. . . . Trying to catch up on reading, again.
"In 2005, then-Senator Barack 0bama went on a mission to Russia with Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). The newly-minted U.S. senator was invited to be part of a Russian fact-finding tour that inspected a nuclear weapons site in Perm, Siberia.
"The base Lugar and 0bama visited was where mobile launch missiles were being destroyed under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program (CTR), which also went by the name of the Nunn-Lugar program. "What happened next -- after the inspections were over -- was at the time reported by several foreign news sources but was never reported in the USA by the CMM.
"The Russians detained 0bama and Lugar for three hours at the airport, demanding to examine both 0bama's and Lugar's passports and search their plane.
" Some sources reported that the Russians accused Barack 0bama of being a spy.
"But wait -- there's more!
"According to an Italian source, the Russians did not accuse Obama of being an American spy; they accused him of being a spy for the British!
"The report went on to say that the incident ended up involving the White House, the U.S. State Department, and military officials, along with their counterparts in Moscow.
"Strangely enough, an official report from Lugar's office about the trip never mentioned the incident. Neither did Barack 0bama in 2008 when he was desperate to exhibit some foreign policy chops.
"One other oddity: in the fall of 2008, - Obama admitted on his Fightthesmears.com site that he had held dual citizenship with both the United States and Great Britain
"(the site explained that this was due to Barack 0bama, Sr. being a foreign national) until 1982.
"Did the Russians know something about 0bama's citizenship in 2005 that ordinary Americans don't know in 2011?
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"Another story no one has seen fit to ask about: Obama's Most Excellent Pakistani Adventure. In the summer of 1981, 20-year-old Barack Obama embarked on a two-week trip to Pakistan. At least what little reporting that has been done claimed the length of the trip was two weeks.
"The only proof that the trip didn't turn into a longer stay is that we (supposedly) have records which show that Barack 0bama enrolled at Columbia University later that same summer.
"Of course, the public hasn't seen those records, but that's what we've been told. - Anyone in doubt will be directed to 0bama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father.
"Obama clearly gave the impression in DFMF that he was this penniless, somewhat confused young man, in search of an identity.
"0bama makes sure readers don't miss the point by writing that he was forced to wear "thrift store clothing" during this time. -- Yet he somehow managed to find the cash to finance a two-week trip to Pakistan.
"Which he never wrote about.
"Which in itself is odd:
"Here's a guy who wrote two autobiographies that explored events real, imagined, and totally fictional that supposedly forged the modern-day Barack 0bama from humble beginnings. That's according to the 0bama NarrativeTM -- which gets most of its facts from Dreams from My Father.
"Not only did a poor, nearly destitute Obama manage to afford the trip to Pakistan, but once there he somehow financed two weeks in the Lahore Hilton International.
"In addition, Obama was introduced to the future prime minister and president of Pakistan -- and went bird-hunting with him.
"Which the prime minister mentioned in the Pakistani press in 2008.
"There's so much more, including one question the CMM never asked 0bama: who arranged all of this? -- For a 20-year-old nobody."
Additional reports ...
http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-08-29/news/17385399_1_delegation-nuclear-warheads-russian-ministry
LUGAR , OBAMA DETAINED IN RUSSIA - DELEGATION RELEASED AFTER STANDOFF RESOLVED
Evansville Courier & Press (IN) - Monday, August 29, 2005
Author: Peter Finn, The Washington Post
A U.S. delegation headed by Sen. Richard Lugar , R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was detained Sunday for three hours at an airport in Russia before being allowed to leave the country for Ukraine.
Russian border guards at the airport in the Siberian city of Perm demanded to search the U.S. government aircraft carrying the delegation, which also included Sen. Barack Obama , D-Ill., who was making his first foreign trip since becoming a senator. Obama is also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
American officials, citing a U.S.-Russian agreement that does not allow such inspections, refused to allow the search, leading to a three-hour standoff at the airport, according to Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Lugar who is on the trip.
The congressional delegation was held in a malodorous room adjacent to the tarmac and allowed out onto an adjoining porch area only after they surrendered their passports , said Fisher, who spoke by phone from Kiev after the delegation landed there.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” said Fisher, noting that a delegation including Lugar was detained two years ago in Perm for a short time. “It may be some kind of internal bureaucratic problem.” U.S. officials in Moscow and Washington intervened with the Russian authorities to secure the group’s departure.
The delegation was in Russia as part of a week-long tour of major weapons facilities in the former Soviet Union, part of a U.S.-funded program to secure or destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Russia recently agreed to open sensitive sites to U.S. inspection, a breakthrough Lugar heralded at a news conference Friday in Moscow.
“Russians in the past had placed severe limitations on inspections at these storage sites, so this is a significant breakthrough,” said Lugar , who is the co-author of the 1991 Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
(snip)
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=2982074&itype=NGPSID&keyword=&qtype=
FROM RUSSIA , WITH SUSPICION - LOCAL RUSSIAN OFFICIALS BRIEFLY DETAIN TWO U.S. SENATORS
Grand Forks Herald (ND) - Monday, August 29, 2005
Author: Jeff Zeleny, Chicago Tribune
The trouble began shortly after the vodka toast.
Sen. Barack Obama , D-Ill., and Richard Lugar , R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had spent Sunday touring nuclear destruction sites outside this Russian town. Before boarding their plane, they stopped at a reception at the airport to say farewell to their hosts.
“I would like to raise my glass to friendship between Russia and the United States,” Lugar said.
Victor Shmayev, who oversees nuclear warhead destruction at the Federal Space Agency, bid his American friends a safe flight, saying, “Let the number of takeoffs equal the number of landings.”
But for more than three hours, there were no takeoffs or landings. At least not for the plane sitting a few hundred yards away, the white and blue DC-9 with “United States of America” painted on its side in large letters.
The senators and a delegation of 12 Americans were detained in a peaceful yet diplomatically chaotic afternoon episode.
What began as a seemingly bureaucratic misunderstanding escalated into an incident involving the White House, the State Department and a host of U.S. military officials in Washington and their Russian counterparts in Moscow.
Demanded to search aircraft When Obama and Lugar prepared to board their plane bound for Ukraine, local Russian border officials demanded to search the American aircraft.
U.S. military pilots refused, saying the plane is protected from searches by international law and a joint agreement between the two countries.
“We don’t search Russian aircraft in the United States. You will not search U.S. aircraft in Russia ,” said Ken Myers III, a senior aide to the Foreign Relations committee, to a trio of border officials, who said they were acting on the authority of the FSB, the agency which replaced the former KGB.
And with that, the standoff began.
Frantic calls to D.C., Moscow
The city of Perm, about 500 miles east of Moscow, is home to a small airstrip that accepts international flights, even though they aren’t frequent.
American officials used cell phones to dial Washington, Moscow and points across Europe, trying to resolve the matter.
The senators used the detention period to catch a brief afternoon nap, and the doors eventually were unlocked. But local Russian officials kept the U.S. passports .
(snip)
Reason for detentions
One reason for the detention, according to the discussions, was that local border officials weren’t convinced the delegation was flying in an official military plane, which under a joint U.S.-Russian agreement does not require inspection.
One of the pilots presented documents to one official, but he was not satisfied. All the while, two translators traveling with the delegation tried to make sense of the back-and-forth, calmly relaying the messages.
After heated discussions and repeated calls between officials in both countries, the situation was resolved and Russian authorities returned the delegation’s U.S. passports . One Russian guard, distributing the documents, apologized.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2005-08-29/news/0508280132_1_military-plane-russian-border-local-airport-officials
Russians Briefly Hold Two Senators, Aides
August 29, 2005|By Jeff Zeleny Chicago Tribune
(snip)
So what began as a seemingly bureaucratic misunderstanding escalated into an incident of greater proportions, ultimately involving the White House, the State Department, and military officials in Washington and their Russian counterparts in Moscow.
Initially, the group of 12 was held in an airport lounge, locked behind a glass door, but people were permitted to stand outside if they agreed to leave their passports in the hands of the Russian officials. The delegation was treated to food and water by local airport officials as national border control officers denied entry to the plane.
Lugar sat in an easy chair, sipping water and chatting with members of the group, while Obama walked around the lounge. Both senators used the detention period to take a brief nap from their tour, which includes stops in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
One reason for the detention, according to the discussions, was that local border officials were not convinced the delegation was flying in an official military plane, which under a joint U.S.-Russian agreement did not require inspection.
“Do you have proof that this is a military plane?” a Russian border control official said. The white-and-blue DC-9 jet bears a large logo reading “United States of America.”
After several heated discussions and repeated calls between officials in both countries, the situation was resolved and Russian authorities returned the delegation’s U.S. passports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/europe/29russia.html
U.S. Congressional Delegation Hindered at Russian Airport
New York Times, The (NY) - Monday, August 29, 2005
Author: By The New York Times
EXCERPT
A correspondent for The Chicago Tribune who was traveling with the senators and who first reported the delay wrote that border officials refused the delegation’s 12 members permission to leave, detained them in a lounge and would not immediately return their passports .
http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=113757025
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Dysfunctional like a fox?
Naples Daily News (FL) - Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Author: Martin Schram
EXCERPT
The Russian Foreign Ministry waited a full day and then issued a perfunctory apology that was half-fast in every sense of the term, dismissing the incident as a bureaucratic snafu. But wait: Lugar was similarly detained while visiting Perm in 2003. The Moscow Times noted that press officers of the British, Italian, German, French and Canadian embassies in Moscow knew of no similar hassles of their nation’s official visiting delegations.
These things have a way of coming around full circle. Russia ‘s FSB — the federal security agency that succeeded the KGB — defended the Lugar incident. Russia ‘s Novosti and Tass news agencies both reported the FSB view that the problem occurred because the Perm airport isn’t part of an Open Skies Agreement, which allows certain planes to bypass inspections, according to the Associated Press.