In his latest effort to present himself as bigger than better than all other presidents combined, in stark contrast to the likes of George Washington, Donald Trump has announced that the US will build more than 10 liquid gas ports in the EU. The trouble is, even if he did this, it would not be possible to sustain such a program.

What escapes critical attention is that the US does not have a large enough fleet of special ships to provide liquid gas to Europe. Even under the best scenarios, by the end of the decade the US will have not more than five major LNG export projects operational. Trump’s claims are merely political rhetoric designed to keep the uninformed, and thus deprive them of the informed choice which is the fundamental component of democracy.

The LNG export market to Europe is dominated by Qatar and Australia, who are still serving their existing clients. The US needs long term contracts and economies-of-scale which will match price with continuity of supplyto deliver on Trump’s promises. Those customers with “real interests” are already locked into long-term deals, and either currently have the necessary facilities for unloading and storage or are building them to meet price and real demand.

Yes, Europe’s consumption of natural gas is increasing, and domestic production is falling. Its imports have risen sharply in recent years, and will most likely continue to do so. But supplying gas from the US is easier said than done, and despite Trump saying that America has plenty of it to, “the sea has lots of water, but can you drink it?”

And where is the money coming from? Too many names are already in the hat for large-scale energy and port projects in the region. Ukraine is interested in maintaining and modernizing its own gas transport system and needs approximately 80 billion USD for reconstruction. This is small potatoes compared to what the US would need to spend to construct an alternative network, and Trump won’t pay for that for ideological reasons. So which project would those with the cash rather invest in?

The US does know that all of this is just political promise and counter promise. Others are playing the game too: Jean-Claude Juncker has promised Trump that the EU will buy “significant” amounts of US gas as part of an offering to calm trade tensions. But saying and doing are two different horses, and even experts in the EU know what the reality is, and that Juncker would not have made the offer unless he had a way out, and a way of blaming the US for any problems. 

Russian gas is cheap

Juncker has said, significantly, that the EU “wants” to import more LNG. What Trump will not accept is that this is only a “declaration of intent”, similar to his ones about bringing back the coal mines in West Virginia.

Juncker knows only too well that Russia can, if it wants, undercut gas prices, as its cost were invested long ago. It would have no problem winning friends by getting into a price war over LNG gas, and can potentially undercut U.S. exports to Europe significantly. It can also have lots of “bang for the buck” in terms of political maneuvering in Western Union in light of all of Trump’s NATO hits.

The EU currently imports 40 percent of its gas, and nearly half of that is provided by Russia. The bloc has long played lip service to diversification of gas and energy resources, but is currently at the latter stages of agreeing the Nord Stream pipeline extension deal with Gazprom. That deal would effectively oblige the EU to enter long-term gas dependence on the Russian Federation.

The US State Department has “a long history of voicing concerns over European dependence on Russian natural gas and promoting US gas exports.” Throughout that long history it could have diversified the EU’s supplies for it by making suitable offers, which would always have been more politically acceptable than any Russian offer. Having failed for two generations, the US is now promising what it can’t deliver and expecting to be listened to because it is the State Department.

The State Department tries this trick every time it is in trouble, as it frequently is due to its talent for exploiting and then alienating its friends. Energy is all about price and continuity of supply, not about closing ranks. The US is a theoretically a trusted partner in trade and national defense but this trust is only at surface level. As for paying for the infrastructure, the EU is reaching its own credit limit; it is not interested in footing the bill alone.

Has not the EU dumped enough money down a rat house with the Ukraine project? Its current gas supply is held hostage to US policy in Ukraine, and that country’s ability to pay its energy bills.

The EU knows well that Ukraine is notorious for apple-pieing energy transit pipelines, as it likes to siphon off gas intended for the Western European market. It must still think it is part of the Soviet Union, when it was supplied with energy for practically nothing.

It takes little imagination to understand why Europe is looking for its own secure supply of gas from Russia. It is not willing to be held hostage to events in Ukraine and American political rhetoric.

Providing Lip Service to Americans

It takes only a limited review of the facts on the ground to understand that the only reasonable decision is to continue to cooperate with Russia and give “lip service” to US demands over Ukraine and humor Washington-based Hawks.

The EU must keep all options open for the transit of natural gas in the future, but it is willing to call America’s bluff over possible sanctions if there is closer cooperation with Russia. Before it can threaten anything meaningful the United States needs to construct the export terminals necessary to sell its gas to customers further afield. It is expected to do this in the next few years, but will this be enough to gain new customers, particularly when it needs to address domestic consumption patterns?

The ongoing conflicts Europe is involved in are minor in comparison to the one to obtain Europe-wide energy security. It is all about costs, infrastructure and the ability to back up rhetoric with funding for massive projects.

Oilprice.com had some recent analysis. Ships can be built but a lot of it comes down to economic issues. And the Swedish Defense Ministry did a whole report tracking Russian energy cut-offs for non-commercial reasons. That is where the energy security comes in.

The colder the winters are in Western Europe, the fewer political tensions there are to be resolved, the sooner cooler heads will prevail when it comes to the “hard facts” of European Union Energy Security.

Jeffrey Silverman is a veteran journalist, a former US Army bio-chem warfare specialist and a Veterans Today bureau chief, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Как отмечает в своей статье Джеффри Сильверман, ветеран американской журналистики и глава кавказского отделения издания Veterans Today, одним из ключевых принципов демократии, о которой так любят говорить в Вашингтоне, является принцип информированного выбора.

Однако у нас уже сегодня есть все основания считать, что этот принцип на регулярной основе нарушается действующим американским президентом Дональдом Трампом, поскольку он не столько информирует общественность, сколько дезинформирует её.

Чего только стоят обещания Дональда Трампа уже в ближайшее время наводнить европейские рынки американским сжиженным газом. Мало того, что для отправки сжиженного газа через Атлантику нужно строить большое количество дорогостоящих терминалов, но даже после их отладки и запуска в эксплуатацию, где Вашингтону взять огромную флотилию газовозов, на строительство которой уйдет не одно десятилетие.

Предположим, Соединенные Штаты справятся и с этим вопросом. Но тогда, по прибытию на европейский рынок сжиженного газа, Вашингтон найдет его плотно оккупированным саудовскими и катарскими поставщиками.

Наконец, если в какой-то момент Вашингтон преодолеет все непреодолимые препятствия, Газпром может в любой момент вышибить американцев с рынка, начав жесткий демпинг.

Другими словами, Трамп нагло врет в лицо своим избирателям и европейским партнерам.

Впрочем, данный факт, судя по всему, не избежал внимания председателя Европейской комиссии Жан-Клода Юнкера, который пообещал Трампу, что Европа “с большим удовольствием будет покупать американский газ”. Будучи куда более опытным политиком чем Трамп, Юнкер прекрасно понимает, что для того, чтобы с него спросили за невыполнение его обещаний, Вашингтон должен сделать невозможное. А потому председатель ЕС предпочел не оспаривать целесообразность покупки американского газа в Брюсселе, а встать в очередь тех людей, которые потом спросят с Трампа за невыполнение его обещаний.

Европейцы давно устали от Украины с её истеричной политикой. Тем более что для модернизации её транзитной системы нужно где-то найти 80 миллиардов долларов, которые ни европейцы, ни американцы платить не собираются.

В этой связи, Брюссель будет устно поддерживать все заявления Вашингтона о перспективах “американской газовой экспансии”, параллельно обговаривая последние детали сделки с Газпромом по строительству “Северного потока – 2″.

Публичная риторика – это одно дело, а вот деловая репутация – совсем другое. Если американцы всегда были сильны в первом, то российские поставщики газа остаются непревзойденными во втором.

С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь.

Как отмечает в своей статье Джеффри Сильверман, ветеран американской журналистики и глава кавказского отделения издания Veterans Today, большинство советских республик отделялись от СССР в надежде на “достойное” место в “лучшем” Западном мире.

Во всяком случае, именно это было обещано как политическим представителям бывших советских республик, так и их народам.

Однако для того, чтобы узнать, как выглядит это самое “достойное место”, потребовалось много времени, поскольку не все были готовы принять тот факт, что государства-сателлиты занимаются обслуживанием интересов “зарубежных господ”, какими бы они ни были. И чем меньше при этом задается вопросов, тем лучше.

Так, мало кто мог предположить, что узаконивание однополых браков в Соединенных Штатах приведет к появлению огромного количества однополых пар, желающих “иметь равные права” за счет жителей других государств.

В итоге, по закону свободного рынка, воспетого западными экономистами, в Грузии появилась целая индустрия по предоставлению американским геям суррогатных матерей. При этом зачастую на оказавшихся в далеко не простой экономической ситуации грузинок накладывают различные ограничения, чтобы будущие матери не могли передумать после рождения ребенка и были в любом случае вынуждены отдать его зарубежным “усыновителям”.

Более того, несмотря на заявления некоторых клиник на то, что шанс заразиться ВИЧ от семенной жидкости зарубежного отца составляет менее 0,1%, в виду “её специальной обработки”, достижение данного показателя просто-напросто невозможно с научной точки зрения.

Это наводит автора на мысль о том, что данная цифра просто взята с потолка, а суррогатных матерей не просто не предупреждают о высокой вероятности заразиться ВИЧ, но и об опасности гепатита, который также широко распространен среди американских геев.

Данный вирус также несет с собой большую опасность и для сотрудников лабораторий, которые работают с “биологическим материалом” из-за рубежа, но по законам все того же “свободного рынка” данный риск просто-напросто игнорируется.

Доходит до того, что в зависимости от “занятого расписания” западных господ, зарубежные гости имеют возможность выбирать, будет ли будущая мать рожать естественным способом, либо же ей будет сделано кесарево сечение, чтобы оба “счастливых отца” могли при этом присутствовать.

Стоит ли говорить, что данный бизнес существует вне грузинского правового поля, но страна наследия Михаила Саакашвили живет по законам западного рынка, а не по Конституции страны.

Могли ли граждане Грузинской ССР когда-либо представить, в какое “светлое будущее” они сделали “уверенный шаг”.

С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь.

There is always a flip side to anything. Same sex marriage in the United States, much derided by the religious right, has also become a new marketing niche, thus becoming acceptable by default amongst the same religious right by also satisfying free market principles.

In the post-Soviet country of Georgia, a more genuinely conservative country than the US will ever be, a massive surrogacy sector has developed. A lot of women perform this service more than once. As surrogate women are said to earn at least 15,000 dollars for the procedure, this makes it one of the most lucrative business opportunities open to economically disadvantaged Georgian women.

It is up to the prospective non-biological parents, who are usually foreign, whether they meet the woman or not. In rare cases, the surrogate gets to spend the term of their pregnancy in another country. The reasons for this are varied, but this is often done to circumvent various laws, or keep the biological mother from changing her mind when the child is born.

Each surrogacy contract also has specific terms of agreement, which address the question, “what happens if there’s miscarriage or a health issue?” Various providers claim (this is allegedly written in the agreement, but not always) that the surrogate’s foreign client would be held responsible for such costs. Georgians have a long history of being dependent on foreigners for their subsistence, and now they are fighting back, but this is hardly the best way to do it.

I was recently asked for help telling the rest of this story. My contact asked, “Do you know anyone who can help us tell some of this story? We are predominantly looking for the dilemmas, stories of where it goes wrong, or unreasonable/illegal demands made of the surrogates.” In investigating further, Ucha Nanuashvili, the former Georgian public defender, the top human rights person in Georgia, shared with me. “I met several times with Tamar Khachapuridze, owner of one of the surrogacy centers. She spoke about crime in this business, etc.”

That was enough to get started on my quest for the truth. I have since found other sources, and from the stories told, and discussions with various stakeholders in the business, it has become clear that it is not as billed.

Legalised Vampires

Firstly, there is a big difference in advertised success rates between clinics. Some variation would be expected – different samples will produce different results. But the variation in Georgia seems to exist because private healthcare is a growth industry, with various cartel aspects (as in drug prices) and no one wants to track figures too closely for fear of damaging livelihoods.

Some providers claim a success rate of about 40 to 45% amongst women under 35. Over this age, the success rate will only be about 15% because the quality of the embryos decreases. But they skirt the issue of who wants these services, and why.

Georgian legislation is very enabling of this niche market. Couples who use this service do not have to be married, and this enables some reproductive clinics to cater specifically for LGBT clients.

Take for example one advertisement found online, which advertises Georgia and other less developed countries as breeding grounds for the more sophisticated and deserving Westerner:

“Couples belonging to the same gender dream of having their own children too. Surrogacy Abroad, Inc. has now turned this dream into a reality by providing services that help gay couples and singles have their own biological children through surrogacy. Now, people belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender (LGBT) community can have their own children too. It is our belief at Surrogacy Abroad”.

Surrogacy Abroad advertises itself “as an international surrogacy agency based in Chicago, owned and operated by Benhur Samson, a native Indian and business entrepreneur. Benhur moved to Chicago in 1987 … Ben saw an opportunity in the industry to bridge the gap between intended parents of all lifestyles and surrogacy.

This clinic is dedicated to serving intended parents all over the world by facilitating the surrogacy process with their elite partner clinics in India. They also deal with surrogate mothers and egg donors (Caucasian & Indian donors). “We are a “one-stop” agency for any intended parent (GLBT friendly) and can accommodate every aspect of the journey to parenthood through surrogacy.”

When pressed on these details, the company first claimed that the company was not working in Georgia, and tried to push the topic aside by saying “if you have any further questions you can refer to the Georgian Ministry of Health and they will explain each detail to you. All I can say is that surrogating and egg and sperm donation is legal in Georgia.”

When the doctor involved was personally contacted, the first response was “I’m Doctor Tamar and you have to know that Georgia doesn’t serve gay couples, as it is banned in Georgia.” I responded by pointing out that the website has a Georgian flag, but Doctor Tamar had no answer to this.

She added … “to tell the truth may be each person has right to have children but me as a doctor and as an ordinary person am not ready to accept gay couples but lesbians should be able to have children, I think in the future it’s the neglecting children’s right

So, are you on their side? I think that you aren’t … there are too many, American, Indian, Chinese companies who want to make profit in such countries where surrogation and donation is legal.

I will not do IVF for gay couples if it will be allowed even, about lesbians, I will think twice, because at least they both are girls and children can call mommy to females.”

One law for one, no law for another

It becomes oblivious of those who seek in vitro fertilization in Georgia are practicing gay couples. Some are infected with HIV. The surrogacy centers claim that the HIV virus can be washed out during sperm processing, and that the risk of infecting the surrogate mother is less than 0.1%. This extremely low figure cannot be correct, as there are window periods in which antibodies cannot even be detected. Either these are not being considered, or the figures are being falsified in a way real medical profession would not accept.

Those infected with HIV are also often infected with hepatitis B and C, which can also be transferred by body fluids. They also present a risk to doctors and lab workers, who are aware of this but have to earn their livings somehow. The trials and tribulations Woodward and Bernstein went through to get the information which blew open the Watergate scandal were small beer compared to what is needed to get Georgian doctors to speak on the record about anything to do with their profession. The official line is the only one, even for those who know it is nonsense.

Are surrogate mothers even being told of the inherent risks of the procedure? Are they made aware of what diseases the sperm donor may be transmitting? It is claimed that surrogate mothers demand higher prices if they are asked to take extra risks. Therefore, they are not told of them when they sign the informed consent documents, or given false information if they are.

It boils down to no questions asked. As one source wrote, “Can the couple be male/male, or female/female? We don’t need to ask the question here. In Georgia female and female and male and male marriages are impossible. They are prohibited by Georgian legislation.” Georgian medical clinics are therefore bound to offer services to male and female couples only – but if the parents advertise themselves as a couple, they are treated as the Georgian definition of one.

Brave New World

Some of the clinics get around the legislation by accepting sperm or egg donations from America for the purposes of Cryopreservation, e.g., keeping frozen embryos. Provided the paperwork is done, no one cares what happens to those donations afterwards. It has long been a standard in the nuclear transportation industry that 1% of each load will be lost in transit and unaccounted for at the receiving end. One wonders what the same standard is in the Cryopreservation industry.

These transfers present legal problems due to the donors and recipients being bound by different legal codes. These are circumvented by granting Power of Attorney. The patient identifies a “reliable person” (a paid foreigner, who can read English and Georgian) who signs the agreement with them at a notary on their behalf. If no notarised agreement is in place on the day of the embryo transfer the donor bears added costs if the baby dies.

After delivery of the baby the donors must come to Georgia because the House of Justice processes all the documents. The parents must obtain the birth certificate and foreign passport from there. It takes about a month and a half to obtain these documents and then a visa for the newborn to go back with them.

It is obvious to staff at the House of Justice, and subsequently to the surrogacy centres, exactly who the parents of these surrogate babies are. Both the House of Justice and the centres, and usually the parents themselves, know that the service provided is illegal under Georgian legislation.

But welcome to the Georgian society created by Eduard Shevardnadze and Mikheil Saakashvili – the only value is what you can get away with, and foreign money determines what that is—it is all about money. All is for rent or sale, as in the case of Georgian wombs or actual babies.

Devil in the Details

Much of the above information comes from an interview with a surrogacy agency conducted by Rev. Dr. Michael R Vanderpool, US Press Association, Eurasia Surrogacy & Egg Donation International. The further this interview and investigation progressed, the more distressing it got, and I went to first hand sources to verify much of what was opened source.

For instance, “OK, to clarify – if I provide you, or rather the patient provides you, the power of attorney, they can send the sperm and/or eggs by delivery (express postal mail)?”

“Yes, they can generally send any biological sample. Mostly what they send is embryos, because in some countries, and in some parts even of the United States, there is a prohibition on surrogating and surrogate mothers, so maybe they are making embryos; however, they can’t transfer them to a surrogate mother; they can send those embryos here, and we can do the transfer procedures here in Georgia. But according to United States legislation, as I know, one of the parents must be genetically bonded to the baby, either the mother or the father.”

“OK, in this case, where they have signed the power of attorney and sent the sperm or donor eggs to Georgia, when the baby is to be born, or has been born, how long does this legal process generally take – you said about a month?”

“About one month, maximum two months. “And do they need to stay in Georgia during that time?” “They don’t need. They must come here, but take care of the baby – mainly we pay nurses, or they can stay here if they have the possibility and take care of the baby themselves.

“But a busy life is very complicated, and couples are very busy. It’s impossible for most couples to stay in another country for two months, yes? So, we pay nurses to look after the babies. But after the delivery of the baby they must be here.

“Sometimes they arrive and want to attend even the delivery process, and if we have planned a Caesarean section some patients demand that they want only a Caesarean section for the surrogate mother. Some do not have any problem with the surrogate mother delivering physiologically, but it’s up to the patient.”

“They can make the choice of natural birth versus C-section?” “Yes. If it is a C-section we can plan it and inform the patient a week before, but if it is natural delivery we can’t predict the arrival date for sure, so sometimes the parents come here and it’s no problem. This means the whole process will take a maximum of two months, or maybe less, because the baby is delivered in the name of the surrogate mother and after the delivery the hospital sends all the documents to the House of Justice, which puts the baby in the name of the real parents.”

“So, in theory, they could arrive at around the time of the expected or actual birth of the child?” “Or after delivery.” “And if they are busy, or have some situation, they can return to their home country, the United States in this example, and then come back in another month or two?” “Yes. Yes.”

Gays can´t have babies in most of the US, or in Georgia. But American gays who want babies can have them in Georgia. This tells you all you need to know about international relations, US style. America´s religious right is strongly in favor of the “right to life”. Here´s some news for them: Georgians have the right to lives too, and better ones than this.

Jeffrey Silverman is a veteran journalist, a former US Army bio-chem warfare specialist and a Veterans Today bureau chief, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

“Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” … we have all heard the words. Unfortunately, as I just discovered, they don´t mean anything anymore.

Once upon a time there was a First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the one about Freedom of Speech. Then there came the Fourth, which deals with being secure in your home and your papers. But when it comes to the bigger picture of things, neither apply anymore, at least in my case.

The Fourth Amendment is not just an idea. It states in black and white:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

But it was adopted in 1792, long before the days of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act. All that stuff about Constitutional protections is now moot, a footnote in the story of when America was a free country.

Brave New World become Third World

On Friday the 13th, the date of my arrival back in the US after 15 years living in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, two uniformed Homeland Security Agents, HLS, were waiting for me at the bottom of the airport escalator. They intercepted me before I even got to passport control. They took me away and put me at the head of the passport control line, to scan me back into the US quickly, or so I thought.

They waited with me while my checked baggage came off the conveyor belt, and used that time to start going through all the papers I had with me in my carryon bag. They also started checking the numbers in my cell phone, and asked me about the people behind the names and numbers.

Then the two agents searched my BIG checked bags, in the area set aside for travelers of “suspicious background or dodgy paperwork” – still not telling me exactly what they wanted. Only after this did they admit that they had been requested to question me on arrival in the US. When I asked why, I was told this access to this information was “higher than their pay grade.”

I mentioned the Bill of Rights, and how papers also have protection under that same Bill of Rights. I was told that no longer applied, as under the Patriot Act they have the right to search anything they want.

It was clear what was happening. I had expected the same on departure from Georgia the day before. The same thing had happened 15 years ago, when I was actually arrested getting off the plane on allegations of failure to appear for a domestic family court hearing. I was held on thirty-thousand-dollar bail, my US passport was later revoked and confiscated in Azerbaijan and my US nationality was cancelled, leaving me a stateless person in a foreign country, with no legal protection, liable to deportation or worse at any time.

It took me 14-years of hard fighting to get my passport and nationality back. Only when Trump became president did I become a full-fledged US citizen again. I felt this was especially harsh treatment for not showing up to a domestic relations hearing which I was notified of, by a court which knew I was out of the country.

I had also been subjected to special treatment on departure, at the Tbilisi airport in the Republic of Georgia the day before. I was told by the airport staff that they had been requested by Doha International, the transit airport, to carefully check my documents and inspect my luggage, as if I were a terrorist.

This order must have come from the US, as why would Doha be interested in my person? It raised the question, should I consider this a compliment or regard myself as being under real threat now?

It had taken one further hour in Tbilisi before being cleared to leave, and now I was enduring an additional two hours of questioning in the US. The HLS agents were even questioning me whilst I was waiting for my bags. I must have made bells toll for someone high up, simply by being out of the country for 15 years, or having written articles and given interviews about geopolitical issues.

Many of these pieces were especially critical of US foreign policy in the areas of the former USSR (Georgia and Ukraine) and the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, and Saudi Arabia). My argument was that the US should abide by its own Constitution, which it invented on its own volition, instead of violating it all over the place. Here was the US responding to these allegations by doing exactly what I was accusing it of doing.

Proof is the whole pudding

One of the documents which was copied was from a letter from a friend, Rumwold Leigh, which he had given to the US Embassy in July 2016. It described some of my treatment in recent years.

I freely gave them a copy and said, “you should make this part of my official dossier.” They undoubtedly will, because it summarizes all the evidence against them, and shows that third parties are also aware of it.

Here are some of the highlights, which explain why I think I received such special treatment on arrival in the country of my birth.

“During the time I have known Mr. Silverman [more than 10 years] he has been assaulted on several occasions by persons who can be shown to have connections with the US Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, and at least on one occasion was tortured by Georgian special services personnel with the full knowledge and participation of Embassy staff. The injuries resulting from these assaults are a matter of record. He has also had his US nationality revoked [for a period of 14 years] and been publicly vilified by the US Embassy in various press releases.

He continues,

“All these abuses are undoubtedly linked to Mr. Silverman’s longstanding involvement in investigative journalism. He broke several stories about the illegal activities of the US and other Western governments in Georgia, which include training, funding and supplying arms to terrorists, manufacturing biological weapons and the torture, murder and false imprisonment of people who oppose these actions or get too close to them. He has also given a multitude of interviews concerning these matters, and has written a number of print articles about them, laden with hard evidence, which are widely republished in the electronic media.”

If the US government wanted to deny any of this – as it should, because it should be upholding the Constitution, right or wrong, and be seen to be doing so – it would treat me in exactly the opposite way whilst in the US or en route to it. Then it could say that it was not the US government but other people, foreigners with different values, who did these things.

Instead it proves itself guilty at every turn. Is this what my fellow Americans pay their taxes for it to do?

You can hear but can´t listen

The fact that I have been asked to give regular interviews, and the hard evidence which was presented to the present Georgian government about the many crimes committed by the previous one, should indicate that the substance of the stories the US objects to is merely a reflection of what ordinary Georgians know or suspect. This further magnifies what threat a journalist such as myself face from the very ones implicated by such work.

As one colleague in the Russian media wrote me recently, “I just don’t understand how Americans can tolerate all of this. Even if I was not a journalist, having more insight than others, I would not take the risk you did by travelling to the US. There are so many interesting things in the US, so many places to go, so much history, but authorities make it difficult for American citizens.

Russia has a long history of terrorist attacks, as you know from the links with Georgia, being committed on its territory. But it would never do the things that the US is doing with so-called security measures. Here people would never put up with such treatment, people would never tolerate such nonsense.”

I should feel so happy to be back home, and still wonder why some considered that America was threatened by my anticipated arrival. Few here are particularly interested in what their government does in this country or that, at least for as long as they can convince themselves they live in a country with manifestly superior values. If I set up a big screen in the local shopping mall and told them everything I know, it would be dismissed as the inevitable consequence of getting involved with these inferior foreigners, who must learn somehow, whatever methods are used.

But I am certain some higher ups in governments are very upset about my interviews with Russian and Ukrainian TV, and perhaps even my writing for USA Really. Reality has a way of biting people who don´t like it. Perhaps they want to bite me harder in the hope it will make that day never come.

Anyway, let me get back to doing the morning news and seeing how the media tries to bury what happens from day-to-day. It has become clear to everyone that spinning Trumps troubles into cheap scandals, and running it all over a cliff, is what the Trump and MSM controlled fake news is all about! I might even try and tell a few people what the connections are between all this and what the US does every day outside its borders. After all, they have finally decided I am a US citizen, and have a right to be in my own country, even if my other rights – the ones they hold so dear – are worth the proverbial bowl of cold spit.

Jeffrey Silverman is a veteran journalist, a former US Army bio-chem warfare specialist and a Veterans Today bureau chief, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Как отмечает в своей статье Джеффри Сильверман, ветеран американской журналистики и глава кавказского отделения издания Veteran Today, возвращение на родину в Соединенные Штаты после пятнадцати лет вынужденной разлуки, стало для него весьма неприятным приключением.

Автор отмечает, что после того, как он решил посвятить свою жизнь журналистским расследованиям, в его жизни начали происходить странные вещи. Пятнадцать лет назад по прибытию в Азербайджан у него отобрали американский паспорт и лишили американского гражданства (что на законных основаниях можно сделать только во время крупного конфликта США с другой страной) на тех основаниях, что он не явился на бракоразводное слушание в США будучи в отъезде. Затем его несколько раз избивали сотрудники американского посольства в Грузии за то, что он вскрыл целый ряд операций США на Кавказе, таких как финансирование, вооружение и переброска террористов, разработка биологического оружия, организация жестоких пыток и подготовка государственных переворотов.

Автор отмечает, что если бы после всего этого, после пятнадцати лет борьбы за свои права, ему бы дали спокойно вернутся в США, то американские власти могли бы сослаться на то, что все произошедшее с автором за последние пятнадцать лет его жизни – это результат действий иностранцев и “одичавших за рубежом американцев”, но никак не часть государственной политики США.

Однако прямо в тот момент, когда он сходил с трапа самолета в аэропорту имени Даллеса, он не только был задержан агентами американских спецслужб, но и подвергнут полному обыску и весьма длительному допросу. Любопытен тот факт, что данные действия напрямую противоречат американской Конституции, как и все то, что Вашингтон творил и продолжает творить на Кавказе.

Однако у американских властей, судя по всему, есть заботы поважнее, чем соблюдение основного закона “самой демократической страны мира”, такие как борьба с неугодными журналистами и распространение низкопробной пропаганды по всему миру.

С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь.