There has been recent intelligence reporting that Osama bin Laden is financing the Chechen operation in Dagestan

Senior U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials tell NBC News that there has been recent intelligence reporting that Osama bin Laden is financing the Chechen operation in Dagestan and may be ready to leave Afghanistan for the former Russian republic of Chechnya. THE Officials, who asked for anonymity, say that foreign contributions to Islamic militants in Chechnya is one of two main sources of funds for operation, the other being ransoms from kidnapping and the capture of oil shipments. The US believes that one of the main foreign sources of money is bin Laden. The key bin Laden connection is a rebel leader whose nom de guerre is “Hattab.” The one-eyed Hattab is a Jordanian who fought in Afghanistan and then moved on to Chechnya and “earned the right to remain there” because of his fighting there during the recent civil war with Russia, said one official. Hattab was one of the first to help both the Afghani rebels and the Chechens. Of the first 3,000 Chechen rebels, 600 were Arabs like Hattab who had fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Now, however, say officials, Hattab and his crowd have become a serious threat to the government of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected in an open election monitored by the OSCE. The government of Chechnya is weak and can not control the fundamentalists who demand that Islamic justice be applied in Chechnya. On the issue of bin Laden leaving Afghanistan for Chechnya, analysts are divided as to its likelihood, but neither see it happening quickly.