Monday August 21 6:07 PM ET Sorrow And Anger As Russia Deals with Kursk Deaths By Michael Steen MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Sorrow, anger and shock gripped Russia on Tuesday as the nation came to terms with news that 118 sailors trapped at the bottom of the sea were dead. ``We lost the best submarine crew in the Northern Fleet,'' the fleet's commander Admiral Vyacheslav Popov said, his voice shaking with emotion, hours after Norwegian divers found the vessel was flooded. ``Forgive the children. Forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys,'' he said in a televised address from the deck of a cruiser in the Barents Sea late on Monday. But the Russian press -- aware that officials spurned foreign help for days while Russia's own rescue efforts failed -- was not in a forgiving mood. Nine days after the Kursk sank, it was the Norwegian-led team that finally opened the hatch after less than 24 hours of work. ``What if they had not lied to us?'' asked the daily Izvestia. ``What if they had not waited five days to invite the foreigners? What if we had our own equipment? Now it is too late. ``Those who carried out dive after dive, day and night in the icy waters with the equipment they had, they did all they could. Those who pretended to be a superpower, they will not be excused.'' President Vladimir Putin, once all-but immune to public criticism, has been attacked for failing to interrupt a Black Sea holiday in the midst of the crisis. ``My view is that Putin doesn't like people. Doesn't feel the tragedy of the people. Doesn't feel the soul of the people,'' Boris Nemtsov, leader of the liberal Union of Right-wing Forces in parliament told the British Broadcasting Corporation. Russian television paid tribute by displaying the names of the crew, against a background of the navy's blue and white flag, fluttering at half mast over a rolling sea. Next Step: Recovering Bodies Russia has asked for Norwegian help in bringing the sailors' bodies to the surface. Norway said it was considering the request, but any operation to recover the corpses from the sunken submarine could take weeks. Norway has offered to send a camera into the crippled vessel to film the wreck for details that might help future efforts to bring up the bodies or salvage the vessel. A salvage operation will also have to address the threat of radiation from the Kursk's nuclear reactors. So far there has been no report of radiation, but Alexander Nikitin, a leading Russian environmentalist and former navy captain, said a danger could develop if the submarine was left rusting on the sea floor. ``In my opinion the submarine will have to be salvaged and taken out of the seabed because if nothing is done then there will be the emission of radioactive elements in the future,'' he said on the sidelines of a conference in Washington. Russian officials have said the most likely cause of the accident was an initial explosion, either from inside the vessel or caused by a collision, which wrecked the front of the sub and sent it to the seabed at high speed. The impact led to a detonation of the Kursk's torpedoes, a much bigger blast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Wingate Alien Ambassador R A D I O A N O M A L Y - techno, jazz, ambient (56K +) http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=stevew168 (in Winamp, hit CTL-L, then enter http://166.90.148.108:8674 , bookmark! :) Anomalous Images and UFO Files http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
