The U.S. helps to overthrow Georgia's government

Readers,



I recently read Jeremy Scahill's ground-breaking bestseller, Blackwater: Rise of the World's Largest Mercenary army, which taught me, amongst many other things, that the U.S. had a role in the the "Rose Revolution" of 2003 in Georgia (the country, not the state, for those who are confused). I decided to investigate these allegations much more thoroughly, here is what I found.



The preponderance of evidence suggests that the U.S. had a role in the peaceful overthrow of then President Shevardnadze's government in November, 2003. Thousands of Georgian student- protesters staged non-violent demonstrations in the capital of Tbilsi that lead to the ouster of the President. These demonstrations were a result of electoral disputes during the parliamentary elections- there were accusations of ballot stuffing and other electoral disparities (though these disparities are disputed). Current President Mr. Saakashvili came to power following the coup and urged a better relationship with the United States. Before Saakashvilli came to power, an interim government headed by Ms. Burjanadze, took control.



The influence of the U.S. can be seen as follows:

1) NGO's like the National Endowment for Democracy and George Soro's open Georgia institute helped to finance and train student protesters in civil disobedience campaigns like those which were used to overthrow Slobadan Milosevic in Serbia.

2) The Interim president's first call was to Beyond Petroleum (an Anglo-Dutch oil consortium) to assure them that their oil pipeline "was ok" . The Caspian Sea pipeline is seen as vital to U.S. oil interests.

3)The Congressional Research Project, a congressional reporting agency, confirmed in its own internal document that Georgian pipeline played a role in shaping Georgia's special relationship with the U.S. Georgia is the recipient of over $1 Billion in U.S. aid annually and Georgia's forces have been trained by U.S. and Israeli forces.

4) The National Endowment for Democracy's website describes their work as training domestic workers in carrying out elections.

5) Mr. Saakashvilli is a graduate of George Washington University, located in D.C. He replaced Shevardnadze's overthrown government and implemented an even more pro-U.S. Georgian foreign policy

6) Saakashvilli urged his followers to emulate the civil disobedience campaign that overthrew Milosevic in Serbia- according to Congressional reports. Again U.S. non-profits helped to train students in civil disobedience tactics

http://http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a781239232
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/geor-d05.shtml
http://www.ndi.org/georgia-ndi
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30094.html-First
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2424&l=1-

I apologize for the delay in writing, I am busy with several major campaigns, including a hunger-strike and black-tie banquet. I will write more frequently.

Thank you for reading. Please do net cease in speaking up at town halls, via e-mail, post, etc to your elected officials and anybody else in power. The government of the U.S. is established by the people and can be "altered or abolished" by the people if it doesn't uphold the inherent human rights of every individual. Let's speak out against coups, let's stay informed.

With humble optimism,
Cameron