Sudan: Rebels pose as Janjaweed in Darfur (Aljazeera)

[reorg]

Sudan: Rebels pose as Janjaweed in Darfur

Tuesday 03 August 2004, 21:15 Makka Time, 18:15 GMT

Rebels acting as Janjaweed are acccused of abuse in Darfur


Rebels masquerading as the Janjaweed have killed 28 local tribesmen in attacks in western Sudan over the last week, a Sudanese official and tribal leader from the area said.

Governor of Sudan's Nile River State, Abd Allah Massar, said on Tuesday that rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) had since 29 July launched daily raids against the Rizeiqat tribe in southern Darfur.

Rebels claimed the tribe is of Arab origin thus making it a target.

"They attacked previously, over the past few weeks, but now they are attacking daily," Massar said. The rebels, in an attempt to be camouflaged as Janjaweed, were riding camels and horses, dressed similarly and copying the style of a Janjaweed.

"They want people to think they are Janjaweed," thus putting more pressure on Khartoum, said Massar, who is governor of the Nile River State north of Khartoum.

(...)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6164FB0C-36F5-4D17-91F5-484F926D5CDD.htm

[Kagemusha]

1. Of course no one here will believe that.

It amounts to believing that Kosovans actually did bad things to Serbs in that conflict. And who'd buy that.

[reorg]

4. very true

I wonder, though, if after five years of occupation, the news was even reported in the US that in March 2004 between 19 and 27 people were killed, 848 wounded, 3000-4000 Serbs displaced, 550 houses and 27 Serbian orthodox churches burnt, in a series of clashes following an incident in which a boy accidentally (proven) drowned? Kosovo Albanian propagandists had claimed, of course, that the boy was murdered.


ed. for typo

[papau]

2. Disaster in Darfur By John Ryle is a good read on this - Aljazeera seems

correct - since why would the Arab cattlemen attack an Arab cattlemen tribe?





http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17326
Disaster in Darfur
By John Ryle
Darfur is a 150,000-square-mile expanse of desert and savannah, with five or six million inhabitants, spreading out from the fertile slopes of Jebel Marra, the mountainous zone in Sudan's far west. Remote from the country's political heartland on the Nile, it is linked to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, by seven hundred miles of dirt road and a single-track railway. Over the last sixteen months a disas-ter has been unfolding in Darfur, one that is agonizingly familiar to observers of Sudan during the past two decades. In response to an insurgency on the part of rebel groups demanding greater political representation in Khartoum, the government of General Omar al-Bashir has unleashed a scorched-earth policy across large tracts of the province. Locally recruited militias, armed and commanded by Sudan army officers in combined operations with helicopter gunships, burn and loot villages in rebel areas, raping women and killing men, forcing the survivors to flee west across the border into Chad, or else to seek refuge in government-controlled towns and camps, where they are under the control of those responsible for their degradation.

[reorg]

3. Ryle makes little effort to support his strong opinions

Like:

- the government of Sudan is behind everything
- the government of Sudan is evil
- the government can "clearly" control the militia
- the government is unwilling to reign in the militia

and so on.

Conspicuously lacking are explanations what the insurgents really are up to - the Islamist al-Turabi, former strong man of the current regime (and the 89 military coup) is "accused" (probably another government sin?) of supporting the insurgents, yet these insurgents after a "few attacks on government posts", seem to do nothing at all (that the reporter would know of, anyway), only the militia, coordinated and commanded by the government, seem to rampage the villages burning and looting insurgent areas ...

This kind of reporting reminds me very much of how the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts were reported in the nineties. Clear cut front lines, really very, very evil villains and their henchmen on one side, and these poor, innocent victims on the other side - though indistinguishable from each other by religion, ethnicity, or culture, but nevertheless clearly divided by the reporter into Arabs and non-Arabs (while suggesting that this may be yet another government ploy).

It is this mixture of truths and halftruths, superficial textbook history, and opinion that probably makes for a good magazine article in a consumer culture. But a good read it is not, and neither does it tell anything about the interesting parts of the story.

Most telling is the author's ready-made recipe of how to deal with this issue, as a well-meaning, honest and good western citizen: we first must establish an "information network in the field that can match that of the Sudan government's own security forces." And that will have to be accompanied by "a serious threat of external military intervention", hear hear.

To Kosovo we first sent the OSCE verification mission, which duly identified the Racak incident as a "massacre", thus inevitably triggering the bombing of Serbia, with the accompanying claims of genocide, Holocaust and whatnot. Even today some people still believe this, because nobody told them that there was no "massacre" in Racak, no genocide in Kosovo, and no Holocaust.

If you don't believe me, watch the Milosevic trial. All sessions are available as Realplayer files and in transcript, hundreds of hours, no proof:

http://hague.bard.edu/video.html


ed. for added link

[struggle4progress]

5. Thanks for the nice Ryle link.

Close connections between the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias have indeed been documented: I suggest, in particular:

Darfur Documents Confirm Government Policy of Militia Support
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/07/19/darfur9096.htm

Sudan: New Darfur Documents
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/07/20/darfur9095.htm

and other materials available from Human Rights Watch.

[struggle4progress]

6. Connections between the Sudanese government ...

... and the Janjaweed militia are well-established, and the government faces international pressure to control the Janjaweed and to stop Janjaweed atrocities. Now government officials suddenly and conveniently claim that insurgents (disguised as Janjaweed) are responsible for such atrocities; these claims should naturally be treated with some suspicion.

[reorg]

7. absolutely,

all claims should be treated with suspicion, including those of HRW, supported by a few documents that were obtained from undisclosed sources.

That some of these militias were at times (even before 89) supplied with arms and somehow supported by "the government", whether by individual officials or factions of the ruling oligarchy is hardly in dispute. It is not what is at issue. The government claims that it is hard to "reign them in" now, in a region the size of Texas with only few government forces to do that. The government also claims that they are "bandits" - so it seems at least unclear whether some of these militias of various tribes are operating on their own.

At the sime time, the insurgents refuse to demobilize and lay down their arms. They walk out of talks. Does not make me wonder - like the KLA in Rambouillet - they have no reason to negotiate as long as they can count on major military powers to support them.



ed. minor corrections
ed. content

[struggle4progress]

8. Established NGOs like HRW have absolutely nothing to gain from ...

... hasty, careless, or ill-supported claims, since their access to decision-makers and their effectiveness as advocates requires credibility. HRW has carefully established a professional credibility over a period of many years: I've been reading their reports for decades, and I've met several of their researchers, who have impressed me with their skills, integrity, physical bravery, and dedication to human dignity. I am unimpressed by your attempt to discredit this organization and its work.

In human rights work, it is essential to attend to detail and to get the facts right. Naturally, if there is real evidence that the insurgents are disguising themselves as Janjaweed to commit atrocities, the human rights professionals will be profoundly interested. I merely point out (without intent to support any of the armed parties) that a single story, based on the claims of a government official, who has obvious political interests in blaming the insurgents and absolving the Janjaweed, is not definitive in this regard and has the appearance of a deliberate attempt to divert attention from an existing grave humanitarian problem.

Your posts, here and elsewhere, suggest an anti-humanitarian agenda. If you are unconcerned by humanitarian issues, why not concentrate instead on issues which do concern and interest you, and which you do find interesting enough to deserve your attention? What decent human purpose is served by your misrepresentation of the history of Serbian attacks against Muslims in the former Yugoslavia or the contemporary politics of genocide in the Sudan?

[reorg]

9. if you are interested

in what I write here, I kindly invite you to read carefully and concentrate on the issues.

As I said before, I can understand that you are suspicious of this particular story as reported by Aljazeera, even though Aljazeera is certainly a well-established and respected institution and has no apparent interest in falsifying information.

For information on the history of the Kosovo conflict, I would recommend to read "Der Kosovo-Konflikt - Wege in einen vermeidbaren Krieg" by Heinz Loquai, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden Baden, 2000 (The Kosovo conflict - avenues into an avoidable war).

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3789066818/qid=1091600659/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_11_9/028-8486309-3613368

It is a thorough study based on the daily reports of the verification mission, of which Mr. Loquai was a member. Of course, there is further literature, but that book would be a good start. I don't know if an English translation is available, though. If you have trouble finding reliabe sources in English that would support what I have said in this thread and elsewhere, I probably could - with some effort - assist you in finding them.

A very good and also comprehensive source that is easily available would be the transcripts and/or videos of the ongoing Milosevic trial. It takes some time to wade through all this material - can't count how many hours I have spent with it - but I think it is worth the effort.

http://hague.bard.edu/video.html


As to the term anti-humanitarian - I'm not sure what you are referring to. The best I can come up with is the French term "anti-humanisme", translated into German as "Anti-Humanismus", in English maybe "Anti-humanism"? As in the critique of the so-called "French philosophers" by Luc Ferry and Alain Renaut: Essai sur l'antihumanisme contemporain, Paris 1985. No, I actually did not find much of interest in the thinking of French anti-humanists. I would characterize my education and my political sympathies as rather traditional Marxist humanism (see e. g. Merlau-Ponty: "Humanisme et Terreur"). Travelling to Third World countries and having some contact with people working all over the world, I try to develop my views from more than one perspective. That helps sometimes to get a more "holistic" concept of goings-on.


Finally, the following article by John Loughland in the Guardian pretty well sums up what I think and have tried to convey in various threads here on the issue of a possible "humanitarian" intervention in Sudan - in much better language, of course, than I were able to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1273982,00.html

[struggle4progress]

10. Perhaps this will help:

I read Loughland's Guardian piece in the thread where you posted it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=65887&mesg_id=66036&page=
The article argues that humanitarian concern about Sudan is merely an excuse that will be used to mask an oil grab. While I agree that we should be skeptical about the motives of Blair, for example, when he eagerly offers troops, I posted, in that thread, a large number of links to DU threads containing news accounts making it clear that a variety of power centers (such as the Vatican, for example), lacking interest in Sudanese oil, and having access to human rights information, had expressed concern about a developing humanitarian crisis in the Sudan. You apparently posted the article because it furthers your agenda, which requires denying that any humanitarian crisis exists.

The present thread involves a press account of an official's claim that insurgents, disguised as Janjaweed, are responsible for atrocities. I questioned the official's claim; my question does not involve the credibility of Al-Jazeera, one way or the other. In fact, using the official's questionable claim as a platform, you set out to discredit humanitarian concerns, not only about the Sudan but more generally. Confronted with the carefully detailed investigations of a respected NGO on the situation in Sudan, you merely, and without basis, dismiss the evidence as lacking credibility. You further set out to discredit the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, by claiming that Milosevic, now on trial, is transparently innocent and that there was no genocide, issues completely irrelevant to the story at the top of this thread.

If, of course, you intended to "concentrate on the issue" of the Sudan, Yugoslavia would be irrelevant. Your repeated digression to the former Yugoslavia shows that you have other motives: in fact, your claims that no genocide occurred in the former Yugoslavia places you firmly in the same ideological camp with other holocaust deniers. This is offensive enough to require response: other readers may want to review the convictions obtained, to date, by ICTY, noting that many of the cases have been resolved by plea bargain, so that convictions only for "crimes against humanity" (when "genocide" was originally alleged) actually tend to indicate that "genocide" did occur.

(IT-94-1) TADIC
"PRIJEDOR"
Initial Indictment: 13 February 1995
Latest amendment: 14 December 1995
Trial: 7 May 1996 - 28 November 1996 - 79 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 7 May 1997
Sentence: 14 July 1997
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 15 July 1999
Sentence on additional counts by Trial Chamber: 11 November 1999
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 26 January 2000
Sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.


(IT-94-2) NIKOLIC
"SUSICA CAMP"
Initial Indictment: 4 November 1994
Latest amendment: 27 June 2003
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 18 December 2003
Sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-8) SIKIRICA et al.
�KERATERM CAMP"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 3 January 2001
Trial: 19 March 2001- 10 October 2001 - 52 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 13 November 2001
Dusko Sikirica: sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment
Damir Dosen: sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment
Dragan Kolundzija: sentenced to 3 years' imprisonme


(IT-95-9) SIMIC et al. "BOSANSKI SAMAC"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 30 May 2002
At Trial: from 10 September 2001 until 4 July 2003
Trial Chamber Judgement: 17 October 2003
Blagoje Simic sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment
Miroslav Tadic sentenced to 8 years� imprisonment
Simo Zaric sentenced to 6 years� imprisonment


(IT-95-9/1) TODOROVIC
"BOSANSKI SAMAC"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 25 March 1999
Trial:
Trial Chamber Judgement: 31 July 2001
Sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-9/2) SIMIC "BOSANSKI SAMAC"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 9 January 2002
Trial: 10 September 2001 - 22 July 2002 - 84 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 17 October 2002
Sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-10) JELISIC "BRCKO"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 19 October 1998
Trial: 30 November 1998 - 25 November 1999 - 27 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 14 December 1999
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 5 July 2001
Sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-10/1) CESIC
"BRCKO"
Initial Indictment: 21 July 1995
Latest amendment: 9 September 2003
Sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment
Awaiting transfer


(IT-95-14) BLASKIC "LASVA VALLEY"
Initial Indictment: 10 November 1995
Latest amendment: 25 April 1997
Trial: 24 June 1997- 30 July 1999 - 223 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 3 March 2000
Sentenced to 45 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-14/1) ALEKSOVSKI "LASVA VALLEY"
Initial Indictment: 10 November 1995
(see case Kordic and Cerkez IT-95-14/2)
Trial: 6 January 1998-23 March 1999 - 43 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 25 June 1999
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 24 March 2000
Sentence to seven years' imprisonment


(IT-95-14/2) KORDIC and CERKEZ
"LASVA VALLEY"
Initial Indictment: 10 November 1995
Latest amendment: 30 September 1998
Trial: 12 April 1999 - 15 December 2000 - 240 trial days
Judgement: 26 February 2001
Dario Kordic: sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment.
Mario Cerkez: sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment


(IT-95-16) KUPRESKIC et al.
"LASVA VALLEY"
Initial Indictment: 10 November 1995
Latest amendment: 9 February 1998
Trial: 17 August 1998 - 11 November 1999 - 114 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 14 January 2000
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 23 October 2001
Zoran Kupreskic: found not guilty and immediately released.
Mirjan Kupreskic: found not guilty and immediately released
Drago Josipovic: sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment
Vladimir Santic: sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.
Dragan Papic: Found not guilty and immediately released


(IT-95-17/1) FURUNDZIJA
"LASVA VALLEY"
Initial Indictment: 10 November 1995
Latest amendment: 2 June 1998
Trial: 8 June 1998-12 November 1998- 10 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 10 December 1998
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 21 July 2000
Sentenced to 10


(IT-96-21) MUCIC et al.
"CELEBICI CAMP"
Initial Indictment: 21 March 1996
Trial: 10 March 1997 - 31 August 1998 - 140 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 16 November 1998
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 20 February 2001
Trial Chamber Judgement: 9 October 2001
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 8 April 2003, appeals dismissed
Zejnil Delalic: found not guilty and immediately released
Zdravko Mucic: sentenced Mucic to nine years' imprisonment
Hazim Delic: sentenced Delic to eighteen years' imprisonment
Esad Landzo: sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment


(IT-96-22) ERDEMOVIC
"PILICA FARM"
Initial Indictment: 29 May 1996
Sentencing hearing: 19 and 20 November 1996
Trial Chamber Judgement: 29 November 1996
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 7 October 1997
Trial Chamber Judgement: 5 March 1998
Sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment


(IT-96-23) (IT-96-23/1) KUNARAC, KOVAC and VUKOVIC
"FOCA"
Initial Indictment: 26 June 1996
Latest amendment: Dragoljub Kunarac and Radomir Kovac: 1st December 1999
Zoran Vukovic: 3 March 2000
Trial: 20 March 2000 - 22 November 2000 - 56 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 22 February 2001
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 12 June 2002
Dragoljub Kunarac: sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment.
Radomir Kovac: sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment
Zoran Vukovic: sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment


(IT-97-24) STAKIC
"PRIJEDOR"
Initial Indictment: 13 March 1997
Latest amendment: Milomir Stakic: 10 April 2002
Trial: 6 April 2002 - 15 April 2003 150 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 31 July 2003
Sentenced to life imprisonment.


(IT-97-25) KRNOJELAC
"FOCA - KP DOM CAMP"
Initial Indictment: 17 June 1997
Latest amendment: 25 June 2001
Trial: 30 October 2000 - 20 July 2001 - 76 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 15 March 2002
Appeals Chamber Judgement: 17 September 2003
Sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment

(IT-98-30/1) KVOCKA et al.
"OMARSKA, KERATERM AND TRNOPOLJE CAMPS"
Latest amended Indictment: 26 October 2000
Trial: 28 February 2000 - (Adjourned from 6 March 2000 to 2 May 2000) - 19 July 2001 - 113 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 2 November 2001
Miroslav Kvocka: sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment
Milojica Kos: sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment
Dragoljub Prcac: sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment
Mladjo Radic: sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
Zoran Zigic: sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment


(IT-98-33) KRSTIC and PANDUREVIC
"SREBRENICA-DRINA CORPS"
Initial Indictment: 2 November 1998
Latest amendment: 27 October 1999
Trial: 13 March 2000 - 29 June 2001 - 98 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgement: 2 August 2001
Sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment


(IT-98-34) NALETILIC and MARTINOVIC
"TUTA AND STELA"
Initial Indictment: 21 December 1998
Latest amendment: 16 October 2001
Trial: 10 September 2001 � 31 October 2002
Trial Chamber Judgement: 31 March 2003
Mladen Naletilic: sentenced to 20 years� imprisonment
Vinko Martinovic: sentenced to 18 years� imprisonment


(IT-00-39&40/1) PLAVSIC
"BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA"
Plavsic:
Initial Indictment: 7 April 2000
Latest Indictment: 7 March 2002
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 27 February 2003
Sentenced to 11 years�


(IT-02-59) MRDJA
"VLASIC MOUNTAIN"
Initial Indictment: 16 April 2002
Sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment

(IT-02-60/1) NIKOLIC
"SREBRENICA"
Latest amendment: 27 May 2002
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 2 December 2003
Sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment


(IT-02-60/2) OBRENOVIC
"SREBRENICA"
Amended Joinder Indictment: 27 May 2002
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 10 December 2003
Sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment


(IT-02-65/1) BANOVIC
"OMARSKA CAMP AND KERATERM CAMP"
Latest Indictment: 21 November 2002
Sentencing hearing: 3 September 2003
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 28 October 2003
Sentenced to 8


(IT-03-72) BABIC
Initial Indictment: 6 November 2003, confirmed 17 November 2003
Trial Chamber Sentencing Judgement: 29 June 2004
Sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment


http://www.un.org/icty/cases/factsheets/listacte-e.htm

[reorg]

14. again, please read carefully

You say:

"The present thread involves a press account of an official's claim that insurgents, disguised as Janjaweed, are responsible for atrocities. I questioned the official's claim; my question does not involve the credibility of Al-Jazeera, one way or the other."

It would appear that Aljazeera's credibility is also at stake when they report things like this without distancing themselves.


You say:

"In fact, using the official's questionable claim as a platform, you set out to discredit humanitarian concerns, not only about the Sudan but more generally."

Here is where you do get something mixed up. I replied to ANOTHER story, quoted by someone else in response to the original post.

Second, I set out very specifically to question the way this OTHER story explained and described the horrible events in Sudan.

I never "discredit humanitarian concerns". What I set out to discredit is ONLY, please listen: ONLY when people are calling for MILITARY INTERVENTION. Sorry, I totally fail to see what is humanitarian about a military intervention.

More often than others here, I might add, have I pointed out that humanitarian aid is urgently needed and should be delivered promptly to the refugees in Darfur.

But meddling in internal affairs of other countries and invading them is another story. And this is the context where I bring up - here and in other threads - the NATO military intervention in Kovoso, which, as of course turned out only much later, had more to do with strategic objectives of the US and the EU than with humanitarian concerns.

I applaud your attention when it comes to war crimes. You have listed some convicted war criminals from the Balkan wars. They were Serbian, Bosnians, Croats, and they did horrible things. Much like in previous wars, and much like in ongoing wars: in Iraq, in the Sudan, in the Congo, in Afghanistan, in Colombia, and elsewhere. Such things will continue to happen in future wars. This is why we should develop a common understanding that WARS SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

There is criticism about the Hague Tribunal, I agree with it in part: it is obviously carrying out "victor's justice", it is one-sided and neglects the crimes of NATO. But I do not question the validity of the war crime convictions. My point was not, as you say,


"to discredit the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,"

- quite to the contrary I was referring - and do it again - to the transcripts and videos of the Milosevic trial which I recommend for everyone with interest in the matter to watch and read.


" by claiming that Milosevic, now on trial, is transparently innocent"

And where exactly did I say that? I think you should read more carefully. I quoted an article - you allegedly read it - which says that Milosevic was not even INDICTED for genocide in Kosovo. Go figure.


" and that there was no genocide, "

in Kosovo, and I stand by that.



"issues completely irrelevant to the story at the top of this thread."

Irrelevant to the top of this thread indeed. Which is why I only brought them up in response to another message quoting an article that had many similarities with the propaganda during the Balkan wars.

[reorg]

15. Kosovo - humanitarian military intervention?

>> (...)

At the very margins of the media coverage of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, one might have stumbled across a stifled debate over the West's broader strategic motives for the campaign. According to John Pilger, the real issue was oil. NATO's professed motive of humanitarian intervention concealed the true motive, 'the impatience of the imperial godfathers to complete their most urgent post-cold war project: the establishment of an oil protectorate all the way from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea.'(2)

Robin Cook, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the time, retorted,

We have demonstrated that we are willing to undertake military action, not to seize territory, not for expansion, not for mineral resources. There is no oil in Kosovo. The Socialist Workers' Party keep saying we are doing this for oil, which is deeply perplexing, since there is only some dirty lignite, and the sooner we encourage them to use something other than dirty lignite, the better. This was a war fought in defence not of territory but in defence of values. So here I can say ... foreign policy has been driven by those concerns. (3)

(...)

<2> John Pilger, 'Tony Blair is deceiving us: he is not telling the nation about the real dangers of this war', New Statesman, 2 April 1999.
<3> John Lloyd, 'The New Statesman Interview - Robin Cook', New Statesman , 5 July 1999.<<

http://www.flyingfish.org.uk/articles/balkan/pipelines.htm



Robin Cook's point about "values" was not entirely wrong, but there was also something that very much had to do with oil:


>> (...)

In November 1998, Bill Richardson, then US energy secretary, spelt out his policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil. "This is about America's energy security," he explained. "It's also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly independent countries toward the west.

"We would like to see them reliant on western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. We've made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right."

The project has been discussed for years. The US trade agency notes that the Trans-Balkan pipeline "will become a part of the region's critical east-west Corridor 8 infrastructure ... This transportation corridor was approved by the transport ministers of the European Union in April 1994". The pipeline itself, the agency says, has also been formally supported "since 1994". The first feasibility study, backed by the US, was conducted in 1996.

The pipeline does not pass through the former Yugoslavia, but there's no question that it featured prominently in Balkan war politics. On December 9 1998, the Albanian president attended a meeting about the scheme in Sofia, and linked it inextricably to Kosovo. "It is my personal opinion," he noted, "that no solution confined within Serbian borders will bring lasting peace." The message could scarcely have been blunter: if you want Albanian consent for the Trans-Balkan pipeline, you had better wrest Kosovo out of the hands of the Serbs.

(...) <<

George Monbiot: A discreet deal in the pipeline

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,438134,00.html



Some more info - about EU-US rivalry in this matter, different proposals for routes of the pipeline and a map:

http://198.63.57.245/Yugoslavia.html



And what came off it?

>>Study for trans-Balkan oil pipeline successfully completed

27-09-02 The governments of the Republic of Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania and the Board of Directors of AMBO (Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline corporation) announced that the United States Government-sponsored feasibility study for the trans-Balkan oil pipeline project has been successfully completed and delivered to the contracting parties.

The United States Government�s Trade and Development Agency provided significant financial support towards completing a full $ 1 mm study, which updated and enlarged the project's original feasibility study dating from early 1996.

The trans-Balkan oil pipeline will carry crude oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas to the Albanian Adriatic Sea port of Vlore. AMBO, which is a privately-funded company headquartered in Pound Ridge, New York, is the developer of this $ 1.1 bn. project.

Together with the US Government's South Balkan Development Initiative (SBDI) and the Stability Pact process, the AMBO pipeline will become an integral part of East-West corridor number 8 including highway, railway, gas, and optic-optic telecommunications lines. Specifically, the AMBO pipeline will permit oil companies operating in the Caspian Sea to ship their oil to Rotterdam and the East Coast of the USA at substantially less cost than they are experiencing today.

Brown & Root Energy Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton, an American company, completed the original feasibility study for this project. The pipeline -- 36-inch diameter with a projected throughput of 750,000 bpd -- will extend for approximately 890 km reaching a maximum altitude of approximately 1,000 meters in the Albanian segment.

Each of these three countries is fully supportive of this project and has signed an Interministerial Protocol to confirm its backing.

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nte24204.htm

[struggle4progress]

16. Political Killings in Kosova/Kosovo (March-June 1999)

A Cooperative Report by the Central and East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association and the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

http://shr.aaas.org/kosovo/pk/toc.html


from the executive summary:

<snip>
After the March 1999 withdrawal of most Western observers and the commencement of the NATO air campaign, killings of Kosovar Albanians increased sharply. As refugees flowed across the borders, they reported large-scale killings and atrocities.

A variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) began collecting information from these refugees, including the American Bar Association Central and East European Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Center for Peace Through Justice (Center), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and Human Rights Watch (HRW). Each of these organizations conducted extensive interviewing of Kosovars concerning what happened during the conflict. In total, there were 3,353 interviews included in this study.

In early 2000, ABA/CEELI and AAAS began working together to assemble and code information necessary to conduct a statistical analysis of the killings in Kosova/Kosovo. To ensure the broadest possible range of data, ABA/CEELI and AAAS approached NGOs that had worked in the field. The Center, PHR, and HRW shared their data for these purposes. All data were maintained and processed with proper respect for the confidentiality of the persons involved.

Through a statistical analysis of these data, this study concludes that approximately 10,500 Kosovar Albanians were killed between March 20 and June 12, 1999, with a 95 percent confidence interval from 7,449 to 13,627. This estimate is consistent with others made by political, legal, and scientific observers.
<snip>

[seemslikeadream]

11. There will be no peace in Africa until this is addressed

International arms trade $800 billion annually - largest business in the world.


Twice the second placed - illegal sale of drugs $400 billion a year


82 armed conflicts between 1989-1999 - 79 took place within national borders - arms not needed for self defense.


Reality is most arms are used on ordinary people by forces in the government or close to it.


159 wars fought since WWII - 9 out of 10 in developing world - more than 20 million people - were civilians.


War brings starvation - Biafra, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Chad, Sudan, Liberia and Somalia.


Until there is a radical reassessment of the arms trade and its consequences, millions more will be directly or indirectly killed by this lethal business.


The bottom line is that there is a lot of money to be made in weapons, and this motivates arms manufacturing.


To add to high profit margins, all arms manufactures are heavily subsidized and protected by their governments.


Free trade agreements - nearly always exempt from military spending


Industrialized countries will always be able to subsidies their corporations through defense contracts and grants for weapons research.

[struggle4progress]

12. "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, ...

signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thanks for the reminder, SLAD: conventional arms control really must be a top progressive priority in the early 21st century.

[seemslikeadream]

13. MERCHANTS OF DEATH - Meet the dealers

Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq

MERCHANT OF DEATH
Viktor Bout standing near an airplane.

Published on Friday, May 21, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq
Coalition forces find new uses in Iraq for an arms dealer they had branded a villain in Africa.

by Julio Godoy

PARIS - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened.

Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being silently erased.

The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favors as he does some of their job for them.

The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list.

U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS.

The tanks were believed to have been transported by one of Bout's air freight companies in a deal conducted through Pakistan's secret service. The deal was uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in Kabul, Der Spiegel reported.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0521-12.htm

GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALERS

By Matthew Brunwasser

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Now, as FRONTLINE/World reports in "Gunrunners," unprecedented U.N. investigations have begun to unravel the mystery of these broken embargoes, many of them imposed on African countries involved in bloody civil wars. At the heart of this unfolding detective story is the identification of a group of East European arms merchants, with Victor Bout the first of them to be publicly and prominently identified. The U.N. investigative team pursued leads that a Mr. Bout was pouring small arms and ammunition into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, making possible massacres on a scale that stunned the world.



Despite being pursued for years by a flinty group of private and government arms investigators, a positive visual ID of this United Arab Emirates-based arms merchant only became available when two Belgian journalists ran into him at an airstrip in remote rebel-held Congo. And it was only recently that his name became familiar in the United States, following press reports of his role in arming the Taliban regime in Afghanistan five years ago. If not for this link to Afghanistan, it is probable that Bout would still be a low-profile character in the clandestine world of illicit arms trading.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html


VICTOR BOUT
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1967, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R. (now Tajikistan); an ethnic Russian.

PASSPORTS:
At least five, two of which are Russian and one Ukrainian.

ALIASES:
Often referred to in law enforcement circles as "Victor B.," as he is thought to have at least five aliases: Butt, Butov, Badd, Bulakin and others.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow.

PREVIOUS CAREER:
Until 1991, served as an interpreter in a now-disbanded military transport aviation regiment in Vitsebsk (now Belarus). Translated for U.N. peacekeeping force in Angola, 1987. Left the military as a lieutenant.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Farsi (Persian, also the language of Tajikistan), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Xhosa, Zulu.

MOST RECENTLY:
Last seen at liberty in Moscow in March, 2002.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
June 2000: Charged with forging documents in the Central African Republic and convicted in absentia. Charges were later dropped; no explanation was given.
February 2002: Belgium issued an arrest warrant for Bout on money laundering charges.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html
Jean Bernard Lasnaud



By Julia Reynolds, Center for Investigative Reporting
with William Kistner and Omar Lavieri in Buenos Aires

UPDATE: Just days after the publication of this Web-exclusive report on May 23, Jean Bernard Lasnaud was arrested in Switzerland in response to an Interpol request. Swiss authorities contacted the Argentina courts, where the current judge on the case quickly requested Lasnaud's extradition. If sent to Argentina, Lasnaud will face 22 years in prison on charges of arms smuggling and "abuse of authority."

As this FRONTLINE/World report pointed out, the U.S. had broken from standard practice and never took even basic steps toward detaining Lasnaud. If he finally faces the Buenos Aires courts, it is hoped Lasnaud's testimony will help shed light on how a wanted international arms smuggler was able to spend a decade living openly in the U.S.

Note: After Lasnaud's arrest, his Web site was taken off the Internet.

In the fall of 2001, international arms broker Jean-Bernard Lasnaud was at ease, sounding more like a seasoned entrepreneur than a fugitive from justice.

"Business has been terrible since September 11," he laughed, during a telephone interview with FRONTLINE/World. "I'm going to give it up and buy a hot dog stand in New York City."

Personable and easy-going, he was in the business of selling tanks, rocket launchers and SCUD missiles from a luxury condo in a gated South Florida community.


JEAN BERNARD LASNAUD FACT SHEET


JEAN BERNARD LASNAUD
FACT SHEET
BORN:
March 12, 1942, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

ALIASES:
Bernard Lasnosky, Jean-Fran�ois Bernard, Fran�ois Laroche.

BIGGEST KNOWN ARMS DEAL:
Illicit sales of Argentinean weapons in the 1990s estimated to have totaled $100 million, including government bribes and payoffs.

SUSPECTED CLIENT COUNTRIES:
Croatia, Ecuador, China, United States, and Somalia.

CLAIM TO FAME:
Accused of brokering sales of 6,500 tons of Argentinean weapons to Croatia and Ecuador in the mid-90s, in violation of U.N. and international embargoes. Faxes signed by Lasnaud document his involvement in and intimate knowledge of the deals. Lasnaud's Argentine partner, Capt. Horacio Estrada, was found shot dead in his Buenos Aires apartment soon after speaking to an investigating judge in the case. Some Florida law enforcement officials suspect that Lasnaud is a protected asset of the CIA or some other U.S. agency.

PURSUED BY:
Argentina.
Interpol has an active warrant for Lasnaud's arrest and extradition to Argentina. The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to pick him up, citing "insufficient evidence" that Lasnaud knew his shipments contained arms.

CONNECTION TO UNITED STATES:
Until recently, lived in Fort Lauderdale. His son Alexandre, a south Florida attorney, recently served a six-month sentence in federal prison on obstruction of justice charges.

MOST RECENTLY:
In spring 2002, Lasnaud suddenly left his Florida residence and said he was "traveling outside the U.S." An Interpol source says his ability to travel freely is "highly unusual."
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/lasnaud.html

Leonid Minin


By Matthew Brunwasser


The scene in Leonid Minin's hotel room on the night of August 4, 2000 could have been taken from a Quentin Tarrantino film: Minin, a pale Ukrainian, abundantly fleshy and naked, freebasing cocaine, flanked by a quartet of Russian, Albanian, Italian and Kenyan prostitutes. A pornographic film flickers in the background. Minin, the majority owner of the Europa Hotel in Cinisello Balsamo, a small town outside Milan, Italy, has transformed his two-room suite into a bedroom/office and den of debauchery.

Then, without warning, the police arrive at Room 341, putting an end to the party and derailing the career of a prominent international gun smuggler and high-level leader of the so-called "Odessa Mafia."

Although local police supposedly raided Minin's hotel on a tip from an unpaid prostitute, FRONTLINE/World has acquired a report that shows the Milan customs police had had Minin under surveillance since 1992 while investigating an international criminal organization involved in laundering international drug money through the foreign bank accounts of Italian businessmen. The report also says that in 1997 Italian intelligence services conducted a "complex investigation on a criminal group of Ukrainian origins associated with the so-called 'Russian Mafia' and involved in international arms and drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and other offenses. This group is headed by the Ukrainian businessman Leonid Minin."

Incriminating Evidence

That hot August evening in Cinisello Balsamo, police found $500,000 worth of uncut diamonds. Later analysis found most came from Russia -- no African origins could be confirmed despite the diamond scales later found in Minin's Liberian office. They found a duffel bag filled with more than $35,000 in American, Italian, Hungarian and Mauritian currency. From a briefcase and piles scattered around the rooms, police collected 1,500 documents -- in Russian, Ukrainian, French, German, Dutch, English and Italian -- relating to Minin's wide variety of business operations. Specific findings included documents on his dealings in oil, timber and consumer goods; an inquiry by Minin into providing Nigeria's mobile phone network; a follow-up by a colleague on Minin's proposal to sell a Ukrainian aircraft carrier to Turkey; an offer from Minin's Beijing representative asking him to ascertain whether Liberian President Charles Taylor would be interested in establishing diplomatic relations with mainland China; correspondence between Minin and President Charles Taylor's son "Chuckie"; and a record of a $10,263.02 payment to Marc Rich, best known for his 11th-hour pardon from President Clinton on charges of fraud and extortion. Rich's oil company, Glencore, once shared a London phone number with one of Minin's companies Galaxy Management.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/minin.html

LEONID MININ FACT SHEET


LEONID MININ
FACT SHEET
BORN:
December 14, 1947, Odessa, U.S.S.R. (Ukraine).

PASSPORTS ISSUED:
U.S.S.R.
Russia (2/2/95)
Germany (1/14/90; Igor Limar, 2/8/90)
Bolivia (2/9/89)
Israel (3/6/75; 11/6/94)

ALIASES:
Leon Minin, Wulf Breslav (DOB: 7/10/44), Leonid Bluvshtein, Leonid Bluvstein, Igor Osols, Vladimir Abramovich Kerler, Igor Limar.

KNOWN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES:
Oil, electricity, timber, small arms, Russian icons, diamonds and gems (Russian and possibly African), consumer goods, prefabricated homes. Investigated in several European countries for money laundering and cocaine trafficking.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Ukrainian (native), English, German, French, Italian.

PASTIMES:
Cocaine, $500-a-night prostitutes.

MOST RECENTLY:
Presently in Vigevano prison outside Milan, Italy. Faces possible 12 years. Still no decision on trial date.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/minin.html



A Lendu child soldier waits in a camp for news of his next deployment. Battles are raging 13 miles to the north of his position.


Sarkis Soghanalian


In an interview with FRONTLINE/World co-producer William Kistner in March 2001, Sarkis Soghanalian, one of the world's most accomplished arms salesmen, gave his unapologetic and seasoned views on the international arms trade and U.S. policy. A veteran of many Cold War arms deals, Soghanalian has seen wars, rebel movements and ideological conflicts become U.S. priorities and then fade into history. He speaks frankly about his role in helping the United States pursue its interests. He is confident that every deal has been undertaken with the approval of the U.S. government.

STARTING OUT IN THE LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

What brought you into this business?

I'm from Lebanon, and my family came to Lebanon from what is now called Turkey in 1939 or 1940, but at the time it was Syria. And the education was not at a very high level. But we had to find work. I went to work with the French army. I skipped school in 1944 and worked with a tank division. So I grew up with it, adapted to it from childhood and kept going.

It's been in your blood since you were young.

Being an Armenian, you are raised fighting to survive. Since we survived the Turkish massacres, a genocide like that of the Jews and others, we were the first generation with such a background. So you can say it was in my blood and in my dreams. As a young man you like nothing more than weapons. Women were secondary, as at that age we didn't know anything about that.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/soghanalian.html

SARKIS SOGHANALIAN FACT SHEET


SARKIS SOGHANALIAN
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1929 or 1930 in Syria, in a region that is now part of Turkey; raised in Lebanon.

PROFILE:
An ethnic Armenian, Lebanese citizen, has lived for more than 20 years in the United States as a permanent resident; last reported in Los Angeles. Has or has had offices in Paris, Athens, Amman (Jordan) and Miami. Weighs about 300 pounds. Walks with a limp and suffers from heart disease.

CLIENTS:
Has armed Saddam Hussein of Iraq (about $1.6 billion), Gen. Anastasio Somoza and the Contras in Nicaragua, Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentine junta leader), Mobutu Sese Seko (former dictator of Zaire, now Congo), Christian Fallange Militias in Lebanon, and many others. As owner of the air transport company Pan Aviation, he leased a plane to Ferdinand Marcos for his planned return to the Philippines during the unsuccessful 1987 military coup; sold an American C-130 cargo plane to Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi; and rented planes to the CIA, allegedly for Contra operations involving drug trafficking. In the 1980s, he sold the Iraqi army $280 million worth of uniforms, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, former Attorney General John Mitchell and Nixon's former chief of staff, Jack Brennan. When the U.S. manufacturer was found to be too expensive, Mitchell had former President Nixon write a letter, successfully urging Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to manufacture the uniforms.

HAS COLLABORATED WITH:
The CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Helped break a counterfeit $100-bill printing operation in Lebanon and tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate the release of U.S. hostage Terry Anderson in Lebanon.

MOST RECENTLY:
In 1999, air-dropped 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles to Colombia's FARC (Fuerzos Armandas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerillas -- leftist insurgents aligned with cocaine traffickers. (The United States recently sent $1 billion in aid to help the Colombian government defeat them.) Soghanalian says the deal was meant for Peru. It later emerged that the CIA had approved the deal and that it was organized by the disgraced former Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who was on the CIA payroll for years and is now in jail on arms and drug-trafficking charges.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
1977: Bilked $1.1 million from British competitor Boca Investments by reneging on a transfer of machine guns to Mauritania.: Was convicted in 1982 of wire fraud in connection with the case; sentenced to five years' probation and forced to pay restitution.
1986: Arrested for possession of five unregistered machine guns and two unregistered rocket launchers in 1984 at Miami International Airport. Also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A federal judge dismissed all charges in 1988.
1991: Convicted on six counts of conspiring to export arms to Iraq without the required federal licenses, a violation of the U.S. Arms Control Export Act. The case, which included two former officials of Hughes Helicopter Corp., involved the sale of 103 combat helicopters and two rocket launchers in 1983 during the Iran-Iraq War. In 1992 he was sentenced to six years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The U.S. attorney had asked for maximum of 24 years and a $240,000 fine.
1993: A federal judge reduced the conviction for sales to Iraq from six and a half years to two years; prosecutor would not explain. Soghanalian's attorney later said it concerned intelligence Soghanalian gave to U.S. law-enforcement officials to break up a $100-bill counterfeiting operation in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon.
2001: Sentenced to time served (10 months) of a possible five-year sentence for wire fraud involving stolen cashier's checks. Released on recommendation from U.S. attorney's office in exchange for "substantial assistance to law enforcement" in an unspecified investigation.

MORE
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/soghanalian.html
Monzer Al Kassar



By Matthew Brunwasser

This case study details the expert machinations of Monzer Al Kassar in breaking the U.N. arms embargo on Yugoslavia. Distancing himself from his activities through intermediaries, he appears fully confident of avoiding any legal liability.
The case illustrates how Al Kassar and his associates tried to obscure the money trail of an illegal arms sale through various bank transfers, and it clearly establishes Al Kassar's role as the broker arranging the sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia during the wartime arms embargo on Yugoslavia. The information presented here is drawn from the report of a Swiss judicial investigation into Al Kassar's financial activities.


ANATOMY OF AN ILLEGAL ARMS DEAL

On June 5, 1990, Monzer Al Kassar and his wife opened an account, number 1964, at the Audi Bank in Switzerland. Al Kassar and his wife used their real names and both signed the documents, highly unusual for a bank account that would later be used in an illegal arms deal. The initial purpose of the account is unknown. The bank records from this account and others would later become evidence used by a Swiss prosecutor to freeze Al Kassar's proceeds from the illegal sale of Polish arms to Croatia and Bosnia.

Subsequent events provided the necessary ingredients for an embargo-breaking arms deal: a war, an attempt by the international community to stop it, and a broker able to work around it. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent from Yugoslavia in June 1991. A bloody civil war ensued. The United Nations Security Council voted on September 25, 1991, to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia, whose constituent republics were not yet recognized by the international community as independent countries. Bosnia declared its independence in March 1992, which was followed by an even more bloody and complicated civil war.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html


MONZAR AL KASSAR

BORN:
Nabek, Syria, 1945.

LANGUAGES:
Arabic, English, Spanish.

KNOWN PASSPORTS:
Syrian, Argentine, Brazilian, Algerian and British; Spanish permanent residency.

INVOLVED IN KNOWN ARMS SALES WITH:
Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Croatia, Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United States and Yemen.

ADDITIONAL KNOWN OR SUSPECTED ACTIVITIES:
Large-scale trafficking in cocaine, hashish and stolen cars. Widely investigated for arming various Palestinian terrorist groups and involvement in terrorist attacks in the 1980s. Offered French anti-ship cruise missile technology to Iran in 1997. Was offered the opportunity to broker the sale of $1.11 billion worth of submarines by the Argentine Defense Ministry. Falsely accused of many things (such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland) by conspiracy theorists in books and on the Internet.

CONNECTIONS:
Has had dealings or involvement with Oliver North and Gen. Richard Secord (Iran-Contra); the International Bank for Credit and Commerce (BCCI); former Argentine President Carlos Menem; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and its leader, Ahmad Jibril; Abu Abbas, leader of another PLO extremist splinter group, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), who orchestrated the Achille Lauro hijacking; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Command (PFLP-SC) headed by Georges Habash; the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) headed by Naif Hawatmeh; and Abu Nidal, leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a.k.a. Black September or Arab Revolutionary Brigades.

MOST RECENTLY:
Travels freely and lives comfortably in his hilltop mansion in Marbella, Spain, on the Costa del Sol. Known to have huge real estate and construction holdings; has gold mines and other interests in Argentina. Says he has not sold weapons for 12 years.

ALLEGED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY:
First arrested in Yabroud, Syria, for stealing cars.
1972: Arrested in Copenhagen for trafficking in hashish.
1974: Sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling hashish in the United Kingdom.
1977: According to a Swiss judicial investigation, his criminal career began to develop quickly at this point, as he established links with mafia groups, the PFLP-GC (extreme anti-Israel PLO wing) and the PLO, which helped him traffic arms, drugs and stolen cars, arm various terrorist movements, and get rich.
1984: Expelled from United Kingdom for drug and arms trafficking.
1985: In France, sentenced to eight years in absentia for operating a "criminal terrorist organization."
mid-80s: In Germany, fined $150,000 for possessing illegal passports.
1992: Swiss bank accounts frozen at Spain's request. Investigations begun for money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, false documents and false foreign certificates. Arrested in Spain on charges of piracy and providing weapons for the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by PLF terrorists, in which American Leon Klinghoffer was murdered.
1993: Released after serving nine months, on $15.5 million bail.
1995: Acquitted of all charges in Achille Lauro case.
2000: Indicted in Argentina for obtaining documents under false pretenses in the course of his 1992 acquisition of an Argentine passport with the help of high-level Menem administration officials.

more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html

Thanks struggle4progress for all the kicks, you're one of the hardest working people here.
:hi: