From the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakti. Forgive my rusty translation skills...- "Chechnya is an Islamic country, united to Russia by force..."
- "the Chechens have been slaughtered..."
- "the events in the Moscow theater have shown that the Chechen resistance movement has not been choked off, but is flowing like lava, which which awaits its opportunity and ignites everything in its path..."
- "the Chechen people had no choice, the Chechens attempted to grab the eyes and ears of the world and to awaken their sleeping conscience...".
All of these statements come, not from internet sites controlled by Movlad Udugov, the main ideologue of Chechen independence. On the contrary. This is an excerpt from the leading Iranian paper "Jomkhuriye Eslami." It is a semiofficial publication, reflecting the views of Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his conservative circle. They are the people who in the Islamic Republic of Iran possess the real power, which is supported by the army and the special services.
It appears the Danes aren't the only ones who haven't been tactful lately. Or maybe the Medes and the Persians don't expect to have their papers read by the infidels...Misfortune reveals to people who their friends — and enemies — are. International reaction to the tragic events in Moscow was an outstanding demonstration of this old saw. The responses of the Teheran press ("Jomkhuriye Eslami" in this sense is not an exception) do not leave any doubt on whose side sympathy and public opinion in Iran. It is clearly not on our side. Well, by golly. They've noticed.Does it seem we don't have any sympathy from Iran? We've lived without it, and we'll probably continue to get by without it. There's only one "but." Iran today is a heavy problem for Russian-American relations. Teheran is to Washington a part of the "axis of evil", a "sponsor of international terrorism". But for Moscow, Iran is (still) our most important partner in the region. But some of our politicians (recently, it's true, they've slipped into the shadows) have even proposed to erect a multipolar world, relying on "strategic alliance" with China, for some reason with India and... with Iran. I don't know how much this reflects official opinion in Russia, but it would seem they're not pleased with the reaction of the Ayatollahs, and they're clearly not happy with the Chechens — there probably aren't many in Moscow who are right now, and they're probably keeping their mouths shut. For what it's worth, they also carried this in the same issue — LGF beat me to it, picking it up from Arutz Sheva...As reported in today's issue of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets", Russian special services have decided to bury the Chechen terrorists killed in the hostage release from the Dubrovka theater wrapped in pigskin. The purpose of this is to prevent further terrorist actions. The "shahids," the "martyrs of jihad," believe that if they sacrifice their lives murdering infidels they immediately go to paradise, to a sweet life in the arms of 72 houri-virgins. However, in the same popular beliefs, bodies buried in "unclean" pigskin are forever deprived of eternal bliss There were stories, perhaps apocryphal, of General Pershing doing the same thing when fighting the Moros in the Philippines. I wonder if the Russers also oiled up their bullets with lard, as Pershing's men were also reported to have done? |