Russia's 9/11 was the Beslan Massacre. You may recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a strong critic of the Bush administration during the build up to the Iraq war. After Beslan, those criticisms stopped. America's new foreign policy must take this into account. Mosnews via Internat Haganah:

Russian law enforcement officials have detained the leader of a terrorist cell from the internatial Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which intelligence has linked to Al Qaeda.

Alisher Usmanov, who headed a cell in central Russia’s Tatarstan, was arrested Wednesday, carrying explosives and Al Qaeda training manuals and flyers, the Lenta.ru news site reported, citing police sources in the republic.

The explosives indicate that the man, who was already suspected of organizing a number of terrorist attacks, including a deadly blast in Uzbekistan last March, was planning yet another attack, Interior Ministry officials told the Russian Information Agency Novosti.

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More good news in the GWOT. From what I hear, federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison takes on a whole other level of meaning for terrorists in Russia. As a side note, the evidence against Marina Korigova seems pretty weak. It wouldn' surprise me in the least if she was let go in the future. It also wouldn't surprise me if she was never let go, guilty or not. That's how they play in Russia. MOSNEWS:

Russian security forces have arrested two young people suspected of having assisted the terrorists involved in the Beslan hostage taking in September this year, Russian media reported on Thursday.

One of the alleged accomplices Marina Korigova, 16, was detained in the town of Nalchik in Russia’s North Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Investigators claim the construction college student had talked 16 times with Musa Tsechoyev, one of the rebels who took part in the hostage-taking in Beslan. Tsechoyev’s body was found among the rebels killed during the storming and later identified....

Another alleged accomplice of Beslan hostage-takers, Akhmed Merzhoyev, 28, was detained in the village of Sapapshi, according to a report by the Vremya Novostei newspaper. Merzhoyev “initially was among the terrorists who masterminded the operation”, the paper reports citing sources in law enforcement agencies. In particular, Merzhoyev is believed to have provided a rebel base in the Magolbek district with provisions.

Furthermore, investigators claim that Merzhoyev had been aware of the terrorists’ plans and intended to take part in the seizure himself. He changed his mind at the last minute.

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Long-time readers know that I have been following the low-level war in South Ossetia between the proxy armies of Georgia and Russia. The potential for this to turn into a 'hot war' between the two nations is real. I missed this news over the weekend, but apparently 40 hostages were taken by villagers on both sides of the conflict. While the hostages have been freed, it should be noted that the standoff started during a cease-fire agreement between the two sides. Despite numerous such agreements, the fighting always seems to start again. Both sides have agreed to withdraw troops from the region by Nov. 20th, but it seems unlikely that the agreement will hold. Like all such conflicts, peace will only be achieved when one side or the other realizes that it cannot obtain it's goals. Cease-fires, withdrawals, and negotiations do not solve the underlying causes of the problems. more...

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Deepikaglobal:

Car explodes in Moscow, one killed person and injuring another, Russian news agencies reported.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast. A police spokesman declined to comment on the incident and local prosecutors were not immediately available.

Police across Russia are braced for attacks by Chechen separatists who have claimed responsibility for numerous acts of violence in recent years, including suicide bombings in Moscow and the seizure of a school in southern Russia in September, where more than 330 hostages died.

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Last week Pravda reported that Russia's Prosecutor General, Vladimir Ustinov, suggested that a part of any future Russian special forces anti-terrorism contingency plan may be to take hostage-takers' families hostage. The comments were made during a session of Russia's lower parliamentary house, the Duma, earlier this week.

The St. Petersburg Times translates his suggestion this way: "Detaining relatives and showing terrorists what may happen to their relatives could help save people's lives, so let's not close our eyes or put a diplomatic face on it. When you live by the sword, you die by the sword."

Although his speech was met by applause, the suggestion seemed to have been met negatively in the Russian press. However, one important figure that has endorsed the plan is the Russian backed President of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov. One source translates his endorsement: "We should do everything allowed by law, I think." He added that if the Duma were to pass such a law, then he would support it.

Chechnya's representative to the Russian Duma also chimed in: "Every terrorist has relatives, and they should bare responsibility for the criminal acts of their family members."

The reaction from the world community seems to be to unanimously condemn Ustinov's statements. Reuters, which has a special news service devoted to human rights abuses, reports that UN human rights experts have expressed concern:

Leila Zerrougui, chair of the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention, and Stephen Toope, head of the U.N. working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, said this would "run counter to the principles of international law".

"Detaining innocent people as hostages of the state in order to combat abductions and terrorism is contrary to the most elemental international human rights principles and norms," the independent experts said in a joint statement.

I do not endorse such tactics, but it seems odd that the UN would condemn what is really just an idea (probably with no chance of actually becoming policy) with such force and outrage, while they turn a blind eye and give official sanction to terrorists who actually engage in the practice of hostage taking and murder. I'm looking at you soon-to-be corpse Yasser Arafat and friends.

Linked at the BTJ, because I think it's a cool story and word should get out.

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Via the Commissar and Kevin this novestiy Putin: International terrorists have set as their goal inflicting the maximum damage to Bush, to prevent his election to a second term. If they succeed in doing that, they will celebrate a victory over America and over the entire anti-terror coalition

Let me just gloat for a minute and remind y'all that I've been saying that Putin was our ally for awhile. I wish some out there would stop there bitching and realize that, yes Putin is a flawed autocrat with anti-democratic tendencies, but so the freak what?!?! He's our ally. Allies are built on mutual interests. Who cares if Putin appoints governors or if Yukos has to sell off a few assets? Hell, if appointing governors was akin to fascism then half the unitary states on earth would qualify. After Beslan, Putin woke up and realized what a tragic mistake he had made in Iraq. He believed, wrongly, that by appeasing Muslims by opposing the Iraq war he would by some sympathy. How wrong was that? It is only a matter of time before Islamic terrorists massacre French school children. When that time comes, France will be lucky that Americans have such a short memory span and we are willing to forgive so quickly.

Related posts:
Media should be allies in war on terror says Putin
Russia's New Foreign Policy: Preemptive Attacks

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Mosnews:

A people’s gathering in the village of Elkhotovo in the Russian internal republic of North Ossetia, has ruled that Aleksandra Samoshkina, the mother of Vladimir Khodov, must leave the village where she lives as well as the republic, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.

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Zarqawi becoming unpopular, even among jihadis.

Zarqawi wants to release Bigley, but fears Coalition pinpointing him during transport.

Israel kills Islamic Jihad leader. Hooray!!

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When I lived in Moscow, the cops would carry around these funky looking paddle things. It turns out these things were kind of like tazers, only you could get some swinging action into it. Now I see their usefulness. Mosnews:

Moscow police intercepted a car packed with explosives in central Moscow on Saturday and said they had thwarted a terrorist attack, Russian media reported.

Police found a 200-gram block of TNT, two anti-personnel landmines and a 20-liter canister with gasoline along with detonators and an electronic operating device in an old Lada....

Pumane died in hospital six hours after questioning. Initial reports said the man had suffered a heart attack, but shortly afterwards it was reported that he had bean beaten to death, apparently during the interrogation.

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Georgian troops are massing around rebel strongholds in South Ossetia in what appears to be a buildup in readiness for a final leap into full scale war. Interfax reports that two Georgian army groups have surrounded several key cities and appear to be cutting off the main highway between South Ossetia and North Ossetia. North Ossetia is part of the Russian Federation and was the scene of last month's bloody school hostage massacre in Beslan. South Ossetia is located in the nation of Georgia, but it's inhabitants have religious and ethnic ties to Russia. Georgia accuses the Russian government of supporting the decade old rebellion.

As Georgia edges closer to breaking the cease-fire and ending the civil war, South Ossetia's self-proclaimed President Eduard Kokoity has called for unification with Russia. Mosnews reports that Kokoity argues that since 98% of South Ossetians are citizens of Russia:

It’s time we get rid of the ’north’ and ’south’ — there is one Ossetia, and it will be united within Russia.

Background on the Ossetian crisis can be found in these previous posts:
War Looms Between Russia and Georgia
Ossetia: Impending War, Georgia vs. Russia
Georgia and Separatist S.Ossetia Agree Cease-Fire
Ossetia Ceasefire Broken
War Imminent Between Georgia and Russia

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JQuinton has the story. My thoughts on this are mixed. It's been awhile since I lived in Russia, but there was a pretty consistent theme among the population when I was there: blame the Chechens. And I don't mean blame them for all acts of terrorism, which is probably a pretty fair assumption to make in Russia, but I mean blame them for everything. It was pretty much agreed upon by everyone I talked to that Chechens were responsible for much of the criminal enterprises in the Moscow region. Another thought is that the Moscow police aren't the most professional organization in the world and don't hesitate to beat confessions out of prisoners--especially prisoners who have, shall we say, 'darker skin'? I'm not going to say I'm skeptical about the arrests--rather, we'll call it a healthy neutrality until all the facts come to light.

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Amen, and pass the ammunition!! AP:

President Vladimir Putin urged journalists Friday to use their work to advance the battle against terrorism, saying the media should not just be passive observers in the face of threats by militants.

"It is obvious that the struggle against terrorism cannot be an excuse to infringe upon the freedom and independence of the press," Putin told an international media conference organized by Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency.

"But you yourselves, as professionals, should develop a model of work that would allow media to become an effective instrument in the struggle against terror, which would exclude any, even involuntary, form of assistance to terrorists' goals."

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The good news is that post-9/11 measures have decreased the flow of money--especially out of the Gulf States--the bad news is that terrorists don't need a lot of money for operations. Moscow Times:

Wealthy Chechen businessmen and Islamic and pro-Chechen charities in the Persian Gulf, Jordan, Turkey, Europe and the United States once accounted for most of the hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising. It was mostly done through a far-flung Chechen diaspora and Islamic charities often using murky and secret transactions that are difficult to track.

Now the money is smuggled into Chechnya largely by private businessmen traveling through Azerbaijan, the Chechen activists and experts said.

The largest contributions are believed to still be from the gulf, with smaller amounts moving through Turkey, Europe, Islamic states and even North America.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department accused an American arm of a Saudi charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, of links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The department alleged the charity tried to conceal funds intended for Chechnya by omitting them from tax returns and mischaracterizing their use.

The Treasury Department also said there were allegations that donations made to Al-Haramain for Chechen refugees were diverted to rebels and Chechen leaders affiliated with al-Qaida.

"Finances have been flowing into Chechnya in support of both the global jihad and the separatist movement," said Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman at the Treasury Department.

Aid groups insist the money they collect is for refugees and infrastructure in Chechnya, but Chechens and terrorism financing experts say at least part of the funds is diverted to fighters.

"Money for refugees, it never existed," Nasho said. "The money went to the fighters."

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Screw the Chechens, they do not deserve a state. ABC News:

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility on Friday for the Russian school siege in which more than 320 hostages were killed, half of them children, and threatened further attacks by any means he saw fit.

Also on the scene to report terrorist scumbags: Treacherous Quinton Dogg more...

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The first indictment in relation to the Beslan school massacre has been filed against Nurpasha Kulaev, a Chechen national, on at least nine charges, Pravda reports. Pravda also reports that authorities have recovered the bodies of at least 30 terrorists. Ten terrorists, so far, have been identified by nationality. One hundred and twenty-two former hostages are still hospitalized. Fifty adults and 25 children are listed in critical condition. Elsewhere, Chechens downed a Mi-24 helicopter on Monday, killing two crew members. In news that is probably somehow tangentially related to Kitty Kelley, Pravda also warns of UFO clouds abducting humans.

CNN is reporting that it was a 'bribe' that got the two female Chechen suicide bombers on board a flight they later managed to blow up. The names of the two suspected terrorists are Aminat Nagayeva and Satsia Dzhebirkhanova. No word if that was cash or Visa.

Two illegally scalped tickets, including airline bribe: $69-$100.
The chance to blow up a plane full of infidels: priceless. more...

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Georgy Farniyev, pictured below next to a terrorist who stands on a pressure device hooked to a bomb set to go off if he removes his foot, tells his story of what happened in Beslan. Story in extended entry.

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Ten of the terrorists who committed mass-murder in Beslan have been identified by Russian security forces. AP: Six came from Chechnya, where insurgents have been battling Kremlin forces for five years. The other four came from Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya that saw brazen coordinated attacks against police in June. Other reports suggest that at least nine more are Arabs.

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You can't make this stuff up. Really. The funny part? He gaver her the money that she used to take the contract out on him. Apparently it was too little. Mosnews:

A 23-year-old former Miss Moscow contestant has avoided a prison sentence for ordering a contract hit by marrying her intended victim... more...

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1 That first home cooked meal will be a pisser!

Posted by: Walter E. Wallis at September 09, 2004 02:09 PM (7XPVo)

2 It's pure impudence: hiring lawyers to defends this ungrateful black widow.

I'm awaiting your imputent follow up post with pure impudentation. It'll be entitled "Ex-Beauty Queen Not Satisfied With $15 Million Dollar Diamond Wedding Ring"

Posted by: Digger at September 09, 2004 02:28 PM (FYEx6)

3 Ha!! I'm actually trying to find pics of her. I mean, she's not that hot, is she?

Posted by: RS at September 09, 2004 02:44 PM (JQjhA)

4 My, how times have changed. Back in the mid-90's that hit would have cost her $500. Jeez, inflation's everywhere, huh?

Posted by: Tim Worstall at September 10, 2004 04:10 AM (czhuR)

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The Bush-Rumsfield Neocon cabal has obviously infiltrated Russia to the highest levels. Like I've been saying since 9/11, this is a civilizational war. The events in Beslan have clarified things for the Russians. 9/11 was not a declaration of war, it simply woke us up from our slumbering false insecurity. War had been declared on us years before. Yahoo News:

Russia is prepared to make pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, the Interfax news agency cited the country's chief of staff as saying.

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday.

Baluyevsky added that Russia's choice of action "will be determined by the concrete situation where ever it may be in the world.

"Military action is the last resort in the fight agaisnt terrorism."

For an abbreviated history of recent events in Chechnya, see McQ's A short primer on Chechnya

UPDATE: Chechens respond (via Jeff Quinton):

A London-based Chechen rebel representative said Wednesday that Russia's threats to attack terrorists around the world amount to a warning to European countries that Russian forces could carry out assassinations on their soil.

Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy for rebel leader and former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, said such a strike by Russian forces would create a dangerous precedent.

"It is a warning to other European countries that Russia may come and carry out an assassination on your soil at any moment," he said....

[...]"It is a very disturbing signal they are sending for all civilized countries," Zakayev said. He added that it's especially worrying for Chechens who speak freely about their dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies.

"To Putin, that makes them international terrorists," he said.

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Now you're talking baby. Carrot and stick, carrot and stick. Anyone know what they mean by neutralization?Channel News Asia

Russia put a 10-million-dollar price tag on the heads of two Chechen rebel leaders accused of masterminding the hostage-taking which ended in a bloodbath at a Beslan school.

The FSB security service, in a statement quoted by Interfax news agency, said Wednesday that it would pay 300 million rubles "for reliable information on their whereabouts leading to the neutralization" of former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and of warlord Shamil Basayev.

It said the two were responsible for "inhuman" acts of terrorism carried out in Russia.

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For latest news, information, images, and links to other hostage videos please go to MAIN PAGE HERE.

UPDATE: 9/13 Video here. (in German)

Chad over at In the Bullpen alerted me to the fact that the Chechen terrorists made a video tape of themselves while they were busy massacring children. The Chechen terrorists in Beslan, North Ossetia seem to be following the lead of the Chechens who held a Moscow theater hostage last year--they also shot a video. Chad noticed Yahoo News was running some vidcaps from the terrorist's video. I did some checking around and found these posted at NTV.RU. None are too graphic. NTV is the station that has a copy of the tape, but they have not posted the video and I presume the whole thing is much too graphic to air on Russian television (which is saying a lot). The pics are in the extended entry below. The NTV video can be viewed here, it's not very graphic and it's narrated in Russian.

UPDATE: On closer inspection the last few seconds of the video are disturbing. Vidcap #3 below is taken from a shot where you hear a voice in the background. The voice is talking to someone on a cell-phone. He is not speaking Russian. He is either speaking Turkic or Arabic, but he distinctly can be heard speaking the Arabic phrase "Allahu-Akhbar". The next scene is disturbing if brief. The camera looks down at blood on the ground and pans past what look to be the legs and arms of dead children. You cannot see their full bodies, just a brief glimpse as the camera pans past to focus on the blood. Horrible.

Update II: Allah also has some of the same images as does Charles Johnson, and of course Chad Evans where I first got tipped of this. Petrified Truth also has some links to NTV. Jay Tea at Wizbang ponders the question: what next? Captain Ed on the horror's that the media don't want you to see.

Update III: More pics found. Also below.

Update IV: Via Dale Franks and Chad Evans this news:

While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition.

Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held and raped by their Chechen captors who chillingly made a video film of their appalling exploits

UPDATE V: More pics below.

UPDATE VI: Via Michael J. Totten at Suicide Girls this Telegraph piece:

An extremist Islamic cleric based in Britain said yesterday that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule....

"The Mujahideen [Chechen rebels] would not have wanted to kill those people, because it is strictly forbidden as a Muslim to deliberately kill women and children. It is the fault of the Russians," he said.

UPDATE VII: Click here for the BBC version of the video. Very close to original. more...

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Dan Darling does a great job of supplying the background info necessary to understand the Chechen conflict. He also delves into the connections between the jihadists and the Chechen nationalists. They run deep. It is possible that Chechens have a legitimate bone to pick with their Russian masters and I don't find it hard to believe that the Russian military is guilty of war crimes in Chechnya. However, the Chechens have chosen our enemies as allies. They chose unwisely. Now is the time to back the Russians in their efforts to annhialate the jihadi movement in Chechnya and surrounding provinces. It will be an ugly campaign, but no uglier than the campaign that wiped National Socialism off the map.

The country [Chechnya] was taken over by a mixture of international terrorist organizations, Wahhabi theocrats, drug cartels, and other criminal organizations that subsided more or less on generous funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

This funding helped the Wahhabis to finalize control over the institutional infrastructure of the de facto independent state and led for calls for the imposition of sha'riah even though most Chechens (and Caucasus Muslims in general) are Sufis. The al-Qaeda presence in Chechnya was headed up by bin Laden's protege Amir ibn al-Khattab, a Saudi national who had previously assisted Islamic fighters in the Tajik Civil War and the Armenia-Azerbaijan War over Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Horrible. Sickened. Update from Stan who is translating original Russian sources: "ex hostages are saying that terrorists began killing hostages before the storm." Now we see why the Russians had to go in. Reuters:

Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for two days by Chechen separatists.

Naked and screaming children ran for safety amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead. The Tass and Interfax news agencies spoke of over 300 wounded, mostly children. Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit.

Witnesses at the scene in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region near Chechnya, saw several bodies on stretchers and Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital.

Half- or fully naked children gulped from bottles of water after two days without drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school. Some lay on stretchers.

Jeff Quinton has been updating frequently and as always is the best resource for following the blogosphere reaction. Michelle Malkin and The Belmont Club, too. The Command Post and Allah are keeping up as well.

Stan at Logic and Sanity should be awake in a few and (he's back) has been liveblogging this for days. He speaks fluent Russian and is translating the news out of Russia.

The Laughing Wolf also speaks Russian and is taking up the slack for Stan. Very good resource.

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Russia goes into post-9/11 mode.

From Radio Free Europe:

Among the many dramatic statements made over the last week in the heat of the unfolding events, perhaps the strongest came from Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on 1 September. "War has been declared, a war in which the enemy is invisible and there is no front line," Ivanov said in a statement that was repeatedly broadcast on the national television channels. He said that the 31 August suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station "was not the first and not the last terrorist" act that Russia will see in this now-open war.

State Duma Speaker and former Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov echoed Ivanov's statements in remarks the same day. "It is time for all those who tried to romanticize acts of madness, who try to present acts of terrorism as a lonely struggle for independence and justice, to come to the only proper conclusion: this is war," Gryzlov said, according to "Vremya novostei" on 2 September. He added that the war is being waged by well-financed and well-organized groups with international ties. "We are obliged to undertake measures commensurate with this situation," Gryzlov added. He said that the front line in this war "passes through the entire country" and the new situation "demands particular vigilance from everyone."

Gryzlov also said that new legislative initiatives in keeping with the new, wartime situation are being drafted and will be presented to the Duma in short order. He added that many of these initiatives are being drafted by law-enforcement and security agencies themselves, including the Justice Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Interior Ministry.

Regardless of the possibility--and it is only a possibility--for abuse, the news that the Russians are going into post 9/11 mode is a good sign.

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The terrorists have released 32 hostages. The names of 25 of them have been released in Russian. I have transliterated the names below. They seem to be mostly infants and their immediate caregivers. Stan at Logic and Sanity is updating constantly. more...

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