Russians raided Israeli airfields in Georgia that were to be used against Iran
UPI's Arnaud De Borchgrave is reporting that one of the reasons that Russia started a war with Georgia last month was as a pretext to raid two airfields that Tbilisi allowed Israel to use as forward bases for an attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter-bombers in the event of pre-emptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter-bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran. And to reach Georgian airstrips, the Israeli air force would fly over Turkey.Read the whole thing. De Borchgrave surprisingly leaves open the possibility that Israel may still be able to use the Georgian facilities for an attack on Iran. But Israel likely has bigger problems resulting from this raid. This is from DEBKA:
The attack ordered by Saakashvili against South Ossetia the night of Aug. 7 provided the Russians the pretext for Moscow to order Special Forces to raid these Israeli facilities where some Israeli drones were reported captured.
At a Moscow news conference, Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia's deputy chief of staff, said the extent of Israeli aid to Georgia included "eight types of military vehicles, explosives, landmines and special explosives for clearing minefields." Estimated numbers of Israeli trainers attached to the Georgian army range from 100 to 1,000. There were also 110 U.S. military personnel on training assignments in Georgia. Last July 2,000 U.S. troops were flown in for "Immediate Response 2008," a joint exercise with Georgian forces.
Details of Israel's involvement were largely ignored by Israeli media lest they be interpreted as another blow to Israel's legendary military prowess, which took a bad hit in the Lebanese war against Hezbollah two years ago. Georgia's top diplomat in Tel Aviv complained about Israel's "lackluster" response to his country's military predicament and called for "diplomatic pressure on Moscow." According to the Jerusalem Post, the Georgian was told "the address for that type of pressure is Washington."
Haaretz reported Georgian Minister Temur Yakobashvili -- who is Jewish, the newspaper said -- told Israeli army radio that "Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers" because he explained rather implausibly, "a small group of our soldiers were able to wipe out an entire Russian military division, thanks to Israeli training."
The Tel Aviv-Tbilisi military axis was agreed at the highest levels with the approval of the Bush administration. The official liaison between the two entities was Reserve Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsch who commanded Israeli forces on the Lebanese border in July 2006. He resigned from the army after the Winograd Commission flayed Israel's conduct of its Second Lebanon War. Hirsch was also blamed for the seizure of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.
Israeli personnel, working for "private" companies with close ties to the Israel Defense Forces, also trained Georgian soldiers in house-to-house fighting.
Our sources say that if the Russians got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment, they will have secured some of the IDF’s most secret devices for spying on Iran and Syria.Not good. With all the 'private contractors' Israel has training Georgian troops, one has to wonder whether Israeli personnel were guarding our country's own equipment. And if they were, why did they let this happen? Does anyone wonder anymore why the Americans insist on controlling their own equipment when they bring it here?
When this happened before, Russian military engineers quickly dismantled the equipment, studied it and passed the technology on to Tehran and Damascus.
On the other hand, DEBKA also claims that flying time from the Georgian bases to Iran's nuclear facilities is three and a half hours. Given that it's only 900 miles from the relevant points in Israel to the relevant points in Iran, if DEBKA is correct, that would not be a whole lot of savings.
By the way, the picture at the top of this post is of Elbit's Hermes 450 drone, which of course is manufactured in Israel.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:05 PM
12 Comments:
I'm not sure If I believe the story (The US wants to hit Iran itself; the IAF doesn't have our weaponry). But the northern approach has merit, even if the distance is no shorter
1 It's generally preferable to make an air attack on multiple axes.
2 Iran's air defenses are concentrated to the west and south, not the north
3 The mountainous Caucasian terrain makes it easier for low-flying aircraft to evade radar.
I would question anything from Arnaud De Borchgrave who rabidly hates Israel and is a nutjob to boot
Those Russians are nothing but a bunch of nuts, damn commies! I have never ever trusted them nor will I ever be stupid enough to believe them.
It shouldn't suprize me that you are trying to stir this up more. Iran's bad, Russia's bad anything to get us into another war. Why don't you try to focus on stuff that really matters. The stuff that happens right here. I read the little note from bill talking about the "Caucasian" terrain and how that makes things easier. You people should take a look at the big picture and understand what is really going on! Think about it.
maybe the airfields were to be used so the Israelis could do a one way trip over Iran.
Fayed X: Take a look at the giant crater that once was the World Trade Center and you'll see "What's really going on". That's the final resting place of thousands of innocents lost to Islamofascist aggression. That's "what's going on". Think about it
Too bad this happened, assuming the report is accurate. Still, if it is ordained to be, Israel will find a way to complete the mission. What is troubling is that the Russians got a UMV to study. This could be used against Israel in the future. Although Russia already has such equipment, the avionics and instrumentation, could be very helpful to them. Someone spilled the beans on this one!
Russia didn't start this, Georgia did. The U.S. and Israel have been providing weapons and training to Georgia and its troops since 2002. George attacked South Ossetia and Russia came to their defense.
dazednconfused said...
Russia didn't start this, Georgia did. The U.S. and Israel have been providing weapons and training to Georgia and its troops since 2002. George attacked South Ossetia and Russia came to their defense.
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Read Michael Totten's very detailed article The Truth About Russia in Georgia and then try posting the same thing with a clear conscience.
South Ossetia is a canard .. get real.
De Borchgrave is in the mold of paleo-Buchanan types, but that does not mean he cannot report the reality
If the software on the Hermes is not protected the Israelis DESERVE to have their security degraded. How can you allow that which is designed to fly over the enemy, and yield up it's contents via crash or other unseemly stroke of luck (the Zero and the Hellcat ..for the uninformed) without ensuring that any attempt to access coding results in destruction of the contents ..or other method?
Elementary
Is a 30% reduction in range nuf to make basing outside Israel worth it?
Could the number of planes NEEDED for this mission be hidden from Russian radar a few miles away WITHOUT an invasion?
RUSSIA NEVER WAS SO WEaK BUT SO STRONG
(Went weaker but comes back stronger)
In Stallin’s time Russia within the USSR controlled not just the USSR republics but the “Warsaw Pact” states thru out the World. As well at 1st China was in its Sphere of influence , for being also Communist , but they sign up for an association nor for cooperation agreement.
This friendship between the USSR (handled by Russia) & China broke up a little later. As well the once being a World potence (Power) with influence in countries all over the World (Outside the Pact of Warsaw) like Cuba , North Korea , Vietnam , Libya , Ethiopia & others , Russia lost all of it with the collapse of USSR plus 14 internal republics of Soviet Union(The Evil Empire) . This was confirmed with “Color Revolutions” in Ukraine (2004) , Georgia (2003) & Kyrgyzstan (2005) . Also with approaching the West by Azerbaijan & Moldova plus joining NATO Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Poland , Czekia , Slovakia , Slovenia , Hungary , Romania & Bulgaria .
These loses for Russia were big ones but at the same time were ballast (Since Russia had a big load for maintaining troops , bases and supporting in part their economies) dropped by Russia. In this way Russia was freer economically since incomes were almost totally for recovering itself. And how it did it!
Russia now is recuperating its economy , modernizing its army , elevating its population life level & improving in technologies & weappons. It has missiles able to destroy the American anti-missile shild (The one the USA is projecting to install in Poland Czekia & maybe in Lithuania) . I wonder why does Russia wines at the USA.
Now it has , since 2005 , a consolidated alliance with China & $ Central Asian countries called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in which Iran is an observer (For sure is leading member like China & Russia , since they don’t press harder in the Security Counsel of UN toward Iran for its nuclear program )
China has “secret” hidden Nuke bases in the depth of the see next to Hainan Island. China is also about to build in Iran & in Ecuador (In 2009) when the Americans leave its base in the Ecuadorian city of Manta. In the Asian South East countries there is a big Chinese diaspora thru which China manages in part these goverments. China is also a new actor in Africa competing with the West countries in dominating it & its resources .
China is a really strong economy in the World backwards than it was during Mao’s times. China is also very updated in weappons & computer technologies .
Iran is about to have nuke weappons (If don’t have them already). Is a big influence in the Great Middle East countries especially thru Shiites . Countries like Qatar , Iraq , Lebanon , Syria & Palestine thru Hamas or even Afghanistan. It’s also a giant gas producer as well as oil producer. The S.C.O. countries want to balckmail the West with their future gas cartel like OPEC is for oil.
Never Iran nor China were so strong in so many fields: military , economic , technologic …
Russia never was so powerful itself & since its new allies within the SCO are so storng as much as are tge Westerners while in Soviet times they were not allies (Just Iran a little bit but not as much as is inside SCO) Neither were able to really counter West countries .
Russia is also friend with the very armed Belarus (The last dictatorship of Europe according to the USA & the European Union) , the very armed Venezuela (Rich in oil) , Bolivia (Rich in gas) , Ecuador (Rich in oil) & Cuba. These countries are friends with F.A.R.C. which is friends with E.T.A. & with Nicaragua & Dominica. Cuba , Venezuela , Nicaragua , Bolivia & Dominica Form an anti-American alliance (All of them are extreme leftists) . This alliance is called Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (B.A.P.O) or A.L.B.A.( Alternativa Bolivariana para América Latina y el Caribe , which also means 'dawn' in Spanish) .
As i said many times before , I call the alliance between SCO members “The Evil Alliance” but the ALBA is another evil alliance.
In fact we can say Russia gets along with 2 anti-American alliances: The SCO in the East (Asia & part of Europe) & the ALBA in the West (The Americas) .
Because of the many things I said above & other agreements Russia & its allies have in the World , we can say without any doubt Russia & its allies are more powerful than never before in history in most of matters , at least in most of influenciable ones.
I like your blog and the way you think and talk! Really a nice blog. Thanks for your nice work and wish you have a nice day! Bestwishes to you!
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