Secured by NATO? :)
Destro (re: post #9 and #10),
You know very well (or at least you should know) why al-Qaida has managed to secure "terrorist transport route to Chechnya...via Azerbaijan." Azerbaijan's former president, Gaider Aliyev (former KGB general and former Soviet Premier under Andropov) was carrying out Russia's strategy to dupe nearby Muslim countries into establishing economic and political ties with the Muslim CIS (Read: Pro-Russian) states. Of course, Azerbaijan has a new president, so there is no longer anything to worry about, right? Wrong...the new president of Azerbaijan is none other than Gaider Aliyev's son, Ilham Aliev.
Here is what KGB defector Anatoly Golitsyn had to say on the Russian/Red Chinese strategy re: Azerbaijan and the new 'independent' Muslim states:
"Perstroika Deception", p. 149, 150
“A second upgraded strategy involves the use of the new ‘independent’ Muslim states in the CIS to establish and develop economic and political cooperation with the fundamentalists in Iran and elsewhere in the Muslim world.”
According to this assessment the much-advertised feud between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis of Turkish descent in Nagorno-Karabakh may be a tactical ploy to involve Turkey, Iran and other Muslim countries in support of eventual alliance with Azerbaijan and other Central Asian Muslim states in the CIS. This strategy takes into account the growing power of the fundamentalists and the possibility of their gaining control over substantial oil reserves”
“A primary objective of the strategy here is to achieve a partnership with the fundamentalists in Iran and Algeria and to replace the present American-Oriented rulers of Saudi Arabia with fundamentalists. The opening in Saudi Arabia of a Russian Embassy and the probable opening of Embassies by Muslim states of the CIS (read: Russian puppet governments) should be seen, not only as an attempt to extract a few extra Saudi Billions, but as part of an offensive to bring about a political reorientation in that country.”
“Chinese Muslims (read: Communists) can also be expected to play an active role in promoting alliances with the fundamentalists. The supply of missiles to Iran by the Chinese should be looked at in the context of this strategy.”