> >Chris Doss wrote:
> >
> >>Chechnya again helps Russia's Putin polish image
> >
> >So what do you think, Chris? Were the 115 necessary casualties, or were
> the
> >authorities too brutal with the gas?
> >
> >Doug
>
> I hate to say it, but I really don't see how special forces had another
> option. Realistically, the only other outcome was probably to have
> everybody
> in the building die in the explosion the hostage-takers were going to set
> off (I have little doubt that they would carry through on the threat). Hard
> for me to imagine another tactic. If they'd just gone in shotting, they
> would have gotten the entire place blown up, and you would have 800 dead
> hostages instead of just about 155.
>
> Whether or not the gov. should have given hospitals details of the gas so
> they could better treat people is another story.
>
>
Yesterday on Vremya, RTV, Channel one, Oct 29, 2002, they said the gas affected everyone in the theater and that the people who were taken out most quickly suffered much less than than people who were exposed for longer. News talked about the hostage takers placing explosives all over the theater and also connected to themselves. (The sheer amount of explosives and risk of accidental explosions may have hindered efforts to recue people.) Also the news said at least some of the Chechens were reasonably well-spoken in Russian. (In some cases it may have been hard to sort out who was who.)
Some hostages were let out for various reasons before the raid, in some cases early in the ordeal. I am looking for some accounts of the early stage negotiations to see what exactly happened on that front.
Other comments I have seen mention:
--dosing strength intended to knock out vigorous young adults that may have been too much for kids and the elderly.
--Application of gas indoors is a big experiment. This implies that previous test conditions would have been outdoors with much faster dispersion.
No question in my mind: Russians should have been able to train their medical staff in advance to deal with the gas and should have dealt frankly with what it was for the public a LOT sooner than they have.
And so far nobody with much clout is discussing the gas in terms of chemical warfare conventions....
DoreneC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20021030/c28621aa/attachment.htm>