From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Sat Oct 26 2002 - 06:59:39 MDT
On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Amara Graps wrote:
> Creating new states (Chechnya and some similarities to
> Afghanistan, Baltics)
According to online news from Russia and elsewhere the bodycount has
turned out to be relatively moderate (over 100 total, 34 terrorists and 67
hostages are dead). The explosive seems to have been a fake, as not a
single charge exploded (had metal-spiked plastique been detonated within
the theatre the situation would have been very different). If we want to
believe some accounts there's a tit for tat campaign going on in Chechnya.
Chechens in Moscow and elsewhere have offered to donate blood for the
victims. It is unknown how many casualties if any are due the gas which
had been used (official claim that out of 104 of which 9 had died none was
due to gas, which doesn't say much as most of dead remained in the
building). Claims are that 30 high explosive charges have been found
(maybe not fakes, after all, though I'd like to see a confirmation from
another source). Official claims have been made that most terrorists were
under influence of injection drugs. Sedatives and syringes are claimed to
be found, including multiple injection marks (I'm rather dubious of this
claim, as long as it is not being confirmed by an independent source).
Putin got lucky this time, as debacle would have generated considerable
fallout. I would presume he now basically has been issued a card blanche,
albeit one with an expiration date. It is interesting how much of the
subsequent hard line will be for show, and what will be done to defuse the
problem. There are of course financial interests involved because of safe
passage rights for oil and gas pipelines which are highly vulnerable to
guerilla strikes.
The recent terror series is bound to have a global impact on homeland
security, immigration and deportation policy as well as religious and
racial tolerance. Somehow I doubt we'll like most of these coming
changes...
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