Terrorists let go 17 Russian hostages after checking passport

Hindu Business Line ^ | November 28, 2008

[SumProVita]

"MOSCOW: Terrorists holed up inside Mumbai's Taj and Trident-Oberoi hotels allowed 17 Russian hostages, including nine defence contractors, to leave after checking their passports, following which they were safely evacuated.

Earlier on Thursday, spokesman of Russian arms exporting company 'Rosoboron export' had confirmed that nine of its specialists working on various defence projects in India were safely evacuated from the Taj hotel.

According to the 'Kommersant' daily, eight crew members of Russian Aeroflot airlines dining in the restaurant of Trident-Oberoi were also “politely asked'' to follow the hotel staff, who guided them to safety outside the hotel."

[SumProVita]

Hmmmm...Why were the Russians given safe passage?

[OCC]

Professional courtesy?

[goldstategop]

My guess is the the terrorists knew the kind of response the FSB would deliver to their paymasters. The Russians don't roll over and play dead in the face of terrorism.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[IYAS9YAS]

1) Because Russia supports them in their cause?

Or

2) Because they feared Russia would retaliate worse than any of the other nations whose citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed?

[bereanway]

Yes, why would those working on defense projects in India be given safe passage? I would think the terrorists would find them to be distinctly appropriate targets.

[goldstategop]

They can see what the Russians are doing in Chechenya. Mess around with them and the Bear will maul you to death.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[1rudeboy]

Professional courtesy?

My guess is that they wanted to keep their employment options open.

[Eagle Eye]

I’ll take #2.

[tgusa]

The terrorist murderers know GWB won’t do anything to them this close to inauguration day, and O is just an empty suit who has to get HRC’s permission to go to the bathroom.

[Thommas]

Respect from those actors who know you’ll take bloody vengeance on them, their families and neighborhoods should you misbehave? Priceless.

[MathDoc]

Because they feared Russia would retaliate worse than any of the other nations whose citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed?

The obvious lesson that Obama will learn: we need to understand the motivations of these freedom fighters and address their valid concerns. We don't want to be like Russia, a country that even militants think is brutal.

The lesson that a shrinking minority of Americans already knew: If you deal firmly with thugs like this and never give in to terrorists, they respect that and back off (or die, which is even better).

[autumnraine]

Orders from Iran.

[SampleMan]

Speaks for itself doesn’t it?

[MeanWestTexan]

OLD OIL FIELD TRAVEL TIP:

I have worked in some interesting places: Saudi, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, various hell holes in Africa.

YOU CAN BUY FAKE PASSPORTS FOR OTHER COUNTRIES FROM MOVIE PROP COMPANIES -— that would not work for customs people -— rather transparent fakes -— but would probably work in this situation (presuming terrorist don’t have the ID readers and whatnot).

Use your real info, change to some crap country (or non-existant country).

This has gotten oil executives out of hostage situations in the past.

Here:

http://www.indyprops.com/pp-bournepass.htm

[DoughtyOne]

How would we as U.S. Citizens feel to see our citizens let go free, while citizens of other nations were rounded up and slaughtered?

The loud mouthed left in the United States gives foreign nationals cover to hate us. Here we reap the rewards.

15% of the citizens of this nation hate it with a passion. about 35 to 40% more are brain dead, and unable to comprehend what they sign on to when they support the left.

45% of this nation is shocked beyond belief to see what this nation is headed into.

[SamuraiScot]

1) Because Russia supports them in their cause?

I'll take explanation 1). They know that Israel also will hunt them down to the ends of the earth. Makes you wonder if Russia helped them set it up.

[ken21]

pos knows pos.

[bereanway]

Maybe the planners were able to convince these terrorists this wasn't a suicide mission. At any rate I would think if they sat down and analyzed what they were being asked to do they would have realized their chances of returning were slim at best.

Putin does have problems with some Muslim elements but there's no doubt he's in bed with certain others. He can certainly use the groups that he's fighting against to rally the motherland and the others to create instability in certain regions.

Generally, the higher the body count the happier these guys are but this does look like a different breed of terrorist. Back in the 80’s the bear didn't scare the Afghani freedom fighters much, but they were also getting a lot of nice, shiny US hardware.

[Carley]

There was little or no response to Beslan. I don’t see the Russians acting forcefully at all.

I agree with the above poster.........professional courtesy

[calico_thompson]

I seem to recall when some Palestinians made the mistake of kidnapping a Russian in the ‘70s; the KGB rounded up other male family members of the perps and castrated them. Problem solved.