geonews

What game is being played over Georgian elections, what's going on here?

Ruling party response to Ivanishvili's call for Misha to veto the constitutional amendment which would allow non-citizens of Georgia to become President (it does sound a little crazy, like, so you can see where he's coming from, but he says he won't use that amendment - he won't run unless he is a citizen of Georgia, and Misha isn't likely to veto it.

What's going on there I wonder? High stakes brinksmanship - or something else?

Something else is going on here, Potekim  of democracy - or now that the business has been sold in Russia, it is time to divide up some of the profits and back to networks of patronage as before. 

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Georgian Style Feeding Frenzy, AKA, Asset Management: where does the money go?

Asset Management, Georgian Style Feeding Frenzy:  "where does the money go?"

I see the Georgian government have gone back on another promise. Instead of reducing income tax from 20% to 18%, like they said they would, they've instead invited tax payers to divert the 2% into a savings fund which will be administered by “asset management companies” to invest funds in various projects:

The good thing is that the tax payers are free to withdraw their money at any time - any time after 15 years has elapsed since the money went in which sounds like they can withdraw the equivalent of 2% of their current earnings, per month, starting in 15 years time. What 2% of their current earnings will be worth in 15 years time is anyone's guess.

The best thing for people to do is simply not subscribe to this scheme and leave that money in the state coffers to fund things like the ambulance and fire service, rather than let it be diverted into the hands of private companies in order for them to reap rich rewards with all of this money they'd be accumulating out of thin air.

This sounds more like a feeding frenzy than anything that would come close to the semblance of asset management - rumor has it that the same gang that was involved in a investment scheme 20 years ago - Golden Cup, are involved in this from the sidelines. It is clear that this is just another scheme to get rich by a few elites at the expense of the majority of hard-working Georgians. 
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Material support to terrorists as development assistance, USAID in action!

What proof do you have of the U.S. funding Chechen Fighters?

 

Unleash the dawgs

Joni Simonishvili 

 

As a reader wrote, “what proof do you have of the US funding Chechens? This is what the American people need to know, if it can be written to their understanding, and if the word can get out to them.

 

What was the Chechnya war about?  Who was the good guy, who was the bad - Russia or Chechnya, and why?   Americans are confused about this and would not know who to 'root' for.  Then again, most could care less anyway since it's the other side of the world and whoever wins the war won't change their entertainment needs one way or another.... which is pretty much all they care about.

 

It is not what your right that is important but the timing, as that is the only thing that can make a real difference.”

 

Response:

 

It takes a few volumes to cover what you ask but I will give it a go, you can google the Chechen war for the sake of brevity. My understanding of the story starts out with the US and Georgian governments intentionally making the Pankisi Valley (gorge) of Georgia into a no-go area back in 2000-2001. This was a time when the gorge was surviving a base camp for Chechen fighters, little ever made it into the mainstream media as what was going on – as access was denied to foreign reporters, and the international media, including the Washington Post and others were eating up the official line – hook-line-and-sinker

 

To make a long story short, steps were taken to claim Pankisi was a lawless place, no-go zone and that Georgia needed help. The US State Department was engaged, such as Richard Boucher, a State Department Spokesperson, who came out in a daily press briefing discussing the Georgian border and the need to beef up the ability to control the situation.

 

The scars were still around my around my wrists after being abducted and beaten several years ago, the price for going public with what I know about America's secret games in the strategically important Caucasus.  

 

With a degree in the diplomacy he came here right after independence in 1991 to drive the tobacco exports, decided to stay there and soon became editor of an English language newspaper. He made good contact with the young generation of Georgians with education from the West who would later assume the leadership of the country, and used to have Mikhail Saakashvili over for dinner. This was before he became Minister of Justice  under President Eduard Shevardnadze. 


In some years because of close relations with power circuits in Tbilisi and with average people, I was able to gained insight into many of America's secret affairs. Even the International Crisis Group took notice of my work, and contracted me on a few occasions to carry out "due diligence" - to investigate a company or organization and find out if it is up to something it shouldn't have been. I have also been contacted to find out what has happened to some foreign citizens, either killed or went missing in Georgia.

My trouble started when he wrote a report from Pankisi - a valley in northeast Georgia on the border with Chechnya, which was filled with thousands of refugees after the onset of the second Chechen war in 1999, and eventually became an important base for resistance against Russia, and the Russian even bomb the place several times.

It's since become clear that the Georgian authorities allowed the Chechens to use the Pankisi as base.  There is little doubt that the U.S. supported the rebels there, and that it later used the presence of mujahideen there as justification to go in militarily, in so called mop up operations - but it was really a damage control operation after the terrible events of 9/11.

I first started suspecting when I went there in 2002. Everyone knew what was going on, and how money was there but no one could say for sure at the time where the money came from. Part of my work was to find out where the money came from, the money came from ACDI-VOCA, a rural credit association funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

The money should have gone to investments in agriculture but it actually went right in the pocket of the Chechen rebel leaders along with representatives of Georgian intelligence services. One former CIA agent shared insight and assisted me in putting together the full story.  The same arrangement was used in Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance and with USAID funded alternative livelihood projects, also under the same NGO, ACDI/VOCA and with some of the same staff that had worked in Georgia.

The Chechens were helped by visiting mujaheddin from the Middle East, and I am convinced that the United States brought them in, even provided them with fake Georgian passports for traveling to Turkey and elsewhere. One Chechen leader was even flying to the UK on a regular basis, and this was the most wanted Chechen fighter by Russian Special Services. 

I met a group of Saudis, who had false passports and said they had 300 USD days to take travel by Pankisi and fight against the Russians. The the group of three all had newly issued Georgian passports. 

Officially there were only refugees in Pankisi, but after the terrorist attacks 11 September 2001  the U.S. changed its strategy and defined it as a base for Al-Qaida. 

One of the consequences was that President Bush could more easily get Congressional approval to go in militarily in Georgia, a strategically important country after it was chosen as the routes for oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan to Turkey, and this was done under the cover of the 64 million dollar train and equip program.

Already in early 2002 American military sent advisers to train Georgians to clean up the Pankisi gorge.  Now the opportunity was presented for  the U.S. to enter its trainers, something Russia protested strongly against. By the end of 2002, Georgian president Shevardnadze had declared the place cleared of terrorists. 

It was the middle of this operation that Silverman visited the area, and working with a British freelance journalist named Roddy Scott, who told him that he had compromising material that would really lift the lid on what was happening in Pankisi. 

Right after, Scott joined a Chechen unit of soldiers as a journalist on their raids over the mountains to Ingushetia and was killed by Russian soldiers in an ambush. Three days after his death, I was stopped by security police in Azerbaijan and beaten up. There is no doubt in my mind that is there is a connection, and especially when the US Embassy in Baku refused to provide assistance  in the hospital.

What has been written to support the pattern and proof of US funding Chechens is found in Georgian Credit Unions set up by ACDI/VOCA under a US food for Peace Program where US Agriculture Commodities are sold to provide funding for rural credit unions, and these credit unions were to make loans to worthwhile agriculture projects. These were looted and the proceeds used to support the Chechen fighters. 

 

Much of the actionable intelligence at the time was provided to Roddy Scott by, an American Freelance journalist living in Georgia, that's me, and that email likely got him killed.

 

Before he set out for Georgia he had shared the following in an email, “I personally think it is a great story, it’s about the first time I have ever seen the possibility for someone to really lift the lid on everything, rather than the usual journo-grasping-at-straws-with-no-good-sources which seems to emanate from the region. And what really gives it the boost is that it is tied into US policy, which gives it the international rather than local/parochial flavor."

 

Roddy's correspondence was in response to having reviewed an unedited draft of an article, which was later published on Eurasianet (Internet site), which addressed regional geopolitical events and the larger repercussions of breaking news related to the war in Chechnya. Time is passing but there are still many questions left unanswered as to the unofficial political, economic and security networks in the region.

 

It is especially interesting how events are portrayed in the United States and the Russian Federation in terms of the war on international "terrorism" and how a small enclave has such far-reaching geopolitical implications. There was also a nexus with Chechen fighters in the valleys (Kodori and Pankisi) and unofficial Georgian links to larger operational and financial support in Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Middle East.

 

Fast Forward, Afghanistan

 

http://www2.acdivoca.org/acdivoca/PortalHub.nsf/ID/afghanistanARIES

 

After leaving Georgia, because of corruption, the person who is claimed to have  been the point man for funding Pankisi, Rusty Shultz, was in soon in charge of another rural credit program, ended up working in Afghanistan with the same kind of mechanism.

"I am sure you will understand that he is just a small fish in all of this, and the real corruption goes to the top in USAID and other international organizations. Rusty was subsequently fired in Afghaistan for again allowing things to get out of control and for others having learned that the ARIES project was a model of the Georgian operations."

Here is the basic scheme of things: However, these are old notes and it would take a PhD to describe how all these programs have since development and transformed. Jeffrey Silverman wrote in one of his emails to a trusted source, "I collected this together, and it will be time before I can neatly package things in micro units to get you started. My main source is out of Kabul for the time being, and it is hard to network from a distance.

 

Based on what I know, it might be best to start out with this person,  as who is center-stage to the investment fund (ARF), [different than ACDI/VOCA, check out Kavkhaz Center about two years back], my NGO article;  in the meantime I am still networking for specific NGO corruption stuff to get a good start with. However, I think this person can give you the oversight on things and I am networking with my media friends who are gunning for a good US government corruption scandal and cover-up.

 

The Russian Embassy might share the history of Pankisi and its nexus to terrorism – provided you tell them you are interested in Imram Akhmadov and what brothers may still be alive, that as it relates to the history of leakage of ACDI/VOCA funds via rural credit unions (there were or 8 brothers in total and open sources claim they were practically all eliminated. However, it is highly suspect in the intelligence community that some are still alive and living out of the country on fake passports, and these passports were provided by Georgian intelligence around 2001, and paid for with USG money.

 

Another question to ask is:

 

 “Who is this Randall Spears, ex-special services, (he was here in Georgia with Rusty Shultz), It appears that this [mechanism] the same thing that was going on in Georgia with some New Zealander (as noted in), and he was part of Rusty virtual world.

 

 Tamara Tiffany is another colorful person who can give you lots of information on Gerry Anderson, USAID Economic Development, and who was involved with the dirty mechanisms, not only involving Pankisi but regional plays, and Rusty Shultz.  Tamara has a rather sorted history in the case files of USAID OIG and most likely DEA too – as her first husband is alleged to have been involved in international drug trade out of South America.

 

Leon Waskins, USAID Mission Director, and get with her to find out who is who and what is going on with ARF, Pierre Van Hoeylandt, ARIES, AED

 

Next research ACDI/VOCA

 

Especially in terms of management turnover, how they have been near bankruptcy many times, and dive into the history or their projects (Georgia, Azerbaijan and what is going on in Afghanistan). I have also been trying to get all the contacts and it takes time.

As I wrote some years ago to a friend from the Patterson School, University of Kentucky: 

 

“Can you help me with a mailing list of key contacts to send information?” My friend who was with NSA and now head of a political science program suggested that:

 

I can contact the democrats directly and not waste my time. See quotes below: USAID is appears to be investigating the information that my sources provided but time will tell. Anyway, I sent this across: "Will be sending some stuff to the incoming Democratic chair of some relevant subcommittee (government operations committee, foreign relations, even appropriations).  The Administration won’t care, but the Dems might."

 

There is no need to discuss anything until you have spoken to your own people in USAID/OIG – and networked with Embassies in the mentioned countries. A few emails and phone calls will bring you up to speed. Those involved in the ACDI/VOCA corruption think that they have a get out of jail card.

 

Bad Chechens 

 

Finally, check out who is Zura Otiashvili, connected with Georgian intelligence and Pankisi, and with Russian Embassy, as who were the Akhadadov Brothers (and you will find connections to the rural credit unions). One of the persons that were involved in the weapons for drug swaps, Imram Akhmadov (and in now in Turkey under a fake passport purchased with US government money (the family name on the false Georgian passport is Kavtarashvili). 

 

This information comes directly from Chechens and Kist living in Pankisi, including two of his ex-wives (one working for a NGO in Pankisi and later as a refugee in Norway, and the other living with her brother who spent time in Afghanistan (was a translator for Northern Alliance).

 

About five years back he was working for Georgian intelligence but if some kind of deal could be made to help him out of Georgia then you would have a very good source of information as to the connections between these various countries and routes, especially with the ACDI/VOCA funding mechanism.

 

However, this is playing with a very hot fire.

 

Bigger Projects in Afghanistan to look at:

 

As a question asked about ARIES information [responding to my request]: "The project is $80 million to do both microfinance and SME lending in certain areas where USAID is trying to get people to shift away from opium cultivation (another project, the Alternative Livelihood project, is working there). So, it includes a North area near Tajik border, an area east of Kabul centered around the city of Jalalabad, the southern war region of Kandahar and Helmand, and the area around the city of Herat. 

 

There are four main subcontractors doing the work as follows:

 

               1) FINCA is getting a $10 million grant to do microfinance.

               2) WOCCU gets about $15 million grant to make about 20 credit unions.

               The ex-Green Beret Special ops type Randall Spears heads up this operation,

               (and this should be the target for your corruption investigation)

3) ACDIVOCA is getting something like $12 million grant to set up its usual credit cooperatives, headed by Rusty Shultz in [cohorts with Gerry Anderson].

4) About $30 million goes to an apex organization called MISFA. $15 million is to make SME loans through banks, and ShoreBank manages that as advisors to MISFA. The other $15 is for micro finance loans.

5) The rest is for administration.

 

The prime contractor, overseeing all the subcontractors is AED, which has no institutional expertise in rural credit (that is a can of worms to be opened as well). My deep throat at the time had excellent relations to the project leadership, so he will let you know once things start happening. But for now, Rusty Shultz is getting OK marks, lying low, making friends, nothing unusual has happened. His close buddy Gerry Anderson, USAID, looks more and more taking oversight of the ARIES project (which by the way is pretty much the biggest project in town). It appears that Gerry has taken a big fall, because he is now only deputy department head, whereas in Georgia he was department head.

 

As my deep throat wrote me many years ago, “Yeah, that Leon Waskins was the Mission Director.  Yeah, keeping digging on ARF, that is a very interesting story and you will better understand what went on in Pankisi and ACDI/VOCA.  

 

Ok, take care,

 

Unleash the dawgs!

 

PS


The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right. Would we be, as Orwell wrote, dominated by a repressive surveillance and security state that used crude and violent forms of control? Or would we be, as Huxley envisioned, entranced by entertainment and spectacle, captivated by technology and seduced by profligate consumption to embrace our own oppression? It turns out Orwell and Huxley were both right. Huxley saw the first stage of our enslavement. Orwell saw the second.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227
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Shifting US Foreign Policy in Georgia

Obama's Betrayal of Georgia in 2008 Makes Sense in Retrospect - Shift in US Foreign Policy towards Georgia” Many Georgians are apathetic, as they don't believe in fair elections and don’t have much hope of anything positive emerging in the immediate future, especially in the court down to the Georgian 2012 parliamentary elections. Democracy has proven stillborn, at least being held in abeyance, and nothing is going to change in this direction any time soon. It is not difficult to understand why this is so - one needs only to look at how those who watch English language broadcasts perceived Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when he appeared on Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN a few years ago, as well as on other English programs, BBC, etc. Some pundits went so far as to claim that the "cornered president came across as glaring like a madman, and made little sense,” but CNN and the spooks working in various agencies, academic support organizations and the often competing US National Security and Foreign Intelligence Agencies are not giving up the ghost; they are hanging onto the idea that they can make him look not so bad, at least for a bit more. However, maintaining unwavering support for the once fledgling democracy which has grown thorns may make Georgia US foreign policy's greatest liability in the long term, and even at present it is not very politically expedient. Shifting US Foreign Policy This begs the questions: has there been a shift in US policy towards Georgia, if so what does this mean, both in the short and long term, and how will it be manifested? Anyone living in Georgia for any length of time, especially foreigners, can tell you that things have changed in the post 2008 environment, especially since May 26, 2011, and a violent crackdown on anti- Saakashvii forces in Tbilisi that resulted in deaths and many injuries of civilians. It is clear the government intentionally used excessive force, as documented by human rights organizations. There was such anticipation in the run up to the ill-fated 2008 Georgian- Russian, portrayed , by Georgia as a Russian invasion, and in light of the US Presidential elections, as most of the Georgian leadership were so confident of do-no-wrong support from the US that a Georgians for John McCain organization was even set up to support the US presidential candidate, manned by top members of the Georgian government and closely aligned with the Liberty Institute in Georgia, the origin of the brains of the current Georgian Government, and backed by various think tanks in the United States, such as the Potomac Institute. The Minister of Refugees and Displaced Persons was even seen visiting the IDP center in Gori with his McCain 1 license plate just before those elections as he was visiting IDPS from South Ossetia. The dirty little Georgian-Russian war of August 2008 did not turn out as expected, as it did not play well for the game theorists who were using it to test Russia's resolve, command and control structures. It is easy in retrospect to look back and see how much those in the NGO community, low level non-official contacts and the many defense related contractors in Tbilisi had no doubt that the war was going to be a win- win situation for all. The outcome of the war demonstrated all that is wrong with the command and control structures of the Georgian Army, its endemic corruption at high levels, its arms trafficking, and confirmed that the war was more about making money than restoring the territory integrity of Georgia or fending off a Russian invasion. It demonstrated that Russia does not have the army it once had but its command and control structures still work rather well, in spite of their size and many layers. Rude Awakening Americans don’t like losers. Even at high school football games, if things don’t go well for the home team the stands become rather sparse at half time, in anticipation that the team will lose. Basically, Americans don’t like incompetents, and from all the millions pumped into Georgia in the name of Train and Equip programs, starting out with the 64 million bestowed under the rubric of fighting terrorism, few benefits have actually resulted. Some players have made lots of money, but the Georgian Army is demoralized and the reputation of the country tarnished – and now the US understands that it may have placed all its bets on the wrong horse. Georgian troops may be useful at what they have been trained to be , providing support for NATO operations, but not at fighting a conventional or guerilla war with the Russian Federation, or performing as a professional army. Too much has floated to the top, with senior FBI officials having visited Georgia since 2008 and allegations being made by some investigators and opposition TV channels that the Georgian Ministry of Defense has indulged itself in high stakes weapons trafficking with a sense of impunity. Now, and not only in the alternative media and less well read publications, information is also emerging concerning bio and viral weapons programs. Obama's seeming betrayal of Georgia is now starting to make sense; the signs of the times are easy to see for those who wish to open their eyes. No longer is the US so strongly supportive of the Georgian government, with its well-paid spin doctors like Daniel Kunin, Patrick Worms, David Smith and Sam Patten and scores of others working under the cover of the NGO community, including the Republic and Democratic Institutes. All these people have - or rather “had” - one concerted mission – to make Saakashvili always look good – no matter how much they must hold their noses to do so. Looking really bad The spin doctors did their job well, until their concerted efforts started to make them look ‘really’ bad, like really cheap “hookers”, whose career path or path to early retirement would be tarnished if they supported the Georgian leadership to the bitter end. All things considered, it is only practical for the US to develop closer ties with Russia. In a statement to Congress, Obama made it clear that he is backing away from Georgia in the name of better ties with Moscow. He asked Congress on that day to support a nuclear treaty with Russia, insisting that "the situation in Georgia need no longer be considered an obstacle to proceeding with the proposed agreement." This is a major shift in policy compared to that of the Bush Administration, reset-button, which tried to support Saakashvili to the bitter end. In the aftermath of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 Bush punished Russia for what he considered to be an unprovoked invasion of a defenseless and innocent country. But now the expert reports are out, the spin doctors defrocked. The dust and rhetoric have settled. It is now understood by many international security experts who actually started that little dirty war in the first place. Territory integrity Georgia can forget about restoring its territory integrity until it gets its own house in order, and shows the world that it really is a democracy. Meanwhile, Russia and the US are closer now than at any time in history, getting really cozy, due in large part to the actions of Georgia and the half-baked attempts by hired PR firms to convince the world that Georgia could do no wrong. Maintaining good relations with Russia is now official US policy, a concern based on old fashion pragmatism and the need for Russian support in the UN for US saber- rattling over Iran and its alleged nuclear military aspirations. Last year The Washington Post published an op-ed from Bush's former point man on European and Eurasian affairs, David J. Kramer. He was the guy who had helped make Saakashvili a White House project under Bush. On May 15 he wrote: "The administration is essentially abandoning the Georgians and giving Russia a green light to continue to engage in provocative behavior along its borders." This is probably true. But after interviewing Saakashvili, his advisers and his opponents, Obama's decision to turn his back on the Georgian President makes a lot of sense to me, too. Media hoax One half-baked effort to draw attention, the so-called media hoax, may be one of the last straws which will finally break the back of the US’s unwavering support for Georgia. Daniel Kunin is out, the former close advisor who has failed. He has had a falling out with Misha, which might explain why the Imedi TV disaster happened, and even now the Western media is confirming what locals know only too well. “Daniel Kunin, an American, was Saakashvili's closest adviser … the son of a New England governor; he joined Saakashvili's team after the Rose Revolution of 2003 and became (perhaps unwittingly) one of the champions of infectious democracy, the neocon creed of the day.” "Loose cannon on deck" As one source wrote in the days after the March 2010 faked invasion broadcast, “it is still hard to not want to believe that he did it - or at least, that it didn't turn out quite as he had imagined it would. I believe in incompetence. I see it everywhere. It is nearly always the explanation of things. But what is interesting is that this showed the collective state of mind of Georgia – paranoid; it could make good telly.” To the outside world, and especially the US, the incident sounded like something cooked up to further condition the population to hate Russia – Misha seemed to agree with it at first, then changed his tune when everyone started crying foul (e.g. the French diplomat etc.). An observer only needs to read transcripts of the (allegedly phony) taped phone conversations between those involved in the hoax. They sound a little too complex to have been cooked up - especially in the short space of time there would have been to do it in. I'd put money on them being genuine. This conclusion has since been confirmed to be correct by independent foreign experts who have studied the tapes, but that is hardly reported in the news. As one independent filmmaker wrote, “What a bunch of clots, I'd bet a trawl back through the last 3 or 4 years of civil.ge news articles would make tasty reading for any shrink about Sak's neurotic fixation with Russia. Wow - only in Georgia would these conversations be recorded - strikes me as really odd. Seems just like an incompetent program controller - mistakes like this happen when a producer’s ambition outstrips their understanding. 1) Was it officially sanctioned? 2) Who made it? 3) The TV station has been in a state of turmoil - I suspect program control is not all it is cracked up to be. It would have been an interesting story to follow - but impossible to have seen this one coming.” On March 14, 2010 someone, most likely connected to some intelligence agency, perhaps the NSA or Russian intelligence, or even Georgian intelligence, posted an audio file to a Russian web site which appears to be a phone conversation between the Director of Imedi TV (Giorgi Arveladze) and his deputy, head of political, Eka Tsamalashvili. The deputy is saying that she has studied the media Code of Conduct and found that it would be illegal to broadcast the program without a banner across it warning that it is fiction. Arveladze responds that he has been told by Saakashvili to send it without a banner, because otherwise it would be pointless. This conversation has since been widely reported. The following day someone posted another phone tap, this time of a conversation between Saakashvili and Culture Minister Nika Rurua (of Mkhedrioni fame), in which it appears that the President did not know that Imedi was going to broadcast it without a warning disclaimer. You will find hardly any Georgians who now think that these recordings are not genuine. They believe that the question of whether to broadcast the hoax with/without a warning banner was discussed between the two company heads prior to airing. It is also against this background that several opposition parties wanted to sue Saakashvili personally, and Imedi TV as a company, for breaking the media Code of Conduct (which is actually a law in Georgia, not an internal gentleman's agreement within the media). It seems unlikely that an incompetent program controller alone was behind the broadcast. It's worth noting that Imedi director Arveladze is former General Secretary of the ruling party and former minister himself, and was also Saakashvili's first PR Director (spin doctor). As reported in the Western Media, “Saakashvili's team is open about its friendship with the Imedi chief, Georgi Arveladze (who by the way has not resigned) ….” Has US policy towards Georgia changed? I think it will soon be apparent that it has, as you can only turn a blind eye to so much incompetence and greed – there are more important things for the US to be focused on now, rather than the petty politics which have become the Georgian reality. 
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Why put a bio weapons lab in Tbilisi Georgia? Bechtel National!!!

Will the US Government use Georgia as staging area for bio warfare against Iran?

Bechtel Inc.
4, Freedom Square Tbilisi, Georgia

Joni Simonishvli

Why put a bio weapons lab in a place of all places, Tbilisi Georgia?

According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale), Georgian and U.S. microbiologists and virologists are conducting joint research into the cholera virus in Georgia. Bodies participating in this project include the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID, Fort Detrick) and the Georgian Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology. This project is thus best classified as being military rather than public health in nature, according to international experts and local alike. 

It's really strange that USAMRIID (a military research organization which studies the possibilities of using microorganisms as biological weapons) is the Georgian side's main partner in this research. According to the Italian information resource "Wanted in Rome", it is being conducted in a secret laboratory near Tbilisi, in Alexeevka village, another peculiarity in work supposedly designed for public health benefit.

Officially this facility, called the "Central Laboratory for Animal Health" was opened in September 2004. Its construction reportedly cost more than 100 million USD but further information about its activities is completely classified. It is also clear that the construction cost increased due to shoddy workmanship and the grave public health concerns this raised. Now it has been renamed a Central Reference Lab – which is even more impressive than one designed to deal with bird flu and hoof and mouth disease – all part of the subterfuge.
"The construction of this laboratory in Georgia was driven by its geographical position and need," U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Bass said in a recent interview. However, as one journalist with close knowledge of this facility has confirmed it real nature, “unless you've got a lab flying the stars and stripes next to a mountain of cute dead bunnies, such a story is hard to sell”. The one thing we do know about it is that, according to all the official sources, the lab will not be used for bio weapons research, as was initially reported in the Georgian press, U.S.-Funded 100 mln Bio Lab Opens in Tbilisi, http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23257

According to European and American journalists, the laboratory in Georgia is part of a chain of such institutions established by the Americans in Eastern Europe. Thailand, Egypt and Kenya are strategically important for the United States nowadays, as Thailand is the USA’s Asian foothold, Egypt is a bulwark against further uncontrolled Arab revolutions and Kenya is the American influence-spreading base in East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Georgia’s proximity to the Russian and Iranian borders was most likely the key factor in the decision to construct a laboratory on its territory. It is likely not happenstance that the facility is very near Tbilisi International Airport.

Three years after the construction of the laboratory an African swine fever epidemic suddenly broke out in Georgia. Coincidence or not, there have also been isolated outbreaks of rabbit fever and other deadly diseases in recent years, which is not usual for this region. The outbreak of swine fever mainly impacted the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, where the ethnic Armenian population is concentrated. In addition, a new strain of swine flu, H3N2, was identified in Georgia in early 2011.

Experts consider the cholera virus to be the biological weapon of the future, mainly because of its ability to infect a significant number of people in a short time, the possibility of re-infection throughout life, and the 50 percent mortality rate of those left without treatment and the lack of an effective vaccine which can be widely produced at short notice.

Naturally, this fact could have significant application for US foreign policy in the region – and if so, this would not be the first time that the US government has engaged in bio warfare or illegal wars and genocide. One only needs to revisit the plight of the American Indians, who were deliberately given blankets from smallpox hospitals as part of a campaign of wholesale murder of Native Americans.

However, how may not be a bad time to cut loose a bio infection, as so many people are looking in so many other directions, US elections are growing closer and the Israeli lobby is running out of steam for preemptive bombing attacks against Iran. Moreover,  it may serve a political payoff, and even help the NATO and US war effort in the Arab World; the PR machine is being slowed down a bit these days by the flack coming from unintended consequences of possible US military operations. There are better ways to get the same results in taking over the oil resources of the Arab world - and the most bang for the buck, at least for stockholders in Bechtel National.  There may no longer be any choice but to get nasty - anything is possible, even anthrax type attacks, and naturally it will be assumed that one of the crazy Arab leaders who had a weapons program must have had a few petri dishes which were overlooked, the US and its NATO allies would never had cut lose with bio weapons. 

In the final analysis of what is not fairly certain a bio weapons program under the flimsy disguise of civilian ersearch, however, one must keep in mind that “to build counter-agents you must first have the weaponized grade material or "infecting agent", which means that they have to predict or know what someone might use (the storage vats they have in Georgia are important for this) and then build a counter-agent. The question is, “if the counter agent is already prepared, and if not it is just a matter of timing.”

You may not find a lab flying the stars and stripes next to a mountain of cute dead bunnies, but soon you may find piles of bodies of dead Georgians and others living in its neighborhood in the Near East as a result of this collaborative joint effort. Don't worry, as Bechtel has made provision for getting rid of bodies on site that is up to the standards of German efficiency in the final solution. 

But all of this is open source stuff, and currently in line with known US policy. It's easy to argue that because Georgia is amok with chem-bio nasties that make it the ideal place to spend millions soaking up all those idle brains and empty labs and putting them to (good/bad) OUR use. It is easier to argue, however, Georgia is grey zone for bio weapons research that can be used for political ends – including and bio warfare against Iran and the Arab world.

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09TBILISI1949.html

Nonetheless, just many dots do you need to connect, even the last part is about the bio lab -reference lab, as in open sourced documents. This begs the question, "what did I miss? It says Central Reference Laboratory. I read the entire thing word-for-word. I like the brains before brawn. However, there is no way Georgians will have brains before brawn, when easy money and US foreign policy is involved.  Now three years of military study for officers, is that enough.

Hmmmm. I know that the CRL has two BioSafety Level-3 areas and three BioSafety Level-2 areas. One day it will be fully operational for research. I would really like to doubt our Georgian and American government would put our most sensitive future research in the hands of the Georgians. It is simply not going to happen. Why create future bio-agents when we have the knowledge from the cold war and specimens already frozen if some crazy leader wanted to go biological in a fight. The modern fight is PR, Air Force 2st, Army 3nd, sprinkled with Special Forces in hot zones.

The bigger story is that the lab still does not work, and at this rate, with Italians now involved, known for their efficiency, even to the level of Turkish companies, and lab might not work until 2013. Meanwhile Bechtel National has "gotten rich" and the world is a less safe place than ever before. Why put a bio weapons lab in a place of all places, Georgia?

Detail article in Georgian

გამარჯობათ , ვარ უცხოელი ჟურნალისტი  ჯეფრი სილვერმენი მაქვს სტატია ამერიკის ბიოლოგიოურ საიდუმლო ლაბორატორიებთან დაკავშირებით და თუ დაინტერესდებით მომწერეთ მეილზე და გადმოგიგზავნით>
biologiuri iaraRis axali Taoba nacrisfer zonaSi!

amerikuli laboratoriebis saidumlo qseli saqarTvelosa da yofili sabWoTa kavSiris qveynebSi did eWvs badebs. es laboratoriebi namdvilad emsaxureba TavdacviT da mSvidobian mizans, rogorc amas aSS-is mTavroba da Bechtel National-i irwmunebian Tavdacvis grZelvadiani xelSekrulebis safuZvelze, Tu maTi saqmianoba did safrTxes qmnis, an aris Tu ara saziano da momakvdinebeli? zogi adamiani amtkicebs, rom am laboratoriebSi tardeba kvlevebi yvelaze saSiS iaraRze, romelic odesme Seqmnila.

kavkasiis regioni aSS-sTvis idealuri adgilmdebareoba iqneboda misi “nacrisferi zonis” kvlevis wyaros „auTsorsingisTvis“ (saqmianobis gareT gatanas). qarTveli sagamoZiebo Jurnalistebis informaciiT, bevri kiTxva arsebobs Tbilisis saerTaSoriso aeroportis axlos arsebuli dawesebulebis garSemo.
Tumca, sanam sakiTxs CavuRrmavdebiT, unda vicodeT, rom iaraRis dasamzadeblad saWiro yvelaze “mimzidveli” virusebisa da baqteriebis umravlesoba bunebrivad cxovrobs am regionSi. amrigad, kavkasiis regioni aris is adgili, sadac SesaZlebelia maTi siRrmiseuli Seswavla bunebriv pirobebSi.
garda amisa, es aris regioni, romelic cnobilia „Savi bazris“ ekonomikiTa da trefikingiT, korufciuli mTavrobebiTa da adgiliT, sadac demokratiisa da samoqalaqo sazogadoebis ararseboba aadvilebs msofliosgan bevri ramis damalvis SesaZleblobas, rom araferi vTqvaT,  zogadad - qarTuli sazogadoebisgan da imaTgan, vinc am STambeWdavi da saidumlo dawesebulebis siaxloves cxovrobs.
Tbilisis aeroportis axlos mdebare uzarmazari nageboba TiTqmis amoqmedebulia. aSS-is samxedroebma Tavdapirvelad daaxloebiT 150 milioni aSS dolari daxarjes am kvleviTi laboratoriis asaSeneblad da es xarjebi aseve moicavda arakvalificiuri muSaxelis gadamzadebas.
am laboratoriaSi adgilobriv da saerTaSoriso Jurnalistebs ar uSveben da xSirad araswor informacias awvdian laboratoriis saqmianobis Sesaxeb. aSS-ma izruna - moespo gadamowmebis meqanizmi, romelic  SesaZleblobas miscemda saerTaSoriso sazogadoebas kavkasiis regionSi amerikelebis mier mSenebare axali laboratoriebis Sesaxeb informaciis mosapoveblad da amiT ugulebelyo SiSiს faqtori, rac amerikuli samxedro strategiis interesSi ar Sedis.
ras warmoadgens es laboratoria da ratom badebs is amden eWvs? is mdebareobs aleqseevkaSi, romelic warmoadgens mitovebul sabWoTa samxedro bazas. amJamad, is aris patara dasaxleba, Tbilisis gareubanSi, sadac sul ramodenime aTasi kaci cxovrobs. es xalxi, axali nagebobidan sul raRac erTi milis radiusis moSorebiT arian daSorebulebi. Tbilisis biolaboratoria –ra aris aq sanerviulo?
amerikelebma axali laboratoria saqarTvelos xelisuflebasTan erTad aaSenes Tbilisis gareubanSi, saerTaSoriso aeroportis axlos, aSS-იs Tavdacvis უწყების, “beqtel nacionalisa” (Bechtel National)  da sxva kontraqtorebis daxmarebiT. informaciis wyaro, romelic am laboratoriaSi muSaobs, ambobs, rom am dawesebulebas qarTvelebi ar marTaven.
adgilobrivebma 2004 wels gaaprotestes laboratoriis mSenebloba, zogierTs gaJonvis eSinoda, zogic eWvobda, rom axal laboratoriaSi biologiur iaraRs Seqmnidnen. „saqarTvelos mwvaneTa partiis“ lideri giorgi gaCeCilaZe am gamosvlebis erT-erTi xelmZRvaneli iyo. igi ewinaaRmdegeba am laboratoriis mSeneblobas da SeSfoTebulia misi gasaidumloebiTa da araswori informaciis gavrcelebiT.
axal laboratoriaSi ucxoeli Jurnalistebi arc amerikelma TanamSromlebma da arc saqarTvelos mTavrobis warmomadgenlebma SeuSves. gamoZiebis mimdinareobis periodSi maT damabneveli informacia miawodes maT, ise rom rTuli yofiliyo am Temaze statiis dawera, Tundac mecnierul doneze, radgaნ arc erTi myari argumenti ar iyo mocemuli. 
magaliTisTvis, janmrTelobis dacvis ministrma (romelic am proeqtze formalurad agebs pasuxs) ganacxada, rom axal laboratorias araferi aqvs saerTo birTvuli iaraRis gauvrceleblobasTan, maSin rodesac sawyobSi aRmoCenil iqna amerikis SeerTebuli Statebis Tavdacvis safrTxis Semcirebis saagentos ((DTRA) mier damzadebuli didi plakatebi, romlebic axsna-ganmartebas iZleva, Tu rogor unda moxdes paTogenebis dacva gavrcelebis Tavidan asacileblad.
internetSi ganTavsebuli statiebidan mkiTxvels SeuZlia aseve Seityos, rom proeqtis adreul etapze laboratorias marTavda saqarTvelos Tavdacvis saministro, maSin rodesac, is axla jandacvis saministros daqvemdebarebaSia. amerikelma senatorma riCard lugarma, romelsac mniSvnelovani wvlili miuZRvis birTvuli iaraRis gauvrceleblobis saqmeSi, saqarთveloSi misi erT-erTi vizitis Sesaxeb angariSSi es laboratoria moixsenia rogorc “biologiuri iaraRis sawyobi”.   
amerikis Tavdacvis safrTxis Semcirebis saagento, romelic aSS-იs Tavdacvis saministros eqvemdebareba, aris mTavari organizacia, romelmac daafinansa es proeqti da akontrolebs mas da msgavs dawesebulebebs kavkasiaSi, ukrainasa da uzbekeTSi. proeqti, rogorc es oficialurad saxeldeba, miznad isaxavs daavadebebis afeTqebis kerebis swrafad aRmoCenas, iqneba es SemTxveviTi, bunebrivi Tu winaswar ganzraxuli (terorizmi).
saagentom, (DTRA), romelic cnobilia rogorc Nunn-Lugar – saqmianoba daiwyo yofili sabWoTa kavSiris qveynebSi masobrivi ganadgurebis iaraRis aRmofxvris mizniT. axla ki zrunavs – Seqmnas damcavi meqanizmi daavadebebis afeTqebebis winaaRmdeg, iqneba es bunebrivi Tu terorizmis Sedegad warmoqmnili. aSS cdilobs ori mimarTulebis gaerTianebas. axali biologiuri fari aris sapasuxo qmedeba ganviTarebis etapze, romlis detalebi kvlavac bundovani rCeba.  
ratom saqarTveloSi?
aleqseevkis laboratoriaSi dabinavdeba saSiSi paTogenuri mikroorganizmebi, romეlic sabWoTa periodSi Savi Wiris winaaRmdeg brZolis sistemis narCenebs warmoadgenს. am narCenebs mniSvnelovani roli hqonda biologiuri iaraRis kvlevis procesSi, rogorc amas amtkicebs kaliforniis Statis montereis iaraRis gauvrceleblobis centris mkvlevari reimond zilinskasi.
aleqseevkis laboratoriaSi paTogenebis Senaxvis erT-erTi mizezi aris is, rom TbilisSi erT dros arsebobda didi dawesebuleba, sadac maimunebze atarebdnen kvlevebs paTogenuri mikroorganizmebis gamosacdelad. arsebobda aseve vaqcinis qarxana “biokombinati,” romlis iaraRis sawarmod gardaqmna ramodenime saaTSi iyo SesaZlebeli. es qarxana mogvianebiT daxura amerikulma saagentom, Tumca Tbilisis Savi Wiris winaaRmdeg brZolis sadgurSi daculi paTogenuri mikroorganizmebis didi koleqcia cocxlad Seinaxes da axlaxan gadaitanes axal biologiur laboratoriaSi, romelsac  oficialurad ewoda “centraluri daniSnulebis laboratoria” – jandacvisa da mikrobiologebisaTvis nacnobi termini. Tumca, “biomoSuSva” ufro Sesatyvisi iqneboda am laboratoriis saqmianobis asawerad.
termini gansazRvravs laboratorias, sadac cocxlad inaxeba bunebriv pirobebSi warmoqmnili virusebisa da baqteriebis nimuSebi, imisTvis rom eqimebma da medicinis muSakebma isini Seadaron pacientebis sisxlis nimuSebs. aseTi laboratoria mniSvnelovania daavadebebis uecari afeTqebisas (rogoricaa globaluri epidemia) swrafi reagirebis mosaxdenad. amrigad, aucilebelia iseTi laboratoriis arseboba, sadac inaxeba mikroorganizmebis cocxali nimuSebi da romelic axlos aris im adgilTan, sadac amas saWiroeba moiTxovs.

mecnierebi, romlebic “centraluri daniSnulebis laboratorias” gamoiyeneben, amboben, rom am laboratoriaSi kvlevebic Catardeba. biologiuri iaraRis gauvrceleblobis eqspertebs aucileblad daainteresebT am kvlevebis arsi maSin, Tuki laboratoria imuSavebs nivTierebebis genetikurad modificirebaze, am SemTxvevaSi namdvilad arsebobs mizezi  gangaSis asatexad.   

aSS-is Tavdacvis saagentoA
აleqseevkis laboratoria erTaderTi ar aris saqarTveloSi. arsebobs kidev ramdenime msgavsi dawesebuleba. maT mSeneblobas awarmoebs Bechtel National-i (saerTo Rirebuleba 2009 wlis gazafxulis monacemebiT ganisazRvra 180 aSS. dolaris odenobiT). kompaniis xelmZRvanelobam uari Tqva am proeqtis Sesaxeb saubarze, xolo aSS-is Tavdacvis safrTxis Semcirebis saagentos qarTveli warmomadgeneli uxerxulobaSi Cavarda, rodesac cdilobda eWvebi gaefanta imis Sesaxeb, rom axali laboratoriis momavali saqmianoba gaurkvevel miznebs emsaxureba.   

saagentom (DTRA), romelsac is warmoadgens, saqmianoba daiwyo ambiciuri gegmiT - Nunn-Lugar - gaenadgurebina sabWoTa kavSiris masobrivi ganadgurebis iaraRi. es idea gardaiqmna yofili sabWoTa kavSiris qveynebSi koleqtiuri safrTxis Semcirebis farTo programad – daculi yofiliყo saSiSi teqnologiebi da mecnierebi dakavebuliyvnen sasargeblo saqmiT, im mizniT rom isini “cud xelSi” ar Cavardniliyvnen.

bevri paTogeni, rogorebicaa tularemia (mwvave infeqciuri daavadeba) da Savi Wiri, რომლებიც bunebrivad saxlobენ kavkasiis regionSi, gardaqmnes iaraRad amerikis SeerTebul Statebsa da sabWoTa kavSirSi. paTogenebi, romlebsac saukunis ganmavlobaSi agrovebdnen Tbilisis Savi Wiris sadgurSi, CarTuli iyo biologiuri iaraRis sabWoTa programaSi. amieridan paTogenebs da kvleviT instituts daemateba axali dawesebuleba Tbilisis gareuban aleqseevkaSi RirebulebiT 150 milioni aSS. dolari (es ar aris saboloo fasi da, savaraudod, gaizrdeba arakvalificiuri muSaxelis mier daSvebuli xarvezebis gamosasworeblad).
garda amisa, axali laboratoria Sendeba baTumSic da kidev ramdenime patara sadguri amoqmeddeba saqarTvelos teritoriaze. es dawesebulebebi im qselis Semadgeneli nawilebia, romelic emsaxureba gamoaaSkaravos daavadebebis afeTqeba,  rac aSS-s gasuli wlis kongresis angariSSi moxseniebuli aqvs rogorc “udidesi safrTxe”. saqarveloSi arsebul sxva laboratoriebs aseve afinansebs didi britaneTis Tavdacvis saministro, romelic ikvlevs mcenareul paTogenebs rogorიc iyo amerikuli simindis burtyla bugris (mcenaris daavadeba) SemTxvevaSi sabWoTa periodSi.
rTulia am proeqtis Sesaxeb sruli informaciis mopoveba da aSS-მა, romelic xelSekrulebis erTaderTi oficialuri xelmomweri saxelmwifoa, bevri ibrZola daebloka yvelanairi gadamowmebis sistema biologiuri iaraRis TemasTan dakavSirebiT. gadamowmeba SesaZleblobas miscemda msoflio sazogadoebas - სcodnoda ra saxis kvlevebi Catardeboda aleqseevkიs laboratoriaSi, raTa gafantuliyo SiSi, rom aSS raime safrTxis Semcvel saqmianobasTan aris dakavSirebuli. bevri adgilobrivi darwmunebulia, rom amerikelebi Seqmnian biologiur iaraRs da mas sazogadoebriv jandacvasTan dakavSirebuli kvlevis fasadis miRma damalaven. igive gaakeTa sabWoTa kavSirmac!
axali laboratoria oficialurad gaixsna 2011 wels da fiqroben, rom cocxali kulturebis paTogenu rma koleqciam mas Semdeg gadainacvla Tbilisis centrSi arsebuli Zveli laboratoriidan aleqseevkaSi. samSeneblo da aRWurviTi samuSaoebi isev grZeldeba.
gavrcelebis winaaRmdeg
ruseTi da amerikis SeerTebuli Statebi cdiloben axali gegmebi SeimuSaon iaraRis gavrcelebis sawinaaRmdegod mimarTuli kampaniis gasagrZeleblad. START xelSekrulebas birTvuli iaraRis Semcirebisa da gavrcelebis winaaRmdeg vada gauvida. rusuli biologiuri iaraRi ki aSS-is DTRA-m gaაnadgura da dRes ruseTi irwmuneba, rom mas biologiuri iaraRi aRar gaaCnia.
meore mxriv, gavrcelebis winaaRmdeg mimarTuli brZola grZeldeba ბიოლოგიური იარაღის Semcveli uSualo safrTxeebis gamo. gasuli wlebis ganmavlobaSi ruseTTan TanamSromloba Sesustda, rac nawilobriv ganpirobebuli iyo kremlSi gaCenili eWviT. oficialuri moskovi fiqrobs, rom aSS-s strategiuli interesebi gaaCnia, romelic mas surs ganaxorciეlos safrTxis  Semcirebis TanamSromlobis sababiT.
TanamSromelTa qseli – Tavdacva saxalxo jandacvis winaaRmdeg
cxovelTa janmrTelobis msoflio organizaciis informaciiT, (OIE, Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale), qarTveli da amerikeli mikrobiologebi da virusologebi, saqarTveloSi atareben erTobliv kvlevas qoleris virusze. proeqtSi monawile mxareebi arian aSS-იs samxedro samedicino infeqciur daavadebaTa kvleviTi instituti (USAMRIID, Fort Detrick) da saqarTvlos baqteriofagis, mikrobiologiisa da virusebis istituti. es proeqti ufro samxedro  daniSnulebisaa vidre - sazogadoebrivi janmrTelobis.  

ucnauria is, rom aSS-იs samxedro samedicino infeqciur daavadebaTa kvleviTi instituti (USAMRIID) - samxedro organizacia, romelic swavlobs mikroorganizmebis gamoyenebas biologiur iaraRSi - aris qarTuli mxaris mTavari partniori am kvlevaSi. italiur sainformacio wyaroze – “romSi iZebneba”-ze dayrdnobiT, kvleva warmoebs saidumlo laboratoriaSi TbilisTan axlos, sofel aლeqseevkaSi, rac aseve uCveulo garemoebaa sazogadoebrivi janmrTelobisTvis sasargeblo Sromis Casatareblad.

oficialurad, es laboratoria saxelwodebiT “cxovelTa janmrTelobis centraluri laboratoria” gaixsna 2004 wlis seqtemberSi. misi mSenebloba 100 milioni dolari dajda, magram informacia laboratoriis saqmianobis Sesaxeb ucnobia.

am laboratorias saxelwodeba Seecvala da ewoda “centraluri daniSnulebis laboratoria”, rac ar aRwers im dawesebulebas, romelic ikvlevs „qaTmis grips“, saxsrebიs an piris Rrus daavadebebs. es yvelaferi simarTlis damalvis meqnizmis nawilia.

“am laboratoriis saqarTveloSi mSeneblobas dasabami misca misma geografiulma mdebareobam da saWiroეbam”,- ganacxada interviuSi aSS-is elCma saqarTveloSi jon basma. erTaderTi, rac Cven viciT oficialuri wyaroebidan, aris is, rom am laboratorias ar gamoiyeneben biologiuri iaraRis gamosakvlevad, rogorc Tavidan daiwera qarTul presaSi: U.S.-Funded 100 mln Bio Lab Opens in Tbilisi, http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23257

evropeli da amerikeli Jurnalistebis TqmiT, es laboratoria saqarTveloSi im jaWvis Semadgeneli rgolia, romelic daaarses amerikelebma aRmosavleT evropaSi. tailandi, egvipte da kenia strategiulad mniSvnelovani qveynebia amerikis SeerTebuli StatebisTvis. tailandi aSS-is dasayrdenia aziaSi, egvipte aris damcveli fari SemdgomSi mosalodneli arabuli revoluciebis winaaRmdeg. kenia ki warmoadgens amerikuli zegavlenis gavrcelebis bazas aRmosavleT afrikasa da indoeTis okeanis teritoraze.
saqarTvelos siaxlove ruseTis da iranis sazRvrebTan iyo is mTavari faqtori, romelmac gadamwyveti roli Seasrula gadawyveტilebis miRebaSi -am teritoriaze aSenebuliyo es laboratoria. SemTxveviToba ar aris isic, rom es laboratoria Tbilisis saerTaSoriso aeroportis axlos mdebareobs.

laboratoriis aSenebidan 3 wlis Semdeg afrikuli „Roris gripis“ epidemiam moulodnelad ifeTqa saqarTveloSi. gasul wlebSi aseve dafiqsirda „kurdRlis gripisa“ da sxva momakvdinebeli daavadebebis SemTxvevebic, rac iSviaTia am regionisTvis. „Roris gripma“ ZiriTadad daazarala samcxe-javaxeTis regioni, romelic ZiriTadad dasaxlebulia eTnikuri somxebiT, garda amisa, 2011 wlis dasawyisSi gamovlinda „Roris gripis“ axali tipic H3N2.

eqspertebi momavlis biologiur iaraRad qolerიs viruss miiCneven, vinaidan, mas SeuZlia mokle droSi moicvas mosaxleobis didi nawili, arsebobs xelmeored daavadebis da 50% sikvdilianobis  riskic maTTvis vinc ver axerxebs mkurnalobas an aucreli rCeba.
am garemoebam SesaZloa gavlena iqonios aSS-is sagareo politikaze am regionSi da es ar iqneba pirveli SemTxveva, rodesac aSS-is mTavroba awarmoebs biologiur oms. magaliTad gamodgeba amerikeli indielebis bedi. rogorc cnobilia, adgilobriv amerikelebs, genocidis Semadgeneli kampaniis nawilad, saavadmyofoebidan daurigdaT „yvaviliT“ daavadebuli pacientebis sabnebi. 
iqneb jobs Tavi davaneboT biologiuri infeqciebiT dainteresebas, radgan msoflios mosaxleobas sxva ufro mniSvnelovani problemebi awuxebs. es sakiTxi, dasaSvebia, politikuri TamaSis sagani gaxdes da garda amisa, daexmaros Crdiloatlantikur alianss da aSS-is saomar moqmedebebSi arabul samyaroSi. PR- manqana am dReebSi SedarebiT Senelda, aSS-is samxedro operaciebis moulodneli marcxis gamo. SesaZloa sxva arCevanic ar iyos, garda imisa, rom gavborotdeT – yvelaferi SesaZlebelia - infeqciuri daavadebebis afeTqebac ki da, bunebrivia, amas CaTvlian erT-erTi ugunuri arabi lideris qmedebad. 

daskvnisTvis, imisTvis, rom amoqmeddes raimes sawinaaRmdego meqanizmi, pirvel rigSi, unda arsebobdes saomari masala an “damainficirebeli,” rom winaswar warmovidginoT an vicodeT, vis risi gamoyeneba SeuZlia sawinaaRmdegod moqmedi saSualebis Sesaqmnelad. kiTxva sxva rameSi mdgomareobs - aseTi saSualeba ukve arsebobs Tu misi Seqmna ubralod drois sakiTxia.?

es ar aris  laboratoria, sadac mkvdar kurdRlebs naxavT, magram am erToblivi proeqtis Sedegad, male ipoviT saqarTveloSi an samezobloSi mcxovrebTa cxedrebis grovebs.  

laboratoriis Seqmnis idea srul SesabamisobaSia aSS-is politikasTan. mizezi advili misaxvedria: saqarTvelo aris fsiqikuri aSlilobis qveyana qimiur-biologiuri cdebis Casatareblad da idealur adgils warmoadgens milionebis dasaxarjad moclili tvinis dasasaqmeblad da carieli laboratoriebis asamuSaveblad, rac, saboloo jamSi, “sargebels” an savalalo Sedegebs moitans.  

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Fraud and Vote Rigging in Georgian Parliamentary Elections?

ISFED’s survey indicates opportunity for “Election Fraud in Georgian Elections"

Potential vote rigging in scheduled Georgian elections, US government funded survey, ISFED, indicates

TBILISI – democracy is alive and well in Georgia, best that money can buy, and based on an earlier survey this year, just over four in ten votes will be in question (41 percent). Many of these votes may not be case by those entitled to case them, as mistakes in the register have provided an windfall for massive vote rigging, and if the poll is to be believed, this will be used to the benefit of the ruling party of President Mikhail Saakashvili and possibly others, even some parties are thought  to be politically supported by other US funded organizations, such as  NED, National Endowment for Democracy, and other outside financial supporters, including high valued US and European lobbying firms. 

Based on the seemingly “official” figures, Georgia has 3,565,000 million registered voters. The total population is recorded as 4,369,000. The question remains, just how many of these people are suspected to have died and are living outside of Georgia proper, which is something that merits serious debate, as even the claims by the quoted survey has not been totally verified by other reliable researchers.

Nonetheless, after carefully studying the voter list, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, a NGO, which has been monitoring the election process in Georgia for years, has started that 41 percent of the registered voters, in other words, 1,460,000 people have been incorrectly included on the list.

Naturally in keeping with “making hay whilst then sun shines” opportunities, a door is open to the illegal casting and counting of these votes, and throwing the election one way or another. Nino Lomjaria, Head of ISFED explains that the organization arrived at this number last fall by examining the public voters lists published in August 2011. The figures are based on a selective survey of list all over Georgia, and have been extrapolated from that sample.

The survey shows that more than 99% of the population, an absolute majority, is registered in the list, so non-registration of votes is not a problem.  Furthermore, the instance of dead voters is still being included on the voters list is also very minor. In fact, they number less than 1% of the registered voters,” Nino Lomjaria says, adding that the main problem is of a different kind.”
 
“When we investigated, in nearly 41% of cases we were unable to find any trace of the registered voter at the address specified, which means that nearly 41% of voters are not living at the addresses at which they are registered on the common list. In 9.1% of these cases, we can definitely say that this is the result of internal migration. In another 6.8% of these cases we can definitely say that the voter is an external migrant, who has gone abroad. In the remaining 25% of such cases we could find no one who knew the registered voter or had any information about where they were. There are also cases in which the flat where a voter is registered at is either closed or empty”, she explains.
 
The number of improver or illegal registrations is alarming. It is clear, and based on the documented history of election fraud in Georgia, before and after 2003, that this is a potential time bomb. It means that potentially 40-41%, four out of ten votes in the forthcoming parliamentary election could be fraudulently cast, and this does not include the ballot box stuffing and voters voting at many different places, with fake ID that was common in the last election, as documented by the Georgian Human Rights center and other Human Rights Watchdogs.

It is clear that that the government can use this for its advantage, as can other political parties. Those working outside of Georgia can be registered at polling stations with relative ease, and then, someone else can actually vote in their place and even get paid. 

A final question remains, just how many Georgians there actually are in the world, and if the official census is for the purpose of knowing how many citizens there are or the number of votes that can be cast, illegal or otherwise. It is clear, the current government of Georgia has an absolute advantage when it comes to vote rigging and its track record makes the Russians look beginners in their recent presidential election.

It does appear that the upcoming election may have problems, regardless of how many votes will be actually cast for the ruling National Party, or even for those outside funded and supported political parties that can pay the most. Some go as far as to claim that the parliamentary elections of October 2012 will be rigged on the same level as was when Georgia W. Bush was first elected president of the US in the State of Florida, thanks to massive vote rigging.  
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Free, Fair and Competitive Elections in Georgia - wishful thinking!

FREE, FAIR, AND COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA?

Freedom is never given to you – you must fight hard to get it and harder to keep it!

Tbilisi – “Georgia, the showcase of democracy, beacon of democracy, best democracy the “American People” could buy” – this is what the Western policy planners seem to have thought for a long time, as they were the ones puffing the country in this way. But since the 2003 Rose Revolution, which brought a US trained reformer Mikhael Saakashvili to office, this US funded experiment on the border of Russia has not lived up to this billing.
Georgian democracy is stillborn and the government is a self-selecting clan which preserves its power through various complex networks of patronage – or at least that is how things are panning out during the present period of transition, according to some pundits and policy experts.

In spite of all efforts to reform, and the introduction of new blood (sometimes by spilling the blood of other clan members), the government and the ruling National Party have successfully monopolized power and grabbed money flows. The influx of development money, designed to produce the opposite outcome, has merely bolstered the regime and its present character. Now few can challenge the existing political machinery since it can prove hazardous to their health and security if they do.

What went wrong?

Was this all that was ever really planned, notwithstanding the debacle of the 2008 Georgian- Russian war and the economic and political freefall it produced? Many questions remain, but for now the public focus is on the arrival of a new savior. Bidzina Ivanishvili, consistently branded "the oligarch" by government-controlled TV stations, has contrarily been featured on the front page of Forbes as a symbol of the next stage of democratic development. He has been presented as the man who can ensure that for the first time since it regained its independence from the Soviet Union, Georgia will achieve a peaceful transition of power.

However, the government’s response casts doubt on this optimistic assertion. No-one will be safe - all will be pawns in the great blame-game to be fought out on the streets of Tbilisi and possible remote Georgian regions.

Saving a Sinking Ship

Backed by the best PR money could buy, BGR-Garbara, LTD, Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream Party, together with Irakli Alasania, leader of Our Georgia-Free Democrats and a few other opposition parties, are trying to spearhead a democratic takeover. The government is not going to roll over and die though. Alasania claimed on March 20 that he now has evidence to that President Saakashvili is setting up paramilitary groups in the Georgians regions, an allegation which was recently supported by Moscow. http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24580

It is clear that the government will cling to power at any cost, even if this means risking the possibility that an angered US government will cut off all funding to Georgia – as recently proposed in a bill presented in Congress. Just think of how tempting the offer would be for a Georgian prisoner if given the opportunity for freedom on condition he or she join up with the paramilitaries.

The Ivanishvili-Alasania team has international backing, not only in the halls of Congress, the Republican Institute and some Cold War veterans in the US State Department, but even behind the walls of the Kremlin, if you listen to certain media sources. In response polls commissioned concerning the political future in Georgia, and run by the National Democratic Institute, NDI, continue to be leaked at the most ill-timed moments for the opposition. On March 27, the Georgian news agency, InterPressNews (IPN), reported segments of the NDI-commissioned survey dealing with political parties. http://www.civil.ge/eng/_print.php?id=2460

A European commentator recently pointed out in term a leaked poll, “I don't know, maybe the recent National Democratic Institute poll, funded by the Democratic Party in the US, is correct, nearly half (47 percent) still support the ruling United National Movement, and the ruling party does not have to do anything to retain power.” According to the leaked report nearly half of respondents claimed  they would vote for the ruling National Movement party if the parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, followed by Ivanishvili-led opposition coalition with 10%. The same poll, also published by Civil.ge, nearly one quarter, 23% of respondents are undecided, 10% refused to answer and 5% said they would vote for none of the parties.
The propaganda is working. In the news, Bidzina is consistently called "the oligarch", as he is in the computer graphics on the studio walls at the government controlled TV stations.” But the polls do not ask what the people would do if Saakashvili resorted to violence to destroy any opposition, which is what seems to be being threatened at present.

Georgia may even be turning into a US presidential primary election issue. The Democratic Party in the US  in the US have not forgotten the Georgians for McCain lobby, high ranking ministers visiting IDP camps with “McCain 1” license plate numbers on their SUVs, and how the advisors of the Georgian president and the United National Movement were running the PR for McCain, and the inconvenient situation Saakashvili put the US Administration in thanks to his ill-timed and poorly executed attempt in August 2008 to retake South Ossetia from separatists, if that that the intention in the first place. The result was a war that boosted the chances of John McCain in his failed bid for president. 
The war did serve its function, covering up a multitude of sins involving “gun runners” and connections to a former FBI director who had to arrive to Tbilisi to clear up the damage behind close door meeting, and the fallout over Georgia being used as a logistical base for proxy wars in Africa and a gun show which would put the infamous “fast and furious” weapons walking program to shame. It brought also an influx of new development money for poor IDPs and others affected by the war, which merely kept the government members’ feeding frenzy going. The interesting question will be how much of this is seen as a good thing by the various US presidential aspirants, and who will feel they have more to gain by opposing it.

God only knows

One way or another, things are starting to heat up. Last week’s allegations of armed groups being formed in Western Georgia, and now the controversy over McDermott's Democracy in Georgia bill, indicate that calculated pressure is being exerted by the US authorities on their ally, the current Georgian regime, ahead of the anticipated reinstatement of Ivanishvili's citizenship, which he will need in order to run in Georgia's parliamentary election, scheduled for this October. McDermott’s bill should get some traction, and spur public debate on important issues.

It is about time that the US tied foreign aid to the level of democracy in recipient countries anyway. US presidential elections are coming up (just a month after Georgia’s parliamentary elections) and it is unlikely that the Obama administration wants to see the situation in Georgia descend into complete chaos in the event that the government loses its grip. Think back to August 2008, when the Russian army invaded Georgia and McCain jumped on the opportunity to present his hawkish and resolute foreign policy credentials – even though he thus demonstrated he was a product of a bygone era and senile.

Furthermore, Georgian Dream has also secured new and better media equipment, currently en route to Georgia, which includes up to 12 absolutely state-of-the-art cameras with live external streaming devices. No longer can the government rely on an effective propaganda monopoly. This vector of opposing forces is one the Georgian government cannot ignore, and Saakashvili, a smart political operator who used those skills to take power in the first place, knows this very well.
Signs are growing that the Georgian authorities will use whatever means they can to stop Bidzina Ivanishvili in his tracks. Whether by fair play or foul they simply have too much to lose by simply restoring his citizenship and letting him participate in the closest thing to a free and fair election that Georgia ever could muster. Given past history in Georgia, the likelihood is that as the pressure mounts, Misha is likely to do increasingly crazy things to try and discredit the opposition.
He could paint Ivanishvili and his partners as Russian backed revolutionaries or simply distract the population by focusing on some concocted external or internal threat, such as the Khurcha incident on the day of the May 2008 Georgian parliamentary elections (in which the government shot at its own citizens and pretend it was a separatist attack designed to disrupt the poll), the phony “live news reports” of a Russian invasion broadcast on Imedia TV, a well-crafted media hoax designed to scare the population, etc. 

The government knows it is being watched, and as explained by the US Ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland and who was recently confirmed by the US Senate. It is clear from recent testimony to the Senate, they would be pretty foolish to try anything that the US disapproves of, given the new bill being presented to Congress, which ties US military and development assistance for fiscal year 2013 to the conduct and competitiveness of Georgia’s elections in October. http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24584 

One bad move on the part of the government and the show could be over. But what does the Georgian government thinks it can get away with, and what is it willing to risk? Too many people in Misha's circle have blood on their hands and will not give up the power which is their main or only source of livelihood; even it is the family business with some, without more blood being spilt. Many of them have demonstrated their willingness to kill before (for example, Culture Minister Nika Rurua was once exiled from the country for his long involvement with murderous gangsters only to be rehabilitated by Saakashvili without any renunciation of his crimes), and "Bacho" Akhalaia, the current Minister of Defense that once worked in the prison system and tortured prisoners for the fun of it, causing riots which resulted in prisoners being gunned down.

Such people have no place a democratic society, as confirmed by reports from the US Embassy and Human Rights organizations; they, including closely knit clans will likely not hesitate to kill and torture again. Ivanishvili will have to maneuver carefully to prevent his supporters and the masses he seeks to win over from being threatened or killed, while also looking out for his own life (example of the late Badri Patarkatsishvili, another man branded as “oligarch” in the same way, can be recalled here).

A further complication is that Putin's Russia still takes the moral high ground over the war in 2008. The Kremlin is eager to see Georgia’s elections held, but conducted in such a way that the words "NATO" and "integration" are erased from the vocabulary of Western diplomats and policy makers – in other words, in the way they always have been, without being recognized as such the official observers. Saakashvili, its ostensible enemy, is the man with the power to ensure this happens.

Russia will continue to enjoy considerable leverage in Georgia regardless of who is in power, largely because Saakashvili has sold many of the important former state industries to Russian companies even since the 2008 war, and in reality NATO expansion into what remains of Georgian territory is too provocative an idea for the West to promote too seriously. The US may want to bring in Ivanishvili sooner rather than later, but its chances of doing so without creating more problems than it is worth are decreasing by the day.

Conclusion

Some may consider that Georgia is in a pretty sorry state when its people have to resort to placing their hopes in the hands of a person worth 6.4 billion USD, but with no experience of elective office or any discernible program. This just goes to show the extent to which real democracy and rule of law is absent in Georgia. On the other hand, if someone with so much money can’t change the situation, who on Earth possibly could? 

Ivanishvili’s wealth, and the fact that he is not Saakashvili, is his so-called competitive advantage, and among the cards that he can really play. However, Georgians do have the democratic right to elect someone for these reasons alone, if they so choose, but if the international community had accepted the democratic will of the Georgian people during the days of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first democratically elected president, who alienated everyone except the voters by doing what he told the voters he would do, we would not be facing the present problem.

All USAID, European donors have done, through their successive attempts to replace a democratically elected government with a “democracy” controlled by themselves, is create a band of leeches focused 100% on maintaining the money flow and a facade “Potemkin” democracy which they argue needs more money to be made to work because Georgians are too stupid to do anything on their own.

The intrinsic weakness of any such enterprise will always bring about such a result. Georgians who are entitled to vote in other countries aren’t incapable of democratic conduct and don’t rig elections – check crime statistics, if you will. The best way to help build democracy would be to cut all funding for the fake NGO "democracy" and instead establish a truth commission to prosecute the criminals/junta, starting from the assumption that as Georgia is puffed as a beacon of democracy, its politicians should obey the same standards accepted in the countries the Georgian people regard as democratic.

Time may soon prove that democracy cannot be bought by either side; it must be taken. As Jeffrey K. Silverman a Georgian human rights commentator who has lived in Georgia for 20 years recently pointed out, “If Georgians want to have democracy, they must take it, organize, and exercise their Constitutional rights. If they continue to accept the situation foisted on them and hope for miracles they will never have neither democracy nor independence.”

Ivanishvili is also a real threat but the US will not be able to install him without a fight which will do it more harm than good and supporting a genuine democracy in Georgia. The US will then have a loyal friend for life with the Georgian people. Since 2003 Georgians have fallen into a pattern of apathy and acceptance of networks of patronage, and the NGO community is not helping them but reinforcing the pattern.

The one positive element in this impending conflict is that if the US fails to remove Saakashvili peacefully, as may well turn out to be the case, it may be left with no alternative but to promote real democracy in Georgia, by taking the steps outlined above – demonstrating to the people that it is up to them to make their country work, and the US will help them fulfill their democratic responsibilities on principle. Only when the US accepts and applies its own principles will real progress be made in Georgia – and when the US has more to gain by accepting than denying this, a genuine alliance will be formed which will withstand any of the contrary winds of political fortune.
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ISFED's survey indicates potential "Vote Rigging in Georgian Elections"

Potential Vote Rigging in Georgian Elections,  US-Government Funded Survey, ISFED, indicates

TBILISI – democracy is alive and well in Georgia, best that money can buy, and based on a new survey just over four in ten votes to be votes cast in the parliamentary election this October (41 percent) may not be cast by the people entitled to cast them, as mistakes in the register have provided a windfal for massive vote-rigging by President Mikheil Saakashvili’s apparatus and possibly others, such as parties funded by NED, the National Endowement for Democracy. 

According to so called “official” figures, Georgia has 3,565,000 registered voters. The total population is recorded as 4,469,000. Just how many of these people are suspected to have died or living outside of the country is open to serious debate, even the claims by the quoted survey has not been totally verified by other reliable researchers.

Nonetheless, after carefully study of the voter lists, the non-governmental organization International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), which has been monitoring the election process in Georgia for years, has stated that 41% of the registered voters, in other words 1,460,000 people have been incorrectly included in the list. 

Naturally in keeping with “making hay while the sun shines” opportunities, a door is open to the illegal casting and counting these votes  and throwing the election.
 
Nino Lomjaria, Head of ISFED explains that the organization arrived at this number last fall after examining the public voters lists published in August 2011. The figure is based on a selective survey of lists all over Georgia, and has been extrapolated from that sample.

The survey shows that more than 99% of the population is registered in the list, so non-registration of voters is not a problem. Furthermore, “The instance of dead voters still being included on the electoral list is also very minor. In fact, they number less than 1% of the registered voters,” Nino Lomjaria says, adding that the main problem is of a different kind.

“When we investigated, in nearly 41% of cases we were unable to find any trace of the registered voter at the address specified, which means that nearly 41% of voters are not living at the addresses at which they are registered on the common list. In 9.1% of these cases, we can definitely say that this is the result of internal migration. In another 6.8% of these cases we can definitely say that the voter is an external migrant, who has gone abroad. In the remaining 25% of such cases we could find no one who knew the registered voter or had any information about where they were. There are also cases in which the flat an elector is registered at is either closed or empty”, she explains.
 
The number of improver or illegal registrations is alarming. It is clear, and based on the documented history of election fraud in Georgia, before and after 2003, that this is a potential time bomb. It means that potentially 40-41%, four out of ten votes in the forthcoming parliamentary election could be fraudulently cast, and this does not include the ballot box stuffing and voters voting at many different places, with fake ID that was common in the last election, as documented by the Georgian Human Rights center and other Human Rights Watchdogs. 

“The government can use this for its advantage, as can other political parties. Those who are working outside of Georgia can be registered at a polling station with relative ease and then someone else can actually vote in their place, and even get paid ....  

A final question remains, just how many Georgians there actually are in the world, and if the official census is for the purpose of knowing how many citizens there are or the number of votes that can be cast, illegal or otherwise. It is clear, the current government of Georgia has an absolute advantage when it comes to vote rigging and its track record makes the Russians look beginners in their recent presidential election.

It is clear that in the upcoming election that many votes will be cast for the ruling National party, or even those outside supported parties that can pay the most; many of these votes will like be rigged rigged in the style of getting George W. Bush elected as president in the United States - in the great state of Florida. 

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AIPAC/Israeli Lobby

Ass kissing to AIPAC/Israeli Lobby and Screaming Foul

OBAMA was on national TV yesterday KISSING ASS to evil and disgusting trouble maker AIPAC, the Israel lobby.  He swore he would cover Isreal's back no matter what, even if it would bring about the destruction of America [this was Obama's subtext].

Funny thing, if you ask 100 yanks do they want to punish USA via Israel actions, 99 out of a hundred will say NO, they have little or no connection to Israel.

Yet the 1 percent extremists are guiding the helm and moral center of the US: Kissing ass to AIPAC/Israeli Lobby 

Why I’m Presenting at Harvard’s One-State Conference
by Rabbi Brant Rosen

Rabbi Brant Rosen is going to soon present at Harvard's One-State Conference, The Harvard Kennedy School this weekend. He describes in his blog, "already the usual suspects are crying foul."

Since I'm going to be speaking on a panel at the conference on Sunday, I thought it might be a good idea to weigh in with some thoughts.

I'll begin with the stated vision/goals of the conference, according to student organizers:

To date, the only Israel/Palestine solution that has received a fair rehearsal in mainstream forums has been the two-state solution. Our conference will help to expand the range of academic debate on this issue. Thus, our main goal is to educate ourselves and others about the possible contours of a one-state solution and the challenges that stand in the way of its realization.

Sound reasonable? Not according to self-appointed Jewish community watchdogs like the ADL and NGO Monitor and the ubiquitous Alan Dershowitz and Jeffrey Goldberg.  According to the ADL, such a conference could only be interested in "the elimination of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people."  Dershowitz referred to it as an "anti-Israel hate fest." Goldberg thinks organizers share "a goal with Hamas: the elimination of Israel as a homeland and haven for Jews."

Reading incendiary words such as these, I can't help but be struck by the abject hysteria that gets regularly mistaken for public relations by the American Jewish establishment.

I find it fascinating that these concerned institutions and individuals are more than willing to rail against the wide eyed extremists and useful idiots participating in this conference, yet cannot take the time to ponder what might have brought us to this point in the first place.  Has Abe Foxman, for instance, ever called out Israel over its settlement policy that has by now made a mockery of a viable two-state solution?  Is Alan Dershowitz willing to bring half as much righteous anger to the concern that Israel is fast creating "one state" all by itself?

I wrote recently about the "ever-closing window" on the two state solution. We might still argue about whether or not the window has closed yet, but I think we can all agree that the prospect for a viable, equitable two state solution for Israel/Palestine is in serious jeopardy.

As I pointed out in my post, sooner or later we'll be forced to choose between a patently undemocratic Jewish state that parcels out rights according to ethnicity and a democratic state in which equal rights are enjoyed by all its citizens. Given this scenario, is it unreasonable that people of good will seek to open conversations and suggest fresh, creative approaches that might ensure a better future for Israelis and Palestinians?

It's even more ironic when you consider that notable and respected Israeli figures have been discussing a potential one state solution for some time. While the American Jewish establishment grows apoplectic at the very thought, Israeli society seems more than secure enough to tolerate the discussion.

As far back as 1991, for instance, respected Israeli/American political scientist Daniel J. Elazar promoted a one-state “federal solution” for Israel/Palestine (most notably in his book, “Two Peoples – One Land: Federal Solutions for Israel, the Palestinians, and Jordan.”) Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli political scientist who was Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, has publicly advocated the idea of a bi-national state for several years. A more recent Israeli advocate of one state is Avrum Burg, former Speaker of the Knesset and chairman of the Jewish Agency, who wrote about the subject in a widely read 2011 op-ed in Ha’aretz.

It is even less widely-known in the American Jewish community that prominent numbers of the Israeli right wing, such as former Minister of Defense and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and current Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin, have suggested the desirability of some form of a one-state solution. Granted, the solution advocated by Arens and Rivlin – an undivided state that nonetheless retains it’s exclusively Jewish character – differs significantly from the federalist or bi-national models promoted by Elazar, Benvenisti and Burg. Still, I believe these unlikely bedfellows share critical aspects in common: the conviction that a two-state solution is unworkable, a willingness to pursue fresh creative ideas, and – contrary to what many might claim – a hard-headed political realism.

Many of the conference's critics have pointed out that secular multi-ethnic states simply do not work. Goldberg claims that it "barely works" in Belgium and Dershowitz points out that it failed in India and the former Yugoslavia.  Fine. If this is the criticism, then let's put this issue on the table and discuss it - as we most certainly will be doing this weekend (most likely at the panels entitled "Nationhood and Cultural Identity: The Preservation of the Peoples" and "What are the Obstacles to the Realization of a One-State Solution?") But must we seek to marginalize the conference for simply seeking to have the conversation?

There are also criticisms that the conference is too "one sided" and that the presenters are unduly "biased."  In truth, the presenters in the conference represent a spectrum of opinions on this issue. Some (like Ali Abunimah) have openly advocated a one state solution, others (such as Stephen Walt) support a two state solution and some (like me) are agnostic on the issue.  But I know many of the presenters personally and have long admired many more. Contrary to the venom being slung their way, these are thoughtful - if sometimes controversial - people of good will.  While we are a diverse lot, I believe we share a common desire to broaden this scope of conversation and an eagerness to bring fresh new thinking to a painful and paralyzed status quo.

The student organizers of the conference have released an open letter to their critics. Here's an excerpt:

The aim of this conference is to explore the possibility of different solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Invoking inflammatory language like “anti-semitism” and “destruction of Israel” to describe the ideas and speakers of the conference is not only incorrect and defamatory but serves to prevent rational discussion of ideas and preempt the effective exercise of speech.

I look forward to reporting on my experiences at the conference.

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Corruption in Georgian NGOs, a bit of history: UNDP and UMCOR Georgia

Festival of Corruption: UMCOR’s Implementation of The 1996-1998 UNDP Income Generation Project

UMCOR, United Methodist Committee for Relief, received something like $160,000-$200,000 (this is what source remembers) from the UNDP to make a combination of grants plus no-interest loans to four separate organizations.  Each organization received $40,000-$50,000, of which $20-25 K had to be repaid; the rest was just kept as a grant by the organization.  So obviously, whoever was included in the program got a major sweetheart deal
.
The source is unaware what procedures were made to select the four winners, but by all accounts the process was completely dirty.  Let us look at who the winners were:

1)            The medical services/international development firm Curatio.  Curatio was created by UMCOR employees, its Board at the time consisted almost entirely of UMCOR employees, it was rumored to be owned by Georgian UMCOR employees using UMCOR grants.  When UMCOR Deputy Director Sandro Kvitashvili left UMCOR he immediately became 2-3rd ranking chief of Curatio.  Curatio got all kinds of contracts from UMCOR—for example it supplied the UMCOR health insurance until Khatuna Zaldastanishvili came in and removed them and substituted her own outfit as the health insurance provider.  Curatio stopped being important after Khatuna became chief—a new Mafia had assumed power in UMCOR.  Obviously, a fair tender process could not have considered Curatio given its ties to UMCOR—but nevertheless it won.   

2)            The second firm to win was a manufacturer of cement blocks.  The name is unknown, but the owner had very close ties (as witnessed by source) to Georgia UMCOR managers, and also probably family ties to them.

At this point it should be noted that repayments of the loan part was overall very poor, but that the two firms above were much better in this regard than the next two.

3) A glassmaker.  Source knows very little about this recipient, except that he did not pay back the loan portion.

4) The best of all the recipients was a certain project called “Underground.”  The loan/grant was meant to set up some small stores in an underground passage under a street or leading into a Metro.  The “recipients” simply took the money and ran.  They did not do absolutely anything.  No repairs, no visible sign of any work—nothing ever got started.  The feeling amidst UMCOR was that UMCOR managers had split the money with some friends and manufactured a completely fictitious project.  As easy money as one can possibly make!!  Not a single cent was ever returned. 

Everybody considered the project an unmitigated disaster, and UNDP roasted UMCOR
expatriates about this at certain heated meetings...but of course this was after the fact. 

 Where was UNDP when the crimes were being committed?

A thoroughly amusing Postscript on the project:  One would of thought that Mamuka Makhatadze, the project manager would never have been able to get another job after the disaster he presided over, especially with an international organizations in his life.  Instead, he left the project prior to its conclusion and became head of contracts for the World Bank in Tbilisi, lecturing other people and organizations about how to conduct honest fair and transparent contracting process. 

Here’s a quote: “UNDP could have contributed more to the development of Georgia if it had taken $160,000 in cash and flushed it down the toilet than by allowing this corrupt NGO to enrich its friends.  The only effect of the project was to teach all Georgians involved that corruption truly does pay and that one can take the money from international donors get away with it, and laugh at them too.  The corrupt will still get hired again by their buddies.” 

Possible source: Ia Khoperia who was Manager of the project in its final days.  Khatuna put her there to pin the blame on her and get rid of her.... she was fired with the Monetization people, USDA Food for Peace Project.  Ia hates UMCOR.
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