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.

[rwfromkansas]

If true, this is truly horrible.

[Naspino]

There are always innocents killed in war. As long as we win is all that matters. Hell, read the Old Testament.

Of course. Still there is a difference. Killing civilians in a war is a matter of self-defense or collatoral damage. The next step though is rounding up all people of type X and walking them into a furnace or gas chamber or just blowing their brains out with a revolver while they kneel down on top of hundreds of other corpses. We cannot cross that line. Thats the delima though; we're in a war where the enemy is all around us and we have a temptation to round them up -- and then do what? Deport them so they can cross our border again with ease? Deporting Mexicans doesn't work; deport them from Georgia one day and four days later they are back at work. One answer is racial profiling and arresting ANYONE that looks like a muslim but thats just a stepping stone to Nazi Germany -- and by that I mean a generation of children will be raised -- taught to hate anyone that looks like a muslim and they'll take our place and exterminate them. We're in a very bad situation. My best hope is for the civilized world to take over and rule the uncivilized with an iron-fist for a couple generations to introduce the renaissance period to those people.

[RoseofTexas]

The world is going absolutely MADDDDD!! End times? You think?

[mil-vet]

... start carrying more than one spare magazine...

Roger THAT!!

[Lucas1]

Also some non-russians let go.

Yeah makes you wonder...lol

[js1138]

Everybody go down to your local bookstore and buy a small copy of the Koran to carry with you, just in case. And memorize the phrase "Allahu Akbar."

Whatever happened to "I am Sparticus", or "Ich bin ein Berliner", or How about "I am Israeli"?

[BrooklynGOP]

Holy cow!
Terrorists opened fire and threw a grenade at the russian cops! No injuries reported.

[waspguy]

Get the Americans pissed at them, THEN piss off the Russians.

They quite simply haven't a clue, have they?

------------
Maybe they do... What would be gained by attacking Russia now? How would it change the way Russia feels about Americans attacking Iraq?

[tarator]

I would imagine many Russian Jews are also circumcised. I doubt if jihadists would let them go.

A small number of false positives is immaterial in this situation.

[omega4412]

Wouldn't that be something? USAF and RAF and the Russian Air Force bombing Baghdad...

Nice thought. Remember what happened to the last guy to take on US/UK/Russia/Australia... We could do it again, even without the French.

[Wordsmith]

IMO this is going to end sooner rather than later.

[Man of the Right]

Either Chechens, or less likely, the Russian mafia.

[Dog]

Keep the reports coming....

[js1138]

When we say exterminate them *all* we are not talking about Islamic Terrorists. We are talking about Islamics period. I have no problem exterminating terrorists but I don't think it can be done without exterminating blindly

Heck no, only the ones who refuse to convert. Or more "correctly", those who don't publicly denounce the terrorists and their cause and repudiate Islamic law.

[BrooklynGOP]

More details.
According to the russian police (gazeta.ru reports) it all began with a little boy going up on a stage with a gun and firing it at the ceiling, after which the terorrists ran in firing and ordering people to remain in their seats.

[rwfromkansas]

He has done plenty of speeches lately on other topics.

[Wordsmith]

The jihadis have such a sense of theatrics. Please keep the reports coming, thank you for your work.

Prayers for the hostages, and the police and military on site.

[swarthyguy]

if after 9/11 the Americans made a glass parking lot of Medina or Mecca, Bali wouldn't happen

Some of us are still dazed about that....why we didn't I mean. BUt we know why....and that's off topic.

Rumsfeld's notes mentioned a "massive response - immediate" according to notes released by an aide to the press.

Guess he didn't win that one.

[virgil]

How ironic that they are doing this in a theater.

[willyone]

About as long as it will take him to give Israel the same right. Bush is timid and hesitant. The apple did not fall far from the tree. He has spent too much of his life around the upper class and just cannot understand murdering scum like these. Men of honor and goodwill are always at a disadvantage when dealing with criminals.