RUSSIA BOMBS GEORGIAN CAPITAL TBILISI!

Russia just bombed the capital of Georgia- Tbilisi.
Al-Jazeera reported: ....

Barack Obama Is a Citizen of Kenya...

Apparently, The One has two...
Obama has Kenyan citizenship as well as US citizenship.

THE OBAMA FAMILY-- back row from left: Unknown, Barack Obama, half-brother Malik (Obongo or Roy), unknown, half-brother Abo, Bernard. Front: Half-sister Auma, stepmum Kezia, stepgran Sarah, unknown.

Rocky Mountain News reported this morning on things you might not know about Obama, including this:

He Holds both American and Kenyan (since 1963) citizenship. ....

ICE Arrests 80 Transnational Gang Members in Massachusetts

ICE in partnership with state and local law enforcement across Massachusetts has arrested 55 permanent residents and 25 illegal aliens involved in gang activity in the state. The four-day operation was part of ICE’s Operation Community Shield initiative, which targets violent transnational street gangs. ICE plans to deport the illegal aliens and will attempt to remove the permanent residents based on their criminal histories.

An ICE press release indicated the arrestees represent 24 different transnational gangs, including Tiny Rascals, Bloods, Crips, 18th Street, MS-13 and the Deuce Boys. All had criminal records that included convictions for Assault and Battery on a Police Officer, Assault and Battery Dangerous Weapon, Assault and Battery, Domestic, Larceny, Malicious Destruction of Property, Breaking and Entering. The gang members came from Barbados, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, Trinidad and Vietnam.

....Since ICE started Operation Community Shield in 2005, the initiative has been responsible for arrested 10,000 transnational gang members.

Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest

Illegal immigrants connected to Mexico's drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the heart of one of America's national treasures, authorities say. It's a booming business that, federal officials say, feeds Mexico's most violent drug traffickers.

"These aren't Cheech and Chong plants," said John Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy. "People who farm now are not doing this for laughs, despite the fact Hollywood still thinks that. They're doing it to make a lot of money."

Walters spoke from a "marijuana garden" tucked deep into the Sequoia National Forest, a two- to four-hour hike from the nearest road, far removed from the giant sequoias the region is best known for.

...."This is about serious criminal organizations," Walters said. "They're willing to kill anybody who gets in their way. They're taking money back to those who kill prosecutors, judges and law enforcement." See photos of pot farm sweep in heart of U.S. national treasure »

Over the past eight days, a federal, state and county law enforcement initiative called Operation LOCCUST has eradicated 420,000 marijuana plants here worth more than $1 billion on the street. By comparison, authorities eradicated 330,000 plants over the six-month growing season last month, said Lt. Mike Boudreaux of the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities have arrested 38 people and seized 29 automatic weapons, high-powered rifles and other guns, Boudreaux said.....

Drug Smuggler Gets Less Prison Time Than Border Agents

.... Aldrete-Davila had been trying to sneak 743 pounds of marijuan into Fabens, Texas, near El Paso when the agents spotted him.

Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for discharging a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence. A federal appeals court upheld the border agents’ conviction last week. Both agents said they thought the smuggler had a gun, but if he did, it was never found.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s office, in the Western District of Texas, sought out Aldrete-Davila in Mexico, gave him immunity from any crimes he committed that February day, and provided him with free medical care so that he would testify against Ramos and Compean. ....

Russia in 'Full Scale Invasion' of Georgia

"Russia has launched a full scale military invasion," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said today in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. Saakashvili is planning to withdraw Georgia's entire 2,000-men contingent from Iraq within three days to help repel the Russians, even as Saakashvili calls for "an immediate ceasefire" in a conflict that Russian officials claim has killed 2,000 and left 30,000 homeless.

The Russian defense ministry tells the New York Times that "100 planeloads of airborne troops" will be flown into the conflict zone -- on top of the 2,500 troops already estimated to be in the country. ....

Russian jets targeted major oil pipeline-Georgia

TBILISI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russian fighter jets targeted the the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed, Georgia's Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze said on Saturday. ....

The Enemy Within

Spy Case Casts Light on Hezbollah Recruitment in Germany

By Ulrike Putz in Beirut Spiegel Online

A young Israeli man who studied in Germany has been arrested on espionage charges in Israel. Khaled K., of Palestinian descent, allegedly spied for the Hezbollah Shiite militia. His case is expected to highlight Hezbollah recruiting activities in Germany.

....Israeli soldiers in the 2006 war against Hezbollah are still being treated at the Rambam Hospital, and K. was apparently supposed to sound them out in order to obtain information that could be useful to Hezbollah.

Prosecutors also allege that the Israeli-Arab was paid a total of €13,000 for his services. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, he has confessed to the charges.....

UK Electronic Passport Cloned

The headline says it all: "'Fakeproof' e-passport is cloned in minutes."

Does this surprise anyone? This is what I wrote about electronic passports two years ago in The Washington Post:

The other security mechanisms are also vulnerable, and several security researchers have already discovered flaws. One found that he could identify individual chips via unique characteristics of the radio transmissions. Another successfully cloned a chip. The State Department called this a "meaningless stunt," pointing out that the researcher could not read or change the data. But the researcher spent only two weeks trying; the security of your passport has to be strong enough to last 10 years.

This is perhaps the greatest risk. The security mechanisms on your passport chip have to last the lifetime of your passport. It is as ridiculous to think that passport security will remain secure for that long as it would be to think that you won't see another security update for Microsoft Windows in that time. Improvements in antenna technology will certainly increase the distance at which they can be read and might even allow unauthorized readers to penetrate the shielding. ....

Red Alert Intelligence Guidance: The Conflict in South Ossetia

Editor’s Note: The following is an internal Stratfor document produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. This document is not a forecast, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.

....The Russians hold a trump card with the Americans: Iran. They can flood Iran with weapons at will. The main U.S. counter is in Ukraine and Central Asia, but is not nearly as painful.

Tactically, there is only one issue: Will the Russians attack Georgia on the ground? If they are going to, the Russians have likely made that decision days ago.

Focus on whether Russia invades Georgia proper. Then watch the former Soviet states. The United States and Germany are of secondary interest at this point.

For the master of China's ceremonies, a great leap forward

BEIJING: For much of the past quarter-century, the Chinese director Zhang Yimou made films that showcased his country's struggle against poverty, war and political misrule to the outside world - films that Chinese, for the most part, never saw.

Time and again, Zhang's terse, gritty epics were banned by government censors for portraying China's ugly side. When he won an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, the authorities stopped him from attending.

When one of his films was nominated for an Academy Award one year, Chinese officials lobbied to have it withdrawn from contention.

But when the Olympics kicks off Friday night at China's new National Stadium, with Presidents George W. Bush and Hu Jintao in attendance, and perhaps one billion people watching live on television, Zhang's artistic vision will be on vivid display at the opening ceremony.

Nearly two years in the making, his spectacle is intended to present China's new face to the world with stagecraft and pyrotechnics that organizers boast has no equal in the history of the Games. Whether or not it succeeds, it will underscore one reality of a rising China: Many leading artists now work with, or at least not against, the ruling Communist Party. ....

Will State Department Punt (Again) on Islamic Saudi Academy's Radical Textbooks?

by Andrew Cochran

I've covered the use of extremist textbooks at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County in northern Virginia since May, when the county supervisors voted to continue to allow ISA to lease county property even though it uses textbooks which included virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Christian language and teachings. The county punted the issue back to the State Department, which has refused to act on recommendations in 2007 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to close ISA unless the school materially changed the textbooks to remove the hateful language.

Neither did the State Department act when USCIRF issued a new report reiterating that ISA's textbooks "extremely troubling passages that do not conform to international human rights norms." In late June, the county supervisors refused to revoke the ISA's lease of county property and punted the issue again back to the State Department, even though it could have done so without penalty. Congressman Frank Wolf, who represents the ares in the House, became involved and wrote letters to Secretary Rice in June and in July, urging her to determine what is being taught at the school and what to do about it. ....

Ezra Levant: How I beat the fatwa, and lost my freedom

Some 900 days after I became the only person in the Western world charged with the “offence” of republishing the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, the government has finally acquitted me of illegal “discrimination.” Taxpayers are out more than $500,000 for an investigation that involved fifteen bureaucrats at the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The legal cost to me and the now-defunct Western Standard magazine is $100,000.

The case would have been thrown out long ago if I had been charged in a criminal court, instead of a human rights commission. That’s because accused criminals have the right to a speedy trial. Accused publishers at human rights commissions do not. ....

Local, Federal Cooperation Yields 31 Illegal-Alien Arrests in Two Days in Arizona

Yavapai County, Arizona deputies arrested 31 illegal aliens within two days in an area highly trafficked by human smugglers on Interstate 17, a Phoenix ABC affiliate reports. In one encounter, deputies pulled over a van that appeared to be overloaded. It was carrying 15 passengers who ICE confirmed as being illegally present after conducting phone interviews. ....

Billboards announce: 'Sharia law is hate'

n organization in Florida plans to educate what it perceives as an increasingly culture-tolerant public about the horrific dictates of Islamic law by purchasing billboard space with a simple, but confrontational message: "Sharia law is hate."

The Central Florida chapter of the United American Committee, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate Americans on the threat of Islamic extremism, is raising money to purchase a six-month contract to display the billboard, which the group hopes will awaken the public to discussing the full extent of Islamic law.

"The UAC's goal in this project is to raise awareness because most people have no idea what Sharia law is," Alan Kornman, director of UAC's Central Florida branch, told WND. "We are confident people will see the billboard and learn on their own what Sharia law is and come to their own conclusions. At the very least, we hope our billboard will spark public debate on this overlooked issue."

The billboards will also include a link to UAC resources where people can learn more about Islam's Sharia law, a set of religious codes – both moral and legal; Sharia law recognizes no separation of church and state – that bind both Muslims and Islamic nations.

"Under Sharia law if you are accused of stealing, a hand and foot from opposite sides are amputated. If you are caught having an affair, the woman is stoned to death and the man is given 80 lashes. If you change religions, you can be charged under apostasy laws and given the death sentence by a legal Sharia court. If you want to marry a nine-year-old child, Sharia law condones pedophilia, because Mohammad married Aisha at six and consummated the marriage at age nine. I find these and many more practices of Sharia law despicable and hateful," said Kornman. ....

The EMP Threat

The Wall Street Journal --

Imagine you're a terrorist with a single nuclear weapon. You could wipe out the U.S. city of your choice, or you could decide to destroy the infrastructure of the entire U.S. economy and leave millions of Americans to die of starvation or want of medical care.

The latter scenario is the one envisioned by a long-running commission to assess the threat from electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. The subject of its latest, and little discussed, report to Congress is the effect an EMP attack could have on civilian infrastructure. If you're prone to nightmares, don't read it before bedtime.

An EMP attack occurs when a nuclear bomb explodes high in the Earth's atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast destroys all the electronics in its line of sight. For a bomb detonated over the Midwest, that includes most of the continental U.S. Few, if any, people die in the blast. It's what comes next that has the potential to be catastrophic. Since an EMP surge wipes out electronics, virtually every aspect of modern American life would come to a standstill.

The commission's list of horribles is 181 pages long. The chapter on food, for instance, catalogs the disruptions up and down the production chain as food spoils or has no way to get to market. Many families have food supplies of several days or more. But after that, and without refrigeration, what? The U.S. also has 75,000 dams and reservoirs, 168,000 drinking water-treatment facilities, and 19,000 wastewater treatment centers -- all with pumps, valves and filters run by electricity.

Getting everything up and running again is not merely a matter of flipping a switch, and the commission estimates that many systems could be out of service for months or a year or more -- far longer than emergency stockpiles or batteries could cover. The large transformers used in electrical transmission are no longer built in the U.S. and delivery time is typically three years. "Lack of high voltage equipment manufacturing capacity represents a glaring weakness in our survival and recovery," the commission notes.

Many industries rely on automated control systems maintained by small work forces. In emergencies -- say, during a blackout -- companies often have arrangements in place to borrow workers from outside the affected area to augment the locals and help with manual repairs. After an EMP attack, those workers would be busy in their home regions -- or foraging for food and water for their families.

The commission offers extensive recommendations for how industry and government can protect against the effects of an EMP attack and ensure a quicker recovery. ....

Terrorists issue new Olympic threat: US analysts

Beijing: A little-known Islamic group has issued a new terrorist threat against the Beijing Olympics, US intelligence analysts said on Friday.

The Turkestan Islamic Party issued the threat on Wednesday in a video posted on the internet, urging Muslims "not to attend the games or be within the vicinity," the SITE Intelligence Group reported on its website.

In the six-minute video Call to the Global Muslim Ummah, the speaker urges Muslims to beware. "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings or any place the Chinese are," SITE quoted the speaker as saying.

A similar video from the group showed the Beijing Olympics logo in flames. ....

Chinese Man Kills Relative Of US Olympic Coach In Beijing

BEIJING — A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and injuring the other on the first day of the Olympics on Saturday, team officials and state media said.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles from the main Olympics site.

The brutal attack shortly after midday was all the more shocking because of the rarity of violent crime against foreigners in tightly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics.

The stabbing came only hours after what by many accounts was the most spectacular opening ceremony in Olympic history and it has already dampened some of the enthusiasm.

"They are deeply saddened and shocked," Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the volleyball team. ....

Following The Money

(Compiler's note: Notably lacking was Sharia financing and Zukat. rca)

Strategyworld.com - Counter-terrorism organizations won't release details of their attacks on terrorist financing, but from bits of information that have leaked out, it is having an impact. In Iraq, Islamic terrorists have been spending more time engaged in criminal operations, in order to raise money for terror attacks. This has been a trend over the last two years. Before that, lots of cash was being provided by former members of Saddams government, inside and outside Iraq. But that money was soon gone, either because it was spent, or because the donors thought better of financing a terror campaign that appeared, even then, to be going nowhere. Much of the Iraq violence was carried out by mercenary Iraqis, who would assemble, emplace and detonate roadside bombs, but only for a fee. As these activities became more dangerous (UAVs equipped with night vision, and Hellfire missiles) the fees demanded increased, and eventually the Sunni Arab terror groups couldn't afford it all.

A less well publicized reason for Islamic terrorists running out of cash was the Saudi Arabian crack down on fund raisers. Many wealthy (or simply generous) Saudis had long contributed to "Islamic charities" which everyone knew were also supporting Islamic terrorist groups. Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Saudis resisted repeated calls from the West to crack down on the terrorist fund raising in Saudi Arabia. These charities, and Islamic terrorism , was simply too popular. But once U.S. troops overthrew Saddam, al Qaeda ended its long time truce with the Saudi government and launched a series of terror attacks. Al Qaeda was defeated in a two year long campaign, because the Saudi population did not support Islamic terrorism in their own back yard. Part of this counter-terror effort was a long overdue effort to shut down the terrorist fund raising. This is still going on, and so far, a lot less cash is getting to the terrorists from Saudi sources.

In Southeast Asia, the money drought had a more noticeable impact on Indonesian and Filipino terrorists, who were more dependent on the foreign cash. Several couriers have been captured, and the media publicized the fact that these guys were not just carrying messages back and forth, but were also moving cash from the Persian Gulf. A recent courier capture found only messages from Indonesian Islamic terror groups, pleading for cash. The terrorists were broke, being hounded by the police, and were unable to get a major effort going without money (for bomb materials, bribes and living expenses for the terrorists.) Nothing was mentioned about who the courier was going to see.

The counter-terrorist organizations that chase after the money men are understandably quiet about who their suspects are. In Saudi Arabia, some of the donors are prominent citizens, in a country where Islamic conservatism is considered a good thing. This is the case throughout the Persian Gulf, and for a long time, it was believed that by leaving the terrorism bankers alone, the terrorists would not operate in the area. The 2003 decision to launch terror attacks in Saudi Arabia was not unanimous among the terrorist elite, but now the campaign has acquired a life of its own, despite the failure to hit any important targets. And now, Saudi police come down hard, although discreetly, on local donors who are, despite their piety, aiding Islamic terrorism. The donors justify their continued contributions because they believe the money is being spent to kill infidels (non-Moslems). But in fact, that is rarely possible, and most attacks these days manage to kill Moslems as well.

The U.S. has also had increasing success in shutting off terrorist access to the international financial network. This is arcane stuff, but it forces the terrorists to be creative, and resort to more risky methods for moving cash.

In Afghanistan, the Islamic terrorists have found a friend in the heroin business. By getting in involved in the production and movement of heroin (to adjacent countries, and eventually the West), the Taliban and al Qaeda have a source of cash, as well as some Islamically correct recreation (while Islam specifically forbids alcohol, it is a little vague on stuff like heroin, which didn't exist when the Koran was written). Over the last thousand years, Islamic radicals have used drugs to inspire the faithful. Technically, anything that "intoxicates" is forbidden, but Islamic radicals get into arguments over whether some drugs inspire, rather than "intoxicate." This sort of thing is just another reason for mainline Moslems to reject al Qaeda. Unfortunately, mainline Moslems are not as willing to fight and kill for their beliefs as al Qaeda is. So while many Moslem clerics actively preach against the use of heroin and cocaine by the faithful, they are often less inclined to criticize how Islamic radicals pay their bills.

'Chinese success in Olympics will be our success'

The Rediff Interview/B Raman, expert on terrorism ....

Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Seeks Enhancement

In fiscal year 2005, the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership was established to eliminate terrorist safe havens in northwest Africa by strengthening countries' counterterrorism capabilities and inhibiting the spread of extremist ideology.

Funds obligated for TSCTP in fiscal years 2005 through 2007 and committed for fiscal year 2008 by the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Defense have amounted to about $353 million for activities in nine partner countries.

In fiscal years 2005 through 2007, State, USAID, and DOD distributed about 74 percent of their obligations for TSCTP to Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger; about 3 percent to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia; and about 8 percent to Nigeria and Senegal.

The remaining 15 percent was distributed through regional assistance, such as military exercises in multiple partner countries. The agencies expected to distribute about half of total funds committed for TSCTP for fiscal year 2008 to Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger and the remainder among the other countries. The State Department, USAID, and DOD have supported a wide range of diplomacy, development assistance, and military activities aimed at strengthening partner countries' counterterrorism capacity and inhibiting the spread of extremist ideology. ....

Anne Arundel Inc.: Growing Intelligence

Somewhere amid the exhibits of Enigma machines, Navajo code talkers, modern biometrics and the Cray supercomputer, Wick Keating found a marketing strategy for his new company.
Exponential Storage of Annapolis had developed a system of storing and cataloguing petabytes —1 million gigabytes each — of digital information and enabling thousands of users to search the files simultaneously. The system even cost less than conventional computer storage, said Keating, the company’s CEO. The technology had obvious uses in the intelligence sector. But how could a fledgling company without security clearances penetrate that secretive world and make sales? ....

Behind the Scenes: Inside the Guantanamo courtroom

In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Jamie McIntyre, CNN senior pentagon correspondent, was in the courtroom at the trial of Salim Hamdan by a military tribunal. ....

Obama Muslim Advisor linked to Hamas, CAIR

When first reported here, we were informed that Obama's "Muslim Outreach Advisor" was "a frequent speaker before several groups in the U.S. that scholars have associated with the Muslim Brotherhood." This updated report is more specific; Obama's former advisor was/is linked to Hamas and CAIR. "Suspicious ties force Obama adviser's resignation," from World Net Daily, August 8: ...

US has political, economic stake in far-flung spat

By ANNE GEARAN rca

WASHINGTON (AP) - There's more than meets the eye to the frantic U.S. efforts Friday to talk Russia and U.S. ally Georgia out of war over an obscure mountain tract most Americans have never heard of.

A look at the map and your gas credit card bill shows why.

South Ossetia is claimed by Georgia, the former Soviet republic that cast its lot with the United States and the West to the eternal irritation of Moscow. The breakaway province has been under Russia's sway for years.

Georgia sits in a tough neighborhood, shoulder to shoulder with huge Russia, not far from Iran, and astride one of the most important crossroads for the emerging wealth of the rich Caspian Sea region. A U.S.-backed oil pipeline runs through Georgia, allowing the West to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil while bypassing Russia and Iran.

The dispute makes the Bush administration the middleman between a promising ally it wants to help and the powerful former adversary next door whose help it needs.

Washington praises democratic development in Georgia, delights in its contribution of combat troops for Iraq and acknowledges valuable intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation.

Moscow's cooperation is vital to numerous Washington aims in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere.

"For all those reasons and the fact that Georgia has demonstrated that it is a close ally, we cannot simply sit by and say 'so be it, what does South Ossetia mean to us?'" said Janusz Bugajski, director of the new European democracies project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Georgia as a whole means quite a lot."

The pipeline that crosses Georgia can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, or more than 1 percent of the world's daily crude output. The 1,100-mile pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves. Its potential vulnerability was already in the spotlight after it was sabotaged this week, apparently by Kurdish separatists.

Most of the oil is bound for Western Europe, where gas prices are even higher than the $4 and more a gallon that U.S. consumers are now paying. With only so much oil to go around, what the pipeline carries affects prices elsewhere. The United States also hopes it will be a model for other development projects that could have a more direct effect on the U.S. market.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone Friday morning, appealing for calm in South Ossetia, a patch of craggy farmland that is home to about 70,000 people - fewer than live in Youngstown, Ohio. In a statement later she reiterated U.S. commitment to Georgia's "territorial integrity."

President Bush discussed the violence with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates to replace Bush issued worried statements. Tanks rolled as Bush spoke.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte called on Russia to declare an immediate ceasefire, withdraw all combat trops from Georgia and return to the status quo. "These attacks mark a dangerous and disproportionate escalation of tension, as they occur across Georgia in regions far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia," he said.

Hundreds were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won de facto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.

South Ossetia is one of the few places where ethnic, nationalist or other complications mean that the Cold War went dormant but didn't die. U.S diplomats refer to these neighborhood squabbles as "frozen conflicts," a euphemism that belies the long-recognized threat that seemingly petty disputes can easily provoke a wider war.

The United States, European nations and others raced Friday to keep the conflict from spreading. The State Department appealed for a cease-fire and prepared to send a mediator to the region.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made, said the envoy was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, a specialist on the region. The timing of the trip was unclear.

"We are asking our friends, and the United States among them, to somehow to try to mediate and try to persuade Russia to stop this military aggression and invasion of Georgia," Vasil Sikharulidze, Georgia's ambassador to Washington, said in an interview.

At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said Georgian authorities have asked the United States for help getting its approximately 2,000 troops out of Iraq. The request is apparently related to the fighting in South Ossetia.

Georgia has been the third-largest contributor of combat troops after the United States and Britain.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions have been private, said no formal decision has been made on whether to support the departure, but said it is likely the U.S. will do so.