Posted on 09/06/2004 1:04:58 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
Russian investigators said Arab operatives linked to Al Qaida played a major role in the takeover of a Russian school in which 400 people were killed.
Russian officials said authorities have determined that 10 of the 32 suicide attackers who took over a high school in Beslan in North Ossetia last week were nationals from several Arab countries. Most of the attackers were Chechens and Ingush who had been trained at Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan.
The 10 Arab nationals came from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, officials said. They said security forces seized notebooks in Arabic in the school taken over by insurgents. Officials said survivors told authorities that some of the captors spoke Arabic during the three-day hostage ordeal.
All of the captors were said to have been killed, but three accomplices were arrested, Middle East Newsline reported.
The Arab nationals were said to have been recruited in the Middle East and hosted by Shamil Basayev, head of the Chechen insurgency and aligned with Al Qaida.
"We're hoping to release additional information over the next few days," an official said. "But precise details will require cooperation from our allies."
The officials said the attackers were trained in Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan and financed by Abu Omar Al Seif, regarded as a leading Al Qaida operative and the organization's representative in Chechnya.
Al Seif, identified as the chief Islamic ideologue in the Chechen insurgency, was brought to Chechnya in 1995 by Saudi national Samir Saleh Abdullah Al Suwailem, known as Abu Khattab. Abu Khattab was said to have been killed in 2002.
Officials said Basayev received Saudi financial aid for at least a decade, most of it through Al Seif. They said Basayev and Al Seif employed hundreds of Saudi volunteers for suicide and other mass casualty attacks in Chechnya and other parts of Russia as well as raised funds required for the attack on the school in Beslan.
In December 2003, Federal Security Service spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said virtually all of the suicide attacks in Russia over the last few years were organized by Al Seif and Abu Al Walid. Ignatchenko identified Al Walid as responsible for the Arab fighters in Chechnya.
"Major financial resources reach Al Walid and Abu Omar from extremist centers in a series of Arab countries," Ignatchenko was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency.
Several Middle East countries planned to increase security cooperation with Russia, officials said. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to meet Israeli leaders in an effort to pave the way for expanded security cooperation. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also agreed to increased security cooperation with Moscow. Victims of the insurgency attack included at least one Turkish national.
"The recent terrorist act in Russia has showed the importance of international cooperation in fight against terrorism," Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said.
Now they are good al Queda.
Well, they can spike all they want. The world needs to hear this latest development to this story. The more terrorists attacks there are around the world, the more people will realize President George W. Bush is right. We must defeat them in their land so we won't have to deal with them here in our land.
The time has come to destroy the democrat mainstream media, as the enemies of our nation they are.
Ok, where's the response by Prince Abdullah? Once again, his countrymen are involved in terror. What, no statement? Ok, how about some action to stop recruitment and disassemble cells? Sifting sands, sifting sands.
May they get their reward of 72 Helen Thomas Clones, or Bella Abzug clones each.
They're spiking it because it shows that Arab-Islamic terrorism isn't solely the consequence of Israeli and American "foreign policy," but the consequence of the "religion" of Islam itself. And that un-PC fact horrifies them to no end.
To tell this story as it should be told would mean that Kerry has NO chance. Every word of it would add votes to Bush's totals.
There is no more evil force on the face of the earth than the RATmedia.
Investor's Business Daily printed this information last Friday front page above the fold.
Absolutely true. And it empowers George Bush's plans for dealing with the war.
Serious Bump.
The more I read the SICKER I get!!! This is just sooo horrible...there aren't words to express my feelings about this!!!
Well Jordan is generally supportive of the US. I think the jury is still out of Saudi Arabia but Bush seems to want to give them a pass, and I trust Bush. That leaves Syria.
I doubt the US would mind if Russia wants to eliminate that little problem for the world.
Call me Forrest.
Wait. This will bea long war, and the Islamofascists are creative.
Obviously the NYT isn't alert enough to figure out that the thing they all have in common is that they are Muslims, and that at least some of those mystery nationalities are Arabic...
This story is being spiked and spun in a major way indeed, both out of political correctness, and because it would only bolster Bush's contention that we are in the midst of a major worldwide war...
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