It was in the fall of 1991 that Russian citizens, in the joy ofnew found democracy, knocked over the statue of Comrade Felix Dzerzhinsky, the godfather of the Cheka and attendant vicious organs of Soviet intelligence. Apparently this wasn’t enough. That massively self-destructive and paranoid streak in the Russian culture, unbroken since the Tsars, lives on. Today the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has dismissed claims that they gave confidential information on US forces to Saddam’s thugs: “Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once,” agency spokesman Boris Labusov said. “We don’t consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications.”
Thank you, Comrade Labusov, you lying sack of @#@&! Meanwhile, in the same AP report:
Yevgenia Albats, a Moscow-based journalist who specializes in intelligence matters, said she suspected there was “at least a certain truth reflected in the Pentagon report,” considering Russia’s close relationship with the ousted Iraqi leader.But she cautioned that didn’t necessarily mean the Kremlin was involved.
“It is sometimes difficult to figure out whether certain steps were undertaken with the knowledge of top Russian authorities or whether those were steps undertaken by certain intelligence officers on their own,” Albats told The Associated Press.
What Albats is describing, however, is in many ways a distinction without a difference. On my visits to the Soviet Union I was endlessly tracked by intelligence agents masking as translators and journalists anxious to probe my thinking and in two cases even to recruit me. It was almost a national sport or employment agency. Sometimes it was funny in a macabre sort of way, other times frightening. But looked at from even the slightest distance, self-destructive in the extreme. If you think the world is a conspiracy, indeed it is. Unfortunately, on a more recent trip to the Russian Republic, the atmosphere did not feel radically different. There were just more SUVs.
But the real question, no matter how you fall out on the above, is how we could be trusting the Russians on the Iran issue. [Perhaps the release of all this information right now has something to do with that, you birdbrain.-ed. Watch it, pal. Who's paying whom around here?]
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13 Comments
1. Buddy Larsen:Roger, you have a typo in “… lying sack of @#@&!”
The second “@” should be “%”, or perhaps “^” or “*”, depending on the vernacular.
Mar 25, 2006 - 1:05 pm 2. Kevin Peters:Roger:
We can’t trust anyone regarding the Mullah Bomb. President Bush has followed the Democratic Party SOP by counting on the U.N. and the international community and not acting unilaterally, the cardinal sin that the left tags him with regarding Iraq. Of course this route will lead directly th Iran attaining the bomb.The conventional wisdom that it will take 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, is complete guess work. We have no clue. The Iranians know exactly how long it will take and they can rely on the International Community doing nothing more then issueing a handful of toothless resolutions that call them bad actors but little else. The E.U. threw billions of Euro’s and Dollars in economic incentives at Iran and the Mullahs jerked them around for a few years before they said screw you, you impotent losers. The Security Council Kabuki process will take up another few years of debate over commas and adjectives but the end result will be “Please. Pretty please, don’t do it.” The MSM will defend the diplomatic process until the Mullah Bomb is announced and then they will rip President Bush for allowing it to happen. “You called them Evil, they had no choice.” It might be Russia, China, or a few E.U. states but nothing of consequence will come out of the tortured negotiations and someone will throw a spanner into the works that will allow the Iranians to finish their work. It is coming. What combination of countries that will stop the concrete actions that would halt the procees towards Iran getting the bomb really doesn’t matter. In regards to this issue we are alone with Israel and wishing that the rest of the world will wake up is hopeless. The Iranians are getting the bomb. The American city that get s the first suitcase bomb is the only matter worth speculating on at this point.
Mar 25, 2006 - 1:37 pm 3. Febday:Correct. Just because the Soviet Union is no longe the evil empire doesn’t mean that Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and many other countries have their own agendas and probably find strategic interest in screwing the US.
Not only over the Mullah Bomb, but over what’s going on in Iraq. Put yourselves in the shoes of an intelligence operative for any of the above countries (and more.) Isn’t it to your benefit to covertly support the insurgency?
That’s why we’re stuck in Iraq, and why we probably won’t do anything to Iran.
Mar 25, 2006 - 2:47 pm 4. Terrye:Speaking of conspiracies I think it would be a mistake for people to assume the Bush administraion is trusting Russia on Iran or anything else. As for being stuck in Iraq, well look at a map. Notice where Iran is and then notice where Afghanistan, Iraq and the UAE all are.
It does seem like the Russians can not get out of their own way. They can be both brilliant and stupid at the same time.
Mar 25, 2006 - 3:36 pm 5. D Anghelone:“…freightening.”
Someone was on a tare.
Mar 25, 2006 - 4:35 pm 6. george III:With the double-digit growth of both India and China, we may soon pass over, or have already passed over the point when no amount of oil production (given that it is ultimately limited) will ever sustain the present rate of world wide industrial growth. At the very least, the jostling and conniving for the remaining reserves has begun. The area around the Caspian Sea may turn out to be the world’s last “easy oil”. The Iranians, therefore, have a hole card, and it is the oil deals and concessions they have with the Russians and Chinese.
It isn’t that we are necessarily running out of oil, but from now on as globalization continues, the competition over energy supplies will only increase. From their myopic perspective it is neither in the Russian, nor in the Chinese interest to join the so-called “international community” in sanctioning Iran. We cannot even force them to sign a letter condemning the Iranian nuclear activity. The Chinese in particular are playing an outdated zero sum game with us, their major customer, because their mental processes are apparently as outmoded as their coal-fired technology. Perhaps visions of re-established empire dance in the heads of both Russia and China, nevertheless; the Russians and the Chinese are not “strategic partners” or friends.
I agree with the above comments that the present diplomatic efforts (oh so multi-lateral) are actually an encumbrance to a solution. Thus, we will be able to tell when our policy has grown serious by how unilateral it has become. Soon, I hope. Recently the “President of Iran” Ahmadinejad said pressure from Washington and its allies would not force Iran to abandon its drive to produce nuclear fuel:
“They should know that through propaganda, political pressures and games they play nowadays such as issuing statements, making angry gestures, (they) can’t prevent the Iranian nation from pursuing its path.”
How foolish we are to think that diplomacy of any sort can deal with this regime, much less playing around with nations that have no interest in resolving our problem. The UN, under these circumstances, can only make the divisions between the members of the Security Council more evident. This may actually be useful as an excuse for unilateral action–but the mere fact that we think we need cover in this way is a sign of our enfeeblement. It is merely one more step toward the complete breakdown of the unexamined, outdated and crippling post- WWII order. We need to come to our senses and ally ourselves with those states that actually share a common interest with us–that is if they can wake up and come to our side in time.
Mar 25, 2006 - 5:29 pm 7. Kevin Peters:georgeIII:
The sad fact is that even when this multi-lateral failure is combined with the rest of the multi-lateral failures of the last few decades it will not stop the constant howls for its use. The U.N. has been impotent even against the most minor despots yet the west keeps going back to dry well time and time again. It has become a way for the West to pretend that they have a spine when the fact is a large segment of the world community prefers to wait for the catastrophe to happen before action is taken. Thats why small and relativly weak(in comparison to the combined strength of the E.U. or America) states like Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, ect, ect, have felt free to tell these “mighty powers” to go stuff themselves. I thought I read that Jack Straw,correct me if I am wrong, of the U.K. already announced that there will be no military actions regarding Iran. Whether there should be is an open question but by removing the one factor that might actually scare the Mullahs off the Mullahbomb path is stupid. It has made them more aggressive, not less. Suprise, Suprise, the Iranian oligharchy has taken that statement as another sign of the paper tiger nature of the west. “peace in our times.’ I can’t wait till that chestnut is brought out of retirement.
Mar 25, 2006 - 5:49 pm 8. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):George III – I must disagree with you.
Russia has ample energy supplies and is a net exporter. Hence trouble in the Persian Gulf enhances their international position and makes them a lot of money.
Putin actually wrote in shis thesis about using Russia’s energy supplies as a strategic asset for regaining its former power.
Notice that the US invasion has taken 2m bbl/day of oil off the market (as a result of the sabotage by the “insurgents”).
Hence the game the Russians are playing with Iran is likely to be deeper than simply trying to secure energy supplies for themselves. Likewise with Iraq.
Also, given the strange state of Russia today, it is entirely possible that there are substantial rogue elements (or perhaps just “unofficial” elements) in action. I don’t believe Putin has anywhere near the degree of totalitarian control exercised in the Soviet Union, although he does have the power to use KGB tactics when he needs to.
Russia has recently been involved in two incidents that are probably part of the Putin “doctrine” of using energy as a weapon:
1) The sudden tripling of natural gas prices to the Ukraine, resulting in a pipeline shutdown that also prevented supplies from reaching western Europe.
2) The sabotage of energy in transit to Georgia – blamed, of course, on Islamofascists, but entirely consistent with Russia playing the energy card.
Mar 25, 2006 - 6:45 pm 9. Ron Wrght:IRAQ – God Lied, People Died?
Roger,
Now with Saddam’s docs being released and revelations in Iraqi Gen Sada’s new book, Saddam’s Secrets, about the inner workings of the Saddam Regime, there is little doubt what was going on. You’re right on the money with the UN Oil for Food multi billion dollar con game.
Any good economic crimes investigator knows to, follow the money. In order of money received the French were first followed by the Russians and then the Chinese. Go Figure all permenant members of the UN Security Council! Does anyone see a stacked deck!
RBT has long maintained Saddam’s WMD went to Syria with Russian help. See below why this is the worst kept secret in the Blogos. You’d think the LL and the MSM would be all over this like stink on poop but of course this would negate their favorite meme, “Bush Lied. People Died.”
See this excerpt and other links re this position:
[...]
Read it All
Mar 25, 2006 - 10:08 pm 10. DEagle:Hey, they commented on it, so it is almost certaintly true, otherwise, they would either ignore or dance around the issue. At any rate, the evidence is great and growing… Still the enemy.
Mar 25, 2006 - 11:43 pm 11. george III:John:
Good points of course, but perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I might have been:
The oil market isn’t simply having oil in the ground, having one’s own supplies, it is oil production and marketing, and the Russians as well as the Chinese are interested in developing the Caspian area for different reasons. The Russians would like to control and benefit from this area in the same way that we benefited from the Gulf. Contracts to develop huge oil resources and build pipelines are as lucrative as the oil itself. We (the West) developed the Gulf, including Iran, and you will remember we supported one horrifying regime after another to do it.
Having close political connections with the Iranians is important to the Russians as another major oil producing state, just as you will notice the Iranians are becoming good friends with Hugo Chavez. Together they make a very formidable chunk of the market. Maybe they haven’t quite figured out how they will use these mutual connections, but my point was this: The Russians have many reasons (a lot of them connected to the oil business) to be chummy with the Iranians, and a diminishing list of reasons to cooperate with us. Therefore, to think we can use the decrepit institution of the Security Council in the face of these realities is foolish indeed.
I believe, on the contrary, the Russians and the Iranians would like to drive oil up; we would rather not, and therein lies the rub. We are in a new world, and we need to ask ourselves some hard questions. What do we have to offer the Russians more attractive than the increased power they would have in the region if they play ball with Iran? Is it not also possible that the Russians can play at detente? Are they not also capable of appeasement in the face of threats from Iran? Are not the Iranians in a good position to provide benefits to Russia in exchange for a veto in the Council? If the Russians believe the Iranians will get the bomb in any event, what is the most self-interested thing for them to do?
The thing for us to do is to watch facts as they unfold, and the fact is that the Russians and Chinese are not supporting our efforts in the Security Council. I believe it is because they have more interests in common with Iran than they do with us.
The UN is not helping.
Mar 26, 2006 - 12:36 am 12. david72:We need to find allies that are real allies.
George Bush Sr. made the same mistake about Russia after the collapse of Soviet Union that he later made about the Iraq at the conclusion of Gulf War I. He was too nice. Far too nice.
If your enemy is a scorpion, you don’t have to read Clausewicz to know you have to stomp it to death when it’s down. Otherwise it rises up to threaten you another day.
What was George Walker thinking about when he sent all those American advisors to teach the Russians how to establish civilized institutions and a modern economy and to take off their mitts before sitting down to eat with their hands? What he should have sent were B-52s carrying a thousand points of light.
Who are these Cro Magnon spoilers and their rat-faced Chekist landlord of Lubyanka? What have they ever contributed to the commonweal? Can you name a healing drug, a diagnostic tool, a surgical technique, a prosthetic device? What did they ever build that wasn’t from plans stolen from someone else? They have been imitating the inventions of others ever since Peter the Great invited German engineers to teach his Russian subjects how to use graph paper and walk on their hind legs.
The greatest Russian innovation of the Twentieth Century is the Kalashnikov whose brilliance is rooted in a counter-intuitive throwing out of centuries of technological refinement in celebration of loose fit and shoddy workmanship. Never mind that it clatters and rattles when you shake it says Russia’s premiere gunsmith. The important thing is a bullet comes out the front.
Space stations with pull-chain toilets; hi-energy Polish pork fat enriched horse sausage cosmonaut food; reactor components for Iranians while the ground under Chernobyl cooks and bubbles hotter than ever–Russia continues to enrich the world with bleeding edge scientific and technical breakthroughs.
Small wonder the Russians get along so well with the Arabs. Both woke up at about the same time early in the Twentieth Century after a similarly long snooze. The Arabs, who had taken to their beds in the Twelfth Century, were rudely brought awake by American and British engineers with noisy drilling equipment. The Russians, who were as dismally feudal and backward as they had been since before the black plague, were rousted out of bed by Japanese Naval guns and Reds in the streets.
Both need to be put back to sleep. Permanently if possible.
Mar 26, 2006 - 5:47 pm 13. Ari Tai:re: Putin aware?
Well, consider the distance between the administration and the senior staff at both the State Department and Langley.
Like Mr. Bush, it’s believable that Putin suspected, but, again like the president, there was little he could do but stay focused on his own priorities.
Similar to blaming the government of Saudi Arabia for not having police-state-like insight into the finances and communications of their people (family) and not being able to instantly stop their funding of extremists when asked. It takes time and brutality to get your fingers in every pot.
Mar 26, 2006 - 6:58 pm