Russians 'gassed' 116 hostages to death

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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The death of hostages was due to the chechen rebels, period. They didnt take hostages for entertainment value, and would certainly have killed all of them with no hesitation (these are morons who fired bazookas and threw grenades at two girls for trying to escape).

116 is still smaller than 700. Kudos to the russians for having saved the rest of the hostages from a horrible death, also for smacking terror tactics right in the face. Sympathizers of the terrorists would choose to blame Russia (as on this thread), coz they spoilt their fireworks.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by queer: *
tear gas? are you for real?
[/QUOTE]

laughing gas would have done it, but from start russian never took them seriously.

but there again its russians for you what you expect.

83

The whole thing is ugly.

I did buy the book the little girl wrote from Sare-evo. (spelling)

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *

Why not indeed, Malik? At least let the doctors and nurses know the properties of the chemical gas used so that no more lives are lost.
[/QUOTE]

Nadia_H, what would the doctors do with the info? : nothing. If this gas was developed as a weapon or secret and used for first time, no doctor will know how to go about saving lives since they would not have learned about it.

The only remedy lie in the antidote (which was given) and info from the developers as to what treatment should be given. If the present treatment is correct, there is nothing that can be given more to the doctors to help, except wait.

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The Old Man, i am not certain at which time the antidote was administered to the hostages (after their being admitted to the hospital). According to some reports, the doctors were not initially being told of the identity of the gas being used, which potentially might have exaggerated health complications (the sooner you administer the antidote, the better); i think the fact that the antidote was provided later to the doctors proves that the Russian authorities did in fact possess the antidote and for whatever reasons were not releasing it earlier. Some reports from British media:

Senior Russian officials admitted earlier that an ‘incapacitating’ agent had been pumped into the theatre although they refused to say what it was, leading to complaints from doctors treating some 400 survivors who suffered the gas’s effects that they were working in the dark. Source

The authorities initially refused to tell doctors what the gas was, compounding the difficulties of treating patients with antidotes. Source

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Actually according to CNN, BBC and all other news networks, the antidote was a common one used for heroin overdose. Nothing secret about it. Many feel it was a nerve gas, hostages from inside, according to CNN say they neither saw nothing nor smelt it. So the gas was colorless and odorless. They could have just as easily used a non-lethal gas.

87

Its not just Russia and Iraq with WMDs :stuck_out_tongue:

**Russia’s Use of Gas Focuses Attention on Chemical Agents in U.S. **

Russia apparently is not the only nation to develop so-called nonlethal chemical agents. Some critics say the United States and possibly other countries are developing chemical agents for domestic and peacekeeping use that would be illegal in a full-scale war.

“The Pentagon is actively assessing different types of calmative compounds,” or narcotic materials meant to incapacitate rather than kill, said Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a nonprofit group that opposes the use of chemical weapons. The group is based in Austin, Texas, and Hamburg, Germany.

In August, Science magazine reported that the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the Department of Justice, had funded an experiment at Pennsylvania State University to gauge the effects of inhaled calmative gases and pepper spray, a crowd-control agent. The report said the research could lead to “weaponized” Valium and other chemicals for use in crowd control.

The Sunshine Project has posted a contract on its Web site, www.sunshine-project.org, in which the Office of Naval Research agreed to pay Penn State $88,750 to study the “utility of delivering nonlethal effects against personnel.”

Defense officials acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed “riot control agents,” such as tear gas and pepper spray, that have been used in Haiti and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Pentagon office responsible for such weapons, the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, has received “unsolicited proposals” for so-called calming agents, “but no funding has been put forward to support any of that research,” a defense official said.

“Calming agents are not in the U.S. inventory, nor are there any plans to develop any,” said Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman.

Arms control specialists said the alleged U.S. research, combined with Russia’s use of gas last weekend, signals that some provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention may be deteriorating