It must be awful frustrating for the likes of AlQaida go to such truouble and then see media outlets mitigate their accomplishments.

LOL. It reminds me of this story from The Onion (now premium service only, unfortunately):

N. Korea Wondering What It Has To Do To Attract U.S. Military Attention

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREAÔøΩAs the U.S. continues to inch toward war with Iraq, a jealous and frustrated North Korea is wondering what it has to do to attract American military attention. “What does it…

Anybody paying attention to Saturday’s bomb blast there by the way?

It’s unclear whether the Russians were referring to national origin or ethnicity when they described 10 of the hostage-takers as being Arab. Jordan and Syria, two of the countries named by Russian authorities as being the place of origin for the foreign hostage-takers, both have sizeable ethnic Chechen communities that one could easily see as serving as a source of recruits for the hostage-takers.

He can count them from here? A “Chechen leader”, living in… Poughkeepsie?

NYT: “Al Qaeda’s interest in the region is undisputed.”

I have some trouble reconciling the headline with much in the article– what difference does it make if al qaeda is not actually blowing themselves up there, but merely paying other people to do so? Is that it? Confused.

Unfortunately, the Debka file doesn’t seem completely compelling to me either:

“…the failure of the Russian authorities to confirm their nationalities…”

Yes, I agree that’s frustrating. But it doesn’t seem to prove to me that the terro..er, militants, were Arab, or were Not Arab. It just proves that the Russians continue to be fairly cagey.

“Putin has gone to great lengths to pin the Beslen school siege on Chechen separatists.”

Did he? When/Where/What did he say to that effect, and most imporantly, Why? I have to admit I don’t follow Putin’s supposed motivation here– has he not now stated that he reserves the right to pre-emptively strike at terrorists even should they receive quarter in other nations? And has he not drawn numerous comparisons to our 9/11? It doesn’t seem to me that he’s trying to distance himself from the Islamic flavor of his crisis at all.

Nationalism, sovereignty, self-determination, and those pesky wars of national liberation must become secondary to the greater goal of smashing Islmalism wherever it is found. If we get confused about the priorities and have to go through these debates every time before confronting Islamists in their bases then we will never get ahead of them.

If you want to find the model for how not to fight Al Qaeda and its progeny look at how the Palestinian terrorist organizations have successfully manipulated public sympathy for the concept of independence to shield them from an all out assault by a superior military force. Sorry, but those desires have to be suspended for a generation or two while the more serious work is done. We would never have won WWII without doing the same.

We could have film at 11:00 of Osama himself shooting those kids in the back and the Times would still have to deny it.

Of course, the presence of Ingush and Ossetian Muslims as well as bonafide Arab al-Qaeda figures like Khattab or Abu Walid among the Chechen Killer Korps makes perfect sense if one considers them a nationalist rather an Islamist movement.

Obviously, they must be fighting to drive foreigners from Chechnya …

It must be awful frustrating for the likes of AlQaida go to such truouble and then see media outlets mitigate their accomplishments.