| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Paid mole helped forces blow up Chechen warlord |
| 2006-07-16 |
| MOSCOW: The Chechen terrorist leader behind the Beslan school massacre was killed by Russian security forces with the help of a mole who betrayed him for $600,000, according to intelligence sources quoted in a Moscow newspaper. Shamil Basayev, leader of the Chechen rebels and Russia's most wanted man, is said to have been blown up by a mine the informant placed in a lorry full of explosives and set off by remote control. The claim was made by Viktor Baranyets, a military expert and former defence ministry official, in Komsomolskaya Pravda. "The security forces are being very tight-lipped about how Basayev was killed, but after dozens of calls I have established through intelligence sources that he was betrayed by one of his own men," Mr Baranyets said. His sources told him that the FSB, which had been hunting Basayev for nearly a decade, learned he was planning a terrorist attack during the G8summit. Basayev -- known as Russia's bin Laden -- was planning to detonate a lorry bomb at the interior ministry in Nazran, the former capital of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, the sources said. The Russians are said to have stopped the attack and killed Basayev by recruiting one of his men. As the terrorist chief and a his group escorted the convoy of explosives, the mole set off a bomb in the lorry. According to the Ingush Interior Ministry, the lorry was carrying 100 rocket-propelled grenades, two grenade-launchers and more than 13,000 rounds of ammunition. Basayev was decapitated by the blast. The FSB's reticence over its coup had led many to suspect that Basayev was killed in an accidental explosion, as the Chechen rebels claimed. The Sunday Times |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #7 Disinformation campaign. Suggest that a mole is there, after "dozens of calls", wheedled out of them by a persistent former comerade, lean back, and watch them off each other off. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2006-07-16 21:41 |
| #6 So is this a remote control mole or a martyr mole? Or do the Ruskies give out a posthumous mole award? |
| Posted by: john 2006-07-16 19:11 |
| #5 Y'know, this story is a KGB-quality operation. So, WTF the FSB has been doing since Sept 1, 2004? Especially after the much ballyhooed Putin statement about going medieval on the Chechnyans - and only having a few poor scape-goat-herders to show for the last 23 months... 1] It quiets the critics, internal and external 2] Face saver for Putin 3] Face-saver for the FSB 4] Lets them loot the FSB budget for $600K 5] Set precedent for future repeat raids on budget for party favors Yep. That's the kind of disinformation you could expect of the old KGB. |
| Posted by: Clavimble Spomoger8840 2006-07-16 14:12 |
| #4 'piece of crap' == 'PoS' Great minds eh SPoD? ;) |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-07-16 13:10 |
| #3 They're desperate to claim it as one of their operations aren't they? Not that it matters to me, the outcome is the same - the PoS is in bits and very very dead. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-07-16 13:09 |
| #2 Can I have his head? I want to mount it on my wall. Or is Putin already sending it out to be mounted. I don't care how it was done. I just glad this monster is dead. And I am glad to see they are finally referring to this piece of crap as a "terrorist leader" instead of a "separatist leader" or worse yet "Rebel Leader". |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-07-16 13:07 |
| #1 Yet another version of events by the FSB. How many different scenarios where they are the heroes are there? Feh. |
| Posted by: Clavimble Spomoger8840 2006-07-16 13:04 |