The existence of evil in a world under divine supervision has consternated and troubled minds since the Almighty put the serpent into the garden of Eden. It is always remarkable how ostensibly calm and reasonable people, logical people, can break through the great safety barrier of inhibition that usually prevents people from taking another’s life. The kindly, pious, modest suicide bomber. Terrible moments of inhumanity surrounded by quiet and casual concerns for everyday life. Obviously evil and villain have many meanings with the connection between the law and morality being tenuous at best. There was recently the issue of the Israel’s purity of arms policy and the restraint of the use of force it implies, even when soldiers in the IDF are in borderline dangerous situations; a kind of moral circus where ethics themselves are treated like a figure in Kafka’s The Hunger Artist, where appropriate response may be left to starve in a cage while denying scraps of food the paid customers may tease him with.
—Hussain’s extraordinary sacrifice presents in the starkest terms two dramatically different conceptions of the basis of rule and sovereignty in Islam: one based on sword-power, the other on soul-power. It is the distinction that is also made in Walter Benjamin’s renowned essay, Critique of Violence: “Mythic violence is bloody power over mere life for its own sake; divine violence is pure power over all life for the sake of the living. The first demands sacrifice; the second accepts it.” It is the divine violence of Hussain’s acceptance of sacrifice that Shias in particular ritually commemorate and mourn annually.—Read More:http://souciant.com/2012/11/a-muslim-meditation-on-violence/
When the Russians dealt with the terrorists in Moscow Theatre crisis, they used poison gas which killed many of their own citizens. Those treated in hospital were denied care considered moral: the doctors could not get the military to disclose what the components of the gas was so they could treat the victims with an antidote. They were told that the chemical composition of the gas was considered classified military information an was not released. How would the Russian army treat Hebron rock throwers? How would the Americans deal with a mob of rock throwers egged on by Western Communists and anarchists? Don’t reflect too deeply or stretch the imagination in to the realm of peace and love we are all the same multiculturalism…
.. So the FSB refused to explain to the Russian Parliament what poison gas was applied during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, and a decade after this Chechen militant tragedy,the victim’s victims’ families are still seeking reponses about use of a deadly gas by Russian forces which effectively ended the siege and initiated a no more Mr. Nice Guy attitude in these types of circumstances.
( see link at end)…A total of 912 people, many of them children, were held hostage in the Dubrovka theatre for three days after coming to watch Nord Ost, a popular musical, on October 23, 2002.
The crisis ended on October 26 when Russian special forces filled the building with an unknown gas to neutralise the attackers, who had threatened to blow up the venue unless Russia pulled its troops out of Chechnya.
The effects of the gas killed 125 people, as well as the 40 attackers who were shot after being knocked out by the gas. The hostage-takers themselves killed five people.
AFP:”Ten years have gone by, but so many questions are still unanswered,” said Natalia Kurbatova, whose 13-year-old daughter Kristina, one of the young stars of the musical, was among those killed.
“Why didn’t the authorities negotiate with the militants’ leader, at least to let the children go? What was the gas that killed our loved ones?” Kurbatova demanded.
“I still don’t know how she died,” she said in an interview with AFP. Her daughter was only found in the morgue the day after the security forces stormed the building.
Medical aid to the exhausted hostages who inhaled the gas was poorly organised, said survivors, with most of the deaths resulting from suffocation rather than from explosions or gunshots….image:http://englishrussia.com/tag/russian-art/page/11/
The bloody end to the siege, two years into Vladimir Putin’s presidency, damaged his image as it appeared his regime had not made it a priority to prevent the deaths of the trapped civilians.
—TheBudyonnovsk incident was a humiliating experience for the Russians, who were publicly blamed for the deaths of the 50 hostages that were killed dur-ing the initial rescue attempt. Even more significantly, the Russian leadershipwas also forced to announce a temporary cease-fire and declare their com-mitment to serious negotiations with Chechen representatives in order toresolve the crisis.Six months after the Budyonnovsk incident, another crucial hostage eventtook place in Dagestan. On 9 January 1996, Salman Rudayev’s
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250-strongChechen commando unit took more than 2,000 hostages at a hospital in thecity of Kizlyar, and again demanded the unconditional withdrawal of Russianforces from Chechnya.—Read More:http://www.academia.edu/1498225/the_moscow_theater_hostage_crisis_their_tactics_and_rusain_response image:http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/2010-exhibitions
Dazed survivors of the Moscow siege told last night of the horrifying moments when special forces gambled everything to rescue them from Chechen terrorists. Relieved to be free, the hostages also told how they feared they would all die – if not from terrorist bullets and bombs then by the poison gas Russians used before storming the building. At least 30 hostages were reported dead in hospital from
effects of the gas which doctors described as ‘not sleeping gas but poison’.… the Russians explained that they feared two terrorists may be among the patients in the guise of hostages. But there is also an official desire to clamp down on speculation among relatives that innocents had died from the gas used to weaken the terrorists. It is known that at least 118 innocent hostages died along with 34 Chechens as the siege was ended. Before storming the theatre where more than 850 hostages were being held, Russian Alpha Force troops – their SAS – poured in a secret ‘sleeping gas’. Using automatic weapons and stun grenades, Alpha Force soldiers then fought it out with the Chechens. Many hostages died in the crossfire as the hooded Russian troops and Chechens – half of them women – fought a vicious gun battle.
However, the gas – the Russian authorities refused to identify its exact composition – is believed to be responsible for 30 or more of the deaths after at least 200 of them were found unconscious at the theatre. Deputy Interior minister Vladimir Vasilyev…
—The General Staff’s decision to order IDF forces to act with the utmost restraint in the West Bank shows that the security establishment, headed by Defense Minister Barak, is aware of how fragile the situation is, but it appears that this policy of restraint is beginning to act as a boomerang against us. Young Palestinians are drawing inspiration from video clips showing IDF soldiers running away from Palestinians throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. This increases their motivation to join the rioters.—Read More:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4319071,00.html
…blamed the deaths on heart and other chronic illnesses exacerbated by shock, hunger and distress. ‘Some people were old or ill and had been in a very difficult situation,’ he insisted. But two senior doctors, speaking out against Russian regulations, backed up suspicions of Russian relatives by claiming the so-called ‘sleeping gas’ was really a strong poison. Olga Karpova, of the Moscow Rescue Service said: ‘This was a strong poisonous substance which effectively paralyses the respiratory system and affects the cardiological system. ‘It can result in death. Today I saw it with my own eyes. All these people were seriously poisoned. Fifteen people arrived at the hospital already dead and they were just the people I saw myself.’ Vipali Mikheev, chief doctor at Moscow’s top emergency Sklifosovsky Hospital, said: ‘All the patients I examined in the first hour of their arrival were in a very bad condition. ‘Their symptoms were the same as those of bad poisoning. All of them were saying “what’s going on?” They wanted us to tell their families what had really happened….
The special forces were ordered in after the terrorists shot two hostages. Two young women caught up in the crossfire used a mobile telephone to talk live on air to Moscow Echo radio station and revealed the horror of the attack as it happened.
—Rebels rushed about the the-
THE MOSCOW THEATER HOSTAGE CRISIS
later screaming “Gas! Gas!” and “Turn on the air conditioning!”
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While some succumbed to the effects of the gas before any defensive action could be taken,others successfully donned respirators that had been brought along for the attack.
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In addition, those terrorists situated in areas far enough removed fromthe point(s) of release
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were not exposed to the gas in large enough quantitiesto be overwhelmed.—Image:http://www.academia.edu/1498225/the_moscow_theater_hostage_crisis_their_tactics_and_rusain_response
…’They are gassing us,’ screamed one. ‘All the people are sitting in the hall. We really beg not to be gassed!’ ‘She passed the phone to her friend, Anya, who appealed to the presenter to try to halt the operation. Presenter: ‘Anya, can you explain what kind of gas that is? What are you feeling, what do you see?’ Anya: ‘I don’t know. We see it, we feel it, we are breathing through our clothes. Our police are doing something. That’s it! [Shots ring out] Can you hear me? We are all going to be blown up…’
…Olga, who was the first to break the news of the attack on the theatre on Wednesday, lost consciousness at this point because of the effects of the gas and came round much later in hospital. She said the hostages were all expecting to die.
‘We didn’t believe they would let us out, even if their demand for the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya had been be satisfied. ‘The terrorists, especially the women among them, told us frankly: “We have come here to die, we all want to go to Allah, and you will be going with us.’ Speaking from hospital one man in his twenties said: ‘They let gas in, everyone suddenly lost consciousness.
‘No one could think clearly at all. Those who managed to put something over their faces could hear what was going on. I had this handkerchief. ‘But those who didn’t have anything lost consciousness immediately. There was shooting going on for some time.’…Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-144722/What-mystery-gas-used-hostages.html#ixzz2FhYngTAq
—The staging of events or “fauxtography” is such a commonly used tactic by the Palestinians and their supporters, it’s earned the nickname “Pallywood” in the Israeli press. Pictures are often posted on various blogs and Facebook with no context or reality check provided. As TheBlaze reported in February, a photo alleging to show an Israeli soldier brutally pointing his weapon at and placing his foot on the chest of a little Palestinian girl turned out to be actors in a street theater performance in Bahrain. These photos can have enormous impact on the public’s views about Israel.—Read More:http://www.theblaze.com/stories/i-spit-in-your-face-mother-goads-palestinian-girl-to-push-scream-at-idf-soldiers-in-propaganda-video-that-backfires/
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