From: Ross A. Finlayson (extropy@apexinternetsoftware.com)
Date: Mon Oct 28 2002 - 01:01:50 MST
On Thursday, October 24, 2002, at 02:42 PM, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> It is fascinating to me that more than a day into one of the
> worst hostage taking situations the world has ever witnessed
> (~700 people involved =~ 2 747s) [at least to my knowledge],
> including two Americans, there hasn't been any notice at all
> by the Extropian list.
>
> This has the possibility of presenting a death toll which is
> ~25% that of the WTC collapse. Unlike natural disasters,
> where the death toll may be higher, this is a crime of humans
> against humans and one that might be prevented by human actions.
> And here we have an example of terrorists using civilians as
> tools to achieve their goals rather than simply using them
> to send a message.
>
> There is also an aspect of how dangerous people who have no
> hope may be to all of us.
>
> 10/23/2002
> Armed Men Take Moscow Theater Audience Hostage
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/international/23CND-RUSS.html
>
> 10/24/2002
> Hostage Crisis in Moscow Enters Dangerous Phase
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/24/international/europe/24CND-RUSS.html
>
> Finally, I see relatively few barriers to similar situations developing
> in the U.S. (or Europe) if sufficient numbers of people with a similar
> mindset are able to assemble themselves in one location.
>
> When you go home tonight -- be thankful that you can.
> There are 700 of us who cannot do that and may never again.
>
> Robert
>
>
Many of those hostages are probably innocent. So are probably the many,
many more Chechnyan civilians killed by Russians. Innocence abounds.
Some people were claiming that the Muscovite apartment bombings were
internal to coalesce a united front against the Chechens, Putin and his
predecessors' war effort there was increasingly unpopular at the time.
Russia's military campaign in Chechnya is largely ignored here in the
United States. So was their campaign in Afghanistan, except to the
extent American-funded mujahadeen, including one Osama bin Laden, worked
to counter the "red menace".
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Chechnya+%22seven+dead%22
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Chechnya+%22700+dead%22÷
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Chechnya+%22thousandsè¤÷
dead%22
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dead+Chechens%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
I figured they'd use sleeping gas, some form of gas, in that kind of
action. The Chechens seem surprisingly ineffective if they didn't have
something on a deadman switch, or if they had no bombs.
The Russians are probably guilty of killing more Chechens than Chechens
Russians.
Ross
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