Paper: Detainee Told Police About Beslan
By Oksana YablokovaIt's getting deeper.
Staff WriterChechen police learned about the Beslan school raid several hours before it began, and at least 60 attackers swooped down on the school, not 32 as officials say, according to a lengthy investigative report by Novaya http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/65n/n65n-s00.shtml Gazeta on Monday. ( Titled - "There are people to whom everything is known" M.L.)
Police in Chechnya learned about the planned attack three hours in advance but did not alert law enforcement officials in neighboring North Ossetia to tighten security in Beslan schools, Novaya Gazeta wrote Monday, just days before the second anniversary of the attack that killed more than 330 people, more than half of them children.
The newspaper printed a series of police reports, including one that said a detainee in the Chechen town of Shali told police interrogators at 5 a.m. that a school hostage taking had been planned for Beslan. The detainee was identified only by his last name, Arsamikov.
The report did not identify the police officers who wrote the report or say why the information about the imminent attack not been passed on to North Ossetian law enforcement officials.
Note: I tried to Babel Fish the link (http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/65n/n65n-s00.shtml), but to no avail. Kept receiving an error message, so try on your own. Anticipate very broken English, though.