Satanic Games

"IK leader Doku Khamatovich Umarov is a fervent Islamist who espouses AQ's (al-Qaeda's) ideology of global jihad."
"His view that Israeli, U.S. and U.K. interests are legitimate targets raises concerns any Westerners could be targeted."
ITAC report (Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center

Russia's top Islamist leader Doku Umarov  Photo: kavkacenter.com/AFP

 

"They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims buried on our land by the Black Sea. We are mujahedin [soldiers of God] are required not to allow that, using any methods that Allah allows us."
Doku Umarov, Northern Caucasus Islamist insurgency leader

Documents titled "Potential Terrorist Threats to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games", and "Imirat Kavkaz Calls for Attacks to Stop 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics", were released to the media under the Access to Information Act by ITAC, a joint agency representing members of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and additional security agencies in Canada.

Chechen warlord Doku Umarov who leads the armed Islamist group Imirat Kavkaz (IK) in the North Caucuses mountains bordering Sochi holds sacred the al-Qaeda doctrine that the killing of Western civilians as enemies of Islam is sanctified by Islam.

The "satanic games" that the Sochi Olympics represent are seen as an abomination, and one that is deserving of a response from the faithful in Islam. And Doku Umarov is proudly prepared to lead the assault; he promises no less. And he is no parvenu to the divinely ordained mission of martyrdom during the course of which plentiful sacrifices to Islam are offered in a devastating bloodbath.

It was his group the IK that was held to blame for the Domodedovo airport attack in Moscow in 2011, along with the 2010 bombing of the Moscow subway and a 2009 train bombing killing 27. Canadian intelligence claims the Beslan massacre in 2004 of 186 children at a school about 40 kilometres east of Sochi was the work of Imirat Kavkaz.

"Maximum force", he urges, is required "...to disrupt these Satanic games". Russia's Federal Security Service is alert and "implementing security measures" to counteract any conceivable threats from becoming reality. The memory of the 1972 Munich Olympics when the Palestinian Black September faction succeeded in infiltrating the Olympic summer games and murdering 11 Israeli athletes is still raw.

Without doubt Doku Umarov's IK is not the only Islamist jihadist group dreaming of succeeding in sending a sublime message of terror through a successful bloodletting at the Sochi games. A "Safe Sochi" program has been instituted with "a co-ordination centre channelling information from around the region", being put into place by Russia's FSS.

It is nothing short of amazing that during the memorial services taking place in South Africa to honour the life of Nelson Mandela, with an astounding number of world leaders, celebrities, the elite of the business world and the world of entertainment in attendance at the various venues leading to the funeral, did not result in an opportunistic attack at targeted figures in the assemblage.

Considering the weight and depth of the security mounted in protection of international figures attending the ceremonies, and the fact that an impostor was able to share the stage with President Obama by feigning sign language, as a symptom of lax security, the message is clear: attacks can happen anywhere despite the best of security arrangements because someone, somewhere, has overlooked a vital security link.