Austin family says son not part of Russia-Georgia conflict

[Satyagrahi]

Source: The Austin American-Statesman

Austin family says son not part of Russia-Georgia conflict
Russians say they found Michael Lee White's passport in breakaway province in neighboring Georgia

By Marty Toohey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
-snip-

John White said that it's unlikely his brother had recently left the passport behind because, among other reasons, Michael Lee White spent most of August in Austin helping care for his hospitalized father, Philip White, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Texas.

Michael Lee White — reached by e-mail in Guangzhou, China, where he is a lecturer at the Guangdong University of Business Studies — said Saturday that his passport was stolen during a flight from Moscow to New York in December 2005.

"I was very tired and sleepy at the time," White wrote. "The theft/loss was reported immediately to officials at the airport, and I got a new one the following year."
-snip-

"There were obviously Russians on board the flight. I don't know who it was, but it seems like he made a good profit from it," White wrote.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/31/0831passport.html

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It seems likely that the Russians (either criminals or the FSB) stole his passport and planted it in a destroyed building in Zemo-Nikozi, a village close to the South Ossetian capital.

Nobody involved in a secret operation would carry his own passport to the battlefield. That doesn't make any sense.

However, it would be interesting to check if the photo in the passport is still the same. This is him:


http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/31/michael-lee-white.html

Unfortunately, the only footage of the passport that I could find is very blurry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZg-6Z_AsL8

His mother was apparently concerned that he had been arrested in China:

"The story naming Michael broke as he was in transit and just in time for him to arrive in Hong Kong — not knowing what was going on, not even suspecting, just returning to the people and the work he loves. We have not heard from him since. Please pray for him and visualize him being treated kindly and the released."
http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/who-is-michael-lee-white/

It is reassuring that he at least seems to be able to communicate by e-mail.

Perhaps CNN could send somebody from Hong Kong to Guangzhou to interview him. That should be quite an interesting story.

[grannie4peace]

1. f*ck cnn!!!!