Florin Krasniqi

Florin Krasniqi (born 1964, present day Kosovo ^[a]) is a Kosovar-American businessman, political activist and member of VETËVENDOSJE!

Contents 1 Background 2 Personal life 3 Family 4 Publications 5 Quotes 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Background

Krasniqi was a mathematics high-school teacher in Vranoc, Kosovo, when he fled to the United States, sneaking into the country across the border from Mexico in the trunk of a white Cadillac on Christmas Eve, 1988, aged 24. He started out as a roofer and is former owner of Triangle General Contractors, a roofing company in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1998-99, he raised $30 million from the Albanian community in the United States for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and smuggled hundreds of high-powered American sniper rifles to Kosovo for guerrillas, which were distributed by his extended family clan in the region. One of his cousins, Adrian Krasniqi, was one of the founding members of the KLA, an engineering student in Pristina in 1996 when he purportedly lost faith in Kosovo's government and joined a cell of the then-underground KLA. He headed up the rebels' weapons-smuggling operation and was the first guerrilla to die in a KLA uniform. Another cousin, Xhevdet Krasniqi, was also involved in the weapons-smuggling.

Personal life

Florin Krasniqi travels frequently to Kosovo, where he was reportedly building a multi-million dollar hydroelectric power plant. He is the owner of the Kosova Steel Group company.

Family

Florin Krasniqi resides in Brooklyn with his Polish-born wife, Danuta ("Danusha"). She had emigrated from Poland and, in 1990, met Florin Krasniqi at a time when she hardly spoke any English. She hoped to run into him again by calling the cab company where he worked whenever she needed a ride. After several months of trying, a cab showed up with Krasniqi behind the wheel. They married in 1997 and have three children.

Publications

Several books have been written regarding Krasniqi's overt exploits, such as:

• Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America: How a Brooklyn Roofer Helped Lure the U.S. into the Kosovo War was written by Stacy Sullivan and was published in 2004 (ISBN 0-312-28558-2).

• The Brooklyn Connection: How to Build Your Own Guerrilla Army was written by Stacy Sullivan and was made into a film by PBS, directed by Dutch director Klaartje Quirijns, who accompanied Krasniqi one day as he went shopping at an Army/Navy surplus store ^[1] He has also been featured on 60 Minutes and in at least one article in The New York Times.

Quotes

• "Anything you need to run a small guerrilla army, you can buy here in America. You have all the guns you need here to fight a war. M-16s. That's what the U.S. soldiers carry in Iraq. All the rifles which U.S. soldiers use in every war, you can buy them in a gun store or a gun show." -- Florin Krasniqi

• "After Sept. 11, he realized 'If I could do this, who else could do this?'" -- director Klaartje Quirijns, explaining why KLA gun runner Florin Krasniqi decided to let the filmmaker tell his story of how he (mostly) legally bought tons of guns in the United States and shipped abroad. Many of the guns were obtained from such outlets as the Barrett Firearms Company and Schwarzman Surplus ^[2]

Notes

a.	^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states.

References

External links

• Amy Langfield's website
• Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America information at Powell's Books

Persondata
Name	Krasniqi, Florin
Alternative names
Short description	American political activist and businessman
Date of birth	1964
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death