- The Bush Administration is now having serious problems
with Georgian President Saakashvili. He has always been seen as an excellent
political tool, very pro-American, very anti-Putin and a man who had received
over $860,000 USD from the American government for his "friendly cooperation"
in permitting American and Israeli intelligence and military units to develop
a striking base in his country aimed at both Russia and Iran.
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- Saakashvili. has had three highly informative and secret
email exchanges (on September 3,4 and 5th) with American Vice President
Cheney and two with American Secretary of State Rice (on September 1 and
3rd) concerning the future of Georgia. Since email privacy is impossible
to maintain, the contents of these messages are certainly not secret.
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- Saakashvili has reiterated repeatedly, and very forcefully,
that he wants the U.S. to reequip the Georgian army to the level it was
at prior to the military events with Russia in early August.
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- Saakashvili insists that the U.S. develop a large naval
base at Poti, the oil refinery port, to protect it from the Russians.
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- Saakashvili wants a large number of American troops stationed
in Georgia for a protracted period to physically protect that country by
their presence.
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- Saakashvili is also asking Israel to occupy at least
one air base and to station a significant number of bombing aircraft there
to facilitate a planned attack on Iran or on Russian forces should they
invade Georgian territory again.
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- Saakashvili stated that he planned to equip loyalist
local militias in the two provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia ,with sufficient
weapons to harass and drive out the Russian occupiers.
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- Saakashvili intends to ask Israel to send tactical atomic
weapons to Georgia to maintain a balance against Russian aggression..
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- Saakashvili vowed on September 6 to regain control over
the two independence-seeking provinces of by military force at the earliest
possible opportunity..
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- Major problems facing Washington include:
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- The total inability of the U.S. to field a significant
force of ground troops anywhere in the area due to prior needs in both
Iraq and Afghanistan. Small numbers of American military personnel (there
were two thousand such personnel in Georgia before that country attacked
South Ossetia and then were forced to rapidly evacuate following a massive
Russian military incursion) could be made available but large and determinant
numbers are not possible and this is certainly well-known to the public.
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- The well-publicized instability of Saakashvili who can
best termed a loose cannon. Although a bought-and-paid-for American source,
the Georgian leader, cozened and flattered by the Bush White House, has
come to believe that he is America's darling who can do as he wishes with
their complete support. He has pranced around the state, shouting to his
fellow-countrymen and giving the finger to Vladimir Putin.
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- A treacherous ally, Israel, who thinks that, like Georgia's
President, that they have the full and unconditional backing of the Bush
White House (but certainly not the Ametican public) and have been working
both sides of the block at the same time, swearing total allegiance to
the United States while passing our military, economic and political secrets
to the Russians.
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- A strong reluctance on the part of Turkey to let American
naval units take up residence in the Black Sea. The only entrance and exit
for such units would be through Turkish territorial waters and Turkey has
a very understandable desire not to provoke economic or military responses
from Russia.
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- A Russian GRU report, under date of September 3, 2008,
concerning one aspect of the huge trove of American and Israeli intelligence
documents found abandoned in Georgia by both American intelligence units
as well as Israeli, disclosed that the U.S. electronic equipment
captured at Poti by Russian spesnatz units was partially manufactured,
under U.S. license, at Odessa in the Ukraine. The Ukraine is not a member
of NATO, but NATO-compatible sensitive military equipment is being manufactured
in a non-NATO country. The Russian reports goes on to state that the Georgian
military not only abandoned "significant amounts of" valuable
equipment, but essentially totally compromised both the American and Israeli
intelligence network set up in Georgia for the purpose of electronic spying
on Iran, Russia and Turkey.
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- As a matter of record, once this story was published,
the American military immediately denied that anyone captured any sensitive
American documents. Unfortunately, the Russians did and are now quietly
releasing the results of their finds. On the other hand, the Israelis are
smart enough to keep their mouths shut about what the Russians discovered
about their activities.
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- The Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, turned
out to be an utter disaster in conducting surveillance over Russian territory
prior to the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia. Russian aircraft, aided
by their new radar systems, were able to shoot down all of these craft
and subsequent incursions by Russian forces overran Israeli reconnaissance
control bases and captured a number of intact drones of different types
as well as a wealth of technical data and many reconnaissance films taken
on earlier incursions of Russian air space.
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- Russian counter-intelligence units also seized
copies of the computer files of the Georgian government, including highly
sensitive diplomatic messaging from, and to, the following individuals
and entities:
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- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA
in Georgia John Teft
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- the delegation of the EU Troika represented by Eric Fournier
- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic
of France - current EU Presidency, Robin Liddell
- First Counselor of the European Commission's Delegation
to Georgia and Ivan Jestrab
- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech
Republic - next EU Presidency
- Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
State Secretary G. Karasin
- representatives of the Embassies of the New Group of
Georgia's Friends: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and the
Czech Republic accredited in Georgia
- representatives of the Embassies of the United States,
United Kingdom, France, Germany and China
- Director of the Policy Planning Division at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia Tiit Matsulevits
- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine
in Georgia Mikolas Spiss
- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic
of Estonia to Georgia Toomas Lukk
- delegation of the EU Troika represented by Fabienne Drout-Lozinski
- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Georgia Denis Keefe
- representatives of the Embassies of the Netherlands,
Italy, Holy See, Turkey, France, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine to Georgia
- Deputy US Ambassador Kent Loxton and representative of
the Embassy's political division Joy Davis Kirshner
- the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia
- Permanent Representative of Georgia to the UN, Ambassador
Irakli Alasania
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- Also discovered were the special bank accounts into which
the United States Embassy, acting for "several" other American
agencies, (CIA and DoS) paid monies for the "personal use" of
President Saakashvili:
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- Bank Accounts
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- For transactions in GEL
- Beneficiary's Bank: "Basis Bank"Bank Code :
220101956
- Beneficiary: "DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM FOUNDATION"
UNDER PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA
- Account Number # : 134530
- Total deposits from State Department accounts: $275,000
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- For transactions in US Dollars
- Intermediary Bank,: DEUTCHE BANK TRUST CO. AMERICAS NEW
YORK, USA, SWIFT : BKTRUS33 ABA : 021001033
- Beneficiary's Bank: BASIS BANK TBILISI, GEORGIA SWIFT
: CBASGE22
- Beneficiary: OBJECTIVE ACCOUNT FOUNDATION
" DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM FOUNDATION"
- Account Number # 134530
- Total deposits from State Department accounts $400,000
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- For transactions in Euro and other convertible currency:
- Intermediary Bank: DEUTCHE BANK FRANKFURT/ESCHBORN, DEUTSCHLAND,
SWIFT : DEUT DE FF
- Beneficiary's bank: BASIS BANK, TBILISI,
GEORGIA SWIFT : CBASGE22
- Beneficiary: OBJECTIVE ACCOUNT FOUNDATION "DEVELOPMENT
AND REFORM FOUNDATION"
- Account Number #134530
- Total deposits from State Department accounts: $185,000
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