Donald Trump's administration has decided to deport an Albanian from Kosovo who claims to have been a CIA spy who infiltrated Al Qaeda after September 11. Blerim Skoro had received a permit to live in the US after helping to convict terrorists.
But now Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested Skoro, a father of three, outside an immigration office in New Jersey where he was renewing his documents earlier this month.
His lawyers have filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop his deportation, saying that the 55-year-old Skoro was promised residency in the US after years of important work as a "CIA agent."
Skoro, a taxi driver from Staten Island, New York, who has an American wife and children, was granted a deferral of deportation to 2022 due to the risk of being captured and tortured by terrorists if deported.
The decision was made in part because of Skoros' help in securing the arrests of members of al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and Hezbollah, his lawyers claimed.
Now he fears that the American government, which he claims put his life in danger, will return him to Kosovo, “into the hands of those who want him dead,” he says.
"I never thought I would be betrayed like this," he told CBS News in a telephone interview from the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. "Please, if I die, I should die in this place so my children can bury me."
FBI documents show that Skoros' relationship with US intelligence officials began when he was imprisoned for drug trafficking in 2000.
He says he was struggling to provide for his refugee children and parents after the family fled the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s. He was caught transporting heroin for an Albanian criminal gang.
Raised as a Muslim, he was taken in by a group of Islamic radicals in a Manhattan prison, where he began serving a sentence for drug trafficking, according to FBI files that list him as a confidential informant. After 9/11, he says the CIA approached him to exploit his connections.
While incarcerated at FCI Allenwood, a federal prison in Pennsylvania, between 2002 and 2006, Skoro says he collected information for the FBI on terrorists, including Faysal Galab, whom federal agents described as the first hidden terrorist cell in America.
Ai thotë se ka dhënë informacione për Randall "Ismail" Royer të rrjetit të xhihadit të Virxhinias, i dënuar për organizimin e dhunës kundër trupave amerikane jashtë vendit dhe anëtarin e Hezbollahut Junuz Fuaz.
Të dhënat e FBI-së të vitit 2004, të sigurura nga CBS News, e rendisin Skoron si informator në një hetim që synonte kapjen e Osama bin Laden, duke ofruar herë pas here informacione "të zbatueshme" dhe "të besueshme", duke përfshirë detaje të një "kampi stërvitjeje sirian".
Skoro besonte se do të merrte një dënim të reduktuar për punën e tij, por në vend të kësaj u deportua në Kosovë në vitin 2007. Ai pretendon se CIA i kishte thënë të infiltrohej në “Al Kaeda” nëpërmjet Ballkanit. Ai u kthye në SHBA vetëm në vitin 2014.
Skoro pretendon se ka qenë agjent i fshehtë në grupet terroriste nga viti 2007 deri në vitin 2009 për CIA-n, duke udhëtuar në një kamp të ISIS-it në Siri dhe duke punuar në Liban, Jordani, Pakistan dhe Egjipt, si dhe në vendin e tij të lindjes.
Fotot dhe videot që ai bëri gjatë asaj kohe e tregojnë atë në mjedise të njohura të Lindjes së Mesme me terroristë të njohur. Pamjet u përdorën në një dokumentar të vitit 2024, të quajtur "The Accidental Spy" dhe në një episod të “The Shawn Ryan Show” në YouTube vitin e kaluar.
Ai duket se ka qenë i përfshirë drejtpërdrejt në arrestimin e terroristit nga Bruklini, Betim Kaziu, i cili u dënua me 27 vjet burg pasi u përpoq të blinte armë për grupin terrorist somalez “Al Shabaab” për të sulmuar trupat amerikane të stacionuara jashtë vendit.
Në një deklaratë të dhjetorit 2020, Skoro shkroi se e kishte telefonuar fshehurazi ndihmësin e tij të CIA-s për t’i dhënë vendndodhjen, teksa priste Kaziun në apartamentin e tij në Kosovë, gjë që çoi në arrestimin e terroristit me një pushkë, municione dhe granata në korrik 2009.
Skoro ia tregoi email-e edhe CBS News midis tij dhe një burri që ai pretendon se ishte bashkëpunëtori i tij në CIA që kishte nofkën "Chris". Ai mban datën 24 shtator 2009 dhe thotë: "Isha shumë i lumtur që pashë që miku ynë Kaziu është tani përsëri në Shtetet e Bashkuara." CIA nuk iu përgjigj një kërkese për koment.
Skoro pretendon se ka ndihmuar në kapjen e dërgesave të uraniumit në Kosovë, duke parandaluar një komplot të mundshëm për një “bombë të madhe”, dhe se duke filluar nga prilli i vitit 2015, pasi ishte kthyer në SHBA, ai i ofroi më shumë informacione FBI-së dhe Departamentit të Policisë së Nju Jorkut kur thotë se u kontaktua nga një rekrutues i ISIS-it.
Ish-avokati mbrojtës i Skoros, Joshua Dratel, i tha CBS News se gjatë dekadës së fundit, klienti i tij kishte jetuar një “jetë plotësisht produktive dhe sipas ligjit me familjen e tij, pas një përvoje të tmerrshme që e kreu për Shtetet e Bashkuara me shumë guxim dhe aftësi”.
The lawsuit filed in federal court after his arrest earlier this month says he "worked for the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for nearly a decade" and claims he performed "dedicated and heroic work as a law enforcement agent in the United States."
His wife, Susan Skoro, was with him at the immigration office in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when he was arrested on August 3. She said that when he checked in at the front desk, ICE officers attacked him, put him in a room and then drove him away.
"He was betrayed. He served his sentence. He almost lost his life and no one cares. He deserves a pardon," she said. "He can't be safely deported anywhere. We always keep him under surveillance."
The Kosovar first went to America in 1994 seeking asylum after deserting from the then-Yugoslav Army, having witnessed the rape and murder of children by soldiers, he said.
After years of spying on behalf of the US, Skoro says his cover was eventually blown and he was shot in the leg during an assassination attempt in Kosovo, prompting him to flee and re-enter the US illegally via Canada in 2014.
He fell into the hands of ICE in 2016 after the NYPD arrested him for using his daughter's student public transportation card, sparking a long immigration battle.
In November 2022, a federal judge blocked the government from deporting Skoro back to Kosovo due to the risk of torture and murder there, under the international treaty known as the Convention Against Torture, but did not grant him legal residency.
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Skoro taxi union, said she was "shocked" to discover that the "impressive, funny and kind" driver's legal residence was on uncertain ground.
"I thought that given the work he did in the fight against terrorism on behalf of the CIA, he would have permanent status here by now," Desai told CBS News. "It just seems really brutal to have used him in this way and now to dismiss him."
Skoros' attorneys, Rene Kathawala and Amy Greer, filed a petition on August 4, arguing that thanks to the protection granted by the court in 2022, ICE must obtain permission from a judge before deporting him, something the agency failed to do.
This month, ICE deported a group of Mexican nationals who had been under the same protection as Skoro after the State Department received assurances from the Mexican government that the deportees would not be harmed. Their deportation proceedings also began without a lawsuit in federal court, The New York Times reported last week. ©Prepared by LAPSI.al
