Real News

U.S. court rules Saudi Arabia immune in 9/11 case

2008-08-14T23:56:00.000+01:00

Reuters
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, four princes and other Saudi entities are immune from a lawsuit filed by victims of the September 11 attacks and their families alleging they gave material support to al Qaeda, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey dismissing a claim against Saudi Arabia, a Saudi charity, four princes and a Saudi banker of providing material support to al Qaeda before the September 11 attacks.

The victims and their families argued that because the defendants gave money to Muslim charities that in turn gave money to al Qaeda, they should be held responsible for helping to finance the attacks.

The appeals court found that the defendants are protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

The court also noted that exceptions to the immunity rule do not apply because Saudi Arabia has not been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department.

(Reporting by Edith Honan, editing by Vicki Allen)

Hair Samples in Anthrax Case Don’t Match

2008-08-14T23:32:00.000+01:00

Carrie Johnson
Washington Post
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Federal investigators probing the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks recovered samples of human hair from a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., but the strands did not match the lead suspect in the case, according to sources briefed on the probe.

FBI agents and U.S. Postal Service inspectors analyzed the data in an effort to place Fort Detrick, Md., scientist Bruce E. Ivins at the mailbox from which bacteria-laden letters were sent to Senate offices and media organizations, the sources said.

The hair sample is one of many pieces of evidence over which researchers continue to puzzle in the case, which ended after Ivins committed suicide July 29 as prosecutors prepared to seek his indictment.

Authorities released sworn statements and search warrants last week at a news conference in which they asserted that Ivins was their sole suspect. But the materials have not dampened speculation about the merits of the investigative findings and the government’s aggressive pursuit of Ivins, a 62-year-old anthrax vaccine researcher. Conspiracy theories have flourished since the 2001 attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others.

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will call FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to appear at an oversight hearing Sept. 17, when he is likely to be asked about the strength of the government’s case against Ivins. A spokeswoman for Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a vocal FBI critic, said he would demand more information about how authorities narrowed their search.

The House Judiciary panel, meanwhile, is negotiating to hold a separate oversight hearing in September with bureau officials, in a session that could mark the first public occasion in which Mueller faces questions about the FBI's handling of the anthrax case.

Friends and former colleagues of Ivins, who died before he could see the full array of evidence prosecutors had gathered, continue to demand information about the DNA advances that authorities say led them to a flask in Ivins's lab.

Defense lawyer Paul F. Kemp yesterday said he wonders "where Ivins could have possibly stored this anthrax without any employees seeing it, or if he took it home, why there was no trace" of the deadly spores, despite repeated FBI searches over the past two years of Ivins's car, his work locker, a safe-deposit box and his house.

Meanwhile, government sources offered more detail about Ivins's movements on a critical day in the case: when letters were dropped into the postal box on Princeton's Nassau Street, across the street from the university campus.

Investigators now believe that Ivins waited until evening to make the drive to Princeton on Sept. 17, 2001. He showed up at work that day and stayed briefly, then took several hours of administrative leave from the lab, according to partial work logs. Based on information from receipts and interviews, authorities say Ivins filled up his car's gas tank, attended a meeting outside of the office in the late afternoon, and returned to the lab for a few minutes that evening before moving off the radar screen and presumably driving overnight to Princeton. The letters were postmarked Sept. 18.

Nearly seven years after the incidents, however, investigators have come up dry in their efforts to find direct evidence to place Ivins at the Nassau Street mailbox in September and October 2001.

Explosions in Georgian towns as Russian forces remain

2008-08-14T23:19:00.002+01:00

Jon Swaine
London Telegraph
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Earlier claims that Russian troops had commenced a withdrawal from Gori were dismissed as at least five explosions were heard in the town. Journalists were forced to leave by a Russian soldier firing shots into the air. Troops are also thought to have returned to the strategically important port town of Poti.

A Georgian spokesman said: “The Russian troops are destroying the city of Gori. They are mining the city. They are destroying everything in Poti port. They are destroying the newly built roads in western Georgia.”

Reports of the explosions came as Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, reinforced suspicions that Moscow is expecting to set its own punitive terms for peace. He said: “One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree that they can be forced back into the Georgian state.”

Earlier Ms Rice threatened Russia with international isolation unless it keeps to the plan, which was brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and calls for a return to the status quo that prevailed before the conflict, triggered by Georgia’s attempt to reclaim South Ossetia, a breakaway province, and for the respect of Georgian sovereignty.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, has made clear that the Kremlin would be making additional demands, including the eviction from the rebel provinces of all Georgian troops, and increased Russian presence in both the enclaves and “buffer zones” surrounding them.

It has emerged that Mr Medvedev, who also said he was committed to giving the populations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia the chance to vote on becoming part of the Russian republic, has been in talks at the Kremlin with the leaders of the separatist movements in both provinces.

As she was despatched for Tblisi by George W Bush, in a strong show of US support for Georgia, Ms Rice said Russian troops' violations of the truce since the agreement was reached have "only served to deepen the isolation into which Russia is moving".

The Secretary of State said there is a "very strong, growing sense that Russia is not behaving like the kind of international partner that it has said that it wants to be." Ms Rice, who will meet Mr Sarkozy before holding talks with Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, said: "We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia."

Her statement came as US aid began to arrive in the former Soviet state in a further show of support. A military aircraft, packed with medical supplies, shelters and bedding, arrived in Tblisi along with promises that more will follow.

The Pentagon has said it will be "reviewing the needs" of the Georgian military, battered after the five-day conflict with Russia over the rebel region of South Ossetia.

However there have been reports of obstructions being made to humanitarian aid. Giorgi Gorgiladze, the Georgian Permanent Representative to the UN, said: "We would like to underline, that the representatives of international and humanitarian organisations have not been granted an access in the territories controlled by the Russian armed forces."

After a day in which its troops were accused of looting and burning villages, Russia earlier warned that America, which has a staunch ally of Tbilisi's pro-western government, would have "to choose" between building a relationship with Georgia or Russia.

"We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose," said Mr Lavrov.

Mr Saakashvili said that western leaders must send peacekeeepers to his country immediately, or risk having their rhetoric exposed as hollow. Writing in the Washington Post, he said: "Only Western peacekeepers can end the war. I have staked my country's fate on the West's rhetoric about democracy and liberty."

"Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes at the heart of Western values and our 21st-century system of security," he added.

"If the international community allows Russia to crush our democratic, independent state, it will be giving carte blanche to authoritarian governments everywhere."

Georgia Files Suit Against Russia, Charging Racial Discrimination

2008-08-14T22:47:00.001+01:00

MARLISE SIMONS
New York Times
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Georgia has filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its actions in and around the territory of Georgia from 1991 to 2008, the court said in a statement.

Georgia has also consulted the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague, but has taken no further steps, a court official said.

In recent days, Russia has threatened to file war crimes charges against Georgia in connection with its attack on the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali last week.

Georgia filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday at the Peace Palace in The Hague, where the court is based, an official said. In its 32-page complaint, Georgia said that beginning in 1991 Russia, along with separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia under Moscow’s control, used violent means to caused the mass expulsion of Georgians as well as other ethnic groups and prevented their return home.

As a basis for the court’s jurisdiction, Georgia invoked the 1965 International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which it said Russia had violated.

The International Court of Justice is the United Nations highest court and rules on disputes between nations. No hearing has been scheduled on the case and no action is expected soon, said a lawyer familiar with the court.

“It will be a long and tortuous process, but Georgia has no option,” said Payam Akhavan, a specialist in international law and a member of Georgia’s legal team. “Georgia has to assert its right under international law.”

At the International Criminal Court, the director of jurisdiction in the prosecutor’s office, Béatrice Le Fraper, said that a representative of the Georgian government had come “to provide information and to ask questions.” But no further steps had been taken, she said.

The criminal court, which is independent of the United Nations, deals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Ms. Le Fraper said the court had jurisdiction over matters on Georgian territory because the country was a full member of the court, having ratified its statute.

U.S. and Poland sign missile shield deal

2008-08-14T22:39:00.001+01:00

Gabriela Baczynska
Reuters
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Poland finally agreed on Thursday to host elements of U.S. global anti-missile system on its territory after Washington improved the terms of the deal amid the Georgia crisis.

The preliminary deal was signed by deputy Polish Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer and U.S. chief negotiator John Rood. It still needs to be endorsed by the Polish parliament.

The signing comes after Prime Minister Donald Tusk had been holding out for enhanced military cooperation with the United States in return for consent to host 10 interceptor rockets at a base in northern Poland.

Washington says the interceptors and a radar in the Czech Republic would form part of a global “missile shield” protecting the United States and its allies from long range missiles that could in the future be fired by Iran or groups such as al-Qaeda.

“We have crossed the Rubicon,” Tusk said just before the deal was signed.

“We have finally got understanding of our point of view that Poland, being a crucial partner in NATO and an important friend and ally of the United States, must also be safe.”

Officials said the deal included a U.S. declaration that it will aid Poland militarily in case of a threat from a third country and that it would establish a permanent U.S. base on Polish

"We are comfortable that we negotiated a strong agreement," Rood said. "It elevates our security relationship to a new level."

RUSSIA VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED

If everything goes to schedule, the interceptor base would be ready by around 2012, officials have said. The Czechs have already signed an agreement to host the radar although parliament there must yet ratify it.

Russia has vehemently opposed placing the shield installations in central Europe, saying they would threaten its security and upset the post-Cold War balance of power in Europe.

Moscow has threatened to take retaliatory steps against Poland and the Czech Republic, its former reluctant vassals who are now part of the European Union and NATO.

In the face of Russian opposition, Tusk had argued he could not agree to the shield unless the United States agreed to boost Warsaw's air defenses and enhance mutual military cooperation.

Russia's military action against Georgia strengthened the argument, Tusk said on Tuesday, ahead of the talks this week.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski played down the impact of the events in Georgia on the deal, apparently hoping to soften any criticism from Moscow.

In the first sign of Moscow's displeasure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday cancelled a planned trip to Warsaw in September, Polish diplomats said.

The deal, if approved by parliaments in Prague and Warsaw, will be a rare success for President George W. Bush who has argued it is essential to contain the threat of a potentially nuclear-armed Iran.

Washington hopes the shield might persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program, although Teheran says it wants to develop nuclear energy only to generate electricity and not to make nuclear weapons.

Second World War spy ring to open its files

2008-08-14T22:34:00.001+01:00

Anne Barrowclough
London Times
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

One was a historian and assistant to John Kennedy, another was the chef who first introduced French cuisine to American households, and a third was the father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

In their every day lives they had nothing in common but Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Julia Childs and Miles Copeland shared a secret life - serving in an international spy ring at a time when Hitler was threatening the world.

Their work and that of thousands of other members of the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA, will be revealed today when previously classified files are opened by the National Archives in the USA. For the first time, the files identifiying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralised intelligence agency will be released and the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives exposed.

Members of the OSS, which was created by President Franklin Roosevelt in World War II to help fight Nazism, included historians, actors, lawyers and athletes. They created propoganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and encouraged resistance amongst foreign troops.

In the service of the OSS, Julia Childs helped develop a shark repellent to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance that was targeting U-boats, while Kermit Roosevelt, the son of President Thedodore Roosevelt, set up a militia of Inuit.

Others members of the service include Ernest Hemingway’s son John, Arthur Goldberg, who went on to become a Supreme Court judge and President Roosevelt’s other son, Quentin.

Most kept their work secret even from those closest to them. Walter Mess, who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa, said he only recently told his wife of 62 years about his OSS work. "I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Mr Mess, now 93.

The release of the files will reveal for the first time the workings of the agency, which was taken into the CIA after it was disbanded by President Harry S Truman in 1945. The CIA had resisted releasing the records for decades but former CIA director William Casey cleared the way for the transfer of millions of OSS documents to the National Archives when he took over the agency in 1981. The personnel files are the latest to be made public.

Before the formation of the OSS, the USA had no united intelligence gathering network. The different arms of the military were reluctant to share information and the code-breaking operation of the State Department was shut down in 1929 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson because "gentlemen don't read each others' mail."

The OSS helped arm, train and supply a number of resistance movements including Mae Tse
Tung's Red Army in China and the Viet Minh in French Indochina. One of its greatest achievements during World War II was the penetration of Germany by its operatives. They were responsible for training German and Austrian civilians for missions inside Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists, labour activies, Jewish refugees and anti-Nazi prisoners of war.

At the height of World War II, the OSS ran 12000 agents.

Iran: We will protect our waters

2008-08-14T22:16:00.000+01:00

Press TV
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

The Iranian Navy is more capable than ever in protecting our waters in the Persian Gulf, says Iranian Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari.

The navy commander made his remarks after reports suggested that an armada of US and European naval vessels will be stationed in the Persian Gulf in an unprecedented build-up.

“We will protect our land and territorial waters with all our might,” said the Iranian commander.

Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the Pentagon, also commented on the issue Wednesday.

“We routinely rotate deployed naval forces in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility (one of which is the Persian Gulf),” he told The Jerusalem Post.

“As a matter of policy we do not discuss current or future ship’s movements,” he added.

His remarks were provoked by speculation prompted by the introduction of House Resolution 362, which “demands” that the US president make strenuous efforts, “prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran”.

Supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Resolution (and the Senate version Resolution 580) is considered by its critics as a means of imposing a naval blockade and restrict imports into the oil-rich country.

“This resolution, House Resolution 362 is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe,” former presidential candidate Ron Paul has said.

“The fear is, they say, maybe some day, [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003,” continued the 10-term congressman.

The bill, which was introduced at an AIPAC annual policy conference and is considered the lobby’s top legislative priority, has gained 261 co-sponsors in Congress and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In preparation for any possible act of aggression against the country, Iran has reportedly begun mass production of a high-tech naval weapons system capable of targeting any warship within a range of 300 kilometers from its shores.

“The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps recently tested a naval weapon which is definitely capable of sending any warship within a distance of 300 km to the bottom of the sea,” IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari said on August 4.

Lt. Col. Ryder, however, has cast doubt as to whether the reported deployment of the warships is aimed at the imposition of a naval blockade on Iran. “I can tell you that reports of an alleged naval blockade of Iran are false.”

Same As the Old Boss: Both McCain and Obama’s Advisors Want War in Georgia

2008-08-14T21:00:00.002+01:00

George Washington’s Blog
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Georgia is located in Eurasia, is a gateway to other Eurasian countries, and possesses important oil pipelines.

For months previous to the start of hostilities in the Georgia-Russian war, American trainers have been getting the Georgians ready for war.

As revealed in a July article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “A large contingent of Georgia Army National Guard soldiers flew to the Republic of Georgia on Sunday for joint military exercises at a time when tension is brewing in the region”.

And you won’t hear it on the tv news, but Georgia started the war.

It is clear that the U.S. has been behind Georgia’s military adventures.

McCain
McCain’s top foreign affairs advisor was until very recently a high-level Georgian lobbyist , a neocon, and a key player in pushing fake intelligence and the Iraq war. He is a hawk who is very good at starting wars.

Former LA Times’ journalist Robert Scheer thinks the war was started to boost McCain’s election chances.

Obama
Obama’s top foreign policy advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote in his book The Grand Chessboard, that the top priority for the U.S. was seizing control of Eurasia and its rich oil resources.

Here are some sample quotes:

“Ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power.”- (p. xiii)
“It is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.” (p. xiv)
“How America ‘manages’ Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa’s subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent. About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.” (p.31)

It is clear that the US is following Brzezinski’s playbook for Eurasia.

Indeed, this is exactly what Mikhail Gorbachev was referring to when he wrote:

“By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its ‘national interest,’ the United States made a serious blunder.”

Bottom line: Both McCain and Obama’s top foreign policy advisors want a war. And, obviously, the other neocons and assorted hawks want one also. Indeed, the U.S. is now sending troops into Georgia under the pretense of giving “humanitarian aid”.this (which provides some insights, but may be over-the-top).

See also this and this (which provides some insights, but may be over-the-top).

Ceasefire gives way to PR war

2008-08-14T20:39:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

The information war between Russia and Georgia is continuing, even after a ceasefire agreement has stopped the military conflict. On Wednesday evening, Mikhail Saakashvili spread panic in Tbilisi, by claiming that Russian tanks are on the move towards the Georgian capital.

For several hours, western news channels reported that Russian armoured vehicles were rumbling deeper into Georgia.

Framing the situation as “some very tense times in Georgia”, much of the western media raised concerns that Russia was breaching the peace agreement.

However, Russian peacekeepers say they’re there to liquidise thousands of heavy weapons, which were dropped in the streets by retreating Georgians.

While the situation in Gori is grim, local officials are said to have fled the region. Russian attempts to organise a joint humanitarian effort have failed.

Local citizens are left there with no food, and the Russian military have been left to organise aid for them.

The main focus on CNN, for example, is the opposite – their sources claim torture and looting.

Meanwhile, as western media report that Russian tanks were heading towards Tbilisi, the Georgian government officially denied the claims, saying there is absolutely no danger to its citizens.

It seems many western news outlets don’t count official sources as secure, and instead keep relying on their own sources. But as British Times newspaper claims, most of these sources are little more than rumour-mongers.

The newspaper’s article titled ‘Georgia loses the fight with Russia, but manages to win the PR war’ says:

“As foreign correspondents poured into Tbilisi a team of Belgian PR advisers launched a slick operation to keep them updated with e-mail alerts detailing the latest alleged aggressions by Russia and the Georgian Government’s reaction.

Some of the claims veered into outright exaggeration – such stating that Russian jets were “intensively bombing Tbilisi” or that Russian troops had taken Gori – but the 24-hour news culture meant that many organisations repeated them without independent verification”.

Russian Troops Withdraw From Gori

2008-08-14T20:34:00.001+01:00

Sky News
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Russian troops have begun pulling out from Gori, the Georgian city that has been hit by shelling and looting, according to Georgia’s Interior Ministry.

Their presence in the town had raised fears that Russia would challenge a cease-fire agreement brokered following five days of bloody conflict over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.

Georgian police on the outskirts of Gori were halting civilian traffic and scores of light vehicles carrying Georgian soldiers were parked in the area.

Meanwhile, a Russian defence ministry source told Sky News an unmanned Georgian spy plane had been shot down over South Ossetia.

The first planeload of US aid has been delivered to Georgia as Washington steps up its support of the shaky ceasefire.

A C-17 military aircraft brought supplies into the capital Tbilisi and a second flight is planned for later today.

George Bush has promised to support Georgia with humanitarian supplies and said he expects
Russia to allow aid into the country, ensuring all lines of communication and transport remain open.

Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili said Mr Bush’s pledge meant Georgian ports and airports would be taken under US military control but this claim was swiftly denied by the Pentagon.

The US president also criticised Moscow for apparently breaking the ceasefire.
"The United States of America stands with the democratically-elected government of Georgia," Mr Bush said.

"We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive in Tbilisi later after talks in Paris.

Russia has denied violating the ceasefire and rejected claims its troops had advanced on Tbilisi or looted the town of Gori.

But a top Russian general has said his troops would be in Gori at least until tomorrow in order to hand control over to Georgian police.

Sky News' Lisa Holland, speaking from Moscow, said: "Essentially it is the West's worst nightmare that this is squaring up into some kind of proxy confrontation between America and Russia."

She added: "Russia's foreign minister said America now has to choose between Georgia and Russia so the situation is getting more and more serious and critically Russia is saying quite clearly that it believes the solution - the way forward - must not involve America."

In the meantime, Human Rights Watch, a US-based organisation with staff in Georgia, has said its onsite researchers have witnessed looting of ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia, the separatist province at the heart of the current conflict.

And yesterday, Sky News' Andrew Wilson was held at gunpoint in Gori, saying there were "vicious looters on the way into town".

Ed Asner Wants Ballot Referendum for New 9/11 Probe

2008-08-14T19:50:00.000+01:00

Gothamist
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Watch your back, Dick Cheney! Actor Ed Asner, former Dallas Cowboy Mark Stepnoski, and formerly famous hip hop group Arrested Development are leading a petition drive to get a referendum on New York City’s November ballot that would establish a new 9/11 investigation. If the group, called 911 Truth, can collect 30,000 signatures before September 4th, the City Council will be required to consider the measure, which calls for an investigative panel with subpoena authority.

Former Senator Mike Gravel (who would join the panel along with former senator Lincoln Chafee, Asner and 9/11 widow Lorie Van Auken) tells NY Mag that “the original commission didn’t get to the bottom of anything. We need to investigate from scratch.” Among the “Top 40” reasons the group gives to doubt the official story of 9/11, from their website:

“Al-CIA-da?” The longstanding relationship between US intelligence networks and radical Islamists.
Flight 93. Did the Shanksville crash occur at 10:06 (according to a seismic report) or 10:03 (according to the 9/11 Commission)? Does the Commission wish to hide what happened in the last three minutes of the flight, and if so, why?
Pentagon Strike. How was it possible the Pentagon was hit 1 hour and 20 minutes after the attacks began? Why was there no response from Andrews Air Force Base, just 10 miles away.

They currently have over 25,000 signatures from New York City residents, and volunteers are fanning out around town, with another (rival?) group, We Are Change, staking out the World Trade Center site (pictured above). So are they just a crowd of unhinged conspiracy theorists locked into a reflexive, anti-establishment world view that’s as paranoid as it is adolescent? Or, rather, vigilant citizens with the clarity see through the all jingoistic lies that thinly veil Dick Cheney’s treasonous agenda? Discuss!

McCain: ‘In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.’

2008-08-14T19:34:00.001+01:00

Think Progress
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

In recent days, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) rhetoric toward Russia has mostly been overblown bluster, including an accusation that the country wanted to restore its old empire. However, since a cease-fire was announced and his predictions were proven wrong, McCain has backtracked, saying there won’t be a Cold War. To justify his new position, he told reporters in a press conference today:

In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.

Watch it:

Russia says U.S. playing dangerous game in Georgia

2008-08-14T18:58:00.001+01:00

Oleg Shchedrov
Reuters
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of playing a dangerous game in the Caucasus by backing Georgia and denied Moscow was not doing enough to prevent looting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington had to choose between partnership with Moscow and the Georgian leadership which he described as a “virtual project”.

“We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov told reporters.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded Russia resolve a crisis with Georgia and said he would dispatch U.S. military aircraft with humanitarian supplies.

Lavrov, speaking to reporters at a state residence outside Moscow, hit back, saying Moscow had warned Washington about the dangers of backing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Bush’s speech said nothing of how Georgia was armed all these years, including by the United States,” Lavrov said.

"We have more than once warned our partners that this is a dangerous game. It (the Bush speech) said nothing about what had happened on Aug 8, when Western leaders maintained silence when Tskhinvali became a target of massive bombing," Lavrov said.

"The Western political elite got excited only after the Russian leadership decided not to leave its peacekeepers to their fate, not to allow... ethnic cleansing as it had happened in Srebrenica," Lavrov said.

Refugees streaming out of villages near South Ossetia on Wednesday described how armed groups looted and burned their houses after the Georgian army left.

Lavrov said he had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Russia would prevent any looting in Georgian towns such as Gori, which is near South Ossetia where the conflict erupted last Thursday.

"I spoke today with Rice and she told me there are reports of acts of looting in Gori, that illegal groups are looting the city and Russian troops are doing nothing," he said.

"If any such facts prove true, we will react in the most serious way," he said. "The peaceful population should be protected. We are investigating all these reports and will not allow any such actions."

Georgia repeatedly accused Russia of breaking a ceasefire in their six-day-old conflict on Wednesday by pushing troops into the Georgian town of Gori, a claim denied by Moscow.

"There is Russian presence near the towns of Gori and Senaki... We have never concealed this," Lavrov said.

"They are there to neutralise a huge arsenal of arms and military hardware which they found there totally abandoned," Lavrov said. "It was necessary to neutralise them in order not to create a threat for civilians".

He also denied that Russian troops were present at the Georgian port of Poti.

British Government Attempts To Scrap Open Justice In The Name Of Fighting Terrorism

2008-08-14T18:49:00.001+01:00

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Ministers want to re-write fundamental principle of English law to accomodate state secrecy

The British government has inserted provisions into a Counter-Terrorism Bill that would see centuries old principles of law and justice undermined and allow the government unprecedented powers to intervene in the workings of the judiciary.

The legislation would allow inquests to be held in secret without a jury and would grant the government the right to replace the coroner with their own appointee, should they deem it to be a matter of national security.

The Times of London has the story, pointing out that the change in law would also allow the Home Secretary (The British equivalent of Secretary of State) to "bar the public from inquests if it is deemed to be in the public interest", a candidate for the award of most Orwellian phrase if ever there was one.

The report goes on to state:

It could be applied to inquests similar to those into the deaths of the weapons inspector David Kelly, “friendly-fire” military casualties or Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed. In future, inquests similar to that into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, which is due to start next month with 44 police officers giving evidence anonymously, could also be subject to the secrecy clause.

Lawyers, opposition MPs and pressure groups have told The Times that the move represents a fundamental breach of the right to a public inquiry into a death – a centuries-old mainstay of British justice.

The bill passed the House of Commons last month, without any mention of the measure which was overshadowed by debate surrounding the legal detention length of suspects in terror cases.

Critics and public pressure groups, including The Coroners’ Society, have slammed the proposal, warning that it could easily be used to shield from public scrutiny any case that the government deems politically sensitive.

Lawyers have warned that the measure undermines the entire justice system in the UK by threatening the principle of open justice. The move also represents a breach of the separation of powers of the state, the foundation underpinning the British political system and the governance of democratic states in general. Britain is renowned for having one of the most independent judicial systems in the world, this measure would go some way to scaling that back significantly.

Labour MP Andrew Dismore, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, has also stated that the provisions contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

Though the measure will likely not pass the House of Lords, still the final arbiters of judicial disputes in the UK, the fact that the government even legislated it speaks volumes of their agenda and intention to continue to use anti-terror laws to grant themselves further unchecked power and implement greater secrecy.

Russia says Georgian move for South Ossetia was ‘like 9/11′

2008-08-14T18:38:00.001+01:00

Jon Swaine
London Telegraph
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Georgia’s attempt to reclaim South Ossetia has been compared with 9/11 by Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister.

Seeking to justify Moscow’s overwhelming response to Georgia’s attempt to reassert itself over the breakway province, Mr Ivanov said that Russia had no choice but to take military action, just as the US felt bound to respond after the attacks by al-Qa’eda on New York and Washington in September 2001.

“We just reacted because we didn’t have any other option. Any civilised country would act same way. I may remind you - September 11th, the reaction was similar. American citizens were killed. You know the reaction,” Mr Ivanov said.

International condemnation for the Russian response had taken Moscow by surprise, according to Mr Ivanov. “We didn’t think that we annoyed anybody,” he said.

Mr Ivanov also rubbished comments by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. Mr Miliband earlier accused Russia of engaging in “19th Century forms of diplomacy” in its “blatant aggression” towards Georgia. He said “the sight of Russian tanks rolling into parts of a sovereign country on its neighboring borders will have brought a chill down the spine of many people, rightly”.

Mr Miliband's claim that Russia was keen restore the Soviet Union was "total rubbish - to use a proper English word," Mr Ivanov said.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, earlier taunted the US and Georgia over the crisis, describing the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili as a "special project" of the Bush administration rather than a proper state.

Russia launches genocide probe over S.Ossetia events

2008-08-14T18:28:00.000+01:00

RIA Novosti
Thursday, Aug 14, 2008

Top Russian investigators have opened a criminal case on charges of genocide in connection with recent events in South Ossetia, a General Prosecutor’s Office spokesman said on Thursday.

The Investigation Committee at the General Prosecutor’s Office “initiated a genocide probe based on reports of actions committed by Georgian troops aimed at murdering Russian citizens - ethnic Ossetians - living in South Ossetia,” said Igor Komissarov, deputy chairman of the Investigation Committee.

Russia has accused Georgia of committing “genocide” by launching an offensive last Friday to regain control of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Russia is calling for an international war crimes trial for the Georgian leadership, which Moscow says is responsible for massive loss of life in South Ossetia.

President Dmitry Medvedev ordered prosecutors on August 10 to gather evidence to support Russian allegations of the Georgian genocide of South Ossetians. The vast majority of South Ossetians hold Russian passports.

Russia has said that 1,600 civilians died in the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Georgia has also filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice on Tuesday over alleged ethnic cleansing.

“The suit contains material showing that Russia has committed ethnic cleansing against Georgia [during three interventions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia] from 1993 to 2008,” Georgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaya said.

Speaking on South Ossetia’s events earlier this week, the Russian prime minister accused the West of double standards.

“They [the U.S.] of course had to hang Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shiite villages,” Vladimir Putin said.

“But the current Georgian rulers, who in one hour simply wiped ten Ossetian villages from the face of the earth, who used tanks to knock down children and the elderly, and who burnt civilians alive - they (Georgian leaders) are players who of course have to be protected.”

Russia accuses Georgia of plotting armed attack against Abkhazia

2008-08-14T17:57:00.000+01:00

RIA Novosti
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia’s criticism of the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to Abkhazia was slammed Wednesday by Moscow, which called Tbilisi’s declaration that Russian troops were occupying its breakaway region an attempt to plot an armed attack against Abkhazia.

“If [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili’s absurd demand that the peacekeeping operation be halted in Abkhazia is implemented, the region will risk being plunged deeper into crisis by the unhealthy ambitions of the incumbent Georgian authorities,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said Russia would continue its peacekeeping missions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The ministry added that the Collective Peacekeeping Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States were deployed in the region not only with the consent of Georgia, but Abkhazia as well. This was fixed in the Agreement on a Ceasefire and Separation of Forces, signed in Moscow in 1994. The ministry said the decision by CIS heads of state on the use of peacekeepers directly referred to a request from Abkhazia for this.

“Considering this, we think it impossible to resolve the fate of the peacekeeping operation without taking into account the opinion of the Abkhazian side,” the ministry said adding that the whole architecture of the Georgian-Abkhazian settlement scheme would be disrupted otherwise.

Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in Abkhazia as part of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces since the 1990s, following a bloody conflict triggered by Abkhazia’s bid for independence from Georgia.

After Friday’s attempt by the Georgian military to regain control of South Ossetia and the subsequent expulsion of Georgian troops from the region, Russia has committed more than 9,000 paratroopers and 350 armored vehicles to Abkhazia in an attempt to prevent the South Ossetian conflict spreading, and to guard against a potential Georgian attack on Abkhazia.

Dearth Of Sunspot Activity To Herald New Ice Age?

2008-08-14T17:43:00.003+01:00

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Observatory predicts two degree drop in temperatures over next two decades as solar activity dwindles

A top observatory that has been measuring sun cycles for over 200 years predicts that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next two decades as solar activity grinds to a halt and the planet drastically cools down, potentially heralding the onset of a new ice age.

While the mass media, Al Gore and politicized bodies like the IPCC scaremonger about the perils of global warming and demand the poor and middle class pay CO2 taxes, both hard scientific data and circumstantial evidence points to a clear cooling trend.

Following the end of the Sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years, the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend as temperatures post-1998 leveled out and are now plummeting.

China recently experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer has also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.

“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”

The reason? Sunspot activity has dwindled. There have only been a handful of days in the past two months where any sunspot activity has been observed and over 400 spotless days have been recorded in the current solar cycle.

“The sun’s surface has been fairly blank for the last couple of years, and that has some worried that it may be entering another Maunder minimum, the sun’s 50-year abstinence from sunspots, which some scientists have linked to the Little Ice Age of the 17th century,” reports one science blog.

Long-time man-made global warming advocates NASA assure us that significant sunspot activity will return in 2012, but a recent a paper on recent solar trends by William Livingston and Matthew Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, predicts that sunspots will all but vanish after 2015.

Since the sun, and not carbon dioxide, is the principle driver of climate change, a dearth of sunspot activity would herald a repeat of the Maunder Minimum, the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare and contributed to the onset of the Little Ice Age during which Europe and North America were hit by bitterly cold winters and the Thames river in London completely froze.

The spotless sun: Eerily quiet solar activity has many scientists concerned that a new ice age could be on the horizon.

Forecasts of a sharp cooling trend are backed by the UK’s Armagh Observatory, which has been observing solar activity for over 200 years.

The observatory notes that solar cycles 21 and 22, which were characterized by being short and intense in their activity, led to the natural global warming observed in the 80’s and 90’s.

“Cycle 23, which hasn’t finished yet, looks like it will be long (at least 12 to 13 years) and cycle 24, which has still to start, looks like it will be exceptionally weak,” writes one observatory scientist.

“Based on the past Armagh measurements, this suggests that over the next two decades, global temperatures may fall by about 2 degrees C — that is, to a level lower than any we have seen in the last 100 years….“Temperatures have already fallen by about 0.5 degrees C over the past 12 months and, if this is only the start of it, it would be a serious concern,” concludes David Watt.

Such predictions are of course of little interest to a global PR machine that butters its bread on attributing every weather event, be it droughts, floods, volcanoes or earthquakes, to man-made global warming.

No matter that the last ten years have showed no global warming and the next 10 years are predicted to show no global warming, the fact that temperatures are clearly dropping in correlation to the lack of sunspot activity means nothing to people who are already committed to a quasi-religious belief system and governments that have resolved to squeeze the middle class citing fraudulent claims of eco-apocalypse as an excuse, while the real environmental crises - deforestation, GM madness, cell phone tower radiation, genetic splicing and chemtrails go almost completely ignored.

Russian troops not heading to Tbilisi - Russia

2008-08-14T17:43:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Russia has officially denied reports its troops have entered Georgian territory beyond the conflict zone, in breach of the ceasefire agreement. Throughout the day, major international news channels have been reporting that Russian tanks were in the Georgian town of Gori and heading towards the capital Tbilisi.

Throughout the conflict, the Georgian leadership has been waging a media war against Russia. There have been a number of false claims about Russian troop movements in Georgia.

On Monday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili accused Russia of occupying Gori. This information was reported by the world media but later denied.

Meanwhile, Saakashvili has claimed that Russia should be held responsible for the destruction of the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, not Georgia. The Georgian President was speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi, where he was joined by the presidents of Poland and post-Soviet states Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus said the five leaders were attending the conference in support of the Georgian government.

Earlier, Saakashvili claimed Russian troops sank Georgian coastal guard boats in the port city of Poti. He said Russia wanted to bomb the port, but the city authorities convinced them to move the vessels into the sea and sink them with explosives.

Meanwhile Russian General Staff Deputy Commander Anatoli Nogovitsin has said that several boats attacked a Russian Navy vessel near Poti. The ship fired back and drove the attackers away, he said.

Captured map shows Georgia planned to invade Abkhazia

2008-08-14T17:35:00.002+01:00

Russia Today
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Russian troops have discovered what they believe are plans for an invasion of Abkhazia in a captured Georgian command post vehicle. On Wednesday, Abkhazian armed forces succeeded in pushing Georgian troops out of the Upper Kodori Gorge in anticipation of such an attack.

For the past few days the spotlight has been on Georgia’s other breakaway republic, South Ossetia.

But the captured documents apparently outline steps for the invasion of Abkhazia, a region twice the size of South Ossetia, bordering the Black Sea.

Russia: US gave nod to Georgia

2008-08-14T17:24:00.000+01:00

PRESS TV
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Russia says that Georgia’s attack on the independence-seeking region of South Ossetia was likely executed with the United States’ approval.

“It is hard to imagine that (Georgian President Mikheil) Saakashvili embarked on this risky venture without some sort of approval from the side of the United States,” Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, told Russia’s NTV television on Wednesday.

Meanwhile on the same day, an official in the delegation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Georgia’s president was “mad” to try to crush separatists in South Ossetia, and he fell into a “vulgar” trap that led to war.

“Saakashvili was mad enough to go in the middle of the night and bomb a city,” the official told reporters overnight on condition of anonymity. The result is “a Georgia attacked, pulverized, through its own fault,” he added.

“The Georgians fell into a vulgar trap. They thought that (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin would not retaliate in the middle of the Olympic Games,” the official said.

Contrary to Tbilisi’s expectations, Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s reaction was too heavy-handed. “They sent in the Russian army and liquidated the opposing army,” the official added.

France’s Sarkozy — whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union — brokered an outline peace deal on Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday to end fighting sparked by Tbilisi’s decision to regain control of South Ossetia by force.

Russia's troops overran their Georgian enemy, forcing them out of South Ossetia and helping the separatists drive out Georgian forces in another independence-seeking region, Abkhazia, before moving further into Georgian territory.

Russia warned over ‘Soviet past’

2008-08-14T17:18:00.001+01:00

BBC
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has warned Russia against hankering after a Soviet past in its border disputes.

He told the BBC Russia had been trying to assert the concept of “ex-Soviet space”, which was “not acceptable”.

Russia had adopted a 19th Century approach and “blatant aggression” in Georgia, when it should be asserting itself economically, he said.

EU foreign ministers are meeting to try to co-ordinate an international response to the crisis in Georgia.

Russian and Georgian troops have been fighting over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.

‘Unacceptable’

But Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there had been “blatant aggression” by Russia outside South Ossetia, in Abkhazia and into parts of Georgia.

"The sight of Russian tanks rolling into part of a sovereign country on its neighbouring borders will have brought a chill to the spine of many people, rightly, because that is a reversion to - it's not just Cold War politics, it's a 19th Century way of doing politics."

He added: "That is simply not the way international relations can be run in the 21st Century."

Mr Miliband was speaking as it appeared French President Nicholas Sarkozy had agreed an outline plan with Russia and Georgia to try to resolve the crisis.

The foreign secretary said there should be a retreat back to pre-7 August positions, pending international engagement "on the security and stability of the area, consistent with the territorial integrity of Georgia".

"Countries need to know that their territorial integrity is secure," he said.

'New map'

He told the BBC that on the Georgia issue, and other disputed border areas, "the Russians want to assert this concept, I think, of 'ex-Soviet space', somehow denying that these are independent countries with territorial integrity of their own. I think that is unacceptable."

He added: "It's not good for Russia to continue to believe that it is suffering a hangover from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union does not exist anymore. There's no such thing as ex-Soviet space."

He said the "new map" of eastern Europe had to be defended in the interests of stability and it was in Russia's interests to do so.

"Russia knows that its strength in the 21st Century is going to have to be asserted economically and not just militarily, but we have got to make sure that this remains absolutely clear," he told the BBC.

He said countries on Russia's borders needed to know their territorial integrity was secure.
"It's not in Russia's interests to continue to hanker for a Soviet past because frankly, it's gone and it's good that it's gone."

Speaking to the programme later Andrei Chupin, Russia's charge d'affaires in London, said he believed the British media had favoured Georgia's position in its reporting of hostilities.

Russia has insisted that it had the legal right to move in to protect Russian peacekeepers who had come under fire and to protect its citizens in South Ossetia.

"We are quite disappointed with what we see as a somewhat biased coverage of the events in South Ossetia by western media," he said.

Mr Miliband was also asked about an article he wrote last month which prompted speculation that he might challenge Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the Labour Party leadership.

He defended the article, saying it "set out a very clear agenda" for the government, but said he had been working "very closely" with Mr Brown on the situation in Georgia and praised him for "leading the government forward with vigour and determination".

"I am fully focused on dealing with the situation in Georgia. I am working very closely with Gordon on that. End of story," he said.

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1

2008-08-14T17:10:00.001+01:00

Ron French
The Detroit News
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald’s, a used VHS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.

The fact that a home on the city’s east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America’s poorest big cities.

And it still took 19 days to find a buyer.

The sale price of the home may be an anomaly, but illustrates both the depths of the foreclosure crisis in Detroit and the rapid scuttling of vacant homes in some of the city’s impoverished neighborhoods.

The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed last summer, and it wasn’t long until “the vultures closed in,” Upshaw said.

“The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else.”

The company hired to manage the home and sell it, the Bearing Group, boarded up the home only to find the boards stolen and used to board up another abandoned home nearby.

Scrappers tore out the copper plumbing, the furnace and the light fixtures, taking everything of value, including the kitchen sink.

“It about doesn’t make sense to put the family out,” Upshaw said. “Once people are gone, you’re gonna lose the house in this neighborhood.”

Tuesday, the home was wide open. Doors leading into the kitchen and the basement were missing, and the front windows had been smashed. Weeds grew chest-high, and charred remains marked a spot where the garage recently burned.

Put on the market in January for $1,100, the house had no lookers other than the squatters who sometimes stayed there at night. Facing $4,000 in back taxes and a large unpaid water bill, the bank that owned the property lowered the price to $1.

$1 sale to cost bank $10,000
While it’s not unusual for $1 to be exchanged when property is transferred for legal reasons, listing a home in the Multiple Listing Service for $1 was surprising and unsettling to Kent Colpaert, the listing real estate agent for the property.

"I've never seen a home listed for $1," Colpaert said.

"But it's been hit hard: It's just a shell."

On Tuesday, Realtor.com listed one other single-family home, one duplex and one empty lot at $1 in Detroit.

Dollar property sales are the financial hangover from the foreclosure crisis, said Anthony Viola of Realty Corp. of America in Cleveland.

Lenders that made loans to unqualified buyers during the height of the subprime market now find themselves the owners of whole neighborhoods of vacant, deteriorating homes.

"No one has much sympathy for these banks that made subprime loans," Viola said. "And in some cities like Cleveland, judges aren't letting them sit on the properties -- they're ordering them to tear them down or sell them."

So desperate was the bank owner of 8111 Traverse Street to unload the property that it agreed to pay $2,500 in sales commission and another $1,000 bonus for closing the $1 sale; the bank also will pay $500 of the buyer's closing costs. Throw in back taxes and a water bill, and unloading the house will cost the bank about $10,000.

"It doesn't make sense in some neighborhoods to keep paying costs and costs," Colpaert said. "It can make more financial sense to give it away."

Buyer calls it an investment
Colpaert declined to provide the name of the prospective purchaser, because the deal had not been through closing. The agent did say that the buyer agreed to pay the full list price of $1, and planned to pay cash.

The buyer, a local woman, considers the home to be an investment property and will not live there, Colpaert said, though exactly how soon the buyer can expect to recoup her four-quarter investment is questionable. Replacing the guts of the house will costs tens of thousands of dollars, and the owner will have trouble keeping scrappers from stealing the improvements as quickly as they're installed. Home demolition costs about $5,000, Colpaert said.

Meanwhile, the new owner will owe $3,900 in property taxes in 2009 on her dollar purchase unless she challenges the tax assessment.

While selling a home for the amount of change most people could find between their couch cushions is unusual, some abandoned homes in Detroit sell for $100; vacant lots can be purchased for $300.

"My 14-year-old son could buy a block of Detroit property," said Ann Laciura, senior servicing specialist for the Bearing Group.

British journalist detained by Beijing police after covering Free Tibet protest

2008-08-14T17:04:00.002+01:00

Tania Branigan and Jonathan Watts
London Guardian
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Police in Beijing roughed up and detained a British journalist after he covered a Free Tibet protest close to the city’s main Olympic zone earlier today.

The incident appeared to be the clearest breach yet of the host nation’s promise of free media access during the Games.

John Ray, of Independent Television News, said he was pinned down by police, dragged along the ground and pushed into a police van.

He said the authorities had also confiscated his equipment, pulled off his shoes, filmed him and accused him of trying to unfurl a Tibetan flag.

After his release some 30 minutes later, he said he was shaken but unharmed.

Beijing police said eight foreign Free Tibet protesters, including seven US citizens and a Japanese national, were arrested and their deportation was being supervised. They made no comment about Ray’s treatment.

Today’s incident, which came five days into the Games, is likely to embarrass the International Olympic Committee.

It is also awkward for the Beijing hosts, who are keen to keep the spotlight on the Olympics, which are being covered by more than 20,000 foreign journalists.

The incident happened when a number of activists from Students for a Free Tibet gathered at the entrance and on a bridge inside the Ethnic Minorities park, less than half a mile from the Bird’s Nest stadium.

A British passport holder, who escaped arrest, was also among the protesters.
When demonstrators tried to unfurl a Tibetan Snow Lion flag and banner on the bridge, a group of foreign journalists attempted to enter the park to film them.

Ray said he had fallen behind the main group, tussled with park guards and was then set upon by a four or five uniformed police. They pushed him to the ground, dragging him off to a nearby restaurant as he shouted: “I am a British journalist” to startled diners.

“My accreditation was in my pocket, but they wouldn’t let me get it out to show them,” he said after being released.

Police swung him on to a couch and pinned him down by sitting on his arms. When they relaxed, he tried to get away but was tripped up. He was then bundled into a police van and asked him what his views on Tibet were.

“I could see that they threw in behind me a yellow Tibetan flag or banner. I couldn’t see exactly what it was,” he said.

“They are claiming I tried to unfurl a Tibet banner. I did not at any time try to unfurl a banner and I have never possessed any banner or protest material. I was there simply to report on a demonstration, not to take part in it in any way.”

Beijing police said the activists had been undertaking illegal activities.

The Olympics has been hit by a series of small-scale protests by foreigners in Beijing calling for greater human rights, religious freedom and support for Tibet.

Police have quickly cleared most demonstrations and deported those involved. In today's incident, the Students for a Free Tibet activists - mostly Canadians and Americans - were rounded up by police after chanting: "Tibetans are dying for freedom" at the entrance of the park.

"Chinese people are great, but shame on the Chinese government because they are lying to China," Pemba Yoko, a British-Tibetan woman from London, said.

"Chinese people have a right to be Chinese. Why can't Tibetans have the right to be Tibetan? China is illegally occupying my country. We are proud to be Tibetan. We will never give up. This is a non-violent war."

Chinese officials recently apologised for two incidents of harrassment of foreign reporters, including the beating of two Japanese journalists trying to cover the deadly upsurge of unrest in Xinjiang last week.

Russia Rubbishes Bombing Claims

2008-08-12T20:45:00.001+01:00

Sky News
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Russia has slammed claims that its forces are continuing to attack Georgia after announcing an end to the five-day war in the region.Georgia’s acting ambassador to Britain has told Sky News Russian jets were bombing civilian targets in Georgia despite Moscow’s announcement that it was calling off its troops.

Georgei Badridze said that Russian bombers had hit targets including a hospital in the town of Gori, villages away from the combat zone and a minibus carrying civilians.

He said the strikes had been carried out after the announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the military offensive to protect South Ossetia had been called off.

“We’re talking about strikes from helicopter gunships which could not have mistaken these places for anything else,” he said.

“If their plan to totally destroy Georgian statehood fails at this stage, they (want to) make us bleed economically.”

Witnesses also reported seeing 135 Russian military vehicles driving through Georgia toward Khodori Gorge, part of the breakaway region of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia.

Russia’s defence ministry slammed the claims of continuing military action as “provocations”, and Russian reports said Georgian forces were shooting at them.

A Russian news agency reported that the ministry had admitted some shots were being fired, but only under “provocation”.

The five-day conflict was started when Georgia tried to take control of the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia.

Casualty figures given by each side vary widely, with Russia claiming thousands of deaths and Georgia hundreds.

Moscow accused Georgia of “war crimes” in the area, saying thousands of civilians had been killed before it stepped in and comparing the situation to the war in Kosovo in the 1990s, when European forces stepped in to protect a persecuted minority.

Mr Badridze, however, told Sky News the charges were simply a smokescreen, and said the situation mirrored Hitler's staged invasion of Germany by Poland before the Second World War.

He said that the only way to prevent continuing Russian aggression and safeguard Georgian democracy was for the West to allow Georgia to join Nato.

"The international community has to make the Russians leave Georgia," he added.
Sky News' Andrew Wilson, speaking from the Georgian town of Poti, said that it was possible that orders were taking a long time to pass down the chain of command.

He said that although the Russian fighting machine was formidable, the forces under Moscow's command also included militiamen who may not see their first loyalty as being to the Kremlin.

"There's an element of disorganisation in the military that may become a factor as the EU tries to put a blanket of calm over the situation," he said.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told a large rally outside Georgia's parliament he would pull his country out of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) grouping of ex-Soviet countries.

"We are leaving the CIS for good and propose that other countries leave this body run by Russia," the Russian Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Attacks damaged or destroyed 70% of buildings - Tskhinvali mayor

2008-08-12T20:39:00.001+01:00

RIA Novosti
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

TSKHINVALI, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - Around 70% of buildings in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, have been damaged or destroyed since Georgia attacked its rebel republic early last Friday, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.

“Up to 70% of the municipal buildings have been damaged or completely destroyed,” Robert Guliyev said. “The situation is almost the same in the private housing sector.”

The mayor said around 15,000 civilians remained in the city, which had 30,000 residents before the attacks began.

Guliyev did not give the number of civilian deaths. According to Russia, around 1,600 civilians have died.

Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, said earlier Tuesday that all nurseries, schools and the only hospital in the city were destroyed on the first day of the attack.

The Defense Ministry official said Russia had provided the necessary financial assistance to rebuild Tskhinvali. Field bakeries have been set up in the conflict zone, and food and water are being supplied, he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an end to the "peace enforcement" operation in Georgia earlier in the day, after five days of fighting that followed Georgia's military offensive to seize South Ossetia. However, he said Georgia must pull its troops back before a peace settlement can be reached.

Civilians perish as Georgian troops torch church

2008-08-12T20:31:00.001+01:00

Russia Today
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Regnum news agency is reporting that Georgian troops burned down a 10th century Orthodox church while terrified civilians perished inside. The agency quotes eyewitness accounts of the atrocity after all-out fighting in Khetagurovo, a small village near the republic’s capital Tskhinvali.

Almost all of those fighting to defend the village were killed, but the report says the fate of others, mostly women and the elderly, turned out to be even more horrible.

Eyewitnesses report that Georgian tanks literally ran people down and that soldiers took almost all the women to another location. Their fate is still unknown.

Meanwhile, those who didn’t manage to escape found their shelter in a 10th century Orthodox church. Civilians hoped that Georgians of the same faith wouldn’t dare storm the building, one of the oldest of its kind in the country.

But Regnum reports that the Georgian troops set the church on fire and left those inside to perish.

It is the latest in a series of reports of the Georgian military attacking and killing civilians.

BP shuts Georgia oil, gas pipelines as a precaution

2008-08-12T20:26:00.001+01:00

Reuters
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) has closed two oil and gas pipelines running from its Caspian Sea fields through Georgia but neither has been damaged by recent fighting in the country, a spokesman for the British oil major said on Tuesday.

Georgia accused Russia of bombing its fuel lines on Tuesday, allegations denied by Moscow.
“We have checked those and there are no reports of any impact to any of the pipelines,” the BP spokesman said.

The closure further limits BP’s export options from the land-locked Caspian Sea after a fire damaged last week its key link to Turkey, Baku-Ceyhan, forcing to cut output from offshore Azeri fields to 250,000 barrels per day from 850,000 bpd.

On Tuesday, the company closed the 155,000-barrel a day Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP) running from Baku in Azerbaijan to the Georgian port of Supsa until it feels safe to reopen it.

“As a precaution we have stopped pumping oil through that earlier this morning,” the spokesman said, adding that the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) which runs to the border with Turkey was also shut on Tuesday.

The 830-km WREP line transports oil from the Chirag field in the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan to Supsa with about half of the pipeline in Georgia.

The 692-km SCP, which is buried underground, carries gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea through Georgia to the Turkish border, where it links to a Turkish-built extension joining SCP to the domestic supply grid at Erzurum.

The closure leaves BP with only Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and Georgia's Black Sea ports of Batumi and Kuleva as the only available export options.

War a la Carte: How the U.S. Invited a War in South Ossetia

2008-08-12T20:19:00.001+01:00

ERIC WALBERG
Counterpunch
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Last week, Georgia launched a major military offensive against the rebel province South Ossetia, just hours after President Mikheil Saakashvili had announced a unilateral ceasefire. Close to 1,500 have been killed, Russian officials say. Thirty thousand refugees, mostly women and children, streamed across the border into the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz in Russia.

The timing — and subterfuge — suggest the unscrupulous Saakashvili was counting on surprise. “Most decision makers have gone for the holidays,” he said in an interview with CNN. “Brilliant moment to attack a small country.” Apparently he was referring to Russia invading Georgia, despite the fact that it was Georgia which had just launched a full-scale invasion of the “small country” South Ossetia, while Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was in Beijing for the Olympics. Twenty-seven Russian peacekeepers and troops have been killed and 150 wounded so far, many when their barracks were shelled by Georgian forces at the start of the invasion. Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili rushed to announce that their mini-blitzkreig had destroyed ten Russian combat planes (Russia says two) and that Georgian troops were in full control of the capital Tskhinvali.

Russia’s Defense Ministry denounced the Georgian attack as a “dirty adventure.” From Beijing, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, “It is regrettable that on the day before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Georgian authorities have undertaken aggressive actions in South Ossetia.” He later added, “War has started.” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens — most South Ossetians hold Russian passports. The offensive prompted Moscow to send in 150 tanks, to launch air strikes on nearby Gori and military sites, and to order warships to Georgia’s Black Sea coast.

Georgia’s national security council declared a state of war with Russia and a full military mobilisation. US military planes are already flying Georgia’s 2,000 troops in Iraq — the third-largest force after the United States and Britain — back to confront the Russians. By Sunday, despite early claims of victory, Georgian troops had retreated from South Ossetia, leaving diplomatic rubble behind which will be very hard to clear. Truth is stranger than fiction in Georgia.

The writing has been on the wall for months. Georgian President Saakashvili’s fawning over Western leaders at the “emergency” NATO meeting in April and his pre-election anti-Russian bluster in May made it clear to all that Georgia is the more-than-willing canary in the Eastern mine shaft. The Georgian attack on South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali — I repeat — just hours after Saakashvili declared a cease-fire, looks very much like an attempt to reincorporate the rebel province into Georgia unilaterally. But whoever is advising the brash young president ignores the postscript — no pasaran! South Ossetia has been independent for 16 years and is not likely to drape flowers on invading Georgia tanks. It also just happens to have Russia as patron.

The aftershocks of this wild gamble by Saakashvili are just beginning. This is Russia’s most serious altercation with a foreign country since the collapse of the Soviet Union and could escalate into an all-out war engulfing much of the Caucasus region. Russian warships are not planning to block shipments of oil from Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Sunday, but reserve the right to search ships coming to and from it. Another source naval source said, “The crews are assigned the task to not allow arms and military hardware supplies to reach Georgia by sea.” The Russians have already sunk a Georgian missile boat that was trying to attack Russian ships. Upping the ante, Ukraine said it reserved the right to bar Russian warships from returning to their nominally Ukrainian — formerly Russian — base of Sevastopol , on the Crimean peninsula. On Saturday, Russia accused Ukraine of “arming the Georgians to the teeth.”

Georgia’s other separatist region, Abkhazia, was mobilising its forces for a push into the Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia. “No dialogue is possible with the current Georgian leadership,” said Abkhazia’s President Sergei Bagapsh. “They are state criminals who must be tried for the crimes committed in South Ossetia, the genocide of the Ossetian people.” Britain has ordered its nationals to leave Georgia. British charity worker Sian Davis said, “It’s really, really quiet, eerily quiet. Everyone was either at home or had packed up and moved out of the city. People are really, really scared. People are panicking.” So far the more than 2,000 US nationals in this tiny but strategic country are mostly staying put.

This is yet another made-in-the-USA war. US President George W Bush loudly supported Georgia’s request to join NATO in April, much to the consternation of European leaders. NATO promised to send advisers in December. Not losing any time, the US sent more than 1,000 US Marines and soldiers to the Vaziani military base on the South Ossetian border in July “to teach combat skills to Georgian troops.” The UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement on the current crisis after three emergency meetings. A Russian-drafted statement that called on Georgia and the separatists to “renounce the use of force” was vetoed by the US, UK and France. To dispel any conceivable doubt, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday: “We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia’s territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil.”

But it’s also yet another made-in-Israel war. A thousand military advisers from Israeli security firms have been training the country’s armed forces and were deeply involved in the Georgian army’s preparations to attack and capture the capital of South Ossetia, according to the Israeli web site Debkafiles which has close links with the regime’s intelligence and military sources. Haaretz reported that Yakobashvili told Army Radio — in Hebrew, “ Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers.” “We killed 60 Russian soldiers just yesterday,” he boasted on Monday. “The Russians have lost more than 50 tanks, and we have shot down 11 of their planes. They have enormous damage in terms of manpower.” He warned that the Russians would try and open another battlefront in Abkhazia and denied reports that the Georgian army was retreating. “The Georgian forces are not retreating. We move our military according to security needs.”

Israelis are active in real estate, tourism, gaming, military manufacturing and security consulting in Georgia, including former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo and Likudite and gambling operator Reuven Gavrieli. “The Russians don’t look kindly on the military cooperation of Israeli firms with the Georgian army, and as far as I know, Israelis doing security consulting left Georgia in the past few days because of the events there,” the former Israeli ambassador to Georgia and Armenia, Baruch Ben Neria, said yesterday. Since his posting, Ben Neria has represented Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Georgia .

By Sunday, Putin was in Vladikavkaz and said it is unlikely South Ossetia will ever be reintegrated into Georgia. There are really only two possible scenarios to end the conflict: a long-term stalemate or Russian annexation of South Ossetia. The former is beginning to look pretty good, and Saakashvili is probably already ruing his rash move. The Georgian president is clearly hoping he can suck the US into the conflict. Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said only Western intervention could prevent all-out war. But it is very unlikely Bush will risk WWIII over this scrap of craggy mountain.

When US puppets get out of line, like a certain Saddam Hussein, they are easily abandoned. Saakashvili would be wise to recall the fate of the first post-Soviet Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, also a darling of the US (in 1978 US Congress nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize). He rode to victory on a wave of nationalism in 1990, declaring independence for Georgia and officially recognising the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria”. But South Ossetia wanted no part of the fiery Gamsakhurdia’s chauvinistic vision and declared its own “independence”. Engulfed by a wave of disgust a short two years later, abandoned by his US friends, he fled to his beloved Ichkeria. He snuck back into western Georgia, looking for support in restive Abkhazia, but his uprising collapsed, prompting Abkhazia to secede.

Gamsakhurdia died in 1993, leaving the two secessionist provinces as a legacy, and was buried in Chechnya. Saakashvili rehabilitated him in 2004 and had his remains interred in Mtatsminda Pantheon with other Georgian “heroes”. Truth really is stranger than fiction in Georgia. Now the burning question is: will history repeat itself?

West Palm Beach rookie quits, 2 officers face discipline after being caught on tape beating suspect

2008-08-12T20:00:00.001+01:00

MICHAEL LaFORGIA
Palm Beach Post
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — One city police officer resigned and two more were placed on administrative leave after a dashboard camera captured images of them punching and kicking a handcuffed man in the face.

On May 26, Officer Louis Schwartz had pulled a car over outside a CVS pharmacy at 6800 South Dixie Highway when a pharmacy clerk told him a man in a black ski mask looked like he was about to rob the store.

As Schwartz walked in, the man, later identified as Pablo Gilberto Valenzuela, 42, of West Palm Beach, ran out through an emergency exit, turning to spray Schwartz with pepper spray as the officer gave chase, according to police reports.

A video recording captured what happened next:

Schwartz drew his gun and, ordering Valenzuela to the ground, approached as Officer Kurt Graham, who had heard Schwartz’s calls for help over the radio, closed in on the prone man. Graham put a knee into Valenzuela’s back and handcuffed him.

The video then showed Graham punch and kick Valenzuela in the face. Schwartz approached and also kicked Valenzuela in the face.

Later, as Officer Jason Zangara hoisted a bloodied Valenzuela to his feet, the video showed Valenzuela lurching away from Zangara’s grasp. Zangara whirled on the handcuffed man and punched him several times in the face, until the man collapsed on the pavement, the video showed.

Officers hauled him up again and led him out of the frame.

Valenzuela was held at the Palm Beach County Jail on charges of robbery, assault and battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

In reports filed after the incident, Graham and Schwartz wrote that they kicked Valenzuela in the face because the handcuffed man was trying to bite Graham's leg.

"As I was crouching over Valenzuela he began to bite at my lower right leg," Graham wrote. "I felt his teeth graze up against my lower leg (through my pant leg). I immediately punched Valenzuela in the head in an attempt to stop his biting, at the same instance Officer Schwartz saw that Valenzuela was attempting to bite me, he kicked the subject in an attempt to stop him from biting me. As I arose to my feet I could still see Valenzuela attempting to bite me, this time I kicked him in the head."

Zangara wrote that he punched Valenzuela after Valenzuela tried to spit on him.
"I instinctively struck him in the face with my right fist to prevent him from spitting on me again as he was full of blood," Zangara wrote.

In the midst of an internal affairs investigation into the incident, Graham, whom a city spokesman described as a "rookie officer" still on probation, resigned on July 22.
Schwartz and Zangara - whose personnel files are dotted with suspensions and written reprimands - remain on administrative leave this afternoon while West Palm Beach Police Chief Delsa Bush decides their fate, said Chase Scott, city spokesman. It is unclear from the records if they have been on leave since the incident.

In an interview with internal affairs investigators, Valenzuela said the officers broke his jaw and gave him two black eyes and a gash that required four stitches. He said a fight with his wife during Memorial Day weekend triggered a stress disorder that preceded the incident on May 26.
Valenzuela, who said he was trades crew chief for Palm Beach County Facilities Management, said he had no memory of the confrontation or of the events that led up to it.~'michael_laforgia@pbpost.com

‘Cute’ girl forced to mime at Olympics ceremony after China banned seven-year-old with crooked teeth

2008-08-12T19:43:00.002+01:00

Nicola Boden and David Williams
Daily Mail
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

China picked a ‘cute’ nine-year-old girl to mime at its Olympic opening ceremony after deciding a seven-year-old with a ‘flawless’ voice was not pretty enough to perform.

Lin Miaoke, in her angelic red dress and pigtails, captivated the world last Friday as she ’sang’ the national anthem during its £20million opening for the Games.

But it has now been revealed the voice heard by billions both in Beijing and around the globe was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was banned for her crooked teeth.

In yet another example of fakery at the Games, China pre-recorded Yang singing Paean to the Motherland but chose her rival to lip-synch before the public.

The extraordinary last-minute decision to splice pictures and sound was taken just before the show by a top member of the Chinese Communist Party politburo.

Lin’s appearance in the ceremony has made her the hottest child star in China and her picture was even printed on the front page of the New York Times.

But the true story behind her performance has now been revealed by the general music designer of the ceremony, Chen Qigang, who wanted to set the record straight.

It lays bare China’s desperation to present a ‘perfect’ image to the world and deliver the best ever Olympics, shooing away migrant workers and protesters.

The country has already confessed footage of fireworks exploding across Beijing during the ceremony was digitally inserted into television coverage in case smog blurred some of the 29 blasts.

And today Olympic officials said they had been forced to draft-in ‘cheerleader squads’ to fill empty seats in stadiums despite the Games being billed as a sell out.

Ironically, attempts to control every aspect of the Games are far more damaging to China’s reputation than if events were allowed to unfold more naturally.

Of the decision to deny Yang Peiyi her chance to perform in front of billions, Mr Qigang said: ‘The first condition was that the director wants the image to be very cute.’

A 10-year-old girl who was a good singer was initially selected and used for all the rehearsals but it was eventually decided she was too old.

Organisers wanted a younger child and picked Yang Peiyi for her ‘flawless’ voice but were told at the last minute that Lin Miaoke would be the one to appear on stage.

Mr Qigang told Beijing People’s Broadcasting Station: ‘The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression.

‘Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in the aspect of voice, Yang Peiyi is flawless, in each member of our team’s view.’

He added: ‘This was a last-minute decision, we had to do it. We had been through several inspections, they were all very strict.

‘When we rehearsed at the spot, there were spectators from various divisions, especially leaders from the the Politburo who gave the opinion: It must change.

‘This is to say, we had no choice… We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, to give this explanation.

‘Everyone should understand this in this way: this is in the national interest. It is the image of our national music, national culture. Especially the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, extremely serious matter.

‘Then we made such a choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi. That is to say, we have a perfect voice (in our team’s view), and a perfect image and representation, two combined together.’

The decision shows China's desire to ensure every single element of the Games is perfect and control exactly how it is perceived across the world.

It is possible Lin Miaoke did not even realise she was not singing at the time. She was only told she was performing at all 15 minutes beforehand.

A photo of Peiyi posted yesterday on a popular website shows a smiling girl with braces and crooked teeth.

She insisted she was not upset at the switch and was honoured to have her voice used.
But some people were angry, with one blog post reading: 'Leave the last bit of innocence to the children.'

Peiyi is a pupil at the Primary School affiliated to Beijing University. Her teacher Wang Liping said she is both cute and well-behaved, with a love for Peking opera.

In contrast, Miaoke was a minor celebrity even before the opening ceremony, having appeared in a number of Olympics-related television advertisements.

She has her own blog and one of the latest photos posted since the ceremony shows her looking up nervously at the ceremony's director, film director Zhang Yimou. 'Giving the child encouragement,' the caption says.

It is the the second straight Olympics where the opening ceremony involved lip-synching.

Luciano Pavarotti's performance at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin was prerecorded.
Bitter cold made a live performance impossible for the tenor, who was in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis.

Organisers were also forced to admit today that they were bussing in 'cheer squads' to fill empty seats, having claimed every single ticket for the Games had sold out.

The spectators - in matching t-shirts and banging batons - are being used to 'create a good atmosphere'.

Vice-president Wang Wei said: 'The shirts were handed out to volunteers who were assigned to be cheerleader squads to cheer both sides and encourage atmosphere.'Officials stress the Games are a sell-out and blame the empty seats on the bad weather and the failure of sponsors to use their own allocations.

It has already emerged organisers faked part of the firework display during the opening ceremony, which cost £20million to stage and wowed the world.

The 29 'footprints' seen springing up across the city towards its National Stadium during the four-hour epic show were actually pre-recorded.

A cameraman in a helicopter was also filming the displays live as they popped up along the skyline but organisers had feared it would be too shaky to use.

NBC responds to Olympic fakery accusations

2008-08-12T19:37:00.001+01:00

THR Feed
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The glow of NBC’s Olympic ratings victory threatens to be sullied this morning by reports that the Beijing Olympic Committee and the network have been less-than-scrupulous in their presentation of the Summer Games.

Organizers are accused of mixing in fake CGI fireworks during Friday night’s opening ceremony, while NBC is said to have added a bogus “Live” stamp to tape-delayed West Coast feed of competition coverage this weekend, and edited the “parade of nations” segment of the opening ceremony to delay the entrance of the U.S. Olympic Team.

Let’s take a look at each report, along with a response from NBC Sports.

Accusation: That viewers were misled by the use of CGI fireworks during a sweeping helicopter shot leading up to Bird’s Nest National Stadium. Organizers note the fireworks were there, but the footage was created in advance due to the danger of shooting live from a nearby helicopter.

NBC Response: An NBC Sports spokesperson says U.S. viewers were informed of the manipulation. Commentators Matt Lauer and Bob Costas said the fireworks were a digital effect. From the opening ceremony transcript during the fireworks in question:

Lauer: “You’re looking at a cinematic device employed by Zhang Yimou here. This is actually almost animation. A footstep a second, 29 in all, to signify the 29 Olympiads.”

Costas: “We said earlier that aspects of this Opening Ceremony are almost like cinema in real time. Well this is quite literally cinematic.”

Analysis: Mixing real and CGI fireworks during an Olympic event is visually misleading, though NBC did try to address the issue. The question is, during a spectacular-looking shot, do the phrases “cinematic device” and “almost animation” really convey that the image wasn’t real? It seems more to hint that something about it wasn’t quite literal, while coming shy of saying — in far more clear and simple terms — “this is a digitally manufactured shot to represent what’s happening right now outside the stadium.” (More thoughts on this issue with additional video).

Accusation: That NBC is time stamping West Coast feeds of competition coverage with a “Live” tag even though the coverage is not live.

NBC Response: A spokesperson points out the constant “Live” tag is accompanied by twice-per-hour time stamps that inform West Coast viewers that the event was only live on the East Coast (ex. “10:05 ET”).

“The audience makeup of the Olympics is very much like that of ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ which have ‘live’ season finales presented in much the same way,” an NBC Sports spokesperson says. “You assume there’s a large amount of intelligence in the viewing audience, so when they see those twice-an-hour time stamps they’ll understand what is being presented.”

Analysis: If a sporting event’s feed isn’t live, a broadcaster should avoid using an omnipresent “live” tag. The best reason to have this tag on a West Coast feed (and to not put a clear “tape delayed” notice) is for the same reason some are incensed –- it gives viewers an impression of live urgency that isn’t quite there. Like with the fireworks, the original complaint is mollified by the facts, to a degree: to a casual viewer the coverage shows one thing, while to somebody paying close attention, it shows something slightly less exciting.

Accusation: That NBC edited the “parade of nations” from the original order to delay the entrance of U.S. athletes.

NBC Response: An NBC Sports spokesman says the order was unchanged.
Analysis: Editing a sporting event like a reality show to save the most eagerly awaited moments for the conclusion would be an issue — if it were true. As it is, online reports have provided no real evidence.

Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

2008-08-12T19:34:00.000+01:00

Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And Google, the leading online advertiser, stated that it has begun using Internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow Web-surfing behavior across affiliated sites.

The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and lawmakers said the disclosures help build a case for an overarching online-privacy law.

“Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information . . . and then selling it as a commodity to other providers,” said committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who created the Privacy Caucus 12 years ago. “Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information.”

Markey said he and his colleagues plan to introduce legislation next year, a sort of online-privacy Bill of Rights, that would require that consumers must opt in to the tracking of their online behavior and the collection and sharing of their personal data.

But some committee leaders cautioned that such legislation could damage the economy by preventing small companies from reaching customers. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said self-regulation that focuses on transparency and choice might be the best approach.

Google, in its letter to committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), Markey, Stearns and Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), stressed that it did not engage in potentially the most invasive of technologies — deep-packet inspection, which companies such as NebuAd have tested with some broadband providers. But Google did note that it had begun to use across its network the “DoubleClick ad-serving cookie,” a computer code that allows the tracking of Web surfing.

Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy and government affairs, stated in the letter that users could opt out of a single cookie for both DoubleClick and the Google content network. He also said that Google was not yet focusing on “behavioral” advertising, which depends on Web site tracking.

But on its official blog last week, Google touted how its recent $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick provides advertisers “insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign,” as well as “how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad.”

"Google is slowly embracing a full-blown behavioral targeting over its vast network of services and sites," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. He said that Google, through its vast data collection and sophisticated data analysis tools, "knows more about consumers than practically anyone."

Microsoft and Yahoo have disclosed that they engage in some form of behavioral targeting. Yahoo has said it will allow users to turn off targeted advertising on its Web sites; Microsoft has yet to respond to the committee.

More than a dozen of the 33 companies queried said they do not conduct targeted advertising based on consumers' Internet activities. But, Chester said, a number of them engage in sophisticated interactive marketing. Advertisers on Comcast.net's site, for instance, are able to target advertising based on "over 3 billion page views" from "15 million unique users."

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice stressed that the data are gathered exclusively for advertising on that site.

In their letters, Broadband providers Knology and Cable One acknowledged that they recently ran tests using deep-packet-inspection technology provided by NebuAd to see whether it could help them serve up more relevant ads, but their customers were not explicitly alerted to the test. Cable One is owned by The Washington Post Co.

Both companies said that no personally identifiable information was used and that they have ended the trials. Cable One has no plans to adopt the technology, spokeswoman Melany Stroupe said. "However, if we do," she said, "we want people to be able to opt in."

Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said lawmakers are beginning to understand the convergence across platforms. "People are starting to see: 'Oh, we have these different industries that are collecting the same types of information to profile individuals and the devices they use on the network," he said. "Internet. Cellphones. Cable. Any way you tap into the network, concerns are raised."

Markey said yesterday that any legislation should generally require explicitly informing the consumer of the type of information that is being gathered and any intent to use it for a different purpose, and a right to say 'no' to the collection or use.

The push for overarching legislation is bipartisan. "A broad approach to protecting people's online privacy seems both desirable and inevitable," Barton said. "Advertisers and data collectors who record where customers go and what they do want profit at the expense of privacy."

As of yesterday evening, the committee had posted letters from 25 companies on its Web site.

U.S. Cities Would be Locked Down, Quarantined Under Pandemic Flu Response Plan

2008-08-12T19:15:00.000+01:00

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
August 11. 2008

The federal government would need to quarantine infected households and ban public gatherings to contain pandemic flu, according to a computer simulation study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“You wouldn’t go out to the movies. You wouldn’t congregate with people,” said researcher Stephen Eubank. “You’d pretty much be staying home with the doors and windows battened down.”

The consensus among health experts is that a pandemic, or global epidemic, of influenza is inevitable. The last such pandemic, in 1918, killed between 40 and 100 million people.

Because of the belief that a pandemic cannot be avoided, researchers are instead looking into ways to limit its effects. In the current study, researchers used a computer to model the hypothetical spread of flu pandemic in the city of Chicago under various containment scenarios. They found that a vigorous early response could reduce the infection rate by 80 percent.

“Depending on how fast it is spreading, it seems as though you really need to throw everything you can at it,” Eubank said.

Under the containment scenario, people infected with or exposed to the disease would be confined to their homes, and schools and day-care centers would be shut down, as would places of public gathering like bars, restaurants and theaters. Offices and factories would remain open but would operate at reduced capacity due to quarantines.

The extreme measures would need to continue for months, until a vaccine was developed.
“We are not talking about simply shutting things down for a day or two like a snow day,” Eubank said. “It’s a sustained period for weeks or months.”

The computer model assumed widespread compliance with the response plan, but Eubank says he doesn’t anticipate that as a problem.

“In the context of a very infectious disease that is killing a large number of the people, I think large fractions of the population won’t have a problem with these recommendations,” he said.

We Are Change L.A. questions Dennis Kucinich about 9/11

2008-08-12T19:11:00.001+01:00

wacLA.org
August 11, 2008

WeAreChangeLA asks Dennis Kucinich about breaking the silence in regards to using the truth about 9/11 as the ‘portal into truth,’ so that people will begin to look at many other pressing issues (lies).

Esai Morales follows in right behind with a great question about the Bilderbergers!

wacla.org
wearechange.org
infowars.com

9/11 Truth: The Environmental Impact Of 9/11

2008-08-12T19:06:00.000+01:00

You Tube
August 11, 2008

Despite the fact that the air was proclaimed ’safe to breathe,’ thousands are suffering from the impact of 9/11 dust.

Iran warns against ’surprise attack’

2008-08-12T19:03:00.000+01:00

Press TV
August 12, 2008

Iran’s Defense Minister Mohammad-Najjar has warned that its response to a surprise enemy attack would be a greater surprise for the aggressor.

He said Iran has developed an extensive defense force to repel any possible attack, adding the Islamic Republic is currently a major defensive power.

Najjar said the armed forces have mass-produced a range of advanced defensive equipment including a radar-evading warship and an unmanned mid-jet submarine as well as a high-tech naval weapons system capable of targeting any warship within a range of 300 kilometers from its shores.

He added that Iran’s newly-developed strategic products have considerably increased the country’s naval capabilities.

Najjar comments follow reports about an armada of US naval battle groups heading toward the Persian Gulf with the aim of reinforcing US strike forces in the region.

On Monday, DEBKAfiles, a source close to Israeli intelligence agency, reported that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are sailing toward the Persian Gulf accompanied by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.

The deployment is believed to be the largest naval task force assembled by the United States and its allies in the region since the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

The move comes almost a week after Operation Brimstone, which was conducted by the US, British and French naval forces in the Atlantic Ocean. The 12 warships taking part in the war games were apparently, preparing for a possible attack against Iran.

Washington and its allies have threatened to take military action against Iran if it does not give up the right that international law has bestowed on all NPT signatories to enrichment uranium as part of a civilian nuclear program.

Tehran, however, has refused to give into pressure. In response to the threats, Iran has further enhanced its defensive power by conducting several maneuvers and testing new homemade weaponry.

“The maneuvers that have been carried out recently are held one after another to keep our armed forces prepared and strong. Fortunately, these exercises have shown our great defensive capabilities to the world,” concluded the Iranian defense minister.

Brown issues coded threat to Putin on G8 status

2008-08-12T18:56:00.002+01:00

Scotsman
August 12, 2008

GORDON Brown, the Prime Minister, has condemned Russia’s actions in Georgia as “unjustified” and warned that the escalation in tension risked destabilising the entire region.

In a strongly worded statement, he signalled that Moscow was putting its international reputation on the line with its “continued aggression” against the independent country.

That remark will be interpreted as a coded warning about Russia’s status as a G8 member.

Mr Brown spoke as the conflict spread outside the breakaway South Ossetia province – where Moscow claims it is protecting the rights of its citizens – and into other parts of Georgia.

He said: "There is no justification for continued Russian military action in Georgia, which threatens the stability of the entire region and risks a humanitarian catastrophe."

Calling for an immediate ceasefire, he went on: "Continued aggression against Georgia – and especially an escalation of the conflict beyond South Ossetia – will only serve to damage Russia's international reputation and its relations with countries across the globe."

Reaction to Russia was hostile across the British political establishment, with Jim Murphy, the Europe minister, condemning its incursions as "deplorable".

David Cameron, the Tory leader, went further, branding Russia a "dangerous" and "massive" bully.

He eschewed diplomatic language to attack Russia and call for Georgia's membership of Nato – which Downing Street backs – to be speeded up."The only language that bullies understand is when someone stands up to them," Mr Cameron said.But Sir Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and a foreign affairs expert, warned against bellicose rhetoric.

He said: "This is not an occasion for megaphone diplomacy. Russia's behaviour is disproportionate and unacceptable, but the only way to bring stability back to the region is through diplomatic means."

It emerged yesterday that Alex Salmond, the First Minister, had held talks with the Russian ambassador about the conflict.

The First Minister asked to meet Yuri Fedotov before they attended the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle on Saturday night, and he asked the ambassador to pass on his appeal for restraint in Georgia to the Russian government.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "The First Minister took the opportunity to have a private meeting with the Russian ambassador to make that clear."The ambassador pledged to communicate that message to the Russian government."

Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, said the conflict was a "disaster".

He went on: "Russia is trying to send the strongest signal it can that it will not countenance further 'meddling', as it sees it, in its affairs."This is one of the only growing oil markets in the world and it is such a dangerous cocktail mix of politics, economics and strategic interests that, frankly, the health and wellbeing of the civilians of South Ossetia is nothing to do with it."

Diplomatic efforts to end the crisis continue tomorrow with an emergency EU meeting. Russia has felt increasingly uncomfortable at being encircled by Nato members, as its breakaway republics embrace the western alliance.

However, Whitehall sources said Georgia's reaction to the conflict could make it less rather than more likely to join Nato. Its military capabilities have been left exposed and, had it been a member, Nato rules would have decreed that, by now, the West would have been, in effect, at war with Russia.

Bush critical of Russian military's response

GEORGE Bush, the United States' president, and other western leaders criticised Russia's military response as disproportionate yesterday.

The world's seven largest economic powers urged Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire and agree to international mediation. Last night Mr Bush expressed concern about the "dramatic and brutal escalation" and said Russia's actions were endangering its ties with America.

He pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and to pull back its troops as he returned from the Olympic Games in Beijing.

He also said there appeared to be an attempt by Russia to unseat Georgia's pro-western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.Foreign ministers from the US, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Canada – the Group of Seven nations – held a conference call yesterday and urged Russia to agree to a ceasefire and respect Georgia's territorial integrity.

EU foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday.Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, is due to visit Georgia and Moscow today on behalf of the European Union, though it was unclear what could be achieved.

Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister who left for Georgia yesterday, also condemned the Russian action, saying it was "incompatible with international law".

Cops knock out man’s teeth for flipped hat

2008-08-12T18:47:00.002+01:00

David Accomazzo
Rocky Mountain News
August 12, 2008

Thomas Charles Armstrong took the stand Monday to defend himself against accusations he resisted arrest, charging that Denver police assaulted him during a scuffle in 2005.

Armstrong said he made no aggressive action toward the officers who stopped him Nov. 11, 2005, near East 11th Avenue and Xenia Street for “suspicious behavior.”

Prosecutors Bill Winter and Bonnie Benedetti said that on that date Denver police officer Daniel Swanson stopped Armstrong around 1 a.m.

Swanson testified Monday that he had seen Armstrong running in the middle of the street “with his hands in the air screaming.”

“It struck me as a sort of panic,” Swanson testified. “I’m sensing he needs help.”

Armstrong slowed as he approached the car, Swanson said, and as the two talked, it became apparent to Swanson that Armstrong was intoxicated. Swanson said he decided he needed to take Armstrong to detox.

Armstrong then became combative and had to be restrained, Swanson said. Officer Jarrod Foust arrived at the scene to help four minutes after Swanson called for backup, according to news reports. When cross-examined, Swanson said he had not mentioned detox in the police report.

Armstrong's testimony Monday told a different story: He was walking, not running, to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy cigarettes after fighting with his girlfriend, he said. He complied with all of Swanson's orders and said the officers started beating him after they had handcuffed him.

"He just punched me so hard in the stomach that I knew something wasn't right," Armstrong said, emotion welling in his voice. "After he struck me, I was in fear for my life. They were standing me up and taking turns."

He admitted he tried to get away.

"I was trying to stop them from beating me," he said.

Armstrong's heart stopped beating on the scene and officers had to resuscitate him before he was transported to the hospital.

Armstrong said he had consumed three or four beers that night and had smoked marijuana, for which he has a license for medical use.

Garbage Cops Come to America

2008-08-12T18:39:00.002+01:00

Anna Shaff
Christian Science Monitor
August 12, 2008

San Francisco - Ever-perceived by the rest of the nation as perched on the fringe of rationality, San Francisco is about to flip its lid once again. The lid’s color, if it’s any comfort, is green – as in one of the three recycling bins into which its residents will be forced to sort their food waste.

The consequences for the unwilling, if the mayor has his way? Fines up to $1,000 from the garbage police.

I kid you not. Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking the leap from voluntary environmental engagement to an enforced one. You will recycle, or you’ll be outed, says the legislation drafted by the city’s Department of the Environment.

Other cities have mandatory recycling. San Francisco is upping the ante, creating the first composting law, directing where you’ll dish your table scraps.

Currently, 70 percent of waste escapes the landfill. To meet a goal of recycling 75 percent by 2010, the mayor is about to displace voluntary compliance with mandatory enforcement.

If your coffee grounds are found drizzling through your black bin, not your green, well then, you've just found yourself on the wrong side of the law.

History repeatedly reminds us that extreme fervor by government leads to infringement on basic rights. Yet eager, young, and even brilliant leaders experience moments of impaired reason when confronted with an idea that appears a perfect solution for a historical moment.

So recycling, a mechanism that depends on the goodwill of rational people willing to pitch in to realign earth's growing environmental imbalance, begins to be transformed.

As the momentum of those who chose to recycle grows and as global warming leaves its footprint not merely on our consciousness but on our daily language, politicians opt in where they should not.

San Francisco's mayor certainly seems ready to seize a globally-growing awareness, flamed by millions of green individuals, initiatives, and innovations.

By what means? By regulation, punishment, and enforcement. For refusing to sort your trash.
Which brings us back to the penchant of governments left and right for inserting themselves into our lives, though arguably for less absurd infringements.

Don't liberal politicians, despite well-motivated attempts at social change, recognize that they can't legislate positive impulse? In the attempt, they obstruct the most effective way to bring about change: the ability of individual ideas and initiatives to expand into global problem-solving.
It is from grass-roots efforts that seeds of change proliferate: cellphones bring instant access to African villages still lacking electricity and micro-credit loans to Indian housewives create homespun entrepreneurs. Bicyclists descending on urban thoroughfares disable traffic and force motorists to contemplate their energy options.

Global solutions require visionary mind-sets, not government decree. Today, the lag time between the germination of an idea and its potential geometric expansion is almost nonexistent.

Daily, individuals sitting at laptops become explorers, inventors, innovators, with ideas as the product and the thrill of discovery as the reward. In such a reconfigured technological landscape, threats and penalties are outmoded tools of change.

If personal initiative can bring the third world into the 21st century, surely San Francisco can add an additional 5 percent to a 70 percent voluntarily-achieved recycling rate without bringing Big Brother into the fray.

Russia ’still bombing Georgia’

2008-08-12T18:37:00.000+01:00

Press TV
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Tiblisi says that Russian aircraft are bombing Georgian villages although Russia’s president had ordered an end to military operations.

“Despite the Russian president’s claims earlier this morning that military operations against Georgia have been suspended, at this moment, Russian fighter jets are bombarding two Georgian villages outside South Ossetia,” said a statement from the foreign ministry.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier on Tuesday that Russian forces were ordered to stop military operation against Georgia to encourage Tbilisi to enter peace talks.

Russia and Georgia have been engaged in a military standoff since Tbilisi started a massive military offensive against South Ossetia on Friday in order to regain control of the breakaway region, which declared its independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a Russian military spokesman, said on Tuesday that Moscow was monitoring the situation and would punish ‘provocative’ actions by Georgia.

Meanwhile, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has arrived in Moscow to hold talks with Medvedev over the crisis.

Sarkozy said it was ‘normal’ that Moscow would defend Russian-speaking people outside Russia, but added the international community should protect ‘the integrity, sovereignty and independence of Georgia’.

The French president will later fly to Tbilisi to meet Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Bush escalates confrontation with Russia over Georgia

2008-08-12T18:32:00.001+01:00

Barry Grey
WSWS.orgAugust 12, 2008

In a provocative statement delivered from the White House Rose Garden on Monday, President George W. Bush escalated the confrontation between the United States and Russia over the current fighting in Georgia.

Bush denounced what he called Russia’s “dramatic and brutal” military escalation and demanded that Moscow agree to an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of its troops from the Caucasian country on its border. He accused Russia of planning to bomb the Tbilisi airport and charged that Moscow was seeking to overthrow the pro-US government of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Bush reiterated US statements about the inviolability of Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity—diplomatic language supporting the efforts of the government in Tbilisi to reestablish control over the breakaway pro-Russian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Bush’s remarks followed a statement Sunday by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said Russian “aggression” could not go unanswered. Cheney’s intervention suggested the existence of a faction within the Bush administration that is pushing for a more aggressive US response to the Russian intervention in Georgia.

The statements from the White House express a staggering level of hypocrisy. The US government issued no protest when Georgian military forces attacked South Ossetia last Thursday night, indiscriminately targeting apartment blocs in the capital of Tskhinvali with tank cannon and mortars. It is estimated that the Georgian invaders killed 2,000 civilians, a bloodletting that accounts for the vast bulk of civilian deaths to date.

It was only when the Russian military responded to the Georgian attack with a rapid and massive counteroffensive, crushing the much smaller Georgian force, that Washington became alarmed.

There is nothing remotely progressive in the military actions taken by the Putin regime. The Russian ruling elite is pursuing its own predatory aims in the Caucasus, a region that was ruled for two centuries by Moscow before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Moreover, the eruption of war in the Caucasus underscores the tragic consequences of the dissolution of the USSR. It has exposed the masses of the former Soviet Union, including Russia and the other Soviet republics, to the dangers of war and the predations of the major imperialist powers. For the peoples of the former USSR, the answer is to be found not in the nationalist and militaristic policies of Putin, but rather in the internationalist program of socialist revolution.

Notwithstanding the reactionary aims of the Russian regime, no objective observer can contest the fact that Washington’s provocative policy toward Russia—aimed at supplanting Russia in its long-time spheres of influence—is the primary factor behind the eruption of war between Russia and Georgia.

The media has been virtually silent on the visit just one month ago of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Georgia. Rice held talks with Saakashvili and gave a press conference at which she denounced Russia, backed Saakashvili’s efforts to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and reiterated US support for Georgia’s incorporation into NATO.

Russia has made clear that it considers the entry of former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine into NATO an intolerable threat to its security. Were Georgia already a part of NATO, as Moscow is well aware, the alliance’s member states would be legally bound to intervene military in Georgia’s support.

It is inconceivable that Saakashvili did not review in detail with Rice his plans for a military assault on South Ossetia. Georgia—which is totally dependent on US military, diplomatic and financial support—could not take such a portentous action without informing Washington in advance and securing American sanction.

Preparations for the attack would have been far advanced when Rice met with Saakashvili a month ago. The Georgian military, moreover, is dominated from top to bottom by US military advisers.

The United States has been pouring military aid into Georgia ever since the US-led air war against Serbia in 1999, and the pace and scale of American military aid have accelerated since Washington engineered the so-called “Rose Revolution” that brought Harvard-educated Saakashvili to power in early 2004.

An article in Monday’s New York Times describes “a Pentagon effort to overhaul Georgia’s forces from bottom to top.” The article states: “At senior levels, the United States helped rewrite Georgian military doctrine and train its commanders and staff officers. At the squad level, American marines and soldiers trained Georgian soldiers in the fundamentals of battle.

“Georgia, meanwhile, began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms, reconnaissance drones, communications and battlefield management equipment, new convoys of vehicles and stockpiles of ammunition.”

As for the principle of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the US is highly selective when it comes to its application. No one in either political party or in the establishment media has sought to explain why Serbia’s military intervention against Kosovan separatists was a war crime, while Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was legitimate.

The Bush administration was the prime mover behind Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia last February, on grounds indistinguishable from those claimed by anti-Georgian separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Moreover, the US encouraged and financed the forces that sought to effect the secession of Chechnya from Russia in the 1990s.

Since the United States was clearly involved in the Georgian assault on South Ossetia, one must ask what were its intentions. It is difficult to believe that US policy makers believed Russia would take no action in response to such an immense provocation. Why then, would they support a move that would bring Russia into a direct conflict with one of Washington’s principal allies in the Caucasus—a region that constitutes a bridgehead between the resource-rich Caspian Basin and Western Europe and houses critical oil and gas pipelines?

The only plausible answer is that the United States is deliberately seeking a major escalation of tensions between Russia and the West. Even if the current conflict does not spiral immediately into a wider conflagration, the fate of “little Georgia” will be invoked by the United States to justify a far more aggressive and confrontational stance toward Russia.

The demands being raised by the Bush administration, the European Union, the United Nations and others for a return to the “status quo ante” in Georgia are drenched in hypocrisy. They all know very well that the US is not about to abandon what it has come to see as a critical prop to its position in the Caucasus and its long-term perspective of reducing Russia to a semi-colonial status.

The resumption of something akin to the Cold War underscores the real motives that underlay the decades of confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. American imperialism considered the Soviet Union—and continues to view Russia—as an obstacle to its geo-strategic aim of securing hegemony over Eurasia.

There is undoubtedly a domestic political component to the US-backed provocation against Russia as well. The Bush administration and the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, want the November elections to take place under conditions of immense international crisis. They calculate that an environment of fear and insecurity will strengthen McCain’s chances, since a major prop of his campaign is his supposed foreign policy experience and national security expertise.

Obama, predictably and pathetically, is responding by seeking to assert his own militaristic credentials. Within minutes of Bush’s threatening statement against Russia on Monday, Obama issued his own denunciation of Russia in terms almost identical to those of Bush and McCain.

The immensely dangerous implications of the eruption of war in the Caucasus leave no doubt about where the drive of imperialism to carve up the world is leading. US imperialism intends to let nothing stand in the way of its goal of establishing global hegemony. It is dragging the American working class and the world into a catastrophe.

The only force that can stop it is the revolutionary mobilization of the American and international working class.

See Also:
Military conflict between Russia and Georgia escalates
[11 August 2008]
US-Russian tensions in Caucasus erupt into war
[9 August 2008]
The missile defense scheme and the sharpening of US-Russian geopolitical tensions
[18 July 2008]

Largest Naval Deployment Since 1991 Heads For Persian Gulf

2008-08-12T18:29:00.001+01:00

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Kuwait activates emergency war plan as three U.S. warships steam towards Iran

The largest naval deployment since 1991 is unfolding as no less than three U.S. warships make their way towards the Persian Gulf in what observers are calling an “unprecedented” build-up, while Kuwait has activated its highest war alert in anticipation of a potential attack on Iran.

According to reports, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are steaming towards Middle East waters to reinforce the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Peleliu which are already in the region.

They will be joined by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.

The maneuvers represent the largest movement of warships into the region since the 1991 Gulf War and come just a week after Operation Brimstone, a drill “which saw more than a dozen warships from US, British and French naval forces conduct war games in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran,” reports Press TV.

The deployment has fueled rumors that Georgia’s sneak attack on Russia in South Ossetia, backed by the U.S. and Israel, was a shot across the bow to warn Russia against interfering in a strike on Iran which could be imminent.

Kuwait has activated its highest priority Emergency War Plan in response to the naval deployment.

“Kuwait was caught by surprise last time, when Iraqi troops invaded the small emirate and routed the Kuwaiti army in just a few hours,” a former US diplomat to Kuwait told the Middle East Times.

The Israeli news source Debka File speculates that the U.S. naval deployment could have five alternate implications.

1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.

2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.

3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.

5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.

Ron Paul’s wife in serious condition at hospital

2008-08-12T18:23:00.001+01:00

Associated Press
August 12, 2008

HOUSTON (AP) — The wife of Republican Rep. Ron Paul was in serious but stable condition Monday at a Houston hospital, a spokesman for the congressman said.

Carol Paul was in the critical care unit at an unidentified hospital, spokesman Jesse Benton said in a statement.

Benton would not disclose why Carol Paul was admitted to the hospital Monday, only saying “she has had several abdominal surgeries.”

Paul “appreciates the outpouring of concern and good wishes during this difficult time,” Benton said.

A Texas congressman from Lake Jackson, Ron Paul was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988 and ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. His campaign, which was a sensation on the Internet, drew support from Republicans, independents and Democrats.

Russia Today Website Targeted In Cyber Attacks

2008-08-12T18:19:00.001+01:00

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Site providing most accurate coverage of Georgia conflict hit by wave of DDoS attacks

A major Russian media source that has provided key coverage of the conflict in Georgia has claimed that its website has come under a heavy bombardment of cyber attacks from an IP address registered to the Georgian capital.

A statement from the Russia Today website reads:

In the course of the last 24 hours RT’s website (www.russiatoday.com) has endured numerous DDoS attacks, which have made it unavailable for some time. Channel’s security specialists say the initial attack was carried out from an IP-address registered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. RT’s team apologizes for the inconvenience and gives a list of comprehensive external resources on the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict which can be used, should the attacks continue.

The news comes hours after the Georgian government claimed its websites were being attacked by the Russian military in a cyber warfare campaign.

As we have highlighted over the past two days, Russia Today has provided the most accurate coverage of the conflict, while the truth behind who is primarily responsible for the bloodshed unfolding in South Ossetia and surrounding areas has been buried by the western corporate media.

While pro-western establishment media arms such as the BBC have displayed exceptional bias in painting Russia as the villains of the entire piece and have given carte blanche to the Georgian point-of-view, Russia Today has accurately reflected the reality that Georgia was responsible for the first provocation - which itself amounted to a war crime - that launched the conflict.

Russia Today also broke the story we covered this morning concerning CNN's attempts to blatantly mislead viewers by airing footage of Georgian forces attacking Russian civilians in Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, but then claiming it was footage of Russians attacking Georgians in the Georgian town of Gori.

Russia Today has since maintained a balance in its coverage giving perspectives from both the Georgian and South Ossetian sides, while only a smattering of articles from western outlets have acknowledged the stone cold reality that the U.S. and NATO are covertly supporting the Georgian army in a proxy war with Russia.

Indeed, other Russian media outlets such as Izvestia and Kommersant have also reflected this, while our own corporate media continues to rampantly spin and skew reality to the fit the geopolitical agenda of our governments.

The brutal truth of the situation is that the Russian media, for the last eight years subjected to extreme suppression and limitation by Vladimir Putin's nationalist government, is still more accurate, truthful and balanced than American, British and European media.

Meanwhile, it has been left to Iranian news site Press TV to report that Georgian troops are still attempting provocations against Russian forces, leading to further Russian bombardments despite this morning's announcement of an end to military operations by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian Cameraman: CNN Aired Misleading Footage

2008-08-12T18:14:00.001+01:00

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Broadcaster showed Georgian forces attacking South Ossetia, claimed it was Russians attacking Gori

CNN is airing misleading footage of the war between Georgia and Russia, skewing public opinion in favor of the Georgians, according to a Russia Today cameraman interviewed this morning.

The Russia Today satellite TV company aired the interview on its English language news channel but the story is yet to appear on the Internet or in any other news outlet.

The Russian cameraman charged that CNN had used his footage of Georgian forces attacking Russian civilians in Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, but then claimed it showed Russians attacking Georgians in the Georgian town of Gori.

The Georgian assault on Tskhinvali, described as an act of genocide and a war crime by Russian officials and other eyewitnesses, led to the slaughter of at least 2,000 civilians. The fact that Georgia, backed by the U.S. and Israel, were responsible for the provocation that led to the Russian response, has been buried by the majority of western corporate media.

Western media bias to skew popular opinion in favor of the U.S. and NATO client state Georgia was evident from the very start of the conflict.

As we reported yesterday, a prime example of media bias in shielding Georgia from responsibility for the carnage is the fact that news outlets like the BBC continue to report that thousands of civilians were killed in Georgia, with the obvious inference being that these are victims of the Russian onslaught. But these victims were not killed in Georgia, they were killed in Ossetia - by Georgian forces.

As the Chimes of Freedom Blog elaborates, “While the Ossetians claimed over 1000 dead the BBC neither reported this or any newsreel coming out of Ossetia showing the destruction caused by the Georgian shelling of the breakaway republic. All we are getting is one-sided reports of the destruction being caused by the Russians.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this morning ordered an immediate halt to Russia’s military operations against Georgia.

“The purpose of the operation has been achieved…. The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored,” Interfax quoted him as saying.

UPDATE: Russia Today has now posted the following on their website and uploaded a video.

CNN accused of using misleading war footage

American broadcaster CNN has been accused of using misleading footage in their coverage of the conflict in South Ossetia. A Russian cameraman says footage of wrecked tanks and ruined buildings, which was purported to be the town of Gori, was in fact the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali.

Gori was said to be about to fall under the control of the Russian army but the cameraman says the video was actually shot in Tskhinvali, which had been flattened by Georgian shelling.

Aleksandr Zhukov, from the Russiya Al-Yaum channel, said: “When we arrived and news came that Gori was being shelled, I saw my footage. I said: that’s not Gori! That’s Tskhinvali. Having crawled through the length and breadth of Tskhinvali, I don’t need much to tell from which point this or that footage was recorded. I can swear in front of any tribunal. I can point at this location on the map of the town, because I and the cameraman of the Rossiya channel videotaped that.”

Russia orders end to operation against Georgia

2008-08-12T18:12:00.001+01:00

AFP
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told defence chiefs on Tuesday he had decided to cease Russia’s military operation against Georgia.

“I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace,” Medvedev said at a televised meeting.

“The purpose of the operation has been achieved…. The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored,” he said at the meeting with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and the head of the military’s general staff, Nikolai Makarov.

“The aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses,” he said.

Medvedev qualified the ending of hostilities, saying that in the event of new Georgian attacks in the rebel region of South Ossetia , such threats should be “liquidated.”

A senior Russian military commander also said that while a ceasefire by the forces and a halt in their advance into Georgia did not mean that all operations would be scrapped.

"If we have received the order to cease fire, this does not mean that we have stopped all actions, including reconnaissance," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said at a briefing.

Medvedev's order was announced just as French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Georgia, centred on South Ossetia.

France, which currently holds the European Union presidency, has pushed a three-point peace plan aimed at returning the situation in Georgia to what it was before hostilities broke out late last week.

Meanwhile on the ground, Georgian authorities said Russia's air force had again attempted to bomb a strategic oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, which connects the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean via Georgia.

There was no immediate word on whether the pipeline had been damaged. Georgian authorities said Sunday that Russia had tried to hit the pipeline but missed, while Russia denied trying to target it.

Stratfor acknowledges Russia defeated US, not Georgian army in South Ossetia

2008-08-12T18:10:00.000+01:00

Pravda.Ru
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

The USA acknowledged that Russia had virtually defeated the US, but not the Georgian army in South Ossetia. US instructors have spent four years training the Georgian army for an attack against Russian citizens. The US administration refused to help Saakashvili, because the true goal of the new game in the Caucasus is absolutely different.

Experts of Stratfor, the so-called Shadow CIA, stated that the Russian army had not only preserved its battling capacity but also proved to the whole world that was it capable of defeating an armed enemy, trained by US instructors.

A report from Stratfor particularly mentions that the operation in South Ossetia has exercised three things. First off, Russia has proved to have the army capable of conducting successful operations, in which many Western observers doubted before. Secondly, the Russians have showed that they can defeat the forces trained by US advisors. Finally, Russia has shown that the USA and NATO do not find themselves in the situation when they can interfere into a conflict from the military point of view.

At the same time, the experts consider it to be a military demonstration of Russia to former republics of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, the entire Caucasus and Central Asia. In addition, they see a hidden warning to Poland and the Czech Republic against the background of a possible deployment of elements of the US missile defense system in those countries. However, the experts exclude an opportunity for Moscow to organize an intervention against some of the above-mentioned countries.

Stratfor’s statement means that the fight is over for Georgia and that the US administration is not going to cross the red line in its relations with Russia. Saakashvili’s hopes for NATO to become involved in a conflict with Russia went up in smoke.

The USA is pursuing absolutely different goals, and the creation of the Great Georgia is surely not on its list. The Republicans organized the provocation to portray Russia as a monster on the globe on the threshold of the November elections. This plays into the hands of John McCain, who openly says that “Russia’s imperial ambition” needs to be curbed.

This way or other, the USA has used the small country of Georgia as a toy.

Russian troops do not plan to advance on Tbilisi - Moscow

2008-08-12T18:08:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

has denied Georgia’s assertion that Russian troops are moving in on the capital Tbilisi. The allegation was made by Georgia’s Ministry of Defence. Russia has also announced its troops have left the Georgian town of Senaki, having secured it from attacking South Ossetia.

Throughout Monday, Georgia repeatedly accused Russia of moving in on civilian targets, including the capital Tbilisi.

None of the reports have been substantiated and are denied by officials in Moscow.

Moreover, Russian peacekeeping forces have left Senaki, Georgia’s largest airbase, about 40km from the border with Abkhazia.

“Russian peacekeepers and military units attached to them have been taking action to prevent Georgia from shelling South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers,” a spokesman for the Defence Ministry said.

Another objective of the operation was to prevent ‘a build-up of additional volunteers and reservists’ mobilised to continue military operations in the breakaway republics.

It was Russia’s first operation inside Georgian territory proper since Tbilisi began its offensive against the breakaway republic of South Ossetia last week.

Moscow has also denied reports of Russian peacekeepers entering another Georgian city, Poti.
Georgia’s Prime Minister has confirmed that no civilians were harmed in Russia’s movements.

Meanwhile, the new statement of the Georgian government demands the international community to interfere and save the country.

And Georgia’s President, Mikhail Saakashvili, said Georgia is now battling for its independence.
Talking to Georgia’s Security Council he described the situation in the country as “very difficult” and said that Russian troops have reached the road connecting the eastern and western parts of Georgia.

U.S. starts evacuating embassy staff from Tbilisi

Meanwhile, the U.S. has begun evacuating the families of its diplomats from Georgia. They are being sent to Armenia as a precaution, according to the U.S. Embassy in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

U.S. ambassador John Tefft and his team of diplomats will continue their work in Tbilisi.

US sends more arms to Georgia – Israeli media

2008-08-12T18:06:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

The United States is sending fresh supplies of weapons to Georgia from its base in the Jordanian port of Aqabah. That’s according to the Israeli newspaper – Maariv.

The paper says the US began flying weapons from the transport hub on Saturday.

According to Maariv, the US is hiring Russian-made freight planes belonging to UTI Worldwide Inc. to transport arms and ammunition to Georgia. The paper says the Pentagon is redirecting supplies to Tbilisi that were earmarked for Iraq.

The Aqabah terminal is used by the US to supply troops in Iraq. The American military relies on the hub mainly because it’s safer to use Aqabah than Iraq’s own ports in the Persian Gulf.

Georgia stocks a wide range of weapons from many sources. This is a strategic move in case Russia were to block off the channels through which it gets its military supplies.

Russians move 2 SS-21 Medium Range Ballistic Missile Launchers into South Ossetia

2008-08-12T18:05:00.000+01:00

Free And Independent
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

Col. Sam Gardiner notes, in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to South Ossetia. The SS-21 Missile launchers are relatively small compared to bombs that have already been used against Georgia by the Russian air force.
However, this move does indicate Russia is potentially upping the game from a conventional weapons war to a tactical nuclear weapons war. Gardiner notes that at a news conference on Sunday, the US Deputy National Security advisor has noted these weapons arriving in South Ossetia.

Business Wire confirms the subject matter of the news briefing in Beijing. Link

Neocons Call For U.S. To Launch War With Russia

2008-08-12T18:03:00.000+01:00

Think Progress
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

Today the New York Times reports that Russia is escalating its war with Georgia, “moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia” and even bombing parts of Tibilisi, the Georgian captial.

Russia’s increasing aggression is putting a spark into American neoconservatives. Today on the Times op-ed page, one of their leaders, William Kristol, claims the U.S. must “defend” Georgia’s sovereignty as a reward for its participation in Iraq, while the conservative Washington Times is calling for “maximum pressure” on Russia:

Bill Kristol: [Georgia] has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation.

Washington Times: It is in America’s interest to exert maximum pressure on Russia to withdraw its troops and halt the interference in Georgian territory. This latest act shows the need for greater resolve in establishing a European security system that can be an effective check on Russian power

Writing in the Washington Post today, Robert Kagan goes even further, suggesting that the Georgia-Russia conflict may be the start of World War III:

Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama. […]

The mood is reminiscent of Germany after World War I, when Germans complained about the “shameful Versailles diktat” imposed on a prostrate Germany by the victorious powers and about the corrupt politicians who stabbed the nation in the back.

Like a good neoconservative, Kagan also links the Western response to the conflict and its wider policy towards Russia as “appeasement.”

Matthew Yglesias asks of Kagan’s World War II analogy: “If we launch a war with Russia — which would seem to be the point of busting out the analogy — then how are we going to find the time to launch wars with Iran and China?”

Russian invasion rumor panics Georgians before evaporating

2008-08-12T18:01:00.000+01:00

DEBKAfile
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, under heavy Russian siege, claimed Monday night, Aug. 11, that the Russians had invaded the country and “cut it in half”. A full-scale retreat of Georgian troops was ordered from the border town of Gori to defend the capital Tbilisi 60 km away. In the event, Moscow denied seizing the town – or any plans for advancing on the Georgian capital - and turned the panic around to ridicule the pro-Western president.

Our sources believe Saakashvili had hoped that word of a Russian invasion of Georgia proper would finally stir the US and Europe into action to save his regime from being trampled by Russian tanks. Moscow had made it obvious that it would only hold its fire after his regime was gone and replaced by a Moscow-friendly administration.

The Russians sustained their three-day aerial bombardment of Gori, even after the town emptied of inhabitants and troops. This kept the rumor of an imminent Russian invasion alive in the world media for as long as necessary.

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Russian strategists believed that, by pulling the invasion scare carpet from under the president’s feet a few hours later, they could turn his campaign of panic and despair into a boomerang which would topple him without outside aid.

If not, the Russian president, prime minister and military chiefs would put their heads together again as they did on Monday and decide on their next move.

In the meantime, Russian troops entered Georgia Monday unopposed from another direction and captured the town of Senaki, 40 km from the northwestern breakaway province of Abkhazia.

This netted Moscow three advantages:

1. The Georgian outpost in the Kodori Gorge in northern Abkhazia, estimated at 3,000 strong, was cut off from its supply lines.

2. The Russians were in a position to force the outpost’s surrender, inflicting a lethal blow to Georgian military morale. Later Monday, having achieved this objective, the Russian defense ministry announced the withdrawal of its troops from Senaki after “eliminating the threat to south Abkhazia.”

3. The loss of the strategic Kodori Gorge should prove painful enough to deter the Georgian government from persisting in laying claim to Abkhazian territory for many years to come.

Kuwait on alert for war in Persian Gulf?

2008-08-12T17:58:00.000+01:00

Press TV
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008

Kuwait has activated its Emergency War Plan after an armada of US naval battle groups headed for the Persian Gulf, Middle East Times reports.

The report comes after DEBKAfiles claimed on Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are sailing toward the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike forces in the region.

The US naval force is accompanied by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.

The deployment is believed to be the largest naval task force assembled by the United States and its allies in the region since the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

The move comes nearly a week after Operation Brimstone, which saw more than a dozen warships from US, British and French naval forces conduct war games in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran.

Kuwait, located on the coast of Persian Gulf, has placed its military on ‘war alert’ to avoid being caught off-guard by any possible conflict in the region.

“Kuwait was caught by surprise last time, when Iraqi troops invaded the small emirate and routed the Kuwaiti army in just a few hours,” a former US diplomat to Kuwait told the Middle East Times.

Washington and allies accuse Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of pursuing a military nuclear program and have threatened to launch military strikes on Iran should the country continue its uranium enrichment.

The UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency, has confirmed that Iran’s uranium enrichment does not exceed 3 percent and is therefore within the limits of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The military build-up in the Persian Gulf comes amid speculation that Israel is lobbying to push the Bush administration to launch a joint attack on Iran before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

Saakashvili’s thugs force him to the ground

2008-08-11T23:07:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
August 11, 2008

As this video demonstrates, Saakashvili’s security is worried about their mob boss being taken out.

Georgia resumes shelling of S. Ossetia

2008-08-11T23:02:00.000+01:00

Press TV
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

South Ossetian officials say Georgia has resumed intense shelling of the disputed province of South Ossetia in the Caucuses region.

“As of 3.30 p.m. (1130 GMT), Georgian forces renewed intense shelling of towns in South Ossetia, using various forms of weaponry, including heavy weapons,” Interfax quoted a spokeswoman for the region’s authorities, Irina Gagloyeva, as saying on Monday.

Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili called for a ceasefire on Sunday, claiming Georgia was pulling troops out of the long-standing autonomous enclave of South Ossetia.

The European Union has proposed a peace agreement in a bid to ease strains between Russia and Georgia.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb, convinced Saakashvili to accept the peace proposal on Monday.

Moscow, however, has announced that it will not sign any agreement until Tbilisi stops aggression against the breakaway region.

McCain warns Russians of “severe, long-term negative consequences”

2008-08-11T22:59:00.000+01:00

Jonathan Martin
Politico
Monday, August 11, 2008

Hoping to further burnish his commander-in-chief credentials while his rival is on vacation and the president is abroad, John McCain appeared before cameras this morning to offer a lengthy primer on the crisis in the Caucasus, explain why it matters to America and outline steps that he thinks the U.S. and West should take to halt the violence.

McCain, speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, before a bus trip of the state, also used the opportunity to send a warning shot to the Russians.

“Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin must understand the severe, long-term negative consequences that their government’s actions will have for Russia’s relationship with the U.S. and Europe,” McCain said.

And, describing the Russian assaults that have gone beyond the disputed territory and into sovereign Georgia as “Moscow’s path of violent aggression,” the GOP nominee suggested that Putin’s aim may be to overthrow the pro-U.S. government in Georgia.

“This should be unacceptable to all the democratic countries of the world, and should draw us together in universal condemnation of Russian aggression,” McCain said.

The harder line toward the Kremlin comes as President Bush and, even more, Vice-President Cheney similarly ratchet up their criticism and as key neoconservative thinkers and McCain allies Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol take to the op-ed pages to urge action.

Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for War with Russia?

2008-08-11T22:56:00.001+01:00

Nathan Hodge
Wired
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn’t exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.

The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia.
Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks.

So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia – and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. When I last visited South Ossetia, Georgian troops manned a checkpoint outside Tskhinvali -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor.

The first U.S. aid came under the rubric of the Georgia Train and Equip Program (ostensibly to counter alleged Al Qaeda influence in the Pankisi Gorge); then, under the Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Georgia returned the favor, committing thousands of troops to the multi-national coalition in Iraq. Last fall, the Georgians doubled their contingent, making them the third-largest contributor to the coalition. Not bad for a nation of 4.6 million people.Leaving aside the question of Russian interference (see below), the larger concern has been that Georgia might be tempted to use its newfound military prowess to resolve domestic conflicts by force.

As Sergei Shamba, the foreign affairs minister of Abkhazia, told me in 2006: “The Georgians are euphoric because they have been equipped, trained, that they have gained military experience in Iraq. It feeds this revanchist mood… How can South Ossetia be demilitarized, when all of Georgia is bristling with weaponry, and it’s only an hour’s ride by tank from Tbilisi to Tskhinvali?”

One of the U.S. military trainers put it to me a bit more bluntly. “We’re giving them the knife,” he said. “Will they use it?”

Oil prices rise on supply worries

2008-08-11T22:52:00.000+01:00

Daily Mirror
August 11, 2008

World oil prices rose by more than one dollar in Asian trade Monday on supply concerns amid the escalating fighting between Georgia and Russia, dealers said.

In afternoon trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, was up 1.54 dollars at 116.74 dollars a barrel.

London’s Brent North Sea crude for September delivery gained 1.80 dollars to 115.13.

Supply disruptions are once again a major concern. The head of Azerbaijan’s state oil company said Saturday that exports had been halted via two Georgian ports due to the fighting.

That announcement came shortly after Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said that Russian warplanes had staged a raid near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, the world’s second longest.

Georgia does not produce oil but the country is a key transit point for crude and gas exports from Azerbaijan to markets in the West.

“I think the Georgian issue is helping the market to focus back on the supply side… that has really changed the market quite a bit,” said Gerard Burg, an energy and minerals economist with National Australia Bank.

David Moore, commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said oil traders would be closely monitoring the military conflict.

Inaugurated in 2006, the BTC pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan on the shores of the Caspian to Western markets via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. It is capable of transporting 1.2 million barrels a day.

British oil giant BP has a 30 percent stake in the pipeline, which cost three billion dollars to build, along with some 10 other partners including US oil groups Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

Transporting oil through the Caucasus is designed to make the West less dependent on supplies from Russia, which has shown a willingness to close the taps in disputes with other ex-Soviet states in recent years.

BP is also the operator of the South Caucasus pipeline that transports gas from Azerbaijan’s vast Shah Deniz offshore field via Georgia to the Turkish border.

Analyst Natalia Leshchenko of Global Insight said the current conflict should have little effect on
the pipelines in the immediate future.

“The task of the Russian forces at present is to ensure control of South Ossetia…. The pipelines would be in danger only if the war escalated,” she told AFP.

Supply concerns pushed oil to record highs above 147 dollars in July but slowing economic growth globally has seen prices ease sharply in recent weeks.

US hampering Russian peace efforts – Putin

2008-08-11T22:44:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

The Prime Minister has accused Washington of undermining Russia’s attempts to restore peace in the South Ossetian conflict zone. Vladimir Putin said a decision by the US military to fly 800 Georgian soldiers from Iraq to Georgia showed America was ‘trying to get in the way’.

In a stinging attack on the US, Putin told government ministers: “It’s a pity that some of our partners, instead of helping, are trying to get in the way”.

He said the US was using “its military transport aircraft to relocate Georgia’s military contingent from Iraq virtually into the conflict zone”.

He also voiced his frustration at the inability of Russia’s western partners to adequately assess the situation in South Ossetia.

“I’m amazed by their skills at seeing black as white, of portraying aggressors as victims and of blamimg the real victims for the consequences of the conflict.

Putin also accused the West of double standards when it comes to judging war crimes.
“As we all know, Saddam Hussein was hanged for burning down several Shiite villages. But now suddenly the situation is different. The Georgian leaders who in a matter of hours wiped out ten Ossetian villages, who ran over children and the elderly with tanks, who burned civilians alive, those people have to be protected,” he said.

Meanwhile, American Joe Mestas, who witnessed days of shelling, has said U.S. and Georgian leaders are responsible for the violence that has killed 2,000 people in the region. He told RT that Washington will have to answer for the violence.

“I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war, but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president] Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding,” Mestas said.

“The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is killing innocent civilians. This is genocide,” he added.

Israel and the US behind the Georgian aggression?

2008-08-11T22:41:00.001+01:00

Shraga Elam
uruknet.info
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

There is an obvious Israeli involvement in the present conflict between Georgia and Russia. There are hundreds of Israeli military advisers in Georgia and this is not just the claim of the rather unreliable DebkaFile but also the more respected Ha’aretz expert Yossi Melman, the daily Ma’ariv and also the rather reliable website “News First Class” (NFC).

Melman wrote on 25.6.2008 that Georgia became a real El Dorado for Israeli arms dealers and numerous representatives of the army and intelligence services. Some former generals like Israel Ziv and Gal Hirsh (with his company Defensive Shield) are very active there.

“Gal Hirsh and Israel Ziv are mainly training and consulting Georgian arm units. They are using the “chain” method common among Israeli arm dealers: a main contractor wins a tender and employs then sub-contractors – in this case Israeli officers and former Shin Beth employees,” wrote Melman.

According to him there was a project to sell Merkava tanks to Georgia, but allegedly the Israeli foreign ministry prevented the deal and a policy was outlined that only defensive weapons are allowed to be sold.

Just the same Russia protested agains the Israeli military support to Georgia after an Israeli produced UAV was shot down. On August 5 Israel reiterated its official policy that it allegedly sells only defensive and not offensive weapon systems to Georgia. This is the version published e.g. in the Jerusalem Post; other sources, like the Israeli daily Ma’ariv on 8.8, claim that Israel decided to stop altogether the military support to Georgia. Just the same Ma’ariv points out that the Georgian defense minister, David Kezerashvili, lived for a while in Israel and speaks Hebrew.

In a lengthy article the military exports to Georgia are described. Ma’ariv estimates them to be of a value of at least USD 300 million. An Israeli marketing expert told Ma’ariv: “To every Israeli agent representing an Israeli defense company is attached a cousin of the defense minister, who opens the doors for him.”

Also NFC confirms the massive presence of Israeli advisers in Georgia and writes: “The Israeli military industries upgraded in recent years the Georgian air force, sold unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), advanced artillery systems and trained infantry units.” (9.8) The NFC claims that according to sources in Washington in Moscow the war started because Georgia wants to reverse Israel’s decision and achieve the continuation of the support. Israel, according to NFC, conceded to the Russian threatening that it would otherwise go through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system S-300 to Iran and Syria.

Actually the opposite conclusion is also possible, namely that Israel wants to pressure Russia not to sell the S-300 and stop its support to Iran.

The Israeli website DebkaFile, that is known to publish mainly conspiracy theories, believes that up to 1,000 Israeli advisors are active in planning and implementing the present Georgian military action (8.8). This conclusion sounds plausible.

Actually it has to be taken into consideration that also U.S. “consultants” are helping the Georgian army, as according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, there are 127 U.S. military trainers there, of whom about 35 are civilian contractors.

In addition to the trainers, 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry participated in “Immediate Response 2008.”

Operation Immediate Response 2008 was held from July 15-July 30, with U.S. personnel training about 600 troops at a former Soviet base near Tbilisi, the largest city and capital of Georgia. The goal of this operation was allegedly teaching combat skills for missions in Iraq. The Marines left already the country, but not the airmen.

It is obvious that there are numerous Israeli and U.S. interests in Georgia and it is highly likely that they are behind the dangerous Georgian move.

Georgia: Gori evacuated as fears of Russian advance into Georgia grow

2008-08-11T21:03:00.001+01:00

Adrian Blomfield, Damien McElroy, Toby Harnden and Robert Winnett
London Telegraph
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

A full-scale evacuation of the Georgian city of Gori has started as fears rose that Russia would soon advance its troops across the border from the breakaway republic of South Ossetia into the main body of Georgia itself.

Any such incursion would be a dangerous escalation of a conflict that has already reportedly claimed thousands of lives and displaced thousands more. Russia regained total control of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, and Georgia offered a unilateral ceasefire as it withdrew all its troops.

International opinion hardened against Russia, which has been roundly accused of a “disproportionate reaction” to Georgia’s move into South Ossetia last week. Jim Jeffrey, the US’s deputy National Security Advisor, told reporters: “We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on US-Russian relations.”

But American diplomats conceded that the US had few options and ruled out military intervention on behalf of Georgia. “We have no good options,” a US National Security Council official told The Daily Telegraph. “We need Russia’s co-operation over Iran and derailing that over a localised conflict in Georgia makes no sense. We just have to hope that diplomacy prevails. The next necessary step is for Russia to respond positively to Georgia’s ceasefire declaration.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, “must go”. Mr Lavrov said Russia would continue its military action in South Ossetia due to the “continuing direct threat to Russian citizens”.

The few Georgians left in South Ossetia were fleeing from the Russian advance. In spite of the evacuation of Gori, the town near the separatist republic which is Stalin's birthplace, it seemed last night as if Russian troops were for now sticking to their side of the border. However small arms fire was heard deep inside Georgian territory, suggesting Russian special forces had made a preliminary advance.

But the conflict was meanwhile increasing in scope. Russian aircraft have already bombed a number of targets inside Georgia including a strike, said the Georgians, on the civilian airport of Tbilisi, the capital. Abkhazia, a larger breakaway Georgian republic, is now a second front in the battle. Russian troops were reported to be advancing on the Kodori Gorge, a foothold of ethnic Georgians in the region.

Top officials in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, appeared resigned to Russia establishing full control over both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "We won't win a military confrontation," Georgian Vice-Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze said. "Any face to face confrontation has been in Russia's interest. We don't want to do that any more."

Russia's navy was also involved, deploying a flotilla off Georgia's Black Sea coast. The navy said the ships later put into a Russian Black Sea port, though there were reports that a Georgian boat carrying missile launchers had been sunk.

Georgia's President Saakashvili called on the world to "speak with a united voice, and the united voice should [say that] Georgia's territorial integrity should be safeguarded". There was a huge rally last night in Tbilisi, the capital of the country, in a demonstration of support. "We just want to rally our president," said one Georgian. "Somehow this has brought us together."

The US was last night drafting a UN Security Council resolution condemning the "military assault" by Russia. Ms Rice is planning to send an envoy to mediation talks brokered by the European Union and the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The OSCE is responsible for monitoring the 16-year ceasefire that had prevailed in South Ossetia since the republic became a semi-autonomous region within Georgia.

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy voiced the hope that there could be a quick end to the conflict following the retreat of Georgian troops. Downing Street urged Russia and Georgia to agree to an "immediate" ceasefire.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cut short his visit to the Olympics and flew on Saturday to a field hospital in North Ossetia, part of Russia on the other side of the border of South Ossetia. Mr Putin denounced what he termed Georgia's "crimes against its own people". US President George W Bush was still in Beijing yesterday watching the Olympics.

Kommersant: U.S. Military Instructors Command Hirelings in Georgia

2008-08-11T20:53:00.000+01:00

Kommersant
August 11, 2008

Thousands of mercenaries are fighting for Georgia in this burning conflict with South Ossetia. They are commanded by the U.S. military instructors, RIA Novosti reported with reference to a high-ranked officer of Russia’s military intelligence.

“From 2,500 to 3,000 mercenaries fight against Russia’s peacekeepers on behalf of Georgia,” the unnamed source said. Amid them are the natives of Ukraine, some Baltic states and the Caucasus regions.

The U.S. military instructors directly command and coordinate actions of mercenaries without being involved in actual fighting, the source specified. According to intelligence data, there are roughly 1,000 military instructors of the United States in Georgia.

Task force of Russia has annihilated a few groups of mercenaries. Some of mercenaries have been captured, and investigators are working with them, the source said.

Neocons Call For U.S. To Launch War With Russia

2008-08-11T20:43:00.001+01:00

Think Progress
August 11, 2008

Today the New York Times reports that Russia is escalating its war with Georgia, “moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia” and even bombing parts of Tibilisi, the Georgian captial.

Russia’s increasing aggression is putting a spark into American neoconservatives. Today on the Times op-ed page, one of their leaders, William Kristol, claims the U.S. must “defend” Georgia’s sovereignty as a reward for its participation in Iraq, while the conservative Washington Times is calling for “maximum pressure” on Russia:

Bill Kristol: [Georgia] has had the third-largest military presence — about 2,000 troops — fighting along with U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq. For this reason alone, we owe Georgia a serious effort to defend its sovereignty. Surely we cannot simply stand by as an autocratic aggressor gobbles up part of — and perhaps destabilizes all of — a friendly democratic nation.

Washington Times: It is in America’s interest to exert maximum pressure on Russia to withdraw its troops and halt the interference in Georgian territory. This latest act shows the need for greater resolve in establishing a European security system that can be an effective check on Russian power

Writing in the Washington Post today, Robert Kagan goes even further, suggesting that the Georgia-Russia conflict may be the start of World War III:

Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not, because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a minor part of a much bigger drama. […]

The mood is reminiscent of Germany after World War I, when Germans complained about the “shameful Versailles diktat” imposed on a prostrate Germany by the victorious powers and about the corrupt politicians who stabbed the nation in the back.

Like a good neoconservative, Kagan also links the Western response to the conflict and its wider policy towards Russia as “appeasement.”

Matthew Yglesias asks of Kagan’s World War II analogy: “If we launch a war with Russia — which would seem to be the point of busting out the analogy — then how are we going to find the time to launch wars with Iran and China?”

Fabled Enemies Trailer

2008-08-11T20:24:00.001+01:00

Infowars
August 11, 2008

Fabled Enemies is unlike any 9/11documentary ever put together. Rather than focusing on the physical anomalies at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, this film follows the intelligence ties of Osama Bin Laden, the alleged hijackers, and those who were actually detained on 9/11.

The movie delves deeply into the roles of seperate Nations that were involved in supporting the 9/11 attacks. From Israel to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, and even the United States itself, no one is spared in this scathing expose that pulls no punches. Sit back and get ready to learn how members of the FBI had their investigations into Bin Laden obstructed and shut down, how the hijackers were trained at US bases, that military drills crippled our defense and facilitated the attacks, how the Shadow Government was actually activated that day, and much much more.

Join Alex Jones productions and Jason Bermas one of the creators of Loose Change, in his Directorial debut on September 1st , as he loads new ammo for the Infowar.

"Martial Law" Declared in Arkansas Town

2008-08-11T19:06:00.002+01:00

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, August 11, 2008

Areas of a town in Arkansas have been placed under a 24-hour, non-stop curfew described by the mayor as "almost akin to martial law".

The lockdown, issued after a spate of robberies, home invasions and shootings, applies to everyone in Helena-West Helena, no matter what age or what time of day it is.

Mayor James Valley has indicated that the curfew could be extended indefinitely.

Residents have described the lockdown as "like being in jail" and critics have slammed it as unconstitutional given that it effectively suspends the fourth amendment.

The ACLU of Arkansas has sent Mayor Valley a letter outlining these concerns:

"Imposing house arrest and suspending the Fourth Amendment for law-abiding people is only going to cause more problems for this city," said ACLU of Arkansas staff attorney Holly Dickson. "They need to work with the community to get this resolved instead of treating all of their citizens like criminals."

Watch a report from CNN:

Such "domestic surges" with police imposing a martial law-style clampdown are now seemingly becoming standard procedure.

There are countless examples in recent months and years of curfews and lockdowns going into place in areas all across the country.

Only two months ago Trinidad, a "troubled" community in northeast D.C., was subject to police checkpoints after a series of shootings.

Earlier this year curfews for minors were introduced in Chicago.

Back in April we reported on the fact that federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states for a vast round up operation that one sheriff's deputy described as "martial law training".

The "anti-crime and anti-terrorism initiatives" involving officers from more than 50 federal, state and local agencies was dubbed "Operation Sudden Impact".

Earlier this month presumptive Republican nominee John McCain told the National Urban League that military-style invasions modeled on the surge in Iraq should be adopted to control inner city crime in the U.S.:

McCain: And some of those tactics — you mention the war in Iraq — are like that we use in the military. You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement, etc, etc.

American Mercenary Captured By Russians

2008-08-11T18:45:00.000+01:00

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, August 11, 2008

NATO instructor taken hostage with Georgians amid reports of U.S. military commanding thousands of mercs in proxy war

An American mercenary has been captured by Russian forces along with a number of Georgian soldiers according to a report from the Russian news website Izvestia, providing more evidence that the U.S. and NATO are covertly supporting the Georgian army in a proxy war with Russia.

According to the report, the mercenary is an African-American who is a NATO instructor and an ordinance specialist. He has now been transferred to the Russian base of Vladikavkaz.

The story also backs up previous reports of dead black Americans having been found in Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia.

U.S. soldiers recently conducted training programs where they instructed Georgian soldiers how to deal with unexploded ordinance as part of the Georgia Train and Equip Program.

Another report from the Russia daily Kommersant states that thousands of mercenaries from numerous different countries are fighting on the Georgian side and are being “commanded by the U.S. military instructors.”

“The U.S. military instructors directly command and coordinate actions of mercenaries without being involved in actual fighting, the source specified. According to intelligence data, there are roughly 1,000 military instructors of the United States in Georgia,” states the report.

“Task force of Russia has annihilated a few groups of mercenaries. Some of mercenaries have been captured, and investigators are working with them, the source said.”

In a related development, Russia FSB has detained 10 Georgian intelligence service officers who were allegedly preparing terrorist attacks inside Russia.

“We have detained 10 agents of the Georgian special services who were spying on military facilities and preparing terrorist attacks, including on Russian territory,” Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia has today launched new forays into Georgia itself even after Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili signed a cease-fire pledge. Russia claims that Georgia has not honored the cease-fire and continues to attack Russian positions.

American Soldier Captured by Russians in South Ossetia?

2008-08-11T18:30:00.002+01:00

War News Updates
August 10, 2008

The Russian news website Izvestia is reporting that an African American soldier/mercenary has been captured by Russian forces. He was captured with a number of Georgian soldiers, whose specialty was in handling ordinances. The report mentions that they believe he is a Nato instructor, and that he has been transferred to the Russian base of Vladikavkaz.

It also reports finding bodies of dead soldiers in Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia. But what stood out in the report was that some of the corpses were negroes.
U.S. soldiers teach Georgian soldiers how to deal with unexploded ordinance as part of the Georgia Train and Equip Program. Under the program, the U.S. Defense Department is training and equipping four specialized battalions, one company-sized team, and about 200 staff officers in georgia. U.S. defense officials say improving the Georgian military will ultimately aid the American war on global terrorism. Photo by Senior Airman Latonia L. Brown, USAF

In the above picture, we have a dated picture of American instructors teaching Georgian soldiers how to handle unexploded ordinances. The link for this picture is here.

The link to the Izvestia story (in Russian) is here.

I have not been able to collaborate this story from other sources. I can only hope and pray that there are no American soldiers in South Ossetia, and that this story is not true.

The Large Hadron Collider: The End Of The Universe?

2008-08-11T18:27:00.000+01:00

YouTube
August 10, 2008

The Moronic Party

2008-08-11T18:19:00.002+01:00

Paul Craig Roberts
Counterpunch
August 11, 2008

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”

— John Stuart Mill

Many years ago, during the 1970s if memory serves, neoconservative Irving Kristol, echoing John Stuart Mill, called his conservative party, the Republican Party, “the stupid party.”

Kristol was referring to the Republican’s inability to compete on the policy front. Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan led the Republicans out of the wilderness, but now Republicans have reverted to the stupid party, or more precisely the moronic party.

Take a minute to examine the presidential campaign propaganda that Republicans send around the Internet, and you will see what I mean. For example, recently while Obama was traveling abroad, showing himself to the remnant of our allies, Republican political operatives blitzed the Internet with the suggestion that Obama might not be an American citizen. Doubt was cast on either of his parents being American citizens. The message went on to suggest that Obama refused to produce his birth certificate. All the while, Obama was traveling abroad on a US passport, a document that cannot be obtained without a US birth certificate.

Considering that the Republican candidate, John McCain, was born in the Panama Canal Zone, only the GOP would be dumb enough to make an issue over whether the Democrats’ candidate was born in one of the 50 states.

The innuendo and negativism with which the Republicans are conducting their presidential campaign are unprecedented. There is no sign of issues in McCain’s Karl Rovian campaign. Issues have been superseded by hate, lies, and war.

Republicans stand for war without end, a police state to make us “safe,” and “energy independence,” which means drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve and offshore of Florida’s Gulf Coast beaches.

What Republicans really mean by “energy independence” is prevailing over environmentalists.

Republicans lump environmentalists in the same category with abortionists, gays, feminists, food stamp recipients, trade unionists and terrorists. To a Republican, saving America means prevailing over these people.

The notion that Americans can achieve energy independence by drilling offshore wells and in the arctic is absurd. A number of experts have pointed out that the best data do not support any such possibility.

For example, Robert Kaufman at Boston University, citing US government data, reports that the US might have 40 billion barrels of oil in undeveloped reserves which are not off limits. Another 19 billion might be in off limit offshore sites and in the Arctic National Wildlife preserve.

All of this oil cannot be brought up at once, and apparently none before 2017. Bringing it all into production would, experts think, increase US oil production by 1-4 percent. In other words, nothing. Currently the US uses 21 million barrels a day, and the entire world uses 86 million barrels a day. At best, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge could by 2017 produce 1 million barrels a day, about one-twentieth of current US use and one-eighty-sixth of current world use.

This is not energy independence, and it would have no material effect on price. Indeed, the offshoring by US corporations of US jobs has a much greater effect on the dollar price of oil by inflating the US trade deficit and driving down the exchange value of the US dollar. But, of course, here we are talking about facts, and facts are of no interest to Republicans.

Republicans are interested in prevailing over the “bad guys.” The fact that the bad guys are Bush, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle, Billy Kristol, and other such is beyond the Republicans’ imagination. Bad guys are “towel heads” with beards and robes and are “over there” where they must be killed before the come “over here.” The extent of the Republican intellect boils down to “over here” vs. “over there.”

The other great bugaboo of Republicans is “the liberal media.” Fox “News” has Republicans convinced that “the liberal media” is endangering America by siding with terrorists.

Clearly, Republicans never look at “the liberal media.” It was Judith Miller at the “liberal” New York Times who served up as fact all the neocon disinformation about Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction and al Qaeda connections. Without the New York Times leading the way, the neocons could never have pulled off their illegal invasions.

On July 18, 2008, the New York Times allowed the Israeli historian Benny Morris to spew lies about Iran that he used to justify an attack on that country possibly even involving nuclear weapons. This is the same New York Times that the idiot conservatives believe is part of “the liberal media.”

It was ABC News that served up the neocon disinformation that the anthrax had been traced to Saddam Hussein. And, today, August 9, 2008, as I write, it is the “liberal” Washington Post that has written an editorial urging the US to go to war with Russia.

With its editorial, “Stopping Russia: the US and its allies must unite against Moscow’s war on Georgia,” the Washington Post has established a world record for the maximum number of lies in the minimum number of words.

Except for the Washington Post, the entire world knows that Georgia (the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, not Georgia USA) initiated the aggression that killed Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of civilians in South Ossetia, peacekeepers who were there with the blessing of Georgia and international agreements.

The true facts are available all over the world press. But the “liberal” Washington Post serves up the lie that Russia has attacked Georgia and conceivably plans to conquer all of Georgia. “This is a grave challenge to the United States and Europe,” thunders the Bush Regime’s mouthpiece, aka, “the liberal media.”

Thirsting for blood, the “liberal media” declares: “The United States and its NATO allies must together impose a price on Russia.”

Here we see the combination of idiocy and delusion in one sentence. The United States has proved that it is incapable of occupying Iraq, much less Afghanistan. Russia has a large trade surplus. America’s NATO allies are dependent on Russian natural gas. Yet the “liberal” Washington Post wants a bankrupt US and “its NATO allies” who are dependent on Russian energy “to impose a price on Russia” for defending its peacekeepers!

Seldom has the world seen such total insanity as the neoconservative Washington Post, a propaganda sheet as far from “liberal media” is it is possible to be.

Georgia was part of Old Russia and the Soviet Union for two centuries. After Soviet communism collapsed, the US taxpayer funded neoconservative National Endowment for Democracy broke every agreement that President Reagan had made with Gorbachev and began using US taxpayers’ money to rig and purchase elections in former constituent parts of the Russian/Soviet empire.

The Endowment for Democracy purchased Georgia as a US colony. The affront to Russia was extreme, but at the time Russia was weak. Oligarchs with outside money had grabbed control over Russian resources, and Russia was in dire straits and could not resist American imperialism.
Putin corrected the situation for Russia.

Now using American weapons Georgia for reasons yet to be revealed has violated its own agreement with Russia and attacked South Ossetia, killing in the process Russian peacekeepers. Vladimir Vasilyev, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for Security told the press: “The things that were happening in Kosovo, the things that were happening in Iraq – we are now following the same path. The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America.”

Yes, without America there would be no war in Ossetia and no war between Russia and its former constituent part.

Without America there would be no war in Afghanistan. No war in Iraq.

Without America there would not be 1.2 million dead Iraqis and 4 million displaced Iraqis. We have no idea of the toll on Afghan civilians, although women and children appear to be the prime targets of the US/NATO forces that are “bringing peace and freedom to Afghanistan.”

Recently, US Secretary of State Condi Rice said that the US government could not prevent an Israeli attack on Iran. Israel is an independent country, said the American Secretary of State. What an extraordinary lie.

Israel cannot exist without American weapons and money. Israel cannot attack Iran without overflying Iraq, which the US air force can easily prevent. It is clear as day that the Bush Regime has given the green light to Israel to attack Iran so that the Bush Regime can rush to “Israel’s defense.”

Meanwhile the “liberal” media is urging the US to get involved in a war between Russia and Georgia. The insanity will lead to the unloosening of nuclear weapons.

Petraeus: US is flying Georgian troops into battle zone

2008-08-11T18:15:00.002+01:00

Deborah Haynes
Times Online
August 11, 2008

US aircraft have started to fly some of Georgia’s 2,000 troops in Iraq back home to join the fight in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq said today.

“The flights are ongoing to redeploy the elements of the Georgian contingent so that they can deal with the security issues in their country,” General Petraeus told The Times in an interview at his office inside Baghdad’s Green Zone.

He said measures were already in place to mitigate the impact on operations in Iraq of the sudden departure of the soldiers.

“We can accommodate that. Obviously it was not expected but it is something, the effects of which we can certainly mitigate.”

The Georgian contingent has been taking part in an operation with US and Iraqi forces to clear the south-eastern corner of Diyala province, north of Baghdad, a known al-Qaeda stronghold.

Some 150 Georgian soldiers also guard the Iraqi Parliament building as well as other key structures inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.

In addition, one battalion is helping to support the Iraqi security forces in Wasit province, south of the capital, near the Iranian border.

Georgia: A Reality Check for the Left

2008-08-11T18:11:00.002+01:00

Booman Tribune
August 11, 2008

Everyone should read this opinion piece in today’s Washington Post. It’s written by Ronald D. Asmus, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration. If you want to have some sense about the bi-partisan commitment to U.S. policy in the Caucuses, you need to read this opinion piece very carefully. If you fail to come to terms with both the meaning and the implications of this piece, then you simply will not be able to understand or anticipate the U.S. reaction to Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

While the Left seems paralyzed with debate over who started this fight or how worthy Georgia is as a democracy and an ally, the rest of the foreign policy Establishment could not be less interested. For example, here is Asmus and Holbrooke’s treatment of the culpability issue:

Exactly what happened in South Ossetia last week is unclear. Each side will argue its own version. But we know, without doubt, that Georgia was responding to repeated provocative attacks by South Ossetian separatists controlled and funded by Moscow. This is a not a war Georgia wanted; it believed that it was slowly gaining ground in South Ossetia through a strategy of soft power.

Whatever mistakes Tbilisi has made, they cannot justify Russia’s actions. Moscow has invaded a neighbor, an illegal act of aggression that violates the U.N. Charter and fundamental principles of cooperation and security in Europe. Beginning a well-planned war (including cyber-warfare) as the Olympics were opening violates the ancient tradition of a truce to conflict during the Games. And Russia’s willingness to create a war zone 25 miles from the Black Sea city of Sochi, where it is to host the Winter Games in 2014, hardly demonstrates its commitment to Olympic ideals. In contrast, Moscow’s timing suggests that Putin seeks to overthrow Saakashvili well ahead of our elections, and thus avoid beginning relations with the next president on an overtly confrontational note.

Russia’s goal is not simply, as it claims, restoring the status quo in South Ossetia. It wants regime change in Georgia.

The West sees this move as a sign of a newly aggressive Russia, and a precursor to larger ambitions.

As Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt pointed out Saturday, Moscow’s rationale for invading has parallels to the darkest chapters of Europe’s history. Having issued passports to tens of thousands of Abkhazians and South Ossetians, Moscow now claims it must intervene to protect them — a tactic reminiscent of one used by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II.
Moscow seeks to roll back democratic breakthroughs on its borders, to destroy any chance of further NATO or E.U. enlargement and to reestablish a sphere of hegemony over its neighbors. By trying to destroy a democratic, pro-Western Georgia, Moscow is sending a message that, in its part of the world, being close to Washington and the West does not pay.

I hope you know your history because the United States will go to war to maintain its prestige and its credibility as an ally. Even more so, the West will go to war to protect our investments in the Caspian Basin, including the hard fought Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which was a decade in the making and was organized through groups like the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, headed by James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger, and John Sununu. None of these people are remotely interested in whether Russian-backed Ossetians provoked the Georgians or the Georgians provoked the Russians. All that matters is what the Russians do now. And there is an information war going on right now between Russia and Georgia. In a scenario such as this, there are not many reliable sources. Any Russian annexation of Georgia would threaten British Petroleum’s assets to such a degree that British sources are not reliable. American sources are suspect for the same reason. I would not trust Russian sources, either. Perhaps the East Asian press can be seen as an honest broker. In any case, the Associated Press is reporting that Russia has advanced south from the "province of Abkhazia while most Georgian forces are locked up in fighting around another breakaway region of South Ossetia" and seized a Georgian military base and police stations a full thirty miles inside Georgia proper. This is their weak confirmation:

In Moscow, a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name, confirmed the move into Senaki and said it was intended to prevent Georgian troops from concentrating.

While many on the Left are twiddling their thumbs wondering why the United States decided to involve themselves in the Caucuses in the first place (a decision initiated by Bush and Baker in the early 1990’s and enthusiastically endorsed by Clinton’s powerful Commerce Department), the National Security Council (including Democratic members) and the NSC-in-exile (people like ZBig and Holbrooke) are having none of it.

This moment could well mark the end of an era in Europe during which realpolitik and spheres of influence were supposed to be replaced by new cooperative norms and a country’s right to choose its own path. Hopes for a more liberal Russia under President Dmitry Medvedev will need to be reexamined. His justification for this invasion reads more like Brezhnev than Gorbachev. While no one wants a return to Cold War-style confrontation, Moscow’s behavior poses a direct challenge to European and international order.

When Big Boys like this get their knickers in a twist, things can come to a head very quickly. Remember Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, and the Missile Crisis? Remember the Domino Theory and the Korean and Vietnam Wars? Only this time we’re talking about former Soviet territory and major oil and gas revenues. This is not some faux-conflict that was ginned up by John McCain and the neoconservatives as some kind of electoral season strategy. And, even if it was (and it’s not) it’s gone far beyond that now.

What does the Democratic Foreign Policy Establishment recommend that we do? In addition to threatening to take the 2014 Winter Olympics away from Russia, they give the following three-point strategy:

What can we do? First, Georgia deserves our solidarity and support. (Georgia has supported us; its more than 2,000 troops are the third-largest contingent in Iraq — understandably those troops are being recalled.) We must get the fighting stopped and preserve Georgia’s territorial integrity within its current international border. As soon as hostilities cease, there should be a major, coordinated transatlantic effort to help Tbilisi rebuild and recover.

Second, we should not pretend that Russia is a neutral peacekeeper in conflicts on its borders. Russia is part of the problem, not the solution. For too long, Moscow has used existing international mandates to pursue neo-imperial policies. We must disavow these mandates and insist on truly neutral international forces, under the United Nations, to monitor a future cease-fire and to mediate.

Third, we need to counter Russian pressure on its neighbors, especially Ukraine — most likely the next target in Moscow’s efforts to create a new sphere of hegemony. The United States and the European Union must be clear that Ukraine and Georgia will not be condemned to some kind of gray zone.

I can hear the Left now laughing at Asmus and Holbrooke’s audacity in accusing Russia of neo-imperial policies. Isn’t this conflict taking place in Russia’s sphere of influence? Hasn’t the West been relentlessly provocative? Didn’t Russia warn us about the eastward expansion of NATO, anti-missile defenses in the Czech Republic, and the independence of Kosovo?
Yes, yes they did. And it doesn’t matter an iota to our bi-partisan foreign policy Establishment. This is power geopolitics at its rawest and it has major consequences for our strategic position in Central Asia and the Middle East. Did Dick Cheney say something alarmingly bellicose? Sure. But Cheney differs from Holbrooke only in tone. Russia is threatening more than the Bush/Cheney policy vis-a-vis Georgia. They are threatening eight years of Clinton foreign policy.
In the many years I have been writing this blog I have been a consistent critic of Clinton’s foreign policy, especially in the Caucuses and as relates to NATO expansion. I made these points many times during the primaries. But there are two things you need to keep in mind. Just because there are legitimate criticisms of U.S. foreign policy does not mean that Russia is on the right side of history. But, more importantly, the foreign policy Establishment is united behind these policies and has invested in them over the course now of almost 20 years. There isn’t a whole lot of room for debate over what should have been. We’re here now. Like an aircraft carrier, you cannot turn around bipartisan U.S. foreign policy on a dime. This is not some uniquely neoconservative policy. This is U.S. policy.

Working to change that policy demands that we understand the policy as it is and as it has been. We need to understand the military justification of that policy (access to energy supplies to fuel our Naval Fleets and Air Force) as well as the economic justifications. And we should not kid ourselves that we will find Democratic allies in Congress or the Obama campaign that are going to argue that our policy has been all wrong all along. That will never happen. If this conflict becomes a matter of debate in the presidential campaign, it will not be over the wisdom of the overall policy. Obama would be abandoned by the foreign policy Establishment in a New York Minute.

That’s the sad fact. So, the U.S. is not going to back down willingly. If it backs down it will be for the same reason that the USSR ultimately backed down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. If we back down it will be because this is ultimately in the Russian sphere of influence and we have no better options given the risk of nuclear conflict.

Freedom and Equality in a Scientific Society: The Scientific Outlook

2008-08-11T17:53:00.002+01:00

Brent Jessop
IntelStrike Blog Network
August 11, 2008

Part 7

“There will, of course, be a universal language, which will be either Esperanto or pidgin-English. The literature of the past will for the most part not be translated into this language, since its outlook and emotional background will be considered unsettling: serious students of history will be able to obtain a permit from the Government to study such works as Hamlet and Othello, but the general public will be forbidden access to them on the ground that they glorify private murder; boys will not be allowed to read books about pirates or Red Indians; love themes will be discouraged on the ground that love, being anarchic, is silly, if not wicked. All this will make life very pleasant for the virtuous.” - Bertrand Russell, 1931 (p214)

Bertrand Russell: "The new ethic which is gradually growing in connexion with scientific technique will have its eye upon society rather than upon the individual. It will have little use for the superstition of guilt and punishment, but will be prepared to make individuals suffer for the public good without inventing reasons purporting to show that they deserve to suffer"

This article will explore the changes to freedom and equality in the scientific society as discussed in Bertrand Russell’s 1931 book The Scientific Outlook [1]. This includes changes in the relationship between individual freedom and the collective good, freedom of speech and the Press, freedom to choose ones own career and the freedom to have children.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872-1970) was a renowned British philosopher and mathematician who was an adamant internationalist and worked extensively on the education of young children. This included running an experimental school in the 1920’s with his second wife Dora Black. He was the founder of the Pugwash movement which used the spectre of Cold War nuclear annihilation to push for world government. Among many other prizes, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 and UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Kalinga prize for the popularization of science in 1957.

Part 1 of this series examined science as power-thought and the use of scientific technique to increase the power of an elite scientific minority over the unscientific masses. Part 2 examined the composition of the society of experts who would use scientific technique to dominate the masses. At the forefront of this society of experts is the expert “manipulator”, whom Lenin is the archetype. This society would also aim to conceal its power and influence behind political veils like democracy. Part 3 explored the application of scientific technique to education with an emphasis on the distinction between education for the “governing class” and “working class”. Part 4 looked at the use of education, the Press, radio and Hollywood as forms of propaganda. Part 5 examined the use of behaviourism, psycho-analysis and physiological manipulation as applied to education. Part 6 examined the application of scientific technique to the reproduction of human beings including the separate breeding techniques to be applied to the “governing class” compared with the “working class”.

Individual Freedom versus the Collective

From The Scientific Outlook:

“The nineteenth century suffered from a curious division between its political ideas and its economic practice. In politics it carried out the Liberal ideas of Locke and Rousseau, which were adapted to a society of small peasant proprietors. Its watchwords were Liberty and Equality, but meantime it was inventing the technique which is leading the twentieth century to destroy liberty and to replace equality by new forms of oligarchy. The prevalence of Liberal thought has been in some ways a misfortune, since it has prevented men of large vision from thinking out in an impersonal manner the problems raised by industrialism. Socialism and Communism, it is true, are essentially industrial creeds, but their outlook is so much dominated by the class war that they have little leisure to give to anything but the means of achieving political victory.

Traditional morality gives very little help in the modern world. A rich man may plunge millions into destitution by some act which not even the severest Catholic confessor would consider sinful, while he will need absolution for a trivial sexual aberration which, at the worst, has wasted an hour that might have been more usefully employed. There is need of a new doctrine on the subject of my duty to my neighbour. It is not only traditional religious teaching that fails to give adequate guidance on this subject, but also the teaching of nineteenth-century Liberalism. Take, for example, such a book as Mill on Liberty. Mill maintains that while the State has a right to interfere with those of my actions that have serious consequences to others, it should leave me free where the effects of my actions are mainly confined to myself. Such a principle, however, in the modern world, leaves hardly any scope for individual freedom. As society becomes more organic, the effects of men upon each other become more and more numerous and important, so that there remains hardly anything in regard to which Mill’s defence of liberty is applicable.

Take, for example, freedom of speech and of the Press. It is clear that a society that permits these is thereby precluded from various achievements which are possible to a society that forbids them. In time of war this is obvious to everybody, because in war-time the national purpose is simple, and the causation involved is obvious. Hitherto it has not been customary for a nation in peace-time to have any national purpose except the preservation of its territory and its constitution. A government which, like that of Soviet Russia, has a purpose in peace-time as ardent and definite as that of other nations in war-time, is compelled to curtail freedom of speech and of the Press as much while it is at peace as other nations do when they are at war.
The diminution of individual liberty which has been taking place during the last twenty years is likely to continue, since it has two continuing causes. On the one hand, modern technique makes society more organic; on the other hand, modern sociology makes men more and more aware of the causal laws in virtue of which one man’s acts are useful or harmful to another man. If we are to justify any particular form of individual liberty in the scientific society of the future, we shall have to do it on the ground that that form of liberty is for the good of society as a whole, but not in most cases on the ground that the acts concerned affect nobody but the agent.” 216

“The man who dreams of a scientifically organized world and wishes to translate his dream into practice finds himself faced with many obstacles. There is the opposition of inertia and habit: people wish to continue behaving as they always have behaved, and living as they always have lived. There is the opposition of vested interest: an economic system inherited from feudal times gives advantages to men who have done nothing to deserve them, and these men, being rich and powerful, are able to place formidable obstacles in the way of fundamental change. In addition to these forces, there are also hostile idealisms. Christian ethics is in certain fundamental respects opposed to the scientific ethic which is gradually growing up. Christianity emphasizes the importance of the individual soul, and is not prepared to sanction the sacrifice of an innocent man for the sake of some ulterior good to the majority. Christianity, in a word, is unpolitical, as is natural since it grew up among men devoid of political power. The new ethic which is gradually growing in connexion with scientific technique will have its eye upon society rather than upon the individual. It will have little use for the superstition of guilt and punishment, but will be prepared to make individuals suffer for the public good without inventing reasons purporting to show that they deserve to suffer. In this sense it will be ruthless, and according to traditional ideas immoral, but the change will have come about naturally through the habit of viewing society as a whole rather than as a collection of individuals. We view a human body as a whole, and if, for example, it is necessary to amputate a limb we do not consider it necessary to prove first that the limb is wicked. We consider the good of the whole body a quite sufficient argument.

Similarly the man who thinks of society as a whole will sacrifice a member of society for the good of the whole, without much consideration for that individual’s welfare. This has always been the practice in war, because war is a collective enterprise. Soldiers are exposed to the risk of death for the public good, although no one suggests that they deserve death. But men have not hitherto attached the same importance to social purposes other than war, and have therefore shrunk from inflicting sacrifices which were felt to be unjust. I think it probable that the scientific idealists of the future will be free from this scruple, not only in time of war, but in time of peace also. In overcoming the difficulties of the opposition that they will encounter, they will find themselves organized into an oligarchy of opinion such as is formed by the Communist Party in the U.S.S.R.” - 233

Freedom in a Scientific Society

“In suggesting any curtailment of liberty there are always two quite distinct questions to be considered. The first is whether such a curtailment would be in the public interest if it were wisely carried out, and the second is whether it will be in the public interest when it is carried out with a certain measure of ignorance and perversity. These two questions are in theory quite distinct, but from the point of view of the government the second question does not exist, since every government believes itself entirely free from both ignorance and perversity. Every government, consequently, in so far as it is not restrained by traditional prejudices, will advocate more interference with liberty than is wise. When, therefore, as in this chapter, we are considering what interferences with liberty might be theoretically justified, we must hesitate to draw the conclusion that they should be advocated in practice. I think it probable, however, that almost all interferences with liberty for which there is a theoretical justification will, in time, be carried out in practice, because scientific technique is gradually making governments so strong that they need not consider outside opinion. The result of this will be that governments will be able to interfere with individual liberty wherever in their opinion there is a sound reason for so doing, and for the reason just given, this will be much more often than it should be. For this reason scientific technique is likely to lead to a governmental tyranny which may in time prove disastrous.” - 223

“Let us take some examples of traditional principles which appear no longer defensible. [...] To take a more important illustration: consider the immense sums of money that are spent on advertising. It cannot possibly be maintained that these bring any but the most meagre return to the community. The principle of permitting each capitalist to invest his money as he chooses is not, therefore, socially defensible.” - 218

“Take again the question of work, both the kind of work and the method of performing it. At present young people choose their own trade or profession, usually because at the moment of their choice it seems to afford a good opening. A well-informed person possessed of foresight might know that the particular line in question was going to be much less profitable a few years hence. In such a case some public guidance to the young might prove extremely useful. And as regards technical methods, it is seldom in the public interest that an antiquated or wasteful technique should be allowed to persist when a more economical technique is known. At present, owning to the irrational character of the capitalist system, the interest of the individual wage-earner is very often opposed to the interest of the community, since economical methods may cause him to lose his job. This is due to the survival of capitalistic principles in a society which has grown so organic that it ought not to tolerate them. It is obvious that in a well-organized community it should be impossible for a large body of individuals to profit by preserving an inefficient technique. It is clear that the use of the most efficient technique should be enforced, and no wage-earner should be allowed to suffer by its enforcement.” - 220

“I come now to a matter which touches the individual more intimately: I mean the question of propagation. It has hitherto been considered that any man and woman not within the prohibited degrees have a right to marry, and having married have a right, if not a duty, to have as many children as nature may decree. This is a right which the scientific society of the future is not likely to tolerate. In any given state of industrial and agricultural technique there is an optimum density of population which ensures a greater degree of material well-being than would result from either an increase or a diminution of numbers. As a general rule, except in new countries, the density of population has been beyond this optimum, though perhaps France, in recent decades, has been an exception. Except where there is property to be inherited, the member of a small family suffers almost as much from over-population as the member of a large family. Those who cause over-population are therefore doing an injury not only to their own children, but to the community. It may therefore be assumed that society will discourage them if necessary, as soon as religious prejudices no longer stand in the way of such action. The same question will arise in a more dangerous form as between different nations and different races. If a nation finds that it is losing military superiority through a lower birth-rate than that of a rival, it may attempt, as has already been done in such cases, to stimulate its own birth-rate; but when this proves ineffective, as it probably will, there will be a tendency to demand a limitation in the birth-rate of the rival nation. An international government, if it ever comes into being, will have to take account of such matters, and just as there is at present a quota of national immigrants into the United States, so in future there will be a quota of national immigrants into the world. Children in excess of the licensed figure will presumably be subjected to infanticide. This would be less cruel than the present method, which is to kill them by war or starvation. I am, however, only prophesying a certain future, not advocating it.

Quality as well as quantity of population is likely to become a matter for public regulation. Already in many States of America it is permissible to sterilized the mentally defective, and a similar proposal in England is in the domain of practical politics. This is only the first step. As time goes on we may expect a greater and greater percentage of the population to be regarded as mentally defective from the point of view of parenthood. However that may be, it is clear that the parents who have a child when there is every likelihood of its being mentally defective are doing a wrong both to the child and to the community. No defensible principle of liberty therefore stands in the way of preventing them from such behaviour.” - 221

Equality in a Scientific Society

“Equality, like liberty, is difficult to reconcile with scientific technique, since this involves a great apparatus of experts and officials inspiring and controlling vast organizations. Democratic forms may be preserved in politics, but they will not have as much reality as in a community of small peasant proprietors. Officials unavoidably have power. And where many vital questions are so technical that the ordinary man cannot hope to understand them, experts must inevitably acquire a considerable measure of control. Take the question of currency and credit as an example. William Jennings Bryan, it is true, made currency an electoral issue in 1896, but the men who voted for him were men who would have voted for him whatever issue he had selected. At the present time, calculable misery is being caused by a wrong handling of the question of currency and credit, but it is impossible to submit this question to the electorate except in some passionate and unscientific form; the only way in which anything can be done is to convince the officials who control the great central banks. So long as these men act honestly and in accordance with tradition, the community cannot control them, since if they are mistaken very few people will know it. To take a less important illustration: everyone who has ever compared British and American methods of handling goods traffic on railways knows that the American methods are infinitely superior. There are no private trucks, and the trucks of the railways are of standard size capable of carrying forty tons. In England everything is higgledy-piggledy and unsystematic, and the use of private trucks causes great waste. If this were put right, freights could be reduced and consumers would benefit, since there would be no obvious gain either to railway companies or to railway workers. If a more uniform system is ever imposed, it will be done not as a result of a democratic demand, but by government officials.

The scientific society will be just as oligarchic under socialism or communism as under capitalism, for even where the forms of democracy exist they cannot supply the ordinary voter with the requisite knowledge, nor enable him to be on the spot at the crucial moment. The men who understand the complicated mechanism of a modern community and who have the habit of initiative and decision must inevitably control the course of events to a very great extent. Perhaps this is even more true in a socialistic State than in any other, for in a socialistic State economic and political power are concentrated in the same hands, and the national organization of the economic life is more complete than in a State where private enterprise exists. Moreover, a socialistic State is likely to have more perfect control than any other over the organs of publicity and propaganda, so that it will have more power of causing men to know what it wishes known, and not to know what it wishes unknown. Equality, therefore, like liberty, is, I fear, no more than a nineteenth-century dream. The world of the future will contain a governing class, probably not hereditary, but more analogous to the government of the Catholic Church. And this governing class, as they acquire increasing knowledge and confidence, will interfere more and more with the life of the individual, and will learn more and more the technique of causing this interference to be tolerated. It may be assumed that their purposes will be excellent, and their conduct honourable; it may be assumed that they will be well informed and industrious; but it cannot, I think, be assumed that they will abstain from the exercise of power merely on the ground that individual initiative is a good thing, or on the ground that an oligarchy is unlikely to consider the true interests of its slaves, for men capable of such self-restraint will not rise to positions of power which, except when they are hereditary, are attained only by those who are energetic and untroubled by doubt.” - 224

Conclusion

Part 8 will examine changes to free trade and labour in the scientific society. The final article will describe two examples of artificially designed societies, including the creation of a new religion specifically for that new planned society.

[1] Bertrand Russell, The Scientific Outlook (1931). First Edition.

—

Related Articles

The Scientific Outlook Part 1: Scientific Technique and Power

The Scientific Outlook Part 2: The Rule of the Scientific Expert

The Scientific Outlook Part 3: Scientific Technique and Education

The Scientific Outlook Part 4: Propaganda: From the Class Room to Hollywood

The Scientific Outlook Part 5: Behaviourism, Psycho-Analysis and Physiological Manipulation in Education

The Scientific Outlook Part 6: Scientific Technique and Human Reproduction

The Scientific Outlook Part 8: Free Trade and Labour in a Scientific Society (August 17)

The Scientific Outlook Part 9: Two Examples of Scientifically Created Artificial Societies: Japan and Soviet Russia (August 24)

Four Part Series on Bertrand Russell’s The Impact of Science on Society

U.S. Arms Cache Found in Kyrgyzstan

2008-08-11T17:52:00.000+01:00

Kommersant
August 11, 2008

The U.S. embassy in Kyrgyzstan has found itself embroiled in scandal after the country’s interior ministry announced that a hoard of U.S.-made weapons has been found in a house in Bishkek rented by U.S. citizens. The embassy hurriedly stated that the weapons were intended for antiterrorism exercises, but Kyrgyz enforcement agencies have not confirmed that. The news is the talk of Kyrgyzstan. The prosecutor general has begun an investigation.

Local police found 53 firearms, including large-caliber guns, grenade launchers, machineguns, pistols, sniper’s rifles and more than 15,000 rounds of ammunition of various sizes. According to Kyrgyz Deputy Minister of the Interior Temirkan Subanov, there were two employees of the U.S. embassy with diplomatic immunity and ten members of the American military, allegedly in the country to train Kyrgyz special forces. “Interior Ministry staff questioned them about the weapons and ammunition to determine their purpose. We received information from residents of a new house that they were constantly moving things into and out of that house. None of the U.S. citizens were detained or arrested. All of them were simply questioned,” Subanov said.

The U.S. embassy quickly issued a statement saying that the cache was in the country with the permission and at the request of Kyrgyz authorities. The Kyrgyz Defense Ministry, State Committee for National Security, border service and national guard say that they have no training with Americans planned. Only the narcotics control agency had such plans, but they did not include weapons. Kyrgyz officials are not commenting on the situation. Observers are both pointing out reasons to be alarmed at the incident and reasoning that the United States has little motivation to create a provocation in Kyrgyzstan.

The BBC is deliberately distorting the News from the Georgia Region

2008-08-11T17:46:00.002+01:00

Chimes of Freedom
August 10, 2008

As usual, the BBC is twisting and distorting the news coming out of the Georgia region. We keep being told that around 1500 have been killed in Georgia, the inference being that this has resulted from Russian bombing.

Not so, the casualties are in Ossetia.

While the Ossetians claimed over 1000 dead the BBC neither reported this or any newsreel coming out of Ossetia showing the destruction caused by the Georgian shelling of the breakaway republic.

All we are getting is one-sided reports of the destruction being caused by the Russians.
Unlike News 24 which is its international news carrier, the BBC website does make some mention of Ossetian casualties:

"We left our town because the situation there is worse than anything I’ve seen in 18 years of conflict. Houses are being hit by rockets and heavy artillery, aircraft are bombing the roads."

Since yesterday, Russia Today was reporting the complete destruction of Ossetia’s capital by Georgian shelling. Again, the destruction of the Ossetian capital was never reported by the BBC.

Last Friday, RIA Novosti reported that Ossetia was claiming over 1000 dead:

"Over 1,000 civilians have been killed as the result of an attack by Georgia on the capital of its breakaway republic of South Ossetia, the North Ossetian nationalities minister said Friday.

According to the South Ossetian information and press committee, the number of fatalities is estimated, according to preliminary information, at over 1,000," Teimuraz Kasayev said."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9773

Sometime after mid-day today I tried unsuccessfully to access the Russia Today website for further information. Whether this is because of heavy traffic or because the website is being blocked by someone it is difficult to tell. I experienced the very same problem trying to access the RIA Novosti website.

Meanwhile, a BBC News 24 reporter, Lyse Doucet, tried to suggest that Russia had attacked Abkhazia by sending troops into that breakaway republic! That was soon put into doubt by another BBC reporter from Moscow who speculated that the sending of Russian troops into Abkhazia was not an attack but intended to protect its citizens and holiday-makers there.

On Saturday, China’s Xinhua news service reported, "Abkhazia launches operation to force Georgian troops out" and "Georgia defeats Abkhazia’s attacks". And previous news from Russia Today had announced Abkhazia’s attack on Georgia. So was the BBC’s Doucet confused or deliberately confusing the facts?

What is clear, however, is that the BBC is giving carte blanche to the Georgian point-of-view to be aired on its services while nothing whatsoever is being heard from the Ossetian side. The BBC’s repetitive playing of a statement by George Bush, given several days ago, without balancing these against statements from the Russian side indicates where the BBC is coming from.

The contrast between the brazenly pro-US, pro-Georgian views being put out on BBC News 24 and the BBC website is to be noted whilst a more balanced assessment has been published by Richard Seymour of Lenin’s Tomb. He, like me, believes that the BBC is deliberately confusing the issue. I’m sure we’ll get much more of that from the BBC:

"Incidentally, just so that this point isn’t lost in the deliberately confusing reportage. Yes, Russian jets are attacking Georgian targets and killing civilians. Yes, the reported civilian casualties "on both sides" is reported to be over 2,000. What is quite often not stated or just gently skated over in the reporting, so laden with images of Georgian dead and wounded, is that the estimate of 2,000 civilian deaths comes from the Russian government and it applies overwhelmingly to the Georgian attacks on South Ossetia on Friday.

In fact, this is the basis for Vladimir Putin’s claims of a "genocide" against South Osettians by the Georgians (is he deliberately referencing the ICTY judgment about Srebrenica here?). The Georgian side, by contrast, claims 129 deaths of both soldiers and civilians. So, if Russian figures are good enough to reference, why is the source of the figures and their context obscured? Why is being made to look as if Russian forces are behind most of those alleged deaths? Doesn’t this just amount to a whitewash of the actions of the Georgian army in South Ossetia? And why not mention 30,000 refugees too?"

‘This Is Genocide’: American Witness Says U.S. and Georgia to Answer for Violence

2008-08-11T17:40:00.001+01:00

Russia Today
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

An American man living in South Ossetia says U.S. and Georgian leaders are responsible for the violence that has killed 2,000 people in the region. Joe Mestas, who witnessed days of shelling, told RT that Washington will have to answer for the violence.

“I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war, but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president]
Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding,” Joe Mestas said.

“The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is killing innocent civilians. This is genocide,” he added.

Russia points to media bias in coverage of S.Ossetia conflict

2008-08-11T17:38:00.000+01:00

RIA Novosti
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media on Sunday of pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict between Georgia and Russia over breakaway South Ossetia.

Russia says Georgian forces have killed around 2,000 South Ossetian civilians, mainly Russian nationals, in attacks that began on Friday, and that 34,000 locals have been forced to flee to Russia. In response to the Georgian offensive, Russia sent tanks and troops into the province, and carried out a series of air strikes on Georgian military targets.

“We want television screens in the West to be showing not only Russian tanks, and texts saying Russia is at war in South Ossetia and with Georgia, but also to be showing the suffering of the Ossetian people, the murdered elderly people and children, the destroyed towns of South Ossetia, and [regional capital] Tskhinvali. This would be an objective way of presenting the material,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a RIA Novosti news conference.

Current Western media coverage of the events in the separatist republic is “a politically motivated version, to put it mildly,” he said.

The United States, Georgia’s key ally, has called Russia’s strikes on Georgian territory “dangerous and disproportionate,” and warned that they could harm relations with Washington in the long-term. Georgia said on Friday that 300 of its citizens had been killed, mainly civilians, by Russian forces.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier called Russia’s actions “absolutely justified and legitimate from the legal standpoint,” and accused Georgia of “full-scale genocide.”

At the premier’s meeting with South Ossetian refugees at a makeshift hospital camp in Russia’s North Ossetia on Saturday, eyewitnesses described atrocities committed by Georgian troops, including an incident where a group of local young women were rounded up and burned alive, and killings of old people and children.

Karasin said on Saturday that the country may ask the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to investigate war crimes committed by Georgia.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Sunday that Georgian forces had fully withdrawn from the separatist province.

However, a spokesman for the peacekeeping command told RIA Novosti: “This statement is a lie, just like [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili’s statement on the impossibility of using military force in conflict zones.”

Russia has also denied bombing Georgian towns.

“The Georgian side has named some nearby populated areas and towns, saying they are being bombed by the Russian Air Force. I take full responsibility in saying that the Russian side did not bomb any populated area,” Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, told a news briefing on Sunday.

Did mercenaries help Georgia?

2008-08-11T17:35:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

The president of South Ossetia claims mercenaries took part in Georgia’s offensive against the breakaway republic, according to Russia’s RIA news agency. Eduard Kokoity says Ukrainians, people from the Baltics as well as nationals from other countries were involved.

Kokoity said: “After the fighting in the city we found several bodies of citizens of the Baltic states and Ukraine. Later on I was informed that the bodies of several black men were found at the scene of a battle near school number 12″.

He also said some corpses had narrow eyes, typical of people of Asian origin.

South Ossetian officials say more than 2,000 of their civilians were killed in the attack. Georgia disputes this figure.

The Russian envoy in South Ossetia, Dmitry Medoyev, says the scene in Tskhinvali is horrific.

“The town looks like Stalingrad during WW2, with fallen trees, power lines, burnt Georgian tanks all over the streets. The dead bodies of Georgian soldiers are lying everywhere,” Medoyev said.

He also confirmed the South Ossetian President’s claim that foreign mercenaries took part in the onslaught.

“In yesterday’s attack, the advancing tanks were supposedly crewed by Ukrainians. Two unidentified bodies found today are said to have black skin. Possibly they are Americans but we can’t say for sure yet. We will be able to publish the official conclusions after carrying out special tests,” Medoyev said.

Georgian troops burn South Ossetian refugees alive

2008-08-11T17:30:00.002+01:00

Pravda
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

Israeli mass media published several articles August 10 dedicated to the war in South Ossetia. Newspapers paid special attention to arms shipments to Georgia, which Israel had made in the past. A former defense ministry official said that the Georgian army had no chances in the opposition to the Russian army.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of encouraging Georgia to interventions and ethnic cleansings in South Ossetia. Russia also claimed that Ukraine had armed Georgia to the teeth. Georgia’s ground forces possess weapons, ammunition, unmanned aircraft, night vision goggles and other equipment made in Israel.

Israel’s Defense Ministry recommended to cease arms shipments to Georgia after the start of military actions in South Ossetia, not to provoke Russia.

Battles in South Ossetia continued throughout the night. Russian sources said that about 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that the country reserved the right to forbid vessels of the Russian Black Sea Navy to return to their base in Ukraine’s Sevastopol.

Ukrainian official said that Ukraine was not willing to become involved in the conflict.

In the meantime, the armed forces of another unrecognized republic, Abkhazia, moved closer to its borderline with Georgia, Interfax reports with reference to Abkhazia’s defense ministry.

“Georgia does not stop its treacherous actions on Abkhazia’s border and continues to intensify its military presence. The armed forces of the republic were forced to enter the security zone and advance towards the Georgian border,” an official spokesman for the defense ministry of Abkhazia said.

It was reported that Georgia delivered a note to the Consul of the Russian Federation to Georgia which said that Georgia intended to end military actions in South Ossetia on August 10.

The note also said that Georgia was ready to immediately start cease-fire negotiations with the Russian Federation, Interfax reports.

However, fierce battles in South Ossetia continued on August 10 despite the official note. In addition, Georgia’s Defense Minister, Timur Yakobashvili, stated Sunday that the retreat of the Georgian troops from South Ossetia was out of the question.

“We decided to redeploy our troops to be able to resist the Russian armed forces, which outnumber our troops,” Yakobasvili said.

Russia’s General Staff of Armed Forces said that Russia had lost only two fighter jets in the conflict zone, but not 12 jets, as Georgian officials previously claimed.

“This number has nothing to do with the real state of affairs. We lost two aircraft – Su-25 and Tu-22 – and the situation has not changed since then,” Russia’s senior defense official, Anatoly Nogovitsin said.

Ossetian journalists wrote on their website that Georgian troops had captured a group of refugees from one of the regions of S. Ossetia. The Georgian military men locked them in a house and set the house on fire, burning all the people inside alive. An Ossetian woman informed Russian Prime Minister Putin of the hideous crime during his visit to a refugee camp. Another woman told Putin that she had seen a Georgian tank running over an elderly Ossetian woman who was trying to save two children. The woman was running out of the village, occupied the by the Georgian troops.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the hostilities in South Ossetia "massacres" and also said Sunday he would press Georgia and Russia for an immediate end to the violence in the breakaway Georgian province.

Kouchner said the EU cannot allow such a "Middle Age battle" to continue. He spoke in an interview with The Associated Press hours before he and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb left Paris for a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in Tbilisi.

The EU "cannot accept such a war, a terribly devastating and ... unacceptable war, at our doors," Kouchner said. France has held the EU's six-month rotating presidency since July 1.

French President Sarkozy, who spoke by telephone with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian Mikhail Saakashvili, said an agreement between the two neighbors not to use force against one another would be the best way of making sure any future accord would stick.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, disputed Georgia's claim that its troops have pulled out of South Ossetia. He said there were still Georgian troops in certain neighborhoods of provincial capital Tskhinvali, the AP reports.

Russia, which has outgunned the Georgian army and showcased its military might during the conflict, must be treated as "a great partner" in order for a political solution to be found, Kouchner said.

"There is not at all a military solution in this area, absolutely not, and we all know that," he said.
The EU, the United Nations and the U.S. could be among participants in any future political solution, Kouchner said. He did not say in what role they could contribute.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski urged the EU to send a peacekeeping mission, telling Poland's TVN24 that Europe "could be a good partner because it's credible to both sides."

Georgia began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes, killing hundreds of innocent people. In response, Russia, which has granted passports to most South Ossetians, launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.

Russia steps up attacks on Georgia

2008-08-11T17:25:00.001+01:00

Michael Mainville
AFP
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

TBILISI (AFP) - Russia jets staged raids and its forces moved deeper into Georgian territory on Monday, officials said, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denounced the United States for helping Georgia.

Two European Union foreign ministers pressed efforts to broker a ceasefire deal but diplomatic tensions between Russia and the United States held up efforts to pass a UN Security Council call for an end to the fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russia and Georgia traded accusations that each was launching attacks, while aid agencies warned of a mounting humanitarian crisis, heightening urgency to international efforts to secure a halt to the fighting.

The Georgian foreign ministry said more than 50 Russian warplanes had flown over Georgian territory. "Tbilisi was bombed. Bombs hit the village of Kojori and Makhata mountain," it said.

Georgian officials said Russian planes bombed radars at Tbilisi airport and civilian targets in the city of Gori, where the UN refugee agency said 80 percent of the 50,000 population had fled because of Russian attacks.

Russian forces carried out military operations around the western city of Senaki to prevent Georgian troops from regrouping and heading back into South Ossetia, news agencies reported quoting the Russian defence ministry.

A Russian military spokesman said 9,000 troops and more than 350 armoured vehicles would be deployed to bolster forces inside the second Georgian separatist region of Abhkazia.

Meanwhile, the South Ossetian separatist government said Georgia had resumed an artillery bombardment of its capital, Tskhinvali, where residents have reported many deaths.

The international Red Cross said it was getting increasing reports of civilian casualties from the conflict in South Ossetia and beyond.

As fighting intensified, US President George W. Bush, Georgia's biggest western ally, said he told Russia's prime minister that Russia's bombing of Georgia was "unacceptable."

"I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia," the US president told NBC television from Beijing.

Putin responded by accusing the US of trying to disrupt the Russian military operation by transporting Georgian troops from Iraq into the "conflict zone."

"It seems that this will not change anything, but will move us away from resolving the situation," said Putin.

Putin compared the actions of Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili to war crimes perpetrated by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"Saddam Hussein, of course, needed to be hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said. "But (not) the current Georgian leadership, which in less than an hour drove tanks through children and old people, burned people alive in their homes. These leaders need to be protected!"

Russia's military acknowledged it had lost 18 soldiers and four planes in the conflict but gave no details of its latest operations.

Saakashvili told foreign reporters several hundred Russian servicemen had been killed and 18 or 19 Russian aircraft shot down.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finland's Alexander Stubb put forward a European Union peace plan to Saakashvili who signed the peace proposal, a senior Georgian security official told AFP.

It calls for a ceasefire, medical help for victims, controlled withdrawals of troops on both sides and eventual political talks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Georgia on Tuesday, Saakashvili told journalists. Sarkozy is also due in Moscow to try to hammer out a ceasefire, Kouchner said.

Kouchner and Stubb later arrived in Vladikavkaz, in the Russian territory of North Ossetia, over the border from the conflict zone, where many casualties have been evacuated.

On Tuesday, they will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Stubb, current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In Washington, foreign ministers from the G7 countries Monday urged Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire called by Georgia after a telephone conference call, a US State Department official said.

But Moscow had launched its own diplomatic campaign. In Brussels, Russia's Ambassador to NATO called on the alliance to hold an extraordinary Russia-NATO council Tuesday before taking any decision on Georgia.

Medvedev said he would like an OSCE mission to be deployed in South Ossetia , the Kremlin said.

Russia sent thousands of troops, tanks and air support into South Ossetia on Friday after Georgia launched an offensive to seize control of the province, which broke from Georgia in the early 1990s.

The UN Security Council was set for more talks Monday on a ceasefire call in Georgia after the United States and Russia traded barbs in Cold War-style exchanges.

US partly to blame – ex Georgian FM

2008-08-11T17:22:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

Many experts say the military conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia is not in Russia’s interests. The Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili says the United States could be partly responsible for the violence in South Ossetia.

In an interview with the France-Presse news agency she commented on the possible reasons behind the military conflict.

“There are many Americans in Georgia training the military forces of the country and monitoring the situation. As I understand, they also supervise the strategic corridor – the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

The main purpose behind the conflict is the further strategic orientation of Georgia and an opportunity for the West, I mean the USA and the EU, to count on Georgia and the Caucasus in ensuring the strategic provision of oil”.

Professor Gerhard Mangott, from the Department of political science at the University of Innsbruck, shared his opinion on who stands to gain from the military escalation in the conflict zone.

“The military assault in South Ossetia was launched deliberately, and the question is by whom? Definitely, not by Russia, as it’s not in the country’s interests,” he said.

Security expert Andrey Demurenko said it will be years before South Ossetians can trust Georgia again:

“Saakashvili should kneel in front of cameras and beg for forgiveness from the mothers of killed sons, the economy should be re-stored, houses and streets rebuilt, families returned”.

He added that it was inevitable that both South Ossetia and Abkhazia would move further away from Georgia and insist on greater autonomy.

“Georgian aggression towards them has just speeded up the process,” Demurenko said.

Lavrov tells Rice about Georgia’s numerous war crimes in S Ossetia

2008-08-11T17:20:00.000+01:00

Itar-Tass
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday held a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The conversation was held on the initiative of the American side, Russian Foreign Ministry sources said.

Lavrov “stated our principled assessments of the developments in South Ossetia.” He “stressed that in the conditions of the persisting direct threat to the life of Russian citizens in South Ossetia, the Russian peacekeeping forces in accordance with the existing international agreements are continuing an operation to force the Georgian side to peace.” The minister also “pointed to the numerous war crimes of the Georgian troops against peaceful civilians of South Ossetia, which resulted in a major humanitarian catastrophe in the republic,” according to the sources.

Lavrov “stressed the necessity of the immediate withdrawal of the Georgian troops from South Ossetia to positions not violating the agreements between the sides, and of the signing by the conflict sides of a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force,” the Russian Foreign Ministry officials stressed.

Civilian Genocide, Dead Americans Cost Of U.S.-Russia Proxy War

2008-08-11T17:05:00.001+01:00

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, August 11, 2008

Media portrays US/NATO client state Georgia as victim despite war crimes provocation to launch conflict

The truth behind who is primarily responsible for the bloodshed unfolding in South Ossetia and surrounding areas has been buried by the western corporate media. Georgian forces, with a green light from NATO and the support of American and Ukrainian mercenaries, launched a brutal attack targeting civilians and Russian peacekeepers timed to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics so as to temporarily deflect attention before the inevitable Russian response, by which time the global media machine kicked into high gear to smear Russia as the villains of the entire piece.

To accept such a characterization is not parroting Russian military propaganda, it is a reflection of the stone cold fact that Georgia was responsible for the first provocation - which itself amounted to a war crime - that launched the conflict.

That is not to hide from the fact that Russia’s unrelenting response continues to slaughter untold numbers of innocent people.

The initial Georgian bombardment of the provincial capital Tskhinvali was primarily directed to achieve maximum civilian casualties, with residential areas, hospitals and the university being targeted, leading to at least 1500 civilian deaths according to both western and Russian sources.

“The air and artillery bombardment left the provincial capital without water, food, electricity and gas. Horrified civilians crawled out of the basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies,” reported the Associated Press.

Reports of the initial carnage metered out by Georgian forces and the slaughter of Russian peacekeepers are difficult to find, because they have already been buried under the deluge of condemnation about Russia’s heavy-handed response.

American citizen and resident of South Ossetia Joe Mestas described the war crimes he witnessed being carried out by Georgian forces, back by U.S. support, against innocent civilians.

“I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war, but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president] Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding,” Mestas said.

“The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is killing innocent civilians. This is genocide,” he added.

A prime example of media bias in shielding Georgia from responsibility for the carnage is the fact that news outlets like the BBC continue to report that 1500 civilians have been killed in Georgia, with the obvious inference being that these are victims of the Russian onslaught. But these victims were not killed in Georgia, they were killed in Ossetia - by Georgian forces.

As the Chimes of Freedom Blog elaborates, “While the Ossetians claimed over 1000 dead the BBC neither reported this or any newsreel coming out of Ossetia showing the destruction caused by the Georgian shelling of the breakaway republic. All we are getting is one-sided reports of the destruction being caused by the Russians.”

“The BBC is giving carte blanche to the Georgian point-of-view to be aired on its services while nothing whatsoever is being heard from the Ossetian side. The BBC’s repetitive playing of a statement by George Bush, given several days ago, without balancing these against statements from the Russian side indicates where the BBC is coming from.”

Other mainstream news outlets are either aping the portrayal of Georgia, which enjoys the support of the American empire and NATO, as a poor isolated little country under brutal assault by the big bully Russia, or simply ignoring events altogether and obsessing about John Edwards’ extramarital affair.

In reality, Georgia is being used as a proxy client state through which the U.S. and NATO are advancing their geopolitical motives - to the cost of Ossetian, Georgian and Russian civilians alike caught in the middle of the carnage.

As Professor Michel Chossudovsky explains, “Georgia is an outpost of US and NATO forces, on the immediate border of the Russian Federation and within proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater. South Ossetia is also at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes.”

“Georgia does not act militarily without the assent of Washington. The Georgian head of State is a US proxy and Georgia is a de facto US protectorate.”

The price of the U.S. and NATO’s latest proxy war is already being paid with the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians - along with American mercenaries supporting Georgian forces.
According to the president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, the bodies of black men were found at the site of one battle near a school.

Russian envoy Dmitry Medoyev indicated the men may have been American mercenaries.

“In yesterday’s attack, the advancing tanks were supposedly crewed by Ukrainians. Two unidentified bodies found today are said to have black skin. Possibly they are Americans but we can’t say for sure yet. We will be able to publish the official conclusions after carrying out special tests,” Medoyev said.

Last month, the United States, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Ukraine conducted Immediate Response 2008, a joint training exercise said to be in “spirit of the NATO Partnership for Peace program,” according to Blackanthem Military News. Immediate Response 2008 was held at the Vaziani Military Base in Georgia.

In another report, a woman interviewed by Russia Today in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, talked about the presence of Georgian troops with American insignias. “There are lots of bodies over there, a lot of people have been killed, mostly Ossetians, but also Georgians, they had American emblems on their forearms and they were in black uniforms,” she said.

Black uniforms are a trademark of Blackwater and DynCorp mercenaries (see Chris Hedges, America’s Holy Warriors). DynCorp’s presence in Eastern Europe is well documented, particularly in occupied Bosnia where it engaged in sex-trafficking and prostitution.

In a Friday press conference, Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Security Committee Vladimir Vasilyev said without U.S. aid, Tbilisi would have been unable to start military operation in South Ossetia. “The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America,” said Vasilyev. “In essence, the Americans have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals.”

It is entirely feasible the U.S. has “prepared the force” with mercenaries as well.
Michel Chossudovsky explores the reasoning behind Georgia’s act of provocation that launched the conflict.

US-NATO military and intelligence planners invariably examine various “scenarios” of a proposed military operation– i.e. in this case, a limited Georgian attack largely directed against civilian targets, with a view to inflicting civilian casualties.

The examination of scenarios is a routine practice. With limited military capabilities, a Georgian victory and occupation of Tskhinvali, was an impossibility from the outset. And this was known and understood to US-NATO military planners.

A humanitarian disaster rather than a military victory was an integral part of the scenario. The objective was to destroy the provincial capital, while also inflicting a significant loss of human life.

If the objective were to restore Georgian political control over the provincial government, the operation would have been undertaken in a very different fashion, with Special Forces occupying key public buildings, communications networks and provincial institutions, rather than waging an all out bombing raid on residential areas, hospitals, not to mention Tskhinvali’s University.

The Russian response was entirely predictable.

Georgia was “encouraged” by NATO and the US. Both Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels were acutely aware of what would happen in the case of a Russian counterattack.

The question is: was this a deliberate provocation intended to trigger a Russian military response and suck the Russians into a broader military confrontation with Georgia (and allied forces) which could potentially escalate into an all out war?

With rhetoric from figures like President Bush and Condoleezza Rice becoming increasingly heated towards Russia, the potential for an escalation in tensions is readily apparent.

Only the most naive would believe that the U.S. missile defense shield is anything other than a bulwark against Russian military expansion, and Russia’s response in resuming bomber patrols across the Atlantic sends a clear message.

Knowing that Americans remain completely unconvinced about the necessity of attacking Iran, have the Neo-Cons in control of the White House lit the blue touch paper for a wider war that could swing the U.S. election in favor of pro-war candidate John McCain?

Or is this merely payback for Russia lending their expertise in building Iranian nuclear reactors?
The motives will become clear in due course but what’s certain is that innocent lives will continue to be lost as the American empire lurches into its next theatre of conflict and the Neo-
Cons play a deadly game that could have devastating wider consequences.

Attorney: ‘DC Madam’ left instructions if ‘ever found dead of apparent suicide’

2008-08-10T18:04:00.001+01:00

Lori Price
Citizens For Legitimate Government
August 9, 2008

Attorney: "Jeane was very clear with me that if she was ever found dead of an apparent suicide, I was to make sure that all the evidence was publicly disseminated so that it could be independently evaluated."

Exclusive: Citizens For Legitimate Government has learned that Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, has intervened to stop a lawsuit seeking to prevent the Tarpon Springs, Florida, Police Department from releasing information requested by Sibley pertaining to the investigation of Jeane’s death.

On July 22, 2008, Sibley requested under the Florida Public Records Act, "copies of any and all records, including without limitation police reports and photographs, related to the investigation of the death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey on May 1, 2008, at [redacted] Tarpon Springs, Florida. This request includes copies of every document related to the matter, regardless of the format in which the information is stored. I note that information stored on a computer is as much a public record as a written page in a book or stored in a filing cabinet."

Citing his obligation to discharge explicit instructions from his former client, Jeane Palfrey, the so-called DC Madam, to "fully investigate and reveal the circumstances of her death if deemed a suicide by authorities," her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, has moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Jeane’s mother, Blanche Palfrey. That lawsuit seeks to prevent the Tarpon Springs, Florida Police Department from releasing information requested by Sibley pertaining the investigation of Jeane’s death on May 1 of this year.

Sibley said, "While I don’t mean to cause Jeane’s family additional grief, an attorney’s first duty is to his client, and Jeane was very clear with me that if she was ever found dead of an apparent suicide, I was to make sure that all the evidence was publicly disseminated so that it could be independently evaluated."

A hearing has been set in that matter on August 15 before Florida Circuit Court Judge Linda Allan in Clearwater, Florida.

10 August 2008

*****

The URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/dc_madam_update_100808.html

*****

Previous ‘DC Madam’ news and updates:

‘D.C. Madam’ trial scheduled for April 7 –Full jury trial is scheduled to take place on April 7th, in Federal District Court, in Washington, D.C. By Lori Price 28 Feb 2008 Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the ‘DC Madam,’ told Citizens for Legitimate Government Thursday, "In many respects, I can’t wait to get into court and get this monkey off my back. This case has gone on far too long." Ms. Palfrey also told CLG that her former counsel, Preston Burton, has been reassigned as her CJA attorney.

New Judge Assigned to ‘DC Madam’ case 04 Dec 2007 As an administrative matter, Judge Gladys Kessler was transferred off the cases of the so-called DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and District of Columbia Judge James Robertson was assigned to preside over Ms. Palfrey’s cases.

‘D.C. Madam’ Seeks Subpoenas for Senator Vitter and Harlan Ullman –By Lori Price 02 Nov 2007 Citizens for Legitimate Government has learned that subpoenas for Senator David Vitter and Harlan Ullman, former customers of Paula Neble, an independent-contractor escort of Ms. Palfrey’s escort service, have been sought for a November 28, 2007 hearing.

Subpoenas Served On ABC’s Brian Ross/New York Post’s Cindy Adams By ‘DC Madam’ By Lori Price 26 Sep 2007 Citizens for Legitimate Government has learned that so-called DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, has issued subpoenas for the depositions of (i) Troy Burrus, the IRS case agent on Palfrey’s case, for Friday, September 28th in Washington, D.C., and (ii) Brian Ross of ABC News, (ii) Cindy Adams of the New York Post and (iv) Bill Bastone of The Smoking Gun for Friday October 5th in New York City.

‘DC Madam’ defense likely to disclose evidence, identities deemed classified’ By Lori Price 01 Sep 2007 Citizens for Legitimate Government has learned that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the ‘DC Madam,’ has filed with the Court a pro se "Motion for Pretrial Conference to Consider Matters Relating to Classified Information" under the Classified Information Procedures Act. This filing alerts the government that Palfrey’s defense will likely involve the disclosure of evidence and identities presently deemed "Classified" by the U.S. government.

‘DC Madam’ Phone Records By Lori Price 09 Jul 2007

‘D.C. Madam’ Phone List Names & Places Posted by Lori Price

Citizens For Legitimate Government has received the ‘DC Madam’ phone records and is preparing the list for release. –Lori Price 09 Jul 2007

The Pipeline War: Russian bear goes for West’s jugular

2008-08-10T17:44:00.002+01:00

Svetlana Skarbo and Jonathan Petre
UK Daily Mail
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

Georgia ‘pulls out of S Ossetia’

Georgia has today withdrawn its troops from the capital of South Ossetia, according to reports.

The ceasefire came just hours after claims emerged Russian jets had bombed a vital pipeline that supplies oil to the West.

After a day of heightening international tensions, Georgian leaders claimed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, had been attacked. But it is thought the bombs missed their target.

Their claims came after Russian jets struck deep into the territory of its tiny neighbour, killing civilians and ‘completely devastating’ the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, a staging post for oil and other energy supplies.

Reports last night also said that Russia had bombed the international airport in Tbilisi.

Georgian economic development minister Ekaterina Sharashidzne said: ‘This clearly shows that Russia has targeted not just Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets as well.’

The pipeline is 30 per cent owned by BP and supplies 1 per cent of the world’s oil needs, pumping up to a million barrels of crude per day to Turkey.

It is crucial to the world’s volatile energy market and the only oil and gas route that bypasses Russia’s stranglehold on energy exports from the region.

As President Bush led the West in intensifying pressure on Russia to halt the bombing in Georgia last night, the two countries were edging closer to full-scale war over their conflicting claims for disputed territory.

Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili called for a ceasefire and accused Moscow of mounting an unprovoked invasion that put ‘the entire post-Cold War order of Europe and the world at stake’.

But Moscow said that the conflict could not be resolved unless Georgia withdrew from its breakaway region of South Ossetia. The alarming developments followed a second day of drama and bloodshed in the pro-Western country in which:

• Russian jets widened the offensive by bombing the central Georgian town of Gori – Joseph Stalin’s birthplace – in an attack on military targets that Georgian authorities claimed killed 60 civilians, and attacked the port of Poti.
• Georgia claimed that Russian troops had opened a new front by moving into another disputed province, Abkhazia, which has also suffered from ethnic tensions.
• Georgia declared a state of war, recalled all its 2,000 troops from Iraq and ordered a mass call-up with reservists being sent to the war zone to ‘defend the motherland’.
• Russia claimed that it had ‘completely liberated’ the capital of South Ossetia Tskhinvali – a claim denied by Georgia – after flying in elite troops in an operation Moscow said was intended to force Georgia into a ceasefire.
• Georgia claimed to have shot down 12 Russian combat aircraft – but Moscow confirmed that only two planes were missing.
• Georgia may pull its 35-strong Olympic team out of the Beijing games because of the Russian military attacks, the country’s National Olympic Committee said.

The forces of the two countries first clashed on Friday after Moscow sent hundreds of troops and armed convoys across the border into South Ossetia to repel a Georgian attack on rebels allied to Moscow.

Almost 40,000 refugees have already fled to Russia from the fighting, threatening a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tskhinvali was said to have been ‘almost destroyed’ in onslaughts by both sides.
Bodies lay in the streets and hospitals were overwhelmed with wounded.

Most of the 70,000 South Ossetians hold Russian passports and are allied to Moscow, while Georgia is an ally of the US and has applied to join Nato.

Russian bombers yesterday widened the offensive to force Georgian troops back from South Ossetia by bombing.

In his first Press conference since the conflict broke out early yesterday, President Saakashvili said: ‘I call for an immediate ceasefire. Russia has launched a full-scale military invasion of Georgia.’

He reacted furiously to the air strikes on Gori and Poti, saying that it was comparable to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

He also alleged that Russian troops were opening up another front, adding: ‘Hours ago Russia’s Black Sea fleet started to move into Georgia’s territory in Abkhazia. Russian troops and heavy equipment are in upper Abkhazia.’

He said Russia was conducting ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Ossetia and Abkhazia’s Kodoro Gorge region.

The Georgian Parliament has approved a declaration for a ‘state of war’ for 15 days after at least 2,000 civilians were killed in fighting between Russia and the former Soviet satellite.

Overnight, two Russian planes were shot down and 12 of its soldiers were killed – along with more civilians who died during fighting in South Ossetia.

Russian fighter jets carried out up to five raids on mostly military targets around Gori – close to the conflict zone in South Ossetia – but at least one bomb is thought to have hit an apartment, killing five civilians, according to reports.

The Foreign Office upgraded its travel advice to urge against all but essential travel to Georgia. Foreign Secretary David Miliband was under mounting pressure to consider breaking off his summer holiday to tackle the mounting crisis.

Mr Miliband, on holiday in Minorca, issued his first statement on the the affair late yesterday to call for a ceasefire ‘and for peace talks to start as soon as possible’.

He also announced that he was sending Sir Brian Fall, the Foreign Office representative for the South Caucasus, to Georgia as part of an EU peace mission.

Defence Minister Des Browne said a delegation of EU, US and Nato officials was flying to the Georgian capital ‘to broker a ceasefire’.

The move caps two days of faltering diplomatic activity, in which members of the United Nations Security Council have struggled to convene an emergency meeting.

Belgium’s UN Ambassador Jan Grauls, who chairs the 15-member council this month, had spoken to his Russian and American counterparts.

‘Depending on how much progress is made in these bilaterals, we will decide whether we can call a full council meeting,’ his spokesman said.

President Bush expressed alarm about the escalating conflict and called on Russia to respect Georgia’s territorial integrity.

In Beijing, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was seen to approach President Bush in the Olympic stadium, where they were attending the opening ceremony.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he witnessed a heated discussion between the two leaders.

‘The President and Mr Putin were in an animated conversation two seats in front of us and I imagine they had a few things on their agenda,’ he said.

Mr Putin later accused Georgia of seeking ‘bloody adventures’ and trying to drag other countries into a military conflict in South Ossetia.

‘Georgia’s aspiration to join Nato... is driven by its attempt to drag other nations and peoples into its bloody adventures,’ Mr Putin said during a meeting in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, some of which was shown on TV.

Mr Putin defended Russia’s incursion into South Ossetia and urged Georgia to halt ‘aggression’ against the breakaway region.

‘From a legal point of view, Russia’s actions in South Ossetia are totally legitimate,’ said Putin, who flew to the city after attending the opening of the Olympics.

‘We urge the Georgian authorities to immediately stop their aggression against South Ossetia, to stop all violations of all standing agreements on a ceasefire and to respect the legal rights and interests of other people.’

Soon afterwards the US, Nato and the EU called for an immediate end to the fighting and the UN Security Council convened a tense emergency session to try to prevent all-out war.

Georgian forces say they have fought off attacks by Abkhazian separatists, backed by Russian air raids, in the Kodori Gorge region.

Russian forces invaded Abkhazia hours after taking control of most of South Ossetia, said President Saakashvili.

As the conflict escalated rapidly, Mr Saakashvili said his country had formally moved to a state of war and offered an immediate ceasefire.

He said Moscow had been planning the assault for months, accused Russia of actions similar to Stalin’s invasion of Finland in 1939 and said ‘the entire post-Cold War order of Europe and the world is at stake’.

Foreign journalists witnessed an air attack on the town of Gori early yesterday morning and the Georgian government claimed Russian bombers had ‘completely devastated’ the Black Sea port of Poti.

Russia has reportedly started to bomb civil and economic infrastructure, including the military base at Senaki. Up to 11 Russian jets reportedly hit container tanks and a shipbuilding plant at Poti.

Moscow has announced it would send reinforcements into South Ossetia and President Dmitry Medvedev has pledged to ‘force the Georgian side to peace’.

Colonel Igor Konashenkov, a Russian infantry officer, said units of the 58th army had arrived in Tskhinvali overnight and would seek to ‘establish peace. Additional ‘special units’ would arrive ‘in the next few hours’.

Columns of Russian tanks plunged the two neighbours into war as they filed into South Ossetia yesterday, marking the Kremlin’s first military assault on foreign soil since the Afghanistan intervention, which ended in 1989.

South Ossetia won de-facto independence in a war that ended in 1992 but has been a source of tension ever since.

Russian peacekeepers have suffered 15 dead and 150 wounded, the peacekeeping forces were quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

‘Now our peacekeepers are waging a fierce battle with regular forces from the Georgian army in the southern region of Tskhinvali,’ a representative of the Russian force was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia, said: ‘I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings and in cars. It’s impossible to count them now.’

The greatest mismatch in history of war

Georgia’s war with Russia is a David and Goliath battle that, military experts say, the Black Sea state has no chance of winning.

The Georgians are outnumbered and outgunned in every department. Russia has about 697,000 troops, while Georgia has only 19,500 full-time regulars.

And with Russia’s 1,200 combat aircraft confronting Georgia’s seven outmoded support planes, and 6,000 tanks against 100 ageing machines, there is no contest.

Matthew Clements, Eurasia editor for Jane’s Defence journal, said last night: ‘The Georgian military cannot withstand a full Russian assault.

'The Russians have total air superiority and their coordinated operation gives the Georgians no chance of resisting.’

Fox News Host Refuses To Talk About Russia-Georgia War, Insists On Covering Edwards’

2008-08-10T17:37:00.002+01:00

Think Progress
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

Yesterday, Russia launched a major military offensive against Georgia, which Georgia has called “a state of war.” Nearly two thousand people have died and the conflict risks sparking a wider war. Also yesterday, former senator John Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair in 2006.

Fox News has decided which story is worthy of more coverage. Today, host Gregg Jarrett interviewed PBS’s Bonnie Erbe. “We have these huge stories going on like the one you’re reporting in Georgia,” Erbe noted when asked about Edwards. Jarrett, however, completely ignored Erbe’s comment on Georgia and continued to talk about Edwards, offering praise for the National Enquirer:

JARRETT: You know, his excuse for lying is absolutely stunning. He claims he denied the affair because the reporting by the National Enquirer was “99 percent wrong.” Well, so far, they’ve been about 100 percent right.

Throughout the segment, Jarrett refused to talk about anything except for Edwards’s affair:

ERBE: The American public have told pollsters, this political season they want substance. Both these candidates have expressed support for allowing Georgia into NATO. … We could have been on the verge of nuclear war. Those are the kinds of the things that the American public wants to see discussed.

JARRETT: Right. You know, but getting back to Edwards, during the Monica Lewinsky affair, Edwards absolutely ripped into Bill Clinton.

Erbe called the Edwards story “water cooler talk,” noting again that Edwards’s affair is “not the stuff the American public wants to hear about in this election cycle.” Again, Jarrett wholly ignored her, responding with more Edwards talk:

JARRETT: Well it’s amazing, he thought could get away with it, and if he had become the Democratic nominee, my goodness.

Of course, this is nothing new for Fox, which has a history of covering tabloid issues more than wars.

Watch it:

Pravda: War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA

2008-08-10T17:29:00.001+01:00

Pravda
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

The US administration urged for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict between Russia and Georgia over the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia.

In the meantime, Russian officials believe that it was the USA that orchestrated the current conflict. The chairman of the State Duma Committee for Security, Vladimir Vasilyev, believes that the current conflict is South Ossetia is very reminiscent to the wars in Iraq and Kosovo.

“The things that were happening in Kosovo, the things that were happening in Iraq – we are now following the same path. The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America. South Ossetian defense officials used to make statements about imminent aggression from Georgia, but the latter denied everything, whereas the US Department of State released no comments on the matter. In essence, they have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals. They are responsible for this. The world community will learn about it,” the official said.

In the meantime, it became known that the Georgian troops conducted volley-fire cleansings of several South Ossetian settlements, where people’s houses were simply leveled.

“The number of victims with women, children and elderly people among them, can be counted in hundreds and even thousands,” a source from South Ossetian government in the capital of Tskhinvali said.

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters that Georgia’s actions in South Ossetia question its consistency as a state and as a responsible member of the international community, Interfax reports.

“Civilians, including women, children and elderly people, are dying in South Ossetia. In addition to that, Georgia conducts ethnic scouring in South Ossetian villages. The situation in South Ossetia continues to worsen every hour. Georgia uses military hardware and heavy arms against people. They shell residential quarters of Tskhinvali [the capital] and other settlements. They bomb the humanitarian convoys. The number of refugees continues to rise – the people try to save their lives, the lives of their children and relatives. A humanitarian catastrophe is gathering pace,” Russia’s Foreign Minister said.

The minister added that the Georgian administration ignored the appeal from the UN General Assembly to observe the Olympic truce during the Beijing Olympics.

“The Georgian administration has found the use to its arms, which they have been purchasing during the recent several years,” Lavrov said. “The fact that Georgian peacemakers in the structure of joint peacemaking forces opened fire on their Russian comrades from one and the same contingent speaks for itself, I think,” the minister added.

“Now it is clear to us why Georgia never accepted Russia’s offer to sign a legally binding document not to use force for the regulation of the South Ossetian conflict,” Lavrov said. “Not so long ago, before the military actions in South Ossetia, Georgia’s President Saakashvili said that there was no point in such a document because Georgia would not use force against its people, as he said. It just so happens that it is using it,” Sergei Lavrov said.

Sergei Lavrov believes that the international community should stop turning a blind eye on Georgia’s active deals to purchase arms.

“We have repeatedly warned that the international community should not turn a blind eye on massive purchases of offensive arms, in which the Georgian administration has been involved during the recent two years,” Lavrov said.

FBI documents reveal new look at JFK assassination

2008-08-10T17:19:00.002+01:00

necn
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

A newly released FBI file is revealing a different look at the investigation into the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

Documents show Gerald Ford, then a congressman, secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on the Warren Commission doubted JFK had been shot from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository.

The FBI’s large file on Ford was released in part this past week in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act made by the media on the day Ford died in 2006.

The file offers detailed descriptions of Ford’s work as an FBI informant.

Related: AP - Ford told FBI about panel’s doubts on JFK murder

Proof that Ivins Couldn’t Have Done It (At Least Not Alone)

2008-08-10T17:13:00.001+01:00

George Washington’s Blog
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

According to the FBI, Ivins made the killer anthrax in his lab at Fort Detrick all by himself in something like 12 hours (pages 8-9).

Is that plausible?

Well, one of the handful of people who actually can produce the kind of high-tech weaponized anthrax used in the attacks said:

“In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I’m one of them,” said Richard O. Spertzel, chief biological inspector for the U.N. Special Commission from 1994 to 1998. “And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good.”

In addition, scientists at Ft. Detrick say that no one there had the equipment or knowledge to make weaponized anthrax of the type used in the letters (more on this in a later esasy).

If it would take one of the handful of people who have the know-how and a good lab with staff a year, and if no one at Ivins’ lab knew how to do it, how could Ivins have made it all by himself in 12 hours without the proper equipment?

Russia strikes a blow at its fears of Nato encirclement

2008-08-10T17:08:00.001+01:00

Karen DeYoung
London Times
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

TENSIONS over South Ossetia and Abkhazia – two tiny Russian-backed separatist regions in Georgia that have enjoyed de facto independence since soon after the break-up of the Soviet Union – have been rising for months. Western intelligence experts had long been warning that war was likely.

Superficially, the sequence of events is a simple escalation.

Since sweeping to power four years ago on the back of a peaceful popular uprising welcomed by the West, Mikhail Saakashvili, 40, a US-educated lawyer, has pledged to bring the two enclaves back under Georgia’s control.

In April Vladimir Putin, then Russian president, recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as legal entities, drawing Georgian accusations that Moscow was trying to annex the enclaves. In July four Russian military jets violated Georgian airspace, triggering Georgian protests and a threat to shoot down the next Russian warplane.

Last week, each side accused the other of armed provocation in South Ossetia. On Friday Saakashvili ordered an offensive after receiving reports – he said – that the Russian military had neared the border. As Russians routed the Georgians in South Ossetia, Abkhazian rebels said they had begun to drive out the Georgians from a key position in the Black Sea enclave.

There is much more at stake in the fighting than the future of two small breakaway republics, however. A greater conflict is under way.

One key is the recognition earlier this year by Nato and European Union countries of Kosovan independence from Serbia. Russia opposed this; Serbia has long been its client state. However, it tried to turn the defeat to its advantage by pushing the argument that, if Kosovans could be independent, so too could the Abkhazians and Ossetians.

This was a significant development in Russia’s reaction to what it regards as steady western encirclement.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the West of reneging on post-cold-war assurances that there would be no expansion into the vacuum left by the Soviet Union. Not only have former Soviet satellite states in east-central Europe joined Nato, but Georgia and Ukraine – once integral parts of the USSR – are also seeking entry. The Georgian army is being retrained by American military advisers.

Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to host American missile sites, ostensibly as part of an antiIranian shield. The thought of Ukraine and Georgia doing the same gives Kremlin securocrats nightmares.

In South Ossetia, Russia is drawing a confrontation line in the sand. If Georgia joins Nato, Moscow is saying, there is no way that South Ossetia and Abkhazia will be part of it.

“If Saakashvili thought he was going to take over the region by force without a Russian reaction, he is even more naive than we thought,” said a Kremlin insider. “I’m not quite sure what he had in mind, but the end result is pretty clear as far as we are concerned. Russian tanks in South Ossetia won’t be in any rush to leave.”

Georgia’s young president has taken a gamble that the crisis will make Nato more rather than less likely to welcome him as a partner, and that America will recognise him as a fellow warrior in the worldwide struggle for freedom.

“It’s not about Georgia any more,” Saakashvili said. “It’s about America, its values: we are a freedom-loving nation that is right now under attack.”

He could be wrong: some western Europeans are certainly doubtful and George Bush has not come out with all guns blazing in his support. “[Saakashvili] has had plenty of warnings from the West that it won’t pull any chestnuts out of the fire for him, so I don’t think he can count on the cavalry riding in,” said Fraser Cameron of the EU-Russia Centre in Brussels.

“He is in big danger of losing the cachet he built up for himself in being pro-western and the restraint he has often shown,” said James Nixey of Chatham House, the foreign policy think tank, in London. “If he is going to start a war, he is going to lose the support of a lot of friends in the West.”

Saakashvili knows full well, however, that his country is of great economic importance to western Europe because of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which runs through central Georgia south of the breakaway region.

Although it lies hundreds of miles from troubled South Ossetia, the BTC pipeline is flanked by key Georgian military installations that were among the first targets attacked by Russian jets as the conflict erupted late last week.

Young presidents at war

The war has pitted against each other two inexperienced young presidents, both of them lawyers.

Georgia’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, 40, is an ardent supporter of George W Bush and has several framed photos of them together. Educated at Columbia and George Washington universities, he was justice minister in the government of Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet foreign minister who became Georgia’s president after the USSR collapsed.

He turned against his patron, and succeeded him after the nonviolent Rose revolution in 2003. He has not found ruling the volatile country easy; critics accused him of autocratic tendencies last year after a crackdown on the opposition. Saakashvili is vilified in Russia.

Russia’s new president, Dmitry Medvedev, 42, is a mild-mannered bureaucrat elevated by Vladimir Putin earlier this year. A short, dapper figure regarded as weaker and more liberal than his mentor, he needed to demonstrate to powerful clans inside the Kremlin that he, too, could be tough.

While Medvedev has yet to step out of Putin’s shadow, he is the first Russian leader to order troops into a foreign country since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Putin accuses Georgia of genocide

2008-08-10T17:01:00.000+01:00

Press TV
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

Russian Premier Vladimir Putin arrived in the capital of North Ossetia, and called Georgia’s acts in South Ossetia a species of “genocide”.

While in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, Putin said, “The actions of the Georgian leadership in South Ossetia are a crime and foremost they are a crime against their own people because a deadly blow has been delivered to the territorial integrity of Georgia, which brings massive damage to its national identity.”

Putin continued, “It’s hard to imagine after all that had happened and after all that is still happening they’ll be able to convince South Ossetia to be part of Georgia.”

The impact of what he saw led him to call for an investigation into alleged acts of genocide by Georgian forces during their offensive against South Ossetia, AFP reported.

Putin told President Dmitry Medvedev in comments that were broadcast on Sunday on Russian television that the incidents that were described by the refugees, “lie beyond the framework of understanding of military actions.”

He continued by saying, “In my opinion they are already elements of some kind of genocide of the Ossetian people. I think it would be correct if you instruct the military prosecutor to document all such incidents.”

In response to Putin’s statement, Medvedev said that he would issue the order and vowed to bring criminal charges against those who were responsible.

He had originally arrived in Vladikavkaz to hold talks with evacuees and officials and had changed his travel plans in order to see at first hand what was being done to assist the war refugees from South Ossetia, Russia Today reported.

Putin also discussed an aid package to help North Ossetia cope with the influx of refugees by announcing that the Russian government was planning to assign about USD 400m for the reconstruction of South Ossetia.

Russian Ships Steam Toward Georgia as Conflict Grows

2008-08-10T16:53:00.002+01:00

Paul Abelsky and Alex Nicholson
Bloomberg
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

Russia sent warships from the Black Sea fleet toward Georgia as it stepped up its conflict with the former Soviet republic over the separatist South Ossetia region.

The ships included a vessel based in the naval port of Sevastopol and four others from Novorossiysk, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, without saying where it got the information. Georgian Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said a ship carrying grain to the Georgian port of Poti was turned away by a Russian warship, suggesting an economic blockade.

“Russia has shown itself capable of crossing every line in this conflict,” Sharashidze said in a telephone interview late yesterday from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.

Russian jets crossed the border to attack military and civilian targets in as many as six locations simultaneously, Georgian Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia said. Russia’s actions amounted to “full-scale war,” he said. Russian planes today bombed a military airfield near Tbilisi, Georgian Security Council secretary Kakha Lomaia said in a telephone interview.

“It’s all going to hell,” Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said yesterday in an interview on CNN in which he appealed for international help. “We are willing to do cease- fire immediately providing the other side stops to shoot and to bomb.”

President George W. Bush said yesterday the fighting was a “a dangerous escalation” and called for an “immediate halt to violence.” The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory to discourage Americans from visiting the region. Russia demanded a withdrawal of Georgian troops from South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and exists as a de facto independent state with Russian economic support.

Russian Peacekeepers

President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia's actions were a response to Georgia's assault on its citizens as well as the peacekeepers Russia has had in South Ossetia since the disputed region broke away in the early 1990s. Russia has received no official communication from Georgia about Saakashvili's offer of a cease-fire, the Kremlin press office said by telephone.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to Russia's North Ossetia region to oversee a ``humanitarian operation'' as refugees fled from the violence. Putin made the unannounced visit on his return from Beijing, where he had attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the former president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said by phone.

Putin met Medvedev early today at the presidential residence in Gorki outside Moscow and called for Georgia's military actions to be investigated by the Prosecutor General's Office. The meeting was broadcast on state television.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York that 2,000 civilians have died in South Ossetia since the outbreak of hostilities on Aug. 8 and that 30,000 people have fled their homes and crossed the border into Russia.

Churkin, who spoke at the UN after the Security Council failed for the third consecutive day to agree on a position on the fighting, said Georgia's military actions had ``all the elements of genocide and war crimes.''

Putin Comments

Putin said Russia's actions were ``absolutely justified and legitimate and more important, necessary,'' in a meeting with regional leaders in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, broadcast on state television. Putin's ``visit has no military component,'' and will be short, Peskov said.

Russia will discuss a cease-fire ``only if Georgia withdraws all armed forces from the conflict zone and signs a non-aggression pact with South Ossetia,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on state television today.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has sought support from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and his counterparts in France and Germany, according to an interview with BBC television that was published on the ministry's Web site. He and Rice spoke three times yesterday, the ministry said.

Civilian Casualties

Lavrov said 1,500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed, while Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said two Russian aircraft had been shot down.

Saakashvili has signed a decree declaring a state of war, Lomaia said. At least 55 Georgians, both civilian and military, have been killed, he said.

The commander of Russian troops in South Ossetia, Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulyov, was wounded yesterday when a column of armored vehicles moving toward Tskhinvali came under Georgian attack, state television station Vesti-24 reported, without saying how serious his condition was.

EU foreign ministers will meet early next week to discuss ways to resolve the crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in an e-mailed statement from Paris yesterday.

Sarkozy proposed that a solution involve an immediate cease-fire, ``full respect'' for the territorial integrity of Georgia and a return to the situation on the ground that existed before hostilities erupted.

U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama separately spoke with President Saakashvili and called for the protection of Georgian sovereignty.
``Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border,'' McCain said in e-mailed statement yesterday.

The military escalation resulted from the ``lack of a neutral and effective peacekeeping force operating under an appropriate UN mandate,'' Obama said in an e-mailed statement, backing the deployment of international peacekeepers in Georgia's breakaway states.

Peacekeeping Mission

Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, came to power in the 2003 ``Rose Revolution'' backed by the U.S. He vowed to bring South Ossetia and two other separatist regions under central control in a challenge to Russia.

South Ossetia has a population of about 70,000 and is connected to Russia's North Ossetia region by a tunnel through the Caucasus Mountains. Most residents hold Russian passports.

The conflict could endanger U.S. aspirations to secure an emerging energy corridor linking Central Asia to Europe and deals a blow to its plans for bringing the former Soviet republic into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's orbit.

Azerbaijan halted oil exports through the Georgian ports of Batumi and Kulevi because of the fighting, the head of the state oil company said yesterday, according to Reuters and Agence France Presse.

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

Video shows police punching teen 13 times in face, then tasering him

2008-08-10T16:40:00.001+01:00

Andrew McLemore
Raw Story
August 9, 2008

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. — An 18-year-old was punched in the face 13 times by a deputy police officer, whose dashboard video camera caught the incident on tape, WYFF Channel 4 News reported.

The video shows undercover Deputy Brian Tollison pulling over a truck driven by a drug suspect and beating the teenage driver while what appears to be a back-up deputy held down him down.

Once back-up deputies arrived, 18-year-old Jeremy Rucker was pulled out of the truck and tasered and kicked while lying prone on the ground.

Sheriff Steve Loftis fired Tollison, who also faces criminal charges for the incident, which took place May 15.

"The fact that Deputy Tollison took his closed fist and struck the suspect in the face 13 times in my opinion was excessive," Loftis said.

The other deputies involved have not been charged.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Department said that Rucker had fled from police and resisted arrest, but had "calmed down" when Tollison started hitting him.

Rucker’s attorney, Karl Allen, said his client was sitting in his truck talking on his phone when the undercover deputies approached him.

"Then they have the audacity, to treat this man as if he’s a piece of meat and Taser him with electrical jolts to his body and then, that’s not enough," Allen said. "They kick three times to the torso."

Police charged Rucker with drug possession and resisting arrest, though drugs were not found on him until he was taken into custody.

Rucker’s beating is one of several recent examples of police brutality.

Police tasered an injured teen from Ozark, Missouri up to 19 times after he fell from a highway overpass in late July.

The 16-year-old had broken his back and heel when the officers began tasering him.

In another bizarre instance of police violence, a 66-year-old minister was tasered and beaten by hospital security guards for what he claims was a joke.

In that incident, hospital security cameras caught five officers kicking Rev. Al Poisson on the ground for at least five minutes.

Georgia, South Ossetia: Roots of a 100-year conflict

2008-08-09T21:35:00.000+01:00

Russia Today
August 8, 2008

U.S. weighs stepped-up military forays into Pakistan

2008-08-09T21:30:00.002+01:00

PAMELA HESS and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
August 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - Top Bush administration officials are pressing the president to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior intelligence and military aides want President Bush to give American soldiers greater flexibility to operate against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who cross the border from Pakistan’s lawless tribal border area to conduct attacks inside Afghanistan, officials say.

The plan could include sending U.S. special forces teams, temporarily assigned to the CIA, into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets, according to an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the plan.

Such a move would be controversial, in part because of Pakistani opposition to U.S. incursions into its territory, and the proposal is not universally supported in Washington. It comes amid growing political instability in Pakistan and concerns that elements of Pakistan's security forces are collaborating with extremists.

Senior members of Bush's national security team met last week at the White House to discuss the recommendations and are now weighing how to proceed, the officials said.

The top agenda item at the meeting of the so-called deputies committee — usually the No. 2 officials at the departments of Defense, and State, plus the intelligence agencies and the National Security Council — was to "review and potentially revise cross-border strategy," a person familiar with the session told the AP.

"What the deputies committee has raised is, given the possibility that political fragmentation in Pakistan is going to continue, do we need to change our strategy?" the official said. He and other current and former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because sensitive foreign policy matters are in play.

The deputies committee is two levels down from the president, so its recommendations would not immediately affect policy.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to comment.

Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas and Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq also refused to comment.

The current strategy — relying on Pakistan to keep a lid on the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan — was meant to support Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of the U.S. who took control of Pakistan in 1999 in a bloodless coup. Musharraf was sidelined this spring when a coalition government trounced Musharraf's allies in parliamentary elections. He remains president but with vastly diminished influence.

Pakistan's governing coalition announced Thursday it will seek to impeach Musharraf, cranking up pressure on the U.S.-backed former general to resign.

In Washington, the State Department and some Pentagon officials are leery of the new proposal, warning of repercussions from the Pakistani government, which they fear could be further destabilized, while some officials in the CIA are pushing the plan.

Officials closer to the front lines in Afghanistan also are pushing for a newly aggressive stance.

The rules currently limiting U.S. incursions into Pakistan when in hot pursuit of enemy fighters or targets would not be stretched under the plan. But U.S. forces would be encouraged to use that authority liberally.

The Associated Press reported last year that U.S. rules of engagement allowed ground forces to go a little over 6 miles into Pakistan when in hot pursuit, and when forces were targeted or fired on by the enemy. U.S. rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into Pakistan air space.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S. supports the plan.

"The argument that we may destabilize Pakistan has taken us to where we are right now," Ambassador Said T. Jawad told the AP. "Pursuing the policy of public praise and private pressure on Pakistan doesn't work."

But defense officials say they are cautioning against stepping up military operations in Pakistan without specific approval from Islamabad. They say violating Pakistani sovereignty would anger the Pakistani people and could affect U.S. use of the country as a base from which to resupply U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Jawad said U.S. and Afghan forces know the location of training camps, places Taliban extremists live and where there have been large gatherings of al-Qaida members, but the current rules of engagement have hampered attacking those targets.

"We need to enhance the capacity of hitting these targets," he said.

The recommendations also call for developing direct relationships with Pashtun tribes on the Pakistani side of the border. That engagement has largely been left to Pakistan's security service, which U.S. officials increasingly fear is riddled with extremists and militant sympathizers.

Pakistan and the United States have somewhat contrary short-term interests in the Federally Administered Tribal Area, a Maryland-sized swath of ungoverned territory bordering Afghanistan.

It is home to about 2 million Pakistanis, representing between 20 and 30 fiercely independent tribes, several with well-armed, militant branches. The region also is increasingly home to al-Qaida terrorists and a growing network of foreign fighters, according to Defense Department officials.

Bowing to U.S. pressure, Musharraf three years ago directed a military crackdown on the tribal area to root out al-Qaida fighters. The tribes resisted the intrusion into their affairs. Prior to 2007 there were around a dozen tribal attacks a year in Pakistan. Last year there were nearly 100, according to U.S. defense officials.

Many tribes have decades-long associations with al-Qaida leaders, dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that they fought against. Al-Qaida leaders have intermarried with the tribes and are a source of arms and weapons.

Now, the defense officials said, Pakistani officials are primarily concerned with negotiating an end to the attacks outside the tribal areas. But the U.S. concern is primarily al-Qaida in the tribal areas, and the negotiations are unlikely to affect al-Qaida's increasingly free rein throughout the region.