John Peter Maher emails suggesting a google search under "Former Bosnian Leader Izetbegovic Backed Terrorists to Open Accounts with Austria’s Erste Bank."
First return is this article, an exclusive interview with Catalin Harnagea, former director of the Romanian post-communist espionage service, or SIE, on Yugoslavia's early (and reportedly ignored) warnings of terrorism in the area.
Excerpts:
"...much information confirmed that a series of terrorist organizations, cells, groups were training in the former Yugoslavia."
"... Bosnian Muslim authorities issued a passport to Osama bin Laden himself. The passport was issued in the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, Austria, in 1993. " [This information has been previously reported-sg]
"CH: There were well known links between the former Bosnian leader Aljia Izetbegovic, honorary president of the Democratic Action Party (Stranka Demokratske Akcije), or Sda, since its foundation in 1990, and terrorists or people suspected of terrorism. At the beginning of the war, Izetbegovic re-connected with his old friend and a member of ruling clique (National Islamic Front) in Sudan, Dr. Elfatih Hassanein-omal-Fatih. The Bosnian Muslims, through Fatih’s Third World Relief Agency (TWRA), began smuggling arms for their cause in 1992. American sources suspect that Sheik Omah Abdel Rahman, the radical imam who was convicted of organizing the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993 had several links to TWRA. Several Bosnian Muslims have direct ties with TWRA, including Irfan Ljevakovic, a founder of the Sda, the Bosnian Muslim political wing and the man responsible for bringing mujahadeens to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Alija Izetbegovic, SDA and Bosnian Muslim president, guaranteed Fatih’s credentials to the Die Erste Osterreich Bank (Austria), enabling him to open an account there. Erste Bank recently bought the majority stake in Romania’s largest lender, Banca Comericiala Romana, or BCR. The Bosnian Muslims used the bank account to solicit and transit funds for arms purchases. "
Note: For those who haven't followed Balkans issues, it is not a clear Republican vs. Democrat issue. Many prominent Republicans supported and continue to support the Clinton Balkans policies, even as traditional conservatives strongly opposed those same policies and interventions. As one veteran conservative noted to me lately, the powerful Republicans in question don't want this issue reported on critically.
