From: jamesoberg@aol.com (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: NASA Keeps Subsidizing Mir Operations
Date: 1 Sep 1998 16:03:43 GMT

pat: <<What was much more amusing was your complaints about how dirty the
chechen war was and how NASA should not deal with STS-MIR or
ISS/R, as a result.>>

For those who missed it, a review: I felt that Russia's killing 60,000 to
100,000 Chechen civilians and freedom fighters (out of a population of under
one million) who wanted their independence back was objectionable behavior. I
called those folks who said it was an "internal matter" that shouldn't bother
us, "moral eunuchs". And I pointed out that overheard Mir air-to-ground
transmissions showed that the cosmonauts were providing daily cloud cover
reports, usable for directing air strikes. This kind of talk made many people
uncomfortable -- although the slaughter hadn't seemed to bother them at all.

From: jamesoberg@aol.com (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Date: 19 Feb 2001 19:19:48 GMT
Subject: Shuttle obs/photos over Chechnya?

In the last year or so, does anyone recall any astronaut commenting on what
Chechnya looks like from orbit? With forty oil wells aflame now for over a
year, it must be a spectacular sight day or night, sort of a mini-Kuwait at the
end of the Gulf War. Especially with electrical power off in all the major
cities, it must be a coal pit black blob at night, except for the fires.  Is it
invisible, or are astronauts deliberately averting their eyes, or have I just
missed the references?