Worldnet Daily, a highly partisan and potentially unreliable source, reports that the Obama administration

placed a hold on all U.S. military exports to Georgia due to a “policy review,” with no indication as to when it will be completed or what defensive military items will be allowed to be exported ….

U.S. sources [said] that such a review has been so “close-hold” that even the Defense Department, which also reviews license applications for national security reasons, was unaware of the action. DOD has been recommending approval of munitions license applications for Georgia

The whiff or partisanship, however, is ripe. The article claims that the Obama administration was “bowing to Russian pressure” and cited an un-named U.S. official saying this:

“The Obama administration is caving to the Russians,” one official said. “It means that we’re letting the Russians control U.S. foreign policy interests.”

Leaving aside that Worldnet Daily, which is still claiming that Obama isn’t a U.S. citizen, may have a partisan axe to grind with the Obama administration, the notion that the U.S is caving to Russia on the Georgia issue isn’t terribly consistent with recent statements from Secretary of State Clinton, who has continued to emphasize in public that the U.S. and Russia don’t see eye-to-eye on Georgia. In her joint statement with Russian Foreign Policy Minister Sergey Lavrov on May 7, Secretary Clinton emphasized that Georgia was an issue on which U.S. and Russian “views may diverge” and on which the countries have a disagreement. More recently, Secretary Clinton said in an interview with Russian television outlet RTR that Georgia remained an “area of disagreement” between the two countries.

So my vote is for rumor. But I’d be interested to hear from any readers who have licenses for exports to Georgia held up.

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