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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (85238)	8/10/2000 11:52:44 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Steven, immediately after the latest bomb attack in Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, the mayor, announced on TV that it definitely could be linked to the Chechens. Ask yourself: how could he possibly have known that? And as the story you cite reports, the two suspects detained at t he time were subsequently released, since there was no way they could be linked to the blast. You will also recall that Chechens were blamed for the huge apartment blasts in Moscow and Volgodonsk that contributed so much to popular support for launching a new war. Yet no evidence that they WERE involved has ever been produced. In fact, it is widely believed that the Russian "special services" set the blasts themselves. That theory was fueled by a remarkable incident in Ryazan later last year. Inhabitants of a particular apartment building noted a strange car, with obviously phony plates, that had pulled up in front. They then discovered a sack of "sugar" in the basement. They called in the local police, who took the sack, and tested it in a lab. They established that there was explosive mixed with the sugar, and that there was a timer. But when they attempted to set off the "device," it did not explode. The police concluded that the "terrorists" had simply gotten the proportions of the ingredients (the sugar and the explosive) wrong. Well, it came out that the FSB (the modern-day KGB) had planned the operation. The official FSB story was that it was a "test operation," meant to check the "vigilance" of the local population and police. Such "tests" are "conducted all the time" in other countries, according to the FSB spokesman. What a crock. The scariest possible interpretation of this incident is that the FSB operatives had indeed "gotten the proportions wrong," as the police had originally concluded. Unfortunately, it is also the most plausible (or at least more plausible than the official FSB explanation). And, of course, if the operation had succeeded, it would have been blamed on the Chechens. I can't say whether the latest bombing was the work of the Chechens, as Luzhkov, and others, have been so quick to assert. But what I can say is: 1) it is totally reprehensible/irresponsible to make such charges, without any evidence to back them up; and 2) the timing of the blast itself is all too reminiscent of the apartment bombings last September. It comes at a time when the public support of the war has fallen to less than 50% (from a high of 85%). To get people fired up again, what could be better than to stage a little show, to demonstrate the wickedness of the enemy?