The Russian government now says that 90 hostages are dead, and 750 were freed. Some reports say President Putin ordered Special Forces in after shots were fired by the terrorists, other reports say the decision was made by the Special Forces commander. Right now, attention is being focused on hospitals were 440 hostages were taken.neuro-paralyzing gas was used as opposed to a ’sleeping gas.’

There has been speculation it was BZ gas.

This, however, did not stop the CIA from fiddling with several BZ-related substances as part of its ongoing R&D program geared toward behavior modification and mind control techniques. A CIA memo dated September 4, 1970, emphasized the importance BZ-type weapons for crowd control: “Trends in modern police action and warfare indicate the desire to incapacitate reversibly and demoralize, rather than kill, the enemy. . . . With the advent of highly potent natural products, psychotropic and immobilizing drugs, a new era of law enforcement. . . is being ushered in.”

U.S. army documents indicate that BZ was seriously considered for domestic riot control purposes. One harebrained scheme involved the use of tiny remote-controlled model airplanes nicknamed “mechanical bees.” Mounted with hypodermic syringes, the bees would be aimed at selected protesters during political demonstrations to render them senseless. Another plan called for spraying BZ gas to incapacitate disorderly civilians.

….Moreover U.S. commanders, in the military literature, indicate that incapacitating agents are not meant as a substitute for guns, but as an addition to lethal ordnance.