Images from Albania

Mangalem, Berat, Albania, originally uploaded by YeovilEd.

The Muslim quarter in Mangalem, Berat.

Albanian mosque

The Red Mosque (14-15th century) - Berat Albania, originally uploaded by Call me Ishmael..

Believed to have been built in the 14th or 15 century, before Albania fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1450.

No kidding, a Muslim country that loves Bush

Who would have guessed.

As the New York Times reports, apparently surprising even itself:

His poll numbers may be in the basement, but when he zipped through this small, relentlessly pro-American nation on Sunday, President Bush was treated like a rock star.

Military cannons boomed a 21-gun salute in his honor. Thousands of people jammed Skanderbeg Square in downtown Tirana, wearing Uncle Sam top hats in the sweltering heat, hoping to glimpse the presidential motorcade. The superlatives flowed so freely that Mr. Bush looked a tad sheepish when Prime Minister Sali Berisha proclaimed him “the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times.”

Nevertheless, the Times can't help but hide a net derision. The Albanians only love Bush, suggests the Times because:

He told the Albanians what they wanted to hear — that he supported their effort to join NATO and wanted independence soon for Kosovo, a largely ethnic Albanian breakaway province of Serbia — without making any fresh commitments.

“At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you’ve got to say, ‘Enough is enough — Kosovo is independent,’ ” Mr. Bush said. He said any plan to extend talks on Kosovo, like the one proposed recently by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, must end with “certain independence.”

As the Times continued:

This largely Muslim country, population 3.6 million, is just the kind of nation Mr. Bush likes best: a nascent democracy whose history includes a dramatic break with totalitarian rule. . .

The country, one of the poorest in the region, has just issued three postage stamps bearing Mr. Bush’s likeness, and a street in front of the Parliament building has been renamed for him. At the mosque in the center of town, Uncle Sam hats were stacked in a window seat in the prayer room.

Even the war in Iraq is popular here.

“U.S.A. have the right and responsibility for all the world to protect the freedom,” said Ilir Lamçe, 37, a financial analyst who was among those waiting for Mr. Bush, using English to express the views of many. “This is the right war.”

Who would have thunk. I wonder if the Fort Dix plotters, the mostly illegal Kosovo Albanian immigrants resident in New Jersey, would have embarked on their terrorist mission had they been raised and educated in Albania as opposed to, er, New Jersey.

Fort Dix: Once a "paradise" for Albanian refugees from Kosovo, now a target

The Newark Star-Ledger reports:

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

. . . The U.S. Attorney's Office said the men planned to "kill as many soldiers as possible."

Who exactly are these "Islamic radicals"?

Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a sixth was born in Jordan, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Officials identified the men as Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Shnewer and Agron Abdullahu. They are described as being in their early 20s.

The six had been under FBI surveillance for 15 months and prepared for their alleged plot by shooting paintball guns and real weapons in Gouldsboro, Pa., 30 miles southeast of Scranton, officials said. One had experience as a sniper in Kosovo, according to the complaint.

The men also allegedly watched jihadist videos in which Osama bin Laden urged them toward martyrdom.

"They were prepared to die," said a law enforcement source who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the arrests. "We became increasingly convinced this was for real and these guys were ready to roll."

The men had scouted out Fort Monmouth, Dover Air Force Base, Lakehurst Naval Air Station and the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard before settling on Fort Dix, a base that is used to mobilize troops to Iraq, according to the complaint. One of them, Tatar, had regular access to secure areas of the facility through his job as a deliveryman and knew "it like the palm of his hand," according to the complaint.

People were surprised by the arrests, according to the Star-Ledger report:

A high school friend of Eljir and Shain Duka recalled them as typical teenagers."We hung out in study hall together," said David Jonathon, who is 24 and attended Cherry Hill High School West with the suspects."We did teenage stuff. Drinking. Girls. Stuff like that."

The Duka brothers had been popular in school, said Jonathon, of Cherry Hill. Shain drove a Cadillac Escalade SUV. Their family owned a pizzeria. But when Jonathon saw Shain Duka recently for the first time in three years, the once fun-loving teenager was now growing a beard and spoke of converting to Islam. "He was trying to get me to go to prayer services with them," Jonathon said.

Michelle Malkin reminds readers what Fort Dix meant to the Albanian refugees coming in from Kosovo back in 1999 (from a CNN dispatch):

The sounds of Islamic calls to prayer echo across Fort Dix, temporary host to thousands of ethnic Albanians who fled war-ravaged Kosovo. But the U.S. Army base will soon play final taps for the refugee resettlement program that should end this month.

"I feel like I'm in a paradise," one Kosovar explained, as she described the base that has been a haven for about 4,000 refugees.