Florin Krasniqi immigrated to the United States from Kosovo by
sneaking across the Mexican border in the trunk of a white Cadillac
on Christmas Eve, 1998. Once in the U.S., he started his own business,
fell in love, married, and bought a house. But he did not forget
the country he left behind. In 1996, when one of his cousins joined
the Kosovo Liberation Army, then an underground movement of a
few dozen men with the vain hope of securing Kosovo’s independence
from Serbia, Krasniqi chipped in to help.
Over the next two years, Krasniqi helped to raise
tens of millions of dollars for the rebel force through a network
of Albanian émigrés living in the U.S. Soon he began
visiting gun shows across America and running weapons and other
supplies to the rebels. All the while he was also lobbying some
of Washington's most powerful politicians. Eventually he helped
recruit American volunteers, some of whom left the New York area
to fight for a homeland they hardly knew.
Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons in America
tells the remarkable story of how a small group of young men started
a guerrilla army that lured the world’s most powerful military
alliance into fighting a war and changed the course of history
in the Balkans forever.
Members of the Jashari family before and
after a 1998 Serb-led massacre (left)
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