Speculation has run rampant since last week’s horrific terrorist attack in a Moscow suburb left 139 dead and scores more wounded. The United States immediately seized on a statement from a figure allegedly linked to the terror group ISIS*, claiming Ukraine had no involvement in the tragic incident. Some have taken the US explanation at face value.
Others have critically scrutinized aspects of the attack, pointing out incongruities with typical terrorist actions.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is in the latter camp, claiming the incident appears dissimilar to the typical “handiwork” of the so-called Islamic State. Ritter joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program on Tuesday to expound on his analysis.
“These aren't hardcore ISIS followers,” said the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. “These are people who self-identified as ISIS by posting an image that was picked up by the ISIS media arm and then published and ISIS looked at it and said, 'okay, they're doing all the right things. They published a photo, they made Shahada – announced the creed of Islam. So we're going to say yes, this is ISIS, this is ours.’”
But Ritter claimed various aspects of the attackers’ alleged profession of faith seem amiss.
“Shahada is the Islamic creed that is extraordinarily important because that's how one says ‘I am Muslim,’” explained the former weapons inspector. “It's a very pious act. It only counts if it's meant seriously. And there's nothing in the Islamic religion that says that you have to raise a finger. That is something that has come into trend with jihadists because Osama bin Laden did that.”
“So you'll see a lot of al-Qaeda Islamists do Shahada raising their right hand,” he continued. “Right hand, by the way, is very important – it's the hand of righteousness, it's the clean hand, it's the hand that does good. The left hand is the hand of Satan, the hand of evil, the hand that does bad.”
“These four perpetrators of this action in Moscow posted a photograph of them giving Shahada with their left hand, which tells you they have no clue what they're doing,” said Ritter. “These aren't Muslims. These aren't real Muslims. These are people who are pretending to be Muslims.”
Ritter also pointed to the fact that the perpetrators fled the scene of the terrorist attack afterwards, rather than fighting to the death. Islamic terrorists typically go out as “martyrs,” he noted, following their “true north” to eternal reward in Heaven. Friday’s attackers instead attempted to flee to Ukraine, suggesting their “true north” is Kiev.
“The biggest takeaway, though, is that they blurred their faces,” he claimed. “If you're getting ready to announce your creed to Islam and you're going to be a martyr, navigating true north to heaven and the 72 virgins that await you, you want your faces seen. You're announcing this piously, publicly. They blurred their faces. Why?”
“Because these aren't jihadists, these are mercenaries,” Ritter concluded. “These are people who took money to commit an act of irregular warfare. We can call it terrorism because that's what it was. But the purpose of this action was attached to a larger policy objective of disrupting Russian presidential elections.”
Recently released video from the scene of the attack appeared to show one of the attackers scoping out the Crocus City Hall venue earlier this month. The evidence has led to speculation the attack was originally intended to be carried out before Russia’s presidential contest in order to disrupt the election and undermine trust in President Vladimir Putin.
The terrorist was apparently dissuaded from striking at that time due to the security presence at the concert hall leading up to a performance by the popular Russian singer Shaman.
“It's a political act, it had nothing to do with Islam or nothing to do with a conflict between Russia and Islamic forces in Afghanistan or Syria,” said Ritter. “This was a political act linked to an American policy objective being implemented by Ukrainian intelligence services.”
The analyst said both major branches of ISIS were “largely defeated” after intelligence agencies successfully infiltrated the groups. But afterwards Western countries decided to utilize the notorious terrorist gangs for their own ends, Ritter claimed.
“What we did is once we captured ISIS, we started using ISIS for our own purposes,” he said. “For instance, in Syria, targeting them against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. We have American officials bragging. Hell, even Hillary Clinton at one time bragged about how we controlled ISIS to undermine Assad.”
“And in Afghanistan, we used ISIS to undermine the Taliban,” Ritter added. “And so there is every reason to believe that ISIS has been thoroughly infiltrated by Western intelligence services – the British, the Americans. So we now know that there's an ISIS element that has aligned itself with Ukraine and actually is fighting on the side of Ukraine in Ukraine.”
“ISIS is in many ways today a controlled client of Western intelligence services.”
* ISIS (also known as Daesh/ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.