Posted on 09/08/2004 10:39:23 PM PDT by USMMA_83
Ilyas Akhmadov, the foreign minister in the separatist government of Chechnya under Aslan Maskhadov, has been granted asylum in the United States, U.S. officials said Friday amid criticism from Moscow.
Maskhadov sent Akhmadov and other members of his government abroad to promote the Chechen cause among foreign leaders in 1999, shortly after the return of federal forces to the region.
Akhmadov came to the United States in 2002 and was initially granted asylum in April by a U.S. immigration judge in Boston, Akhmadov said Friday in an interview. But the Homeland Security Department appealed the decision in June on the grounds that Moscow accused him of involvement in terrorism.
After an investigation determined that Akhmadov had no connection to terrorism, the department withdrew its appeal last month, said Ross Knocke, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of Homeland Security. The asylum request was granted last Monday.
The Foreign Ministry criticized the decision Friday. "We cannot consider the decision to grant Ilyas Akhmadov political asylum in the United States as anything other than a clear manifestation of double standards in issues relating to the fight against terrorism," it said in a statement. "Such actions are totally contrary to the partner-like spirit of Russian-U.S. relations and the objective of jointly combating international terrorism."
But John Dunlop, a Chechnya specialist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said the decision to grant Akhmadov asylum would not have any impact on U.S.-Russian relations. Moscow will "make a noise, but I don't think they expect anything to come of it," Dunlop said.
Daniel Pellathy, program director for the Washington-based American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, said granting Akhmadov asylum in the United States would "dispel the myth" that he is a terrorist.
"It legitimizes him as representative of the [Chechen] opposition here in the U.S.," Pellathy said. "He can now go on the lecture circuit, meet with members of the State Department, meet with Congress, become a public and active figure."
Akhmadov has spent the last year living in Andover, Vermont, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the homes of Nicholas and Ruth Daniloff, former journalists who met Akhmadov in 2000 when he gave a speech at Harvard University.
Source: The Moscow Times
Since when does a judge in Boston determine what the immigration policy of this nation is going to be?
It's not about payback. I don't want this scum in my country.
I seriously think this man will be at the very least, recruiting and fund-raising for his scum buddies. And on our tax dollars.
Since we became a judicial monarchy when we were not looking.
>"It wasn't until several years later that I found out that
>there was a significant number of Muslims in Chechenya."
Indeed. Amazing how that fact is deliberately concealed by the MSM.
I agree.
He should be spending his time in a cell smeared with lard.
Payback!! Are you a complete freaking idiot! How 'about Putin give asylum to OBL...and calling it payback. The truth of the matter is even a former KGB ops guy has more scruples than what you suggest we engage in or are engaged in - payback indeed! The TRUTH is that we only consider those people terrorists that target American interests. And, this is State Department policy. I am sick of it!!!
Love your profile page...did Putin really say that? The man's got balls....
Putin said that to a French reporter who was critical of his war on chechnya. Last year I believe.
Hard to believe, the "Ichkeria" ambassador to the Taliban, NOT a terrorist????? But the one who is sponsering him in the US is Zbignew Brzeznsky.
It's not about payback. I don't want this scum in my country.
I seriously think this man will be at the very least, recruiting and fund-raising for his scum buddies. And on our tax dollars.
I'm also sure he is doing this. That terrorist bastedge!This scum was Maskhadov's embassador to the Taliban, how could anyone say he is not a terrorist? I wrote letters to the State Department and President Bush to deport him but no answers. You saw the artical about the N.E.D. sponsering this scumbag? Zbignew ("Never met an over-excitable Islamist he did'nt love") Brzeznsky is Akhmadov's main sponser, and Richard Perle, who the Bush administration fired for corruption! I'm so disgusted over it all I do'nt know what to do.
It's long since time for a complete - and I mean complete - Congressional investigation of the State Department and the INS. This should include personnel who are "career diplomats" at various embassies around the world, who are, at best, incompetent and at worst corrupt.
Hope you enjoy paying for this scum to have a job "studying chechen independence" in our country, on our taxes. We get to pay for not only his salary but his medical care as well.
The left loves these terrorist scum. It was the left who welcomed him into our country.
Vanessa Redgrave has been assisting the other chechen scum given asylum in the UK to hold press conferences. They made their own bed, because now, very soon, it appears that the UK will be extraditing those chechens back to Russia after all, and recalling their asylum.
Clear out Foggy Bottom and start over this term, please Mr. President. And please quit giving credibility to the UN...
I was born here, FYI.
Really, I was born in Germany, my father was in the military, stationed in Germany. I have never been back to Germany and sad to see they did not learn their lesson from that lunatic evil Hitler. My father served in Korea, Stalin's War.
I am loyal to this nation and really get turned off when nations of the world stick their finger in our eye just cause they can. I am repulsed by the lying crooked liberals house in this nation that encouraged anti-American, hate America most.
ping
I have a suggestion that should make the Liberals very happy. Since they brought one chechen terrorist here, let's bring all of them! They can all live in Massatushets where there are plenty of Liberals who will love paying taxes to support them. Problem solved for Russia and for Chechen loving Liberals!
(Of coarse I am just been sarcastic! Even the Left would'nt want a bunch of murdering terrorist skum here but they are two-face enough to tell Russia to negotiate with them!
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