Russian Mafia Aids Al-Qaida

The Moscow Times ^ | Friday, Sep. 28, 2001

[Tai_Chung]

U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered information that Russian criminal groups have been supplying Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network with components for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, The Washington Times reported.

The Foreign Ministry called the report an attempt to undermine relations between the U.S. and Russia at a time of increased cooperation.

The Washington Times, citing U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, reported Wednesday that bin Laden is believed by U.S. intelligence to have a secret nuclear weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan. This is believed to be one of the sites sought for U.S. military strikes, the newspaper said.

There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But bin Laden has worked with Russian mafia groups in obtaining components for weapons of mass destruction, according to officials familiar with the intelligence reports.

The U.S. State Department's latest report on international terrorism says that al-Qaida "continued" to seek chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said. Intelligence officials say al-Qaida probably is trying to produce the nerve agent Sarin or biological weapons made up of anthrax spores.

A former State Department counterterrorism official, Larry Johnson, said the contacts between the mafia and bin Laden could be related to drug trafficking and such cooperation would not be surprising, the newspaper said.

The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the report raises a question: "Why should such information be splashed out on newspaper pages instead of discussing it through the channels existing between our countries, including confidential ones?"

"One may get the impression that some in the United States oppose the positive tendency in Russian-American relations that has made itself felt recently," the ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax.

[Rockinfreakapotamus]

October 2 National Enquirer shows example of a suitcase nuke device of which binLaden supposedly got a quantity of 43 from the Russians. He has been trying to obtain the enriched uranium for it but his minions have been thwarted on several occasions by CIA and European intelligence.

SCARY !!

[l33t]

Why don't you stick to the Nazi boards where your racism would be better appreciated. The Russian mafia in Russia is ethnically diverse with a very large contingent of Chechens and very few Jews.

[independentmind]

Why don't you stick to the Nazi boards where your racism would be better appreciated. The Russian mafia in Russia is ethnically diverse with a very large contingent of Chechens and very few Jews.

Could you back that up? From what I have read, a large part of the Russian mafia is, in fact, Jewish.

[independentmind]

One may get the impression that some in the United States oppose the positive tendency in Russian-American relations that has made itself felt recently," the ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax.

A very interesting observation.

[spudsmaki]

The Washington Times, citing U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, reported Wednesday that bin Laden is believed by U.S. intelligence to have a secret nuclear weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan.

Ok, what is the management at the WT smoking to make such an idiotic and thoroughly stupid statement? Do they have any idea of the kind of electical distribution infrastructure this would require? Not to mention water, sewer, and computing? Don't they know what little Afghanistan had was destroyed a decade ago?

binLaden, even if he could buy a weapon, doesn't have the infrastructure to maintain it in a usable state.

Now if they had posited that binLaden contracted with a third party to deliver a bomb, that might be believable.

The WT is getting as ridiculous as it gets.

[1rudeboy]

I get the feeling that you couldn't recognize a member of the Russian mafia if one shoved a Makharov up your posterior.

[1rudeboy]

The original assertion, that the Russian mafia is "overwhelmingly Jewish," is the one that needs to be backed-up. Anecdotally, since a good portion of the Russian mafia are ex-KGB, does that mean that the ex-KGB was "overwhelmingly Jewish?"

[l33t]

You may be confusing Russian mobsters in the United States with the mafia in Russia. The former are predominantly of Jewish origin because Russian immigration to the US from 1970's to 1990's consisted mostly of Russian Jews admitted as refugees. Based on press accounts the activities of the Russian mob here do not extend beyond extortion, drugs, gambling, tax fraud.

[Stavka2]

Considering that a large chunk of the Russian mafia is run by Chechin crime lords, this is not the least surprising. Or did you all think that the Russian mafia was really primarly Russian? Amazing what happens in a society of 200+ ethnic groups...just like in the USA, hugh?

[Stavka2]

????What the hell are you talking about...the fact that you know nothing is obvious. Though many of the Oligarchs are Jews is a fact but the mafia is primarly Musli and Chechin and has been since the 50's when Stalin scattered them as pay back for backing the Nazies. Drop your BS hatred and aim it at the Islamics...unless you're Islamskaya svinya kotoryu nyzno razrezat kak malinkovo parasyonka....

[ThreeOfSeven]

How are the Oligarchs connected with the Russian mafia?

[l33t]

Always on a look out for nefarious Jewish connections.

[FormerLib]

Sure. This is from film maker Jos de Putter who went to Chechnya to make a movie. He quickly found out that he was not going to be safe unless he worked something out with the Chechen Mafia.

A journalist in London put me on the trail of Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev, but my departure was so hasty that I only read an article about him in the plane on my way home. He was and still is the most powerful man in the Chechen Mafia, "a man you can only encounter with shaking knees". To my amazement, Noukhaev was interested in my proposal to make a documentary about it, on condition that it would also be about the people of Chechnya and their struggle.

Noukhaev invited me to come to Chechnya and I realised this was unique opportunity. With his protection, the chance of kidnapping was a lot smaller. It also struck me that Noukhaev's story was more than worth basing a documentary on.

In the eighties he had taken over the Moscow underworld while at the same time this man is regarded as a hero in is country, because he used the Mafia money first to set up an underground organisation and later to finance the war. Noukhaev was arrested several times, but always escape. He also looked like an actor playing a Mafia boss. Always wearing chic Italian suits, armed with a silver-capped walking stick, and moving around in an armoured Mercedes.

[Stavka2]

Who knows for sure. But they are monopolists, just like the monopolists of America and have about as much contact as their American counterparts had with bootleggers and such. They might see them as tools but that's about it and then tools to bring about more power to their legitimate empires...highly doubt they would sell nukes to Islamics, especially since those Islamics have already once planted a bomb of TNT and uranium in Gorky Park (6 years back) and threatened the Rodina with nuclear destruction. Of course, unlike the US debatable response, if a nuke goes off in Russia, by the time the generals are done, there will be very few Islamics left in this world.

[1rudeboy]

Honestly. I do not dispute that the Chechens have a significant criminal element, but I don't think that the majority of the folks running the drug, prostitution, protection, extortion, etc., rackets in the former Soviet Union are "darker-skinned."