Posted on 10/29/2002 10:41:40 PM PST by adaven
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/29/1035683417203.html
Russia declares war on terrorism
By Peter Baker and Susan Glasser in Moscow October 30 2002
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has empowered his military to wage a broad United States-style war against terrorists "whatever their whereabouts" while remaining silent about Russia's use of deadly gas to end last week's hostage crisis at a Moscow theatre.
US officials said they suspected the Russian security police might have used an aerosol version of a powerful, fast-acting opiate called fentanyl to knock out Chechen extremists and prevent them from killing more than 700 hostages they were holding.
All but two of the 118 hostages who died in the 58-hour ordeal were killed by the gas pumped into the building at dawn on Saturday to end the siege by 50 Chechen-led rebels.
The Interfax news agency yesterday quoted Moscow's Prosecutor, Mikhail Avdyukov, as saying 45 victims - excluding hostage-takers - died of gunshot wounds when the theatre siege came to an end.
Moscow health officials hastily repeated that only two victims of the hostage crisis died of gunshot wounds, saying the Interfax report quoting Mr Avdyukov as claiming 45 were killed by gunfire was inaccurate. Mr Avdyukov's office later confirmed the figure of 45 was wrong.
Mr Putin said Russia would never succumb to blackmail by terrorists and that he would enable the military to take its attack against terrorists anywhere they have bases, organisations, financial backers or ideological supporters. While he did not elaborate, it was widely assumed he meant not only Russian territory but neighbouring nations such as Georgia.
With Monday declared a day of mourning, Russians thronged to the theatre where the hostages were held captive, piling flowers knee-deep and coaxing candles to light in the wind.
While anger is growing among bereaved relatives about the extent of casualties and the use of the gas, many Russians called the raid a success.
"I believe that given the number of hostages, the number of casualties is unfortunately acceptable," said Oksana Yermokova, 29, manager at a cable television company. "I think [the raid] was the one and only correct way out."
Gennady Milov, 67, a neurologist, said he felt sorry for the dead but,
"only about 15 per cent of the hostages died. That's normal by international standards." Western doctors who examined surviving hostages concluded that the gas used was a morphine-like opiate rather than a nerve agent.
Russian doctors reported treating the hostages with naloxone, a common post-anesthetic drug often administered to heroin addicts when they overdose.
A senior US official said suspicions were still tentative but intelligence sources had indicated the Russians probably used fentanyl "or a derivative that has a narcotic effect" by itself or in combination with another compound, in their desperate bid to free the hostages.
US intelligence sources said Soviet scientists had worked hard on "bio-regulators" - agents that could alter mass behaviour and even put entire cities to sleep.
"I'm aware of no hostage situation anywhere in the world where such an agent has been used," one US intelligence source said.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe
It's interesting to watch the wonderful Islamic Jihad which is going to conquer the world with love of Islam, uniting all the civilized world against Islam... Nice going, Osama; nice going, Chechens - you're just brilliant political scientists...
Their UNDERSTANDING towards hostage takers is amazing:
"...Because while al-Qaeda is waging a global 'jihad' against all things Western, the Chechens are fighting a war for national survival and independence..."
Since Stalin, no one ever threatened national survival, and they had de-facto independence in 1996-1999. Chechen leaders choose to team with radical islam and expand their land by means of war. Unfortunately for them, Kosovo scenario does not work on Russia - so far.
BTTT
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