Michael Pugliese http://www.wilpaterson.edu/~newpol/default.htp http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Contrails.htm http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/CountdownWTO.htm http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/AntiEstablishmentFiles.htm http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/BigLieKosovo.htm Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 From: Palden Jenkins <palden at globalnet.co.uk> Subject: Chechnya's hidden history
Hello Jean
I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the 'best kept secret' concerning the Chechnyan wars of the 1990s, which can explain some of the background behind the mayhem there. It's this....
The Chechens (as an international criminal organisation, not specifically the people of Chechnya) had become the world's largest criminal outfit, who broke the unspoken 'rules' of big crime by dealing in materials (such as nuclear materials) which other outfits would not. Their wealth in the early 90s, according to my information, was equivalent to that of *all mafias and drug groupings put together*. Thus, the Chechen wars fall into a similar category to the Gulf War of the early 90s, for which a major motivating factor was that, if Saddam Hussein gained control of Saudi Arabia, by invasion or threat, he would effectively be able to control the world economy.
Now, crime outfits and renegade dictators have a place in the world economy if they stay within certain bounds, since they're useful to banks and the global finance economy because they can amass vast pools of money which is not accounted for legally, which then can be used in international business as a pool to borrow from for useful big-capital purposes. However, the Chechens, by not 'playing the game', and by threatening to destabilise the world economy, as well as by threatening other crime-rings (particularly the Russian mafias, but also the established international rings), had to be dealt with.
The Americans and other Western interests couldn't do it, and the Chinese rings couldn't do it, for strategic-geographical reasons. So, in the earlier 90s, to curry Western favour, the Russians undertook to do it - but they failed. They thought that, by reducing the Chechens' wealth and strength somewhat, and by soaking up some of their funds in military action, the Chechens would quieten down. They didn't. So, under pressure from the West, from Russian mafias, from the ex-Soviet army, and from other sources, they've gone into Chechnya again more recently - and not without intended provocation from the Chechens (in Dagestan and Azerbaijan). Trouble is that, now, the West isn't so sure this is the best way to go....
The Chechens have a centuries-long heritage of crime - and there are some parallels to the Sicilians in this regard. Both groupings have been on the edge of many empires, and in a strategic position to exploit them for criminal and semi-criminal purposes - both milking off wealth, and supplying useful commodities and services. The Chechens gained strength even back in the times of ancient Greece and Rome, though they rose properly during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad - arguably the world's richest ever civilisation - a thousand years ago. They profited from Byzantium, the Mongols, Kiev, the Khazar empire, Persia, the Ottomans and, in later times, the growth of the Russian empire.
Like the Armenians in business and trade (whom the Turks massacred a century ago), the Chechens went global in crime. They have a long heritage of smuggling, adventurism and mayhem! Hence the importance to Russia of controlling the Balkans - rather like USA has to control its Mexican border. The Chechens grew *very* rich on the drugs-for-arms deals during the Soviet Afghan wars of the 1970s-80s, and during the period of rivalry between the Muslim and Western blocs in the 1970s-80s, and they also took on specialities in smuggling dangerous substances, rare breeds and other special commodities which other crime rings wouldn't touch. In the disintegrating USSR, they creamed off much of the wealth which the Russian mafias were trying to gain. They even threatened the Russian mafias in their own main territory, Moscow, and were close to winning effective control of the Russian economy.
Thus, the Russian offensive on Chechnya has bigger and wider implications - Chechnya is a bigger issue than just being a troublesome local republic in the Caucasus. And now the Chechens have growing influence in the Caspian oilfields (re: oil pipelines and corporate security), which are a newer globally-strategic resource.
I think this information might help your readers understand the situation a bit more. As with Sicily and the Mafia, the whole population of Chechnya isn't involved, though it can be construed to be silently, perhaps passively, complicit, over many centuries - and it's so deeply ingrained that Chechen people cannot dissemble the grip the crime rings have on the country. After all, it's jobs for the boys, and a boon for the local economy. The Russian idea is to lay waste their operations base and render the Chechen criminals into exiles, and to soak up some of their excess wealth. Stalin (a Georgian) deported them all to Siberia at one stage - increasing the enmity between Chechens and Russians. There are other, more local and cultural agendas too. All this also explains why other Muslim countries aren't helping the Chechens: the Chechens have been as much trouble to them as to anyone else, and they'd prefer not to get involved!
Here endeth a little lesson in hidden history! There's more to all this than meets the eye! I would theorise that the Russians are trying to force the Chechen people, through cruelty, to go against their own criminal elements, and to cease acting as a host to them.
If anyone has any additions or amendments to this analysis, I'm interested in hearing from you. With love
Palden Glastonbury, England.
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 To: globalvisionary at cybernaute.com (jean hudon) From: Palden Jenkins <palden at globalnet.co.uk> Subject: Re: Chechnya's hidden history
At 03:22 25/11/1999 +0000, you wrote:
>Could I pass it on to my media list as I'm sure it
>will get the interest of many journalists?
Yes, you may. The only thing is that I cannot exactly cite my source, which was a BBC radio programme in about 1994, which analysed the situation of international crime rings, stating that the Chechens in effect had as much wealth and financial clout as *all other major international crime rings put together*, and that they thus constituted a threat to the stability of the global financial market system. The programme covered corruption within Russia too, and the threat to the Russian mafia-business system from the Chechens themselves, who were at the time vying for control of Moscow - they were, after all, well-embedded in the Soviet system. After find all this out, it was a matter of a little historical deduction and geopolitical logic.
I had been focusing on the Chechens for my book 'Healing the Hurts of Nations', and was also researching their ethnic origins, which, as far as I can tell (but I can find no substantiation for it except that they are classed as 'semitic' by origin), might well be Jewish, from the far-back time of the dispersion of Jews during the campaigns of the Babylonians in the 600s BCE. They are neither Turkic or Asiatic/Tartar by origin, as are many of their ethnic neighbours in the area.
Wishing well
Palden
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