Posted on September 6, 2008 - by Venik

Pentagon-Hired Contractor Trained Georgian Army

In the late 1800s, one American poet wrote: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” Since the first day of the war in the Caucasus, people familiar with history started noticing peculiar similarities between Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia and the 1995 Operation Storm, when the US-trained Croatian army launched what the UN called the biggest ethnic cleansing operation of the Balkan wars against ethnic Serbs in the Krajina region. In 1995 the Pentagon hired Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) – a US-based mercenary firm -  to prepare the Croatian army for the operation in Krajina. General Carl E. Vuono – a US general of Finnish ancestry, the former Chief of Staff, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command – was hired by MPRI in 1993 and is believed to have been the key planner behind the Operation Storm. Today Carl Vuono is the president of MPRI.

The Financial Times recently published a report (“US military trained Georgian commandos”, by Charles Clover and Demetri Sevastopulo, FT, Sept. 5, 2008) revealing that some time in 2006 the Pentagon contracted MPRI to provide training to Georgian special forces. According to email obtained by the Financial Times, the US instructors in Georgia were paid $2000 per week plus expenses. The existence of this training program was confirmed by the spokesman for the US European Command. MPRI’s involvement in Georgia has been suspected for some time and now it has been officially confirmed by the Pentagon.

US Advisors in Georgia

The reason Pentagon hires these private contractors is not to save money and not because the US military lacks the necessary expertise or resources. The primary goal here is very simple: should the shit hit the fan – like it did in Georgia – all of it would land on MPRI’s doorstep. On August 28 Russia’s General Nogovitsin showed journalists a US passport found by Russian troops in South Ossetia. The passport belongs to one Michael Lee White, a US Army veteran from Austin, Texas. Mr. White teaches English at the Guangdong University of Business Studies in southern China. In the interview to the WSJ, White claims to have accidentally left the passport in the seat pocket on a flight from Moscow to New York in 2005. However, in another interview White said that the passport was stolen from him (“Local family, global intrigue”, by Martey Toohey, Austin American – Statesman, page B1, Aug. 31, 2008). The Russian authorities say that the passport bears entry and exit stamps for the period after 2005. In particular, White’s passport shown by Nogovitsin bears a 2008 entry stamp for Kazakhstan. Officials in Kazakhstan confirmed that White has a valid visa there. The same information was confirmed by the Statesman.

The Wall Street Journal reports (“From Russia Without Love: Kremlin Calls Mr. White a U.S. Agent”, by Gordon Fairclough and Gregory L. White, WSJ, Sept. 3, 2008)  that Mr. White’s new passport shows that he left China on July 18 and returned on August 28 – the day Gen. Nogovitsin made his announcement. Mr White claims that he was in Texas caring for his elderly father, however, his passport does not show US entry or exit stamps. The Russian government spokesman said that further evidence of US involvement in the Georgian war will be released at a later time.

The WSJ article quotes Milton Bearden, a former CIA operative, as saying that an intelligence agent “with any intelligence” would not carry his passport with him in the field. Perhaps an intelligence agent wouldn’t do that, but Mr. White is no James Bond – probably just a former Army grunt hired by the MPRI like so many unqualified personnel employed by MPRI, Blackwater and others in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other hand, people who know White say he is intelligent and well-educated. White’s father is – Philip L. White – is emeritus professor of history at the University of Texas in Austin. White and his father are writing a book “Nationality in World History”. So maybe he is not just an Army grunt.

Why carry a US passport in Georgia? Because, should you be captured by the Russians, this passport will make a difference between getting shot in the head and being put on a plane to Moscow and eventually released. See the difference? And, of course, the Russians would not have said a thing if this passport was the only evidence they had. This, along with Putin’s CNN interview, was just a teaser designed to make the US more cooperative (or at least less uncooperative) in this critical time for the GOP.

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