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| Caucasus |
| Russers say terror acts are all one chain... |
| 2002-10-24 |
| The current Moscow terrorist outbreak is a link in a smoothly coordinated chain of international terrorism, Igor Ivanov, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said to a ministerial conference of the APEC forum. "The USA, Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia are geographically distant from each other. It is clear, however, that terrorist acts committed there were masterminded by one centre," he pointed out. "The civilised world cannot withstand the challenge, let alone win the battle, unless it pools efforts in a merciless war on terrorism, whatever its manifestations and geography. We must firmly say once again that the world is to be cleaned of terrorism. Regrettably, we see certain attempts to flirt with terrorists-in particular, in the Chechen context. Such attempts merely encourage them to more crimes." Hey! It's a statement of the obvious! But we also see certain attempts to flirt with the enablers of terrorists, to whit, Sammy in Iraq. We've got the war on terrorism going. Now let's take this guy's advice and make it "merciless war on terrorism." There sure as hell isn't any mercy coming from the Bad Guys, is there? FOLLOWUP: Tonecluster has more on this, via Stratfor. In this particular case, it increasingly appears that a command center outside Russia allows the hostage-takers to coordinate with other Islamists beyond Moscow. Stratfor currently believes this hostage situation was planned at the international level by al Qaeda-affiliated forces that aim to cause a deep political and security crisis for Russia and for Putin in particular, especially since Russia has become an important U.S. ally in its global war on al Qaeda. In this context, the timing of the attack -- disrupting planned discussions between Bush and Putin on Iraq and Islamist issues at the APEC summit in Mexico -- appears deliberate.You don't have to take any time off from performing brain surgery to notice the coordinated nature of the current wave of worldwide attacks. Nor do you have to think really, really hard to figure what the impetus is — it's Iraq, just in case you do. Nor do you have to think really, really hard to figure who's doing the coordinating — it's Soddy Arabia, just in case you do. Question is, are the Russers going to see it, or are they going to talk themselves out of seeing it? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 This is not the first time. The Chechens and the Rooskies have been banging heads for centuries. The attack resembles an operation carried out in June, 1995, when Chechen rebels took several hundred people hostage in a hospital at Budyennovsk, in southern Russia. That ended in tragedy. More than 100 civilians died when Russian troops stormed the hospital. So that begs another question, even if they do see it Fred, can they do anything about it? |
| Posted by: Charles Tupper Jr 2002-10-25 10:54:16 |
| #1 The real question is when can we perform brain surgery on Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by: PJ 2002-10-25 00:56:50 |