What Was Radical Islam's Role in Beslan?
That's the question Adrian Karatnycky asks in an interesting, probing piece in the Wall Street Journal. He writes that "Chechnya's broader separatist movement…is not made up of extremist Islamists" but that "the Chechen war and widening attacks throughout the northern Caucasus are a magnet for extremist Muslims from around the world."
Whole thing here. Karatnycky's article suggests that the situation in Chechyna is extremely complicated and little insight will be gained by writing off that country's independence movement simply as another front for Islamists (something Putin is ready to do, as it will give him more latitude to prosecute what is already recognized as a brutal intervention there).