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The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
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JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review July 19, 2005 / 12 Tamuz, 5765

The Brooklyn Connection

By Julia Gorin


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http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Albanian-American roofer Florin Krasniqi has been living in Brooklyn and smuggling American guns into Kosovo to arm the Kosovo Liberation Army--this time for war against its erstwhile saviors, NATO and the UN. The KLA are the bin Laden-trained, Iran-backed narco-terrorists whose 1999 jihad against the Christian Serbs we helped fight, abetting secession and creating a mono-ethnic terror haven and future Islamic republic in Europe.


Krasniqi, who raised $30 million from fellow Albanian-Americans to help finance the KLA's war, is the subject of a documentary by Dutch filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns, titled "The Brooklyn Connection," which will air Tuesday night at 10 pm on PBS. The Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation into Krasniqi, according to Ms. Quirijns, as a result of her award-winning film, which was meant to be sympathetic to Krasniqi's cause of an independent Kosovo, and to highlight the ease of buying guns in America.


Realizing Albanians could lose the good will of Americans once they see the documentary, Krasniqi went on "60 Minutes" last Sunday, to paint himself as a concerned citizen promoting anti-gun legislation.


But "The Brooklyn Connection" is damning, demonstrating just how seriously our 1999 blunder continues to backfire, as the film follows Krasniqi's life: at home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife and three kids; at the gun store buying a .50-caliber rifle; at an army surplus store buying fatigues and holsters; at the airport checking in his firearm; and at a 2003 John Kerry fundraiser writing out thousand-dollar checks.


"With money, you can do amazing things in this country," Krasniqi rhapsodizes. "Senators and congressmen are looking for donations, and if you raise the money they need for their campaigns, they pay you back."


At the event, we see Krasniqi greeting Wesley Clark. "Mr. Clark, this is your group, your KLA," Krasniqi says, introducing the former NATO commander to six or so fellow KLA fighters whom Krasniqi helped resettle in the U.S. Krasniqi himself was smuggled into the country across the Mexican border in the trunk of a car.


Clark shakes hands with everyone, then calls Richard Holbrooke over for more introductions. The politicians and the terrorists have a few laughs before Holbrooke makes a speech calling for speedier UN action on "Kosova's" independence, using the same, purposeful Albanian mispronunciation of the Serbian word that President Clinton had used. Albanian-American Jim Belushi also makes an appearance, via telecast, telling the guests, "If you care about the fate of Albanians in the Balkans, if you care about the safety and prosperity of America…I'm sure you'll do anything you can to make sure John Kerry is elected as our next president."


Indeed, had John Kerry been elected, the architects of our backward 1999 debacle  —  Clark, Albright and Holbrooke  —  would be back in position to finish the job they started  —  that is, officially establishing the independent terrorist state of Kosovo. As UN final status talks on Kosovo loom this year, Clark has been working feverishly to complete the Clinton administration's blunder. In February he wrote a Wall St. Journal op-ed warning that "a violent collision may occur by year-end" if we don't do what the Kosovo Albanians want  —  and that's exactly what this four-star general advocated doing. After all, unrest in the region shines an unwelcome spotlight on his "successful war", as he spent all of election year billing it in contrast to Iraq. So he wants to close the book as soon as possible on Kosovo, where there were four more explosions over the July 4th weekend  —  part of the ongoing bombings by our Albanian "rescuees" and a message to persuade the international community that only one final status will be acceptable: unconditional independence, without border compromises with Serbia or protection guarantees for non-Albanian minorities.

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"United Nations doesn't know what we are capable of," Krasniqi warns. "If we were capable of getting NATO to help us, I think we are capable of throwing the UN out of there also. And we will throw the UN out if we have to."


The intermittent gunfights between Albanians and NATO (KFOR) troops over the past six years since that American "victory" on behalf of the enemy can attest to that, as can a Kosovo charity that was raising funds for Osama bin Laden. Then there's the KLA member whose application was found at an al Qaeda recruitment office in Afghanistan: "I have Kosovo Liberation Army combat experience against Serb and American forces...I recommend [suicide] operations against [amusement] parks like Disney."


Regardless, Clark has already promised his former campaign donors, the National Albanian American Council, that "Kosova" would be independent. In his op-ed, he even suggested pummeling the Serbs again if Belgrade got in the way; it's easier than fighting Albanian terrorists.


Despite a different administration being in power now, full secession still seems to be the likelihood, what with Congress, the UN, the State Department and a number of George Soros-funded NGOs (non-governmental organizations) pushing for it. If Kosovo does become independent, the international peacekeepers will have to leave, and with them our eyes and ears in this European terror haven and thruway.


Additionally, it will facilitate the continued push to create "Greater Albania", a fight that has already spread to Macedonia and means to embroil parts of Montenegro and northern Greece, as was the plan all along.


In between Krasniqi's on-camera descriptions of the planeloads of guns and ammo he's been sending over to Albania then smuggling by truck or mule into Kosovo, we see his all-American pre-teen daughter dancing around the house to J. Lo before the family's town car takes them to a relative's party at an Albanian catering hall, where Krasniqi is reminded to write a check to "Hyde for Congress." The guests dance on top of dollar bills, strewn about the dance floor like confetti, to a song about Kosovo and the KLA.


Today Kosovo is just five percent away from being ethnically pure--purged of all minorities via pogroms, which reached a crescendo in March of last year. Nearly 200 Serbian churches and monasteries have been burned, destroyed, spray-painted with "KLA" and/or used as a toilet.


There is a hotel outside Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Atop the hotel sits a tribute to those who helped achieve this dream: a makeshift reproduction of the Statue of Liberty.

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