Saddam addresses Chechen kidnappers

[W. Kiernan]

um, this is kinda odd ... a couple hours before the Russian special
forces gassed all those Chechens and shot them in the head.

 http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/26/38701.html

 "His Excellency President Saddam Hussein" sez: "Listen to the voice of

 Baghdad and if you are convinced, do what you should do (free the

 hostages and do not harm them)", etc.

Also, who knows anything about about this pravda.ru?  Is it really
descended from the old Soviet Pravda?  Betcha they never had a
"porno-scandal" link on their front page!  It has kind of a NY Post feel
to it, complete with an article promoting a hostage-taking spree among
the kidnappers's families down in Chechnya.  Maybe that's just the
translators - but look, this article's bylined one "Timothy
Bancroft-Hinchey."  Imagine it was written in English, translated into
Russian, and then translated back to English.

Yours WDK - WKiernan at concentric.net