Chechnya’s centuries-long bloody strife goes global
(Guardian) – This small Russian republic, nestled in the mountainous Caucasus, has produced some of the world’s most implacable fighters and most ruthless terrorists. Other places are also generators of far-flung violence beyond their own borders – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are obvious examples – but none has as long a history of war, resistance, and terror as Chechnya.
The history of Chechnya is one of imperialism gone terribly wrong. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Chechens were among the few peoples to fend off Mongol conquerors, but at a terrible cost. Turks, Persians, and Russians sought to seize Chechnya, and it was finally absorbed into the Russian Empire in 1859.
Chechens are not ethnically or culturally Russian, and have now been fighting for generations to free themselves from Russian rule. Russian attempts to suppress Chechen separatism have even made a contribution to world literature, in the form of Leo Tolstoy’s masterful novella, Hadji Murad [pdf], which the critic Harold Bloom has called “my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world.”
Tolstoy served with a Cossack regiment assigned to fight Chechens in the 1850s – a stark reminder of how long this conflict has festered. A hardy plant, the thistle, is for Tolstoy the perfect symbol of Chechnya and its “desperately brave” rebels.
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Ever since the fall of 1999, when the second Chechen war began, the people of Chechnya have in effect been deprived of the right to travel outside Russia. Residing or studying abroad, taking business trips or performance tours, participating in international forums or art exhibits–these are opportunities open to Russians of all eighty-nine provinces, except Chechnya. Here it takes superhuman efforts to get a passport even when it is a matter of life or death.Dagestan: Influx of refugees and consequences of Chechen separatist movement
After the Tzarnaev family fled Chechnya, they lived in Dagestan. The need for travel documents is clear to get a visum for the U.S. and somehow obtain refugee status. The family stayed for one year at the most in Kyrgyzstan, obtained passports(!) and left for the US in 2001.
Even an ethnic Kyrgyz from Uzbekistan whose husband is a Kyrgyz citizen, said she has been applying for citizenship for five years without success. She finally decided just to pay the bribe, but was priced out of that $1,000 option, twice the rate from the previous year. “It is big business for passport people.”
Unfortunate, the Obama administration is making a similar mistake with Syria.
(His being Polish could have something to do with that.)
His hatred of Russians made him come up with his plan to get Russia into a war with Islamists in Afghanistan, the blowback from which we are paying for to this day. In his own way, Brzezinski is as evil as Kissinger.
Cross-posted from my diary – AQ Terror: Boston Suspect Identified as Chechen Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
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Russia and US co-operate on terror after Boston bombs
Both sides underscored their interest in bolstering the close cooperation of Russian and US special services in the fight against international terrorism. “I think that contacts will be conducted between our intelligence services,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in separate televised remarks.
Cooperation between the US and Russian intelligence services remains weak due to temperamental diplomatic ties and concern in Washington that Putin was using the fight against terror to crack down on his political foes.
Lately US Congress was more concerned about the ‘Magnitsky’ rule on Russia trade law and the repercussion of another adopted Russian orphan who died in the US. As a result, the Russian parliament has legislated a law to prevent travel of Bush era officials because of war crimes.
Moscow said that Washington had dealt a severe blow to relations by barring 18 Russians from the United States over alleged human rights abuses, and in retaliation it banned 18 Americans from entering Russia. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration had issued a list of 18 people subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the United States under the Magnitsky Act legislation passed by Congress late last year.
It is remarkable that the FBI had to ask the public for help in identifying the two suspects in the photos, given that it had interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in response to a request by Russian intelligence, who told the FBI that Tsarnaev had been radicalized.
What happened to the massive databases and incredibly powerful facial recognition software?
Major fail. The billions spent on “Homeland Security” since 9/11 do not appear to have improved our ability to monitor terrorists at all.
Right; we’re supposed to believe the FBI did not know the Tsarnev brothers were living in the Boston area?
Why would their names not automatically rise to the top of the suspect list in the event of a bombing of an obvious high profile target in Boston?
This is not the first time the FBI failed to stop an attack (or potential attack) when they had a clear warning. The “underwear bomber” being another example.
Regarding the gigantic amount of money we are spending on the DHS, FBI, etc., it appears this is mostly for apprehension of the criminals after they attack– not for monitoring what should be obvious suspects and preempting their attack. This is unacceptable.
Under the Bush administration, junior tried to out-do Reagan in Russia bashing with his foreign policy ambassadors Condoleeza Rice and later John Bolton. The democratization of the old Soviet Union satellite states was a staging ground to wrestle sovereign nations out of Russian influence sphere. This had shown to be a big failure and the US needs the Red Bear to transport military goods in and out of Afghanistan.
BTW I don’t think Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton were aware the Cold War is over. The rhetoric in the UN and Security Council was more bashing than cooperating in a fruitful discussion for a compromise – see Syria massacre. Our British ally added more irritation under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and today’s Cameron. I could imagine Vladimir Putin thinking FU2. After the fact, our leaders want to make amends and start to cooperate on international terror isssues. Big boys!
Under the Bush administration, junior tried to out-do Reagan in Russia bashing with his foreign policy ambassadors Condoleeza Rice and later John Bolton. The democratization of the old Soviet Union satellite states was a staging ground to wrestle sovereign nations out of Russian influence sphere. This had shown to be a big failure and the US needs the Red Bear to transport military goods in and out of Afghanistan.
See also article in 1999 where Bush and Rice warn the Russians on Human Rights (sic) and their war on “freedom-fighters” in Chechnya.
BTW I don’t think Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton were aware the Cold War is over. The rhetoric in the UN and Security Council was more bashing than cooperating in a fruitful discussion for a compromise – see Syria massacre. Our British ally added more irritation under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and today’s Cameron. I could imagine Vladimir Putin thinking FU2. After the fact, our leaders want to make amends and start to cooperate on international terror isssues. Big boys!
Be aware the Tsarnaev family are trying to hide their origin and country of residence. The uncle gave misrepresentation and many blogs just copy verbal statements. A spokesperson for Putin in Russia mentioned the Tsarnaevs traveled to the US via Ankara on Turkish passports. Others have said the Tsarnaevs traveled from Kyrgyzstan on that nation’s passports. So far I tend to believe the family lived in Dagestan during the 90s, moved to Kyrgyzstan in 2000, obtained Kyrgyzs passports (bribe?) and traveled to the US.
“Twenty-six-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan, near the border with Kazakhstan, and the surviving
19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was born in Dagestan, according to an uncle interviewed in Tokmok.”
Was the mother deported after her arrest for shoplifting in 2010 and deported to Kyrgyzstan/Dagestan? On January 12, 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev flew from New York to Moscow, a regular target of Chechen rage; he didn’t return until seven months later. He spend time with his father Anzor in Dagestan. The father Anzor Tsarnaev is not in any form repentant about the terror acts of his sons.
Because of the crazies in the US government, I do hope Dzhokhar passes away in the Boston hospital as he is very seriously wounded. I don’t want to see the social media hanging party where our members of Congress participate. Let the intelligence agencies dig through all the evidence and learn once again their lessons from the past. My estimate is the elder Tamerlan is the trained terrorist, traveled to Dagestan in 2012 and made the pressure cooker bombs. His wife Katherine Russell and 3-year old child have not seen much of him in the past 15 months.
Where are the Tsarnaev brothers really from?
Cross-posted from BooMan’s fp story – Bad Reporting on Tamerlan Tsarkaev.
The father has two brothers in Maryland, a sister in Toronto, and a daughter in NJ, all presumably legal immigrants with papers — can it really be that difficult to verify the family origins?
To be fair, I viewed the video again and seen a person in anguish. He may have mispoken a few times, mostly due to the barrage of questions. He does try to refrain from speaking about the Chechen ancestry, as a proud person he wants to separate the Boston bombing from his former homeland.
See my new diary No Sympathy for Boston from Dagestan.
One interesting remark from a local in Dagestan and terror bombing: “The youth do it for the money.” There is still plenty of Saudi money to go around whether it’s in Egypt, Gaza, Syria or Chechnya and Dagestan.
Totally discounted whatever others read into whatever the uncle or other family members have said on camera.* What do their immigration documents and passports state? The aunt stated that she helped her brother prepare his asylum request.
*Same should be done with Tamerlan’s interview quote from a few years ago stating that he had no friends in this country. Between then and now it wasn’t true — he had at least one close friend and at least one girlfriend that he later married.
Link provided by a reader here @Booman on another thread …
Earlier I had written about George Bush and Condoleeza Rice, their foreign policy views on the Afghan-style “freedom fighters” in Chechnya. Too bad Presdent Obama is following the Neocon playbook in strong support for the overthrow of Assad in Syria. Giving Al-Qaeda fighters a foothold in Al-Sham, Saudi King must be pleased by signing another huge contract for the US Military-Industrial complex. It’s the economy stupid!
Parts taken from my latest diary – No Sympathy for Boston from Dagestan.