Posted on 08/24/2004 7:18:12 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Two passenger aircraft have crashed within minutes of each other in Russia and a bomb has exploded on a street in Moscow.
No connection between the incidents, apart from timing and the fact that both flights originated in Moscow, is certain.
Meanwhile, a bomb injured four when it detonated at a Moscow bus stop. The device had a force of between 100-200 grams of TNT, according to a report on Itar-Tass
Moscow Times reports that the bomb was planted near the base of a lamp post not far from a bus stop close to house 30 on Kashirskoye Highway. "First a loud hissing was heard, and then something banged," one witness told the MTimes
Chechen websites such as Kavkazcenter.com that normally carry detailed after-action reports have not yet mentioned the incidents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbr.co.nz ...
Ah, this is an update and has more information.
btt
CNN Headline News just had a report from Moscow. Witnesses on the ground saw an explosion in one of the jets before it crashed.
pretty strange if coincidence ...
Are there any civic engineers in the house who'd like to claim that TNT exploding a bus stop is no certain indicator of terrorism?
NO, this isn't a duplicate!!!
THAT thread only talks about the two planes, the BOMB in MOSCOW info IS NEW. They just also recapped the crash of the two planes, to put everything in context.
That's good news -- it means that a lot of the energy from that bomb probably dissipated prior to the actual blast.
Sure could be--or even the Chechens, but this is an AQ signature. Some are doubting AQ because Russia didn't back us in the Iraq war, but I'm not so sure that matters to AQ. I think what matters most is that they are Islamic, and the rest of the world is not.
I think you may be right about that!
Assuming that this isn't a typographical error- 100-200 grams /TNT is a very small charge. That's a quarter to a half pound of TNT. I have charges like that set off a few feet away from me. Made my ears ring- that was about it.
Weird that they'd set so small a charge. Maybe it was pushing a lot of shrapnel or something.
Of course, I also don't distinguish between Chechyan terrorists, Al-Qaeda, Hizbollah, HAMAS, the PLO, PFLP, PLF, Islamic Jihad, Al Fuqra, etc. etc. etc., whatever... They're all variants of the same thing.
the Chechnian rebels are big allies of AQ. It's probably related.
AQ is supporting the Chechens -- there are a lot of Militant Islamicists there.
Militants in Chechnya train for Al-Qaeda experts on satellite technologies
http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/08/05/55330.html
Militants in Chechnya are training for Al-Qaeda experts on terrorist attacks involving satellites technologies, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguieres, member of the Higher Court of France, told US magazine New Yorker. Mr. Bruguieres is responsible for coordinating all investigative activities of the French authorities in the fight against international terrorism.
According to Mr. Bruguieres, Chechnya is beginning to play an ever growing and dangerous role in the "global jihad", with many of Al-Qaeda militants now undergoing training in Chechnya to use high technologies in terrorist acts.
Some of the terrorist groups have equipment to intercept satellite signals, Mr. Bruguieres told the well-known journalist and author Lawrence Wright, who contributed the material to the New Yorker.
By intercepting a satellite signal, terrorists can deal a crushing blow to the telecommunications sector, disrupt the work of electric power transmission lines, and paralyse the capabilities of developed nations to defend themselves, the judge stressed.
Did the Ruskies shoot down two civilian planes or did explosives detonate inside planes? If AQ, the first act is more in line than second (the explosion in the lamp post was the calling card?). If Chechen rebels, then second option is the better answer because of upcoming elections. But why do the Chechen rebels remain silent so late in the game?
Another thought, possible AQ cell operation, without aid of centralized strategy and command. Command and control has been severly altered with Khan arrest and all the communications shut down. Is it an act from a splinter cell making name for self to other whackjobs or operating in the dark on old orders?
Chechen "rebels" = Al Qaeda -- they support each other.
Tuesday, 29 October, 2002, 16:34 GMT
Al-Qaeda suspect tells of Chechnya link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2372971.stm
Some of the 11 September hijackers wanted to fight against Russia in Chechnya, their alleged accomplice has told a German court.
Mounir al-Motassadek told his trial in Hamburg that at least four of the men had gone to Afghanistan to be trained for the war in Chechnya.
The Russians were seen by the men as committing war crimes in Chechnya, Mr Motassadek said, and they wanted to go there to help combat them.
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