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| Russia |
| Putin was the possible target of a terrorist attack |
| 2004-08-25 |
| According to Khan and Ghailani, the next al-Qaeda offensive was supposed to kick off after the assassination of a prominent world leader. We give Don Vlad a great deal of flak here on Rantburg (a lot of it justified), but from al-Qaeda's perspective he's likely a major enemy because of the situation in Chechnya. Just my $0.02. Ninety-eight crew and passengers were killed in last night's terror-hijacking attack on two civilian aircraft. Russian authorities are accusing Chechnyan terrorists of perpetrating the attack. As many as 98 people are feared killed. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, there were no Israelis on board. Russian authorities are investigating the possibility that the hijackers may have intended targeting President Putin, who is currently vacationing near Sutchi, one of the destinations of the two hijacked planes. In addition, it was reported that Russian rescue teams have managed to recover one of the black boxes. Both planes took off from the same Moscow airport within minutes of each other late Tuesday and were bound for southwestern Russian cities. All passengers and crew, more than 40 people, on the first plane died, after it went down south of the capital. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 They've been promising a new Bin Laden video for years. I wouldn't hold my breath. Odds are the first plane wasn't just a distraction, it probably had a target of its own. Hitting the Kremlin would be a major propoganda score for example. |
| Posted by: RJ Schwarz 2004-08-25 10:38:42 PM |
| #5 Chthus: Another possibility is that like the passengers aboard flight 93, the people on the two Russian flights realized what was going to happen. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-08-25 8:02:51 AM |
| #4 Good question, IIRC there was some buzz on the Islamic postingboards about a Binny-tape coming out in the last couple of weeks, I'll see if I can dig something up, eventhough I tend to think that the promising of the tape was an attempt at disinfo though. |
| Posted by: Heysenbergmayhavebeenhere 2004-08-25 6:30:52 AM |
| #3 While details are still being sketched out, one possibility. Both planes go off radar around the same time. The one headed to Volgograd blows/crashes almost immediately. The second, headed for Sutchi where Putin is, goes missing. Hijack button is tripped and it ends up crashed a bit further south. The first plane may have been a distraction. Create confusion and the possible thought of a mid-air collision. This allows the second to continue towards it's ripe destination. Even if spotted, it's going where it was supposed to. Obviously if it was an attempt on Putin, it didn't work. Maybe the Russians where in no mood to play with an unresponsive plane that had been marked hijacked. Maybe the pilots didn't play ball. Hopefully we'll find out more dteails in the coming days. But if this was an attempt against Putin, could it be the assassination attempt of a major world leader that kicks of a string of attacks? We'll see. But if it is, there's one piece missing and that's the Bin Laden tape trigger. Not absolutely necessary, yes, but has there been anything out there? |
| Posted by: chthus 2004-08-25 6:07:23 AM |
| #2 Agreed and I'd even count Chirac in that list - they hate him because whatever the man's other vices, French support of Algeria keeps the GSPC from taking over the country. In addition, given that Russia isn't exactly the most open society these days I would wager that whacking Putin would send a message to other heads of state who might be thinking about cracking down on the group. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-25 3:12:05 AM |
| #1 from al-Qaeda’s perspective he’s likely a major enemy Are you kidding...that would be a major success story for them. He's as much of a legit target as Bush, Blair, Howard, Berlusconi, Kwasniewski, |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-08-25 2:58:04 AM |