Russian Military Getting Help From Washington?

Is the United States government providing reconnaissance and intelligence support to Moscow in its war in Chechnya? According to an article by Thomas Omestad in the just-published February 9 issue of U.S. News and World Report, that weekly has been told that “U.S. intelligence used electronic intercepts and satellite images to locate a band of Chechen terrorists wanted for murder and kidnapping who were fleeing through the mountains of Dagestan in southern Russia.” Omestad wrote that the secret gift to the Russian military was part of an “exchange of information” that included intelligence data from Moscow about Saddam Hussein’s regime. The report was immediately picked up by the pro-Kremlin Novosti agency, which promotes the official line that all Chechen separatists are terrorists along the lines of the Taliban or al Qaeda.