Terrorist Standoff (Moscow)-FR Commentary-FRI, Oct.25,2002

StratFor.Com ^

[Naspino]

Instead of having multiple threads about the Russian Theater Hostage Crisis lets try to focus the commentary into one place. It is hard enough to find anything about this potentially explosive and history altering event.

Please send an e-mail to FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and all other news outlets and tell them you do care about this situation, would like to see news on it and that we are not as vain and shallow as they obviously think we are.

From StratFor: "The ongoing hostage situation in Moscow has put Russian President Vladimir Putin in a lose-lose situation. Chechen militants are holding hundreds of politically valuable prisoners, demanding that Russia withdraw its forces from the secessionist region if the Kremlin wishes to avoid bloodshed. While a military solution to the standoff would be bloody, Putin can afford to risk the lives of the hostages more than he can afford to abandon Chechnya, which would leave an entire nation exposed to threats from Islamic militants in the former Soviet states."

[Naspino]

Ugh -- and the 25th is Friday -- not Thursday. Sorry.

[SamAdams76]

This is a huge story. Hundreds upon hundreds of hostages in a theater surrounded by Muslims who are ready to blow them all up (including themselves) if their demands are not met within a week. Meanwhile, the lack of food and water is also a major factor.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Admin Moderator, can you correct the date in the title to Friday, Oct. 25th.

This is a pretty important story to many Freepers, and a correction would head off a bunch of jokes clogging up the thread.

Thanks for your help.

[tomahawk]

If the Russians give in (and they won't), you can count on Islamofascists taking hostages all over the world, demanding the "infidels" to abandon Israel, the Middle East, and whatever other lands they seek to colonize for their death cult. There can be no surrender to these devils. They must surrender or be killed.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Yep, the terrorists have turned down the offered resupply of warm food, are holding kids 12 and over among the hostages, and had apparently prepositioned explosives in the preceding months(according to one article I read.)

But only a handful of American involved, so the news channels pretty much don't give a dang.

[Slip18]

This is a very important news story. I'm still surprised of the insignificance the media has given it.

[Naspino]

I received this in private e-mail but its the ONLY thing on the planet in English that I've heard discuss the Moscow standoff.

ABC Radio

Of course at the moment they are talking about the story that would have pused 9/11 to the back page. The sniper.

[tomahawk]

This is the biggest story in the world. The U.S. media continues to show its utter provincialism in giving it virtually no coverage.

[Lucas1]

Please send an e-mail to FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and all other news outlets and tell them you do care about this situation, would like to see news on it and that we are not as vain and shallow as they obviously think we are.

DOUBLE BUMP TO THAT!!!!!! I HATE THE US MEDIA...PATHETIC

[tet68]

Three Americans mentioned.
More.
Europeans, Americans Inside Theater
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer
Up to 75 foreigners were being held hostage Thursday inside the theater,
including three Germans, two Britons and three Americans.
As the hostage crisis went into a second day, hopes that the foreign
hostages would be released were raised, dampened and raised again as the
armed Chechens wavered over their fate.
An elderly British man was released Thursday afternoon and immediately
taken to the Botkin hospital. Two other Britons remained inside, one woman
and one man. All three are from the same family, British Foreign Minister
Jack Straw told British media.
"The terrorists explained that they did not want to keep hostages from
countries they're not fighting," Interfax reported, citing an unidentified
source.
But an offer by the Chechens earlier in the day to release all foreign
hostages seemingly ended in failure.
Law enforcement officials asked foreign diplomats to come to the theater to represent their citizens in negotiations.
Alexander Machevsky, a spokesman for the Russian crisis team, said the diplomats arrived too late and lost an opportunity
to free the hostages.
"We had an arrangement that the foreigners would be released after embassy representatives got involved [in negotiations].
All the conditions had been met," Machevsky told Reuters. "The representatives arrived at the operations center but,
unfortunately, they didn't get there on time and the agreement was broken."
But diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said embassy representatives had started arriving at the theater
on their own early Thursday morning. Those not already at the theater were only informed after 9 a.m. by Russian authorities
that they should come, the sources said.
It was unclear exactly how many foreigners were in the theater. When the Chechens asked how many foreigners there were
in the audience, 35 people lifted their hands, one diplomatic source said, citing a released hostage.
Maria Shkolnikova, a hostage who was released Thursday, told the media there were 62 foreign hostages from 17 countries.
Interfax, citing the Federal Security Service, said there were 75, of which 20 are not from the former Soviet Union.
The wide discrepancy in numbers may be because citizens of former
Soviet republics did not raise their hands when asked by the
hostage-takers.
U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said there were three U.S.
citizens inside the theater.
There were two Dutch citizens and three Germans -- two men and a
woman -- among the hostages, their embassies said.
Three French citizens, a woman and her two children, were released
Wednesday, the AP said.
The Austrian Embassy said there was at least one Austrian being
held and that it was trying to confirm media reports that two more
were inside.
Interfax said one Canadian, two Swiss and two Yugoslavs were also
inside. The report could not be immediately confirmed.
One Bulgarian and three Latvians were being held, according to
their respective embassies.
Ekho Moskvy reported that two Australians were being held.
The largest number of foreigners -- 23 -- were from Ukraine, while
four others were from Armenia and Azerbaijan. Interfax said one
was Turkmen.
The Foreign Ministry has set up a task force to handle questions on
foreigners inside the theater. It can be reached at (7-095) 244-4581 or
244-41

[Naspino]

Sources for information (that are actually updated as situations develop and not every 24 hours like our media).

ytro.ru translated into English

Pravda in English

Hot News from The Moscow Times

Itar-Tass Headlines

[Diddle E. Squat]

Either in 1 or 2 hours CNN will likely switch over to its regularly scheduled foreign coverage. They did last night and some coverage, before breaking back in to cover the sniper story. I would think they won't break in tonight, as I don't see how much sniper news could break at this time of night, since they are in custody.

[Naspino]

Yesterday's Commentary Thread

[Naspino]

ABC Radio commentary reporting that the delay is for mounting an assault not for negotiations. Then asks the caller which is more important the sniper or the Moscow situation. At least everyone there agrees that Moscow is more important.

[Lucas1]

Either in 1 or 2 hours CNN will likely switch over to its regularly scheduled foreign coverage. They did last night and some coverage, before breaking back in to cover the sniper story. I would think they won't break in tonight, as I don't see how much sniper news could break at this time of night, since they are in custody.

Are you serious? They can keep this going all night...I mean they will show Larry King at least 2 more times...and don't forget Connie Chung...Midnight Snack with Connie Chung...and Breakfast with Connie Chung...IF IF there is any time left over they will review all of the past footage of ALL the experts and how CORRECT (rofl) they were. Please...they can keep this going forever. Sickening...but hey what do we expect anymore than the US Media. It is a joke...

Talk to some Canadians about how they view the US Media. They are RIGHT on the money. Self-Centered little SOBS...

If it isn't within our borders...it must not be REAL news!

[Naspino]

Well go to CNN.com and then click to CNN Europe. See the difference? One headlines the sniper and the other the Moscow attack.

[SamAdams76]

It is very wrong that the U.S. media is ignoring this story. This is on the scale of what happened to us on 9/11. At that time, the entire civilized world condemned the terrorists and sent America their sympathy. We should return the favor when other parts of the world are under attack by these Islamic terrorist vermin. We pretty much gave short shrift to the horror in Bali too. Disgraceful.

[Naspino]

Freeper News Alert

Breaking.

A preliminary agreement has been reached with the terrorists on releasing foreign citizens, representative of the emergencies headquarters Alexander Machevsky reported. He noted that official representatives of all countries, whose citizens were being kept hostage, had been invited to the headquarters. According to the latest data, there are 75 foreign citizens in the besieged theater in Moscow, the official reported.

[I think the terrorists let everyone with a passport go but that there were at least 75 others without their passports.]

[Dialup Llama]

www.themoscowtimes.com has press releases in English.