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| Europe |
| Explosion hits central Moscow - Subway during rush hour |
| 2004-02-06 |
| not much on the wires yet, CNN (the bastards) giving feed from their euro branch 00:49z An explosion rocked the Moscow metro on Friday, causing casualties, the Emergency Situation Ministry said. Clouds of smoke filled the tunnel near the Avtozavodskaya station and passengers were being evacuated, said Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. He could not confirm that the cause or give any further details about the number of victims. He said that rescuers were already on the site. Interfax, citing emergency officials, said that the explosion occurred in the second wagon of a train after it left the Paveletskaya station near the center of the Russian capital and headed southeast to Avtozavodskaya station. A fire raged in the wagon, which was badly damaged. Numerous ambulances were seen outside both metro stations, which police immediately barricaded. The Russian capital has been on alert for terrorist attacks following a series of suicide bombings that officials have blamed on Chechen rebels. In December, a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside the National Hotel across from Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday, killing at least five others. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Moscow rock concert in July, killing themselves and 14 other people. That was followed five days later by an aborted suicide bomb attack at a central Moscow restaurant that killed the sapper trying to defuse the bomb. The suicide bomber was arrested and is currently awaiting trial. In August 2000, a bomb exploded at a crowded pedestrian underpass filled with kiosks at Pushkin Square, a popular meeting place located near a metro line. The attack was initially blamed on Chechen rebels, but some police later said that a turf battle between rival businessmen or criminal gangs could have been the motive. |
| Posted by:4thInfVet |
| #18 Jen, thanks. Three years working at Parris Island tends to inundate a guy w/certain venacular proclivities. (Been thinking all day how to join venacular w/proclivities, prolly still messed it up though) Anyways, IRT; Georgian request - that's an angle to get us there I hadn't thought of. We want them on our roster, if not only just to make the Russians feel uneasy. So it makes sense to me.(Imagine Russkies training the Canadians in Quebec - we'd hate it to.) When my boys were in Georgia they said they Russkies were pretty uncomfortable having 'Merikanskys on their doorstep w/ammo. Way down the road though I agree, the possibility for us in chechland exists. Securing nukes may be another matter. Russian crime syndicates would be the ones to deal w/oddly enough on that. Kind of funny but the corruption and graff in Russia (plus their gov't is so inept) is across the spectrum. We'd have to get into some pretty deep labyrinths to secure them I fear. Not sure how much CIA was gutted by the Huckster on their ground intel in commie-land. Crushing the chechens (down the road of course) may help solve the problem. Or, by seeing us improve Afghan/Iraq and possible ass-whooping of Iran the situation may solve itself. However, I've always enjoyed world travel, and prolly have not given the proper thought to a site seeing tour of beautiful Grozny. Plus, if it sucks as much as I've heard it does, sign me up! Like your website to btw, congrats on making der comissar's list of dangerous bloggers. Keep up the good work. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-2-6 10:32:41 PM |
| #17 I hear you, Jarhead. (You are too funny, BTW!) And you made some great points. I agree that if--big if--we fight in Chechnya, it's waaaayyyy down the road, i.e. the last place left on the planet to clean out the bad guys. And we're going to be more likely to do it at the request of the Georgians than we would the Russians. Reason Numero Uno will be to secure (former Soviet) nukes, don't you think? |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2004-2-6 10:01:29 PM |
| #16 Jen, points noted. A couple observations however: 1) If we ever get involved w/Chechnya prolly be more then 5 years down the road, unless Bush loses, then who knows. Reason - Bush or any other GOP is not going to help them after they snubbed us on Iraq. 2) A couple of my brethren have already been to Georgia training their NCO's in our (Corps) light infantry tactics & MOUT warfare. 3) We have no plans in the hopper for either place. 4) We're stretched too thin w/Afghan, Iraq, Nkor, & possibly Iran to put much on this one. Not to mention our normal meals on wheels. 5) This maybe part of WoT, but not our WoT. Until Chechens f*ck w/us, we won't budge. 6) Putin - W wouldn't walk across the street to piss in Putin's ear if his brain was on fire. Enough said. 7) Keeping this war going between them is not exactly at odds with our own interests. Yes, that is sick in a humanistic way but a Machiavellian concept of distraction our own government is not immune from taking. 8) Afghan training grounds for future Chechen rebels have pretty much dried up. Turkey & Murat - how about your backyard?? 9) Binnie is pretty much an impotent derelict in a cave somewhere living off rice and gristle - funding from them has been significantly reduced 10) Until Russia jumps on board w/Iraq - remember the Russkies sold the Iraqi's Kornet anti-tank missiles & nvgs, we're still pissed - Russia will get the brush off from us. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-2-6 9:44:34 PM |
| #15 I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a few soddis 'helping out' with this boomer. Are the rooskies capable of defending themselves, or have they disintegrated to the point where they're just trying to get out of there if they can? And is it just me, or is that idiot actually hoping for an attack on NYC during the Rep convention? |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-2-6 6:05:49 PM |
| #14 Jarhead, with all due respect, this is as much a part of the WOT as anything else--this bombing was done by Chechen based Islamists, funded by the Saudis, trained in Afghanistan, etc. These are Bin Laden's boys, who have appropriated native Chechen separatism and radicalized it to wage jihad. I'm with A1--I think that the US will either end up sending troops into Chechnya and the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia or helping the Russians in a serious way with that. The Islamists main theatres of operation have been Kashmir, "Palestine" and Chechnya--with Kashmir and Paleostine beginning to fade from that equation, the IslamoNazis will now focus on Chechnya and given the fact that Putin is proving to be such a hot-headed KGB control freak, they'll be able to get more followers than before who are angered by his severe reprisals. |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2004-2-6 3:56:36 PM |
| #13 yeah, well, I live in NYC. I have the utmost confidence in our security. Having said that, I think, um, the weather will be nice enough to walk instead of taking the subway. WhatEVER the weather is like! ;o) |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2004-2-6 3:41:00 PM |
| #12 Having the convention in NYC is called "sticking it to them". And as the only party interested in preventing another 9/11, it seems the perfect location. |
| Posted by: eyeyeye 2004-2-6 9:50:34 AM |
| #11 please don't feed the troll. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-6 9:49:08 AM |
| #10 so let's see.... the paleos explode themselves because they are in such dire straits, right? so I guess the chechens are too? and the Iraqi opposition? naw. the answer is that these people are morally, spiritually and culturally bankrupt. one manifestation of this is their diminished value for human life -- the lives of others and the lives of their own lemming cannon fodder. meanwhile the west views it through their own lenses, interpreting their actions as acts of desperation. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2004-2-6 9:04:21 AM |
| #9 A1, let's hope not. Let the Russians sort out their own house. (Although they've been having a rough time of it) It's another ethcnic/tribal territorial pissings war we don't need to be involved with. I feel bad for the civilians just trying to go about their daily business getting caught up in this shit. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-2-6 7:48:40 AM |
| #8 NMM- Wow, can we count on another giant puppet head? Nothing says "righteous social protest" as much as a giant puppet head! I'm afraid that the largest suicide bombing has already occurred in NYC, doncha remember 9-11? |
| Posted by: Craig 2004-2-6 6:57:05 AM |
| #7 Vacation from what? |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-2-6 4:19:36 AM |
| #6 Let's just hope this suicide bombing chic doesn't come to the US's most important city, NY-but of course the rantbourgeois never liked that town anyway---unless The GOP uses it for a photo op during the convention--as if the GOP is welcome in NYC HAHAHAHA It's just beyond good taste for those bastards to use NYC for their convention--but I will use my vacation to be there to protest |
| Posted by: NotMike Moore 2004-2-6 3:29:43 AM |
| #5 Well, al-reuters has come through with some copy: MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 22 people were killed in a blast in a central Moscow metro (underground) railway line in the morning rush hour Friday, Interfax news agency quoted the city fire brigade as saying. Certainly don't think it's a coincidence that this and kashmir happen at the end of eid. Just makes me wonder how bad the french burned us by waving off the mutts on that flight over Christmas. Religion of Peace©. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-2-6 2:10:11 AM |
| #4 Dan, maybe the pilgrimage to Mecca and Eid celebrations are the cause of the latest upsurge? This Jihadis see their acts of murder as doing God's good work, and so killing and bombings must be especially holy during Muslim holy days.. Although other waves seem to not have such an excuse. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-2-6 2:04:57 AM |
| #3 Why do I get the feeling Americans may have to get involved in Chechnya one day. |
| Posted by: A1 2004-2-6 2:00:05 AM |
| #2 So we have the Irbil suicide bombing, today's massacre in Kashmir, and a probable attack on the US last week during Eid al-Ahda prompting the flight cancellations. Call me a conspiracy nut here, gents, but it looks to me as though the bad guys have gone into worldwide attack mode. I've noticed before that these attacks tend to come in waves and the Riyadh and Casablanca bombings were also coinciding with similar big booms in Chechnya. This is one of the reasons why I tend to believe that the terror machine is a lot more closely coordinated than many pundits tend to believe. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-2-6 1:47:45 AM |
| #1 Note: CNN has adopted the al-bbc 'scare quotes' method, their tagline: Authorities: Not Ruling Out "Terrorism" ; what a bunch of turds. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-2-6 1:39:10 AM |