CBS’ Gunrunner Aided Anti-Gun Politicians
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A Brooklyn, NY, man who told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he has essentially been involved in gunrunning to guerilla fighters in Kosovo has been contributing to the campaign coffers of several anti-gun politicians, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports obtained by Gun Week.
Florin Krasniqi, who claims to have purchased scores of firearms in the United States, including .50-caliber rifles, and taken them to arm Albanian rebels fighting in Kosovo during the 1990s, is a US citizen who, by his own account, entered this country “in the trunk of a car” from Mexico.
For a man claiming to have been an international gun runner, Krasniqi has been keeping anything but a low profile. He not only did the interview with “60 Minutes,” but he is also the subject of a documentary called “The Brooklyn Connection,” which aired on PBS two nights after the July 17 CBS segment, and a book, Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons In America, by reporter Stacy Sullivan, who covered the Balkans for Newsweek.
That may come back to haunt Krasniqi, as there may be an on-going investigation into his activities by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). A spokesman there told Gun Week that the agency cannot discuss on-going investigations.
In the FEC reports obtained by Gun Week, the contributions to various politicians were listed under both “Florin” Krasniqi and “Florim” Krasniqi, but they are the same man, identified as the president or owner of a Brooklyn roofing company called Triangle Contractors. During the “60 Minutes” segment, Krasniqi conducted what amounted to a campaign against allegedly weak American gun laws that allowed him to obtain the firearms and get them out of the country.
After the segment aired, the Internet began burning up with complaints about inaccuracies in Krasniqi’s claims, and the possibility that he had violated both federal and New York state gun laws.
Calls to Krasniqi and “60 Minutes” were not returned to Gun Week.
Ironically, at the time Krasniqi claims to have been a gunrunner, he was also contributing to the political war chests of several leading congressional anti-gunners.
According to the records, under the name Florim Krasniqi, a contribution of $1,000 went to California Rep. Tom Lantos (D-12th Dist.) in June 2003. That same month, he contributed $1,000 to New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-8th Dist.) and in August 2003, he gave $250 to New York Rep. Eliot Engel (D-17th Dist.), followed by a $1,000 contribution to Engel in September 2004.
Also on the list was a $1,000 contribution to Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde (R-6th Dist.) in June 2003, a $250 donation to Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain in February 2000, a $500 contribution to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and a $2,000 contribution to the Kerry for President campaign in July 2004. Another $1,000 contribution to Kerry in March 2004 under the name Florin Krasniqi was returned in October of that year. Contributions to federal campaigns by individuals may not exceed $2,000.
A spokeswoman for Lantos suggested to Gun Week that the common denominator among all of these candidates was probably not their gun control policy, but that all had, at one time or another, been taking stands on the war in Kosovo.
Gun Week could find no indication that any of these politicians realized, at the time, who Krasniqi was or what he claims to have been doing.
Critics of the segment have suggested Krasniqi may have also violated laws covering dealing in firearms without a license and lying on federal firearms forms.
The thrust of the “60 Minutes” segment was not to expose Krasniqi but to air his complaints about lax gun laws. Over the past several months, CBS and NBC have aired reports about .50-caliber rifles, and this report was the latest in a series done by the CBS news magazine.
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