November 22, 2004

Russia Arrests Leader of al-Qaeda Linked Group

Russia's 9/11 was the Beslan Massacre. You may recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a strong critic of the Bush administration during the build up to the Iraq war. After Beslan, those criticisms stopped. America's new foreign policy must take this into account. Mosnews via Internat Haganah:

Russian law enforcement officials have detained the leader of a terrorist cell from the internatial Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which intelligence has linked to Al Qaeda.

Alisher Usmanov, who headed a cell in central Russia’s Tatarstan, was arrested Wednesday, carrying explosives and Al Qaeda training manuals and flyers, the Lenta.ru news site reported, citing police sources in the republic.

The explosives indicate that the man, who was already suspected of organizing a number of terrorist attacks, including a deadly blast in Uzbekistan last March, was planning yet another attack, Interior Ministry officials told the Russian Information Agency Novosti.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 08:22 AM | |