Russia Didn’t Share All Details on Boston Bombing Suspect, Report Says [quote]WASHINGTON — The Russian government declined to provide the F.B.I. with information about one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects that would most likely have led to more extensive scrutiny of him at least two years before the attack, according to an inspector general’s report. Russian officials had told the F.B.I. in 2011 that the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, “was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer” and that Mr. Tsarnaev “had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.”[/quote]I put this in the Caucasus sub-thread because of Tamerlan's reported links to the Caucasus Emirate, or otherwise Caucasus militants. Any thoughts on this?

[quote]Four Russian servicemen were killed and seven wounded after a bomb hit their infantry combat vehicle in the restive North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russia's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The group was carrying out engineering reconnaissance near Yandi village, some 45 km (28 miles) south-east of the regional capital Grozny, when their vehicle was blown up by a concealed explosive device, the statement said.[/quote]

Terrorism in the Caucasus and the threat to the US homeland [quote]Chairman King, Ranking Member Higgins, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here to discuss the terrorist threat emanating from the Caucasus. Unfortunately, as we saw nearly one year ago today at the Boston Marathon, the jihad in the Caucasus has already impacted lives here in the US. There is still much we do not know for certain about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's travels in Dagestan and Chechnya, but we do know that, at a minimum, he was sympathetic to the jihadists operating there. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother were, of course, responsible for the attacks on the Boston Marathon. As a report by the House Homeland Security Committee noted just last month, it "is reasonable to assume that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was at least inspired by" the "activity and ideology" of jihadists fighting in the Caucasus and he was "driven to take part in the vision of global jihad which they share with al Qaeda." Indeed, the Imarat Kavkaz or "IK" (otherwise known as the Islamic Caucasus Emirate) does have links to al Qaeda. And Tsarnaev is known to have sympathized with the IK and its fighters.[/quote]Above is a wonderful, wonderful testimony to the House Committee on Homeland Security about the threats from the Caucasus Emirate. I have actually had the opportunity to discuss terrorism, and coincidentally the Emirate, with Mr. Roggio personally via email and telephone before. He's a very nice guy and very knowledgeable about this sort of stuff. I recommend giving this a read.

[quote](Reuters) - Russian security forces killed five militants, including a suspected organiser of a deadly December car bombing, in a gunbattle on Tuesday in the North Caucasus province of Dagestan, authorities said. One police officer was killed and one wounded in the shootout, which occurred after police surrounded a home near the town of Khasavyurt on the border with Chechnya, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said. Dagestan, a mostly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea in southern Russia, is plagued by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet separatist war in Chechnya. [/quote]

Doubts still remain over Umarav's death.

Good report on the Caucasus Emirate, their history, their links and connections to al-Qaeda, and their role in both the global jihad and the insurgency in Russia.

This is the video of the new Emir of the Emirate. The video is in Russian. Here is the article on the new Emir: [url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/03/ali_abu_muhammad_al_dagestani.php]Ali Abu Muhammad al-Dagestani[/url]. His kunya indicates he is from Dagestan.

Reported death of Caucasus jihad leader Doku Umarov unlikely to give Russia any respite [quote]MOSCOW — The reported death of Chechen rebel chief Doku Umarov, Russia’s most famous wanted man, is unlikely to derail his Islamist movement, which draws its strength more from religious fervor than from personal charisma at the top. Umarov was the last head of the would-be insurgent government of Chechnya, and when that collapsed in 2007, he turned to Islamist jihad in a quest to establish a caliphate across the North Caucasus. His movement has been a major factor in a low-level war, centered in Dagestan, that inflicts hundreds of casualties on Russian forces, year after year.[/quote]