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Fact or
fiction?
Why was Cheney's
Guy in
Georgia Before the War?
By James Gerstenzang
27/08/08 "LA
Times" -- - Cheney aide was in Georgia before
war began What was a top national security aide to Vice
President Dick Cheney doing in Georgia shortly before Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili's troops engaged in what became a
disastrous fight with South Ossetian rebels -- and then Russian
troops?
Not, according to the vice president's office, what you might
think -- if your thinking takes you into the realm of Cheney
giving his blessing to the Georgian's military operation.
To be sure, Cheney has been a leader of the hardliners in the
administration when it comes to standing up to Russia -- to the
point that the man who ran the Pentagon as the Cold War came to
an end during the administration of the first President Bush has
been seen as ready to renew that face-off with Moscow.
It was Cheney who visited the Georgian embassy in Washington
last week to sign a remembrance book as a demonstration of the
administration's support.
And yes, Joseph R. Wood, Cheney's deputy assistant for national
security affairs, was in Georgia shortly before the war began.
But, the vice president's office says, he was there as part of a
team setting up the vice president's just-announced visit to
Georgia. (It is common for the White House to send security,
policy, communications and press aides to each site the
president and vice president will visit ahead of the trip, to
begin making arrangements and planning the agenda.)
The White House disclosed on Monday that Cheney would hurry over
to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy next week, almost
immediately after addressing the Republican National Convention
on Labor Day.
And so it was that a team from the vice president's office, U.S.
security officials and others were in Georgia several days
before the war began.
It had nothing to do, the vice president's office said, with a
military operation that some have said suggests a renewal of the
Cold War.
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