The Russian Hostage Situation

I was going to make a long post about this, but then I see that Dan Darling already beat me to it.

There have been 3 terror attacks in Russia in the past week, all carried out by Chechen Islamists. I had been asking myself all day, why Chechen leader Basayev wanted to escalate the crisis in such a dramatic way. Dan answers with two words: Pankisi Gorge. Those of us who follow the war on terror know all about this wonderful place. It's basically a enclave of the ex-Soviet state of Georgia and is where terrorists come and go from around the world, like a hub airport of sorts. There had been rumors that Russia had been planning on launching a war against Georgia to destroy the Pankisi Gorge, but Basayev knowing how big a blow it would be to lose the Gorge decided to up the ante on Russia and launch the biggest offensive against Russia that I can ever remember.

Dan has more, read it now.