THE KILLING OF ABU AL-WALID AND THE RUSSIAN POLICY IN CHECHNYA
By Murad Batal Al-Shishani (5/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Abd Al-Aziz Bin Ali Bin Said Al Said Al-Ghamdi, known as Abu Al-Walid, took over leadership of Arab fighters in Chechnya after the death of Amir Khattab (Samer Bin Saleh Bin Abdullah Al-Swelim) in 2002. Accused by the Russian government of being the mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks in Chechnya and Moscow, Al-Walid is the poster child for Russian allegations that legions of al-Qaeda are fighting in Chechnya. In a full exposé on Al-Walid’s life, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan interviewed members of the al-Walid family (23 June 2002) describing his upbringings and how he went to Afghanistan in 1986 at age sixteen, but only after first receiving “the permission of his parents”, which is important because parental consent is essential in some parts of the Muslim world in determining whether a person can wage jihad.GEORGIA’S REVOLUTION TAKES A DANGEROUS TURN
By Nino Tetelashvili (5/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Abashidze has until recently prohibited the activities of opposition political parties, journalists and civil society activists; brazenly manipulated electoral processes; and refused to share customs and taxes with the federal government or even to visit Tbilisi. Since his election as Georgia’s president in January, Mikhail Saakashvili has consistently applied ever greater degrees of pressure against Abashidze and has obtained significant concessions. Presently, Georgian media, opposition parties, and civil society leaders operate freely in Ajaria and are not harassed in their activities.UZBEKISTAN’S REACTION TO TASHKENT BOMBINGS GENERATE DOUBTS ON EFFICACY
By Hooman Peimani (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Armed opposition groups advocating violence to achieve their political goals emerged in Uzbekistan around the mid-1990s. Among them, the most organized one was the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group mainly based in the Ferghana Valley seeking the overthrow of the Uzbek government and the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic state. It has since been implicated in a variety of violent activities against the Uzbek security forces, including a series of bombings in Tashkent in 1999.KAZAKHSTAN’S ELECTION LAW
By Olivia Allison (4/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Both houses of parliament overwhelmingly approved the draft in its second reading Feb. 20, and the law passed a third reading shortly after that. President Nursultan Nazarbaev had presented the first governmental version Sept.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.