Full transcript of the interview
00:00 On Bektasevic and his associate arrested
It’s absolutely not a new story, the story itself, the two people, Bektasevic and the other one the Turkish one, were arrested in October 2005 and their associates were arrested one or two months later. At the time the police seized approximately 60-80 kgof explosives and arms, munitions etc. The two people were believed to prepare suicide attacks in Europebut it was not new to find those kind of people in Bosnia. In the last years we knew that Bosniawas one of the centres of Djihadists in Europe, especially in eastern Europe and in the Balkans.
00:50 On a terrorist threat from Kosovo, Albania
In Kosovo and Albaniawe have other problems, no real terrorism or “djihadism” or islamist threat in Kosovo or Albania, the threat of organized crime, drug trafficking, human being trafficking and so on. But the terrorist threat in Kosovo or Albaniadoes not exist for the moment. It could exist in the future but for the moment it’s the usual mafia business. And nothing more. It could be a little different in Macedoniabut it’s difficult to understand what’s happening there. The main focus and the main concern for the European and the USintelligence services and security today in the Balkans is still clearly Bosniawhere during the war in the nineties, hundreds of people came from Algeria, Morocco, France, Belgium, Germanyto fight with the Muslims and some of those people stayed there. A lot of them were expelled in 2000 and beginning of 2001 but we know since a few months people are coming back to Bosnia. They are not a lot, they are probably a few dozens of people but it’s enough to prepare large scale terrorist attacks.
02:15 On the terrorist risk in Macedonia
It is not very clear because we know that in Macedoniawe have a serious concern about fundamentalism but fundamentalism and terrorism are obviously different things. They are linked, a terrorist was a fundamentalist before becoming a terrorist but all the fundamentalists don’t necessarily become terrorists. So the problems could be a little bit different and in Macedoniafor the moment we have no clear sign of “djihadist” or “salafi” action. This is not the case in Bosnia, in Bosniawe have those signs.
02:57 On the cooperation of the Balkans with EU intelligence services.
I think that the cooperation between the various services in the Balkans including the Albanians with the European counterparts and more with the UScounterparts is quite good, so there is a concern but the local intelligence, security and law reinforcement services are doing their best.
03:23 On the European perspective of the Balkans as a means to fight against terrorism.
The fact that we want to include Croatiaand later Macedoniaand one day probably Bosnia, Albaniabut in the future will help because it strengthens the governments and the administrations and between the various security services but it’s clearly also a political struggle in the Balkans between EU and US. Europeans have a lot of ambitions in the Balkans but the UShave maybe more financial means and they help concretely the security forces and the intelligence services.
04:09 On the fact that EU doesn’t comment what happened
The fact that the EU doesn’t want to comment the situation is probably related to the fact that they have their own concerns about the security of their forces in the Balkans. As you know, in Bosniathere is a European army coming from various European countries which is trying to re-establish and secure the peace. Those people are a primary target for the terrorists there but the targets are not only in Bosnia, they could be everywhere in Europe. It’s quite easy from Bosniato go to other countries in Europeand to hit a USembassy in Italy, a NATO base in Greece.
05:00 Can the Bosnians help in the fight against terrorism and how?
I don’t think that the Bosnians are a part of the problem, the Bosnians suffered a terrible war in the nineties. Most of the Bosnians, even if the Muslim is probably higher now that it was in the eighties, don’t represent a threat by itself for Europe, we think. But of course where you have a large Muslim community it’s very easy for the terrorists and fundamentalists to hide themselves and to find help, safe houses, money, arms and so on especially in the Balkans where it’s very easy to find arms, munitions and explosives. So they are not really part of the problem, most of those people, especially those who were arrested there are not Bosnians. They are Swedish, Turkish, Moroccan and they were in Bosnia during the war to help their Muslim brothers but they are not Bosnians, we didn’t find in all the terrorist cells dismantled since 2001, that means dozens of cells, we didn’t find a Bosnian, or maybe one or two. We found a lot of people but no Bosniaso clearly the threat comes from abroad. There clearly the Bosnian Muslims could be a part of the solution. They could help us to find the people who are there and to try to participate in the Djihad or to prepare terrorist actions. And it’s clearly their interest to help us do it.
06:50 On the alleged terrorist training camps in Bosnia
To compare the situation to Afghanistane.g. we never found in Bosniaa camp as we found in Afghanistan, it doesn’t exist. But in some parts of the country, e.g. in Zenica we have some concerns about safe houses where people were trained but very few people. The most important affair in Zenica in the last years involved, if I’m right, six people. So it exists but on a very, very small scale. Why the government denies it? I think all the governments in the world deny this kind of things. I don’t know one government who will say yes of course I have terrorist training in my country, this is sad but what can I do? It doesn’t exist, it’s just a political game.
07:46 Is Bosnia a dangerous place?
I think that if you take the number, the terrorist haven will not be Bosnia but France or Belgium, we have much more presumed terrorists here than in Bosnia, so I don’t think if we compare Bosnia with France or Belgium or Netherlands it’s in favour of Bosnia. Bosniais a quieter place than France, Belgiumor Netherlandsfrom this point of view.
08:20 On the CIA flights and detentions. What should the Balkans do?
On the case of the CIA flights the only comment I could make is that I think the attitude of Europeis a little bit hypocrite. Everyone involved in counter terrorism knew for years that CIA was operating these flights and those extraordinary renditions to countries where the treatment of prisoners is not the same as in Europeor USA. It is not a new matter. The EU discovered it a year ago, it was in the press since 2001 and the first case was in Albaniain 1999 – CIA and SIK, the Albanian secret services arrested two Egyptians in Tirana which were preparing a terrorist attack against USinterest in Europe, they expelled them to Egypt. In Egyptthey were interrogated and they were hanged. End of the story, and everything was public in the NY Times a year later, so it’s not very new. The second point is that in all the cases known for the moment, those people were not kidnapped by the CIA, they were delivered officially to the CIA by the European governments, e.g. in Swedenand other countries. So I think this is a dangerous matter for Europeand at the end of the day we’re still with the question: what must we do with those people? We are confronted to people which are ready to blow up themselves in a school or in a fashion store or in a train, metro, they are ready to kill dozens of hundreds of people and we are limited by the legal means that we have in Europe or US. I don’t say that we must throw away all the civil rights and the legal rights of the people but I just ask what must we do with those people? I would advise them probably, but I don’t know the concrete case, to try to have a clear communication denying what is possible to deny of course and what is false but also recognizing some things. We are in a situation of war, we didn’t declare this war, the war was declared to us by the “Djihadists” and now we must defend ourselves. What do we want? Bomb exploding in Macedoniaor do we want to be protected in Macedonia? If we want to be protected in Macedonia, we have to make some difficult choices at some moment. I think this could be understood by the society. Of course it does’t authorize the government to do anything, to kill people in the streets and deny all the civil rights. I think to speak to the people as adults is ever the best solution.
12:05Cutaways of Mr Moniquet’s hands 12:26Cutaways of his office 12:33Cutaways of Mr Moniquet at work 12:44Cutaways of Mr Moniquet at work 13:18Mr Moniquet holds a box of matches
13:41: END OF TRANSMISSION | 
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