Leter Presidentit Obama

The Hon. Barack H. Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500


RE: Albania


Mr. President:


In your inaugural speech you stated, "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history."

Based on your words, it seems you were speaking directly to those like Sali Berisha, Albania’s Prime Minister. Yet, in the first week of February, members of your administration, including Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as other members of your administration and Congress, met in Washington with Prime Minister Berisha and his travel companion, former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu.

On the eve of your trip to Europe to attend G-20 and NATO meetings, I am writing to brief you about the Berisha regime, a “government” that, in my opinion, is little more than an international criminal conspiracy.

By way of background, I was a founder of the Albanian Relief Foundation and the National Albanian American Council, and I established the first lobbying office for Albanian Americans in Washington. I also served as a Director of the Kosova Relief Fund and the Albanian Heritage Foundation. My grandfather, my father (who emigrated from Albania as a young boy and served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during WWII) and my mother were all active in the affairs of the Albanian American community.

My efforts helped expose several incidents of impropriety by Albanian government officials including the AEY arms deal with the U.S. Department of Defense, which was reported on the front page of the March 27, 2008 edition of The New York Times, and is currently the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. I was also a catalyst for the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of AEY. Kosta Trebicka, who was an Albanian businessman, was the AEY whistle-blower, and I worked with him to help shed light on this scandal. As such, Trebicka was a material witness to this effort to defraud DOD and American taxpayers. Unfortunately, last fall, Kosta was found dead on a remote back road in Albania in what was called a "car accident" by the Berisha government. Because of the highly suspicious nature of his death and the fact that Kosta implicated Berisha and Mediu in the AEY deal, most Albanians believe he was murdered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2UyfK6pN1I


Information regarding Berisha and Mediu that should be of concern to the U.S. government follows:


1. Several days after Fatmir Mediu met with officials of your administration, he was indicted by Albania’s prosecutor in conjunction with the March 15, 2008 explosion at the ammunition demilitarization facility located at Gerdec, Albania (there is reason to believe the Gerdec operation was initiated because of direct pressure from the U.S. government). The Gerdec tragedy resulted in 26 deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of damaged properties. The hazardous conditions at this plant were well known to Albanian government officials, including Berisha and Mediu, and U.S. Embassy officials in Tirana. As was well known in Albania and to State Department officials, at the time Mediu met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, he was under investigation for Gerdec (despite Berisha's ongoing attempts to undermine the Albanian prosecutor’s investigation). Several of Mediu's associates were previously indicted for negligence and mass murder in conjunction with Gerdec. The news of the charges against Mediu appears in this International Herald Tribune report: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/...last-Probe.php . Prior to the Berisha/Mediu visit to Washington, I informed American officials via email about their intentions to use the visit to their advantage. Those officials were fully aware that Mediu presided over Albania’s Ministry of Defense at the time of the AEY scandal as well as the persistent allegations about Mediu’s corrupt practices.


2. A report issued by The Economist in January called Albania a "hybrid democracy" describing it as a hybrid between democracy and totalitarianism. The report ranked Albania as the least democratic country in the Balkans and stated, "the spread of democracy has come to a halt" in Albania. http://www.albanianeconomy.com/news/...the-economist/


3. In a recent series of condemnations of Berisha, The International Press Institute and Transparency International joined the chorus of Reporters Without Borders and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists in criticizing Sali Berisha for his latest blatant effort to block free speech. In this episode Berisha sent state police to close the office of the Albanian newspaper TEMA for criticizing his government.


IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/stat...S1232472684899


TI: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=35419


As anyone familiar with Albania knows, this is far from the first time Berisha has used anti-democratic, repressive tactics. He used the tax authorities to bully Top Channel TV into silence. And after The New York Times interviewed Fatmir Mediu about the AEY deal, Mediu sent goons to confiscate the video tapes and equipment that were used for the interview. This can be confirmed with The Times journalist who conducted the interview. But the ultimate act of blocking free speech occurred last September when Kosta Trebicka, the AEY whistle-blower, was silenced forever when he was killed in the "car accident" in Albania.


4. The old, corroding, Chinese ammunition AEY bought from the Albanian government (via Cyprus-based Evdin, a company controlled by the notorious and watch-listed Swiss arms dealer Henry Thomet), for sale to the U.S. Department of Defense, was repackaged by AEY in Albania in order to remove the Chinese markings. The ammunition was then shipped to Afghanistan where defective munitions placed - and continue to place – American troops at risk in Afghanistan. All of this was paid for by American taxpayers, and this serves as a perfect example of the type of government waste you have promised to combat. Milhal Deligjoji is an Albanian "businessman" who was awarded the contract (by Berisha and Mediu) to repackage the ammunition. This was done during the period Marcie Ries served as U.S. Ambassador to Albania (currently serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State), but the shipments continued when John Withers assumed the position of Ambassador. You should be aware that Ms. Ries attended several of the meetings held by Berisha and Mediu when they visited Washington, and she was fully aware of all of the allegations contained herein. Deligjorji was also the owner of Albademil, the company that was awarded the contract to demilitarize the ammunition at the Gerdec plant that exploded. Deligjorji, who was a known thug around Tirana, was also known to keep close company with Shkelzen Berisha, the son of Sali Berisha. As was suggested by AEY’s president during a recorded telephone conversation (DOJ and House Oversight are in possession of the recordings, Shkelzen Berisha has been alleged to have participated in the AEY deal. Deligjorji's attorney was Argita Berisha Maltezi, who incorporated Albademil for Deligjorji and is Sali Berisha’s daughter. Deligjorji is now in jail on charges of negligence and mass murder in conjunction with the Gerdec explosion


5. According to news reports in Albania, Fatmir Mediu was also indicted on criminal charges in Italy along with Gazmend Mahmutaj, a known Albanian trafficker and gangster. Mediu was acquitted – apparently, he cut some form of deal - but Mahmutaj was serving time in an Italian prison as of last year. Mediu is Chairman of the Republican Party of Albania, part of Berisha's coalition government. The head of one of the Republican Party's local chapters in Albania is Kassem Mahmutaj, the brother of Gazmend. Kassem Mahumutaj was appointed director of Albania's largest munitions depot (the site of another recent explosion that resulted in one death) by Fatmir Mediu, and this depot is alleged to have been one of the sources of ammunition for the AEY deal.


6. A story reported by Fox News in February implicates the Berisha family in a cover-up regarding a World Bank project in Albania. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,491006,00.html


7. A story published last week by Shekulli, one of Albania’s largest newspapers, revealed that Albania sold 10,000 mortar rounds to Iran in March 2006 while Berisha and Mediu had authority over these weapons sales. http://www.shekulli.com.al/2009/03/2...me-iranin.html


Upon request, I can provide details about other allegations of criminal and corrupt criminal practices by Berisha, Mediu, Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha (who is also under investigation for corruption) and other officials of the Berisha government. In the most recent example, earlier this month, Ylli Pango, Albania’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, was forced from his office in disgrace after a recording surfaced that exposed him attempting to extract sexual favors from a young woman seeking employment. http://www.pr-inside.com/albanian-cu...r-r1094877.htm

During this time of economic crisis in America, why should the machinations of a corrupt government in a small Balkan country matter to you? Because advancing democracy remains a core mission of American foreign policy, and crime and corruption are tearing at the foundations of the fledgling “democracy” in Albania. For this reason, the U.S. has an obligation to confront this problem to advance our objectives and protect our strategic interests in Southern Europe. Furthermore, the AEY scandal represents just the tip of an enormous iceberg of government waste in our country, and correcting DOD procurement irregularities will help save billions of dollars for American taxpayers.


I fully support strong relations between the U.S. and Albania; however, the U.S. government seems to have forgotten that the reason Albanian officials have been able to cooperate with American foreign policy initiatives is because of the great admiration the people of Albania have for America. Allowing Albanian officials to exploit this status for their own personal gain would be an abuse of this precious relationship.


Berisha and senior Albanian government officials continue their economic and political rape of Albania, and, in my opinion, any perceived U.S. support of Berisha's criminal regime would represent a disturbing double standard.


I would be happy to discuss any of the information contained herein with appropriate officials from your administration.



Thank you.


Respectfully,


Gary Q. Kokalari






cc: The Hon. Joseph Biden

The Hon. Hillary Clinton

The Hon. James Jones

The Hon. Edolphus Towns

The Hon. Henry Waxman

The Hon. Richard Lugar

The Hon. John McCain

The Hon. James Baker

The Hon. Henry Kissinger

The Hon. Richard Holbrooke

The Hon. Carl Levin

The Hon. Scott Garrett

The Hon. William Cohen

The Hon. Dan Fried

The Hon. John Withers

The Hon. Charles Schumer

The Hon. Frank Lautenberg

The Hon. Robert Menendez

The Hon. Nancy Pelosi

The Hon. Eliot Engel

The Los Angeles Times

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal