Holbrooke - why was John Bass Appointed as Ambassador to Georgia?

Why was Bass appointed as Ambassador to Georgia?

Memo to Holbrooke, and what else is new?

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 TBILISI 000203 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2020 TAGS: PREL, PGOV, MOPS, MARR, OTRA, OVIP, AF, RS, GG SUBJECT: GEORGIA: SCENESETTER FOR SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE HOLBROOKE'S VISIT Classified By: Ambassador John R. Bass for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

"Our challenge is to convince President Saakashvili that he risks losing the enormous goodwill generated by Georgia's extraordinary contributions in Afghanistan if he fails to combine them with a new push to deepen Georgia's democratic development. Your visit gives us a chance to thank Georgia publicly for its contribution, providing reassurance of our support, and thereby creating space for Saakashvili to feel secure enough to do the right thing", John Bass writes.

Commentary

There is much history here, including and the nexus to Iraq, and it is surprising that more of this is not being openly discussed, especially in the Georgian free and open media.  Let's first take a look back and connect a few of the dots, and it will start to come together.
On June 19, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate John R. Bass to be Ambassador to Georgia. One only needs to look closely at the official bio released by the White House as below:

• John Bass has led the Provincial Reconstruction Team-Baghdad, a joint team of civilians and military personnel supporting the government and citizens of Baghdad province, since July 2008.

• Prior to serving in Iraq, Mr. Bass served as Director of the State Department Operations Center for three years, coordinating the State Department's response to crises threatening American embassies, personnel and citizens.
• A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Bass also has served in Italy, Belgium and Chad. In Washington, his assignments include a detail to the Office of the Vice President as Special Advisor for Europe and Eurasia, Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott and special assistant to the Deputy Secretary for Europe and Eurasia. Other assignments at the State Department include work on Turkey, Cyprus, NATO-Russia relations and conventional arms reductions in Europe.
• On February 22, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke arrived in Georgia after visiting the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to expand American and NATO military equipment transport, troop transit, over flights and other logistics for the deepening war in Afghanistan. Speaking of Kyrgyzstan, Holbrooke said, "the United States would soon renew an agreement to use the Manas airbase, where he said 35,000 US troops were transiting each month on their way in and out of Afghanistan."
•  That is 420,000 American soldiers a year at that rate. (Agence France-Presse, March 4, 2010

Georgia as transit country for Afghanistan

 

http://stevenjohnhibbs.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/u-s-and-nato-accelerate-a-mil...

 "The Marine Corps and Norway have developed a unique relationship for the storage and care of prepositioned equipment and supplies. The method of storage to support the pre-positioned assets for a MAGTF is a series of six caves in the Trondheim region of central Norway."

More dots to connect, "Norway relies on the Marine's prepositioning program as a major cornerstone of that nation's internal defence plan. With deep-water ports in close proximity to the storage caves, equipment can quickly be loaded aboard available shipping for operations in threatened parts of Europe, Africa or the Middle East. This capability was demonstrated by the supplying of equipment and ammunition in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom."

U.S. Marines will be occupied "working in the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions" to "build enduring partnerships and build the capacity of partner nation's military forces" until the end of July, by which time NATO's largest military offensive of the nearly nine-year-old Afghan war – the assault on Kandahar province – will be underway.The U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Italy, has deployed warships to the Black Sea with an increased frequency over the past few years, visiting and conducting joint drills with the navies of Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia.

• Last autumn it was revealed that the Pentagon planned to spend $110 million dollars to upgrade and modernize a base in Bulgaria and another in Romania, two of seven such newly-acquired installations in the two nations.
• The air, naval and infantry bases in Bulgaria and Romania have been employed for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and, although not publicly acknowledged, doubtlessly for arming Georgia before, during and since its five-day war with Russia in August of 2008.

On the eastern shore of the Black Sea, senior Georgian military officials met with the permanent representatives of all 28 NATO member states at a sitting of the NATO-Georgia Commission (created the month after Georgia's war with Russia in 2008) on May 5. A week later NATO's South Caucasus liaison officer Zbigniew Ribatski announced that the military bloc will open a representative's office in Georgia this summer. (someone that might be interested to speak with).

On May 14 the Georgian press reported the launching of a U.S.-funded military training simulation facility in the country: "The Simulation Training Centre has been formed through the framework of US-Georgia cooperation. The United States, under the ongoing collaboration, donated the Center with the cutting-edge technical equipment and developed special training programs for it." The inauguration was attended by new U.S. ambassador John Bass and NATO nations' military attaches.

There is no coincidence that John Bass was appointed based on his close connections with KBR, Halliburton and Black Water, not to mention on a local level such companies as CUBIC a) and ARCHANGEL b), two American Defence Contractors working in Georgia and the region.

http://www.cubic.com/ b) http://www.archangelgroup.org/content_main/

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Money Laundering in Tbilisi Georgia, Waterworld

Money Laundering in Tbilisi Georgia, Waterworld

Just another shell company set up by some of Meesha's pals... Russian mafia.

Multiplex Solutions - another mysterious company which was set up in 2005 with capital of $85k and now owns Tbilisi water; they've just put the water tariff up to higher than they said they would originally be holding it to, till 2014.... You will find Eastern European investors - and Russian - money laundering operation.

The French Embassy went crazy over this deal ... need I say more, and it was suppose to be an open tender.

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=22890

That's for residences with a "24 hour" water supply - ours is generally ok but sometimes goes off, so how do they differentiate? should everyone be bombarding them with phone calls if they pay the higher tariff and their water goes off?

Make money while the sun shines, Vano and  Meesha's pals... Russian mafia, are making money while the American Chamber of Commerce eats Crow.

It seems that Misha is planning his exit strategy, and that the Potomac Institute, Ambassador David Smith, will not help him in the last days, and will screw him over to save his own reputation.

Poor Meesha and his last days!

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John F. Teff, NewSpeak and Gullible, WikiLeaks

http://www.abkhazworld.com/headlines/603-revelations-from-tbilisi.html

Some commentators have concluded from the content of the release of US diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks that American ambassadors around the world seem to be well-informed about the countries to which they are posted. A glaring exception to this was the US ambassador to Georgia at the time of the 5-day war in August 2008, John F. Tefft. Whilst Georgian observers have concluded that the WikiLeaks' data support the Georgian version of the events of 2008, others have pointed out that, since Tefft was gullibly reporting as fact to the State Department only the propagandistic assertions that he was being fed by President Mikhail Saakashvili or other Georgian spokesmen, this is hardly surprising. However, though 'going native' has seemed to be a curse of America's representatives in Georgia since the first ambassadorial appointee, Kent Brown, in 1992, not all Americans display such lack of discrimination in their reporting from that country.

On 19 May 2008, a report 'Georgian War Footing Takes Concrete Form — Literally' by Ian Carver and Joni Simonishvili appeared at http://www.humanrights.ge/index. php?a= main&pid=7164&lang=eng, the website of the NGO Human Rights in Georgia. The article, accompanied by Carver's photograph of a newly constructed concrete ramp beside the railway-track in Mingrelia, close to the Georgian border with Abkhazia, explained that the ramp had been built by foreign construction-workers and could have but one purpose, namely to facilitate the unloading of tanks for an assault on Abkhazia, something which the Abkhazian authorities feared in that spring.

'Joni Simonishvili' was/is the pen-name of Jeffrey K. Silverman, and this is not the only revelation to come from the pen of this investigative journalist, as can be seen in the link above, which has recently come into the possession of Abkhaz World. It begins with an explanation of how this particular observer was able to recognise at a glance the reason for the construction of the concrete ramp in Mingrelia.

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Real information on EXIM BANK, Robbing Blind the American People

Tbilisi - "Georgia, U.S. Export-Import Bank in Talks on $200 Million Green Car Plan"

Georgia is in talks with the US EXPORT-IMPORT BANK on plans to spend as much as $200 million on electric and hybrid cars in a bid to create the first "green government" in the former Soviet republics. The government plans to buy about 4,000 cars in the next three to four years from producers such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., says the Georgian Economy Minister, Vera Kobalia.

Well, YES, well yes if it is carried out under the direction of the Department of Defence [DOD] through the Federal Finance Bank [FFB]. A lot of this business is done through loans to buy our weapons hardware and software over in foreign countries, with GIANT loans handed out like regime savers by our Export-Import Bank [Exim] so they can afford our death-delivery manufactured goods. These loans are guaranteed by our FFB and there is ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY!!!  And then you wonder why some people with little if any education, who cannot even speak their own language, are being placed in high positions in the Georgian government, such as Minister of Economy.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers are being ROBBED BLIND and Georgians being forced to flee their own country out of fear or inability to survive. A major broker of Exim deals in Europe is the consultancy agency MCKINSEY COMPANY [much like Goldman Sachs but about power more than money], which has close CIA and DOD connections in Azerbaijan and other countries, especially Afghanistan. Aircraft, aerospace, satellites, telecommunications and its infrastructure, weapons, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, jet fuel production [especially in the world king of high quality hi-speed jet fuel for aerospace and commercial jet planes, NIGERIA, the king of kings of jet fuel], aluminum processing complexes, etc., are the domain of Exim loans.

How CBOs [Certificates of Beneficial Ownership] play a role in this dreadful sacrifice of our national treasury: [1982], and that is yet another can of worms to open up [to be continued].

http://ftp.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/53xx/doc5329/doc01b-Entire.pdf

"Financing - To finance its purchases of agency debt and loan assets and its direct loans to guaranteed borrowers, the FFB may either sell its own securities directly to the public or it may borrow from the Treasury. Although, according to the bank's charter, the FFB may borrow only $15 billion from the public at any time, it may, with the Secretary's approval, borrow without limit from the Treasury. Originally, it was thought that the FFB would borrow from the Treasury on an interim basis, repaying these borrowings periodically through the sale of its own securities in the market. It was assumed that the bank's securities would pay the same low interest rates paid by the Treasury on its own obligations."

Consider the following two examples. The Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) has the authority to borrow to finance direct loans to promote exports of American goods. Eximbank may borrow from the FFB, by selling a bond to it, and then use the funds to make a direct loan to the national airline of a foreign country to help it buy a U.S.-built commercial jetliner. The loan from the FFB to Eximbank is treated as a means of financing, and has no effects on the unified budget. The direct loan by Eximbank to the foreign airline, however, is recorded as outlay in the Eximbank budget and in the unified budget totals.

Contrast that transaction with the following one:

The Department of Defence issues a guarantee to the same foreign government for a loan to finance the purchase by that nation's armed forces of U.S.-made military equipment. The loan is financed by the FFB. In this case no outlays are recorded in the unified budget, although the transaction was initiated by the Defence Department." Since the FFB borrows all its funds from the Treasury, it has practically unlimited available funds. This has enabled the FFB to increase greatly the scope of its operations without having to seek Congressional approval for increases in borrowing authority. For example, at the end of fiscal year 1981, all but $10,000 of the FFB's total holdings of $107.3 billion of agency debt, loan assets, and direct loans to guaranteed borrowers had been financed by borrowing from the Treasury. This is over seven times what the FFB could have financed if it had been limited to its initial $15 billion of authority to borrow from the public."

My, how the FFB-Exim Bank matrix has grown! Far back in 2001 the following was written:

http://www.ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/economics/econ-114.pdf

"When it was initially established, the Bank was capitalized by an appropriation of $1 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The Bank also is authorized to borrow up to $6 billion directly from the Treasury, and it may draw upon a substantial line of credit with the Federal Financing Bank (FFB). (The Federal Financing Bank is a part of the Department of the Treasury and obtains its funds from regular Treasury issues.)

Eximbank uses its Treasury borrowings to finance its short-term needs, and repays the Treasury quarterly from loan repayments and by borrowing from the FFB on a medium- and long-term basis. The Bank's authority to lend, guarantee, and insure is limited to a total of $75 billion. Eximbank's direct loans are charged at their full value against the $75 billion limitation. When it was initially established, the Bank was capitalized by an appropriation of $1billion from the U.S. Treasury. The Bank also is authorized to borrow up to $6 billion directly from the Treasury, and it may draw upon a substantial [unlimited] line of credit with the Federal Financing Bank (FFB). (The Federal Financing Bank is a part of the Department of the Treasury and obtains its funds from regular Treasury issues.)

"As part of its direct lending program, the Bank has a tied aid "war chest" it uses to counter specific projects that are receiving foreign officially subsidized export financing. Tied aid credits and mixed credits are two of the primary methods whereby governments provide their exporters with official assistance to promote exports. Tied aid credits include loans and grants which reduce financing costs below market rates for exporters and which are tied to the procurement of goods and services from the donor country.  Mixed credits combine concessional government financing (funds at below market rates or terms) with commercial or near-commercial funds to produce an overall rate that is lower than market-based interest rates and carries more lenient loan terms. The United States does tie substantial amounts of its agricultural and military aid to U.S. goods, but it generally has avoided using such financing to promote American capital goods exports."

How much of the British arms race and British Aerospace [BAE] military global trading focus is part of this slush fund of FFB Bank goodies funnelled through the Exim Bank loans? THE GUARDIAN newspaper of London has written much on the export certification and bank loan scandals which have had the misfortune of bringing heaps of attention upon themselves. BAE is now more of a presence near the Pentagon in the weapons loop around Washington DC than a member of the Airbus Consortium of Europe!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/mar/17/politics.armstrade

The Exim Bank and the FFB can drain our Treasury with no checks or balances, and without virtually any public accountability, if they deem it necessary to do so. Of course, they have many methods of putting their inconsequential loans on the public record for their integrity to appear intact. The FFB, aka Federal Finance Bank, is the best darned tool the Department of Defence could ever have wished for, it is like weapons of war paradise for the killer class!  Good reading material, Becker & McClenahan, two experts on the Exim Bank, about the EXPORT IMPORT BANK 1934-2000, published by Cambridge Books in 2000.

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McCain Dangerously Wrong on Georgia, Reckless?

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/origin/13_0.html

McCain Dangerously Wrong on Georgia

As the New York Times revealed, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/world/europe/02wikile...  on the former Soviet republic of Georgia the Bush administration abandoned the skepticism and indirect sourcing that defined U.S. diplomacy during the Cold War. The Tblisi cables, the Times reported, "display some of the perils of a close relationship":
A 2008 batch of American cables from another country once in the cold war's grip -- Georgia -- showed a much different sort of access. In Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, American officials had all but constant contact and an open door to President Mikheil Saakashvili and his young and militarily inexperienced advisers, who hoped the United States would help Georgia shake off its Soviet past and stand up to Russia's regional influence...

The cables show that for several years, as Georgia entered an escalating contest with the Kremlin for the future of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway enclaves out of Georgian control that received Russian support, Washington relied heavily on the Saakashvili government's accounts of its own behavior. In neighboring countries, American diplomats often maintained their professional distance, and privately detailed their misgivings of their host governments. In Georgia, diplomats appeared to set aside skepticism and embrace Georgian versions of important and disputed events.

By 2008, as the region slipped toward war, sources outside the Georgian government were played down or not included in important cables. Official Georgian versions of events were passed to Washington largely unchallenged.

The last cables before the eruption of the brief Russian-Georgian war showed an embassy relaying statements that would with time be proved wrong.

But for John McCain, honored this year by President Saakashvili as a "National Hero of Georgia", all that mattered was U.S. presidential politics.

By the time hostilities commenced in South Ossetia in August 2008, McCain's animus towards Russia, which he repeatedly pledged to eject from the G-8, was already the stuff of legend. But seeing an opportunity to capitalize on his perceived advantage over Barack Obama on national security issues, McCain moved quickly and aggressively to commit the United States to Georgia's defense.

On his campaign bus in Pennsylvania, McCain told reporters, "I think it's very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian empire." Three days later on August 14, 2008, McCain penned the now-famous Wall Street Journal op-ed

"We Are All Georgians" which opportunistically appropriated global sentiment towards the United States after the horror of 9/11:

"As I told President Saakashvili on the day the cease-fire was declared, today we are all Georgians. We mustn't forget it."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/12/2/924931/-Wikileaks-Confirms-McCain...

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Georgian Wikileaks cables

Wikileaks have released many new cables now about Georgia, also there may be a nexus here:

Go to Google and search for site: cablegate.wikileaks.org georgia

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/08/09BANGKOK1998.html

Embracing Georgia, U.S. Misread Signs of Rifts

But first from one of the readers as to earlier postings:Just is what one reader of posting noted - Again, your over-criticism of the Georgian government blinds you to what really happened. In another Wikileaks cable John Teft makes it clear that even on August 7th, a few hours before the fighting started, the Georgian leaders and the army were not prepared to wage a war. They were all "on vacation," dispatched Taft!! The Russians ordered the evacuation of Tkhinvali and South Ossetia three days before THEIR war plans and sent dozens of "journalists" (the propaganda machine) in. I am sorry to say that but your John McCain argument is ridiculous; coming out of nowhere, not supported by any twinkle of evidence.

 How come you cannot see that Russia started to boost the presence of its troops on April 15, almost four months before the planned operations? From that date on Saakashvili started to warn the US and, especially, the Europeans. During these four months the Georgian moves were basically reactive, not active and offensive. They brought in troops here and there on the Georgian territory because they felt what was coming or what could possibly happen. On August 7th, at 7pm, Iakobashvili was in Tskhinvali to negotiate a cease-fire but Russian representatives fooled him by pretending that they could not reach the Russian generals and the peacekeepers commandment. This simple fact is key: it tell that the Russian were on something (war) and that they did not want to change their plans. You will reply to me that this was all staged by the Georgian authorities? Get back to your senses

By C. J. CHIVERS Published: December 1, 2010 [snip]

Throughout the cold war and often in the years since, Western diplomats covering the Kremlin routinely relied on indirect and secondhand or third hand sources. Their cables were frequently laden with skepticism, reflecting the authors' understanding of the limits of their knowledge and suspicion of official Russian statements. A 2008 batch of American cables from another country once in the cold war's grip -- Georgia -- showed a much different sort of access.

In Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, American officials had all but constant contact and an open door to President Mikheil Saakashvili and his young and militarily inexperienced advisers, who hoped the United States would help Georgia shake off its Soviet past and stand up to Russia's regional influence.

NB - and now we are starting to understand the rest of the story.

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Unemployed in the USA, not a cake walk!

The US government is shutting off unemployment benefits for many. It makes no sense: according to mainstream media, and every $1 they spend adds at least $2 to economy, yet republicans drag their feet and let it lapse. This is why people really hate Republicans. 

This is how they say "Merry Christmas"?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/1201/Congress-lets-unemployment-benefits-expire-What-now-and-six-other-questions/Who-is-losing-their-benefits

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