FOXNews.com: Ties between Islamic extremist groups and Chechnya well-documented

FOXNews.com FOX News Network - We Report. You Decide. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Ties between Islamic extremist groups and Chechnya well-documented Apr 19th 2013, 13:36 'Military grade' explosives litter streets of Boston suburb Gov. Patrick urges residents to stay indoors during manhunt Reports that the suspects in the Boston bombing are believed to be from Chechnya or a nearby region may have caught some by surprise -- rebels in Chechnya are known for their violent and long-running campaign to break away from Russia, but not for exporting terror to America.  But congressional researchers and foreign policy analysts have long tracked a connection between the Chechnya region and Islamic extremists with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. If the suspects are indeed Chechen, analysts told Fox News they may represent part of a jihadi network which has made its way to American soil.  "The Chechen jihadi network is very extensive," Middle East analyst Walid Phares said Friday. "They have a huge network inside Russia and Chechnya."  John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Chechen rebels are motivated by two things - a desire for independence from Russia and Islamic radicalism. He speculated that, if the suspects are Chechen, they could be motivated more by the latter. "They could well be supported by a significant international network," he said.  One suspect is dead and another is on the loose, as federal and local law enforcement are engaged in what Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick called a "massive manhunt." Many questions are still unanswered.  Sources said authorities are investigating whether Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., and his brother may have had military training overseas. Reports have also indicated they may have a connection with Dagestan, another restive Russian region where Islamic militants have gone after Russian targets.  The ties between major Islamic extremist groups and Chechnya are well-documented, particularly pertaining to extremists' support for the separatists in Chechnya.  The Taliban, when it was in power, was one of the only governments to recognize Chechnya's independence.  An Al Qaeda-tied Chechen warlord named Ibn al-Khattab was, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, said to have met with Usama bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He was killed in 2002 by the Russians.  Signs of Islamic radicals fueling unrest in Chechnya continued to surface. According to the report by the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, foreign fighters have flocked to places like Chechnya, Bosnia and others with a jihadi presence. The 2010 report said lands like Chechnya -- as well as Pakistan and Somalia -- are seen by "jihadi theoreticians" as places where "fighting is not only legitimate but also compulsory." The same report also noted Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has tried to align the insurgency "with the global jihadist narrative," supporting the establishment of an "Islamic emirate in the Caucasus."  Whether Chechens, however, have actually gone to the frontlines in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a matter of fierce dispute. A Congressional Research Service report earlier this year said "some Chechen fighters fighting alongside Taliban/Al Qaeda forces have been captured or killed."  But other studies have sharply questioned this kind of reporting, claiming that American officials and media were buying into a Russian narrative that Moscow was simply fighting Islamic terrorists in Chechnya.  A 2004 report from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth professor Brian Glyn Williams described a more complicated picture.  "While it is certainly possible that Chechen individuals made their way to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the complete absence of even a single Chechen POW among the thousands captured by the Northern Alliance and the U.S. would clearly refute the wild claims that the Chechens formed the 'largest contingent of Al Qaeda's foreign legion'," he wrote.  Regardless of the motivations of the suspects in the Boston bombing, which killed three and injured dozens, Phares said it is possible they still have broader "logistical support" within the United States.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions