I don't know how much faith to put in the report (I get email updates from them, but never bothered to pay much attention), but Middle East Newsline is reporting that the the Russians are reporting a Saudi Arabian link to the Beslan school massacre:
MOSCOW [MENL] -- Russia has determined that the Islamic takeover of a high school in which nearly 400 people were killed was executed and financed by Saudi nationals.
Russian officials said authorities have confirmed that Saudi nationals were among the 32 attackers who captured the high school in Beslan in August. They said the attack was financed in part by a Saudi charity and planned by Saudi nationals who joined the Chechen revolt a decade ago.
"There is no Saudi government link," an official said. "But we are sure that Saudi nationals and Saudi money contributed to this terrorist attack."
The Saudis were joined by Jordanians and Syrians recruited by Al Qaida-aligned operatives in the Middle East, officials said. They said Al Qaida has provided the ideology for the Chechen revolt, led by Shamil Basayev.
Meanwhile, the Guardian is reporting that Russian sources claim that some kidnappers called the Middle East during the run up to the massacre:
Two of the militants who took part in the Beslan school hostage siege phoned the Middle East during the drama, a senior source from the Russian security services has said.
The official said two calls were made from Beslan in Arabic, and that "one call was to Saudi Arabia by one of the Arabs who was there".
He declined to give further details or say where the second call was placed to, but said one of the calls was made on the second day of the siege, and that the investigation had established there were only two Arabs in the group - not 10 as was first suggested.
Ages ago, on paleo ideofact, I noted an obituary in Arab News (no longer on line) of a Saudi who had fought in Chechnya. It's highly unlikely he was the only one...
Posted by Ideofact at September 26, 2004 11:56 PMAccording to this report in the BBC, the assassinated Saudi, Khattab, was a warlord:
"A Chechen rebel website says it has received confirmation that Russia assassinated the warlord Khattab, saying he was killed by a poisoned letter."
"Khattab, who is thought to have been born to a Saudi Arabian family near the border with Jordan, has led Muslim guerrillas against Russia in both Chechnya and Afghanistan."
"Both Russia and America accuse him of having had direct links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network."
"The Kavkaz Centre agency describes rumours that Khattab's body had been returned to Saudi Arabia as unlikely, since Sharia law requires participants in a holy war to be buried where they die."
The Kavkaz Center is a good source of info on the Wahhabi/Chechen alliance. Unfortunately, (according to the Kavkaz Center), the site was recently shut down by Lithuania (??)
Fortunately, it's still cached in google.