From Jane’s intel report is an interesting Q&A with Akhmadov in March of ‘03. Here Akhmadov denies any link between al Qeada and the Maskhadov government as well as any involvement in the taking of hostages in a Moscow theatre during the performance of the Russian musical hit, "Nord-Ost”. Akhmadov is then asked: “What is the relationship between President Maskhadov and rebel leader Shamil Basayev? Akhmadov: Shamil Basayev did claim responsibility for the Nord-Ost incident, and since then he has separated himself from all our structures and is now acting independently.” [515] The hostage taking in the Moscow theatre occurred in Oct. of ’02. In an interview with Matthew Brzezinski in March of ’05 (a source referenced a bit further in this section - 537) Akhmadov indicates that Basayev made his split with moderates in the late ‘90s. "He {Basayev] changed from a Chechen patriot into an Islamic globalist." … He began to break with Maskhadov on fundamental issues, such as continuing negotiations with Moscow, and claimed he was now receiving guidance from a higher authority. … It was a bit much for Akhmadov, and the two quietly parted ways. … Akhmadov…went to work at the nascent Chechen foreign ministry while Basayev resigned from the government. … Akhmadov says he last saw Basayev, in late 1999. It was a chance encounter on the street…” The problem here is that 2003 report and photographs of Maskhadov in the mountains plotting with Basayev, Umarov and other criminal warlords. Just a matter of weeks before Maskhadov was assassinated, Akhmadov reiterated that Moscow could establish peace via negotiations with the Chechen leader because he “…is committed to ending the war through negotiations and he has manifested effective control over the Chechen armed resistance.” [516] This is having it both ways. Chechen rebels who commit terrorism are acting independently, yet Maskhadov is a viable negotiating partner because he was the commanding authority over every faction of the separatist movement. The determination here is that Maskhadov possessed no real authority, serving only to legitimize a resistance comprised of rogue elements.
A search pertaining to the “Nord-Ost” incident places responsibility, at least from an operational standpoint, with Arbi Barayev’s nephew Movsar. Perhaps, Basayev authorized the siege as Akhmadov indicates. From CNN: “Police said the gunmen identified themselves as members of the 29th Division of the Chechen army…” [517]] 
UPI (’02): “They identified themselves as "suicide commandos of the 29th division," ready to die for their cause. A Chechen rebel Web site identified the leader of the group of terrorists as Movsar Barayev, the nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev who was reportedly killed by Russian federal forces in Chechnya last year.” [518] The Sidney morning Herald: “Separatist Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking on their internet website kavkaz.org.” [519] Interestingly, Kavkaz.org.uk is believed to be the source that’s referenced. After searching for both Maskhadov and Basayev, the website doesn’t make much distinction between the nationalists and the fundamentalists. Searching for suspected CIA operative Rizvan Chitigov didn’t return articles about him but rather press releases with him as the source. As noted, Chitigov was the liaison between the rebels and this media outlet based in the U.K. [520] CDI refers to Barayev’s group not as a division of the Chechen army, but as “…SPIR, also known as the Islamic Special Purpose Regiment and the al-Jihad-Fisi-Sabililah Special Islamic Regiment…loosely formed in 1996 as a criminal organization by Arbi Barayev and…regarded as one of the main hostage-taking, kidnapping, and oil-smuggling groups operating in Chechnya following the 1994-1996 war with Russia. … Following Arbi’s death, Movsar executed fellow compatriots, including fellow warlord Rivzan Akhmadov, who competed with him for control over the group and foreign funding connections.” [521] Wikipedia’s profile of Movsar Barayev provides a similar description. “After his uncle's death … Movsar was the leader of a Chechen terrorist militia unit known as the Special Purpose Islamic Brigade (SPIR).” [522]
The following material links Ilyas Akhmadov to the Akhmadov clan deeply involved in the kidnapping & slave trade. Recall the HRVC compilation stating that while “there is no evidence that Maskhadov was profiting from the kidnapping business, …some associates of him certainly did.” In March of ’01, Guria Murlinskaya (IWPR) notes the relationship between Rizvan Akhmadov and other brothers of the clan, to Ilyas Akhmadov. “Russian investigators are questioning a captured Chechen warlord over the murders of four Western telecommunications workers who were kidnapped and beheaded in the breakaway republic. Ruslan Akhmadov, who is currently being held in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, has already been charged with a total of 34 kidnappings and possession of forged documents. The brother of Chechnya's foreign minister, Akhmadov was arrested in Baku together with fellow countryman Badrudi Murtazaev, who is believed to be a close ally of the rebel leader Shamil Basaev. … The Kremlin was quick to parade Akhmadov on national television, claiming that, together with his brothers Ramzan, Alti and Rezvan, he was the leader of a gang based in Urus Martan which specialised in "hostage-taking and illegal incarceration for financial gain.” [523]
Reciting the RFE/RL interview with Chechen commander Doku Umarov in June of ’05, correspondent Andrei Babitsky: “In the period between the wars, this place was governed by banditry. Various groups kidnapped people and introduced slavery into everyday life. How do you assess that period? As far as I understand, such charges have been leveled against you. Umarov: I was secretary of the Security Council and I had to constantly -- in order to avoid a civil conflict, like the one that happened in [July of ‘98] Gudermes -- I therefore had to constantly deal with [field commander Arbi] Baraev and [field commander Ramzan] Akhmadov, with the Ingushetians, and with [former Ingushetian President Ruslan] Aushev. Maskhadov sent me everywhere. Because of these contacts, I began to be accused of this.” [524]
In Jan. of ’01 Guria Murlinskaya again links Ramzan Akhmadov to the kidnapping trade and notes his relationship to Ilyas. “…Kenny Gluck, 38, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF, mission to the North Caucasus, was abducted by gunmen in the Chechen village of Starie Atagi. According to federal intelligence sources, the gunmen were part of a unit commanded by Ramzan Akhmadov, brother of Chechnya's foreign minister, Ilyas Akhmadov. Lieutenant-General Valery Baranov, of the North Caucasus Army Group, stated that "Ramzan Akhmadov's gang has long been involved in this kind of criminal activity and has been linked to a similar incident in Georgia when members of the OSCE were kidnapped by bandits." It is thought the MSF worker is currently being held in a mountain base to the south of the rebel republic. … Gluck is the latest in a long line of foreign nationals to have been kidnapped in Chechnya over the past few years.” [525] 
From a Russian source dated Sept. of ’02, Georgia responded to pressure from Moscow to address the rebels based in the Pankisi. “The operation by Georgian forces has already started yielding results – the powerful Akhmadov brothers’ gang was surrounded in the mountain village of Khalatsani and soldiers started a cleanup operation aimed at arresting the gunmen and freeing two hostages allegedly held there. … it is believed that one of the hostages is British citizen Peter Shaw, a banker who was kidnapped in Tbilisi on June 18.” [526] The following quote (Sept. of ’02), is from an interview with Christa Lorcher, the Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur on Georgia for the Council of Europe (COE). “…there are Georgian troops, together with their American instructors, and Russian units in the Pankisi Gorge to conduct operations against the Chechen rebels and restore order, as they put it.” [527]
Recall that “under Shevardnadze… Georgia became a major recipient of U.S. foreign and military aid…” So the U.S., with Russian and Georgian forces “attempted” to clear rebel units based in the Pankisi, of which, included the Akhmadov gang. Corruption is all around Ilyas Akhmadov; his family clan and former commander Shamil Basayev are terrorists, yet he’s presented as a moderate and granted asylum in the United States. The following is an interesting piece of propaganda from AP writer Tim McCahill (Aug. of ’04). He cites John B. Dunlop, an expert on Chechen affairs, only with respect to the ramifications Akhmadov’s status will have on U.S.- Russia relations. Addressing whether Ilyas Akhmadov is a terrorist, McCahill quotes two members of the ACPC, the neo-con controlled organization that’s supporting him. “Daniel Pellathy, program director for the Washington-based American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, said granting Akhmadov refuge in the U.S. would "dispel the myth" that he is a terrorist. … Akhmadov has spent the last year living in Andover, Vt., and Cambridge, Mass., at the homes of Nicholas and Ruth Daniloff, former journalists…“I'm proud of the United States for being willing to look at this case very closely and to realize that Akhmadov, far from being a terrorist, is a moderate Chechen seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict," said Nicholas Daniloff” [528]
The focus continues with reports linking the Akhmadov gang to the kidnapping & slave trade. LA Times staff writer Robyn Dixon: “the heart of the industry was the town of Urus-Martan, about 15 miles southwest of Grozny, controlled by the notorious eight Akhmadov brothers, including Uvais Akhmadov, the town's police chief. Kirill Perchenko, 22, the son of a Moscow art dealer, was kidnapped in August 1999 from one of Moscow's fashionable streets and trucked to Grozny. He was sold to Ramzan Akhmadov, one of the brothers, and saw hundreds of names, going back to 1992, scratched on the walls of the warlord's cells. The Akhmadovs had many rules for their prisoners.” [529] The University of Jyväskylä (Finland) has a report by Sanobar Shermatova (Aug. of ’00) on their website that links the Akhmadovs to the FSB. “Recently, these conversations have been focused on widely known Chechens, such as brothers Akhmadov from Urus-Martan and Arbi Barayev from Alkhan-Kala. 
There is a long trail of allegations behind these people who are suspect of being involved in high-profile kidnappings of Russian and foreign journalists and in the brutal murder of four engineers from Britain and New Zealand. In our investigation published in No. 12-13 of this year, these Chechens were named godfathers of the slave market. According to locals, until recently both Akhmadov brothers and Barayev were living in their own houses and traveled without problems across the republic in their personal vehicles. Nor have they been included in the lists of people wanted by the authorities "for participation in illegal armed groups" (lists which include, among others, Aslan Maskhadov and Movladi Udugov). The explanation is simple: the slave traders have procured themselves with documents identifying them as Russian intelligence operatives, which is tantamount to immunity. This fact may have remained secret, were it not for the scandal that flared up two months ago. Then, some officers of the General Staff of the Russian Army exposed the FSB by supplying Moscow with evidence of the Akhmadov brothers’ possession of IDs issued to FSB associates. But even after this, the Akhmadovs were left intact, and the blame was laid upon local FSB employees: the only result of the scandal was the firing of Yunus Magomedov, the FSB Directorate commissioner in charge of the Urus-Martan district.” [530]
In the Pankisi, Chechen rebels also moved about with complete immunity from prosecution. The following quote is from a March of ’02 BBC report. “The reporter found them [Georgian Interior Ministry troops manning a checkpoint at the edge of the gorge] unwilling to talk, although their gestures invited him - and his viewers - to draw conclusions from the appearance of some motorists. “They reckon that the distinctive appearance of some refugees who drive through a few times a day speaks for itself," he commented, as his film showed a bearded man with a skullcap and camouflage jacket returning to his car.” [531] In November of the same year BBC correspondent Robert Parsons reported; “Georgia's own ministry of internal affairs admits now that there may at one time have been as many as 800 Chechen fighters in the valley and that it was completely beyond the control of the state. … criminal Chechen gangs led by the notorious Akhmadov brothers still controlled several villages.
The brothers have dominated the narcotics trade and kidnapping in the valley for the best part of three years.” [532] Yuri Nazarkin’s report, which is referencing the period prior to the first Chechen war, implicates Akhmadov’s field commander Shamil Basayev. “Chechnya became de facto off shore zone and trans-shipment place for weapons, narcotics and other illegal goods, out of reach of the federal police and judicial systems. … Muslim extremists Shamil Basayev and Khattab headed the operation.” [533] Given drugs, oil and war, readers may question how close the Akhmadov brothers are to the CIA.
The following reports pertain to what Akhmadov has reportedly said publicly regarding the Chechen separatists. During the State Dept.’s weekly briefing for foreign media In Jan. of ‘02 Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker was asked by Russian journalist Ivan Lebedev (TASS) why government officials were meeting with Ilyas Akhmadov given the President’s position that those who support & harbor terrorists are terrorists themselves. Reeker’s response was such that the reporter was drawing parallels and that Akhmadov was not recognized as an official of Chechnya but rather as a source of information. Lebedev’s question included the following: “…Minister Akhmadov, in particular during his previous visits to Washington, openly supported Chechnya separatists and terrorists and unlawful combatants who continue their actions against Russian military forces in Chechnya and the Russian authority, and even peaceful Chechen citizens living there.” Reeker didn’t dispute Lebedev’s account of Akhmadov’s previously stated comments; rather, he said that the State Dept. had “…no information that Mr. Akhmadov has ties to elements in Chechnya, ties to international terrorists.” [534]
In June of ’04 WP columnist Anne Applebaum wrote: “…a courtroom in Boston where, last month, an immigration judge granted political asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov. … Two days after the judge's decision, DHS [Dept. of Homeland Security] lawyers appealed it, on the grounds that Akhmadov is a terrorist. Although conceding that Akhmadov was part of a government that had "spoken out against" terrorism, the appeal argued that his "actions and comments" have "furthered acts of terrorism and persecution by Chechen separatists," and that he should therefore be deported.” [535] As noted, the appeal was abruptly dropped. The following information is from the Moscow-based, Orthodox Anti-Globalist Resource Center dated Jan. of ’00. “Ilyas Akhmadov, an associate of terrorist Shamil Basayev and one of the perpetrators of the 1996 hostage-taking incident at the maternity hospital in Budyonnovsk, Russia which left dozens killed…received a warm welcome by the US State Department upon his arrival in Washington. … Akhmadov's trip to the US was organized by the Center for Strategic Research, a Washington think tank headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski.” [Co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, one of the key organizations of the emerging globalist new world order] [536] In March of ’05 Brzezinski’s nephew Matthew interviewed Ilyas Akhmadov. Regarding the siege in Budyonnovsk, Brzezinski wrote: “Budyonnovsk was the site of a 1995 raid, ostensibly targeting a forward Russian helicopter base 100 miles north of the Chechen border. Basayev and a group of 150 heavily armed commandos, according to the Chechen version of the story, were repelled from the base and chased to a nearby hospital, where the commandos took more than 1,000 hostages in a weeklong standoff. Using the patients and staff as human shields, the Chechen version goes, Basayev was able to return safely to Chechnya, … Akhmadov says he had been hospitalized with a leg injury during the Budyonnovsk siege and was not privy to its planning or execution.” Brzezinski continues: “… following the deadly September siege of an elementary school in Beslan, in southern Russia, Akhmadov has been the object of U.N. resolutions and anti-terror rallies. Thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow last fall to protest the Beslan tragedy, which claimed more than 300 lives, and many of the demonstrators carried banners calling Akhmadov a child murderer. … Russian prosecutors and the Moscow branch of the multinational police organization Interpol notified the U.S. Embassy that Akhmadov was wanted for terrorism. "We have information that I. Akhmadov has ties with international terrorist organizations and is engaged in resolving matters of financing and material-technical support of gang units," the demarche read. Specifically, Akhmadov was being charged with organizing terrorist training camps, and leading 2,000 armed insurgents, along with Basayev and Khattab, in the 1999 Dagestani incursion.”
The charge “resolving matters of financing” is interesting. Recall the earlier CDI article about Movsar Barayev liquidating an Akhmadov brother for reasons that included competing for “foreign funding connections.” Prior to coming to the nation’s capital, Akhmadov was exiled in Baku, Azerbaijan. “… Washington got word that Akhmadov's life was in danger. "A message was passed on to him by outside channels that he could no longer stay in Baku," says the Jamestown Foundation's Howard. "That he would probably be handed over to the Russians.” [537] So, along with Russian-based security services, Interpol and citizenry charging Ilyas Akhmadov as someone with close association to terrorists & criminal warlords is Homeland Security, the U.N. and the Azerbaijan government. Sweden, where Akhmadov’s wife & children live, is another country that reportedly would honor its diplomatic obligation and extradite Akhmadov should he ever turn up there. Stephen Schwartz noted in Feb. of ’04 that in early 2003, “…U.S. immigration authorities had decided against Akhmadov, mainly because he had served in Chechen militia forces under Shamil Basayev…” [538] Returning to the Akhmadov interview with Matthew Brzezinski: “unfortunately for Akhmadov, the head of Chechnya's deadliest jihadist movement is his former friend and field commander, Shamil Basayev… A hero of Chechnya's war of independence, a former deputy prime minister and in many ways Akhmadov's mentor, Basayev has split from the mainstream resistance and started routinely targeting Russians. … That the two were once close, Akhmadov does not deny…. “Everyone wanted to be in his battalion. He was a master tactician…” … Basayev promoted him [Akhmadov] out of the ranks and appointed him his aide. Later, Basayev introduced him to Maskhadov…”
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