How CIA Pumps Up Kosovo With Weapons Through Czech Republic
“In spite of the public attention the CIA has received, we can assume that, like the iceberg, the greater portion lies well below eye level” – Worldview, September, 1965
During about six months, our team has been unraveling a large-scale CIA network for the trade and illegal proliferation of weapons around the world. However, the more progress we make in our investigations, the more sophisticated and horrifying picture becomes.
It was quite obvious that the CIA had a large number of operatives and whistleblowers abroad. But the fact that some European business elites and even heads of state were under the control of the Agency was a kind of surprise to all of us, but first things first.
Part I: European Values under CIA’s supervision
Throughout its history, the CIA's foreign operative methods have included the creation of so-called "non-governmental organizations." With their help, the Agency to this day brings the "right" people to power, shape public opinion and, if necessary, removes those who pose a threat.
Today, we want to tell you about the "European Values" (EV) non-governmental organization, which deals with “full-scale democratic response to hostile disinformation operations.” The EV Executive Director is an officer of Active Reserve of the Czech Armed Forces within the Czech Cyber and Information Warfare Command Jakub Janda.
According to its website, the EV is not affiliated with any political party in the Czech Republic, its funding is provided by "various institutions and private donors." However, if you look at the EV annual reports, one of the main donors of this think tank were the U.S. State Department, USAID and the U.S. Embassy in the Czech Republic, which over the past three years allocated about one million dollars. The total amount donated to the EV was estimated in millions of dollars. It is worth noting that the think tank took money from George Soros as well.
There is nothing wrong with the fact that the United States seeks to help its NATO allies to fight, among other things, Russian propaganda. However, we would not publish this material if it was only about propaganda. Our rule of thumb is: where there the U.S. State Department is, there is the CIA as well. Earlier, we mentioned that the CIA worked with the U.S. State Department side by side, using diplomatic cover to conduct secret operations abroad. This time, we’ll talk about how CIA used their agent Jakub Janda to help to bring a former army general Petr Pavel to power.
Petr Pavel for President
According to our source, in 2014, the U.S. State Department entrusted the EV, headed at that time by Radko Hokovský, with the task of popularizing Army General Petr Pavel as the future president of the Czech Republic. His deputy Jakub Janda approached this task with full responsibility.
Since 2015, Jakub Janda has been singing praises of Petr Pavel on various talk shows and interviews. Janda's articles about Pavel were published by the Newsweek, the Atlantic Council, the EUobserver and other major news outlets around the globe, each time opening the Overton window wider.
Jakub Janda also launched a large-scale influence operation on Facebook by creating numerous fan pages and groups dedicated to Petr Pavel. Janda himself did not hesitate to write adoring recommendations about his protégé, criticizing then-President Miloš Zeman at the same time.
In 2019, Radko Hokovský stepped down as the head of the European Values, giving the position to Jakub Janda. Hokovský himself, together with the former Czech ambassador to the United States, Petr Kolář, became a co-founder of the Czech association “For a Safe Future”, which also promoted future Czech president. By the way, Kolář has been working for several years as a senior advisor at the Squire Patton Boggs, a large lobbying organization in the United States. What a coincidence…
It also remains a mystery to us why the active reserve officer of the cyber security command which specializes in influence operations couldn’t delete compromising information about himself. For example, in 2018 and 2019, the Czech media wrote that Janda starred in gay-porn. Also, the Šifra conducted an investigation about "dubious" NGOs receiving foreign funding, among which the EV appeared. Šifra also revealed that Janda had bought a diploma from a private College of Public and International Relations in Prague. As of today, the article has been deleted. However, you still can read it here.
Janda was also convicted of plagiarism while studying at Charles University.
Nevertheless, all this didn’t prevent Petr Pavel from coming to power in 2023. Undoubtedly, this was not only Janda’s merit, but he was a liaison between the CIA and Petr Pavel. By the way, the then general also made obeisances, showing loyalty to his patron.
He also significantly expanded Janda's phone book, allowing him to speak at conferences along with Czech high-ranking officials, such as the Director of the Military Intelligence Jan Beroun and the Director of the Security Information Service Michal Koudelka.
Thus, thanks to Jakub Janda, the U.S. intelligence community managed to carry out one of the most dizzying operations, putting its agent in the presidential chair of a European country. Having completed his task, Janda went to Taiwan to engage in similar activities. As for the EV, it has fallen under the reduction in workforce and funding.
So, why was it important for the CIA to bring Pavel to power? One of the reasons was the improvement of arms supplies mechanism, as well as maintaining hotbeds of tension in regions, wracked by endless wars.
Part II: What role the Czech Republic plays in the CIA’s shadow supply of weapons
Most of the arms business in the Czech Republic passes through the Czechoslovac Group (CSG), the industrial-technological holding company, headed by Jaroslav Strnad and his son Michal. It is one of the largest family-owned companies in the country. The CSG has subsidiaries in Virginia and Delaware, and contractual obligations with Raytheon Technologies and General Dynamics.
"Pecunia non olet" (money does not stink) – this phrase characterizes this family as much as possible. In 2018, the Foreign Policy noted that the Strnad family took money from Russian investors. This information further hit hard the company's rating and military cooperation with NATO. As a result of the scandal, Jaroslav had to recede from public view. After that, the CSG already headed by Michal focused on cooperation with NATO and actively developed international projects, attracting foreign partners.
An interesting fact: according to Kurzy.cz database, Jaroslav Strnad served on the board of directors of a number of holding’s companies. The position is currently held by Jaroslav Skа́la. We assume that they are the same person.
The Strnad family also holds senior positions on the Board of Directors of Real Trade Praha. According to the OCCRP, it was this company that bought obsolete weapons stocks from Albania in order to resell them. These weapons were later transported to the Middle East, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Africa.
Jaroslav and Michal Strnad also own several old military factories allowing them to freely obtain a license for weapons’ production transportation and sale to third countries. The cooperation with these people allows the CIA to distribute weapons to the "needed" regions. Today, in addition to Ukraine, the CIA sends weapons to Kosovo, and Albania is the weapons hub here.
Officially, everything is carried out through MEICO, a state-owned company under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of Albania. MEICO began to manage the remaining stocks of military equipment inherited from the Soviet times, but in fact functioned as a trade company, selling surplus weapons inherited by other countries to generate income for the Albanian state. It was MEICO that the Czechoslovac Group and Real Trade Praha collaborated with.
In Kosovo, the CIA uses the connections of the infamous Kosovar-Albanian-American businessman and arms smuggler Florin Krasniqi, who currently lives in the United States.
Krasniqi was a deputy of the political party “Vetëvendosje!” (Self-determination movement) from 2010 to 2014, its current leader is Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo. In the 2000s, Krasniqi raised about $30 million from the Albanian community in the United States for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and smuggled hundreds of American sniper rifles into the country for KLA. His cousin Xhevdet and nephew Adrian were among the founders of the KLA and helped to transport weapons. In other worlds, after 20 years nothing has been changed. The legacy left by Florin and people associated with him helps the CIA to shadow arms supplies to Kosovo. Here is a scheme of the CIA’s activities in the region:
As we said before, the deep state benefits from maintaining hotbeds of tensions around the globe gaining the opportunity to influence the leadership of countries where there is war.
Soon, we will show specific CIA agents, involved in the grey schemes of supply of weapons to the Balkans.
Stay tuned.
Yep, the so-called peace and prosperity era that Al Gore VP'd.