Supplement 1. ALLAH'S WARRIORS
THE ISLAMIC KNIGHT
Sanobar SHERMATOVA
Moscow News, February 2, 1999
It's hardly surprising that the name of Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden scares the Western world. It is precisely this man, who has founded a new militant undercover Islamic ideology.
In June 1998 about 100 delegates, Arabs, for the most part, gathered for an emergency session of the worldwide Islamic league in Kandahar (southern Afghanistan). The session, which was presided over by Osama bin Laden, involved also delegates from Somalia, Afghanistan and even Chechnya. Bin Laden brandished the Koran, while talking with restrained rage in his voice. "You can't defeat the heretics with this book alone; you must show them your fist," he stressed.
Those present applauded this statement by the worldwide Islamic league's founder, subsequently raising the Koran's copies in their hands as a sign of approval. The discussions continued for two consecutive days; after that, bin Laden, who was quite satisfied with the session's results, left in the direction of the Pakistani border.
Bin Laden's supporters approved an action plan at that session, which is now seen as something mandatory by all members of the afore-said worldwide Islamic league. The list of the league's top-priority actions includes attacks against US embassies, as well as the kidnapping and murder of US diplomats.
Explosions resounded near US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania two months after the Kandahar conference, killing 257 people, including 12 Americans. In his rare interviews to Western reporters, bin Laden constantly accused the Americans of being the world's arch-terrorists and arch-thieves. "We ask Allah to more actively use us, so that a mere shadow would remain in America's place," he noted.
Bin Laden, who fought against the Soviet army in Afghanistan during the 1980s, wants to bring America to its knees in the late 1990s.
Arab Mujahedin
Bin Laden, who has been wearing combat fatigues ever since the Afghan war, also likes to tote a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The history of an entire generation of Arab mercenaries, who had fought Soviet military units in Afghanistan, is linked with his name. They used to be called Arab Afghans. US secret services patronized the Mujahedin since the very beginning of the epic Soviet-Afghan war, nonetheless failing to become their main sponsors. Saudi Arabia used to spend twice as much money on the upkeep of the Afghan insurgents than the United States did. At that time, Riyadh, which maintains partner-like relations with Washington, viewed the Soviet Union as a country responsible for oppressing millions of Moslems.
However, some other unofficial interests also existed. Saudi Arabia did its best to eject more active radical anti-Western groups from the Middle East. It was suggested that such organisations be used to wage a "holy war" against the Soviet military contingent in Afghanistan; that idea proved to be quite fruitful. The centre of religious radicalism shifted to South-West Asia for ten consecutive years, with the USSR coming to constitute the main enemy of the afore-said Islamic radicals.
When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, though Afghanistan no longer played the role of a region where two super-powers would confront each other. The Soviet army was withdrawn. Consequently, all the Arab Afghans became unemployed, eventually leaving for home. Thus, today bin Laden and his comrades-in-arms have turned their weapons against their recent patrons.
The Royal Family and the Millionaire in Disgrace
Saudi Arabia knows the bin Laden clan very well. In 1931, Mohammed bin Laden established a company, which continued to thrive on a par with the Saudi kingdom. The company Saudi Bin Laden Group, which boasts numerous subsidiaries, now implements oil-production and chemical-industry projects, also specialising in such areas as telecommunications and communications satellites. As distinct from their warlike relative, the bin Laden clan maintains good relations with the law and the ruling dynasty.
Bin Laden stated after the 1991 Gulf War, that he no longer regarded the Saudi royal family to be legitimate. According to bin Laden, the Saudi kingdom's decision to agree to the deployment of US military units on its territory constituted an unforgivable sin. In his words, King Fahd had sided with the Jews and Christians, also desecrating holy Moslem places. Bin Laden's accusations resounded from Sudan, where he had settled after Moslem extremists had gained power there as a result of a coup.
Bin Laden invested a portion of his wealth into Sudanese construction companies, farms and a local leather-processing factory, which used to export its products to Italy. He invested the income from these enterprises into the construction of a training centre for religious revolutionaries and Afghan-war veterans. Judging by newspaper reports, bin Laden dispatched his comrades-in-arms on special assignments to Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, ordering them to fight infidel regimes there.
In 1994 Saudi Arabia deprived bin Laden of his Saudi citizenship, while the Sudanese authorities asked him to leave their country two years later. This request can be explained by the fact that the Sudanese government feared punitive measures on the part of Egypt, Saudi Arabia or the United States.
Consequently, bin Laden once again settled down in Afghanistan, where he had spent his younger years during the war. US intelligence reports read that bin Laden's activities are partly financed by the ruling Saudi dynasty (despite the fact that bin Laden wants to overthrow that royal family). The Americans explain this by the fact that, as distinct from King Fahd and crown prince Abdallah, part of the Saudi royal family, which consists of thousands of princes and princesses, doesn't tolerate US influence. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia became the first country to recognise the Taliban government as legitimate, official Riyadh had even clashed with Afghanistan's Taliban government in September 1998. The Saudi charge d'affairs was recalled from Afghanistan, after the Taliban refused to extradite bin Laden. By the way, Taliban had been created for the purpose of implementing a trans-Afghan gas-pipeline project (that was expected to link Turkmenia and Pakistan); however, that project was ultimately moth-balled, with a consortium of a US company and a Saudi company announcing the termination of its activities.
The Organisation and its Plans
Arch-terrorist Ilyich Ramirez Carlos, who is also known as the Jackal, was arrested in Sudan a few years ago. Consequently, bin Laden began to be referred to as the world's No. 1 terrorist. Western intelligence services report that bin Laden has managed to establish a powerful terrorist organisation. This so-called main organisation lacks any clear-cut and concise structure whatsoever. Tentatively speaking, it constitutes a veritable order of Islamic knights.
Populated localities replete with their own economic infrastructure were established at Arab-volunteer camps during the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, subsequently attracting radicals from all over the Arab world. These populated localities, which are also known as military-labour communes, have once again been resurrected. They are called on to train the so-called Islamic rapid-deployment force capable of perpetrating terrorist acts at any time.
It is believed that bin Laden's secret army wields surface-to-air missiles, howitzers and armoured vehicles.
Hundreds of Arab Afghans undergo subversive-training courses in southern Iraq, as they prepare to attack outposts along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. They have proclaimed the struggle against US interests in the region to be their goal. By all appearances, the United States also doesn't intend to stop hunting for the world's arch-terrorist. US reconnaissance aircraft repeatedly invaded Pakistani air space in mid-January 1999. Several such incidents were registered inside a 50-km approach zone around Karachi. Pakistan's mass media bodies draw attention to the fact that US spy planes had already flown numerous missions last year, that is, when the United States had been preparing to launch missiles against bin Laden's Afghan bases in August.
Bin Laden's name is becoming increasingly legendary with every passing year. Rumours to the effect that bin Laden intended to acquire A-bomb components in one of the former USSR's Central Asian republics caused quite a stir last year. According to other sources, bin Laden has already obtained a nuclear unit. Such reports are based on the interrogation of a man named Mahmud Salem, who was arrested by German police in September 1998. One should admit that experts working for the London-based international institute of strategic studies reacted in a sceptical manner to these reports. Operatives of Russia's foreign intelligence service also agree with their viewpoint. The Russian foreign intelligence service's press centre notes that Central Asian states lack the required components to produce nuclear weapons, as well as weapon-grade nuclear units.
Yet another story also speaks for itself. In December 1998 the Arab Al Hayat newspaper reported that the Chechen government was negotiating a possible political asylum for bin Laden with the Taliban. According to that paper, Ibragimov in charge of one of the Chechen foreign ministry's departments met Taliban leaders in Afghanistan's Kandahar city. Chechnya's former foreign minister Movladi Udugov confirmed reports in connection with a possible political asylum for bin Laden, while Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov referred to this statement as a conjecture, which aimed to undermine the Chechen republic's international prestige.
The Banner
Osama bin Laden, the heir to a rich clan's fortune, a millionaire and a dissident opposed to the ruling Saudi dynasty, fought against Soviet forces with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in hand just like any rank-and-file Mujahedin. Bin Laden, who is also an enemy of the West, has pledged to punish the United States. Such is the profile of the world's arch-terrorist. Little is known about his private life. Moreover, no one knows, where bin Laden will surface tomorrow. But for one particular circumstance, this man could be listed among ordinary, albeit very prolific, terrorists. Osama bin Laden preaches a new ideology, calling on Moslems to revolt against the current global order and to fight for their rights, which, in his opinion, are being trampled upon by the West.
Islamic countries are reacting to the Saudi dissident's appeal, all the more so as bin Laden can use his own trump cards effectively enough. Anti-Iraqi air strikes, which were based on dubious legal grounds, espionage charges against UN-commission chief Richard Butler that were printed by the Western press, as well as Washington's double-dealing standards being applied within the framework of its international policy, have evoked a sympathetic response even among those Moslems, who don't like Saddam Hussein, and who are not linked with radical groups. Bin Laden's units are waiting to accept new adepts of his ideology. As of today, the West is forced to deal with stubborn dictators like Saddam Hussein, as well as people, who sincerely believe that the global order can be changed by force.
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THE FUGITIVE EMPEROR OF TERROR: OSAMA BIN LADEN WAGING A "HOLY WAR" AGAINST THE US AND RUSSIA
By Yerlan DZHURABAYEV
Expert magazine, August 30, 1999
I wake up in horror every night. We know that he's going to strike. But we don't know where and when.
This desperate confession was made in an NBC interview by one of the Pentagon's experts on anti-terrorism, who once again reminded the people of America about the plans of his richest and most dangerous "client." Frankly speaking, the latest reports from the Caucasus and other CIS hot spots show that the "emperor of terror" has now opened a second front of his permanent Jihad. Quite possibly, Russian intelligence- service operatives are also waking up in horror nowadays.
Arab millionaire Osama bin Laden, who declared a holy war on the United States in 1996, has once again outpaced his enemies, after quickly leaving his residence near Jalalabad (together with his family and cronies), which was to have been hit by the US Navy's Tomahawk cruise missiles. After that, the US National Security Agency intercepted some of his conversations over a satellite phone that dealt with the transportation of fighters and explosives. However, the Americans proved unable to find out everything about the projected terrorist connection, with several US embassies subsequently informing the State Department that they were being watched by unknown individuals.
Washington, which has offered a $5-million reward to anyone, who knows the location of the elusive Saudi millionaire, has also imposed economic sanctions against the Taliban movement, which, in turn, has failed to extradite its long-time and generous Arab friend. But how can one extradite a man, who is married to the daughter of Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar? Did bin Laden say a customary goodbye to his father-in-law? Or did he simply vanish on Talib-controlled territory, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of all Afghanistan. Those particular Afghans, who know members of bin Laden's entourage, told our correspondent that preparations for a serial retaliation against US facilities were now nearing completion. However, this constitutes a routine task. Meanwhile bin Laden poses the following long-term task, e.g. invading Chechnya and the entire Caucasus on a wide scale.
The decision to implement the afore-said anti-US revenge was motivated by the arrest of bin Laden's 17 supporters, who are accused of complicity in staging powerful explosions near US embassies in East Africa last year. Acting on the recommendations of counter-intelligence operatives, the US Administration decided to temporarily close down its embassies in six African countries. Apart from that, $1.5 billion have been spent on implementing additional security measures at other diplomatic missions and inside the State Department building proper.
A Palestine Woman's Son
As Allah willed it, one of his future warriors was born into a family with an unprecedentedly large number of children.
His father, Muhammad Awad bin Laden, a Saudi building-industry king, was married ten times, fathering 53 children as a result. Osama bin Laden's mother, who was a rather unattractive Palestinian woman, used to be that polygamist's most disliked wife. Quite possibly, this couldn't but affect her son's personality. Since childhood, bin Laden tried hard to compromise with his numerous and sometimes no less ambitious relatives, subsequently making it to the top and becoming his extremely rich clan's leader. As of today, that huge family boasts a $5-billion fortune, with bin Laden himself controlling about $300 million.
After graduating from Riyadh university's management school, bin Laden began to display his remarkable efficiency in business matters (as his partners claim). Apart from the construction industry, bin Laden soon took an interest in politics, its Islamic factor, to be more precise. Lots of money, big-time politics, as well as even greater inner extremism, compelled that businessman to launch a war against the "infidels."
Bin Laden went on the warpath in 1979 when the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee decided to send an entire "infidel" military contingent to Afghanistan. Bin Laden resolutely shifted his business to Afghanistan, with several hundred loyal workers, who boasted up-to-date construction equipment, and began to erect military lines of communication and bases of resistance there. At the same time, he teamed up with Abdallah Azam in charge of a Palestinian Moslem organisation, the Moslem Brotherhood, eventually setting up numerous recruiting offices all over the world.
Thousands of volunteers, for the most part from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt and Pakistan, flocked to newly established training camps. They were received by well-paid foreign instructors specializing in guerrilla operations and in the organisation of mountain-area air-defence systems, as well as by explosive experts. Bin Laden himself mastered the fine art of clandestine operations under CIA supervision at the Jawora base near Host (that was built with the assistance of US intelligence operatives). Ironically enough, the United States hit that base exactly one year ago, as it tried to destroy its student's headquarters.
For a Pure Islam
The Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 1989, thus depriving bin Laden's 10,000-strong battle-hardened force of any work for some time. Part of bin Laden's army went home, with the authorities of their respective countries viewing them as undesirable elements (to put it mildly). However, part of that force preferred to stay in Afghanistan. Bin Laden knew only too well that his elite and pretty expensive force, whose creation had required tremendous effort and appropriation, would soon melt away, unless he immediately moved to humiliate yet another super-power. In a bid to pool the efforts of his veterans, who were by then scattered the world over, bin Laden established the El Qaidah organisation in 1988. That organisation, which now has divisions in 60 countries of the world, perceives the United States and Israel as its arch-enemies. Pro-Western Arab regimes are seen as its less important enemies. According to bin Laden, all of them have captured the Moslem world's two main holy relics, e.g. Mecca and Medina, also exiling the Palestinian nation from its homeland and violating Islam's purity.
The merciless nature of that Islamic revenge can apparently be justified by Western cruelty and the collapse of its moral foundations. Terrorist acts, which are looked upon as religious feats, are called on to intimidate the "infidels" and to stir the Moslem masses. Bin Laden's people are sure that Arab armies are a far cry from that powerful Soviet military contingent in Afghanistan. The overthrow of even one rotten regime, preferably in Saudi Arabia, would trigger off a chain reaction over the entire Arab world. As a result, that huge petrol-dollar flow would thus be channelled in the "right" direction.
These directives have enabled El Qaidah to attract numerous Egyptian and other fundamentalist organisations and to set up the larger Islamic front for a jihad against Jews and Crusaders. The elusive leader of that jihad is trying stubbornly to master the production of chemical-weapons and biological-weapons components (with Iraqi and Libyan assistance) at his enterprises in African and Middle-Eastern countries.
The Caucasian Axis
In 1994 Saudi Arabia deprived bin Laden of his citizenship, compelling him to leave for Sudan together with his "Afghan veterans." In a bid to do the United States a favour, the government of Sudan ejected him in 1996. Bin Laden then returned to Afghanistan, dreaming to copy the Afghan model all over the Moslem world, first and foremost in the post-Soviet republics. A ramified war-veteran organisation, as well as prosperous enterprises, which provide jobs and money to such people, and which also effectively conceal their real-life activities, still operates in Sudan, constituting bin Laden's rearguard. Those undercover "veterans" have committed bloody outrages in Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Israel, Germany, Bosnia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
However, bin Laden's phone conversations on Afghan territory have been intercepted increasingly frequently over the last few months. Accordingly, bin Laden has begun to use couriers for communicating with his "veterans." Indeed, such couriers have handed over coded PC floppy disks in the course of some macabre death-relay race. But this practice has entailed less efficient management. Apart from that, bin Laden has become convinced that, given the current globalisation of NATO's police functions (he was particularly impressed with the war in Yugoslavia - Ed.), terrorist cells are unable to achieve any impressive successes in the Middle East, which is regarded as a strategic region by the West. In this situation, the seething Caucasus has become a rather attractive area for El Qaidah's militants.
Our sources say that bin Laden, who visited Russia in the early 1990s, that is, within the framework of Moslem charity organisations, has stepped up his contacts with Chechen clans this summer through the good offices of Arab warlords. Previously, Russian intelligence services used to inform their US counterparts about his so far unsuccessful attempts to obtain radioactive materials with the help of Chechen nationals. Chechnya, or Ichkeria, which constitutes a Shariah territory, mesmerises bin Laden, who believes that he can use that republic for humiliating Moscow once again and for gradually creating an alternative to his Afghan hide-out. In order to shake off his pursuers, he sorely needs access to various areas, which are not controlled by "infidels." Chechnya, which is not recognised by the West and which confronts Russia head on, constitutes an ideal option for bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden now strives to consolidate the Chechen leaders and to focus their attention on "external enemies" alone. The onslaught on Daghestan fits perfectly well into his concept of financing religious feats. According to the former Afghan general, the attackers ultimately aim to reach the Caspian coast and to lift the blockade of Chechnya, which is still perceived as a mouse-trap by the terrorists. For its own part, Moscow can shut this mouse-trap anytime. Indicatively enough, the so-called "Daghestani campaign" was master-minded by the Jordanian citizen Khattab, who is closely linked with El Qaidah. FSB (Federal Security Service) operatives note that an unprecedentedly large number of Arab mercenaries are also taking part in hostilities.
Bin Laden regards the Caucasian front as all the more attractive because he doesn't have to spend his own money in that region. Russian military sources claim that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and even the United States finance Moslem separatists through covert channels for the purpose of weakening Russia. Bin Laden, who keeps transferring huge amounts of cash, whose origin remains unclear, via dozens of countries, seized control over such channels a long time ago. Covert appropriations obtained from state sources can be easily converted into Moslem donations.
At any rate the United States managed to channel bin Laden's efforts in the required direction for a long time. Quite possibly, the second front will ultimately amount to the continuation of combat operations within the first front's framework. Anyway, quite a few Chechen and Daghestani "cadets" have been spotted at bin Laden's three Afghan bases (that is, in the vicinity of Host, Jalalabad and Kandahar). Bin Laden, who views the current fighting in Daghestan as a show of strength, has already become accustomed to protracted battles with the "infidels."
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A STATE WITHIN A STATE
By Nikolai ZHITICH
Versiya, June 8, 1999
The militants, who are actively establishing subversive-and-reconnaissance cells on Russian territory, and who are being trained at numerous Chechen and foreign camps, hope to activate such cells some time in the future.
Intelligence reports indicate that foreign secret services have now become particularly active in Chechnya. Russian-speaking foreigners continue to arrive at local bases. Among other things, helicopters have also started flying between Chechnya and Azerbaijan, which constitutes a staging area for mercenaries. Several Pakistani-trained helicopter crews are currently subordinated to Shamil Basayev. Turkey's Chechen diaspora, which gets money from national oil tycoons, has teamed up with the well-known "Grey Wolves" terrorist organisation to train at least 1,500 fighters for the North
Caucasus and Daghestan, in particular.
The notorious Khattab's bases are used to train Daghestani, Georgian, Abkhazian and Russian militants. Khattab wants to graduate yet another class of 1999 in June. Some sources have it that more than 66 percent of all Chechen guerrillas will move into neighbouring Daghestan by mid-June, subsequently taking part in local hostilities. At the same time, those particular forces, which are controlled by president Aslan Maskhadov, will remain in Chechnya. Russia's law-enforcement agencies intend to destroy Chechen paramilitary units, in case the latter decide to invade Daghestan, thus defeating virtually the entire Chechen army that opposes Maskhadov.
Will Zero Hour arrive in June?
Khattab Goes to War
Emir Ibn Al Khattab, who is nicknamed as Single-Handed Akhmed and the Black Arab, ranks among the world's most notorious terrorists. Khattab was born into a sufficiently rich family. According to some sources, one of Khattab's sisters runs a weapons store in the United States.
At the present time Khattab lives in Chechnya's Vedeno village. His mansion is guarded by foreign soldiers of fortune round the clock. Khattab has several wives, including one Chechen woman and one Darghian woman from Daghestan.
Khattab, who has been fighting for more than 15 consecutive years, is ready to declare war on just about anyone. But, most importantly, he wants to fight under the green Islamic banner all the time. Khattab fought against the Soviet army in Afghanistan, against NATO forces in Iraq, against Israel, and against Russian federal troops in Chechnya. He also used to train Afghan Mujahedin at Pakistani camps.
Khattab's crippled right hand has earned him the nickname of Single-Handed Akhmed. However, that man can kill perfectly well and in a subtly sadistic manner with his left hand. In fact, Khattab is an incorrigible sadist, who prefers to cut off prisoners' ears and noses with his knife. He also likes to scalp them. Khattab uses a video camera to record his "exploits." Such "applied" video "footage" is subsequently shown to the leaders of foreign Moslem organisations, who regard it as proof of Khattab's ruthless and die-hard nature. Consequently, Khattab manages to obtain additional subsidies for his "work."
Khattab, who commands the "Jamaat Islami" foreign- mercenary unit in Chechnya, can shoot perfectly well from any hand-gun or rifle. Besides, he has won a reputation as a first-rate explosives expert. Khattab keeps an eye on his subordinates all the time, demanding complete obedience from them. He prefers to confiscate his mercenaries' documents, so that the latter could not escape. But the thing is that no one is going to run away from Khattab, who pays his men handsomely (by Chechen standards). True, Khattab has a lot of money at his disposal. Apart from receiving substantial appropriations from some Islamic countries' extremist organisations, those in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, first and foremost, Khattab and his men produce and sell drugs, also kidnapping people for ransom.
Tajik, Kirghiz, Kazakh and North Caucasian "cadets" undergo combat-training courses at Khattab's bases. In other words, such bases are used to train people from crisis-ridden territories, whose residents are ready to earn their living in any conceivable way.
Khattab's bloody spree is based on a certain ideology. For example, Khattab controls the so-called Caucasian Islamic Institute, which, in fact, constitutes a subsidiary of the "Brothers Moslems" international extremist organisation. That institute boasts 40 Afghan and Arab lecturers, as well as 160 students, who study Arabic and religious subjects for two consecutive months. The Caucasian Islamic Institute mostly aims to promote Wahhabism all over the North Caucasus, ultimately intending to establish an integral Islamic state between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. The Afghan- Pakistani Taliban movement is perceived as a model ideological-and-state option. The Caucasian Islamic Institute also has its own Said Ibn Abu Wakas personnel-training camp. Consequently, the institute's graduates are well-versed in divinity and the art of terrorism. The Caucasian Islamic Institute trains young men from most North Caucasian republics, Tatarstan, Bashkiria and some other Russian regions. After completing their comprehensive training course, certified Islamic propagandists and saboteurs-cum-terrorists return to their native parts.
The institute's best students subsequently undergo advanced-training courses in Pakistan and Turkey. Apart from young Russian citizens, members of Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Chinese, Egyptian, Malay, Palestinian and other foreign extremist organisations also "study" at Khattab's camps.
Khattab's main base is located in the vicinity of Chechnya's Serzhen-Yurt township on the left bank of the Khulkhulau River. Indeed, seven boot camps, which are named after their respective commanders, can be found there. The central camp, which is commanded by Khattab, trains approximately 100 foreign mercenaries, as well as several distinguished Chechen militants. Camp Abujafar specialises in insurgency-and-guerrilla operations. Camp Yakub attaches priority to mastering heavy-duty equipment. Camp Abubakar trains terrorists and saboteurs, while camp Dawgat graduates psy-ops experts and specialists in propaganda. Nearly 2,000 men are being trained there round the clock. Live-ammo shooting practice is conducted there every day. The well-fed cadets also get all the required equipment. The Caucasian Islamic Institute's camp boasts its own mosque, student residence, hospital, canteen and bakery. At present, a radio station and a TV centre, which will cater for Daghestani and Ingush audiences, are being constructed there. Apart from that, Khattab patronises a religious school in Kharachoi; that school has 80 students, for the most part Avars and Darghians, as well as Arab mercenary teachers. The students learn Wahhabism, also undergoing military training. Khattab would like to transfer that religious school to a holiday hotel on the bank of lake Kezenoi-Am and to increase the number of students to 300.
Hundreds of foreign Islamic mercenaries are now staying on Chechen territory, with the passport-and-visa service of Chechnya's Shariah state security ministry furnishing them with official residence permits and Russian passports. Khattab, Basayev or Yandarbiyev submit the appropriate requests to Khachukayev in charge of the Chechen passport office, substantiating their requests rather frankly. For instance, First Deputy Prime Minister Movladi Udugov of the Chechen government had requested documents for the "Chechen armed forces's soldiers, who took an active part in defending the Chechen Republic against Russian aggression."
Chechnya received 25,000 Russian-passport forms over the entire 1993 period alone, while quite a few local residents have acquired such passports to date. The Chechen Republic gets such passport forms on a regular basis. The list of Russian-passport holders now includes Algerian citizens M. Tabusha and A. Abuta, Turkmen citizen Alisher Saipullayev, who teaches at a saboteur-training school, and Ali Abdurakhman of Saudi Arabia, who has now changed his name to Abdurakhman Timikhanov. His compatriot Khamzallah has a passport identifying its bearer as Khamzat Ibragimov. This list can be continued still further.
Those foreigners, who have illegally received Russian passports, take an active part in special missions all over Russia, Moscow and other sprawling Russian megalopolises, in the first place. At present they continue to infiltrate Russian society, legitimising themselves all the same. An integral rigidly centralized system consisting of well-trained professional terrorists, who are ready to perpetrate a string of terrorist outrages, is now being created. The first signs of this process have already appeared. For instance, a Chechen citizen carrying two hand-grenades was apprehended April 4, 1999 near Daghestan's Gerzel bridge. On April 7 two armed militants were apprehended in the vicinity of the Buinaksk-based 136th mechanised-infantry brigade, with the authorities confiscating an assault rifle with a silencer, a hand-grenade and a map of Buinaksk showing the city's industrial facilities. The three men confessed to having been trained at Khattab's camps.
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GO AND KILL, SALMAN RADUYEV SAYS
By Julia KARAVAYEVA
Slovo, April 7, 1999
The Balkan war has relegated the problem of Chechen terrorism to the background. However, if we consider a terrorist act, perpetrated near the Federal Security Office's reception office, then it will become clear that some points of Salman Raduyev's speech, which was delivered before the first graduates of a Grozny-based spy-training school, do not sound like the ravings of a madman. True, one can say that Raduyev is a bit deranged. However, the afore-said speech that was uttered by Chechnya's No. 2 terrorist is reminiscent of statements by Dr. Goebbels and his colleagues, who, in turn, can be considered insane to the same extent as NATO's leaders.
Consequently, Russia's politicians and secret services now face a lot of problems. Quite possibly, NATO strategists might well become inclined to take part in the Chechen "political settlement" after the Kosovo operation. The men in Belgrade are putting it bluntly - Yugoslavia today, Russia tomorrow.
We publish the text of Salman Raduyev's speech because everyone must know that Chechen terrorism is not a myth or a figment of someone's imagination.
Brothers,
You are graduating from our school today. Your teachers have trained you in the art of sabotage, corruption and the circulation of rumours for four consecutive months, also teaching you many other subjects. All of you fought in the holy war for Ichkeria's independence. There are other people, other than Chechens and Moslems, among you; but this is unimportant. Ichkeria has become their real homeland, all the more so as they have spilled their blood, while fighting for its freedom. They abide by Shariah laws; and they are our brothers. At present Moscow is trying to convince all and sundry that it has bestowed peace on Chechnya. I personally, as well as Shamil, Aslan and many others, who fought for independence with weapons in hand, don't believe this. All of Moscow's promises to finance Chechnya can be taken seriously by fools alone. All money being transferred via Russian banks will be pocketed by bureaucrats. Aslan is doing a good job, as he continues to double-cross the Russians. Quite possibly, he will manage to obtain money for our own national bank. And nothing terrible will happen, even if he fails. We don't need their money. Such money will come from some European countries, as well as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. They will furnish us with money, weapons and equipment for our army. Besides, quite a few top Russian officials are ready to sell weapons, food and uniforms to us.
We voice the following demands:
- complete political independence for Ichkeria;
- Russia, which has lost the war, must completely and unconditionally pay all indemnities down to the last kopeck;
- we are going to square accounts with all those, who supported Moscow during the war, in line with Shariah laws.
Some of you will begin to fulfil your assignments by tomorrow. You are supposed to sow mortal terror among all those, who have betrayed Allah. They must feel the cold hand of death every hour. You've got to instil fear and bewilderment among all servicemen, who are still stationed on our territory. Take them hostage and kill them. Allah will forgive everything. Don't pay attention to those yelling politicians, whose shouts constitute a mere smoke screen. Those, who will settle down in Russia and neighbouring states, will be expected to accomplish a special mission. You must destabilise the situation, the economy and the financial system there. You must set up bases and select people. But you won't have to wait long. We are going to hit virtually all major cities, if Ichkeria doesn't receive its complete freedom and independence by spring. You must pay attention to Cossacks, who are our ancient and most terrible enemies, during your work. But Allah is merciful. Most Cossack atamans (chiefs) are corrupt and greedy. They can sell off their Cossacks and even mothers for money. You must set up joint ventures at Cossack communities, as you drag them into a financial pitfall. Some of the Stavropol territory's Cossack atamans are already working for us. Those, who are going to work there, have already received compromising materials on such atamans.
You must pay attention to those specific areas where Russian military units are stationed. Their hungry officers and soldiers will sell just about any kind of weapons. The list of such areas comprises the Kochubeevsky district, Nevinnomyssk, the Shpakovsky district, Stavropol, Budennovsk and the Neftekumsky district. You must compile a list of all officers, enlisted soldiers and especially Cossacks, who participated in the war to even the slightest extent. All of them must be killed, in the first place. You must smear all patriotic Russians, who can be easily accused of fascism and nationalism. You must also take the blood of those infidels wishing to rally around Mohammed's holy banner; consequently, there will be no turning back for them. You must expand the Moslem-school chain, accepting infidel children, as well. Children amount to dough; that's why they will serve those, who meld them. You must take advantage of the Russian nation's lack of spirit. You must sow ethnic strife on the territory of national republics, putting local ethnic groups and Russians at loggerheads. The Russians must be blamed for any trouble. Those nationals, who don't want to live in line with Shariah laws, must be killed; and you must blame everything on Russians. Everyone, who infiltrates federal agencies, must demoralise such agencies. However, this must be done with Russian hands alone; let the Russians answer in line with the law. You must not be suspected in any way. Those working at banks must exert every effort in order to delay wage payments and other settlements, the payment of pensions in particular, thus sowing discontent between Russians.
Russia's state-power and financial structures are corrupt; besides, many of them are subsidised by local mafias. We must assume leading positions inside mafia structures. While working in Russian regions, you must rely on Chechen, Gypsy, Daghestani and Korean diasporas. You will be receiving all the required instructions and money from them.
Brothers, I no longer want to distract your attention, all the more so as each of you has already received the most detailed instructions.
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