"Atlantik Brigade" by Ambassador William Walker

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Diese Albanischen Gangster hatten Ausweise des US Statedepartments und Drogen- Waffenhandel wurde im Balkan, genauso wie Embargo Bruch und der Frauen Handel direkt vom US Statedeparment und dubiosen dem CIA Verbrecher Georg Tenet angeschlossene Verbrecher organisiert. (Georg Tenet der erbärmliche CIA Chef, hat heute Angst das er angeklagt wird in den USA und war in der Albanischen Hafenstadt Himari geboren und griechischer Abstammung)!


> Legendäres Video, wo die halbe Mannschaft der Atlantik Brigade zu sehen ist und auch Daut Haradinaj, dem verurteilten Kriegs Verbrecher und jüngerer Bruder von dem Verbrecher Ramuz Haradinaj. Ramuz Haradinaj persönlich hat jungen 17 jährigen Kosovaren eine Pistole an den Kopf gehalten, mit der Ermordung der Familie gedroht und so Jugendliche in eine aktive Rolle in dieser Verbrecher Organisation gepresst.

 

Parathënia e Walkerit ANGLISHT

ME, KLA AND THE ATLANTIC BRIGADE

By Ambassador William Walker

     To be honest, I had not heard of the Atlantic Brigade before the war, or while the NATO bombing campaign was underway. Although I met several KLA/UÇK field commanders during my tenure (October 1998-June 1999) as the Head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe”s (OSCE) Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) [1], to arrange prisoner exchanges and other operational tasks, I was unaware that the Kosovo Liberation Army had American fighters within its ranks, that a contingent of volunteer combatants had been recruited from among the Albanian-American community.

     The remarkable but undeniable truth is that I was not the only senior international working the Kosovo crisis in such ignorance. Neither the United States government, nor the international community had an accurate picture as to what the KLA/UÇK was about- its membership, what its organizational and command structure consisted of, the military order of battle, leadership, etc. In my capacity as head of an international mission, albeit a seconded American Foreign Service Officer, I had only limited access to what American and NATO intelligence agencies knew[2], or thought they knew, about the KLA/UÇK. Perhaps I was not privy to all that was known. But I was often struck by the simplistic questions that were put to me in Washington, the capitals of Europe, and NATO headquarters in Brussels, by participants such as Madeleine Albright, Javier Solana[3], General Wesley Clark and others who assuredly were informed of all that was known – “What is the KLA? Who speaks for them?” Or as the American Secretary of State Albright put it to me in her direct fashion “Tell me Bill, is the KLA a bunch of criminals, jihadists, or true patriots?” I could only respond that of the three or four I had dealt with, and of the dozens observed at KLA roadblocks, none gave the impression of being other than young men (and an occasional woman) fighting for a cause they deeply believed in.

     On January 16, 1999, I became involved in the single most dramatic and consequential event in my Kosovo experience- the slaying of over forty five men and boys in the Albanian village of Racak. Although the Milosheviq regime attempted, as it had done many times before and after in other villages, to portray the Racak killings as the result of a pitched battle with the KLA, the evidence I saw on the ground- old men and youngsters, all in farm worker clothes, many killed execution style, witnesses describing the Serb security forces as having entered the village after hours of artillery bombardment and then rounding up every male they could find and escorting the unarmed prisoners up the frozen path to where their mutilated bodies were found a few hours later- was totally inconsistent with Belgrade”s description of a firefight. The sights before us led me, and every other verifier and journalist that walked the ravine of death that day, to grasp what had happened. I returned to Pristina and called a press conference. I told the world that the killings in Racak were, in my opinion, a massacre of unarmed civilians, and a “crime against humanity”. I blamed the Serbian security forces, and demanded that those responsible be held accountable. I called for an immediate investigation by independent, professional crime scene experts. Belgrade”s reaction was to declare me persona non grata, and denounce the incident as an American CIA conspiracy to “destroy Serbia”.

     The incident at Racak led to worldwide recognition that something had to be done to avoid further outrage in Kosovo. A meeting of Contact Group [4] foreign ministers was quickly convened in London, where Madeleine Albright and her Russian counterpart announced that the parties to the Kosovo conflict would be brought together in Rambuillet, France, to settle their differences once and for all. The Rambuillet meeting ended in failure when Milosheviq refused to sign the negotiated accord. The NATO bombing began a few days later.

     A few months after I returned to the United States at the end of the war[5], and to the Department of State from which I had been seconded in October 1998, I was invited to attend what I was told would be a celebration of Kosovo”s liberation by the New York Albanian-American community.

     Arriving at the reception facility, I was surprised to step out of my vehicle into a column- lining either side of the entryway- comprised of a dozen or so men in camouflage fatigues bearing UÇK badges, the uniform of the KLA. Beyond surprise, I was concerned that news of this military display would reach my superiors in Washington, few of whom were comfortable with Americans having served in what was essentially a “foreign army”- the KLA/UÇK. Nor would many at State appreciate Ambassador Walker so blatantly demonstrating his adherence to the Kosovo”s Albanian cause- especially it’s “Abraham Lincoln Brigade”- which Belgrade had offered as proof that Walker- and by association the United States government- had been out to “destroy Serbia” from the beginning.

     Escorted to my seat at the head table I quickly discovered that the evening”s celebration was to pay tribute to the men of the Atlantic Brigade, their commitment and sacrifice. Thus was I made aware that a handful of young (and a few not so young) sons of the Albanian diaspora had interrupted their careers, their marriages, the good life lived in the United States, to join their brothers, sisters, cousins and friends in the- at the time- seemingly hopeless armed struggle against a vastly larger, massively armed, professionally officered Yugoslav army. And it was here that I first met Uk Lushi, an Atlantic Brigade veteran and the author of this book.

     The evening had the usual speeches, including mine, a fairly generic one since I made no reference to what I had just learned was the purpose of the gathering. Then each member of the Atlantic Brigade in attendance was presented with a service decoration. The culmination of the medal ceremony was easily the most dramatic, and emotional moment of the evening. The emcee announced that the decorations of three brothers would be presented posthumously to their father, since the three had been captured and killed by the Serbian security forces- after the hostilities had officially ended. Thus I learned the tragic story of the Bytyçi brothers, presented in its horrendous detail in this book. Shortly after hearing of their fate, I was invited by the National Albanian American Council (NAAC) to join a delegation travelling to Pristina to accompany the boys’ parents as they recovered their sons’ remains, and transported them to the United States for burial.

     The journey was unbearably sad. At the memorial services in Kosovo, and again at the graveside ceremony in the Yonkers, the young men’s father spoke with passion of his and his family”s pride that his sons had given their lives in the cause that Albanians everywhere identified with- the long struggle to liberate Kosova[6]. The boys’ mother, showing more pain than pride on her anguished face, didn’t speak. When it was my turn to say a few words, I could only relate that I, the father of three sons, could hardly imagine what it would be to lose one, far less three of my boys, in such a cruel and senseless manner.

     Since that initial encounter, I have gotten to know other veterans of the Atlantic Brigade. Uk Lushi among them. Perhaps because he has pursued a successful career and remains involved in every aspect of effort to tell the world what the KLA/UÇK was all about, I have come to know Uk Lushi as a good friend and reliable source. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, from the many corners of American society into which Albanians have settled, not all Atlantic Brigaders were from families with their ancestral roots in Kosovo. Though most were from Kosovo, others were simply representative of the broader Albanian diaspora, and joined the cause. Thank God most returned, some with wounds, one or two minus limbs, but all rightfully proud of their participation. This then is their story.

August 9, 2008 -  Washington D.C.

[1] The OSCE, with 84 member states including the Russian Federation and all of the former USSR’s republics now independent states, deployed the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) in October 1998, to “verify” that all parties to the Kosovo conflict were acting in accord with the provisions of the Holbroooke-Milosheviq agreement of October 16. The mission, which reached 1400 verifiers from over 30 member states, pulled out in March 1999, days before the NATO bombs began to fall.

[2] Since the OSCE’s membership includes the Russian Federation, as well as a number of its allies, NATO did not share its intelligence secrets with the KVM, although individual members of my Mission, those with clearances from NATO member states, were periodically briefed either in Brussels or by visiting NATO reps. Since Russia insisted, understandably, that every KVM unit had to be open to representatives of all OSCE member states, the Alliance, also understandably, was careful with what it officially passed to the KVM. This occasionally created inefficiencies and hard feelings.

[3] Javier Solana was Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at the time.

The Contact Group consisted of Great Britain, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, Italy and the United States.

[5] During the actual war, I, and a declining number of my 1400 KVM verifiers, served in Macedonia and Albania, mostly helping with the outpouring of Albanian refugees from Kosovo. We expected to return to Kosovo when the fighting stopped.

[6] “Kosovo” in Serbian, “Kosova” in Albanian. I quickly learned that the single letter difference is of incredible importance to the two sides. Except for this one reference, I have used the better known “Kosovo” spelling, since this is what most outsiders are familiar with.

( Marrë nga libri "Shqiptaro-Amerikanët e UÇK-së - Kronikë e Batalionit "Atlantiku" i autorit dhe luftëtarit të Batalionit Uk Lushi, publikuar në Prishtinë nga shtëpia botuese KOHA dhe në Tiranë nga shtëpia botuese ORA.)

in albanian

http://pashtriku.beepworld.de

Im Gedanken von Hitlers SS und Partner von Joschka Fischer: Die UCK "Atlantik Brigade"

siehe auch http://balkan-spezial.blogspot.com