May 16, 2006

Surviving Beslan Terrorist Sentenced to Die

He won’t be surviving very long if a “moratorium" on executions is lifted. Nurpashi Kulayev was sentenced to die for his role in the siege of school which ended in the deaths of the rest of the terrorists and 300+ school children and teachers. At the very least he will rot for the rest of his life.

Euronews: The only man charged over the Beslan school siege two years ago has been found guilty and could face the death penalty. Reading out the sentence, the Russian judge said Nurpashi Kulayev had committed murder and attempted murder, taken part in a bandit group, taken hostages and illegally stored and transported weapons.

An official moratorium on the death penalty is in place.

However Deputy Attorney General Nikolai Shepel said he had asked for the highest punishment, the death penalty, but that he would not comment further and would wait for the court to decide.

A total of 330 people were killed when a group of gunmen, including suspected Chechen separatists, took over a school in Beslan on the first day of term. The other hostage-takers were killed in a shoot-out with Russian security forces.

Life the moratorium and place a moratorium on this manÂ’s life ASAP. This is one of the most heinous examples of what Islamic terrorism really means.

Previous Jawa Report posts on the Beslan School siege here, here (video), here and here.

Related : More problems with Islamic terrorists in Dagestan.

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May 06, 2006

Racism in Russia: My Experience

I had was always very sympathetic to charges of racism in my youth. But after I lived in Moscow for a year, I realized that minorities in the U.S. have no idea what the hell they are talking about when they talk about America being a racist country--as if it was somehow unique or worse here than in other parts of the world.

In Moscow, for instance, people who were from Africa or the Caucuses were always stopped by the police. Yes, I used the word always on purpose, because every time I got on the subway the police would be shaking down a person of color.

You never heard the word Chechen without a scowl--but Chechen was used to describe anybody who looked like they were from the Caucuses. Chechens, every one would tell you, ran the mafia.

Africans? Drug dealers. Not all of them, you know because every one had at least one African friend they could vouch for, just most of them.

Lowest on the racial totem pole were the Romani---they gypsies. No one could just say gypsy without using the modifier filthy.

Karol at Alarming News notes that racial tensions seem to be mounting in Russia, but according to this AP report everything was much better under Communism. Of course, what the article fails to mention is that under the Soviet System citizens were required to carry identity cards listing their race.

And "Jew" was a "race" according to the Communists.

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March 28, 2006

Putin Caught Plagiarizing

The Washington Times reports that large parts of an economics thesis written by President Vladimir Putin in the mid-1990s were lifted straight out of a U.S. management textbook published 20 years earlier.

Not surprised one bit. Long time readers know that I spent a year studying at a university in Moscow, Russia. Plagiarism is rampant and so is cheating. Russian students make American students look like angels. I'm completely serious. And I'm saying this while looking at an academic violation report on my desk right now because I caught a student cheating on the midterm. In fact, my experience was that professors not only expected what we would consider cheating, but they encouraged it. more...

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February 21, 2006

Did Russia Help Hide Saddam's WMD?

I'm not quite convinced--no, more than that, I'm highly skeptical--but that is one of the allegations made over the weekend at the Intelligence Summit. It looks like ABC News misled the nation when they claimed that the 12 hours of tape aired at the Intelligence Summit revealed no Saddam-WMD connection. However, as we have noted before, the Summit was not organized by the most reputable people in the world.

Renew America via Rocketsbraintrust:

The chief mischief-maker on the Russian side apparently was General Yevgeny Primakov, who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service in 1990, served as Russia's minister of foreign affairs in 1996, and as prime minister in 1998. You may remember him as the post-Cold War general who was given to outrageous and threatening outbursts.

Despite Iraq's 8 billion dollar debt to Russia, Primakov convinced the Russian government to invest anew in rebuilding Iraqi military forces after Saddam's humiliating defeat in the Gulf War. "Secret agreements, signed between Iraqi intelligence and the Russian GRU, provided for clean-up operations to be conducted by Russian and Iraqi military personnel — to remove WMDs, materials for production, technical documentation, etc., from Iraq, so that the regime could announce that Iraq was 'WMD free.'"

Part of the plan — specifically dealing with chemical weapons — was described by a Romanian intelligence official now living in protective custody after briefing U.S. intelligence for three years. The Russians specified that all chemical/bio weapons were to be burned or buried at sea in the event of potential capture. Just before war against Iraq by the allied coalition, two Russian ships set sail for the Indian Ocean. Shaw says it's not known whether they then headed for Syria or were destroyed. The point is they were out of Iraq and out of the reach of any invasion force.

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February 20, 2006

More Cartoon Censorship

Gribbit put this up at Conservative Thinking and I just figured it'd be a good idea to share it here as well:

This time it's Russia...

russiacartoon.jpg

Shown are Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses watching a crowd of clashing people while saying, "We never taught them to do that..."

Visit Pubilus Pundit for the full story why a Russian Mayor ordered the newspaper shut down.

H/T: Michelle Malkin

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Paper Publishes Gay Jesus Kissing Muhammed Cartoon

jesus_kissing_muhammed_cartoon_canada.jpgThe University of Toronto's student newspaper, the Strand, has published a cartoon of a gay Jesus kissing Muhammed. The cartoon was published as part of a debate over whether to show images of Muhammed from Danish papers. The image shows the face of Jesus, but does not show the face of Muhammed. Jesus is also seen disrobing Muhammed.

The same newspaper has refused to publish the Muhammed cartoons which have sparked worldwide riots, murders, and calls to impose the death penalty on all who blaspheme by misunderstanderers of the Religion of Peace.

Here is how they hypocritically defend not showing the Muhammed cartoons, but showing big gay Jesus:

But was it really freedom of the press, or a case of media martyrdom? Publishing these cartoons seems to do little more than fan the flames of already-existing controversy. Is it the press's responsibility to decide what people should absorb, or is providing an option more important? Articles are somewhat different; you can decide whether or not to read something based on the headline - which, admittedly, is questionable on the subject of giving audiences agency. A graphic or photograph, however, is much more intense: you don't really have the choice to view it or not.
Right.

More at Exposed Agenda with hat tip to Greg at Rhymes with Right.

Related from Publius Pundit via Michelle Malkin. Incidentally, I lived in Russia for a time and the newspapers often contain nude women. So, it's okay to have a centerfold in your newspaper but it's not okay to offend Muslims?

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January 25, 2006

Hitchens at Slate.

The latest message from Osama Bin Laden may be an indication of weakness.

Slate : The conditions for this latest truce are of course impossible as well. All one needs, in order to earn Bin Laden's mercy, is to give up Afghanistan and Iraq. But this raises a more intriguing question. Why are formerly triumphalist jihadists using the language of "truce" at all? Not very long ago, God was claimed to be on their side and victory certain.
Debbie at ITB has more. Howie thinks it was a blink too. I find I only agree with Christopher half the time so I read one skip one so on and so forth.

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January 11, 2006

Knife Attack at Moscow Synagogue, American Injured

Various Russian news agencies report that a lone knifeman entered a central Moscow synagogue and began randomly stabbing congregants. At least eight people were stabbed, four of them are in critical condition. Three of the victims were foreigners, including an American, and Israeli, and a Tajik. The name of the American victim is not known at this time.

Rabbi Yitzhak Kogan reports that the assailant said, "I've come here to kill." The assailant, 20 year old Alexander Koptsev, was apprehended by the Rabbi and his son. No known ties exist between Koptsev and antisemitic nationalist groups.

When I lived in Russia, ten years ago, antisemitism was rampant. I guess things haven't changed all that much.

UPDATE: Looks like he was a skinhead, or 'gooligan' as they say in Russia.

News Search: Moscow Synagogue

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January 04, 2006

Cocktails in Space

The Russians want to make liquor available to the crew of the International Space Station.

"They fly in orbit for half a year and perform a heavy workload, especially during exhausting space walks when they shed several kilos in weight over a few hours," said a source in the Russian medical support teams for the manned space program. "Many people think a small ration of alcohol would help restore their strength."
Why not? It always helps me. In fact, I remember one time years ago that I had my strength restored to the point where I was strong enough to lift a car. Boy, it's a good thing someone stopped me because I might have accidently dropped it.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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December 17, 2005

Russian Security Report Death of Al Qaeda Leader

(Moscow) Russia's Federal Security Service, FSB, announced Friday that Sheikh Abu Omar Al Seyf, the top al Qaeda leader in the North Caucasus, was killed in the Russian Republic of Dagestan last month.

From Mosnews.com:

"Under the cover of the international non-governmental organization Al Haramein Islamic Foundation, he organized a terrorist cell in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia," the FSB reported. During the last few years Al Seyf was a chairman of the so-called shariah courts committee of the self-proclaimed Chechen republic of Ichkeria. He was reportedly informed of all the appointments made within the armed groups. He received and distributed all the money for terrorist activity inside Russia, the FSB report said.

The security officials claim Al Seyf took part in the planning and preparing of terrorist attacks, and extremist religious and political propaganda.

Notice that Al Seyf started his cell network under the auspices of an NGO, the Al Haramein Islamic Foundation. By extension, it's probably reasonable to assume that NGOs are also being used as al Qaeda fronts elsewhere, say, in the U.S.

Details of Al Seyf's death were not reported. However, since he was simply a thug terrorist who measured success in the number of murdered civilians, I hope his death was slow and excruciatingly painful.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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November 01, 2005

Russian Prez Putin Won't Run for Third Term

(Moscow) I guess it's time to try and figure out which ex-communist will be allowed to take President Putin's place.

From The Moscow Times:

President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he would not seek a third term in 2008, but vowed not to allow "destabilization" in Russia following the vote, leaving the door open for drastic action in the event of a crisis.

In an interview with Dutch media on the eve of a visit to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Putin reiterated that he opposed changing the Constitution to prolong his time in power -- a possibility that has been widely discussed because of his popularity and control of the parliament.

But Putin said that the 2008 presidential election would be a "serious, difficult test for Russia" and stressed that full power and responsibility for the fate of the country would remain in his hands until the new president has been sworn in.

It seems to me that he is keeping a trump card. If Putin doesn't like the way Russia is being run, he takes "drastic action" to straighten things out. This is probably because of the fact that Russia has little experience with the peaceful transfer of power. Historically, someone customarily had to die or have been murdered.

Companion at Interested-Participant.

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October 13, 2005

There Is Such A Thing As A Good Terrorist

One of the the things that I've always admired about Rusty and his blog is his willingness to post images that the MSM never would.

The images tend to be graphic, and viewing them causes righteous anger, and more than a little heartache.

Thankfully, however, I've managed to find an image that should cause great joy among the Jawa faithful.

Because the only good terrorist is...

(WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW) more...

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Chechen Gunmen Attack in North Caucasus

Simultaneous attacks on government installations in the Russian city of Nalchik have resulted in at least 60 deaths with scores wounded. Chechen rebels have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria province, is about 50 miles northwest of Beslan where Chechen gunmen killed hundreds last year, half of them schoolchildren.

From the BBC:

Kabardino-Balkaria, a Muslim region, lies close to war-ravaged Chechnya.

A regional leader told Itar-Tass news agency that a third of the 150 rebels that took part in attacks had been killed.

President Arsen Kanokov also said 12 civilians had been killed, although this figure has not been confirmed.

A source at Nalchik's Republican Hospital told Ekho Moskvy radio that the dead who had been brought in were "all people in uniform".

At least 40 injured people had been taken to the hospital, with more arriving all the time, the source added.

One unidentified security official has told Russian news agency RIA that the reason for the attack was the arrest on Wednesday of at least one radical extremist.

Local sources stated the attacks were "carefully planned" and targeted police stations, the Russian FSB security agency, military and drug-control offices, and the airport. Children were seen fleeing a school building in a scene reminiscent of last year's Beslan massacre.

From ABC News Online:

One girl who ran out of the school said armed men were firing inside the building but security officials later made clear that armed police had entered the school to ensure its emergency evacuation due to its close proximity to the site of one of the buildings under attack.

Russian media said gun battles occurred at a number of locations in Nalchik and the city centre was saturated with security forces, while gunfire could be heard nearby.

A local journalist quoted by RIA-Novosti news agency said the gunmen were dressed in civilian clothing and took advantage of panic to blend in with the local population, hiding weapons under their clothes as they changed locations, before opening fire again on security forces.

President Vladimir Putin has sent his special envoy for the North Caucasus, Dmitry Kozak, to Nalchik to assess the situation. According to Arsen Kanokov, the President of the Kabardino-Balkaria province, the twelve local civilians who have died so far may have been local law enforcers or innocent bystanders.


[Update 0750 EDT, 10/13/05]

According to a senior Russian official, President Putin has ordered the city of Nalchik sealed and has given shoot-to-kill instructions for any person who puts up armed resistance.

[Update 1050 EDT, 10/13/05] by Rusty Shackleford:

This will not end well. Gateway Pundit also following crisis.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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September 01, 2005

Beslan Massacre one year later

While we are all wrapped up in our own problems right now letÂ’s also take a few minutes to remember the children of Beslan. Gateway pundit has a post reminding us all of how much the terrorists love kids.

Watching the young girls being brought into another room. Forced to clean up the blood off the floors. Drinking urine to stay alive. Dragging your younger brother through the halls. Pulling his limp body through a broken window.

Freedom Fighters Right? More like war criminals.

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August 31, 2005

Freed Victims of Bush's Gulag Arrested in Russia for Terrorism

I wonder how the five released Gitmo prisoners will find conditions in a real Russian gulag? Do you think their will be a massive outcry from the Left and the European elite?

Via ITB this from Mosnews:

Two former Guantanamo prisoners, extradited to Russia in 2002, have been detained in Moscow on suspicion of preparing a series of terrorist attacks, the Vremya Novostei newspaper reported Tuesday.

The two Russian citizens, Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhmyarov, who were seized in a counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan and kept at the Guantanamo base in Cuba with other Taliban and terrorist suspects, and then extradited home to Russia, have been detained and are now being held in a Russian detention centre.

They are charged with preparing and carrying out a series of terrorist acts in the Central Russian Povolzhye region.

Three other former Guantanamo prisoners have been detained in RussiaÂ’s Tatarstan Republic on the same charges, the paper adds.

All in all, of the seven Russian Guantanamo prisoners extradited from Cuba in 2004, only two are not in custody.

Five of Seven? If anything, it looks like the Bush policy of releasing prisoners is a failed one. More Gitmos please!

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August 25, 2005

Roadside Bomb Hits Russian Governor's Motorcade

Inguishitia_car.jpg

Ingushetia neighbors Chechnya and is racked by the same ROP inspired violence. Xinhua:

Two powerful explosions rocked a southern Russian republic Thursday afternoon, injuring the prime minister of the republic and killing one of his guards.

Ibragim Malsagov, the prime minister of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, was wounded in the leg in an assassination attempt in Nazran, the main city of the republic, at 2:25 p.m. Moscow time (1025 GMT), a regional interior ministry official was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Malsagov was rushed to hospital and doctors confirmed that his life was not in danger.

However, one of his guards was killed and at least two others were injured in the blasts.

Officials said attackers detonated two bombs as Malsagov's motorcade passed through central Nazran, with the first blast meant to divert attention.

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May 10, 2005

Who was worse, Stalin or Hitler? Six of One, Half Dozen of Another

The difference between Stalin and Hitler? Hitler lost. WaTimes:

Amid all the chitchat, commentary and controversy over this week's celebrations marking the end of World War II, there is a question that has never been far from the surface, though it has rarely broken through: Which was really worse -- communism or Nazism?

One answer, a sensible one at that, is that both systems were so degraded, disgusting and unpalatable that it is impossible to establish a hierarchy of value in which one could possibly stand higher, or lower, than the other. When you've reached the deepest pit in Hell there's nowhere lower to go.

Unfortunately, though, that conclusion is often lost in a quagmire of ignorance and historical distortion. Not because anyone this side of decency really doubts the horrors of Nazism. But, sadly, because there are still large numbers of people (and judge for yourself which side of decency they stand) who still refuse to face up to the horrors of communism.

Take veteran Guardian columnist Jonathan Steele, writing in that paper just last week. In an irony that would certainly escape him, he makes it clear that one purpose of his polemic is to combat the "denial" in the West about the role of the Soviet Union in defeating Hitler. In attempting to foreclose on the argument that "Nazism and communism were somehow two sides of the same evil coin" he reaches a crescendo with the following, extraordinary statement: "Mass terror and purges," he says, "were not intrinsic to Soviet rule, as was clear after Stalin's death."

True, but if you are to use this comparison then one would need to call 'Nazism' a particular manifestation of fascism. Hitler is to fascism what Stalin is to communism.

Yet, no one says, "Hey, those fascists weren't really all that bad. It was Hitler that perverted fascism." See how this works? As if any paper would stand up and call Mussolini a reformer, Franco an anti-Hitlerite, or Juan Peron an idealist.

Soviet mass terror, by contrast, was a feature of the regime right from the beginning. Lenin's core principle of Red Terror was applied in the slaughter of up to half a million class enemies in the very first years of Soviet rule. And that is before we add in the millions of victims of a civil war which was the direct result of communist despotism.

In Lenin's own words, the new Soviet system was "a special system of organized violence against a certain class." The use of terror against class and ideological enemies was thus a central, defining part of the communist system.

Lenin's Commissar for Justice Issac Steinberg well remembers in his memoirs a telling conversation with Lenin in which he (bravely) expressed reservations about the scale of that terror. "Then why do we bother with a commissariat of Justice?" he asked Lenin. "Let's call it frankly the commissariat for Social Extermination and be done with it!" Lenin jumped at the idea. "Well put," he said. "That's exactly what it should be...but we can't say that."

The full death toll, most of it accumulated in peace time, at the hands of Lenin and his political and ideological successor, Stalin, is estimated by the best authorities at somewhere between 25 million and 30 million people. Not bad in a system for which mass terror and purges were not "intrinsic" parts. In what passes for Steele's argument, he suggests the scaling down of the terror after Stalin's death is evidence the system was not inherently terroristic. Does it not occur to him that there was no one left to kill?

And why do people still engage in this debate?
But by far the most significant category is made up by people who have a deep ideological need to save the reputation of the one by showing up its "better" qualities in comparison with the other. Neo-Nazis have thus long sought to stress the crimes of Stalin while diminishing or denying entirely the crimes of Hitler. It serves their perverted aims to do so. The old, Western Left has participated in exactly the same kind of enterprise in reverse. The difference is, of course, that they continue to get away with it, avoiding the contempt that both groups, not just one, so richly deserve.
Parenthetically I was at a May Day rally in Moscow once. The crowd was maybe 100,000 strong. There were pictures of Stalin everywhere.

One of the main speakers was an American from the CPUSA. Had he been 5 feet closer I would have punched that SOB right in the mouth. The utter drivel coming out of his mouth about how Russians were so much better off under the Soviet Union and how they enjoyed such a higher standard of living than Americans.

Being a Leftist is a lot like being a member of a cult. But at least in a cult they need to make you eat low-protein gruel to lower your resistance to suggestion. Leftist seem willing and able to buy into the ideological nonsense of their own free will.

Hmmm, I take that back. Maybe kashi (mush) and shi (cabbage soup) were Communist inventions to get the masses on board with the Fearless Leader's glorious seven year plan?

Hat tip: Kevin Aylward

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May 05, 2005

Putin=ASSHOLE

Ok, you know our position here at The Jawa, too many right-wingers are overly critical of Vladimir Putin. But this? These comments are beyond the pale. It's not so much that he's wrong about the immorality of the Dresden bombings as he's got a hell of a lot of nerve being critical of the Western Allies and saying the Soviets were, you know, just nice guys.

The last two night The History Channel has been running episodes on the final days of the Eastern front. The Soviets were every bit as bad as the Nazis in the way they handled the war. Millions of German POWs were starved to death or outright murdered by the Soviets. Hat tip Bill Dauterieve.

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April 07, 2005

Terrorists Plan May 9th Attack in Russia

Chad has the report. Let me just remind our readers that my position on Russia is clear. Despite the fact that Russia has endlessly meddled in the affairs of its proximate neighbors, they are our natural ally in the GWOT in the region.

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March 29, 2005

Russians Hate Jews (But not nearly as much as Muslims hate Jews & Christians)

Interesting findings of a Pew poll as published by the Union of Councils for Jews in the Soviet Union. Second place goes to the Germans and the French *shock*:

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press on global attitudes towards Muslims, Jews, and Christians found that among predominantly Christian countries, Russia is the most antisemitic, according to a March 18, 2005 report by the Regnum news agency.

Twenty-five percent of respondents to the Pew survey in Russia expressed hostility towards Jews, compared to 20% in Germany, 11% in France, 9% in the UK, and 8% in the US. Hostility towards Muslims was expressed by 46% of respondents in Germany, 38% in Russia, 32% in the US, 29% in France, and 18% in the UK.

Attitudes towards Jews and Christians in selected predominantly Muslim countries were generally more hostile, with a whopping 92% of respondents in Morocco expressing hostility towards Jews and 72% expressing hostility towards Christians.

Hat tip: Zorkmidden of Discarded Lies

Parenthetically I have seen hostility towards Muslims in both the U.S. and Russia. A survey cannot capture how this hostility is translated on the ground.

In Moscow, for instance, Tartars or people who appeared to be from the Caucuses are routinely sidelined by the police for questioning. And by routine I mean every time I went to a Metro stop the police were checking the I.D. on a darker skinned guy.

The summary of findings for the report also shows that 57% of the French think that the U.S. is overreacting to terrorism.

Other tidbits? 2% of Pakistanis have an unfavorable view of Muslims. Interestingly enough, Pakistan's Christian population is estimated at between 1.5-3%. Why would Christians in Pakistan have an unfavorable view of Muslims? Answer.

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