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that darn "t" word

there goes that darn "T" word again

Via Interfax:

Four die in helicopter shot down in Chechnya MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - An Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the vicinity of a helicopter pad in Khankala on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Stanislav Kavun, deputy commander of the interior units, told Interfax.

"By early reports, the helicopter was shot down as it approached the helipad. Four people have been killed," he said.

Anyone want to draw conclusions? Or are we just going to call this coincidence and avoid the "T" word again?

Posted by on October 29, 2002 09:10 AM |

Comments

They'll just avoid the T word.

If they avoid it, it will go away.

Posted by: Vinny | October 29, 2002 09:26 AM

Rebels aren't necessarily terrorists; however, in this case, they use similar tactics. I hope you understand that the Russians are as brutal as the Chechens are, doing as horrible a group of atrocities as the Chechens. Neither side are saints in this one, Michele. I do hope you realize that.

Posted by: Scott | October 29, 2002 09:47 AM

It was an Icy Loner.

Posted by: Michael Wagner | October 29, 2002 10:32 AM

Oh, I totally understand that Scott. Just because one side is as brutal as the other doesn't mean it's not terrorism, though.

Posted by: michele | October 29, 2002 10:35 AM

what are we using for our definition of "terrorism", exactly?

Posted by: miguel | October 29, 2002 10:52 AM

People who blow things up and don't have a government to make excuses for them?

Posted by: D | October 29, 2002 11:00 AM

erm, good point.

Posted by: bran | October 29, 2002 11:02 AM

So the Russian acts aren't terrorism?

Posted by: Scott | October 29, 2002 11:17 AM

Umm..this post was just about the inability to of the media to use the word terrorism. It wasn't about taking sides.

Posted by: michele | October 29, 2002 11:31 AM

No, no, I realize that -- just wanted to clarify, since if the Russians aren't guilty of terrorism, you could extend the same thought to Iraq (with one exception -- the payments to Palestinian suicide bomber's families).

I'll leave you be, now.

Posted by: Scott | October 29, 2002 11:35 AM

Chechen history with the Russians has been HORRID. The Russians have ethnic cleansed them a few times, sent the lot to Siberia.
While I agree terrorism is abhorrent (and what happened in the Moscow theatre). What Russians have done to Chechens and her OWN people - systematically, should not be ignored.
Read the Black Book Of Communism. :-(

Posted by: eli | October 29, 2002 12:22 PM

Communists have little black books??? Somehow I didn't see them as dating that much.

Posted by: Tracy | October 29, 2002 05:15 PM

;-) Tracy-lol
It's a book about Communists and the atrocities they have committed over the centuries.

Some women love dating bad men - saw an unbelievable (but true!) show about women marrying men in prison they had met via *pen pal*ing with them. There's no accounting for taste - sometimes.

Posted by: eli | October 29, 2002 06:16 PM

The Chechens have a legitimate grievance with the Russians, which should be redressed. Unfortunately, their legitimate grievance has been taken over by Wahhabist Arab infiltrators and terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, which means that the Chechens are now twice as screwed, and this time by their co-religionists whom the Chechens understandably believed would help them. (Incidentally, the Muslims of Chechenia, like most of the rest of Central Asia, are culturally Sufis, the mystical and meditative side of Islam. Wahhabis are an offshoot of the extremely literalist Hanbali school of Islamic thought, and they disapprove of Sufism generally, and Sufis in Wahhabi-controlled areas have been known to be ill-treated. Wahhabi groups sponsored by Our Pals the Saudis have been going around to these parts of the world and generally trashing the native Muslim cultures and have been attempting to replace the customs there with their "purer," more "authentic" practices, even going so far as to trash cemeteries because grave markers are supposedly "shirk" -- idol worshipping. Don't believe me? Do a search for writings on the Wahhabi riots in Mecca in, I believe, the 1920's, when they even tried to destroy the grave of Muhammad and his family.)

Posted by: Andrea Harris | October 30, 2002 09:22 PM