Qatar and Russia to release prisoners

[Aidoneus]

Qatar and Russia to release prisoners
Monday 01 March 2004

Qatar is to release two Russian security agents it arrested on suspicion of assassinating Chechnya's ex-president in Doha two weeks ago.

Aljazeera's correspondent in Moscow said Russia would also release two Qataris it detained in Moscow on Saturday.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Aljazeera's Akram Khuzam said the releases would happen "in the coming hours".

It is thought they will help to ease a diplomatic spat which has strained relations between the two countries.

Salim Khan Yandarbiyev, a Chechen separatist, was killed in the Qatari capital on 13 February after his booby-trapped car exploded outside a mosque.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CA0FDDA0-145F-4D14-9397-16B8A7D6FBAD.htm

[bemildred]

1. Purely a coincidence, I'm sure. nt

[Aidoneus]

4. Obviously a coincidence

excusing the macabre subject matter, a funny exchange between them here.. politicians really do resemble children sometimes.

[bemildred]

5. Mostly around 4th grade level.

What is interesting is that Russia and Qatar are clearly
speaking the same language here, very quick turnaround, hardly
any bullshit in the media.

[mobuto]

2. Its nice to see

that the Russians are going after terrorists a bit harder than the American Administration is. Of course the flipside is that they're also going after Putin's political opposition, but who needs democracy anyways?

[Aidoneus]

3. nice to see?

are you familiar with what you're praising?

[mobuto]

6. Sure

The Russians bumped off a Chechen terrorist leader who had been granted asylum by Qatar. It'd be nice if the Bush Administration would start doing the same to the Al Qaeda terrorists who've killed so many Americans.

[bemildred]

7. As a matter of idle curiosity

do you think it is incompetence, complicity, squeamishness,
or lack of interest that has stayed Bush's hand in dealing
with al Qaeda? Or perhaps something else, what is your theory
as to why we are letting them all run free?

[mobuto]

8. Incompetence

and the fact that they've allowed themselves to be distracted by Iraq. But that could fall under incompetence as well.

[bemildred]

10. Thanks, I sort of agree, about Shrub,

but I find the notion that the Russkis are
competent a bit startling.

[bemildred]

13. Anyway, to continue ...

I associate competence with something like elegance in
a mathematical proof, obtain the desired result with minimal
time and effort. If you examine the Russian war in Chechnya -
which is what this little fandango in Qatar is about - you see
that it has been grinding along forever with no forward progress
towards the intended outcome (secure political control) and
in the process they have essentially flattened the place and
destabilized most of the N. Caucasus region. So I consider that
on the whole they are extraordinarily clumsy and brutal.

[mobuto]

14. I agree entirely

I'm not going to endorse Russian policy in Chechnya. But I do think that Russia is correct in targeting terrorist leaders and financiers. This particular action was justified - I make no wider claim of Russian competence.

[bemildred]

15. Arguable I suppose.

I don't find the idea of being "justified" in one's incompetent
use of force very appealing. If one is going to resort to use
of force, one should do so in a competent way, and achieve the desired
ends with minimal damage. Otherwise one is simply an ass, a violent
ass, and one would be better to do nothing.

[mobuto]

16. No - this particular assasination

was competently carried out and is completely justifiable. What isn't competent is Russia's wider policy with regard to the Chechen question.

If one is going to resort to use of force, one should do so in a competent way, and achieve the desired ends with minimal damage.

How can I disagree with that?

[bemildred]

17. I think we are at an end here.

This was a car bomb, and they got caught, and then they took
a couple of Qataris hostage to get their operatives back. You
have a dirty little war here, and they are all part of it. There
is no morality at work that I can see.

[Aidoneus]

18. well, at least my assumptions were wrong

I like that from time to time.

[Dover]

19. Yeah, kill 'em all without trial. Who needs laws and courts anyway

when we can simply count on our propagandist news sources and governments to decide these matters for us.

They will also resolve that little question that's rarely asked...what defines "terrorism" v. freedom fighters?

[Aidoneus]

9. ok

So you are speaking of a particular and not in general. There are only a couple points to discuss here, then. I also happen to be to some degree in favour of assassination as a means of making war, though I doubt we'd agree on prospective candidates for such; in this case, for example, I would refer to the martyr Yandarbi and his peers in different terms than you have, most neutral or favourable. This and more no doubt sources from our radically different world views.

[mobuto]

11. Radically different world views?

Yandarbiyev was a terrorist who targeted Russian civilians and helped to fund Al Qaeda. How is he a "martyr" and why would you look upon such a man favorably?

though I doubt we'd agree on prospective candidates for such

Please expand on that. Which candidates specifically would you assasinate? As long as we're talking particulars, we might stick to them.

[Aidoneus]

12. haven't seriously thought of any, actually

I have yet to really formulate my ideas strongly enough to think of any course of action with respect to such questions. Talk is good enough for me at this time, and useful (well, more useful sometimes in ensuring that I don't formulate a view strongly enough, but that's neither here nor there). It is not within my abilities to have carried out such things even if I wished to, so I don't put much time to it. I just assumed it a safe bet that we'd disagree on such matters. I have noticed over time on a variety of subjects that much which you approve of, I find disagreeable at best or appalling at worst; I assume the feeling would be mutual if I was interesting enough to take note of.

There are a variety of common or obscure claims on such things, in addition to those as you describe, that I would dispute, or just put in a wider perspective so as to describe matters more comparatively than seperately. The subject in question is one that I have studied and followed extensively, with no shortage of sympathetic agreement in general and sometimes in particular as well. There are some exceptions to that.

Terminology questions are already an issue, for myself now as well as you before (fair is fair?).. I used that word just because he was quite obviously murdered and such within some contexts passes for a working definition.