I live in the People's Republic of Seattle and watch Vremya thanks to the local cable menace, oops monopoly.
--I think SOME children and foreigners were let out early, but I do not have a citation for that. Also it's not clear why all children would not be let go.
--Vremya body count mentions at least 10 kids dead!
--As to who the Chechen women were, I have seen several accounts that said the women were at least as fanatical as the men. For all sexism watchers though, I have also seen reports that at the time of the assault, the women were all inside the theater soaking up the gas and a number of the men were outside and for whatever reason were captured pretty quickly even before the gas was applied.
--Most adult Chechens know Russian, but a lot of them--perhaps deliberately--have accents that make native speakers cringe. The point of something like the phrase "well-spoken" was mentioned by someone interviewed on Vremya which is why it even registered with me.
--I too have no doubt that the number of casualties could have been far higher if the Chechens had been able to detonate everything they brought in. I DO NOT think carefully preparing medical professionals would necessarily need to future terrorists knowing what to expect, at least any more so than the terrorists reading media accounts and drawing their own conclusions anyway.
Bluntly, if pushed I can probably tell you several good reasons a lot of Seattleites thought the amount of tear gas applied at WTO was appropriate under the circumstances, but for myself, I inhaled a little too much tear gas--of all kinds of still little identified types-- on the streets during WTO to EVER want to give a government authority carte blanche about flinging the stuff around.
There. Next question.
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