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POPSMore U.S. Weapons to Republic of Georgia?
The Caspian Sea contains the largest know reserves of Oil and natural gas. Those of us who think stealing and exploiting natural resources think this is the reason for U.S. & Israeli military support of Georgia...and the reason for Russia pushing back against Georgia recent failed attempt at expansion. Expansion? -- Expansion to consolidate it's drip on Caspian Sea oil. Expansion for the BTC pipeline (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baku_pipelines.svg) This has routes that would take the greatest reserves of oil and natural gas in the world from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea and to the EU/NATO countries. Also it goes through Turkey to the Mediterranean for export. Formerly all this oil and natural gas belonged to the Soviet Union. The final major part of this plan is an underwater Israeli-Turkish pipeline to the Israeli port of Ashkelon. For more info, contact British Petroleum's (BP) CEO, Lord Browne. This is why our troops kill & die: : for BP, not
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POPS Kremlin: Battles Over Energy May Lead To Wars Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, who is now Russia's powerful prime minister, often accused the West in the past of trying to expand its clout in the ex-Soviet nations and push Russia out of its traditional sphere of influence. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed NATO's plans to incorporate its ex-Soviet neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia. Russia currently controls most natural gas export routes out of the former Soviet region, but that grip is coming under growing pressure from China and the West. Intensifying rivalry for influence in the ex-Soviet region fomented tensions and helped stage the ground for last August's war between Russia and Georgia, which sits astride a key export pipeline carrying Caspian oil to Western markets. The war erupted when the U.S.-allied Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sent troops to regain control over the separatist province of South Ossetia, which had close links with Russia.
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POPSGeorgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (L), surrounded by his guards, enters the Mukhrovani military base where some soldiers staged a mutiny, some 10 km (6 miles) east of Tbilisi May 5, 2009. Georgia put down a mutiny at a military base on Tuesday and accused Russia of financing a coup to stir up trouble on the eve of NATO war games in the ex-Soviet republic.
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POPSGeorgians Rally Against Their President This is the fruits and blow-back from his invasion of South Ossetia which provoked Russia to defend and counter-attack and Georgia was defeated in short order (while the MSM propaganda machine blamed Russia for a "unilateral assault" on Georgia). The president calls for unity to "liberate Georgia" while thousands want to be "liberated" from him! President Saakashvili is Georgia's "Bush".
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POPSGeorgia on my Mind, Again. Attack each other now!!! Ms Burjanadze strongly denied that anyone from her party was involved in buying or storing weapons and said that the government was mounting "a campaign of terror against her". "We are familiar with such video evidence and how it is made up," she told a news conference. The BBC's Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says it is unclear from the government videos whether anyone arrested was planning to use the guns in anti-government activity, and the interior ministry spokesman said he did not want to politicise the arrests. But they come just weeks before a planned opposition-led demonstration and against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter feud between the two sides, our correspondent says. ... BBC
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POPSOSCE 'failed' in Georgia warnings Was it deliberate that the reports were ignored? Who else knew of Saakashvili intent to invade? How much more blood is on Bush's hands? The killing of civilians to achieve ethnic cleansing is so reminiscent of Israel methods in the M-East. Of course the Georgian troops were all trained by IDF officers, so any regard for human life is pointless.
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POPSNATO to Georgia-war with Russia won't stop membership push Moscow, however, takes a different line. The Kremlin has made clear that it believes that a NATO membership for Georgia would pose a threat to its own security, and has categorically denounced the country's NATO aspirations. The Alliance, for its part, has refused to restore ties with the Kremlin until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia's disputed territories in compliance with the August 12 European Union-brokered peace deal.
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POPSSaakashvili’s Days Numbered Okruashvili also said that after 2006 Georgia didn't have the possibility for success by military means. “The Russians had repositioned and improved their military infrastructure in the North Caucuses, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. He also criticized the United States for unwavering support towards President Saakashvili’s administration. “ “Lack of criticism from the U.S. allowed him to go too far,” Okruashvili said.
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POPSUS to invade Iran any day now? Hmmm lets see if we make it to the 2008 elections.. I predict that IF Obama wins we will see something occur which will allow bush to suspend elections under his Presidential Directive which actually gives him the right to do this without congressional approval >> please read this white house.gov document.. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html << I'm not kidding!
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POPSThe Trouble With Saakashvili Still, if Georgian democracy needs Saakashvili to survive, it also needs, eventually, to reckon with him. If and when the Russian occupation can be ended and the imminent threat to the country overcome, the test for Georgians will become whether they can use democratic institutions to investigate and challenge their president's behavior and hold him accountable for the huge reversal he has inflicted on the country. That point was made in Washington last week by Nino Burjanadze, the former speaker of the Georgian parliament who helped Saakashvili lead the Rose Revolution of 2003. Burjanadze broke with her old ally last spring and created the Tblisi-based Foundation for Democracy and Development to address the glaring weaknesses in Georgia's new politics. She's been advocating for a freer press, more independent judges, and a more powerful and independent parliament -- the absence of which arguably opened the way to Saakashvili's Ossetian blunder.
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POPSMoscow’s Plan is to Redraw the Map of Europe: Mikheil Saakashvili
Since Russia’s invasion, its forces have been “cleansing” Georgian villages in both regions – including outside the conflict zone – using arson, rape and execution. Human rights groups have documented these actions. It hopes the west will forget ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia drove out more than three-quarters of the local population – ethnic Georgians, Greeks, Jews and others – leaving the minority Abkhaz in control. Last week Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, put us on alert: “Russia does not really know where it begins and where it ends.” He noted that the Moscow regime is “a lot more sophisticated” than the Soviets under Leonid Brezhnev. He should know – he was on the front line the last time Russia invaded a European country. Backing Georgia with Europe’s political and financial institutions is a powerful response. The most potent western response to Russia is to stay united and firm by providing immediate material and political support.
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POPSDiplomatic Breakthru in Georgia: Red-Faced Russian Party Crashers Retreat continued.........but nobody thought it was going to turn into a big ugly scene." Russia's invasion prompted a quick stern response from GOP presidential candidate John McCain, while Democratic candidate Barack Obama urged Russia and Georgia to "work together to iron out their differences," and "chills, y'all." After learning that Georgia was a US ally, Obama clarified the remarks, demanding that Russia withdraw its troops north to Tennessee and West Virginia. "Everyone was just sort of staring at Russia, who's in the middle of beating the hell out of Georgia, and Russia's like, 'what? Come on man, you have to admit it's funny,'" said a source with UNSCOM. "So Russia's going around, looking for high fives and is like, 'don't leave me hangin', bro,' but the G8 gives him the total gas face, so he's like, 'whatever, dude, this party sucked anyway.'"
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POPSEU Leaders To Discuss Georgia As Russia Flouts West French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Russia could face a deterioration of relations with Europe, Moscow's largest trading partner, including ties involving energy, Russia's main export. Most of the troops left Friday, but Moscow retained its peacekeepers in Kremlin-defined security zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "They are trying to keep instruments to suffocate Georgia and create further trouble at any moment," said Giga Bokeria, Georgia's deputy foreign minister. In Ukraine, meanwhile, pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko said the conflict in Georgia showed his country needed to accelerate its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, speaking at a military parade in honor of Ukraine's independence. Russia opposes the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, which the Kremlin views as an anti-Russian bloc.
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POPSGorbachev on Georgian conflict Clips from Gorbachev's op-ed piece in NY Times Russia has long been told to simply accept the facts. Here’s the independence of Kosovo for you. Here’s the abrogation of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and the American decision to place missile defenses in neighboring countries. Here’s the unending expansion of NATO. All of these moves have been set against the backdrop of sweet talk about partnership. Why would anyone put up with such a charade? There is much talk now in the United States about rethinking relations with Russia. One thing that should definitely be rethought: the habit of talking to Russia in a condescending way, without regard for its positions and interests.
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POPS NATO Has Acquiesced To The Kremlin Writing in the Times of London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband even opposes expelling Russia from the G-8 -- a perfectly calibrated and long-overdue measure. And a German diplomat says the Georgia issue should not have been brought to NATO in the first place, but instead to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a completely toothless consultative body, and to the United Nations, where inaction is guaranteed by the Russian veto. To their credit, the French tried to do something. Unfortunately, President Nicolas Sarkozy was snookered by Moscow. Article V of the cease-fire agreement he brokered, allowing Russia the right to "implement additional security measures" within the borders of Georgia, is a blank check for Russian occupation. Eastern Europe understands the stakes in Georgia. It is the ultimate target. Russia's aims are clear: (1) sever South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia for incorporation into Russia;
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POPSWarning to Obama on the New Cold War by Tom Hayden 
• McCain has traveled to Georgia, nominated his close friend Saakashlivi for a Nobel Prize in 2005, and was the first American leader to blast Russia last April, when Vladimir Putin issued a sharp warning against NATO membership for Georgia and the Ukraine, supported by the United States. • The Bush Administration was divided along familiar lines, with the foreign policy "realists" around Condoleezza Rice opposite the pro-Georgia hawks centered in Dick Cheney's office and allied with McCain--enthusiasts for spreading "democracy" from Iraq to the Russian border. • Randy Scheunemann, McCain's foreign policy adviser, was a registered foreign agent for Saakashlivi's government from at least 2004, when Saakashvili came to power, until May 15, 2008, when he technically severed his ties to Orion Strategies, his lobbying firm. At that point, Orion had earned at least $800,000 in lobbying fees from Georgia. • Saakashvili, with Scheuneman advising him, campaigned on a platform of taking
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