Al Qaeda Active on Russian Soil in Chechnya

Chechnya or Noxçiyn is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in the Northern Caucasus Mountains, in the Southern Federal District. It borders Stavropol Krai to the northwest, the republic of Dagestan to the northeast and east, Georgia to the south, and the republics of Ingushetia and North Ossetia to the west. During the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into the Republic of Ingushetia which wanted to remain part of Russia and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria which sought independence. Following the bloody First Chechen War with Russia, which included a mass exodus of non-Chechen minorities, the republic gained a de facto sovereignty, although only the Afghan Taliban government recognized it in January 2000. Russian federal control was restored after the Second bloody Chechen War. Since then, there was a systematic reconstruction and rebuilding process, though unrest remains an issue (1). Scores of jihadi fighters were killed in this operation by Russian crack troops and Russian control was restored.

Chechens have been fighting Russians for their independence for a long time. In 1996 they won that independence, de facto if not de jure. But the present war is something else. As one Chechen Mujahedin put it on their website: "In the first war, we fought under the banner of 'freedom or death.' In this war we are fighting under the banner of 'Islam.'" The "freedom" war has been turned into an "Islamic" war. Chechnya, in fact, may have been the first war to be turned into part of the Wahhabi Islamist jihad that we see in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Kashmir. The way in which this transformation was effected is worth describing because it reveals the "playbook" of the international jihadists. An understanding of how the Arab Khattab took over the war in Chechnya shows that the "root causes argument" is not sufficient to explain jihaadism. The miserable conditions of life in Chechnya (and Afghanistan and allegedly in Kashmir) provided the soil in which the plant of jihaadism took root, but Khattab brought the seed from elsewhere. Khattab arrived in Chechnya during the first war. Influenced by Osama bin Laden among others, and adhering to the extremist version of Wahabism that calls for everlasting war against "false Islam" and the "enemies of Islam," he had fought in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and moved to Chechnya in 1995. Wahhabi fundamentalists feel that every one except a Wahaabi is a heretic and has to be eliminated or converted to Wahabism. He soon made his mark as a fighter by ambushing a Russian column. He set up a number of training camps from which he launched an attack on the Russian brigade in Dagestan in December 1997. He attracted to his cause the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, whom he may have met when Basayev was in Afghanistan at one of bin Laden's training camps (2). It is reported that most of the fighting was done by Chechen independence fighters until their defeat in Grozny in January 2000. The foreign Mujahedin were given the job of securing the mountains for fallback positions, but many Chechen fighters bitterly complain that once they had fought their way out of the nightmare of Grozny (taking tremendous casualties) the "Arabs" betrayed them: they had prepared nothing for them and given them no equipment. It appears that since then most of the fighting has been done by the Khattab/Basayev Wahhabi jihadists while many of the principal Chechen fighters, such as Ruslan Gilayev, have been sitting out the war. This internal bickering also undermined the cause of Jihadis.

Al Qaeda organization of Osama Bin Laden, the most sought- after international blood thirsty terrorist and criminal has wide world links across the globe and in Chechnya, the breakaway Russian Republic, it had established links. The Russian Government has repeatedly insisted that al-Qaeda has links with the rebels fighting in Chechnya. Some of the 11 September hijackers wanted to fight against Russia in Chechnya, their alleged accomplice has told a German court. Mounir al-Motassadek told at his trial in Hamburg that at least four of the men had gone to Afghanistan to be trained for the war in Chechnya. He is the first person to stand trial for Sept 11 attack on WTC in New York and this attack triggered off world wide hunt for terrorists by the Americans and its allies. He is accused of being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders in New York and Washington, and of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg. He told the court that four alleged al-Qaeda men - hijackers Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehi, Ziad Jarrah and suspect Ramzi bin al Shaibah - had all wanted to go to Chechnya. "Atta, al Shehi, bin al Shaibah and Jarrah wanted to go to Chechnya because of the massacre that the Russians were carrying out," Mr Motassadek told the court (3).

KHANKALA - Russian secret services destroyed a senior Al Qaeda representative in Chechnya, as per head of the regional headquarters in control of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasu, Col-Gen Arkady Yedelev. The operation was reportedly carried out by Russian army elite reconnaissance unit near the village of Avtury, Shali district, on November 11, 2005. The militant, identified as Jaber, was reportedly al Qaeda's mastermind and financier of recent high-profile terrorist attack in the republic, Yedelev said. Jaber organized terrorist attacks in Znamenskoye and Grozny, and is behind the attack on the village of Roshni-Chu in August 2005 (4).

Although Al-Qaeda has infiltrated Chechnya, reportedly there's no evidence that it orchestrated May 2003 Chechen attacks. And if Russian President Putin was looking for parallels, he might have found a better one in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like the Palestinians, the Chechens believe they are fighting an occupying power rather than carrying out an al-Qaeda-style, ideologically motivated jihad. Chechen resistance to Russian domination dates back centuries, and the population — said by Russia to be more than 1 million, but estimated by human-rights groups at around half that — remains largely hostile to Russian rule. The disaffection of ethnic Chechens, who are Sunni Muslims, has created openings for international terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. Who the outcome of Russia's and the U.S.'s respective wars on terror will have a lot to do with whom each country elects as President in future. "The bombings effectively mark the beginning of the election campaign," says Alexei Mitrophanov, Deputy of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament (5) as Putin was facing re election in those days. It may be noted that Russian President criticized American policies severely in recent times, thus generating cold war afresh. In fact, cold war always existed during the communist regime in the past. However after fall of USSR as a Communist State, the cold war in fact vanished and America dominated the world scene in all international affairs and also earned the title of International police man.

The Chechens who dared seize a theater in Russia's capital in October 2002 were put down, but their cause is on center stage. The Russian elite force used gas to make the people and the terrorists go to fast sleep. The fast-acting sleeping agent was the secret weapon in the assault by 200 of Russia's elite Spetsnaz forces on the 50 Chechen rebels who had held more than 800 hostages in the Theater Center on Dubrovka for nearly three days. The gas, as yet unidentified, was pumped through the building's ventilation system and through holes bored in the auditorium floor by soldiers who had been tunneling beneath it since Day 1 of the standoff. As terrorists and hostages alike fell unconscious, several of the female guerrillas made a dash for the balcony but passed out before they reached the stairs. Terrorists although were in a state of consciousness were shot dead summarily at point blank range by the Government soldiers, that is the only language which the terrorists understand (6). Sadly many hostages too lost life in this wanton act of Islamic terrorism.

Patrick Armstrong states, “Whether it is Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Nalagama in Central Asia or Khattab in Chechnya, there are four ways in which local wars are transformed into a component of the international jihad that "will continue until Moslems liberate their land and re-establish the Khilafah ( Caliphate)." The foreign jihadists provide money, leadership, and an ideology that both justifies "martyrdom" and promises a better life” (2). Time only would tell whether it would provide better life or a persecuted and harassed life under Islamic fundamentalism perpetuated by sadist Mullahs. The areas in Caucasus Mountains are linked to Afghanistan by land although the routes are treacherous. Al Qaeda thus could link up to Chechnya in the conflict and thus the conflict is a major headache to Russia akin to Kashmir to India. Chechnya is thus linked to international terrorism by Osama Bin Laden and to his plots to islamise the countries and destabilize world peace.

Wherever there is a Muslim nation, it is very likely that Wahabism would thrive and Jihadis will take birth subscribing to the philosophy of Bin Laden. Majority of Muslims subscribe to attaining paradise having become a martyr for the cause of Islam and probably no other religion drives its followers as crazy as Islam does. Hence, more and more Jihadis take birth in all corners of the world in Muslim nations. Even in secular democracies where Muslims live, jihaadism is born and certain elements of the community get on to the wrong track and become victims of Wahabism that inspires the cult of Bin Laden. In turn, the entire community and Islamic nations are of suspect in the world today although all Muslims are not terrorists, while most of the terrorists are Muslims. Thus Russia too has not escaped the wrath of Wahabism and what was an independence struggle has turned into an Islamic Jihad where they aim at destroying all Christian Kafirs. May God save the nations from the Jihadis from their crazy endeavors?

Bibliography

1. Chechenya, Wikipedia, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:swc0Ixu06-cJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya

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2. Patrick Armstrong (Ottawa), How to turn a local war into part of the international Jihad, Johansson’s Russia list, excerpts from the JRL E Mail News letter, JRL 2006, April 18, 2002, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:U0gUW1LY3sAJ:www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/6191-3.cfm

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3. BBC news, Tuesday, 29 October, 2002, 16:34 GMT

Al-Qaeda suspect tells of Chechnya link, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:QJlyxBAF0fQJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2372971.stm

+Al+Qaeda+and+Chechenya&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

4. From Itar-Tass, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm: Jihad Watch: Senior al Qaeda militant destroyed in Chechnya, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:a5i3G256TFwJ:www.jihadwatch.org/archives/009074.php

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5. Aisha Labi, No End in sight (Chechnya), http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:hh7Vg49sg4MJ:www.time.com/time/europe/html/030526/chechenya.html

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6. Johanna Mcgeary and Paul Quinn-Judge, Moscow, Theater of war, Time, October 28, 2002, http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2002/1104/cover/story.html

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