Everyone is wondering how so many jihadists have appeared in the Middle East. Tens of thousands of mujahideen have come to a place where there is a war. Why is jihad recruitment going unnoticed? How and why do their movements remain invisible to law enforcement officials in many countries?
Maybe they are not invisible. Maybe they are business partners or sponsors of some high-ranking officials in the Middle East and not only in Middle East. And so the mujahideen remain invisible.
the next question that arises whence the Mujahideen take weapons and ammunition, as well as food for such a long war?
Weapons can be used for several years, but ammunition runs out quickly. Jihadists must buy ammunition and transport it up to the most important locations of the mujahideen, and to the fighting areas. In today’s world, when there are satellites and instruments for monitoring, it should be difficult to transport ammunition and missiles from one place to another. If you count the necessary quantities of ammunition that they would need every day, they would need a lot of vehicles to transport it. I’m not talking about the food, water and clothing for the mujahideen. Then there is the hardware of communication between the jihadists, sleeping bags and other items for the conduct of long-term warfare.
The Caucasus mujahideen brought ammunition from Russian military bases. Chechen businessmen bought them on Russian military bases from the same Russian generals against whom the mujahideen were fighting. Weapons and ammunition were supplied from Azerbaijan during the first jihad and the beginning of the second jihad in 1999 from Georgia also, through the Caucasus Mountains. The Chechens had to pay for weapons and ammunition and their delivery. Weapons were delivered by horse and by helicopter. In the mountain gorges it was difficult for the Russian air defense to notice a low-flying helicopter. An interesting fact is that the pilot, who was carrying a weapon in 1999 worked in law enforcement in Georgia. After the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, he became the personal pilot of the presidential helicopter of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (2003-2013).
In 1996, in Tbilisi, in Georgia, Chechen businessman billionaire Khodj-Ahmed Nukhaev created the “Caucasian common market” with the nephew of the president of Georgia. It also included Azerbaijan. Nukhaev was the representative of the Chechen Republic in Turkey. Through its foundations and organizations flowed millions of dollars to finance the jihad in the Caucasus. He had excellent connections in the governments of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. And through these Islamic countries he established excellent contacts in the West, both in the EU and in the United States. In Georgia, he helped local officials to go to suppliers of cheap oil in Iran and other countries of the Caspian Basin.
As you know, everyone connected with the president is the subject of a special investigation by law enforcement. How could a person associated with terrorists and arms trafficking pass such a test, if he did not have his people in these structures, and if the state does not support the same terrorists?
Where are these law enforcement officials now? Do they have connections with similar services in other countries, such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Qatar, or Saudi Arabia, or in European countries and the United States? Do they reveal at formal or informal meetings that they had contacts with terrorists? Do they share information about this? Or do they just continue to earn “easy money” by death?
I do not know how this is in other countries, but in Georgia, many of those who were directly or indirectly linked to trade and ferrying weapons and mujahideen are again working in law enforcement. If they are not, their friends and colleagues are. Interestingly, the international coalition spends a lot of taxpayer money to fight the Islamic State and against terrorism. But on the other hand, countries that are considered to be supporters of the coalition employ in their power structures people who supplied weapons to terrorists.
Now the movement of the mujahideen to the Middle East continues. In the years 1994-96, to send a mujahid to Chechnya, Arab sponsors paid about $10,000. In fact, the whole journey cost no more than $1000-1200. That was 20 years ago, I think that now rates have risen. Law enforcement in Azerbaijan participated in this. They had contacts on the Russian side. Many of the wounded mujahideen were taken for treatment to Germany via Turkey.
Was that possible without the Turkish government?
If the president supports terrorists, what would that make an ordinary representative of law enforcement? Can Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood terrorists get Turkish citizenship? Can they use Turkish passports to travel around the world? Or will the Turkish government give them refugee status? Why would US ally Erdogan do this?
With such good connections, Islamic jihadists have no problem moving around Europe and the world: corrupt politicians, presidents, prime ministers, and law enforcement chiefs cover for them. Islamic lobbyists promote greater energy and transportation projects, control the price of oil, and are engaged in arms trafficking with corrupt politicians. They are trying to buy whole countries and their governments, while jihadists sow fear, frightening ordinary people by terrorist acts.