ARE THERE NO TWO TERRORIST ALIKE?

The investigation into the terrorist attack in Boston has revealed new details that give not only reason for all kinds of speculation, but also hefty food for thought. Citing a source in the US investigating authorities, the press reports that the Tsarnayev brothers, who are accused of the terrorist attack, also intended to detonate a bomb in Times Square in New York, where people traditionally celebrate the New Year. This information was confirmed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, it has documents from the Counterintelligence Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry, which confirm that the Georgian organization Caucasus Foundation, collaborating with the American Jamestown Foundation, was engaged in recruiting people from the North Caucasus. It is reported that in cooperation with the Jamestown Foundation, the Caucasus Foundation conducted workshops and seminars for young people of the Caucasus, including its Russian part, in the summer of 2012. Some of them were attended by Tamerlan Tsarnayev.

Meanwhile, American public opinion is more concerned about the action or rather inaction of the special services that did not react properly to queries from Russia. Back in 2011, the Russian side strongly recommended that they check information about Tamerlan Tsarnayev, who had radically changed his views in one year and was planning to go to one of the regions of Russia to join an unknown underground organization. After a four-month investigation, the FBI informed Moscow that the suspect's behaviour caused no questions. But a month later, the Russian side, which was not happy with the answer, sent a second request to the CIA, whose staff also found nothing suspicious in the actions of Tamerlan Tsarnayev, though they included his name on the black list compiled annually by the National Counterterrorism Centre. The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI had been warned about that.

The prevalence of circumstantial evidence over direct evidence and an obscure version over obvious facts leads to various hypotheses regarding the tragedy in Boston and reinforces scepticism about the official position. In this regard, the most intriguing version is that of the DEBKA publication, which is close to the Israeli secret services. According to this publication, Tamerlan Tsarnayev was a double or even a triple agent. He was recruited by the FBI back in 2011 after a formal query was received from Russia, where it was stated that he was a radical Islamist and was preparing terrorist attacks. DEBKA suggests that a short time later at the request of US intelligence, Tamerlan Tsarnayev went to the Caucasus to determine the degree of the influence of Saudi emissaries. However, he was filled with ideas of global jihad here and began to serve his new masters-inspirers. It is possible that at the same time, he was recruited by the Russian secret services.

History is replete with flirtations between the intelligence services of leading world powers and terrorist organizations in the geopolitical struggle. Hence, the world powers' vicious practice of categorizing terrorists and terrorist organizations as "friends" and "foes". All the actions of "friends" are presented as a "national liberation struggle", while "foes" fall under the category of the global terrorist threat. This differentiated approach is a serious blow to the effectiveness of the global fight against international terrorism.

A disturbing aspect is also the underestimation of threats posed by Armenian terrorist organizations. It is no accident that information was leaked to the press about an Armenian hand in the Boston tragedy. The version about links between the Tsarnayev brothers and some person of Armenian origin, involved in preparing for the terrorist attack, was expressed by their uncle Ruslan Tsarni. A little later, at a press conference, the father of the brothers, Anzor Tsarnayev, noted that some Armenian from Baku named Misha, who changed his faith after moving to the United States, assisted his sons in taking the path of radical Islam. Unfortunately, these claims are not the subject of detailed studies by the US secret services.

Ignoring these realities leads to a violation of determinism (causality) in the fight against international terrorism. The division of terrorists into "friends" and "foes" is also evident in the investigation into numerous acts of terrorism committed by members of different faiths. If the accused are Muslims, it is immediately interpreted as a war of "jihadists" against "infidels" under the auspices of "Islamic terrorism", "Islamic ethnic fundamentalism" and "Islamic extremism". The actions of "friends" are usually explained by socio-psychological motives or are regarded as an act of struggle by an "unhappy loner" against the dominance of "foes". Although, following the same logic, it would be appropriate to recognize the existence of such concepts as "Christian" terrorism, extremism and ethnic fundamentalism.

Whatever the motivation and the national or religious affiliation of those committing a terrorist act, terror is terror. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev drew attention to this at a meeting with participants in the conference "CIS Muslims for peace and sustainable development" held in Baku. "Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, alarming processes are taking in the world. Anti-Islamic propaganda and Islamophobia are common. No matter how much we try, these terms are used in the media anyway. Terrorists are called Islamists. A terrorist has no nationality or religion," Aliyev said. Unfortunately, experts and intelligence agencies are so carried away with the identification of "Islamic terrorists" that they overlooked the simple statistics that eloquently confirm the words of the Azerbaijani president.

Recently, the New America Foundation published interesting statistics on terror in the United States. It was found that out of the 380 people accused of terrorism after the September 2001 tragedy, 77 criminals were able to directly buy or make an explosive device or its components. Of these 77 people, 48 were ultra-rights and only 23 - "jihadists". In general, if out of the 380 people accused of terrorism in the last 12 years, 207 "jihadists" have killed 17 people, then the "non-jihadists" have 29 lives on their conscience.

It would be good to pay attention to another very serious aspect. According to The Washington Post, Dzhokhar Tsarnayev, accused of the terrorist attack in Boston, who, according to the official version, is linked to radical Islamists, admitted that he did it in order to exact revenge on the US for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, no "good" intentions can justify terror. But you cannot write off the disproportionate number of casualties among the civilian population in the same Iraq or Afghanistan, the total impunity of the US military who have committed serious crimes in these wars and abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison. All this allows the orthodox Islamists to lure new young forces into their propaganda network. Regular insulting remarks against Prophet Muhammad and cartoons about him, the burning of the Koran and insults against other Islamic values also play a destructive role here. The lack of proper condemnation of such facts by the official authorities of the Western countries, who explain their indifference by respect for freedom of speech and conscience, is the other side of the coin.

All this shows once again that the Boston tragedy should not be regarded as a special case, or only as a manifestation of the threat of Islamic radicalism. In fact, it is the result of the same double standards in dealing with global terrorism. And the sooner the world refuses the principle of "there are no two terrorists alike", the better the results of the struggle against this evil will be.