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| Terror Networks |
| Russian investigators mull Chechen link |
| 2002-05-10 |
| Senior Russian officials vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of a bombing that killed at least 41 people at a Victory Day parade in the southern republic of Dagestan, bordering Chechnya. President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the North Caucasus told a nation stunned by Thursday's carnage in Kaspiysk that the culprits would be brought to justice. "Right now we are not going to talk about a Chechen link, I am going to speak only about the established facts," Putin's envoy, Viktor Kazantsev, told Russia's NTV television. "But let me say that the people who ordered and those who carried out this attack cannot be regarded as human, and we are going to find them and arrest them." Being arrested by Russian intel guys who don't regard them as human will not be a pleasant experience. And if they run, the Russians will come after them, regardless of where they are. Even if they're in Mecca. Putin blamed "Nazi-like scum" and terrorists, the usual Kremlin codeword for Muslim separatist rebels in Chechnya, for Thursday's landmine attack on a military parade marking the 57th anniversary of Russia's victory in World War II. Seventeen children were among those killed in the blast, which also injured up to 130 people, many of whom were in critical condition in hospital Friday, Dagestan's representative at the Kremlin, Ramazan Magomedov, told Moscow's Echo radio. Whaddya mean, "codeword"? It's an accurate description, except when the word used is "bandits," which also fits some occasions. It takes terrorists and Nazi-like scum to be capable of a crime like this. "Rebels" carry out military operations. This wasn't a military operation. The head of Russia's intelligence services (FSB, ex-KGB), Nikolai Patrushev said that FSB agents had arrested an unspecified number of suspects in Dagestan. The suspects might lead investigators "to the mastermind behind this criminal act" which "may be linked to events in Chechnya," Patrushev said before flying back to Moscow to brief the Russian leader. The Russers know, just off the tops of their heads, that the changes are better than 90 percent that the attacks were by Chechen thugs. This might be the opening of a campaign by Khattab's successor, or by the Basayev's force if he's absorbed Khattab's troops. It's doubtful there's another force that just happens to be next door to the Chechens using the same sort of tactics. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |