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Identity of Boston bombers shifts US attitudes to Chechnya
10:27 - 20.04.13
The revelation that the two brothers suspected to be behind the Boston
Marathon attack are ethnic Chechens has led the US establishment to
perform a rapid volte-face towards the previously
sympathetically-viewed region and cause, Russia Today reported.
Through the two separatist wars fought by Chechen militants in the
1990s, the standard US portrayal of the restive region focused on the
David and Goliath scale of the adversaries, the `denial' to Chechens
of their right to self-determination, and the abuse of human rights.
In the wake of Monday's attack, a new sinister international image of
Chechnya has emerged.
`Chechnya region is cauldron of Islamic militancy' proclaimed the
headline in the New York Daily News. For LA Times, it was
`Festering Chechen militancy', while the Washington Times went
with`Chechnya is a hotbed of Islamic extremism'.
USA Today, Fox News and the Washington Post all simply picked
`Chechnya is a breeding ground for terrorism', as their header.
The international experts now offered a different narrative of the
conflict that has bedeviled Russia since the collapse of the Soviet
Union, and cost thousands of lives as well as draining billions of
dollars from the budget.
"The [second Chechen conflict in 1999] war initially began as a
nationalist war but very, very quickly metastasized into something
that looks much more like the radical Salafi-Jihadi movements we've
seen in other regions around the world," Christopher Swift, a
professor of National Security at Georgetown University, told ABC
News.
"The movement that's emerged from the 15 years of war is very radical,
it's very virulent, it's very nasty'.
Terrorist Salman Raduyev [center], one of the leaders of armed Chechen
groups, with his followers at an election rally in Grozny in January
1997. (RIA Novosti)
"The Chechen jihadi network is very extensive," Middle East analyst
Walid Phares told Fox News. "They have a huge network inside Russia
and Chechnya."
`United States shut its eyes to Chechen terrorism,' said former New
York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
No longer were the Tsarnaev brothers victims of oppression, simply
looking for a better life in America as refugees.
"They could well be supported by a significant international network,"
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox
News.
Evan Kohlmann, chairman of Flashpoint Global Partners, a New
York-based international security consulting firm said, `these groups
[the two men may have belonged to] can be just as radical as anything
Al Qaeda puts out."
Many newspapers also recalled the hostage-taking incidents that ended
in tragedy at the musical Nord Ost in Moscow in 2002, and a school in
Beslan in 2004.
Armenian News - Tert.am
10:27 - 20.04.13
The revelation that the two brothers suspected to be behind the Boston
Marathon attack are ethnic Chechens has led the US establishment to
perform a rapid volte-face towards the previously
sympathetically-viewed region and cause, Russia Today reported.
Through the two separatist wars fought by Chechen militants in the
1990s, the standard US portrayal of the restive region focused on the
David and Goliath scale of the adversaries, the `denial' to Chechens
of their right to self-determination, and the abuse of human rights.
In the wake of Monday's attack, a new sinister international image of
Chechnya has emerged.
`Chechnya region is cauldron of Islamic militancy' proclaimed the
headline in the New York Daily News. For LA Times, it was
`Festering Chechen militancy', while the Washington Times went
with`Chechnya is a hotbed of Islamic extremism'.
USA Today, Fox News and the Washington Post all simply picked
`Chechnya is a breeding ground for terrorism', as their header.
The international experts now offered a different narrative of the
conflict that has bedeviled Russia since the collapse of the Soviet
Union, and cost thousands of lives as well as draining billions of
dollars from the budget.
"The [second Chechen conflict in 1999] war initially began as a
nationalist war but very, very quickly metastasized into something
that looks much more like the radical Salafi-Jihadi movements we've
seen in other regions around the world," Christopher Swift, a
professor of National Security at Georgetown University, told ABC
News.
"The movement that's emerged from the 15 years of war is very radical,
it's very virulent, it's very nasty'.
Terrorist Salman Raduyev [center], one of the leaders of armed Chechen
groups, with his followers at an election rally in Grozny in January
1997. (RIA Novosti)
"The Chechen jihadi network is very extensive," Middle East analyst
Walid Phares told Fox News. "They have a huge network inside Russia
and Chechnya."
`United States shut its eyes to Chechen terrorism,' said former New
York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
No longer were the Tsarnaev brothers victims of oppression, simply
looking for a better life in America as refugees.
"They could well be supported by a significant international network,"
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox
News.
Evan Kohlmann, chairman of Flashpoint Global Partners, a New
York-based international security consulting firm said, `these groups
[the two men may have belonged to] can be just as radical as anything
Al Qaeda puts out."
Many newspapers also recalled the hostage-taking incidents that ended
in tragedy at the musical Nord Ost in Moscow in 2002, and a school in
Beslan in 2004.
Armenian News - Tert.am