By Andi Bejtja
The widely known “McGonigal” mega-affair cannot be narrowly viewed as a matter of American justice or, at worst, as a Netflix thriller series with FBI officials corrupted by the Russians. Nor as a black comedy, on the American-Albanian part, where a former Albanian secret security agent lends money to the boss of the FBI and a director of a Chinese company satisfies the movie director’s wildest fantasy, being at the same time the adviser without wages of the Albanian prime minister.
Only the indictment of the Grand Jury, as a result of an many years investigation, draws two solid conclusions that go beyond jurisprudence: the gangsters involved in this story have raped and violated America’s security, while for Albanians they have distorted not only the image of America, but above all, they put Albania’s pluralism and democracy inside the coffin.
The most dramatic part for us as Albanians is the moment when the Albanian mediator gives money to the high FBI official to bury the Albanian opposition with letters and words taken from the Albanian Prime Minister’s office by another Albanian realtor and mediator.
In plain English, the Prime Minister of a country with less than three million remaining inhabitants, a senior FBI official and two Albanian realtors and profiteers, not only jeopardize America’s security, but manage to shift the entire democratic axis of USA-Albania relations, causing politicians and diplomats across the ocean to judge and act not only unfairly, but possibly anti-democratically.
It is no wonder that a senior official of that level, who goes so far as to remove sanctions from one of Russia’s biggest oligarchs, would not easily be effective in removing or imposing a non grata status to a politician whose only weapons were only the iPad and Facebook account, and moreover in a country of 3 million where the Prime Minister of this country raises his hand voluntarily to take the Afghan and mujahedin refugees whom even the Great America itself is reluctant to accept.
We cannot know today about the hidden financial costs of this operation to wall off the opposition in Albania, (I am sure that the costs are too high), but the damages that have come to the country from this are incalculable and America, manipulated precisely by these mafia operations at the highest level, has played a key role in preparing and shaping the dress of this pure monism that is being installed in Albania.
Today, those who continued to attack the opposition, even in the coffin, arguing that America is never wrong, are more out-fashioned than ever, but more out-fashioned than them are those who still do not question a non grata status without evidence and continue to describe as anti-American that political, social or cultural group, which did nothing but try to preserve the pillars of democracy in Albania against the storm of America, a country that was manipulated right at its heart.
Whether we like it or not, this investigation of McGonigal in America has opened a new chapter not only in the political aspect but also in the intellectual and social aspect. Regarding the latter, I am sure that intellectuals like Fatos Lubonja will be followed more closely and more intentively when analyzing Washington’s mistakes, and I am more than certain that the state propaganda machine will find it impossible to find paid digital commentators to lash out at him as an anti-American. While politically, after what happened, I can understand that, Taulant Balla, the Head of Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, continues to say “we do not consider the proposals of the non grata MP (Sali Berisha) in Parliament”, but I have a hard time imagining with what moral courage, the rest of the so-called “Basha group” continues to hold the seal and the head of the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group.
Thus, the Mc Gonigal Mega Affair is not just a matter of justice. The completion of the investigations could restore American pride and restore the confidence in institutions such as the FBI. But, for us it is a vital issue, it is a matter of pluralism and democracy. After what has happened, we say you even owe us: Restore Democracy in Albania!
Source: Syri.net
