Deadly Russia Train Derailment 'Appears to Be Terrorism' [will we ever learn the truth?]

FoxNews.com ^ | November 28, 2009 | Dana Lewis - Fox News

[ETL]

An express train carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others in what an official says "appears to be an act of terrorism."

"We have the blast remains; a crater. There is little doubt this is terrorism," a source in Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's office told Fox News.

Who was responsible for the derailment or why it occurred "remains unclear," the source said.

Thirty people were killed in the accident and scores injured after the last three cars of the 14-car Nevsky Express left the tracks in the Tver province northwest of Moscow.

Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin told reporters Saturday that the Friday accident may have been caused by an explosion under the tracks. ..."

[ETL]

This could be another KGB Putin trick. It certainly is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Russian government itself was behind this and other past episodes of "terrorism". Unlike the left's loony allegations that the Bush administration was behind the 911 attacks, KGB Putin and company are quite capable of committing a despicable act such as this against their own people. It is suspected that Putin and co were behind the poisoning/murder attempt of the president of the Ukraine, and also the actual murders of scores of reporters who spoke out against him and his government. All of the other major, so-called 'terrorist attacks' there are under suspicion as well.

[ETL]

Blowing up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror
by Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Geoffrey Andrews and Co (Translator)

Synopsis: Blowing Up Russia contains the allegations of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko against his former spymasters in Moscow which led to his being murdered in London in November 2006. In the book he and historian Yuri Felshtinsky detail how since 1999 the Russian secret service has been hatching a plot to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the KGB. Vividly written and based on Litvinenko's 20 years of insider knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing Up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched a war. Writing about Litvinenko, the surviving co-author recounts how the banning of the book in Russia led to three earlier deaths.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Blowing-up-Russia/Alexander-Litvinenko/e/9781594032011
_______________________________________________________

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE (May 30, 2008)
Dear President Medvedev
By TATYANA MOROZOV and ALYONA MOROZOV

"In three coordinated bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, 292 people were murdered, including our mother Lyubov Morozova. We are writing this open letter to call on you, Dmitry Anatolyevich, to order an independent, open and full investigation of these attacks."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121209647875130625.html
_______________________________________________________

Russian Terror Victims Ask for Truth

In 1999, a series of apartment bombings shook Russia and propelled the country headlong into the Second Chechen War. Nearly nine years after the attacks, which claimed 292 lives, many Russians remain unconvinced by the official version of events, which holds that Chechen separatists were responsible.

Two sisters, who lost their mother in the attack, have written an open letter to President Dmitri Medvedev, urging him to mount a fully open, independent investigation. The sisters, Tatyana and Alyona Morozov, currently reside in Missouri. Their appeal (below) was published in the Wall Street Journal newspaper on May 30th.

–

Dear President Medvedev

In three coordinated bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, 292 people were murdered, including our mother Lyubov Morozova. We are writing this open letter to call on you, Dmitry Anatolyevich, to order an independent, open and full investigation of these attacks.

Although these crimes were blamed on Chechen terrorists and used to justify the resumption of a full-scale war against Chechnya later that month, there are numerous indications that Russian security services may have been involved. There is also clear evidence of a cover-up by the authorities. We do not consider this case solved.

Let us remind you of some of the facts:

* On September 23, 1999, police arrested three Federal Security Service (FSB) agents who had planted a detonator and RDX – the same explosive used in the earlier bombings – in the basement of a residential building in the city of Ryazan. The FSB explained the agent’s activities as a “training exercise,” claiming the sacks of explosives actually contained only sugar. The investigation was dropped and all evidence classified “top secret.”

* At about the same time, a Russian soldier discovered RDX in sacks labeled as “sugar” at his army base near Ryazan. The incident was never investigated and the evidence classified.

* On September 13, 1999, the Speaker of the Duma, Gennady Seleznev, announced that an apartment house in Volgodonsk had been blown up – three days before the attack actually occurred.

* Mark Blumenfeld, the property manager of our house on Guryanova Street in Moscow that was blown up, told our lawyer and several journalists that FSB agents had “talked him into” changing his testimony. The agents showed him a photo of Achemez Gochiyayev, a Chechen he had never seen before, and under pressure he “identified” him as the man who had rented storage space in the basement.

* The composite sketch based on Mr. Blumenfeld’s initial description of what the real suspect looked like disappeared from the police file and was replaced with the photograph of Mr. Gochiyaev. Meanwhile, our attorney Mikhail Trepashkin, himself a former KGB agent, told reporters that he had recognized FSB agent Vladimir Romanovich from the police sketch. Romanovich was subsequently killed in Cyprus in a hit and run incident that was never solved.

* In November 2003, on the eve of the trial of two Chechens later convicted for transporting the explosives used in the Moscow bombings, Mr. Trepashkin was arrested after a gun had been planted in his car. This prevented him from submitting Mr. Blumenfeld’s statement to court that the FSB agents had pressured him to give false evidence. The trial of the two Chechens was not convincing to us or the world as it was held behind closed doors and human rights groups noted numerous violations of due process. Mr. Blumenfeld’s statement and the replacement of the police sketch with the photo of Mr. Gochiyayev was never reviewed by a Russian court.

* Four people investigating the FSB’s possible involvement in the bombings were assassinated. Duma Deputy Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead in Moscow in April 2003 and his colleague Yuri Schekochihin died of apparent poisoning three months later. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in October 2006 in her Moscow apartment block and a month later, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died of poisoning in London.

Many Russians have come to the conclusion that the bombings may have been the work of Russian security services. As for our family, our initial trust in the official version of a “Chechen trail” is long gone. We have come to believe that our mother and neighbors were sacrificed for a political end: To justify the war in Chechnya and help Vladimir Putin become president the following year. Only an objective investigation could make us change this view.

Mr. President, we are writing this open letter because we would like to believe that your ascent to the presidency will end this dark period in Russian history. You were not involved.

We realize that you owe the previous regime a debt of loyalty and gratitude. But the powers of the state were entrusted to you not to protect possible murderers. You are now in control of Russia and your position imposes a higher responsibility. Before history, the people and the memory of innocent victims, you have an obligation to find and tell the truth about these crimes.

Related articles:

* A Record Harvest of Spies

* An Open Letter to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia

* Opposition Activist Revealed as FSB Agent

* Beslan Rights Group Charged With Extremism

* Russian Immigration Agency Knew Nothing About Morar’s Deportation

* Investigative Journalist Barred From Returning to Moscow

* Kasparov on His FSB Interrogation

Source: Russian Terror Victims Ask for Truth:
http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/05/31/russian-terror-victims-ask-for-truth/

[ETL]

Yushchenko: Russia blocking poisoning probe
By Bonnie Malkin and agencies, September 12, 2007

Mr Yushchenko before and after the poisoning

"Mr Yushchenko, a pro-European politician who wanted to bring his country out of Russia's shadow, fell seriously ill on September 6, 2004 as he was competing in presidential elections against a pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, now prime minister.

After months of tests in an Austrian clinic, it was determined that he had ingested a massive amount of the poison dioxin.

Although he survived, his face was left bloated and pockmarked, and he has had to undergo regular treatment to rid his body of the toxin.

In an interview with Le Figaro he said he believed the dioxin used to disfigure him was made in a Russian lab.

Mr Yushchenko did not directly accuse the Russian government of being behind his poisoning, but he did say he had 'practically put all the pieces together' and the attempt against him 'was not a private action'. ..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562838/Yushchenko-Russia-blocking-poisoning-probe.html
_____________________________________________________

"Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (born February 23, 1954) is the third and current President of Ukraine". He took office on January 23, 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko
_______________________________________________________

(Ukraine) Hunt starts for Yushchenko's poisoner:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/1478922/Hunt-starts-for-Yushchenko%27s-poisoner.html
_______________________________________________________

Putin's Poison?
by Peter Brookes, November 27, 2006
The death of former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, last week from radioactive Polonium-210 poisoning is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks on the outspoken opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed112706a.cfm

[ETL]

Symposium: To Kill a Russian Journalist
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2006

The murder of internationally renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in early October 2006 was yet another troubling sign of Russia’s retreat into its totalitarian past. Today Frontpage Symposium has gathered a distinguished panel of experts to discuss why Anna Politkovskaya was killed and what the tragic loss of her life symbolizes about the direction in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia is heading.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=BDBFAEF5-5295-400F-807B-83D20FFA285C
_______________________________________________________

'PUTIN'S RUSSIA' by Anna Politkovskaya:
http://www.annapolitkovskaya.com/

[ETL]

Col. Alexander Litvinenko
4 Dec 1962 - 23 Nov 2006

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed. You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value."

Obituary: Alexander Litvinenko
Times of London, 25 November 2006

On April 23, 2002, Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian secret service, arrived at Heathrow, supposedly on a stopover before flying on to the Caribbean. Claiming that he was being persecuted by the Russian authorities, he sought political asylum.

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was born in 1962 in Voronezh, south of Moscow. After high school and extended service in the Soviet Army (in which his grandfather was an officer), he graduated from the Interior Forces Military Academy, joining the KGB in 1988.

While his early career was in espionage, by 1991 he had made a name for himself in the organised crime and anti-terror divisions. He also worked in the central apparatus, leading co-operation between the KGB, by then renamed the FSB, and the Moscow organised crime police squad. In 1997 he joined one of the FSB’s most secret departments, specialising in the pursuit of criminal organisations, and became its deputy head.

This exemplary career came to an abrupt end on November 18, 1998, when, in a press conference, he accused his FSB superiors of extortion, corruption and illegal assassinations. The accusations were detailed and seemed credible. He was suspended and in March 1999 arrested and held in isolation in the infamous KGB Lefortovo prison.

He was tried and acquitted in November 1999, but immediately rearrested. In 2000 charges were dropped after he promised to stay in Moscow. He and his family lived under intense surveillance and when they heard that further charges were being prepared, they fled. They flew to Turkey and from there to London.

Tried in absentia and sentenced to nine years in prison, Litvinenko found work in Britain as a postman, while his wife taught ballroom dancing. He continued his campaign against his former employers in interviews and books, and contributed anti-Russian material to a Chechen website. At the time of his death he was investigating the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

He is survived by his wife Marina and his two children.

Alexander Litvinenko, former officer of the Russian secret service, was born on December 4, 1962. He died on November 23, 2006, aged 43

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html
_______________________________________________________

Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian security agent fighting for his life in a UK hospital after allegedly being poisoned, has been a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin since before he became president in 2000.

Mr Litvinenko is thought to have been close to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another opponent of the Kremlin who was shot dead last month, and said recently he was investigating her murder. It was after being handed documents apparently relating to the case that he was taken ill more than two weeks ago.

But he is perhaps best known for a book in which he alleges that agents co-ordinated the 1999 apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people. He now appears to have fallen victim to the kind of plots which he wrote about.

Arrest

Mr Litvinenko, 43, first became a security agent under the Soviet-era KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in its later incarnations.

He is reported to have fallen out with Vladimir Putin, then head of the security service, in the late 1990s, after failing in attempts to crack down on corruption within the organisation. In 1998, he first came to prominence by exposing an alleged plot to assassinate the then powerful tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who himself now lives in self-imposed exile in the UK. He was subsequently arrested on charges of abusing his office and spent nine months in a remand centre before being acquitted.

In 1999 he wrote Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he accused the current Russian security service, the FSB, of carrying out several apartment house bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people. The attacks, which Moscow blamed on Chechen rebels, helped swing public opinion behind Russia's second war in the breakaway republic.

Petrol bombs

Complaining of persecution, in 2000 Mr Litvinenko fled to the UK where he sought, and was granted, asylum. But after settling in an unnamed London suburb, the former spy continued to behave as if on the run, constantly changing his contact details. The Times newspaper reported that over the summer someone tried to push a pram loaded with petrol bombs at his front door. Appearing alongside high-profile opponents of President Putin, he has continued to make allegations about his former bosses. Perhaps most notably, he alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years before 9/11.

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html

[library user]

What I find strange is that in the other article posted, there is a quote which said just prior to the accident, i.e., bomb(s) going off, the driver of the train applied the brakes. Maybe that’s just coincidental, I don’t know, but it got my attention, i.e., why did the writer put that in there? Who did he get that info from, the train operator himself? What significance, if any, does it have?

[ETL]

List of journalists killed in Russia...

1992

* Sergey Bogdanovsky, correspondent of TV “Ostankino”, killed in Moscow[12]
______________________________

1993

* Rory Peck, ARD Germany operator, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Ivan Scopan, TF-1 France operator, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Igor Belozerov, 4th Channel Ostankino, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Sergey Krasilnikov, editor of TV “Ostankino”, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Vladimir Drobyshev, “People and nature” journal, killed in Moscow on 3 October

* Alexander Sidelnikov, freelance journalist from Saint Petersburg, killed in Moscow on 4 October

* Alexander Smirnov, Yoshkar-Ola based Youth Courier newspaper, killed in Moscow on 4 October

* Elena Tkacheva, proof-reader for Kuban Courier newspaper, killed in Krasnodar on 29 November as a result of a bomb exploding in the newspapers building

* Marina Iskanderova, journalist of a local TV station, murdered in her apartment in Nadym in December

* Dmitry Krikoryants, correspondent for Express Chronicle journal, murdered in his own apartment in Chechnya on 14 or 15 April.[13]
______________________________

1995

* Vladislav Listyev, head of the ORT TV Channel, killed in Moscow on March 1;
______________________________

2000

* Vladimir Yatsina, February 20, 2000. A correspondent for ITAR-TASS, he was kidnapped and later killed by a group of Wahhabis in Chechnya [14]

* Aleksandr Yefremov, May 12, 2000, Chechnya. A photojournalist of the western Siberian newspaper Nashe Vremya was killed in Chechnya when rebels blew up a military jeep in which he was riding. On previous assignments, Yefremov had won acclaim for his news photographs from the war-torn region.[citation needed]

* Igor Domnikov, from Novaya Gazeta, July 16, 2000, Moscow. Unknown assassin hit him repeatedly on the head with a hammer in the entryway of his apartment building in Moscow. The killer was never found. It is believed that the assailant mistook Domnikov for a Novaya Gazeta reporter Oleg Sultanov who received threats from the FSB for his reporting on corruption in the Russian oil industry.[6]

* Sergey Novikov, Radio Vesna, July 26, 2000, Smolensk. He was shot and killed in the stairwell of his apartment building. He often criticized the government of Smolensk Region.[citation needed]

* Iskandar Khatloni, Radio Free Europe, September 21, 2000, Moscow. He was killed at night with axe in his Moscow apartment by an unknown assailant. The motive of the murder is unknown, but Khatloni work on stories about the human-rights abuses in Chechnya.[15]

* Sergey Ivanov, Lada-TV, October 3, 2000, Togliatti. He was shot five times in the head and chest in front of his apartment building. He was director of Lada-TV, the largest independent television company in Togliatti, which was an important player on the local political scene.[16]

* Adam Tepsurgayev, Reuters, November 21, 2000, Chechnya. A Chechen cameraman, he was shot at a neighbor’s house in the village of Alkhan-Kala. He produced most of Reuters’ footage from Chechnya in 2000, including shots of Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev having his foot amputated.[citation needed]
______________________________

2001

* Eduard Markevich, 29, editor and publisher of local newspaper Novy Reft in Sverdlovsk Region, was found dead (shot in the back) on September 18. He often criticized local officials and had received threatening telephone phone calls prior to the murder. [17]
______________________________

2002

* Natalia Skryl, the Nashe Vremya newspaper, Taganrog town;

* Konstantin Pogodin, the Novoye Delo newspaper, Nizhni Novgorod city;

* Valeri Batuev, Moscow News newspaper, Moscow;

* Sergei Kalinovski, the Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Smolensk;

* Vitali Sakhn-Val’da, photojournalist, Kursk town;

* Leonid Shevchenko, the Pervoye Chteniye newspaper, Volgograd;

* Valeri Ivanov, the chief editor for the Tol’yattinskoye Obozrenie newspaper, the Samara region;

* Sergei Zhabin,the press service of the governor of the Moscow region;

* Nikolai Vasiliev, Cheboksary city, Chuvashia;

* Leonid Kuznetsov, the Mescherskaya Nov’ newspaper, the Ryazan region;

* Paavo Voutilainen, a former main editor of the Kareliya magazine, Kareliya;

* Roddy Scott, the Frontline-TV TV Company, from Great Britain.

* Alexandr Plotnikov, the Gostiny Dvor newspaper, Tyumen city;

* Oleg Sedinko, the founder of the Novaya Volna TV and Radio Company, Vladivostok city;

* Nikolai Razmolodin, the general director of the Europroject TV and Radio Company, Ulyanovsk town;

* Igor Salikov, the chief of the Department of information safety of the Moskovskiy Komsomolets newspaper in Penza;

* Leonid Plotnikov, the publishing house “Periodicals of the Mari-El”, Yoshkar-Ola.[18]
______________________________

2003

* Aleksei Sidorov, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, October 9, 2003, Togliatti. He was the second editor-in-chief of local newspaper, “Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye” to be shot to death. His predecessor, Valery Ivanov, was shot in April 2002. The newspaper was known for reporting on organized crime and corruption in the industrial city of Togliatti.[citation needed]

* Yuri Shchekochikhin, Novaya Gazeta, July 3, 2003, Moscow. Deputy editor of the Novaya Gazeta, he died just a few days before his scheduled trip to USA to discuss the results of his journalist investigation with FBI officials. He investigated “Three Whales Corruption Scandal” that involved high-ranking FSB officials. Shchekochikhin died from an “acute allergic reaction”. There are many speculations about cause of his death.

* Dmitry Shvets, TV-21 Northwestern Broadcasting, April 18, 2003, Murmansk. He was deputy director of the independent television station TV-21 Northwestern Broadcasting. He was shot dead outside his station offices. Shvets’ colleagues said their station had received multiple threats for its reporting on influential local politicians.[citation needed]
______________________________

2004

* Yefim Sukhanov, ATK-Media, Archangelsk;

* Farit Urazbayev, cameraman, Vladivostok TV/Radio Company, city of Vladivostok;

* Adlan Khassanov, Reuters reporter, killed in Grozny;

* Shangysh Mondush, correspondent for newspaper Khemchiktin Syldyzy, Tuva Republic;

* Paul Klebnikov, editor of Russian version of Forbes magazine, Moscow;

* Payl Peloyan, editor of Armyansky Pereulok magazine, Moscow;

* Zoya Ivanova, BGTRK broadcaster, Republic of Buryatia;

* Vladimir Pritchin, editor-in-chief of North Baikal TV/Radio Company, Republic of Buryatia;

* Ian Travinsky, Saint Petersburg, killed in Irkutsk;[19]
______________________________

2005

* Pavel Makeyev, reporter for TNT-Pulse Company, Rostov-on-Don;

* Magomedzaghid Varisov, Makhachkala;

* Alexander Pitersky, Baltika Radio reporter, Saint Petersburg;

* Vladimir Pashutin, newspaper Smolensky Literator, Smolensk;

* Tamirlan Kazikhanov, press service head, Anti-Terrorist Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs’s Main Department for the Southern Federal District, Nalchik;

* Kira Lezhneva, reporter, newspaper “Kamensky Worker”, Sverdlovsk Region.[20]
______________________________

2006

* Vadim Kuznetsov, editor-in-chief of journal “World and home. Saint Petersburg”, killed in Saint Petersburg

* Vaghif Kochetkov, newspaper Trud (Labor), killed in Tula

* Ilya Zimin, worked for NTV Russia television channel, killed in Moscow by an acquaintance

* Vyacheslav Akatov, special reporter, “Business Moscow” TV show, killed in Moscow Region

* Anton Kretenchuk, cameraman, 38th TV Channel, killed in Rostov-on-Don

* Yevgeny Gerasimenko, newspaper “Saratovsky Rasklad”, Saratov

* Vlad Kidanov, freelance journalist, Cheboksary

* Alexander Petrov, editor-in-chief, “Right for Choice” magazine, killed near Omsk - in Altai Republic

* Vyacheslav Plotnikov, reporter, 41st TV Channel, Voronezh

* Anna Politkovskaya, observer, newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, shot in her apartment building’s elevator;[21][22][23][24]

* Anatoly Voronin, business chief of ITAR-TASS; Moscow, stabbed to death in his home
______________________________

2007

* Konstantin Brovko, journalist of TV company “Gubernia”, killed in Khabarovsk

* Ivan Safronov, Military columninst of newspaper “Kommersant”. Died in Moscow on March 2 - cause of death disputed.[25][26]
______________________________

2008

* Ilyas Shurpayev, Dagestani journalist responsible for news coverage of Northern Caucasus on Channel One, was strangled with a belt by the robbers in Moscow.[27][28]

* Gaji Abashilov, chief of Dagestan outlet of VGTRK, shot in his car.

* Magomed Yevloyev, owner of Ingushetiya.ru, shot while in custody of Ingush police officers.[29][30][31].

* Abdulla Alishayev, Dagestani journalist fatally wounded by unknown assailants.[32]
______________________________

2009

* Anastasia Baburova (Novaya Gazeta)[33]. She was with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who reportedly was the target of the assasin.[34]

* Yevgeny Lukinov, a Channel One reporter died in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia on 30 May, 2009. “The journalist died on Saturday morning in a private house in Tskhinvali,” Channel One said. According to a spokeswoman the death was an accident.[35]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

[ETL]

[CNN] Encore Presentation - Czar Putin
Aired December 9, 2007

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The whole world watched as the Soviet Union sprinted from communism to freedom and the free markets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moscow is a boomtown. If you want to earn a million, you can do it.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Communism has given way to capitalism on a grand scale. But Russia's newfound wealth conceals a dark truth. Its leader, Vladimir Putin has near absolute power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my opinion, Vladimir Putin is a typical control freak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell your leaders that this regime is criminal. It is a police state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Putin, it is about power. For people that surround Putin, it is about money.

AMANPOUR: And the Russian people are letting him have his way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The masses want a czar. And this is no joke.

AMANPOUR: Join us as we peel back the layers of Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Welcome to democracy, Russia style.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/09/se.02.html

[ETL]

From AP via FoxNews.com...

Last Living Beslan School Attacker Sentenced to Life in Prison
May 28, 2006

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia — AP
A southern Russian court on Friday sentenced the sole surviving Beslan school attacker to life in prison, capping a yearlong trial that survivors and victims' relatives say has left the most essential questions about the tragedy unanswered.

They demand to know just who bore the most responsibility: Nur-Pashi Kulayev and his 31 fellow militants, or the officials whose negligence or even alleged complicity allowed them to seize hundreds of children and parents on the first day of school in September 2004.

Countrywatch: Russia

"I did not go to court to become convinced of Kulayev's guilt, but to reconstruct all the circumstances of the terrorist attack and find the truth," said Aneta Gadiyeva, whose daughter was killed. "But I did not learn anything new and did not get any answers." ..."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197093,00.html

[samtheman]

I don’t doubt that the modern-day KGB is capable of committing acts of terror... but then again, so are the Islamic enemies of Russia.

Of the two conclusion-jumping generalities...

1) If it’s terrorism, it must be the KGB

2) If it’s terrorism, it must be Muslims

...I’m still inclined to go with #2, if I’m forced to jump to a conclusion at all, that is. Which I’m not.

I think we have to wait and see, with the knowledge that we’ll quite possibly never know the truth.

[verity]

[will we ever learn the truth]

Gee. Thanks for editorial comment.

[ETL]

What I find strange is that in the other article posted, there is a quote which said just prior to the accident (i.e., bomb(s) going off), the driver of the train applied the brakes.

The report says that a bomb may have been placed on the tracks. Perhaps he saw it and tried to stop.

[ETL]

Re: [will we ever learn the truth]

Gee. Thanks for editorial comment.

Are you one of FR's KGB Putin admirers? We seem to have a few here.

[verity]

“Are you one of FR’s KGB Putin admirers? We seem to have a few here.”

No. I am criticizing you.

[ETL]

Why would you criticize me for posing that very legitimate question?

[samtheman]

Are you one of FR's KGB Putin admirers?

That's truly an idiotic statement, ETL.

Let's see, you posted a news story about a train in Russia going off the tracks, with preliminary indications that a bomb caused the derailment and loss of life.

You used that story as a place to do a freaking data-dump of mega proportions which shows that you're obviously all pre-wired with the data and with the predilection to dump it. (Which is fine. I wasn't even going to mention it until you called a fellow freeper a "Putin admirer".)

Then when someone calls you on what is OBVIOUSLY an editorial comment (which is no big deal, my post was an editorial comment also) you slam the poster with the calumny that he's a "Putin admirer" and not only that but that there are a "few" here in FR.

The train isn't the only thing that's gone off the rails here, ETL. Not by a long shot.

And for what it's worth I'm going to close with my OPINION:

If there was a bomb, then it was placed there by a stinking muzzie. (Does that make me a "Putin admirer" too?)

[samtheman]

please see my previous post

i meant to copy you on it

[HD1200]

Terrorists need to wake up. China & Russia are the real enemy of Islam. The reason we are in the Muslim region is because the Russians and Chinese support thugs like Saddam and Achmadinejab who are threats to the region.

Get Russia and China to stop supporting the thugs causing disturbances in the region and there is no reason for the US to even be there.

Now I just have to convince the terrorists I am right...

[ETL]

Re: Are you one of FR's KGB Putin admirers?

That's truly an idiotic statement, ETL.

No it isn't (it was a question, btw). I asked a perfectly legitimate question at the top. The KGB (now FSB) have a long history of committing terrorist attacks and murder. For anyone to immediately come to Putin's defense and criticize me for even asking 'will we ever learn the truth' is suspicious to me. I'm assuming this person actually knows something about how Russia and the KGB/FSB operate. Perhaps they are simply naive and don't know. In that case, I apologize.

[ETL]

Re: Are you one of FR's KGB Putin admirers?

That's truly an idiotic statement, ETL.

FYI: there are absolutely people here (a few as I said), who admire Putin, at least one of which is a die-hard Putin supporter. He doesn't seem to post much anymore. But when he did it was always pro-Putin, pro-Russia propaganda/BS from notoriously pro-Putin websites.