Chechnya.

A useful judgment of Russian in Chechnya has eluded me, though my reading is scant.

This passage has the ring of truth to it:

I don’t think that you follow the Chechen politics very carefully, so perhaps your readers are unaware of the recent crisis, when Islamic fundamentalists unsuccessfully tried to take over the leadership of the Resistance. Instead, it resulted in the formation of Ahmed Zakayev’s government, which is pro-democracy, pro-independence, and has explicitly dissociated itself from the so-called jihadism. The West will hardly ever find a better kind of partners in the Muslim world.

I find it hard to believe that there is an effective Muslim counterweight to the jihadis but this is evidence for just that. Though the Saudis have unlimited money to fund their Wahhabi penetrations around the world, I recall reading about local Muslim unhappiness in the Balkans over Wahhabi carpet baggers coming in and ordering the destruction of the local’s ancestors’ tomb stones.

With Mr. Bush so much in love with the Saudis and generally clueless when it comes to matters of Concept Warfare, using these kinds of divisions is out of the question for the time being. The next president should put Newt Gingrich in charge of the worldwide “Divide and Paralyze” strategy. Or Larry Elder. Or Alan Keyes.

"The Putin-Osama Connection." By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, 1/16/08. An interview with Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, the editor and translator of Alexander Litvinenko’s book, Allegations, and a friend of Mr. Litvinenko’s.