Double suicide bombings kill 37 on Moscow subway

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_9mcBnSXwPM4sqgAwywqSgfV9rAD9EO7VR80 ^

[kronos77]

MOSCOW — Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 102, officials said.

The head of Russia's main security agency said preliminary investigation places the blame on rebels from the restive Caucasus region that includes Chechnya, where separatists have fought Russian forces since the mid-1990s.

The first explosion took place just before 8 a.m. at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.

A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later.

Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said the toll was 37 killed and 102 injured, but he did not give a breakdown of casualties at each station, according to Russian news agencies.

"I heard a bang, turned my head and smoke was everywhere. People ran for the exits screaming," said 24-year-old Alexander Vakulov, who said he was on a train on the platform opposite the targeted train at Park Kultury.

"I saw a dead person for the first time in my life," said 19-year-old Valentin Popov, who had just arrived at the station from the opposite direction.

In a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov said body fragments of the two bombers pointed to a Caucasus connection. He did not elaborate.

[ETL]

From Heritage.org...

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]

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 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]

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

[Roger_Wildcat]

Have it ever occurred to you that maybe most people just doesn’t care for you hijacking every single threads about the Russians with SPAM?

Just Compile it all into one post of nothing but link and short discription of each.

[Caipirabob]

I’m guessing about 98% of Americans are oblivious to that fact and would not recognize the name “Beslan”. Sad.

Intentionally so. Now the American media can shape the issue the way they want to.

[Leisler]

We should have TSA for trains too.

[FreeAtlanta]

Yet, their crazy leaders continue to have dealings with the Muslim alliance and help Iran to build nuclear weapons. One day, we will wake to read about Moscow being in ash under a Mushroom (Muslim) Cloud.

[ETL]

Have it ever occurred to you that maybe most people just doesn’t care for you hijacking every single threads about the Russians with SPAM?

Has it ever occurred to you that most people have their heads up their friggin butts when it comes to the evil that is STILL Russia? That, unlike us, they are very much capable of staging terror attacks, or at least being complicit in them, in order to "justify" crushing their opponents? That they are NOT our friends. That they are building up ALL of our enemies, including the Islamic terror nation of Iran? When it comes to KGB Putin and company just about anything is possible. One would have to be a complete fool to immediately trust them on anything.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Oppose AHAVA BOYCOTT - Tell Nordstorm to Continue Selling Beauty Products from the Holy Land

The radical group CODEPINK: Women for Peace (sic) has targeted Nordstrom, and is asking people to send e-mails calling for Nordstrom to boycott Ahava products.

You can e-mail the same people at Nordstrom saying how disappointed you would be if they listened to these radical "Women for Hate".

These are the people they are e-mailing:

Linda Peffer Divisional Vice President, Social Responsibility
Linda.Peffer@Nordstrom.com

Tara Darrow, Director of Public Relations, Nordstrom
Tara.Darrow@Nordstrom.com

Krischel Pen Nordstrom
Krischel.Pen@Nordstrom.com

[ETL]

Just Compile it all into one post of nothing but link and short discription of each.

However, you do have a point there. Several of the posts could be substantially reduced. I'll work on it. Thanks for the suggestion.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Nothing happened, and their support for the largest exporter of terrorism on earth (Iran) continued unabated.

After what went down in Beslan, that's unthinkable.

[eleni121]

Prayers for the victims...and hell unleashed for the terrorists.

[eleni121]

Thanks for the info....

[xander1000]

What’s the point of all this spamming while discussing this tragic news?

[Loud Mime]

Maybe - most people?

I found the information interesting. But, I'm speaking for myself, not "most people."

[Col Frank Slade]

Indeed, Chechen's killed those children also.

[TankerKC]

Has it ever occurred to you that most people have their heads up their friggin butts when it comes to the evil that is STILL Russia?

According to ETL, we all NEED his spam becasue we all have our heads up our butts. And, it's not just on the subject of Russia.

[GeronL]

Amish?

Christian Militia?

TEA Party sympathizers?

/s

[trisham]

I just saw this on Drudge. It said they were Chechen rebels.

*************************

Isn't that how they are usually described? Rarely does the media refer to them as Muslims.

[Roger_Wildcat]

Thanks, I am not opposed to opinions on any subject. It just needed to be compiled for those of us who already read the articles and have to scroll past them to read other people's post.