The Puppet Masters Behind Georgia President Saakashvili
By F. William Engdahl
21/08/08
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e20569.htm

The controversy over the Georgian surprise military attacks on South Ossetia and Abkhazia on 8.8.08 makes a closer look at the controversial Georgian President and his puppet masters important. An examination shows 41 year old Mikhail Saakashvili to be a ruthless and corrupt totalitarian who is tied to not only the US NATO establishment, but also to the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. The famous ‘Rose Revolution of November 2003 that forced the ageing Edouard Shevardnadze from power and swept the then 36 year old US university graduate into power was run and financed by the US State Department, the Soros Foundations, and agencies tied to the Pentagon and US intelligence community.

Mihkail Saakashvili was deliberately placed in power in one of the most sophisticated US regime change operations, using ostensibly private NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) to create an atmosphere of popular protest against the existing regime of former Soviet Foreign Minister Edouard Shevardnadze, who was no longer useful to Washington when he began to make a deal with Moscow over energy pipelines and privatizations.

Saakashvili was brought to power in a US-engineered coup run on the ground by US-funded NGO’s, in an application of a new method of US destabilization of regimes it considered hostile to its foreign policy agenda. The November 24 2003 Wall Street Journal explicitly credited the toppling of Shevardnadze's regime to the operations of "a raft of non-governmental organizations . . . supported by American and other Western foundations." These NGOs, said the Journal, had "spawned a class of young, English-speaking intellectuals hungry for pro-Western reforms" who were instrumental laying the groundwork for a bloodless coup.

Coup by NGO

But there is more. The NGOs were coordinated by the US Ambassador to Georgia, Richard Miles, who had just arrived in Tbilisi fresh from success in orchestrating the CIA-backed toppling of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, using the same NGOs. Miles, who is believed to be an undercover intelligence specialist, supervised the Saakashvili coup.

It involved US billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Georgia Foundation. It involved the Washington-based Freedom House whose chairman was former CIA chief James Woolsey. It involved generous financing from the US Congress-financed National Endowment for Democracy, an agency created by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s to “do privately what the CIA used to do,” namely coups against regimes the US Government finds unfriendly.

George Soros’ foundations have been forced to leave numerous eastern European countries including Russia as well as China after the 1989 student Tiananmen Square uprising. Soros is also the financier together with the US State Department of the Human Rights Watch, a US-based and run propaganda arm of the entire NGO apparatus of regime coups such as Georgia and Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution. Some analysts believe Soros is a high-level operative of the US State Department or intelligence services using his private foundations as cover.

The US State Department funded the Georgia Liberty Institute headed by Saakashvili, US approved candidate to succeed the no-longer cooperative Shevardnadze. The Liberty Institute in turn created “Kmara!” which translates “Enough!” According to a BBC report at the time, Kmara! Was organized in spring of 2003 when Saakashvili along with hand-picked Georgia student activists were paid by the Soros Foundation to go to Belgrade to learn from the US-financed Otpor activists that toppled Milosevic. They were trained in Gene Sharp’s “non-violence as a method of warfare” by the Belgrade Center for Nonviolent Resistance.

Saakashvili as mafioso President

Once he was in place in January 2004 as Georgia’s new President, Saakashvili proceeded to pack the regime with his cronies and kinsmen. The death of Zurab Zhvania, his prime minister in February, 2005, remains a mystery. The official version—poisoning by faulty gas heater—was adopted by American FBI investigators within two weeks of the killing. That has never seemed credible to those familiar with Georgia’s gangland slayings, crime, and other manifestations of social decay. Zhvania’s death was followed closely by a functionary of the Premier’s apparat, Georgi Khelashvili, who allegedly shot himself the day after his chief’s demise. The head of Zhvania’s research staff was later found dead as well.

Figures allied with Saakashvili reportedly had a hand in the premier’s death. Russian journalist Marina Perevozkina quoted Gia Khurashvili, a Georgian economist. Prior to the fatal incident, Mr. Khurashvili had published an article in Resonans newspaper opposing the privatization and sale of Georgia’s main gas pipeline. Ten days before the prime minister’s body was found, Khurashvili was attacked and his editor-in-chief—citing pressure from ‘security service’ figures he refused to name—issued him a warning.

The late premier’s position on the pipeline issue was believed the direct reason for the murder of Zhvania. Zhvania’s brother, Georgi, also told Perevozkina that not long before Zhvania’s death he received a warning that someone was preparing to kill his brother. Saakashvili was reportedly livid when the US State Department invited Zhvania to Washington to win a Freedom Medal from the US Government’s National Democratic Institute. Saakashvili tolerates no rivals for power it seems.

Saakashvili, who cleverly marketed himself as “anti-corruption,” appointed several of his family members to lucrative posts in government, giving one of his brothers a position as chief adviser on domestic issues to the Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline project, backed by British Petroleum and other oil multinationals.

Since coming to power in 2004 with US aid, Saakashvili has led a policy of mass-scale arrests, imprisonment, torture and deepened corruption. Saakashvili has presided over the creation of a de facto one-party state, with a dummy opposition occupying a tiny portion of seats in the parliament, and this public servant is building a Ceaucescu-style palace for himself on the outskirts of Tbilisi. According to the magazine, Civil Georgia (Mar. 22, 2004) until 2005, the salaries of Saakashvili and many of his ministers were reportedly paid by the NGO network of New York-based currency speculator Soros—along with the United Nations Development Program.

Israel US military train Georgian military

The current military assault on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in violation of Saakashvili’s pledge to seek a diplomatic not military solution to the territorial disputes, is backed by US and Israeli military “advisers.” Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that on August 10, Georgian Minister of Reintegration, Temur Yakobshvili, “praised the Israel Defense Forces for its role in training Georgian troops and said Israel should be proud of its military might, in an interview with Army Radio. ‘Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers,’ Yakobashvili told Army Radio in Hebrew, referring to a private Israeli group Georgia had hired.”

One of the targets of Russian bombs near Tbilisi was, according to IsraelNN.com, “a Georgian military plant in which Israeli experts are upgrading jet fighters for the Georgian military… Russian fighter jets bombed runways inside the plant, located near Tbilisi, where Israeli security firm Elbit is in charge of upgrading Georgian SU-25 jets.”

Israeli Foreign Minister and candidate to succeed ousted Israeli Prime Minister, Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, proclaimed on August 10 that “Israel recognizes Georgia’s territorial integrity,” code for saying it backs Georgia’s attempt to take South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The reported 1,000 Israeli military advisers in Georgia were not alone. On July 15, the Reuters news wire carried the following report: “VAZIANI, Georgia - One thousand U.S. troops began a military training exercise called “Immediate Response 2008,” in Georgia on Tuesday against a backdrop of growing friction between Georgia and neighboring Russia. The two-week exercise was taking place at the Vaziani military base near the capital Tbilisi, which was a Russian air force base until Russian forces withdrew at the start of this decade under a European arms reduction agreement... Georgia has a 2,000-strong contingent supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and Washington provides training and equipment to the Georgian military. The United States is an ally of Georgia and has irritated Russia by backing Tbilisi’s bid to join the NATO military alliance... “The main purpose of these exercises is to increase the cooperation and partnership between U.S. and Georgian forces,” Brig. Gen. William B. Garrett, commander of the U.S. military’s Southern European Task Force, told reporters.”

With Russia openly backing and training the indigenous military in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to maintain Russian presence in the region, especially since the US-backed pro-NATO Saakashvili regime took power in 2004, the Caucasus is rapidly coming to resemble Spain in the Civil War from 1936-1939 where the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and others poured money and weapons and volunteers into Spain in a devastating war that was a precursor to the Second World War.

In a curious footnote to the actual launch of military fighting on the opening day of the Olympics when Putin, George W. Bush and many world leaders were in Beijing far away, is a report in IsraelNN.com by Gl Ronen, stating that “The Georgian move against South Ossetia was motivated by political considerations having to do with Israel and Iran, according to Nfc. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili decided to assert control over the breakaway region in order to force Israel to reconsider its decision to cut back its support for Georgia's military.”

Ronen added, “Russian and Georgian media reported several days ago that Israel decided to stop its support for Georgia after Moscow made it clear to Jerusalem and Washington that Russia would respond to continued aid for Georgia by selling advanced anti-aircraft systems to Syria and Iran.” Israel plans to get oil and gas from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from the Caspian.

Although as of this writing Russian President Medvedev has announced Russia is halting its military response against Georgian targets, the situation is anything but stable. The insistence of Washington in bringing Georgia into its geopolitical sphere and backing an unstable regime around Mikhail Saakashvili may well have been the straw which broke the Russian camel’s patience if not his back.

Whether oil pipeline disputes or Russian challenges to Israel are the proximate trigger for Saakashvili’s dangerous game, it is clear that the volatile Georgian and his puppet masters may have entered a game where no one will be able to control the outcome.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Russian troops complete Georgia pullout
August 22, 2008, 20:04
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29347

Russian troops have withdrawn from Georgia, according to the Ria Novosti News Agency. Peacekeepers will remain only in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where more checkpoints will be set up. Moscow says Russian troops are operating in line with international agreements.

"Only Russian peacekeeping units will remain at specially equipped security check-posts within the limits of security zones established in line with coordinated security principles, which Russia strictly abides by," said Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

He added that the withdrawal complied with earlier orders given by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Following last week’s ceasefire agreement, troops attached to the peacekeeping contingent have been stationed inside Georgia proper to provide added security.

During hostilities, Georgian authorities fled towns in the conflict zone, abandoning civilians.

Russian troops have overseen deliveries of humanitarian aid and maintained order before handing the towns over to the control of Georgian police.

Russia's navy sails home

The first Russian warship to leave the coast of Abkhasia has returned to its base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

According to reports, the 'Corvette Mirazh' sunk a Georgian missile boat while taking part in the peace enforcement operation near Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhasia.

Other vessels, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet's flagship, are due to return later.

Ukrainian nationalists planned a large scale protest against the Fleet, but only a few dozen demonstrators turned up.

Russia's air force has also returned from the area.

"The air grouping which operated in the interests of Russian peacekeepers in South Abkhazia has fulfilled the tasks set," said Russia's Deputy General Staff Anaytoly Nogovitsyn on Friday.

"Twenty-five attack aircraft and three fighter jets yesterday returned to their bases," Nogovitsyn said.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Russia keeps Georgia positions, US and France call for withdrawal
23/08/2008 02h12
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories ... 0.761.html

TBILISI (AFP) - Russian soldiers were still holding key positions inside Georgia on Saturday, a day after Moscow pulled out most of its troops, as the United States and France called for further withdrawals.

Two weeks after rolling into the former Soviet republic, several columns of Russian tanks and troops withdrew Friday from deep inside Georgian territory and allowed Georgian police to regain control of the key city of Gori.

But a top general said strategic routes would remain occupied and some 500 "peacekeepers" were to remain in a buffer zone around the Moscow-controlled separatist region of South Ossetia.

"The pullback of Russian troops and units passed without incident and was completed on time" at 7:50 pm (1550 GMT), Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

Thus, the Russian side has fulfilled its obligations" under a ceasefire plan brokered by France, Serdyukov said.

Georgia's interior ministry, however, said Russia continued to occupy areas of the country, with spokesman Shota Utiashvili saying: "It is not true that the withdrawal is complete."

US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed during a telephone conversation that "Russia is not in compliance and that Russia needs to come into compliance now," a White House spokesman said in Washington.

Bush and Sarkozy, who brokered the ceasefire accord, jointly called on Russia to "continue and complete" its withdrawal from Georgia, a statement from the French presidency said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "deeply concerned" by what he called Russia's failure to live up completely to its pledges on pulling back troops from Georgia, urging Russia to "fully and speedily" take steps to stick by its obligations under a French-brokered ceasefire plan.

Russian troops, sent into Georgia on August 8 to defend South Ossetia against an attack by Georgian troops, rolled northward toward Russia, some flashing victory signs.

Hundreds of soldiers and columns of tanks and trucks could be seen moving north from forward positions into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Russian-controlled separatist region.

Despite Russia's pullout, international tensions remained high.

Moscow criticised a NATO naval exercise taking place in the Black Sea, while in New York the United Nations again failed to agree on a resolution on the conflict.

A US-guided missile destroyer was to transit into the Black Sea and deliver aid over the next few days, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The question for Georgians, whose small US-trained army was routed in the Russian onslaught, was whether they would really regain control over their country.

In Moscow, the deputy chief of general staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, showed journalists a map detailing what he said would be a "zone of responsibility" for some 500 Russian "peacekeepers."

This included control of a key highway linking the Georgian capital to the Black Sea.

Military posts were to be established outside the port city of Poti and troops would have the right to deploy anywhere on the road between Poti and Senaki, according to the map.

Georgia said Russia's continued military presence in Poti and Senaki was "illegal."

An unknown number of combat troops also remained inside South Ossetia as well as Abkhazia, which broke away from Tbilisi in the 1990s.

In addition, Nogovitsyn said that "if needed we reserve the right to boost these forces."

Western capitals have rallied around Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is seeking NATO membership for his country.

NATO has condemned Russia's military intervention and in response Russia has frozen cooperation with the Western alliance.

Russia's military took a swipe at NATO after the alliance sent warships to the Black Sea near Georgia for exercises.

"I do not believe that these actions can seriously contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in the region," Nogovitsyn said.

NATO described the exercises, involving US, German, Spanish and Polish vessels, as routine and stressed they were planned before the Georgia conflict erupted.

There was still little clarity about when the bulk of combat troops would quit South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But Georgia appears increasingly unlikely to recover control of its two separatist regions.

Moscow has given mixed signals over whether it might recognise the separatist governments, a move that would likely exacerbate the worst crises between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Russia's two houses of parliament are to discuss the issue Monday.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres arrived in South Ossetia on Friday to assess the humanitarian situation.

The UNHCR believes more than 25,000 people are in need of aid in central and western Georgia.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Russia: Georgia set for another attack
Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:18:56 GMT

Georgia's independence-leaning republics are to come under Georgian onslaught, high-ranking Russian military official has revealed.
Russia's Deputy Chief of Staff, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said "We have registered an increase in [Georgia's] reconnaissance activities and preparations for armed actions in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone," Ria Novosti reported Friday.

Georgia's attempt at beefing up its firepower over the past few years, which Nogovitsyn referred to, will fast-track the pending move. The Russian official produced statistics that showed the number of Georgian tanks, armored vehicles and artillery weapons had almost doubled since 2005.

Russia, however, has remained committed to its promises of retreating from Georgia into the neutral area it has been allowed to establish near South Ossetia by the six-point cessation agreement the two sides inked earlier.

Moscow will constitute a minority of one in recognizing the two republics' independence, should the parliament approve the move during its convention on the matter due on Monday.

On Thursday, the South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity joined the thousands of the province's public in the capital Tskhinvali chanting pro-autonomy slogans. A similar rally was staged in Abkhazia where the local assembly had earlier urged Moscow to support its quest for independence.

Georgia is estimated to have caused damages of USD 4.1 billion in South Ossetia which sustained an all-out Georgian attack on August 8. Russian forces, then, barreled towards the area defending the province's civilians, 80 percent of whom have Russian citizenship.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=67 ... =351020606

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Bush Escalates War of Words With Russia
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 5:14 PM

CRAWFORD, Texas — In an escalating war of words, President Bush on Tuesday urged Russia to reconsider its "irresponsible decision" to shower independent status on two breakaway Georgian provinces.


Already rebuffed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Bush warned Russia to change course and respect the borders of its Georgian neighbor.


"Russia's action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations," the president said in a statement from Texas, where he is otherwise spending a quiet vacation.


Despite mounting international condemnation, Russia showed no sign of backing down. The U.S. is reviewing its relationship with Russia but has imposed no sanctions.


Medvedev said Tuesday that his country will grant diplomatic recognition to the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He said Georgia forced Russia's hand by trying to gain control by force in the smaller of the two areas, South Ossetia, on Aug. 7.


"This is not an easy choice but this is the only chance to save people's lives," Medvedev said Tuesday in a televised address a day after Russia's Kremlin-controlled parliament voted unanimously to support the diplomatic recognition.


Bush shot back that Russia's move violates both United Nations resolutions and the six-point cease-fire deal that Russia, under Medvedev's watch, signed with Georgia to end a war.


"We expect Russia to live up to its international commitments, reconsider this irresponsible decision, and follow the approach set out (in the cease-fire deal)," Bush said.


The White House says the U.S. will use its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to ensure that the two separatist provinces remain part of Georgia in the eyes of the world.


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that any push by Russia to do otherwise will be "dead on arrival" at the United Nations.


The rhetoric underscored the stakes of a once-obscure territorial dispute that has mushroomed into a Cold War-style conflict between the United States and Russia.


Russian tanks and troops drove deep into undisputed Georgian territory in a five-day war this month that Moscow saw as a justified response to a military threat in its backyard.


Separately, meanwhile, Medvedev warned Tuesday that his country may offer a military response to a U.S. missile shield in Europe. He said the deployment of an anti-missile system close to Russian borders "will of course create additional tensions."


"We will have to react somehow, to react, of course, in a military way," Medvedev was quoted as saying Tuesday by the RIA-Novosti news agency.


The White House sought to emphasize that Russia's conflict was with the world, not just with the United States. Several foreign leaders criticized Russia's action on the two provinces.


"Russia is making, I would say, a number of irrational decisions," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.


"We hope that they hear the loud voices from the international community and understand that it's not in their long-term interests to take these kinds of actions," he said.


Vice President Dick Cheney leaves next week on a trip that includes a stop in Georgia; Fratto said no U.S. officials plan to go to Russia to appeal directly to leaders there.


Bush said the U.S. condemns Russia's actions; just a day earlier, he had appealed to Medvedev to refrain from recognizing the two provinces as independent, to no avail.


Barack Obama, who will become the Democratic presidential nominee this week, condemned Russia's move and said the U.S. should convene a Security Council meeting to do the same. He did not say how the Council would do that, given Russia's status as a permanent member.


Republican John McCain's wife was in Georgia, visiting refugee centers filled with ethnic Georgians who fled villages and neighborhoods in South Ossetia.


"The only place these people want to be is home, and they can't go home because of what has happened to them," Cindy McCain said in brief remarks Tuesday outside one of the centers in Tbilisi.


John McCain has proposed expelling Russia from the Group of Eight club of the world's major developed democracies. He said Tuesday that Russia deserves international condemnation, and that it "must understand that its violations of international law carry consequences."


In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the U.S. is looking at a variety of options to respond.


"We're not trying to escalate anything," Wood said when asked whether disagreement between the West and Russia would jeopardize international cooperation. But, he added, "We obviously can't allow what Russia's done to go without there being some consequences."


He would not provide details about possible punishment the U.S. is considering.


Meanwhile, the United States dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a Georgian port city still patrolled by Russian troops.
http://newsmax.com/insidecover/bush_geo ... 25182.html

US ready to put Russian nuclear deal on ice
By Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: August 25 2008

The Bush administration is set to put a high-profile nuclear deal with Russia on hold, according to US diplomats.

Officials expect Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to recommend that George W. Bush, president, recall the civil nuclear co-operation agreement from Congress in the wake of Russia's conflict with Georgia.

"At this point, it's dead," a congressional staffer said.

The deal would be one of the most visible victims so far of tensions between Washington and Moscow, which have risen to levels rarely seen since the end of the cold war. US officials have warned Russia it faces "consequences" for its conduct in Georgia and they increasingly write off Russia's hopes of joining the World Trade Organisation.

The move to put the nuclear agreement on ice would darken prospects for bilateral co-operation between the two countries in the area of nuclear safety.

US hopes of United Nations action on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme depend on working with Russia. The campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama, the Republican and Democratic candidates for president, have also spelled out programmes for collaborating with Russia on arms control and non-proliferation initiatives.

Moscow has put great store in the civil nuclear co-operation deal, which would permit the potentially lucrative transfer of fuels and materials between the two countries. The US had earlier argued the agreement was needed to set up an international nuclear fuel bank in Russia.

The idea of such a facility, intended to dissuade countries from developing highly sensitive nuclear technologies, has won broad international support.

The deal faced resistance in Congress even before the Russia-Georgia conflict.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b120501e-723c ... ck_check=1

Russia to support Abkhazia, S.Ossetia if they are attacked
26/ 08/ 2008

SOCHI, August 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will defend Abkhazia and South Ossetia with all necessary support if they come under attack, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.

"Under the decree recognizing independence of both republics, which I have signed, our country will help Abkhazia and South Ossetia to ensure their security and if they are attacked we will certainly offer them appropriate support," Medvedev told CNN.

Russia's president signed decrees earlier on Tuesday recognizing Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and called on other countries to follow suit.

The president said that recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was in line with international law, adding that during the independence debate in Kosovo, Russia's western partners said Kosovo was a special case.

"Each case of recognizing independence is a special case," he said, "A special case in Kosovo, a special case in Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Georgia has long sought to bring the breakaway regions back under its control, while accusing Russia of trying to annex the republics.

"Until recently we tried to help restore [Georgia's] state unity, but the last nail was driven in following [Georgia's] decision to attack," Medvedev said.

He also said that Russia, while recognizing the independence of S. Ossetia and Abkhazia, had no intention of interfering in other conflicts on the post-Soviet territory.

"As to our involvement in other conflicts, we naturally are not going to do this," he said.

"However, Russia is a state which has to ensure its interests along the entire length of its border, this is absolutely clear," he added.

The move to recognize the rebel republics will further worsen Russia's relations with Western powers, already strained over what they called Moscow's disproportionate response to Georgia's military offensive on South Ossetia.

The United States and the EU have already condemned Russia's decision as "unacceptable and regrettable."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080826/116296248.html

Russian military concerned by larger NATO presence in Black Sea
25/ 08/ 2008

MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has to be concerned that NATO is continuing to get a stronger foothold in the Black Sea, the deputy chief of General Staff said Monday.

"NATO's naval deployments in the Black Sea, where nine foreign vessels have already been sent, cannot but provoke concern," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said.

According to a Russian military intelligence source, the NATO warships that have entered the Black Sea carry over 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles between them.

NATO has so far deployed the USS McFaul and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas, the Polish frigate General Pulaski, the German frigate FGS Lubeck, and the Spanish navy ship Admiral Juan de Borbon.

"NATO is actually deploying a surface strike group in the Black Sea," the unidentified source said Monday.

The McFaul unloaded 55 tons of humanitarian aid in the Georgian port of Batumi on Sunday, with two more U.S. Navy ships due in port later this week. The Polish, Spanish and German ships also entered the Black Sea on Friday.

Nogovitsyn said Russian peacekeepers, who continue to be deployed in Georgia after the country's war with breakaway South Ossetia, would not carry out checks of foreign ships entering Georgian Black Sea ports.

But he said peacekeepers at a checkpoint near the Poti port would conduct patrols in the area. "Patrols are a civilized form of control," he said.

The senior military official put it more colorfully on Saturday: "Poti is outside of the security zone, but that does not mean we will sit behind a fence watching them riding around in Hummers."

Nogovitsyn promised that Russia would not exceed the numbers defined by international agreements, including a 1992 pact, when sending peacekeepers to South Ossetia.

But he warned that Georgia was planning to deploy troops in the towns of Gori and Senaki.

"The Georgian Armed Forces command is continuing to conduct acts aimed at restoring the combat readiness of its army directed at South Ossetia," he said. "Communication systems are being restored, units are planned for deployment in the military towns of Gori and Senaki."

Georgia is also planning acts of sabotage on infrastructure and transportation facilities, Nogovitsyn said.

"Georgian reconnaissance and sabotage groups are reinvigorating their efforts... and are preparing military actions along the routes of Russian armored columns, as well as acts of sabotage on transportation infrastructure," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080825/116264908.html

Moscow says NATO begins supplying new arms to Georgia
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080826/116296615.html

NATO helps Georgia restore air defenses, ups Black Sea presence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fng7NW7X5VQ

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080826/116285991.html

8/22/08 Russian Aircraft Carrier heads for Syria
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/2940/53/

Russia starts naval exercise off Far East's Kamchatka
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080826/116283601.html

Russian President: Cross us and We will Crush you
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/2889/53/


President Medvedev of Russia yesterday promised a “shattering blow” against any foreign power that moved against Russian citizens.

The threat will compound the fears of former Soviet states, which are concerned that they could be next after Russia’s attack on Georgia.

“If someone thinks they can kill our citizens, kill soldiers and officers fulfilling the role of peacekeepers, we will never allow this,” Mr Medvedev told a group of Second World War veterans in Kursk. “Anyone who tries to do this will receive a shattering blow.”

He continued: “Russia has the capabilities - economic, political and military. Nobody has any illusions left about that.”

Russia’s incursion into Georgia, and its reluctance to leave, has alarmed former Soviet states such as Ukraine and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The war was designed in part to send a message to the former Soviet states that “you can’t solve your problems by running to give the West a hug”, Liliya Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Centre in Moscow, said.

At the start of the war, Mr Medvedev said it was his constitutional right to defend the “lives and dignity” of Russian citizens. Georgia’s allies now fear that Russia will begin to throw its weight around in defence of the millions of ethnic Russians who live outside the motherland.

The break-up of the Soviet Union left a huge Russian diaspora outside the country. There are more than 8 million ethnic Russians in Ukraine, 4.5 million in Kazakhstan and 1.2 million in the Baltic states.

Russia justified its attack on Georgia by insisting that it was acting to protect the 90 per cent of South Ossetians who have Russian passports.

How many of the passports are genuine is another question, as the region has long been infamous for smuggling and counterfeit passports and dollars.

Yevgeniya Latynina, a columnist, wrote last week that when the South Ossetian leader, Eduard Kokoity, received his passport, he opened it to find that it contained the picture of Abraham Lincoln from a $5 note instead of his own photograph.

Russia’s relations with Ukraine and the Baltic States have worsened in recent years after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined Nato and the EU, and Ukraine tried to follow them.

One man was killed in demonstrations staged by Russians in Tallinn last year after Estonian authorities moved a Second World War monument that had been erected in the city by the Soviet regime. Moscow has complained that ethnic Russians are discriminated against in the Baltic states - an accusation that the EU has supported in some cases.

Ukraine and the Baltic States were quick to support Georgia, but Belarus, normally an ardent supporter of its only ally in Europe, meekly called for a ceasefire. There are more than one million ethnic Russians in Belarus.

The leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia condemned the actions of Russian forces and travelled to Georgia last week to show solidarity with Tbilisi. Estonia’s Postimees newspaper even published a map explaining the weapons Russia might use against the country.

Ukraine told Moscow that it could not use its Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet in armed conflicts without permission, after warships were deployed near Georgia. On Sunday Ukraine offered to create a joint missile defence network with the West amid fears that its port city of Sevastopol, home of the fleet, could become the next flashpoint between Russia and its former satellite states.

Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s reformist President, who visited Tbilisi last week to support President Saakashvili of Georgia, said that the use of Russian ships for a war violated Ukraine’s neutrality and risked drawing it into conflict.

Ms Shevtsova, however, dismissed the idea that Russia might attack other countries.

“It is not possible,” she said, arguing that Mr Medvedev’s rhetoric was for internal consumption. “It would be suicide for Russia; it is just a show.”

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

War With Russia Is On The Agenda
by Paul Craig Roberts
Global Research, August 26, 2008

Thinking about the massive failure of the US media to report truthfully is sobering. The United States, bristling with nuclear weapons and pursuing a policy of world hegemony, has a population that is kept in the dark--indeed brainwashed--about the most important and most dangerous events of our time.

The power of the Israel Lobby is an important component of keeping Americans in the dark. Recently I watched a documentary that demonstrates the control that the Israel Lobby exercises over Americans’ view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The documentary is available here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e14055.htm

As a result of the US media’s one-sided coverage, few Americans are aware that for decades Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homes and lands under protection of America’s veto in the United Nations. Instead, the dispossessed Palestinians are portrayed as mindless terrorists who attack innocent Israel.

If one reads Israeli newspapers, such as Haaretz, or publications from Israeli organizations, such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, one gets a radically different view of the situation than the propagandistic version delivered by US media and evangelical pulpits.

Most Americans know of the 2000 attack by Muslim terrorists on the USS Cole in Aden harbor that resulted in 17 dead and 39 wounded American sailors. But few have heard of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty that left 34 American sailors dead and 174 wounded. Pressured by the Israel Lobby, President Johnson ordered Admiral McCain, father of the Republican presidential nominee, to cover up the attack. To this day there never has been a congressional investigation.

The failure of the American media is again evident in the coverage of the Georgian-Russian conflict. The US media presented the conflict as a Russian invasion of Georgia, whereas in actual fact the American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian military launched a sneak attack to kill and to drive the Russian population out of South Ossetia, a separatist province.

Russian peacekeepers, together with Georgian ones, had been stationed in South Ossetia since the early 1990s. On orders from Mikheil Saakashvili, the American puppet “president” of Georgia, the Georgian peacekeepers turned their weapons on the unsuspecting Russian peacekeepers and murdered them.

This action by Saakashvili, elected with money from the neoconservative National Endowment for Democracy, an election-rigging tool of US hegemony, was a war crime. In truth, the Russians should have hung Saakashvili, as he is far more guilty than was Saddam Hussein. But it is Russia, not Saakashvili, that the US media has demonized.

Americans have become perfect subjects for George Orwell’s Big Brother. They sit stupidly in front of the TV news or the New York Times or Washington Post and absorb the lies fed to them. What is wrong with Americans? Why do they put up with it? Are Americans the nation of sheep that Judge Andrew P. Napolitano says they are? Americans flaunt “freedom and democracy” and live under a Ministry of Propaganda.

Two decades ago, President Reagan reached agreement with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to end the dangerous cold war. But every one of Reagan’s successors has sought to pick a new fight with Russia. In violation of the agreement, NATO has been taken to Russia’s borders, and the US is determined to put former constituent parts of Russia herself into NATO. In an effort to neutralize Russia’s nuclear deterrent and compromise her independence, the US is putting anti-ballistic missile bases on Russia’s borders.

The gratuitously aggressive US military policy toward Russia will lead to nuclear war. I am confident that if Americans elect John McCain, or the Republicans steal another presidential election, there will be nuclear war in the second decade of the 21st century. The neocon lies, propaganda, macho flag-waving, and use of US foreign policy in the interests of a few military-security firms, oil companies, and Israel are all leading in that direction.

The November election is perhaps the last chance to avoid nuclear war. But the opportunity might already have been missed. The Republicans have chosen as their candidate one of the most ignorant warmongers alive. The Democrats’ choice was between one of the most divisive women in America and a man of mixed race with a funny name. Considering American’s taste for war, the Democratic candidate could fail to defeat the GOP war candidate.

Many Americans will vote against Obama because he is black. Why does mixed ancestry confer the black label? If America’s population was predominantly black, would Obama be considered white?

Race and propaganda are more likely to determine the outcome of the November election than any awareness or consideration of real issues by voters.

The real issues are suffocated by the media. The American middle class is being destroyed by jobs offshoring and work visas for foreigners, while the incomes of the super rich are soaring. The US dollar’s reserve currency status is eroded. The US is massively in debt at home and abroad. Health insurance is unaffordable for the vast majority of the population. Injured veterans are being nickeled and dimed, while Halliburton’s profits escalate. Americans are losing their homes, while the US government bails out banks. Wars with Iran, Russia, and China are being planned in order to secure US hegemony.

Americans no longer have a government that is for the people and by the people. They have a government for and by special interests and an insane ideology.

But Americans have war, which lets them take out all their frustrations, resentments, and disappointments on “Muslim terrorists” and “Russian aggressors.” Few Americans are disturbed that 1.25 million Iraqis and an unknown number of Afghans have died as a result of American invasions based on Bush regime lies and deceptions. Even Americans, like Senator Biden, Obama’s selection for vice president, who understand that the wars are based on lies, still want the US to win. So, it was all a mistake and a deception, but let’s win anyway and keep on killing.

I know people who still complain that the US did not nuke North Vietnam. When I ask why Vietnam should have been nuked, they reply, “if we had nuked them we would have won.”

What would America have won? The answer is world loathing and the loss of the cold war.

For many Americans, war is like a sports contest in which they take vicarious pleasure and cheer on their side to victory. Millions of Americans are still bitter that “the liberal media” and war protesters caused America to lose the Vietnam war, and they are determined that this won’t happen again. These Americans have no realization that there was no more reason for the US to be fighting in Vietnam 40 years ago than to be fighting today in Iraq and Afghanistan or tomorrow in Iran.

Obama, if elected, is no guarantee against nuclear war. Obama has shown that he is as much under the Israel Lobby’s thumb as McCain. Obama’s foreign affairs advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is not a neocon, but he was born in Warsaw, Poland, and has the Pole’s animosity toward Russia. The Bush administration has already changed US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack. With the US government determined to ring Russia with puppet states and military bases, war is inevitable.

Presidential appointees face confirmation in the Senate. Any of Obama’s appointees who might be out of step with plans for US and Israeli hegemony could expect opposition from large corporations and the Israel Lobby. There is no assurance that an Obama administration would not be positioned on “the issues” by the same special interests that have positioned the Bush administration.

Americans are filled with hubris, not with knowledge. They have no awareness of the calamity that their government’s pursuit of hegemony is bringing to themselves and to life on earth.

Dr. Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is a former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal, a 16-year columnist for Business Week, and a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service and Creator’s Syndicate in Los Angeles. He has held numerous university professorships, including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the President of France and the US Treasury’s Silver Medal for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of US economic policy.”

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

August 28, 2008, 20:13
U.S. may have staged Georgian conflict - Putin

In an interview with CNN Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict may have been staged to secure a victory for one of the presidential candidates in the U.S. He says preliminary reports show that U.S. citizens may have been present in the combat zone.

“We have serious reasons to believe that American citizens were right at the heart of the military action. This would have implications for American domestic policy. If this is confirmed, we will have grounds to suspect that somebody in the U.S. has created this conflict to aggravate the situation and create a competitive advantage for one of the presidential candidates”.

Russia’s Prime Minister also commented on the media coverage of the recent events.

“As far as the perception of these events by the general public goes, it depends not only on politicians, but also on how artful they are in controlling the mass media. And our American colleagues do this much better than we do and there's a lot we can learn from them”.

Putin stressed that Russia did not attack and cannot be portrayed as an aggressor.

“We didn’t attack anyone, we were attacked and therefore we need guarantees that we won’t be attacked again, and that our citizens won't be killed. They are trying to present us as aggressors”.

The Prime Minister has given a detailed chronology of the events between August 7 and 10.

“On 7 August, at 14:42, the Georgian peacekeepers left the headquarters of the peacekeeping forces under the pretext that they'd received orders from their commanders to leave their posts, and they never returned.

One hour later, heavy artillery shelling began.

At 22:35 a massive bombardment of Tsklhinval started. At 22:50 the transfer of Georgian ground troops started to the combat area. At the same time Georgian field hospitals were set up.

And at 23:30 the Brigadeer General commanding the Georgian peacekeeping forces announced that Georgia has declared a war against South Ossetia. They announced this publicly, looking straight into the TV cameras.

At that point we tried to contact the Georgian leadership, but everyone refused to talk to us.

At 12:45 AM on the 8th of August the Georgian commander repeated his statement. So who attacked whom?”

The former Russian president reiterated that the country has ‘no intention of attacking anyone, or of fighting a war with anyone’.

“For eight years while I was President I often heard one and the same question – what place does Russia think it should occupy in the world? We are a peace-loving state and want to co-operate with all our neighbours and other states. But if someone thinks they can just come in and kill us, and that our place is in the cemetery, these people should think of the consequences of such policies”.
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29626

August 29, 2008, 2:21
U.S. aid to Georgia lacks transparency - Russia's UN ambassador

It’s unclear what the United States intentions are in delivering aid to Georgia, according to Russia’s ambassador to the UN. Vitaly Churkin says, in contrast, Russia has shown complete transparency.

"I wish the U.S. would show the same kind of transparency when they bring their 'humanitarian assistance' in military aircraft and military vessels. But our effort is fully transparent. It has been highly praised by most of the visiting officials from international institutions, and the Russian Federation itself has been doing more than anything else to help people who were victimised by Georgian aggression in South Ossetia," Churkin told journalist after a UN Security Council meeting in New York.
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29634

Military help for Georgia is a 'declaration of war', says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West
Last updated at 16:47pm on 27.08.08

[font=Georgia]Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - the 'real architect' of the Georgia conflict - and the Security Council (unseen) in Sochi yesterday[/font]

The incendiary warning on Western military involvement in Georgia - where NATO nations have long played a role in training and equipping the small state - came in an interview with Dmitry Rogozin, a former nationalist politician who is now ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance.

"If NATO suddenly takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia," he stated.

Yesterday likened the current world crisis to the fevered atmosphere before the start of the First World War.

Rogozin said he did not believe the crisis would descend to war between the West and Russia.

But his use of such intemperate language will be seen as dowsing a fire with petrol.


[font=Georgia]The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi today, carrying what the U.S. says is humanitarian aid[/font]

Top military figure Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies in Moscow, alleged that the US and NATO had been arming Georgia as a dress rehearsal for a future military operation in Iran.

"We are close to a serious conflict - U.S. and NATO preparations on a strategic scale are ongoing. In the operation the West conducted on Georgian soil against Russia - South Ossetians were the victims or hostages of it - we can see a rehearsal for an attack on Iran."


He claimed Washington was fine tuning a new type of warfare and that the threat of an attack on Iran was growing by the day bringing "chaos and instability" in its wake.

With the real architect of the worsening Georgian conflict - prime minister Vladimir Putin - remaining in the background, Medvedev followed up on Rogozin's broadside with a threat to use the Russian military machine to respond to the deployment of the American anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech republic.


Poland agreed this month to place ten interceptor missiles on its territory, and Moscow has already hinted it would become a nuclear target for Russia in the event of conflict.


[font=Georgia]A South Ossetian separatist fighter prepares to fire his weapon as another raises the South Ossetian and Russian flags, in Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia's separatist-controlled territory of South Ossetia yesterday[/font]

"These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us," Medvedev told Al-Jazeera television. "This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means."


The Russian president said that offering NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics, would only aggravate the situation.

Moscow has consistently expressed its opposition to the U.S. missile shield, saying it threatens its national security.


The U.S. claims the shield is designed to thwart missile attacks by what it calls "rogue states," including Iran.

Meanwhile, Russia - seen by the West as flouting international law - today demanded NATO abide by an obscure agreement signed before the Second World War limiting its warships in the Black Sea.

"In light of the build-up of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, our fleet has also taken on the task of monitoring their activities," said hawkish deputy head of Russia's general staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn.

The Montreux Convention, as it is called, sets a weight restriction of 45,000 tonnes on the number of warships that countries outside the Black Sea region can deploy in the basin.

"Can NATO indefinitely build up its forces and means there? It turns out it cannot," said Nogovitsyn.

NATO has said it is undertaking pre-arranged exercises in the Black Sea involving US, German, Spanish and Polish ships. Two other US warships sailed to Georgian waters with humanitarian aid.

Georgia is poised to sever diplomatic relations with Russia, or reduce them to a bare minimum.


"We will drastically cut our diplomatic ties with Russia," said a top official.


President Mikhail Saakashvili said he was frightened to leave Georgia to attend the EU summit on the crisis.


"If I leave Georgia, the Russians will close our airspace and prevent me from returning home," he said.


Russia sought Chinese backing for its action - but the Communist regime in Beijing appeared reluctant to offer support, instead issuing a statement saying it was "concerned" about recent developments.


NATO called for Russia to reverse its decision on recognition for the two enclaves, both Georgian under international law.

But the new 'president' of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty, called for Russian military bases on his territory.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner warned today that an marauding Russian bear could trample over other ex-Soviet states.

"That is very dangerous," he said, pointing at Ukraine and Moldova.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/arti ... article.do

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Russia warns it will respond to "aggression"
By Christian Lowe
Sun Aug 31, 3:19 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 0420080831

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia does not want confrontation with the West but will hit back if attacked, Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, a day before EU leaders meet to draft a response to Moscow's actions in Georgia.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties with Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to send troops to Georgia and recognize two Georgian breakaway regions.

But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.

A senior U.S. diplomat said Washington hoped the EU would express concrete support for Georgia's territorial integrity, and urged Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

Medvedev faces growing condemnation from the West, which accuses Russia of occupying parts of Georgia, while the Kremlin said it acted to prevent what it called genocide against the separatist regions.

"Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations.

But he added: "Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response." He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.

GEORGIAN CALL

Georgia urged the European Union to impose sanctions against those doing business with the two separatist regions, authorize a civilian mission to monitor buffer zones around them and give Tbilisi about $2 billion to help to help repair damage.

"Europe can do a lot, starting with sending a mission of civilian monitors, which would lead to an international peacekeeping mechanism that would replace the presence of Russian troops," Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Reuters in Brussels.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Russia's intervention in Georgia was dangerous and unacceptable.

"In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review -- root and branch -- our relationship with Russia," Brown wrote in a comment published in Britain's Observer newspaper.

The German foreign minister said Moscow deserved criticism but Europe needed cooperation with Russia.

"Europe would only be hurting itself if we were to get full of emotion and slam all the doors shut to the rooms that we will want to enter afterwards," Steinmeier said.

Russia supplies more than a quarter of Europe's gas needs. Some observers say this makes tough EU sanctions unlikely.

Thousands of Georgians are expected to join a "human chain" in Tbilisi on Monday, with people joining hands through the capital in a show of unity.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in an address to the nation, said he hoped the EU leaders would not "give up faced with this dirty attempt at aggression".

TEST OF UNITY

The emergency summit is a test of unity for the EU, which struggles to reconcile differences between states which want punitive action and others, including European heavyweights France and Germany, which favor a more calibrated approach.

It is likely to produce a "stern words-soft action" response from the EU, said Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist with Russia's Uralsib investment bank.

The bloc is likely to "stop well short of any action that might escalate into a damaging tit-for-tat sequence of economic and political sanctions," Weafer wrote in a research note.

Russia sent in its troops after Georgia's military tried to retake South Ossetia, like Abkhazia a Moscow-backed region which rejects Tbilisi's rule.

Moscow has pulled out most of its forces in line with a ceasefire deal but has kept soldiers and equipment in "security zones," which include undisputed Georgian territory around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Western governments have demanded that Moscow pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions. The Kremlin says the troops are peacekeepers needed to protect the separatist regions from new Georgian aggression.

In a last-minute round of diplomacy before Monday's emergency EU summit, both Medvedev and U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seen as sympathetic to the Kremlin.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said it was up to the EU to decide what measures it adopts against Russia, but the bloc should throw its weight behind Georgia and make itself less dependent on Russian energy.

"What happened in Georgia shows even more why it is crucial that Europe begins to move more quickly to diversify its supply of gas," Bryza told Reuters on the sidelines of an international energy conference in Bled, Slovenia.

(Reporting by Giles Elgood in London, Thomas Grove in Istanbul, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin, Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Marja Novak and Zoran Radosvljevic in Bled, Slovenia, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington and Mark John and Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher).

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Lavrov Warns West on Georgia
02 September 2008
By Mansur Mirovalev / The Associated Press
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1 ... 370606.htm
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Monday against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against Tbilisi until a different government is in place.

Lavrov's remarks are likely to anger the United States and Europe and enrage Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," he said.

"For a start it would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime, until different authorities turn Georgia a normal state," Lavrov said in an address at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Hours later, a spokesman for Lavrov's ministry suggested that U.S. ships that have carried humanitarian aid to Georgia's Black Sea coast following last month's war could have also delivered weapons.

Without naming a specific country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said there were "suppositions" that the cargo of military ships bringing aid to Georgia could have included "military components that will be used for the rearmament" of Georgia. He said such suspicions were behind Russia's call for an arms embargo.

Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Pentagon had immediate comment.

The Russian officials spoke as European Union leaders gathered for a summit to discuss relations with Russia.

Russia repelled a Georgian offensive against the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia and sent troops, tanks and bombers deep into undisputed Georgian territory, where some still remain.

Last week, Russia recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent countries.

The United States and Europe have accused Russia of using disproportionate force and of violating a cease-fire that called for forces to be withdrawn to pre-conflict positions. They have denounced Russia's recognition of the separatist regions, saying Georgia's borders must remain intact.

Russia says it was provoked. Russian peacekeeping forces were stationed in South Ossetia before the war. And Moscow had given most of South Ossetia's residents Russian passports in recent years, enabling it to argue that it was defending its citizens when it responded to Georgia's Aug. 7 offensive in the separatist province.

Meanwhile, A New York-based human rights group said Monday that Georgia and Russia both dropped cluster bombs in the war. The weapons are widely denounced for spreading death among civilians.

"These indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law," said Bonnie Docherty, arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch. She said the toll from cluster bombs in only four Georgia villages was 14 dead and dozens wounded.

Human Rights Watch claimed that Georgia's government has admitted using the bombs, while Russia denies it. The organization called on Russia to allow access to demining groups to enter South Ossetia to reduce the threat of more deaths from unexploded bomblets.

Nesterenko said Russia would welcome an EU-dominated international police presence and more military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in what is now a Russian-controlled zone around South Ossetia.

But he said Russia would want be part of the police force and that it would be a long time before Russia would consider reducing its military presence in and around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran's weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country's De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday.

The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been "extremely successful," and had been stopped because the US military was planning to hit targets that were "connected with the Dutch espionage action."

The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft "within weeks," the report claimed, quoting "well placed" sources.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the De Telegraaf report.

According to the report, information gleaned from the AIVD's operation in Iran has provided several of the targets that are to be attacked in the strike, including "parts for missiles and launching equipment."

"Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA," the report said.

On Saturday, Iran's Deputy Chief of Staff General Masoud Jazayeri warned that should the United States or Israel attack Iran, it would be the start of another World War.

On Friday, Ma'ariv reported that Israel had made a strategic decision to deny Iran military nuclear capability and would not hesitate "to take whatever means necessary" to prevent Teheran from achieving its nuclear goals.

According to the report, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

_________________
In times of change, the Patriot is a scarce man; brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.

Mark Twain

Something is about to go down!!

Warships Arriving in Iran


Warships Arrive in the Persian Gulf

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Six ex-Soviet neighbors back Russia over Georgia
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

Russia has scored a key diplomatic victory by securing support for its war in Georgia from six other ex-Soviet nations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he and other leaders of nations belonging to the Collective Security Treaty Organization signed a declaration Friday condemning Georgia's attempt to regain control of its province of South Ossetia.

The war in Georgia plunged Russia's relations with the West to their post-Cold War low. Only few countries, including Cuba and Venezuela, have backed Russia's action so far.

The Russian-led security grouping also includes Armenia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

_________________
In times of change, the Patriot is a scarce man; brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.

Mark Twain

Rice: 'Time isn't right' for US-Russia nuke deal
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 17 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_ ... /us_russia

ALGIERS, Algeria - Now is not right time for the U.S. to move forward on a once-celebrated deal for civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

Her comment increased speculation that President Bush is planning to punish Moscow for invading Georgia, a former Soviet republic, by canceling the agreement. Such a move is being planned, according to senior Bush administration officials, but is not yet final.

"The time isn't right for the Russia agreement," Rice told reporters while flying from Tunisia to Algeria during a visit to North Africa. "We'll be making an announcement about that later."

U.S.-Russian relations have cooled considerably since last month's military standoff between Russia and Georgia. On Saturday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the war has shown the world that "Russia is a nation to be reckoned with."

The nuclear deal was signed in May by U.S. and Russian officials and is now before Congress. It would give the U.S. access to modern Russian nuclear technology and clear the way for Russia to establish itself as a lucrative center for the import and storage of spent nuclear fuel from American-supplied reactors around the world.

Such a deal was seen as crucial to boosting relations with Russia, and to fulfilling Bush's vision of increasing civilian nuclear energy use worldwide as a way to combat rising energy demands and climate change.

Withdrawing the agreement from Capitol Hill would have little effect. The deal probably would not have been approved before Bush's term ends in January. But pulling it would send a message to Russia that its actions in Georgia are not acceptable and will not go unanswered.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

Cheney accuses Russia of intimidation
By Tabassum Zakaria
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 8320080906

CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, in the sharpest U.S. criticism of Russia since its brief war with Georgia, on Saturday accused Moscow of reverting to old tactics of intimidation and using "brute force."

In remarks prepared for delivery at an economic conference in northern Italy, Cheney was blunt in his criticism of Russia, after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine where he pledged U.S. backing for the former Soviet states.

The conflict erupted early last month when Georgia tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Russia responded with overwhelming force sending tanks and troops into Georgian territory.

The United States and Europe have demanded that Russia pull forces out of Georgia as set out in a French-brokered peace agreement, but Moscow has not yet fully complied.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives," Cheney said.

"For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government."

U.S.-Russian relations have soured in recent years with the United States accusing Russia of backsliding on democracy and Moscow angered by plans for a U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Cheney accused Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, of using "energy as a tool of force and manipulation" in Central Asia, the Caucasus and elsewhere by threatening to interrupt the flow of oil or natural gas.

Russia has tried to "intimidate by threats and severe economic pressure" Ukraine, which along with Georgia, is seeking to join NATO, he said.

"At times it appears Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests," Cheney said in his prepared remarks.

"OLD WAYS"

He noted that a senior Russian military official threatened Poland with attack over its involvement in the missile defense system. "That is no way for a responsible power to conduct itself," Cheney said.

"And it reflects the discredited notion that any country can claim an exclusive zone of authority, to be held together by muscle and threats," he said.

"That is the old thinking," Cheney said. "The old ways are gone, and the Cold War is over."

Russia's leaders should consider whether "bullying others will turn out well for their country's future" and whether Moscow wants to "operate in the modern world as an outsider," he said.

"Russia's leaders cannot have things both ways," Cheney said. "They cannot presume to gather up all the benefits of commerce, consultation, and global prestige, while engaging in brute force, threats, or other forms of intimidation against sovereign countries."

Cheney said Russian arms dealing in the Middle East had endangered the prospects for peace and freedom in the region.

Russia has sold advanced weapons to Syria and Iran, and "some of the Russian weapons sold to Damascus have been channeled to terrorist fighters in Lebanon and Iraq," he said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin once stated that he viewed the demise of the Soviet Union as a catastrophe, Cheney said.

In his own opinion, Cheney said, "the demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and was the greatest forward step for human liberty in the last 60 years."

Cheney says Russia's actions an 'affront'
10 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_ ... c6j8CWwvIE

CERNOBBIO, Italy - Vice President Dick Cheney says Russia's actions in the conflict with Georgia are an "affront to civilized standards."

Cheney says Russia has given "no satisfactory justification" for invading Georgia last month.

He also says NATO enlargement must continue as the allies see fit, despite Russia's opposition.

Cheney was speaking to global business and political leaders during a conference Saturday on Italy's Lake Como as part of a European tour. He also has visited oil-rich Azerbaijan and Georgia, where Russia has recognized the independence of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Washington has offered Georgia a $1 billion aid package to help it recover from the war with Russia over the regions.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33

I had to post this propaganda, reading this made me sick.

Russia trifles with genocide
A 2005 UN mandate that allows invasions to end genocides cannot be claimed by Moscow.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
from the August 29, 2008 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0829/p08s01-comv.html

Of Russia's many excuses for invading Georgia, its claim of preventing genocide has set back a new idea in human history. In 2005, the UN said the international community must intervene in countries suffering mass atrocities – putting mercy before sovereignty. Russia abused this idea in Georgia. The world now needs to save this humanitarian impulse to prevent real genocides.

No mass atrocities were occurring, or were likely to occur, in Georgia's breakaway enclave of South Ossetia on the night of Aug. 7-8 when Russia invaded. Later reports by journalists indicated Georgian forces had been attacked first by Russian-backed insurgents. A few hundred civilians on both sides were killed in the crossfire and bombardments.

While tragic, the killings hardly rise to the level of genocide. And Russia had other means to calm or prevent the situation.

The fact that Russia didn't first use diplomacy or didn't restrict its forces to South Ossetia only reinforces reports that Moscow instigated the conflict in order to send a message. It really wanted the West to acknowledge its territorial imperium and its ability to command the region's oil reserves.

Instead, Russia claims the same moral and legal authority to intervene to protect South Ossetians as did NATO in 1999 to rescue Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. But the two conflicts are very different. And the distinctions are important in order to preserve the UN's 2005 mandate, which is often called "responsibility to protect," or R2P.

In Kosovo, Serb forces were massacring innocent ethnic Albanians, just as Serbian forces in Bosnia had killed 8,000 men from the town of Srebrenica in 1995 and committed ethnic cleansing in other parts of former Yugoslavia. The UN refused to act. NATO then decided to bomb Serbia into submission to prevent another Srebrenica-type atrocity.

NATO's action, while not legal without UN authority, was widely considered legitimate. Russia's action in Georgia is neither. And it fails to meet justification for humanitarian intervention. The gravity of the threat to human rights was not high enough and other options were not pursued.

The UN has yet to be specific on the exact criteria to trigger such interventions. That has left many small countries afraid that large countries will misuse the concept. Just ask the Georgians.

The moral imperative for R2P arose out of the failure to prevent the 1994 Rwanda genocide. It had a precedent in the 1993 US intervention in Somalia. The 2005 mandate limits such interventions to those cases where a government fails to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

A global consensus on its use, however, remains fragile. After all, the idea challenges the centuries-old concept of the inviolability of borders. But R2P is rooted in the idea that individuals deserve as much sovereignty as a nation and that a massive loss of life requires a massive response by humanity.

Before Russia's excuse for its invasion becomes accepted, the world must renew its commitment to R2P with more clarity and precision.

Mercy must not be abused by bullies cloaked in false motives.

Lies, Lies, Lies.

_________________
Survival of freedom requires a moral people. Absent this, the Constitution has no meaning, no matter how well written. ~ Ron Paul
http://kitchener911truth.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Steeper33