Humanitarian aid ship
By now you’ve probably heard the USS McFaul has arrived in port in Georgia as part of a three ship convoy of humanitarian supply ships. What I didn’t know until checking the website of the vessel is that both the Captain and Executive Officer on the McFaul were graduates of Ohio State. Not entirely sure if that is a good or a bad thing. On the one hand, they are probably used to dealing with a lot of stubborn jerks (i.e. their fellow students) so that will help with some of the attitudes they may encounter from the Russians, but on the other hand they might have graduated from the OSU on the ‘football plan’ and gotten most of their academic credits for things like “light bulb replacement theory” and “Ikea Wicker Basket management” or something.
Interesting to note one of the next ships in port will be the USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the 6th fleet and which is a command and control and Intel vessel. One suspects the leaders in Washington would like a little more on the ground intelligence coming back from the region rather than hearing about things second-hand.
Mount Whitney can receive and transmit large amounts of secure data from any point on earth through HF, UHF, VHF, SHF and EHFcommunications paths. This technology enables the Joint Intelligence Center and Joint Operations Center to provide the timely intelligence and operational support available in the Navy.
In other news from the region,
* A train full of fuel blew up after hitting a mine left on the railroad tracks.
* Russian troops have pulled out of the Senaki military base
* Russian forces remains in the port city of Poti
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In response to international pressure to come forward with the truth behind their claims of ‘mass casualties’ in South Ossetia, the Russian government has finally admitted that initial death toll estimates of nearly 2,000 dead were overstated. New figures released today show that 133 civilians died in South Ossetia. South Ossetian officials said 1,492 civilians had been killed, but international investigators are reporting the numbers will be in the ‘dozens’ not hundreds, let alone thousands.
Both Georgia and Russia have filed human rights cases accusing the other of genocide. As these trials move forward additional facts may come to light.
Last week Georgia said it had filed a case against Russia on charges of ethnic cleansing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which rules on disputes between nations.
Meanwhile the International Criminal Court said it was conducting an analysis of the conflict over potential war crimes – but that it was stopping short of an investigation.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement that his office had been “closely monitoring all information on the situation” including reports on attacks on civilians.
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We’ve been questioning the ‘2,000 dead’ claim by Russian media, and to date they haven’t come up with any reliable numbers about just how many were killed in South Ossetia. It does appear clear the Russian media was way out of the ballpark with the claim of 2,000 dead, by a factor of about 40 or 50 times the actual death toll.
The Georgian government has released their casualty figures.
Total number of people killed since the launch of the armed conflict reached 215 on the Georgian side as of August 19.
69 of them are civilians.
133 killed are the Georgian Ministry of Defense personnel, including four servicemen of the reserve troops and 13 – the Interior Ministry personnel.
In fact reports are now out that the town that was ‘leveled’ according to Russian news reports is still standing, and the only hospital in the area had 40 deaths reported.
Researchers for Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group, had similar findings as McClatchy about casualty numbers in Tskhinvali. A doctor at the city’s hospital told the group’s researchers that 44 bodies were brought by and was “adamant” that they represented the majority of deaths there because the city’s morgue was not functioning at the time.
“Obviously there’s a discrepancy there, a big discrepancy,” Rachel Denber, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, said about the apparently inflated casualty figures. “It’s not clear to us at all where those numbers are coming from.”
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Awe inspiring, isn't it? NOT
Waiting with baited breath here…Not really.
But NATO is going to have an emergency session in which they discuss the Russian-Georgia situation. US diplomats have demanded a meeting and will likely press for some flashy but ineffectual sanctions against Russia, such as suspending the NATO-Russia conferences and appointing a NATO ambassador to Georgia.
Meanwhile, Russian tanks are getting comfy digging in throughout Georgia proper with no signs of a pull out anytime soon. In addition, Russian short-range missiles are being placed in South Ossetia.
It’s only going to take one Georgian who lost some family members in the attack to reignite this whole conflict as long as Russian tanks are in the vicinity of Georgian civilians. One guy going off and we’re going to see the cease-fire suspended and tanks on the move throughout.
One has to wonder if that is what Russia is hoping for…
UPDATE:
20 Prisoners exchanged between Russian-Georgian forces.
NATO calls Russia’s action in violation of International law.
20 European observers to be sent to Georgia.
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The Washington Post attempts to put together a timeline of how the Russia-Georgia war started. It gives a pretty good outline of some of the pre-war duels that took place before the introduction of armor units.
Like any battle, there is a definite fog of war that shrouds the events. We may never know the full timeline of events.
A U.S. official familiar with intelligence from the region said the administration could not put a time on the Russian move into South Ossetia. “It’s not clear,” the official said. “You’d have to have had somebody there with a stopwatch, and something overhead at precisely that moment.”
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Russian Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol, for now.
The Ukraine is pretty annoyed with Russia’s operations in Georgia and has started to strike back, this time with some ‘regulations’ on the use of the Ukrainian port in the Crimea. By way of background, the Russian Black Sea fleet is based in the Ukraine at the port of Sevastopol until 2017 (follow that link if you want to know more). The Ukrainian government is no friend of Russia and they have announced that Russian naval vessels need to request permission 10 days in advance before returning to the port. Russia says ‘you can’t be serious.’
Four ships of the fleet based in the Ukraine were sent to support Russian operations in Georgia and when they come back, perhaps we’ll see some more fireworks.
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Yea, a bit of a stretch, but due to an odd convergence of facts there is trouble with the International Space Station due to Russia’s recent foray into Georgia. 
