The Boston bombings in which two Chechen brothers were allegedly involved, reflects the need of the United States to work more closely with Russia on radical Islam, an American Congressman said today.

“As we pull out of Afghanistan, it behooves us to work with Russia, the central Asian Republics, and those anti-Taliban elements inside Afghanistan, to ensure that the realm of radical Islamic terrorism will not dramatically expand its power base and thus pose an even greater threat to the good people of the world,” Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said.

Rohrabacher, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, called for recognition of radical Islamic elements within the US that may have been trained overseas.

“From what we know now, it appears that the attack in Boston was another example of the radical Islamic terrorist threat that hovers over much of the world,” he said.

“The two young men directly involved in this terrorist attack were both Chechen and clearly influenced by radical Islam. One of them may well have been trained with terrorist weapons by radical elements overseas,” the Congressman said.

“The attacks by radical Islamic terrorists have taken the lives of innocent people throughout the world. The Chechen connection indicates we should work more closely with Russia and other nations who are also suffering the same kind of mayhem we have seen in Boston,” he said.

Noting that in 2004, Chechen Muslim extremists killed over 180 children at a school in Beslan in Russia, Rohrabacher said that at that point the US should have allied itself with Russia in the fight against fanatics who murder innocent children in the name of Islam.

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