AGAIN the first long use of information warfare by Russia in the Balkans to drive their narrative/agenda....
Russia unleashed a massive information war against Ukraine a FULL two years before annexing Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine.
How influence of Russian media risks making Serbia a Moscow bureau
https://cpj.org/blog/2016/10/how-inf...ng-serbia.php#
Here is the real reason for Russian activities in the Balkans outside of agitating EU and NATO....Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
A gas pipeline.....
The Southern Gas Corridor: Challenges to a geopolitical approach in the EU’s external gas supplies which would sidestep Russia's Gazprom...they want the pipeline stopped at all costs as it would cost Russian massively in lost gas revenues...and political influence...
http://bit.ly/2nuC7Vd
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-21-2017 at 07:54 AM.
50.000 gather in Skopje. 40 rallies across #Macedonia gather 150.000 people in largest protests vs Tirana platform
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti....DaX82IIb.dpuf
Albania Forms Commission on Mystery Spy Device
After claims broke in May that police had got hold of a mysterious device that could intercept communications, opposition MPs have won their demand for a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
Notice the Italian police basically lied.....Albania's parliament on Thursday approved the request of 35 opposition MPs to create a commission of inquiry into the mysterious electronic device “IMSI Catcher”, which some claim has been used to illegally intercept communications. The opposition accuses the Interior Minister, Saimir Tahiri, and police officials of using the device - given to them by Italian police as part of a training exercise - to intercept the communications of heads of institutions, leaders of parties, businessmen and journalists. The temporary commission will be comprised of 11 members - five MPs from the opposition and six from the ruling majority. In their request, the opposition MPs emphasized that the aim of the commission was to prevent such cases in future and identify those responsible for the misdeed. "We want to obtain knowledge of the full legal documentation used for this device ... to monitor the concrete behaviour and actions of the authorities included in this case, in order to shed light on this scandal," the request of the MPs reads. The prosecution already opened investigations into the case when the affair broke in May, while more information is still being gathered. An official source from the General Prosecution told BIRN that their investigation is continuing. "The prosecutors are waiting for the Italian authorities to reply to some requests for documentation that were made to them," the source told BIRN. When news of the use of “IMSI Catcher” broke in May, both the opposition and President Bujar Nishani accused the authorities of breaching the constitution. The head of Albania's Information Service, SHISH, Visho Ajazi, on May 19 told the parliamentary commission on security that the mysterious device that had entered in the country for police training purposes could pose a risk to national security. But Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri and the police insisted the device was not a piece of wiretapping equipment, although through it, telephone numbers used in a given area could be identified. Tahiri later mocked the opposition allegations, while at the police fair in Tirana on June 7, among the equipment on display was a black box captioned: "Is there a wiretapping device in here???". The Italian police in a letter to Albanian authorities, sent from senior police officer Gianpaolo Zambonini, backed the stand of Minister Tahiri, assuring that the device was not able to intercept communications. "The system is not able to carry out any kind of audio, SMS or data interception," the Italian police letter read.
NOTE....in this is included the Italian surveillance company that was recently hacked in 2016 and over 400G of data stolen and released on the internet....The Hacking Team probably sold the technology to the Italian police....An IMSI-catcher (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) is a telephony eavesdropping device used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking movement of mobile phone users. Essentially a "fake" mobile tower acting between the target mobile phone(s) and the service provider's real towers, it is considered a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/a...s-to-uk-policeOptima was a GSM and 3G based IMSI catcher, capable of tracking a phone's location, and intercepting phone calls and SMS messages. But that was years ago: The company likely has developed more advanced features since then. According to a 2015 email included in Italian surveillance company Hacking Team dump, Cellxion may have an IMSI catcher that can inject code using 3G, and in the company's annual report for 2015, Cellxion writes "Thanks to the foresight of planning an upgradeable and flexible platform we are still at the forefront of addressing the technical and operational needs of our customer base."
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-24-2017 at 11:22 AM.
EU Commission President @junckerEU says President Trump may trigger a potential war in Western Balkans:
http://www.politico.eu/article/junck...w-balkan-war/#
If I recall correctly, neither the EU nor its previous iterations did anything in the Balkans, which were pacified by American interventions. Juncker is truly the goofiest of the Eurocrats, and probably the dirtiest...
Would actually agree.....
Pacified by American interventions?
I am no fan of Mr Juncker, but this is a re-writing of history - with the USA riding to the rescue of the EU and the people in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Yes, just one part of the Balkan jigsaw and my remarks only apply to Bosnia.
The EU collectively made bad decisions at the start of Yugoslavia breaking up and once the civil war began - not in Bosnia - stood back relying on diplomacy. When Bosnia slipped into mayhem a number of EU nations contributed to the much-criticized UNPROFOR, which IIRC the USA made no contribution. It did send an envoy to head one mission in part of Croatia.
As the Bosnian civil war escalated, with horrors committed by all three sides, there were times when NATO, not the EU, threatened and used air power from August 1995 - a good part being provided by the USA (based in Italy IRRC).
The key event from my reading now years ago was the Serbian siege of Sarejevo; this was broken by the deployment of heavy artillery and mortars to Mt. Igman - an independent force, with Dutch, French & UK troops - who fired upon Serbian artillery.
Remember the Croats had launched an offensive in north-western Bosnia, which had significant US support, not "boots on the ground", in August 1995 and took significant Serbia territory.
The Dayton negotiations then went into high gear and the peace accords followed in November 1995. Only with the deployment of IFOR in December 1995 did US troops deploy to Bosnia; a significant two brigade force from Germany, with three allied brigades alongside.
I am sure there is a casualty list somewhere, but I would wager accidents aside the USA paid in gold, not blood when it was present on the ground.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-25-2017 at 11:27 AM. Reason: 42,919v
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