Timothy,
I am from Portugal, a country of seamen, and my
thoughts, too, go for those sailors.
Let's hope they are alive and that this sad episode
will help us all in the right direction.
Carlos Sá «kauva5@yahoo.com»
--- "Terry W. Colvin" <fortean1@frontiernet.net>
escreveu: > -The US Navy had announced that it had
registered
> two explosions the second much
> greater than the first. This has now been confirmed
> by Norwegian Seismologists
> who say there was one explosion at 0728 and 27 sec
> registering about 1.5 on the
> Richter scale. The second at 0730 and 42 sec
> registering about 3.5 on the
> Richter scale (equivalent to one to two tons of TNT
> explosive detonated
> underwater)
> -There where 10 senior naval officers on board as
> observers.
> -There has been a lot of contact between NATO (and
> some NATO members
> independently) and the Russians on this matter.
> There have even been two visits
> from Russian representatives at NATO headquarters.
> - 2/3 of the crew could have been killed by the
> explosion that sunk the sub
> according to Jane's.
> -The K-141 Kursk was one of the Russian subs with
> the best trained crews, and
> was soon to be deployed in the Mediterranean as part
> of a carrier group. This
> deployment is/was planned as a show of force, to
> remind the world that Russia is
> still a world power. The major exercise in which the
> Kursk was taking part was a
> prelude to this deployment. Interestingly this task
> force is to be led by the
> Aircraft carrier Kuznetsov, which had to be towed
> back to port a few months ago,
> while taking part in another such deployment.
>
> Why did they wait?
> -The hatches on the Kursk are compatible with the
> LR5 rescue submarine sent by
> the British. And the Russians were very likely to
> know that from the beginning.
> - The first estimates had said there should be
> enough air left until early
> friday, why take risks? Knowing 48 hr at least were
> needed if everything went
> well to get outside help.
> -Why was the 'foreign' rescue mission not allowed to
> land and depart from the
> military base, which was closest but had instead to
> take a longer route.
>
> <specualation>
> Putin is being heavily criticized at home for his
> apparent lack of interest in
> the matter.
> Russian military Top brass seem to be resisting
> foreign 'interference' and even
> leaking 'rumors' of foreign responsibility in the
> accident with Defense minister
> Sergeyev (ex-commander of strategic rocket forces
> (nuclear forces), and a noted
> anti western) backing these stories (i.e. US sub
> 'ramming' the Kursk, reports of
> another sub resting on the sea floor then secretly
> limping back to norway
> etc...). If so, Putin is likely to have at least not
> resisted the military,
> because he is a strong supporter of a 'strong'
> Russia. We may have seen some
> political infighting, with some supporting foreign
> help and openness while
> others, backed by the defense minister and the
> military preferring to keep the
> lid on the accident and avoiding 'outsiders'
> meddling in their affairs. The
> decision may have been to try and keep the lid on
> the whole story (the story was
> only revealed 2 days later and not by the government
> or the military), and the
> military would try it's own rescue.
> Either they had to concede to a Wednesday deadline
> (+ 48hrs needed for foreign
> help to arrive would coincide with the first
> estimates on amount of air left ,
> which was early Friday)
> Or they were forced into accepting foreign
> assistance because of the public
> outrage.
> In any case everyone seems to have lost in this
> affair, first and foremost the
> sailors of the Kursk, of course. The military and
> government leaders (including
> Putin) have now to endure the public outrage,
> because they have not done
> everything that could be done to save the sailors,
> and on the international
> front Russia will have lost face and prestige,
> because of having to rely on its
> 'enemy' for help. Ironically the image that NATO is
> still the great enemy that
> they have themselves in a large part created for
> their political purposes, will
> now work against them.
> I just wonder if (or hope that) the Sailors, if any
> are still alive, and their
> families know that even the 'enemy' thinks of them
> as men, and that our thoughts
> go with them.
> Timothy
>
> --
> Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) <
> fortean1@frontiernet.net >
> Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
> Home Page: <
>
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html
> >
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:36:14 MDT