Putin's terror war. (Insider Report).

On the day after the deadly end of October's hostage crisis in Moscow, Russian ruler Vladimir Putin "empowered the military to wage a broad American-style war against terrorists even outside Russian borders," reported the October 28th Washington Post. Seemingly mimicking President Bush's "with us or against us" rhetoric, Putin "vowed to pursue not only 'the terrorists themselves' but also their ideological sponsors and financial backers 'wherever their whereabouts.' "Of course, the media devoted little if any attention to Putin's background with the KGB -- the chief sponsor and financier of international terrorism.

The two and a half-day siege began when self-identified Chechen "suicide terrorists" took control of Moscow's House of Culture, seizing an estimated 800 hostages. Demanding that Russia end its war against Chechen separatists, the terrorists killed two hostages. The standoff ended when Russian Alpha Special Forces troops used a gaseous chemical agent called Fentanyl. Fifty guerrillas and at least 117 hostages were killed in the operation. "The gas's composition ... remained a secret to medical workers fighting to save people weakened after 58 hours held hostage," observed the Guardian of London.

While the siege obviously had to be broken, some Russian commentators "assailed the government for abandoning negotiations, killing so many civilians and then withholding information vital to the treatment of the survivors," noted the Post. In addition, some supporting the counter-terrorist operation "nonetheless demanded investigations into how Russian security agencies allowed a heavily armed battalion of Chechen suicide bombers to make it to Moscow and into the theater in the first place."

Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats, one of the boldest analysts of Russia's secret police culture, pointed out that "despite the fact that Moscow streets are now filled with policemen checking papers of those who look non-Slavic and therefore suspicious, despite the increased activity of the Russian secret services in exercising surveillance over politicians, despite all of the security precautions, several dozen heavily armed terrorists managed to stage their attack just a few miles from the Kremlin."