Re: FW: Racist book "The Arab Mind" used to train military , but best use is as a doorstop.

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

See how different things look when you bother to examine primary sources and don't rely on on crappy British newspapers?

BBC Monitoring
Putin answers questions from the public in live broadcast
Source: RTR Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 0900 gmt 18 Dec 03

[Andreyeva] And here is the Kremlin live on air, and Russian President
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Hello, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

[Brilev] Hello.

[Putin] Hello.

[Andreyeva] Our direct line is about to start. We have cameras in many
Russian towns. We will begin the direct line to the president of the
Russian Federation in literally a few seconds time. Vladimir Vladimirovich,
this is the third time that you are taking part in the phone-in. Me too,
but I still get a bit nervous. I'm very interested, are you nervous?

[Putin] No. If you follow two simple rules - don't promise the impossible
and don't lie - then there is no need to worry.

[Andreyeva] That is good advice.

---

[Brilev] We're staying in the village of New Village. Olga, what's the next
question?

[Woman] Irina Mozhayskaya, I am a teacher. Vladimir Vladimirovich, in the
past three years here in Stavropol Territory there have been 12 acts of
terrorism. Children are dying, young people are dying. In the last act of
terrorism 45 people died in Yessentuki. How can we put a stop to all this,
can this be done and when will it all come to an end, these bandits'
lawlessness?

[Putin] Ira, you've raised one of the bloodiest problems, in the direct
sense of the word. One of the acutest issues.

As you know, not only Russia is up against this, but very many other
countries, too. What is happening? What is at the root of the problem? I
have to say that we are continually and often, for obvious reasons,
addressing the problem of Chechnya. The problem now is not Chechnya alone.
The fact is that all over the world there are people who have taken upon
themselves the right to decide that they can influence the opinions of
those people who observe Islamic traditions and customs, of the whole
Islamic world, and not just influence their opinions. They also believe
they have the right to control territories with concentrated Muslim
populations. These people use religious slogans as a cover in order to
achieve political ends.

This is extremely relevant to our country, because we do have these
concentrated Muslim populations and these destructive forces, which we dub
international terrorists, are targeting these places, these citizens of our
country. Of course, they have taken advantage of the problems arising from
the disintegration of the Soviet Union and from what happened in Chechnya.
They make use of separatism. But in point of fact they are pursuing other
aims, not independence for Chechnya. They have completely different aims -
seizing all territories with concentrated Muslim populations.

Of course we have to stand up against this if we don't want our state to
collapse. But if that did happen here, it would be worse than Yugoslavia.
It would mean the Yugoslavization of Russia following a worse scenario and
with very many more casualties. We have to be aware of this and armed with
this awareness we have to fight it. We have to fight alongside the entire
international community, because the threat comes not only from within, but
from outside, too, from abroad.

For example, the recent fighting in the Caucasus demonstrated this: almost
half of the gangs being pursued there in Dagestan were mercenaries from
other countries. Here we come across not just citizens and nationals of
Arab states, there are also citizens of other republics of the Soviet
Union, Russians and Ukrainians, even Germans, not Germans of Turkish
origin, but ethnic Germans. There are people from other European countries.

We know all that. This is an international problem. Unfortunately, it
affects Russia in full. There is only one thing to be done here: not to
give in to them, not to panic; and to act in a consolidated and in a
consistently and persistently tough manner against the criminals. And, of
course, our law-enforcement agencies have to improve the quality of their
work.