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Quick jump to below stories: Legislation To Reopen Hearings Into Cointelpro - by Press Release DIEBOLD ADDED SECRET PATCH TO GEORGIA E-VOTING - By Matthew Cardinale President Given Undue Power to Critics - by Center for Constitutional Rights USA: Congress Rubber Stamps Torture and Other - by Amnesty Internationl Gonzales Cautions Judges on Interfering - By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Republican cover-up charge over sex e-mails to boy - by JACQUI GODDARD Tension Between Russia, Georgia Heats Up - By Maria Danilova, FORBES.com
[Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has introduced legislation calling for an investigation into current COINTELPRO activities being carried out by the U.S. Government. May God bless and protect Cynthia McKinney and all the important work that she continues to do. However, I am positive this legislation will be shot down in short order, especially considering the fact that McKinney recently “lost” her congressional seat under extremely suspicious circumstances involving Diebold electronic voting machines. Nevertheless, it will be extremely noteworthy for the historical record to show Congress prevent this much-needed investigation at the same moment it gives the executive branch the right to lock up anyone who opposes the President indefinitely and torture them. The American Republic is long dead, and fascism is no longer creeping in this country – it is solidified and documented as the law of the land. – MK] Legislation To Reopen Hearings Into Cointelpro September 29, 2006, 9:04 am Press Release: US Congressional Representative http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0609/S00610.htm In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Press Release September 24, 2006 REP. McKINNEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO RE-OPEN CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS INTO COINTELPRO PAST AND PRESENT (Washington, DC) Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA 4^th) has introduced legislation calling for a re-opening of the investigations of the 1970's by the United States Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities chaired by Senator Frank Church which led to startling revelations concerning federal, state and local intelligence and law enforcement agency violations of Constitutional rights of privacy, limits on search and seizure, surveillance, wiretapping and disruption of dissent and protected activities, and massive collection of dossiers by FBI, CIA, NSA, Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agencies and other local agencies, targeting the civil rights, Native American and anti-war movements of the period and "neutralizing" their leadership and discrediting the efforts for social change over decades. The most infamous of these abuses was the FBI's COINTELPRO operations, or counter intelligence program, and victims of those attacks remain wrongfully imprisoned to this day. CHAOS, GARDEN PLOT, CABLE SPLICER, LANTERN SPIKE, REX 84 and other programs were carried out by agencies ranging from the CIA to FEMA, including planning for massive arrests and martial law, suspending the Constitution. New laws countered many of these excesses and abuses following from the Church Committee revelations, but not all. Surveillance and disruption, as well as planning and exercises for detention and suspension of civil liberties continued through the 1980s and 1990s against legal domestic organizations supporting democratic movements abroad. Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, there were immediate calls to renew COINTELPRO-style surveillance, go to Continuity of Government, release intelligence agencies from the restrictions of the Church Committee era laws (which included the establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court to pre-approve Presidential surveillance programs), calls to end the principle of Posse Comitatus, which separates police and military functions, and renewed surveillance and disruption by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Transportation Security Agency (TSA), Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and by certain provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT and related. Resolution 1056, introduced on September 21, provides for release of all undisclosed government files on similar past and present abuses which do not compromise an existing intelligence, agent, source or method, for judicial relief for the past victims of COINTELPRO and other programs, and for the re-opening of Congressional hearings into the historical abuses as well as the current renewal and expansion of similar programs that violate human, civil and Constitutional rights. The bill has been referred to both House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. "We still to this day do not know the full scope of the abusive surveillance, targeting, discrediting and disruptive tactics and plans of the past," said Representative McKinney, "and a look back the Nixon era Tom Charles Houston plan, referred to as Œfascist' by Congressional investigators, shows us it is being implemented in full since 9/11. Congress has a responsibility to open oversight hearings into the new abuses as well as their historical context, and to acknowledge and give relief to its victims then and now." Contact: John Judge 202-225-1955 [Is it any wonder why Cynthia McKinney “lost” her bid for reelection in Georgia? It's election time again, so it must be time for more stories about Diebold. Sadly, most Americans have not researched the voting situation in the U.S. and continue to hold hope (even if they do not vote) that elections in this nation are legitimate. FTW has long known otherwise, as this story shows us once again. – CB] DIEBOLD ADDED SECRET PATCH TO GEORGIA E-VOTING SYSTEM IN 2002 By Matthew Cardinale September 29, 2006 PoliticalAffairs.net http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/4155/1/212/ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. (APN) ATLANTA – Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia's electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. Former Diebold official Chris Hood told his story concerning the secret "patch" to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Kennedy's second article on electronic voting in this week's Rolling Stone Magazine. Hood's claims corroborate a second whistleblower who spoke with Black Box Voting and Wired News in 2003. Whistleblower Accounts "With the primaries looming, [Chief of Diebold's Election Division] Urosevich was personally distributing a 'patch,' a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program," Rolling Stone Magazine reported. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood told Rolling Stone. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done." "It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told Rolling Stone. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level," Hood told Rolling Stone. The "patch" was applied to about 5,000 polling places in Fulton and DeKalb Counties in 2002, Rolling Stone reported. Hood did not immediately return a text message from Atlanta Progressive News and his voicemail was not operational. The second whistleblower, Rob Behler, was contracted to work with Diebold in the lead up to the 2002 Elections. Two patches were applied in June and July 2002 respectively while Behler worked in the Diebold warehouse; another patch was applied in August 2002 after Behler left the warehouse, Wired News reported. "Behler said Diebold programmers posted patches to a file-transfer-protocol site for him and his colleagues to apply to the machines," Wired News reported. Diebold officials first denied any patches were applied in an interview with Salon in 2003, according to Wired News. "We have analyzed that situation and have no indication of that happening at all," Joseph Richardson, Diebold spokesperson, is reported to have told Salon at the time. This story later changed. Activists Speak Out Elections integrity activists are outraged by the relevations, although they say the apparent secretive nature of "the patch" has only confirmed the things they already suspected and feared. "The fact that they were doing any patch of any kind is very disturbing," Garland Favorito of VoterGA, an organization that is suing the State of Georgia over the meaningless nature of elections here, told Atlanta Progressive News. "It raises the distinct possibility the machines might have counted [in a] different [manner] on Election Night than when certified," Favorito said. "It corroborates two of our key points of the suit. One, machines can count differently on Election Night than when certified. So, the only way is to verify on Election Night. Two, it's another example of how people have been removed from the counting of the votes," Favorito said. "I'm not surprised people are playing tricks. As far as the patch, I say 'time out' for that," Donzella James, who is contesting her purported loss in the Democratic Primary in Georgia's 13th Congressional District to US Rep. David Scott (D-GA), told Atlanta Progressive News. "I'm definitely going to look into it. I'm glad there's a credible person–Kennedy–who has brought this information forward," James said. An outspoken advocate for a voter verified paper trail since her days in the Georgia State Senate, James said she is getting ready to run again in 2008 whatever the outcome of her lawsuit. "It immediately shows Diebold has not been telling the truth, has been covering up facts, in state after state, year after year. This is someone who knows. He has insider knowledge," Brad Friedman of BradBlog told Atlanta Progressive News. "These are things people suspected. He confirmed it. Diebold never gave a damn about security, accuracy, or transparency," Friedman said. What is worse, the use of last-minute patches on electronic voting machines are routine, Friedman said. "It has happened all over the country. Because they find out about security issues at the last minute and apply them without going through the proper procedures," Friedman said. At a recent press conference called by Donzella James, poll watchers say one county official locked herself in a room with the machine for three unexplained minutes during the recent Primary. Cathy Cox's Role Where was Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox during all this? Apparently, Diebold leadership asked employees to not let her office know about the patch or patches. And Diebold first alleged this application of patches wasn't going on. However, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox appears to have found out anyway. And Diebold appears to have at some point acknowledged the patches existed. At least one patch was approved by Kennesaw State University, who got a state contract to do so, according to Wired News. And Diebold admitted to the Elections Assistance Commission about the "0808" patch, Garland Favorito said. Cox wrote a letter after the 2002 Elections, asking Diebold to address a total of 29 problems with the functioning of their E-voting machines, technology, and procedures, Rolling Stone reported. This list of 29 items was also brought up in a press conference by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, her first major press conference on electronic voting. Cox referred to the item of the mysterious patch as "The application/implication of the 0808 patch." "The state was seeking confirmation that the patch did not require that the system 'be recertified at national and state level' as well as 'verifiable analysis of overall impact of patch to the voting system,'" Rolling Stone Magazine reports. But shouldn't they be seeking her confirmation and not the other way around? Diebold's reply to Cox's letter, if one exists, has not been made publicly available, according to Rolling Stone. "She [Cox] should be the one confirming it, not the vendor. She's the one responsible for running elections in Georgia," Favorito told Atlanta Progressive News. "She appears to be trying to privatize the election system to the point where she's trying to ask the vendor to determine if they're in compliance, rather that using their own resources," within the Office of the Secretary of State, Favorito said. "They claim [as an excuse] to have changed the operating system and not the tabulating software. We believe the law says the systems have to be re-certified with a patch of any kind. The State did not certify those patches. The State took Diebold's word," Favorito said. "However, State Law does not seem to support Diebold's testimony," Favorito said. Atlanta Progressive News will be looking more into how Diebold was, or was not, able to satisfy Cox's 2002 concerns. "Atlanta Progressive News is the only media outlet in Georgia that's covering this story," Garland Favorito of VoterGA said. From Atlanta Progressive News --About the author: Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for Atlanta Progressive News. He may be reached at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com [The Senate bill that Congress just passed and sent to the Whitehouse was said by the Washington Post to be “nearly identical” to the one described below by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Under the new legislation anyone who opposes the President or government could be locked up indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.” TIME ran a report yesterday with the subhead, “A new bill lets Bush define who is an enemy combatant and denies detainees habeas corpus.” It looks like Mike Ruppert left this nation just in time. This is no surprise to FTW or our longtime readers. The reality of Peak Oil will require the destruction of civil liberties, and this legislation is just another stop down that road. Visit the Civil Liberties section of our website and be sure to read Mike Ruppert’s historic report, “THE ‘F’ WORD,” from November of 2001 detailing the horrific nature of The Patriot Act. – MK] # President Given Undue Power to Silence Critics # ATTORNEYS FOR GUANTANAMO DETAINEES COULD BE DETAINED AS ENEMY COMBATANTS UNDER NEW LEGISLATION September 26, 2006 Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=zQrItml3Gv&Content=845 In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Synopsis On September 26, 2006, attorneys for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) determined that what appears to be the final version of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 could allow the government to detain the attorneys themselves as 'enemy combatants.' CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said: "This ominously broad definition of enemy combatants would mean that almost anyone who actively opposes the President or the government could be locked up indefinitely. This bill makes a mockery of the rule of law." The current version of the Military Commissions redefines an "unlawful enemy combatant" (UEC) so broadly that it could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq. The bill defines a UEC as "a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or anyone who "has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense of the United States." The definition makes no reference to citizenship and therefore could be read to include any number of individuals, including: CCR attorneys and other habeas counsel, Federal Public Defenders and military defense counsel for detainees at Guantánamo Bay Any person who has given $5 to a charity working with orphans in Afghanistan that turns out to be associated in some fashion with someone who may be a member of the Taliban The bill also currently includes provisions so sweeping that they strip U.S. courts of jurisdiction over habeas petitions by any non-citizen detained by the government anywhere. Because there is no geographic limitation in the bill's language, it would allow the President to detain any non-citizen without their ever having the chance to challenge their detention in court: "No court... shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination." Examples of people who could be detained indefinitely with no access to a court include: A foreign tourist wearing an anti-Bush t-shirt at the Statue of Liberty A protester at an immigration rally who has lived in the U.S. since she was six months old and is a lawful, permanent resident CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said: "This new version of the legislation grants the President frightening power to silence his critics. Habeas corpus is, like voting, one of the fundamental rights of democracy. The President's efforts to exercise the privilege of kings must be turned back, before the so-called 'war on terror' turns on our own citizens." [This legislation which was recently passed by the US Congress has been condemned by the United Nations as well as human rights groups, newspapers and politicians around the world. – MK] USA: Congress Rubber Stamps Torture and Other Abuses FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 29, 2006 Amnesty Internationl http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0929-08.htm In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. WASHINGTON - September 29 - By passing the Military Commissions Act, the United States Congress has, in effect, given its stamp of approval to human rights violations committed by the USA in the “war on terror”. This legislation leaves the USA squarely on the wrong side of international law, and has turned bad executive policy into bad domestic law. Amnesty International will campaign for repeal of this act and fully expects the constitutionality of this legislation to be challenged in the courts. In the “war on terror”, the US administration has resorted to secret detention, enforced disappearance, prolonged incommunicado detention, indefinite detention without charge, arbitrary detention, and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Thousands of detainees remain in indefinite military detention in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Congress has failed these detainees and their families. President Bush has defended the CIA’s use of secret detention and in the debates over the Military Commissions Act, members of Congress have done the same. This policy clearly violates international law. See also: USA: Justice at last or more of the same? Detentions and trials after Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 18 September 2006 USA: Rendition – torture – trial? The case of Guantánamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 20 September 2006 [Attorney General Gonzales is a loyal servant to the fascist Bush regime. – MK] Gonzales Cautions Judges on Interfering By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN September 29, 2006 The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900511.html In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime. He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center. "Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review," Gonzales said. And he said the independence of federal judges, who are appointed for life, "has never meant, and should never mean, that judges or their decisions should be immune" from public criticism. "Respectfully, when courts issue decisions that overturn long-standing traditions or policies without proper support in text or precedent, they cannot _ and should not _ be shielded from criticism," Gonzales said. "A proper sense of judicial humility requires judges to keep in mind the institutional limitations of the judiciary and the duties expressly assigned by the Constitution to the more politically accountable branches." His audience included legal scholars and judges, including Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Bush administration's most reliable supporters on the Supreme Court. The attorney general did not refer to any specific case or decision but only to wartime, military and foreign affairs cases in general. Gonzales has sent Justice Department lawyers into federal courts from coast to coast defending Bush's detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his plans to try some of them before military tribunals and his use of the National Security Agency to wiretap Americans without court warrants when they communicate with suspected terrorists abroad. Over administration objections, the Supreme Court ordered that detainees could challenge aspects of their imprisonment in federal courts and overturned Bush's plans for military tribunals, forcing Bush to ask Congress to approve a new version of the panels. A handful of federal district judges either ordered an end to the warrantless wiretapping or agreed to hear court challenges to it. Opponents of the plan argue the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's requirement that the government get a warrant from a court that meets in secret before wiretapping Americans to gain intelligence information. The administration contends that despite the statute's language, the president has inherent authority from the Constitution to order such eavesdropping without court permission. Justice lawyers also have argued that the challenges to the NSA program should be thrown out of court because trials would expose state secrets. Most of the judges' rulings and proceedings have been stayed pending appeal. Gonzales also said he thought more states should move away from having judges stand in partisan elections to keep their seats. Gonzales himself as a Texas Supreme Court justice "had to raise enough money to run print ads and place television spots around the state in order to retain my seat." In such contested elections, "most of the contributions come from lawyers and law firms, many of whom have had, or will have, cases before the court," Gonzales said. "The appearance of a conflict of interest is difficult to dismiss." He noted favorably that some states have adopted other ways of picking judges, including merit selection and appointment with simple up-or-down retention elections rather than contested campaigns. With polls showing many voters think judges can be swayed by campaign contributions, Gonzales said, "If Americans come to believe that judges are simply politicians, or their decisions can be purchased for a price, state judicial systems will be undermined." Republican cover-up charge over sex e-mails to boy, 16 JACQUI GODDARD The Scotsman October 2, 2006 http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1454652006 In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. REPUBLICAN Party leaders in the United States faced calls for an inquiry yesterday amid accusations they turned a blind eye to a Florida congressman who sent sexually explicit e-mails to a 16-year-old boy. Mark Foley, 52, a deputy Republican whip, resigned last Friday following the revelations. Since then, it has emerged that he shared a series of salacious communications with at least two other messenger boys who worked on Capitol Hill Dennis Hastert, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, yesterday condemned Mr Foley's actions as "abhorrent" and "an obscene breach of trust", adding: "His immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system." But it has emerged that Mr Hastert was told about some of the e-mails months ago by congressman Thomas Reynolds, chairman of the Republican national congressional committee, who failed to pursue the matter. The scandal has rocked Capitol Hill and left the Republican Party scrambling to limit the damage just weeks before the congressional elections, where they face losing their majority. "Congressman Reynolds's inaction in the face of such a serious situation is very troubling and raises important questions about whether there was an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it from coming to light before election day," said Karen Finney, spokesman for the Democratic national committee. It emerged that several other members of the Republican leadership - including the House majority leader, John Boehner - also knew of the messages. Mr Foley could now be prosecuted under laws he helped enact as chairman of Congress's missing and exploited children's caucus, a role in which he often vowed to root out child predators. This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1454652006 [Remember that the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline runs through Georgia, providing a route for Caspian oil dominated by Western interests that bypasses Russia. Though not entirely, this is largely a proxy-battle between Russia and the U.S. Georgia just announced today that it will release the four Russian military officers charged with spying, but Russia has still continued to cut ties with the country. At the end of this report Putin is quoted as saying: "These people (in Georgia) think that under the roof of their foreign sponsors (the U.S.) they can feel comfortable and secure. Is it really so?" – MK] Tension Between Russia, Georgia Heats Up By Maria Danilova October 1, 2006 FORBES.com http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/10/01/ap3057881.html In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Cold War is long over, but the tension between Georgia and Russia revisits many of its issues - allegations of spying by Moscow, suspicions of interference by the United States and concerns that a hot war will start without some sort of compromise. Last week's arrest of four Russian soldiers on charges of spying pushed a decade of animosity between Russia and Georgia to new heights. Russia recalled its ambassador, called Georgia a "bandit state" and stopped issuing visas to Georgians. The reactions were far stronger than the tit-for-tat expulsions that usually accompany espionage scandals. Amid an exchange of angry words, Russian President Vladimir Putin's response on Sunday stood out - likening Georgia's actions to those of Lavrenti Beria, the Georgian who headed the Soviet secret police under Joseph Stalin, and calling them "state terrorism." But also Sunday, Putin took a step that could keep the tensions from spiraling further by ordering the defense ministry to continue its plans for withdrawing troops from Georgia. A Russian general a day earlier had announced that the plans were suspended. Georgia's West-leaning government resents Russia for its close contacts with two separatist Georgian regions, for its reluctance to pulling out thousands of troops based in the country as a Soviet-era holdover and for economic pressure including sharply increasing the price of natural gas to banning Georgian wine, one of the country's major exports. Russia in turn resists Georgia's drive to join NATO, its demands for the withdrawal of Russian forces and President Mikhail Saakashvili's determination to re-exert control over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which seek possible annexation into Russia and have Russian forces present as peacekeepers. It was also annoyed that a major oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey runs through Georgia, bypassing Russia, and bristled when Georgia arrested a dozen opposition figures that Tbilisi claimed were plotting a coup with Russian backing. The Kremlin saw Saakashvili's coming to power as an illegitimate regime change driven by Western governments, and the Western-educated Georgian leader has persistently aggravated Russia. He went after the Russia-connected leader of the renegade province of Adzharia; then a seizure of Russian trucks in South Ossetia set off skirmishes there. Georgia took control of a small section of Abkhazia this year - and last week renamed it Upper Abkhazia - prompting Russian statements of support for the regions' drive for self-determination. And last month he told the United Nations General Assembly that Russia was conducting a "gangster occupation" in the separatist regions. But relations were tense even with Saakashvili's predecessor Eduard Shevardnadze, who favored eventually joining NATO and had accepted U.S. troops and aid to buff up Georgia's impoverished army. "There was already a kind of slowly developing cold war under Shevardnadze ... but when Saakashvili came to power, he sped up the process," said Ghia Nodia, an analyst with the Caucasus Institute for Peace Democracy and Development. In the view of Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected analyst, the spying scandal is the next step in pushing tensions to all-out conflict. "I think all these actions have, as their final goal, preparation for military operations first in South Ossetia and then in Abkhazia," Markov was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. "One cannot rule out that there will be military conflicts or military incidents," agreed Georgian analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze. To avoid war, Sakvarelidze suggested, Georgia could stop its demand that Russian peacekeepers leave the separatist regions if, in turn, the troops changed their mandate from being "a wall between conflicting sides to a positive role in helping to build up relations." Georgia alleges the Russian troops support the separatists, essentially making Abkhazia and South Ossetia into proxy states. Russia meanwhile wields significant influence over Georgia with its natural gas supplies. However, if it tried to cut off supplies, that could encourage Georgia to buy gas from Iran, as it did last winter when an explosion disrupted Russian deliveries to Georgia. That could also lead to new complaints from the West that Russia uses gas as a political weapon. Russia last week tried to exert international pressure on Georgia by proposing a U.N. Security Council statement expressing grave concern at Tbilisi's actions. But the United States balked - potentially increasing Russian suspicions that the United States is behind the latest tensions. "It's obvious that the Georgian authorities have decided on this step under the dictates of the American special services," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said last week. The United States has pursued close relations with Georgia and says its aid is aimed at boosting the country's security and democratic institutions. Last week, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza urged Russia and Georgia to negotiate, but Putin echoed Russia's suspicions on Sunday. "These people think that under the roof of their foreign sponsors they can feel comfortable and secure. Is it really so?" Putin said. AP correspondent Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 Associated Press