U.S. takes Georgian troops home from Iraq

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 11, 2008 18:19:10 EDT

The U.S. Air Force brought all 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq aboard C-17 Globemasters Sunday and Monday after the Georgian government recalled the troops to combat the advance of Russian troops into the country, said Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central.

Sixteen C-17 flights had shuttled Georgian troops and supplies from Iraq back to Georgia as of 9 a.m. EST on Monday, North said. The Georgian government on Friday requested the U.S. Air Force’s aid in bringing its troops home, he said.

“This is just another example of the flexibility of airpower,” he told Air Force Times. “I’m real proud of the ability of our airmen to orchestrate a movement such as this.”

Pentagon officials would not say where the C-17s dropped off the Georgian troops or if they entered Georgian airspace, but Associated Press photos show the Georgian troops disembarking in Tblisi, Georgia’s capital.





HAKH AIVAZOV / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Georgian soldiers are seen after returning home from Iraq on Aug. 11. The U.S. started flying some 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq on Aug. 10. Russian armored vehicles rolled deep into western Georgia on Aug. 11, quickly taking control of several towns and a military base.

Russia's "Enforced Detentions"

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Both Georgia and Russia claim that ethnic Georgians and ethnic Russians are wrongly being detained in the conflict over South Ossetia.


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says its citizens are being held in Georgia.
more photos »

Russian troops and their allies were making "mass arrests" of Georgian civilians in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia and were taking them to a local village, the Georgian government said in a statement.

"According to the reliable information held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Russian servicemen and separatists carry out mass arrests of peaceful civilians of Georgian origin still remaining on the territory of the Tskhinvali region and subsequently concentrate them on the territory of the village of Kurta," the government said on Monday.

invisibility Cloak: closer to reality/or already here?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.


In this 2003 photo, Tokyo University students use space-age material to make this student appear invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.

Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fibre composite.

Bog author's note: This reporter wrote an article on how the military was experimenting with this technology almost a decade ago. See related link to my original (with Bill Sweetman) that appeared in Popular Science magazine under the Topical Links menu to your upper right.

CNN: Russia's Response "far disproportionate" to Georgia's alleged attack.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Russia's use of strategic bombers and ballistic missiles against Georgia's civilians outside of the South Ossetian conflict is "far disproportionate" to Georgia's alleged attack on Russian peacekeepers, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.

The official was not authorized to speak on the record due to the sensitive nature of the diplomacy.

Russia's use of its potent air weaponry signals a "severe" and "dangerous escalation in the crisis," the official said.

"For the life of me, I can't image that being a proportionate response to the charge that Georgia has attacked Russian peacekeepers," the official said. "It's hard for us to understand what Russia's plan is here."

The official said Russia is probably trying to destabilize Georgia politically to kill its chances of joining NATO.

Georgia wants to join NATO, but Russia opposes the move, concerned that the alliance's eastward march will erode its influence. NATO rejected Georgia's membership bid in April despite strong lobbying from U.S. President Bush, though the alliance promised that Georgia could join at a later date. Watch President Bush comment on conflict »

Still, Georgia bears some of the blame for the fighting over South Ossetia, the official said. Recently, the United States has had "very blunt exchanges with" Georgia, telling its leaders that they have no chance of winning a war with Russia and that they should stick to a path of diplomacy.

See the full story at CNN.com

CNN : Georgia Declares State Of War With Russia

TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia declared a state of war Saturday as fierce battles with Russia military over the breakaway region of South Ossetia entered their second day.

A warplane drops bombs near the Georgian city of Gori on Friday as Russian and Georgian forces battle.

Russia has launched a full-scale military invasion of Georgia, President Mikhail Saakashvili said during a brief news conference Saturday afternoon.

"We are dealing with absolutely criminal and crazy acts of irresponsible and reckless decision makers, which is on the ground producing dramatic and tragic consequences," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili compared the Russian invasion, which he called unprovoked, to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

President George W. Bush called for an immediate halt to the fighting saying the United States is "deeply concerned."

"We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a standown by all troops, and call for end to the Russian bombings and a return by the parties to the status quo of August the sixth," he said in a statement Saturday.

Russian paratroopers entered the capital of South Ossetia on Saturday as part of a military operation that Russia said was intended to force the Georgian side to cease fire.

Separatist-backed South Ossetian sources reported about 1,600 people have died and 90 have been wounded in the capital of Tskhinvali after two days of fighting, but Georgian officials said the figure was inflated. The Georgians said they didn't have their own death toll, but it would likely be closer to 100.

Inna Gagloyeva, the spokeswoman for the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, told the Interfax news agency the capital was being "massively shelled" with artillery guns.

It was also unclear which side was in control of Tskhinvali on Saturday, with the Georgian side saying fighting still raged but the Russians saying they have "liberated" the city.

"Battalion task forces have fully liberated Tskhinvali of Georgian armed forces and started pushing Georgian units out of the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping forces," said General Vladimir Boldyrev, commander of the Russian Ground Forces, in an interview with Interfax.