Editing Osama bin Laden (section)

=== Yugoslav Wars ===
{{See also|Bosnian mujahideen}}
A former U.S. State Department official in October 2001 described [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as a safe haven for terrorists, and asserted that militant elements of the former [[Sarajevo]] government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Bin Laden.<ref name=SeattleTimes2001-10-15>{{Cite news |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20011015/bosnia15/bosnia-151-base-for-terrorism |title=Bosnia – base for terrorism |work=The Seattle Times |last1=Pyes|first1=Craig |last2=Meyer|first2=Josh |last3=Rempel|first3=William C. |date=15 October 2001 |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111119202404/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20011015&slug=bosnia15 |archive-date=19 November 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Middle East intelligence reports, Bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was [[Karim Said Atmani]], who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/50933336.html?FMT=ABS |title=A Bosnian Village's Terrorist Ties |newspaper=The Washington Post |last=Smith |first=R. Jeffrey |date=11 March 2000 |access-date=25 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725055852/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/50933336.html?FMT=ABS |archive-date=25 July 2012 }}</ref> He is a former roommate of [[Ahmed Ressam]], the man arrested at the [[Canada–United States border]] in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials.<ref name="csisAlmrei">[[Canadian Security Intelligence Service]], Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Hassan Almrei, 22 February 2008.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Baravalle |first=Giorgio |title=Rethink: Cause and Consequences of September&nbsp;11 |publisher=de-MO |year=2004 |page=584 |isbn=0-9705768-6-2}}</ref> He was convicted of colluding with Bin Laden by a French court.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20050817121245.htm |title=Jihadists find convenient base in Bosnia |agency=Assyrian International News Agency |last=Gossett |first=Sherrie |date=17 August 2005 |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051217231929/http://www.aina.org/news/20050817121245.htm |archive-date=17 December 2005 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former Mujahideen who were linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists, and had lived in the area {{convert|60|mi|km|sigfig=1|order=flip|abbr=on}} north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. [[Khalil al-Deek]] was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites. A second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Bin Laden. In its 26 June 1997 report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ''The New York Times'' noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslim forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Bin Laden.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Bin Laden was granted Bosnian passport", Agence France-Presse, 24 September 1999.</ref><ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/world/outsiders-bring-islamic-fervor-to-the-balkans.html |title=Outsiders Bring Islamic Fervor To the Balkans |work=The New York Times |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=23 September 1996 |access-date=25 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705164148/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/23/world/outsiders-bring-islamic-fervor-to-the-balkans.html |archive-date=5 July 2011 }}</ref>{{Verify source|date=January 2021}}

In 1999, the press reported that Bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and [[Bosnian passport]]s in 1993 by the government in Sarajevo. The Bosnian government denied this information following the September 11 attacks, but it was later found that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation, a new explanation was given that Bin Laden did not personally collect his Bosnian passport and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who he was at the time.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="query.nytimes.com" />{{Verify source|date=January 2021}}

The head of Albania's State Intelligence Service ([[SHISH]]), Fatos Klosi, said that Bin Laden was running a terror network in [[Albania]] to take part in the [[Kosovo War]] under the guise of a humanitarian organization and it was reported to have been started in 1994. Claude Kader, who was a member, testified its existence during his trial.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apnews.com/6d844d0d31d7cf39ccd52891567235be |title=Bin Laden, Albania Link Reported |website=[[Associated Press]] |access-date=8 October 2018 |archive-date=9 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009013427/https://apnews.com/6d844d0d31d7cf39ccd52891567235be |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1998, four members of EIJ were arrested in Albania and extradited to Egypt.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mayer|first=Jane |title=The Dark Side |year=2008 |publisher=Doubleday |page=114 |isbn=978-0-385-52639-5}} (0-385-52639-3)</ref> The mujahideen fighters were organized by Islamic leaders in Western Europe allied to him and al-Zawahiri.<ref name="Bodansky2011">{{cite book|last=Bodansky|first=Yossef|title=Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vur8xnVanEUC&pg=PA398|date=4 May 2011|publisher=Crown Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-79772-8|pages=398–403|access-date=26 October 2018|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019145435/https://books.google.com/books?id=vur8xnVanEUC&pg=PA398|url-status=live}}</ref>

During his trial at the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]], former Serbian President [[Slobodan Milošević]] quoted from a purported FBI report that al-Qaeda had a presence in the Balkans and aided the [[Kosovo Liberation Army]]. He claimed Bin Laden had used Albania as a launchpad for violence in the region and Europe. He claimed that they had informed [[Richard Holbrooke]] that KLA was being aided by al-Qaeda but the US decided to cooperate with the KLA and thus indirectly with Osama despite the U.S. embassy bombings earlier. Milošević had argued that the U.S. aided the terrorists, which culminated in its backing of the 1999 [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]] during the Kosovo War.<ref>{{cite news|last=Roche|first=Andrew |url=http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20020215/milosevicdc.html|title=Milosevic: U.S. was Ally of Al Qaeda in Kosovo|agency=Reuters |date=15 February 2002|via=FindLaw|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020220040734/http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20020215/milosevicdc.html|archive-date=20 February 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Scahill |first1=Jeremy |title=Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Milosevic Can't Talk Anymore |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rest-easy-bill-clinton-mi_b_17235 |website=Huffington Post |date=13 March 2006 |access-date=19 June 2020 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202135015/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rest-easy-bill-clinton-mi_b_17235 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Al-Qaeda 'helped Kosovo rebels' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1862515.stm |website=BBC News |date=8 March 2002 |access-date=19 June 2020 |archive-date=9 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809231059/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1862515.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=US backed Al Qaeda in Kosovo: Milosevic: Chinese embassy bombing termed deliberate |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/21743/us-backed-al-qaeda-in-kosovo-milosevic-chinese-embassy-bombing-termed-deliberate |website=Dawn |date=16 February 2002 |access-date=19 June 2020 |archive-date=24 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724072002/https://www.dawn.com/news/21743/us-backed-al-qaeda-in-kosovo-milosevic-chinese-embassy-bombing-termed-deliberate |url-status=live }}</ref>