3. America�s War in Macedonia (By Michel
Chossudovsky)
PHOENIX, June 30 - The following is an article contributed to TiM by Prof.
Michel
Chossudovsky of the University of Ottawa in Canada. We�ve omitted the
numerous
footnotes which back up Prof. Chossudovsky�s analysis:
�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:
AA successful international oil regime is a combination of economic,
political,
and military arrangements to support oil production and
transportation to
markets.
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. 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.
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 pipeline�will become a part of
the
region's critical East-West corridor infrastructure which includes
highway,
railway, gas and fiber optic telecommunications lines.
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
militarization
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."
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
militarization
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."
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.
"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 privatization (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 "stabilization and association
agreement" (SAA)
constituting an important step towards full EU membership. The
agreement
provides the basis for "trade liberalization, 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.
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
destabilizing
political institutions, while at the same time jeopardizing the
process of EU
enlargement. 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". 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 favored "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."
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.
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,�"
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 organizing 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."
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'".
In response to NLA threats, the Bundeswehr sent in its own Special
Forces, the
Fallschirmj�ger (Parachutists) to work with its
Panzer-Artillerie-Batterie
squadron. German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping confirmed that
"he was
ready to send more tanks and troops to bolster Bundeswehr forces".
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".
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."
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 defense 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 defense 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''. 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."
The US defence industry --which now includes British Aerospace
Systems
(BaeS)-- is clashing with the Franco-German defense consortium
ADS --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, militarization of strategic
corridors, defense
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 defense and oil giants-- to destabilize 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 the map at
http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oilprojects2.html ).
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa (e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
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