MOSCOW PUSHES AL QAIDA LINK.

On October 9, the pro-Putin website Strana.ru wrote: “The FSB of Russia confirms that special camps for sabotage and terrorist preparation exist on the territory of Georgia.” The camps were said by Major General Arkady Edelev, deputy head of the FSB’s Department for the Struggle with Terrorism, to be located in the settlements of Tsinobali and Duisi in the Akhmetovsky District of Georgia. Their financing was said to be carried out by “one of the close associates of bin Laden–a citizen of Jordan, Abu Khafs, a member of the terrorist network al Qaida, for whose head the U.S. State Department has promised US$5 million.” This attempt to link northern Georgia with the al Qaida network could be interpreted as seeking to prepare the way for a Russian incursion into Georgia in a manner acceptable to the West.