Our son of a b*tch

Alfred Lela

Three congressmen (one is a congresswoman) visited Tirana two days ago, and after a photo-premiere with Ambassador Yuri Kim, they met with Prime Minister Rama and the head of the Democratic Party, Basha.

On Tuesday, Richard Grenell met with President Meta after giving an interview to a US conservative forum in which he acquitted and provoked Sali Berisha, seeking evidence against the Secretary of State and the Department he heads.

Grenell's interview was worth three things.

It first puts an end to a media gossip spread in Tirana that Berisha's file was prepared and given to the State Department by the US secret services (meaning CIA). This is a thesis that has been circulated mainly by anti-Berisha environments and personalities and aimed to treat Berisha's problem as systemic, ie it belongs to the system and not to the changing administrations.  

Rick Grenell refutes this assumption because today he spoke in the role of the former director of US intelligence, even emphasizing this fact. "I have not seen facts that make Mr. "Berisha is a character for a non grata, even though I was the acting director of the Intelligence services with a focus on the Balkans", he said clearly.

Of course, those with anti-Berisha tendencies will interpret the author of the statement and his controversial profile, to dilute the essence of what was said, but what remains is the fact of emphasizing, apparently deliberately, his status as a former official. senior American.

Second, Grenell helps legitimize Berisha's battle in two ways: the lawsuit against the Secretary of State in a French court and the thesis that George Soros is behind Blinken's decision. Both Berisha and Grenell may be speculating with statements that the controversial billionaire is behind the former prime minister's non grata, but speculation is softened by the fact that there is a Blinken Center as part of the Open Society Foundation. As if nothing else Mr. Blinken becomes guilty by association.

The other must be said: if Grenell helps the Doctor in two planes, he hurts in another. He rejects the thesis that non grata came from his opposing stance on redefining Kosovo's borders. For the simple reason that Grenell has been completely behind that draft. If not, it does the other thing: it portrays the American political figure as a lobbyist who pursues impulses and royalties.

Third, Grenell serves as a light for the shadow and a shadow for the light that the 'other America' emits in Tirana, that of the current ambassador Kim. Her photo with the congressmen was immediately read by the most cynical as an attempt to support Basha and his battle in the PD. To create, by contrast, associations of good and evil. Here's what happened: the troop from Washington met its two Benjamins, the prime minister, and his rival.

There is predictability in the ambassador's movements, but it is probably exactly what she intends: not to be unpredictable. Of course, in a country like Albania, where the highest place in the dramaturgy of things is occupied by the unpredictable, it risks being seen as a 'repeated scene'.

In the finale, both Kim and Grenell seem to be practicing President Franklin Roosevelt's famous parable of Nicaraguan President Somoza: he may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.