Posted on 09/05/2004 1:44:09 PM PDT by GMMAC
EDMONTON JOURNAL, p. A14
Sunday 5 September 2004
Lorne Gunter
Terrorists linked by blood on their hands
The Islambouli Brigades were very clear. Within hours of the calamitous, horrific end to the hostage-taking Friday at Middle School No. 1 in Beslan, in the Russian Caucasus's republic of North Ossetia, the radical Islamic terror group (an offshoot of al-Qaeda) posted a message to the Internet disavowing any involvement.
"Although we bless the efforts of our brothers in defending their honour and their religion, (we) announce that we have no relationship with any cell of the cells that carried out the Ossetia operation, and that we didn't contribute with any munitions or money in this operation." Instead, the Islamboulis insisted the school raid was entirely the work of Islamic extremists from Chechnya, a republic next door to North Ossetia that has long been at war with Moscow.
The post was a departure for the Islambouli, who have been especially busy these past six weeks -- and eager to receive full credit for their own murderous accomplishments.
In late July, Islambouli terrorists attempted to assassinate Pakistani prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz. They missed, but killed eight others, including Aziz's driver. In late August, they downed two Russian airliners and sent a female suicide bomber to a Moscow subway station, where she blew up10 commuters.
In all, since July 30, the Islambouli Brigades (named for Lt. Khaled al-Islambouli, leader of the terror organization that murdered Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981) have killed 106 -- and boasted loudly about them all.
Yet, despite their blood-drenched record and their willingness to slaughter innocent adults, the Brigades wanted no blame for the Beslan killings. They knew instinctively the special rage the massacre of 155 children would provoke and the especial fury it will incite from the Russian government. They wanted to be as far away as possible from the retribution that is sure to follow.
They are right to worry.
The photos of those tiny, half-naked, bloodied and mangled bodies being brought from the school -- some carried by their grieving, despondent parents -- have appalled the world. So have stories about the terrorists' mistreatment of their tiny hostages -- no food or water for 52 hours; crowded into a sweltering gymnasium; shouted at and struck; threatened with death if they talked or cried.
As more details emerge of those 21/2 hellish days inside, the pressure on President Vladimir Putin to retaliate will build. Putin has already laid the psychological groundwork for a swift and harsh response. In a nationally televised address Friday evening, he told the Russian people their nation is in the midst of a "full-scale war" and must show "no weakness.Weak peoples are beaten."
But while the Islambouli Brigades may have had no direct involvement in the Beslan butchery, it is not at all clear -- despite their denials -- that they had "no relationship" with the terrorists.
First, there can be little doubt the terrorists were Muslims. At least 10 of the terrorists killed Friday were Arabs and the rest known Chechen Muslims.
OK, so both groups -- the Islambouli and the Beslan killers -- were Muslim.
True, that proves nothing.
But also, the alleged financier of the Beslan operation is Abu Omar As-Seyf, a Saudi said to represent al-Qaeda in Chechnya. And the head of the Islambouli Brigades is Mohamed Ahmed Shawqi, the brother of the Sadat assassin for whom his organization is named. Shawqi (one of the 20 or so senior leaders of al-Qaeda worldwide believed to be still alive) is also the Osama bin Laden lieutenant overseeing al-Qaeda's contacts and supply lines into southern Russia. It's hard to imagine Shawqi and As-Seyf don't know one another.
Admittedly, that's a circumstantial connection too, or even just a tangential one. It's not the same as a photo of Islambouli strategists poring over blueprints marked "Beslan Middle School" alongside the terrorists who seized the pupils, teachers and parents. But it is no stretch to think the Islambouli are chummy with those who did the deed.
For several years now, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia have increasingly served as a staging and training area for Muslim extremists.
Iran runs weapons and fighters into Chechnya through the region. Drugs from Afghanistan used to move through there on their way to central and eastern Europe, where the cash they fetched financed terror attacks.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives fled to the mountains of north Georgia after the fall of Afghanistan in 2001. And Georgia's Pankisi Gorge was so full of terrorist camps and bases -- even the anti-Israeli group Hamas is said to have one there -- that in early 2002, the U.S. government contemplated declaring the region a "third front" in the war on terrorism.
The school raid was supposedly led by Magomed Yevloyev, who is believed to be the leader of the strict Wahhabi sect of Muslims in Ingushetia, which sits between Chechnya and Ossetia, and his funding is thought to trace back to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- many of the same sources as al-Qaeda's.
Many media sources have called the Beslan standoff "Russia's 9/11," and it may well be. But if their terrorists are the same terrorists that attacked the U.S. -- or at least cousins in the same cause -- then the Russians' terrorists are the West's terrorists, too.
_____________________
Lorne Gunter
Columnist and Editorial Boardd Member, National Post
Columnist, Edmonton Journal
Tele: (780) 916-0719, E-mail: lgunter@shaw.ca, Fax: (780) 481-4735
Qur’an 9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”
Bukhari:V4B52N50“The Prophet said, ‘A single endeavor of fighting in Allah’s Cause is better than the world and whatever is in it.’”
Qur’an 9:112 “The Believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed.”
Qur’an 9:29 “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission.”
Qur’an 8:39 “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.”
Qur’an 8:39“So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world).”
DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE MUSLUM RELIGION IS PEACEFUL, THAT IS HYPE. MUSLUMS WANT TO KILL US, PERIOD!
Latest news reports state that the young girls were raped, a small baby was stabbed several times and most of the kids were shot in the back.
More reason why our patience with Pakistan should be running low. And I hope the Russians devastate any muslim terrorists they can find, regardless of their possible involvement in this heinous act.
Wow - a canadian paper....
ah, and now it begins....suddenly they understand.
This is the standard line of the so-called "moderate Muslims", although they support the terrorists and their goals and are certainly pleased with the results, it is more convenient to distance yourself from them and demand there never be any retaliation at all to any Muslims. After all, they will say, the terrorists committed suicide and are no retaliation can be made because they were the only ones involved. Meanwhile they send large amounts of reward money to the families of the terrorists who convinced them to give up their lives to the cause, they support the mosques which recruited them, the imans who instructed them.
I grow more and more sickened every day by these agents of the devil. Pray for comfort and deliverance from evil.
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