Israel To Aid Russia On Terror

The Russians will work with the Israeli's to improve their anti-terror abilities:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Israel's renewed offer to share its experience of combatting militant groups, in the wake of the Russian school massacre, would give a boost to the fight against global terror. Speaking to Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres at the start of a whirlwind day of meetings with officials in Jerusalem, Lavrov said terrorism is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community. "We appreciate the very strong readiness of the Israeli people to help Russia at this hour and this will certainly strengthen the counterterrorist coalition these days," he said. In a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, Prime Minister Sharon called for expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries. The Israeli daily Haaretz said Israel was also likely to offer its well-developed rehabilitation facilities to Russian children injured in the Beslan school siege.

The Israeli's are easily the best at this out of necessity. Al-Qaeda may have more than it bargained for with this latest attack. The Israeli's and Russians will not be as kind as the US.

In equally surprising news, the Putin administration admits that it knowingly lied to the public about numerous aspects of the school hostage act of terror:

MOSCOW, Sept. 5 -- The Russian government admitted Sunday that it lied to its people about the scale of the hostage crisis that ended with more than 300 children, parents and teachers dead in southern Russia, making an extraordinary admission through state television after days of intense criticism from citizens.
As the bereaved families of Beslan began to lay their loved ones to rest Sunday, the Kremlin-controlled Rossiya network aired gripping, gruesome footage it had withheld from the public for days and said government officials had deliberately deceived the world about the number of hostages inside School No. 1.

The admission of an effort to minimize the magnitude of a hostage crisis that ensnared about 1,200 people, most of them children, marked a sharp turnabout for the government of President Vladimir Putin. In previous crises with mass fatalities, such as the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in 2000 and the 2002 siege of a Moscow theater, officials covered up key facts as well, but afterward never acknowledged doing so.
"It doesn't suit our president," a Kremlin political consultant, Gleb Pavlovsky, said on the broadcast. "Lies, which really acted in the terrorists' favor, did not suit him at all. Lies were weakening us and making the terrorists more violent."

The broadcast included no apology and referred only to the most blatant misstatement by officials, the claim that only 354 hostages were inside the school. It did not acknowledge that the hostage-takers had demanded an end to the war in Chechnya or that the government continues to give conflicting information about whether any of the guerrillas remain at large, who they were and how many were killed.
Nor did it mention that many residents of Beslan have been outraged that the government now appears to be understating the death toll, which stood officially at 338 Sunday night, although nearly 200 people are still unaccounted for.

The Russians have not changed in all respects from the Soviet days, they are still notoriously secretive and withold information. They also will rarely ask for outside help with internal problems, which makes the first article about Israel all the more surprising.

I recall back when the Kursk sank and the chance to rescue at least some of the crew was good. The US Navy loaded up a DSRV for transport to northern Russia. The plane sat on the tarmac awaiting the call that never came. If the DSRV could've gotten into place and possibly rescued some sailors is open to argument, however they didn't even allow us to attempt it.