When, after the Beslan tragedy, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to hunt down terrorists worldwide - his theat was ex post facto. On February 13, 2004 a car bomb killed former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev in Qatar where he was living in exile. Two Russian intelligence agents were convicted of the murder.

Whether and how this related to Beslan one can only speculate. Yanderbiyev was a jihadist trying to recruit the Arab world for his war with Russia and he was not beloved in Chechnya.

But Russia's heavy-handed assassination is a miniature of the frequent brutality that has characterized every aspect of their war in Chechnya - from the botched handling of the Beslan seige to the general mass murder of Chechens throughout the war.

Russia's war in Chechnya is the opposite of Israel's war - Russia receives minimal international attention, employs maximum use of unrestrained violence, and achieves minimal effective results.

Some good coverage of these issues can be found on the website of The Jamestown Foundation

India faces a multitude of terrorist and guerrilla threats, most famously the hot-button Kashmir dispute which is a major front for al-Qaeda affiliates and a panoply of domestic insurgencies. But recently, a number of major terrorist conflicts have been flaring up in India's neighbors.

First, according to UNICEF the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are continuing to recruit child soldiers. The UNICEF report states "...the stalled peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is a major impediment to assisting children affected by the country’s two-decade long war."

No doubt.

Determining that the Tamil Tigers are in violation of the peace process is not UNICEF's department - but for everyone else there is a certain question as to whether abducting children and training them for war is compatible with the LTTE's participation in the "peace process."

This is but one of many examples LTTE activities which raise questions about their intentions. They are also suspected in a recent attempt to assassinate a leading Tamil politician who opposes the LTTE.

Outside of the Muslim world the Tigers are the top suicide bombers (including large contingents of female bombers) - specializing in assassinating top officials. (Both Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister have been targetted by Tamil Tiger suicide bombers). Marxist in orientation, the Tigers are fighting for an independent Hindu Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka and they have been very effective, frequently besting the Sri Lankan army and taking control large sections of the country.

Tamil Tiger activity spills out of Sri Lanka into the region and around the world. There are tens of millions of Tamils in southern India, so India has been engaged in Sri Lanka's civil war. This has blownback violently on India, with the May 22, 1991 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE.

The Tigers have a worldwide fundraising networking among the Tamil diaspora and an effective navy (the Sea Tigers) which has run guns to Islamist groups in Afghanistan and the Philippines and participates in drug trafficking (possibly linking with the FARC in Columbia), and have links to al-Qaeda - providing forged travel documents to al-Qaeda operatives.

The Tigers are India's problem, and ours.

Bad things come in threes. Al-Qaeda number Ayman al-Zawahiri, MD, has sent out a new message of hate and violence via a videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera.

It is of recent vintage, since Zawahiri mentions the conflict in Darfur, which he calls another attempt to divide the Arab and Muslim worlds. He is right, in a sense - the need in Darfur is to split the Arab militiamen from the black African Muslims they keep murdering.

Zawahiri also claims that American troops are cowering in their trenches and "refuse to come out to face the Mujahidin" and that the only US recourse is to bomb from the air. Sort of ironic coming from a guy hiding in a cave.

Zawahiri's appearance could be the signal to launch a new wave of terror strikes. It could also be linked to a report from the Iraqi paper al-Zaman that Moroccan intelligence believes that Zawahiri is locked in a struggle with Abu Musab Zarqawi to be bin Laden's successor and maybe his campaign needs a little PR boost. (Potential movie title: The Race to the Bottom of the Alphabet.)

Note: Somehow "al-Qaeda Lives - Part I" was posted on September 1 - a fluke. I wrote it a few hours ago.

Yesterday's bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta is an unpleasant reminder that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al-Qaeda's southeast Asian affiliate, remains in business despite the capture of its top operational leader Hambali and the continuing detention of its spiritual leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.

The bombing also has echoes of Madrid. Australia is in the midst of an election campaign in which the PM, John Howard is a staunch member of the Coalition in Iraq. The opposition Labor party plans to withdraw, although not immediately, from Iraq.

Regardless of the reality (scanning Australian political coverage the Iraq war does not appear to be the central issue), Islamists would interpret a Howard defeat as a huge victory - as big or bigger than Madrid. We will find out when Australians go to the polls on October 9. But in the meantime, expect JI to try again.