<p>This is all over CNN:</p>
<p>[Polish</a> leader, 96 others dead in Russia jet crash - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_plane_crash]Polish ”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_plane_crash )</p>
<p>
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.</p>
<p>The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland’s political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces. Also killed were the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
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<p>It sounds that the cause of the crash was just a tragic error, not an act of terrorism. What a sad day for Poland…</p>
DonnaL
April 10, 2010, 2:21pm
2
<p>Very sad. Remember, though, that in Poland, it’s the prime minister (not the president) who holds real power. Still, the Polish armed forces have been effectively decapitated.</p>
<p>I am sure the conspiracy theorists will have a field day blaming Putin and the Russians, especially given the symbolism of the connection with Katyn Forest.</p>