A newly declassified U.S. intelligence report details the plans of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network to establish itself in Chechnya because the Russian enclave is "unreachable by strikes from the West."

The Defense Intelligence Agency Intelligence Information Report [pdf file] was obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch Oct. 30 through a Freedom of Information Act request made nearly four years ago regarding the Clinton administration's decision in 1998 to bomb the al Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan and suspected al-Qaida terrorist training camps in the area of Khost, Afghanistan."This report provides a deeply disturbing 'snapshot' of what the U.S. intelligence community knew about the activities of bin Laden and his associates back in 1998," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"The global scope and rabid fanaticism of these Islamist terrorists is spelled out in no uncertain terms, including their intense interest in WMDs," Fitton said. "Documents such as these give the American people some idea of the terror threat facing the West."

http://www.judicialwatch.org/cases/102/dia.pdf