TANGLED ROOTS OF AN ATROCITY.

The article discusses Chechen terrorism in Russia. This southern Russian community of 30,000 endures the heartbreaking aftermath of Russia's worst terrorist attack: the takeover of Beslan's Middle School No. 1, in which at least 368 people were killed and hundreds of others injured by explosions and gunfire. The killings are but the latest of a dozen bloody attacks that have claimed nearly 1,000 lives in Russia over the past two years. Among the targets: airliners, commuter trains and subway stations, government buildings, a hospital, a rock concert, and a Moscow theater. Russian officials blame all these attacks on terrorists from Chechnya, a Muslim republic with the legacy of a dogged independence movement, and a growing influence of Islamic radicals from abroad who have found there both a battlefield for jihad and an inspiration for their global cause. The Russians call them the Vakhabity--the Wahhabis--using the name for adherents of Saudi Islam to describe religious militants in their Muslim republics. They began appearing as early as 1987, before the Soviet Union broke up, according to Alex Alexiev, a terrorism specialist at the Center for Security Policy. Among the key funders, investigators say: the Riyadh-based al Haramain Foundation, through its offices in nearby Azerbaijan and Dagestan as well as in the United States. Just last week, Treasury officials officially blacklisted al Haramain's U.S. branch, based in Oregon, for alleged ties to al Qaeda and fund transfers to Chechnya. Another foundation, Benevolence International in suburban Chicago, sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Chechen fighters, according to court records.