- Michael Lee White
-
Michael Lee White (born 1967) is a Business/English teacher and writer residing in China.[1] The Russian government has implied that he may be a covert agent of the United States or Military Professional Resources involved in the 2008 South Ossetia war,[2] a claim that White House has repeatedly denied.
Contents
Biography before controversy
White was born in 1967, the second son of Philip L. White, later a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Texas at Austin. White served in the United States Army from 1992 to 1997 as a Petroleum Supply Specialist in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Germany, and Bosnia. He fueled helicopters,[3] drove fuel trucks, and, according to a resume posted on the internet (which he says he wrote [4]), he graduated from Air Assault training school in 1993. Although part of the curriculum of this school has included training in the application of infiltration and extraction techniques (such as Special Patrol Insertion Extraction), it is very common for soldiers with non-elite specialties to attend the 10-day course.[citation needed] This is especially true for soldiers stationed at Fort Campbell (the location of the school) and assigned to the 101st Infantry Division (Air Assault), as this entire division is supposed to be able to perform the helicopter air assault operations taught by the school. After two years at Fort Campbell, White was transferred to the 1st Armored Division in Germany in 1994, where he continued to work as a fueler. The division was deployed to Operation Joint Endeavor in January, 1996 as part of the multinational effort responsible for carrying out the Dayton Peace Accords.
After his single term of enlistment, White earned a degree in Public Management at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. He got his first teaching assignment in the Haidian District of Beijing in 1998. It was the first of many education-related travels around the world, including teaching stints in Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Japan, in addition to graduate work in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and at the University of Essex in Colchester,[5] and Communication, Psychology, and Business at Angelo State University in Texas. Mr. White also claims to have visited more than 85 countries, and all major regions of the world, while attending graduate classes or working on four different continents over the past 15 years.[citation needed] The Wall Street Journal reported that he married and later separated from a Kazakh citizen.[3]
Nationality in World History
White has co-authored with his father a book entitled Nationality in World History; the work discusses the roots of nationalism and includes a chapter titled ["The Evolution of the Russian National Identity"].[3] According to Mr. White, "Nationality has caused major conflicts in world history. Much of what has passed for history through the ages concerns such nationalistic conflicts. Many works of contemporary history (political, constitutional, etc.) have been written in a ‘national’ context. It is not wise to simply hope or assume that a phenomenon that has dominated history so far will now simply fade away in the Information Age. Nationality in World History aims to help others understand the deeper phenomenon of why and how sovereign nations have been formed and maintained, from prehistory to the present day. We believe that understanding nationality in our species is helpful to attaining a peaceful and more civil future."[6]
Passport controversy
On August 28, 2008, Col. Gen. Anatoliy Nogovitsyn gave a news conference in Moscow[7] where he produced a photocopy of an American passport[8] with the name of Michael Lee White born in 1967 who lived in Texas. Subsequently internet bloggers tried[9] to locate Mr. White. The Wall Street Journal did locate and interview Mr. White in Guangzhou on September 2. Mr. White told the Journal that he was in Texas caring for his ailing father during the period when Russia alleged that he was in Georgia. The Journal says that White showed reporters two U.S. passports in his possession, one issued in 2005 and one issued in 2008. (Although US passports typically have a 10 year validity, no explanation is given in the article as to why he has two in his possession.[3]) The Associated Press interviewed Mr. White the next day, on September 3, and reported that White said he couldn't show his passport to the AP because university officials who are helping him apply for a work permit have the document.[1] The Office of National Intelligence, which oversees all U.S. intelligence agencies, refused to comment on Mr. White, and the Central Intelligence Agency said that Mr. White is not an employee of theirs.[3] Mr. White claims, and the United States Department of State confirms,[5] that he contacted the authorities immediately in 2005 to report the loss of his passport and that the passport was canceled. Mr. White said that he must have left it in a seat pocket on a Moscow to New York flight in October 2005.[3] His current passport shows he left China July 18, 2008 and returned there on August 28. The Wall Street Journal says there is no entry stamp in the passport from U.S. authorities to show that he returned to the U.S. during those 41 days, but that sometimes US authorities do not mark the passports of returning Americans.[3] White also told the Associated Press that he applied for a Russian visa while teaching in Kazakhstan in the summer of 2005.[1]
Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said that Russian military discovered a passport in a building where Georgian Interior Ministry forces had been fighting. Nagovitsyn said,
What was the gentleman’s purpose of being among the special forces and what he is doing today, I so far cannot answer..there is a building in Zemonekozi - a settlement to the south of Tskhinvali that was fiercely defended by a Georgian special operations squad. Upon clearing the building, Russian peacekeepers recovered, among other documents, an American passport in the name of Michael Lee White of Texas...I do not know why he was there, but it is a fact that he was in the building, among Georgian special forces troops.
On August 31, an Austin Texas newspaper reported that on August 29 the U.S. State Department phoned Austin resident, John White, the younger brother of Michael Lee White, asking where they could contact Michael.
The State Department official said: "It's urgent that we speak with him," according to John White. When asked why, the official said that he could not discuss the matter. John White said his brother is a world traveler who went to China on August 27, 2008, and that he contacted his family Saturday evening by e-mail.
"He appears to be fine. And he's certainly not a thug training Georgian troops," John White said.
The newspaper also reported that it had email conversation on August 30 with Michael Lee White who is apparently in Guangzhou, China lecturing at the Guangdong University of Business Studies. He said that his passport was lost/stolen during a flight from Moscow to New York in 2005 and that he had no idea how the passport ended up in South Ossetia.[5]
Alexei Kondaurov, a KGB veteran and critic of the Kremlin is quoted as saying that 'using a 'found' passport to expose the Americans seems really small-time." He added, "the Soviet Union's secret services never stooped that low."[3]
Foreign Media coverage
Mr. White was interviewed by Guangzhou's leading newspaper, Southern Metropolis Daily, on September 4[10] , for whom he provided a computer image of the lost/stolen passport in question, in addition to a family photo of his father's 85 birthday party from July 31 in Austin, Texas. The English language publication Shenzhen Daily also ran a story the same day.[11] A Russian Newsweek interview with Mr. White from September 8 appears not to support the Russian government's accusation,[12] and other Russian sites have noted the US State Department's confirmation of White's claim that the passport was reported lost/stolen and canceled in October 2005.[13] Russian state television Channel One (ORT), however, appears to have repeated the government's innuendos against White in a 14 September broadcast.[2] Several weeks later, an October 2008 article in the Chinese weekly magazine Southern Weekly summarized the chronology of events.[14]
References
- ^ a b c Foreman, William. "American says he's a teacher, not a US agent". Associated Press. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibVWy4bkF_g5hMr1a4lFoCAQLmkAD92VCF781. Retrieved 2008-09-03.[dead link]
- ^ a b Baranova, Evgenie (2008-09-14)"How the American Passport Could get on a Position of the Georgian Militarians- Investigation"
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fairclough, Gordon (2008-09-03). "From Russia Without Love, Kremlin Calls Mr. White a U.S. Agent". Wall Street Journal: p. A1.
- ^ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibVWy4bkF_g5hMr1a4lFoCAQLmkAD92VCF781[dead link]
- ^ a b c Toohey, Marty. "Austin family says son not part of Russia-Georgia conflict". Austin American-Statesman. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/31/0831passport.html. Retrieved 2008-09-03.[dead link]
- ^ [1]
- ^ Pan, Philip. "Putin Asserts Link Between U.S. Election and Georgia War". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/08/29/ST2008082900935.html. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3] [http://wordpress.com/tag/michael-lee-white/
- ^ Liu, Lixia (2008-09-05). "神秘怀特在广州接受本报记者专访 没错,那本护照就是我的!". Southern Metropolis Daily. http://epaper.nddaily.com/A/html/2008-09/05/content_565562.htm.
- ^ Han, Ximin and Liu, Beibei (2008-09-05). "'Spy' American says he's never been to Georgia". Shenzhen Daily
- ^ Tschernenko, Elena (2008-09-08). "Investigation: Michael's Identification" Russian Newsweek
- ^ [4]
- ^ Wu, Li Lan (2008-10-11). "White Becomes a 'Celebrity'" Southern Weekend
External links
Categories:- United States Army soldiers
- 1967 births
- Living people
- 2008 South Ossetia war
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