Where Liberty Dwells, there is my country

Jeff Stein at CQ.com has a great story concerning why the U.S. intelligence community was almost certainly not surprised by the Russian attack on Georgia.

Stein’s key paragraphs:

As easy as it is to believe that the CIA, etc., blew another huge event, I find it impossible to accept that not one of the 127 Pentagon advisors in Georgia, including Special Forces and intelligence contractors, were clueless about Tblisi’s intent — and preparations — to move into South Ossetia.

That just doesn’t pass the laugh test. On July 15, for starters, amid rising tension between Moscow and Tblisi over South Ossetia, some 1,200 U.S. troops launched a three-week long joint military exercise with Georgian troops.

Three weeks later, on the night of Aug. 7, “coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Georgian President Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.”

It is simply inconceivable that the Pentagon wasn’t wired to the helmets of Georgian troops, despite the denials of U.S. military officials.

A few days ago a Pentagon spokesman uttered a careful denial. (Note the qualifiers.)

“They are not involved in any way in this conflict between the Russian military and the Georgian military,” Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US European Command, told Agence France Press.

“We have upwards of 100 military trainers who are in Georgia now. We’ve been able to account for all of them,” he told AFP.

And they’ll stay there, according to the Pentagon, even with Russian tanks rolling deep into Georgia.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there were no plans to redeploy the estimated 130 US troops and civilian contractors, who he said were stationed in the area around Tblisi.

The US Defense Department has been in contact with Georgian officials over the situation, but the Georgians have made no requests for assistance, Whitman said.