The Balkans - a hub of worldwide terrorist network

policies today indicates a clear victory for the "Islamist Internationale". Bosnia, where high officials have made statements supporting Iran’s nuclear program, is nevertheless being urged to centralize the federation in favor of the Muslim population, and the recently self-declared independent Kosovo, represents both an area devoid of the rule of law and with a small but committed extremist minority. A weakened Serbia and a small Montenegro fairly recently severed from it both have increasing problems with Wahhabi extremists operating in their shared border region, the Sandzak. Considering the demonstrated usefulness of these territories for terrorist generation, logistical support and the kind of large-scale organized crime that makes terrorism possible, the pro-Muslim interventionist policy has turned out to be an extraordinarily short-sighted and self-destructive one for the West.



On the structural level, the international peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo were, from the outset, susceptible to chronic disorganization, collective ignorance and a lack of accountability. Under the general aegis of the United Nations, the civilian personnel involved were contracted via foreign ministries around the world which frequently subcontracted to private firms- thus assuring a confused chain of command and responsibility.



Further, both civilian and military personnel were frequently rotated, usually every six months or one year, guaranteeing that the supposed authorities were constantly starting from square one and a mindset of ignorance and naïvete while trying to understand and operate in complex Balkan societies. This briefness of tenure and the overriding concern for simple financial and careerist rewards on the part of the peacekeepers also dramatically reduced the incentives for engaging in any work which could prove dangerous or politically incorrect- thus dooming the war against terror from the outset. Numerous interviews with present and former international officials confirm that this fostered a ‘don’t rock the boat’ mentality, by which international staff chose more often than not to ignore a growing terrorist presence in their desire to preserve their own self-interest.



"Compared to the Middle East or Southwest Asia, the Balkans have been relatively forgotten as a front in the West' war on terror"At the same time, pervasive organized crime structures, especially the Kosovo Albanian mafia, were able to penetrate and control the international mission. As a result, a criminal-political class developed in both Bosnia and Kosovo which, while ostensibly working together with the international community on local political ...