Rumsfeld saves pipeline from Caspian Sea to Turkey.

[madfloridian]

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=549389

SNIP.."Construction of BP's controversial $3bn (£1.6bn) oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey resumed only after the intervention of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense, and other senior members of the Bush administration, it has emerged.

Work on the strategically important scheme, led by BP, was halted in a region of Georgia in July while the government there sought assurances on "security" concerns. The underground "BTC" pipeline will take oil from Baku, in Azerbaijan, through the Georgian capital Tbilisi, to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, from where it can be shipped to Western markets."

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Nice job, Rummy!

Oh, Rummy, what is your job title again?


SHOVE IT! - Drop Bush Not Bombs! - Hero Kerry AWOL Bush
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. He's just getting old and senile

He thinks Sec of Defense means to defend the oil companies, not the American people. That's why he didn't think there was anything he could do when he heard about the first airplane hitting the WTC.

[0007]

6. The U.S. is just one big oil company that dictates to the world.

[Sugarbleus]

2. So THAT'S what he's been up to. Haven't seen much of him lately eom.

[Dover]

4. Georgian President Defiant

Alex van Oss: 8/06/04

On a snap visit to Washington, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili issued a defiant message to governments and corporations that he says are trying to bully Tbilisi: Georgia will not be pushed around. Saakashvili also dismissed suggestions that the bloom is off Georgia’s Rose Revolution, saying the country is "progressing rapidly, like the Baltics."

During his hastily planned visit to the US capital August 5, Saakashvili held talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell. In between meetings, he discussed recent Georgian developments at a forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In recent months, Georgia has wrangled with Russia over the two separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. . Tbilisi has also tussled with the oil conglomerate British Petroleum after ordering a halt in construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, reportedly over ecological concerns. .

Saakashvili insisted Georgia would not be daunted as it strives to restore its territorial integrity and to establish a sense of economic equilibrium in a country that was buffeted by violence and dysfunction for much of the past decade. "Georgia will never again be a failed state," he said....cont'd >

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/recaps/articles/eav080604.shtml

[Dover]

5. US seeks to defuse Georgia-Russia regional tension

US seeks to defuse Georgia-Russia regional tension
August 06, 2004 Posted: 10:45 Moscow time (06:45 GMT)

The United States offered on Thursday to help defuse an increasingly shrill dispute between Russia and Georgia over breakaway regions of the small but key U.S. ally, despite Moscow's warning to Washington not to get involved. Against a backdrop of both sides' provocative rhetoric, including Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's threat this week to shoot Russian tourist boats, Secretary of State Colin Powell hosted the U.S.-educated leader and urged dialogue.

Russia and Georgia are at odds over the fate of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, parts of Georgia that won autonomy in separatist wars in 1992 and 1993, shortly after Georgia's own independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. "What we are anxious to do is calm the situation down, remove tensions and the propensity for provocation and get back to dialogue," Powell told reporters after meeting Saakashvili.

Georgia, a small nation in the Caucasus region, is pivotal in the strategies of both the United States and Russia, which are rivals for control over the Caspian Sea's enormous oil wealth. Powell said the United States would help the sides with its "good offices" – diplomacy that stops short of mediation but involves advising both sides on how they can reduce tensions.

Saakashvili, who aims to regain control over the regions against Russian wishes, said with U.S. help Georgia could ease tensions. "We want to keep a dialogue, including dialogue with the Russians," he said standing alongside Powell. "The last thing we want is some kind of confrontation." ...cont'd

http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=44945

...

See Also: US to provide military aid to Georgia | 05-Aug-2004
Georgia threat to shoot at tourists angers Russia | 05-Aug-2004
Georgian President promises to sink Russian ships | 04-Aug-2004