[Intelforum] Covert Operations in Albania

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From: Richard Cummings <RCumm10487 at aol.com>
To: intelforum at lists101.his.com
Subject: Re: Covert Operations in Albania
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 19:08:34 +0100

Greetings from Düsseldorf.  Interesting posting.

What is not generally known is that Radio Free Europe, as part of the 
CIA's covert operations in Europe, broadcast to Albania from late 
1950 to September 1953.  Would be interesting to see if the book 
mentions that, or not.

Regards to all.

Richard Cummings


On Feb 8, 2009, at 7:20 PM, IntelForum Mailing List wrote:

>Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 14:53:15 -0800 (PST)
>From: Tom <<mailto:woodeewood at yahoo.com>woodeewood at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Covert Operations in Albania
>To: <mailto:intelforum at lists101.his.com>intelforum at lists101.his.com
>
>I imagine a few intelligence vets and maybe a few students of the 
>black arts (my term)  would care to know a new book on the 1949-54 
>Albanian projects fiasco is coming out. It sure won't be an easy 
>read, as it will be printed in the Albanian tongue for folks who 
>live in that still developing Balkan country.  A lengthy summation 
>of the work was published this week by Gazeta Panorama, an Albanian 
>newspaper.
>Entitled "Bora Filloi"  [The Snow Has Started], the book's author is 
>one Pilo Shanto, reportely a former Sigurimi (secret police) officer 
>who was involved in running a captured Albanian political exile, 
>native to that mountainous nation, who infiltrated as radio operator 
>for one of abdicated King Zog's bodyguards.
While many details are not verifiable, the book seems to solve 
several mysteries left over from the effort by western intelligence 
agencies to oust the Albanian Communist regime.  Among those 
mysteries is the fate of the turned radio operator, whose name, Tahir 
Prenci, is the only participant's identity that appears in none of 
the available British or American translated news reports of a major 
April, 1954, Stalinist-style show trial of the captured American 
agents. It also accounts for a legendary CIA-crewed C-47 that  was 
shot up so badly by Albanian antiaircraft batteries as it overflew 
the capitol that it was barely able to crashland at  Brindisi, Italy 
in October, 1953.
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