A step too far

[Gonz]

The line that should not be crossed. Political discourse must know the limit. In 1949 the Geneva Convention made rules regarding actions during war. There is a point in which there is no turning back.

Americans had embassies blown up. We had oversea's military barracks attacked. We even had a naval vessel, a big one, get mangled. We did nothing, virtually.

We are far from the only target. Remember the 1972 Israeli athletes at the Olympics? How about the Achille Laurel? Lockerbie? The list could go on & on & on. However, civilized beings, as we pretend to be, don't go to extremes to achieve vengeance. Until that line is crossed.

For us, it was 9/11.

For Russia, it happened last week. Today, the Russian people said enough is enough. Blow up subway cars & we get mad. Intentionally target children, with the intent to maim, kill & destroy and you're no longer safe.

Two of the worlds strongest, best trained armies have a common enemy. Our people have spoken & the President listened. The Russians have spoken. The enemy had better hope Putin doesnm't respond like Bush or we'll all see what happens.

The Russians don't have a liberal left.

ZNAMENSKOYE, Russia — It was 6 a.m. when Russian soldiers hoisted themselves over the wall, crashed through the window and broke down the front door. Their quarries were still asleep.

Shouting, shoving and kicking, the soldiers pushed 67-year-old Khavazh Semiyev and his wife into a truck waiting outside, then went back for the others — his two sons and two nephews, his son's wife, his 52-year-old sister. Then — and Semiyev couldn't believe his eyes — they went back for his grandchildren: Mansur, 11 years old. Malkhazni, 9. And Mamed, 7.

They were driven in their nightclothes and socks through the empty early morning streets of Chechnya to the Russian army's command center at Khankala. There, the men were forced onto their knees with their heads on the ground. Sacks were pulled over their heads, and their hands were tied behind their backs. For the next 24 hours, anyone who moved from that position got kicked.

LA Times

The crowds have gathered

The stench grows murkier

MOSCOW, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The mass hostage-taking at a Russian school was led by a senior Chechen rebel commander and possibly financed by al Qaeda, Itar-Tass news agency quoted sources in the regional security service as saying.

Reuters

You know, I almost feel sorry for the Chechen Rebels.

Does this mean that we are about to witness a foreign policy "re-orientation" in Russia featuring Moscow's new willingness to join Washington's war on global terrorism and to make the foreign policy adjustments deemed necessary for such an alliance? While we must await the passage of time to furnish the answer, the current milieu in Russia, wrought with a governmental crisis in combating terrorism, is clearly pregnant with such a possibility.

Asia Times

Nah, I don't.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

cHECHNYA is what ~200-400 miles from Iran.

Wouldn't that surprise the heq out of Iran to have the Ruskies invade them?

 

[MrBishop]

Nevermind Iran...there's a few little countries in the way right now.

Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakistan, Uzbekistan, Turnmenistan etc etc...

Russia got a nasty surprise the last tiem they tried to go into Chechnia... they'd better not fight this war on too many levels/fronts. They're likely to be reminded that they 'had' a lot of power but they don't anymore.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

Gee bish, couldn't find a bigger map 'er what?

Russia got a nasty surprise the last tiem they tried to go into Chechnia...

. . . aren't they there still there?

That map shows it like >>> 'if the US decided to take Kuba, close enough to attack from home bases. '

(well we attack anywhere from home bases)

 

[ResearchMonkey]

OT - love those buildings, one day I hope to go see the the Krem and sq

 

[Gonz]

Nevermind Iran...there's a few little countries in the way right now.

The Caspian Sea makes a lovely shortcut

 

[Gonz]

We'd now like to welcome an old friend, a several time winner of the non-coveted Islamist Fascist You're on Our List award, back to the frray...whether they wish it or not, EUROPE.

If suicide bombers come to America, they are likely to be carrying biological, chemical or nuclear weapons with them, according to an al-Qaida memo discovered by Pakistani authorities.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharaf, under heavy American pressure, has once again instructed his security and intelligence chiefs to focus on jihadi suicide volunteers – this time because of a memo showing they will be used to carry weapons of mass destruction, reveals Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The president, himself under the constant shadow of militants threatening to assassinate him, reacted to a coded memo discovered during a recent raid on pro-al-Qaida activists in Karachi, by sharing parts of the memo's alarming contents with friendly governments.

Topping the memo's list stands the U.S., although European countries are also specified as preferred targets. Unlike many other discoveries of terrorist documents, this memo has an added factor causing more than the usual concern.

In it are detailed a number of ideas and options for attacking the West with WMDs by using suicide volunteers.

Related to this memo is a Spanish decision, voiced by Interior Minister Antonio Alonzo, to assign close to 2,000 security agents to a training and deployment program on the danger of nuclear, chemical and bacteriological terror attacks.

Information from Russia passed on to the Pakistani intelligence and security service, following the disaster at the Beslan school, has contributed even more tension to the situation. The Russians claim many of the so-called Arab mujahedeen killed during the attack on the school had visited Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan on several occasions. Similar claims and information came from the U.K. where law-enforcement agencies are still in the midst of their recent anti-terror operation that began last month. Several of those apprehended in the U.K. are of Pakistani origin with strong ties to anti-Musharaf forces.

 

[MrBishop]

Gee bish, couldn't find a bigger map 'er what?

. . . aren't they there still there?

That map shows it like >>> 'if the US decided to take Kuba, close enough to attack from home bases. '

(well we attack anywhere from home bases)

Tried to find a smaller map, but it wasn't easy to find one of Russia with the southern regions as well.

They're still there...but the last full-scale re-invasion didn't pan out too well. Chechnia is no longer in Russia...