professed adherence to the fundamental principles of human rights and our failure to assume a leadership role in Kosova in the face of some of the most egregious examples of human rights violations in modern history. One need only look at the State Department's 1997 country report for Serbia to see a litany of horrors against a population of two million Albania civilians in Kosova. While the United States customarily places a premium on human rights in its dealings with the international community, when it comes to Kosova, it appears that we are bending over backwards to accommodate a war criminal and his Russian supporters.

Why are we not adhering to our own stated foreign policy, set forth by President Bush as he was leaving office and embraced by President Clinton as he was entering office, that a "line in the sand" is drawn in Kosova and that the United States will not tolerate any Serbian troops there? Since the end of February, the Serbian army disguised as police has surrounded the Drenice and Decan regions of Kosova and slaughtered more than 150 people (many more are missing and seriously wounded) . At a hearing on March 12, Ambassador Robert Gelbard, the president's envoy for the implementation of the Dayton Accords, verified that the Bush/Clinton warning is the current foreign policy of the United States. So why is the United States not enforcing its own policy and allowing the Albanians of Kosova to be slaughtered? It is clear by his actions that Milosevic views the United States as a "paper tiger," with sanctions and no action. This has been the case for the past ten years.

Another key objective of our foreign policy is to preserve peace and security in Europe. As stated in Article 39 of the UN Charter, a threat to peace occurs, among other things, when civil strife within a state creates an immediate danger of a breach of the peace, and it goes on to say that civil strife constitutes a breach of the peace if actually recognized by most states as belligerency. This is clearly the case in Kosova.

The Greek Foreign Defense Minister recently stated that "Kosova is like a hand grenade, and if we pull the pin anymore, it will explode." Likewise, a spokesperson from the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that I!the Kosova crisis, if unchecked, could destabilize the Balkan region and therefore European security." Above all, NATO condemned the excessive use of force by the Yugoslav army in Kosova, and said that the North Atlantic Council is profoundly concerned about the deterioration of the situation there and was considering 11possible further means" to maintaining stability, in view of the risk of escalating the conflict in the region

On April 27, a spokesperson from the U.S. State Department said that if the Contact Group members did not agree to a new sanctions package, the United States would act unilaterally. The United States reiterated the UN and the Contact Group's call for the immediate withdrawal of special police units from Kosova and the need for unconditional dialogue. And yet when the Contact Group met in Rome on April 29, the United States capitulated to a weak proposal for more sanctions under pressure especially from Russia, which has gone out its way not to support us in dealing with Iran, Iraq, and China.

It is obvious that the sanctions are not really an issue to Belgrade, which has already survived six years of tough economic sanctions In the meantime, how many Kosovar Albanians will die while the sanctions remain in effect? The Albanian American Civic League, for which I am the volunteer president, contends that sanctions will have no effect on the Belgrade regime whatsoever. They will only serve to bolster nationalistic fervor on Milosevic's behalf. Only resolve will work, and that will have to come from the only superpower left in the world, the United States of America taking the lead with our NATO allies.

In conclusion, the two million ethnic Albanians of Kosova, who comprise more than 90 percent of the population there, have no human, economic, or political rights of any kind. Slobodan Milosevic has illegally and brutally occupied Kosova for almost ten years. (See addendum for a short history of Kosova.)

Kosova is where he started the carnage that led to the rape and pillage in Bosnia, and now will lead to an even greater Balkan war if we do not act now.

It is time for our State Department to understand that loose talk that brands the victims as "terrorists" for defending themselves, their families, and their property only serves to give a green light to the real terrorists, Milosevic and his henchmen, to massacre innocent people.

It is time for the United States to stand up for its own principles and demand compliance with international human rights conventions before more Albanians are needlessly slaughtered and a new Balkan war is triggered, this time involving neighboring Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

It is time for Congress to stand up and voice its outrage at a foreign policy in the Balkans that has obviously failed to preserve peace and security in this vital region of the world. It is time for the United States to back up its tough words with concrete actions--such as declaring a no-fly zone in Kosova, ringing Serbia's borders with NATO troops, and moving an aircraft carrier off the coast of Montenegro. These actions would not only reaffirm our resolve to stop the escalation of the conflict in Kosova, but, I believe, would lead to a lasting peace for the Albanian people and all ethnic groups in the Balkans.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Addendum:

Testimony of the Hon. Joseph J. DioGuardi

A History of Serbian "Ethnic CIeansing" of the Albanians in Kosova

SERBIAN "ETHNIC CLEANSING" OF ALBANIANS IN KOSOVA

Kosova lies in the south of former Yugoslavia, bordered by Serbia proper to the northeast, Montenegro to the north, Macedonia to the south, and Albania to the southwest. More than 90 percent of its 2 million people are Albanian, and most of the rest are Serbs. Albanians also live in large numbers in all of the aforementioned areas bordering Kosova: 1 million in Macedonia; 100,000 in Montenegro; 50,000 in Serbia proper (Presheve, Medvegje, and Bujanovc); and 3.5 million in the State of Albania--a divided nation of about 7 million people living side by side.

THE KOSOVA PROBLEM SINCE WORLD WAR II

The 1946 Yugoslav constitution recognized the separate identity of Kosova. At the same time, it divided Albanian-inhabited lands among Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro. In 1963, under the influence of Serbian secret police boss Alexander Rankovic, Kosova was incorporated as a commune in Serbia. After Rankovic's fall in 1974, Kosova was reinstated as an autonomous province and given federal representation equal to that of the six Yugoslav republics of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-IIerzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Montenegro.

Following Tito's death, persecution by Serbian government troops ensued, which led to massive student uprisings in Kosova in 1981. The Serbian police and troops killed at least twenty-two Albanians and beat, wounded, and arrested thousands more. From 1981 to 1988, official statistics confirm the arrest and jailing of more than 7,000 people and the incredible figure of 586,000 Albanians (more than 25 percent of the population) who passed through the hands of the police for one reason or another.

Serbian determination to strip Kosova of its independence accelerated the violence. In 1989, the Serbian authorities forcibly.abolished the autonomy of Kosova and sent Yugoslav tanks to patrol the streets. Six days of rioting ensued, during which more than 100 Albanians were killed and more than 900 were arrested.

In April 1990, facing more demonstrations, Serbia passed a special law extending prior emergency measures. The people of Kosova through their Assembly responded on July 2 with a declaration of independence. Three days later, Serbia suspended the Kosova Assembly, falsely purporting that the Serbian minority in Kosova was being oppressed by the Albanian majority. Serbia then seized some seventy-five enterprises, including hospitals and energy plants. On September 7, following a general strike, the Assembly met secretly, proclaimed Kosova a Republic within the Yugoslav federation, and adopted a constitution. By September 17, its 111 Albanian members had been arrested or had fled into hiding or exile.

On September 28, 1990, Serbia adopted a new constitution that completely eliminated Kosova's autonomy. As of mid-1991, the people of Kosova held a referendum in which 87 percent of the population participated, resulting in a 99 percent vote in favor of an independent state. On October 19, 1991, based on this referendum, Kosova was declared a sovereign, independent state and a transitional government was formed. On May 24, 1992, the first multiparty elections for parliament and president of the Republic of Kosova took place. On June 23, 1992, however, the Serbian police used armed vehicles to prevent the seating of the newly-elected government in Kosova.

In the years that followed, life for the Albanian people of Kosova deteriorated dramatically. In spite of their policy of peaceful resistance, the barbaric treatment at the hands of the Serbian police, paramilitary, and military forces persisted unchecked on a daily basis.

KOSOVA UNDER SERBIAN OCCUPATION

Serbian police have expelled nearly all Albanian physicians, dismissed 7,000 students, prohibited the use of Albanian as a language of instruction, closed the University of Prishtina, replaced Albanian judges with Serbian jurists, and engaged in random beatings, kidnappings, torture, house searches, and killing. The Serbian government has shut down Albanian radio and television operations and used its own media to promote anti-Albanian racism in the region.

Economic strangulation has been a key element of Serbia's takeover of Kosova. "Compulsory administration" has been imposed on most of Kosova's more than one hundred economic centers, resulting in the collapse of Kosova's economy. More than 75,000 Albanian families are unemployed. It is estimated that close to half a million Albanians are suffering from food shortages, and there is a very real danger of widespread starvation. Many analysts believe that the Serbian government is trying to bring the Albanian population to its knees through hunger.

With no real recognition and intervention by the international community to prevent the daily brutality inflicted on innocent civilians, Albanians had no choice but to resort to the self defense of their families, neighbors, property, and communities. The ill equipped Kosova Liberation Army emerged from this struggle to survive and it has declared itself as a defense force with no terrorist aims. The most recent events in Kosova, from February 28 to March 8, 1998 in the Drenica region, including the villages of Prekaz, Voynich, Llansha, and Likosan clearly demonstrate what has been feared all along; namely that the atrocities the world witnessed in Bosnia will be repeated in Kosova and will result in a completely lopsided conflict in which the unarmed civilian population of Kosova is massacred. A full-scale civil war is certain to involve the larger Aloanian population of Macedonia, Montenegro, southern Serbia, and Albania, and this would make the nightmare of a second genocidal war in Europe in this century a reality.

CONCLUSION

The Albanian American Civic League believes that the West must play an immediate role in stopping the Serbian assault on Albanian villages, which has as its aim the "ethnic cleansing" of the Albanians of Kosova. Because of the importance of the Balkans to our national security President Clinton had already dispatched some three hundred American troops to neighboring Macedonia as observers, and we have committed a substantial contingent of American soldiers in Bosnia. With the recent, tragic Serbian assault on Kosova, it is now time to take strong measures to prevent further bloodshed.

President Bush on his way out of office and President Clinton on assuming office clearly put Slobodan Milosevic on notice that "a line had been drawn in the sand on Kosova." President Clinton should now make good on this foreign policy declaration by implementing a swift and powerful counter stroke against any further aggression against the Albanians in Kosova.

16.  Albanian American PAC

PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates, 1997-1998*

To Democrats: $12,600( 25%)To Republicans: $29,500( 59%)Total: $50,100

INDUSTRY: HUMAN RIGHTS; MINORITY/ETHNIC GROUPS

FEC NAME: ALBANIAN AMERICAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

(ELMSFORD, NY 10523)

FEC COMMITTEE ID NUMBER: C00278689

(LOOK UP ACTUAL DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE FEC)

House CandidateTotal Contribs

Dioguardi, Joseph J (3-NY) $8,000

Dornan, Robert K (R-CA) $500

Gilman, Benjamin A (R-NY) $10,000

King, Peter T (R-NY) $3,000

Lantos, Tom (D-CA) $10,000

Rohrabacher, Dana (R-CA) $5,000

Smith, Christopher H (R-NJ) $10,000

Traficant, James A Jr (D-OH) $2,600

Total to House Democrats:$12,600

Total to House Republicans:$28,500

Senate CandidateTotal Contribs D'Amato, Alfonse M (R-NY) $1,000

Total to Senate Democrats:$0 Total to Senate Republicans:$1,000

*Based on data released electronically by the FEC on March 1, 1999

* * * *

Political Organizations

Sponsor: ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE

Treasurer: SHIRLEY A CLOYES

[Non-Candidate Committee] [QUALIFIED NON-PARTY]

Kind of Committee: 5 OLD ROAD, ELMSFORD, NY 10523

Related PACs

ALBANIAN AMERICAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

SIC Coverage Dates: Itemized DEM Cand Contribs Itemized REP Cand Contribs Itemized OTHER Cand Contribs

Political Organizations

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS - GENERAL

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS - GENERAL 01/01/97 - 12/31/98 $12,600 $29,500

$8,000 Related Soft Money Transactions No Related Soft Money

Contributions

Activity Through: 12/31/98

Total Receipts: $64,174.00

Total Disbursements Made: $64,090.00

Beginning Cash-On-Hand at start of election cycle: $55.00

Ending Cash-On-Hand as of 12/31/98: $135.00

[1] FEC Info Contributions: ALBANIAN AMERICAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - C00278689 28 contributions from/to this Committee - '98

[2] BLACK AMERICA'S POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

06/14/98 $200.00 contribution made

[4] ITALIAN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN COALITION

10/27/98 $250.00 contribution made

[6] BLACK AMERICA'S POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

12/31/97 $100.00 contribution made -

[8] BLACK AMERICANS FOR LIFE PAC

12/29/98 $100.00 contribution made

[10] BOOMER AGENDA; THE

06/02/98 $500.00 contribution made

[12] TOM LANTOS FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM CA/12

03/25/98 $5,000.00 contribution made

06/10/98 $5,000.00 contribution made

[15] PETE KING FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-REP NY/03

03/25/98 $3,000.00 contribution made

[17] PEOPLE FOR DIOGUARDI HSE-RTL NY/19

04/03/98 $2,000.00 contribution made

06/12/98 $2,000.00 contribution made

07/30/98 $1,000.00 contribution made

09/23/98 $1,000.00 contribution made

03/24/97 $2,000.00 contribution made

[23] TRAFICANT FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OH/17

08/30/97 $1,000.00 contribution made

08/30/97 $600.00 contribution made

12/28/97 $1,000.00 contribution made

[27] DORNAN FOR CONGRESS HSE-REP CA/46

09/23/98 $500.00 contribution made

[29]CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR GILMAN FOR CONGRESS HSE-REP NY/20

03/14/97 $1,700.00 contribution made

10/23/97 $350.00 contribution made

11/25/97 $1,000.00 contribution made

12/28/97 $1,050.00 contribution made

12/28/97 $1,950.00 contribution made

03/25/98 $3,950.00 contribution made

[36] COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT CONGRESSMAN DANA ROHRABACHER HSE-REP CA/45

03/25/98 $5,000.00 contribution made

[38]COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT CONGRESSMAN CHRIS SMITH HSE-REP NJ/04

04/16/98 $2,000.00 contribution made

06/05/98 $5,000.00 contribution made

05/11/98 $3,000.00 contribution made

[42]FRIENDS OF SENATOR D'AMATO (1998 COMMITTEE) SEN-REP NY

06/20/98 $1,000.00 contribution made

Totals: $51,250.00 - contribution made

FEC Info Contributions from individuals: 39 contributions listed for

Contributions to the ALBANIAN AMERICAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE '98

ABDIU, DESTAN 6/9/98 $5,000.00 REAL ESTATE OWNER/MANAGER

AHMETI, ISLAM 6/8/98 $500.00 ARLINGTON, TX 76018 RESTAURANTEUR

AJRO, REDZEP 6/8/98 $500.00 BEDFORD, TX 76021 RESTAURANTEUR

ALICKAJ, AGIM 4/1/98 $300.00 BRONX, NY 10468 KOSOVATOURS

ALILI, REDZEP 6/10/98 $200.00 MARGATE CITY, NJ 08402 RESTAURANTEUR

BALAJ, ZEF 4/24/98 $2,500.00 CHAPPAQUA, NY 10514 REALTOR

BARDHI, IMER 3/16/98 $1,000.00 FLOWERMOUND, TX 75028 BARIS PIZZA

BARDHI, SEBIAN 6/8/98 $1,000.00 FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028 RESTAURANTEUR

BARLAJ, ABE 3/25/98 $1,000.00 CHICAGO, IL 60610 LASALLE MGT

CEKA, BRUNO 6/8/98 $1,000.00 IRVING, TX 75063 RESTAURANTEUR

FERA, SABIT 6/8/98 $500.00 FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028 BARI'S PIZZA

GJONBALAJ, FERO 3/25/98 $5,000.00 MILLSTONE, NJ 07726 PERFECT BLDG MGT

HALILI, ADNAN 6/8/98 $500.00 FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028 RESTAURANTEUR

HOT, ALBER 3/25/98 $5,000.00 NEW YORK, NY 10001 FAST TRACK CONSTRUCTION -

HOTI, CHASIM 8/20/98 $200.00 ACHORAGE, AL 99510 CITY OF BARROW

ITIL, TURAN 11/7/97 $2,000.00 NYACK, NY 10960 NEUROCORP

KABA, NURI 3/25/98 $1,000.00 ARLINGTON, TX 76012 OB MCCART APTS

KABA, NURI 6/8/98 $500.00 ARLINGTON, TX 76012 OB MCCART APTS

KELMENDI, AGIM 12/16/97 $500.00 BROOKLYN, NY 11218 RED EAGLE CAR SERVICE

KELMENDI, AGIM; 3/25/98 $5,000.00; BROOKLYN, NY 11218; RED EAGLE CAR SERVICE

KELMENDI, AGIM 6/20/97 $500.00 BROOKLYN, NY 11218

KRASNIQI, FLORIM; 4/1/98 $5,000.00; BROOKLYN, NY 11218; TRIANGLE GENERAL CONTRACTING

KRASNIQI, ISMAIL 6/8/98 $500.00 GARLAND, TX 75040 RESTAURANTEUR

KUKA, MYSUM 12/16/97 $300.00 BEACON, NY 12508 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER

LITA, FAIK 6/10/98 $200.00 STATEN ISLAND, NY 10314 DOUBLE DELIGHT DAIRY

MARKU, BEQIR 3/25/98 $5,000.00 BROOKLYN, NY BIG APPLE ROOFING

MARKU, TAHIBE 6/10/98 $300.00 BROOKLYN, NY 11229

MEHMETI, NICK 6/8/98 $500.00 DALLAS, TX 75243 RESTAURANTEUR

MEMETI, RIFAT 4/23/98 $1,000.00 STATEN ISLAND, NY 10305 NICK'S NOT RAY'S PIZZA

ODZA, NASIR 6/8/98 $500.00 ALLEN, TX 75002 RESTAURANTEUR

REDZEPI, SALAEDIN 6/10/98 $200.00 EGG HARBOR TOWNSHI, NJ 08221 SOUTH END PIZZA

REXHEPI, SALI 6/10/98 $500.00 BRONX, NY 10471 DORAL TUSCANY HOTEL

SALI, BEDRI 6/8/98 $200.00 FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028 RESTAURANTEUR

SALIU, AJREDIN 6/8/98 $1,000.00 LEWISVILLE, TX 75028 RESTAURANTEUR

SALIU, AZEM 6/8/98 $500.00 BROWNWOOD, TX 76801 RESTAURANTEUR -

SHARE, SADRI 5/27/98 $500.00 AURORA, IL 60506 TOOL & DYE

SMAJLI, ISMET 6/8/98 $500.00 FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028 RESTAURANTEUR

XHEMA, JIM 3/17/97 $2,000.00 GREENWICH, CT 06831

ZADRIMA, JOHN 5/4/98 $2,500.00 BRONX, NY 10469

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History of the Balkans

Big powers and civil wars in Yugoslavia
(How was Yugoslavia dismantled and why.)

Proxies at work
(Muslims, Croats and Albanians alike were only proxies of the big powers)

The Aftermath

The truth belongs to us all.

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First posted: February 27, 2003
Last revised: May 31, 2004