Curiouser and Curiouser: Poisoned Russian Spy Converted To Islam Before Death

Doesn't matter, it was still Putin.

It does sort of explain one thing, though. This cat was alleging that the Russians themselves were behind the series of apartment-building bombings that were, of course, actually conducted by Chechen Muslims. The claim was that Russia was bombing its own citizens in order to stir up anger against a False Enemy and give Putin a freer hand in re-imposing Soviet fascism on his country.

Does that scenario sound familiar to American ears?

Now, Putin is re-imposing Bad Old Days Soviet fascism on Russia, without doubt. But bombing his own people? Absurd. It fails the qui buono test (sp?), because Putin doesn't benefit by such moves. He's pretty much free to remake Russia into a Soviet KGB police state with the public's blessing, terrorism or no terrorism.

It does sound an awful lot like the rantings of an American convert to Islam, who assures us that Muslims had nothing to do with 9/11, and it was all the doings of Bush:

Barrett first drew attention to his views by writing letters to the editor of the Madison Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal, in which he claimed that Muslims had nothing to do with the attacks: "As a Ph.D. Islamologist and Arabist I really hate to say this, but I'll say it anyway: 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam. The war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape." Barrett has also asserted that other purported terrorist attacks, including the July 7, 2005, London bombing, and the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombing, were the actions of a "special wing of, probably, U.S. or western military intelligence," and not Islamic terrorists.

I have to confess I am not terribly concerned by outrages Putin may have conducted against Chechen terrorists. Which is the story the murdered Russian journalist was working on (and whose murder, in turn, the poisoned Russian spy claimed he was close to solving).

But, at the risk of stating the obvious, it's unacceptable for the head of a state to begin killing people just because he finds their claims or "reportage" embarrassing.

It says a lot that Russia's state-sponsored Murder, Incorporated is now killing somewhat insignificant proponents of fairly daffy conspiracy theories.

Let there be no doubt about Putin's response should someone connect him to an actual crime.

posted by Ace at 08:00 PM

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