TIRANA, July 14 – The March 15 blast at the Gerdec ammunition disposal factory not only killed 26 persons, injured 300 and damaged thousands of houses, but also sparked an investigation by the U.S. Congress about the alleged failure to follow laws when selling ammunition stored in Albania that was made in China.
Though the scandal involved Albanian officials, a U.S. Congressman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, has launched an investigation directly accusing John L. Withers II, the U.S. ambassador to Albania, of playing a role in helping hide evidence of a crime.
The news of the U.S. investigation was reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times.
For readers, it is worthwhile reading this article to understand what democratic tools may accomplish in a democratic country at a time when Albania claims to have already become a democratic country. However, in Albania, only the prosecutor general’s office has launched an investigation while the parliament, on the other hand, only ‘sells’ attacks and counterattacks of a political character.
First, it was the government in Washington that launched a top-priority investigation of military procurement fraud in Afghanistan. Soon, though, it was forced to shift direction because of a congressional panel’s allegation that a senior U.S. diplomat sought to cover up the scheme, writes the paper.
Also, the newspaper reported new details on the involvement of Albanian officials, particularly Albania’s former defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, in a case described by the U.S. media outlet “to be one of the most serious procurement abuses in years.”
The Albanian government has stripped Mediu of immunity from prosecution. He has since been accused of corruption, though he denies it.
The case centers on a Miami arms dealer who sold ammunition to the U.S.-backed Afghan army after being awarded a $298-million Pentagon contract. Investigators found evidence that the contractor bought millions of aging Chinese rifle and machine-gun cartridges stored in Albania during the Cold War, then repackaged and shipped them to Afghanistan.
The arms dealer, who has been indicted and is facing trial in Miami, is free on bond. The government has halted all shipments from the dealer and suspended payments to his firm.
Mediu’s reaction
In a reaction Tuesday, Mediu said that Albanian law did not consider selling Chinese ammunition to be illegal. He said Albania’s public MEICO company, owned by the defense ministry, has sold ammunition and weapons since 1990 and continues to.
Mediu hints that he was aware of the Chinese-made ammunition. Further, AEY’s Diveroli has denied he knew the ammunition was Chinese.
Mediu added, however, that everything he did was performed in close collaboration with U.S. officials in Tirana.
That makes the U.S. involvement more interesting.
The prosecution was complicated when the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), said his panel heard from a witness last month that a U.S. diplomat may have played a key role in helping hide evidence of fraud.
Waxman, in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, cited information that John L. Withers II, the U.S. ambassador to Albania, had approved a plan to cover up the Chinese origins of the munitions being shipped to Afghanistan.
The U.S. prosecutor overseeing the case, racing to answer questions raised by Waxman’s allegation, took the unusual step last week of summoning Withers and five other senior officials from the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania, to Miami, where a grand jury is taking testimony.
Mediu is also summoned (but not charged) over the Gerdec March 15 blast that killed 26 and injured 300 persons. But he has not been interrogated or investigated over arms sale. Prosecutor General Ina Rama has said that Albania’s arms sale is also part of the investigation.
Withers
Last week Withers spoke out for the first time in interviews with The Times, denying any embassy involvement in a cover-up and insisting officials there worked closely with investigators to secure evidence for the prosecution.
Withers’ version has been supported by at least four other U.S. officials. In addition, a criminal investigator working on the case credited embassy staff with providing “outstanding support” to the criminal inquiry, according to a Nov. 28, 2007, Defense Department e-mail that was reviewed by The Times.
“Far from covering this up, we were helpful to this investigation, and proud of it,” said Withers, a 24-year Foreign Service veteran.
Withers has been given permission by State Department officials to speak publicly providing he does so as an individual and not as a representative of the U.S. government or the State Department.
The developments have sharpened tensions between State Department officials and Waxman’s committee, an aggressive panel that frequently embarrasses the Bush administration. Withers and his supporters say the panel moved too hastily in this case to publicize an erroneous allegation.
Unfortunately, the Albanian democracy has yet to behave like this democratic country, which ranks on top as a world democracy. Despite words and a call from the opposition Socialist Movement for Integration, the parliament has not created any investigative committee for the case, often justifying this by allowing the prosecutor general free reign in her probe.
Withers’ decision to speak out is likely to further inflame the tensions and represents a rare instance in which a career diplomat personally and publicly challenges a high-ranking lawmaker.
On Saturday, he wrote Waxman to ask for a meeting “to refute the unfounded aspersions that have been cast upon the reputations of an outstanding and dedicated cadre of public officials.” He said Waxman’s conclusions were “wrong in their entirety.”
Withers & Mediu
The events that drew Waxman’s attention to Withers occurred Nov. 19, when, U.S. officials say, the Pentagon’s investigation was nearly complete. Differing accounts of what transpired that night are the source of the dispute over Withers’ role.
Withers said he received messages that a panicked Fatmir Mediu, then Albania’s defense minister, needed to see him.
Fearing the defense minister had news about terrorism or similarly grave problems, Withers agreed to meet him with other embassy officials. The meeting lasted from 11 p.m. until midnight.
Mediu told the U.S. officials he was upset by a call he received from a New York Times reporter asking about past legal problems and possible corruption and asking to visit the airport the next day to see a munitions stockpile under ministry control, Withers said.
The airport also was the site of the AEY repackaging operation, which had been part of the U.S. investigation but was closed down by then.
Mediu begged Withers to help prevent a potentially damaging story. Withers said that Mediu, in an emotional state, had “outlandish” suggestions such as blocking the reporter’s access and repackaging the munitions to hide their Chinese origin.
Mediu did not respond to whether he had really asked to hamper the work of the NYT reporter in Albania.
Withers said he and the other U.S. officials present gave no sign that they approved of his ideas, suggesting only that Mediu prepare a rebuttal to the article once it appeared.
That, however, was not what Army Maj. Larry Harrison, a Defense Department aide in the embassy, said. He believed the ambassador had approved of Mediu’s decision that night to order the removal of Chinese markings from the munitions.
Harrison also charged in memos that embassy officials overruled his suggestions for providing information to Waxman’s committee.
On the basis of Harrison’s memos and his comments to the committee, Waxman wrote a pointed letter to Rice, on June 23, citing evidence that Withers “approved removing evidence” that the Albanian ammunition was actually Chinese.
Withers said he was blindsided by Waxman’s public accusation, which he considered preposterous in light of the embassy’s cooperation with criminal investigators.
Withers and others saw no need to report the November 19 meeting because the name of the arms dealer did not come up.
Further, the meeting centered on the defense minister’s concern over a newspaper reporter, not government investigators, Withers said.
U.S. investigation
Withers and other U.S. officials said Harrison had since denied, in private conversations, that he intended to accuse Withers of wrongdoing, and had claimed that his words were taken out of context by the committee.
Harrison and his lawyer have since refused to comment. Waxman, in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, defended his panel’s work, saying it had been “methodical and careful.”
He said he was disappointed that Withers had not yet agreed to speak with the committee’s staff. The State Department, on Thursday, granted Withers and other embassy staff members permission to speak voluntarily to committee staff members.
Withers is incensed that Waxman’s letter could aid the defense and considers it an insult to his reputation and that of the embassy staff.
Withers, the son of a former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has served in a series of overseas posts and was director of the State Department’s Operations Center from 2003 to 2005.
