The nervous prime minister: We are not Greece’s spies The Albanian secret service does not operate intelligence on Greece, while the Greek secret service has plenty of agents in Tirana within state structures pages 2, 3, 4

It seems that one thing from the newspaper “KJ”, in the secret report sent to the Greek Prime Minister, Simitis, about Greece’s relations with its neighbors, clearly set out the role Albania is playing. I note the response of the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, who said that in the middle of this year the Albanian government dismissed the counterintelligence regiment that had been prepared for Greek intelligence, in order to please the Greek government. In fact, the Albanian government’s counter-response to the article in question was utterly violent in relation to the truth being denounced, but it says a great deal about the mental state of some senior official. Yesterday, after the publication of the Greek report, the head of the Albanian state spoke about Greece. In a completely strange way, he replied before being asked, but this time not as head of state but as an advocate of Greek policy in Albania. In particular regarding counterintelligence. Nano in 1997, after taking power back, dissolved the counterintelligence forces “Vigjilja” as slander and betrayal; the senior figure did not react to the attack and is now reacting against journalists and not against foreign intelligence networks. Did the prime minister speak angrily and with vulgar language toward the Greek government? No! The prime minister has admitted that Greece’s relations with its neighbors are better organized than Albania’s. Moreover, he himself justified this with the argument that Albania has not been able to prepare people for intelligence work in neighboring countries. So he has admitted that in the highest offices, including the Greek government and in Greece, according to the standards of the modern world, there is a need for spies or for diplomacy. In the modern world the two go together. Nano stated that in some Albanian state offices there are Greek agents. They are not only agents, but more, they are subscribers. In the modern world governments try to interfere, they are on TV, etc. If you are prime minister and you admit that Albania is not represented in Greece with intelligence, while Greece has filled this gap, that has a clear meaning. It means that Albania is without a state. How can the opposite be explained when intelligence forces existed in 1997, which Simitis dismissed? In contradiction with the reasoning of Albanian government officials. Yesterday the head of the Greek government said that spies are everywhere, even in his family. This is a clear answer to the Albanian authorities. If the secret excerpts from Simitis’s report were made public, our Albanian public intelligence structure would completely lose itself in a country without laws and lifeblood, without an economy and with agents fleeing into emigration. This is roughly the answer of the Albanian state counterintelligence to Greece. How is it explained that counterintelligence does not act against Greek networks in Tirana? This is the darkest part of the article in “KJ”, which also worries the authorities greatly. Since a secret report by Simitis on Albania was published by the newspaper, has there been panic in the administration? Because their panic is an admission of guilt, not of the truth. The Ministry of the Interior and the government are unable to refute the Greek document. For this reason they reacted with physical violence against the TV Klan journalist Vladimir Lame and with pressure on “Koha Jonë” and the editorial office. This is a clear indicator that they do not have the force of argument, but a mad force and fear. For this newspaper it is not merely a matter of political clashes, but of a deep lack of statehood in Albania. If this has made a country without a state, then Albanians have reason to suspect that state structures are controlled more by businesses with Athens than by the Albanian national interest.

After the publication yesterday of the secret material by the newspaper “Koha Jonë”, the Minister of Finance forcibly dragged out of his office the TV Klan journalist Vladimir Lame, while the government reacts in panic

REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA COUNCIL OF MINISTERS Information Department Council of Ministers, Tirana, Tel & fax. 00355 42 37560, E-Mail: depinf@amid.com Tirana, 11 August 2000 Statement by the prime minister’s spokesperson The prime minister’s spokesperson, in the press, is commenting? and makes a loud release published under the title “Greece-spies in the Albanian government” declared the following: The material published today in the daily “dylime-spektakël”, a mirror and inadequate for the Albanian government. Our relations with Greece are open, sincere and stable.

Address: “Milo Petra”, P. 2, Tirana For reservations: Tel: (355 42) 334 94 / 351 62 Tel & Fax: 308 57, 755 80

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