Russia joins 'war on terror'
 

Yahoo! News

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BESLAN, Russia - A shaken President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) made a rare and candid admission of Russian weakness Saturday in the face of an "all-out war" by terrorists after more than 340 people — nearly half of them children — were killed in a hostage-taking at a southern school.

Putin went on national television to tell Russians they must mobilize against terrorism. He promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption.

"We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said in a speech aimed at addressing the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of attacks that have killed some 450 people in the past two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya (news - web sites).

Shocked relatives wandered among row after row of bodies lined up in black or clear plastic body bags on the pavement at a morgue in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, where the dead from the school standoff in the town of Beslan were taken. In some open bags lay the contorted, thin bodies of children, some monstrously charred.

In Beslan, people scoured lists of names to see if their loved ones survived the chaos of the day before, when the standoff turned violent Friday as militants set off explosives in the school and commandos moved in to seize the building.

Beslan residents were allowed to enter the burned-out husk that was once the gymnasium of School No. 1, where more than 1,000 hostages were held during the 62-hour ordeal that started Wednesday. The gym's roof was destroyed, windows shattered, walls pocked with bullet holes.

Regional Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 323 people, including 156 children, were killed. More than 540 people were wounded — mostly children. Medical officials said 448 people, including 248 children, remained hospitalized Saturday evening.

Dzgoyev also said 35 attackers — heavily-armed and explosive-laden men and women reportedly demanding independence for the Chechen republic — were killed in 10 hours of battles that shook the area around the school with gunfire and explosions.

Putin made a quick visit to the town before dawn Saturday, meeting local officials and touring a hospital to speak with wounded. He stopped to stroke the head of an injured child.

But some in the region were unimpressed, as grief turned to anger, both at the militants and the government response.

Marat Avsarayev, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Vladikavkaz, questioned why Putin and other politicians didn't "even think about fulfilling the (militants') demands to save the lives of the children. Probably because it wasn't their children here."

During his visit to Beslan, Putin stressed that security officials had not planned to storm the school — trying to fend off potential criticism that the government side provoked the bloodshed. He ordered the region's borders closed while officials searched for anyone connected to the attack.

"What happened was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty," Putin said in his televised speech later. "It is a challenge not to the president, the parliament and the government but a challenge to all of Russia, to all of our people. It is an attack on our nation."

Including the school disaster, more than 450 people have been killed in the past two weeks in violence. Two planes crashed nearly simultaneously on Aug. 24, killing 90 people, and a suicide bomber killed eight people in Moscow on Tuesday. Chechen separatists are suspected in both attacks.

Putin took a defiant tone, acknowledging Russia's weaknesses but blaming it on the fall of the Soviet Union, foreign foes seeking to tear apart Russia and on corrupt officials. He said Russians could no longer live "carefree" and must all confront terrorism.

Measures would be taken, Putin promised, to overhaul the law enforcement organs, which he acknowledged had been infected by corruption, and tighten borders.

"We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats," he said.

An unidentified intelligence official was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying the school assault was financed by Abu Omar As-Seyf, an Arab who allegedly represents al-Qaida in Chechnya, and masterminded by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.

[unimportant details of the incident snipped]

With families gathering for wakes for the dead Saturday, some were vowing vengeance.

"Fathers will bury their children, and after 40 days (the Orthodox mourning period) ... they will take up weapons and seek revenge," said Alan Kargiyev, a 20-year-old university student in Vladikavkaz.

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Russia is big. Russia has lots of weapons. Russia doesn't stick to all of the rules of political correctness, fair play, and ethical treatment of criminals that the US does. And Russia is not under the intense scrutiny that America is as the primary world power. This combination spells deep shit for militant Islam.

No matter what the country's government does officially and publicly, I guarantee that thousands of Russians are at this moment getting ready to head to the Middle East and start fucking shit up.

And I would hate to be a Muslim living in Russia right now.

Putin is a fuckup :/ I'm not saying he has personal guilt in what happened at that school, but what exactly has he done for the, what is it, six years he's been in power? Sit pretty and let people write detective fiction starring him while Chechzenya continues to be an explosive mess, not to mention an increasingly welcome climate to terrorists of all kinds.

He's part of what keeps some of the ugly roots of communism embedded in Russian culture. I'd be glad if he got replaced with someone more willing to drag the country that last few feet out of the mire.

What kind of people can harm children like that? The kind of people that have seen the brutality with which the Russian army literally destroyed their country, obviously. How you can completely flatten a city of one million and expect to get away with it is beyond me.

I'm refraining from giving a more thourough view of the Chechens position becasue I dont want to people to think I am not unhappy about all the dead children, because I am. It was a disgusting act, and I shouldn't even have to say so.

Putin doesn't just sit on his scrawny arse all day, he has worked very hard to get Chechnya and Russia in the position that they are in now. Putin's hardline politics cost innocent Russian and Chechen lives, and it takes determination and strength to do that.

The prerequisite for any democracy is national self-determination. Constant state of war is the only way Russian Federation is able to keep the nations of the ex-SSRs together. Russia has to leave Chechnya.

Unlike Al-Qaeda, these were terrorists with demands, needs, and a motivation that can be reasoned with. There is no reason to believe this is one of those 'slippery slope' cases where once you have given Chechnya independence again, they will try to annex more Russian land using terrorist means. So nobody even mention 'apeasment'.

It might be best even from the narrow chauvinist point of view of 'Russian interests'. Chechnya is a small nation. Giving it formal independence would probably not result in an independent country, but to a dependent country of Chechnya. This is due to economic, material factors. That way Russia might have even more control over its oil production than it has now.
Yes, other Chechen groups have condemed the dudes who did this school hostage thing, but a few years ago nobody would have done such a thing. The situation is turning the Chechens more bloodthirsty.

Everyone knows that I'm all for succession, but I don't think that their cause warrants the murder of civilians.

Russia is fucked. They wouldn't except help for the sunk sub. They poison most of the people in the last seige, and this time right off the bat I knew that this would end up bloody. Russia has turned into an even bigger corrupt society that imploding on itself. God help them :( even though I don't believe in god :/

Rutin tutin Putin should Napalm a chechnyan school.

It pisses me off to see more terrorists aren't being little bitches in their attacks. Sure al-queda blew up buildings. but they never specifically targeted children, thats as low ans any human can go. When caught those people shouldn't be executed(right away) they should have acid dripped on their genitals untill then slowly drip from crotch to neck untill they die of shock from the pain of having their bass melted off consiously

No cause does.

Napalm is not a verb, and:

Grozny used to have schools.

Napalm was a verb in Vietnam.

"They're sending an air strike to nape this whole area!"

I had a feeling it would come to this. Too much of what I've been reading the last few weeks in regards to terroristic activity pointed towards Russia joining the Coalition cause. The onslaught of sudden attacks reportedly coming from 'Chechnyan militants' has been remarkably high recently. I was hoping to follow ithrough the 'Islam in Russia' thread, but I haven't been able to recently. I've been in Tahoe the last few days, and would be now if my Jag didn't blow its head gasket, and haven't been able to post.

Sadly, I do not believe the Chechens are responsibile. I see the 'terror attacks' responsible for Premier Putin making decision as being somewhat more clandestine - Too many, too effective and too soon. Furthermore, there are too many strange scents surrounding the evidence, concerning both its circumstantial nature as well as dubious origins. Especially in the case of the two plane bombings which, taken down with the same Chechnyan C-4 as used in an attack of nearly a decade ago, were quickly disavowed by all Chechnyan militants shortly after the news was aired.

Something is very wrong here. Since the US is the primary benefactor, I am considerably worried by this turn of events. Sudden European support for the war on terror way just be what Bush will need to speed him into a second term.

Alqueda should take a page from these Checnyans and learn how to do it right.

In my opinion If you capture any of the school Terrorists round up their familys and pretend to kill them. Show them that they arent the only heartless pricks that can scare the fucking bezesus out of them. then as they are reunited blow out all their knee caps with a carefully placed remote claymore :yum

If I'm right, and I pray I'm not, both Al Queda and the Chechens HAVE learned from the same master. . . ;)

Yeah, I recently came to the same conclusion, and I am a bit dissapointed with myself for thinking it was the Chechens. Thar kind of attack is not their style, I just thought that they were starting to get more brutal.

Islamic radicals from Ingushetia or big, bad Shamir are the two most likely candidates.

No, the Chechens did not learn from the US, if that is what you are insinuating. Many of the first wave of Chechen militiamen used to be in the red army, and they just taught what they knew to the new recruits. The area is pretty well trained in the arts of civil war, too...

Edit function not working.

I really wanted to say this:

Ok, you got me.