Yulia Tymoshenko: Statement to the Ukrainian People

Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko has made a direct video address to the Ukrainian people:


From the statement:

"...we are not alone in this confrontation with Russia. In 1994 Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum with the U.S., UK and Russia guaranteeing our security in exchange for giving up our nuclear arsenal. Russia today is flagrantly violating its obligations and invading our territory. But I'm confident that the United States and Great Britain will never violate this Memorandum and will do everything they can to ensure peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin knows that by declaring war on us, he is declaring war on the guarantors of our security - the U.S. and Great Britain. I don't think that Russia will cross this line, because if it does it will lose.

"This should be the main reason for calm in our country."

Dictator Psychology

As Russia's President Putin appears to be preparing to re-enact the Anschluss of March 1938, this time in Ukraine, it may be wondered whether what we are witnessing is a full-scale military aggression of a kind that has not been seen in Europe since 1968, or even since the Second World War, or merely an episode of tacky war drama culled from the cinema, designed for TV, and meant to impress a domestic audience back home in Russia. The preparations and build-up in Crimea certainly look convincing, but there's a question as to how far they will go, and whether they will lead to a full-blooded invasion and occupation of Ukraine.

The Russian government must be well aware of the consequences that would be likely to follow: immediate and comprehensive economic sanctions by the West, an expansion of the Magnitsky List with asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials, an embargo of Russian companies and banks, exclusion of Russia from the G8 and other international bodies, and a great deal more. It seems improbable, therefore, that Putin is really willing to risk finally destroying Russia's already fragile and ailing economy and society by taking such a step - if, that is, he is a rational actor.

The explanation advanced by observers like chess master and human rights activist Garry Kasparov is that in the international and domestic public sphere alike, the rationality of Russia's leaders only extends so far - at a certain point it veers off into demagogic muscle-flexing and posturing:

Putin doesn't need to "win" in Crimea / Ukraine. Only to show power, look tough. This is what dictators do instead of having real elections.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 2, 2014

Pillaging

From The Observer (UK):

Georgian officials yesterday took The Observer by helicopter across a landscape of shimmering green pasture and mountain to the steamy port of Poti. Their aim was to show off its destruction by Russian soldiers - and to point out that they were still there.

Russian bombers destroyed Poti's naval base, killing five people, on the second day of the war. Yesterday, the gun turret of a sunken vessel stuck out above the turquoise water; nearby a white coastguard boat was listing and sunk. Russian soldiers had ransacked the port's main building, blowing open doors and upturning filing cabinets. One had written on a whiteboard: 'Georgian bitches. Die pederast cocks'.

'They turned up in 23 BMP armoured vehicles and took whatever was valuable,' said Reza Managadze, a port employee. 'They didn't even leave us anything to eat.' In a smashed-up medical room lay a portrait of Georgia's pro-US president Mikheil Saakashvili. A Russian soldier had stamped on it. He then added one word: 'Dick'.

Landsbergis: Russia is blowing up Europe

Vytautas Landsbergis is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was Lithuania's first head of state it declared independence from the Soviet Union in March 1990, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament.

The following is a linguistically edited version of the semi-machine-translated text which Professor Landsbergis distributed at the European Parliament yesterday.

Russia is blowing up Europe

The gloomiest premonitions are shortly about to come true. Europe is divided, and obsequious grovelling is finally yielding to Russian aggression. This was manifested by the EU leaders' inability even to state the fact that a foreign power had crossed the frontiers and ravaged the social fabric of a sovereign country. Nor did the immobilized United Nations dare to demand that the armed forces of the invader, under the control of the supreme commander in chief in the Kremlin responsible for the ongoing violence and plunder, get out immediately. Calls to stop these crimes had no result, and neither did ineffective parlance about Russia's 'inappropriate methods'.

It was as if one were expected to believe that if the Russian bombers targeted fewer bombs on homes, blew up fewer bridges, sank only two offshore patrol boats, not three, killed not two pressmen in Gori, but only one instead, perhaps, those methods would appear acceptable.

The German proposals for the stabilization of the situation under Russian occupation were exactly similar. To those unaware of the importance of the wording, Moscow insisted on continuing the misconceived usage of 'peacekeepers' as a description of invaders. This was exacerbated by an empty, time-wasting disagreement about the future of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while the future of both Georgia and Europe remain at stake.

The only test of credibility for the EU and NATO today is to demand that Russia's armed forces be immediately and unconditionally withdrawn. In order to prevent this, Russia simply denounced any full withdrawal. Shut your mouths, Europeans. Is that M. Sarkozy you’re addressing?

Anyone who fails to demand a complete unconditional withdrawal, not just a 'pull-back' of Russian forces, is actually justifying the incursion and the sea blockade, the looting, the rape, the total destruction of communications and economic infrastructure, if the Georgians are not pushed to guerrilla warfare in their own sovereign land, Russia will at least have succeeded in 'balkanizing' South Ossetia - village against village, so the destruction may now go deeper into Georgia. The new Georgian city of Akhalgori, is already occupied by 'independent Ossetians.' The mockery continues.

By their appeasement, Europe’s leaders are gradually becoming accomplices in total villainy.

Russia is quite content to reveal itself as a medieval conqueror state, to which all the goods seized from the defeated side belong. "These are our trophies," it says. That is a quotation.

We have seen it all in Lithuania - the outright Soviet cynicism, the ideological demagoguery that is accompanied by the violence of the military and by Chekist atrocities.

They began by accusing Lithuania of being the aggressor in 1940; the occupation was followed by the Red Terror, and then, by the use of specially re-uniformed assault troopers, they waged total warfare against peasants who were thrown out of their homes and land for decades until Lithuania regained its independence on March 12 1990.

This is currently being done in Georgia, while terrorists brought in from North Caucasus are also allowed to demonstrate how impotent the Tbilisi government is. That government has agreed to not even undertake the responsibility of protecting its own people. Europe de facto approves of “free hands” in this “solution” and agreement. You will not resist, M. Sarkozy agreed. We won’t protect you either, just make statements. Let the Georgian forces retreat to the places of their deployment. As to the whereabouts of Russia's units or the date by which they are supposed to leave – that has been left to be guessed. The Kremlin is free to tell lies every day. The Georgians will be told what to do, while the Russians will only be offered suggestions. In response, the Russians are already dictating conditions as victors.

There has been open hypocrisy: as if the bandits who followed the forces of the invaders did not belong to the Russian units. That is exactly how it was presented to us in 1991; the Soviet interior ministry OMON gangs were portrayed as 'local forces' assigned to protect the local Poles from the Lithuanians. A little later the whole of the so-called “Baltic regional military structure” (the Russian one, of course) was declared a "local public force" which was take part in determining the future "status" of the three Baltic States! But President Boris Yeltsin behaved honestly, so the menacing bubbles of the GRU bubbles proved to be empty in the end.

Before that, in Lithuania we saw the night of January 13 1991,a night which may be descending on Georgia presently. I can well remember the horrible sensation; we were being butchered, looted, exposed to anything they had on their minds while the whole world remained silent. Only Boris Yeltsin responded, as I later found out, by sternly warning Mr Gorbachev. But Gorbachev was by then already a hostage of the crime that had been perpetrated with his consent. And as the bloody morning drew closer, the West's protests were already audible.

The Soviet generals were, however, prevented from "finishing the job". It seems that things are similar around Tbilisi. The Russians are mocking President Sarkozy and Secretary of State Rice by withdrawing a little when they are in town, and coming back closer inr after the guests depart.

Georgia is not seeing the dawn, and Europe is allowing it to be so.

This may suggest that we are now at the beginning of the long-planned break-up of the European Union and the cataclysm of that ancient civilization. If we are honest we can see that morally Europe already capitulated way back in Chechnya. Any simplified, primitive and artificial justification for that punishing Chechen genocide, the second after the one inflicted by Stalin in 1944, was accepted. Now the berries are ripe.

Cliché Diplomacy: "Peace through Speech"

From: The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. [mailto:jbanc@jbanc.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 5:19 AM
To: jbanc@jbanc.org
Subject: Cliché Diplomacy: "Peace Through Speech" (Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Redstate, August 19, 2008 )
http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/aug/19/cliche-diplomacy-peace-through-speech/
Cliché Diplomacy: "Peace Through Speech"
Posted by: Rep. Thaddeus McCotter
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 04:00AM

In wake of revanchist Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a sovereign democracy allied with the United States and Europe, the stunned Bush administration’s response to this failure of “quiet diplomacy” and “engagement” policy with Comrade Putin – he of the soulful eyes – was initially one of stammered clichés, each of which is revelatory, juvenile and injurious.

Consequently, to further the cause of liberty and security, we are compelled to dispel the clichés fostering the failed policy of “peace through speech”; reassert the doctrine of “peace through strength”; and advance concrete actions to punish Russia for invading Georgia.

Regarding the clichés, first let us dispense with “Democracies don’t attack democracies.” Though belied by the War of 1812 (as but one example), this canard persisted until it came to rest in pieces beneath the boot heels of Georgia’s Russian invaders.

Next, we must refute how “This type of aggression is unacceptable in the 21st Century.” Excuse me, but welcome to the “end of the end of history”! It is insane to presume an arbitrary millennial date prevents nations from using force to attain perceived gains. For years it has been evident Comrade Putin disagrees with this false assumption; thus, who could be shocked this inanity has gained as little credence in Moscow as the Kellogg-Briand Pact once gained in Berlin?

Finally, let us end the myth aggressor nations measure their “international standing” in the same vein as do western democracies. Russia does not seek to be liked. Russia seeks to be feared. In sum, through intimidation and coercion Russia seeks what it cannot accomplish through cooperation and negotiation – the political subordination of central and eastern Europe’s sovereign, U.S. allied democracies within what Russia deems its “near abroad.” To gain this end, Russia invaded Georgia. In making this decision, Comrade Putin anticipated “The West’s” tepid words; and Comrade Putin didn’t give a damn. In fact, he was counting on them to bolster both his own domestic power within Russia and his nation’s external power over central and eastern European nations, who would be less than reassured by a weak-kneed US and EU response. (No doubt, too, Comrade Putin is laughing hysterically over some “sophisticated” foreign policy “experts” claiming the West’s harsh rhetoric will only inflame the situation. It looks like the Left hasn’t lost its “cold war” mindset, either!)

Frankly, the above clichés reveal the rot within both the administration’s and the Republican Party’s present foreign policy. Conflating the truth of Reagan’s dictum of “peace through strength” with the hope of “peace through speech”, the GOP has forgotten that words won’t stop tanks.

But “peace through strength” will. Nations must know pursing strategic aims through aggressive measures will cause them more harm than good. Then, if an aggressor nation miscalculates and strikes regardless, the harm to the aggressor nation must swiftly and surely outweigh its coveted benefits.

Therefore, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, individually and collectively the United States and our allies must:

Ensure the removal of all Russian troops, weapons, and intelligence officers from Georgian soil.

Secure Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion.

Invite Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to address a joint session of the United States Congress and reaffirm the bond of solidarity between the free peoples of our democracies.

Offer a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia and the Ukraine.

Suspend high-level NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meetings until all Russian troops, weapons, and intelligence officers are removed from Georgian soil; and Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion are tendered.

Authorize Georgia, Ukraine, and all non-NATO central and eastern European allies to receive the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) the same preferential treatment as NATO+3 (Australia, Japan, and New Zeeland).

Authorize large-scale Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance to central and eastern European NATO allies.

Accelerate European Union accession and partnership negotiations with Ukraine and Georgia.

Bar Russia from the G-8 until all Russian troops, weapons, and intelligence officers are removed from Georgian soil; and Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion are tendered.

Refuse consideration of Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) until all Russian troops, weapons, and intelligence officers are removed from Georgian soil; and Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion are tendered.

End Russia's PNTR status and further sanction Russia with Column Two Tariffs until all Russian troops, weapons, and intelligence officers are removed from Georgian soil; and Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion are tendered.

Provide the Economic Support Funding (ESF) to Georgia to repair their infrastructure, which will be repaid by Russian reparations for the damages incurred by Georgia due to this illegal invasion.

Reauthorize programs under the Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act.

Assert that continued, large-scale, organized cyber attacks constitute an act of aggression.

Direct the Department of Interior’s United States Board of Geographic Names to refer to the Kuril Islands by their Japanese name.

Call upon the International Olympic Committee to relocate the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, to a non-aggressor nation.

Well, there I go again, revealing my “cold war” mentality. Maybe the “peace through speech” sophisticates are right. Let’s pass some vapid resolutions accusing Russia of not being an international team player; importune Comrade Putin to return the soul behind his eyes to its rightful owner; and hope this rabid bear is coaxed back into hibernation.

Still, one must wonder if the Georgian people would appreciate the irony that our quiet diplomacy is premised upon loud publicity not their pained reality?

###
******************************
Karl Altau
Managing Director
Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc.
400 Hurley Avenue
Rockville, MD  20850
tel. 301-340-1954
fax 301-309-1406
jbanc@jbanc.org
http://jbanc.org
Representing:
Estonian American National Council, Inc.
American Latvian Association, Inc.
Lithuanian American Council, Inc.
******************************

Prague, August 20-21, 1968

Today and tomorrow mark the 40th anniversary of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt has a commemorative post on his weblog. Excerpt (my tr.):

And just after midnight it all began. Soviet special troops took over the airport. In surged the rumbling Antonovs carrying the airborne detachments, guided by the plane that had parked on the edge of the field.

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia - Operation Donau to the Soviet staffs - had started.

But 40 years ago it was still just the twentieth of August.

And most of Europe was enjoying the summer, sleeping or relaxing.

The calm before the tragedy.

Sarkozy became a messenger of Moscow's coercion

Jamestown's Vladimir Socor has an analysis of the method by which Moscow has already succeeded in invalidating the six-point French-brokered peace plan, and pinpoints President Sarkozy as the initiator of this process. A couple of brief excerpts from a long and carefully researched study:

Russia has junked the six-point agreement in the traditional way of Russian and Soviet diplomacy in Europe’s East: It eviscerates an international agreement of its content while preserving its carcass for continuing reference to excuse Kremlin actions.

------

The Georgians yielded to Sarkozy’s argument that failure to sign the document would immediately trigger the occupation of Tbilisi by Russian troops. By descending on Tbilisi with this argument straight from his tete-a-tete with Medvedev, the French president became in effect a messenger of Russian coercion of Georgia.

Invasion Timeline

The Independent has published a useful summary of events in the Russian invasion of Georgia. Though the article suffers here and there in its attempts to be "even-handed", it does give a fairly clear picture of the hours leading up to the Russian assault. Excerpt:

On 7 August, the day before the Olympics began, the Georgian negotiator, Temuri Yakobashvili, went to the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali for direct talks with the de facto separatist leader and a Russian envoy. Yakobashvili recalls that Tskhinvali already looked like a ghost town. But the Russian diplomat, Yuri Popov, failed to show up for the meeting at a Russian military base, saying that his car had a flat tyre. "Can't you change the tyre?" the incredulous Georgian negotiator asked the Russian who was supposed to be chairing the talks. No, he replied, as he did not have a spare.

Then, the South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity failed to show up. Yakobashvili asked the Russian general who headed the joint peacekeeping commission what to do, and was told: "Declare a ceasefire." So, that night at 7 pm, Saakashvili went on television and declared a unilateral ceasefire. But by that time, Georgian tanks and troops were on the move.

At 10.30pm, two Georgian peacekeepers were killed and six injured when the rebels opened fire on Georgian positions. But the attack that prompted Georgia's full-scale attack, at about midnight on 7 August, was a bombardment of the villages of Tamarasheni and Kurta, close to Tskhinvali.

Then, the Georgians say, came the "tipping point". They say the US showed them satellite photographs of 150 Russian tanks entering the Roki tunnel, although the Georgians have refused to provide such evidence. The Russians insist their build-up through the tunnel came only after the Georgians attacked Tskhinvali, killing 15 Russian peacekeepers. "This was a heavy armoured Russian column, moving slowly, on very rugged terrain in the highest mountain range in Europe," says Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze of Georgia. "Think how many hours of preparation, assembly, then marching, it would take for that column, moving at that speed on rugged terrain, to be at the Kurta bridge at six in the morning. If that isn't a premeditated invasion, I don't know what is." They were regular Russian troops, not peacekeepers, heading to Tskhinvali.

Gori "pullout" was a hoax

Via the Washington Post:

Many Georgians shrug at Russian promises to leave. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the Russian column that left Gori on Tuesday was part of a hoax. "They just call these foreign journalists, move the column in front of them, and then when they are gone, they put them back. So there has been no withdrawal whatsoever."

Russia's response

In language that really does recall the days of the Cold War, or even the Third Reich, Russia's foreign minister has responded to the NATO foreign ministers' statement by calling it "an attempt to whitewash the criminal regime in Georgia", "making the aggressor the victim".

Who ordered the invasion of Georgia, and how?

Writing in his blog, Marko Mihkelson, head of the Estonian parliament's EU affairs committee, asks (my tr.):

Do you know who decided to start the military invasion of sovereign Georgia, and how?

Paragraph d) of Part 1 of Article 102 of the Russian Constitution, which has been in force since December 1993, states specifically that permission to use the armed forces outside the territory of the Russian Federation is given by the upper chamber the Federation Council. Was such permission given? No, as you can see on the upper chamber’s home page. Thus it is no exaggeration to suppose that by sending troops into Georgia, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev violated the constitution of his state.

In fact, this is sadly a clear demonstration of how undemocratic, secretive and unpredictable the decision-making mechanisms in modern Russia are. Prime minister Vladimir Putin was first to announce the start of military operations, and did so on the basis of public rhetoric He was followed, with a similar statement, by President Dmitry Medvedev.

If someone did make a decision authorizing an invasion, then we don’t know when this happened, or in which chamber (it might have been the Security Council, for example). When in 1994 President Boris Yeltsin sent troops to Chechnya, which lay within the borders of his State, he had to go at least through a meeting of the Security Council. But now we are talking about an independent state, and for this the Constitution stipulates that there must be a decision of parliament.

It's obvious, however, that the Russian armed forces were ready for a rapid incursion into Georgia’s territory. The invasion took place less than a day after the alleged emergence of a pretext.

Against the backdrop of the events in Georgia President Medvedev has become a manifest shadow of President Putin. One should remember that a few days later, Medvedev announced that the military operation had been completed, and yesterday that Russian troops were leaving Georgian territory. But in reality everything is different.

Immediately after being elected president, Medvedev pledged the rule of law in Russia. Unfortunately, since the head of state himself has ignored the provisions of the Constitution, this is not convincing, The constitutional court’s opinion on the legality of the attack sounds more made-to-order than independent.

Russia trains its missiles on Tbilisi

Via AFP:

Russia trains its missiles on Tbilisi

RUSSIA has deployed several tactical missile launchers and supply vehicles to South Ossetia, putting the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, within their striking range, The New York Times reported on its website yesterday.

- - - - - - - - -

Before Russian deputy chief of staff Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn claimed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia had began last night, The New York Times cited US officials familiar with intelligence reports as saying the launching positions were located north of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

Officials told the paper that SS-21 missile launchers, as well as supply vehicles, had driven south through the Roki Tunnel into South Ossetia in recent days and were deployed within range of much of Georgia, including its second-largest city, Kutaisi, and Tbilisi. Russian forces used the short-range ballistic missile in the Chechnya conflict, where it was believed to have caused significant civilian casualties.

Government split in Ukraine

Via the Telegraph:

President Victor Yushchenko of Ukraine accused his prime minister Yulia Timoshenko of committing "high treason" by not speaking out against the Kremlin during an escalating stand off with Russia.

Timeline August 18 [mfa.gov.ge]

http://mfa.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=461&info_id=7527

 

Timeline of Events in the Russian Invasion & Occupation of Georgia

The information below is accurate to the best of our knowledge but is subject to verification.

18 August

18:30 Russian armored vehicles have moved from Igoeti to the village of Odzisi south of Akhalgori.

17:30 Russian military plane entered Georgian airspace from North near Stefantsminda (Kasbegi). It flew towards Jinvali dam, overflew it and returned.  

17:30 Georgian police check point attacked by Russian Military near Igoeti. Tanks run over Police Cars.

• Russian armored vehicles began movement from Igoeti towards Akhalgori. On the checkpoint of Georgian police they crashed police cars and continued their movement towards Akhalgori.

16:00 Russian military are exploding barracks and other infrastructures  of the Senaki military base.

13:00 Russian Troops start movement towards Sachkhere and Borjomi, most probably for reconnaissance purposes.

11:00 Russian Troops block roads around Kaspi .

Russian troops continue to move deep into Georgia

Russian forces are not leaving Georgian territory and continue to move deeper inside the country, AFP reports. Shota Utiashvili, Georgian interior ministry representative has made a statement which includes details of Russian troop movements near the city of  Borjomi.

Georgian government statement

A newly released statement by the Georgian government says that

It is absolutely obvious to the international community that the Russian Federation chose destruction of economy with the use of military force and ethnic cleansing as an instrument for implementing its foreign policy.

Read the whole document here.

In sympathy

Peteris Cedrins has a thoughtful and informative post about the sympathy many people in the Baltic States feel for Georgia:

The photograph in this post is of a work by Jūlijs Straume, an artist renowned for his textiles; I thought I would avoid the photos of carnage one can find everywhere these days. Long resident in Georgia and an avid researcher in Georgian traditions, he was also the first Latvian envoy to the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia, proclaimed in the same year the Baltic states declared their independence. The Baltics, with all our tragedy, had better luck -- like Belarus, which also declared its independence ninety years ago, Georgia was crushed before it could enjoy the two decades of nation-building we did. Twenty years, sullied by our own descent into authoritarianism and blighted by the shadows of the approaching war, might not seem like much -- but our parents and grandparents remembered being free. The maps I grew up with in America almost always bore the note that the United States and most Western countries did not recognize the annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by the USSR. The fervent hope that we would regain our independence seemed to be an absurd dream to many even at the fall of the Berlin Wall. The maps had no such note for Georgia, Belarus, or Ukraine -- though Georgia did have some success in achieving diplomatic recognition for its doomed Republic, fate and Stalin dictated otherwise.

Georgia takes conciliatory tone with Russia

Reuters reports that, in the hope that Russia will fulfil its promise to start withdrawing its forces from Georgian territory today, President Saakashvili will make a televised address later today in which he takes a conciliatory tone towards Russia, asking it to start thinking about "further negotiations". He says that he doesn't appeal to Russia's mercy but to its "pragmatism and simple common sense."

Reuters also notes that to many hardliners in Moscow, Russia's withdrawal will be seen as a defeat.

Russian soldiers filmed looting Georgian bank

Via Russia and Georgia at War: this YouTube clip from Georgian television clearly shows CCTV footage of Russian soldiers in uniform looting a bank in the city of Gori.

S. Ossetia holding over 130 Georgian civilian hostages

The Telegraph writes that South Ossetian authorities are holding over 130 Georgian civilian hostages, including children, and are demanding a "prisoner exchange":

Georgian government officials said yesterday they were aware of the hostage situation but denied holding any South Ossetians captive to exchange.

Koba Subeliani, an MP responsible for internally displaced persons said, "We know about them. The problems is we don't have any hostages so we can't do any exchange".