Bosnian 'White
al-Qaeda' seen as grave threat to Europe
January 8, 2008
SERBIANNA
Bosnian Muslim politician says that the Islamic terrorist with European
features that are based in Bosnia are more dangerous for the security of
Europe then the 'White al-Qaeda' with bases in Kosovo, reports Croatian
daily Vecernji List.
"In Bosnia and Herzegovina today al-Qaeda is in a strategic planning
phase. This means that, among such potentials - and it is likely that there
are 100,000 such believers - you can find five people... to hang bombs
on their belts and bring in explosives," says Dzevad Galijasevic, chairman
of the New Democratic Party in Bosnia and an author of the recently published
book The Era of Terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mr. Galijasevic says that the international community does not attach
a high level of importance to the presence of 'White al-Qaeda' because
Bosnia is not the target of terrorist activities.
It is clear," concludes Galijasevic that the al-Qaeda cells in Bosnia
"are waiting for EU accession; thus, this white, European physiognomy and
anthropology - the so-called 'white al-Qaeda' - can in fact be the most
fatal for Europe, while Bosnia-Herzegovina is an insignificant target for
al-Qaeda."
In August of 2007, US diplomat Raffi Gregorian said in an interview
for a Sarajevo daily that al-Qaeda uses Bosnia as a transit point but labeled
the local Bosnian Muslims not as "sleeper" cells but as "helper" cells.
"There are sympathizers in the country who are ready to help al-Qaeda
with hiding agents, providing financial support or providing false documents,"
said Gregorian, the principal deputy to Miroslav Lajcak who is the top
international administrator of Bosnia.
The head of the Bosnian Muslim anti-terrorism Special Services unit,
SIPA, Aner Hadzimahumutovic, immediately reacted against Gregorian's statement
saying that the unit "has no information on anyone with ties to the terrorist
organization al-Qaeda living in the country."
The top international administrator of Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, recently
issued an order that forces Bosnian Serb police units to be merged with
these Bosnian Muslim ones to which Serbs object.
In his recent book Al-Qaeda In Bosnia Herzegovina: Myth Or Present
Danger, senior editor for the South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service
with the Prague-based Radio Free Europe, Vlado Azinovic, says that the
al-Qaeda has "enjoyed protection and support from the highest ranks of
the Bosniak political and intelligence establishment" but blames the existence
of the Serb Republic as the real threat to Europe.
"My book maintains that the presence of Wahhabism and of the remaining
mujahedin do not qualify Bosnia as a particular threat to international
security," Azinovic says and adds that "the establishment of the Serb Republic"
makes Bosnia a divided country whose "borders are porous and susceptible
to human and drug trafficking, while weapons and ammunition are still readily
available."
"Bosniak intellectual elite are at quite a distance from the battleground
where this battle is fought - in mosques, rural settlements, villages,
and among the insufficiently educated population," says Mr. Galijasevic
whose book includes names and activities of 1,250 of al-Qaeda members who
have domiciled in Bosnia, got married with locals and enjoy political protection.
"I identified their political protectors such as Haris Silajdzic, Hasan
Cengic, Alija Izetbegovic, and Bakir Izetbegovic, as well as their protectors
in the police such as Semsudin Mehmedovic, who is currently the deputy
chairman of the committee overseeing SIPA and police reform expert," says
Galijasevic.
Haris Silajdzic is currently the President of Bosnian Muslims.
In 2004, Abdurahman Khadr, the son of the killed Pakistani al-Qaeda
operative Ahmed Said Khadr, says that the CIA helped him settle in Bosnia
and asked him to spy on the the largest Mosques in Sarajevo, the King Fahd
mosque, ran by a local Bosnian Muslim Imam Nezim Halilovic Muderis known
for extremist preaching.
At the Sarajevo Mosque, Abdurahman became friendly with a Bosnian Muslim
recruiter for al-Qaeda operations in Iraq.
"I took his name and gave it to them [CIA] and they said 'well, this
is a very good contact.' They were very happy that I made this contact,"
said Abdurahman for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
Galijasevic says that Islamist activities such as these are pushing
the Bosnian Muslims into a whirlpool of problems of other Islamic countries
and are moving Bosnia closer to Palestine rather then their Christian neighbors,
Serbs and Croats.
"It is turning Muslims' true historical brothers, Serbs and Croats,
into eternal and irreconcilable enemies," says Galijasevic.
"Never before in Islam did we have decapitation and taking pictures
with severed heads, which symbolizes severance of all links with Christianity,"
explains Galijasevic. |