talk about expendable.. onthe other hand i do not know enough to saywhat
they could have done instead.
your training might give some insightthat you can inpart. what do you do
when the hostages are beginning to be killed?

-----Original Message-----
From: Cleveland, Kyle E.
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 10/30/2002 1:08 PM
Subject: Russians used Fentanyl

Talk about pitching the baby out with the bathwater:  The Russian
Special
Forces (ostensibly) pumped a gas containing Fentanyl into the theatre
where
Chechen rebels were holding hundreds of Russian theater-goers hostage.
Ironically, a good number of the terrorists were in the theater's foyer,
thus escaping the effects of the gas.  They died anyway in a firefight
with
Russian police.

FYI:  Fentanyl is a powerful opiate on the order of magnitude of being
thousands of times more powerful than morphine by volume.  About 170
(and
counting) out of 800 hostages died as a result of the gas attack.  Most
went
into cardiac arrest or respiratory failure--many because they were not
given
adequate care after the "rescue".  The rescue teams were not told of the
gas
and were given no instruction in triage for the victims.

I'm glad I don't live in a country where saving 600 or so out of 800 is
a
tactical success.

-Kyle