I confess that I am puzzled as to why the the media and the left in America are so reticent to connect Al Qaeda to the Chechen "separatists" that just assaulted Russia in several bloody and murderous assualts in the last 30 days. In most of the newspaper articles that I've read on the topic you have to go several paragraphs in before you find a reference to Al Qaeda involvement. In the case of the siege of the Russian school and the deaths of more than 300 including women and children you only hear whispers in the media that there may have been "Arabs" mixed in with the killers.
How does it help our National Security efforts for the left to downplay the role of Al Qaeda in global terrorism?
As I've said before, I'm still in the process of reading the excellent "9/11 Commission Report". Fascinating. Here's a tidbit that I read yesterday in the report, with cable news playing stories about the tragedy in Russia in the background. It's about Mohammed Atta, the leader in the 9-11 attacks on America, and his group of 3 friends who became the core leaders in the attack.
"...they had formed a close-knit group as students in Hamburg, Germany. The new recruits had come to Afghanistan aspiring to wage jihad in Chechnya. But al Qaeda quickly recongized their potential and enlisted them in its anti-U.S. jihad." pg 158
There are other references in the 9/11 report to Al Qaeda support of the jihad in Chechnya, such as:
"...a support center for the Muslim rebels in Chechnya." pg 58
"... Bin Laden's agenda stood out. While his allied Islamist groups were focused on local battles, such as those in Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia, or Chechnya, Bin Laden concentrated on attacking the "far enemy" - the United States". pg 59 Yes, but he still financed people and weapons to fight in those other places as well.
"These were part of a larger network used by diverse organizations for recuriting and training fighters for Islamic insurgencies in such places as "Tajikistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya." pg 64
And so on.
As I've quoted before, former Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke, not a friend of the Bush administration, lists in his book "Against all Enemies" the connection between Al Qaeda and warring countries like Chechnya.
"Bin Laden sent Afghan Arab veterans, money, and arms to fellow Saudi ibn Khatab in Chechny, which seemed like a perfect theater for Jihad." pg 136
What I've learned from all of this that I've been reading is:
1. Islamic terrorists have a goal - global jihad and the establishment of a global Caliphate.
2. They've organized fighter, money, and arms and ship them to warring hotspots such as Bosnia and Chechnya.
3. The jihad has been in progress in excess of 20 years - dated from the time of the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan by the 9/11 Report.
3. The U.S. is only one of the targets in the West
4. The West has been, and is still, slow to put the pieces together and recognize it.
5. The mainstream media aids that deadly lack of understanding by being timid in making the connection between local wars and jihad.
As to the question of the media's to label Arab fighters in Chechnya as Al Qaeda: Why?
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