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| Caucasus |
| Georgia getting tough with outsiders... |
| 2002-04-28 |
| Law enforcement agencies paid no attention to Zurab Khangoshvili, a 27-year-old Chechen with six children, as he traveled to and from this tiny village in Georgia's trackless Pankisi Gorge over the past few years. His attorney said he acted as a trader for refugees from the war in nearby Chechnya, buying them goods from Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, or Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. In mid-February, he traveled as far as Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on what his attorney says was a religious pilgrimage. Yep. Just another pious fellow, making a living... But that was before March 20, when the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi sent a letter to the Georgian Security Ministry, asking about possible ties between Khangoshvili and al Qaeda. Two days later, Khangoshvili was arrested on his way back from Baku. Also arrested and jailed was Islam Saidaiev, a Chechen journalist living in Georgia who traveled with Khangoshvili to Saudi Arabia. Well, golly. Wonder why they were picking on the poor fellows, out of all the people in Georgia. Prob'ly because they were Muslims, right? The arrests are the first tangible sign of U.S. pressure on Georgia to crack down on what the Bush administration says are terrorists with al Qaeda connections in the Pankisi Gorge, about 30 miles from Georgia's northern border with Chechnya. It's more like a tangible sign of the U.S. exchanging intelligence information with the Georgians. Y'see, if Khangoshvili went to Mecca for his hajj, and just happened to meet with some Bad Guys to get his marching orders for when he goes back to one of those non-Soddi "entities," with maybe some funds for explosives and such, and his Soddi controller blabbed where U.S. monitors could pick it up, then Khangoshvili went on a watch list. The Georgians would then check him out — you can't check out everybody, can you? — and bingo, Khangoshvili's off to the calaboose for a chat with large men with truncheons. Neat, the way that works. WaPo reporterette Sharon LaFraniere doesn't seem to quite understand it, but she'll probably pick it up in time. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |