Jobbik, Rózsa-Flores, Al-Qaeda according to a Croatian source

About a year ago I wrote three articles about Eduardo Rózsa-Flores, a Bolivian-born Hungarian citizen who, under still mysterious circumstances, ended up in Bolivia and was gunned down along with several of his friends. According to Bolivian authorities he and the others--Hungarian, Irish, and Croatian--were suspected of plotting the murder of Bolivia's President Evo Morales. One Hungarian remains in a Bolivian jail.

My first piece on the subject was written on April 18, 2009, "The Hungarian far-right in Bolivia--Eduardo Rózsa-Flores," followed by "The psyche of an 'anarchist': Eduardo Rózsa-Flores" on April 21, 2009. A week later more information was available and I wrote another post, "Hungarians in Bolivia." I really didn't think that I would have to return to the subject a year later.

We knew even then that Rózsa-Flores had been involved with Hungarian far-right circles, including Jobbik. Today a picture was made public by ATV, the television station, taken at a Jobbik meeting in 2008.  On the left is Eduardo Rózsa-Flores and on the right Gábor Vona. I don't know where ATV got hold of this picture, but a year ago it wasn't circulating either in the print media or on the internet. Perhaps the Croatian paper  Necenzurirano published it and ATV copied it from there.

In the last few weeks the Croatian paper has been publishing a series of articles about the spread of radical Islamic terrorist organizations in Europe. The last article spent quite a bit of time on the activities of these organizations in Hungary. According to the paper, Al-Qaeda and Iran began paying special attention to Hungary around 2000 and Eduardo Rózsa-Flores played an important role as an intermediary between Islamic radicals and the Hungarian far right.

The story is painfully complicated, allegedly morphing from drugs to weapons to terrorism. Let's start with drug trafficking. Bolivia, after Colombia, is the second most important producer of cocaine. Apparently a group of Croatian immigrants headed by an Ustasha (Croatian Nazi) general, Vjekoslav Luburic, was active in passing Bolivian cocaine through Paraguay and Argentina to Canada and from there to the United States. In Canada their partner was the neoNazi group Norvalska that after the outbreak of the Balkan wars was also active in smuggling arms. Some of the people from the Norvalska group settled in Croatia. The group trafficked not only in cocaine from South America but also in opium from Afghanistan. The group allegedly became more and more involved with Muslim radicals.

Another thread in the story: a man from Sudan, Dr. Fatih el Hassanein, arrived in Vienna and from there moved to Bosnia under the protection of the Bosnian government. El Hassanein was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and later also a member of al-Qaeda. The paper claims that through El Hassanein one hundred million dollars' worth of weapons reached Bosnia in its war against Serbia. Hassanein also established an outpost in Budapest, but in Hungary he had no trustworthy Muslims to rely on. However, in Croatia he met Eduardo Rózsa-Flores. We do know that Rózsa-Flores took part in the Serbian-Croatian war on the Croatian side. We also know that he became a Muslim.

The plot thickens. Rózsa-Flores allegedly made contact with László Toroczkai, an important figure in the Hungarian far right. He is the "president" of the Sixty-Four County Youth organization and a close friend of György Budaházy, currently in jail awaiting trial for terrorist activities. Toroczkai is also close to Gábor Vona. Toroczkai organized a paramilitary group in 1999 with a view to liberating the territories lost to Serbia as a result of the Treaty of Trianon. While organizing his guerilla organization he met Rózsa-Flores. He was hoping to learn something about the military side of things because "they knew nothing about that." It was at that time that Toroczkai also came to know people who later established Jobbik.

According to Toroczkai, he learned that László Kövér, a leading force in Fidesz who in 1999 was in charge of the Hungarian security offices, knew about Toroczkai's activities. He allegedly told István Csurka, head of MIÉP and then a political ally of Fidesz, that "if they weren't his [Csurka's] darlings involved in this organization, the National Security Office would have already taken care of them." Csurka himself wrote about Rózsa-Flores a year ago after Flores's death in Bolivia. He remembered that Flores got in touch with him and offered his services to MIÉP.

Toroczkai and his group of guerilla fighters might have gotten some military training, but the liberation of Serbian territories was certainly shelved. Lately Toroczkai's name has cropped up again in connection with the Arrows of Hungarians. According to the man who managed to penetrate the group, Toroczkai was leading the political wing of the organization.

In Hungary there exists an organization called the Hungarian Islamic Community led by Zoltán Bolek. Bolek and Flores also knew each other. In fact, the two of them went to Iraq on a charitable mission at which point Rózsa-Flores got converted to Islam. Bolek is not involved with Jobbik, but his deputy is one of the editors of Jobbik's weekly paper, Barikád. Flores until his death was close to Jobbik. A member of Jobbik told one of the Hungarian papers that Flores "shared our views."

The following picture might make all this a bit clearer. The source once again is Necenzurirano, the Croatian newspaper. In my opinion there is no proof that Iranian or Al-Qaeda money actually reached Jobbik, but the Croatian newspaper is quite accurate in describing the Hungarian connections: Bolek, Rózsa-Flores, Toroczkai, and Vona. As for Jobbik's foreign policy plans, the man in charge within the party, Márton Gyöngyösi, made no secret of an eastern orientation and an opening toward the Arab world. We know that Vona visited Yemen and talked about calling in Iranian observers to watch over the coming Hungarian elections. The party is a champion of the Palestinian cause. And of course no one knows where Jobbik's money is coming from. It seems almost inconceivable that membership dues are sufficient to cover a very extensive election campaign. Rumors have been circulating for some time about the source of Jobbik's money. György Lázár a few months ago brought up the possibility of Iranian and earlier Iraqi money being channeled to the Hungarian far right. Now, independently from Lázár, there is another piece that provides a few more pieces to the puzzle surrounding this whole shadowy group.

Comments

[Thrasymachus]

And of course no one knows where Jobbik's money is coming from. It seems almost inconceivable that membership dues are sufficient to cover a very extensive election campaign.
-----
So now we have it after all!

It's not Fidesz who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's not the MSZP who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's not Mossad who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's not Iran or Iraq who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's not Putin and Russia who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's not bank robbers who are bankrolling Jobbik.
As the press have previously stated.

It's Al-Quaeda!!!

R-O-F-L
Are we sure this original article isn't dated April 1st by any chance?

Because it can't possibly be that the Hungarian people have stumped up the 92 million ($458,000) for Jobbik's campaign, can it?

Anyone in the same vein care to explain where the hundreds upon hundreds of millions of Forints expended on the Fidesz (337 million) and MSZP (546 million) campaigns are coming from?
http://kepmutatas.hu/
Nope. Thought not.

[Botrány]

Let me get this straight.

The MSZP in effect - BANKRUPTS - the entire nation of Hungary.

And yet it STILL manages to lay its hands on HUF 546,290,000 to campaign with.

And you are more concerned with asking where JOBBIK gets its money from?????

[David]

The links between Islam and the Hungarian far right are interesting. Here's an other story showing these links (from a pro-Jobbik source):

http://www.hungarianambiance.com/2010/01/liberal-extremists-tried-to-remove.html

[Erik the Reader]

Check out the United Nations Human rights report on Bolivia.
There you will find out that Rózsa Flores and his group was executed unlawfully and there was no gunfight. The report also shows that the Bolivian goverment does not respect the rights of the detainees and uses them as a political tool and even makes a law to keep them in La paz.

http://bolivia.ohchr.org/docs/Informe%20Anual%202009%20es.pdf

[Erik the Reader]

Mszp has overspent 546M not respecting the limit. Jobbik has spent 92M, yet you wonder from where came the Jobbik money. Even Mdf has spent 131M.
Mszp, Mdf is legging behind Jobbik. So where went the millions?

[John T]

Erik - If the MSZP has broken election laws, then they should be dealt with. If it is a really serious situation, I would go as far as saying they should be disqualified from the election. But if true, I find the idea that Jobbik gets funds from Islamic radicals somewhat hypocritical and very distasteful, particularly as they keep harping on about the importance of christian values and principles.

[Erik the Reader]

@John T do you think Jobbik is not able to raise Hungarian money in their support while the others can?

[John T]

Erik - I don't have a problem with Jobbik raising domestic funds. Just the external funding, if true.

[Mark]

"The source again is Necenzurirano, the Croatian newspaper."

Have you actually looked at this "newspaper" to see what its actual political stance is? And whether it can be considered a source of news? To give you a clue it can be considered radical nationalist, it is run from a web server based in the USA (presumably so it cannot be closed down by the Croatian authorities), and its editor in chief has been convicted for contempt by the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/eCache/DEF/6/445.html). And one of its specialities are anti-Muslim rants.

I know that ATV wants dirt on Jobbik, but taking material uncritically from one far right publication to discredit another far right organization is not anti-fascism. We don't take the likes of kuruc.info seriously as paragons of investigative reporting, so why should we take this one remotely seriously.

[Steve]

Rozsa Flores had known a lot of people, even Peter Kiss from MSZP. So does that link MSZP to Al'queda too? I'm not fond of Jobbik's sympathy for Russia and Iran, but theses "tales" about Flores prove nothing.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Mark: ""The source again is Necenzurirano, the Croatian newspaper." Have you actually looked at this "newspaper" to see what its actual political stance is?"

No, I didn't but I was a bit suspicious given the name. However, I did mention at the end that this article doesn't prove anything. Plus it is a very confusing story. But, as ATV also mentioned some of the references to Hungary are fairly accurate: Toroczkai, Vona, Flores, etc.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Flores might have known somebody from MSZP but MSZP didn't write an obituary after Flores's death and didn't call him a colleague in publishing one of their publications.

[Mark]

Éva: "But, as ATV also mentioned some of the references to Hungary are fairly accurate: Toroczkai, Vona, Flores, etc."

I have no problem with Toroczkai, Vona, and Flores being linked - this seems entirely credible.

However, this paper contains a large number of articles arguing that there is an Iranian conspiracy to Islamize the Balkans and the border states of CEE. Just read through its world page (http://www.necenzurirano.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=2&id=31&Itemid=76) including the article series entitled "Iran i Balkan". This is neo-Nazi rubbish which is as bad as anything we see from Jobbik, and so-called liberals should be ashamed of themselves for repeating it.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Mark: "This is neo-Nazi rubbish which is as bad as anything we see from Jobbik, and so-called liberals should be ashamed of themselves for repeating it."

You're right, but Jobbik does have Muslim connections. I thought that György Lázár's research (ÉS) indicates that much. There is no question of Flores's closeness to Jobbik, but the question is whether he had anything to do with the spreading of Islam. His trip to Bolivia seems to be an independent venture. Or at least I can't get connect it to his attraction to Islam.

[Erik the Reader]

The fact that Jobbik has connection with the Hungarian Islamic Community http://www.magyariszlam.hu does not mean anything. You can't regard every Muslim as terrorist. Spreading of any religion is not prohibited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15wjIJL9WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHJpbWqxpEg

[Mark]

Éva: "the question is whether he had anything to do with the spreading of Islam."

And what - seriously - would it prove if he was? After all a number of faiths seek converts in Hungary, and those who are convinced by Islam have every right under the constitution to chose to enter that faith. Indeed, it would seem to me that if he had spent more time on his apparent religious activities, and less on his political and paramilitary ones, things might have worked out better for all concerned.

I think we need to subject this to some reality tests. A Croatian far right paper has argued for some time that Croatia should be allowed to annex Bosnia, because independent Bosnia-Hercegovina is apparently a hotbed of "radical Islam" and a threat of the west. They've added in the past Albania and Bulgaria to their lists. Now, in the face of all evidence, common sense and sanity, they are attempting to add Hungary to their list of countries. What they have done is devised a template of the "Islamic conspiracy" that can be used for all states, and they can insert some facts into it to make their case.

ATV sees this. What they should have done is regarded this as another base, racist conspiracy theory - just like all the ones about Shimon Peres, and spy planes. But as we know, they love a good conspiracy theory (and at least this time this rubbish is politically convenient), and don't really care too much about the facts, and they really wanted to believe that Jobbik is funded by someone really bad (even though what Jobbik has being actually doing in the past two years should be more than enough reason to condemn them). One wonders if someone told them Darth Vader had personally donated to Jobbik, whether they would believe them. They either didn't even check, or (even worse) ignored the nature of their source, and suspended all critical judgement in the face of their story.

This is a problem. After all, if a television channel spins fantasy as fact, and paranoid conspiracy theory as serious investigation, how much moral authority do they have left to tell people Holocaust denial is wrong. One political side can have its own dangerous political fantasies, and the other can have its separate ones. The two things that are certain is that this is no way to challenge far right parties, and Hungary will never have a proper democratic political culture if things go on like this.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Mark: "Éva: "the question is whether he had anything to do with the spreading of Islam." And what - seriously - would it prove if he was? After all a number of faiths seek converts in Hungary, and those who are convinced by Islam have every right under the constitution to chose to enter that faith."

I didn't quite express myself properly. The question is whether he was connected to some Islamic terrorist organization or not. Or whether he was passing on money from terrorist sources to Jobbik. As I said in my original piece I saw no proof of that in ATV's summary of the Croatian story. As far as his Bolivian adventure is concerned I think he went there to save Bolivia from communism. Or at least that is what he had in mind.

[Paul]

In reality, this article proves only one solid fact: that certain media outlets will gladly print unfounded or even dishonest claims, in their desperation to discredit Jobbik. The reporting of wild, irrelevant conspiracy theories merely reinforce the perception that the mainstream media is running a smear campaign against Jobbik.

Eva, I look forward to your equally scathing reviews on the (enormous) funding sources of the Hungarian Socialist Party. Jobbik claim that most of their funding comes from hungarian small businesses - despite your "evidence", I still see no reason not to believe this.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Paul: ". Eva, I look forward to your equally scathing reviews on the (enormous) funding sources of the Hungarian Socialist Party."

And I'm looking forward finding out where Fidesz gets its money. The fact is that both are using illegal means to get enough money to conduct their campaigns.

[molly]

hi, for what it's worth i'd just like to say (as someone living in croatia who got across this propagandist a couple of times before, including the text you're referring to in particular) that DOMAGOJ MARGETIC, who runs the "necenzurirano" site, is no journalist at all.

he publishes proven disinformation (like for instance: a year or 2 ago he wrote that croatia sold rocket system to iran, which was later used by zionist propaganda (by jerusalem post i believe) to hype the hysteria on iran and its weapons -- the story of course had no basis in reality whatsoever, but it was useful for that months' propaganda against iran).

he also published identities of protected witnesses in a trial at the hague tribunal (ICTY), for which he was indicted by the same court.
http://www.icty.org/sid/8898

he is a known lying propagandist, not even a fraction of a credible source you should pay any attention to. no one in croatia pays any attention to what he writes even and despite the fact that many of his topics or "discoveries" are ultrasensationalist or outright scandalous. that is: they would be, if they were true, but they are not. he's one of the least credible sources on anything i've ever encountered.

[Eva S. Balogh]

I think I will write to ATV and tell them all I have heard from you people concerning this Croatian paper. They ought to be more careful, I must say

[Paul]

if http://kepmutatas.hu/ is to be trusted, jobbik is in fact the most UNDER-funded national party running at this election (compared to expected numbers of votes). think about that for a while.

[John T]

Paul - I don't think anyone has a problem in seeing that Jobbik has spent the least in the election. But the situation is no different in the UK. The conservatives and labour spend huge amounts during the election compared to our "nationalist" main party, the BNP. No doubt their spending will increase if they gain support.
Maybe there is an argument for state funding of parties to ensure fairness or a rigorously enforced cap on spending. I'm open minded to idea's like that.
It appears that the source quoted is very dubious anyway. But if there was any truth in what was said, its the source of the money I would find distasteful.

[Paul]

according to opinion polls (and http://kepmutatas.hu/), the "socialists" will most likely spend 8-10 times the amount that jobbik spends, per vote they receive. makes you wonder whats really going on here. if jobbik had access to similar funding sources, imagine what could happen.