FW: America at war in Macedonia - Michel Chossudovsky
Tim Murphy
To: SOCIALIST...@YORKU.CA
Subject: America at war in Macedonia - Michel Chossudovsky
America at war in Macedonia
By Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
See map at http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html.
Washington's covert war in Macedonia purports to consolidate America's
sphere of influence in southeastern Europe. At stake is the strategic
Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania transport, communications and oil pipeline
"corridor" which links the Black Sea to the Adriatic coast. Macedonia
stands at the strategic crossroads of the oil pipeline corridor.
To protect these pipeline routes, Washington's goal is to install a
"patchwork of protectorates" along strategic corridors in the Balkans. The
promise of "Greater Albania" used by Washington to foment Albanian
nationalism is part of the military-intelligence ploy. Amply documented,
the latter consists in financing and equipping the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and its National Liberation Army (NLA) proxy to wage the terrorist
assaults in Macedonia.
The development of America's sphere of influence in Southeastern Europe
--in complicity with Britain-- supports the interests of the oil giants
including BP-Amoco-ARCO, Chevron and Texaco. Securing control and
"protecting" the pipeline routes is paramount to the success of these
multi-billion dollar ventures:
A successful international oil regime is a combination of economic,
political, and military arrangements to support oil production and
transportation to markets.1
The Anglo-American consortium which controls the AMBO Trans-Balkan pipeline
project linking the Bulgarian port of Burgas to Vlore on the Albanian
Adriatic coastline largely excludes the participation of Europe's competing
oil giant Total-Fina-Elf. 2 In other words, US strategic control over the
pipeline corridor is intent upon weakening the role of the European Union
and keeping competing European business interests at arms' length.
WHO IS BEHIND THE TRANS-BALKAN PIPELINE?
The US based AMBO pipeline consortium is directly linked to the seat of
political and military power in the United States and Vice President Dick
Cheney's firm Halliburton Energy.3
The feasibility study for AMBO's Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline, conducted by
the international engineering company of Brown & Root Ltd. [Halliburton's
British subsidiary] has determined that this pipelinewill become a part of
the region's critical East-West corridor infrastructure which includes
highway, railway, gas and fiber optic telecommunications lines.4
And upon completion of the feasibility study by Halliburton, a senior
executive of Halliburton was appointed CEO of AMBO. Halliburton was also
granted a contract to service US troops in the Balkans and build
"Bondsteel" in Kosovo, which now constitutes "the largest American foreign
military base constructed since Vietnam".5 Coincidentally, White and Case
LLT, the New York law firm that President William J. Clinton joined when he
left the White House also has a stake in the AMBO pipeline deal.
MILITARISATION OF THE PIPELINE CORRIDORS
The AMBO Trans-Balkans pipeline project would link up with the pipeline
corridors between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea basin, which lies at
the hub of the World's largest unexplored oil reserves (See map of
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html). The
militarisation of these various corridors is an integral part of
Washington's design.
The US policy of "protecting the pipeline routes" out of the Caspian Sea
basin (and across the Balkans) was spelled out by Clinton's Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson barely a few months prior to the 1999 bombing of
Yugoslavia:
"This is about America's energy security It's also about preventing
strategic inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move
these newly independent countries toward the west We would like to see
them reliant on western commercial and political interests rather than
going another way. We've made a substantial political investment in the
Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the
politics come out right."6
The Anglo-American oil giants, including BP-Amoco-Arco, Texaco and Chevron
--supported by US military might-- are competing with Europe's oil giant
Total-Fina-Elf (associated with Italy's ENI) which is a big player in
Kazakhstan's wealthy North East Caspian Kashagan oil fields. The stakes are
high: Kashagan is reported "so large as to even surpass the size of the
North Sea oil reserves."7 The competing EU based consortium, however, lacks
a significant stake and leverage in the main pipeline routes out of the
Caspian Sea basin and back (via the Black Sea and through the Balkans) to
Western Europe. The key pipeline corridor projects --including the AMBO
project and the Baku-Cehyan project through Turkey to the Mediterranean--
are largely in the hands of their Anglo-American rivals, which rely heavily
on US political and military presence in both the Caspian basin and the
Balkans.
Washington's design is to eventually distance all three AMBO countries,
namely Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania from German-EU influence through the
installation of full-fledged US protectorates. In other words, US
militarisation and geopolitical control over the projected pipeline linking
Burgas in Bulgaria to the Adriatic port of Vlore in Albania is intent upon
undermining EU influence as well as weakening competing
Franco-Belgian-Italian oil interests.
Negotiations concerning the AMBO pipeline have been supported by US
government officials through the Trade and Development Agency's (TDA)
South Balkan Development Initiative (SBDI) "designed to help Albania,
Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia further develop and integrate their
transportation infrastructure along the east-west corridor that connects
them."8
The TDA points to the need for the three countries to "use regional
synergies to leverage new public and private capital [from US companies]"
while underscoring the responsibility of the US government "for
implementing the initiative." With regard to the AMBO pipeline, it would
appear that the EU has largely been excluded from the planning and
negotiations. "Memoranda of understanding" (MOU) have already been signed
with the governments of Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia which strip the
countries' national sovereignty over both the pipeline and the transport
corridors by providing "exclusive rights" to the Anglo-American consortium:
" [The] MOU states that AMBO will be the only party allowed to build the
planned Burgas-Vlore oil pipeline. More specifically, it gives AMBO the
exclusive right to negotiate with investors in and creditors of the
project. It also obligates [the governments of Bulgaria, Macedonia and
Albania] not to disclose certain confidential information on the pipeline
project.9
"EAST-WEST CORRIDOR 8"
The AMBO pipeline project is linked up with another strategic project
entitled "Corridor 8", initially proposed by the Clinton Administration in
the context of the "Balkans Stability Pact". Of strategic importance to
both the US and the European Union, "Corridor 8" includes highway, railway,
electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. In turn, the existing
infrastructure in these sectors is slated for deregulation and
privatisation (at rock bottom prices) under IMF-World Bank supervision.
Although rubber-stamped by EU transport ministers as part of the process of
European economic integration, "Corridor 8" feasibility studies were
conducted by US companies financed directly by the TDA. In other words,
Washington seems to have set the stage for the takeover of the countries'
transport and communications infrastructure. American corporations
including Bechtel, Enron and General Electric (with financial backing from
the US government) are competing with companies from the European Union.
Washington's design is to open up the entire corridor to US multinationals
in a region situated in the European Union's "economic backyard", where the
power of the Deutschmark tends to dominate over that of the US dollar.
"EU ENLARGEMENT"
In early 2000, the European Commission began negotiations on EU associate
membership status with Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania. And in April 2001,
at the height of the terrorist assaults, Macedonia became the first country
in the Balkans to sign a so-called "stabilisation and association
agreement" (SAA) constituting an important step towards full EU membership.
The agreement provides the basis for "trade liberalisation, political
co-operation, economic and institutional reform and transplantation of EU
legislation." Under the SAA, Macedonia would (de facto) be integrated into
the European monetary system, with full access to the EU market.10
The terrorist assaults coincided chronologically with the process of "EU
enlargement", gaining momentum barely a few weeks before the signing of the
historic "association agreement" with Macedonia. Amply documented, the US
has military advisers working with the terrorists. Was this a mere
coincidence?
Also, Robert Frowick, "a former US diplomat", was appointed to head the
OSCE mission in Macedonia in mid-March, again barely a few weeks before the
signing of the "association agreement." In close liaison with Washington
and the US embassy in Skopje, Frowick initiated a "dialogue" with NLA rebel
leader Ali Ahmeti. He was also instrumental in brokering an agreement
between Ahmeti and the leaders of the Albanian parties, which form part of
the government coalition.
This agreement negotiated by Frowick has largely contributed to
destabilising political institutions, while at the same time jeopardising
the process of EU enlargement.11 Moreover, the deteriorating security
situation in Macedonia has provided a pretext for increased US political,
"humanitarian" and military interference, while contributing to weakening
Skopje's economic and political ties to Germany and the EU. In this regard,
one of the "binding conditions" of the "association agreement" is that
Macedonia conform to "EU standards on democracy".12 Needless to say,
without a "functioning government" in Macedonia, the EU association process
with Brussels cannot proceed.
The puppet governments installed in Tirana, Skopje and Sofia, while largely
responding to US diktats, are currently being swayed in the direction of
the European Union. Washington's intent is ultimately to curb Germany's
"Lebensraum" into Southeastern Europe. While paying lip service to "EU
enlargement", the US has consistently favoured "NATO enlargement" as a
means to pursuing its strategic interests in Eastern Europe and the
Balkans, while Germany and France have opposed it.
While the tone of international diplomacy remains mannerly and polite, US
foreign policy under the Bush administration has become distinctly
"anti-European". According to one observer:
"At the heart of the Bush team, Colin Powell is [considered] the friend of
the Europeans, while the other ministers and advisers are considered
arrogant, hard and indisposed to listen or to give the Europeans a place."13
GERMANY AND AMERICA
Amply documented, the CIA is behind the KLA and the NLA rebels, who are
waging the terrorist assaults against the Macedonian security forces. While
the CIA's German counterpart the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND)
collaborated with the CIA in overseeing and financing the KLA prior to the
1999 war, recent developments suggest that the BND is not involved in
Washington's military-intelligence ploy in Macedonia.14
Barely a few weeks before the signing of the "association agreement" with
the European Union, German troops stationed in Macedonia in the Tetovo
region were (mid March 2001) "accidentally" targeted by the NLA. While the
Western media --echoing in chorus the official statements-- maintains that
German troops were "caught in the cross-fire", reports from Tetovo suggest
that the NLA shelling "was deliberate." In any event, the incident would
not have occurred had Germany's BND been working with the rebel army:
"Up to 600 German troops were forced to leave Tetovo overnight after their
barracks were caught in crossfire [They] were too lightly armed to defend
themselves against the Albanians. The Germans will replace the departing
troops with a Leopard tank squadron [belonging to the
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie division stationed in Nordrein-Westphalen].
[T]he new [German] firepower may be used to knock out Albanian positions
now established around Tetovo," 15
In a bitter irony, two of the commanders responsible for the terrorist
assaults in the Tetovo region had been trained by British Special Forces:
"Embarrassingly for KFOR, it emerged that two of the Kosovo-based
commanders leading the Albanian push [into the Tetovo region] were trained
by former British SAS and Parachute Regiment officers in the days when NATO
was more comfortable with the fledgling Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). A
former member of a European special forces unit who accompanied the KLA
during the Kosovo conflict said that a commander with the nom de guerre of
Bilal was organising the flow of arms and men into Macedonia, and that the
veteran KLA commander Adem Bajrami was helping to co-ordinate the assault
on Tetovo. Both were taught by British soldiers in the secretive training
camps that operated above Bajram Curri in northern Albania during 1998 and
1999."16
These same British trained rebel commanders view Germany as the "enemy"
because Bundeswehr troops stationed in Macedonia and Kosovo --rather than
providing "protection" to NLA "freedom fighters" in the same way as their
British and American KFOR counterparts-- frequently detain "suspected
terrorists" at the border:
"A spokesman for the Albanians' National Liberation Army (NLA) in Pristina
warned the Bundeswehr its involvement would constitute 'a declaration of
war by the Federal Republic of Germany'". 17
In response to NLA threats, the Bundeswehr sent in its own Special Forces,
the Fallschirmjger (Parachutists) to work with its
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie squadron.18 German Defence Minister Rudolf
Scharping confirmed that "he was ready to send more tanks and troops to
bolster Bundeswehr forces".19 Yet in recent developments, Berlin has chosen
to withdraw most of its troops from the Tetovo region and not in any way
challenge the US military-intelligence ploy in support of the NLA rebels.
Some of these German troops are now stationed on the Kosovo side of the
border.
While the NLA received a shipment of brand new advanced weaponry "made in
America", Germany donated (mid-June) to the Macedonian Security forces all
terrain vehicles as well as weapons "for sophisticated infrared tracing in
the battlefield." According to a report from Macedonia, the small
contingent of German troops which still remains in the Tetovo region "was
under heavy attack from the terrorists who attacked them with mortar from
the mountains above Tetovo. That is probably the response of yesterday's
[14 June 2001] donation to our army made by the German government".20
While divisions between "NATO allies" are never made public, Germany's
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer --in a strongly worded statement to the
Bundestag directed against "the Albanian extremists in Macedonia"-- has
called for "a long-term arrangement, aimed to make the whole region closer
to Europe." (i.e. free of US encroachment). The German position is in
marked contrast to that put forth by the US, which requires the Skopje
government to grant amnesty to the terrorists, modify the country's
constitution and incorporate the NLA rebels in civilian politics:
"The pact reportedly called for the rebels to stop their fight in exchange
for amnesty guarantees. The rebels would also have the right to veto
future political decisions regarding ethnic Albanian rights. The accord was
reportedly mediated by Robert Frowick, a former U.S. envoy who currently
served as a Balkan representative for the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe." 21
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN AXIS
The clash between Germany and America in the Balkans is part of a much
broader process which affects the heart of the Western military-industrial
complex and defence establishment.
From the early 1990s, the US and Germany have acted jointly as NATO
partners in the Balkans, coordinating their respective military,
intelligence and foreign policy initiatives. While maintaining in their
public statements a semblance of political unity, serious divisions started
to emerge in the wake of the Dayton Accords (1995), as German banks
scrambled to impose the Deutschmark and take over the monetary system of
Yugoslavia's successor states.
Moreover, in the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia, the US has reinforced
its strategic, military and intelligence ties with Britain, while Britain
has severed many of its ties (particularly in the area of defence and
aerospace production) with Germany and France.
Launched in early 2000, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and his
British counterpart, Geoff Hoon, signed a "Declaration of Principles for
Defense Equipment and Industrial Cooperation''. 22 Washington's objective
was to encourage the formation of a "transatlantic bridge across which the
DoD [US Department of Defense] can take its globalization policy to
Europe."23
The US defence industry --which now includes British Aerospace Systems
(BaeS)-- is clashing with the Franco-German defence consortium EADS --a
conglomerate composed of France's Aerospatiale Matra, Deutsche Aerospace,
which is part of the powerful Daimler group, and Spain's CASA. In other
words, a major split in the Western military-industrial complex has
occurred with the US and Britain on one side and Germany and France on the
other.
Oil, guns and the Western military alliance are intimately related
processes. Washington's design is to eventually ensure the dominance of the
US military-industrial complex in alliance with the Anglo-American oil
giants and Britain's major defense contractors. These developments
evidently also have a bearing on the control over strategic pipelines,
transport and communications corridors in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union.
In turn, this Anglo-American axis is also matched by increased cooperation
between the CIA and Britain's MI5 in the sphere of intelligence and covert
operations as evidenced by the role played by British SAS Special Forces in
training KLA rebels.
WAR, "DOLLARISATION" AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER
"Protection" of the pipelines, covert activities and the recycling of drug
money in support of armed insurgencies, militarisation of strategic
corridors, defence procurement to "Partnership for Peace" (PfP) countries
are all an integral part of the Anglo-American axis and its quest to
dominate oil and gas routes and transport corridors out of the Caspian sea
basin and from the Black sea across the Balkans.
More generally, what is happening in the broader region linking Eastern
Europe and the Balkans to the former Soviet republics is a relentless
scramble for control over national economies by competing business
conglomerates. And behind this process is the quest by Wall Street's
financial establishment --in alliance with the defence and oil giants-- to
destabilise and discredit the Deutschmark (and the Euro) with a view to
imposing the US dollar as the sole currency for the region.
Control over "money creation" --imposing the rule of the US Federal
Reserve system throughout the World-- has become a central feature of US
expansionism. In this regard, Washington's military-intelligence ploy not
only consists in undermining "EU enlargement", it is also intent upon
weakening and displacing the dominion of Germany's largest banking
institutions (e.g. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and WestDeutsche Landesbank)
throughout the Balkans.
In other words, the New World Order is marked by the clash between Europe
and America for "colonial control" over national currencies. And this
conflict between "competing capitalist blocks" will become increasingly
acute when several hundred million people from Eastern Europe and the
Balkans to Central Asia start using the Euro as their "de facto" national
currency on January 1st 2002.
See map at http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html).
NOTES
1 Robert V. Baryiski, The Caspian Oil Regime: Military Dimensions, Caspian
Crossroads Magazine ,Volume 1, Issue No. 2, Spring 1995.
2. Reference to the European Union in this article should be interpreted as
the "European Union minus Britain".
3 See Albanian Telegraph Agency, Tirana 28 July 1998 and Milsnews, Skopje,
23 January, 1997 available at
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a379fb721329c.htm.
4. Milsnews, op cit.
5. See Karen Talbot's incisive analysis: "Former Yugoslavia: The Name of
the Game is Oil, People's Weekly World, May 2001 at
http://www.ecadre.net/pages/news/stories/990197752.shtml, see also Marjorie
Cohn, "Pacification for a pipeline: explaining the US Military presence in
the Balkans, The Jurist, Legal Education Network, June 2001,
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumnew22.htm.
6. George Monbiot, A Discreet Deal in the Pipeline, The Guardian, 15
February 2001.
7. Richard Giragosian, "Massive Kashagan Oil Strike Renews Geopolitical
Offensive In Caspian", The Analyst, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns
Hopkins University-Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies,
7 June, 2000, http://www.soros.org/caucasus/0059.html.
8. See the Trade and Development (TDA) by Region at
http://www.tda.gov/region/sbdi.html.
9. Alexander Gas and Oil Connections,
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nte04224.htm, October 2000.
10. Under so-called "asymmetric trade preferences" with the EU.
11. For further details on the role of Robert Frowick, see Michel
Chossudovsky, "Macedonia: Washington's Military-Intelligence Ploy". June
2001
12. See AFP, 10 April 2001.
13. According to Pascal Boniface, director of the Paris Institute of
International and Strategic Relations, UPI, 11 April 2001.
14. For details on CIA-BND support to the KLA see Michel Chossudovsky,
"Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by Organised Crime", Covert Action
Quarterly, Fall 1999 also available at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html),
15 Tom Walker, NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster, Sunday Times, London,
18 March 2001,
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. See Deutsche Fallschirmjger nach Tetovo, Spiegel Online, 24 March
2001, see also, Bundeswehr verlegt Soldaten ins Kosovo, Spiegel Online, 23
March 2001.
19. Deutsche Press Agentur, 19 March 2001,
20. Information transmitted to the author from Skopje, June 2001.
21. Facts on File, World News Digest, 30 May 2001.
22. Reuters, 5 February 2000.
23. The agreement was signed (according to a Pentagon official quoted in
Muradian) shortly after the creation of British Aerospace Systems resulting
from the merger of BAe with GEC Marconi. British Aerospace (Bae) was
already firmly allied to America's largest defense contractors Lockheed
Martin and Boeing. For further details see Vago Muradian, Pentagon Sees
Bridge to Europe, Defense Daily, Vol. 204, No. 40 Dec. 01, 1999.
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