-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Is the Russian army incompetent? by J R Nyquist http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_nyquist/20000203_xcjny_is_russian.shtml ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com Gen. William E. Odom, former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and author of an important book on the collapse of the Soviet military, believes that the Kremlin war machine has rotted clean through to its core. "Their nukes are rotting in their silos," he was recently quoted as saying. Richard Perle, the coldest of all Cold Warriors, says: "Russia is not an enemy -- and their weapons are rusting away anyway." Is this really true? And if so, how can we verify it? The Kremlin has a track record of successful deceptions. The problem of estimating the true military capability of Russia is a thorny one. The key is to be found in Chechnya. As everyone knows, Russia lost the first Chechen war. Now we find nearly 100,000 Russian troops struggling against a few thousand lightly equipped rebels for months on end. This latest war has been described as "a bloody quagmire." But how can this be? The Chechens are entirely surrounded and cut off. They have been bombed continuously for many weeks. One recalls Russia's assault on Berlin in World War II. Tens of thousands of Hitler's elite troops, dug in and, equipped with heavy tanks, did not last so long against the Russian army. How could tiny Chechnya resist the sheer firepower and manpower of the Russian military, let alone the superior training of a Russian officer corps which is famous for providing military advisers to so many of the world's countries? A month ago it was reported by Itar-Tass that only 2,000 rebels held the city of Grozny against several times that many Russian troops. In addition, the Russian soldiers had tanks and heavy guns. They were supported by missiles and aircraft, a vast intelligence network, satellites and helicopter gunships. How is it possible that a few thousand rebels can overcome the war machine of the Russian Federation? We even have reliable reports that the Russians have been using fuel-air bombs on the rebels. According to the Russian General Staff, fuel-air bombs are weapons of mass destruction, as powerful as small nuclear weapons. In last week's Final Phase columns, evidence was presented that former Prime Minister Stepashin sent arms to villages in Dagestan. According to Mufti Akhmed-Khadzhi Kadyrov, a respected Chechen religious leader, these arms were used to trigger the war. When confronted on this issue by a group of North Caucasus religious leaders led by Kadyrov, Prime Minister Putin did not attempt to deny the fact. Evidence has also been presented that the terror bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities were the work of Russia's security services. And now, there is another bit of testimony out of Russia. Former Prime Minister Stepashin, in an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta, admits that the war in Chechnya was planned last March, long before the Dagestan incursion or the Moscow terror bombings. Before his brief stint as prime minister last summer, Stepashin headed the Interior Ministry. Before that he headed the secret police. Curiously, he is now positioning himself as a leading liberal politician by letting loose with "honest" admissions. But we must be wary of these admissions. Stepashin supports his KGB colleague, Vladimir Putin, for president. "We worked together in St. Petersburg at a difficult time," admits Stepashin. And this leads us to a fascinating inquiry. Why did Stepashin undermine the pretexts for Putin's war in Chechnya? Belonging to that great clandestine brotherhood, Stepashin could not have turned renegade. In fact, he remains a firm supporter of the security establishment, even as he slithers up to the Yabloko Party -- supposedly the only "honest" reform party left in the Russian Duma. A good deception has many layers. Since the truth itself is multifaceted, deception must also be multifaceted. To successfully pierce a veil of lies i t is necessary to know why the lies were told. Unless we know the full truth, which must include the reasons behind the lies, we yet remain in the dark. Intelligent observers of the Russian scene now believe that the war in Chechnya was arranged to propel Yeltsin's chosen successor into the presidency. This explanation has been supported by a variety of "candid" Russian sources, including Gen. Aleksandr Lebed and Garry Kasparov. While this explanation for the invasion of Chechnya is true on some level, it is almost certain to be a dangerous half-truth. It is gradually becoming clear that Chechnya's military leaders crept into the light of day -- in the first Chechen war -- from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU). Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, for instance, has been involved with the GRU in the past. According to Mufti Kadyrov and others, Basayev admitted taking money from a Kremlin oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, before the outbreak of the war. Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov, supposedly an independent player, exposed himself as an agent provocateur when he attempted to lure Mufti Kadyrov into an act that would have justified his liquidation by Russian security officials. And Maskhadov's chief of military staff, Mamudi Saidayev, was himself a Soviet military intelligence officer who continues to mingle freely with Russian military commanders. In fact, Saidayev openly brags that Chechen forces are kept in supply by Russian troops, who sell the rebels what they need. According to a story in the Feb. 7 U.S. News and World Report, the 53-year-old Saidayev is "a former officer in Soviet military intelligence" who "moves freely through Russian lines, despite his incongruous pinkish business suit and sunglasses." Col. Stanislav Lunev, a defector from Russian military intelligence who lives in the United States, recently testified before a congressional committee with a bag over his head to disguise himself. The dread of assassination for any GRU defector comes with the territory. So how does Saidayev mix with his former Soviet colleagues in a pinkish suit and sunglasses without fear of taking a bullet? After all, Saidayev is worse than a defector. He is in open revolt against Moscow, supplying rebel troops and organizing armed resistance. Since two of the main Chechen military leaders have links to the Russian General Staff, their current independence is doubtful. In the GRU they have a saying: "It's a ruble to get in, but two to get out." GRU defector Viktor Suvorov wrote an autobiography, "Inside the Aquarium," in which he discusses the methods of GRU recruitment and discipline. "Theoretically," explains Suvorov, "there's only one way out for any member of the organization -- through the chimney of the crematorium. For some it is an honorable exit, but for others it is a shameful and terrible way to go, but there's only the one chimney for all of us." The Soviet General Staff prides itself in its rigorous punishment of traitors. Summary execution of spies and rebels has always been the rule. Discipline has always been harsh. If an enemy of Moscow is a normal human being who understands what he's up against, he would tremble at the thought of mingling with Russian military officers. All these details merely demonstrate that the real deception in Chechnya, the real game, has less to do with internal Kremlin intrigues than it does with strategic deception in the military sphere. The fighting in Chechnya is a set propaganda piece. Russian soldiers and Chechen civilians have become expendable props in an attempt to convince the West that Russia's large military infrastructure is rotten, useless and non-threatening. Last year hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers were mobilized above the normal draft numbers. We do not know the exact figures. In other words, many more soldiers were put under arms than were needed to fight in Chechnya. Why? What is the purpose behind all this? Russia's military industrial complex has been involved in a huge buildup. Is Europe alarmed? Not in the least. The Russian army is a joke, say the experts. The chief of the Russian General Staff, who lost the Maikop brigade in the first Chechen War, was promoted for his incompetence. Or was he promoted for accomplishing his real assignment -- the deception of the West about the true state of the Russian military? The loss of a few thousand soldiers is nothing when compared to the benefits of strategic deception. And now Gen. Kvashnin has his own nuclear briefcase, his own nuclear button with which to initiate a nuclear war. Can we really believe that this man was defeated and humiliated by a handful of Chechen rebels? The war in Chechnya serves many purposes. Perhaps, as many believe, it served the purpose of assuring Yeltsin's successor. But the ultimate purpose of the Chechen conflict is to mask Russia's war preparations and to hide Russia's resurgent military strength. Given the multi-layered nature of the Kremlin deception, we need to question Western assumptions about the weakness of the Russian military. We also have to remember that the armed forces of other "former" Soviet countries have recently engaged in joint military exercises with the Russian armed forces. There are high-level meetings between the defense ministers of the "former" Soviet republics. This suggests that the former Soviet military system might be playing possum. And one day, it might emerge from its own ashes to confront a sleepy NATO. We have to remember that former Politburo members and proteges of KGB chief Yuri Andropov are openly in charge of former" Soviet republics. This is obvious in the case of Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia and Gaidar Aliyev in Azerbaijan. And now the acting president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, turns out to have a nickname. He is known affectionately as the "little Andropov." The man who initiated Perestroika -- Mikhail Gorbachev -- was also a protege of Yuri Andropov. Do we have the courage to connect the dots on this? Or will somebody send us scurrying for cover by uttering the word "paranoid" or "conspiracist"? The strength of the Russian military machine has been masked. If we apply common sense to penetrate this mask we can readily see that the Kremlin has purposely attempted to mislead us. Now why would they do that? Think it over. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- J.R. Nyquist is a WorldNetDaily contributing editor and author of 'Origins of the Fourth World War.' <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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