In their support of an independent Kosovo, American and Western intelligence structures play a dirty game. 17 years after the terrorist attack on the Niš Ekspres on Feb. 16, 2001, the terrorists are still free men, and the US forces actively destroyed crucial criminal evidence against alleged terrorist Florim Ejupi and his team. The terrorists killed 12 Serbs, including Danilo, only two years old. Here is the list. Let us keep fighting for justice:
- Nenad Stojanović (Born 7. July 1943) Nis,
- Milinko Kragović (Born 5. January 1943),
- Lazar Milikić (Born 19. June, 1936) Lipljan,
- Dragan Vukotić (Born 2. November, 1954) Kosovo Polje
- Snežana Čokić Vukotic, (Born 16. February, 1975), Lipljan
- Danilo Čokić (Born 1999-02), two year old child, the son of Dragan Vukotić and Snežana Čokic Vukotić
- Slobodana Stojanović, could be Slobodan, 1970-08-12, from Kraljevo
- Mirjana Dragović (Born 12. January, 1981) Laplje Selo
- Sunčica Pejčić (Born 14. January, 1972) Pristina
- Tihomir Stojković (Born 18. January, 1969) Kosovska Kamenica
- Živana Tokić (Born 5. May, 1948) Skulanevo Pristina, died 10 days Later Due To The Wounds
- Tokić – Zivana’s husband, died two months later due to the injuries in the bomb attack.
There is credible circumstantial evidence which points to the responsibility for the crime that Florim Ejupi was the leader of the terrorists who were waiting by the road. There is also credible circumstantial evidence to suggest that Ejupi was an asset of the CIA to destabilize Serbia, also after the fall of Slobodan Milošević.
Ejupi was later sentenced to 40 years in prison, but he was soon released because of “lack of evidence.” But then he was also working for the CIA, and he managed to “escape” from US Army base Bondsteel…. This was the day I started wondering if we did the right thing when we went to war against Yugoslavia. To this day, I still remember the smell, body parts and blood, and you can see the pictures here. The three first three pictures are mine, and the rest are the pictures from the investigation. But a warning: these pictures are very graphic. Do NOT open them if you are not up for it. Let us never forget the victims and never give up the fight for justice.
After I had been in detention in Kosovo in 2012, two Albanian police officers deported me at the provincial border post at Merdare. Then we drove through the Podujevo area where Ejupi lives now. I asked them what they thought about Ejupi, and they considered him a national hero for Kosovo.
The attack on the Niš Ekspres is also important to understand the wider context in which NATO, KFOR, and the international community operated. Especially American intelligence services actively used Albanian armed groups to destabilize the democratically elected government in Belgrade.
In my article US destabilizing Serbia with Albanian guerrillas, I give a lot of details about this, and it is well worth repeating some of what I wrote then.
After KFOR and the so-called International Community took control of Kosovo from June 12, 1999, we allowed and supported Albanian guerrillas, call them terrorists if you like, to destabilize Serbia. In this article, I will take you on a journey through my personal experiences and encounters with these rebels as a journalist.
It is also likely that the rebel movement UÇPMB, the so-called Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa, and Bujanovac, received US-style infantry training to fight the Serbs after June 12, 1999, when hostilities between NATO and Yugoslavia should have seized according to the Military Technical Agreement.
Together with my old colleague John Phillips, the former Balkan correspondent for The Times of London, we had many interesting experiences together covering the conflict in South Serbia and Macedonia in 2001. In his book Macedonia warlords and rebels in the Balkans, he wrote the following on page 2:
“American intelligence was active in Serbia and Kosovo but its operatives were evidently struggling to come to terms with the new era ushered in by the demise of Milošević’s brutal regime. An ethnic Albanian arrested by British troops for a bomb attack on a busload of Serb civilians in northern Kosovo, Florim Ejupi, was identified credibly as a CIA-trained agent months later after he vanished from American custody, for example.”
In his book, Phillips also mentions the British officer Bob Churcher of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst who observed in his paper Kosovo Lindore Preshevo 1991-2002 & The FYROM Conflict that the UÇPMB:
“also seem to have received training assistance from someone or some organisation training in an American military style. This became apparent both from the style of marching, complete with US-type marching songs, and the infantry tactics used. (The effectiveness of this was seen in November 2000 when a series of well-coordinated infantry attacks demonstrated the UÇPMB’s ability to coordinate the use of 82mm mortars and to effectively “re-organise on the objective” -something that the Bosnian army never learnt in three years.)”
Whether the US support for the UÇPMB was direct or indirect through a company like the MPRI or similar, I do not know. However, I have very interesting revelations from the lead investigator of the terrorist attack. Joe McAlister, a police officer from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was very frustrated that the military and intelligence services sabotaged their investigation. This is what he wrote in an email to me:
—– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: US support of insurgency against Serbia?
Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 07:08:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joe McAllister <****@yahoo.com>
To: Kristian Kahrs <kristian.kahrs@gmail.com>
Hi Kristian
As to the comments on the US link UCPMB I really can’t comment on that to be honest. I have no direct evidence linking them to this organization and although we heard various rumours I think it would be inappropriate to make the leap given my position
I can comment on Florim’s “escape” as I was deeply involved in the interrogation process and investigation of that file.
I’m not sure how much you know about the arrest and investigation of the file but there is a lot that is likely not known but should be.
- The UN Intel team at Pristina had a confidential source inside the cell that was operating in Kosovo. They knew pretty much the plans of what the cell wanted to do and even how they wanted to do it but not always the “when” they wanted to do it. On the NIS bus bombing it was known in advance they were going to target a bus, use a bomb in a culvert and target Serbs. In fact, this is why the convoy was so heavily protected. There was a Brit team out ahead of the convoy searching the route for IEDs and before they were finished they were notified the convoy was rolling. They tried to stop the convoy telling them they had not finished the search area but the convoy rolled on and we all know what happened.
- The crime scene was managed by the military and because of political pressure and people who just don’t know crime scenes, it was poorly handled. In fact, they paved over the bomb blast within 48 hours which is insane as any good cop knows. I held the blast scene in Pristina for 3 days as that was my case, that caught the German for doing that one. So we likely lost a lot of good evidence.
- The intel team via KFOR went out and arrested all the suspects on the case and held them and interrogated them “military style” for over 12 hours before they turned them over to us, the Homicide squad who had primacy of the investigation. As we were planning our interview strategy all the suspects were suddenly moved to camp Bondsteel for security reasons that were never really explained but someone stated they thought if they were in Pristina it could bring on an attack. maybe but fairly lame in our opinion.
- On our first visit to Bondsteel, we were denied access to the prison and prisoners for no reason. We were just told we were not allowed in. period.
Of course then Florim “escaped”. The explanation we were given is his wife brought him a cake or pie and it must have held wire cutters inside it. Florim, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, managed to find the only “blind spot” on the fence line that the guards could not see. He managed to get out of a camp that is fairly large, the prison being in the middle almost, without being detected. And to top it all off, when we got in we were told the entire guard staff was “transferred” back home for incompetence.
You can imagine how ballistic we all went. Florim was the only one we had direct evidence on. His DNA was on a cigarette butt found at the Point of Origin. It was in a tree stump where the initiation was.
There were a lot of theories about why it happened and of course it was linked to CIA and that he was an informant. I never/never got confirmation from anyone on that but the Brits on the Intel team, as well as the Germans, were all very suspicious of the American side after that.
I also found the 4th suspect on the NIS bus bombing and had brought him in for an interview. However, after that article, I was “transferred” off the homicide squad and the case. Interestingly the case had gone quiet after the escape of Florim and the French Officer who was leading it left the mission. NO ONE was working on it, no one cared except me. I knew it was linked to my case so when I took it over and started to reinvestigate it I got lots of intel from the Intel team but someone up high I think felt I was getting too close. I had a separate informant myself who was starting to provide information when I was removed from the case and it was given to…. Americans to follow up.
End of the day, the military completely interfered and messed up this case with complicity from someone.
If you need more info let me know.
Joe