Continuing from the post below. On August 29, 12 days after my story Jihadists find convenient base in Bosnia broke, and 6 days after it was reported on throughout the Balkans (and elsewhere), and days after officials denied the report, The Associated Press published "Concerns of al-Qaida Balkan Link Renewed" by Jovana Gec. The article takes off from the arrest of a terrorist fugitive in Serbia then addresses many of the same themes. The AP article also quotes one of my sources, Darko Trifunović, who I recently met with in Washington with and who to date, had not been quoted by mainstream media.
The most interesting article to follow in the wake of our piece though was one which came out in the main Muslim weekly in Bosnia, Slobodna Bosna (Free Bosnia) [a cover shot pictured above.]
On 30 August (AdnKronosInternational) reported the weekly confirmed the existence of terrorism camps in an article titled "The Commander of Eufor in Bosnia, David Leaky, is Playing Dumb."
The article described in detail how and where the terrorist camps operate in Bosnia. According to the AKI translation "the paper said that there was no point in presenting the facts to the “uninformed general” and added:
And from the "Great Ramadan Offensive" report I recently wrote on - Bodansky references an intensification and expansion of support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina in August 2005, including counterfeiting of identity documents for terrorists arriving from the Middle East and Caucasus.“Is he (Leaky) really uninformed, which is hard to believe, or is he conscientiously deceiving the local public, like most Western politicians who serve in Bosnia and advocate the thesis that the best thing for world security is that all terrorists be concentrated in one place, in Bosnia, where they can be kept under control”, the paper asked.
The paper quoted former UN representative in Bosnia, Jacques Klein, as having confirmed to the Security Council that Islamic terrorists were active in Bosnia, but added that it was good they were concentrated in one place, because “the rest of the world would be safe”.
...Slobodna Bosna is the first Muslim paper to tackle the subject. The paper said that terrorist training camps had been situated near the Jablanica and Boracko Lakes in Herzegovina, but were later moved to other locations.
“At the beginning of August this year the Active Islamic Youth organized a big camp between Bihac and Bosanska Krupa, in the location of Grmusa”, the paper said. According to Slobodna Bosna, the training was conducted under military tents on the property of Fuad Vukovic, whose father Mustafa was one of the founders of the ruling Muslim Party for Democratic Action.
The paper pointed out that it was impossible for the international soldiers not to have noticed the big tents, the presence of large groups of people and automobile plates from various European countries where they came from. Slobodna Bosna said that apart from Active Islamic Youth, the Wahabi Islamic movement has been gathering strength in Bosnia under the instructions of mujahedin from Arabic countries, who have remained in Bosnia following 1992-1995 civil war.The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported last week that a Wahabi cell was also operating in eastern Bosnian village of Gornja Maoca and was plotting terrorist attacks in Italy. The Wahabi school of thought is thestrictest of Sunni Islam and is advocated by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "
"[Terrorist] camps which had been located near the Jablanica and Boracko Lakes were recently forwarned, and their people and equipment safely moved to other locations, soon after Sarajevo was queried about them. In early August 2005, the Active Islamic Youth organized a big camp in Grmusa, between Bihac and Bosanska Krupa, for young Western European Islamist-jihadists. Several big tents were erected to house large groups of young people. The parking lots were filled will cars with plates from various European countries. West European intelligence services have since learned that on their return, many of these European cars carried weapons, instructions, funds and would-be terrorists back home."
Note: I heard via Copley that Bodansky said my article was getting a lot of play in Eastern Europe. Looks that way. Also elsewhere. Did a check and it seems to have been picked up in its entirety in Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Germany, Rome, Paris, Saigon, Italy, as well as Riyadh -also by the Xinhua News Agency, Qatar Daily, Mecca Star, Madrid News, Kabul Daily, Vladivostok TV, Barents Life/Murmansk and the Maine Morning Sentinel. (Hows that for an odd combo?)
