Infinite Unknown

Notice that this is a DEFENSE system, so why should this be a ‘provocative move’?

It has been proven that Georgia has been the aggressor and started the war and not Russia.

Mikhail Saakashvili himself admitted that Georgia started it.

Provocative move in disputed territory draws angry response from Georgia two years after its war with Russia

S-300 missile defense system

Russia said today that it had deployed air defence missiles in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, sending a defiant signal to Tbilisi and the west two years after a war with Georgia.

The formidable S-300 missile system bolstered Moscow’s military presence in the disputed territory and drew an angry response from Georgia. General Alexander Zelin, the commander of Russia’s air force, said other air defences had been deployed in Georgia’s other Russian-backed rebel region, South Ossetia.

“The task of these air defences is … to avert violations of their state borders in the air…” Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Georgia, Global News, Military, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia

Georgian opposition denounces phony TV war report

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks during his meeting with the residents of the Rachisubani settlement, some 50 km (31 miles) south-west of the capital Tbilisi, Sunday, March 14, 2010. Georgians have been panicked by a hoax television news program announcing the Russian army had invaded and killed President Mikhail Saakashvili. The private television station Imedi, Georgia’s third-most popular channel, showed the faux report on its Khronika news bulletin at 8 p.m. Saturday, a time when many of the country’s 4 million population would have been watching. (AP Photo/Irakly Gedenidze, Presidential Press Service, Pool)

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia’s opposition politicians on Monday denounced the government over a hoax television broadcast that said Russia had invaded and the president had been killed.

The broadcast Saturday, which simulated a news program, sparked wide anxiety in Georgia, which is still traumatized by the August 2008 war in which Russian troops advanced deep into the country.

Cellular phone networks briefly went down as panicked Georgians phoned each other. The show was identified as fictional only at its beginning — which many viewers apparently missed — and its end 30 minutes later.

Imedi, the station that aired the show, is private, but its director is a former chief of staff for President Mikhail Saakashvili. Opponents characterized the broadcast as government propaganda, aimed at discrediting them.

By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
March 15, 2010

Full article: AP

Moscow irked by bogus TV report of Russian invasion

The fake news report aired on Georgian TV was a provocation aimed at jeopardizing regional stability and security, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

The Imedi TV channel sparked panic in Georgia on Saturday with a broadcast that said Russian tanks had invaded the capital and the country’s president was dead.

“The provocative TV show has caused tangible damage to security and stability in the region, significantly heightening the intensity of an already complex situation,” Andrei Nesterenko said.

He added that the move was “irresponsible and immoral” especially with regard to Georgian society where it “caused panic.”

The broadcast, which used the channel’s normal news graphics, began with a warning that the program showed a sequence of possible events that could occur “if Georgian society is not united against Russia’s plans.”

Imedi head Georgy Arveladze said on Monday that the special report was a warning against a possible danger.

“Our objective was not to scare society but to show the dangers facing our country,” he said.

He added that he assumed full responsibility for the report and apologized for its negative consequences. Continue reading »

Tags: Georgia, Global News, Military, Politics, Russian Mafia, TV, War

Saakashvili obviously never left kindergarten:

“Mr Saakashvili admitted yesterday that Georgia began military operations in South Ossestia but insisted that it was in response to Russian provocation.” (So the Russians ’started’ and it was all ‘their fault’. Grow up you idiot. How many people have suffered and died for this nonsense?)

This explains why Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls’.
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Source: The Times

Iron Lady Nino Burjanadze finds the steel to threaten her struggling ally

She styles her hair like Margaret Thatcher and counts the Iron Lady among her political idols. Now the female face of Georgia’s pro-Western Rose Revolution is challenging her former ally Mikhail Saakashvili.

Nino Burjanadze is emerging as the key threat to President Saakashvili over the disastrous handling of the war for South Ossetia. Protest was muted while the Russian Army occupied Georgia but its withdrawal is stirring opposition demands for him to go.

Mrs Burjanadze, 44, poses a particularly potent threat because she was the revolution’s second-most powerful figure. She marked the fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution this week by founding her own opposition party and demanding early elections, saying her former allies had no moral right to remain in power.

Mrs Burjanadze was acting president while Mr Saakashvili campaigned in a snap election in January that was called after he ordered riot police to break up opposition protests last November.

She was chairman of parliament for seven years until she resigned from his ruling National Movement a month before elections in May.

She began her campaign against Mr Saakashvili by publishing a list of 43 questions in Georgian newspapers demanding explanations for the political and military conduct of the war in August. “These are quite objective and reasonable questions and, of course, I and a lot of people in Georgia want direct and adequate answers . . . It’s absolutely necessary to understand what happened,” she told The Times. “Unfortunately, the country is in very serious trouble after these events.”

She lists the costs: the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, now recognised as independent by Russia, are farther from rejoining Georgia than before the war; Nato scepticism about membership for Georgia has been reinforced, and foreign investment has been scared away.

Mr Saakashvili admitted yesterday that Georgia began military operations in South Ossestia but insisted that it was in response to Russian provocation.

Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Georgia, Government, Mikhail Saakashvili, Military, NATO, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, Vladimir Putin, War

A Democratic Congressman in the US has launched a scathing attack on some bank executives, who he accuses of throwing parties while the US economy goes up in smoke.

November 25, 2008, 11:29

Source: Russia Today

Tags: Afghanistan, Bailout, Banks, Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Economy, Financial Crisis, George Bush, Georgia, Military, Missile shield, Missiles, Politics, Russia, U.S., Wall Street

After gaining exclusive access to South Ossetia, Tim Whewell has discovered evidence Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region in August.

Source: BBC

Tags: Georgia, Politics, South Ossetia

(Dmitry Astahov/AFP/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin reportedly wanted to hang President Saakashvili “like the Americans hanged Saddam”

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” - a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace.

The Russian Prime Minister had revealed his plans for disposing of Mr Saakashvili when Mr Sarkozy was in Moscow in August to broker a ceasefire in Georgia.

Jean-David Levitte, Mr Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser, reported the exchange in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. The meeting will be chaired by the French leader and President Medvedev.

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” - he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah - you have scored a point there.”

Mr Saakashvili, who was in Paris to meet Mr Sarkozy yesterday, laughed nervously when a French radio station read him the exchange. “I knew about this scene, but not all the details. It’s funny, all the same,” he said.

Continue reading »

Tags: France, Georgia, Government, Mikhail Saakashvili, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics, Russia, Vladimir Putin

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, left, who met Oct. 26 near Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, says that Belarus would like to deploy missiles even if it doesn’t reach an agreement with Moscow.

MINSK, Belarus — President Alexander Lukashenko is in talks with Moscow about placing in Belarus advanced Iskander missiles that could hit targets deep inside Europe.

The talks raise the ante in the debate over a U.S. plan to deploy missile defense in Europe. They also complicate Western hopes for warmer ties with Belarus, which some in the U.S. and Europe hope could help to counterbalance an increasingly hostile Kremlin.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lukashenko said that he would like to see closer relations with the West but that he sympathizes with Russia on two flashpoints that have rocked relations — the conflict in Georgia and U.S. plans to place antimissile systems in Europe to counter a potential threat from Iran.

Mr. Lukashenko said he “absolutely supports” Russia’s plans to place Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad that would target the U.S. missile system. Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave in Europe that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, and missiles there could reach the proposed U.S. missile sites in Poland.

Mr. Lukashenko said Russia also had proposed putting Iskander missiles in Belarus, which is situated between Russia and Poland. And if a deal on the issue isn’t reached, Belarus itself would like to deploy the missiles, he said.

“Even if Russia does not offer these promising missiles, we will purchase them ourselves,” said Mr. Lukashenko, who said the technology for the Iskander optics and fire-control systems comes from Belarus. “Right now we do not have the funds, but it is part of our plans — I am giving away a secret here — to have such weapons.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Abkhazia, Belarus, Georgia, Iran, Military, Missiles, NATO, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, U.S.

Two former British military officers are expected to give crucial evidence against Georgia when an international inquiry is convened to establish who started the country’s bloody five-day war with Russia in August.

Ryan Grist, a former British Army captain, and Stephen Young, a former RAF wing commander, are said to have concluded that, before the Russian bombardment began, Georgian rockets and artillery were hitting civilian areas in the breakaway region of South Ossetia every 15 or 20 seconds.

Their accounts seem likely to undermine the American-backed claims of President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia that his little country was the innocent victim of Russian aggression and acted solely in self-defence.

During the war both Grist and Young were senior figures in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The organisation had deployed teams of unarmed monitors to try to reduce tension over South Ossetia, which had split from Georgia in a separatist struggle in the early 1990s with Russia’s support.

On the night war broke out, Grist was the senior OSCE official in Georgia. He was in charge of unarmed monitors who became trapped by the fighting. Based on their observations, Grist briefed European Union diplomats in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, with his assessment of the conflict.

Grist, who resigned from the OSCE shortly afterwards, has told The New York Times it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

“It was clear to me that the [Georgian] attack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation,” he said. “The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Georgia, Government, Mikhail Saakashvili, Military, OSCE, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, U.S., War

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said he would deploy new missiles in Europe, confronting the U.S. on the day Barack Obama was declared the winner in America’s presidential election.

Medvedev said he would place a short-range missile system designed to carry conventional warheads in Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

“An Iskander rocket system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region to neutralize the missile-defense system if necessary,” Medvedev said, referring to U.S. plans to place elements of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Medvedev blamed the U.S. for failure to coordinate its economic policy with other countries so that a “local” crisis turned into a global one, leading to “a fall on the markets of the whole planet.” He also renewed his assertion that the U.S. provoked the war between Russia and Georgia in August.

Continue reading »

Tags: China, Dmitry Medvedev, Financial Crisis, Georgia, India, Lithuania, Mikhail Saakashvili, Military, Missile shield, NATO, Poland, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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The Defanging of America:  Reality-Based Community Overthrows History’s Actors

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Bush White House aide explaining the New Reality

The New American Century lasted a decade. Financial crisis and defeated objectives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Georgia brought the neoconservative project for American world hegemony crashing to a close in the autumn of 2008.

The American neoconservatives are the heirs of Leon Trotsky. Their dream of American “Full Spectrum Dominance”–US military and economic superiority over any possible combination of states–is matched in ambition only by the early 20th century Trotskyite dream of world Communist revolution.

The neocons used September 11, 2001, as a “new Pearl Harbor” to give power precedence over law domestically and internationally. The executive branch no longer had to obey federal statutes, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or honor international treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions. An asserted “terrorist threat” to national security became the cloak which hid US imperial interests as the Bush Regime set about dismantling US civil liberties and the existing order of international law constructed by previous governments during the post-war era.

Perhaps the neoconservative project for world hegemony would have lasted a bit longer had the neocons possessed intellectual competence.

On the war front, the incompetent neocons predicted that the Iraq war would be a six-week cakewalk, whose $70 billion cost would be paid out of Iraqi oil revenues. President Bush fired White House economist Larry Lindsey for estimating that the war would cost $200 billion. The current estimate by experts is that the Iraq war has cost American taxpayers between two and three trillion dollars. And the six-week war is now the six-year war.

Continue reading »

Tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, Bush administration, Civil liberties, Civil rights, Economy, Financial Crisis, Geneva Conventions, George Bush, Georgia, Government, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Law, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Military, NATO, Neoconservatives, New World Order, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, Surveillance, Taliban, Taxpayers, U.S., War