By Boldnews.al
US journalist Guy Lawson in an interview with journalist Rudina Xhunga on the “Dritare” show that Gerdec’s grave incident implies much incrimination since the then prime minister Sali Berisha, Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu and the current government. From his investigation of this event, he came to the conclusion that Gerdec is in the interest of being kept secret by the US and Albanian governments. In this interview, the journalist tells of the incrimination in the Gerdec event of the Albanian, American, Pentagon, and mafia links with the event. His lengthy investigation he has also summed up in a book, with the desire for truth to come out and put more pressure on it to learn.
Full interview of “Dritare” show by Rudina Xhunga:
I want to ask you a question from Geraldo Durda, the brother of a 6-year-old child killed in Gerdec.
His question is: Former Chief of General Staff, convicted 5 years by the appellate court, as responsible in the Gerdec tragedy, is now asylumed in America. Luan Hoxha, according to a US cable, reported on Gerdec’s involvement with the Prime Minister’s son. This was subsequently denied. How is the US admitted its asylum application?
This is not only possible but also makes a lot of sense if you look at it from the Americans’ point of view. All the people in power, when Gerdec exploded, demanded that the problem be removed. They did not want to make a serious investigation and they did not want to reveal the ties with the Defense Minister, the Prime Minister’s son, and perhaps even the Prime Minister himself. Within the US Embassy in Tirana there was evidence that US officials were aware of the demilitarization project in Gerdec and that any investigation to find it would jeopardize relations between Albania and the United States, as the Albanian people would know what they are it really happened. And so, when the Chief of Staff sought asylum, the most obvious thing that the United States could do with the Albanian government was to accept his request and bring him abroad. I know he lives here, I have tried to find it, but without success, but even if I find it. ” From what I understand and what my sources have told me, he is very scared by the rulers with whom he has connections not only from the Albanian government but also from the US government. So what I want to tell my boy’s brother is, thank you for reading the book. I hope we can do something to uncover the truth, but the reality is that both the Albanian government and the US government share the interest in keeping it secret.
Was Ambassador Withers involved
He refused to talk about it in the dictation because he did not want to be involved in any way in this book, but I can tell you that I have not found anything in my search. I also believe, and I think it is fair to say that he felt sorry for what happened in Gerdec and would like to help Albania get rid of this culture of corruption. So I do not see him as someone involved.
But who was then?
The Prime Minister of Albania and the Minister of Defense. We have millions of dollars missing from the dismantling of a surplus of ammunition, we have 26 civilians killed; you have a man, Costa Trebicka, who told the truth to power that led the truth to the New York Times and then to the Pentagon, and finally to the US Department of Justice and none of them wanted to know about the truth. In fact, this was turned to him. So what I mean is that the corrupt political structure in Albania in co-operation with the US government in allowing that corruption meant that Albanian officials did not hold responsibility and certain individuals came out of this multi-million dollar scheme.
What about the people embedded in the US Embassy, what did they do?
I have the names, I have documents and I would be happy to check and give them to the Albanian government if a serious investigation into this matter would be made and I would be happy to cooperate with them. As it turned out after the book was published, my publisher said from the very beginning that this material was very specific to Albania to be published, with specific names and it was dangerous to publish them due to federal procedures here in the United States. So the context in which I can share this information should be for a court in a serious investigation. So I can not give the names, but if I gave it I would not help. The point is that there are people within the US government who feel that there is more than a dubious behavior about the way and order in which these ammunition were sold and dismantled. Like any mafia, it seemed as if the Ministry of Defense of Albania was doing it for the benefit of the country, while doing it for personal gain. In fact, I wanted to know more about the involvement of the US Embassy in Tirana and the Ambassador of the United States. I can actually tell you a story. It happened that a New York Times reporter came to Tirana in 2008 after Kosta Trebicka had spoken of the New York Times. The journalist went to interview the Defense Minister, Mediu, in the Ministry of Defense. Mediu thought this would be a moment when he would appear in the New York Times newspaper and thought he would talk about Albania’s membership in NATO and so on. They started the interview and the reporter immediately said he knew about his relationship with AEY, knowing that the cartridges were bought for 2 cents and sold for 4 cents and asked where the millions of dollars had gone from their difference. Minister Mediu saw strangely, shouted and shouted. All this was filmed by a young Albanian cameraman working in the ministry.
That night, Mediu, asked for a meeting with ambassador Withers. What happened at that meeting is subject to some controversy, but it is certain that one thing happened; Mediu ordered all the small caliber AK-47 ammunition to Tirana airport to be relocated, so that when the New York Times journalist would go the next day, he would not find them. They moved all night and you know where they ended up? In Gerdec, because Gërdec was a place where you can hide everything. So this is one of the cases where I can say that Ambassador Withers knew that the Minister of Defense was actively trying to deceive and hide this from the New York Times. As a journalist I do not think it is responsible to draw conclusions when you can not, but there is more than one doubt that there was involvement inside the embassy. If the ambassador does not take specific measures, this does not mean that the Embassy is unaware of what is happening.
But know more than that, you have names, but you can not tell them!
I’m not trying to keep you away from this. I know you want names, names, names, but that’s more complicated than that. MEIKO was an Albanian arms company, which sold 2 cents in a Cyprus company that sold these ammunition AK-47 for 4 cents each cartridge. But you know it was hundreds of thousands of cartridges. So what happened with the difference between 2 and 4 cents? It’s about millions of dollars and they just disappeared. This was a clear corruption within the Ministry of Defense. This was kept hidden and involved officials gained immunity; the people of Gërdec have not yet received any justice and the Albanian people will not know what kind of society they are living because officials within the Berisha government and now, within the rama government, are not telling the truth
Nothing can be hidden forever. Do you think the facts will come out one day?
They need courage to resist. It’s easy for me as a journalist in America to be brave enough to force people to tell the truth, but I also know that an Albanian journalist is much more difficult. If you look at the case of Costa Trebicka and his death in very suspicious circumstances in a car accident that has not been properly investigated, understand what happens if you try to tell the truth and resist these people. So I think a little bit of American diplomacy is needed to speak not only about the desire for open and honest government in Albania, but to make officials responsible. Something more needed than Edi Rama himself and the people around him. Erion Veliaj, who is the new mayor of Tirana before being involved in politics, was an activist and he once told me that he wanted to have an inquiry into this event and that he was committed to it. Now he is in power and … I suggest that Vizion Plus go and ask, why did not you ask to open an investigation; what has changed; why what happened in Gerdec is no longer meaningful; why do not the lives of people matter? does not Kosta Trebicka matter anymore?
Why do you think they do it?
I think power corrupts. It’s easy to talk about things from the outside, but when you’re inside and see the complications and implications, you’re afraid that it can turn you back. It is dangerous to criminalize the political process. It happens that every time a new president or prime minister comes, the other gets into jail. These are the kind of situations that make people not leave the power. It is true that there is a kind of agreement with the political class, but when there is such corruption and when people are killed, the truth must also be said. So I want to urge Edi Rama to set aside the fear of creating a retaliatory political culture and find a way to tell the truth. When the truth comes out then people will be liberated and most importantly, their future will be liberated. I was in Albania during the Kosovo War and I know that the country has terribly suffered in its history because of its poor leadership. I think that your country awaits a beautiful future forward if there is a way to change this political culture significantly.
Could you tell me something about the Albanian politicians involved in Gerdec that you did not include in the book because they did not have interest in America?
Not that they did not have an interest, but they were very specific to Albania to be published, I believe you understand me. However, most of this information was related to the Minister of Defense Mediu. His daughter studied at a Texas school where the annual tax was $ 40,000, while the minister’s salary was $ 20,000 a year. So tell me how it was possible. Defense Minister Mediu always came to the United States for the Morning Prayer, a kind of ceremony where conservative Republicans and some Democrats gathered to pray for the future in the world and Mediu was taken as a Christian. When he met Ambassador Withers once, the ambassador thinking that Mediu was a Christian asked him to say a prayer. All Albanian officials began to laugh because, basically, they played a game with American politicians doing things to please them. This sounds like a joke, but you have to understand that Albania is predominantly Muslim, is strongly pro-American and has a very weak legal situation. I wonder how far the United States is heading in terms of registering dark operations within Albania. I do not know if the truth will arise, but Albania, as a NATO member country, as a country trying to be part of Europe, after thousands of years of being between Europe and the Arab world, needs to create its own way and not to be cowardly in the shadow of America.
I have a personal question. How did you start working on this case? How did you get all the information? Or an investigative journalist never finds its source?
No, I can not reveal my resources, it would not be a good idea. For curiosity, I’m telling you something. I saw a story on the front page of the New York Times stating that two young Americans, according to the New York Times, had cheated the Pentagon by signing a contract of some old and poor quality ammunition to supply Afghanistan. Like a madness and I said to myself, wax, they could have made it true ?! Tell you something, how a journalist, whenever something seems impossible, it is something that interests me and follows those stories. You have to be persistent and you should not accept ‘no’ as an answer. This story took me several years, it’s not that I decided one day, so in vain, to learn more about this story. It also took time for me because I was skeptical, because what I discovered was that the New York Times (I write for the New York Times, but also report on NYT), in my opinion, wrote history
The real story here is how the Pentagon was doing a great job in Afghanistan and Iraq and, years later, both of these wars were lost. This is the tragedy of this, in a broader framework.
How is it that the Pentagon has signed such an important deal with two young men?
I will give you a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is that this is the internet time. The Pentagon did not know who these guys were. They were just a company that had a website and offered cheaper prices. But a longer answer would be that the United States government essentially sought a contract with the lowest price. The US government sought to send these weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan in these lands they invaded, knowing the consequences of what would happen after the wars. So it was not as late as to who they were contracting with, just wanting to finish the job. When you have such an attitude and plan, you can end up making great mistakes. Nobody tried, except the New York Times, in fact the US government admits that it is not true that ammunition did not work. They worked. This is the key to all this. In fact the boys were doing a good job. It was all around them, like the Pentagon, the New York Times, the Department of Justice, and the Albanian government, who led them to jail. All these powers went panic and wanted someone to blame and blamed the boys. The boys had no power, no office, no authority. So they ended up blaming them. Strangely, history is exactly the opposite of what is portrayed. This is a very strange story and I hope people read the book. I hope that Albanians try to force people like Erion Veliaj and Edi Rama to keep their word and support the Gerdec victims. Do not expect help from outside. Because Hollywood will release this tune, which is a black comedy. But Hollywood is not too late for real history, honestly neither the New York Times is late. It’s people like me and you who love Albania, so we need to put more pressure on the truth to come out.
