Georgia Navigator. As such, Nimrodi knew many of the arms dealers who worked in the region.

TEL AVIV -- Suddenly, without any one-time warning, Israel has become indirectly complex in the Russian-Georgian struggle over South Ossetia. Commenting on this conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said: "Those who have been supplying arms to Georgia should be partly blamed for the killing in South Ossetia." Lavrov was referring -- without mentioning names -- to the United States, Ukraine and Israel. Last April, when the Russians opportunity down an Israeli-manufactured drone exploration plane, Lavrov wrote to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, insisting that Israel closing up selling arms to Georgia. Israel sold four drones to Georgia.

Earlier this month, Israel got an even more unceremonious Russian warning. Israeli National Security Adviser Dany Arditi met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart and with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kisiliak, who is slated to become the altered Russian diplomat to Washington. Arditi asked his Russian interlocutors to enlist the U.S. and its European allies and allow to upo a saddle harsher cost-effective sanctions against Iran. They refused.

They told Arditi that while Israel is asking Russia not to supplying Syria and Iran with more advanced wind excuse systems -- such as the SA-300 and Tor-M1 -- Israel continues to trade arms to Georgia. In addition, two previous Israeli generals are in Georgia training elite commando units. Such conduct, they warned, could after all wrongdoing Russian-Israeli relations. Israeli conviction relations with Georgia began in 1993. The Israeli tutor member at the adjust was the recently Yitzhak Rabin, while Eduard Sheverdnadze was the Georgian president.

Retired colonel Yaacov Nimrodi told Rabin there was a feasibility Shevardnadze would inquire, during a stubby by to Tehran, about the to what place of Ron Arad, the Israeli helmsman whose airliner was bullet down by Hezbollah in 1986 over South Lebanon. Reluctantly, Rabin agreed to nearly equal Shevardnadze on this subject. Equipped with a epistle of introduction signed by the Israeli acme minister, Nimrodi met in February 1993 with the Georgian president. Shevardnadze agreed to inquire in Tehran about Ron Arad.

He sent to Tehran a major envoy, but he returned empty-handed. The Iranians said they conscious nothing about Arad. During the conversation, Shevardnadze said that he urgently needed nutriment and pharmaceutical and also a volume of Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles. Since Shevardnadze had become president in March 1992, the servant post in Georgia was desperate.

Muslim rebels in Abkhazia, assisted by Russia, wanted their dominion to become autonomous, in forward of a practicable consolidation with Russia. The Russian army was in disagreeable shape, unprofessionally equipped and unfavourably trained. Shevardnadze imposed a blockade on Abkhazia. Russia countered by impressive a blockade on Georgia.

As a result, the Georgian curtness was on the stretch of collapse. There was a bare deficiency of aliment and medication and no fuel. To hold in check the rebellion in Abkhazia, Shevardnadze urgently needed arms, preferably Kalashnikovs. Nimrodi, a last Israeli forces attache in Tehran, was the Israeli pointman in the 1985-86 Iran-Contra affair. As such, Nimrodi knew many of the arms dealers who worked in the region.

Since Israel did not have Kalashnikovs in its arsenal, Nimrodi was to assay to chance them through the various arms dealers. But at the insist on of Shevardnadze, the sooner primacy was eats and medicines. A essential shipment was sent to Georgia very quickly.

Nimrodi showed me a copy of a "thank you" missive that Shevardnadze had sent him. The yield of the Kalashnikovs proved to be more problematic. Shevardnadze wanted initially 100,000 rifles. The arms dealers insisted on cash. The Georgian bank was empty.

Shevardnadze lowered his sisterhood to 10,000 rifles. Nimrodi made a down pay of $2 million from his own pocket. Eventually, Georgia bought unventilated to 40,000 Kalashnikovs. In the meantime, and due to hulking American assistance, the locale in Abkhazia stabilized and Shevardnadze was again in control.

Israeli experts who are ordinary with Georgian affairs are not surprised by the developments in South Ossetia. Since Georgia became an friend of the United States, and especially because of gigantic American investments in the country, Georgia wants to unify NATO. The European members of NATO are vehemently opposed to such a move, while the U.S. supports it.

Needless to say, Russia is vehemently opposed to Georgia stylish a fellow of NATO. Putin considers this to be a actuate directed against his country. In witness of the new developments in South Ossetia, it is shielded to forewarn that the admissibility of Georgia joining NATO is now in the strong freeze.

Samuel Segev is the Free Press Middle East correspondent. He is based in Tel Aviv.

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Alicia Gymnast. Golden girls no more, Americans beaten by China.

BEIJING -- Alicia Sacramone crouched on the instruct near the floor, her leader buried in her hands, disbelief etched across her face. The Olympic gold medal was in the Americans' grasp, the legend that would say, yes, they honestly are the world's best team. And they fumbled it away. With a dive off the smile radiantly here, a splat on the lowest there and two more steps out of bounds Wednesday, the Americans all but in one's own view handed the gold medals to the Chinese band and settled for silver. China's vocal score of 188.9 points was more than two points forward of the U.S., a blowout in a game that was intended to be undisputed by the slimmest of margins.

"No one else made mistakes, so it's type of my fault," Sacramone said, still disquieting to recoil back the tears from her red-rimmed eyes. "I think about everybody knows you always have laudatory days and mischievous days. I just thrust today was a elevated day." It was a spectacular prime for China.

The American mistakes turned China's ending three routines on minimum into crushing dances, and oh did Deng Linlin, Jiang Yuyuan and Cheng Fei compete with their parts to perfection. With roars of "Jia You! Jia You!" punctuating her every pass, Jiang worked the crowd, looking out with a mile-wide beam that made a scabrous regular aspect feel attracted to fun. Cheng has better springs than just about anyone and, with the apply pressure off, she made great use of them, bounding across the crush and alighting as if she had mucilage on her toy feet. When she threw up her hands after her concluding pose, her teammates jumped up and down and hugged each other. All thee questions about their ages - there were suspicions that it is possible that half the rig wasn't prior enough to vie - didn't disturb them.

Nor could the expectations of all those adoring fans. "The Chinese women's gymnastics line-up made old hat today, showing the coterie the China women's gymnastics crew is the greatest," carriage Lu Shanzhen said. They matter-of-factly floated out of the arena, stopping irregularly to predicate for pictures and ripple to the cheering fans. They held hands during the medals ceremony, often looking down at their original treasures in wonder.

Afterward, they picked up one of their coaches and tossed him into the mood - with an promote from a few other people, of course. It was the triumph Olympic gold for the Chinese, and now they have both group titles - men and women. "Before they go out there, I want them to take it in themselves. And they all did," Cheng said.

"I didn't have to require anything to them. Even though they are very young, they have a lot of suffer as well and they have their own ways to get the idea from their own experiences, and they reach-me-down those ways." The Americans also went to Athens as the reigning fraternity champs four years ago, only to falter and arrange for silver. "I am not disheartened at all," Shawn Johnson insisted.

"We are forgiving when it comes down to it. We forge mistakes. And it came down to China had a better era today. Give us another day, we could doubtlessly come out on top.

" The genuineness is, the Americans wanted gold not silver. The Americans have dominated women's gymnastics since falling compact in Athens, amiable the area championship wear year and a slew of soul titles. They're stocked with the reigning planet champ in Johnson, and her closest rival, Nastia Liukin, not to allude to 2005 earth prizewinner Chellsie Memmel. But China wasn't far behind, title-holder of the Terra crown in '06.

With the scoring content in finals so unforgiving - three gymnasts up on each event, all three scores reckon - there was space for one mistake. Maybe two, if they're small. Two big ones? And four in the pattern two events? They don't give gold medals for reputation. "We're just as genuine as China," patriotic tandem coordinator Martha Karolyi said. "We made mistakes. They did not.

" Though China led halfway through the meet, the teams finished up on stabilize timber and baffle exercise, the Americans' best two events. And when Cheng knock off the beam, it gave the Americans the chance they needed. Get through those latest two events, and the gold would be theirs. But Sacramone, anything else up on surplus beam, was held up for what seemed in the manner of 15 minutes before she was given the authorization for her routine, and she appeared to get edgier and edgier as she paced back and forth. Sure enough, as she came down to berth the somersault that opens her routine, her at once foot slipped off the advantage of the 4-inch beam.

Sacramone windmilled her arms and twisted her body, but she couldn't guard herself and dropped off as the throng gasped. Not only is the depreciation a penalty, but she never did the backflip that all things considered follows, costing her more esteemed points. "I was just vehement to do my part and get the show on the road," Sacramone said.

"The judges unqualified to hold me and I conjecture I just let my nerves get the best of me." Liukin gathered the party together, important them, "Just quiver it off, that's all you can do. Shake it off." And they went over to astonish only a attribute behind, a rim they might have made up if the total went perfectly. Sacramone was again firstly up, and overwhelm is her signature event.

She won a crowd documentation of ownership on it in 2005, and her routines generally have so much sass, they challenge anything you lead in Vegas.

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