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Depth of Planning by Rebels Is Evident in School's Remains
NY Times ^ | September 5, 2004 | C. J. CHIVERS and STEVEN LEE MYERS

Posted on 09/05/2004 6:48:58 PM PDT by neverdem

BESLAN, Russia, Sept. 5 — Inside the charred, bullet-pocked wreckage of Middle School No. 1 lies evidence of the terror Russia faces: two parts of the library's wooden floor had been pried up, evidently by the heavily armed attackers who seized the school and held 1,000 hostages for 52 hours.

Beneath the schools first-floor library, investigators now suspect, the attackers had secreted a cache of weapons or other equipment weeks, perhaps months before their brutal attack, possibly during a seemingly innocuous summer renovation, officials said.

While investigators have only begun to piece together the details of the worst act of terror to strike Russia, the holes in the library's floor, which might easily be overlooked in the gruesome carnage of the school, underscored the sophistication and coordination that has accompanied the radicalization of the attacks that have convulsed the country.

The attackers — said to include Chechens, Ingush, ethnic Russians and some still-unidentified foreigners — followed a plan after the school's seizure with precision and alacrity, forcing their hostages to help place explosives and build barricades. They wore NATO-issued camouflage. They carried gas masks, compasses and first-aid kits, communicated with hand-held radios and brought along two sentry dogs, apparently as expertly trained as the attackers themselves.

"They knew the geography of the school grounds like their own backyard," the chief spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service, Sergei N. Ignatchenko, said in a telephone interview on Saturday. "This allowed them to choose sniper positions and place booby-traps on all possible access routes."

The depth of planning evident in the horrifying siege, which by today's official count left 338 hostages dead, mirrored that of a series of attacks that have roiled Russia, beginning with a similar siege of a Moscow theater during a performance of a musical called "Nord-Ost" in October 2002 and continuing through a grim litany of suicide bombings and other strikes that culminated with shocking brutality here last week.

Like Al Qaeda's militants, which President Vladimir V. Putin and others argue provide succor to Chechnya's separatists, the extremists believed to be behind all attacks have managed to dispatch cells of ideologues who spend extended periods organizing and carrying out spectacular, unnerving attacks, often suicidal ones.

The attackers — believed to be members of a contingent led by Shamil Basayev, Chechnya's most notorious and lethal rebel commander — have moved seamlessly between the North Caucasus and Moscow, while evading Russia's extensive, if at times ineffective, security apparatus. They have so despite particular scrutiny that falls on anyone appearing to be Chechen.

In February, a female suicide bomber, possibly with an accomplice, destroyed a Moscow subway car, killing at least 41 early-morning commuters. In May, a bomb planted beneath a stadium grandstand killed Chechnya's president, Akhmad Kadyrov, as he watched a Victory Day parade in Grozny. In June, hundreds of insurgents used stolen uniforms of the local police to seize much of Ingushetia's capital for hours, stopping and executing the real police officers who raced to reinforce their colleagues, killing nearly 100.

On Aug. 21, fighters carried out a similar raid in Grozny, with similar tactics, killing at least 22. Three days later, bombs believed to be carried by two Chechen women destroyed separate passenger airliners simultaneously, killing 90 people. A week later, a female suicide blew herself up outside the Rizhskaya subway station in Moscow, killing 10. Hours after that the siege in Beslan began.

"They have shown they are able to do everything they want in each corner of Russia," said Aleksei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Russia; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: beslan; ossetia; terror; terrorism
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While investigators have only begun to piece together the details of the worst act of terror to strike Russia,

The Times is making some progress. Check the URL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/international/europe/05CND-TERR.html?hp

1 posted on 09/05/2004 6:48:58 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Yada, yada, yada, call in the UN, call in France, Call in Germany and then if you got a dime left call in John Kerry.


2 posted on 09/05/2004 6:51:08 PM PDT by funkywbr
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To: neverdem

Evidently it takes alot of advanced planning to be a gutless, despicable, murderous, child killing coward.


3 posted on 09/05/2004 6:51:40 PM PDT by somemoreequalthanothers
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To: neverdem
The attackers — said to include Chechens, Ingush, ethnic Russians and some still-unidentified foreigners —

No Islamics here. Move along.

4 posted on 09/05/2004 6:52:29 PM PDT by John Thornton
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To: neverdem

They wore NATO issued camoflage. Interesting.


5 posted on 09/05/2004 6:52:49 PM PDT by sarasota
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To: Squantos; wardaddy; river rat; Eaker; risk

They could do the same in Hometown USA.

I hope the FBI is up to stopping them in their organizational phases.


6 posted on 09/05/2004 6:55:32 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Travis McGee
Islamic hate in the Quran:

Qur’an 9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”

Bukhari:V4B52N50“The Prophet said, ‘A single endeavor of fighting in Allah’s Cause is better than the world and whatever is in it.’”

Qur’an 9:112 “The Believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed.”

Qur’an 9:29 “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission.”

Qur’an 8:39 “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.”

Qur’an 8:39“So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world).

DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE MUSLUM RELIGION IS PEACEFUL, THAT IS HYPE. MUSLUMS WANT TO KILL US, PERIOD!

7 posted on 09/05/2004 6:57:07 PM PDT by Viet-Boat-Rider (((KERRY IS A NARCISSISTIC LIAR, GOLDBRICKER, AND TRAITOR!)))
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To: Travis McGee
Fat chance.

L

8 posted on 09/05/2004 6:59:20 PM PDT by Lurker ( Rope, tree, Islamofascist. Adult assembly required.)
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To: Travis McGee
FiBi Fubar Fiasco !..........Thank you very much but sadly my own personal safety is clearly my responsibility as the alphabet agencies of this nation are reactive vs proactive.

These illegal aliens doing the work that no one else wants to do in America . Have they been renovating their next target too ??..........Doom on such trash that makes their task to kill so easy.

Stay safe !

9 posted on 09/05/2004 7:02:57 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: neverdem

Do a search in this NYSLIME article for the word "terrorist".


10 posted on 09/05/2004 7:03:36 PM PDT by Naspino (HTTP://NASPINO.COM)
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To: sarasota
"They wore NATO issued camoflage. Interesting."

Hmmm...Yes it IS interesting.

11 posted on 09/05/2004 7:03:54 PM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: neverdem

I see that the nyslimes still hasn't peeped a word about the nature of the atrocities done to the children. They don't want Americans who about to vote to know about it for fear that they will vote for Bush a known terror fighter, to a pacifist kerry who will only fight if attacked.


12 posted on 09/05/2004 7:04:44 PM PDT by GailA ( hanoi john, I'm for the death penalty for terrorist, before I impose a moratorium on it.)
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To: Travis McGee; Squantos; wardaddy; river rat; Eaker
We have to get serious about the case where the FBI fails. Even if our best people are left along by their bureaucracies, we could still have another failure of imagination.

My recipe is to decentralize some of our institutional security. For example, have you ever noticed how doors and passage ways are locked to ordinary people? That air conditioning is controlled centrally often with no way for ordinary people to shut it down? I think volunteer safety teams should be trained and empowered to access forbidden areas and control power, A/C, and so forth. Teams should be trained to look for explosives, transmitters, and suspicious wires. Then they should drill for the real thing. I keep saying they should be armed, as well. At least they should have radio communication internally to the institution and with outside emergency response teams.

We have to learn from this experience, or else the death toll when it happens here will be just as high or even much higher. What we're up against is Soviet style central planning culture that has been encouraged by our increasingly socialist mindset. We need to flatten out into teams that can be responsible for their own defense.

This applies to schools, factories, offices, and anywhere else people collect to do their work and learn. I don't have all the answers, but these ideas could make a difference.
13 posted on 09/05/2004 7:06:21 PM PDT by risk
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To: Travis McGee
Personally, I suspect the Islamanazis are too desirous of being able to live in America to light a match to that inferno....

This nation hasn't been tested for "hate and intolerance" to a visibly identifiable enemy in a long time....

I believe one more outrageous terrorist act in America - would unleash a demand for death and destruction here at home - that the government couldn't prevent the reaction..

The "innocent" as well as the "guilty" Muslim would suffer in the vengeful reaction I would predict in America....

NOW is the time for our "peace loving" non-militant Muslim to stop complaining about their "problems" with the Patriot Act, and start speaking and ACTING out against the lunatics in their midst....or share their fate.

Semper Fi

14 posted on 09/05/2004 7:14:39 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek...But I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: neverdem
The attackers — believed to be members of a contingent led by Shamil Basayev, Chechnya's most notorious and lethal rebel commander — have moved seamlessly between the North Caucasus and Moscow, while evading Russia's extensive, if at times ineffective, security apparatus. They have so despite particular scrutiny that falls on anyone appearing to be Chechen.

This is the reason for the anger of the Beslan people and the sometimes-despairing outlook of the Russians. It is an important issue and should not be overlooked. Basayev once claimed that he could bribe his way to Moscow with a truck full of explosives if he had the money for the bribes.

Remember this came up after the Nord Ost tragedy too. How did they get there with all the stuff? Right in Moscow.

Security needs to be tightened up. Putin is saying that it will happen now.

15 posted on 09/05/2004 7:15:10 PM PDT by MarMema (Ikcheria is a gateway to hades)
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To: river rat

Right on. Here is what I had to say on this subject on another thread:

It is now long past time for the world- and that means the world's governments- to finally face facts.

The blame for what just happened in Russia, and for all the preceeding horrors of the WTC (both attacks), Nairobi, Khobar Towers, the Cole, Bali, and on and on, must be laid squarely at the feet of the Arabic states and the Muslim preachers of hate that inhabit them. The reluctance in these lands to silence these slimy purveyors of hate has been obvious for too long.

It has now become incumbent on all civilized peoples to demand that these Mullahs, Imams, Shiekhs, and other assorted "nutbags of esteem" in their benighted lands be quieted forever.

It is now the time for Muslims worldwide to understand that the West's wish to see Islam survive cannot be greater than the Muslim's own. If the death-wish now so manifest in the Islamic world is not curbed within and BY the Islamic world, then it certainly will not be incumbent on us, their long-suffering victims, to insure a sweet outcome on their behalf.

Many of us, like me, would rather help them on their way to "Paradise".

It is time to bring the hammer down, people, and in so doing make Muslims everywhere fear us more than they fear the sociopathic death worshippers in their midst. Maybe then they will act.

Of course, it would be far preferable that they act first of their own volition, out of a sense of morality - or even out of a desire to survive, but I fear that they secretly love and admire these murderers of children, and pray for their souls and for their success.

If so, they are as craven as the murderers themselves.

Perhaps they think that in the coming war, they will prevail.

They are wrong. When this war comes, it will not be possible for us to wage war with the delicacy that we have shown in Iraq.

It is up to the Muslims now, whether they wish to live as civilized human beings, or die as pigs.


16 posted on 09/05/2004 7:23:09 PM PDT by John Valentine ("The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein)
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To: MarMema

The question is, which is stronger - the hatred of the Islamofascist terrorists toward the West (incl. Russia), or the West's desire to do whatever it takes to protect our society?


17 posted on 09/05/2004 7:24:58 PM PDT by Ciexyz ("FR, best viewed with a budgie on hand")
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To: GailA

Actually, the more moderate Muslim press is publishing statements by Arab commentators condemming the attacks. There was an AP article out of Cairo noting that the General Manager of Al-Arabiya television's daily column ran under the headline "The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!" (This article ran today in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and is well worth reading.) I was surprised to see it.


18 posted on 09/05/2004 7:28:42 PM PDT by binreadin
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To: neverdem

"They have shown they are able to do everything they want in each corner of Russia," said Aleksei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.


Putin and the boys better get a clue REAL fast! This kind of scum doesn't care WHO it hurts, only that it DOES hurt.


19 posted on 09/05/2004 7:28:59 PM PDT by Just Lori (Communists, dictators, and terrorists all SUPPORT KERRY FOR PRESIDENT!!!)
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To: risk; Travis McGee; Squantos; Happy2BMe; glock rocks; Pete-R-Bilt
>>We need to flatten out into teams that can be responsible for their own defense<<

This is YOUR responsibility. DO NOT WAIT TO BE TOLD TO DO IT!!
20 posted on 09/05/2004 7:30:03 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Truth goes through three stages, ridiculed, violently opposed, then accepted as self-evident)
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