By Çim Peka

2017 has such a potential to become a dramatic year that the consequences that are showing up only now before the local and international public opinion are likely to determine Albania’s political trajectory perhaps for the next two decades. In the public and political debate that erupted after the indictment by the US Department of Justice against the highest-level former FBI official ever arrested, the key role of the Albanian Prime Minister and his close associates stands out. Reading the indictment, a few elementary details could be noted despite the scarce public information.

First, last September the US authorities asked Edi Rama and his government to make available to the FBI any kind of communication and contact with the indicted former official, which shows that not only Rama, but also other officials of his at both central and local level are involved with him, of course per order of the big boss.

Second, the accusation links Edi Rama and the former FBI official with a Chinese company, a story that will hit the headlines in the United States in the coming months.

Third, the indictment mentions that the former FBI official helped Edi Rama to attack his political opponents in Tirana. We recall here that in 2017 Lulzim Basha was involved in the scandal with the so-called Russian funding, which was first published in the George Soros-funded Mother Jones, pushed by another former FBI agent, part of Rama’s entourage, through the magazine's Editor-in-Chief for Washington DC. Just at that time, the FBI opened an investigation against Basha's lobbyist, whereas the Albanian Prosecutor's Office did the same against the latter for money laundering. From that moment, Edi Rama took Lulzim Basha hostage. The rest is history. What is not publicly known is that the Albanian prosecutor's request to the FBI to interview Nick Muzin, Basha's lobbyist, remained unanswered, and the case against Basha was closed. Coincidence? No. DOJ’s indictment also mentions the former FBI official's meeting with a former politician-businessman. It is not difficult to understand that this meeting had Ilir Meta as the object of its attack.

The question is: why did Edi Rama have to use the FBI for lobbying against Sali Berisha and Ilir Meta? The truth is that Rama did not need the FBI for (his fight against) Berisha and Meta, but he feared the FBI due to his connections to the criminal organizations and drugs traffic. Lobbying against Berisha and Meta was merely a complement, not Rama’s primary goal of his contacts with officials and former officials of the FBI. And here's why.

In a recent radio show, American journalist and Republican columnist Dan Bongino connects Edi Rama to the South American Sinaloa drug cartel. 2017 brought for the first time to Albania the former FBI Special Agent Charles McGonigal, now arrested, along with two other FBI former top officials. That year, Edi Rama met them at least twice in Tirana. In 2017, Saimir Tahiri left the post of Minister of the Interior to be arrested later. His connections to international drug trafficking are known already. But that is not enough. These are not the only contacts Edi Rama had with FBI former senior officials.

In 2017, the former Director of the FBI under President Bill Clinton, Louis Freeh, also visited Albania several times. In addition to the meetings with Rama, he also had several meetings with Interior Minister Fatmir Xhafaj, whose brother was wanted internationally for drug trafficking. Media reported that the Albanian Government had signed a consultancy contract with the Freeh's company, Freeh Group International Solutions, a company which had several former FBI officials in its composition. The contract remained a secret and its contents unknown, but what the Ministry of the Interior explained to the Albanians is that the so-called "Force of the Law" operation also resulted from this cooperation. With or without the knowledge of former FBI Director Louis Freeh, the operation, the idea of which is attributed to him, turns out to be a government operation for the legalization of criminal assets.

Also in 2017, US law enforcement agencies DEA and FBI began to turn their radars towards Albania due to the expansion of Albanian criminal groups in Latin America and the extreme increase in drug trafficking from Latin America to Albania.

It is understood that various services began tracking Rama's bank accounts in Singapore, accounts managed by a French-speaking Swiss lady who worked for a British bank in London.

But why this increased love of Rama for contacts and contracts with FBI top officials and former top officials? Because Rama knows better than anyone else that, as far as the United States is concerned, you may do many things and get away with it except for the two red lines that you should never cross: bank accounts in US dollars and the implication in drug trafficking that affects the United States itself. In 2017, Rama had crossed both and he needed contacts with FBI former and incumbent high-ranking officials for the sake of his own protection. The attacks on the opposition came as a result of these contacts, but they were not Rama's primary intention.