Interview : CNN, Wolf Blitzer with President Mikheil Saakashvili

CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER : Interview With Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili

BLITZER: All right. I think we've connected with the president of the republic of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili right now in Tbilisi. Mr. President, what is the latest as far as the actual battle, the fighting that is going on between your troops and the Russian troops?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, sorry, first of all, for this weird position, in a way. We sometimes -- our lines get under cyber attack, that's a new technology these days of war. But I can hear you well.

I think -- I mean, the point was that for the last several days, over 150 Russian tanks have entered the Georgian territories on the night of August 7th, and the whole hostility erupted when we responded to the tanks entering the Georgian territory. We had three days of fighting, but mostly we had -- besides fighting, the main thing was three days of intensifying bombing of Georgia and basically the bombing of 90 percent of predominantly civilian targets.

BLITZER: Is it true, Mr. President -- excuse me for interrupting -- that Russian war planes have now bombed the international airport where you are in Tbilisi? SAAKASHVILI: They've targeted international airport on a number of occasions. By the way, half an hour before French foreign minister and the Finnish foreign minister happened to land there, but I don't know exactly what the damage is.

But they've been hitting -- you know, yesterday they blew up the whole residential quarter, killing lots and lots of people. Today, they just hit a residential area in Tbilisi out of any strategic war military or anything, any enterprise. They've been continuously hitting some companies here.

But I was turning in Georgia, I have to explain to you just what's happening now. The South Ossetia is here. In South Ossetia, we control always this part and then Russian-backed separatists, basically Russia directly administered this part.

Now -- but Russian troops entered in from here, from here and Russian troops also came to our border here, with 100 tanks yesterday night. Here in Abkhazia, Russians entered yesterday with 100 plus tanks. They already had hundreds in place, and 10,000 or 15,000 extra troops. So they're here basically in this area.

BLITZER: The Russians, as you know -- excuse me for a second, the Russians are now disputing assertions from your government that you have pulled out your troops from these disputed areas of Abkhazia.

SAAKASHVILI: Well, look -- I mean, there have been no troops in Abkhazia, we are speaking about South Ossetia.

But we are not crazy. We are talking about mass (inaudible) land intrusion of Russia into any countries, bigger than with the force -- the tank force that went into Afghanistan in 1979 or Czechoslovakia in 1968. So certainly we don't have an interest in pursuing...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Excuse me, excuse me. Mr. President, have you removed your troops from South Abkhazia? Ossetia, excuse me.

SAAKASHVILI: Ossetia?

BLITZER: Yeah.

SAAKASHVILI: I mean, we relocated -- we had our troops in the town of Tskhinvali, and we relocated them out of the town of Tskhinvali outside the zone where they usually were stationed before, after they've completed the task of cleaning there -- basically, they're out. They're out. I can confirm.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Because they're denying -- the Russian foreign minister is denying it.

SAAKASHVILI: Well, I mean -- again, we have no interest whatsoever in pursuing hostilities. This civilian targeting and casualties should stop now. Today I was traveling for the road in Georgia, and I saw with my own eyes, because I also can't take planes because the air belongs now to the Russians -- I saw with my own eyes, it's a holiday season and people are going and now running back to from the seaside holidays and from the mountains, because they had to find safe refuge.

SAAKASHVILI: And I saw with my own eyes how Russian planes were descending very low on the over the road, chasing the cars and dropping bombs in proximity of the place where there was a compilation of cars.

So this is -- this is -- you know, I'm president of the country, driving -- also, I'm protected, a bigger target like my fellow citizens. But I had to drive there, and they couldn't do anything about it. It is a tragic situation. And we need to...

BLITZER: Mr. President...

SAAKASHVILI: And we need to stop...

BLITZER: Mr. President, I just want to alert our viewers, we may lose the satellite. If it goes down, that will be the explanation.

But what do you want the United States, right now, to do?

SAAKASHVILI: The United States and the world community should stop intervention and invasion of my sovereign country...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: How should the U.S. do that?

SAAKASHVILI: I think the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. I think the U.S. has lots of leverage. And I think there are lots of diplomatic means that it could be done through.

And, basically, I think this is not about Georgia anymore. This is about basic values of humanity, of American values that we always, ourselves, believed in. This is all about human rights. This is all about the future of the world order. And I think there are much bigger things that are at stake here than just Georgia.

For me, it's all about my country. But for the wider world, it's about the future world order. Something that's happening here, you know, people -- history will judge very badly people who are doing this...

BLITZER: Well, let me ask...

SAAKASHVILI: ... killing (ph) innocent civilians.

BLITZER: Let me ask a blunt question. Would you like the United States to offer military assistance to your country right now?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, I wouldn't speculate about it, because I think our forces are capable enough, and they've been really doing a good job. But, you know, we need to stop hostility. We don't need further military action. We need to stop it. We need to bring back peace. And a cease-fire is about both sides (inaudible).

We proclaimed a cease-fire. We are willing to sign the document on non-use of force and nonresumption of hostilities. We are willing to be as flexible as we can on solving the issues. We need to bring back peace and to stop these innocent -- senseless, brutal, absolutely unacceptable killings.

BLITZER: The Russians say that you personally, Mr. President, should be held accountable for this very dangerous situation by your actions over the past few days. They call them a criminal political decision that you took.

Let me play this little clip. I interviewed, in the last hour, the charge d'affairs at the Russian embassy here in Washington, and he leveled a direct charge against you. Listen to this Russian diplomat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARCHIEV: He should be held accountable for the barbaric and treacherous attack on innocent civilians in South Ossetia, that he should be held accountable for the aggression against South Ossetia.

And the best thing he could do right now is to unconditionally -- I repeat -- unconditionally withdraw his troops and sign a legally binding agreement with Ossetians on non-use of force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Mr. President, do you want to respond?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, I mean, it sounds a little -- quite Orwellian to me and a little bit like old times, which I still remember. I was the youngest president of the world when I got elected, but I still remember old times and I still remember Brezhnev's times.

But the point here is the following. We are talking about a place just in the middle of Georgia, in the middle of my country. How can I invade the middle of my country?

What's the -- it's the contradiction in terms. And what we are talking about is we are talking about -- we controlled most of this area always, but there is a small area directly administered and run by the Russians.

And, you know, when they talk about South Ossetian separatists and say "South Ossetian tank," what kind of South Ossetian tank can live there? It is a Russian tank. You know, what kind of South Ossetian soldiers are that? These are soldiers in the service of the Russian army, trained by them, equipped by them, very well armed by them. So what we are saying right now is that this place needs to get rid of this military thing (ph). They need to get -- to be cleaned, you know, of all this violence. And this place needs to get back to normal. And certainly... BLITZER: Are you ready, Mr. President, to go back -- are you ready to go back to the status quo ante, what existed last week when there were Russian peacekeepers in that area before the situation escalated?

SAAKASHVILI: There were Russian peacekeepers and there were Georgian peacekeepers. And certainly we are willing to go to status quo ante, but certainly this mass intrusion of troops stop, troops should withdraw from sovereign Georgian territory, and we should do our best to just demilitarize the areas and then protect the civilians.

You know, the point here is we have the population here that is under our control is ethnically Georgian, but also mixed, because we are a multi-ethnic country. There is this town of Tskhinvali that was under control of the Russian peacekeepers, and that's fine. So far as we should do our best not to allow a resumption of criminal activities. And you know, shooting at people, smuggling, all kinds of illicit things. And that has been happening, and Russians have always been agreed with us that there was a problem.

The point here is that it got to the point when it's not just a matter of not anymore respecting the borders. And the borders on the Caucuses are built very high. These are very, very high mountains, and we have such a natural boundary that can hardly be overcome even by fast-flying Russian jets.

BLITZER: But Mr. President, do you honestly believe that Georgia's relatively modest military can compete with a superpower like Russia?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, I mean, I would be crazy to believe that. But you know, we are a free, small, freedom-loving nation. And certainly, you know, freedom is not about size. Freedom is about our ability to, you know, stand up for your ideals, even if it comes at sacrifice of your life. Certainly, freedom is about living normal lives and not killing or getting killed.

But I mean, it's very unfortunate circumstances, and I regret loss of life on both sides. But the point here is, our troops have been performing very well, but now we really absolutely need to halt these hostilities, because it's killing people. And it's killing much more civilians than it can ever kill the troops.

You know, the planes that are flying over, Georgian troops shot down almost 20 of them. Because they're equipped, they have the air defenses, but civilians on the ground, on the roads, in the crowded cafes, at their apartments where they got killed when the whole residential area was destroyed, they're not equipped with air defenses and we cannot supply them with air defenses. So the point here is that it's exactly doing that. So it's not about troops performing or not performing. Its' right now a huge human tragedy on the ground, and we absolutely need it to stop.

BLITZER: The Russians say that your troops have killed some 2,000 people in Ossetia among other places. Do you have any estimates as far as how many people have been killed and injured so far over the course of these few days of warfare that's been going on?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, let's put it this way. The town of Tskhinvali by the moment when Georgian troops entered it didn't even have that much number of people. It's a very, very small town. And prior to the fighting, anticipating the fighting, local Russian authorities evacuated most of the population. And we didn't anticipate fighting. Apparently, they did.

And we only responded when after many hours of artillery barrage, after a unilateral cease-fire declared by us that killed lots of people, by the way, because we wouldn't respond on our side.

Then when I heard around 11:30, 11:50 p.m. that 150 Russian tanks are entering our sovereign territory from this place -- there is a very mountain -- you know, long, mountainous tunnel called the Rocky Tunnel -- into the Georgian territory, our forces were stationed somewhere here. So when they got entered, the only way we could get them was to respond with artillery fire to stop mass land invasion of the sort that happened to Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

BLITZER: All right.

SAAKASHVILI: Now...

BLITZER: Let me interrupt for a second, Mr. President...

SAAKASHVILI: Of course, of course, of course there were -- yes.

BLITZER: A quick question about American citizens. I take it some of them are being removed. There's a corridor that they're getting out right now. About 2,000 U.S. citizens live in Georgia. Is that right?

SAAKASHVILI: Well, one has to say that America is very highly regarded in Georgia. By the way, that's maybe one of the reasons why we're being attacked. You know, one of the bombs -- one of the unexploded bombs found on a shut down Russian plane yesterday, tragicomically said, "this is for Americans, this is for NATO," in Russian. And it didn't explode.

But of course, you know, as much as we love Americans here, nobody is safe right now. And that's -- I deeply regret to say that.

And the point here is that today, two journalists from the West, one Georgian and one Polish, were killed in Tskhinvali by the fire of entering troops from Russia.

BLITZER: Mr. President -- Mr. President ... SAAKASHVILI: And this is very unfortunate. I want to express my deep condolences to their families. And please, we should halt this violence, halt this madness.

BLITZER: Mr. President, unfortunately, we have to leave it right there, but we'll stay in close touch with you. The president of the Republic of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, joining us live from Tbilisi. Thanks very much. SAAKASHVILI: Thanks so much, sir.

BLITZER: That's it for today's "Late Edition." I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "Fareed Zakaria GPS" starts in just a moment.

Anne Kilkenny email about Sarah Palin

Dear friends,
So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .
Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)
You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks, Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She's smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.
She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT *"Hockey mom": true for a few years.
*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.
*"NRA supporter": absolutely true
*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
*political maverick: not at all
*gutsy: absolutely!
*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.
*pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.
Anne Kilkenny August 31, 2008

Medals Track Table : 11th August

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
EU	9	11	8	28
Italy	1	3	1	5
France		3	2	5
United Kingdom	2		1	3
Czech Republic	2			2
Finland	1		1	2
Netherlands	1		1	2
Spain	1		1	2
Germany		1	1	2
Romania	1			1
Austria		1		1
Hungary		1		1
Slovakia		1		1
Sweden		1		1
Belgium				0
Bulgaria				0
Cyprus				0
Denmark				0
Estonia				0
Greece				0
Ireland				0
Latvia				0
Lithuania				0
Luxembourg				0
Malta				0
Poland				0
Portugal				0
Slovenia				0

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
EU	9	11	8	28
Italy	1	3	1	5
France		3	2	5
United Kingdom	2		1	3
Czech Republic	2			2
Finland	1		1	2
Netherlands	1		1	2
Spain	1		1	2
Germany		1	1	2
Romania	1			1
Austria		1		1
Hungary		1		1
Slovakia		1		1
Sweden		1		1
Belgium				0
Bulgaria				0
Cyprus				0
Denmark				0
Estonia				0
Greece				0
Ireland				0
Latvia				0
Lithuania				0
Luxembourg				0
Malta				0
Poland				0
Portugal				0
Slovenia				0

Cartoon Special : Georgia August 2008