A July 9 entry in Paul Goble’s “Window on Eurasia” blog calls attention to a recent article in the Ukrainian press, “The Jewish card in Russian operations against Ukraine,” which exposes what the article’s author says was a Russian disinformation ploy against Ukraine’s president Viktor Yushchenko.

In 2008, Russia’s Regnum news service announced the publication of a book about Viktor Yushchenko’s father called Andrei Yushchenko: The Person and the “Legend” by Yuri Vilner. The book claims that Yushchenko’s father collaborated with the Nazis as a camp policeman and informer while a prisoner of war during World War II.

Ukrainian poet Moses Fishbein, who wrote the “Jewish card” article, read the book on the Internet and called the person to whom it was dedicated, Aron Shneer of Israel, to ask about the author, Yuri Vilner, identified as an Israeli historian.

Shneer had never heard of Vilner and Fishbein eventually concluded that “no one either in Israel or in Russia—or anywhere else for that matter—neither scholars nor journalists” knew of Vilner.

Fishbein then checked the book’s ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which provides a unique identification for books published internationally. It was 969-228-292-5.

The first group of numbers in a 10-digit ISBN denotes the country in which the book was published. The numbers 969 are for books published in Pakistan, not Israel. The number for Israel is 965.

In addition, ISBNs for books published in 2007 or later have 13 digits, not 10, another indication the Yushchenko book is a fake.

Fishbein says the fraudulent book was exposed in the Ukrainian press in 2008 and on an Israeli Web site, but that “Russian secret services” continue to use disinformation in “special operations” against Ukraine.

(Paul Goble, who spotted the Fishbein article, is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious issues in Russia and the former Soviet Union.)

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has added a “Situation in Georgia” page to its Web site, including a section on “Myths and Misinformation.” The section debunks false claims by Russian officials and others in Russian media. It states clearly that:
• No U.S. forces, advisors, or soldiers were in the combat zone in South Ossetia.
• The United States told all parties, including the Georgians, that the use of military force in any way in this volatile region was going to be a mistake.
• Up until the very last minute, the United States urged Georgia to act with restraint and not respond to provocations.
• The United States has not used humanitarian aid deliveries to provide arms to Georgia.
• The United States is very concerned about the plight of all civilians who suffered from the fighting in the region and deeply regrets the loss of life.
• Ethnic cleansing, racially motivated violence and other abuses of civilians are clear violations of international law and can never be justified.
• The United States supports all efforts to investigate allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

See the site for more details and instances of false claims by Russian officials and others in Russian media.

The “Main Story” on Russia Today’s English-language Web site on September 11 promotes the conspiracy theory film “Zero,” which claims “the U.S. official version of events surrounding the attacks on 9/11 can not be true.”

Russia Today’s Aleksandr Gurnov interviewed “Zero” filmmaker and European Parliamentarian Giulietto Chiesa this week. The 25-minute program is boring – Chiesa wanders aimlessly through his subject – and takes forever to download. Here’s the url, if you have a lot of patience and bandwidth.

In the interview, Chiesa claims that the hole in the Pentagon was not large enough to have been caused by an airplane. He’s wrong. The hole was some 27 meters wide. Like many other conspiracy theorists, Chiesa mistakes the portion of the hole on the second floor for the entire hole. This error was made possible because firefighting foam obscured much of the ground floor damage in several photographs taken that day.

See the photo gallery, “The September 11 attack on the Pentagon” for detailed photos and explanations of the damage to the Pentagon.

On September 12, “Zero” will be shown on Russia’s state-owned Channel One, the most popular television channel in Russia, along with a debate featuring another conspiracy theorist, France’s Thierry Meyssan. He’s the one who first popularized the mistaken Pentagon “small hole” theory. Meyssan wrote his book on this subject, 9/11: The Big Lie, without interviewing any eyewitnesses to the 9/11 attacks.

Paul Goble’s blog, Window on Eurasia, notes that satellite photographs analyzed by UN experts show 50% of buildings in ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia have been destroyed or severely damaged “by Ossetian marauders behind Russian lines,” but only five percent of buildings in South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali.

This contradicts the Russian claim that much of Tskhinvali was destroyed by a Georgian assault, which served as a pretext for the Russian invasion. It also contradicts Russian and South Ossetian claims that Georgian villages were not destroyed.

See the 16 UNOSAT maps of Georgia, especially the one reprinted in a September 8 article in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. From the top, the map shows eight Georgian villages, with pie charts indicating the destruction they suffered, as of August 19.

UN photo analysts judged that five of the Georgian villages had 42% to 52% of their buildings destroyed or severely damaged; the others, 31%, 15%, and 5%.

On August 12, Human Rights Watch researchers passed through four of these villages – Kekhvi (44% destroyed), Kvemo Achabeti (52%), Zemo Achabeti (42%), and Tamarasheni (51%). They said they “witnessed terrifying scenes of destruction.” They reported, “according to the few remaining local residents, South Ossetian militias … looted the Georgian villages and set them on fire.”

The large pie chart at the bottom left shows the destruction in Tskhinvali. UN analysts said only 5% of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged there.

Following Russia’s incursion into Georgia in early August, Russian officials have made numerous false claims about U.S. involvement in the conflict, which are reminiscent of orchestrated Soviet Cold War disinformation campaigns.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an August 28 interview with CNN that the United States may have “created the conflict deliberately in order to aggravate the situation and create a competitive advantage for one of the candidates for the U.S. presidency.”

As evidence of U.S. involvement, Russian officials showed reporters a copy of the passport of American citizen Michael Lee White, allegedly found in a building in South Ossetia by Russian troops.

But as the Wall Street Journal reported on September 3, White lost his passport in October 2005, when he left it in the seat pocket of an airplane on a Moscow-New York flight. The U.S. State Department confirmed that White reported the passport missing in 2005 and that it was subsequently cancelled.

White told the Wall Street Journal that during the fighting in Georgia, “he was in Austin, Texas, helping to care for his 85-year-old father, who suffered a stroke in the spring.” The Journal reports that “Mr. White’s brother, reached by phone in Austin, confirms that account.” White left Austin on August 27 to return to China, where he works as an English-language teacher.

Russian officials have also falsely accused the United States of sending military assistance to Georgia during the conflict. In fact, U.S. aid to Georgia since the conflict began has been exclusively humanitarian, totaling nearly $38 million. This has included more than 150,000 packaged meals, more than 350,000 humanitarian daily rations, 10,500 cots, almost 20,000 sleeping bags, thousands of blankets, sheets, tents, baby food, bottled water, and other humanitarian supplies.

On September 3, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a major economic support package of more than one billion dollars for Georgia.

“This is a reconstruction package for the Georgian economy,” Rice said. “It is not yet time to look at the question of assistance on the military side.”