Caucasus

The UK’s Guardian newspaper is fond of saying it supports investigative journalism. Its distinguished former editor, Peter Preston, goes round the world lecturing on investigative journalism, exposing himself to the risks involved from the leafy lanes of Surrey’s stockbroker belt.

Effective investigative journalism is putting forth material for public consumption which is timely and interesting to the readership, public and private, if you get my meaning— the right thing produced at the right time for the right audience.

One thing about plugging away at the same topic in the same place, in this case weapons trafficking—is the value of institutional memory. Sooner or later obscure details and links become relevant. This latest turn of a shovel was revealed by an Italian friend living in Turkey, who wrote to me a few months back, “Claudio Gatti has written a very interesting article mentioning CIA people involved in weapons in Syria, and this follows in your path with weapons coming out of Georgia.

Back in 2004 a European intelligence service commissioned some due diligence work on the activities of Bechtel National and the Technology Management Company, TMC, in Georgia and the region. The then-confidential report on these was written by, and payment made to, one of the contributions to this article, Jeffrey Silverman, who during his career was once stationed at a military storage site for chemical weapons in the US.

The tactics of employing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the preparation of so-called “color revolutions” in North Africa, the Middle East and a number of former Soviet states has been the modus operandi of the US and its satellites, which have been thoroughly discussed in various NEO articles.

When something is reported too quickly and then widely distributed, with all reliable news outlets carrying the same story and quoting the same original source, beware. Take the recent case of the flying sausages. This now-infamous incident in Tbilisi’s Kiwi Cafe sounded to me like a prank. But then it got wide coverage in the US and UK, as if throwing sausages at vegans is some sort of geopolitical statement.

Opinion polling is not an exact science, a more than a few embarrassed survey research polling companies in various countries have found out the hard way. But there is a difference between honest mistakes, based on sampling errors, and willful manipulation, based on completely ignoring the sample and research ethics.

The recent heat up in Nagorno-Karabakh is a surprise to many. This is a conflict that has been frozen for over twenty years. As in all such cases, this is not because the conflict is insoluble. It is because everyone involved has a vested interest in keeping it that way.

George Soros is a very successful man, at least where money and power are concerned. The reach of the hedge fund legend through his Open Society Foundations leverages governments and ideas across the breadth of 40 nations now. Here is a look at how Soros’ “New World Lebensraum Idealism” is reshaping reality in the Republic of Georgia.

“The Turks have passed by here; all is in ruins and mourning.“ – Victor Hugo, 1880, Balkan liberation wars
Just when Azerbaijan seemed ready for an all out assault on Nagorno-Karabakh the war train came to a screeching halt. Both sides quickly agreed to a ceasefire, a verbal one that was holding as of early Wednesday. Artak Beglaryan, spokesman for Karabakh’s prime minster reported, “There is zero fire from both sides”, but there is no written agreement yet.