Russia Blog: Southern Caucuses – Russia’s Middle East Terrorist Attack Kills 11, Injures Dozens

Yuri Mamchur

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia – RIA Novosti reports that as many as 11 people were killed and 43 were injured on Thursday in an explosion at a bus stop in the center of the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia. The chief doctor at the hospital treating the wounded said most of the casualties were students aged 17 or 18.

via Russia Blog: Southern Caucuses – Russia’s Middle East Terrorist Attack Kills 11, Injures Dozens

The Birth of a Cartel

 

Photo published at wikimedia commons; public domain

While the Generals were putting there heads together in Helsinki, and all eyes were watching the huge fire-power demonstrations provided by the Russians something nasty was moving across the waters.

I’m not referring to the pirates treasure in Somalia, although there is some speculation that something very nasty is being guarded very closely there too. I’m speaking of Nuclear Material being transported to Siberia by the Russians, much in the manner that nuclear material was recently transported to Canada by the US.

While the US and Russia are saying one thing publicly;

Washington (AP)
October 22, 2008 

“…(They) discussed a wide range of issues of mutual concern, including the current security environment in Georgia, the future of the NATO alliance, and the current status of U.S. missile defence plans in Europe…more“

A topic as important as Nuclear Material moving across International Shipping Lanes during a Joint Operation to combat Piracy on the High Seas had to come up somewhere in the dialogue. And while they were on the subject, the issue of cost must have been mentioned as well as how Nuclear Power should be managed, controlled, sold, monopolized, etc.

After all is said and done, it’s one thing to help third world Iron Age Cultures into the 21st century by buying there crude, but it’s another to let them traffic in Real Power. And Nuclear Energy is real power.

This is the birth of a Cartel folks.

You Had To Ask

wikimedia commons - public domain

The ACLU is demanding answers on military deployment within US borders, and it’s obvious that they are not going to get any answers soon. Why do they bother asking a Government at war with questions about troop movements and asssignments?

Another nagging question is why no one else in the Main Stream News Industry is asking questions. Either the don’t know anything, they’re deaf dumb and blind, or they see a real ( military ) threat on the not so distant horizan.

What threat could be so ‘Clear and Present’, and yet go unobserved by the general public?

There is a war going on just south of the Rio Grande! Or haven’t you noticed? The Merida Initiative is a major effort to supply Mexico with the means to conduct a counter-insurgency ( civil war ) being waged against Drug Cartels. Thousands of people have died violent deaths this last year, all as a direct result of the Mexican Governments military campaign financed by the US. ( +$ 450 million ).

The Russians know all about Mexico’s unreported status as ‘Failed State’. They’ve been supplying the insurgents for quite a while now, and their support has recently increased dramatically with the sales of high powered military equipment to several Latin American Nations.

These events didn’t occur overnight, they’re the result of a long range plan to re-establish Russia as a military power. The steady encroachment of NATO into Eastern Europe has Russia with it’s back to the wall and The Bear is refusing to go down without a fight.

Closer to Russia is Germany, and there is similar legislation being pushed through their Government. Their military has gained much experience in the Middle East over the last few years, experience that would be valuable if hostilities in the Ukraine spill over into Western Europe. It is worth mentioning that neither the US Government nor the US Press has reported much about this Legislation, or the timing. It’s obvious that several world leaders know something that no one is speaking about.

Promoting Revolution and supplying Bannana Republics with arms is neither unexpected nor difficult, but Conventional Ground Forces would be required to pose a credible threat to the US proper. And that credible threat is the only justification for over-turning Posse Comitatus.

So, how do you get the men and equipment close enough to North America without being noticed? You smuggle it! Smuggling is the one thing Latin America and Central Asia have in common.

wikimdia commons - public domain

Smuggling tanks and big guns across the open sea can be risky ( is the risk worth the reward? ). Russia may have tipped their hand recently when pirates seized several ships off the coast of Somalia last month. One ship was carrying 35 T-72 tanks, and much more military hardware. Another was carrying a ‘mystery cargo‘.

Though not widely reported at first, it is hard to hide the fact that damn near every Navy in the world is keeping a close watch on those ships.

The popular rumor is; the Ukraine was trying to ship arms to the Sudan…or…Kenya was buying arms…( insert your own cover story ). The fact is, Russian tanks are on the High Seas and no one is talking about it! 

 

If Russia uses the same tactics in the Ukraine as it did in Georgia

If Russia uses the same tactics in the Ukraine as it did in Georgia, that is to issue passports to citizens with a Russian heritage before invading, then Crimea may be the bate in an eloborate trap set for the Russian Navy.

Crimea is defendable, only if Russia controls it’s southern flank ( the Roki Tunnel in Georgia ). And that strategy requires a Navy. Modern warfare follows a pattern of deployment in increasingly larger theaters, allowing for testing and training of the forces as the strategy develops. Coordination of land and sea elements is a must if Russia’s goal is to regain control of Eastern Europe. If Crimea is a the second stage of such a strategy, Russia must know it cannot be supported by air power alone and will depend heavily on seaports in Georgia.  

Russians may be enigmatic, their policies may be paradoxical and they may speak in riddles…but their actions are obvious and simple to counter. Let the Russian Navy in, and don’t let them out of their little pond. The following is self-evidence of Russian intentions.

Vienna, September 23 – Under the terms of new legislation nominally intended to promote the repatriation of “Russian compatriots” and thus help solve Russia’s demographic problems, Moscow can now offer Russian Federation citizenship to more than eight million Ukrainians, even though the Ukrainian constitution prohibits dual citizenship.

Window on Eurasia: Moscow Can Now Offer Russian Citizenship to Eight Million Ukrainians.

Chinese Proposal to End Anonymity on Internet

Many people believe that the internet is the single greatest development of Democracy in recorded history. Threats to that Democratization occur daily, and are recorded diligently by amateur and professional bloggers alike. When news of cyber-crime, or cyber-war is reported by main-stream-news agencies, a cold chill moves through the ether.

When Goverments add to the Climate of Fear, an Arctic Wind blows strong.

I felt that shiver when I read the article below; 

U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity | Politics and Law – CNET News.
September 12, 2008 4:00 AM PDT
Posted by Declan McCullagh

…When NSA takes the lead on standard-setting, you have to ask yourself how much is about security and how much is about surveillance,” said the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Rotenberg. “You would think (the ITU) would be a little more sensitive to spying on Internet users with the cooperation of the NSA and the Chinese government.

Recently, I down-loaded Googles’s Chrome Browser , it has a feature that I find relevant to efforts of certain government efforts to gain control of publications on the world wide web. Incognito allows people to explore the web while leaving limited spore, and suffering little or no damages to their vehicles.

I really have to wonder if I’ve gained a false sense of security, and whether we’re all being monitored and recorded, and the release of stories like the one above are just breaking the news gently.

Moscow’s Use of Russian Passports in Georgia Disturbs Other Post-Soviet States

How many Eastern Europeans enjoy dual citizenship with Russia? Will recent events in Georgia affect the number of pass-ports in other nations that border Russia? The conclusion of this article at Window On Eurasia.

Window on Eurasia: Moscow’s Use of Russian Passports in Georgia Disturbs Other Post-Soviet States.

“..With Russia’s actions in Georgia, Moscow has invoked a principle which has not yet been accepted by the international community or even by the Russian government as a universal precedent has been created that suggests a country has the right to intervene in a territory on which “compactly live” its dual citizens.

Many countries, such as Ukraine, prohibit dual citizenship either in their constitutions or by law because their governments fear that the most dangerous situation would be to have a large number of people on their territories who sometimes could act as citizens of their country and sometimes as citizens of another. And that danger only increases, Mesherova continues, when one country secretly or semi-secretly passes out passports as the Russians did in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and reportedly are doing so in Crimea as well despite the laws of the country in which Russian officials are acting in this way…”

The obvious reaction by Western Powers would be to monitor the traffic and distribution of Passports in nations neighboring Russia.

Ethnic Cleansing Case Against Russia at the International Court of Justice

It will be interesting to read the U.S. reaction to the International Court of Justice findings on both the ethnic cleansing charges and the soveignity issues presented by Georgia against Russia. Pres. Bush has declined to sign the treaties that would acknowledge the Courts authority.

The Georgia Minister of Foreign Affairs blogs via an internet provider in the U.S. currently, due to hostile cyber activity in Georgia. The following quote is from that blog. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia: Ethnic Cleansing Case Against Russia to Open on Monday, September 8, at the International Court of Justice

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hearing to focus on Georgia’s request for provisional measures by the Court to prevent further cases of ethnic cleansing following the Russian invasion of Georgia

The International Court of Justice will hear arguments on Monday, September 8, in the case Georgia has brought against the Russian Federation for ethnic cleansing and for its support of separatism on Georgian territory. The charges relate to instances of ethnic cleansing beginning in the early 1990s and through recent days.

Other nations in the Caucus region will be watching closely, certainly Armenia has great concern. Armenia recently hosted a foot-ball game with a team from Turkey. The obvious hope is that sports will provide an opening for further diplomatic progress. Ethnic Cleansing ( Genocide ) has been a stumbling block for repairing relations between those two nations. As it stands, Armenia is effectively trapped between a war and a closed border with Turkey.

The Ukraine is also in turmoil, being at odds with Russia and fearing the same military adventures may come to their nation.

The U.S. is currently reconsidering the standing relationship with Russia, a major concern being nuclear issues. As the election nears in America, the world will have one eye on the International Court of Justice, and the other eye on the Election.

Will the Court come to any conclusion before the inauguration of the new President, or will they wait, hoping for a President that is more supportive of it’s authority? George Bush scuttled the previous administrations efforts to establish the Court.

 

 

 

The Ant and the Elephant

Dreaming of Utipia

Many of the people I meet on the internet are self-proclaimed socialists. Not that they bare any resemblance to socialists of five or six decades ago. Today’s egalitarians are much more pro-active than their predecessors, and much less prone to violence ( violence of their own commision ). Dreamers, not doers.

One common fantasy among these neo-Leninists is the myth of ‘Mother Russia’, and I wonder if their love for the myth is inappropriate to the point of humor. Consider;

The Ant and the Elephant

An ant was strolling across a wheat field ( Perhaps I shouldn’t say strolling. To an ant, the blades of wheat must look like tall Canadian Pines ). He found a very sad ant. It would seem that the latter ant had fallen in love with an Elephant ( The sad part is; the Elephant had died before the wedding ).

“Why so sad, comrade? Your love was monumental, and your name will be known world-wide!”

No words can console a despondent lover, who realizes that digging a grave will take the rest of his life…

Russia, like the Elephant is dying, if she is not dead already. Held down by the weight of her own corpse, she cannot rise to consumate the love of the sentimental left. It would be humorous if it were not so sad to see the Castros, and the Chaves of the world pledging their undying love to a dead dream.

Pismires and Politics ‘08