FLASH
Shkruar nga Peter Lucas
McGonigal's arrest caused a political firestorm in Albania. However, Rama, the leader of the Socialist Party, was able to overcome the storm. He has been assisted by Blinken, the US Embassy and the State Department, who continue to support him...
It was more than a coincidence. While Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Tirana praising Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama last week, an FBI agent linked to Rama was sentenced to prison for bribery.
Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, 55, once the head of the FBI's counterintelligence office in New York, was sentenced to two years in prison last Friday after pleading guilty to accepting a $225,000 payment. dollars in hard cash.
The money came from a former Albanian intelligence agent, Agron Neza, now an American citizen, who attended meetings with McGonigal and Rama, both in Washington and in Tirana.
The sentence followed the four years McGonigal was given for the Russian dossier.
McGonigal, who admitted to having an ongoing affair with Rama, met secretly with the Albanian prime minister and Neza on several occasions.
In a meeting in Tirana on September 9, 2017, about which the FBI knew nothing, McGonigal discussed, among other things, oil field drilling contracts with Rama. McGonigal even presented Rama with an FBI baseball cap.
Soon after, McGonigal allegedly accepted the money in several payments from Neza during meetings in New York. It is not clear what McGonigal did in exchange for the money.
Rama has denied any violation of the law and he has not been investigated, neither in the USA nor in Albania, where he controls justice.
That September visit was one of several trips McGonigal made to Albania, a small former communist country where political corruption and drug money laundering are common.
McGonigal's arrest caused a political firestorm in Albania. However, Rama, the leader of the Socialist Party, was able to overcome the storm.
He has been aided by Blinken, the US Embassy and the State Department, who continue to support him while cracking down on Rama's main political opponent, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Berisha, 79, seeking a political comeback, is running against Rama in 2025.
Blinken has entered Albanian politics strongly, which may stem from Berisha's previous attacks on George Soros, a friend of Blinken's family, who has sought to influence Albanian politics and its justice system.
Blinken's former ambassador to Albania, Yuri Kim, entered Albanian politics as no other American official has. She tried to get Berisha out of the Democratic Party, which he founded after the fall of communism. Failing with this scenario, she tried to remove him as an MP.
Blinken previously did a favor to Rama, when he declared "non grata" Berisha, once quite beloved by the State Department.
He declared Berisha as "persona non grata" for "corrupt acts", which allegedly happened when Berisha was in power eight years ago.
Most recently, in December, Rama placed Berisha under house arrest for the suspected corruption of a land deal concluded 15 years ago.
Blinken's brief stopover in Tirana, en route to the Munich Security Conference, served as a major public relations distraction for the McGonigal/Rama relationship and McGonigal's conviction.
The visit also symbolized Blinken's approval of Rama's decision to arrest Berisha and cripple his campaign. "Corrupt officials are being punished," Blinken told Albanian reporters, indicating that he was referring to Berisha, not McGonigal or anyone else in Albania.
Meanwhile, Berisha speaks every night from the balcony of his apartment in Tirana to the supporters who gather in the street below the palace.
Like Joe Biden, Edi Rama with the help of Blinken is making sure that his opponent campaigns from a prison cell. Politics in Albania is tribal, vile and vindictive, just like in America.
Berisha is certainly not holy, but neither is Rama. The last Albanian saint was Mother Teresa.
The unanswered question is: Where did the $225,000 profit come from and what was it for?/ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Boston Herald"
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