Posted on 10/23/2002 11:12:47 AM PDT by McGruff
MOSCOW (AP) — Armed men entered a Moscow theater Wednesday and took the audience hostage, the Federal Security Service said.
The theater was holding a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, one of the Russian capital's most popular productions.
The Interfax news agency said one of its reporters was inside the theater at the time of the raid. She told them in a telephone call that the men had fired into the air and were preventing the audience from leaving, the agency said.
Police units were on their way to the scene.
And tomorrow, the terrorists will be "dissidents" or "seperatists."
,,, thankfully the performance wasn't "Fiddler on the roof".
Certainly Rumsfeld knows better. Powell is a lost cause.......but none of this coddling of certain terror groups makes a bit of sense.
300 hostages released? Huh.
FOX is still not showing anything. Sheesh.
Once you say that, then under shariya law you can be executed if you backslide.
The article doesn't mention the proximity of the crowd.
No, it can't. And there was no war, from the pra-historic days to the contemporary PC era, that had been fought by rules. It's just impossible. No war can be won by both sides. Since it's "them or us", wars invariably target civilian populations of both sides.
When suffering of the civilians become unbearable for one side, the other wins.
Maybe they wear a collar patch or something...
Actually the opposite could be said about the US! After all the Russians have been fighting against Chechnyan terrorists for years now (since 1994 i believe), and yet the US has supported many of the governments that aid the Chechnyans. For example official policy sided with the Bosnian/Albanian/Chechnyan moslems even when it was known that Usama Bin Laden's Al Queda also included the Chechnyan muslim groups (and by the way UBL is an honorary citizen of Bosnia, which is one of the supporters of the Chechnya movement). And then there is Georgia, which has become the new home of the Chechnyan guerillas after Russia bombed their holes in Chechnya (you should see Grozny) into the stone age. And guess which country has been supporting Georgia even with its ties to UBL and terrorism ....the US.
Hence it could be said that prior to 9-11 the US was a huge impedement to what Russia wanted to do about the terrorism within its borders (eg the US using the UN to ensure Russia's 'options' against the terrorists are limited). And after 9-11 things still seem to be moving rather slowly when it comes to supporting Russia's right to rid itself of these parasitic monsters using any means possible! All those binds that would allow the Ruskies to only send foot soldiers, most of them teenagers, backed by a couple of bombers, is just wrong! And when the Russians would step up their actions (eg sending some special forces to slaughter some Chechnyans or utilizing thermobaric bombs to slay bunches of terrorists) the UN would immediately start wagging its finger and accusing Russia of 'atrocities.' I remember seeing photos in magazines that would show dead Russian foot soldiers (almost always the teenagers who really had next to zero military experience) and there would be no reaction! However whenever the Russians would send their special forces and slay scores of Chechnyans, and those photographs of dead Chechnyans were printed, the whole world would erupt in a bug hue and cry at the 'atrocity' the Russians are commiting in Chechnya! This went on until the Russians stopped releasing the results of special forces work in Chechnya due to all the bad press.
I am pretty certain if Putin could be given carte blanche against the Chechnyans they would find it much harder to pull off a stunt like the one they just did.
As for this situation i guess it will depend on a myriad of factors ....for example if the terrorists want to live or die! Chances are every single terrorist in there will be dead by this time tomorrow if not sooner, what concerns me are the hostages! After all the terrorists will have an option to surrender, but if they do not then the only alternatives remaining is the terrorists killing off everyone in the theater, or Russian special services storming in guns a-blazing! Both of those alternatives are not condusive to the health of hostages if you catch my drift.
However after this i believe the prudent thing for the US and Russia to do is to stop pu$$yfooting and come together to scour the earth of all these stupid jehadi kooks. The US tying the hands of Russia when it comes to Chechnya and Russia playing around with US resolutions pertaining to Iraq is just kiddish games for power ....that power would better be served if the two nations came together and gave terrorists something to be terrified of!
Maybe it is time for simultaneous nuclear 'accidents' to occur in Baghdad and Grozny (or what is left of Grozny)! To hades with the UN and France ....what the heck would they do if Britain, Russia and the US joined forces to smite terrorists and send them running in sheer pandemonium! Nothing! And China would at the same time be given something to put the fear of God deep into their marrow!
However in this case i think what will happen is the Spetsgruppa Al'fa (the Spestnaz branch dedicated to terrorist situations) will be sent to the scene, and if that happens may the good Lord protect (ok, not) the terrorists and the families of the terrorists! The Russians like taking care of terrorists in a very novel manner (in 1985 when PLO terrorists had captured some Soviet officials in Beirut the Russian went in, kidnapped some of the terrorists plus some of their family members, chopped off their heads and stuck them in a duffel bag, and sent the bag back ....ensuring the immediate release of the hostages plus the ability of Soviet officials to walk in the middle east with absolute safety after that). I am sure once the Spetsgruppa al'fa moves in there will be carnage ....however i fear many of the hostages will be caught in the crossfire to their detriment.
Putin needs to give the terrorists a message they will not soon forget (and Putin seems like the last person terrorists should be messing with ....that dude seems crazy yet calculating, extremely calculating. He is definitely not Yeltsin!). And GW also needs to give them a similar message to make sure they always remember!
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