“The means of acquiring an ascendancy over men are incalculable. Who could enumerate them all? They must vary with the disposition of the times. At one period it is a taste for the marvellous and extraordinary that is to be wrought upon. At another the lure of secret societies is to be held out. For this reason it is very proper to make your inferiors believe, without telling them the real state of the case, that all other secret societies, particularly that of Freemasonry, are secretly directed by us. Or else, and it is really the fact in some states, that potent Monarchs are governed by our Order. When anything remarkable or important comes to pass, hint that it originated with our Order. Should any person by his merit acquire a great reputation, let it be generally understood that he is one of us.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt who is still by far the most powerful and influential person in Russia,” McCain said, arguing that Putin’s “personal control” of the military “indicates his position of power”. “Of course we have to deal with Russia and we deal with Putin,” McCain said. “But it has to be on a very realistic basis. And not one that there’s any illusions about his ambitions.” He then accused Putin of wanting to restore Russia to the days of czardom, when a monarchy exerted broad control over parts of Asia and eastern Europe. “I think it’s very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian Empire,” he said. “Not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire.”
Russia of course loves to milk any mistakes made in Western media for all they’re worth, using them as evidence of ‘anti-Russian propaganda’, even when sheer stupidity can be seen as a reason. Among them, this CNN report that’s said to present footage from Ossetia as evidence of bombings in Gori.
It appears to have been a mistake made by one of their overworked and underpaid staffers in Atlanta. CNN made no formal comment on the use of this footage. During riots in Belgrade over Kosovo earlier this year, CNN used images of the 2006 riots in Hungary, angering Serbs. Except this time, CNN really did the Russian government a favor, giving them ammunition to feed into their propaganda machine. (A cynical analyst might even suggest they did this on purpose – we’ll likely never find out.)
“Saakashvili would be wise to recall the fate of the first post-Soviet Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, also a darling of the US (in 1978 US Congress nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize). He rode to victory on a wave of nationalism in 1990, declaring independence for Georgia and officially recognising the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria”. But South Ossetia wanted no part of the fiery Gamsakhurdia’s chauvinistic vision and declared its own “independence”. Engulfed by a wave of disgust a short two years later, abandoned by his US friends, he fled to his beloved Ichkeria. He snuck back into western Georgia, looking for support in restive Abkhazia, but his uprising collapsed, prompting Abkhazia to secede. Gamsakhurdia died in 1993, leaving the two secessionist provinces as a legacy, and was buried in Chechnya. Saakashvili rehabilitated him in 2004 and had his remains interred in Mtatsminda Pantheon with other Georgian “heroes”. Truth really is stranger than fiction in Georgia. Now the burning question is: will history repeat itself?”
Russian security forces have arrested a top Georgian intelligence officer on charges of collecting data on Russian troops in the North Caucasus and breakaway South Ossetia’s president, the FSB said on Tuesday. The Federal Security Service gave the intelligence officer’s surname as Kherksladze, and said the suspect had described himself as the deputy head of Georgia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. The FSB said Kherksladze has been running a network of agents in Russia collecting information, “including on military and strategic facilities in the Southern Federal District.” The FSB also said Georgian secret services had tried to organize underground militant groups in the North Caucasus. The Russian secret service said that it had arrested a Russian national, one Ramzan Turkoshvili, who “confessed to being recruited by Georgian secret services with the direct involvement of one of the leaders of terrorists hiding in the Pankisi Gorge.” The FSB said that the intelligence officer had been given the task of “organizing militant resistance to federal authorities” in Ingushetia and other regions of Russia’s Southern Federal District, adding that he was also believed to have been a link between militant groups in Russia and Georgian secret services. The Russian Republic of Ingushetia borders on Chechnya and has been the scene of increasing militant attacks on police and federal forces of late. FSB head Alexander Bortnikov said on Monday that the security service had detained 10 Georgian intelligence service officers who were spying on military facilities and preparing terrorist attacks, including in Russia.
“We [the US] have placed ourselves in a position that globally we don’t have the wherewithal to do anything. One would think under those circumstances, we’d shut up.” – George Friedman, chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis and intelligence company, on the Georgia-Russia conflict (New York Times, Aug 9).
One would also think that under those circumstances Georgia would have known better than to prod the Bear. So Tbilisi thought that being the US’s shining light of democracy among ex-Soviet republics, aspiring to join NATO, providing troops to assist the US war effort in Iraq, stating its willingness to host part of the US’s new missile defense shield, and hosting part of the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, meant that Washington would come running when called on for help? When the US wants Russia on side to help curb Iran’s alleged nuclear arms aspirations? Tbilisi’s dreams, and those of others who thought bending over backwards toward the West might bring real benefits, have been shattered.
So too – maybe – have lingering Bush administration fantasies that its “diplomacy” has achieved much beyond painting itself into a corner.
“Well, maybe we’re learning to shut up now.” – An unnamed senior official in the Bush administration (New York Times, Aug 9).
London’s only Jewish community radio station has been forced to cease broadcasting after losing a High Court libel case brought against it by the Respect MP George Galloway. Jcom, a non-profit station which broadcast online and to a small area in north-west London, was wound up after it was told to pay the MP damages of £15,000. Mr Galloway sued the station after one of its presenters played a spoof character based on the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, and implied he was anti-Semitic. It was also ordered to pay Mr Galloway’s court costs, thought to be £5,000. Mr Galloway said that the judgment had “categorically crushed the slur of anti-Semitism”.
During a broadcast in November, a presenter who called himself “Georgie Galloway”, the station’s “Middle East correspondent”, used the catchphrase, “kill the Jews, kill the Jews”. The station immediately sacked the presenter, Richard Malach, saying he was “young and inexperienced” and had made an error of judgment while attempting to present an edgy programme. It also issued an apology on its website and offered Mr Galloway the opportunity to appear on the station, which had a very small audience. Only 36 people were listening online at the time of the offending show. The programme was also broadcast over the radio to an area in north-west London with a three-mile radius. But Mr Galloway said he pursued the case as the station’s apology “fell short of the categorical retraction of the imputation of anti-Semitism that I insisted upon”. Jeremy Silverstone, the head of Jcom, said he was disappointed that the case had led to the downfall of the capital’s only Jewish radio station.
Niqnaq 