DEVIL SENT DOWN TO GEORGIA

(Compiler's note: Received this material from a friend. rca)

The website is Russian so the captions are in Russian Cyrillic but the photos pretty well speak for themselves. Some gruesome pictures so be forewarned. http://www.navoine.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=551

RUSSIA UNLEASHES CHECHEN THUGS THE DOGS OF WAR: A ragtag group of mercenaries from this Vostok Battalion has made its ominous presence known in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used
murderous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in
Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April,
Chechnya's Russian-installed "president" demanded it be disbanded.

War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been
circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots reveal far more to
the West than Babchenko realized.

Amid photos of the horrors of war, grateful South Ossetians and
triumphant Russian troops, one series leapt out at me as a former intel
officer: Bearded irregulars riding atop Russian-built armored vehicles
(old BMPs, for the military-hardware buffs). The vehicles had been
splashed with white lettering.

What did the scrawls announce to the world? These thugs proudly
proclaimed that they're Chechens serving in the Vostok ("East")
Battalion commanded by Badrudin Yamadaev - who shares a reputation for gangland violence with his brother, Ruslan.

Last spring, mercenaries from the Vostok Battalion indulged in a bloody
gangland shoot-'em-up in the city of Gudermes, near their home turf. The
mafia-on-steroids brutality was too much even for the Chechens (which is
quite a standard). The province's puppet president publicly begged the
Kremlin and its generals to disband the unit.

The generals refused. At the time, their stubborn support for the outlaw
Yamadaev Brothers seemed baffling - a quiet Chechnya was a longstanding
Russian goal. But last week, it all made sense: Putin's military, which
had been planning the invasion of Georgia for many months, intended to
unleash the worst criminals in uniform it had on the Georgian people.

Why?

Two reasons: First, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants the Georgians to
suffer - to really suffer. And Chechens are the world's subject-matter
experts in atrocities.

Second, this gives the Russian army itself a veil of deniability: When
Putin's spokesmen insist that the Russian military isn't involved in the
worst savagery in Georgia, they're technically telling the truth (if we
don't count air attacks and artillery bombardments), since the Chechen
thugs on their payroll are on the job.

But why would those Chechens paint up their armored vehicles to tell the
world they'd arrived in Georgia? First, they're proud of their fearsome
reputation. Second, they didn't want Russian regulars to mistake them
for the enemy and pull the trigger.

The result?

Contrary to Russian claims that "volunteers" from the North Caucasus
rushed in to aid their South Ossetian brethren, we now have proof that
the Kremlin sent in hired guns. It's no accident that Putin's code-name
for this operation is "Scorched Earth."

And there's plenty else to be outraged about - not all of it Russia's
fault. Images of dead and disfigured Georgian soldiers show them wearing
US-surplus canteens, boots and helmets, or equipped with antique US
anti-tank weapons. After the Georgians did all their tiny country could
to support us in Iraq, all we gave them was cast-off junk - thanks to
Congress and the State Department.

Our military was only allowed to train the Georgians for peacekeeping,
anti-terrorism and small-unit tactics. The Georgians gave us all they
had, and we gave them crap. The Bush administration should hang its
wobbly head in shame.

Meanwhile, Chechen rapists and butchers are celebrating - and picking
over the US gear the Russians captured and didn't even want.