In Russia, Moscow’s Domodedovo airport was hit with a bomb explosion earlier today. Officials are saying that at least 30 people have been killed, and hundreds have been injured in a terrorist bombing attack.

“Russia Today” has raw video footage of the immediate aftermath of Russian airport bombing. WARNING, there are bodies strewn everywhere.  Also available at http://tinyurl.com/4p5my3k

This is not the first terrorist attack in Russia and likely it will not be the last.

Moscow suffered its worst attack in six years in March 2010 when two female suicide bombers from Russia’s volatile Dagestan region set off explosives in the metro, killing 40 people.  Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus and deadly attacks on government and police officials in Dagestan as well as neighbouring Chechnya and Ingushetia are an almost daily occurrence.

In 2004, two suicide bombers were able to board planes at Domodedovo by buying tickets illegally from airport personnel.  The bombers blew themselves up in mid-air, killing all 90 people aboard the two flights. via http://www.iplaycod.com/forums/110-news-room/7862-moscow-airport-bomb.cod

Here is a time line of terror in Russia from the BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12268662

• Oct 2010 – Six people killed as militants storm parliament in Chechnya, North Caucasus

• Mar 2010 – Suicide bombings at two Moscow metro stations kill 40 people; attack blamed on North Caucasus militants

• Nov 2009 – Bomb blast hits Moscow-St Petersburg luxury express train, killing 26; North Caucasus Islamist group claims responsibility

• Sept 2004 – Chechen rebels seize school in Beslan; 334 hostages, including many children, killed in ensuing battle

• Aug 2004 – Suicide bomber blows herself up at a Moscow metro station, killing 10

• Aug 2004 – Two Tupolevairport airliners blown up in mid-air by suicide bombers, killing 89 passengers and crew

Reports say the blast happened in the baggage reclaim area of Domodedovo airport

Airport spokeswoman Yelena Galanova is telling Interfax: “The explosion occurred in the international arrivals hall in a public area, to which people who are not passengers have free access.” 

FREE ACCESS, imagine that. Airports in the U.S.A. have free public access to arrival halls and baggage claim areas as well.   Take a look at the Las Vegas Airport for example.  Think any subway systems, any bus terminal, any department store.  Anyplace, anywhere.

McCarran International Airport Baggage Claim, just 3 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, 16 baggage claim carousels serve the airlines operating from Terminal 1.

The last time I few through Vegas, someone actually double checked to see if my baggage claim ticket matched the ticket on my suitcase and there were security personnel about, but there was plenty of public access to the area.  Smokers going in and out, people looking for friends, looking for a taxi, etc.  As in the case with the Moscow airport, a whole bunch of airports are set up the same way.

When entering the airport we are now patted down and x-rayed before boarding.  That in and of itself a whole rant.  The balance between security and “Amendment IV” of the Constitution that says: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…”  The article, “Airport Degredations,” does a fine job of ripping the TSA to shreds at  http://sagharboronline.com/sagharborexpress/our-town/airport-degradations-11004

Whatever one’s belief on the pat down and security screening process, it should not be rocket science to have some additional security in place where there is public access.  Where are all those bomb sniffing dogs we keep hearing about anyway?    

The Political Commentator, http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-light-of-moscow-airport-bombing.html makes this point-

Remember Chris Liu, the pilot based at San Francisco International Airport who caught heat from the TSA for posting a You Tube video of the security breaches at the airport? Remember how his license to carry a weapon was pulled?

Remember his concern that while pilots, flight attendants and passengers needed to go through security checkpoints, other airport personnel did not?

It’s a pretty good guess that some jack wad took a cab, walked right on in with no security check and blew himself up, killing and injuring innocents.  From BBC Live, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/9372022.stm

1655: Aviation expert Chris Yates backs the theory that suicide attacker was responsible for the attack, telling the BBC: “Quite an amount of shrapnel has been found in the arrivals hall – ball bearings and other things that could be packed into a suicide belt. We could be talking about a walk-in suicide attacker walking in and blowing themselves up at that critical moment.”

1722: Interfax quotes unnamed security sources as saying the head of the suspected bomber has been found: “We have found the head of a man of Arab appearance who is about 30 to 35 years old. He presumably set off the explosive device.”

1737: According to eyewitnesses quoted by Russian TV’s Vesti news programme, the bomber shouted “I’ll kill you all” before detonating his explosives

1740: Russian affairs analyst Andrei Ostalski tells BBC World Service: “The attack was so professionally engineered, it was done in such a brutally efficient way there are not too many groups in Russia that have this kind of practical experience of setting up such devices. So of course everybody is thinking about Chechen groups and insurgents who have been trained to do that kind of thing.”

Trained to do that kind of thing?  Despicable. 

The Moscow News, http://themoscownews.com/society/20110120/188351490.html?referfrommn  only days ago, reported:

Akhmed Azimov, chairman of the Moscow branch of the Russian Congress of Caucasus Peoples, told The Moscow News that his organisation is calling for a calm reaction to the nationalist riots, and is advising young Caucasus natives to stay away from counter-protests, such as the abortive attempt to hold a rally near Kievsky Station in mid-December.
“We’ve tried our best to calm down the youth from the North Caucasus – we’ve asked them not to react in any way to the provocations from the ultranationalist movements,” Azimov said.

The balance between safety and security is not going to go away anytime soon.  Prison Planet outlined it like this today, http://www.prisonplanet.com/americans-are-just-as-likely-to-get-struck-by-lightning-than-killed-by-terrorists.html

Roughly the same number as those unfortunately killed in today’s suicide bombing will die on America’s roads today, as well as tomorrow and in fact every day of the year – an average of 115 Americans are killed in car accidents daily, about one every 13 minutes, but you will never see it make the national headlines never mind gain global attention.

And why is that? Because every time we climb into our cars we subconsciously accept the price of freedom – which is the chance of being injured or killed. We take the same gamble every time we board an airplane, cascade down a ski slope or go up in a hot air balloon. We do so because the benefits of being a free human being are infinitely more rewarding than living in constant fear and demanding omnipresent “security,” which is never achievable anyway.

I wish the media would show a little freedom of the press, and show his cowardly blown off head.  That would be a deterrent.  

The BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12269632 has a picture gallery from the Domodedovo airport should one care to witness more carnage from some deviant bastard. 

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