Head of the German Intelligence Service Considers It Proved That Al-Qaeda Terrorists Operate in Chechnya

Head of the German BND intelligence service August Hanning stated in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he considered it proved that Al-Qaeda terrorists operated in Chechnya.

According to his information, more than 70,000 people underwent military training in Al-Qaeda training camps, about 7,000 of them were "coached" just to commit terrorist acts. The BND head reported that presently those terrorists were scattered all over the world from the Philippines to Chechnya where they demonstrated their utmost activity.

Members of the Davos forum at one of their plenary meetings considered problems connected with the terrorist activity of Al-Qaeda, a radical Islamic grouping and major organizer and executor of terrorists acts in the USA on 11 September 2001.

In the opinion of Abdullah, the foreign minister of Afghanistan, events of 11 September presented to the whole world the brutish face of Al-Qaeda, which caused its ranks to shrink. He stated that presently besides Al-Qaeda a network of separated terrorist groupings was operating with the same mentality and ideology of terror and plundering as Al-Qaeda.

According to Abdullah Abdullah, Osama bin Laden, terrorist No. 1 stayed in Pakistan, while the fate of Aiman Al-Zavhari, the mastermind of the organization, was unknown.

In his turn, Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Feisal al-Saud stated that in relation to Al-Qaeda there was no trustworthy information as there were no sources of information infiltrated into the network of that terrorist organization. According to him, Al-Qaeda was still capable to carry out terrorist acts though that grouping was presently less dangerous then some time ago as cooperation of states of the anti-terrorist coalition was intensified. The Prince added that "Osama bin Laden must as soon as possible appear before the legal tribunal of peoples."