FBI an eyesore, again
Move agent's trial to Albania
The U.S. ought to hold the trial of disgraced former super FBI counterintelligence agent Charles McGonigal in Tirana, Albania, the site of his alleged shakedown schemes.
Why Albania? Because that is where all the witnesses are, many of whom are barred from entering the United States — declared persona non grata — based on nonexistent or phony sanctions.
An open trial in Tirana would allow the U.S. to show its little NATO ally — and the rest of the world — how there are not two systems of justice in America, or in Albania.
Although that would be hard to sell, there still might be some people who believe it
Albania is a country where McGonigal got rich without the FBI knowing anything about his rogue behavior. And that behavior included cementing a secret relationship with Albanian Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The indictments against McGonigal, to which he has pleaded not guilty, include accepting $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian intelligence officer with ties to Rama. The payoff for alleged illegal services rendered came from the Russians or the Albanians, but probably both. McGonigal worked the Russian side of the street as well.
While Rama has acknowledged meetings with McGonigal, he has denied any wrongdoing but has thwarted attempts for an internal investigation.
His political opponents in the center-right Democrat Party have charged, however, that McGonigal was paid to stigmatize and destroy Rama opponent Sali Berisha, a former prime minister, by recommending that he be smeared with sanctions to thwart a political comeback.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2021 declared Berisha persona non grata on unspecified “corrupt acts” that allegedly took place while Berisha was in power eight years earlier. Berisha is planning to challenge Rama in 2025.
Also interesting is the looming presence of billionaire George Soros, long active in Albania — and long attacked by Berisha — who in the name of reform is attempting to do with the Albanian criminal justice system what he has done to the criminal justice system in the U.S.
Berisha maintains that if anyone should be declared persona non grata it is George Soros.
Blinken’s parents Vera and Donald Blinken, who share Soros’ Hungarian interests, have close ties to Soros and funded Soros’ Open Society Archives a Central European University in Budapest, which Soros founded. Perhaps Blinken was doing a favor for dad’s friend. Soros is from Hungary.
Not only that, but U.S. Albanian Ambassador Yuri Kim has also thrown herself into Albanian politics as no other ambassador has ever done. Kim tried to get Berisha thrown out of the Democrat Party, which he originally founded upon the fall of communism in 1999.
Failing that, as a favor to Rama, she tried to get the Democrat Party to unseat Berisha as a member of Parliament even though he was duly elected. She also said that Washington would stop all dialogue with the Democrat Party if Berisha returned as its head, which he did.
Berisha is no saint. Outside of Mother Theresa, there are no saints in the Balkans. There are no saints in the FBI either.
But Berisha was and is a staunch anti-communist who was the first leader of the Democrat Party following the ouster of the Communist regime. He served as president from 1992 to 1997, and again as prime minister from 2005 to 2013. He was always staunchly pro-American.
It does not matter who runs Albania, as far as the U.S. is concerned. That is because no matter who is in charge, Albania follows U.S. foreign policy and is helpful in providing sites for military air bases or taking in Afghan refugees
So, what mystifies Balkan observers is why Biden would meddle in Albanian politics and turn on the 77-year-old Berisha. Left alone, he would be in retirement tending his garden. Now, thanks to McGonigal and Blinken he has been given new life.
If I were a member of Congress, or a persona non grata, I would want to know what Blinken and McGonigal did in Albania. The story smells.