Russian crises....

[Dr Mordrid]

1. up to 30 armed gunmen with automatic weapons have taken ~700 hostages in a Moscow theater. Putin and security forces alerted. Speculation is that they are either Caucus or Chechen's.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1068094,00.html

2. an incoming Aeroflot plane is being boarded by port authority police at JFK Airport in NYC. FBI on the way. Video shows a cop-vention, emergency vehicles and then some. Developing....

Sheeesshhhh.....here we go again......

Dr. Mordrid

[ALBPM]

According to Izvestiya newspaper, the 20 or so gunmen, some of whom are armed with automatic weapons, had allowed all members of the audience to make phone calls, and children and Muslim audience members were allowed to leave.

These guys are really screwing up. Russia and China are the 2 countries opposing the U.S. using military force to disarm Saddam and any other threats in the Mid-East.
Russia may just give us full support if this situation goes FUBAR.

[Tempest]

In the Finnish news here it says that one of the children who got out said that the men are from Caucasus, talk in some South-Russian language and demand the ending of the Chechenyan war?
Edit: More sources say that a group of Chechenyan separatists have announced that they are responsible for the act. According to BBC the situation itself is led by the nephew of a Chechenyan fighter named Arbi Barayev.

[Dr Mordrid]

And who have the Chechen rebels been getting all manner of help from?

Three guesses and the first two don't count

(A.Q.)

BTW: the plane deal was some guy with bootleg furs

Dr. Mordrid

[Corran Horn]

Unbelieveable. Hopefully this ends peacefully...though it seems some have been injured already.

[Dr Mordrid]

Latest news is that the Russians have sent their Alpha counter-terrorism teams to the scene and the hostage count may be as high as 900.

Not looking good for a "peaceful" outcome

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

Chechnyans and 500 is the latest I've heard.

[thop]

oh boy things are getting ugly. the ~40 men/women have mined the theater and there are also several men and women wearing masks with explosives tied to their bodies in there. they announced that they will blow up the theatre if police tries to raid(?) the theater. and they will shoot 10 hostages for every one of them that gets wounded or killed.

[K6-III]

Knowing how Putin thinks, none of the hostage-takers will leave the building alive.....

....as for the hostages.....that outcome is uncertain....

[Joel]

and Muslim audience members were allowed to leave.

Interesting. If there ever was a better time for Muslims to stand up and say enough is enough this is/was one of them.

Joel

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by K6-III
Knowing how Putin thinks, none of the hostage-takers will leave the building alive.....

I agree.....they were toast as soon as they did it.

Dunno if the odds are too good for the hostages either, unfortunately.

Dr. Mordrid

[Tempest]

Yep, guess they don't call themselves the "suicide troops of the 29th division" for nothing...
Check this out: http://www.kavkaz.org/eng/

[Dr Mordrid]

OH brother.....that really bodes ill for any survivors, for blocks around

Dr. Mordrid

[Pace]

Do AQ care if they make another enemy? Everything seems to be part of a war against the Muslim people according to AQ, and they (and their associated groups) seem to be targetting *everything* that isn't Muslim, to turn this into a complete war where "everyone else" fights the Muslim people.

Do they just want to blow us all to kingdom come with a nice big nuclear bomb? Maybe they have a plan to move Islam etc to a new planet, in a big blue TARDIS...

[Dr Mordrid]

Apparently not.

Nobody ever accused them of having an ounce of common sense. These people say they are doing this to force Russia to bring the Chechen war to "conclusion".

What if in the end they blow the theater, killing hundreds, and Putin decides define "conclusion" as turning Chechnya into a glowing crater?

Was their plan diabolical? Yes.

Was it smart? Not really.

Dr. Mordrid