Posted on 09/16/2008 1:39:48 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Georgia produced telephone intercepts on Tuesday it said proved Russian armour entered Georgia hours before the start of a Georgian attack that Moscow said forced it to send in its troops.
The release of the intercepts comes as both Moscow and Tbilisi wage a diplomatic and public relations campaign to prove the other side fired the first shot in a war that killed hundreds of people and caused widespread devastation.
Russia said the evidence was "not serious". The force movements referred to in the intercepts may, it said, have been a routine rotation by Russian peacekeeping forces already operating in Georgia before the war broke out early last month.
The intercepts, a transcript of which was provided to Reuters by the Georgian Interior Ministry, purport to be of telephone conversations between security officials in South Ossetia, the separatist region at the centre of the war.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the intercepts are authentic. NATO said it would support an independent inquiry to establish the facts.
One transcript quotes a border guard near South Ossetia's border with Russia stating early on Aug. 7 that Russian armour was crossing into South Ossetia.
"The intercepted calls confirm that the first units of the Russian regular army with heavy armor had entered and passed through the Roki tunnel during the early morning of Aug. 7, more than 12 hours before Georgian forces started to mobilise," the ministry said in a 'background memo' to the transcripts.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com.my ...
No doubt the NSA did the intercepts and provided the info to Georgia. Dunno if we gave Georgia the go ahead and do this.
It might hint at our intercept capabilities. :(
I can’t imagine intercepting Ossetian communications would be all that difficult! Sounds like a CYA. If they had this intercept on the morning of the 7th, why did’t they scream that info to the world?
Well, they also had intercepts of Russian jets flying into Georgian airspace for two years in the row and have been screaming about that - unfortunately no one was paying any attention... After Russia admitted violating airspace in July, it took 8 days EU to issue a statement calling onto both sides to refrain from provocations...
It might hint at our intercept capabilities. :(===
Do not worry - these intercepts, if genuine, could have been easily made by Georgian special service. Since these appear to be mobile phone conversation, then this means they were carried through one of the two private Georgian mobile phone operators in South Ossetia... one could have listened to that merely sitting in Tbilisi... Just take my word on this - they have all necessary equipment in Tbilisi
Yes, unfortunately we were just not on top of this enough.
Until it became way too real.
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