Men Hold Moscow Audience Hostage [Reports of 1000 Hostages]

AP News ^ | OCTOBER 23, 14:03 ET

[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.

[swarthyguy]

I said it earlier....Maybe the Russians will Nuke Mecca for us.

Screw negotiation - blow up the damn city and then tell the saudi funded chechens....

[L,TOWM]

The mullahs wanted to make sure we did'nt nuke the usual suspects.

[Michael2001]

I like your idea. I wonder how the terrorists would respond to that.

[CARepubGal]

And the Chechen Islaminazi bastards made a BIG mistake tonight! Putin still has all those lovely covert pals and does not have the press all over him looking for "civil rights" issues. Hope he sends some MIG's over the home villages of these Moose Limbs and bombs every inhabitant to Allah (or hell if you prefer the correct terminology). It looks like a Crusade redux with a few more players: Hindus, Jews, Deists, Athiests, Christendom and other firends versus Islamic scum. So where do we sign on?

[swarthyguy]

We're on -

And don't forget the radioactive 'furs' they found on that plane in JFK today. Nothing officially....Anyone hear anything else about that?

[GirlShortstop]

My dream scenario

"sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree..."   ©¿©

[gcruse]

#366 DirecTV is live from Moscow right now.

[Moose4]

And the Chechen Islaminazi bastards made a BIG mistake tonight!

If the terrorists blow up that theatre and kill 700+ people, they're going to bring Hell down on Chechnya. The Russian people (I would think) would be screaming for blood, and methinks Vlad will be happy to give it to them, to boost his cult of personality if nothing else.

Then again, considering Russia's track record against Muslims the past twenty-three years, getting tens of thousands of their boys killed in two stagnant, vicious-beyond-belief wars, maybe not. I don't know. But I still can't grasp the mindset of those Chechens in the theatre that think that what they're doing could actually help the situation.

The Religion of Peace(tm) strikes again.

}:-)4

[Senator Pardek]

"sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree..."

That always bothered me. The correct lyric is "Sweet dreams are made of THIS". Yet Annie Lennox sings it to try to make it rhyme. Shameful.

[GirlShortstop]

t looks like a Crusade redux with a few more players: Hindus, Jews, Deists, Athiests, Christendom and other firends versus Islamic scum. So where do we sign on?

When you find the answer to that, please post it into Breaking News!

[mitchbert]

What other reason could it be? That it's a boring story? That it's pre-determined to end in love & peace? What?

What you and all of us are seeing in action is a phenomenon that is very familiar to non-Americans that watch American newsbroadcasting. Its instructive, actually, and please understand I mean nothing untoward by this comment, I just thought I'd point it out.

What we have are two big stories. I won't begin to try and determine which is bigger in the end. We have a developing breaking story related to the sniper, but information will come in spurts. The other syory is a very fluid situation in Moscow (ie - not in the U.S.) that could go ballistic at any second and possibly result in the loss of hundreds of lives. The expectation would be to cover both and update changes in either situation as they occur. But that's not what's happening.

The networks will replay and rehash and reanalyze the sniper developments until they wring every bit of mileage out of it they can. The Moscow situation, on the other hand, might just as well be taking place on the dark side of the moon as far as they're concerned.

When you hear foreigners whine about American media being self-absorbed and disinterested in any story that doesn't directly affect Americans think of tonight. Not saying its justified (it is AMERICAN media, after all) you're seeing a perfect example of it and being placed on the short end if you want up to date continuous coverage.

Just another reason I love FR!

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"Why so much anger toward the Russians?"

1)Russians are not "commies" any more.

Hmmmm, who is in charge of every aspect of the government under Putin now??? Uh, ex-Communist party and Politburo strongmen with a lot of KGB experience. Political dissent has been silenced. Freedom of the press retricted. You can have a communist dictatorship and a capitalist economic system (China comes to mind). This is the road Russia is on. And there is a strong move within Russia to reform the old Soviet Union but with a capitalist system. Weird? Yes. But we can all honestly say we've almost all seen it all now.

" 3)The Russians were the first to express outrage and condolences on 9/11. There was no celebration in the streets of Moscow, only sadness at our loss. "

No disputing that. But now, when the wars that have to be fought to eliminate the homes of the terrorists (Syria, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, etc.) the Russian government refuses to support us. Gee, a double standard perhaps? Or just plain old fashioned greed?

"4)The Russians would really like to get paid the 8 billion dollars that Saddam still owes them, so they are a little hesitant to approve of the US ousting him. "

And you don't think we could write a check for $8 billion tommorrow with some of our Federal Reserve funny money notes? There's more to it than that. Russian weapon sales were hurt severely when we made them look like they were 20 years behind the times in 91. They can not afford to have another series of bad showings.

" Why address them as "lying bastards"? Is this a cold war artifact, or have you had a bad personal experience with a Russian?"

Why address them as such....hmmm. Simple. Never trust them. They never in 600 years of recent Western history been a good ally.

Bad personal experience? No, but then again, I never got to fire on their troops. Just take some advice; do not trust the Russians or Chinese or especially any Middle Eastern country in this war.

[contessa machiaveli]

travel the world on the seven seas, everybody is looking for something

[livius]

I'm all ready to play moros y cristianos! Sign me up!

But seriously, what's happening in Russia? Anybody know?

We're watching the stump being carted off in Washington State right now - any info on Russia?

[Mixer]

The Russians have been fighting the Muslims for alot longer than we have.

No doubt about it and your previous comments were all on arget as well. I guess it is just frustrating to not have them supporting us on the Iraq situation. If that is payback though I guess noone can blame them. I just hope they don't suffer a lot because of it.

[CARepubGal]

I certainly will! And the Russians have a few scores to settle methinks. Bad idea to rub salt in that wound.

[swarthyguy]

>>foreigners whine about American media being self-absorbed and disinterested in any story that doesn't directly affect Americans think of tonight.

THEY ARE CORRECT! And they aren't whining. just pointing out an honest to goodness fact. Couldn't be any clearer today. Some other instances over the past year but this is the best example.

US TV "NEWS" CHANNELS SUCK! They are incompetent. Can't they cover more than one story at a time. Whatever happened to multitasking.

They are DUMB DUMB DUMB STUPID NETWORK NITWITS!!

ALL OF THEM.

Whew!

[gcruse]

Chechnyan Muscovites in the government have gone in to talk to the terrorists. Putin has met with officials in the Kremlin but there is no report on what they have determined to do. The situation is very tense, with the military in a ring round the building. This is as of ten minutes ago via CBC on Newsworld International, DirecTV channel 366.

[mitchbert]

Another great example is Olympic coverage. You would have no idea how many folks from upstate NY that can get CBC television write to Canuck newspapers pointing out how much they prefer it as they get to see other athletes and strong coverage of any sport that doesn't have a strong U.S. contingent. The reality is this Winter Games notwithstanding we usually have so little to talk about regarding our own athletes that our networks HAVE to cover teams from all over the world just to fill the time!