CIA Still Has Spies in Serbia’s State Top?

Security services experts say the names of the spies will never be known, unless that would be in the interest of the CIA.

After the media reported that Jovica Stanisic, now a defendant at the Hague’s war crimes tribunal, had worked for the CIA from 1992 through 2000, there are suspicions that there are still spies in Serbia’s state top even today, Press Online reported. 

Security services experts say the names of the spies will never be known, unless that would be in the interest of the CIA, such as the Stanisic case.

- You remember that in 2002, General Momcilo Perisic had been caught dealing with an American

spy at the Ibarska highway. As vice-premier, Perisic took hundreds of thousands of dollars for disclosing state secrets and delivering highly confidential documents to CIA agents. We had information about three other state officials who worked for the CIA – a source from an intelligence service told Press Online.

He added that Americans have their own people in almost every government in the world, but they rarely get paid in cash.

- Spies know that cash is easy to trace. For example, the son of some minister of state secretary, even though he is not talented, gets a scholarship in the United States or the wife of some minister gets a job in the branch office of a big multinational company – the source said.

The source said Stanisic was not the usual spy, but wanted to do something useful for Serbia. But he is being tried for war crimes and there is suspicion that he had caused the conflicts in Kosovo.

At the beginning of 2008, the United States threatened to carry out actions in case of armed conflicts, Serbia’s Alo reported. An operative for the Security Service, Zoran Stijovic, said that an operation began last March in Prekaze against the Jasarija group and there were 50 casualties. Also, he claims that back in the summer of 1998, the CIA used the house of Nesa Radmanovic, a businessman from Pristina, as its headquarters.