Protecting our Children: Reject the Culture of Fear

The first time I saw the image to the right, I thought it was a telephoto image of one of the bad guys. But as the image below shows, no, it was one of the special forces/army/police guys who had come to Beslan (North Ossetia), who was carrying out one of the infants who were released on Thursday, September 2, 2004. The hostage-takers were indeed a multi-national force--"Arabs" and at least one person of African ancestry being among the armed thugs who shot kids in the back, and denied water to children in sweltering heat. No, the Russians haven't treated the Chechens well, but attacking innocent children? This is barbaric. And it could happen here.

the burly, heavily armed man is a Russian police officer. His image is in multiple locations. My favorite, which I couldn't find, shows the officer looking out of the photo and was taken by Sergei Chirikov

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If you are moved to help the victims of the school massacre in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia, go to http://www.moscowhelp.org/, International Foundation for Terror Act Victims.

Our Foundation is raising charitable donations which will be fully distributed to the families or injured children or caretakers of those children who lost their parents. We are a grassroots project run by a group of volunteers, and we are the only such foundation outside Russia. All donations are tax-deductible.

Vouched for as good by Baldilocks, Darmon Thornton, the Command Post

Mick Hume, of Britain's Spiked!, writes: One lesson of the Russian school siege, wrote:
When the smoke clears over the school after the special forces raid, the Russian government will get much of the blame. Public mistrust of the authorities is such that,

even when Putin tries to take decisive action against terrorists, he is heavily criticised. It is unclear exactly how else the Russians were supposed to deal with apparent suicide bombers holding hundreds of children hostage. But the anti-government reactions will have little to do with the specifics of the school siege, or of Putin's policy towards Chechnya. They are more a reflection of the Russian public's general mood of cynicism and fear - a mood that is music to terrorist ears.

We need to stop. We need to take a deep breath, and look at the options. Do we trust our government? How would we Americans comport ourselves, should such a thing happen here (and it could)?

What happened at the end? Did the special forces blow it? I don't think so, given the reporting. Lots of kids--more kids than adults--in intolerable conditions. I'm guessing some of the kids made a break for it as the armored personnel carrier approached to retrieve the bodies, the thugs started shooting, and the wheels just came off. Pandemonium. Negotiations over, thirst-and heat-maddened kids scattering every which way, guns and bombs going off....

More:
Kimberly's pointing to Logic & Sanity.
Logic & Sanity:
Ongoing reports (He's a Russian Speaker);
A hostage's report
Australian coverage

Comments

[medicmom]

The images of that police officer caught my eye too. He seesm to be such a gentle giant. I cried like a baby the other day while looking through the photos of this incident in Russia. A truly sad situation. It could very well happen here in the USA. Frightens me to think about it.

[Katherine]

Thank you so much for this link, I had been wondering where I could donate some money to assist with at least attemtping to rebuild lives after this shocking tragedy.

(If I wasn't at work I'd be exploring your links more!)

[ennis]

My take was that a bomb went off by accident, and then the whole thing went fubar. The public's mistrust of their government is well founded. They have no love of the terrorists, but past actions have shown that the Russian government has little concern for the lives of their own civilians. For example, most/all of the casualties from the last big hostage incident came from the gas that the special forces used, gas whose composition they refused to reveal so people could be treated, gas whose antidote was not readily available at the scene. When the sub went down, the government lied and dissembled to cover itself rather than mounting a last ditch effort to protect those within. And in one of the bombing incidents, that of an apartment building some time back, some people in Russia felt thaat particular incident was more likely the act of state security than Chechens.

That's why they might seem unappreciative to us.

[liz]

1. Were there "Arabs" among the murdering terrorist thugs? It's becoming less clear.

2. Looks like Ennis is right

3. Look out, United Kingdom, it is your turn next:
Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule.

Cleric supports targeting childrenBy Rajeev Syal (Filed: 05/09/2004)

An extremist Islamic cleric based in Britain said yesterday that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Mohammed said: "If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terrorism in Iraq.

"As long as the Iraqi did not deliberately kill women and children, and they were killed in the crossfire, that would be okay."

Mr Mohammed, 44, who lives in Edmonton, north London, but is originally from Syria, also claimed that the Chechen rebels were not responsible for the deaths of more than 350 people - at least half of them children - who are so far known to have died in Beslan.

"The Mujahideen [Chechen rebels] would not have wanted to kill those people, because it is strictly forbidden as a Muslim to deliberately kill women and children. It is the fault of the Russians," he said.

The father of seven came to Britain in 1985 after being deported from Saudi Arabia because of his membership of a banned group. He has since been given leave by the Home Office to remain in Britain for five years but the Government is reviewing his status.

He gave an interview yesterday to promote a "celebratory" conference in London next Saturday to commemorate the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, was infuriated by Mr Mohammed's comments. "That sounds to me like incitement and I will report him to Scotland Yard," he said. "It is an insult to most moderate Muslims, who are sick of people like this claiming to represent them."

[liz]

Daniel Pipes says, "if you obscure the nature of the action, you obscure your thinking. They are terrorists, and they are Islamicist."

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2066

[liz]

Ennis alerts me that I am somewhat, well, naive in political matters, which is true. For a long and hotly debated exchange on the meaning of Pipes' article, go to:

http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002462.html

[liz]

Sp!ked on Beslan #1:

Beslan: the real international connection, by Brendan O'Neill

Commentators are desperately trying to make sense of what seem like senseless events in Beslan. But they are attempting to force it into political categories where it simply doesn't fit. [snip] The developments of the 1990s - away from a world organised around state sovereignty and towards encouraging the movement of both state and non-state forces across borders - did much to give rise to today's peculiarly rootless, cross-border movements.

Go read the whole thing, to broaden your mind.

[Ennis]

I'm sorry, there was no intent to rebuke, just explaining my own discomfort with Pipes' broader political role.

As for the BBC, as I recall, they had a policy of not using the word terrorist for anybody, but instead of describing the actions of the person, and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. Reuters may have a similar policy.

I haven't seen any articles that soft pedalled the horrific nature of what happened.