OSCE REPORT IS TO BLAME GEORGIA

But maybe the OSCE are biased, in that their HQ was bombed to bits by Georgia too!

NB the OSCE report will also state that Russia entered S Ossetia in response to and well after Georgia started its mass murder.

==========================
From http://en.rian.ru/world/20080830/116412855.html

OSCE report points finger at Georgia for S. Ossetia crisis
17:07 | 30/ 08/ 2008

BERLIN, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has accumulated evidence pointing to "numerous wrong decisions" made by Georgian leaders that led to a military crisis with Russia, Der Spiegel said on Saturday.

In a report to be published in its Monday edition, OSCE military observers in the Caucasus described detailed planning by Georgia to move into South Ossetia which contributed to the crisis, the German magazine said.

The report also backed up Russian claims that the Georgian offensive was already in full swing by the time Russian troops and armored vehicles entered the Roksky Tunnel, on the border with Russia and South Ossetia, to protect its peacekeepers and the civilian population.

The OSCE report also contains suspected war crimes committed by Georgians, who ordered attacks on sleeping South Ossetian civilians.

Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the separatist republic, which split from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

Most people living in South Ossetia have Russian citizenship and Moscow subsequently launched an operation to "force Georgia to accept peace." The operation was concluded on August 12.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed decrees Tuesday recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and called on other countries to follow suit.

Russia has accused Georgia of committing "genocide" by launching the offensive in 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.

BILDERBERGER SKIDELSKY POSTS SENSIBLE COMMENT IN THE TIMES

The Times has today published a sensible article by Robert Skidelsky (Bilderberg 2005) which is on the Russia/Georgia conflict. Although I don't agree 100% with what he says, I agree with Skidelsky's main points, which are
1. Russia is being needlessly provoked
2. Georgia started the recent conflict
3. Miliband is playing with fire (Russia does still have a very large nuclear arsenal, you know)
4. Saakashvili should go to be replaced by someone with a cooler head

Perhaps this explains why Skidelsky has been invited to Bilderberg only once; he talks some sense.

Skidelsky does not, however, mention that
1. hothead Saakashvili was injected into Georgia via senior Bilderberger George Soros with assistance from American and British circles
2. Yuschenko was injected into Ukraine, the second provocateur, by Berezovsky.

The roles of Saakashvili and Yuschenko are to provoke Russia into conflict, though whether they know that or not is debatable.

What we are seeing is imperialism. But it's not American. It's not British. It's not European. It's New World Order imperialism.

The New World Order wants control of the world. If that means provoking a nuclear war by expanding NATO/Europe into Georgia, then so be it.

But what is Russia supposed to do?

Who is the aggressor/imperialist?

INTERESTING INTERVIEW ON BBC RADIO 5 LIVE DRIVE

A professor at Nottingham University has just been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live Drive programme. His name was Alex, and I didn't catch his surname. He said he believed the Americans were ready for the recent war between Russia and Georgia because the media in the west was so well prepared, and one piece of evidence of this as that the names of the Georgians and locations were all correctly spelled and pronounced by media and debriefers.

Hmm.

WHAT DOES THE CFR SAY ABOUT JOE BIDEN (CFR)?

Obama has announced his running mate will be Joe Biden.

Biden is a member of the CFR, and hangs out with AIPAC.

So what does the CFR say about Biden?

==================================
From http://www.cfr.org/publication/14756/

Joseph Biden Jr.

Sen. Biden (D-DE) is a self-described Zionist. Biden believes the United States should maintain extremely close ties with Israel, because in his experience, the Middle East has only progressed when “the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and Israel,” as he said in a March 2007 interview with Forward. Biden dismissed the Iraq Study Group’s claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is related to the problems of the Iraq War, saying on Shalom TV in March 2007 that Israel’s behavior has “nothing to do” with Iraq.

Biden cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. That act, which passed, expressed U.S. support for a two-state solution. It also deemed the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organization and cut off all U.S. funding until it renounces terrorism, acknowledges Israel’s right to exist, and holds up its former agreements with Israel. He has regularly supported military and financial aid packages to Israel throughout his long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman.
=======================================

The CFR also gives more details on Biden's foreign policy.

=======================================
From http://www.cfr.org/bios/1451/joseph_r_biden_jr.html

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has long been an influential voice on foreign policy issues in Washington. First elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 29, Biden has spent more time in Congress than any candidate. He chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sits on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security. Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. His campaign was tainted, however, when he was accused of plagiarizing a stump speech from a British Labour Party leader.

He returned to the Senate to become a prominent foreign policy voice in the 1990s, particularly on the Balkans conflicts. He has traveled to the region many times and was a proponent for U.S. intervention there. Biden has also been a strong advocate for nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

Biden's proposal for resolving the conflict in Iraq continued to generate discussion late into 2007. Biden, along with CFR President Emeritus Leslie H. Gelb, back creation of a federal state in Iraq with Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia autonomous regions. Biden is also one of the only candidates to support using U.S. ground forces to end the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Biden ended his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in January 2008.

Campaign Issues

* U.S. Policy toward Africa
* U.S. Policy toward India
* Military Tribunals and Guantanamo Bay
* Domestic Intelligence
* War on Terror
* Democracy Promotion in the Arab World
* Energy Policy
* Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
* North Korea Policy
* Cuba Policy
* U.S. Policy toward China
* Defense Policy
* Iraq
* Trade
* Homeland Security
* Iran
* Climate Change
* Immigration
* United Nations
* U.S. Policy toward Russia
* U.S. Policy toward Pakistan

U.S. Policy toward Africa

Sen. Biden (D-DE) advocates sending U.S. troops to Darfur. He says 2,500 U.S. troops would likely be sufficient to stem the violence. In July 2007, he introduced a resolution with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping mission to Darfur. That resolution passed unanimously.

In terms of HIV/AIDS prevention, Biden says the United States should stop funding abstinence-only sex education programs in Africa. In 2007, he cosponsored the HIV Prevention Act, which would do away with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) earmark mandating that one-third of all funding from that initiative be granted to abstinence-until-marriage programs. That act has not yet been voted on.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

U.S. Policy toward India

Sen. Biden (D-DE) called U.S. ties with India the “single most important relationship that we have to get right for our own safety's sake” (Rediff.com). He faced criticism in 2006 for commenting that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent” (AP). But, Biden says, he has had a “great relationship” with the growing Indian population in Delaware. Rediff.com called Biden “the driving force” behind the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, which was intended to help India develop its nuclear energy program.

Biden cosponsored the Energy Diplomacy and Security Act of 2007, which calls on the secretary of state to establish “petroleum crisis-response mechanisms with the governments of China and India.”

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Military Tribunals and Guantanamo Bay

For years, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been calling for the prison camp at Guantanamo to be shut down, saying it has “become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world.”

Biden says the prisoners should be moved to the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has cosponsored legislation that would release all Guantanamo prisoners who have not been charged. This would mean releasing nearly all the prisoners.

Biden voted against the Military Commissions Act.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Domestic Intelligence

Sen. Biden (D-DE), who was in the Senate at the passage of FISA in 1978, spoke out against Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, which he called “unconstitutional” and an “illegal expansion of presidential power” in a January 2006 Miami Herald op-ed. But like many of his fellow candidates who have spoken out on this issue, Biden’s objections to the program appear to lie more in Bush’s circumvention of the courts than in the eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. “There is nothing the president needed to do to protect Americans that could not have been done through FISA,” said Biden, citing provisions in the act for emergency seventy-two-hour warrantless wiretapping, and even for fifteen-day surveillance without a warrant in case of a war declaration.

Biden voted to confirm Michael Hayden as CIA director, despite Hayden’s role in administering the NSA wiretapping program.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

War on Terror

Sen. Biden (D-DE) was one of the four Democratic candidates at the April 2007 debate to say he does not believe in the war on terror. He has argued that the phrase and the doctrine behind it are problematic. “Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. If we can’t even identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s difficult to see how we will win,” he said in 2006.

He did not always object to the idea of a war on terror. In 2002, Biden wrote in The Hill that the goal of the war on terror should be “to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the means to make them.”

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Democracy Promotion in the Arab World

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has said that the promotion of democracy in the Middle East is necessary but must be paired with a realist outlook. “There is often a short-term conflict between democracy promotion and our vital security interests,” he said at a March 2005 speech to the American Jewish Committee. “Pushing too hard, too fast on democracy [in the Middle East] risks alienating governments whose help we need,” such as Russia and China. He echoed this sentiment in a 2006 statement at a Senate hearing on non-governmental organizations and democracy promotion (PDF).

Biden sponsored a provision to the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 to create a $20 million fund for Palestinian democracy and peace between Israelis and Palestinians. That act was passed. Biden has also advocated public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East through international broadcasting, a strategy that the United States has used for decades, most notably in the case of Radio Free Europe broadcasts during the Cold War.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Energy Policy

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has called energy security his “first priority.” In spring of 2007, Biden called the energy crisis the "single most consequential problem we can solve."

In 2006, Biden voted against the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which allowed for new drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. That bill passed. Early in 2007, Biden, with Barack Obama (D-IL) and several other senators, reintroduced the Fuel Economy Reform Act, which is aimed at annually increasing fuel economy standards by four percent for cars built between 2009 and 2011. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (PDF) was voted on twice in the Senate. Although Biden initially supported it, he voted against the act the second time it was introduced. The act included provisions for tax credits for fuel cell vehicles, certain energy saving household appliances, and increased use of biofuels. The act, which also calls for the extension of Daylight Savings Time, passed in Congress.

In a September 2007 interview with Grist.org, Biden said he does not think clean-coal or coal-to-liquid technologies would be preferable in the United States, "because we have other, cleaner alternatives." He also says automobiles should reach a 40 miles-per-gallon fuel efficiency standard within ten years.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Sen. Biden (D-DE) is a self-described Zionist. Biden believes the United States should maintain extremely close ties with Israel, because in his experience, the Middle East has only progressed when “the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and Israel,” as he said in a March 2007 interview with Forward. Biden dismissed the Iraq Study Group’s claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is related to the problems of the Iraq War, saying on Shalom TV in March 2007 that Israel’s behavior has “nothing to do” with Iraq.

Biden cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. That act, which passed, expressed U.S. support for a two-state solution. It also deemed the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organization and cut off all U.S. funding until it renounces terrorism, acknowledges Israel’s right to exist, and holds up its former agreements with Israel. He has regularly supported military and financial aid packages to Israel throughout his long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

North Korea Policy

Sen. Biden (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, supports a policy of direct engagement with Pyongyang, as well as sea-based anti-missile defense against North Korea’s growing ballistic missile arsenal. After Pyongyang launched missile tests in July 2006, he referred to the reclusive state as a “paper tiger” (CBS) incapable of doing direct harm to the United States. He repeated that sentiment after the North Korean nuclear test, which he called a “deliberate and dangerous provocation” that could spark an arms race in East Asia.

During a June 2007 Democratic debate in New Hampshire, Biden said he considers defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula one of “the three most important things that the next president is going to have to deal with” along with shaping Iraq and Iran policy.

In 2006, he joined Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Carl Levin (D-MI) in proposing a requirement for the Bush administration to appoint a special coordinator on North Korea. The legislation passed as part of the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Cuba Policy

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has supported the U.S. policy of economic embargo and now calls for the development of a strategy for democratization in a post-Castro Cuba. In a CNN interview in 2006, Biden said, “We should be putting together a plan as to how we are going to play a positive role in moving that country, after the Castros are gone, to—more toward democratization and liberalization in their society.”

In 1996, Biden voted for the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act. That act, which was passed, sought more stringent international sanctions against the Castro government.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

U.S. Policy toward China

Sen. Biden (D-DE) subscribes to the view that the U.S. should attempt to engage and guide China. In a 2001 speech before the Asia Pacific Council of the American Chambers of Commerce, Biden said, “Our top priority should remain integrating China into the community of nations, articulating the rules of the road, and then holding the Chinese government accountable for its actions.”

In 2000, Biden voted for the U.S.-China Trade Relations Act, which normalized trade relations with China.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Defense Policy

Sen. Biden (D-DE), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said in 2003 that “We have to change the complexion of this force structure [in Iraq], so we don't become an Algeria figure like the French did, liberate and then occupy. We don't want to be the occupiers.” In 1999, Biden opposed the National Missile Defense Act, which would have allowed deployment of an unproven, as yet undeveloped National Missile Defense system intended to defend the country against missile attacks. Biden said that bill, which was never passed, was “a political document, not a substantive piece of legislation that adds anything to the concept of what our strategic doctrine should be.”

Biden did later support the Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions, which the U.S. and Russia both ratified. That treaty stipulates that the U.S. and Russia must reduce their strategic nuclear warheads to between 1700 and 2200 warheads by 2012, a move which, Biden said, “will move us further away from the Cold War era. ”

In 1999, Biden and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cosponsored a bill to authorize the president to use “all necessary force” in the Kosovo conflict. In 2003, Biden voted in favor of the appropriation of $87 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Iraq

Although Sen. Biden (D-DE) initially supported the war in 2002, he has become one of its fiercest critics in the Senate. With Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden proposed a five-point plan (PDF) for the future of Iraq. The plan calls for a federalized Iraq with three regional governments (Kurd, Sunni Arab, and Shiite Arab) and a centralized government for management of “truly common interests” like oil and border defense. The plan also advocates a “regional non-aggression pact” and a redeployment of U.S. troops by the end of 2007. Biden says that a “small residual force” of U.S. troops should remain in the region even after that redeployment. Still, Biden strongly opposes permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. In August 2006, Biden sponsored an amendment, which passed, opposing any attempt to create permanent bases in Iraq.

In early 2007, Biden cosponsored the Iraq War Policy Bill, which expressed disagreement with President Bush’s troop surge plan, though it did call for a continuation of military operations against al-Qaeda and other insurgents in Anbar province. That bill failed in the Senate.

Biden also sponsored the Iraq War Policy resolution in January 2007. That measure expressed that “it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating the United States military force presence in Iraq.” The resolution also failed in the Senate.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Trade

Sen. Biden (D-DE) in general espouses free trade policies but has been a recent critic of Bush administration bilateral and regional agreements on opening markets. He voted against the creation of FTAs with Oman in 2006 and with Singapore and Chile in 2003. He also voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2005. All of those bills were passed in the Senate. Biden criticized CAFTA, as well as the Singapore and Chile bilateral deals because, he said, they lacked effective provisions to ensure enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

Biden also voted against the Trade Act of 2002, which reauthorized the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), granting certain trade benefits to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In 1999, Biden voted in favor of the Africa Free Trade bill, which authorized a “new trade and investment policy for sub-Sahara Africa” and the granting of trade benefits to Caribbean countries. Through that bill, the U.S. tied trade benefits for sub-Saharan African countries to those countries’ free market and democratic policies. Biden also voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Homeland Security

Biden, who sits on the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, has said the Department of Homeland Security has inadequately responded to the country’s security challenges. If elected president, he says he would create a Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund “to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement." He wants an additional $10 billion a year for the next five years to be allocated to homeland security, raised by increasing taxes on the very wealthy. This would be used to fund the hiring of an additional 1,000 FBI agents and 50,000 police officers, among other items.

In 2006, Biden voted against making FEMA independent from the DHS. Biden voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act in 2001 and voted to adopt a conference report to reauthorize it in 2006. In 2005, Biden voted for the Homeland Security Grant Program Amendment, which restored $565 million in cuts to first-responder programs. That amendment passed. He also voted for the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, which would create a National Intelligence Authority (NIA) that would serve to facilitate U.S. intelligence activity. That act would also create a National Counterterrorism Center.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Iran

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for “hard-headed diplomacy” with Iran. Biden says he supports direct engagement with the country. He also has called for the implementation of “coordinated international sanctions” on Iran, adding “we should complement this pressure by presenting a detailed, positive vision for U.S.-Iran relations if Iran does the right thing.”

Biden has spoken out forcefully about a possible war with Iran. "War with Iran is not just a bad option. It would be a disaster," he wrote in December 2007. Biden has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Bush if he starts a war with Iran without Congressional approval.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Climate Change

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for legislation to stop climate change. In February 2007, after the release of the IPCC report, Biden urged fellow lawmakers and President Bush to take action, saying, “We have wasted the past six years on the sidelines of international negotiations and our leadership is needed to produce a global solution.”

Biden cosponsored the Clean Power Act of 2005, a bill which would have implemented a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions had it become law. With Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Biden has proposed two Senate resolutions on climate change. They put forward the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution (PDF), passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2006. More recently, Biden and Lugar proposed Senate Resolution 30, which calls for the United States to comply with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and to establish a “bipartisan Senate observer group” to monitor international climate change negotiations.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

Immigration

Immigration is not listed as a priority issue on the campaign website of Sen. Biden (D-DE). As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has focused efforts on the problems in Iraq. He said in November 2006 that Mexico’s corruption, inequality, and its “erstwhile democracy” (AP) are to blame for illegal immigration.

Along with most of his colleagues in the Senate, Biden voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. He also voted for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which he said "enhances our control over the border, allowing us to better deal with future illegal immigrants as well as drug traffickers and potential terrorists." He also supported the act because it provided a path to legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.

Biden opposed an amendment (FOX) to the recent immigration reform bill that would have prevented criminals from becoming citizens. That amendment failed.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

United Nations

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has called the United Nations “an essential forum for the advancement of U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.” At a speech on the sixtieth anniversary of the Unitd Nations in 2005, Biden praised reform efforts, including the establishment of the Human Rights Council to replace the Human Rights Commission, a change which he said would “more effectively advance the rights and freedoms that continue to be denied to far too many.” He also praised the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission, aimed at bolstering fragile states.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

U.S. Policy toward Russia

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has consistently voiced concerns about Russia backsliding on democratic reforms under Putin. In 2005, Biden criticized Putin for making regional governorships appointive positions, and said he had “manipulated the Duma to eliminate most of the opposition.” In December 2006, Biden warned that Russia was “moving more and more toward an oligarchy.”

In 2005, Biden cosponsored a Senate resolution criticizing Russia for failing to uphold its commitments at the 1999 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Summit, which included agreements on a completed Russian military withdrawal from the Moldova. That resolution also expressed disapproval of Russia’s demand for the closure of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO), which served to observe border crossings between Georgia and the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia. That bill passed in the Senate.

Biden previously supported the lifting of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which attaches conditions to trading with Russia. But he became opposed to the repeal after Russia imposed a cap on U.S. poultry imports in 2002. Biden’s state of Delaware is a major poultry producer.

Editor's Note: Sen. Biden withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 3, 2008.

U.S. Policy toward Pakistan

Sen. Biden (D-DE) has taken a particularly active role in engaging Pakistani leaders and raising awareness about the crisis in the country, which he has called “the most complex country we deal with.” In an October 2007 Democratic debate, Biden warned that an unstable Pakistan would have far more dangerous implications for the United States than a nuclear Iran.

In November 2007, Biden said as president, he would increase humanitarian aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, triple what it is now (NPR). He advocates tying non-security aid to Pakistan to “progress in developing democratic institutions and meeting good-governance norms.” Before Bhutto’s assassination, Biden said he would reexamine “big-ticket weapons systems” in U.S. military aid to Pakistan, including F-16 jets and P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft, if Musharraf did not “restore his nation to the democratic path.” Biden cosponsored a resolution condemning Musharraf’s imposition of a state of emergency, and calling on Musharraf to relinquish his military post, which he later did.

Biden said in a November 2007 speech that increasing U.S. resources in Afghanistan “would embolden Pakistan’s government to take a harder line on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”

ASPECT'S DIRECT PIPELINE INTO NATO?

Aspect Consulting has been working for The (disgraced) Government of Georgia.

Aspect was formed by James Hunt and Frans Green in November 2004. One of its earliest projects was for Novartis, manufaturers of Nicotinell, in a smoking cessation campaign and study, run by Green.

Michael Stopford was recently appointed by NATO as its Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Strategic Communication Services. Before joining NATO Stopford managed Coca Cola's reputation for a few years. But before that he was Head of Global Public Affairs and Government Relations for Syngenta, which was formed by the merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca in 2000.

So was Stopford PR chief for Syngenta/Novartis when Novartis employed Aspect to market its smoking cessation product Nicotinell a few years ago?

Such a link would explain why Aspect was chosen to market The (disgraced) Government of Georgia, possibly Aspect's first military campaign.

I understand that The (disgraced) Government of Georgia hired Aspect last year to sell Georgia as pro-EU/NATO, focusing on Georgia's products such as wine.

Wine and war are two very different things to market, doncha' think?

Where would Aspect get its military expertise from?

HOLBROOKE’S BACK. AND THIS TIME HE’S REALLY PISSED.

New World Order goon Richard Holbrooke is still writing his monthly column in Bilderberg’s The Washington Post, and I detect in his latest rant just a little anti-Russia, pro-Georgia sentiment.

Of course, like a blinkered docile horse, Holbrooke does not mention that (a) Saakashvili was financed and engineered into power in Georgia by his fellow Bilderberger George Soros, and (b) approximately 1500 civilians were murdered by Georgia.

But who cares about facts, eh? (tut)

Surprisingly, Holbrooke does not request guaranteed membership of NATO, either immediately or some time later in the future. No. What Holbrooke does ask for though is that we, yes we, as members of the EU, pay for the reconstruction of Bilderberg Project Georgia!

Holbrooke’s disappointing rant is entitled How To Help Georgia Now : What The West Can Do.

WHY HAS GEORGIA CHOSEN ASPECT CONSULTING FOR ITS PR?

Aspect Consulting is proudly announcing on its website that it is acting for The Government of Georgia in its external political and media communications during the current conflict with Russia.

So why was Aspect chosen?

The first clue is that Aspect has its largest office in Brussels, HQ of NATO.

The second clue is that it has a significant link to the GM industry, working for Novartis and Croplife International, currently works for ExxonMobil, and has also worked for McDonalds.

So why did Georgia choose Aspect?

Or perhaps the question should be, considering the number of large, medium and small PR companies across the world, who told or suggested to Georgia that it should choose Aspect who are based in Brussels and have proven themselves as willing servants to the NWO?

The Aspect website is at http://www.aspectconsulting.eu/

They say they are open to questions from anyone.

Hmm.

IRAN

Good evening brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours, vibrations in the mind of the one true God whose name is love.

I still believe that a confrontation over Iran is still on. All those ships in the Persian Gulf means something is set. In fact, the recent war between Russia and Georgia may have put Russia into a confident, almost invincible, mood that makes a military conflict between the USA and Russia over Iran a little more likely, should a war start.

However, such a war would require a spark, and it is very good that Iran has been asked by its neighbours not to place itself in a dangerous position such that the tiniest, slightest, flimsiest pretext could be used to start war.

WAR

As I said,

if we want it, we can 'ave it.

But if we don't it, we don't 'ave it.

Honestly. It's dead easy.

It's that fucking easy!!

It's upto us.

It's NOT upto pink-frilly-knicker-wearing Dick Cheney, and all the rest of Satan's cocksuckers.

THE 200M OLYMPIC FINAL

HOLY SHIT!

Did you see that?

How many New World Order Fuckers can run faster than that?

Here's your answer; ZERO!!!!!

We're catching up and overtaking you fu......!

Physically, mentally and spiritually!

David "seat-sniffer" Rockefeller? Doomed.

Lord Jacob "satan's cock-sucker" Rothschild? Doomed.

Start training right now!

And that applies to all their minions, bloggers, bullshitters, warmongers-by-proxy, ...

Start training right now to save your miserable, kiddie-fiddling lives.

PS what kind of sound does a New World Order (kiddie-fucker) makes when he (or she) shwings-shwings-shwings when shmoked out?

Watch this website; www.nearestlamppost.com

Sorry for disturbing you, but some people in your very own Foreign and Commonwealth Office just tried to start a thermonuclear war between two nuclear powers, because the limit has been reached on how much non-existent money their Satan's cock-sucking masters' can create out of nothing, and who now want to start a world war to cover their arses from being found out about how they have conned and betrayed the human race for decades.

Again, many sincere apologies.

But the lives of everybody, EVERYBODY, are at stake here.

WATCH THE 200M FINAL TODAY

You will again see how fast The Failing New World Order will have to run to save their warmongering, kiddie-fiddling lives from being lynched from the nearest lamppost.

THE TIMES REFUSES TO POST MY QUESTIONS TO MILIBAND

Yesterday, associate of Lord Malloch Brown in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, David Miliband was allowed to publish his rant against Russia in The Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4560698.ece

As of 0724 20th August 2008 over 160 comments in reply to Miliband's have been published by people from all over the world.

But for whatever reason, my comment has not.

Below is my comment. You figure out why it has not been published.

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David Miliband

On 6th August British Ambassador to Georgia George Keefe was given indisputable proof by Kokoity that Georgia was planning a full scale invasion of South Ossetia before September.

True or false?

If so, were you given such information?

If so, what did you with that information?

FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY, SAAKASHVILI STYLE

Ten days ago we saw how Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili believes in freedom and democracy in Georgia; with bloodshed and brutality. South Ossetians have previously voted overwhelmingly for independence, not just from Georgia but also from Russia.

Ever since then George W(armonger) Bush has stood by the Bilderberg Project in Georgia, calling Georgia a bastion of freedom and democracy.

First, as for Georgian democracy even the spiders in my bath drainpipe now know how Saakashvili was financed into power.

Second, Saakashvili’s vision of freedom is seriously in doubt. The following article looks at how Georgia is not a bastion of freedom and democracy.

Note also the reference to Arkady "Badri" Patarkatsishvili as the organiser of recent opposition to Saakashvili. Patarkatsishvili died earlier this year, and his death was instantly blamed on Russia, but this article sheds new light on his death, for it suggests that Patarkatsishvili believed he was being targeted by the Georgian government. I referred to Patarkatsishvili in an earlier post entitled "Those Bloody Russians, Eh?(Tut)", which looked at "suspicious" deaths being blamed on Russia, and was written due to the blame being apportioned to Russia for the near-death that Alex Allan, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, suffered. As I expected, Allan’s illness has not been reported on since he regained conciousness, no doubt because Russia was not involved in it, despite the rush to suggest as much by most mainstream media.

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From http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/saak-a18.shtml

The political realities of “democratic” Georgia
By Tom Eley
18 August 2008

One of the constant themes in the US government and media presentation of the conflict in the Caucasus is the depiction of Georgia as a bastion of democracy. The Bush administration has increasingly invoked the terminology of the Cold War by referring to “democratic Georgia” as a symbol of the “free world” and its struggle against authoritarian Russia.

The reality of political life in Georgia is far different than the media image.
Only last November, in the midst of mounting protests against his regime, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili employed dictatorial methods against his opponents. On November 2, opposition demonstrations began in Tbilisi, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Saakashvili. These protests, while organized by billionaire media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, gave vent to grievances against government repression and the desperate living conditions of the population. They attracted tens of thousands to the streets of Georgia’s capital city.

The demonstrations continued until November 7, when the state police, acting on orders from Saakashvili, used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and truncheons to disperse the protesters. More than 600 required medical attention after the crackdown. On the same day, Special Forces raided Patarkatsishvili’s broadcasting corporation Imeldi, beating journalists and disabling equipment.

Saakashvili declared a state of emergency, suspending democratic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly. Independent broadcasting was halted even before the state of emergency was declared, and only the state-controlled television station was allowed to broadcast for a period of fifteen days. Imeldi was taken off the air indefinitely.
During the crackdown, Saakashivli called for snap elections to be held less than two months later, on January 5. The elections, held under conditions of political intimidation and repression, placed the opposition at an enormous disadvantage.

All media were under the de facto control of Saakashivli. In addition, two opposition leaders, Konstantin Gamsakhurdia and Shalva Natelashvili, were declared “wanted for treason.” The government accused them of conspiring with Russia to overthrow the government.

Patarkatsishvili, who likewise faced a government investigation for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, began his campaign from Israel. He withdrew from the elections after the government released a recording of him attempting to bribe a police officer.

Patarkatsishvili died suddenly last February in London at the age of 52. Authorities attributed the death to a massive heart attack, but Patarkatsishvili believed the Georgian authorities were targeting him for assassination.
The early elections eliminated two other serious rivals for the presidency—former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili and lawyer Tinatin Khidasheli—both of whom were just shy of 35 years of age, the minimum, at the time of the vote.

Okruashvili fled the country shortly after the crackdown in what ABC News called “mysterious circumstances.” He had accused Saakashvili of corruption, but after being placed under arrest he was apparently forced to retract the allegations.
During the campaign, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported that the credibility of the election had been placed in doubt by allegations that Saakashvili had used state money, blackmail and vote-buying. With rivals under arrest, under police investigation, in exile or legally barred from running for office, it is little surprise that Saakashvili won reelection. After his victory, the opposition claimed that the vote had been manipulated. His vote total surpassed by 20 percent that which had been projected by an opinion poll released one week earlier.
The Saakashvili regime faced international criticism from foreign capitals and human rights organizations for its assumption of dictatorial powers. Though the level of repression Saakashvili employed exceeded the measures that had been taken by his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, against the so-called “Rose Revolution” that brought Saakashvili to power in early 2004, criticism from the United States was much more muted.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza, a close ally and personal friend of the US-educated Saakashvili, acknowledged that the State Department was “hearing more and more reports that people were grabbed from stores or that passers-by were beaten,” but concluded merely that “Things got out of control.”

NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer responded with little more than a wrist slap against the Georgian government, which was seeking NATO membership. He limited himself to the observation that “the imposition of emergency rule and the closure of media outlets” were not in line with “Euro-Atlantic values.”

In fact, the “excesses” of Saakashvili in putting down peaceful protests were not mere aberrations. The US State Department, in its 2008 “Country Reports in Human Rights,” listed the following in relation to the Georgian government: “at least one reported death due to excessive use of force by law enforcement officers, cases of torture and mistreatment of detainees, abuse of prisoners, excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations, poor conditions in prisons and pretrial detention facilities, impunity of police officers, continued overuse of pretrial detention for less serious offenses, lack of access for average citizens to defense attorneys, lack of due process in some cases, and reports of government pressure on the judiciary.”

The report went on to state: “Respect for freedom of speech, the press, assembly and political participation worsened, especially during the fall crisis. Other problems included reports of government pressure on the judiciary and the media, restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and corruption among senior-level officials. Despite government efforts, trafficking-in-persons continued to occur.”

The so-called “color revolutions” in Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004-2005) did not represent the spontaneous will of the masses. They were political coups orchestrated from Washington, with the aide of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) subsidized by the US government and private foundations.

Chief among the NGOs involved in Georgia’s “Rose Revolution” was the Liberty Institute, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Eurasia Foundation as well as billionaire financier George Soros’s Open Society Institute. The Liberty Institute’s co-founder, Giga Bokeria, took a Soros Foundation-funded tour of Serbia in February 2002 to learn how the Otpor, or “Resistance,” student opposition had ousted Slobodan Milosevic following a disputed election in the autumn of 2000.

Another US government outfit involved in the ouster of Shevardnadze was the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a center of international intrigue and subversion set up under the Reagan administration and relying heavily on the services of the AFL-CIO trade union bureaucracy. The Democratic Party wing of the NED, known as the National Democratic Institute, in the words of Wall Street Journal columnist George Melloan, “helped introduce Mr. Saakashvili to the methods insurgents in Serbia used to depose dictator Slobodan Milosevic.”

Saakashvili’s reelection last January was based politically on an appeal to rabid Georgian nationalism. The central plank of his campaign was a pledge to restore Tbilisi’s authority over the pro-Russian breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They had established de facto independence as a result of bloody fighting with Georgian government forces that followed the revocation in March 1991 of the autonomy guaranteed them under the Soviet constitution.

Within months of his reelection, Saaskashvili was assuming unprecedented powers in what the Manilla Times called “a distinctly undemocratic one-party state.”
Saakashvili is the representative of one faction of the Georgian ruling elite. Including in its ranks former officials of the old Stalinist regime, the new financial oligarchy emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union, amassing its wealth by plundering the formerly nationalized economy.

In contrast to Western tributes to the economic growth and modernization of Georgia under Saakashvili, his government oversees a miserably poor and highly polarized society. Formerly one of the wealthiest Soviet republics, in 2007 Georgia ranked 108th in the world in per capita gross domestic product (GDP), below countries like Bhutan, Equador and Guatemala. Its GDP ranks 114th in the world, below that of Equatorial Guinea.

If it were a US state, Georgia’s GDP would rank at the bottom, equaling about one-third of Vermont’s. The official unemployment rate in Georgia stands at nearly 13 percent. More than one half of the population lives below the official poverty level. Over one quarter lives on less than $2 per day. Last year the average monthly pension was $30.
But Saakashvili’s pro-Western, “free market” economic policies have fostered the growth of a small but growing wealthy elite. Georgia earned the World Bank’s 2008 designation as “the number one economic reformer in the world” because it improved in one year from 112th to 18th in creating what is euphemistically called “a friendly business environment.”

What this means in practice is the scrapping of all regulations and encumbrances limiting the exploitation of the working class and the accumulation of personal wealth by a rapacious financial elite. In 2004, Saakashvili’s first year in power, his government abolished the progressive income tax and replaced it with a 12 percent flat tax.

USAIN BOLT

Man, that was some performance by Usain Bolt today.

Absolutely breathtaking.

But it made me think, the New World Order are gonna have to run faster than that, and without the showmanship, to avoid being lynched on the nearest lamppost.

I'm not joking.

When the ordinanry people of this world find out what's been done to them and what was intended to be done to them, some people are gonna have to run faster than Bolt, run for their warmongering, kiddie-fiddling lives.

I'd start training right now.

FANTASTIC LIES DOMINATE RUSSIAN COVERAGE OF WAR?

This is a headline posted on The Georgian Daily website today from the Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFERL) which interviewed Oleg Panfilov, the director of the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations.

First, who are The Georgian Daily? I don’t know. To contact them you send a letter to a lawyer in Wall Street! It was established in February this year.

Second, RFERL is CIA.

Third, The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations is basically financed by that damned Bilderberger George Soros (yeah, him again), but also by NATO embassies (see the Projects page on their website).

If you’re wondering where Soros got his money, he shafted The Bank of England on Black Wednesday in 1992, a shafting that Berezovsky called “top notch”.

So what we have here is a suspicious website posting an interview between a CIA news agency and a SOROS/NATO media watchdog.

So how impartial is the article?

Not very.

BEGONE DETESTED BILDERBERGERS! BEGONE!

Some readers will recognize the structure of the title. The sentence is used in the Cremation of Care, but Bilderbergers substitutes Care.

There is a distinct change in tone of comments in The Washington Post today. I wonder why.

There are three written comments on the Russia/Georgia conflict.

The authors are
1. Strobe Talbot – member of The Council of Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission, Rhodes Scholar and President of The Brookings Institution. His comment focuses on the statement made by the cool, calm and collected Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the West can forget about Georgia’s territorial integrity and Lavrov’s ridicule of the suggestion that South Ossetia and Abkhazia can return to being part of Georgia after this war. Talbot’s comment is cooler towards Russia than the previous comments by Bilderbergers in The WP I have referred to, but it still fails to address who started the conflict, how many were killed by the initial aggressor, and suggests that Russia should still be isolated by the international community. All in all, a biased but softer anti-Russia article, which is not surprising for Talbot’s credentials.

2. Paul J Saunders – member of The Council of Foreign Relations. Saunders’ comment is even softer than Talbot’s. Saunders expresses his doubts about Saakashvili, giving evidence of how after coming to power through Soros and Lord Malloch-Brown, Saakashvili began to empower the executive at the expense of parliament (sound familiar?) and put down demonstrations with brutality, all signs of a little dictator and not of a freedom-and-democracy-lover (which is not surprising considering Saakashvili’s financiers). But Saunders still sort of blames Russia, by suggesting that Russia may well have provoked Georgia in order to justify an invasion of Georgia.

3. Olga Ivanova – a Russian postgraduate journalism student who is also an intern for The WP. She lays into the bias in the reporting of the Russia/Georgia conflict, expressing her disillusion with American journalism due to that bias.

But at least no Builderburgerz, or desperate pleas from disgraced Presidents from the Caucasus today. Not bad, I suppose.

But how long will it last?

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. IT’S THAT SOROS AGAIN.

Today The Guardian has published an article by Tom Parfitt which refers to work done by Human Rights Watch. Anna Neistat of HRW has expressed doubts about the number of deaths in South Ossetia, and believes that this exaggeration has contributed to the retribution that is being reported in Georgia. Parfitt refers to the HRW as a well respected human rights organization.

So who are Human Rights Watch?

HRW relies on George Soros for finance. It was Soros who financed Saakashvili into power in Georgia in the first place.

Previous analyses of HRW committee members by Paul Treanor shows that a significant number of the committee were members of the CFR, and/or held positions in the US Government or ‘independent’ think tanks. Treanor identifies those committee members who he believes are legitimate, and those with questionable human rights concerns.

http://www.antiwar.com/rep/treanor1.html (2001)

http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/HRW.html (2004)

The current Chair of HRW is Jane Olson, who Treanor believes is a genuine human rights campaigner. The three current Vice-Chairs are Bruce J. Klatsky, Sid Sheinberg and John J. Studzinski.

Klatsky, while CEO of Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) Corp, was awarded The Golden Rat award by the Global Sweatshop Coalition for PVH’s anti-union activities.

Sheinberg is a member of the board of the American Jewish Committee, established by Russian revolution financier Jacob Schiff in order to promote Israel ((and all its love for Palestinians and human rights abuses?)), and which also attacks Jewish anti-Zionist authors.

Studzinski is a CBE, awarded for work for the arts, and is currently Senior Managing Director and global head of the Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory group of The Blackstone Group, a hedge fund advisory corporation which has not only Jacob Wallenberg on its International Advisory Board, but somebody called Lord Jacob Rothschild! Before moving to Blackstone, Studzinski ran HSBC, and before that Morgan Stanley, both banks with questionable human rights concerns.

These are not what I would imagine to be bona fide human rights campaigners.

Nor is Shelley Rubin, currently Chairman of the Jewish Defense League, which is rabidly pro-Zionist and believes that Jews should not marry non-Jews. The JDL has been identified as a former terrorist organization which, the JDL now claims, has since renounced the use of violence as a political tool.

No doubt there are genuine human rights campaigners on the committee of HRW, but the independence and management of HRW should be questioned.

SAAKASHVILI PLEADS IN THE WASHINGTON POST

The Washington Post has today published a desperate plea for assistance and support by Mikhail Saakashvili, the disgraced President of Georgia.

During the recent war between Russia and Georgia, The Washington Post published comments by three Bilderbergers, Dmitri Trenin, Robert Kagan and George Will, all accusing and blaming Russia. And on Saturday The WP reposted a piece by Richard Holbrooke which also attacked Russia. Holbrooke is another senior Bilderberger and also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission. Holbrooke’s New World Order credentials are beyond question.

So for four days of the five day war, The WP published seriously anti-Russia comments by Bilderbergers of varying seniority.

The Washington Post was developed by Eugene Meyer, but is currently managed by the Graham family, with Donald Graham as the current Chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Company. Meyer served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Federal Reserve, and President of The World Bank. The Grahams own a substantial share in the parent The Washington Post Company. Graham attended the Bilderberg meeting this year at Chantilly, where he would have mingled and discussed current international affairs with such luminaries as Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Condoleeza Rice, George Schultz, Richard Holbrooke, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Ben Bernanke, Carl Bildt, The Queen of The Netherlands, The Queen of Spain, Jean-Claude Trichet, and many other members of European royalty, heads of state and leaders in banking, industry and commerce. There is usually a member of the Graham family present at Bilderberg.

Saakashvili should do a search on The Washington Post search engine for "Bilderberg". It will return no results.

Is that not curious, that The WP would not publish that its owners and managers meet annually with such powerful international leaders and behind closed doors? What is going on? Why the secrecy?

Bilderberg was created with Rockefeller support and finance, and is intimately related to the development of the European Union and NATO, with senior members of both organizations frequently invited to attend. The Rockefellers are intimately linked to the development of Nazi Germany in preparation for World War 2, and after financing that war through The Federal Reserve then financed the creation of the United Nations as a peaceful solution to world wars that they themselves engineered and financed!

So why would the ridiculously pro-Bilderberg The WP publish such a desperate plea from Saakashvili?

Saakashvili was financed into power by George Soros. Soros, like Richard Holbrooke, is a veteran Bilderberger, as well as a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Trilateral Commission.

Almost immediately after Russia responded to Georgia’s massacre and entered South Ossetia to repel the ruthless Georgians, the veteran of six Bilderberg meetings Carl Bildt, with another member of Bilderberg Bernard Kouchner, flew to Georgia to advise Saakashvili.

So why did Soros finance Saakashvili with his own money, flying into Georgia the real roses for "The Rose Revolution"? And is Saakashvili indebted to Soros, and hence the circle which spawned Soros, somehow due to this finance?

When I look into this war over South Ossetia, I see Bilderberg.

I smell the repugnant whiff of Bilderberg bullshit.

Saakashvili actually sounds quite desperate in his plea.

And no wonder. Georgia is starting to ask some serious questions of him.

DID BRITISH INTELLIGENCE KNOW OF THE GEORGIA ATTACK?

The Times has published an article by Richard Beeston entitled, Strutting Russia is heading for a fall, in which the following curious statement is made;

"The mini-war in Georgia may have surprised some Europeans, but it was expected weeks ago by British Intelligence."

What are we to make of this statement in light of the RIA Novosti 6th August claim that evidence was given to Ambassador Keefe that Georgia was planning a large scale invasion of South Ossetia before September? Perhaps Beeston could and should elaborate?

If Keefe was given such information then I expect it to have been passed to MI6, and probably also to Motormouth Miliband.

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From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4517727.ece

Strutting Russia is heading for a fall
Opinion is hardening against the Kremlin. For all its bluster, it is weak and vulnerable
Richard Beeston

Rarely have Russians had such cause to celebrate their hero. One minute Vladimir Putin was in Beijing mixing with Russian athletes on the opening day of the Olympics. Moments later he reappeared in the Caucasus, sleeves rolled up and directing a victorious counter-attack against his arch-rival Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian President. Fleeing refugees and wounded civilians were comforted. Generals saluted smartly as they were sent off to battle. No one was left in any doubt that Mr Putin, rather than the absent President Medvedev, was still firmly in charge of the country.

In the space of only five days the Russian Prime Minister succeeded not only in smashing the Georgian Army but also teaching all those in the “near abroad”, as Russia refers to its neighbours in the former Soviet empire, a painful lesson about challenging Moscow in its own backyard.

The decisive action was in sharp contrast to the response in the West. The war in Georgia exposed deep divisions in the transatlantic alliance and revealed the impotence of the Bush Administration in protecting its closest friend in the region.

Respect is something Mr Putin and many of his countrymen believe they lost when the Soviet Union broke apart 17 years ago. They may now feel that over the past few days some of that loss has been restored.
The Russia-Georgia grudge match

For Russians sunning themselves on the Mediterranean or enjoying the long summer evenings at their dachas in the countryside, this is the plausible narrative faithfully repeated by the state-controlled media.

Unfortunately, the conclusions they draw are completely wrong. Russia may have smashed its tiny neighbour but victory will come at a heavy price. The war will reduce rather than increase Russia's stature abroad, where the Kremlin faces growing isolation.

Since the emergence of the modern Russian state during the Yeltsin years in the 1990s, the country has been regarded as chaotic and corrupt but broadly peaceful and certainly no serious threat. Back in 2003 Condoleezza Rice, the Russophile US Secretary of State, famously advised President Bush to “forgive” Russia for its stand against the Iraq war, while France was punished and Germany ignored.

To judge by the language of both US presidential candidates responding to the Georgian war, forgiveness is no longer an option. Democrat or Republican will take a much harder line towards Russia over its aggressive foreign posture, its increasingly autocratic Government and the inescapable conclusion that Mr Putin is determined to remain in power indefinitely.

The Europeans may seem divided, but behind the bland statements calling on both sides to stop the recent fighting something significant has happened. Six European leaders, five of them from the former Soviet bloc, chose to stand side by side with Mr Saakashvili yesterday as he struggled to remain in power. The events in the Caucasus will only serve to harden opinion against Russia at Nato and in the EU.

The mini-war in Georgia may have surprised some Europeans, but it was expected weeks ago by British Intelligence. Thanks to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-KGB officer who was poisoned in London by suspected Russian agents nearly two years ago, Britain has completely reassessed its relationship with Moscow. MI5, which reports that Russian agents in Britain are now back at Cold War levels, regards Russia as the third most serious threat to British security after terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Attempts to rehabilitate relations have faltered and the recent treatment of BP by its partners and the Russian authorities has only reinforced the view that Russia cannot be trusted.

Flush with billions from the sale of oil and gas, the Kremlin may calculate that it does not need allies in the West and would rather be respected and feared than befriended.

That too would be a serious mistake. For all its big-power bluster, Russia is weak and vulnerable. Russian tanks and aircraft may have smashed the fledgeling Georgian Army with ease, but most of the weaponry was Cold War-era and many of the troops conscripts. Anyone who has seen the Russian Army operating in the Caucasus knows that the military will need a generation to modernise. Meanwhile America, and its main Nato allies, are decades ahead in military technology and combat experience.

Russia is also facing a severe demographic crisis. Its population is shrinking by 700,000 people a year. The UN estimates the population will fall below 100 million by 2050, down from around 146 million today.

As for the economy, it is booming thanks to natural resources that account for 70 per cent of the country's wealth. But the oil price is in a state of flux. Russia has failed to diversify. Should energy prices fall sharply, the economy could collapse, as it did a decade ago.

Mr Putin once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Trying to resurrect it could be the greatest folly of the 21st.

Richard Beeston is foreign editor of The Times

GEORGIA'S VERSION OF EVENTS

As I anticipated, generally Russia's targets were military bases; Senaki, Poti and Gori. There were some reports of villages coming under fire from Russia, and a few curious targets.

But what has not been explained is the evidence that was referred to by RIA Novosti that the whole bloody adventure was planned by Georgia well in advance.

I request Saakashvili and my own British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (for the third time since I have so far not received any reply) to confirm that such a plan was known of in advance.

NB the followng disclaimer by the Government of Georgia
"Provided data is operational and may be subject to verification. Information provided by the Government of Georgia through its various agencies and ministries."

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From http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5812&Itemid=65

Timeline of events in Georgia since August 1, 2008
August 13, 2008
Georgia Update
A Service of the Government of Georgia

Provided data is operational and may be subject to verification. Information provided by the Government of Georgia through its various agencies and ministries.

Timeline of events in Georgia since August 1, 2008





13 August

16:10 Russian troops from the city of Gori started moving towards Tbilisi

15:20 Alisia Vardanyan, Georgian GPB television journalists reports from Gori that marauding has started in the city. The residents are being robbed; the houses are being demolished by Russian tanks.

15:15 According to the reports from the civilians on the ground, Georgian population of villages Bobnevi, Marana, Dzevera, Khidistavi, Tchalaubani is escaping to the forest from the Ossetian separatists.

15:00 Gigi Mtvarelidze, member of Georgian CEC, have been robbed by the Russian-speaking militaries nearby Gori. They took his car with other possessions.

14:45 Paata Sabelashvili, photographer, reported from highway nearby Gori that mini-bus with Georgian civilians have been robbed by Ossetian separatists, one of the passengers, 25-year old women has been kidnapped by the attackers.

14:20 Many residents of Gori are escaping towards the village of Ateni, south of Gori, according to the reports on the ground.

14:00 In Poti port Russian troops have blown up three Georgia Coast Guard vessels.

13:05 Village Pakhulani, Tsalenjikha district has been entered by Russian soldiers

13:00 According to reports from the ground, village of Atotsi, Kareli district, is entered by Ossetian separatists.

12:35 25 civilians have been kidnapped by Ossetian separatists from the village of Tkviavi. The bus, by which the kidnapped civilians were being transported to Tskhinvali crashed, after which 4 of them managed to escape.

12:00 Russian soldiers are destroying the base of Gori artillery brigade.

Public Defender of Georgia has appealed to the leaders of all democratic countries and international organizations not to leave Georgia alone, and to “take effective measures in order to guard the internationally recognized principles and to help the Georgian people to protect their freedom”.

10:20 According to the local sources, Russian troops have entered Gori.

09:20 Russian armored troops (50 units) head towards Gori from Tskhinvali.

09:12 Four civilian cars with murdered passengers are reported to have been seen in the village of Tedotsminda, Gori district.

08:00 The village of Karaleti, Gori district has been attacked by Ossetian separatists again. The cases of physical assaults and abuses of the local residents are being reported.

06:50 Two bombs have been dropped by Russian aviation in village Saqasheti, Gori district. Only one of the bombes exploded.
01.05 According to the information from the local civilian sources, Ossetian separatists are taking hostage Georgian residents of villages Nikozi, Dzveri, Tkviavi, Karaleti (north of Gori).
Population of village Berbuki, Gori District is gathered on the road, asking to be evacuated.


12 August

23:12 Reports have come from that Ossetian separatists are ravaging the following Georgian villages: Berbuki, Rakha, Sveneti, Kheltubani, Karaleti.

22:52 Three foreign journalists have been robbed of their car in the village of Karaleti, Gori District.

21:50 Senaki military base is being ravaged by Russian troops. Equipment and arms are being either taken or destroyed by Russians.

21:35 Alarming reports come from the villages of Arbo and Ditsi north of Gori. According to the information from the local sources, Ossetian separatists are brutally massacring Georgian population of these villages.
According to the local sources, Georgian population of villages Kordi and Mereti, Gori district, is being brutally assaulted and abused by Ossetian separatists.
In Tkviavi, Gori district, Ossetian separatists are assaulting local Georgian residents. At list one murder is reported.
In Tchilisubani, Gori district, the local residents are hiding in the basements of their houses, asking to be evacuated..

19:10 Russian troops moved towards Khaishi, Svanetia north of the Zugdidi and occupied it. They entered Upper Abkhazia from the east.

15:00-19:00 Georgian Coast Guard command center has been attacked by Russian soldiers for three times. Equipment has been taken away or destroyed. The Georgian Coast Guard vessels have been damaged.

18:30 South Ossetian separatists entered village Disevi in Gori district and committed acts of ethnic cleansing, burning houses and attacking population. Russian militaries are witnessing all these and are not reacting.

18:30 South Ossetian separatists entered village Karaleti in Gori district and committed acts of ethnic cleansing, burning houses and attacking population.

18:00 Village Tkotsa Khashuri district 4 bombes were droped. None of them exploded.

18:00 Russian militaries began exploding Georgian ships harbored in Poti port.

18:00The share holders of Kulevi Terminal have been notifed by Russian militaries about planed bombing of the oil terminal.

17:30 Abkhazian troops mobilized heavy armored vehicles in demilitarized zone in village Ganmukhuri which they took day before and organized customs.

16:30 Russian troops entered the territory of Gori TV transmition station. One employee has been killed three injured. Russians destroyed equipment of the station. As a result the only Russian speaking TV station Alanya TV is out of air. The region can not receive Georgian Public Broadcasting channel as well.

16:30 At the grand rally held in Tbilisi, the President Saakashvili announced about the decision of the government of Georgia to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

14:50 Village Sakoritno in Kaspi region and village Ruisi in Kareli region are bombed by Russian aviation

14:00 In village Agara (Khashuri region) Russian military jet bombarded an ambulance vehicle.

13:25 Three Russian airplanes dropped bombs on the village of Orchosani near Gori.

12:30 Vaziani base nearby Tbilisi has been bombed by Russian planes.

12:25 Oil pipeline 5 km from the city of Rustavi has been bombed.

10:15 Russian planes bombed Gori. The territory around administration building, hospital, university and city market have been bombed. 5 civilians died including one child and doctor of the hospital, 15 injured. Dutch journalist has been killed. Gori was left by Georgian troops day before.

In the morning ours of 12 August Russian airplanes bombed the village of Tkviavi near Tskhinvali once again.

03:25 Russian envoy to the UN Churkin announced on the press conference that Russia will not support the resolution. Georgian envoy Alasania announced that suggested resolution is acceptable to Georgia.

02:15 Emergency meeting of the Security Council of the UN started. The resolution about cease-fire prepared by France was discussed.

02:05 Russian aviation bombarded Kaspi 30 Km from Tbilisi out of conflict zone. 3 bombs were dropped near the Heidelberg Cement factory (one from the two cement factories in the country). No damage was reported.

01:15 President of the United states George W. Bush made supportive statement to Georgia. "Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," the president said in a televised statement from the White House, calling on Moscow to sign on to the outlines of a cease-fire as the Georgian government has done



11 August

20:30 Russian Army took Gori and cut main highway connecting Western and Eastern parts of the country.

20:26 Ministry of Economic Development received the letter from the captian of Cargo Ship “Castor” that it was prevented to enter Poti Port. The other cargo ship “Asha” was prevented enter Poti Port before, during the same day.

20:10 Invading army of the Russian Federation has advancing outside the conflict zones of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian army units move towards city Gori. The Georgian army is retreating to defend the capital. The Government is urgently seeking international intervention to prevent the fall of Georgia and the further loss of life.

19:30 Russian troops advanced deep into Georgian territory from west and entered
Senaki 210 Km from Tbilisi, out of the conflict zone.

19:20 US deputy assistant secretary made supportive announcement to Georgia. He mentioned that, time would come when International Peace keeping force will enter Georgia and restore Georgia’s territorial Integrity.

19:00 The camp for IDPs was opened in Tbilisi.

18:20 Ossetian separatist forces entered village Beloti near Eredvi. They took hostage remaining civilian population and locked them in local church.

18:10 Russian Troops attacked and took village Shindisi of Gori district.

17:30 Russian Aviation bombed village Kere of Gori District.

Russian peace keepers with heavy equipment entered Zugdidi to disarm local police.
By 17:00 they began to occupy administrative buildings.
http://www.gpb.ge/moambe_news.php?lang=geo&tm_id=0&news_id=16206

14:30 Senaki base is bombed by Russian aviation.

13:30 President Saakashvili signs a ceasefire agreement, prepared by the foreign ministers of France, Finland, and Georgia. The foreign ministers of France and Finland are taking the agreement to Moscow in order to persuade President Medvedev to sign it.
http://www.gpb.ge/moambe_news.php?lang=eng&tm_id=0&news_id=16190

12:05 Russian aviation is bombing Georgian servicemen in Upper Abkhazia.

10:00 Village of Eredvi came under the fire of Russian artillery.

07:15 Senaki airport is bombed by Russian airplanes.

06:10 Gori tank battalion is bombed. A civilian apartment building nearby has been hit.

05:00 Shiraki airfield in Dedoplistskaro District on the east of the country is bombed by Russian jets.

04:37 Civilian radar station on Makhata mount in 5 kilometers from downtown Tbilisi is bombed by Russian planes.

03:05 Villages of Sharabidzeebi, Kapandichi, Makho near Batumi are bombed by Russian planes. Graveyard and villagers’ backyard have been hit. No casualties

00:30 Civilian radar station in the village of Shavshvebi west of Tbilisi is bombed by Russian planes.

00:00 Five wounded policemen transported to Zugdidi hospital from Upper Abkhazia.



10 August

20:00 Positional fighting near village of Qvabchara in Upper Abkhazia.

19:10 “Tbilaviamsheni” aviation factory was bombarded by Russian aviation again.

19:05 Russian aviation dropped bomb on Tbilisi International Airport.

18:00 The Black Sea town of Anaklia 280 km from Tbilisi, is bombed by Russian airplanes. No casualties reported

17:30 Georgian Ministry of Foreign affairs handed diplomatic note to the Charg d’affirs of Russian embassy Mr Smag. According to the order of the president Georgia, Georgian Government forces stopped fire in the conflict zone.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Karasin announced the terms of ceasefire. Georgia have to withdraw on the positions existing before the beginning of the conflict and take responsibility of non use of force.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation announced that journalists wanting to enter Russian-Georgian conflict zone have to have special accreditation from Ministry of Defense and second accreditation from Ministry of Foreign affairs of Russia.

16:10 Russian aviation bombarded only remaining bridge on the Highway linking eastern and western parts of the country. There was a fire on the bridge. Fire is extinguished. The traffic is restored.

16:05 Gori is being bombed by Russian aviation.

15:10 Russian troops and Abkhaz separatists launch ground attack on Upper Abkhazia. The region is being bombed by Russian aviation.

15:00 Russian airplanes bomb the village of Knolevi in the northern Kareli district.
By noon of 10 August there are 20 to 25 thousand IDPs from the regions of Tskhinvali and Gori, as a result of Russian attacks. The number of IDPs is growing quickly.

09:00 Government of Georgia reported 45 soldiers and 47 civilians died.

08:45 Ten Russian jets attack Upper Abkhazia. One jet has been downed by Georgian Government troops.
07:40 Russian jets bomb village of Urta in Zugdidi district.

07:00 Georgian Government Forces withdraw from Tskhinvali.
Russian General Khrulyov, commander of the invading 58th army was wounded after shelling Russian military convoy by Georgian artillery.

05:45 Russian jet entered Georgian airspace from Dagestan and dropped 3 Bombs on Tbilisi airplane factory.

6,000 Russian troops enter Georgia through Roki tunnel overnight; 90 tanks; 150 Armored Personnel Carriers; 250 artillery gunships.

4,000 Russian troops land at port of Ochamchire in Abkhazia, from Black Sea port of Sevastopol.


9 August

22:30 Russian air forces bombarded Chkhalta, administrative center of Upper Abkhazia. No Casualties reported.

By 19:45 Tskhinvali is under ultimate control of Georgian Government troops.
Russian Navy prevented Moldovan Cargo Ship Lotus - 1 carrying wheat from entering Poti Port. Lotus - 1 was forced to go back.

16:35 The town of Oni in northern Georgia is bombarded by Russian aviation.

16:15 Two Russian battleships are heading towards Poti port. By this time they are near Gudauta.

16:05 Four Russian jets flew over Upper Abkazia.

15:45 Abkhaz separatist leader Sergey Bagapsh announced the launch of bombardment of Upper Abkhazia.

14:30 The Parliament approved ordinance of the Declaration on the State of War and full mobilization.

14:00 Russian air force attack Upper Abkhazia (Kodori gorge) in several places, including the airdrome in the village of Omarishara.
12:40 Kopitnari airdrome is bombed again.

10:22 Russian air force continues to bomb Gori, located 60 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone.

10:20 One more Russian military airplane is shot down in Gori, located 60 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone. The pilot has been captured.

10:00 Russian air force bomb Kopitnari airdrome in several kilometers from Kutaisi.
The entire 58th Russian Army, located in the North Caucasus, enters the South Ossetia region. They are engaged in battle with the Georgian army in Tskhinvali, which is in the conflict zone and 92 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi.

01:20 Gatchiani in the Gardabani districts was bombarded, which is 20 kilometers southeast of Tbilisi and outside the conflict zone and is also close to the BTC pipeline, but the pipeline is not damaged.

01:00 Poti was bombarded a second time, which is located on the Black Sea coast, 260 kilometers west from Tbilisi, is outside the conflict zone and is a pure civilian target.

00:34 Person calling himself “Armen” calls the 022 Patrol Police number and says a bomb is planted in President’s Residence. He also says the new President Administration and Ministry of Internal Affair buildings will soon be bombarded.

00:20 Vaziani airfield is bombed again, which is 2-3 kilometers from Tbilisi International Airport and is located outside the conflict zone.

00:17 Lightening bombs are dropped on Senaki military base, which is 213 kilometers west of Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone. 1 serviceman and 5 reservists were reported killed. The railway station in Senaki is also bombed and eight are killed.

00:12 Poti port, which is located on the Black Sea coast, 260 kilometers west from Tbilisi, is outside the conflict zone and is a pure civilian target, is bombed heavily.


8 August

22:40 According to Ministry of Defense, Russian planes violated Georgian airspace a total of 22 times.

22:15 The type and place of Russian planes taken down during the day not located yet.

21:45 Policemen and reservists who were surrounded in the Znauri school bulding, five kilometers west of Tskinvali, are rescued by government forces.
21:11 The separatist authorities claim to have altogether 1400 people dead and wounded. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense announces that there are 10 dead among Russian “peacekeepers”.

20:30 After severe clashes in Tskinvali, Georgian forces start to withdraw from the center of the town, holding their positions at its southern outskirts. Russian tanks enter the eastern part of Tskinvali.

19:20 2 Russian planes pass over Ambrolauri, which is 170 kilometers northwest of Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone.

19:18 5 Russian airplanes were shot down during the day. Last one is shot down at approximately 19:00 near Tskhinvali.

18:45 Georgian Gori artillery brigade is bombarded by 5 Russian airplanes.

18:44 A motorcade of Russian tanks, armored vehicles and trucks loaded with different kinds of weapons reach Tskinvali by the Dzara by-pass road, 2 kilometers west of Tskinvali. The Russians opens intensive fire towards Georgian forces located in Tskinvali and on the neighboring heights. A second motorcade, which also came from Russia via the Roki tunnel, is stopped near the Georgian government controlled area of Dmenisi, 7 kilometers north of Tskinvali, and Russians open heavy fire toward Georgian forces.

18:32 Frone gorge, northeat of Tskinvali, is under intensive artillery fire by Russian forces. Villages Avnevi and Phrisi, in the Tskinvali region, are bombarded by Russian military aircraft.

17:35 Marneuli military airbase, 20 kilometers south of Tbilisi and outside the conflict zone, is bombed for the third time resulting in 1 death and 4 injured. As a result of three bombings, three grounded AN-2 type planes and military vehicles stationed there are destroyed.

17:00 Marneuli military airbase is bombed for the second time causing casualties.

16.30 Russian aviation bombs Marneuli and Bolnisi military airbases, 20 kilometers and 35 kilometers south of Tbilisi respectively. Two aircrafts were destroyed on ground. Also several buildings were destroyed and there are casualties.

16:03Two Russian planes enter Georgian airspace from the North. One more flies over Djava. Two more fly across the border near Chechnya.
By 16:00 about 40 officers of Criminal Police and Reservists are trapped in Znauri school.

15:30 Ossetian separatists destroyed 3 Georgian tanks at Dzari by-pass road.

15:05 Russian military plane enters Georgia from the direction of Tedzami, just south of Gori, and drop two bombs on the Vaziani military airport and turned back.
14.30 Almost 100% of Tskhinvali is controlled by Georgian forces. Just several small groupings are still resisting.

14.15 Georgian government announces a ceasefire from 15.00 till 18.00 to let civilian population leave Tskhinvali. Separatists are also offered amnesty and humanitarian aid if they surrender.

13:00 Part of Thskinvali is controlled by Georgian army and fighting continues in the center. The civilian population does not resist. They are ordered to stay inside their houses.

12.05 One Su-24 enters Georgian air space from Russia and remained over Tskhinvali till 12.15.

By 12.00 Eight Georgians (6 military and 2 civilians) have died and 87 are injured. 1 military truck with ammunition was destroyed.

11:45 Emergency Service of Civil Aviation report receiving a signal from a crashed flying object (presumably Russian fighter plane) near Iuri range, 17 km south from Gori.

11.45: Four Su-24 Russian jet enter Georgia from the direction of Stepantsminda (Kazbeg), northeast of the Roki tunnel and outside of the conflict zone. Two of them pass Tbilisi and make two circles around Marneuli. The other two make a circle above Gudauri.

10:57: Two of the six Russian aircraft drop three bombs in Gori. One of these fell near the stadium, the second near Gorijvari slope and third near an artillery brigade.

10.50: Six Su-24 fighter planes enter from the Roki pass.

10.30 Russian Su-24 bombs the village of Variani in the Kareli district, 75 kilometers west of Tbilisi and outside the conflict zone. Seven civilians were injured as a result.

9.45: A Russian military fighter plane drops about 3-5 bombs near the village of Shavshvebi, on the highway between Poti and Tbilisi and is 300-500 meters from Georgian military radar.

By 9:00 Georgian Forces control the villages of Gromi, Artsevi, Tsinagara, Znauri, Sarabuki, Khetagurovo, Atotsi, Kvemo Okuna, Dmenisi, Muguti and Didmukha.

8:00: First group of Russian troops together with Gufta Bridge are destroyed by a Georgian aerial bombardment. Later two more groups of Russian troops enter South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel, which connects Russia and Georgia, but could not cross the Gufta Bridge which was destroyed and moved by the Geri-Dmenisi road.

5:30: First Russian troops enter through Roki tunnel South Ossetia, passed Java, crossed Gufta bridge and moved by Dzara road towards Tskhinvali.
By 4:28: Georgian armed forces are in control of six villages in the Tskhinvali region: Muguti, Dmenisi, Didmukha, Okona, Akut and Kohati. It is also reported that Georgian forces entered the village of Khetagurovo.

2:45: Reports are received of Georgian troops occupying the villages of Didmukha, Muguti and Dmenisi.




7 August

During the night and early morning intensive fire came from the Ossetian villages of Khetagurovo, Dmenisi, Sarabuki, and Ubiat. Separatist authorities continued shelling Georgian law enforcers and Peacekeeping units with mortars and artillery. The central authorities responded with limited fire in order to defend the positions.

In the morning interview with Russian news agencies, South Ossetian de facto president Eduard Kokoity declared that if the Georgian government did not withdraw its military forces from the region, he would start “to clean them out.”

President Saakashvili speaking with journalists in the military hospital in Gori, where he visited the two injured Georgian servicemen, said that despite attacks on the Georgian villages, Tbilisi was showing “maximum restraint.” Saakashvili also called on Russia to “to recall its officials” from South Ossetia, who consider themselves as the so-called South Ossetian government.

Temur Yakobashvili, visited the conflict zone in the morning of August 7 to meet with representatives of the separatist government. The State Minister met with Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, in Tskhinvali. But, the separatists refused to negotiate with him.

The chairman of the separatist republic’s Security Council, Anatoly Barankevich threatened that armed groupings of Cossacks from North Ossetia were headed towards South Ossetia to fight against Georgian forces.

The separatists resumed shelling of Georgian villages Nuli and Avnevi by 16:00. Three Georgian servicemen were injured after the South Ossetian separatist forces blew up an infantry combat vehicle belonging to the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in Avnevi. Georgian police responded by firing towards the separatist armed grouping in village Khetagurovo, where two separatist militiamen were killed and two more wounded. Later, the check-point of Georgian peacekeepers was bombed in Avnevi and several Georgian servicemen and civilians were killed.

Georgia has decided to “unilaterally cease fire” in a sign of Tbilisi’s willingness to defuse tensions, Temur Yakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, announced at a press conference in Tbilisi at 6:40pm. Yakobashvili said that he was not able to get in touch with the separatist authorities.

President Saakashvili said in a live televised address made at 7:10pm, that he had ordered the Georgian forces to cease fire in South Ossetia. He said there were casualties, both dead and many people wounded. Saakashvili said that he ordered to cease fire “on purpose” to again offer the South Ossetian secessionists to resume talks.

Despite Georgia’s decision not to return fire, the Georgian village of Avnevi again came under fire of the South Ossetian militiamen at about 8:30pm. It can be said that the village was totally destroyed as a result.

The South Ossetian separatist armed groupings fired at the Georgian-controlled village of Prisi at about 10:30 pm. The attack left several people wounded on the Georgian side.

The separatist authorities opened fire at all Georgian positions around the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali at about 23:30, including the villages of Tamarasheni and Kurta. The police stations in Kurta was destroyed as a result of heavy shelling.
8 August

According to witnesses from local population, at about 9.45 a military fighter plane, presumably Russian (it entered Georgia from South Ossetian side) dropped off about 3-5 bombs near village Shavshvebi, 300-500 meters from Georgian military radar.





6 August

Late on 6 August, separatists opened mortar fire at Georgian populated villages of Eredvi, Prisi, Avnevi, Dvani and Nuli. Georgian government forces fired back in order to defend the positions and civilian population. As a result of intensive cross-fire during the night, two servicemen of the Georgian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces were injured. Separatist regime also claimed several injured persons on their side. Despite the targeted attacks on peaceful population and villages, as well as on the Georgian police and peacekeeping forces, the central authorities decided not to respond through heavy exchange of fire, in order not to injure the local population.

Temur Yakobashvili, Georgian chief negotiator and state minister for reintegration, said in late night televised remarks on August 6 that it was the position of the Georgian government that only a direct dialogue with Tskinvali authorities would solve the deteriorating security situation. Mr. Yakobashvili also stressed that Ambassador-at-large Yuri Popov would attend the talks as a facilitator. South Ossetian chief negotiator, Boris Chochiev, refused to take part in negotiations.


During 4 and 5 August no serious incidents have been observed.


3 August


South Ossetian separatist government announced evacuation of more than 500 people, including about 400 children. However, Ermak Dzansolov, deputy prime minister of Russia’s North Ossetian Republic, told Interfax news agency that it was not an evacuation. Sending children to North Ossetia was part of a pre-arranged summer-camp programme, as he explained.
Russian media outlets started a massive propaganda campaign against Georgia.
South Ossetian media sources reported on the mobilization of volunteers across the North Caucasus.


2 August

Six civilians and one Georgian policeman were injured after the shelling of Georgian villages in the South Ossetian conflict zone overnight. The Georgian-controlled villages of Zemo Nikozi, Kvemo Nikozi, Nuli, Avnevi, Eredvi and Ergneti came under intense fire from the South Ossetian separatists with large calibre mortars. Georgian law enforcers shot back defensively for some time, but then received an order of ceasefire in order not to escalate the situation.


1 August

At about 8:00 AM, Tbilisi time, a pickup vehicle with six Georgian police officers was hit by two remote control explosive devices on the Eredvi-Kheiti by-pass road linking the Didi Liakhvi Gorge – a Georgian enclave north of the breakaway region’s capital Tskhinvali - with Georgia proper. As a result of the attack, five Georgian policemen were severely wounded. The central authorities decided not to retaliate in order not to escalate the situation.

GORI

Over the last few days the Georgian city of Gori has been mentioned as being the focus of the Russian military operations. The media portrays this as ruthless aggression against a civilian population. What they fail to mention is that Gori is the main Georgian military site, with installations built in civilian areas. Those installations were also recently upgraded to NATO standards in anticipation of Georgia joining NATO.

Gori was no doubt the main source of weapons and troops for the ruthless assault on South Ossetia, and in Russian eyes therefore had to be attacked. It is very sad that civilians were killed there, and is why the media is focusing on the hundred or so civilian deaths in the NATO military base town of Gori, rather then the 2000 or so civilian deaths in Tskhinvali.

I regret all civilian deaths in the recent war.

But who started it?

Who shelled civilians in their beds in the dead of night?

Saakashvili has still got a lot of explaining to do. And by the sounds of it, Georgians are starting to ask him to explain himself.

JUST ONE ARTICLE ON TSKHINVALI

The "clever clogs" newspapers, as Alan Partridge refers to them, have unsurprisingly sided with Saakashvili. Only The Guardian has addressed the destruction of Tskhinvali and the resulting massacre, and even in his article Tom Parfitt does not address the fact that Georgia started the war by first attacking Tskhinvali during the night. Not quite shameless whore journalism, but at least he and The Guardian recognise that something terrible occured in Tskhinvali. All the rest are sucking Mikhail 'Soros' Saakashvili's hweng.


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From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/13/georgia.russia3

'I've never heard anything so monstrous as people shelling a hospital'
Tom Parfitt travelled to Tskhinvali, in a trip organised by the Kremlin, to witness first hand the destruction caused by the battle for South Ossetia

* Tom Parfitt
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday August 13 2008 01:53 BST
* Article history

A convoy of three buses and an escort of armed Russian Special Forces soldiers travelled across the border with Russia into South Ossetia yesterday, in a trip organised by the Kremlin for foreign media to witness first hand the destruction in Tskhinvali.

At the village of Dzhava 20 miles beyond the border a huge queue of Russian military hardware stood pointing south, testament to the might of the resurgent Russian state.

Several truck-mounted rocket launchers were a sign of Moscow's intent to hold Tskhinvali at all costs. Approaching Tskhinvali, the group of reporters was transferred to armoured personnel carriers because of the risk of fire from Georgian snipers, said the Russian officers leading the trip.

In villages close to the city there were many burned out houses, and others were still ablaze. In the city itself it was clear that claims the city had been levelled to the ground by artillery were exaggerated. However, it was also evident that while some neighbourhoods were intact, there were patches of terrible destruction.

At a crossroads in the north of the city there was evidence of a fierce fire fight. Three destroyed Georgian tanks were slewed across the road, a mess of ash and twisted metal. The heavy turret of one tank had been tossed across the street, falling through a shop front. Nearby on the ground lay a human foot.

Colonel Igor Konashenko of the Russian army said: "There were Georgian attacks overnight but our troops are in full control of the city. So far we've had no orders to move south into Georgia."

Hearing of a ceasefire yesterday, civilians began to emerge from bunkers and basements. At the crossroads, Izolda Deppiyeva, 50, looked out on the scene of ruined ground floor apartment in a block riddled by gunfire. She recalled the moment when Georgian artillery first hit the city.

"There was a great wave of pressure which twisted me and flung me against the kitchen wall."

A former theatre stage actress, Deppiyeva said she had lived for four days in a cellar with her relatives without food and water.

"I could not leave," she said. "This land is my body, my home. We are a proud beautiful people and we are not leaving. I survived, I am alive!"

In the yard behind the apartment block a group of Ossetian fighters were seated at a wooden bench eating mutton and drinking wine: "We are raising a toast to those who are left," said Ruslan Kostoyev, 33. "Those tanks in the street, we hit them with rocket propelled grenades from the basement."

Kostoyev accused Western leading countries of arming Georgia in the conflict: "A Georgian only knows how to ride a cow," he said, "the aeroplanes which destroyed the building were Ukrainian," he said.

Another fighter said: "The Georgians were 30 times stronger than us. They wanted to kill us to destroy everything. But we held them off."

Outside in the street, a priest in an immaculate black cassock walked through the scene of devastation. Saurmag Bazzate, an Ossetian prior, arrived in Tskhinvali on Monday. "I came to be with my people," he said. "Those who perpetrated this horror are criminals who must be punished by God. This war is a result of Georgian fascism, which has flourished with the support of the West."

Russian officials in the city say their main aim is now to contain a humanitarian disaster by repairing water supplies insuring that bread factories are working and re-establishing an electricity supply.

Close to the centre of the city Russian officers led the group to the city's main hospital which was hit by small arms fire and shells during the first days of fighting. Doctors at the hospital said they had been forced to carry out operations in corridors and the basement of the building without electricity, water or light.

Tina Zakharova, one of the doctors, pointed out chunks of shrapnel which had hit the building.

"This is the humanitarian aid that Georgia sent us," she said, "and that," she said, pointing at a field hospital nearby, "is the help we received from Russia. Which do you think we should chose?" She added: "I've never heard anything so monstrous as people shelling a hospital."

In total, said Zakharova, 224 injured people had been treated at the hospital and two people had died there. Just south of the city centre a group of reporters were shown a street entirely destroyed by a Grad missile attack. Homes along the 100m street had been reduced to rubble.

One man showed the Guardian the metal casing of a Grad rocket lodged in the ruins of his home: "We managed to escape to the shelter just in time," he said, pointing at the mouth of a cellar protected by huge chunks of concrete.

Colonel Konashenko said: "The Georgians could not get tanks through these narrow streets. So first they turned it to ruins with a Grad attack and tried to punch through here to the centre of the city. There was heavy fighting in the streets. I think more than 500 bodies were pulled out of this part of town."

Asked if there had been atrocities against civilians the Colonel replied: "I personally saw one man beheaded lying in the street and others say they witnessed civilians who had been finished off with a shot to the back of the head."

Back at the hospital there were sounds of gunfire and then the crump of mortars landing somewhere in the city. First one explosion, then a second. When a third hit, sounding louder, the Colonel said: "It's time to move. Let's go."