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Last update - 13:15 14/08/2008

Georgia president denies Israel halted military aid due to war

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Georgia, Israel, U.S.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili denied on Wednesday night that Israel has suspended its military aid to the country. "I haven't heard anything about that, and I haven't had time to think about that issue for some days," he told Haaretz.

Saakashvili said he is aware of problems with supplying the pilotless drones that his army ordered from Israeli companies, but not of the stopping of any other shipments of military aid.

"The Israeli weapons have proved very effective," he said at a press conference at his office. When asked whether the Israeli arms played a role in the military successes he claimed the Georgian army had achieved, he joked: "Are you asking me as a representative of Elbit or of Israel Aerospace Industries?"
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To a reporter's question about Jews who have fled the fighting and come to Israel, he said: "We have two Israeli cabinet ministers, one deals with war [Defense Minister David Kezerashvili], and the other with negotiations [State Minister for Territorial Integration Temur Yakobashvili], and that is the Israeli involvement here: Both war and peace are in the hands of Israeli Jews."

Yakobashvili is actually not an Israeli citizen. Saakashvili's statements are part of his government's attempt to bring other countries into its war against Russia. During the briefing, Saakashvili noted that he is in constant contact with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He promised that U.S. warships would be docking in Georgian ports within a few days to make sure they remain open.

Saakashvili tried to project confidence during the interview, but could not completely hide the stress he is under. A few hours earlier, refugees from Gori held a spontaneous demonstration in front of parliament, calling for Saakashvili to resign.

"We will fight to the death until the last Russian soldier leaves Georgian territory," Saakashvili told reporters. "We will never surrender."

He characterized the announcements against him by Russia's government, blaming him for the suffering of the Georgian people, as "typical Nazi propaganda." He accused Russia of ethnic cleansing in the Georgian villages in the north of the country. "If Georgia falls, all of the energy supply routes will be blocked," he said.

Saakashvili told the press conference that he expected Russia's next victims to be the Baltic countries. He accused Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of "trying to take revenge on the United States, but instead of attacking the Sixth Fleet he found himself an easier target."

Georgian minister slams Israeli suspension of aid
Earlier Wednesday, Yakobashvili told Haaretz that Israel has joined in the West's betrayal of Georgia. As the official in charge of bringing Abkhazia and South Ossetia back into the fold, Yakobashvili oversaw negotiations with the Russians to end the fighting there. He warned the world that the situation would escalate into war, but the West ignored him.

"They said the Georgians are exaggerating again," he charged.

A former Zionist leader who speaks fluent Hebrew, Yakobashvili credited Israeli defense companies with "enabling us to train our army and giving us the possibility to withstand the Russians," but termed the Israeli government's decision to stop arms exports to his country "a disgrace."

He said the West should have responded by "deploying NATO troops to defend Georgia's vital infrastructure," and that "Israel is betraying us, along with the European countries and the United States."

Referring to rioting by Russian militia groups in villages surrounding Gori, Yakobashvili said: "Today there was a Cossack pogrom against the local population. As a Jew that gives me a different feeling."

Yakobashvili blasted Israel's decision to suspend defense aid to Georgia: "Israel did it at the Russians' behest. It aided the terrorists, the Russians. It's a disgrace. I don't know what it received in return, I only see that Hezbollah continues to get Russian arms, and plenty of it."

"Israel should protect the interests it has here," he continued. "There are many Israeli businesspeople who invested money, and a country should protect its citizens' investments."

He ascribed Georgia's feisty military ability to Israeli training, and said that Russian experts had told him "they never believed Georgia has such an army and that they would encounter such resistance."

Yakobashvili claimed the Georgian forces had destroyed Russia's 58th army and downed 17 planes and three helicopters (data unsubstantiated by other sources). Eventually they had to retreat, he said, because "Russia deployed 30,000 soldiers and a thousand tanks. Our people are not suicidal ¬ we don't want our soldiers to remain in the field and be killed by Russian planes."

The minister claimed that the Abkhazian minority had carried out "ethnic cleansing" in that breakaway region in recent years by expelling members of other ethnic groups, and had supplied weapons to separatists in Ossetia for attacks on Georgian villages.

He was in Tskhinvali, Ossetia, last week, hours before fighting broke out there. "The separatists fired at Georgian villages. We returned fire and asked the Russians to order the Ossetians to stop. The Russian representative told me we have to agree to a total cease-fire and that President Saakashvili had issued such an order to our army, and we
did not return fire, even when they bombarded two of our villages. I told the president we should pay the price, just let there be peace. But when we found out that they were
continuing to transfer more weapons through the Roki Tunnel [between Russia and Ossetia], we had to attack. It was a matter of screwing or being screwed."

Despite the Russian army's advance toward Tbilisi on Wednesday, Yakobashvili said he believes the cease-fire reached through French mediation will hold.

i don't buy for one second this "but Israel just does whatever the USA tells it to".

Neither do I. And, only fools don't believe that Israel exercises tremendous control over the MSM. (see my post "Obama-Brzezinski and Bush-Neocons. Two heads, of the same hydra") But, it makes no difference to me which has the heavier hand. Both hands are dripping with blood and they are lustfully smearing it all over us.

I wonder if Georgia paid in advance for weaponary for which delivery is now problematic. Business is business. If a company makes a deal for a sale and expects substantial revenue, it will probably go to great lengths to deliver, even if it means taking on some additional risk, especially if expected profits are high enough to justify the risk.

--
"But truthfully, I don't really know. We've had trouble getting a handle on Building No. 7."
~~ Dr. Shyam Sunder - Acting Director Building and Fire Research Laboratory (NIST)

Like this war in Georgia. What Isreael-supporters have been definitively pushing for has been a war against Iran. But if there was ever any chance of that happening (and I didn't really think there was) then in all likelihood the new crisis around Georgia has flustered that possibility, much to the disadvantage of the Israel lobby.

Patrick, please.  Israel supporters NOW also claim that oh no, WE didn't encourage the invasion of Iraq--why would we?  They were no threat, and they were Iran's enemy after all!  Except that, they did.  If you really want we'll review the record.  Not just what people like WIlliam Safire were saying publicly (going so far as to suggest that Iraq was behind the anthrax mailings) but also what we are not allowed to know, like WHICH foreign intel agencies provided the bogus claims about Iraq to Feith's Office of Special Plans.  For that matter, why did Feith routinely host Israeli military brass in his Pentagon office?  So just like Iraq, which is already a done deal, apologists for Zionism claim that Israel had no role in the Georgia fiasco.  Except that they clearly did--an overwhelming role.  Two key ministers in the Georgian government are Israeli Jews (though Israel denies it in the case of one of them.)  Israeli military contractors provided both hardware and training to Georgia--you think they did not have the approval of the Israeli government?  Why aren't these companies ever named?  Could it be that we would find, as with so many Israeli tech and defense companies that they in fact are subsidized by the government?  I think probably.  the idea that this has somehow scuttled the possibility of war with Iran is not in itself wrong, except in the sense that that possibility was already clearly being scuttled by the various signs that the US was NOT going to be suckered this time around.  So claiming that NOW they've shot themselves in the foot in their quest to attack Iran ignores the fact that that attack was already clearly off the table.  One could even argue that Israel may have encouraged the Georgians to move on South Ossetia precisely to retaliate against Washington for backing down on Iran.  "Oh you won't attack Iran?  You're scared if you do it will piss off Russia?  Well what we'll do is secretly assure the Georgians that you will jump in to defend them, in order to force your hand.  This way the hostilities against Iran won't begin directly but instead as a consequence of the Georgia-instigated hostilities with Russia."

To the extent that one speaks of Zionism in the proper sense as a classical Jewish nationalism agenda, there's no reason to tie any profits potentially made by Israeli oil companies in with that.

Financial profits are only half of the equation of course.  A reliable supply of oil is essential for more than just private profit.  Militaries use it like water, of course, and a reliable and conveniently located supply is undoubtedly a major strategic windfall for Israel.  And to think that in a socialist country like Israel (no, despite A Clean Break's recommendation Israel has NOT Reaganized to the extent you suggest, except perhaps in cutting social welfare) private companies are going to be in charge of oil policy you have to be pretty naive, not just because the line between private cronies and government officials in Israel is practically nonexistent.  In fact, in looking for info about Oil and Israel I discovered this fascinating article:

At no point have I said that I know all of the facts or all of the angles surrounding this story.  My main argument is that there is a clear effort to blame things that are done by Israel or on behalf of Israel on some mysterious American Imperial Elite, and to portray Israel as weak and inconsequential.  That is why Zionist influence in the US is always absurdly downplayed, because if it were openly discussed and debated people would realize that the agenda pursued by these so-called "American Imperialists" is an agenda that is one and the same with that of global Zionism.

the US military serves as a Zionist attack dog, doing everything that the Zionists can convince it to do, or trick it into doing, so that the real nature of the agenda being advanced can be concealed and the agression blamed instead on "US imperialism". i don't think it makes any sense whatsoever given the extent of Zionist manipulation of American affairs since at least 1913 to separate what people normally attribute to "US imperialism" from the aims of global Zionism. neoconservatism, abetetd by the 9/11 fraud was envisioned as one of the final nails in the coffin of even a pretense of "American independence".

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080904-158680/L...

Local execs question ‘extended stay’ of GI’s in Zamboanga

By Julie Alipala
Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 16:40:00 09/04/2008

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -- Local officials and observers here have begun questioning the continued stay of American troops here and are seeking an explanation into why, six years after they arrived, the “visiting troops” appear to be heading for a permanent deployment.

Vice Mayor Mannix Dalipe said the government and the military have to explain why the Americans are still in the city, noting that the Constitution prohibits foreign troops from establishing bases in the country.

However, Dalipe said the contrary appears to be happening and it is now necessary for the government and military "to make open to the public the policy [if there is one, and] why there's a prolonged stay of American forces despite pronouncements that [they are here only] temporarily."

Dalipe said it was seeing five US military ships with several smaller vessels off the shores of Barangay (villages) Recodo and San Ramon that led him to believe the deployment of the foreign troops is not temporary.

The official’s family has a farm in Barangay La Paz, which is near Recodo and San Ramon.

He also noted the frequent trips of "huge US aircraft using the Zamboanga City International Airport," aside from smaller military planes.

"Yet no one is giving us answers," Dalipe said.

Dalipe said residents have also started asking him why the Americans are still in the city.

"But I cannot explain it to them because we are not informed," he said.

Edgar Araojo, a political science professor at the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) here, said the presence of the US ships and troops here violates the country's sovereignty.

Araojo also said there have been no military exercises that would warrant their presence here.

"Have we already thrown [into] the wastebasket our own sovereignty here?" he asked.

Among the facilities established by US forces here, he said, are the headquarters of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP) inside Camp Don Basilio Navarro, an air asset facility inside the Zamboanga City International Airport, a docking area at the Majini Pier inside the headquarters of Naval Forces Western Mindanao Command, and a training facility inside Camp Arturo Enrile in Malagutay village.

"They are visitors, but it's been over six years. The temporary stay of US service personnel [has] dragged on and they are also using some of our vital installations. It's already akin to a permanent basing," Araojo said.

Earlier, Herbert Docena of Focus on the Global South said that, since the signing of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in 1998, "a steady stream of US forces have been arriving in the country for regular and recurring military exercises involving as many as 5,000 US troops, depending on the exercise."

Docena said beginning in early 2002, a US military unit composed of about 100 to 450 troops in rotation has based itself indefinitely in the Southern Philippines, particularly here and in Basilan.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) tried to get a more detailed statement from the US Embassy in Manila but spokesperson Rebecca Thompson only repeated her usual statement that the "US forces are here at the invitation of the AFP and GRP [government of the Republic of the Philippines]."

Westmincom chief Lieutenant General Nelson Allaga was irked when asked about the continued presence of the American troops.

"Eto na naman tayo. Ano bang personal na galit mo sa Amerikano [Here we go again. What is your personal grudge against the Americans]? At one time, you said that Mayor Celso Lobregat offered Zamboanga as [an] American base, now [you are saying] Zamboanga officials [are] questioning [the American presence]?" he said in a text message.

Rear Admiral Emilio Marayag Jr., commander of Naval Forces in Western Mindanao, initially said there was an ongoing military exercise here by way of explaining the presence of the Americans.

But later, he sent another text message saying: "There is no joint exercise with us right now or in the past month."

While confirming the presence of foreign ships here, Marayag said these belong to Glenn Marines Group of Companies, a US service contractor.

"What they are doing is still covered by the agreement [on deployment of foreign forces]," he said.

The MILF is no joke here. They recently went on a rampage killing a lot of civilians.

The Philippines used to host Clark Air Force base and Subic Naval base. We kicked them out after Marcos was ousted. We held massive rallies at the time that the bases were under renegotiation to tell the US to leave, then Mt. Pinatubo errupted which threatened to bury Clark. I'm not sure which reason pushed the US to leave, but the current constitution does not allow any foreign government to establish bases on Phil. territory.

I am not privy to US motivations in the region. The most common opinion is as a strategic military location. There is also a rumour that Exxon or some other US oil company is now operating in the south of the country. The US military has been active in the south for the past few years though the US bases used to be in the north.

> how much of "US imperialism" is things actually done in the interest of the American people?

How much of what the current Israeli government does is actually in the interest of most Jews? How much of what the British monarchy did in 1776 was actually in the interest of the majority of Brits? How much of what the Spanish monarchy did in 1492 was actually in the interest of the Spanish people? It's an old rule of thumb in history that the policies enacted by each ruling class are primarily meant to benefit the upper echelons, with some occasional trickle-down effect bringing benfits now and then to the lower social ranks. Usually this corresponds to the overall growth in economy.

For example, there is no question that white Christian citizens of the United States experienced an unprecedented level of prosperity after WWII in the Baby Boom Era. This enormous expansion of the middle-class was entirely made possible by the merging of the United States into the global economy under favorable conditions after WWII, as well as by policies of the Federal Reserve System which allowed easy GI loans and similar perks to USians trying to get ahead. By the 1970s the US economic boom had ceased and since then there has been a steady downward fall in the quality of life in the US. The same thing has been occurring elsewhere in states such as Israel.

Israel used to be regarded as a sort of socialist state, with many public services freely available to the Jewish citizenry. All of that has been steadily unraveling in the last 15 years as privatization has become the new trend. Poverty levels in Israel have steadily grown, in parallel with the push for privatization. These are the natural patterns of a capitalist system which has slowly exhausted its room for expansion and hence turns inward to derive profit instead from plundering the existing infrastructure. There's nothing peculiarly Zionist about that. In actuality, people like Herzl and Ben-Gurion would more likely be shocked to see the Israel of today. Although they were subscribers to old fashioned colonialist racism, they did believe that a state constructed for the common interest of Jews was a serious goal. They would not have cared for the level of financial corruption which is endemic both in Israel and in the general capitalist world today.

Hi Kate,

The southern most islands of the Republic of the Philippines (RP) used to have a majority Muslim population. Some of them aspired for self rule so an autonomous Muslim region was created for them (ARMM or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). The ARMM was run by the leaders of the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), the largest Muslim separatist group at the time. We had thought that this would bring peace. But it turned out that there were other Muslim rebel groups. One of them, the relatively small but very notorious Abu Sayyaf started out as Muslim rebels. They later evolved to doing kidnap for ransom operations. Their status is kind of mixed, on one hand you can consider them as rebels, but their criminal behaviour also places them well into banditry. This group has been kidnapping locals and foreigners alike, in one case raiding and kidnapping tourists in Malaysia's Sipadan islands. Tey are routinely blamed for bombings that occur in the south. The bombings are said to be a persuasion for bussinesses to pay rebel taxes or protection money. The US and the RP military made a showboat of trying to wipe them out. Some of their leaders were eliminated by US equipped and supported soldiers from the Phil Army and Marines. After all that, they still exist although much less active and powerfull these days.

Now the biggest of the current Muslim rebel groups is the MILF. They are big enough to hold their own territory and have standing bases. It is currently engaged in international negotiation with the Philippine government, mediated or observed by Malaysia. This group is classified more of a rebel group rather than bandits. But they have all sorts of lost commands or rogue operators which have been implicated with either giving the Abu Sayyaf safe havens or themselves being involved in attrocities as most recently was the case when the lopsided MOA I mentioned above got delayed.

I have nothing against Muslims, and I don't even mind if they gain autonomy. But I won't hesitate to call some groups I mentioned above as Muslim bandits and rebels.

I suppose it may sound strange to you that I use religion as a distinction, but we also have violent, armed Christian cults and such in some of our remote areas. That does not mean I have anything against Christians either. I guess poverty and lack of communication render some of our people vulnerable to malevolent persuasions and religion is one of the tools used for control.

Our largest rebel group is the NPA (New People's Army), they operate through most regions in the country and not confined to the south as the Muslim separatists are. This is a communist group that was founded by an allumnus of my university. They are the most established of the rebel groups but their funding is mostly self generated I think.

From what little I know, it is said that the southern groups get funding from arab countries. I cannot confirm this however. They are quite well armed and sometimes beat the crap out of our military. Some of their equipment are said to be from the stocks of the military, sold by corrupt officers and soldiers.

Having read up on terrorism in Indonesia, particularly the Bali bombings, I think it is possible as well that some of the attrocities attributed to rebels may have a false flag side to them. The bombing of the Davao airport and perhaps the bombing of the Super Ferry (both blamed on Muslim rebels) are particularly suspicious (the former is attributed by some to the US or RP military, the later to the then incumbent RP president). The bombing of the Glorietta mall here in my town was also at one time being blamed on Muslim rebels but nobody believed the government then, and this allegation was later retracted.