Posted on 09/05/2004 10:15:50 PM PDT by wagglebee
BESLAN, Russia, Sept. 5 - Inside the charred, bullet-pocked wreckage of Middle School No. 1, there 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 last week and held more than 1,100 hostages for 52 hours.
Beneath the boards, investigators now suspect, the attackers had secreted a cache of weapons or other equipment weeks and perhaps months before their attack - possibly during a seemingly innocuous summer renovation, officials said.
Investigators have only begun to piece together the planning that went into this worst terrorist attack in the new Russia, which by an official count on Sunday left 338 hostages dead. But 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 have increasingly characterized the attacks that have convulsed the country.
The attackers - described by the authorities as including Chechens, Ingush, ethnic Russians and some still-unidentified foreigners - seemed to follow a plan after they seized the school with precision and alacrity, forcing their hostages to help place explosives and build barricades that limited the options of Russian forces outside.
The attackers wore NATO-issued camouflage. They carried gas masks, compasses and first-aid kits. They communicated with hand-held radios, and brought along two sentry dogs, as expertly trained as the attackers themselves, the officials said. All suggested detailed planning, including surveillance and possibly rehearsals, the officials said.
"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 planning behind the siege 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 in the brutality here last week.
Like militants of Al Qaeda, which President Vladimir V. Putin and others contend provides succor to Chechnya's separatists, the militants believed to be behind all the attacks have managed to deploy cells of ideologues who spend extended periods organizing and carrying out spectacular, unnerving attacks, often suicidal ones. Their tactics, complex and flexible and carried out by guerrillas who control no real territory where they could operate freely, have left the police and security forces guessing where the next attack will be.
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 done so despite particular scrutiny that falls on anyone appearing to be Chechen, let alone large, heavily bearded and heavily armed men like those who seized Middle School No. 1.
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 the republic's capital, Grozny. In June, hundreds of insurgents used stolen uniforms of the local police to seize much of the capital of the adjacent Ingushetia region for hours, stopping and killing the real police officers who raced to reinforce their colleagues. Nearly 100 died before the fighters withdrew and disappeared.
On Aug. 21, fighters carried out a similar raid in Grozny that killed at least 22 people. Three days later, bombs believed to be carried by two Chechen women destroyed separate passenger airliners almost simultaneously, killing 90 people. A week later, another bomber, also a woman, blew herself up outside the Rizhskaya subway station in Moscow, killing 10 people. Hours after that, the siege in Beslan began.
Since the "Nord-Ost" siege, the attacks have killed 1,000 Russians, most of them civilians with little connection to the Chechen conflict.
"They have shown they are able to do everything they want in each corner of Russia," Aleksei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said of those behind the attacks.
Mr. Putin, evidently frustrated by the failure to prevent them, used a national address Saturday night to criticize the corruption gnawing at law enforcement and the judiciary, and to call for a more unified and coordinated effort to fight terrorism in Russia.
"We must create a more effective security system, to demand from our law enforcement bodies actions adequate in level and scale to the new threats," he said.
While Mr. Putin attributed the siege and other attacks to "the direct intervention of international terror against Russia," there is little question that the source and ideological inspiration for them stems from the grinding conflict in Chechnya, a mostly Muslim republic the size of Connecticut that has bristled under Russian rule for centuries.
The second war there since the collapse of the Soviet Union began with what the Kremlin called terrorist attacks in 1999, including a raid led by Mr. Basayev into Dagestan, another neighboring republic, and a series of apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, in southern Russia, for which officials blamed Chechnya's separatists.
But ever since Russian forces routed Chechnya's elected leadership and extended control over the republic, using methods that international and Russian human rights organizations have criticized as abusive and excessive, the separatists have increasingly turned to terror as their principle form of attack, both inside Chechnya and outside.
Chechnya's separatist political leaders have distanced themselves from the attacks, condemning them, though laying the blame for extremism on Russia's war, which has left tens of thousands dead. Ilyas Akhmadov, who has the role of the exiled separatists' foreign minister, said in a telephone interview that those in Chechnya who turn to terrorism have been "surrounded by the industry of death" and have "lost any illusion of a civilized solution."
"You must agree that the elimination of one-fourth of the population is not the struggle against terrorism," said Mr. Akhmadov, who recently won the right to asylum in the United States, referring to some estimates that 200,000 or more Chechens have died since the fighting began in 1994. "On the contrary, it is something that leads to the growth of terrorism."
He disputed Russia's claims that the separatist movement was fueled by groups like Al Qaeda, but acknowledged that foreign fighters had joined the Chechen resistance, though he said the number had been inflated by the Kremlin.
Officials have not given many details about the captors at Beslan, nor has the government cited what support they might have received. At least 30 of the attackers were reported to have been killed, and 3 suspected attackers were arrested and might provide information about this attack and others.
On Sunday night, Russian state television showed pictures of a man who is believed to have been one of the hostage takers being dragged into a room by two masked commandos. It is the first evidence provided by the Russian authorities that they captured three suspected hostage takers alive.
Officials have said the siege, like the other attacks, was masterminded by Mr. Basayev and financed by a man believed to be an Arab associated with Al Qaeda and identified as Abu Omar as-Seyf. Russian officials cited in official news reports say the attack itself was led by Magomed Yevloyev, who has been previously described as the commander of rebel forces operating in Ingushetia. After the raid in Ingushetia in June, Mr. Yevloyev was reported by officials to have been killed.
While the extent of international support may be debated, the attacks bear some trappings of Islamic militancy. Officials here in Beslan said they had found notebooks with Arabic writing, and witnesses reported hearing Arabic exhortations, though the attackers mostly spoke Russian.
They have also reflected the grisly tactics used by terrorist groups in attacks around the world: the extensive preparations, the simultaneity of attacks requiring great coordination and, especially, the use of suicide bombers, which was almost unheard of during the war from 1996 to 1999 and was rare even in the second war until the "Nord-Ost" hostage crisis. In that siege, as in the one in Beslan, women among the attackers wrapped themselves with explosives.
The careful planning evident in the school siege not only allowed the attackers to herd more than 1,000 hostages into a gymnasium. With ample stores of weapons and ammunition, including explosive projectiles that can be fired by grenade launchers and specialized sniper cartridges, the planning also allowed them to fight hundreds of Russian police, military and security forces for more than 10 hours after two explosions inside the school, which witnesses said appeared to go off accidentally, brought the crisis to its violent end.
The siege also indicated the attackers' ability to adapt to Russia's counterterrorist efforts. Among their first actions after seizing the school was to shatter the windows of the gymnasium, where they herded their captives. That, as well as the gas masks, appeared to be an effort to counter the potential use of a nerve gas during any storming of the building, as Russian commandoes did to end the "Nord-Ost" siege.
"Our analysts were surprised how well they used the 'Nord-Ost' experience," said Mr. Ignatchenko, the spokesman for the security service.
He added, "They were professionals."
I work at a Walmart Supercenter and tonight I was thinking what if it was attacked by 19 or 20 terrorists on a busy weekend.
Have the terrorists in the right spots at the right instant and most of the customers and staff would be caught before they would know what was going on.
Have a remote controled car bomb go off outside the local police station to buy some time as for the terrorists to empty the cash office and registors and maybe other high value stuff such as drugs from the pharmancy and send that loot out before the cops arrive while bringing in equipment needed for the hostage standoff like welders, homemade bombs, etc.
weld all the fire doors shut (most can't be open from the outside anyway but to keep hostages from escaping). Have control of the sporting goods weapons and ammo and the storage gun lockers in the backroom (even if the terrorists didn't bring in much weapons or ammo the store would have plenty for them to use.)
Move the hostages to the most secure areas, have some move store shelves and carts and such as to create baracades to hinder rescue forces. Have secure communications by technology or codes to your friends outside and force your hostages to give up debit card pin numbers and credit cards,etc so that your terrorists on the outside can raid the hostages bank accounts.
Have your connections overseas have Walmart stock shorted so that when the price falls when the news of the hostage they make a killing on the stock market.
Done right the terrorists make a pretty good profit, they have plenty of ammo and food in a supercenter to live on so they should drag things out. The longer such a hostage situation lasts the weaker it makes the President looks and if on the other hand a rescue attempt results in the death of many hostages that too reflects badly on the President.
Pretty much a Win/Win situation for the Terrorists that we need to be prepared to deal with.
I'm wondering as well if there is more that the U.S. could do to help Russia. Hopefully, US money isn't making it to Chechnya.
Rebels? No, these parasites were terrorists. They were the lowest life form known to man. Threat them and their families like cocroaches. Apply the terrorists own tactics to their own families. Spouses, children, parents, bothers, sisters, just let it be known that the gloves are off. If your family buys off on being exterminated, then they'll let you carry out terrorist acts. No problem.
I concur.
You created a realistic and chilling picture. I've had similar thoughts, on different soft spots. None of which I'm willing to put on an open forum.
Here is another update from my Russian missionary friend:
September 5, 2004
Dear Friends,
I am sending you information about Beslan Baptist Church of the Russian Baptist Union.
The Baptist Church of Beslan has 244 members. The building if the church is located very near the School # 1 which has become a place of bandits’ attack. More than 10 children of our believers of that church became hostages and experienced all the horror of this tragedy.
Peter Lunichkin is superintendent of the region says:
The pastor of Beslan Baptist Church, Temuraz Totiev and his brother, the missionary Sergey, are continuing search for their missing children.
Here are the name and ages of these children:
Dzerassa, she is 15 years old;
Anna, she is 8 years old;
Larisa, she is 14 years old;
Luba, she is 12 years old;
Albina, she is 11 years old’
Boris, he is 8 years old.
As I informed you earlier, Bro. Sergey’s daughter was killed (9 years old). The funeral service was held today. His son is in the hospital with the eye’s injuries. One of the Bro. Tamuraz’s daughter’s is at home.
There is another family. The Mother’s name is Irina Koieva. She and two her children were among the hostages. When the explosion and following storm of the SWAT teams happened Irina tried to escape from the school. Her son, Arthur, 9 years old, was killed before her very eyes… She was holding her another child on her hand and they were able to manage to escape…
Friends, I gave you names of these families and children. Please, pray for them. Let us pray to God for the comfort. Let us pray for those who are still missing… There is hope that children might have been taken to other hospitals… Oh God, we cry out to you on behalf of those families….
Fiodor Baraniuk,
Russian Baptist Union,
CIS Coordinator BMA of America
Please, prayer pings for these children in post #28.
Why the hell are they called "rebels"?
It is part of the "more sensitive" war on terror.
Militants, Rebels, they NYT calls them everything but what they are, terrorists.
Do ya think?
My prayers going up for these children. God's blessings on them and deliver them home to those who love them.
Brads Gramma, thank you for the ping
Blessings,
trussell
If you want on/off my prayer ping list, please let me know. All requests happily honored.
Most unfortunately, he seems to be about as dead as Osama bin Laden.
Follow the money, the funding. Most probably came from Saudi Arabia, which is also the homeland of Wahhabism, the preferred grade of Islam for all Muslim terrorists. We keep tippy-toeing all around the Saudis.
It is an election and they want their man to win, the loser.
Tanks to break in, smoke and concussion grenades.
"I'm shocked they weren't referred to as "freedom fighters", the Old Gray Whore barely acknowledges that these barbarians are Muslims."
Think it is time to pull the Slimes press credentials. Either that of force them to put the word "BIAS EDITORIAL" over their articles.
Perhaps because of this?
In 1944, the Chechens, along with several other ethnic groups, were accused of having collaborated with the Nazis and deported to Siberia. Their collective guilt established by the order of Stalin, on Feb. 23, 1944, more than half a million Chechens were forcibly herded onto cattle cars and sent to Western Siberia. As many as half died en route, and uncounted others perished in the harsh Siberian winter; the exiles were literally dumped in the open snowy fields and left to fend for themselves.
Russia had no intention of recognizing Chechen independence. The Kremlin's fears were understandable: With the Soviet Union crumbling, there was no reason the shaky Russian federation couldn't follow. Granting independence to one region could set off a chain reaction. What's more, an oil pipeline went through Chechnya, and a small amount of oil was produced in the republic itself, so losing Chechnya could have meant significant financial loss for Russia. President Boris Yeltsin declined even to negotiate with the Chechen separatists—a traditional Russian disdain for this Muslim people no doubt played a role in his decision—and simply let the problem fester for three years.
What drives the separatists to commit such terrible outrages?
There is no excuse for the travesty committed by these terrorists but it looks like Russia hasn't been too kind to these people for quite a long time
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