.Map of World Trade Centre strikes confiscated in Chechnya.

BREAKING...Developing...

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but isn't there the slightest possibility that Russian might be manufacturing evidence? After all, they would probably benefit greatly from this war. For as elusive as the terrorist network has been for so many years, I find it terribly strange that all this 'new' evidence is suddenly surfacing. Hmmm...

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but isn't there the slightest possibility that Russian might be manufacturing evidence?

You beat me to it. Very likely that this was just made up.

On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice if the Russians were working hard to help us stamp out these terrorist networks?

In this case, I would tend to believe what the Russians are saying since that parallels with what some other countries have been finding!

I don't think so. The Russians are well aware that bin Laden has been behind much of the Chechnya uprising. There is much evidence that points to this. Thus, Putin is supporting the US because he knows taking this network down will also put a severe cramp on the Chechnya rebels.

The one still unknown and wildcard is Zhironovsky. He has stated his thoughts that the US is behind the attacks as an effort to boost defense spending and re-ignite some sort of defense build-up. Zhironovsky is a well known Marxist nationalist but opposes the Chechnya rebels.

Putin has not commented on Zhironovsky's comments.

I have seem these maps sold in the Middle East. It is (if this is the right word for it) to honor the Jihadists. The article is not suggesting that this man helped plan the attack.

We are capable of manufacturing our own evidence! Ask any politician about the subject.

A resident of Chechnya has been arrested in the city of Argun, Chechnya, during a special operation, on whom a scheme was found, that featured strikes at the buildings of the U.S. World Trade Centre by the planes, captured by terrorists, representatives of the public relations centre of the Federal Security Service (FSS) branch in Chechnya told Tass on Monday.

And the Award for Worst-Constructed English Sentence in the Whole Wide World goes to...

Apparently the Russians haven't abandoned comma-nism.

Perfect awareness is perfect paranoia.

Every one is missing the point as laid out in the statement :"ten army tents and ten sleeping bags were confiscated "

The guy is obviously a survialist which makes him a threat to civilization.

In this case, I don't think there would be any advantage to the Russians to make this up.

We're already on board. What Russia needs most is accurate information about terrorist activity, and we'll be happy to give them anything we have as long as the information flows both ways. If the Russians start making things up, it will reduce our incentive to provide them with the intelligence they need.

There is no benefit to the Russians to start making things up.

Apparently the Russians haven't abandoned comma-nism.

You owe me for cleaning the coffee of the computer screen.

Chechnya huh? I wonder if it was the same Chechnian muslim that was in that throat slitting video?

You're just paranoid. Chechnya has MANY MANY extremist muslims, and it makes sense that some traces would lead back to there.

I agree, this operation to be carried out had to be planned in secret, using one group, if information about the operation was spread about the entire terrorist network, then all the worlds Intelligence agencies must of been asleep, after all the more who know the greater the risk of detection.

Tony

OLD RUSSIAN Tricks with Afghanistan and the U.S.

Read this bio on an ambassador to Afghanistan that died in 1979:

From URL :

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/adubs.htm

Adolph Dubs

United States Marine Corps

Foreign Service Officer

Adolph Dubs (1920-1979) of Maryland. Born in Chicago, Illinois, August 4, 1920. Served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II; U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, 1978-79. Assassinated in Afghanistan, February 14, 1979. Interment at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was killed in an exchange of gunfire between Islamic extremists who kidnapped him and Afghan security forces. A top expert in Soviet affairs, Adolph Dubs, was sent out as the US Ambassador on the basis of business as usual. Within months Dubs died in a hail of gunfire from Afghan troops, under Soviet advisers, as they sought to 'rescue' him from four kidnappers in a Kabul hotel room. His death merited a weak protest, and the start of the phasing out of the already stagnant US aid programme. Nine years later another ambassador was to die violently in suspicious circumstances, again with possible Soviet involvement. This time the reaction was a cover-up.

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Assassination of an Ambassador - Afghanistan, 1979 By Bruce K. Byers Valentine's Day 1979 dawned clear and cold for members of U.S. Embassy Kabul. And, as we would see soon enough, it would be a day like no other in our careers. As Press Attache for USIS, I had worked with PAO Roger Lydon and Ambassador Adolph "Spike" Dubs since my arrival in June 1978 to present official U.S. policy to the various ministries of the Marxist-led Afghan government and to help American journalists seeking access to Afghan officials.

Shortly after 8 that morning, Ambassador Dubs, 56, a career FSO, was on his way to the embassy in his bullet-proof vehicle, when men dressed as Afghan police stopped it near the USIS compound. Using a ruse, the armed men persuaded the driver to open his window, forced their way into the car and drove the Ambassador to Kabul Hotel in the city's center, where they took him hostage in an upper-floor room. The U.S. Embassy driver returned to the embassy to announce the kidnapping.

A stand-off ensued until shortly after noon. Just as U.S. officials believed they had persuaded Afghan Interior Ministry officials not to storm the room, at about 12:30 p.m. a gunshot was heard. Police in the hotel corridor and on rooftops across the street opened up a fusillade into the room that lasted more than a minute. Afterward, silence. Later, Ambassador Dubs was found dead, his body ridden with bullets. None of us at the embassy knew what this event portended or whether it was the beginning of a coup against the government of President Mohammed Tariki, the nominal head of the Khalq Party, a pro-Moscow Marxist organization competing with the rival Parcham organization for control of the Afghan government.

Earlier that morning, when Lydon returned to USIS with news of the Ambassador's kidnapping, I decided to make an audio record of embassy radio transmissions, using a two-way radio on the embassy's frequency to monitor and tape transmissions among Kabul Hotel colleagues, and staff at the embassy and in vehicles moving between these locations and the Interior Ministry, where the Afghan government was trying to manage the crisis. Transmission quality varied, but they helped embassy security officers construct a chronology of events for analysis in Washington.

In the hours and days that followed, I worked with Chargé d'Affaires Bruce Amstutz, Political Counselor Bruce Flatin, Public Affairs Counselor Roger Lydon and other embassy colleagues in preparing responses to journalists from the United States, Europe, South Asia and elsewhere. Within 24 hours after the killing, dozens of western journalists had poured into the city and wanted to know what impact the killing would have on U.S.-Afghan relations. I was impressed at the intensity of interest in America about our crisis in Kabul.

It would have been easy for us to hint at links between Soviet KGB and Afghan Interior Ministry officials, but we had to remain absolutely disciplined about information released to the media and the public. The truth was that we had very few hard facts. Any public speculation by embassy officials could have precipitated more dangerous developments in a country whose Marxist-led government was already worried about its survival. The chief responsibility of our embassy was to safeguard the lives of the more than 4,000 Americans living in the country and, especially, those in Kabul.

The kidnapping and murder of Ambassador Dubs remained a mystery for years. We did not know who the hostage takers were, even though three had been taken alive, or what organization they represented, and apparently neither did the Afghan government. The kidnappers had been demanding the release of prisoners who the Minister of Interior claimed were not even in the country.

Through the traumatic days and weeks after the killing, the embassy staff and the international community pulled together. We Americans demonstrated that our mission would not be deterred from its responsibilities to represent our government and our nation in this geostrategically important country. In a simple ceremony in the embassy compound we later honored our fallen ambassador, remembered as a U.S. Marine who had survived the bloody battles of the Pacific in World War II.

As in similar events in other U.S. diplomatic missions - Khartoum, Beirut and Islamabad, to name three - FSOs and their families stood firm in the face of terror and violence and represented the best ideals and values our country offers in the oft dangerous field of international diplomacy. For those who served in Kabul, this is our tribute to "Spike" Dubs.

Bruce K. Byers was USIS Press Attaché at U.S. Embassy Kabul from 1978-79. Byers, who joined the Foreign Service in 1971, also has served in Tehran, Iran; Bombay, India; Vienna, Austria; Bonn, Germany; Washington, D.C.; and Warsaw, Poland.

Posted: 15 July 2000

This is interesting, but it would be more interesting if they would find some of these plans in advance of the terrorists actually carrying out the mission. Say, for example, if the Russians found maps showing the locations of the terrorist cells in the US.