The "rebels," of course, are Islamic jihadists -- holding to the same ideology and belief-system as the Iranians whom the Russians have been foolishly and short-sightedly aiding. "Murder on the Nevsky Express," by Matthew Campbell and Anna Voutsen in the Sunday Times, November 29:
The first sign of something wrong as the Nevsky Express raced through the night came when the train began to "tremble". Then the carriage gave a violent lurch to the left and Igor Pechnikov was hurled from his seat.He was one of the lucky ones. At least 30 other passengers aboard the luxury express from Moscow to St Petersburg were killed and scores more injured when a bomb went off, derailing the last three carriages, including Pechnikov's, at 130mph.
"I flew through half of the carriage," he said yesterday after being led from the twisted wreckage.
Rescue workers searching the mangled debris for 18 people still unaccounted for escaped injury when a second bomb partially detonated nearby yesterday afternoon.
There was no claim of responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on rebels fighting Moscow's rule over the mountainous republic of Chechnya in the northern Caucasus region. They have carried out similar attacks....
Hmph.
After Beslan, my favourite swear for a while was "Chechens!"
Is that wrong?
Just for fun, and so we can amuse ourselves dissecting the prim euphemisms used by MSM outlets to disguise the fact that sharia-pushing jihadists are the most likely suspects, here are two other versions of the story.
The first, the Reuters version, was reproduced on Australia's ABC news this morning.
Here's the link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/29/2756440.htm?section=justin
Here's the best bit: second-last paragraph, in which we have a new adjective joining 'volatile' and 'troubled' and 'restive' as Euphemism of Choice for "sharia-addled, jihad-wracked" -
"The derailment is Russia's most deadly train disaster for years and could raise fears of a surge in attacks on the Russian heartland by rebels from the *turbulent* {my emphasis - dda} North Caucasus".
Got that everyone? - 'turbulent'. Let's remember it and see if Reuters uses it again. And for 'rebels' read 'Muslim ghazwa raiders'.
Now here's the Associated Press version, as reproduced in the Jerusalem Post, viewed by me this morning (29 November Australian time):
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243024096&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Don't you just love the title? 'Train crash in Russia caused by bomb'.
Gee, gotta watch out for those bombs that just make themselves and set themselves and go off all by themselves!
Detail worth noting - it happened *on a Friday night*.
Here are the 'contextualising' final paragraphs offered by our weaselwording friends at Associated Press. I have inserted, in caps and square brackets, a running commentary/ translation/ expansion of the text.
'Terrorism [tr: MUSLIM JIHAD RAIDS] has been a major concern in Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as Chechen [add: MUSLIM] rebels have clashed with [tr: ATTACKED] government forces in two wars and Islamist separatists [MUSLIM JIHADISTS] continue to target law enforcement officials.
'If terrorism [tr: A JIHAD ASSAULT] is confirmed, it would not be the first time the Moscow-St. Petersburg rail line has been attacked [add: BY JIHADI GHAZWA RAIDERS].
'A 2007 derailment on the line was caused by an explosion and injured 27 people.
'Authorities arrested two suspects and are searching for a third - a former military officer. {Note - I'll *bet* all three have Muslim names - and...'a former military officer'. In the Russian army? Bet he's Muslim. If so: looks like the Russians have their own problems with Muslims in the ranks - dda}.
'Across Russia's [add: MAJORITY-MUSLIM] North Caucasus region, attacks are relatively frequent. In August, a [MUSLIM] suicide bombing of a police station in Ingushetia's capital killed 25 people and injured 164. A September 2004 [MUSLIM JIHADIST] attack on a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan ignited a three-day hostage-taking ordeal in which more than 330 hostages were killed [BY THE JIHADISTS AND ALSO IN THE CROSSFIRE] in a botched rescue. In addition, a December 2003 [MUSLIM] suicide bombing of a train near Chechnya killed 44 people.
'But outside the volatile [tr: JIHAD-WRACKED MAJORITY-MUSLIM ] southern region, the last fatal terrorist attacks [tr: JIHAD RAIDS] occurred in August 2004. A [MUSLIM] suicide car bombing in Moscow that month killed 10 people only days after [MUSLIMS DETONATED BOMBS] bombs ripped through [IN] two passenger aircraft, killing more than 80 people. Those attacks were blamed on [tr: CARRIED OUT BY MUSLIM] Chechen rebels, as was a February 2004 Moscow subway bombing that killed 40 people.
'A 2002 hostage-taking [BY MUSLIM JIHADISTS] at a Moscow theater ended with the deaths of around 130 people.
'Another train derailment [CARRIED OUT BY MUSLIM JIHADISTS] in June 2005 left at least 12 injured on a train that had been traveling from Chechnya to Moscow." END EXCERPT.
"Rescue workers searching the mangled debris for 18 people still unaccounted for escaped injury when a second bomb partially detonated nearby yesterday afternoon."
a favorite tactic of the Muslims is to set off one bomb and then set off a second bomb as help arrives.....the old Islamic one-two punch...
I have a suggestion.
As and when it becomes quite clear that this was done by jihadists, I believe it would be quite appropriate for jihadwatchers from assorted countries to write brief letters of condolence to the Russian people, addressed to the Russian ambassadors in our respective countries.
Something along the lines of 'dear sir, I write as a citizen of country X to express my deepest condolences to the Russian people in the wake of the jihad raid of [date, place, etc] which killed [number of victims] and wounded [number of victims]. . My thoughts and prayers are with the survivors and the investigators, etc.'
Use all the plain, blunt, un-PC terms that the MSM avoids using. The idea being to make it quite clear to the ambassador that we know there is a Jihad going on, fuelled by central doctrines of classical Islam, and that Russia is a target of jihad, and that we support whatever action Russia takes in self-defence against the jihadists.
*Every* time there is a major kill by Muslim jihadis inside any non-Muslim country, all jihadwatchers should write similar letters of condolence to the relevant ambassador.
Post script: Seems to me that letters and cards addressed to the Patriarch of all the Russias, letting him know that people from all over the world, Christian and non-Christian, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, are aware of and wish to honour the martyrdom - at murderous Muslim hands - of brave Fr Daniel Sysoyev, and that we fully appreciate and approve of what Fr Daniel was trying to do, in his evangelism of Muslims and his warning Russian Christians against Islam, would not go astray either.
Russia is being incredibly stupid by 'covering' for, and dealing with, Iran. But then the USA is being incredibly stupid by pouring jizya down the Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraqi - and Egyptian, and Turkish, and Saudi Arabian, and Kuwaiti, and 'Palestinian' - ratholes.
However: at ground level in both countries, the Robert Spencers and Daniel Sysoyevs are in full and perfect agreement; and I am sure that the bereaved families of Beslan, London, New York City, Madrid and Mumbai would find much to agree about, as well.
And I would just *love* to put a whole bunch of grunt soldiers (Aussie, European, Canadian, UK, Yankee) newly emerged from the hellpits of Afghanistan and Iraq, into the same pub as a bunch of Russian veterans of Chechnya and of *their* Afghan campaign (not to mention those soldiers who had to try to rescue the children and families, at Beslan; young Russian soldiers who found themselves carrying out of that school dead or wounded, dehydrated, traumatised little kids), with plenty of beer and vodka, with competent translators, ...and someone like Raymond Ibrahim or Stephen Coughlin or Mr Spencer to answer their questions and guide a discussion.
I will add that in the past I have, for example, written just such letters as I described above, to the Indian High Commissioner in Australia, after Mumbai and after a previous jihad terror raid; and also to the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, after the mass-murdering jihad raid on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem.
The saying used to be, "when in doubt, follow the money".
Now, it's got to be "when in doubt, follow the jihad".
"Change".
Gee, I "hope" I'm wrong.
Kenny Solomon
Senior Expediter
The 72 Virgins Club Travel Agency
@DDA
Did you see the story on Al Jazeera?
The headline:
Russia investigates train 'attack'
The story text mentions the crater and explosive residue, but still the word attack gets quotes around it.
Good idea, and done (despite my allergy to contacting foreign governments).
I was moved to do this out of respect for, well, very old memories. When the teachers at my grade school wanted to keep me off the playground and away from the bullies who tormented me every time they saw me, they had me helping coach Russian kids in English (for some reason, we seemed to have a lot of Russian ESL students in the early-mid 70s).
One kid, though, was one I never tutored, but I remember him clearly - from Grade 2. His name was Peter, but I don't know his last name. Some boy had pushed me into a mudpuddle, and Peter ran up, chased him away, and pulled me up. I never forgot that. Unfortunately, his family moved away a couple of weeks later or so, where to, I know not, never found out. Wish I did, because I don't remember if I ever thanked him through the tears. I really don't remember much about that year at all, except for that episode.
I suppose sending condolences to the embassy is the very least I could do in return. :s
Vladimir Putrid, glorified gangster, yet leads his KGB kleptocracy on its merry way, making trouble for the "West" by helping Iran get nukes, by supplying Syria and Hezbollah with advanced weapons and by generally behaving like a wise guy.
Okay, smart ass, once again you got burned and look like the irresponsible fool you are.
Maybe some day Russia will actually have a democracy, though I suspect that alcoholism and a low birth rate will cause it to degenerate into a version of Lebanon in the 1970s before some asiatic version of Hezbollah takes it over.
Nice work.
According to the FSB investigation, the organizer of very similar attack in 2007 was Pavel Kosolapov, an ethnic Russian who adopted Wahhabi Islam. And he has not been caught. The executors were two Ingushetia inhabitants.
It was reported that the bombers are not Jihadist Muslims, but Ultra-Nationalistic Neo-Nazi types, the same group that has committed other bombings.
Political Correctness did not originally evolve as a tool for the editorial control of story content through nuanced evasion. Nevertheless, it has found this secondary function as a way of 'editing the news' without really 'editing the news.' Initially, I think PC sensibilties came about as a language-based form of reparations to a variety of societal minority groups. It's a way of saying "as a society, we apologize for all the offensiveness of the past", over and over, ad nausea.
The real question is why would a journalist use this technique to ration out the objectivity of a story and thereby limit its impact? If it's not done purposefully then it is due to ignorance. There is a wide-spread lack of knowledge of jihadism and the real politics of radical Islam. If it's done intentionally, I must conclude it's from fear that too much truth, too much objective, factual reporting may trigger waves of vigilante violence as angry mobs of rioting Americans hunt down Muslims with mayhem on their minds. No one in journalism or public office wants to be associated even indirectly with such an outcome.
Having said this, political correctness was always doomed to failure because it's a poor substitute for real courtesy. Furthermore, I believe the truth never caused an unjust assembly and that we, the people, are capable of assimilating a broad range of information without acting out like the torch-bearing villagers closing on Frankenstein as the windmill burns.