President Bush lost the argument at the Nato summit, which marked a victory for Vladimir Putin

 

The clash between Georgia and Russia would have exploded anyway, in some form, if Nato decided to press ahead with offering Georgia a start on the road to membership, which could have come at its meeting at the end of the year. 

The eruption on Friday – and the apparent miscalculations by Georgia and the US – should not deter Nato from taking that step soon.

But of course, it will put off many Nato members. They will consider how, if Georgia had already been a member, they would have been bound to defend it. Germany will now win more support for its argument, which dominated the Nato summit in the spring, that it would be wrong to offer membership for fear of provoking Russia and while its territory remains in dispute. Alarm at this near-war on Europe's borders will easily persuade more governments of the need for caution.

That would be wrong. It would tell Russia that it had an effective veto over who joined Nato. It would discourage the pro-American and pro-European spirit of Mikheil Saakashvili, elected overwhelmingly in 2004, partly for those sentiments. And it might even make it harder to agree the deployment of international peacemakers in South Ossetia – one of the better possible resolutions of this clash – by showing that the US and Europe were indifferent to Georgia's case.

Both sides now have incentives to step back. It appears as if there have been serious miscalculations, although more so on the Georgian side. Given the close contact with the Washington that might be extended to the US as well.

Mr Saakashvili may have deluded himself that four years of US help in equipping his armed forces really enabled them to make a quick dash for their prize. In taking advantage of the distraction of the Olympics, he looks sneaky, and so jeopardises his claim to the moral high ground, always his strongest point.

But Russia, in the drama of its move inside internationally-recognised Georgian sovereign borders, has escalated the dispute to a level that demands a formal response. At the very least, it has sacrificed prospects for the defence pact with Europe which it has mooted.

The Nato summit in Bucharest in April was an astonishing affair, by the dry standards of its predecessors. It was a blunt clash of philosophies about the future of Europe. On one side was President Bush, making one of the best speeches of his tenure, about the value of bringing Georgia and Ukraine into Nato, as an assertion of principles held in common. On the other was Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, laying out all the reasons why this should be postponed, perhaps forever, even at the cost of undermining the pro-Western camp in Georgia. (It was a particularly bad performance by Gordon Brown, who was almost invisible).

Mr Bush didn't win; Merkel did. But one important concession was made – the promise of membership at some point, although without dates. Of course, the present clash with Russia makes it important that the question of South Ossetia begins to be resolved, by exploring in more detail the offers of autonomy which Mr Saakashvili has offered it, and whether a force with an international mandate might replace the Russian force which has now lost any claim to be neutral. But there are precedents (Turkey and Greece) for including members within the alliance who have failed to resolve territorial questions.

One of the uses of Nato is to draw a line between countries which share the same principles and those which do not. Georgia has indicated which side it is on. That is worth respecting, and rewarding. It would be giving in to Russian bullying to believe that the cost of membership is a war.

Russian troops in South Ossetia - there are fears that the fighting could move further into Georgia

 

Russia escalated its conflict with Georgia today, launching further airstrikes and a naval blockade, despite the offer of a ceasefire by Tiblisi and the withdrawal of its forces from South Ossetia. 

As the international community called on Moscow to halt its offensive, a damaging new front opened in the province of Abkhazia, where 4,000 Russian troops were reinforcing rebels committed to breaking away from Georgian rule.

Tbilisi international airport was hit by a Russian air strike 200 metres from the runway. In the same air raid, Russian jets bombed a nearby military airport and construction plant.

The Russian army claims that Georgian forces were still active in South Ossetia, despite receiving a Georgian note declaring an end to military activities.

“There are indications that exchanges of fire are continuing and the Georgian forces have not been fully withdrawn from the conflict zone,” Russian Foreign Ministry sources told Interfax.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia accused Russia of trying to overthrow his government, but Moscow vowed to continue the fight, saying that Georgian officials could face charges of war crimes for attacking the South Ossetian capital on Thursday.

“They want the whole of Georgia,” Mr Saakashvili said. “The Russians need control over energy routes from central Asia and the Caspian Sea,” he told a German newspaper.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, hinted today that South Ossetia could be subsumed into Russia, and laid responsibility for the fighting at Nato’s door.

"Georgia's aspiration to join Nato ... is driven by its attempt to drag other nations and peoples into its bloody adventures," he said.

Russia’s expanded offensive included an attempt to blockade Georgia by sea. “It [the blockade] is necessary for preventing arms shipments to Georgia by sea," a naval source told the Interfax news agency.

Georgian officials said that 4,000 Russian troops were expected to land in Abkhazia and there are fears that Russia could strike into Georgian territory from there.

Abkhaz fighters began to attack the Kodori Gorge, a region in Abkhazia that Georgia took back in 2006, and Georgian officials said Russian jets were attacking the area.

Georgians began evacuating residents from the town of Zugudidi located close to the border with Abkhazia. “Police cars are driving round telling the population through loudspeakers to prepare for evacuation,” a resident said.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to the United Nations, accused Russian of “targetting civilians” and waging a “campaign of terror”. His Russian counterpart, Vitaly Churkin, said: “This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country whose action we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia.”

A spokesman for Gordon Brown called for a cessation of hostilities: "We are urging an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in South Ossetia and calling for a resumption of direct dialogue between the parties."

But on the ground, despite Georgia's withdrawal, the situation in Tskhinvali remained bleak with hundreds of people stuck in basements and bodies lying unburied in the streets.
“There are lots of Georgian bodies in different parts of the city,” said Irina Gagloeva, a South Ossetian government official.

“There is a whole entrance of a house full of bodies on Geroyev street, there is a body of the dead in all the house and something needs to be done quickly,” one resident said, saying that there were no coffins in the town as they had all burnt in the fighting.

Georgia's withdrawal from South Ossetia comes just three days after it launched airstrikes and missiles on the small town of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway republic, in an attempt to force the region back under its control.

President Dmitry Medvedev said he was ordering the military prosecutor to document crimes against civilians in South Ossetia. Both sides have accused each other of atrocities. None have, as yet, been proven.

Many foreign governments told their nationals to leave Georgia as the crisis deepened, with US citizens ordered to join convoys to neighbouring Armenia. Italy, Poland, Germany, Canada and Britain also told their citizens to seek safety in Armenia.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since fighting began on Friday, and 30,000 Ossetians had been made refugees.

A Georgian man cries as he holds the body of his relative after a Russian bombardment in Gori

 

Georgia pulled its troops out of the capital of South Ossetia this morning as 10,000 more Russian troops entered Georgia.

Georgia's Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said the Georgian troops left Tskhinvali to provide a humanitarian corridor to evacuate those wounded from the capital. However, he said, Georgian troops remained in South Ossetia.

Shortly afterwards, a Georgian government statement said that the Russian troops had entered Georgia in two places.

Hours earlier, Russian warplanes pounded a military airfield near Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Georgian officials said that Russian warplanes had bombed a military airfield close to Tbilisi's international airport and just eight miles from the capital, hours after launching raids on other parts of the republic beyond the conflict zone in the separatist region of South Ossetia. Russia was accused of seeking the "annihilation of its former Soviet satellite".

There were also signs that Russia was preparing to open up a second front from Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast. Georgia accused Moscow of sending troops by sea to Abkhazia and a United Nations peacekeeping official warned that separatist fighters were preparing an imminent attack on Georgia.

Eastern European countries that formerly belonged to the Soviet bloc called on Nato to oppose Russia's "imperialist" policy towards Georgia. The leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland denounced Moscow's "aggression" and called on the European Union and Nato to "stand up" to Russia, which itself accused neighbouring Ukraine of arming and "encouraging" Georgia to attack South Ossetia.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt also demanded a "very strong response" from the EU, and raised comparisons between Russian actions and those of Nazi Germany. He said: "No state has the right to intervene militarily in the territory of another state simply because there are individuals there with a passport issued by that state or who are nationals of the state.

"Attempts to apply such a doctrine have plunged Europe into war in the past... And we have reason to remember how Hitler used this very doctrine little more than half a century ago to undermine and attack substantial parts of central Europe."

Georgian and Russian troops faced each other in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, which both sides claimed to have under their command. Exchanges of artillery fire killed 20 and injured 150 people, according to a South Ossetian spokeswoman.

Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said on BBC television that Russia was pursuing a strategy aimed at "annihilation of a democracy on their borders". Georgia has declared a "state of war" and is recalling 2,000 troops from duty in Iraq to confront Russia in South Ossetia, but has also called for an immediate ceasfire.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's Prime Minister, defended the military campaign as he visited Vladikavkaz, close to the border with South Ossetia. He accused Georgia's "criminal" leadership of embarking on genocide against the people of Ossetia and said that Russia's actions were "absolutely well-founded and legitimate and moreover necessary".

In an ominous turn, Mr Putin warned that it was hard to imagine South Ossetia ever returning to Georgian control. Many in Tbilisi fear that Moscow is intent on re-writing the map of the Caucasus to incorporate South Ossetia and Abkhazia into Russia.

Russian soldiers on the border with South Ossetia

 

Georgian troops were retreating under shellfire here today as the Russian military continued to press forward and take full control of South Ossetia.

Clouds of smoke rose up as artillery fire exploded in fields less than half a mile from the bridge marking South Ossetia’s border with Georgia. A group of Georgian soldiers hastily abandoned their truck after its wheels were shot out by a sniper and crossed the border on foot.

At a base next to the bridge, Russian peacekeepers appeared confident that they would soon be joined by comrades from the regular army advancing through South Ossetia from the north.

“The Georgians have left already and we are expecting the Russian side to come down the road soon. We are operating normally, nobody has disturbed us at all,” said Sadiq Narsudinov, one of the peacekeeping contingent. A Russian flag fluttered over the compound.

Georgian soldiers looked disheartened as they regrouped around tank lines about two kilometres from the border. Many said that they had been fighting in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, until the early hours when they were suddenly ordered to withdraw from the breakaway region.

“They told us to come out, I don’t know why. But some of our guys are still out there in the fields,” one soldier, Gakha Atsiauri, told The Times. “I want to go back and to stay. If we lose South Ossetia now it won’t be forever because we will never surrender our land.”
Frightened civilians appeared to be making their own judgment of the turn in events. Many were fleeing villages with their possessions along the road from the border to the Georgian city of Gori, apparently convinced that Russian troops would invade.

“There is a lot of panic, many people have left and I am thinking of joining them. My bags are already packed,” said Georgi, a 56-year-old resident of the village of Tirdznisi.

“We are afraid that the Russians will come here and kill us. People would not go if we had a strong army, but they don’t believe in our army any more. It’s a tragedy. When a man loses his motherland, then he’s no longer even a man.”

The Democratic Speaker of the House and a co-author hired to try to add flavor to bland Beltway establishment oatmeal have penned a self-help book for “America’s daughters” to help them “Know Your Power.”

It’s a dreadfully pedestrian text (“As long as we recognize the power within us, we will continue to have choices, and we will continue to lead”), surpassed in its dreadfulness only by the timing of its publication.

With congressional approval ratings at an all-time low and the Democratic Congress under fire for taking a five-week vacation instead of working on energy policy, perhaps this wasn’t the best time to send Nancy Pelosi jetting from coast to coast to tell our daughters how to save the planet, manage our households and run our government.

Sorry, Nan. There aren’t enough carbon offsets to compensate for this tree-wasting dud and its accompanying gas-guzzling, hot air-emitting publicity tour.

Intended to inspire young women to public service, Pelosi’s preachy tome (“Courage springs from the heart.”) stands in stark contrast to her refusal to stay and work this summer in Washington on a host of energy bills and drilling proposals. “Know Your Power” merely underscores the true message of Pelosi’s actions (or rather, inaction): “Do as I say, not as I do.”

While Madame Speaker advises America’s daughters to “never draw a line in the sand,” she refuses to return to Washington and allow up-or-down votes on Republican energy proposals.

While Madame Speaker advises America’s daughters “to defend your position with facts,” she has demonstrated blinking ignorance about the price of gas in her own district and the laws of supply and demand.

While Madame Speaker advises America’s daughters to “treat one another in a civil way,” she has resorted to business-as-usual demagoguery against her ideological opponents. Over the weekend, Pelosi denounced the conservative revolt on the House floor last week -- an objection to the Democrats’ five-week recess -- as “a war dance of the handmaidens of the oil companies.”

While Madame Speaker advises America’s daughters that “you have to know what you’re talking about, you can’t grandstand,” she gave a pitiful performance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” when pressed to explain her stonewalling of up-or-down votes on energy bills.

President Bush said Saturday the outbreak of fighting is endangering peace throughout the volatile region, and he urged an end to the deadly outbreak of violence. 

"I'm deeply concerned about the situation in Georgia," Bush said in a statement to reporters while attending the Olympics in Beijing. "The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis.

"The violence is endangering regional peace, civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings, and a return by the parties to the status quo of Aug. 6."

Russia, which has granted citizenship to most of the region's residents, appeared to lay much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington.

Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership – a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up ties with Moscow.

Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili has called them home in the face of the South Ossetia fighting. The Georgian commander of the brigade in Iraq said Saturday they would leave as soon as transport can be arranged.

Associated Press writers Douglas Birch and Musa Sadulayev on the Russian-Georgian border, George Abdaladze in Gori, Georgia, and Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

 

Russia and Georgia appeared headed to a wider war Saturday, with Russia targeting military and civilian sites outside the conflict zone in the breakaway region of South Ossetia and rejecting an offer of a cease-fire from the government of Georgia.

The military action, which began Thursday when Georgian troops tried to retake control of South Ossetia, has left hundreds dead and sent hundreds of others fleeing from the area.

Georgian officials reported some 210 people dead and 400 wounded. Russian officials, who blamed Georgia for inflicting heavy causalities against Russian citizens in the breakaway South Ossetia enclave, put the death toll at 1,500.

Neither count could be independently confirmed.

Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, on Saturday issued a decree establishing martial law and putting Georgia in a state of war so that it could prepare for a full-scale Russian invasion. He has already summoned 2,000 soldiers home from Iraq, where they are fighting alongside coalition forces.

But Mr. Saakashvili also issued an urgent plea to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for a cease-fire and a call for international mediation of the crisis.

"We call on Russia to stop this madness immediately," he said. "I ask President Medvedev to cease fire and begin negotiations right away."

Russia's ambassador to NATO said Saturday his country is not at war with Georgia, but there would be no cease-fire until Georgian troops returned to positions they held before their South Ossetian offensive.

Dmitry Rogozin urged the Western alliance to stay out of the "limited" South Ossetia conflict and said Russia was there to protect its nationals.

"We do not consider ourselves in a state of war. We are just [keeping] the peace and helping our peacekeepers and the civilian population," he said.

AS I write, Russian tanks grind into a brave and isolated democratic state. 

Assuming that the world's attention would focus on Beijing, Moscow stage-managed an elaborate act of aggression against Georgia.

But the world has changed since Soviet tanks rolled unchallenged into Afghanistan at Christmastime 29 years ago. Global communications now spotlight aggression instantly.

Yesterday, the world didn't watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (the Chinese must be furious at the Russians). Instead, we saw images of Soviet - sorry, I meant Russian - aircraft pounding Georgian territory as Russian armor rolled over the Caucasus Mountains.

The Kremlin is determined to break Georgia's will - and keep the feisty republic out of NATO.

Russia, you see, still believes it's entitled to all of its former empire. And, tragically, "Old Europe" is back: Yesterday, Germany and other nervous European states bought the Russian line that Georgia is the aggressor. Wouldn't want to anger Moscow . . .

The background: When a fellow officer and I drove through the region in 1991, Georgian patriots and Russian "peacekeepers" were already facing off. As the USSR collapsed, its security services leapt to foment separatist (pro-Moscow) movements in the newly independent states. In Georgia's case, that meant instigating rebellions in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and - unsuccessfully - Adjaria (the Caucasus is a crazy quilt of obscure identities). If Georgians insisted on independence, the Kremlin intended to dissect the country.

But then Russia found itself bogged down in a series of botched wars in Chechnya as its military rotted and the Yeltsin government floundered.

Now, however, the petrodollar-powered Russia of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his straight man, President Dmitri Medvedev, is swaggering - and determined to punish Georgia, to make it an example to other defiant neighbors.

What just happened? The Kremlin decided it was time to act, since Georgia was only growing stronger under its democratically elected government. Although NATO has been hemming and hawing about admitting Georgia, the Russians didn't want to take any chances. (Just last month, 1,000 US troops were in Georgia for an exercise.)

Calculating that the media and world leaders would be partying in Beijing, the Russians ordered North Ossetian militiamen, backed by Russian "peacekeepers" and mercenaries, to provoke the Georgians earlier this month.

Weary of the Russian presence on their soil, the Georgians took the bait. President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his US-trained military to respond.

That was the excuse the Kremlin wanted. Immediately, a tank brigade from Russia's 58th Army (the butchers of Chechnya) crossed the international border into Poland - sorry, I meant Georgia.

How do I know that the Russians set a trap? Simple: Given the wretched state of Russian military readiness, that brigade could never have shot out of its motor pool on short notice. The Russians obviously "task-organized" the force in advance to make sure it would have working tanks with competent crews.

Otherwise, broken-down vehicles would've lined those mountain roads.

The Russians planned it. And they hope to push it to the limit.

What happens next? This is a fight between a very small David and a very large Goliath. That said, the Russians may be surprised at how fiercely the Georgians defend their homeland. At least two, and possibly four, Russian jets have been shot down while attacking Georgian bases close to the capital city, Tbilisi.

As of last night, the Georgians had retaken Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital. I'd bet American veterans helped Georgia with contingency planning for just such a situation (it worked in Bosnia).

Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians and dozens of militiamen, Kremlin-funded mercenaries and Russian "peacekeepers" have been killed, along with tens of Georgian troops. This fighting is serious. And, unless Moscow pulls out all the stops, its forces just might take a surprise beating.

The Russian view: If I were a Russian staff planner (and sober), I wouldn't expect to drive all the way to the Georgian capital - that would be too much for the West to stomach (although Russia's greatest strength today is that it doesn't care about world opinion).

My objective would be to retake Tskhinvali, then strike due south to cut Georgia's lifelines to the world - the strategic highway, parallel rail line and international pipeline that connect Georgia's eastern interior with its western ports.

(Incidentally, such an offensive would take the Kremlin's tanks to the aptly named city of Gori, birthplace of Josef Stalin.)

If the Russian invaders can sever those links, they'll cut Georgia in half. Control of that road-rail-pipeline complex would not only bring the Georgian economy to a standstill - it would also allow the Kremlin's other clients in Abkhazia, on the Black Sea, to renew their attempt to devour Georgian territory.

Russian generals have always been good planners. The problems crop up in the execution.

And the Russians have several vulnerabilities:

* They have only a single route over the rugged Caucasus range. If Georgian commandos interdict it, the Russians will feel the supply pinch quickly. And any major Russian military operations need to be wrapped up before autumn snows close the passes - if there isn't a cease-fire sooner.

* The Russians also need a local airfield to sustain their efforts - that could lure them closer to Georgia's capital.

* Finally, the Russian army still relies on brute force - sophisticated combat operations are not its specialty.

We don't know how this will develop. A Russian humiliation? A Kremlin success as the world wrings its hands but looks away? A destructive, bloody standoff?

The only thing that's 100 percent clear is which side we should be on.

Video: Russia Blames U.S., “What you are watching is really a confrontation between Russia and the West.” 

Is this really a U.S. vs Russia war, with Georgia as our proxy?

Thousands running in terror in the streets, burning tanks and bodies everywhere, hell raining down from above, Georgian artillery slamming into the barracks of sleeping Russian “peacekeepers”, pierced aircraft flopping and disintegrating through gravity’s burning white death spiral, hospitals unable to treat the swarming bloody hordes…. welcome to the return of the European war, a glimpse of the ones that were and the one we almost had… the faded and looming specters that Mr. Putin has built a career on.

US says Russia must pull troops from South Ossetia immediately...

Nonetheless, President Dimitry Medvedev followed up his ultimatum to Washington by pushing more armored strength into embattled South Ossetia Saturday night and extending Russian control of the province. Russian naval and marine forces have deployed opposite the Georgian Black Sea coast.

UN Security Council members again failed to agree on a ceasefire resolution wording.

As Russian warplanes struck positions in Georgia’s second breakaway province of Abkhazia, Saturday, Aug. 9, President Dimitry Medvedev told President George W. Bush in a phone call that Georgia must withdraw its forces from South Ossetia for hostilities to end. Its leaders must also sign a legally binding document not to use force.

The virtual ultimatum was delivered in reply to the US president’s call on Russia to respect Georgian sovereign integrity and for both sides to accept international mediation.

After deploying 100,000 troops and armor to occupy most of South Ossetia and warplanes to blast the Georgian town of Gori and Black Sea port of Poti, Russia’s ambassador to NATO said Russia does not consider itself to be in a state of war and accused Georgia of ethnic cleansing.

As they spoke, the Abkhazian foreign minister Sergei Shamba announced that the secessionist province had launched air and artillery strikes to oust Georgian troops from its positions in the Kodori Gorge. Russian jets earlier bombed those positions. The Georgian president said his forces had successfully repelled those attacks.

DEBKAfile’s military analysts: Tiny Georgia with an army of less than 18,000, having been roundly defeated in South Ossetia, cannot hope to withstand the mighty Russian army in Abkhazia, even after initial successes. Therefore, President Mikhail Saakashvili, who was planning to join NATO, must consider both breakaway regions lost to Georgia and gained by Russia.

Moscow has thus achieved payback for the US-NATO success in detaching Kosovo from Serbia and approving its independence. The Russians have also signalled a warning to Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia against joining up with the United States and the NATO bloc in areas which Moscow deems part of its strategic sphere of influence

After the severance of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, four follow-up Russian steps may be postulated:

1. The two separatist provinces will proclaim their independence, just like Kosovo.

2. Russia will continue to exercise its overwhelming military and air might to force the pro-American Saakashvili’s capitulation.

3. The Georgian president cannot last long in office after suffering this major loss of territory and national humiliation. Moscow aims to make Washington swallow a pro-Russian successor.

4. Moscow’s South Ossetia-Abkhazia victory against Georgia and its Western backers will serve as an object lesson for Russia’s own secessionist provinces such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushettia not to risk defying Russian armed might.

Latest developments Saturday, Aug. 9, 08 

- The UN Security Council fails again to agree on South Ossetia ceasefire.

- More Russian troops head to the embattled region. Russian Black Sea naval ships approach the coast of Abkhazia.

- Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin arrives in North Ossetia.

- The Georgian president says his forces have repelled attacks in Abkhazia

- The foreign minister of Georgia’s second breakaway province Sergei Shamba said earier Abkhazian forces have launched air and artillery strikes to oust Georgian troops.

- Russian jets earlier bombed Georgian positions in Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge.

- Medvedev tells Bush only way out of crisis is for Georgian troops to pull out of the conflict zone.

- Georgia claims shooting down of 10 Russian planes, destroying 30 tanks.

- Tbilisi parliament approves 15-day state of war and martial law.

- President Shaakashvili calls for a ceasefire.

- Bush said Georgia is a sovereign nation whose territorial integrity must be respected. Russia must stop bombing Georgian towns.

- He called on Russia and Georgia to stand their armies down, withdraw to the Aug. 6 status quo and support international mediation.

- Some 100,000 Russian troops are deployed to the troubled region.

- They include special forces from Moscow trained in combat behind enemy lines.

- They have taken the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and are spreading across the region.

- All men aged 18-50 called to reserve duty as Georgia recalls 1,000 troops from Iraq.

- Russian fighters continue to pound the Georgian town of Gori.

- Local hospitals are overflowing with casualties. The region’s power, water and telephones are cut off.

- 30,000 refugees have fled the embattled region into Russia.

- Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov warned Georgia’s arms suppliers they will be held accountable for the South Ossetia situation.

DEBKAfile’s sources say this is directed at the United States and Israel.

- The two-day death toll in South Ossetia combat is estimated at 1,600.

- Russian jets struck Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti, hitting container tanks, a naval base and military logistical center near a major pipeline from Baku.

Section 53.014, Water Code, is amended to provide that the petition for the creation of a fresh water supply district be signed by a majority of people who own land in the proposed district that represents a total value of at least 50% of the value of all the land in the proposed district. This is determined by the appraisal roll of the appraisal district in which the proposed district is located. If there are more than 50 people who own land in the proposed district, the petition is sufficient if signed by 50 of those people. This does not apply to petitions for the creation of districts that are submitted before the effective date of this act.

As proposed, S.B. 1179 requires a petition for creation of a fresh water supply district to be signed by a majority of landowners by value in the proposed fresh water supply district or, if there are more than 50 landowners in the proposed district, to be signed by at least 50 of those persons.

 

Sec. 53.014. REQUISITES OF PETITION. Requires the petition for the creation of a fresh water supply district (district) (petition) to be signed by a majority of the persons who hold title to land in the proposed district that represents a total value of more than 50 percent of the value of all the land in the proposed district as indicated by the appraisal roll of the appraisal district in which the proposed district is located. Requires the petition to be signed by at least 50 persons in the proposed district if there are more than 50 persons holding title to land in the proposed district. Deletes existing text requiring the petition to contain the signatures of 50 or a majority of the electors of the proposed district who own land in the proposed district.

Sec. 49.2205. USE OF RIGHT-OF-WAY EASEMENTS FOR CERTAIN
ENERGY-RELATED PURPOSES. 

 

(a) To foster the generation and transmission of electricity from clean coal projects, as defined by Section 5.001, renewable energy technology projects, and the capture and storage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, a district or water supply corporation may allow others to construct, maintain, and operate transmission lines and pipelines over, under, across, on, or along rights-of-way and easements of the district or water supply corporation for transmission of electricity generated by those projects and the transportation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, unless the use: (1) is incompatible with the public use for which the easement was acquired or condemned; or (2) compromises public health or safety.

(b) The district or water supply corporation is not required to obtain additional consideration for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the transmission lines and pipelines under this section if the person constructing, maintaining, and operating the transmission lines and pipelines bears all costs of the construction, maintenance, and operation of the transmission lines and pipelines and restoring the property. The activities authorized by this subsection may be exercised only with the consent of and subject to the direction of the governing body of the district or water supply corporation.

(c) A person that is subject to Subsection (a) that acquires a right-of-way easement on real property for a public use may include in the notice of the acquisition a statement that to foster the generation and transmission of electricity from clean coal projects as defined by Section 5.001, Water Code, renewable energy technology projects, and the capture and storage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, water districts and water supply corporations may allow others to construct, maintain, and operate transmission lines and pipelines over, under, across, on, or along the rights-of-way and easements for the transmission of electricity that is generated by those projects and transportation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, unless the use: (1) is incompatible with the public use for which the easement was acquired or condemned; or (2) compromises public health or safety.

(d) This section applies only to a right-of-way or easement acquired by the district or water supply corporation on or after September 1, 2007.

(e) This section does not apply to a right-of-way or easement that is used for the transmission of electricity without the consent of a person owning the transmission lines if that use began before September 1, 2007.

What’s this got to do with Pickens’ wind-power plan? Just as he needs pipelines to sell his water, he also needs transmission lines to sell his wind-generated power. Rights of way for transmission lines are also acquired through eminent domain -- and, once again, the Texas legislature has come to Pickens’ aid.

(CNSNews.com) – The Mexican drug smuggler who testified against the two Border Patrol agents who shot him near the Mexican border was sentenced Wednesday to nine and a half years in federal prison. That’s a shorter sentence than either of the agents received.

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila received two consecutive 57-month sentences for smuggling almost 800 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. in September and October of 2005. During that time, he had immunity from prosecution for an earlier smuggling episode -- the one where he was shot by Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

In February 2005, Compean shot 14 times at the fleeing illegal alien drug smuggler, but he missed. Ramos shot once and hit Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks before the wounded smuggler made it back across the Mexican border.

Aldrete-Davila had been trying to sneak 743 pounds of marijuan into Fabens, Texas, near El Paso when the agents spotted him.

Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for discharging a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence. A federal appeals court upheld the border agents’ conviction last week. Both agents said they thought the smuggler had a gun, but if he did, it was never found.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s office, in the Western District of Texas, sought out Aldrete-Davila in Mexico, gave him immunity from any crimes he committed that February day, and provided him with free medical care so that he would testify against Ramos and Compean.

“It is an insult that the drug dealer would do less time than the agents,” Monica Ramos, wife of Ignacio Ramos, told CNSNews.com.

The U.S. government issued Aldrete-Davila with border crossing cards, allowing him to enter and exit the country without supervision while he was waiting to testify against the border agents. It was during this time that he committed the drug offense that has now landed him in prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a report on Aldrete-Davila’s illegal activity, but Sutton’s office did not prosecute him until two years after it happened. Sutton said his prosecutors were establishing evidence of a crime.

Aldrete-Davila pleaded guilty in April to charges of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy.

Prosecutors in the border agents’ case blocked efforts by defense attorneys for Ramos and Compean to include evidence of Aldrete-Davila’s other offenses in the agents’ trial.

The border agents’ conviction caused a national firestorm. Critics said the good guys were punished for doing their job, while the bad guy was granted immunity for smuggling drugs.

Last summer, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Sutton on the case.

Members of Congress from both parties have called on President Bush to either pardon or commute the sentences of the two agents.

Monica Ramos, who was in the courtroom when the sentence was handed down, said she was happy to see that “justice was done. The drug smuggler will go to prison.” But she said she doesn’t view this as a victory.

“My heart goes out to Mrs. Davila and her kids,” Monica Ramos said. “There are no winners here. My three kids, Joe’s three kids and now Davila’s two kids lost a father because of his (Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila’s) actions.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said the sentencing underscores what a disgrace the border agents’ prosecution was.

“You can’t blame a criminal for committing more crimes after being given a free pass, but you can blame Sutton’s ‘win at all costs’ arrogance and despicable judgment for totally destroying the lives of two heroic border agents for doing their jobs,” Rohrabacher said.

“There is no question the fallout from Sutton’s prosecutorial overreach in the Ramos and Compean case has already caused immeasurable harm to the efforts and morale of the men and women of not only the Border Patrol, but all law enforcement.”

The full version of Bob Woodruff's interview with John Edwards just aired on ABC, figuring Edwards alternately penitent, defensive, and dismissive of the tabloid reports that unearthed his affair.

He also, in explaining his view that his dalliance could remain private, cited Republican John McCain's reported affair at the end of his first marriage almost three decades ago.

"What I was thining was this was something that was personal to my own family," Edwards said, citing other public figures having survived extramarital affairs. He recalled, he said, having heard "John McCain talk about the mistakes that he’s made in his past with respect to his first marriage."

"I’m not the first person to do this," he said.

Ten days after the announcement of his appointment as the Obama campaign's coordinator for Muslim affairs, Chicago lawyer Mazen Ashabi resigned, saying he didn't want investigations into his past associations to become "distracting."

Mazen Asbahi became the campaign's coordinator of outreach to Muslims on July 26, but earlier this week a report by the Internet newsletter Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report was surfaced by the Wall Street Journal that linked Asbahi to Jamal Said, a man thought by the U.S. Department of Justice to be involved in racketeering and fundraising for the Palestinian terror organization Hamas.

A pair of Detroit Free Press articles this week also revealed Asbahi spent part of the day of his appointment at a fundraiser at the home of Dr. Jukaku Tayeb, president of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

CAIR has been accused in the book "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out", published by WND books, of being a co-conspirator in funneling $12 million to Hamas, operating as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and extensive connections to terrorist organizations.

The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, which initiated the events leading to Asbahi's resignation, is published by a Washington think tank that tracks the Muslim Brotherhood, a world-wide Sunni Islam fundamentalist group based in Egypt.

The Report revealed Asbahi had briefly served in 2000 on the board of an Islamic investment fund called the Allied Assets Advisors Fund with Jamal Said, imam at a fundamentalist-controlled mosque in Illinois. Said, in turn, was named last year by the U.S. Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in a racketeering trial surrounding alleged Hamas fundraisers, which ended in a mistrial.

According to the Wall Street Journal, after it learned of Asbahi's connection to Said, the newspaper submitted a list of questions to the Obama campaign about Asbahi's background.

Rather than answers, however, Asbahi responded with his resignation.

Georgia demanded a cease-fire Saturday in the separatist province of South Ossetia, with the Georgian leader calling Russian attacks there "annihilation of a democracy on their borders."

"This is 100 percent, unprovoked brutal Russian invasion," Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC. "We on our own cannot fight with Russia. We want immediate cease-fire, immediate cessation of hostilities, separation of Russia and Georgia and international mediation."

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's office said Saturday evening that Russia had not received the Georgian cease-fire proposal.

A defiant Russia is defending its actions in South Ossetia as fighting there threatens to escalate into a full-scale war between Russian and its fellow former Soviet republic, with at least 1,500 people reported dead.

Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia, has sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province and bombed Georgian towns Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict, while Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has fought to regain control of the province.

The United States has called for Russia to respect Georgia's sovereignty, and Reuters reports that the United States and European Union are sending a joint delegation to Georgia to broker a cease-fire. Early reports also included NATO, but a NATO official denied it was participating.

France, which holds the E.U. rotating presidency, put forward a proposal that would call on Russia and Georgia to retreat to the positions they held before hostilities broke out, Reuters reports.

Medvedev made a statement Friday that Russia's continued peacekeeping presence in the Georgian territory was "absolutely lawful" and accused Georgian troops of committing "what amounts to an act of aggression against Russian peacekeepers and the civilian population in South Ossetia."

Former Russian President Vladimir Putin followed Saturday by asserting that Russia's actions in South Ossetia are legitimate, accusing Georgia of "bloody adventures," according to Reuters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some 1,500 people have been killed, with the death toll rising Saturday.

The figure could not be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the fighting said hundreds of civilians had probably died. They said most of the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, was in ruins, with bodies lying everywhere.