BETRAYAL IN THE BALKANS 31fighters with insurgent experience targeting the Soviets in Afghanistan trav-
eled to Bosnia to fight alongside their Muslim brethren. Between battles
with the Serbs, these mujahedeen wandered the empty streets of the city.
Many married local women.
Prior to the Bosnian War, Usama bin Laden had been funding muja-
hedeen fighters in Afghanistan.^1 As had the CIA. But American refusal
to directly intervene in Bosnia to protect the Bosnian Muslims from Serb
slaughter convinced bin Laden that the United States did not care and
was, in effect, complicit through its inaction. Al-Qaeda’s current leader,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, and 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammad
both visited Bosnia, and bin Laden himself was in Sarajevo in November
1994.^2 In addition to his opposition to the presence of “infidel” American
troops on sacred Saudi soil, Bosnia, I believe, was another genesis of bin
Laden’s hatred for America, and 9/11. I’m not alone in that assessment.^3
Although cognizant of the Iranian threat in Sarajevo, I, like most people,
was more concerned with surviving the daily wartime hazards in the city.
The Iranians were a threat, to be sure, but they were a secondary threat
under the circumstances. So, when my counterpart “Marko,” the head of
the Bosnian security service, called me into a room occupied only by him and
a tall, bearded Middle Eastern man in fatigues—and then dismissed me—I
took note but was not overly concerned by the strange incident.
The day after Marko “showcased” me to the Middle Easterner, I learned
from an unimpeachable source that the bearded man was none other than
the head of Iran’s intelligence office in Sarajevo. My source allowed me
to read an English translation of the Iranian’s secret ops cable sent to his
Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) masters in Tehran. In his classified cable,
the Iranian intelligence chief explained how he had tasked Marko to bring
me into the office so that he could see the new CIA chief in the flesh. His
physical description of me was accurate, although he incorrectly reported
that I had a military background.
The MOIS chief wasn’t just looking me over out of professional curi-
osity. I also learned that he was in fact planning an operation to kidnap,
torture, interrogate, and kill me. Probably in that order.