"[Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld told reporters , "There's Chinese in there, there's Chechens in there"'" Agence France-Presse, on March 22, 2002: ""Chechen fighters in Afghanistan who have thrown their lot in with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network." Even US Generals were quoted specifically referring to Chechens in Afghanistan and allied with Bin Laden. "We know the history of the Chechens. They are good fighters and they are very brutal," [US Major General Frank] Hagenbeck said. The general said he has heard of reports out of the Pentagon that a unit of 100-150 Chechens had moved into southern Afghanistan." And here is more evidence that Brian Glyn Williams claims does not exist: "General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces, said in Moscow Thursday that Chechen fighters were among the al-Qaeda fighters taken prisoner by US troops but gave no figures." The New York Times reported, "Between 100 and 200 Qaeda and ''non-Afghan'' fighters, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks, have been killed in heavy fighting so far, General Franks said..." During the battle of Tora Bora the NY Times reported Chechens as the fiercest fighters, "By all accounts, the Arab and Chechen fighters have put up the stiffest resistance."
Williams also tied his own 2003 mission to Afghanistan with official US policy changes during that time period, -- the White House's evolving foreign policy had, by 2003, come to have a more balanced view of the Chechen separatists and a three-dimensional view of their supposed links to international terrorism. The U. S. State Department" limited itself to designating several fringe Chechen terrorists groups led by rogue field commander Shamil Basayev as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations.'"
Williams' entire career aligns with this policy change. His field work was directly in service of bolstering this view and gathering evidence in support of maintaining good relations and support for Chechen "freedom fighters" who persist to this day in trying to break away from Russia. This is Brzezinski's Grand Chessboard in action.
Security Holes Are Part of the Game
Mark Ames at NSFW details how this very same policy of treating Chechen terrorists as "freedom fighters" directly impacted the September 11th attacks, in particular the thwarted investigation of "20th hijacker" Zacharias Moussaoui one month before the attacks.
--Minneapolis agent Harry Samit got the US Embassies in Paris and London to look into Moussaoui's background," said Ames. "The FBI's legal attachà © in Paris got back to Minneapolis with some startling news establishing a link between Moussoui and the Saudi warlord in Chechnya, Khattab. The only problem was that by August 2001, US policy did not recognize the Chechen rebels as terrorists with links to Al Qaeda or Bin Laden."
An FBI memo already established al Khattab as an Al Qaeda terrorist, but the investigation of Moussaoui's laptop was denied to the FBI Minneapolis officers and to Coleen Rowley, the legal advisor there. "True, there was an FBI memo on the FBI director Louis Freeh's desk explicitly warning that terrorists linked to Khattab and Bin Laden were planning a major attack, but the memo was dismissed, and the FBI man in Washington DC, who should have seen that memo but claims he didn't, rebuffed Minneapolis and shut down their requests for a warrant to look in Moussaoui's laptop."
Brian Glyn Williams mentions Khattab in other articles, acknowledging his Saudi roots, funding and role in setting up training camps in Chechnya in 1995. Williams also admits that the indigenous Chechen rebel leadership made a strategic alliance with Khattab and his Al Qaeda support network in 1999. Williams himself wrote, "Although the Russian Federation had initially limited its retaliatory bombing strikes to Khattab's camps in southeastern Chechnya, the Kremlin launched a total invasion of Chechnya in October 1999. This indiscriminate invasion drove Chechnya's moderate leadership (the only force in Chechnya that might have assisted in expelling the foreign jihadis) into a strategic alliance with Khattab and his IIB." Straight from the horse's mouth. Sounding a lot like those attempting to hold Williams to account, he himself told of the foreign Jihadist infusion, Islamists who travelled into Chechnya to engage in warfare and terrorism. Wrote Williams, "Young Egyptians, Yemenis, Saudis, Pakistanis, Turks, etc. continue to make their way at great risk to Chechnya to assist the Chechens in their uneven struggle. Many of those who have fought in Chechnya have been radicalized by their experience as front line jihadis." Thorough as the good professor is, he even places Al Qaeda's number 2 at the time, and now top Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri in Dagestan. "December 1996. Ayman al Zawaheri, leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and member of Al Qaeda's ruling troika, travels to Dagestan in search of a new base of operations-- These Chechen/Al Qaeda links, many of which are admitted to by Williams himself, are striking and irrefutable... but inconvenient for current policy makers. Excerpts are taken from, "The 'Chechen Arabs': An Introduction To The Real Al-Qaeda Terrorists From Chechnya," Jamestown Foundation, Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 2 Issue: 1 , May 5, 2005, by Brian Glyn Williams.
So what the hell was Brian Glyn Williams telling Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?
And for how long? How many communications? What was motivating these communications? What is the relationship between Jamestown Foundation and ongoing covert operations in the Caucasus? What was the relationship of Jamestown Foundation to Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his trip to Dagestan in 2012? What is the relationship between the brothers and their uncle Ruslan Tsarnai and to his former father in law, CIA mastermind Graham Fuller? How did individuals in US intelligence cancel threat warnings issued on Tamerlan Tsarnaev? Who hid Tamerlan Tsarnaev's threat warnings from local Boston police and from members of the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force?
Brian Glyn Williams ended his 2005 article with this statement: "As for the Chechens themselves, the world awaits the arrest of a single Chechen by coalition forces for involvement in Al Qaeda terrorism anywhere in the globe." What a bit of irony that the Chechen arrested for terrorism in Boston was communicating directly with Brian Glyn Williams and was mentored in his Chechen roots and heritage by Williams personally. We can only hope that the FBI thoroughly investigates what Williams told Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and which specific "commanders" and "fighters" he vouched for and personally recommended to the boy.
All emphases were added.
Joe Giambrone publishes Politcal Film Blog (@polfilmblog), and he dares anyone to try this Hell of a Deal .
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