FLASH
Shkruar nga Ylli Pata
No one in Albanian politics has had the diplomatic opportunity of Sali Berisha regarding relations with the United States of America. Subsequently, Sali Berisha's history with the US has been chaotic. Even more than that; it has been problematic and for those who know diplomacy they say it has been amateurish.
The Democratic Party has always had a problem with the American administration. It even had it when it had excellent relations with Washington. Sali Berisha is still today the Albanian record holder for visits to the Oval Office. Twice; with President George Bush (old) and Bill Clinton, while he visited the mythical Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. Plus, in his most difficult time, Sali Berisha had a VIP visit to Vlora from the old Bush and General Colin Powell.
No one in Albanian politics has had the diplomatic opportunity of Sali Berisha regarding relations with the United States of America. But as is known, the doctor, like a cow with a bucket of milk, squandered this opportunity, showing at least a strategic lack of grasping the political momentum when it came to him.
Afterwards, Sali Berisha's history with the US has been chaotic. Even more than that; it has been problematic and, for those who know diplomacy, they say it has been amateurish.
Berisha, who was received in the Oval Office by Bill Clinton in 1995, a few months later severed relations with the gigantic apparatuses of the Empire: the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and most notably the American embassy.
Not in vain, Berisha clashed with all the ambassadors, even William Ryerson, who strongly supported the arrival of the DP in 1992. In 1996, the US administration declared Sali Berisha de facto Non Grata.
Meanwhile, the decision taken in 2021 was simply an opening from the archive. Not only had 7031/C not been approved, but in 1998, the State Department decided to bring calm to Albanian politics by sending a senior diplomat as charge d'affaires, Robert Frowick, whose mission was to keep Sali Berisha out of the conflict that occurred on September 14, 1998.
After all this time, Sali Berisha decided to connect with the US through lobbying channels, where he first consulted with the so-called Albanian lobby in New York. Who, however active they were, were simply relics of an old time. The real lobbyists of the Albanian lobby, starting with Diogardi, Bardha, etc., did not have good relations with Berisha.
Meanwhile, when he came to power in 2005, Berisha, as is known, was connected to the Belgrade and Sarajevo lobbies that had ties to the Republicans. It was Damir Fazliç, an old connection of the Serbian apparatus that had Republican administrative positions, starting with Eagleburgle or even Zimmerman. There are many rumors that even the diplomats who came to Tirana and Skopje after 1990 had come from the analyses of this group of apparatuses.
As is known, Fazlic's lobbying ensured Sali Berisha not only a détente with the administration of George Bush (the younger), but also the first visit of an American President to Albania in 2007. A leader of a small country like Albania cannot have more than that. So why did Sali Berisha break with the Americans? It is enough to look at the leaked cables from the Obama era to see what the Americans thought about the administration and the DP government. They are published and accessible on the Internet.
They don't just talk about corruption, but about a captured state, which was clearly revealed in the New York Times about Gërdec. And then, after January 21, when m… became a mullar, Sali Berisha chose Podesta Group, a lobbying company close to Barack Obama, to fix his image. Even then, a lot of money was taken, which of course is not publicly noted, but it is all noted somewhere.
Then came the opposition at war with the Non Grata Americans, then the lobbying with Lacivita and other Republican groups that took endless money, but at the end of the day: as the anecdote says: as it was, so it remains.
Meanwhile, the case of Edi Rama's invitation does not constitute a political development, but places Tirana, namely the head of the Albanian government, in a row of what is being called the new world order, namely the New Yalta. This does not simply refute the DP's rhetoric regarding Edi Rama, but actually turns off the energy generators that have been giving light to Berisha since the Non Grata declaration. The signs have just begun...
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