CHECHENS IN IRAQ: NEITHER CONFIRMED NOR DENIED

In an April 21 telephone conversation with Jamestown, the U.S. Central Command refused to confirm or deny reports in the British press that Chechens had been captured by American troops in Iraq. Tales of Chechens in Iraq are beginning to seem almost like an “urban myth.” That is, vague accounts are echoed from one news organization to another, but no agency of the U.S. government has yet published the name of a single such Chechen captive–or even stated firmly, authoritatively and on the record that such captives do in fact exist. Jamestown will keep pressing.