By Mero Baze, 29 Shkurt 2012
Mr. Domenick G. Scaglione!
I got your letter, very nervous, misunderstood and hostile. It was appropriate to receive an answer from Mr. Granoff, if this letter had been so disturbing to him. It is a practice that subordinates often write on behalf of the Chiefs and this is probably the first case when heads write on behalf of subordinates.
I do not know who translated the article to you because I have published it in Albanian and I see a lot of evil and unnecessary arrogance on things I didn’t say. I am not an important person in this country to meet, but when you created the Fund, I have been the Voice of America reporter and I remember I did a report for you, one of those routine reports that nobody needs.
I am clarifying your remarks one by one:
“I’m not writing for your benefit, because from the tone of your editorial I can see that you don’t care to learn and accept what is the real truth. I write for the benefit of the readers that you have totally mislead in letting them believe what you have invented and which is worthy of the group of traditional “washwomen”.”
I have nothing against your negative consideration for an editorial of Tema newspaper. If it was something not worth it, your anger seems a great luxury for a “washwomen” and I feel respected even if you write so badly. Be sure that the paper I lead has qualified readers, people who know how to read better than a “washwomen”. Usually, people who want to hide something, become so nervous on us. People who have shot me later and wanted to eliminate me physically have spoken and written on me slightly softer than that. I wish you do not have similar trouble with them in this anger, without sense for what has been written.
That’s what you write further:
“I guess the hate you demonstrated in your editorial will not allow you to publish what I’m writing. I’m doing it simply to test if you care to pass on the real truth to your readers.
• “Michael Granoff is known in Albania since 1995 when President Clinton selected him as the Chairman of the Albanian American Enterprise Fund”. This is not correct! President Clinton selected Domenick G. Scaglione as Chairman and Mr. Granoff as a member of the Board of Directors. Years after the Fund was in operation, due to my illness, Mr. Granoff was elected by the Board of Directors to be Chairman while I remained as Chairman Emeritus, and I am still very active as a member of the Board.
• I’m surprised to see that you acknowledge the fact that the AAEF was a “venture proved to be successful and is still active in Tirana”. It is thanks to the AAEF, a good will of friendship from the USA, that Albania expedited its pace toward progress in every field.
The American Bank of Albania, born under my Chairmanship, was the best bank not only in Albania, but also the best in the entire Balkan region. It created employment to feed more than 600 families. It helped the local industries with billions of dollars of loans, and it offered ultra modern services never dreamed.”
Of all you list as mistakes, there is only one technical error, when I refer to Mr. Granoff as Chairman of the Board of the Fund, while he was a member. For these I am ready to apologize to the readers because he does not need that. Your prejudice that I will not publish this reaction of yours, without ever known me, is a problem that you should reconsider in your personality, not on me.
I am a journalist who fights for my freedom of writing and thinking in a country in which I have paid for it with physical violence, unfair penalties, with physical elimination efforts by killers of the Prime Minister and his wife, who you worship, and with a more than physical terror to my family. You are not obliged to share these concerns with me, but I don’t allow you to qualify as values the violation of my freedoms and my colleagues’ freedom in this country.
You are free to talk about the value of Lek currency in this country, but not for the value of freedom that we, who live here, are missing.
I am surprised that for half of the article, you become nervous because I commend Mr. Granoff as a master and your fund as successful. I have no explanation for this paranoia. Try to find a specialist in the field that explains paranoia to clarify it for you. I appreciate Mr. Granoff as a leading master of the Fund and as I said in that article, consider the Fund itself as a successful venture. The fact that you have done business with people in Berisha’s circle does not compromise you, it simply adds to doubts about the “second job”, undeclared job of Mr. Granoff in favor of Mr. Berisha. If you want names, I can send by e-mail because I do not want to defame the businesses in which you are a partner.
For convenience, I can tell you that in one case I was surprised when it turned out that in the building of the factory of Gerdec, which caused 26 deaths, a senior manager of your fund was participating with 40 percent and he is still having the same duty. The surnames of the two other partners of the company were Delijorgji and Balliu.
But I want to focus particularly on a paragraph that someone with an evil intention, has translated wrong to you, and if you did not understand this, I forgive all your nervous reaction. You write that I have offended you as an American citizen because I have offended the American government.
• “As a proud American citizen, I am very much offended by your statement about my Government, a “government that creates daily problems for its irresponsibility towards its citizens and the scandals of corruption and justice” Apart from being an ingrate for all that this “irresponsible government” has done for your country, you are also offending the most friendly helping hand Albania has ever had.
It is truly said that only dogs bite the hand that feed them. I demand an apology from you. An apology to my Government, the greatest friend Albania has ever had. From what you have written, I can see that you are completely ignorant of the meaning of international relationship and friendship. And this is what you preach to your readers? “
Mr. Scalione. I have not written this paragraph for the U.S. government, but for the Albanian government and I refer to what Mr. Granoff is doing for the Albanian government in Washington as written in the headline of the article and in the content of the paragraph that someone has translated wrong for you, or that you wanted it translated wrong. The article has been published in Albanian and the original is still online, you can translate it again. So I do not want to make any comments about your racist outburst, comparing the help you have given to the Albanian people as food thrown to an ungrateful dog.
I myself have never worked for you and I don’t feel a disloyal dog to you. I worked for two U.S. government radios, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, but even they did not employ me for mercy and I do not respect them for charity. We were doing a job together. Your racist and contemptuous outburst against an Albanian journalist really shows how much inconvenient it was for you when you stayed in this country and with how much outrage you helped us, if you did.
If even worse, you give yourself the excessive luxury to speak as an American citizen on behalf of the U.S. government I will not allow you to call me a representative of Albania, as I am not so sick as to think this. If you have something personal with me, you are free to explode even more dirty than you have done, but certainly not to insult Albania on my name, comparing it to an ungrateful dog. This country believes in America and in the friendship with it, not to Domenick Skalione, his vices or virtues.
Finally, I would like to touch the essence of that article that has to do with the fact that Michael Granoff is a successful American manager in Albania that helps Berisha to cover his democratic shortcomings in Washington. That’s all our editorial says. What you call facts or lack of facts does not have much need for verification. We refer to the fact that Mr. Granoff is everywhere after Lulzim Basha, a former minister who has been accused from the Albanian justice for an abuse of 220 million euros and has refused to be tried, but closed the case with the procedure.
We refer to Mr. Granoff’ support for Sali Berisha, who killed in January 21, 2011, according to the FBI expertise, four innocent citizens in front of his office. You are defending a man who has thrown the expertise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the dustbin and refuses to have the killer arrested, proved as such under the FBI expertise, the man who is the commander of the Republican Guard and his personal man.
I have almost excellent contacts with the U.S. Ambassador to Tirana and I have expressed to him the gratitude for what the U.S. government is doing to have this political crime investigated and prosecuted. I and no other Albanian never confuse what an individual or a U.S. citizen does to protect murderers with what the U.S. government does. We believe in America and not in the American citizens. We never get angry on America for the freedom its citizens have to protect even criminals.
When referring to his support for Berisha and Lulzim Basha, I mean that the fact that these two characters separately and both together, have consumed before the eyes of the Albanians, the crime of theft and abuse of millions of euros and have refused to be tried; the crime of political murders and refuse to be investigated; the electoral crime of May 8 in Tirana for which, they did not accept the result and overturned it through the court.
If these two people would be in the U.S., they would be in jail, or at least, they would not be in politics. I consider a great hatred for the Albanians your cynicism to call them leaders we deserve. No. We do not deserve them and we will know how to save ourselves from them, regardless how many friends they will buy with money in Washington. They are not now in conflict with the Albanians, but with the conclusions and recommendations of the U.S. government. It can make you a bit more restrained when talking with worship for them.
And here I want to clarify what you say about Ms. Berisha. I have not written anything about your connections with Liri Berisha and her foundation. I do not know who has misinformed you. But in other cases, I’ve written that Mrs. Liri Berisha organizes charity evenings on behalf of the foundation she heads, and in several cases, her donors as published in the media, have resulted to be people with problems with the law or former inmates dealing with business. In a particular case, her biggest donor has been a circle of businessmen who tried to eliminate me physically, attacking me in a Tirana bar just because I wrote their stories of corruption due to their relationship with the power.
The former U.S. Ambassador to Tirana John Withers became my biggest advocate and assured me that I would have his help in that battle. Mrs. Liri Berisha, in a sign of threat against me and my family at risk, put herself on the side of that businessman, came to pose for the cameras, accepting money from him and his close circle, who had dark histories with the law. In this case, Mr. Scaglione you cannot stop me saying that “your angel” Liri Berisha, is also an angel for my freedom or the freedom of my colleagues.
She would have better for Albania if she had advised her son not to get involved in businesses that have caused 26 deaths, or to advise her husband not to shot to death four citizens who were protesting in front of him, so we would have less orphans in this country and more calm. It would not leave so much work to you either to protect something that is punishable in the U.S.
You may not like us, but you don’t have to impose on us a destiny that you do not accept for yourself. As for your irony addressed to Ms Rama, I am not clear if you are talking about Mrs. Ina Rama or Mrs. Linda Rama. The first is a respectable woman as the only woman who has attempted to establish law and do something for the democracy in this country, but has not proven herself. The second is the wife of the opposition leader, which I know only from TV. I have had no good relationship with any of the two.
The only friend I’ve had among the wives of the politicians has been Liri Berisha, until she became the inspirer of the creation of the “Power of the Family” in Albania, instead of becoming the inspirer of a model family in power. I do not know what has led you to think that because of having reservations for Liri Berisha, I should be friends with one of Rama ladies; neither the one who threatens Sali Berisha with jail, nor the one whom you see as the successor to Mrs. Berisha at the top of the country.
I ensure you that there are few women in this country who want to have that woman as a model and very few who want to have her fate as the wife of a man who has done so much damage to our country. Do not ever be the wife of a man who has killed for power, the mother of a son who hides from justice and the mother of a girl that makes millions with the dad’s signature on power. May they be your friends forever, but you don’t have to hate Albania and me who do not want them. Calm down. Yours they are. Keep them.
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Mr. Mero Baze:
My name is Domenick G. Scaglione. I don’t know if we ever met during the more than 17 years I have been working on behalf of the USA to better the deplorable conditions Albania was left in by fifty years of a totalitarian and atheist regime. From what has been written in your editorial I must assume we never have met, and I would advise you to get to know me by asking the people in Albania and those who form the Albanian community in the USA. They all know what the US has done for the good of your country and, as a proud American citizen, I feel very much offended by all the insults and lies you have invented and written against Mr. Michael Granoff, the US Government and Mrs. Berisha.
I’m not writing for your benefit, because from the tone of your editorial I can see that you don’t care to learn and accept what is the real truth. I write for the benefit of the readers that you have totally mislead in letting them believe what you have invented and which is worthy of the group of traditional “washwomen”.
I‘m surprised to see that what is supposed to be a serious (?) publication that claims to inform the readers of what is true, can write what you did, which is not only far from the truth, but it shows also your total ignorance of the workings of the Albanian Enterprise Fund, the United states Government, and the roles of Mr. Granoff and of Mrs. Berisha.
I guess the hate you demonstrated in your editorial will not allow you to publish what I’m writing. I’m doing it simply to test if you care to pass on the real truth to your readers.
• “Michael Granoff is known in Albania since 1995 when President Clinton selected him as the Chairman of the Albanian American Enterprise Fund”. This is not correct! President Clinton selected Domenick G. Scaglione as Chairman and Mr. Granoff as a member of the Board of Directors. Years after the Fund was in operation, due to my illness, Mr. Granoff was elected by the Board of Directors to be Chairman while I remained as Chairman Emeritus, and I am still very active as a member of the Board.
• I’m surprised to see that you acknowledge the fact that the AAEF was a “venture proved to be successful and is still active in Tirana”. It is thanks to the AAEF, a good will of friendship from the USA, that Albania expedited its pace toward progress in every field.
• The American Bank of Albania, born under my Chairmanship, was the best bank not only in Albania, but also the best in the entire Balkan region. It created employment to feed more than 600 families. It helped the local industries with billions of dollars of loans, and it offered ultra modern services never dreamed.
• I believe it would be to your advantage to find out the great accomplishments of the AAEF. Just ask anyone around you. They will tell you how much it has done and continues to do to improve the lives of the Albanian people. Airport, insurance, banking, plastic, marble, bricks and all kinds of financial and advisory services are only a few of the direct contribution to your people by the AAEF directed by people who get no compensation whatsoever for their work. Work done by peoples a service to their country and for their feelings of friendship for Albania.
• The Fund never “partnered with all the businessmen that are in the entourage of Berisha and his family.” Just check all the Fund’s investments and you will see how wrong you are.
• “Mr. Granoff comes from a success story.” Yes, Mr. Granoff is a great success. His success did
not come without sacrifice, it came from assiduous painful learning and work. Honest and laborious with the dignity and correctness I did not find in your editorial. You talk about his knowledge of both, Albanian and USA governments as if it is something dirty. It shows again how little you know not only about Mr. Granoff, but also about the most basic principles of doing business in an environment that is subject to change on a daily basis given the unstable characters of many of its politicians.
Knowledge is key to success. Through knowledge you develop relationships and friends and that’s how you develop a working relationship with the country you want to operate on. A working relationship does not exercise any influence. At most, it may put light on a better way to achieve progress.
• As a proud American citizen, I am very much offended by your statement about my Government, a “government that creates daily problems for its irresponsibility towards its citizens and the scandals of corruption and justice” Apart from being an ingrate for all that this “irresponsible government” has done for your country, you are also offending the most friendly helping hand Albania has ever had.
It is truly said that only dogs bite the hand that feed them. I demand an apology from you. An apology to my Government, the greatest friend Albania has ever had. From what you have written, I can see that you are completely ignorant of the meaning of international relationship and friendship. And this is what you preach to your readers?
• You criticized Mr. Granoff’s statement that your country has made a lot of progress. Where have you been for the past 17 years? Have you seen the new skyline of all the cities of Albania? Have you seen ever so much traffic going through their streets? Have you ever seen people happy to go to work? Were you there 17 years ago? I was and I witnessed the state of poverty your country was in then.
It was so disheartening to see how your children were treated and in very deplorable hygienic condition as to move me to establish the Albanian Children Foundation to give the physical cure and the attention and love they deserved. Not recognizing the progress Albanian has made during these years is total blindness. We, members of the AAEF are proud of our contribution towards that progress and we rejoice seeing smiling faces not seen when we first came to Albania.
• During the interview you criticize the “vague and general answers” given by Mr. Granoff. That should tell you how he, and all the members of the AAEF Board, feel about our mission. We do not judge nor make comments neither on your local policies nor on your government’s or it’s opposition’s behavior. That has never been part of our mission.
• As the summer of 2009 you invented how Mr. Granoff was instrumental in getting Mr. Meta together with Mr. Berisha and how he “consolidated the relationship between Berisha and the Podesta Group”. Your invention of the facts can only be considered as “sour grapes” for having lost part of the left movement who didn’t quite saw eye to eye with what were considered top priorities for your country to concentrate on. Yours is nothing g but a vicious attack on Mr. Granoff who never had any part in the governing coalition and who tried to make it easier the Albania’s efforts to market itself to the world.
That initiative, just so that you know, was a very good one. The people who attended from Albania were there to tell the audience how successful they have been in doing business in your country. I’m surprise to see that a person like you, who I assume is of a certain intelligence and culture, could misunderstand completely the scope of that mission.
• You are completely wrong again in your interpretation of Mr. Granoff’s visit to Qatar. The AAEF has been and continues to be a professional advisor to people and entities wanting to do business in Albania. His presence in Qatar was to inspire confidence to invest in Albania. Our experience, in dept knowledge of the business environment and the services we render as advisors will always be of great benefit to the potential investor. But if you can’t see this as an additional service to your country, we will try to explain it again.
•It is because of your misleading editorial that most of the comments published should be corrected. What Mark Zaho wrote on Feb. 17 will be subject to a court citation,
not just on the part of Mr. Granoff, but also by me and Mrs. Berisha. What he is referring to as “Mafioso” doesn’t stand behind the donations of the ultramodern hospital of Liri Berisha nor has he given any donation to it. I started the Foundation with my own money and I kept on feeding it, together with family and friends for many years. You should ashamed for what you falsely state about Mrs. Liri Berisha. She is a lady whose shoes you are not worthy to kiss her feet. You have no idea what this wonderful lady has done for your country.
She left her practice to dedicate herself to the good of the children for no compensation other than the inner spiritual satisfaction one feels when doing something good to alleviate the suffering of those who are less fortunate then we are. What have you done for your country other than spreading lies? By the way, the word “Mafioso” should be studied before its usage. I know its meaning. I was born and raised in Sicily! Needless to say, all the other comments deserve these same replies.
From what I have read, it seems to me that you have written this editorial against Mr. Granoff, Me, Mrs. Berisha and the USA to ingratiate yourself with Mrs. Eddie Rama. I have the occasions of meeting with him and I can assure you that had he read what you wrote, he too would be ashamed that an Albanian of his own doctrine would lower himself to resort to lies.
I know that this letter will never be published as it will show to your readers how you have misleads them. What I demand from you a full apology to my government first followed with one to Mr. Granoff and Mrs. Berisha.
