The Beslan Attack & Qaeda Link.

Among the wilted flowers brought to celebrate the first day of classes - Sept. 1 - in the now blackened wreckage of Beslan's School No. 1 were abundant signs of a sophisticated terror operation. On Sept. 7, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) quoted Oleg Tedeyev, deputy chief of a local police unit who was involved in the Sept. 3 battle that freed about 700 people and more than 350 dead (some say more than 500 dead), as saying of the attackers: "They were so well trained - the highest level". Michael Radu, a terrorism expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, was quoted as saying the attackers were "autonomous groups... synchronized ideologically and strategically" with Al-Qaeda.

Survivors say the 32 attackers were mostly Russian-speaking Chechens. But as families in this small town near Chechnya buried their dead on Sept. 6-7, they described the end of the saga as one in which both the hostage-takers and Russian special forces were caught off guard by an accidental explosion in the gymnasium, which sparked a lethal firefight and hostage escape. But still local officials said the evidence suggested a complex operation and the kind of preparation once given in Al-Qaeda training camps of Afghanistan. When officials entered the school building after the battle, they found syringes. The hostage-takers were not addicts, but they were taking drugs "to keep them awake", said Tedeyev - whose own two children escaped as the school was seized, according to the CSM, which quoted him as adding: "As a military man, I was surprised how they could position themselves so well. In minutes, in seconds, they understood [the place]. It was not the first time they were here".

In the smoldering school, though swept by Russian intelligence and security services, a single singed wire was still hanging from a charred basketball hoop - testifying to the web of explosives rigged from the ceiling and walls of the gymnasium, where more than 1,200 agonised hostages were held for three days. A shredded black belt and bloodied camouflage utility vest lay in the hall next to the cafeteria, where a female suicide bomber detonated herself. In the library, chunks of the floor were hacked away to reveal hiding spaces, where the attackers had stored ammunition and explosives, perhaps building the stockpile for several months, during summer renovation work at the school. Russian media reports that 10 of the attackers were Arab raised the questions about the link with Al-Qaeda. The CSM quoted Soslan Sikoyev, the deputy interior minister for North Ossetia, who offered to resign for failing to prevent the crisis, as saying: "I think it's Al-Qaeda. I think it's Saudi Arabia, Arabs, and possibly Afghan terrorists - and terrorists who are here in Russia as well". (Sikoyev was kidnapped twice himself by Islamist militants in recent years). An Al-Qaeda-connected group calling itself the Islambouli Brigades, active in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for both the simultaneous downing of two passenger jets on Aug. 24, which left 90 dead, and a suicide bomb in Moscow on Aug. 31 which killed ten more.

"This is a challenge to all of Russia, to all our people", President Putin said in an address to the nation on Sept. 4, adding: "We have to admit that we failed to recognise the complexity and danger of the processes going on in our country and the world as a whole... We demonstrated our weakness, and the weak are beaten". In the latter sentence he paraphrased Stalin's words spoken at the start of the 1941 Nazi invasion: "We have shown weakness. The weak ones get beaten". Putin's reaction to the tragedy was startling in its official humbleness. While not taking responsibility for the way security forces handled the crisis, he did cite steps his government must take to counter terrorism. He made clear that he will not temper his hardline Chechnya policy, and on Sept. 7 he was quoted as calling the Chechen separatists as Bin Laden. (Chechen separatists have wanted independence for more than a decade. But since the break up of the Soviet Union 13 years ago, the Kremlin has taken a strong stance against losing any more territory. Ties between Chechen radicals and Al-Qaeda stretch back to the first Chechen war in 1994-1996.

The CSM quoted Alexander Iskandaryan, head of the Centre for Caucasian Studies in Yerevan, Armenia, as saying: "Chechnya began to attract [Al-Qaeda] emissaries, adventurers, and finances. After 1999, the radical tendency grew strong, and became more internationalised". He added: "This second war burns on, and has two parts: guerrilla warfare and terrorist acts. Over the last month, we've seen a considerable growth of the second component, terrorism... Russian policy in the Caucasus in the last 10 years helped a lot to separate the Caucasus from Russia. Ideology is being generated against Russia - Islamisation is growing. There are more calls for sharia law, not only by radicals, but by average Muslims".

North Ossetia, historically the only pro-Russian, Christian portion of the North Caucasus - which has long-held grudges against Muslim Ingush and Chechens - may have been seen as an ideal target to spark havoc in Beslan. Many of residents of Beslan say they are convinced that their Ingush and Chechen neighbours are to blame, and that foreign operatives would have had a hard time infiltrating in any numbers. The CSM quoted Tamik Granikov, a local builder, as saying: "Of course, there was someone behind them - they were speaking on mobile phones; they had their bosses" - referring to people outside Beslan. Russian officials have arrested three men on suspicion of involvement, possibly by tracing phone calls. When the crisis began on Sept. 1, Granikov said, "we were worried about whether the renovation work was used as a cover. They never could have brought so many grenades and bullets [on the day of the attack]".

Tedeyev, the police officer, said he saw the body of a black foreigner. He said this group learned from past terrorist mistakes. They carried gas masks and broke windows to prevent being gassed like the Chechen separatists who took over the Dubrovka Theater while the play "Nord-Ost" was being performed in October 2002. "It seems they studied all the cases, from the Nord-Ost to those in the US", said Tedeyev. "So it becomes more difficult for the state to fight terror. TV shows everything the Spetnatz [special forces] does. We seem to teach [terrorists] ourselves, and then we suffer for it".

Atrocities they experienced during the Soviet era of the 20th century did not prepare Russians for the tragic loss of hundreds of schoolchildren and others on Sept. 3. The despicable act of terrorism against 1,200 innocent people in Beslan has turned a nation to grief and self-reflection, as well as some recriminations. Putin, a former KGB man, may now be inclined to erode democracy through more security measures. But in his Sept. 4 speech he suggested Russia can learn from other nations, such as the way the US rallied people to be more vigilant: "Events in other countries prove that terrorists meet the most effective rebuff where they confront not only the power of the state, but also an organised and united civil society". Putin said corruption in law enforcement and the courts had left an opening for terrorists to act more freely throughout Russia. (The hostage-takers had the latest Russian-made weapons). He promised "a more adequate security system". Strangely, Putin did not even mention Chechnya in his speech.