Russian police believe that two female suicide bombers set of explosions that killed over 35 people in the Moscow subway system early this morning.
Russian investigators combing two subway stations attacked by female suicide bombers think Chechen rebels may have been behind the rush-hour strike that killed dozens of people.
“Our preliminary assessment is that this act of terror was committed by a terrorist group from the North Caucasus region,” said Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service, in reference to the investigation at one of the blast sites.
“We consider this the most likely scenario, based on investigations conducted at the site of the blast,” Bortnikov said. “Fragments of the suicide bombers’ body found at the blast, according to preliminary findings, indicate that the bombers were from the North Caucasus region.”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the “terrorists” responsible for the Moscow subway attacks Monday “will be destroyed.”
Note the scare quotes around the word “terrorist.” Apparently CNN doesn’t want to offend anyone by confirming that this act of terrorism was, in fact, committed by terrorists.
They do mention the fact that Chechen rebels are suspected in the attacks:
Although the Chechen rebels have yet to claim responsibility, Bortnikov’s statement is a strong implication that Chechen rebels fighting for independence were behind the strike.
How Chechen rebels threaten Russian stability
Thousands have been killed and 500,000 Chechen people have been displaced in the Chechen rebels almost 20-year conflict with Moscow. The area is located in the North Caucasus region of Russian between the Black and Caspian seas.
But we wouldn’t want to mention the religious component to the Chechen rebellion, because associating terrorism with Muslims is bad.
It pretty bad that CNN doesn’t think the fact that the Chechen rebels are justifying their position with Islam is relevant, when even the New York Times brings it up:
Female suicide bombers set off huge explosions in two subway stations in central Moscow during the Monday morning rush hour, Russian officials said, killing more than three dozen people and raising fears that the Muslim insurgency in southern Russia was once again being brought to the country’s heart.
[…]
In February, a Chechen rebel leader, Doku Umarov, threatened in an interview on a Web site to organize terror acts in Russian population centers.
“If Russians think that the war is happening only on television, far from the Caucasus, and it will not touch them, then we are going to show them that this war will return to their homes,” he said.
The Russian government has sought to suppress violent Muslim extremism in the south since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Two brutal wars in Chechnya and a guerrilla insurgency gave rise to numerous bombings and acts of terror in southern Russia throughout the 1990s. Starting in 2002, Chechen separatists then began to export their bombing campaign to Moscow.
Oddly enough, even Fox News waits to the end if its report to mention the Islamist connection.
Michelle Malkin comments on the media’s reluctance to mention Islam as a motivational factor in the terrorist attacks, as well as the fact that we’ve known since the Belsan school massacre (in which the media completely ignored the Islamist connection) that the Chechens were training female suicide bombers.
Here’s a reminder of how the MSM whitewashes jihad from news coverage of Muslim jihadi terrorism in Russia. And another one. And more. Note the difference in how religion is played up in the headline coverage of the FBI raids of obscure Christian militia groups in Michigan versus the headline coverage of the generic “female suicide bombers” who subscribed to the Religion of Pieces. And be prepared to be called an “Islamophobe” for pointing out the striking differences.
Jawa Report also comments on the Islamic connection:
Forget Chechnya. This isn’t a “Chechen” problem. This is an “Islamic Emirate in the Caucuses” problem. That would be al Qaeda’s arm in several Russian republics, Chechnya being one of many.
These Islamist “rebels” operate two websites. Openly.
The most important of these is the Kavkaz Center, which today blamed the blasts on …. Putin’s crimes.
The Kavkaz Center operates from Sweden where it openly supports terrorism and raises funds for Islamist terrorists in Russia.
The second website is here. It is hosted in Texas.
Jawa Report is also kind enough to link to video from Russia’s English news service:
More video, from a cell phone:
Of course, as Malkin has observed, pointing out that these terrorist attacks are most likely the work of Islamic extremists is taboo, and will probably get me labeled an Islamophobe or hatemonger or racist or something. I shouldn’t have to say this, because it should be obvious, but I will anyway: not all Muslims are terrorists. Not even the majority of Muslims are terrorists. But the small minority of Muslim extremists that are out there seem much more willing to resort to terrorism and violence than any other extremist group out there. The fact that the Chechen “rebels” are Islamic militants is important, because it reveals who they are connected to, which can tell us who they are getting supplies, weapons, intelligence, and tactics from, which can tell us how to fight them.
But some people are so willing to submit to political correctness that they will ignore this reality, and demonize anyone who points out that Muslim extremists are more dangerous and more active in violent activities than any other extremist group on the planet right now.
But I bet if the media could connect these guys to the Tea Party, they’d all report on that.
The Republican Heretic 