Law enforcement

Mastermind of Istanbul Airport Attack Had Been Georgian Informant, Official Says

 Sometimes the world of terror and counterterror is amazingly small.

The day after at least 43 people were killed and more than 235 injured in a terrorist attackon Istanbul’s international airport, Turkish officials announced the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind the attack: Akhmed Chatayev, an ethnic Chechen from Russia who, in the past, had traveled extensively in Ukraine, Austria and Georgia.

Here in the Black Sea port of Odessa, in Ukraine, Police Chief Gen. Giorgi Lortkipanidze knows all about Chatayev. The general used to be the deputy interior minister in Georgia, and for a while, he says, had Chatayev on the government payroll.

“A few years ago I recruited Chatayev, who was a good informer and negotiator between us and Islamist underground of the Northern Caucasus; with his help we prevented several terrorist attacks on Georgia,” Gen. Lortkipanidze told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview on Friday.