I think this pictures are appropriate together. This could happen here:
Pray for the victims, and then pray for retribution.
I'm so mad right now, I'm gonna get banned and probably visited by "suits" if I say anything else.
Posted on 09/03/2004 8:23:01 AM PDT by kattracks
Looks like up to 150 people have been killed.
Then how about a compromise? Let's call them "terrorist hostage takers"
You can't deny that they're people either. So CNN should just call them 'people'.
The free world must unite and declare war on militant Islam. The US must declare it as enemy. However, political correctness has other ideas.
When they stop calling the Arabs murdering Israeli babies "activists" and "militants."
Al Queda is just one terrorist group in a sea of militant Islam. This ideology must be destroyed by the free world. Its not enough just going after Al Queda - as a new one will be quick to form.
Russians Storm School; 150 May Be Dead
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press WriterBESLAN, Russia - Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding 1,200 hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. An official said the death toll could be significantly higher than 150.
Hours after the midday assault, three of the separatist rebels were reportedly still blockaded in a school basement, trading fire with security forces. A Federal Security Service official said militants were still holding hostages — children among them.
The school was largely secured late Friday afternoon, but a large explosion erupted from inside toward nightfall, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. A member of an elite security unit died saving two young girls, the agency reported.
Valery Andreyev, the top Federal Security Service official in the region, said 20 militants were killed, including 10 Arabs. The Arab presence among the attackers would support President Vladimir Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade.
A hostage who escaped told Associated Press Television News that the militants numbered 28, including women wearing camouflage uniforms. The hostage, who identified himself only as Teimuraz, said the militants began wiring the school with explosives as soon as they took control.
The chaotic climax to the hostage standoff began when explosions collapsed part of the school roof and gunfire erupted from inside the building where the militants, some with explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the school Wednesday morning.
The militants — demanding independence for nearby Chechnya — kept the hostages, mostly women and children, in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to let in food or water.
"They didn't let me go to the toilet for three days, not once. They never let me drink or go to the toilet," Teimuraz, the escaped hostage told APTN.
After the hostage-takers fled, more than 100 bodies were found in the gymnasium, some apparently killed when part of the school's roof collapsed in the explosion that prompted the Russian security forces to move in.
A Putin aide said the total death toll could be significantly more than 150 people. An estimated 520 people were wounded, health officials said. The regional health minister earlier reported that at least 218 children were wounded.
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Putin's top aide on Chechnya, said security forces did not plan to storm the building, but were prompted to move when the hostage-takers set off explosions early Friday afternoon. Witnesses said the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape themselves.
Gunfire rang out for hours as security forces chased hostage-takers, who split into small groups as they fled. Interfax and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported the three militants holed up in the basement may include the head of the group. Another group took refuge in a nearby house where tanks moved in.
Huge columns of smoke rose from the school. Windows were shattered, part of roof was gone and another part was charred. Commandos, residents and journalists scurried around the building and soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all the glass missing.
People ran through the streets, and the wounded were carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children — some naked, some clad only in underpants, some covered in blood — to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored personnel carrier. One child had a bandage on her head, others had bandaged limbs. Some women, newly freed from the school, fainted.
The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. Many of the children were naked or only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium.
"I am helping you," a man dressed in camouflage told a crying girl. Women gathered around, trying to soothe her, saying "It's all right. It's all right."
A cameraman for the British network ITN reported seeing around 100 bodies in the gym. The correspondent for Russia's Interfax news agency reported that there were dozens of bodies in the school, including about 100 in the gym, and that some were killed when the building's roof collapsed from an explosion before the main assault began.
Sixty of the bodies in the gymnasium have been identified, said Andreyev, the chief of the Federal Security Service in North Ossetia said.
A nurse spread clean sheets on stretchers, and told AP that Russian officials expected "very many" wounded.
The White House branded the hostage-taking "barbaric" and "despicable" and said responsibility for dozens of lost lives rests with the terrorists. "The United States stands side-by-side with Russia in our global fight against terrorism," spokesman Scott McClellan said.
President Bush was briefed on developments in Russia Friday morning before a re-election rally in Pennsylvania. He did not talk about the Russian terrorism during his speech.
The chaos erupted on the third day of the hostage standoff in Beslan, a town of 30,000 in North Ossetia, a republic near the wartorn region of Chechnya. North Ossetia's president, Alexander Dzasokhov, said Friday the militants had demanded independence for Chechnya — the first official word connecting the hostage-taking to the conflict that has fueled Russia's worst terror attacks.
The violence began after militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of people killed early in the raid. Explosions went off as the emergency personnel went to get the bodies at around 1 p.m., collapsing part of the roof of the building, and hostages took the noise as a signal to flee, officials said.
Militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and security forces returned fire. Once the hostage-takers sought to escape, Russian officials apparently made the decision to storm the building.
The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm it, but all indications suggested the explosions began before the assault. Russian officials repeatedly said they were not planning to invade and had earlier won the release of 26 hostages through negotiations.
The hostage-takers' identities were murky. Lev Dzugayev, a North Ossetian official, said the attackers might be from Chechnya or Ingushetia. Law enforcement sources in North Ossetia and Ingushetia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers were believed to include Chechens, Ingush, Russians and a North Ossetian suspected of participating in the Ingushetia violence.
Insurgents fought an earlier war for Chechen independence, a conflict that ended in stalemate. In the years since, the rebels and their sympathizers have increasingly taken to assaults and attacks outside the tiny republic.
Negotiators said the hostage-takers had repeatedly refused offers of food and water throughout the standoff.
"They are very cruel people, we are facing a ruthless enemy," said Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in the negotiations. "I talked with them many times on my cell phone, but every time I ask to give food, water and medicine to the hostages they refuse my request."
The school seizure came a day after a suspected Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up outside a Moscow subway station, killing nine people, and just over a week after 90 people died in two plane crashes that are suspected to have been blown up by bombers also linked to Chechnya.
In a 2002 theater raid in Moscow, Chechen rebels took about 800 hostages during a performance, a standoff that ended after a knockout gas was pumped into the building, debilitating the captors but causing almost all of the 129 hostage deaths.
On Thursday, the militants had freed about 26 hostages, all women and children.
Military action against any terror militant Islamic regime is the last resort. First you have to condemn their actions, isolate them, cut diplomatic relations and not trade with them. That is what you need to do with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the terror regimes. Then we will see what will happen after that. But I doubt the US will ever do this thing. Look at Syria and its terror regime, the US itself calls terrorist as well. And what does the US have? Diplomatic relations. What is the point with that? Why recognize that regime?
I've got, for lack of a better way to describe it, a "middle" view on it. I hope it doesn't come down to having to use nukes, I think it probably won't come to that. BUT...I'm not going to be PC and sensitive-war about it and say FOR SURE won't come to that.
Remember, the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki did save a lot of lives -- both American and Japanese...
"Al Queda is just one terrorist group in a sea of militant Islam."
I agree and it reminds me in part of the FMLN in El Salvador. There were so many terrorists groups under that umbrella and they often could become violent with each other. Of course if a Leftist was ever killed the Right got the blame even if murdered by another Leftist. This is likely the case in Archbiship Romero's assasination (this via Monsignor Alfredo Delgado). Anyway a FMLN operative could be in appearance pure Indian to pure European. The FMLN Commandante Shafik Handel was from the Mideast.
A Moslem Chechen can appear to be a gypsy or a Swede and with pureblooded Arabs helping them we have a wide range of races to look out for.
Remember too that since Chechens are poor it is not surprising that oil money has sent them to Afghanistan and Iraq. A Syrian middle class person lives much better than a Chechen middle class person and thus the Chechen will more likely be lured by money.
Did anyone actually READ the 9/11 Commission Report? Al-Qaeda IS involved with the Chechens - have been since at least the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - they fight, train and commit acts of terror together - they are on the same team - Radical Islamic Terrorists - even the "bi-partisan" 9/11 Commission had this much figured out.
The religion of peace murders a few hundred children. Lets hear the apologists for islam again.
I prefer "targets of limited lifespan" myself.
Sickening, isn't it? It is indeed news about X42i's surgery, but come on. I think they are relieved not to have to report on the terror for a bit, like a respite. After all, it does indeed clash with Kerry's vision for the US of complete capitulation and appeasement and also deferment in these matters to the UN. We should be reminded of just what the war on Terror is all about.
Oh, as I type, FOX is breaking to say there are still hostages being held by these animals. It doesn't sound good for the hostages left in the building, mostly dead or seriously injured. Let's hope the Russians make an example of these monsters.
I think this pictures are appropriate together. This could happen here:
I'm so mad right now, I'm gonna get banned and probably visited by "suits" if I say anything else.
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