Meier knew the difference: This wasn’t the BIA, it was the CIA

Once, when reporters asked Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Dino Konakovic what he was talking about during a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he replied dryly: “We talked about everything, current events, the support of the United States and Bosnia, and basketball”. Blinken has an impressive biography, he has a degree in social sciences from Harvard University, a law degree from Columbia University, lives in New York and Paris, security and international relations are his passion, democracy is his commitment, which was clearly confirmed by his service in the US foreign policy during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and in the excellent service of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

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He has been writing since he was young, but he does not play sports, unlike William Burns, who, during his Oxford years, was the first Marshall Scholar and a member of the national basketball team. However, even Konakovic, a former basketball player, did not hesitate to bring up the undoubtedly common topic during a meeting with the current director of the CIA, the main intelligence agency of the United States.

Burns arrived in the Balkans – officially – unexpectedly, although his visit was both announced and expected. In Sarajevo, he was received by the local director of OSABiH Almir Džuvo, together with the US Ambassador Michael Murphy. Burns visited the Presidential Palace, where he was warmly welcomed, along with Murphy, and was joined by Željka Cvijanović, a resident originally on the US OFAC blacklist. She was sanctioned for the Dayton Peace Agreement, threats to the integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so there was no reason to doubt that she was the right person to convey Burns’ message directly to the target audience: a US government official told the local media clearly and loudly that the subject of his meeting was “matters of mutual concern, which include the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the worrying separatist rhetoric and actions of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Milorad Dodik, and the Serbian government”. Despite the active accusations by both the Serbian media and the Serbian media under Dodik’s control, the local media did not respond to requests for comment. Sarajevo violated its agreement with the CIAAnd defending it with the argument of “meeting at the discretion of diplomacy”, is an obvious attempt to conceal the significance of the visit of the CIA director and the message it conveys. Known as the right-hand man of the retro regime in Serbia since Milosevic, the Belgrade Politika began to decorate its front pages more and more quickly with the announcement of the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron in Serbia and the meeting with Aleksandar Vucic. However, on both sides of the Drina River, only naive people believe that the Serbian president did not meet with Burns himself, although his stay in Serbia was mentioned in the media only informally in conversations with Vladimir Orlic, the head of the Security and Information Agency and the BIA. Burns ended his visit to the Balkans in Pristina, and Vucic himself created a smokescreen for the CIA director’s stay in Belgrade on his Instagram profile, where he usually posts everything he wants to know: On a crucial day – he himself admitted – he met in Belgrade with the Russian ambassador, our old acquaintance Alexander Bokan-Khachenko and a life-size Dodik.

As one learns a little more about Burns’ biography, these encounters become a logical sequence of his visits. Here’s why: The world describes him as an American heavyweight and secret diplomatic weapon, one of the most important aides of the current US President Joe Biden. William Joseph Burns worked in the US Foreign Service for a full 32 years, retiring in 2014 and serving as President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until 2021. He served as US Undersecretary of State from 2011 and as Acting Secretary of State for one day in 2009 before Hillary Clinton’s confirmation. An excellent student, he earned a degree in history and ended his studies at Oxford University with a thesis titled “Economic Aid and US Policy Toward Egypt, 1955-1981.” While at the State Department, he served as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador to Russia, Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, Ambassador to Jordan, Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright. In 2008, he was nominated by then-President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate as a career ambassador, the highest rank in the US Foreign Service, equivalent to a four-star general in the US Army. More than a title, his actions prove him: the Kremlin respected him but still shunned him during the deterioration of Russian-American relations, he initiated a temporary agreement with Iran on nuclear arms control, he met with leaders in secret before the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, he analyzed China’s ambitions against the United States, and secretly traveled to Beijing to seek some kind of détente. He was one of the first to thoroughly expose Putin’s intentions in Ukraine, flew to Moscow to warn Western countries of the reaction in case of an emergency, discussed US oil needs with Saudi Arabia, monitored the actions of terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. After the killing, advocated for a deal with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli hostages after the war between Hamas and Israel began… Three years ago, Biden defended his proposal to be appointed Director of the Central Intelligence Agency by saying that it is generally believed that “the intelligence community must be apolitical”, which is not unimportant: he was unanimously elected in the Senate. He is a member of Biden’s cabinet.

For the reasons outlined above, it seems entirely understandable that Vucic needed to have an open conversation with Bokan-Khachenko after Burns. About all topics of interest to Serbia and the Russian Federation, as well as Serbia’s position on current global geopolitical trendsand expressed heartfelt apologies to Milorad Dodik. Vucic, who is always in a mood for a photo, does not know if he cheered and how much for Dodik’s tweet about Burns, but the whole Balkans laughed: the President of the Republic of Serbia solemnly swore that “the Republika Srpska has never disputed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the Dayton Agreement”, adding that “separation has never been our policy”. The colleague on the Zagreb Jutarnji list briefly commented that every word is a lie and stated: “It confirms Dodik’s hypocrisy (is the President of the Republic of Croatia reading this?) and slimy chameleonism, ready for a political turn, and then he does not even blush”. The author of Dodik’s tweet forgot all the promises about the referendum on the secession of the country, forgot the validity of the law adopted in the National Socialist Republic, but finally repealed by the High Representative, he forgot a small million arrogant threats, the entire Serbian Parliament and the Serbian Parliament. The declaration, God bless, the RS government’s proposal, and the proposal for a peaceful separation, the RS president and multiple family conquerors of the US blacklist were killed A heroic blow was struck. Dodik and his Twitter handles tried to relax the initial creepy declarations of love for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they harped on about the responsibility of others and returned to the old slogans of sharing the blame for the current situation in Bosnia (spun by when they were partly based on facts), but the cadres of the Girls’ Generation have begun to speak more positively about Bosnia’s cooperation with the NATO Alliance. Meier personally told us that Burns is not a bastard. He is right, Burns is one of the most powerful people on the planet, in basketball terms that Baha both loves and understands, he managed to block shots and make three-pointers that would make even the most powerful NBA players proud. Our Dodik was and is a Latakia league. It’s time to admit defeat. Otherwise he will continue to be trampled on the court and become the biggest culprit for the infamous failure of the entire team.