American Council for Kosovo - All News

Talk of �Arab Spring� in Russia Reveals Washington�s Misguided Agenda

A Google English-language search of 'Arab Spring' and 'Putin' yields almost seven million hits. A large proportion of them originate in the hopes of American officials, think tanks, and NGOs that the supposedly 'democratic' movement boiling through the Arab world will soon reach Russia.

Notable was the Tweet by a Republican Senator known for his anti-Russian views and hostility towards current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin: 'Dear Vlad, the Arab Spring is coming to a neighborhood near you.' The not-so-subtle message is that Putin might end up like Hosni Mubarak � or like Muammar Qaddafi.

Such expressions horribly misread the relevant facts both in the Arab countries and in Russia.

The disorders in the Middle East are hailed by the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama, and by many U.S. Republicans, as a triumph of American policy and the march of human freedom. Washington acquiesced in (and perhaps aided) the removal of our longtime clients in Tunisia, Yemen, and even Egypt, where Mubarak represented America's best guarantee for Israel's security. Now, in concert with Turkey's Islamist and neo-Ottoman leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we are witnessing the region-wide rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood as the supposedly 'moderate' alternative to even more radical Salafist elements.

Islamic extremism has been the tool and beneficiary of American policies for decades, not only in our recent support for supposed Arab 'democratization' but in a series of armed interventions supposedly on behalf of Muslim peoples. First, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in alliance with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan we supported the anti-Soviet jihad of Osama bin Laden and played midwife to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Later, in the Balkans, we sponsored al-Qaeda's and Iran's prot�g�s in Bosnia and Kosovo, where the establishment of two Muslim-dominated 'countries' in the heart of Europe is touted by American officials as a noble achievement. Then came Afghanistan (again) and Iraq, followed recently by NATO's armed intervention in Libya.

Old habits die hard. Notwithstanding the al-Qaeda boomerang that hit America on September 11, 2001, and repeated attacks on Americans by (presumably grateful) Muslims from Kosovo and Bosnia, Washington is still certain it can control the jihadist genie and direct it on a selective basis. As the region to Russia's south becomes increasingly radicalized, so will the internal danger to Russia in the Caucasus. (And, it should be noted, to Ukraine in Crimea.)

Whether intended by Washington or not, the result of each intervention has been the same: Sharia law, anti-Christian violence, and diminution of the status of women. The majority of Kosovo's Serbian Christian population has been uprooted from their homes, under the complacent eyes of NATO occupiers. Most of Iraq's million-strong Christian community, which was relatively secure under the secular socialist Saddam Hussein, has been terrorized into emigration. Egypt's 10 million Copts now face the same fate, as will Christians in Syria if Washington can overcome Moscow's resistance to a Libya-type operation against the government of Bashar Al-Assad. (Meanwhile, no unsightly democracy breaks out to inconvenience our jihad-funding friends in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies.)

In short, U.S. support for supposed Arab 'democratization' is either cynical geopolitics or a complete misreading of the internal dynamics of Islamic societies. Possibly, it is both.

Likewise, calls for an Arab Spring in Russia are doubly misplaced. First, they have nothing to do with any genuine U.S. desire for democracy, in Russia or anywhere else. As in the Arab world, 'democracy' is a codeword for geopolitical subservience to Washington, plain and simple. However valid Putin's reelection to the presidency will be, western capitals are ready to denounce it as illegitimate and to cheer on a mobilization in the streets. This will have nothing to do with how democratic the vote is, just the fact that Putin believes that Russia has legitimate national and regional interests and is prepared to defend them. Contrast that to Washington's approval of Boris Yeltsin's 'democratic' theft of the 1996 elections. Or of our oh-so-legitimate Saudi friends, who tolerate no elections at all. Or of the interchangeable 'Kosovo Liberation Army' gangsters and organ-traffickers who run the pseudo-state administration in Pristina.

Second, it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone in Washington that Russia is not a Middle Eastern country. Yes, there likely will be controversy over the conduct of the elections and perhaps their results. Yes, some people may take to the streets to protest claimed violations of legal process, and there may be some merit to their charges. (Such developments are expected even in what we like to call with too much self-flattery 'developed' democracies. Hasn't anyone noticed the 'Occupy' disorders in the United States? Riots in Greece?) As Russia continues to find her own way after the agony of the 20th century, this is to be expected.

But no matter how much money and effort western governments and NGOs put into it, what we won't see is a violent, intolerant religious ideology seizing power under the guise of democracy, as we see in the Arab countries. Anyone in Washington who thinks so has yet to learn the first thing about Russia.

Kosovo: Orthodox Christians fear to walk because of America & Albanian nationalism

Kosovo: Orthodox Christians fear to walk because of America and Albanian nationalism

In history books you can read about the Armenian genocide where Armenian Christians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Assyrian Christians, and other minorities, were massacred in the millions in 1915 and the following years. They were slaughtered because of Turkish nationalism and religious hatred but of course to say this openly in modern day Turkey is still dangerous.

Throughout history ethnic groups and religious groups have suffered because of countless factors but sadly in the modern period the same situation applies for many religious and ethnic groups. Alas, just like the abandoned Armenians and other minorities, today in Kosovo and Iraq all minorities face religious persecution and ethnic hatred despite international agencies being on the ground.

Indeed, the plight of Christian minorities and other minorities in Kosovo and Iraq shows how indifferent the so-called Western world is towards Christian minorities and other faiths which fail to make headlines. More alarming, is that much of the mass media was quick to fall into 'the anti-Serb trap' without a care about history or the reality on the ground. Therefore, in modern day Serbia minorities have freedom of movement throughout the land but in Kosovo the Serbian Orthodox Christian minority, Gypsies, and others, don't have freedom to travel openly.

Nations like Indonesia, Nigeria, the former Yugoslavia, and countless other multi-ethnic and multi-religious countries, are extremely delicate and central forces when under threat face serious bloodletting if no breathing space can quell a revolt. However, the recognition of independent nations in the former Yugoslavia gave no breathing space and the history of World War Two whereby Croatian fascism, Muslim Nazi Units, Albanian fascist support of Germany and Italy, and a host of other complex factors, wasn't taken into consideration. Instead, communities with long and bitter memories were meant to accept becoming minorities in nations they feared.

Irrespective of which side was right or wrong it is clear that 'a covert and dirty war' was unleashed by America, the United Kingdom, Albanian nationalists, and Islamists who were waiting in the wings. Also, a compliant press was mainly guaranteed in a post-Western Christian world whereby it is easy to hate and be biased against this faith. Therefore, America played all 'the right cards' and suddenly the Kosovo Liberation Army became a major fighting force from virtually zilch and with British treachery 'the deal was done.'

This meant that Kosovo which once was nearly 100% Orthodox Christian over 800 years ago before the invading Turks and their enslavement and dhimmitude policies entered the equation; now became 12% after countless tragedies befell this community. This applies to a combined force of Islamization, dhimmitude, consequences of two world wars, and communist policies which enabled Albanianization to take root.

Strangely, in all this time the Serbians never desired a military solution to regaining complete control of Kosovo whereby other ethnic groups would be expelled. However, when the KLA began to terrorize the Serbian community, other minorities, and moderate Albanians who were opposed; then a full scale crisis was about to be unleashed. Of course, this full-scale crisis had already been planned in Washington and London, therefore, the more the KLA killed and attacked then this was welcoming news because America and the United Kingdom new that reprisals would take place on the Serbian side.

Nationalist forces in Serbia fell into the trap and the media was just waiting. Ironically, when two million mainly African Christians and Animists in Sudan had been slaughtered in Sudan by Arab Islamist forces, the media on a whole and the West did very little. Once more, the African Christians were both 'too black' and 'too Christian' to attract intervention.

Therefore, Bill Clinton, a leader who enabled thousands of international Islamic terrorists into Bosnia to kill and behead Orthodox Christians, was at his 'manipulation of language' best once more by implying that 100,000 Albanians may have been killed. Of course, the final death total at most is around 90 per cent less from pro-Clinton numbers given (this applies to all ethnic groups) and to others the final figures are between 92% less to 97% less. More important, this death total is only this high because of the actions of NATO and supporting KLA terrorism. This meant that the death total when Bill Clinton stated this was extremely low and clearly only after the bombing of Serbia did the situation increase rapidly.

However, why is it that several million deaths of African Christians and Animists were allowed in Sudan by several Arab Islamic regimes which were intent on Arabization and Islamization? After all, when intervention was being talked about in Kosovo the death total was very little. Therefore, why did these deaths lead to intervention in Kosovo and not in Sudan where at least two million Africans had been slaughtered?

Once the war engulfed Kosovo properly after NATO intervention and the arming of the KLA by utilizing Albania and other ratlines � then massacres happened on all sides but the indiscriminate use of NATO bombing can be seen by the final death figures. After all, the NATO war machine suffered no direct losses because of its power to bomb from the sky and arming the KLA.

Over one decade later and still Serbians and Gypsies, including children from both communities, can't walk freely in Kosovo and the Serbian Orthodox Church can't baptize freely in Kosovo. However, does this concern America and the European Union from forcing the hand of Serbia to abandon all ties with 'their Jerusalem?'

Of course not, therefore, despite countless documents linking the KLA and politicians to 'narcotic ratlines' and the 'organ scandal,' nothing changes and ethnic discrimination is maintained. Therefore, in modern Europe you have Orthodox Christian churches being protected by outside military forces and ethnic minorities being forced into isolated ghettoes.

In another article by Modern Tokyo Times an article by Paul Lewis was highlighted (published in The Guardian which is a British newspaper). Paul Lewis states that 'Kosovo's prime minister is the head of a 'mafia-like' Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through Eastern Europe, according to a Council of Europe inquiry report on organized crime.'

'The report of the two-year inquiry, which cites FBI and other intelligence sources, has been obtained by the Guardian. It names Tha�i as having over the last decade exerted 'violent control' over the heroin trade. Figures from Tha�i's inner circle are also accused of taking captives across the border into Albania after the war, where a number of Serbs are said to have been murdered for their kidneys, which were sold on the black market.'

'The report paints a picture in which ex-KLA commanders have played a crucial role in the region's criminal activity. It says: 'In confidential reports spanning more than a decade, agencies dedicated to combating drug smuggling in at least five countries have named Hashim Tha�i and other members of his Drenica group as having exerted violent control over the trade in heroin and other narcotics.'

The outcome of 'the dirty war' is that minorities face a bleak future and in percentage terms their percentage is falling because of no freedom in Kosovo. The majority population of Albanians therefore is continuing to install fear and killing people for organs doesn't even shame policy makers in Washington and London.

Innocent Serbian and Gypsy families are still being victimized and marginalized and too little is being done to protect both communities. Clearly, America and others know that time is on their side and if the entire de-Orthodox Christianization of Kosovo is accomplished in the future because of all minority communities abandoning all hope � then this will be music to the ears of Washington.

The Turks could never destroy the 'spirit and soul' of the Orthodox Christian community in Kosovo despite enslavement of young Christian boys being converted to Islam, dhimmitude, wars, heavy taxation, and other factors. Fascism couldn't destroy this community. However, the American political leadership and British political leadership laid down the foundations of the destruction of this embattled community.

It is essential that all non-Albanian minorities are supported in Kosovo and the same applies to moderate forces within the Kosovo Albanian community who fear the power mechanisms and ratlines of the KLA clique.

Hysen Sherifi, Accused Terrorist Plotter, Wanted To Kill Witnesses: FBI

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina man sentenced to prison recently as part of a homegrown terrorist ring has been accused in a federal court document of plotting to kill witnesses who testified against him at trial.

An affidavit unsealed in federal court Monday accuses Hysen Sherifi of plotting against the witnesses from his jail cell. Authorities say an FBI informant posing as a hit man met with Sherifi's brother and a female friend and accepted $5,000 and a photo of an intended victim.

FBI agents have arrested the brother, Shkumbin Sherifi, and Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a school teacher. Now in federal custody at the New Hanover County Jail, each is charged with a felony count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Hysen Sherifi, 27, was sentenced to 45 years in prison earlier this month in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets abroad. Five others, including construction contractor Daniel Patrick Boyd, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for terrorism charges related to raising money, stockpiling weapons and training in preparation for jihadist attacks.

No charges have been filed at this time against Hysen Sherifi related to the new plot, according to a search of a federal court database.

Shkumbin Sherifi and Elshiekh await a scheduled first appearance Friday in federal court in Wilmington. The two have applied for court appointed lawyers, who have not yet been assigned.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh has released no information about those arrested.

In a 10-page affidavit filed under seal Friday, FBI Special Agent James Langtry writes that he developed a source as a confidential informant inside the New Hanover County Jail near Wilmington, where Hysen Sherifi was sent after a jury convicted him in October.

The informant soon befriended Sherifi, who requested help in hiring someone to kill three people who had testified against him at his trial, according to the affidavit. Sherifi specified that he wanted the witnesses beheaded and that he would be provided photos of the severed heads as confirmation of the deaths, according to the document.

FBI agents said in the document that they arranged for a second informant to pose as a hit man and monitored Sherifi during a series of jailhouse visits with Elshiekh.

Following a Dec. 21 visit at the jail, Elshiekh left a voicemail on the fake hit man's cell phone, identifying herself as "Hysen Sherifi's friend," according to the affidavit. It added that the FBI observed and recorded subsequent meetings between Elshiekh and the fake hit man, during which she provided names, addresses and photos of those targeted and $750 in cash toward the first murder.

Agents also observed Elshiekh meeting with Shkumbin Sherifi, who met with the FBI's fake hitman on Jan. 8, the court document said. According to the affidavit, the brother traveled from Raleigh to Wilmington to provide the hit man another $4,250 in cash.

The affidavit provides no information about the nature of the relationship between Hysen Sherifi and Elshiekh, but a woman with that same name was quoted in media reports from last year's terrorism trial in New Bern. The names of the witnesses allegedly targeted were redacted from the affidavit.

Nevine Elshiekh is listed as a special education teacher on the website for Sterling Montessori Academy, a charter school in Mooresville. Bill Zajic, the school's executive director, did not return a message from the Associated Press on Tuesday.

No one answered the phone at Elshiekh's Raleigh home Tuesday.

The Sherifi brothers and other family members emigrated from Kosovo following the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A call to the Sherifi family home in Raleigh on Tuesday was not returned.

Hysen Sherifi and others arrested in the terrorism conspiracy were members of the Islamic Association of Raleigh, the largest Muslim congregation in the Triangle. Several members of the mosque also routinely made the 4-hour round trip for the trial in New Bern to support the accused, who they described as innocent men being railroaded by overzealous federal authorities.

Messages to the media contact listed for the mosque were not returned.

Failed Social Engineering in the Balkans

The end of the Cold War removed the most important constraint on Washington's tendency towards empire. Since then no country has gone to war more often than America. Yet the only conflict with any degree of necessity was Afghanistan -- initially going after al Qaeda. And none of these adventures has turned out particularly well.

One of Washington's great failures has been the Balkans. The region is of no geopolitical significance to America and should have been left to NATO's European members. If they, like Otto von Bismarck, did not view the Balkans to be worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, then the U.S. certainly had no reason to get involved.

Yet a dozen years ago Washington bombed Serbia, which had neither attacked nor threatened any NATO member. Western nations which over many centuries fought bitter conflicts against the hint of secession went to war to support independence for the territory of Kosovo.

The status of Kosovo, historically Serbian but with a majority ethnic-Albanian population, remains unsettled. Belgrade refuses to accept the amputation of 15 percent of its territory, Russia has blocked Kosovo's entry into the United Nations, and a majority of countries, including five of the European Union's 27 members, refuses to recognize Kosovo. Violence recently erupted in Kosovo's north, where the ethnic Serb majority remains loyal to Belgrade.

Unfortunately, the international forces, both KFOR, a NATO force under German command, and EULEX, a European police mission, have continued the West's policy of "the Serbs always lose." When Serb-dominated Yugoslavia broke up two decades ago, the German government accelerated the process by prematurely recognizing the breakaway nations of Slovenia and Croatia. Alas, recognition without guarantees for Croatia's large ethnic-Serb population ensured a bloody war when the latter sought to break away in turn.

The result was a conflict in which the U.S. backed the Croat majority and trained the Croat military, which committed war crimes and large-scale ethnic cleansing. Washington also used air power to hold together Muslim-dominated Bosnia despite the desire of both Serbs and Croats to secede. That artificial country remains a European protectorate ruled by a "high representative" whose main job is to suppress any popular expression contrary to the will of his masters in Brussels.

Allied sympathy for those desiring to escape territories with Serb majorities continued for Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. That the Milosevic government was brutal is without question, but more than enough atrocities were committed to go around. And the West consistently turned a blind eye when Serbs were being murdered and displaced.

Nowhere has that been more evident than Kosovo. Although a U.S. diplomat called the Kosovo Liberation Army -- since charged with selling the organs of Serb prisoners -- "terrorists," the allies suppressed any squeamishness and lent the rebels their air force, bombing for 78 days and killing hundreds or thousands Serb civilians, possibly as many as the number of Kosovars who died in two years of guerrilla war before NATO's intervention. The Albanian majority then mirrored earlier Serb brutality by kicking out around a quarter of a million ethic Serbs, Roma, and non-Albanian Muslims. Earlier this year the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe admitted that the allied intervention had "led to numerous human rights violations and [had] not produced lasting solutions for the underlying problems."

Then ensued years of stalemate, capped by faux negotiations in which the allies decreed that Kosovo must be independent, with only the details of Serbia's capitulation up for discussion. Belgrade's refusal to acquiesce was attacked as obstruction and in 2008 Kosovo declared its independence.

The would-be country has received poor international reviews and its prime minister was attacked by the Council for Europe for heading a "mafia-like" organization. No surprise, Serbs living in the city of Mitrovica north of the Ibar River wanted no part of majority ethnic-Albanian state. They created parallel institutions linked to Serbia and continue to resist rule by Pristina.

Washington and Brussels remain intransigent. The West has decided on Kosovo's boundaries. The ethnic Serbs are supposed to do what they are told and submit to the kindness of those accused of dismembering Serbian prisoners for profit. So what if some of the people running Pristina are the same people who as guerrillas killed Serbs? And the same people who in 2004 encouraged a second round of violence against the beleaguered minority population?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently lectured Belgrade on the need to recognize Kosovo if the former wants to join the European Union. Although five EU members refuse to do so, Chancellor Merkel insisted that Serbia ratify its own dismemberment to win a place in Brussels.

Almost as emphatic was the European Commission, which issued a new report concluding that "Serbia would be in a position to take on the obligations of membership in the medium term." There was, however, an important "but." Belgrade needed to cooperate "actively with EULEX in order for it to exercise its functions in all parts of Kosovo." The Commission added: "All sides need to play their part in defusing tension in northern Kosovo and allow for free movement of persons and goods." This means turning the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo's north over to a government which they have never accepted.

Kosovo's status recently took on new urgency. Belgrade put an embargo on goods to Kosovo back in 2008; this summer Kosovo's government decided to retaliate by banning Serb products, even to the north. That required extending Pristina's writ to the Serb-Kosovo border to block intra-Serb trade. Local Serbs responded with roadblocks, which they offered to dismantle if KFOR and EULEX stopped transporting Kosovo government customs officials northward.

It was a reasonable request. Former American diplomat Gerald Galucci noted that KFOR's mandate is peacekeeping, not politics; the force "is supposed to prevent security problems and contain or reverse provocations such as Pristina's police ploy." But now NATO's misnamed peacekeeping force has "stepped outside its UN Security Council mandate in deciding to enforce the requirements of the institutions in Pristina," he explained.

KFOR claimed that it simply desired to promote "unconditional freedom of movement," but what it really meant was enforcing the rule of ethnic-Albanians over ethnic-Serbs. In fact, some allied officials had hoped to solve the problem a different way. An earlier KFOR commander, Frenchman Lt. Gen. Xavier de Marnhac, pointed out that on average ethnic Albanians are younger than ethnic Serbs, so "there will be some kind of biological end to the problem here because, you know, one of the populations will simply disappear." However, this means waiting. To speed up the process KFOR used tear gas and pepper spray on Serb protesters, turning itself into a de facto security force for Pristina.

But the Serbs refused to retreat and the barricades remain. The result is deadlock. Kosovo's interior minister, Bajram Rexhepi, declared: "We will not step back in our legitimate efforts to control all of our territory." Dragisa Milovic, mayor of the Serb-dominated municipality of Zvecan, said: "We want to be part of Serbia -- nothing more, nothing less."

The answer is negotiations, serious talks without a predetermined result. An obvious deal would be for Kosovo to leave the majority-Serb areas with Serbia in exchange for Belgrade's recognition of Pristina. The benefits of ending the cold war between Kosovo and Serbia are obvious. Even if the West remains committed to Kosovo's independence, there is no reason to back Pristina's most extreme territorial ambitions. If self-determination is good for ethnic-Albanians, it also is good for ethnic-Serbs.

The architects of today's geopolitical mess naturally recoil in horror at any proposal to repair their handiwork. Doing so, argued Morton Abramowitz and James Hooper, of the Century Foundation and Public International Law & Policy Group, respectively, would "tempt fate, and further violence, by opening the partition door for the ethnic groups of Serbia." The same principle, they object, would apply to Bosnia, where both Serbs and Croats would prefer to leave the artificial nation imposed from outside.

However, it is a bit late to worry about "ethnic-based partitionism." After all, that was America's and Europe's conscious policy in the 1990s: Croats, Slovenes, Bosnian Muslims, Macedonians, Montenegrins, and Kosovar Albanians all got their own nations, with attention paid to neither the larger federal state without nor the various minorities within. No one gave much thought to precedent, in Europe or elsewhere.

Moreover, years of insistence by Washington and Brussels that the ignorant locals shut up and do what they are told has failed. So long as the allies attempt to impose unrealistic settlements, preserve artificial states, and maintain divided polities, the region will be unstable. As my Cato Institute colleague Ted Galen Carpenter pointed out, the problem is that the governments and nations promoted by the West lack legitimacy with large sections of their populations. Reconciliation will remain distant so long as foreigners insist on social engineering irrespective of local sensibilities. A policy of forced cohabitation is bound to generate resentment and ultimately violence.

In any case, America has no reason to be involved in this fight. Washington need not choose among the Balkans' competing ethnic factions. All have demonstrated xenophobic nationalism. All have brutalized minorities within their midst while insisting that their rights be respected. If Serbian forces committed more atrocities, it is largely because they had greater opportunity to do so.

The U.S. should allow Brussels, Berlin, Paris, and others to take over the problem. As Carpenter observed: "The broader message to the Europeans should be: Don't even think about calling on Washington to help bail you out of your folly -- especially after you've spurned the last best chance for a peaceful, equitable resolution of the Kosovo problem."

Intervening in the Balkans always was a mistake. With the U.S. so busy elsewhere, it is time to declare this region to be a European responsibility.

Embassy attack highlights Balkan Islamists

BELGRADE, Serbia � The young man wore a long beard and pants that stopped above his ankles. He sprayed the U.S. embassy in Bosnia with machine gun fire.

Friday's incident in Sarajevo, in which the gunman and a police officer were wounded but no one died, was the latest in a series of incidents in eastern Europe involving Wahhabis - followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam promoted by radicals, including the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The recent rise of militant Wahhabis and other Islamic radicals across the Balkans - including in Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and even European Union member Bulgaria - has triggered concerns that the region could become a breeding ground for terrorists with easy access to Western Europe or the U.S.

The shooter in Friday's incident, 23-year-old Mevlid Jasarevic, came from Serbia - the southern region of Sandzak, a Wahhabi stronghold - but also had strong links with a conservative Bosnian Muslim village that has attracted police attention in the past.

Authorities across the Balkans say that not all Wahhabis are militants, and not all militants are Wahhabis. But they say the radical anti-Western Islamic teaching has the potential for creating terrorist cells that support the sect's militants rooted in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Many fear that militant Wahhabis and other extremist Muslims from the Balkans could slip across borders and blend into Western societies before conducting terrorist attacks.

There have already been incidents. In March, a Kosovo Albanian acting alone fatally shot two American airmen in Frankfurt. In 2008, three ethnic Albanian brothers originally from Macedonia were implicated in a plot to attack the U.S. Army's Fort Dix military base in New Jersey.

In March 2007, a police raid on what Serbian authorities said was a mountain terrorist camp unveiled a large cache of weapons, ammunition, hand grenades and plastic explosives. Twelve Wahhabis were later sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including on convictions that they planned terrorist attacks against the U.S. embassy in Belgrade.

"At this moment, the radicals cannot topple governments or trigger wars," said Dragan Simeunovic, a political science professor at Belgrade University and terrorism expert. "What they can do are sporadic terrorist attacks."

But, if they grow in numbers because of financial support from some Muslim countries, "we could expect bigger problems in the Balkans," he said.

The presence of radical Muslims in the war-ravaged Balkans is linked to mujahedeen foreign fighters who joined Bosniak Muslims in their battle against the Serbs in Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence.

The Islamic fighters in Bosnia were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create a "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.

The issue of radical Islamic influence is particularly politically charged in Bosnia, a country divided between Bosniak Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. The Serbs maintain there is a huge presence of Wahhabis in the country, while Bosniaks downplay the problem and at times claim it does not exist.

Bosnian terrorism expert Vlado Azinovic said the divided and "dysfunctional" state of Bosnia does not have enough internal capacity to deal decisively with militant groups.

As a result, police complain they are not getting sufficient support to prevent terrorist attacks such as the one on Friday, or last year's bomb attack by a group of Wahhabis on a police station in the central town of Bugojno, in which one policeman was killed and several others injured.

"If you talk to law enforcement officials, they would tell you that they could deal with this problem decisively if there was political will, but unfortunately we have not seen that political will for way too long," Azinovic said.

According to Bosnia's intelligence agency, there are about 3,000 followers of Wahhabism in Bosnia, though not all of them could be considered a security threat.

Bosnian police on Saturday launched a massive operation against a conservative Muslim community in the northern mountain village of Gornja Maoca, the second such raid in the village in a year.

The remote village, where children are taught according to the austere Muslim school programs and women are clad head to toe, had been under continuous police surveillance.

So was Jasarevic, a Muslim from Serbia, who often visited there.

He was also known to police elsewhere. Serbian police said he was briefly arrested a year ago for brandishing "a large knife" during a visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia to Novi Pazar, the administrative center of the Sandzak region. He was reportedly deported in 2008 from Austria after a robbery in Vienna, which is thought to be Europe's spiritual center of Wahhabism.

Serbian police on Saturday briefly detained 17 people in Sandzak who were alleged to be Jasarevic's associates. v Since the 2007 arrests, the ultraconservatives have reduced their presence in Novi Pazar, a town of 100,000 that is nearly 90 percent Muslim. Many are believed to have fled to neighboring Kosovo or Bosnia, escaping the police crackdown.

"The Wahhabi movement is no longer a problem in Novi Pazar, some of its individuals are," Serbian police Director Milorad Veljovic said.