I think this is a serious first for news. As I noted days ago, GQ spiked their article on allegations that the Russian FSB (and their Putin regime) were behind the 1999 false-flag bombings in Russia. The article was not run in Russia at all and was hardly marketed in the US. So Gawker scanned pages of the actual article in English and asked its readers to help translate it into Russian. The result? The Russian article that should have run - and pretty well translated actually. Check out both the English language scans they have up and the Russian translation. Congrats to the entire group project on this.
But let me just remind everyone that about 3 years ago, I reported very similar allegations as they related to the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko. My sources believed that SVR was involved in the Litvinenko hit and possibly some elements of the FSB. But the key allegations made in the GQ piece about the 1999 bombings implicated the FSB. Mine did as well. Moreover, my sources implicated the FSB in the Beslan Massacre (to which Politkovskaya was headed to report when she was poisoned, but survived - the second attempt on her life was successful. she was assassinated in October of 06).
Just as an fyi for those who do not know, SVR and the FSB together used to be what was known as the KGB. When the KGB was broken apart, these organizations were regrouped, but much of the Cold War elements, such as the S Directorate still exist.
The GQ info is using sourcing different from my own, but focusing entirely on the FSB. In any case, here is what I wrote in 06:
"Former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who passed away late lastweek from what many intelligence officials have indicated they believeto be a state-sponsored assassination, was likely the victim of theRussian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR),well-placed sources tell RAW STORY.
Specifically, two former Cold War CIA officers, who still onoccasion provide consulting work for the CIA, point to the SDirectorate of SVR, which is in charge of black operations and otherallegedly highly illegal transnational activities. They believe thatthe murders are closely tied to terrorist activities within Russia, andlikely do involve Russian President Vladimir Putin."
"Although none of the sources interviewed for this article were ableto say too much regarding what is an ongoing investigation into the twomurders, several former intelligence sources pointed to allegedfalse-flag bombings that were carried out in Russia starting in 1999.
A false-flag operation is one in which an attack is carried out byone government or entity and made to seem the work of another. Inmodern times, the term has become synonymous with Operation Gladio, aseries of false-flag bombings inflicted on Italy by certain far rightmembers of elements in the government and military, the aim of whichwas to frame opposition parties in order to discredit them, as well asto force that nation as a whole to move politically right of center.This method was known as the Strategy of Tension.
The Russian bombings bear all the hallmarks of such operations,including the most well-known of these bombings, in which a car bombwas detonated in front of an apartment building in the city of Buynakskthat served as military housing for Russian soldiers, killing more thansixty residents. The attack was blamed on Chechen separatists and wasused to justify attacks on suspected Chechen sympathizers and allegedco-conspirators, as well as on Chechnya itself. Other bombings soonfollowed, leading to then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declaring waron the separatist region, which had gained de facto independencefollowing the breakup of the Soviet Union.
But it was not until the failed Rayzan bombing attemptthat the suspected role of the Russian government in the bombings beganto be alleged publicly. In mid-1999, a group of agents of the RussianFederal Security Service, or Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB),were found placing explosives at an apartment complex in the city ofRayzan. The FSB is the Russian equivalent of the FBI, and it and theSVR are the two arms of what used to be known as the KGB. The materialsused in this incident were similar to those found at the other bombingscommitted throughout 1999, but th FSB denied any involvement in theprevious terrorist attacks and described the Rayzan bombing plot as adomestic counter-terrorism exercise.
The Russian Duma -- the lower house of the Federal Assembly --attempted to investigate the bombings, but the Kremlin would notcooperate or provide requested documentation."
The Gawker translation is of extreme importance. The fact that there is almost an entire media black-out of these allegations is astonishing. Why is this so important?
Because during a much earlier period, Europe was rocked by the same allegations. In particular, elements of the Italian military were revealed to have bombed their own people in order to frame a left leaning group, members of which ended up in prison.
This operation was called Gladio.
That kind of abuse of power, if it goes unchecked, is dangerous to every country and every person. Gladio affected nearly every Western European nation without the leadership of that nation even being aware at the time.
For an excellent report on the Gladio assassinations and bombings, see the BCC documentary also entitled Gladio. You can watch it here.
And just like with the bombings in Russia, the US media made little attempt to report the Gladio horrors.
So if you have not heard of this, don't worry, you are not alone.
UPDATE
Apparently the link to the BBC documentary is not working. I found it, however, posted on Google videos and I am including it here, in three parts: