Georgia: BBC pushing one-sided propaganda
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Richard Moore
Aug 12, 2008, 12:10:12 PM8/12/08
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Media portrays US/NATO client state Georgia as victim
despite war crimes provocation to launch conflict
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, August 11, 2008
The truth behind who is primarily responsible for the bloodshed unfolding in
South Ossetia and surrounding areas has been buried by the western corporate
media. Georgian forces, with a green light from NATO and the support of
American and Ukrainian mercenaries, launched a brutal attack targeting
civilians and Russian peacekeepers timed to coincide with the opening of the
Beijing Olympics so as to temporarily deflect attention before the
inevitable Russian response, by which time the global media machine kicked
into high gear to smear Russia as the villains of the entire piece.
To accept such a characterization is not parroting Russian military
propaganda, it is a reflection of the stone cold fact that Georgia was
responsible for the first provocation - which itself amounted to a war
crime - that launched the conflict.
That is not to hide from the fact that Russia’s unrelenting response
continues to slaughter untold numbers of innocent people.
The initial Georgian bombardment of the provincial capital Tskhinvali was
primarily directed to achieve maximum civilian casualties, with residential
areas, hospitals and the university being targeted, leading to at least 1500
civilian deaths according to both western and Russian sources.
“The air and artillery bombardment left the provincial capital without
water, food, electricity and gas. Horrified civilians crawled out of the
basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies,”
reported the Associated Press.
Reports of the initial carnage metered out by Georgian forces and the
slaughter of Russian peacekeepers are difficult to find, because they have
already been buried under the deluge of condemnation about Russia’s
heavy-handed response.
American citizen and resident of South Ossetia Joe Mestas described the war
crimes he witnessed being carried out by Georgian forces, back by U.S.
support, against innocent civilians.
“I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control
over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful
solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war,
but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president] Mikhail Saakashvili
should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of
innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing
grenades into cellars where people are hiding,” Mestas said.
“The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is
killing innocent civilians. This is genocide,” he added.
A prime example of media bias in shielding Georgia from responsibility for
the carnage is the fact that news outlets like the BBC continue to report
that 1500 civilians have been killed in Georgia, with the obvious inference
being that these are victims of the Russian onslaught. But these victims
were not killed in Georgia, they were killed in Ossetia - by Georgian
forces.
As the Chimes of Freedom Blog elaborates, “While the Ossetians claimed over
1000 dead the BBC neither reported this or any newsreel coming out of
Ossetia showing the destruction caused by the Georgian shelling of the
breakaway republic. All we are getting is one-sided reports of the
destruction being caused by the Russians.”
“The BBC is giving carte blanche to the Georgian point-of-view to be aired
on its services while nothing whatsoever is being heard from the Ossetian
side. The BBC’s repetitive playing of a statement by George Bush, given
several days ago, without balancing these against statements from the
Russian side indicates where the BBC is coming from.”
Other mainstream news outlets are either aping the portrayal of Georgia,
which enjoys the support of the American empire and NATO, as a poor isolated
little country under brutal assault by the big bully Russia, or simply
ignoring events altogether and obsessing about John Edwards’ extramarital
affair.
In reality, Georgia is being used as a proxy client state through which the
U.S. and NATO are advancing their geopolitical motives - to the cost of
Ossetian, Georgian and Russian civilians alike caught in the middle of the
carnage.
As Professor Michel Chossudovsky explains, “Georgia is an outpost of US and
NATO forces, on the immediate border of the Russian Federation and within
proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater. South Ossetia is
also at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes.”
“Georgia does not act militarily without the assent of Washington. The
Georgian head of State is a US proxy and Georgia is a de facto US
protectorate.”
The price of the U.S. and NATO’s latest proxy war is already being paid with
the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians - along with American
mercenaries supporting Georgian forces.
According to the president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, the bodies of
black men were found at the site of one battle near a school.
Russian envoy Dmitry Medoyev indicated the men may have been American
mercenaries.
“In yesterday’s attack, the advancing tanks were supposedly crewed by
Ukrainians. Two unidentified bodies found today are said to have black skin.
Possibly they are Americans but we can’t say for sure yet. We will be able
to publish the official conclusions after carrying out special tests,”
Medoyev said.
Last month, the United States, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Ukraine
conducted Immediate Response 2008, a joint training exercise said to be in
“spirit of the NATO Partnership for Peace program,” according to Blackanthem
Military News. Immediate Response 2008 was held at the Vaziani Military Base
in Georgia.
In another report, a woman interviewed by Russia Today in Tskhinvali, South
Ossetia, talked about the presence of Georgian troops with American
insignias. “There are lots of bodies over there, a lot of people have been
killed, mostly Ossetians, but also Georgians, they had American emblems on
their forearms and they were in black uniforms,” she said.
Black uniforms are a trademark of Blackwater and DynCorp mercenaries (see
Chris Hedges, America’s Holy Warriors). DynCorp’s presence in Eastern Europe
is well documented, particularly in occupied Bosnia where it engaged in
sex-trafficking and prostitution.
In a Friday press conference, Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Security
Committee Vladimir Vasilyev said without U.S. aid, Tbilisi would have been
unable to start military operation in South Ossetia. “The further the
situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would
never be able to do all this without America,” said Vasilyev. “In essence,
the Americans have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South
Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals.”
It is entirely feasible the U.S. has “prepared the force” with mercenaries
as well.
Michel Chossudovsky explores the reasoning behind Georgia’s act of
provocation that launched the conflict.
US-NATO military and intelligence planners invariably examine various
“scenarios” of a proposed military operation– i.e. in this case, a limited
Georgian attack largely directed against civilian targets, with a view to
inflicting civilian casualties.
The examination of scenarios is a routine practice. With limited military
capabilities, a Georgian victory and occupation of Tskhinvali, was an
impossibility from the outset. And this was known and understood to US-NATO
military planners.
A humanitarian disaster rather than a military victory was an integral part
of the scenario. The objective was to destroy the provincial capital, while
also inflicting a significant loss of human life.
If the objective were to restore Georgian political control over the
provincial government, the operation would have been undertaken in a very
different fashion, with Special Forces occupying key public buildings,
communications networks and provincial institutions, rather than waging an
all out bombing raid on residential areas, hospitals, not to mention
Tskhinvali’s University.
The Russian response was entirely predictable.
Georgia was “encouraged” by NATO and the US. Both Washington and NATO
headquarters in Brussels were acutely aware of what would happen in the case
of a Russian counterattack.
The question is: was this a deliberate provocation intended to trigger a
Russian military response and suck the Russians into a broader military
confrontation with Georgia (and allied forces) which could potentially
escalate into an all out war?
With rhetoric from figures like President Bush and Condoleezza Rice becoming
increasingly heated towards Russia, the potential for an escalation in
tensions is readily apparent.
Only the most naive would believe that the U.S. missile defense shield is
anything other than a bulwark against Russian military expansion, and Russia
’s response in resuming bomber patrols across the Atlantic sends a clear
message.
Knowing that Americans remain completely unconvinced about the necessity of
attacking Iran, have the Neo-Cons in control of the White House lit the blue
touch paper for a wider war that could swing the U.S. election in favor of
pro-war candidate John McCain?
Or is this merely payback for Russia lending their expertise in building
Iranian nuclear reactors?
The motives will become clear in due course but what’s certain is that
innocent lives will continue to be lost as the American empire lurches into
its next theatre of conflict and the Neo-Cons play a deadly game that could
have devastating wider consequences.
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