While the media has moved into full-bore news recycling [note to editors – new pictures of the same scandal does not a “broadening” story make];
Chechen president assassinated
The Kremlin-backed president of Chechnya was killed Sunday when an explosion ripped through a packed stadium during Victory Day observances in Grozny.
The head of Chechnya’s state council, the region’s finance minister and a journalist working for the Reuters news agency were also among the dead.
Several dignitaries were in the crowd for ceremonies to mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The top Russian commander in the region, Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, was badly wounded. It’s reported he lost one of his legs in the explosion.
Kadyrov had been part of the separatist war against Russia in the 1990’s before recognizing his cause was being taken over by Islamists. He was being credited for helping erode public support for the movement.
While the abuses at Abu Ghraib are a public relations win for Islamism, this is a strategic and military one.
I predict it will be treated like any of the other news “blips” out there this morning. A day or two will pass, and we’ll hear nothing more until another blast goes off in another remote part of somewhere we know nothing about. A body count, some background history and then, back to analysis of naked detainee photos.