Reply #9: looks like a flip-flop to me

[UpInArms]

http://www.worldwar3report.com/chechnya.html

Predictably, the events of September 11 gave the Bush administration the green light to be more honest about the US policy towards Chechnya. The administration now claims an al-Qaeda link to the Chechen rebels, while declaring Russia an "ally in the War on Terrorism." The US needed help from Russia to gain access to Central Asian countries and air corridors to conduct the 2001 war in Afghanistan.

Later, the invasion of Iraq again created tensions between the US and Russia, as Russia had a long-standing relationship with Saddam's Iraq. However, as the second largest exporter of petroleum in the world, and a non-OPEC counterbalance to the oil producers of the Middle East and Venezuela, Russia is an ally the US does not want to alienate. The Bush administration now openly supports the Russian campaign in Chechnya, and the US State Department has added Chechen rebel Shamil Basaev to their international terrorist list. Now Basaev, like everyone else on the list, is considered a "threat" to the United States.