The Crocus Concert Hall Atrocity: No Going Back

The Crocus Concert Hall Atrocity: No Going Back

Alastair Crooke

The details of the arrested perpetrators and their mode of operation however, does not comport with the notion of their being ideological supporters of ISIS. They may have ostensibly been broadly Islamist, but were in reality mercenaries motivated by the lure of money. ISIS recruits expect and get martyrdom. These men simply jumped in a car, wanting to escape. In an ISIS operation, they would have continued the massacre -- until shot dead.

There are many other inconsistencies to the ISIS claim. The assailants may have been pious Islamists, but likely not ISIS. Even their oath with the left hand raised was wrong. The Amaq statement too, is problematic in several respects. In the past Amaq has claimed attacks in Iran, with subsequent Amaq communiques having to be ‘corrected’. Livestream coverage of an attack is unheard of.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insists that though Russia knows who carried out the attack, it is too early to speculate on ‘who gave the ultimate order’ (President Putin’s, as yet, unanswered question).   

Ultimately, the EU’s ruling élites seek to ‘trans-nationalise’ power upwards from member states to Brussels.

Here lies the seeds of the present putative panic: When it became evident that Ukraine’s conventional military efforts were a flop, a number of hawks in the US and Europe quickly swung to singing the praises of asymmetric warfare -- on Russia and its civilian population, itself.

This asymmetry began slowly: a few random drone attacks that did little damage.  This then accelerated to missiles fired into the centres of Belgorod killing civilians; then it became an attack on a Russian transport Ilyushin plane transporting prisoners; and then moved to drone attacks on Russian refineries and naval drone war on Crimea. 

The process accelerated. And on the eve of last week’s Russian elections, there was the attempt by purported dissidents to disrupt the elections by invading Russia in order to seize small towns and Russian civilians to hold as hostages. (It failed; Russia had prior knowledge of the plan).

The question the Euro-élites must be asking themselves now is: Has this Ukrainian asymmetric warfare effort spun out of Washington’s and European control?  Who is in charge, if anyone?  It is unproven yet, but the fear haunting the West must be that  either directly, or even very indirectly,  it will emerge that they may find themselves complicit in mass terrorism -- sheltering under an ISIS-K franchise?

The implications: Huge.