YOU KNOW, this looks like more evidence of the Nick Denton terrorists-are-idiots theory:

Gunmen claiming to be Chechen rebels seized a crowded Moscow theater Wednesday night, firing their weapons and taking hundreds in the audience hostage. Police and security forces surrounded the building.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported the men were laying mines inside the theater. The report was based on a witness report to police and could not be independently verified. . . .

The Interfax news agency reported some children and Muslims in the audience had been freed. A boy who was let out told a radio interviewer the gunmen were from the Caucasus region, spoke in one of the languages of southern Russia and demanded an end to Russia’s war against Chechnya.

I think that Russian opposition to American war efforts is likely to drop, in exchange for us keeping quiet about what they’re about to do in Chechnya.

UPDATE: Here’s another story.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Clayton Cramer writes: “al-Qaida wants an all-out war, a Manichean struggle between Good and Evil. They are just a little confused about which side they are on.”

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Eric Olsen has noticed what’s missing from the reports.