6/22/1998

Former CIA Agent Robert Baer wrote:  “After I left the CIA I found my answer [to who was funding Chechen rebels] in a batch of Russian intelligence reports that drew a convincingly direct link between the Saudi government and the Chechen rebels. It was not a question of Saudi charity money finding its way to the Chechens. One report described how on June 22, 1998, forty Chechens were quietly brought to a secret military camp located seventy-five miles southeast of Riyadh [Saudi Arabia]. Over the next four months, they were trained in explosives, hand-to-hand combat, and small weapons. A lot of time was set aside for indoctrination into Wahhabi Islam. Salman, the governor of Riyadh and the full brother of King Fahd, was the camp’s sponsor.”

 – Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil, Pages 146-147