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. Michel Chossudovsky explains.
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. 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 fibre 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". (See Karen Talbot's incisive
analysis: "Former
Yugoslavia: The Name of the Game is Oil", People's Weekly World, May 2001. See also Marjorie Cohn,
"Pacification for a pipeline: explaining the US Military
presence in the Balkans", The Jurist, Legal Education Network, June
2001,
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 ] 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." (quoted in George Monbiot, “A
Discreet Deal in the Pipeline”, The Guardian, 15February
2001.)
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." [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,]
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."
[See the Trade
and Development (TDA) by Region ]
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.” [Alexander
Gas and Oil Connections October 2000]
“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.
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".
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." (Pascal Boniface, director of the
Paris Institute of International
and Strategic Relations, UPI,
11 April 2001)
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.?" (Tom
Walker, “NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster”, Sunday
Times, London, 18 March 2001)
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." ((Tom Walker, “NATO
Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster”, Sunday
Times, London, 18 March 2001)
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'". (Tom Walker,
“NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster”, Sunday Times, London, 18 March 2001)
In response
to NLA threats, the Bundeswehr sent in its own Special Forces,
the Fallschirmjager (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". (Information transmitted
to the author from Skopje, June 2001)
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." Facts
on File, World News Digest, 30 May 2001.
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, co-ordinating 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''.
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 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)
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 defence 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.
This article originally appeared on the website of the Transnational
Foundation for Peace and Future Research.
The author, Michel Chossudovsky, is Professor of Economics
at the University of Ottawa.
