Recently in Georgia Category

Last week in the U.S., Europe, and the Caucasus, people are asking how the terrorists got to Europe and then into the United States. Why didn't they have problems when moving into these countries, while ordinary citizens encounter enormous problems trying to enter these countries even on tourist visas.

Just a week before the infamous acts of terrorism in Boston, I began to study the way in which a hypothetical terrorist could conceivably enter legally into the United States.

I am not arguing that this happened in the case of Tsarnaev, but it is a fact that this route is accessible to terrorists. And it does not require any special knowledge or financial costs.

I got this idea from something that happened to one of my friends here in the Republic of Georgia. She is an ethnic Kurd.

Georgia and Azerbaijan have become very close to Turkey. The Georgian government, under pressure from the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, began to build a mosque named after the conquering Sultan Suleiman Abdel Aziz in Georgia, using Georgia taxpayers' money.

In part because of this, ethnic Kurds have started gradually to leave Georgia, because they do not consider themselves to be protected in this country. They are looking for ways to move to Europe, where, in their opinion, they will be more secure than at home in Georgia.

One Kurd told me a story that is very interesting to me, and I think part of her story will raise the curtain on how some terrorists enter the United States.

As we all know, for citizens of the former Soviet Union, it is very difficult to get a U.S. visa. For example I was traveling as a journalist to a conference in New York at the invitation of Pamela Geller, but the State Department refused me a visa. How then are Chechens and other jihadists are finding the way?

If you want to enter the E.U. from Georgia, you need a visa. As with the U.S., even getting a tourist visa can be very difficult. You need to collect a lot of documents, including a birth certificate and a document from your bank certifying that you have the money for the trip -- about 8,000 U.S. dollars. Of course, not everyone can gather all these documents, and even if you have collected all the documents, there is no guarantee that you will be given a visa. But there's another way. It is cheaper but more dangerous. My Kurdish acquaintance wanted to take advantage of just this way.

This is  her story. From Tbilisi she flew to Minsk, Belarus. In Minsk she boarded the train and reached the city of Brest. At Brest she boarded the train to Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a member of the E.U., and there is a camp there for those who are running away from the former Soviet Union. On the train with her were for some young people who were ethnic Chechens.

"They joked with me all the way," she recalled. "They said I wasn't missing anything in Europe, and that it was better to go home. They said I wouldn't be let into Europe anyway. I did not believe that. I told them that the Turks kill Kurds, and that it was dangerous to live in Georgia. They continued to laugh. They said that if I accepted Islam, I could avoid being sent to the harem of some Turkish businessman. And they also said that as Muslims, they had a very strong diaspora in Poland, Germany, France, and England, and that they had no problems entering any of those countries."

She went on:

The train reached the border of Poland and Belarus, and stopped. The Polish border guard boarded the train and asked us to show our passports. We were warned that we should say that we were "Azul" -- that is, that we were refugees.

We were taken off from the train and taken to an interview with a police officer. What Chechens told me happened: they were allowed to enter Poland, and I was not.

When I asked the officer why the Chechens were allowed in and I was not, she said, "There is a war in their country! They need our support."

While I was traveling with these Chechens, they told me that many Chechens who fought against Russia were already citizens in Poland, Germany, France and even the UK, and from there were easily able to enter the United States.

She told me this story when she came back to Georgia, and I could not understand why the Chechens were allowed to pass into Poland and she was not.

There is also another way to sneak into the U.S. This method is also not difficult. You need to take Georgian citizenship. Many citizens of Islamic countries became citizens of Georgia.
Some of them are terrorists. Pamela Geller wrote about it in her article: Chechens linked to terrorism have been arrested in Turkey with Georgian passports. Chechens have no difficulty acquiring the citizenship of Arab States, Turkey and even Iran. A very large Chechen diaspora is in Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Even as far back as 1995, many jihadists went to Europe using a path through Georgia to Turkey.

Many of the Caucasian mujahideen go through Georgia to go to wage jihad in Syria and elsewhere. Receiving Georgian citizenship, they can go to Turkey without a visa and without a passport. Unfortunately, they can go from there to Iran, too.

Back in 1996, Osama bin Laden wanted to establish a road by which jihadists could pass legally through Georgia to Europe and then into the United States. That is why he began to finance the construction of the road from Grozny in Chechnya to Tbilisi in Georgia. Back in 1996, many jihadists tried to settle in Poland and France. Did they succeed? And if so, are we going eventually to see  even larger and more terrible acts of terrorism?

The U.S. Ambassador to Georgia is contradicting official Obama Administration policy. Is he working on orders from his superiors? In "Uproar in Georgia over U.S. Ambassador's Pro-Palestinian Maneuvering" in the American Thinker, January 9, Pamela Geller explains why the Republic of Georgia is abuzz with this question:

The Republic of Georgia is in an uproar.  Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has issued a statement about the explosive revelations I broke in the American Thinker in December: that the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, whispered in his ear to vote in favor of the U.N. resolution declaring a "Palestinian" state, which is diametrically opposed to official U.S. policy.

But why should anyone be surprised?  People actually seem taken aback by the nomination of the virulently Jew-hating Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, when actually everything in Obama's foreign policy points to this very tendency.  If Obama had appointed John Bolton, or anyone else pro-Israel, that would have been a shock.  But the kapos are wringing their hands over Hagel?  Really?  Obama's anti-Israel stance has been fiercely consistent, as I exposed in my 2009 true-life political thriller, The Post-American Presidency.

The revelations about Ivanishvili and Norland that I reported were based on statements made by Gabriel M. Mirilashvili, a noted Georgian businessman and owner of a corporation.  Just before the November 29 United Nations vote granting non-member-state observer status to "Palestine," Mirilashvili, who is the vice president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, as well as head of the World Congress of Georgian Jews, had a meeting with Ivanishvili. Mirilashvili stated that when he had urged Ivanishvili to oppose the Palestinian statehood resolution, Ivanishvili told him that Norland had recommended that Georgia vote in favor of the resolution.

Sources in both countries inform me that in Israel as well as in Georgia, politicians and ordinary people alike were shocked by the revelation that an American ambassador, an Obama appointee, would be quietly directing a nation to vote against what is actually official U.S. policy -- which either makes him a renegade or shows Obama and Clinton to be two-faced liars and hypocrites who oppose a Palestinian state publicly while supporting it and working for it privately.  After my article was published, high-ranking government officials in Georgia's Ministry of Defense were removed from their posts.  There are rumors that the deputy defense minister is going to be removed as well.

Gabriel Mirilashvili, apparently feeling under pressure, wrote a letter to the editor of the Israeli internet portal izrus.co.il, which had reprinted part of my article, saying that he did not know me and had not spoken to me about his meeting with Bidzina Ivanishvili.

But this was not the point.  I never claimed that I spoke directly with Mirilashvili. In my article, I wrote only that "this information comes from Gabriel M. Mirilashvili." And so it was predictable that Mirilashvili's attempt at deflection didn't calm the controversy in
Georgia.  Prime Minister Ivanishvili ultimately had to make a statement himself.  In it, he confirmed that he had indeed met with Gabriel Mirilashvili and that they had spoken about politics.

A Georgian journalist then asked the prime minister about his conversation with Ambassador Norland; Ivanishvili responded curtly that that conversation was part of "a process that is not for talk -- about who, what, and to whom was said."  Notably, he did not say that the now-notorious conversation had not taken place at all.

That's as close to a confirmation as you're going to get from a politically careful and savvy prime minister.

Read it all.

In "U.S. Ambassador Tells Georgia to Vote for a 'Palestinian' State" in the American Thinker today, Pamela Geller reveals an extraordinary example of the Obama Administration's ongoing betrayal of Israel:

From the former Soviet Republic of Georgia comes news of an extraordinary betrayal by the Obama Administration. As Obama continues to abandon freedom in his support of Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia revolutions and regimes in Egypt and elsewhere, he has taken behind-the-scenes steps to further the international isolation of Israel, the only democracy in that Middle East.

Just before the November 29 United Nations vote granting non-member state observer status, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, an Obama appointee, met with Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. During their conversation, Norland recommended that the Prime Minister that Georgia should vote in favor of a Palestinian state.

This happened despite the U.S.'s official opposition, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counterproductive ... plac[ing] further obstacles in the path of peace." Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on the day of the vote: "None of the vital interests of peace appear in the resolution that will be put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel cannot accept it." He was right. But in Georgia, the U.S. was betraying a steadfast and true ally.

This information comes from Gabriel M. Mirilashvili, a prominent businessman and corporation owner in Georgia, who is Vice-President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and head of the World Congress of Georgian Jews. Mirilashvili says that he heard this from Ivanishvili himself, and that there exists an official record of the conversation between Norland and Ivanishvili. When Mirilashvili urged Ivanishvili to oppose the Palestinian statehood resolution, Ivanishvili responded that the American ambassador had told him to support it.

It is also interesting to note that a few days before this meeting, George Soros came to Georgia and also met with Prime Minister Ivanishvili, and they agreed to collaborate on various initiatives. President Obama's close ties to Soros goes back to the 2007 and the run up to the 2008 presidential election.

Meanwhile, another source said that Georgia is harboring Chechen jihadists -- killers who have Georgian passports. When some of these jihadis were arrested in Turkey, the Turkish press published the fact that they were traveling on Georgian passports. What's more, their leader, Umar Sugaipov, who is not currently in Georgia, is a former deputy head of security for the late President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov....

Read it all.

I never thought I would live to see the day when the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ambassador to the State of Georgia, Majid Saber, would instruct the Georgian media about what to print and what not.

The Ambassador of Iran "requested" that the Georgian media not print an article about the Iranian nuclear program and not to interview representatives of the State of Israel.

The statement of the Ambassador was reprinted in almost all of Georgia's newspapers and Internet portals, and distributed on Georgian television and radio. It was all so strange. Majid Saber is not so important a person as to be quoted for an entire day by all the Georgian media.

Really, I wonder why he made that statement. Was it a warning or a threat? The Government of the State of Israel has repeatedly stated that the Iranian intelligence services are behind the terrorist attacks in Georgia and India against the Embassies of the State of Israel. If I continue typing analytical, critical, insulting material about Iran, as well as about Islam and its ambitions, are these words referred to in the statement of the Iranian ambassador? How will this affect me and others who will not give in to Islamic morality, and who do not listen to the representative of the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad? What will happen to those who continue to speak the truth about the fact that the Iranian regime is a terrorist regime that wants to destroy the whole country?

And all this comes at a time when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Georgia.

I'm not surprised by this fact. But nobody was saying in the Georgian media that Iran's nuclear program posed a risk. No one criticized the Ayatollah, Hezbollah, the Iranian intelligence services, or the stoning and killing of innocent people.

During Clinton's stay in Georgia, not a word was said about Iran. And this was very strange. All were silent. The Iranian issue in Georgia remained closed to Mrs. Clinton and the accompanying officials and people. The Georgian president and the entire Georgian government was silent. The media was silent. Nobody asked Secretary Clinton what she thought about the Iranian atom or of the Iranian-Georgian visa-free regime.

I know the answer.

A few days earlier, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Baas said that it was good that Iranians were able to freely enter the country because they could see how much a country that is friendly to America has attained. Excuse me for asking, but then what do the financial and economic sanctions mean? Iranians around the world are making money and sending it home, just as the Chechens did during the first and second Jihads.

You already know that Georgia has a visa-free regime with Iran. Many politicians had hoped that Hillary Clinton would mention the word Iran, Iran's nuclear program and its threat to the world at least once. But they were wrong.

Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller have written that the U.S. State Department has denied me an entry visa to the United States.

I had planned to speak at the first conference of SION in New York on September 11. An interesting fact is that at the time when I was denied a visa, there sat next to me a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who proudly brandished his Islamic passport. When I explained the purpose of the visit in an interview at the U.S. embassy, ​​the embassy official looked at me and said, "I don't care."

But where is the logic? The common sense? Georgia is a friend of the United States, and is taking part in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is also friendly with Iran. This means that either the Obama administration has asked the Georgian government to be friendly with Iran. Or else President Obama and Hillary Clinton cannot influence the president of such a small country as Georgia to join the sanctions against Iran.

How they can stop the Iranian atom, or Al-Qaeda in Africa and Afghanistan? Or the desire of Islamic Turkey to become a leader in the Islamic world, and more?

Who will protect democracy? Who will protect freedom?

Again the silence ...

Our own Jihad Watch writer Joseph Zaalishvili played a major role in this victory for freedom in the Caucasus. Pamela Geller has the story:

Stop Islamization of Georgia and a coalition of human rights groups have succeeded in stopping a monster-mosque in Batumi, Georgia.

Stop Islamization of Georgia's national director, Joseph Zaalishvili, has been reporting on the ground from Batumi (go here and here). Thousands of freedom lovers gathered a number of times to protest the mega mosque in Batumi. Each demo grew in size. Despite the heavy snowfall, cold, and rain, several thousand people gathered to protest a mosque dedicated to Aziz Sultan Abdl Adjara, who enslaved people, forcibly compelled people to accept Islam, and killed and terribly tortured those who refused. The Turkish government was funding the construction of this mosque.

Today, construction of the Islamic supremacist mosque was suspended. Well done, SIOG. Want to get involved? Start a SIO group in your state or country. Contact me -- pamelageller@gmail.com.

Joseph Zaalishvili sends this missive (BTW, Joseph Zaalishvili will be speaking at SION: September 11, 2012 Freedom Congress, UN Plaza - register early.)

They stopped!

A small victory in a major war. That is what our ancestors would call what happened a few days ago in Georgia.

Construction of a grand mosque in Batumi, Georgia, named for the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Aziz, has been suspended. So said the Minister of Culture of Georgia in a parliamentary speech.

A few months ago, the government argued that the decision to build a mosque named after the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who killed and tortured for the sake of Allah and Mohammed a few thousand Georgians, should not be discussed, but now the position has softened.

"If, after discussion and agreement with the Georgian Orthodox Church, people find a consensus, it is possible to construct a small mosque, but not in the center of the city," said the Minister of Culture of Georgia.

"Meanwhile, we have not signed any agreement with Turkey for the construction of mosques," he said.

They stopped?!

The debates, rallies, protests and battles of supporters and opponents of the mosque continued for several months. The government argued that the construction of the mosque was needed to attract tourists and to meet the needs of the thousands of Turks who took the Georgian green card.

Opponents said that it was immoral to construct a mosque named after Abd al-Aziz at Batumi. Will the monuments to Lenin and communism be restored next?, they asked.

I spoke many times to local media in the debate. The arguments that were heard were laughable. A multi-cultural society has to become accustomed to Islam, some say. Islam is a religion of peace, said others.

But none of them could answer the question, why should a mosque in Batumi be named for a conqueror?

At the meetings, I said that it was not just a problem in Georgia. This problem exists all over the world. Islam has been and continues to be a political force. Turkey and Iran have ambitions not only in the Caucasus and the Middle East, but elsewhere, and use the cover of religion to promote political goals.

The existence of such organizations as SIOA, SIOE and SION play an important role for people in my country. We understand that we are not alone. And not just George Soros is west of the Caucasus.

As for Soros and his foundation, the majority of the organizations and the political forces supporting the process of disintegration and the Islamization of the society are funded by his foundation. After this the question arises of how he will continue the process of Islamization of Georgia, and why would he do it at all?

One of the protesters told me that his great-grandfather and great-grandmother had been executed on the orders of Abdul-Aziz, but they refused to accept Islam. "They were tied to horses and dragged on broken glass, and they want to build a mosque praising this murderer in my city? I'll go a thousand times to protest."

This is very important for Georgia. The West and especially the U.S. and the fact of the debate on the construction of a mosque in New York had a very positive impact on the situation in Batumi. And that's what I said many times on my radio interviews.

We need support. We need each other. We need to know we are not alone.

By controlling the price of oil, Muslim countries are protecting the jihad, whose goal is not creation, but destruction.

There is a false notion that Muslims are divided into two groups: supporters of jihad and those who simply worship Allah.

Any place where there is or was a war between the adherents of Islam and adherents of other religions is always of interest to the jihadists. I personally know many Islamic leaders and chiefs of armed groups in the Caucasus. In conversations with me they repeatedly told me that the "Wahhabis" (so-called adherents of militant Islam in the Caucasus) did not respect the traditions of the Caucasus. They said that these "new teachers for the Caucasian Islam" were not needed in the Caucasus.

The "new teachers" built their mosques and brought their teachers, spending millions of dollars to indoctrinate the youth, who departed from the traditional "Islam in the Caucasus" and turned toward Wahhabism.

Shamil Basayev said to me in 1997 with great pleasure that he had driven the Arabs and Turks from the Caucasus, but in 1998 he became the leader of the jihadists and the Imam of Chechnya and Dagestan.

Many military commanders and fighters and commanders have undergone such a change, having experienced an Islamic awakening.

They have even begun to change their names and adopt Arabic ones. The head of the Chechen special forces, “borz” (wolves), Ruslan Gelayev, called himself Khamzat Gelayev. Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov called himself Khalid Maskhadov.

Maskhadov was the elected in 1997. When he became president, he promised the international community that he would make Chechnya a secular state, but after one and half years he became leader of the Jihad in the Caucasus.

This is an interesting fact to ponder for those who want to establish contacts and negotiate with terrorist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and so on.

In 1997, I was invited to Grozny in Chechnya by the head of an antiterrorist center, Brigadier General Hunkar Pasha Israpilov.

He asked me to help the Chechens to coordinate with Georgia and develop a common policy to combat Islamic terrorism. This was an order of the Chechen Republic President Maskhadov.

At the meeting, we agreed that the jihadists and Islamic fundamentalists were a threat to the entire Caucasus and that joint efforts were needed to fight this scourge.

A few months after this meeting, the chief of the antiterrorist center, like many others, joined the Islamic Shura Council of the followers of the Sharia in the Caucasus, and took an active part in the spread of Wahhabism in the Caucasus.

On his orders, my brother and I were kidnapped from Georgia, as I wrote in an earlier article.

When we were captured, one of the terrorists said a very interesting thing: "You Christians and Zionists will never defeat us. When you squeeze us, our brothers will raise oil prices and you will have to negotiate with us and accept us and the Islamic state that we create. Then you will see what the Sharia is -- the sword of Islam."

I did not pay attention to his words. My brother and I had been beaten. But now, after 10 years, I realized what he meant. By controlling the price of oil, Muslim countries are protecting the jihad, whose goal is not creation, but destruction.

Shiites and Sunnis in the Caucasus began to seek a common denominator. In confirmation of this is the convergence of the Islamic community in Georgia. They elected a single board of governance.

The interesting thing about this idea is that I heard about it ten years ago. An association of Islamic movements under unified rule was declared in Baku, Azerbaijan. The meeting was attended by representatives of different sects of Islam.

I was told that there were present some members of radical Shiite groups in Iran and Azerbaijan, as well as representatives of the Sunnis from Turkey and the Caucasus. There were representatives of the Taliban, and scholars from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Islamic countries.

It was said that the Nadir Shah Khachilayev, head of the Union of Muslims of Russia, was supposed to come to this meeting. But on August 11, 2003, he was killed in Dagestan.

The meeting was dedicated to the idea of the unification of Islam under a green flag. The idea was to unite all those who acknowledged monotheism, recognizing only Allah, the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad for all Muslims for the sake of jihad.

The conversation was in the Turkish and Russian languages, because all those present understood these languages.

At first, there were minor disagreements over who should be in a key position in this new Islamic group. The Iranians, Afghans, Caucasians, and Turks argued that under the hegemony of Islam, they had made great strides. But in the end, all parties agreed. Of course, a Chechen businessman and millionaire, Hajj Ahmad Nukhayev, was behind this.

He had very close ties to the government of Turkey and Iran. He had several meetings with the leaders of many European countries. He had very close ties with powerful people in the United Kingdom.

Nobody wanted to have as powerful enemies Nadir Khachilayev and Hajj Nukhayev, even the president of Azerbaijan. Because of his cooperation, Nukhayev resolved that he would take any action in Baku and Azerbaijan in general except for the overthrow of the government.

The struggle for primacy in the Islamic world has been going on for a long time. And for just as long, there has been a desire to unite. But lately, this trend towards stronger association has been given a new impetus by two very powerful factors: Iran's nuclear program, and the deterioration of relations between Israel and Turkey. A railway project between Turkey and Iran is currently under construction through the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Iran and Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan all working together on this project to create infrastructure. They have already signed several strategic agreements.

This economic cooperation is leading to political ties. And politics for Muslims means the spread of Islam and Sharia in non-Muslim states.

But the ultimate goal of all these initiatives is to establish a united front to oppose all infidels and kill or subjugate them. In confirmation of this are the words of the Caliph Umar: "Who is seeking the greatness outside the Islam, will be humiliated by Allah. We - people chosen by Allah to be glorified through Islam, and if we seek greatness and glory in something else than Islam, then Allah will humiliate us, too."

On July 19, the Israeli headquarters in the fight against terror, a division of the National Security Council, issued a statement according to which most countries of the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia are no longer a danger to Israelis. The exceptions were Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The statement that the Israelis released said that in these countries there is a risk level 4, which means a constant potential threat. Israelis do not recommend visiting these states if there is no special need, and in such cases, Israeli travelers should exercise increased caution and not gather there in large groups.

Caucasian contribution to the funding of jihad
by Joseph “Soso” Zaalishvili

Anyone who thinks that jihad is a just war that simply begins one day, he is profoundly mistaken.

Jihad involves the teaching of Islam, the spiritual state of the Mujahedeen, and even more importantly, a lot of money.

I want to present one of the schemes for the financing of jihad which is well tested in the Caucasus.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, economic crisis reigned in the Caucasus. The population of the North Caucasus regions of Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Ingushetia) and the new states (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) needed new jobs and economic stability.

Jihadists have always considered the Caucasus their territory, and actively began economic expansion to help the people of the Caucasus in the development of small businesses.

Citizens of Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Chechnya and other Muslim parts of the Caucasus received goods produced in Arab countries and Pakistan as practically free, as gifts.

A senior official of Chechen jihadist intelligence explained the origin of these items: these products were zakat (Islamic assistance to the needy). Goods sold in the Caucasus funded jihad in the Caucasus.

According to him, in the jihadist movement, there are special economic groups whose responsibilities include the establishment of business relations with the authorities of countries. So it was in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The jihadists fed the people with cheap products and earned money to continue the jihad.

In the Christian republics of the Caucasus, such as Georgia and Armenia, the jihadists are trying to establish business relationships with the law enforcement authorities of these republics, as serious business in post-Soviet republics is invested in the representatives of the power structures.

This scheme of funding jihad has been successfully operating today.

A significant portion of financial assistance that Georgia receives from the United States is spent on the purchase of household goods and food products manufactured in Islamic countries such as Iran, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.

Georgian armed forces take part in anti-terror operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Georgian nation is proud of it, while the government is encouraging economic relations with Iran.

If the international community does not treat seriously the issue of the financing of jihad in this way, the economy of the Caucasian republics so reaches out to the financial interests of the jihadists that they will lobby their political interests, and serious signs of this already exist in Georgia. There is a visa-free regime including Iran, Turkey and the North Caucasus, while in Georgia there is no official list of terrorist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, the Caucasian Imamate, etc. In Georgia, they are not officially considered terrorist organizations.

The road that carries death
by Joseph "Soso" Zaalishvili

By the end of the First Jihad (1994-96) in the Chechen Republic, the Islamic authorities and the leaders of the Chechen Mujahedeen actively began to talk about the construction of a so-called "Road of Life," which was to unite Chechnya and Georgia.

At that time (the beginning of 1996), no one thought that the road construction would begin in 1997. In summer 1996, Russia signed the Khasavyurt agreement with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Wealthy sponsors of Jihad began to prepare their sinister plans for the Islamization of the Caucasus region.

Fate has granted me the chance to meet and interview many prominent emirs and Chechen mujahedeen. Many of them occupy the highest positions in the government of Ichkeria.

Aslan Maskhadov told me about the plan to build a "Road of Life," which was to provide a corridor for the receipt of ammunition and mujahedeen in case of a continuation of the Jihad in the northern Caucasus.

I had personal meetings with the emirs who had personally engaged in the construction of this road, such as Shamil Basayev, Turpal Ali Atgiriev, and Ruslan Gelayev, who at various times oversaw this project. I learned that the construction of this road was funded by a "High Arab,” who has incredible authority among the Chechen Mujahedeen, and is a close friend of Amir Khattab: Osama bin Laden.

Before the second Jihad in the Northern Caucasus in 1999, Chechens finished the road's journey to the borders of Georgia, but the Georgian government and President Shevardnadze, under pressure from Georgian society, froze plans to build the road from the Georgian side.

In meetings with me, Chechen emirs repeatedly talked about their plans for the Islamization of the Caucasus. In their view, this road would help not only Chechens, but after the victory of Jihad in the Caucasus, it would serve as a corridor for the mujahedeen in Turkey and Iran.

In their view, the real enemy of Islam is not Russia and the citizens of this country, but Israel and the Zionists. And the goal? To create a single Islamic state -- a Caliphate.

In 1998, a source told me that a "High Arab" (Osama Bin Laden) came to the Urus-Martan (Chechnya region) and took 10 Stingers to local jihadists as a gift.

I was kidnapped by Mujahedeen because of an article published in the Georgian newspaper about their plans in the Caucasus.

I carefully observed the actions of supporters of Jihad in the Caucasus. Many of them were destroyed in the fighting. There were new Emirs and representatives of al-Qaida.

In 2011, Georgia's new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, began a visa-free policy with the North Caucasus, Iran and Turkey. I immediately thought of the so-called "Road of Life" and what the Mujahedeen had told me about the Jihad against Israel.

In addition, over the last year, Georgia's relations with its longtime ally of Israel have very much soured. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili openly invited Ahmadinejad for an official visit to Tbilisi.

The visa-free policy allows the Mujahedeen to move through the territory of Georgia and into Turkey and Iran without problems. For example, before the introduction of visa-free travel, I met with several Pakistanis who had Pakistani passports issued in the Pakistani consulate in Kazakhstan, where the personal numbers were recorded by hand. It is interesting that on their passports, they were born January 1, 1972, 1973 and 1974. They had a used car dealership 50 meters from the main entrance to the American Embassy in Georgia. A bomb exploded near the embassy. Fortunately, only a fence collapsed and no one was hurt. One year after the incident, Georgian authorities have announced that it was a terrorist attack, arranged by Russian special services. Recently, I accidentally met one of these Pakistanis. He has already become a citizen of Georgia.

Since 2010, Georgia has sold Iran more than a million sheep. I understand that it is very profitable to sell a sheep, which in Georgia is worth about 50 dollars but can be sold to Iran for 350-400 dollars, but it is not clear why the Iranians are paying the price, when Iran itself is a major exporter of sheep meat.

Georgia has supported "Iran's peaceful nuclear program." Most of the household and agricultural products imported to Georgia come from Turkey and Iran.

In conclusion, I can say that the plan for the Caucasus and the international jihadists's intention to use Georgia as a corridor, or a "road that carries death," is already in progress at present, and worse yet, nearing completion.

Stubbornly ignorant and unwilling to investigate the jihad doctrine, State Department officials led the U.S. into war to support jihadists in Bosnia and Kosovo. Now the same mistake is being repeated. "U.S. Supports Islamic Terror Against Russia," by Julia Gorin at Republican Riot, March 29 (thanks to Pamela):

We don't yet know the whole story behind the two female suicide bombers who killed 38 people in Moscow and injured scores of others. Although their affiliation is unclear, the working assumption is that the bombers were tied to the Chechen rebel movement in the North Caucasus.

There is, however, something which we do know for sure, and which we paid no attention to despite its clear connection to the kind of terror Moscow witnessed yesterday morning.

There was a little-noted meeting that took place in December 2009, in Tbilisi, the capital of U.S. ally Georgia. That month Georgia hosted a conference of jihadists to plan "operations" against Russia. There was no news coverage of the event, and so it took a paid advertisement in the Washington Times to make it known. Stubbornly, still no news organization or blog picked up on it. And so here we are.

Below are the relevant parts of the paid-for article from last month, titled "The Georgian Imbroglio -- And a Choice for the United States." (Original emphasis preserved.) It was penned by James George Jatras, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer as well as foreign policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee.

Americans must be made aware of Saakashvili's extending refuge to jihadists responsible for countless acts of terror in southern Russia and his regime's extraordinary coordination efforts to permit them to step up attacks in the Caucasus region.

Specifically, according to reliable sources [with lines to two foreign intel services], in December 2009 a secret meeting took place in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, with representatives of numerous jihad groups based in various Islamic and European countries for the purpose of coordinating their activities on Russia's southern flank. The meeting was organized under the auspices of high officials of the Georgian government; while Saakashvili himself was not present, officials of his ministry of internal affairs (allegedly G. Lordkipanidze) and others acted as hosts and coordinators. Georgian Ambassador to Kuwait Mayering-Mikadze purportedly facilitated travel for participants from the Middle East. In addition to "military" operations (i.e., attacks in southern Russia) special attention was given to ideological warfare, for example, the launching of the Russian-language TV station "First Caucasian."

Are we to believe that U.S. intelligence agencies were unaware of this meeting and other similar actions? The question then is unavoidable: has Washington decided to turn a blind eye -- or even worse, to encourage our "ally" Saakashvili to play the "jihad card" against Russia? Could such a thing be possible at a time when the world's media are filled with reports of jihad attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Israel, Philippines, and other countries -- not least the United States (Fort Hood, Fort Dix)? The threat comes from the same ideology that motivated the 9/11 attacks against our country and which seeks to create through violence a worldwide Islamic caliphate governed by Sharia law....

There is much more. Be sure to read it all.