The Wolves of Islam

by Murphy, Paul J.

• ISBN13: 9781574888317
• ISBN10: 1574888315
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-28
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

At a little past 9:00 p.m., on October 23, 2002, nineteen young women and twenty-two men bounded from minivans and sprinted through the front doors of the sprawling Dubrovka Theater Center in Moscow. Once inside, the troop hurriedly changed into their costumes and, following a well-rehearsed script, took their designated places for the evening's dramatic finale. These people were not, however, actresses and actors starring in the hit musical Nord Ost, which was entertaining a sellout crowd of 711 spectators in the concert hall. They were Chechen Islamic terrorists-suicide hostage-takers who had come to Moscow to die and take their audience prey with them, unless the Russians immediately withdrew from Chechnya. The Dubrovka theater siege ushered in a new hostile escalation in the fanatical Islamist Chechens' ten-year fight against the Russian state. The "wolves of Islam" have adopted terror with maximum civilian casualties as its strategic weapon of choice, are employing the Palestinian model of suicide terror against civilians, and may be plotting with al Qaeda to conduct international terrorist operations abroad. In Wolves of Islam Paul Murphy tells the story of the principal cast of characters. To drive Russia out of the North Caucasus, Chechen terrorists carry out horrific acts of unimaginable terror. Individually and collectively, they have led Chechnya down the road to chaos, political anarchy, economic ruin, and physical destruction, as they continue to prosecute their Islamic holy war.

Table of Contents

Sources, Methods, and Acknowledgments	xi
Prologue	1	(6)
I Shamil Basayev: Russia's Osama bin Laden	7	(25)
The Beginning	7	(2)
Two Grenades for Yeltsin	9	(2)
In the Footsteps of Imam Shamil	11	(1)
Establishing Terrorist Credentials	12	(2)
Drinking Georgian Blood	14	(2)
Jihad Training in Afghanistan	16	(1)
Doing Dudayev's Dirty Work and the First Chechen War	17	(3)
The First Suicide Mission to Moscow	20	(4)
Enter Arab Fighters and a Dirty Bomb	24	(3)
The "Grozny Offensive"	27	(1)
A Terrorist Turns Reluctant Politician	28	(4)
II "The Black Arab" and the Wahhabi Factor	32	(15)
Embodying the Islamic Warrior Persona	32	(1)
Khattab's Real Combat Movies	33	(2)
Slaying Armed Russian Infidels—A Religious Calling	35	(3)
Suspect in the Red Cross Murders	38	(1)
Khattab's Terrorist Schools	39	(1)
The Closed City and Wahhabi Subversion	40	(4)
The Little Wahhabi Republic	44	(3)
III Two Presidents and Two Armies	47	(20)
Raduyev, "The Lone Wolf" Terrorist	47	(2)
Wolves Have Come to You!	49	(4)
Rising from the Dead	53	(3)
The Thorn in Maskhadov's Side	56	(3)
Shootout at Teatralnaya Square	59	(3)
The Jamaat Military Alliance and the
Berezovsky Hostage Deals	62	(3)
What Raduyev's Islamic Manifesto Had to Say	65	(2)
IV The Godfather of Kidnapping and the
Ideologist of Apocalypse	67	(1)
People for Sale	67	(6)
Mutiny in Gudermes	73	(2)
The Akhmadov Brothers	75	(2)
Beheadings and Betrayal	77	(2)
The Many Faces of Movladi Udugov	79	(3)
Udugov's Respectable Day Job	82	(3)
The Great Chechnya Ideologist	85	(2)
Another Maskhadov Betrayal	87	(3)
V Holy Wars in Dagestan and Bombs in Moscow	90	(18)
The "Brothers" Basayev	90	(1)
The Holy Mission	91	(3)
Ganging Up on Maskhadov	94	(3)
Establishing the New Imamate	97	(6)
Khattab's Bombs in Moscow	103	(5)
VI The Wars that Shamil Started	108	(26)
A War to Establish Islamic Rule Everywhere	108	(2)
Wolves Are Trapped	110	(2)
Planning How to Fight the Jihad	112	(3)
Basayev's "Bee Sting" Guerrilla Tactics	115	(2)
Targeting Civilians in the Terror War	117	(5)
Basayev's Second Suicide Battalion	122	(3)
Did Basayev Really Sink the Kursk?	125	(1)
Assassination Terror	126	(2)
Udugov's Information Wars	128	(3)
The Maskhadov-Udugov Internet Wars	131	(3)
VII The Chechen Money Tree	134	(22)
The Chechen Mafia Branches	135	(1)
Oil Theft, Narcotics, and Counterfeiting	135	(2)
Embezzlement and the Sale of Nuclear Materials	137	(2)
The Captives-for-Sale and Berezovsky Branches	139	(1)
Pakistan and the "Noble Cause of the Chechen Muslims"	140	(1)
Saudi and Jordanian Branches	141	(3)
Chechnya's Turkish Commissars	144	(3)
Azeri Traditional Routes	147	(1)
The Shevardnadze Trail	148	(1)
International Islamic Branches and Other Assistance	149	(3)
Internet, Personal Appeals, and Video Sales	152	(1)
The Osama and Afghan Branches	153	(3)
VIII Hunting Down Terrorist Wolves	156	(13)
Sinking the "Titanic"	156	(3)
The Trial and Sentencing of Raduyev	159	(2)
Dancing with Wolves	161	(2)
Khattab's Lethal Letter	163	(3)
Death of the Messenger and Terror Retribution	166	(2)
Is Basayev Dead or Alive?	168	(1)
IX Nord Ost	169	(28)
A Leaderless Jihad	169	(3)
The Summer of Radicalization	172	(3)
Military Offensives and Planning Terror	175	(4)
The Dubrovka Siege	179	(13)
Terrorists Killed at Dubrovka: The Official List (With Items Found on Body)	192	(5)
X The Third War	197	(24)
A New Terror War	197	(5)
Recognizing Terror as the Greatest Threat to National Security	202	(2)
Who Are the Real Masters of Chechnya?	204	(7)
What's Ahead—Are Wolves Thinking Globally Too?	211	(10)
Epilogue	221	(21)
Basayev's Terror "Whirlwind"- 5 July 2003-5 June 2004	221	(1)
"Black Widows" Hunt at a Rock Concert-5 July 2003	221	(3)
Death Stalks Moscow's Main Street-9-10 July 2003	224	(5)
Bombs, Bombs, and More Bombs-17-24 July 2003	229	(1)
Suicide Inferno at Mozdok's Military Hospital-1 August 2003	229	(1)
Terror Prevented and Named-8 August 2003	230	(1)
Bus Stop and Train Terror in Southern Russia-25 August, 3 September, and 1-5 December 2003	230	(1)
A Joint Suicide Operation in Magas-15 September 2003	231	(1)
A Black Widow Hunts Near the Kremlin-9 December 2003	232	(1)
Beheading, Hostage Taking, and Death of the Angel-15-31 December 2003	233	(1)
Tunnel Terror in Moscow-6 February 2004	234	(2)
"A Small but Important Victory": The Assassination of President Kadyrov-9 May 2004	236	(5)
24 August 2004 Postscript	241	(1)
Appendix: Chronology of Terror, 1991—June 2004	242	(27)
Index	269	(12)
About the Author	281