French UCLAT Chief Notes Balkan Link to London Bombings

French UCLAT Chief Notes Balkan Link to London Bombings
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - July 18, 2005 Monday

Analysis. By Valentine Spyroglou, GIS. Christope Chaboud, the new commandant of the anti-terrorist unit of France (UCLAT: l'unite de coordination de la lutte anti-terroriste ], a unit of the French criminal police, Police Judiciaire (PJ) which specializes in the fight against terrorism, said on July 13, 2005, that the explosives used in the London terrorist bombings on July 7, 2005, were of military derivation and had come to the UK from Kosovo.

GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs had already known that the bombs used were based on former Yugoslav National Army (JNA) stocks of Semtex plastic explosive, and that subsequent to the London bombings, UK security officials flew to Belgrade to discuss the matter with Serbia-Montenegro security officials. GIS sources had said that the Semtex had originated from the Bosnian jihadist support network, although it is important to stress that the Bosnia-Kosovo-Albania-Raska (Southern Serbia) jihadist net functions as a single operational zone.

See:

Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, July 8, 2005: London Bombings: Initial Observations .

Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, July 11, 2005: Additional Evidence of Support for Terrorists, Violations of Arms Trafficking Laws by New Bosnian Ambassador to US .

Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, July 13, 2005: Despite Firm Linkages to 9/11, Madrid, and London Attacks, Bosnian Jihadist Networks Remain "Out of Bounds" .

Sources within the Greek security agencies -- which have extremely good access in the Balkans and are very activated in the region -- after the London bombings told GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs that "for years" they had given information to their allies for the activity and the danger derived by the Islamists in Bosnia and Kosovo and Albania; although there is no reciprocation on their part (ie: the allies do not respond by providing intelligence on the jihadists to the Greek security agencies). Furthermore, the Greek security sources stated that "a month ago and after information derived from the Greek agencies and the Greek military force in KFOR, CIA and MI-6 disarticulated three cells of al-Qaida in their common operation held in Kosovo. They had also found contemporary armament and military plastic explosives. A comparison was held between the oddments of the explosives in London, and the explosives found in Kosovo one month [earlier]." For the results, the agency simply told GIS that they only needed to be asked.

By way of background: on July 27, 2000, beginning at 05:30 hrs, a common operation was held in Greece by the Greek agencies and the US Army under the code name Fuente . The Greek patrol of the Special Forces, discovered, based on information which directed them to the site, a clandestine cache with many armaments and explosives on Kourkoulitsa mountain, in the Greek Peleponnese, near the village Nepodible (as transliterated). Among other things, there were sniper weapons, and manportable rockets of contemporary technology. Also, there were found electronic devices which could simultaneously detonate remote-controlled explosive devices in different locations from a distance of many kilometres.

The US Forces had kept the remote control devices and the explosives for further investigation.

The Greek officers continued independent research, and they concluded that these derived from a country in the Middle East, which had supplied them to Islamists via the Albanian network of UCK (KLA: Kosovo Liberation Army). The Greek Force has arrested three times fundamentalists in Kosovo, and has handed them over to the US.

The Greek agencies focus in the area of Sanzak (Raska) in southern Serbia and northern Montenegro, and they consider that there are located important cells of fundamentalists which had planned strikes against Europe. Since 1996, jihadist terrorists from Bosnia-Herzegovina have been located in Sanzak. The Greek agencies have information that many terrorist attacks against the Caucasus and Europe derive from there, and it operates as a directorate of al-Qaida .

At the same time, and while the memorial events were taking place for the victims of Srebrenica, former US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrook stated that the Orthodox Serbian Church was hiding the Bosnian Serb fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic. On July 8, 2005, the NATO forces in Bosnia arrested the son of former Pres. Karadzic, Aleksandar "Sasa" Karadzic, in order to put pressure on the former President for his arrest.

Another important issue emerging are the charges against Greek citizens for alleged involvement in the alleged massacres in Srebrenica. This issue remains secret within the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Greek Government at this point, although the (ICTY) sent a confidential report in the Greek Government at the beginning of July 2005 on the possible role of Greek volunteers who fought in Srebrenica.

See:

Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, June 17, 2005: Srebrenica and the Politics of War Crimes .

Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, July 13, 2005: Researchers and Former UN Officials Challenge Portrayal of Events at Srebrenica.