Georgia declares war

I don't know about the withdrawal of the US training forces from the area, It does not appear to have been mentioned by anyone in any news channel but the lady 10.40ish on this video reports bodies in black uniform with American insignia and that sounds like backwater Mercs.

YouTube RT section.

Also mentioned here: Kommersant

It was also reported last night that a small contingent of Georgian troops were encircled and captured some of whom included black foreign nationals. (sorry, can't find source for that now for some reason)

Now confirmed are reports that Georgian SF have blown the banks of the Water canal in Kehvsky (кехвский) and flooded the basements of houses in that area so if there are any survivors hiding under the rubble they are in even more trouble.

Reported again in Kommersant here Georgia Set to Flooding Tskhinvali

The US National security Advisor has also completely ruled out military action against Russia which will come as no surprise to anyone.

Telegraph

However, despite the tough talk in public, American diplomats conceded that the US had few options and ruled out military intervention on behalf of Georgia. "We have no good options," a US National Security Council official told The Daily Telegraph. "We need Russia's co-operation over Iran and derailing that over a localized conflict in Georgia makes no sense. We just have to hope that diplomacy prevails.

Also reported now is that there are Georgian sniper teams still operating in the capital and just in case you missed it, Georgia opened up on Tskhinvali again last night with Artillery...

So much for a cease fire.

P.s.

Eye witness report of the Georgians using Grenades to clear cellars here: Osinform

P.s.
Airports in Tbilisi:
I know that the media is now making lots of outraged sounds about the reports of the Airport being bombed in Tbilisi so I've decided to take a look at what's actually there.
You can see from the handy Google image that there are 3 Airports in the capital.

The airport on the lower right looks to be a small non commercial strip with only smaller aircraft:

The eastern most airport is the Military one with the hardened bunkers clearly visible:

.

The north western airport on the other hand is the civilian one and looks like this:

You can see I have highlighted an area of interest in the top right.

A zoom of that are looks like this:

... and those things do not look to civilian to me at all.

The only thing I can conclude is that the main airport is dual use.

No wonder it's been bombed.

Originally posted by D.E.M.
I read mention of 1000 US troops in Georgia since tuesday on a training exercise. Have they been withdrawn? Any news of them at all? Would they be the catalyst to draw the west into this conflict?

The US troops were training the Georgia military. They were pulled out the very beginning of August, maybe the 2-3 Aug, I believe.

Originally posted by mirageofdeceit
O/T (slightly): is it me or does Putin still seem to be the front man for Russia, and the new President hardly heard of? Just what is the deal with that?

Back on topic...

How does oil enter into it? Does Georgia get to say where the oil goes? I didn't think they were an oil producing nation, or is it control Georgia, get to dictate where the oil goes? I can't quite see how that would work.

the main oil pipe line to the west runs through it...

This analysis from Mike Ruppert the author of Crossing The Rubicon, doesn't bode well...

It is not possible to overstate how quickly this is escalating. It is clear that US options are very limited, short of nuclear war. Thereare no sanctions anywhere that will cause Moscow to blink. What are we going to do? Boycott vodka and caviar? It has also become clear that the Russians have launched a Blitzkrieg attack which has very specific objectives that have yet to be fully achieved. They now control Georgian airspace and a full-scale cyber attack has paralyzed Georgian C3 (command, control, communications). You can bet that there's a battlefield in space that no one is going to talk about, maybe not until satellites starting falling out of the sky.

Full text/

[edit on 11-8-2008 by uknumpty]

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Why don't you attach your identity to such harsh words? An anonymous poster not standing by his own criticisms of large nations and their lack of guts?

Ironic... Don't you think?

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Im embarrassed by the NATO and US response to this aggression. Russian troops haven't seen action since Afghanistan if im not mistaken, where as our troops have had a steady flow of combat experience, and battle hardened and far more superior technically. We should send a frank harsh warning to the rusty Russian bear, either get out within 72 hours or face a large scale military intervention. Its time the Western powers put their money where their mouth is, whats the point in flexing Military muscle against countries who we can easily defeat, if we don't have the resolve to go for a real fight.

Russian was using the guise of 'peace keeping forces' for their military presence in Georgian territory, well i say we send in some of our own 'peace keepers', to keep the 2 sides apart. Georgia provided troops to Iraq, and this is how we repay them?...Its nothing short of scandalous, it sends a message to all the worlds nations that if you ally yourself with us, we will not protect you from a Russian (or more than likely Chinese) attack.

Mark my words Putin is a dangerous man, he's a criminal and has criminal plans for the expansion of the Russian area of influence. The American and European peoples have ni more stomach for war, the Russians have sensed this and this is the first shot in a series of tactical maneuvers to re-draw the strategic map.

Our cowardly western leaders are shameful, while a Democratic aspiring nation like Georgia is under the Russian storm trooper boot, George Bush is munching on club sandwiches at the Beijing Hilton, and as for the rest of Europe, we can be sure to expect the usual chorus of 'strong words', well talk is cheap.

I have a post here in which you claim to be Serbian..
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And I have a couple of other posts of yours in which you are most definitely sounding American.. including this one up here..
What is the real deal here?
Deny ignorance anyone?

As for NATO/US not going in now.. well lets just say their smart and have no tactical advantage in the unless they're willing to risk gambling their B-2s and F-22s against layered Russian Air defences in the theatre.
NATO/US up for some Russian Roulette?

Originally posted by jerico65
Putin going to war over losing 7 "peacekeepers" is about as unRussian as them smuggling bluejeans and Beatles albums. The Kremlin will throw 40,000 soldiers into a wood chipper to prove a point. The Reds never have, never will, go to war over losing 7 soldiers. Putin's trying to grab the Oil, he could care less about Ossetians. Just like the Arabs could give two f**ks about Palestinians. They are just a pawn.

True.. The Russians cannot be so attached to their comrades.. no.. that's a trait only befitting to west and their allies..
Like when the Israelis waged the Lebanon 2006 campaign (that they eventually lost/didn't win) for just 2 kidnapped soldiers..

Nobody's an angel my friend... not any single frakking body.

Originally posted by Daedalus3
What is the real deal here?

NEW! Anonymous Posting Is Here on AboveTopSecret.com



Most likely that is because they are different anonymous users.

---

Apparently now President Saakashvili is running for cover now, which if this is the case, the Russians must be making headway in getting into Georgia itself. Link

Here's to hoping this all ends sooner rather than later, though I don't see that happening yet.

*Edit - Spelling

[edit on 8/11/08 by niteboy82]

Damn..

In going to work today I suspect that I may have missed too much.

A summary of things that i can now see are:

BP Said Russia’s Jets Didn’t Attack Oil Pipeline in Georgia from Kommersant.

Spokesman of British Petroleum has refuted the allegation of Georgia about Russia’s air attacks on the oil pipeline.

According to Georgia, Russia’s jets unsuccessfully attacked Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline Saturday. They fired 51 missiles and explosion craters are seen at the distance of a few dozen meters from the facilities.

The thorough check didn’t reveal any traces of bombing in the pipeline area, said a representative of BP.

Again from Kommersant:

Entrapped Georgians Surrender in South Ossetia

Russia’s troops in South Ossetia are disarming the entrapped military units of Georgia, the RF General Staff Deputy Chief General-Colonel Anatoly Nogovitsyn told RIA Novosti August 11.

Russian Troops Advance Into Georgia from Sky.

Russia has confirmed its troops are in operation in the Georgian town of Senaki, outside Abkhazia.

The Guardian clarifies their statement that Russia has entered Georgia through the province of Abkhazia with the report that Russia has taken the Military base of Senaki.

Reports that Russian forces have captured Gorie are coming from just about everyone except Reuters and the times.

Georgia: Russia fighting on several fronts as Georgian troops withdraw to defend Tbilisi

Kakha Lomaia, a senior Georgian security official, said: "We received very reliable information that the Russians decided to move towards Gori. That's why we decided to pull out all our troops and to relocate them - to defend Tbilisi."
Lomaia has since claimed that Russian forces have "captured" the city. However a Reuters reporter in Gori said: "We are right now driving through the town and I see no trace of troops or military vehicles. It is absolutely deserted."

Also not quite reported in the news... and i doubt that this is being reported anywhere much is that the Russian Business Network are reputed to have almost entirely compromised the Georgian internet structure.

Cyberattacks knock out Georgia's Internet presence

"Many of Georgia's Internet servers were under external control from late Thursday," Armin said early Saturday in an entry on his Web site. According to his research, the government's sites dedicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the country's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, have been blocked completely, or traffic to and from those sites' servers have been redirected to servers actually located in Russia and Turkey.

This is backed up with information coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia who report that:

RBN – Georgia CyberWarfare – Info Update - Sun Aug 10 - 19 00 GMT – 15 00 East Coast

We also provide an important reminder to use caution with any web sites that appear of a Georgia official source but are without any recent news i.e. Sat / Sun, Aug 9/10, as these may be fraudulent. For example check georgiamfa.blogspot.com this is now providing reliable and most recent statements.

Whilst that site of most reliable recent statements are reporting things like.

Mass Arrests of Peaceful Civilians

According to reliable information held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Russian servicemen and separatists carry out mass arrests of peaceful civilians of Georgian origin still remaining on the territory of the Tskhinvali region and subsequently concentrate them on the territory of the village of Kurta.

and

Russian Forces Block Humanitarian Corridor

Emergency staff are urgently trying to gain access to the city to provide
vital medical support to injured Georgian and South Ossetian civilians. The
city has been virtually destroyed by the Russian invasion. There are
currently no medical supplies remaining there.

The humanitarian corridor was established by Georgian forces specifically to enable the safe passage of refugees out of the conflict zone, and allow
access to the city and its surrounding area for emergency medical personnel.

And...

On Russian attack in Tskhinvali

Russian air forces have been attacking Georgian positions throughout the night in and around Tskhinvali, in a “burned earth” tactic reminiscent of the Russian devastation of Grozny, Chechnya, in the 1990s. As a result, Tskhinvali was largely reduced to rubble, and Georgian forces were forced to redeploy to the outskirts of the city, and unilaterally ceased returning fire. Nevertheless, Russian attacks continued.

I suppose those BM-21 Grad's were armed with flower dispensers...


And finally there is a handy time line provided by the Georgian ministry of truth here: Timeline by 11th of August 14:30, which if you took literally would lead you to believe that Georgian forces arn't even armed and there are some handy maps showing where the Russians have bombed here:Maps of Bombings...

What else did i miss?


Edited to update the timeline...

[edit on 11-8-2008 by Absence of Self]

I'm not sure how long we are going to let Russia get away with this. Sure a lot of you will say that the Georgians had it coming...or even that Georgia attacked Russian territory but that is false. South Ossetia is at best considered contested territory and its not recognized by any country apart from Russia who just wants to show it still carrying " the big guns ". Officially this was Georgian territory and Russia just invaded to see if any one would say anything.

Putin is the most disgusting president Russia had since Stalin. This is because everything that led to the escalation of the conflict. How he always went bat# crazy when countries like Romania, Bulgaria etc joined NATO and EU and rid themselves of Russian Communist influence. Some how a lot of people are saying Georgians are at fault here and partially they are because they wanted to start this conflict as much as Russia did. Except Russia wanted to test its limits while Georgia wanted to get western support from the big bad Russian bear. Things of course turned in favor of the Russians because any country in the west showed it has no ballz. This is exactly the # Hitler pulled before ww2. He tested his limits untill it went too far just like Russia will attack something bigger next time. I hope these mother #ers get whats coming to them.


Also I'm not sure why people aren't mentioning this but Russia isn't a democracy. And all of those " reports " of Georgians killing civilians are by the RUSSIAN MEDIA which by the way is government controlled 100%. I'm not sure if you watched the news but some reporters spoke out against the Putin # in Russia with him giving all powers to the prime minister and then MAKING himself prime minister basically crowning himself king or president for all time until the day he dies ( dictator ) and they killed a woman of the media which spoke out against him. Why a woman? well she was the only woman and she thought because she was a woman they wouldn't kill her...that's exactly why they killed her...make an example. Same with Georgia. This is 100% bull# and Putin should be hanged...he started a lot of crap leading to the escalation of this conflict including the border patrols by Russian airplanes ( a soviet era practice ) not to mention the Cuba crap. This is another missile crisis crap and Russia is just testing its limits. Too bad USA lost the ballz they had in the cold war... Russia is a big kid with a pocket knife compared to USA who has like 50% of World army expenditure in $. Russia has something like 5% and European Union has 33% or something. That means Russia can be easily crushed but since EU nor USA have any ballz...they wont be. Gay # huh?

reply to post by D.E.M.
the Americans have all left. they were there when the attack on S. Ossetia took place. Their presence sort of puts the lie to the belief that the U.S. did not know about the attack beforehand. There is no way that the American troops and advisors could have been ignorant of what was about to take place.

tWat do you think?

Russia did something that Bush can't possibly comprehend.

They defended their southern border.