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Confirmation of Attack on Russian Jet May Strengthen Putin’s Resolve in Syria By NEIL MacFARQUHAR NOV. 8, 2015 MOSCOW — The main bell in St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg tolled 224 times on Sunday, once for each victim of the destruction of a Russian charter flight in Egypt a week ago. Although President Vladimir V. Putin and his aides at first indignantly dismissed suspicions of a terrorist act, the Kremlin has since then clearly come to grips with the idea that a bomb was probably involved in the crash: Late Friday it suspended all travel by Russians to Egypt,...

On November 2, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in New York, President Barack Obama poked fun at the Republicans, joking that if they cannot handle CNBC moderators how could they possibly handle Russia’s Vladimir Putin? “Every one of these candidates says, ‘Obama’s weak, Putin’s kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin, he’s gonna straighten out.’ …and then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators!” Mr. Obama said. “I mean, let me tell you: if you can’t handle those guys,” he continued, laughing, “I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to...

In 1999, a series of apartment bombings in the Russian cities of Moscow, Buinaksk and Volgodonsk killed around 300 people and set off a national panic. Then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin responded swiftly, overseeing the launch of an offensive in the breakaway republic of Chechnya and vowing to eliminate the Islamist fighters the Kremlin blamed for the attacks.That take-no-prisoners response to terrorism propelled Mr. Putin, then a relatively little-known former intelligence officer, to the presidency. And it became a pattern: Under his leadership, Russia has dealt ruthlessly with terror attacks, including the siege of a Moscow theater in 2002 and a...

David Cameron says crash 'more likely than not' caused by bomb as No10 sends RAF to rescue up to 20,000 Britons stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh after cancelling all flights

Intelligence agencies say Islamic State may be telling the truth by claiming responsibility for the attack. U.S. and European intelligence agencies now believe that the Russian airliner downed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on the weekend was probably taken out by a bomb planted onboard by an Islamic State-affiliated terrorist group, according to media reports. The Russian airplane may have been attacked by Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) because Russia is waging war against it.

Interesting how they're now saying 'US satellite detects heat flash suggesting a bomb' -if you look at the video you can see the flash at 00:14 with your own eyes... sure looks like it to me, seems to be blowing-out the top of the fuselage: [video] All 224 on-board were soon dead, scattered over 7 sq miles of desert less than 30 minutes after takeoff from Sharm-el-Shiekh. Most had been sucked-out of their seats at 31K feet. Odd sounds were heard in the cockpit, but no distress signal was ever sent. Internal technical problems and pilot error have been ruled out...

The Russian jetliner that crashed in Egypt broke apart in midair, officials said Sunday — sparking speculation that a bomb might have caused the disaster. “All signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude,” said Aleksandr Neradko, head of Russia’s Air Transport . Some experts said a planned explosion was more probable than a catastrophic equipment failure. “There’s no sign of a distress call, so the idea that the aircraft was undergoing a mechanical problem or an engine problem or a fire or something like that, you would expect that there would...

Security services fear British-born jihadis could be behind the Russian plane crash after they picked up terrorists with Birmingham and London accents celebrating disaster, it has been reported. Investigations are increasingly pointing towards a bomb causing the Metrojet flight to disintegrate in mid-air. And now it has been claimed spies at GCHQ picked up British accents among extremist "chatter" on the airwaves in the Egyptian region in the aftermath of the tragedy. A source told the Sunday Express: "There has also been some internet traffic suggesting that there was British involvement in the attack. "This was a very sophisticated, carefully...

British officials have made an unseemly leap to speculate on a terrorist plot in the Russian airliner crash over Sinai last weekend. And Russia has understandably reacted furiously to the speculation, saying that it is too early to make such an assessment when crash investigators have not even compiled, let alone evaluated, evidence. American officials, including President Barack Obama, are also now echoing the British claims of a bomb on the plane. The question is: why the haste? ........................... Cameron and Obama are evidently being fed intelligence assessments of a bomb being stowed in the airplane's hold by terrorists. But...

A British plane narrowly avoided a rocket attack while flying over the Sinai Peninsula in August. The Thomson Airways jet was approaching the airport in Sharm al-Sheikh and carrying 189 passengers, most of whom were British tourists on vacation. The pilot deftly managed to divert the plane and the rocket missed by only 300 meters. ...

The controversial satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is under fire again, this time from Russia, AFP reported Friday. According to the news agency, the Kremlin angrily condemned the magazine for publishing political cartoons on the Metrojet plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula in which 224 people died, most of them Russian tourists. "In our country we can sum this up in a single word, sacrilege," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. "This has nothing to do with democracy or self-expression. It is sacrilege," he added. The Kremlin spokesman called the cartoons "unacceptable" but said Russia would not make an...

Families receive news of no survivors at St. Petersburg airport. "The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders. They were all killed, thanks be to God," said a statement from the Sinai affiliate of ISIS after a Metrojet Airbus 321, carrying 217 Russian tourists and 7 crew from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed in central Sinai early Saturday morning, Oct. 31. There were no survivors. President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning after sending messages of sympathy to their families. The...

Before the Russian Airbus 321 was blown apart 30,000 feet over the Sinai by what a growing consensus of intelligence experts believe to be a bomb planted by a passenger or airport worker, a man who would later fight and die for the Islamic State (IS) worked at the Minneapolis airport with security clearance and access to the tarmac and aircraft. It could have happened here. It may yet. As Investor’s Business Daily reported in September, 2014: Fox affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul has reported the case of Abdirahmaan Muhumed, who, before he went to Syria to fight and die...

As investigators search for the cause of a plane crash that killed 224 people over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday and Russia suspends all flights to Egypt, U.S. officials said they are taking unspecified precautionary measures to enhance the security of flights from the Middle East. “While the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic October 31 crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 on the Sinai Peninsula are still under investigation, Transportation Security Administrator (TSA) Peter Neffenger and I, out of an abundance of caution, have identified a series of interim, precautionary enhancements to aviation security with respect to commercial flights bound...

- The Thomson flight from London Stansted only took evasive action - The pilot had spotted the missile speeding through the air - Holidaymakers were not told they had been seconds from disaster - It was just two months before a Metrojet plane crash in Sinai, killing 224 A British plane carrying 189 passengers came within 1,000ft of a rocket as it approached Sharm El Sheikh, it emerged last night. The Thomson flight from London Stansted only took evasive action after the pilot spotted the missile speeding through the air. The jet landed safely, and holidaymakers were not told they...

As investigators pick through the rubble of a Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai on Saturday, and as Western officials sift through their own intelligence reports, a report says Metrojet Flight 9268 may have been brought down by a bomb planted by an airport worker. The bomb could have been smuggled on board by someone working at the airport in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the BBC is quoting UK intelligence as saying.

Russia has ordered the suspension of all flights to Egypt following indications that the crash near Sharm el-Sheikh was caused by a bomb. President Vladimir Putin made the announcement after UK investigators said they believed a bomb was put in the plane's hold prior to take-off, killing all 224 people on board. The UK has suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and is bringing Britons home.

Only eight of the 29 rescue flights from Sharm El-Sheikh are expected to leave today as tourists are turned away at airport and flights suspended.

Just breaking

British investigators examining the deadly crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last weekend believe that the plane was brought down by a bomb placed in the cargo hold, according to multiple British media reports. The BBC reported that while officials in London have not completely ruled out the possibility that Metrojet 9268 crashed due to a technical fault, they now view such a scenario as highly unlikely. Sky News reported that British intelligence operatives uncovered chatter Wednesday during a review of intercepted conversations following the Oct. 31 disaster that suggested a plot to bomb a passenger...