U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Russian law enforcement officials on Monday discussed ways to boost their agencies' cooperation in fighting terrorism and transnational crime, including what they called the growing Afghan drug trade. Ashcroft thanked the Russians for their cooperation in the anti-terrorist campaign, saying Russia was a "very important law enforcement partner in the world community.''
Not pitching a hissy fit when we agreed to train the Georgians was nice. Americans don't realize how much of a policy shift that was. And they've been there every step of the way in the Afghan war...
Ashcroft evaded a question on whether the U.S. government accepts the Russian government's contention that it is fighting international terrorists in Chechnya. Russian officials have blamed Islamic rebels for a series of bombings - including a 1999 string of apartment house explosions that killed some 300 people and a bomb blast last month in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk that killed more than 40. U.S. officials have previously criticized Russian troops' abuse of civilians in the conflict. "The United States government believes that terrorism is an international threat, and that it is manifested in a variety of places and ways around the world,'' Ashcroft said. "We have sought to cooperate with our Russian friends to curtail funding of terrorism that would threaten the interests of Russia, just as we have asked individuals and countries around the world to support the United States by curtailing the availability of funds to terrorists that threaten not only the United States but our allies and friends.''
Somehow they've got to take that step and define the wahhabi Chechen thugs — remember those guys who committed suicide at Konduz rather than be taken alive? The guys who were executing those who wanted to surrender? — as what they are, which is terrorists. They're a disease that's trying to infect every area around them, and the entire infrastructure should be wiped out to the last man, starting with the Arab mercenaries who're the drivers. |