A mysterious accident in which one of Russia's most powerful spies was found dead on a Turkish beach has provoked speculation that the deputy head of the country's foreign military intelligence service had been murdered.
The badly decomposed body of Yuri Ivanov washed up last month on the shore of the Mediterranean, and was discovered by Turkish villagers in the province of Hatay, Turkish newspapers reported today. Reports suggest that he was quietly buried in Moscow over the weekend.
Ivanov was the second in command at Russia's foreign military intelligence unit, the GRU. The general had last been deployed to review military installations in Syria, amid Kremlin attempts to reassert its influence in the Middle East, reports suggested.
Major General Ivanov's body was found on 16 August but was only identified last week. Russia's Red Star newspaper confirmed his death on Saturday in a brief obituary. Russia's defence ministry declined to comment further.
Today, however, the Russian media questioned the official version of his death that he had died while going for a swim and pointed out that, as a top-ranking spy, he would have been accompanied everywhere by bodyguards.
The news portal Svobodnaya Pressa also pointed out that Ivanov was the second top GRU agent to die in unexplained circumstances. Another senior agent, Yuri Gusev, was killed in 1992 in a "car accident". His fellow officers later established that he had been murdered, the paper said, adding: "Spies of that rank are well protected. As a rule, they don't die by chance."
After finding the body, Turkey's foreign ministry approached neighbouring countries for further information, with Damascus reporting that Ivanov had gone missing while on assignment in Syria.
The general was last seen visiting the building site for a new Russian military base in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, which is being expanded as a base for Russia's Black Sea fleet.
After his visit, he left for a meeting with Syrian intelligence agents. He then went missing, the Turkish newspaper Vatan reported today.
GRU is the country's main military intelligence and reconnaissance agency, and reports directly to the general staff of Russia's armed forces. The directorate is much bigger than the KGB which was broken up after the collapse of communism into two agencies: the foreign intelligence service, the SVR, and its domestic equivalent, the FSB.
Historically, Russia's intelligence agencies have often been fierce rivals.
The Kremlin assigned Ivanov to lead its war against Chechen separatists in 2000, and he allegedly masterminded a series of assassination attacks, which the Russian secret service carried out on Chechens living abroad. In 2004, two GRU agents killed the Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, blowing up his SUV in Qatar.
The Qatar authorities swiftly arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment two Russian GRU spies who were said in court to have been acting under direct orders from the Russian leadership. The pair were extradited back to Russia in 2005 to serve out their sentences on home soil. Both then promptly disappeared.
#4
The Qatar authorities swiftly arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment two Russian GRU spies who were said in court to have been acting under direct orders from the Russian leadership. The pair were extradited back to Russia in 2005 to serve out their sentences on home soil. Both then promptly disappeared.
Hummm, and now a biggie washes up in the beach?
I'd say the screwed folks got the message no More "Returning Home" to vanish.
(Except into a six foot hole in the ground.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/06/2010 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
Beach, huh? From Here to Eternity...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/06/2010 13:03 Comments ||
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#6
Currents in that region head inland for a bit around northern Syria, then circle north and counterclockwise toward Turkey. That would put his death somewhere near or north of Tartus.
Coincidentally, a Syrian general who oversaw Syrian weapons shipments to Hesb'allah was assassinated in Tartus as well, back in August 2008.
[Pak Daily Times] Authorities were on Sunday trying to protect the town of Johi from floodwaters, which had already inundated several villages in Dadu district and were threatening Dadu city.
Thousands of people struggled to fill the cracks in Juhi Bund while the city was cut off form Saeedabad, Sehwan Sharif and Dadu. "We are trying our best to protect Johi town, threatened by ravaging floodwaters," district administration chief Iqbal Memon told AFP. The town has a population of 60,000 and officials fear that floodwaters will breach surrounding embankments unless they are quickly strengthened. "The floodwaters are fast heading towards Johi town after inundating most parts of Khairpur Nathan Shah town and Mehar town and several surrounding villages in Dadu district," he said. "We are right now employing all available means to strengthen the protective embankments around Johi but the threat still remains," he said, adding that 70 percent of the town's population had already fled to safer areas.
Given the quality of Pakistani construction, I'd flee, too.
Memon said 90 percent of the people of Khairpur Nathan Shah, Mehar town and surrounding villages, which jointly had a population of around 300,000, had fled to nearby towns that have been spared by floods. However, a few thousand people who remained stranded in Khairpur Nathan Shah, Mehar town and surrounding villages were being evacuated to safety by naval boats and helicopters. "I have been stranded here with at least 10 other villagers since yesterday after water inundated our village and we immediately need help and food," Usman Qureshi, resident of a small village near Khairpur Nathan Shah village, said. Qureshi told AFP by mobile phone, "We need help, water and food... we beg you to please contact rescuers and ask them to evacuate us," said Qureshi, who took shelter at the lone two-storey building in the village. Meanwhile, troops rescued 300 people from the flooded Jati town and 47 from Khairpur Nathan Shah to safer places, the military said in a statement.
Floodwaters were gushing towards Mehar as the breach in Suprio Bund widened to 200 feet, inundating about 1,500 villages, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. According to reports, no machinery was available in Dadu to plug the breach. Around 80 percent of Mehar residents had been moved to safer places. Dadu city is also under threat from floodwaters, while 600,000 people are still living in the city. At least 450 villages of Mehar tehsil were flooded. In a bid to save Mehar city, it had been decided to divert floodwaters towards Khairpur Nathan Shah by breaking the Mehar Drain. Mehar residents were migrating to safer places. Khairpur Nathan Shah was completely under water and at least 250,000 residents were forced to evacuate the city. Meanwhile, water level in Kotri, Sukkur and Guddu barrages had started receding with inflow in Sukkur Barrage at 351,460 cusecs and Guddu 736,000 cusecs. On the other hand, at least 14 people lost their lives due to gastroenteritis and other diseases in interior Sindh.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This is Insh'Allah on steroids.
Posted by: Alaska Paul at ANC ||
09/06/2010 2:31 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator has shut down three websites that were violating a government decree limiting the issuance of religious edicts to the country's most senior group of clerics, authorities said Saturday.
Saad al-Shihri, an official at the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission, said the regulator began blocking the websites on Wednesday. He said authorities also have drawn up a list of clerics whose services break the decree, and that they have been sent messages "warning them to comply."
Among those breaking the ban are clerics who offer fatwas via text messages, some for as much as $3 per message, al-Shihri said. Regulators have already started barring such services.
The move comes as part of a campaign that began last month when Saudi King Abdullah decreed that only the powerful government-sanctioned Council of Senior Islamic Scholars could issue fatwas. Fatwas are religious edicts that provide guidance in matters of everyday life to pious Muslims.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have strong influence over policy making and social mores. King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on ultraconservative ideology, including reining in the fatwas from various groups.
It is a daunting task. Observant Muslims freely seek guidance from local clerics concerning any aspects of their lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[Khaleej Times] A top Belgian politician warned the country's citizens on Sunday to 'get ready for the break-up of Belgium,' as King Albert II seeks to relaunch knife-edge coalition talks.
Leading francophone Socialist Laurette Onkelinx, considered a potential successor to party chief Elio Di Rupo, who gave up on negotiations with separatist Flemish leaders on Friday, gave her prognosis in a newspaper interview.
'Let's hope it doesn't come to that because if we split, it will be women and minorities the weakest who will pay the heaviest price,' she told La Derniere Heure. 'On the other hand, we can no longer ignore that among a large part of the Flemish population, it's their wish. So yes, we have to get ready for the break-up of Belgium. Otherwise we're cooked.
'When I look at the letters I receive, loads of people think it's possible. (Our) politicians have to be prepared,' underlined the current caretaker federal minister for health and social affairs.
Albert II tasked late on Saturday the respective speakers of Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders state parliaments to try once more to navigate seven-party talks aimed at securing some form of government, other than the existing day-to-day formation.
That came after seven weeks of efforts by Di Rupo, who says that the biggest Flemish party, the independence-minded New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), rejected the widest set of concessions towards full autonomy for Flanders in Belgium's tortured recent history.
Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, adding a further layer to the pressure on the sovereign, has not been able to point to a stable government since June 2007.
The stark comments from Onkelinx followed those of another leading francophone Socialist, Philippe Moureaux, who has said Belgium was on the verge of a 'progressive organisation of separation.'
Formerly taboo among the poorer francophone parts of Belgium, the prospect of going it alone is no longer considered so -- with a third senior official, the head of the Wallonia state government, Rudy Demotte, also telling RTBF radio that 'all options' are now open.
Demotte added that Wallonia and the capital region of Brussels, the third federal state and increasingly the focus of arguments about financial settlements, had the wherewithal 'to see what we can do ourselves without waiting for tomorrow.'
While located within Flanders' borders, Brussels is officially bi-lingual, although recent studies have shown accelerating numbers of registered French speakers, including the nearly one-in-three who hail from abroad.
Tens of thousands of Flemish people, meanwhile, took part on Sunday in an annual demonstration which consists in symbolically 'encircling' Brussels by bike or on foot, to remind locals that they are surrounded by Flanders.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Flemish make good beer & chocolat, but what are the French for?
What would the two (new) countries be called? The Flemish part could be Flanders, of course, but would the rest be Wallonia, or something else?
Who gets stuck with the EU headquarters and all the accompanying folderol? From the article, it's obvious Brussels is presently entirely in the Flemish part, but I'm betting the city is mostly French-ish.
Would Brussels try to become a separate (third) country? (An EU bureaucrat's wet dream, I'm sure; their own little feifdom funded not by taxes upon the bureaucrats citizens themselves, but by every other hapless country in Europe.
If Belgium breaks up, which would Albert be King of? Would the other country have a king, too, and if so, who?
Has anyone looked at how much of the present government's money would go to which country? 50-50, or something else?
For that matter, what's the proportion of Flemish and Walloons (or whatever) in the present country? (Apparently, from a little searching on Bing, the Flemish speak Dutch and the rest speak mostly French.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/06/2010 2:21 Comments ||
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Dear g(r)omgoru
You have it right, the Flemish produce the wealth and the French consume it.
#6
Beer? Check.
Popcorn? Check.
Comfy chair set to full recline? Check.
101 Nano-violins on the stereo? Check.
TV on The Belgium Channel? Check.
OK, I'm ready.
#8
You have it right, the Flemish produce the wealth and the French consume it.
The Wallons please. I, for one wouldn't want those people in France: their culture of unashamed welfare (entire families where all generations from grand-fathers to grown-up grandchildren are on welfare) would cause nauseas on most French.
#11
Peter Davidson as Doctor Who: "The TARDIS is about to blow a hole in the universe! ... The exact size of Belgium.
Well, that's a bit undramatic, isn't it?"
#12
Thanks, Parabellum! The Internet is absolutely amazing, isn't it?
Though it's kinda worrisom that the link showed possible maps after the breakup, starting with Scenario 11111. Can't help but wonder what Scenarios 00001 through 11110 were. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/06/2010 18:04 Comments ||
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#13
Well, alrighty then, its SEDAKA = "DA NEIL" singing his song!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Pak Daily Times] Authorities were on Sunday trying to protect the town of Johi from floodwaters, which had already inundated several villages in Dadu district and were threatening Dadu city.
[Khaleej Times] A top Belgian politician warned the country's citizens on Sunday to 'get ready for the break-up of Belgium,' as King Albert II seeks to relaunch knife-edge coalition talks.
