Chechen war expert: 'This is a big deal'

[dkf]

I've done fieldwork on the insurgency in Chechnya and Dagestan and have studied the war there for nearly 15 years. I've also interviewed several very prominent rebels.

This would mark the first time Chechens have attacked any sort of U.S. target. Up until now their focus has been on Russia. This is a big deal. And it shows how the conflict in the Caucasus has metastasized into a kind of globalized jihadist theatre, at least in the minds of the young people fighting there.

These guys likely had no connection to the Caucasus Emirate in person; connection would likely have been online. This looks more and more like "resonant effects," rather than something planned and executed by a cadre-level organization.

Chechens I know are completely crushed. Let's hope the FBI gets to the remaining suspect before the Chechen refugee community in Boston does. Boston welcomed and protected Chechen asylum seekers like no other city. Those people will tear these kids to pieces for the harm they've done.

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/19/chechnya_s_war_just_arrived_in_the_united_states

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. I recall that after 9/11 it was claimed that

Al Qaeda would recruit Chechen muslims because they are "white" and would be more difficult to detect by sight.

Interesting to see where all this goes.

[SlipperySlope]

2. Doesn't help separatism directly.

This doesn't directly help the cause of Chechen separatism, and arguably actual harms it.

[geek tragedy]

4. It definitely harms it. Pooty poot Putin will assume he has a green light

to raze Chechen villages without the US objecting much, due to public opinion.

[Javaman]

6. and the futher compounding of things...

they US will wink and nod and look the other way while the insanity ramps up in Chechnia and putin will wink and nod at the US for what ever we want to do regarding a few nations in the middle east.

[Hugabear]

12. The right-wing elements in this country would applaud Putin for doing so

These are the people who believe that 'the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim'

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Let's not forget the ONLY reason the land is in dispute is natural gas.

[geek tragedy]

3. These dipshits just handed a PR victory to Vladimir Putin.

Not only pieces of human filth, but also morons.

[riderinthestorm]

5. Well Tamerlan went to Russia for 6 months last year.

Either he was exposed to a heaping dose of radical Chechen rhetoric, radical Islamic rhetoric, or both.

Or (more likely) he took off after landing and headed to Pakistan for training.

What was he doing during those 6 months, especially so soon after the birth of his daughter?


Source: WNBC television (New York City)

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev flew in and out of John F. Kennedy Airport last year and was out of the country for six months, and investigators said they want to know if he received any terror training while he was overseas, NBC 4 New York has learned.

Travel records obtained by NBC 4 New York show Tsarnaev left New York on Jan. 12, 2012 for Sheremetyevo, Russia. He stayed overseas and returned to JFK on July 17.

The travel documents show a photo of a bearded Tsarnaev. The documents show the terror suspect was born on Oct. 21, 1986 and first entered the U.S. through JFK on July 19, 2003.

The documents show it was not until Friday that U.S. officials determined he was “a person or instrument that may pose a threat to the security of the United States.”

Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Boston-Marathon-Bombing-Suspects-JFK-NYC-Travel-International-203787721.html

[FarCenter]

10. His father is in Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia, a hotbed of Islamic radicalism

It is currently the center of the Salafist jihad in the Caucasus.

He could have gone there by domestic flight from Moscow.

[riderinthestorm]

11. I presume that was definitely on his travel agenda. Just the trip to see Dad may have exposed him

to radical elements.

Or maybe he went to Pakistan or any of the other terrorist Russian satellite "stans" from Moscow. We only have his departure and entry visas for sure.

I think finding out what he was doing when he was there, and who he saw, and where he went, is pretty important to figuring out if these were lone wolves or part of a pack.

[riderinthestorm]

15. Looks like Dzokhar was in Makhachkala too last summer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022714753

A relative of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said he repeatedly warned the 19-year-old fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev about the bad influence of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed overnight in a shootout with police.

A picture has begun to emerge of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an aggressive, possibly radicalized immigrant who may have ensnared his younger brother Dzhokhar -- described almost universally as a smart and sweet kid -- into an act of terror that killed three people and injured more than at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday.

“I used to warn Dzhokhar that Tamerlan was up to no good,” Zaur Tsarnaev, who identified himself as a 26-year-old cousin, said in a phone interview on Friday from Makhachkala. “ was always getting into trouble. He was never happy, never cheering, never smiling. He used to strike his girlfriend. He hurt her a few times. He was not a nice man. I don’t like to speak about him. He caused problems for my family.”

Zaur Tsarnaev said he most recently expressed his concerns about Tamerlan -- the alleged bomber pictured in a dark hat in FBI videos released Thursday -- to Dzhokhar when Dzhokar visited last summer. He added that Dzhokhar went to mosque sometimes but he was “never an extremist.”

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/04/19/bombing-suspects-were-local-normal-immigrants/AGztkXv4Y9b6sfAsVzcDQO/story.html

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. There is no proof this was a political statement....

So far, it's just two young people on a rampage. For all we know they did it for kicks.

[Wednesdays]

13. But if they just did it for kicks

I think it'd be likely the people would have come from different backgrounds.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. Why?

[Enrique]

9. beware of such ethnic stereotypes

as "those people will tear these kids to pieces..." I will ignore his claimed expertise and assume the Chechen-Americans would turn him into the cops like anyone else would.

[Riftaxe]

16. self deleted