Do lies justify the means to keep US safe?

[johnny_destiny]

MOSCOW - A huge explosion blasted apart a subway car packed with morning rush hour commuters Friday, killing 39 people and wounding more than 130 in what some officials said was a suicide attack on the Russian capital's transport lifeline.

 

President Vladimir Putin drew a connection between the blast and Chechen rebels whom Russian troops have been fighting for most of the last decade, and said the blast appeared aimed at sowing discord ahead of next month's presidential elections.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Chechen insurgents are blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia. The blast came just three weeks after one of Chechnya's most feared warlords threatened new attacks in Russia.

 

Moscow's subway system - the world's busiest with an average 8.5 million passengers a day - has long been seen as especially vulnerable to terrorism. Police routinely stop people in the stations who have Chechen or North Caucasus appearance, but cheek-by-jowl crowds during much of the day make thorough surveillance impossible.

 

The Interfax news agency cited unnamed police officials as saying that a suicide bombing was the "main working version" of the subway attack, which was the deadliest terrorist blast to hit the capital since Russia launched its second war in Chechnya.

 

Police have a videotape of a woman suspected of being the attacker and her alleged accomplice standing on platform at the Avtozavodskaya subway station before boarding the train; the explosion tore through the train about 500 meters after it left the station en route to the city center.

 

Throwing some doubt on the theory of a suicide bombing, Deputy Moscow Mayor Valery Shantsev said that investigators had not found metal shrapnel, which usually fills suicide bombers' explosives. He said that the bomb had likely been in an attache case or rucksack on the floor of the subway car.

 

Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin told reporters that 39 people were killed and 134 wounded, including 113 who were admitted to hospital.

 

Putin linked the attack to Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechen president after Russian forces withdrew in 1996 at the end of a disastrous 20-month war against separatist rebels.

 

He said that calls for negotiations Maskhadov after such attacks "are indirectly confirming that Maskhadov is linked to these bandits and terrorists."

 

"We know for sure that Maskhadov and his bandits are linked to this terror," he said.

 

Maskhadov's foreign envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, denied the involvement of Maskhadov, who has been in hiding in recent years.

 

Warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed to have masterminded some of the most recent terrorist acts in Russia and in January a web site that is a rebel mouthpiece cited him as declaring that more attacks were in the works. It is unclear whether Maskhadov holds influence over Basayev and his fighters.

 

Putin, who is expected to win the March 14 presidential elections handily, has built much of his strong image on a firm refusal to negotiate with the Chechen rebels. He reiterated that position Friday and said the blast appeared intended to "put pressure on the head of state."

 

Moscow deputy mayor Vladimir Shantsev said the blast was equivalent to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of TNT. It shattered windows throughout the train and left the targeted car a hulk of twisted metal.

 

Photos of the car showed a few bodies still sitting side-by-side on the seats, covered in soot. Other bloodstained bodies, their clothes torn, lay alongside the tracks. More than 700 people were evacuated, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing metro staff.

 

"I heard a loud sound like a large firecracker and smoke filled the car," said Ilya Blokhin, 31, a doctor who was on the train's next-to-last car - several cars away from the blast. "What are our country and government and police going to do when they blow up crowded subway cars?"

 

A woman identified only as Maria, blood covering her face, told Russian television that for a long time after the explosion, passengers were unable to open the door of the subway car. After finally prying open the door, she said they walked a long distance out of the tunnel.

 

U.S. President George W. Bush phoned Putin to express condolences, and U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said the United States was ready to offer assistance if requested. Condemnations also poured in from European capitals and former Soviet republics.

 

In December, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside the National Hotel across from Moscow's Red Square, killing at least five bystanders. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Moscow rock concert last July, killing themselves and 14 other people. Five days later, an aborted suicide bomb attack at a central Moscow restaurant killed a disposal expert who was trying to defuse the bomb.

 

A bombing in a Moscow subway car in June 1996 killed four people and in August 2000, a bomb exploded at a crowded pedestrian underpass filled with kiosks at Pushkin Square, the site of three metro stations.

 

The deadliest terrorist bombings to hit Moscow occurred in fall 1999, when more than 150 people were killed in two apartment house blasts. Those explosions were among the events instigating Russian forces to launch the second military campaign in Chechnya.

 

In October 2002, 129 hostages died when Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater, almost all from the knockout gas that Russian forces pumped into the theater to end the siege.

 

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On the Web:

 

Information on the Moscow subway system - http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/mos/moskva.htm

[Jopa]

"Do lies justify the means to keep US safe?"

 

The lies are the means. The better question is, "Does the end justify the means?"

[catbirdseat]

Eventually the solution to suicide bombings will become apparent. Assuming you can identify the bomber, you kill his or her entire extended family. It would make recruitment quite difficult. They've been doing this in Syria for years, or so I've been told.

[Alex]

When you kill an entire extended family for no crime other than being related to a free-willed, free-thinking human, you become an exterminator and proponent of genocide, much like the NAZIs of the Third Riech, or so I've been told.

 

Who is the terrorist?

[Stonehead]

Eventually the solution to suicide bombings will become apparent. Assuming you can identify the bomber, you kill his or her entire extended family. It would make recruitment quite difficult. They've been doing this in Syria for years, or so I've been told.

 

Ridiculous! That kind of Draconian action itself produces the mindset for future generations of terrorists. Political and economic reform would seem more effective.

[marylou]

Killing the extended family of a criminal sounds rather barbaric, even for the US, or so I've been told.

[HRoark]

Eventually the solution to suicide bombings will become apparent. Assuming you can identify the bomber, you kill his or her entire extended family. It would make recruitment quite difficult. They've been doing this in Syria for years, or so I've been told.

 

Actually, this is probably a tactic that these people would understand and respect. Identify the suicide bomber and find his family. Take the firstborn son, cut his fucking head off and put it on a pike in a prominent place with appropriate signage. After awhile, they'll get the message. First up: Yassir Arafat.

[Dru]

actually that sort of treatment encourages an escalation more drastic action. if you're gonna do that just escalate maximally at first go and nuke the whole country flat into a parking lot killing eveyone. that way you don't have to face years of condemnation from human rights groups, etc.

[HRoark]

Okay

[Dru]

Eventually the solution to suicide bombings will become apparent. Assuming you can identify the bomber, you kill his or her entire extended family. It would make recruitment quite difficult. They've been doing this in Syria for years, or so I've been told.

 

im confused now... are you going to change your user namefrom catbirdseat to catfucktard?

[HRoark]

Eventually the solution to suicide bombings will become apparent. Assuming you can identify the bomber, you kill his or her entire extended family. It would make recruitment quite difficult. They've been doing this in Syria for years, or so I've been told.

 

im confused now... are you going to change your user namefrom catbirdseat to catfucktard?

 

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Now THAT is funny.

[Alex]

That was pretty damn good Dru!