LA Times article by Greg Miller
A brief synapsis of this story could go like this: Stanisic worked with the CIA in order to bring a quicker end to the troubled Balkan region during Milosevic's reign. He claims to have never taken money from the CIA. The reason all of this came up? The CIA is attempting to reduce his sentence at the Hague. They submitted a dossier that shows what "help" he was, and a list of all the "good" things he did. Never mind the death squads he established, he was helping the CIA. He is currently back in Belgrade for health reasons, strange how that works.
A brief excerpt from the LAT:
"For eight years, Stanisic was the CIA's main man in Belgrade. During secret meetings in boats and safe houses along the Sava River, he shared details on the inner workings of the Milosevic regime. He provided information on the locations of NATO hostages, aided CIA operatives in their search for grave sites and helped the agency set up a network of secret bases in Bosnia."
So the question is this I guess: Did he aide the CIA and NATO enough to warrant regard in his case? Or, will this be passed over?
If it is passed over and ignored by the Tribunal, what will that mean for future CIA operations? Will the CIA lose possible contacts in the future? What would have happened in Yugoslavia had Stanisic not been a crucial element in the CIAs plans?
How will the outcome of this case affect our sources in Afghanistan and other regions where intelligence will be crucial to victory?
I leave you with those questions to ponder. Especially considering the weak economic state of most of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, we need all the stability and intelligence we can get if something goes amiss. Like, if Serbia gets pissy enough to attack Kosovo, then Albania rides to the rescue or something like that.
Thanks for listening to the rant, and I hope you enjoyed the other articles more than you enjoyed this one.
Peace.
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Comments: 2
Part of real and often sordid world is working with people you wouldn't want as neighbors. Not all those who come forward to work with us are good democrats like in the spy novels. One must realize that good intel often comes from some pretty poor examples of humanity and heaven knows we need that intel.
I just wonder if any of Afghani intelligence people are looking at this and saying, "Wow, the CIA really half-assed that one." They might not want to work with us anymore, which would be extremely detrimental to everything we are trying to do.