DRANT #317: THE REAL SCOOP IN GEORGIA

WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Russia & the former USSR http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/ruge-a09.shtml US-Russian tensions in Caucasus erupt into war "...The eruption of war in the Caucasus is the end product of the increasingly aggressive policy pursued by US imperialism in the wake of the dissolution of the USSR nearly 17 years ago. Washington has systematically manipulated national conflicts in the region to further its own aim of military and economic hegemony. This began with the bloody wars in the former Yugoslavia..." By Bill Van Auken 9 August 2008 Long-escalating tensions between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia erupted into full-scale war Friday, leaving hundreds if not thousands of civilians dead and turning thousands more into refugees, forced to flee for their lives. The immediate focus of the fighting is the attempt by Georgia to militarily seize control of the enclave of South Ossetia, which has existed as a de facto independent entity for the past 16 years, and Russia's armed intervention to counter this assault. Underlying this military confrontation, however, are far broader conflicts. Feeding the bloody confrontation in South Ossetia is US imperialism's drive to establish hegemony over the vast energy resources of Central Asia and the Caucasus through the assertion of American military power in the region. The Russian ruling elite, for its part, is seeking to reassert its grip over a region that was ruled by Moscow for two centuries before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This bitter rivalry between Washington and Moscow-the world's two greatest nuclear powers-lends the fighting in the Caucasus a particularly explosive and dangerous character. The tensions between the two countries have been exacerbated in the recent period by the Bush administration's drive to incorporate Georgia into the NATO alliance, a move that Moscow sees as part of an attempt to establish a military encirclement of Russia. The US-backed Georgian regime of President Mikheil Saakashvili sent massed military units into South Ossetia on Thursday morning, after claiming that South Ossetian military forces had shelled Georgian villages, supposedly violating a unilateral cease-fire declared by Tbilisi. While the Georgian regime initially claimed it was carrying out a "proportionate response," it quickly became clear that it had launched an all-out military offensive aimed at conquering the region. Using artillery, tanks, truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers and war planes, the Georgian military laid siege to the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Much of the city was reportedly in flames Friday. The regional parliament building had burned down, the university was on fire, and the town's main hospital had been rendered inoperative by the bombardment. The International Red Cross reported that ambulances were unable to reach the wounded. "As a result of many hours of shelling from heavy guns, the town is practically destroyed," Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of Russian peacekeepers in the territory, told the Russian news service Interfax. Eduard Kokoity, the South Ossetian leader, estimated late Friday that more than 1,400 civilians had been killed in the Georgian military assault. "I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, told the Associated Press after fleeing the city with her family to a village near the Russian border. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged Georgia with utilizing massive violence with the aim of forcing the Ossetian population to flee. "We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives," said Lavrov. According to Moscow, among the dead were ten Russian peacekeepers, while 30 more were wounded in the shelling of their barracks by the Georgian forces. The peacekeepers were deployed in the area as part of an agreement reached between Moscow, Tbilisi and South Ossetia to end the fighting that erupted following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the subsequent bid by the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to separate from Georgia. The inhabitants in both regions feared the newly independent Georgian regime would abolish their autonomous status. Since then, however, Tbilisi has charged that the Russian troops are backing the South Ossetian forces. Russia seized upon the deaths of its troops and the civilian casualties as the justification for sending a tank column and infantry into South Ossetia, where they have become engaged in fierce combat with Georgian units for control of Tskhinvali. "In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a meeting of his security council at the Kremlin. "We won't allow the death of our compatriots to go unpunished." Meanwhile, Georgian authorities charged that Russian warplanes had struck the country's military bases, airfields and the main Black Sea port of Poti late Friday and early Saturday, killing some civilians. Bombs reportedly fell on the capital of Tbilisi and on the area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. "All day today, they've been bombing Georgia from numerous warplanes and specifically targeting (the) civilian population, and we have scores of wounded and dead among (the) civilian population all around the country," Saakashvili told the US news network, CNN. Saakashvili announced that he had called up the country's reserves, while sources in Georgia said he was expected to announce the imposition of martial law. The timing of the Georgian incursion, on a day when world attention was focused on the opening of the Olympics in Beijing, where both Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and US President George Bush are present, hardly seemed fortuitous. Saakashvili, however, suggested that it was Russia that had chosen the date, calling it a "brilliant moment to attack a small country" and charging that the quick response by the Russian military demonstrated Moscow's preparations for an intervention. The Georgian president declared that his country was "looking with hope" to the US. The armed confrontation with Russia, he claimed, "is not about Georgia anymore. It's about America, its values... America stands up for those freedom-loving nations and supports them. That's what America is all about." Under the Bush administration, Washington has attempted to forge close ties with Georgia, particularly since the US-backed "Rose Revolution" that paved the way for Saakashvili's rise to power. US imperialism's main interest in Georgia is as an American bridgehead into the oil and gas-rich Caspian Basin and as a strategic transit route for funneling energy supplies out of the region, while bypassing Russia. To cement its ties with the Georgian regime, Washington has provided hundreds millions of dollars in military aid, while sending in large numbers of US military trainers for the country's growing armed forces. Georgian troops, meanwhile, account for the third largest contingent participating in the US occupation of Iraq, numbering some 2,000. Tbilisi indicated Friday that it would seek US help in bringing at least 1,000 of these soldiers back to participate in the fighting in South Ossetia. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov alluded to the US military support for Georgia, declaring, "Now we see Georgia has found a use for these weapons and for the special forces that were trained with the help of international instructors." He added, "I think our European and American colleagues... should understand what is happening. And I hope very much that they will reach the right conclusions." Last month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a provocative visit to Tbilisi, denouncing Russia and reiterating US backing for Georgian NATO membership. Washington's NATO allies in Western Europe, however, have greeted the proposal coolly, seeing it as an unnecessary provocation against Russia, upon which they depend for energy supplies. Whether Rice during her visit gave an explicit green light for the intervention in South Ossetia, or whether the Georgian regime felt the demonstration of US support gave it the assurance of Washington's backing for such a military action, is not known. In the wake of Friday's assault, Washington has stopped short of providing explicit support for the Georgian action, but has made it clear that it backs the position of its client state in the Caucasus. The United Nations Security Council failed to support a Russian-backed resolution calling for an end to the fighting because of Washington's opposition to a clause calling on all sides to "renounce the use of force." The clear implication is that the US is backing Georgia's right to take military action. Secretary of State Rice, meanwhile, issued a statement effectively condemning Russia, while providing tacit justification for Georgia's intervention. "We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil," she said. "We underscore the international community's support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders." The eruption of war in the Caucasus is the end product of the increasingly aggressive policy pursued by US imperialism in the wake of the dissolution of the USSR nearly 17 years ago. Washington has systematically manipulated national conflicts in the region to further its own aim of military and economic hegemony. This began with the bloody wars in the former Yugoslavia. All of the arguments used by Washington to justify its support for Bosnia and Kosovo and its military assault on Serbia during the Balkan wars of the 1990s could be employed just as effectively to condemn Georgia's intervention and defend South Ossetia, as well as Russia's military intervention on its behalf. In this case, however, Washington has elevated Georgia's "territorial integrity" as the paramount principle in the conflict, effectively justifying Georgia's military intervention and an assault on the province's Russian population that Moscow has branded as "ethnic cleansing." The apparent contradiction between these two policies only underscores the fact that US imperialism's supposed aversion to ethnic cleansing and the suppression of ethnic enclaves is entirely dependent upon who is doing it and whether or not it serves US strategic interests. There is a direct link between this latest war and those waged by the US in the Balkans. In February, the US and the West recognized Kosovo's "independence" based on its unilateral secession from Serbia, in direct violation of various UN resolutions. The aim in backing this secession-as in its support for the suppression of similar secessionist entities in Georgia-was to further US military plans for the encirclement of Russia and the securing of access routes to the Caspian Basin. In the run-up to Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, Moscow had repeatedly warned that it would set a precedent for similar actions by other territories in the former USSR-Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in particular. In its aftermath, the Russian regime stepped up its support for both territories. Now, the eruption of war in South Ossetia poses the threat of a regional conflagration that can bring the world's two biggest nuclear-armed powers, the US and Russia, into direct military confrontation, with the immense dangers that such a conflict poses to humanity. Copyright 1998-2008 World Socialist Web Site All rights reserved ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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DRANT #316: HIROSHIMA AND TEXAS

Reprint of: DRANT DAILY Number 131 Aug 6, 2005 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "...In swaybacked or flattened skeletons of the Mitsubishi arms plants is revealed what the atomic bomb can do to steel and stone, but what the riven atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of downtown Nagasaki...A month after the bombs fell...The atomic bomb's peculiar 'disease,' uncured because it is untreated and untreated because it is not diagnosed, is still snatching away lives here." George Weller, Nagasaki, 1945 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two anniversaries to note today, August 6. Much is being said about the first, little is being noted about the other. 1- the 60th anniversary of the unspeakable atomic bombing of Hiroshima. 2- the fourth anniversary of the presidential daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" delivered to Bush August 6, 2001 at his ranch in Texas, warning of continued terrorist attacks on the USA. Little has changed since either of these events. The USA committed unpardonable mass murder in 1945, visiting death and disease on 100s of thousands of innocent civilians, justifying the murder with spurious theories of pre-emption. In 1945, the mortally deleterious effects lasted (and continue to last), for generations - children are still being born in Japan with diseases and debilities whose antecedents are traceable to the atomic fallout. In 1945 the American people and the world, were lied to, propagandized, and forcibly restrained from the truth, with actual photos and first person accounts of the real facts on the ground withheld and obstructed in a sinister coalition of government, politicians and the nation's press. And, for 60 years the Americans didn't try to find out too hard at all. And so it is today. Same as it ever was. Aug 6, 2001, the FBI, CIA and other Intelligence agencies delivered a strong official case to Bush, vacationing in Crawford, that a continuation of the series of violent attacks on the territory of the USA was a very real, imminent possibility. Organizations and people--variously created, financed, equipped, organized, trained and activated by the CIA and other government operations, were focusing their sights on American targets. Bush connived a bit with Tony Blair, got on his tractor and shoveled some manure for the photo ops, and turned on the tube over burgers with his lovely wife and charming family. But this was no idiot's oversight. No booberie. We needed a new Pearl Harbor, and by George, we were gonna get one. The urgent alert had to be buried, not ignored, lest the plans of the PNAC be upset. Whether they actually did it, or just let it happen, makes no difference for the moment. They got their Pearl Harbor 2001, and as in 1945, the well paid ostriches and ventriloquists' dummies of the nation's press went along, co-conspiring to sell the official story, their sinister coalition operating in fine tuned harmony. As in 1945, we are constrained from real photos, real truth, the real facts. As in 1945, we are murdering 100s of thousands of innocent civilians, and the long term effects of the nuclear fallout from our use of Depleted Uranium is incalculable- the only difference being that this time we are dosing our own soldiers, not just worthless rag heads and their families. America never sees the photos of the newest generation of Iraqi children -- with the clear evidence of radiation sickness and horrendous lesions, and various cancers. But as in 1945, and as always, our ignorance is our own responsibility. Not knowing is not an excuse. If CNN and the NY Times won't tell ya, it's on YOU to go find out the truth, not to turn on the tube over burgers and whine something about the media. The hell with the media. They are going to lie to you. The media is THEM. The truth is out there and available, and it is our responsibility to find it. No more I didn't know. If its more comfortable to hide in your ignorance, if it makes you feel safer to cloak yourself in some flimsy robe of moral invisibility, then go on bro. But don't tell me ya didn't know. You know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the actual front page of the NY Times from Aug 6, 1945, please click here: First Atomic Bomb Dropped on Japan; Missile Is Equal to 20,000 Tons of TNT; Truman Warns Foe of a 'Rain of Ruin' NEW AGE USHERED Day of Atomic Energy Hailed by President, Revealing Weapon HIROSHIMA IS TARGET 'Impenetrable' Cloud of Dust Hides City After Single Bomb Strikes By SIDNEY SHALETT Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES Washington, Aug. 6 -- The White House and War Department announced today that an atomic bomb, possessing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29's and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world's most devastating bomb, had been dropped on Japan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hiroshima Cover-Up by Amy Goodman and David Goodman Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548255 A story that the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller's firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days later, Nagasaki was hit. Gen. Douglas MacArthur promptly declared southern Japan off-limits, barring the news media. More than 200,000 people died in the atomic bombings of the cities, but no Western journalist witnessed the aftermath and told the story. Instead, the world's media obediently crowded onto the battleship USS Missouri off the coast of Japan to cover the Japanese surrender. A month after the bombings, two reporters defied General MacArthur and struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred remains of Hiroshima. Both men encountered nightmare worlds. Mr. Burchett sat down on a chunk of rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter. His dispatch began: "In Hiroshima, 30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly - people who were uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague." He continued, tapping out the words that still haunt to this day: "Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller has passed over it and squashed it out of existence. I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world." Mr. Burchett's article, headlined "The Atomic Plague," was published Sept. 5, 1945, in the London Daily Express. The story caused a worldwide sensation and was a public relations fiasco for the U.S. military. The official U.S. narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and categorically dismissed as "Japanese propaganda" reports of the deadly lingering effects of radiation. So when Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter George Weller's 25,000-word story on the horror that he encountered in Nagasaki was submitted to military censors, General MacArthur ordered the story killed, and the manuscript was never returned. As Mr. Weller later summarized his experience with General MacArthur's censors, "They won." Recently, Mr. Weller's son, Anthony, discovered a carbon copy of the suppressed dispatches among his father's papers (George Weller died in 2002). Unable to find an interested American publisher, Anthony Weller sold the account to Mainichi Shimbun, a big Japanese newspaper. Now, on the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings, Mr. Weller's account can finally be read. "In swaybacked or flattened skeletons of the Mitsubishi arms plants is revealed what the atomic bomb can do to steel and stone, but what the riven atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of downtown Nagasaki," wrote Mr. Weller. A month after the bombs fell, he observed, "The atomic bomb's peculiar 'disease,' uncured because it is untreated and untreated because it is not diagnosed, is still snatching away lives here." After killing Mr. Weller's reports, U.S. authorities tried to counter Mr. Burchett's articles by attacking the messenger. General MacArthur ordered Mr. Burchett expelled from Japan (the order was later rescinded), his camera mysteriously vanished while he was in a Tokyo hospital and U.S. officials accused him of being influenced by Japanese propaganda. Then the U.S. military unleashed a secret propaganda weapon: It deployed its own Times man. It turns out that William L. Laurence, the science reporter for The New York Times, was also on the payroll of the War Department. For four months, while still reporting for the Times, Mr. Laurence had been writing press releases for the military explaining the atomic weapons program; he also wrote statements for President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. He was rewarded by being given a seat on the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, an experience that he described in the Times with religious awe. Three days after publication of Mr. Burchett's shocking dispatch, Mr. Laurence had a front-page story in the Times disputing the notion that radiation sickness was killing people. His news story included this remarkable commentary: "The Japanese are still continuing their propaganda aimed at creating the impression that we won the war unfairly, and thus attempting to create sympathy for themselves and milder terms. ... Thus, at the beginning, the Japanese described 'symptoms' that did not ring true." Mr. Laurence won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It is time for the Pulitzer board to strip Hiroshima's apologist and his newspaper of this undeserved prize. Sixty years late, Mr. Weller's censored account stands as a searing indictment not only of the inhumanity of the atomic bomb but also of the danger of journalists embedding with the government to deceive the world. Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and David Goodman, a contributing writer for Mother Jones, are co-authors of The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them. © 2005 Baltimore Sun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Hiroshima Cover-up: Stripping the War Department's Timesman of His Pulitzer * This weekend marks the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. William Laurence, the New York Times reporter who covered the bombings was also on the US government payroll. Journalists Amy Goodman and David Goodman call for the Pulitzer Board to strip Laurence and his paper, The New York Times, of the undeserved prize. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1548241 * Film Suppressed: The US Government Hides Hiroshima Nagasaki Footage For Decades * Footage of the devastation after the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was commissioned by the US occupying forces was suppressed for decades. Erik Barnouw reads the words of the Japanese filmmaker Akira Iwasaki. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549202 * From Oak Ridge to Lawrence Livermore to Los Alamos: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered * Activists around the nation are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Grass-roots organizers speak about the ongoing nuclear weapons activity and community resistance. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549211 * Hiroshima Survivor: No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, No More War * Sunao Tsuboi survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Speaking at an anti- nuclear weapons rally in New York, he said, "Even if you luckily survive you...suffer from psychological and physical disruption...until your life ends." Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1549218 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The fourth anniversary of the August 6, 2001 presidential daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" telling Bush of planned terrorist attacks on the USA. http://www.themoderntribune.com/august_6th_2001_memo_to_bush_before_9_11.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is available on the Internet at http://www.WantToKnow.info/050723robertmcnamaraapocalypse "What is shocking is that today, more than a decade after the end of the Cold War, the basic US nuclear policy is unchanged. Of the 8,000 active or operational US warheads, 2,000 are on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched on 15 minutes' warning. On any given day, as we go about our business, the president is prepared to make a decision within 20 minutes that could launch one of the most devastating weapons in the world. To declare war requires an act of congress, but to launch a nuclear holocaust requires 20 minutes' deliberation by the president and his advisors." -- Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, May 2005 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2829 Foreign Policy magazine (Page 1 of 5) July 23, 2005 Dear friends, Former US Secretary of Defense (under President John Kennedy) Robert McNamara has written a powerful essay exposing an outdated policy that puts our entire nation and world at risk of annihilation at any moment. After 13 years as the president of the World Bank, McNamara risked his career and reputation by going public with his concerns about the policy giving the president the authority to initiate a nuclear holocaust, even when the threat to the US might be based on faulty information. He claims it is long past time to change this dangerous policy in order to avert a future apocalypse. For another eye-opening article on how the media has been complicit in concealing the dangers of nuclear weapons ever since WWII, see http://www.WantToKnow.info/atomicbombcoverup And for more powerful information revealing how the military/industrial complex promotes war in order to pad the wallets of the corporate elite, see our War Information Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/warinformation By educating ourselves and those around us on the risks that are a result of greed and secrecy, we can more effectively work together to build a brighter future for us all. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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DRANT #315: FREE GAZA FREEDOM SHIP

Free Gaza: Can unarmed seaborne civilians break the siege of Gaza? August 2nd, 2008 | Posted in Press Releases, International Actions Inaugurating The Free Gaza Movement Sailing to Gaza DESTINATION: GAZA PORT In August, unarmed Palestinians, Israelis and internationals will sail directly to Gaza without going through Israeli territory or seeking permission from Israeli authorities. They include an 81-year-old Catholic nun, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, Palestinians from Gaza, 17 nationalities, four major religions and the international press (including Tony Blair's journalist sister-in-law, Lauren Booth). On Monday, August 4, 2008, the Free Gaza Movement publicly introduces its international team that will take volunteers from Cyprus to Gaza in popular solidarity with Palestinian human rights. From that day, any attempt to damage the project will be considered an act of aggression against a nonviolent international human rights mission. WATCH VIDEO HERE Media places on the boat are taken. Since there are many journalists on a short list, we suggest journalists work together to find a separate press vessel, and we are prepared to help network those interested. For more information go to www.freegaza.org where the actual voyage can be watched in real time, by video streaming from the satellite broadcasting on board. Since this [non-violent/entirely peaceful] voyage is being funded by private donation, Free Gaza Movement welcomes donations online at its website. For more information contact: Greta Berlin, +357-990 81767 (iristulip@gmail.com) Angela Godfrey-Goldstein: +357-990 75194 (angela@icahd.org ) Angela Godfrey-Goldstein (Action Advocacy Officer) The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)

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