Georgia: Large Arms Cache Uncovered

[Magda Hassan]

Interior Ministry: Large Arms Cache Uncovered
[TABLE="width: 100%, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD="class: botoomtext"]Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 17 Jun.'13 / 12:36
[/TD]
[TD="width: 20"][/TD]
[TD="width: 20"][/TD]
[TD="width: 180"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]



A screengrab from the Interior Ministry's video footage showing weapons, which the police say, were unearthed from an underground cache in the Samegrelo region in western Georgia.
A large arms cache was unearthed in western region of Samegrelo, which was hidden under "the direct supervision of former high ranking officials of the interior ministry during the previous authorities," the Georgian Interior Ministry said on June 17.

Underground cache included "large amount of explosives and explosive devices; hand grenades; firearms and other weapons and military munitions; communications gear, as well as large amount of narcotics and psychotropic medicines including heroin, opium, cocaine, subutex etc," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Video footage released by the Interior Ministry shows about two dozen of Kalashnikov assault rifles; at least seven RPG launchers; over 90 hand grenades and other munitions and military gear, which were supposedly stored underground in plastic barrels.
The Interior Ministry said that the cache also included video tapes showing "brutal torture, sexual abuse, beating and inhuman treatment of individuals by representatives of the law enforcement agencies."
The Interior Ministry said that cache also included records and files, containing photos and private data of some of those individuals who were in the opposition to the previous authorities and "whose arrest was planned in case of victory of the United National Movement party in the October 1, 2012 parliamentary elections." The ministry said that some of these files were handwritten making it possible "to promptly identify and arrest" those who compiled these records.
The Interior Ministry, which did not specify an exact location where the cache was found, said that unearthing of this storage helped "to prevent an especially grave crime directed against the state and public security."
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26185

[Magda Hassan]

Arms Caches Allegedly Connected To Georgian President's Party

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili





By RFE/RL's Georgian Service
June 17, 2013

TBILISI -- Georgian investigators say they have found several caches filled with weapons, explosives, drugs, and documents targeting opponents of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's party.

Interior Ministry's spokeswoman Nino Giorgobiani told journalists on June 17 that materials were found buried in barrels in Georgia's western province of Samegrelo.

The spokeswoman said the caches contained photos and written material about people Saakashvili's United National Movement party allegedly planned to arrest if it won last year's parliamentary elections.

Giorgobiani said videos showing sexual abuse and the torture of unnamed individuals by law enforcement officials were also found.

Saakashvili's party has not yet commented the statement.

Many of Saakashvili's associates have been arrested and charged with wrongdoing since Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition won parliamentary elections in October 2012.
[URL="http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-arms-caches-saakasvili/25019490.html"]http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-arms-caches-saakasvili/25019490.html

R[/URL]adio Free Europe/Radio Liberty alert!

[Magda Hassan]

Georgia detains two suspected terrorists

by DFWATCH STAFF | Jun 13, 2013

Police searched the place the two were living and found a large amount of explosives, detonators, firearms, ammunition and fake identity papers. (Police.ge.)

TBILISI, DFWatchPolice in Georgia have detained two foreign citizens, Mikail Kadiev and Rizvan Omarov, suspected of preparing to carry out an act of terrorism.
The two were detained in Tbilisi as part of an investigation by the Interior Ministry's antiterrorismcenter in cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office.
Ministry spokesperson Nino Giorgobiani said Thursday that police searched their temporary place of residency and discovered a large amount of potent explosives, electric detonators, firearms, ammunition and fake identity papers.
Kadiev was wanted by Interpol and according to the investigation he has been hiding in Georgia since 2011, but periodically left the country.
The investigation is continuing in order to find connections between the two, who they were working for and whether they had any accomplices. Giorgobiani said that an accessory to a crime committed by Kadiev in another country was detained by police in a European country in 2012.
"We want to assure you that the Interior Ministry will do everything to protect Georgian citizens from the danger of terrorism," she added.
Chief Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili said Thursday that no connection has been found yet between the two detainees and a video posted on Youtube threatening jihad against Georgia.
DF Watch was told by law enforcement bodies that the two were carrying Russian passports, but the Interior Ministry does not comment about this at the moment and refuses to say where they are from.
http://dfwatch.net/georgia-detains-two-s...ists-16853

[Magda Hassan]

Georgia: Jihad in the Backyard


June 14, 2013 - 11:31am, by [URL="http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2399"]Giorgi Lomsadze
[/URL]
Alleged terror plots, thwarted by Georgian police, have became a fresh stick with which to bash political rivals in divided Georgia. But any link between the supposed plots and a recent YouTube video threatening retribution against Georgia for its participation in NATO's Afghanistan campaign remains unclear.


Police on June 13 recovered a significant stash of explosives and firearms from a Tbilisi apartment and arrested two men for allegedly plotting an act of terror, the interior ministry said. The two men, Mikail Kadiev and Rizvan Omarov, have Russian passports, and are presumed to hail from Russia's North Caucasus.
The arrest was preceded by appearance of a YouTube video, in which supposed Taliban fighters threaten to come to Georgia to wreak punishment for Georgian soldiers' "crusade" in Afghanistan.


Thanks to their presence in Afghanistan and last year's crackdown on supposed North Caucasus fighters near the border with Russia's Daghestan, the Georgian government is not without its enemies in the Islamic world. The video, however, was posted from Georgia; a fact that has prompted some to believe it is linked to domestic political rivalry and to Moscow's attempts to encourage anti-NATO sentiments.


Whatever is the case, in their reactions to this chain of events Georgian politicians are doing what they do best accusing one another. A member of President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement, parliamentarian Givi Targamadze, alleged that Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's office could be behind the video, 24Saati reported. Ivanishvili, in turn, said that the Saakashvili crowd is better at making fake videos, citing as an example Imedi TV's 2010 hoax report about a Russian invasion.


Ivanishvili snubbed a National Security Council meeting about the jihad threat and Afghanistan security measures. He said that the Council, led by Saakashvili's right-hand-man, Giga Bokeria, is a useless office.


What was supposed to be a bipartisan discussion of security threats eventually got reduced to attempts by the Saakashvili team to show that they still matter, and Ivanishvili's attempts to show that they don't.


And so the pattern continued with yesterday's arrests. The interior ministry informed the public that one of the suspects used to live at an apartment owned by President Saakashvili's "personal pilot." The presidential office was quick to accuse the ministry, which is loyal to Ivanishvili, of trying to smear the president.


"Linking the president's name to the videos or terror plots in any shape or form is a clear provocation," said presidential spokesperson Andro Barnov, news outlets reported. The "personal pilot" to whom the ministry referred worked for an aviation company which the presidential security service had simply hired, he added.


The two sides are so busy with their own jihads against each other that Georgia is unlikely to get a reliable update about the state of the alleged Islamic jihad threat anytime soon.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67121

[Magda Hassan]

So Saakashvili can say Ivanishvili is a Russian puppet all he likes but NATO is not worried in the least. The special realationship is as special as ever.

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
June 16, 2013
Basic Mountain Training Summer Course

A Basic Mountain Training Summer Course is underway in the Sachkhere Mountain Training School under the NATO's Partnership for Peace (PFP) program. 45 listeners of U.S. Reserve Officer Training Corps are invited to the course. Trainings began on June 2 and will continue until June 23. During the course American cadets are improving their mountain-technical skills.
During the Basic Mountain Training Summer Course American cadets performed various mountain-technical tasks with the assistance of Georgian instructors. The third week will be focused on practical exercises. Listeners will pass special tests. During the course cadets will learn the crossing technique over mountains, high mountains, rivers and ravines. They also practiced in providing first medical care and technical methods for providing evacuation.
Successful graduates will be awarded with the relevant certificates after completion of the training.
After graduating Basic Mountain Training Summer Course foreign partners will have opportunity to attend further stage of summer and winter courses in Sachkhere Mountain Training School.

And Turkey is cool about things too:

Delegation from Turkish General Staff visits Georgia





12 June 2013, 19:43 (GMT+05:00)



A military dialogue is planned to be conducted between the delegation members and the representatives of the Border Police. The reforms implemented in the police, the need for bilateral cooperation and prospects of its intensification will be discussed.

http://en.trend.az/regions/scaucasus/geo...60805.html

[Jan Klimkowski]

How do you say Gladio in Georgian?

[Magda Hassan]

23 June 2013, 20:04 (GMT+05:00)

Caches of weapons throughout Georgia arranged by personal order of President

Georgia, Tbilisi, June 23 / Trend, N.Kirtzkhalia/
All caches of weapons have been arranged throughout the country under my personal direction, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Sunday.

"We were preparing for a guerrilla war in the event of a large-scale occupation of Georgia and have taken all measures to ensure the possibility of resistance," Saakashvili said in a conversation with reporters.

However, Saakashvili has categorically denied all allegations that in these caches were found videotapes horrifying sequences against ordinary citizens by the police.

"It's clear that there was no video, and police and may have a few dozen who were engaged in violence, but it was not the system that was an exception", - Georgian president said
http://en.trend.az/regions/scaucasus/geo...64138.html
.