From internal Islamist publications and comments from within the al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden advocates exploiting the aftermath of the Caucasian war and the cold war developing between the US and Russia to resurrect its terrorist campaigns in the Caucasian and Russia. These arenas, he maintains, will extend the contiguous line territorially linking al Qaeda’s fronts from Kabul, through Islamabad all the way to Moscow.

Bin Laden views Moscow’s victory over Georgia and its pursuit of positions of influence in the Muslim world as great dangers for al Qaeda and says it must be nipped in the bud.

Al Qaeda’s Number 2 leader, Ayman Zawahiri, however argues that it is more important to defend the southeastern flank of al Qaeda’s fronts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir against the American war effort, because that is a greater threat to al Qaeda than the rise of Russia.

Bin Laden’s side of the argument was aired in the first week of September by al Qaeda’s Web sites and print publications under the heading “To the Caucasus,” over the by-line of Abdel Salem Aqida (a nom de plume), “Director of the Jihad Fighters’ Service Bureau,”a codename for bin Laden’s personal bureau.

Strangely, the highly-relevant and timely article aroused no interest in the United States, NATO or the European Union’s policy-making circles.