It depends on how you define Al Qaeda. If you are looking for "Al Qaeda" ID badges, then you aren't going to find any. If you look at the presence of Saudi money, Wahab fanatics, access to Afghan training camps until 2001, if you look at the presence of Chechens still in Pakistan among Taliban remnants, and arab and pakistani volunteers among the Chechens, then its not hard to draw conclusions.
This isn't a trial, and we aren't their lawyers trying to get them off, our only need is to spot the connections and go after them.
The connection has yet to be spotted.
Putin is trying to detract attention from his own actions in Chechnya and attach himself to our WOT...the actions of the Russians in Chechnya do not excuse the events in Beslan, but they contributed to it.
It's not a "definition" issue.
It is about an uprising WITHIN Russia. Putin needs to resolve INTERNAL problems in his country.
"But even after Beslan, they should not condone Russia's human-rights abuses in Chechnya, and they should urge Mr Putin to seek out moderates with whom to talk. Perhaps after an interval, they might look for a more active involvement in the northern Caucasus. "
Putkin needs to blame himself for this one.