Largely out of view of the West, Russia has been waging a bizarre media campaign internally, striving to convince its citizens that the recent unpleasantness in Georgia was all the doing of the United States. One of the main accusations was that Russian troops found numerous "American mercenaries" among the dead. When pressed by Western reporters inside Russia, to display some of this evidence, the Russians have been evasive. Late last month, the Russians finally came forward with the U.S. passport of one of the "American mercenaries". The name on the passport was Michael Lee White, who turns out to be a 41 year old U.S. Army veteran. But at the time of his alleged death, and for some time before that, he was in Texas, caring for his sick father. He is now teaching English at the Guangdong (China) University of Business Studies[.]
White lost the passport in 2005, apparently on a Moscow-to-New York flight. The Russians didn't return it to him, though they obviously had his name and address. They kept it just in case. They may not have known when or where they'd need to support a lie to justify their actions, but they knew they'd need it eventually.
So if you think my suspicions about what the Russians added to their lost and found bin just in case they might come in handy while they occupied Georgian military bases are too paranoid, think again. The Russians are that screwed up.
