I GET AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER from an oil trader and today it includes this tidbit: "In an interesting twist of OPEC news in the folder titled 'Adequate Supply' Iran has chartered an armada of supertankers to act as floating storage for as many as 28 million barrels of crude oil that is backing up on them. Analysts are blaming worldwide refineries yet to recover from maintenance programs. Its not the first time that Iran has had trouble finding buyers; they temporarily floated 20 million barrels in 2006. No, I cant explain this in light of record oil prices and continual cries for more release of OPEC crude oil. "
U.S. crude stocks are up, too. This is unlikely to be the case, but here's a thought: If I were, say, the United States government, and I anticipated military action in the mideast that might interrupt oil supplies, I wouldn't want to stockpile directly because that would be a tipoff. But if I manipulated markets into running up stocks, I wouldn't have to. . . . Nah. They're not that smart.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/08/2008 15:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
US Oil demand is down about a half-million barrels a day compared to this time last year. I suspect the US is not alone in reducing oil consumption in the face of higher prices. Iran might well have to look for places to store their oil. The Saudis have been leasing tankers for storage for some time.
#4
The price is up because the dollar is down. That's the long and, er, short of it. Hedge funds have helped with this, but since most oil contracts are priced in dollars, when the dollar goes down and stays down, oil goes up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2008 17:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
And who could have an interest in pushing the dollar down? And enough dollars to make it stick? And a healthy demand for oil?
#6
And who could have an interest in pushing the dollar down?
The Fed. When the government buys products or services, no matter how inflated or under performing, it get 'something' in return. When the Fed dumps billions and billions of dollars on the credit/speculation market, it gets nothing and the money gravitates towards were the players think they can get a optimal return.
#10
And who could have an interest in pushing the dollar down?
The Fed is the right answer. Solving the states debt problems by deflating the currency goes back several thousand years.
China and any other country holding USD currency and notes are the big losers.
And a piece of trivia for you. The USA is the only major economy that doesn't hold its reserves in other currencies. Almost all the reserves are in gold.
#11
China is not a loser, it is an investor. It gets the administration it wants in Washington. The last time the donks were in DC they gave the Chicoms all the technology to make accurate ICBMs. Goodness knows what BO and friends will give them.
I don't disagree that the fed is at fault, but not for the current run up in oil prices. The fed has been inflating for at least the last 11 years, with no discernable effect.
But suddenly six months before an election the price of oil doubles. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.
#14
But it is indeed linked to federal decisions here too. China refused to revalue the ren to bring it more into line with reality. Euros tried to work with Iran to shift oil pricing into Euros.
A weak $$ counters both of those moves, although it's pretty damned painful for consumers for a while.
#17
Soros. He needs the misery to help his one-worlder socialists do well in the fall elections in the US. So he tries to cause pain in the economy (via hedge funds, shorting and other manipulations he and his cronies can accomplish) and the press will do its part and lay the blame on the Republicans in spite of Bush having no power and the Dems running the congress.
Given we can sustain $100 bbl crude, I propose that the Feds maintain that as a floor price by taxing anything imported below that (other than from Canada) to get it up to $100.
This will reduce the risk for developers of alternate petroleum sources (shales, older wells, coal gassification, etc) from getting the legs knocked out from under them - and encourage domestic production and domestic alternatives.
If we are going to pay a lot for our pil, then lets keep the money over here instead of funding Mad Mullahs in Iran, Saudi Wahabbists, Venezuelan FARC-ers like Hoogo and other terrorists.
#18
When the dollars down (inflation), it takes more dollars to buy a barrel of oil. Since just the movement of goods in this country is based on oil, it takes more dollars to buy everything--it really puts the brakes on the economy.
#19
IIRC, DEFENSENEWS [2007] > US DEPT OF ENERGY reportedly was seeking inter-nation collusion organz and networking wid CANADA + MAHICO AS PER NATION-SPECIFIC STRATEGIC RESERVES.
#20
Given we can sustain $100 bbl crude, I propose that the Feds maintain that as a floor price by taxing anything imported below that (other than from Canada) to get it up to $100.
I'd throw in Mexico and Columbia as well, since they both seem to wind up being excreted upon by the same people as we do.
Afghanistan should set-up a transitional government that includes members of the Taliban once President Hamid Karzai's term ends late next year if it is to escape unending crisis, a grandson of the late former king said on Wednesday.
Once a prince, Mostafa Zaher now heads a department overseeing conservation issues in Karzai's government, and while the royal family lacks a political powerbase it is often looked on as a symbol of national unity.
Like many Afghans, Zaher despairs that there is no end in sight to the Taliban insurgency, and conflict that has gripped the country since the late 1970s. "We are in the middle of a crisis at this very second, and the situation is getting worse," the balding former prince told journalists, adding that decisiveness and vision were needed.
Zaher, 44, has spent three decades living in exile in the West, and has degrees in political science and economics from Canada.
So he's not really an Afghan any more ...
His grandfather, the late King Mohammed Zahir Shah, returned to his homeland in 2002, months after U.S.-backed forces drove the Taliban from power. After returning to Afghanistan, Shah renounced his throne, and in return was accorded the honorary title of "father of the nation". He died last year.
Despite the presence of more than 55,000 foreign troops, attacks by the Taliban have dramatically jumped since 2006 in Afghanistan, prompting some Western politicians to warn recently that the country may slide back into anarchy.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
An Afghan governor warned on Wednesday that radical groups in Pakistan were receiving funding from Arab nations for the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. They can finance Taliban activities for another 10 years, Laghman province Governor Lutfallah Mashal said at a meeting of European Union officials, journalists and Afghan experts in Brussels. The governors of northern Baghlan and eastern Nangarhar provinces were also present at the meeting.
The three governors appealed for more international aid to be focused on the tribal regions that straddle the border with Pakistan, to win over residents in areas where Taliban support remained strong. A more aggressive campaign increasing development in the border areas would take them out of the grip of the bad guys, the Taliban, Mashal said.
The governors, who also held separate talks at NATOs headquarters on Tuesday and Wednesday, complained that reports of violence in southern Afghanistan were tainting the countrys international image and overshadowing progress being made in eastern and northern provinces.
But they said more international support was needed to help Afghan authorities fight terrorism, drugs and corruption. Mashal and Baghlan Govervor Abdul Jabar Haqbeen complained that some of the support being given to Afghan insurgents was coming from Iran and Pakistan. They urged Afghanistans foreign backers to work with those countries to tackle the problem.
Nangarhar Governor Gul Aghan Sherzai, whose province straddles a vital road link from Kabul to Pakistan, highlighted the success he and his colleagues have had in tackling opium production in their provinces. He said Afghanistan needed more help to fight booming drug trafficking in other parts of the country and called for increased aid to help farmers switch to alternative crops.
Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the worlds opium, used to make heroin. The export value of last years harvest is estimated at US$4 billion more than a third of the countrys combined gross domestic product. However, officials say drugs barons, warlords and Taliban leaders take most of the profits, leaving little for poor farmers, who can be persuaded to abandon poppy production if given a viable alternative.
The money that comes from drugs is going into the pockets of Al Qaeda, the terrorists and the Taliban, Mashal said, adding, We have two categories, the needy ones and the greedy ones.
He said farmers in his province had switched to growing rice, wheat and vegetables thanks in part to new roads built with international help, which allowed them to take their legitimate crops to market. Mashal also urged NATO troops to rely less on airstrikes that have led to civilian casualties, and called for a higher profile for Afghan forces.
The most important thing is to enable and empower the Afghan national security forces, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Iran,Pakistan and Saudi should be the axis of evil as they are Islamist to the core.Syria,Libya & Co can be bourght off!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
05/08/2008 10:11 Comments ||
Top||
Amnesty International has called for the role of the United States in Somalia to be investigated, following publication of a report accusing its allies of committing war crimes.
Any call for Eritrea to be investigated?
The human rights group yesterday listed abuses carried out by Ethiopian and Somali government forces, and some committed by al-Shabaab, an anti-government militia which the US designated a terrorist group.
According to the report, based on the testimonies of refugees who have fled Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in recent weeks, Ethiopian troops have killed civilians by slitting their throats. Ethiopian and Somali forces were also accused of gang-raping women and attacking children.
A refugee, named Haboon, accuses Ethiopian troops of raping a neighbour's 17-year-old daughter. When the girl's brothers aged 13 and 14 tried to help her, Ethiopian soldiers gouged out their eyes with a bayonet. The Ethiopian government last night issued a statement strongly rejecting the Amnesty allegations and criticising the organisation's "uncritical use of sources."
Amnesty called for an international commission of inquiry into allegations of war crimes and said the role of other countries that have given military and financial support to perpetrators should also be investigated.
Another version of the story, via allAfrica.com, from The Nation in Nairobi notes the Amnesty call for an investigation but doesn't say a word about the U.S. Wonder if the Independent added their own spices to the sauce?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Only the US and Israel and their allies are actually investigated by Amnesia International. Other countries are free to do whatever they want.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/08/2008 0:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
See also PAYVAND > PENTAGON [Dubya-Rummy]WANTED REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN WEEKS AFTER 9-11, + Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, + Lebanon [Syria].
Also from PAYVAND > PRESSTV - US CONVENES FOR IRAN WAR SCENARIO. High-ranking US Officials reportedly convened/gathered at WH or DOD-Pentagon for IRAN WAR SCENARIO-STRIKE OPS PLANNING; + SECRET BUSH FINDING EXPANDS/WIDENS WAR AGZ IRAN. Dubya-ordered Covert Ops for Regime Change in IRAN???
Radical cleric Abu Qatada, a Jordanian described by the government as a "significant international terrorist", was granted bail by an immigration appeals tribunal on Thursday, the Home Office said. The decision provoked a sharp response from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who said she was extremely disappointed and promised to "take all steps necessary to respect the public."
Qatada, who is being held at Belmarsh high security prison in south east London, will be bailed on "very strict conditions" she said, without giving further details.
Abu Qatada, linked by authorities to Osama bin Laden's network, won an appeal last month against deportation, a decision the government is seeking to reverse. He is one of a group of Arab men the government had been trying to deport on national security grounds while acknowledging it did not have enough evidence to put them on trial.
The government case against Qatada described him as a "significant international terrorist" whose presence posed "a continuing threat to national security and a significant terrorism-related risk to the public."
Twice convicted in absentia in Jordan of involvement in terrorist plots, he has been jailed in Britain since August 2005 pending deportation.
Spanish police say they have arrested five Pakistani men on suspicion of trafficking fake luxury goods and forcing people to work in illegal conditions.
Police say the gang was distributing around 2,500 fake items a day. Clothing and accessories were made in Asia and imported to Spain to be finished and have fake designer labels attached. Police say the falsified brands include names such as Burberry, Carolina Herrera and Chanel.
Police said in a statement on Wednesday that the gang exploited four workers in a windowless warehouse in the southern Madrid suburb of Villaverde, adding that the men were aged between 22 and 45 years old.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
Guess who...
IRVING A national Islamic advocacy group says an emergency preparedness drill targeting a simulated mosque in this small community wrongly typecast Islamic houses of worship as security threats.
It really was in poor taste, probably as a result of a lack of cultural prowess on the part of the person who made that choice, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago chapter, said Wednesday. Rehab said he has no reason to believe the exercise was meant to be malicious, but it still perpetuates a stereotype linking all Muslims to terrorism. Geez, crash a few planes into some buildings and you're stigmatized for life. It just seems so unfair...
Officials from almost 30 government agencies participated in the drill last week in Irving, which is 7 miles northeast of Hillsboro in Montgomery County. According to the Hillsboro Journal-News, the May 1 exercise converted the Continuing Recovery Center into Irving Mosque, described as the home-base for a radical, heavily armed group with suspected terrorist ties.
The drill involved simulated explosions, hostages including one hooked up to an explosive device and nerve gas, causing both the Illinois Secretary of State bomb squad and the Montgomery County HazMat team to respond. Special forces from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System also emerged from an armored car and stormed the mosque, the Journal-News reported. Nice work, Muldoon. Paint another camel on the side of the truck.
Officials must be trained in dealing with hostage-taking and responding to chemical, biological or bomb attacks, Rehab said in a news release his agency sent out Tuesday. We are only questioning the wisdom of linking the American Muslim community and its institutions to such incidents. How about, perhaps, the sons of monkeys and pigs next time?
Rehab said Wednesday the Washington D.C.-based national CAIR headquarters alerted his office after learning about the drill. Hokay, Ahmed. Get on over there and wise up the infidels...
Montgomery County Undersheriff Rick Robbins reportedly was in charge of setting up the particulars of the exercise. Contacted Wednesday, Robbins asked to see a copy of CAIRs release. He indicated the sheriffs office plans to make a statement later this week. I have some suggestions. They're quite colorful...
Rehab said he left a message with Robbins on Wednesday afternoon so the two could discuss his concerns. I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the person who made that decision to make (the drill scenario) a mosque. That person may not know any Muslims or not have enough interaction with the Muslim community, Rehab said. I dont want people to malign this individual or demonize them. We dont yet known what their intention was. We just want to educate the kuffar so that he knows his proper place...
Diana Holmes, coordinator of the Montgomery County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency, said Wednesday she had not heard of CAIRs complaint. Yes, this office sponsored the drill, she said when a reporter called her Wednesday morning. The scenario for the exercise came from the sheriffs office. ...and since he came up with it, I'm sure he just loooooove to talk to ya, Mister...what was it...A-mad?
Rehab said he hopes the incident can encourage a discussion of cultural sensitivity issues. Its not just a question of calling them out, he said. Its a matter of rectifying the situation and conveying our perspective. Okay. Thanks. Have a nice day...
CAIR has worked with law enforcement officials on similar issues in recent months. In April, CAIRs chapter in Pennsylvania asked police training officials to provide a Muslim perspective in a mandatory police training class because of concerns the class may present stereotypical views of Islam and Muslims, according to the news release.
The implication that mosques are bad places because of the actions of a few can be very damaging, Rehab said. Ah, yes. Them "implications"...
The real issue facing our community right now is specifically the failure to distinguish between the domain of terrorism, which is very particular, very underground, very exclusive, and the domain of mainstream Islam, which is above ground, in the sunshine and a part of our society. The drill, he said, plays into that. Its again blurring those lines, Rehab said. You are getting sleepy...veeeeeery sleepy...
#2
I-slam - religion of the perpetually aggrieved....
I truly think it's genetic.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2008 13:33 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's got to be somebody as the simulated Bad Guy.
Thirty years ago, it was crazed Viet Nam vets.
Difference was, in the real world, the crazed Viet Nam vet as a mass murder, hostage taker, blower up of stuff didn't exist.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/08/2008 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
#4
When I saw the headline, I thought they were talking about Irving, Texas. And there is a big mosque there, fairly near Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
A slightly paranoid friend of mine is convinced that there is a a big radar device inside the mosque dome, and he is sure that they have a stock of anti-aircraft missiles in the basement.
I don't know whether to agree with him or not.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/08/2008 14:25 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It appears your friend has "cultural sensitivity issues". The implication that mosques are bad places because of the actions of a few can be very damaging. Please have him report to the nearest CAIR chapter to have these issues soothingly addressed. Thank you for your cooperation.
I am in Irving, TX, the location you originally tought the story was from. Indeed there is a very large mosque here near DFW international airport. It may be a little paranoid for your friend to think anti-aircraft missles are in the Mosque, however, the flight patterns are right above and next to the mosque. Next to the mosque is a fire station and a police station.
The government is aware of instances where foreigners visiting Pakistan to attend tableegh (preaching of Islam) have established links with unwanted groups, Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi informed the Senate on Wednesday.
Responding to a question, he said that around 1,147 applications for attending tableegh gatherings were received by Pakistani missions in Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, India, Turkey and Bangladesh during the last three years.
Of these, Qureshi said that 1,133 applicants were granted Pakistani visas for this purpose, while the Pakistan mission in Ankara rejected the cases of 14 applicants because the visa officer was not satisfied with the particulars of the individuals.
Overstaying: He maintained that the government had adopted a liberal visa policy, adding that there were some cases in which people had been admitted to madrassas in violation of their visa conditions. We have information that people misuse Pakistans liberal visa policy by overstaying here, he added. To another question, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said that the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) had earned a profit of Rs 3.1 billion during 2006-07 fiscal period. She said the PSM currently employed 16,483 people, including 3,761 daily wagers and contractual employees.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
GHALANAI: A tribal jirga will negotiate the release of seven security personnel kidnapped by the Taliban in Mohmand Agency, a tribal elder said on Wednesday.
The political administration has released seven of 16 detained Kandhari tribesmen after the talks, the elder from the Safi tribe, Malak Fazal Manan, told reporters after a meeting between the tribe and the administration.
Most of the freed men are elderly people, said Manan, who is part of the seven-member jirga conducting talks with the political administration.
He said the political administration had also agreed to restore the privileges of Kandahari tribes and to pay the salaries of class-IV government employees from the tribe.
The tribal elder said the jirga would hold talks with the Taliban to negotiate the release of the security personnel kidnapped at the end of January this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Sometimes that Jihadi, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a Jihadi, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye.
Iraqi soldiers have begun evacuating families from portions of Sadr City, a sign that a large offensive will start shortly against the Mahdi Army militia that have long controlled the sector of Baghdad. Two stadiums have been secured for sheltering the evacuees as the government of Nouri al-Maliki attempts to break Moqtada al-Sadrs last stronghold and end mortar attacks on the Green Zone. . . .
This will likely take weeks to complete. Once the battle starts, expect to read and hear plenty of media reports emphasizing civilian deaths, setbacks in the battle, defections in the Iraqi Army, and statements of defiance from Sadr. What we wont hear is progress by Maliki and the US in finishing off Sadrs forces until it suddenly becomes impossible to ignore it and then we will hear about how inept the Iraqi forces were in achieving victory.
Call it the Basra Narrative. Just because it failed in Basra doesnt mean the defeatist media wont use it again, and again, and again.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/08/2008 10:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This all might be timed to correspond with what is going on in Lebanon. Chances are the Iranians are not going to be able the potential loss of their operations in both Iraq and Lebanon at the same time. Taking on the JAM at the same time that Hezbollah is starting things in Lebanon might be a good move on our part.
The Shia controll Iraq but can't get their act together. The Kurds are doing fine. What's the difference? Simple, the Kurds are not Arabs!
Ahem. Nothing wrong with Arabs per se. Ask Michael Yon. The Kurds have had longer to get their acts together (from the time the no-fly zone was established), and it shows. Give the rest of the country another 8 years (the time the no-fly zone was in place prior to the war) and let's see what Basra looks like.
Arbil and Sulaymaniyah, Iraq - Shakir Wajid showed off his company's plans for "Kurdistan Gas City" a futuristic residential, commercial, and industrial city that will run entirely on natural gas. "We believe there are huge gas reserves under the ground in Kurdistan," says Mr. Wajid, an Iraqi Kurd and executive with United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas, whose company is in the final stages of negotiating over a 14.7 square mile plot of land for the $20 billion project.
Dana Gas has already invested $650 million in Iraqi Kurdistan to extract gas, build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant, and transport the fuel to new power plants in the region. "This area will transform economically in a massive way. It will be a revolution," says Wajid from his office in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah.
Further north in Arbil, the region's capital, authorities are finalizing a deal estimated at $12 billion with a consortium of South Korean companies that will give the energy-starved Asian country access to several oil fields here in exchange for investment in infrastructure projects in northern Iraq.
Over the past year, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has briskly awarded oil exploration and production contracts to foreign companies. The roster now includes the likes of America's Hunt oil, Austria's OMV, and Russia's TNK-BP. And all of this is happening in defiance of the oil ministry and the central government in Baghdad.
But as the government of this semiautonomous region, home to about 4.5 million people, forges ahead with its ambitions to transform this long deprived part of Iraq, it must maneuver through many external and internal challenges.
For average Iraqis, and some in the central government, Iraqi Kurdistan's actions are nothing short of its efforts to lay the foundations for independence. In many neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, which is waging a war with its own separatist Kurdish rebels, sometimes in Iraqi Kurdistan, this is cause for alarm. Last Thursday, the KRG held rare talks in Baghdad with senior Turkish officials partly to allay these concerns.
Even inside the region, discontent is rising among many residents who see little benefit from big projects and are starting to question the motives and capabilities of the two main ruling parties the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan (PUK) - that have had a grip on power for decades.
Beyond the crumbling old buildings of Arbil's center an entire district is in the making: New Hawler. Cranes stretch into the sky as foreign laborers toil on the building sites of hotels, office towers, and gated communities with names like Dream City and Italian City. Signs of wealth are everywhere. You see it in the shopping malls and gleaming cars.
At Empire World, a $365 million housing and commercial development being built by wealthy Kurdish businessmen who have benefited from US contracts in Iraq, manager Basma Azouz says villas in the project that average $250,000 are being sold at a fast clip. Many families of rich Iraqis and Baghdad-based government officials have over the past few years opted to live in the relative safety of northern Iraq.
"Have you seen the other Iraq? It's spectacular. It's peaceful. It's joyful. Fewer than 200 US troops are stationed here," says a promotional campaign for investment in the Kurdistan region.
During a recent interview, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani spoke with passion about his vision for the region, which he says can serve as a model for the rest of Iraq and a "steppingstone" for investment in the rest of a country that has some of the world's largest untapped oil reserves. "We just want to rebuild our region as part of Iraq, that's it. We are not a threat to anybody. We want to be a factor of stability," says Mr. Barzani, denying that his region eyes secession.
His foreign relations adviser, Falah Mustafa, says that while 97.5 percent of Kurds in the region support the idea based on the results of an informal referendum in 2005, it would be unrealistic. "It's better for us to go for something that's achievable and viable. We did not push too hard, we did not go unrealistic."
Barzani says his government's decision to start awarding oil and gas contracts to foreign investors before a much-delayed national hydrocarbons law has been agreed on with Baghdad is in keeping with the spirit of the new Iraqi Constitution. He says the heart of the dispute with Baghdad is that his region is committed to a federal Iraq, which many in Baghdad seem to be backing away from.
But Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has accused Kurdistan of signing the contracts "secretly and without competition." "It did not give Iraq the highest possible return," he says, adding that all companies that have inked deals with Kurdistan have been blacklisted.
On April 22, Barzani said he was "very optimistic" that an agreement would be reached with Baghdad even though it "may take time" to work out oil contracts and other sticking issues, such as the resolution of disputed territories.
Although average Kurds admire their youthful-looking prime minister, many see the new prosperity as feeding corruption. Ari Harsin, an Arbil journalist with the weekly Awene, says that members of the KDP and PUK hold stakes in almost every development project. "In Kurdistan the politburos of the KDP and PUK decide where the budget goes," says Mr. Harsin. "There is no transparency. People do not understand how these oil deals are going to benefit them. Sometimes it's almost like a mafia state."
#2
Another advantage is that arab speaking suicide bomber wannbees have to negotiate a lot of Kurdish speaking territory to get where they want to go if they want to blow stuff up in Kurdistan.
Another difference is that if Kurdistan was a State, its electoral votes would go to the GOP.
#3
LH:
1. Predominately Sunni but like the Turks room for secularism. Unlike Arabs.
2. The Kurds had a long way to go after thousand of villages were destroyed, ethnic cleansing, starving in the mountains in the early 90s. The Shia Arabs were protected by a No-Fly zone also but couldn't figure out what to do with it.
3. The Kurdish KDP and PUK figured out a way to share power and thrive. The Arab Badr and Mahdi fight for power.
I still think it's an Arab thingy to crap in your own bed.
#4
The Kurdish KDP and PUK figured out a way to share power and thrive.
After a civil war in 1995 and lots of fighting before that. We pretty much knocked their heads together and told them that if they didn't stop fighting, we'd pull the no-fly zone. That woke them up.
I agree with LH's comments: the Kurds do seem to be more practical and secularist, but let's give the rest of Iraq time. The Sunni sheiks are all about business and deals: as long as they get theirs they can be pretty reasonable. Likewise, the Iraqi Shi'a are more business-oriented than their Iranian cousins.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2008 12:09 Comments ||
Top||
#5
#3
1. I think there is room for secularism among arabs - see Tunisia, for ex, but thats too big to resolve here. Clearly one of the things that makes it easier for non-arab muslims to secularize is the existence of a strong local ethnic identity - Arabs to counter pan Islamism need either A. Pan Arabism - a dead end or B. Loyalty to relatively artificial local states - the hope, but difficult to achieve
2. The Kurds suffered under Saddam as did the Shiites. When the Kurds got their nofly zone, they had autonomy - cause the mountains and their military skills - honed by resistance from before Saddam was even in power, made them defensible. Shia were in flat ground, open to armor.
3. KDP and PUK were pragmatic. Maybe partly an ethnic trait. Partly due to the situation of having a quasistate to share. And partly because of a tradition of socialist secularism, that had an easier time adapting to the market economy than Shia radicalism has in adapting to the modern age.
#6
Maybe it's because it's too hot & humid to even move in Basra for half the year but up in the Kurdish area they can still get things done in the summer.
#8
"It did not give Iraq the highest possible return," he says
Translation: I didn't get my bribe from this seperate deal, and I'm pissed beyond belief because as an official of the Petroleum Ministry, bribes are my birthright.
#9
the other arabs in iraq are too busy about div=ying it up . ht e kurdss eem too be mor enuisness man like rather thatn give this or fuck you. From what i have seen about kirkuk alot of comps. andare moving there andthere is some real prime real estate
#10
IIRC, STARS-N-STRIPES [paraph] > KURDS THREATEN TO ATTACK US INTERESTS, as "PUNISHMENT" for US INTEL etc. + OTHER SUPPORT GIVEN TO TURKEY IN LATTER'S MILOPS AGZ KURDS IN IRAQ.
Also IIRC, SAME > KURDS > proclaiming to REVIEW OR RECONSIDER THEIR PRIOR SUPPOR OF US EFFORTS IN IRAQ + REGION???
Mohamed Hussein is an Iraqi employee of The New York Times in Baghdad. He left Iraq on New Years Day in 2007 to escape the sectarian violence from Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents who were both active in his mixed neighborhood. He returned last week, after 15 months out of Iraq. The name of his neighborhood has been withheld, because he is still afraid.
BAGHDAD I came back to Baghdad last week.
First, it is important to mention the main cause that made me leave everything behind and go to Syria. By the end of 2006 my neighborhood had become an unbearable place. No one could continue there. It was without any simple services, from bakery shops to the hospital and physicians. They all closed their doors and left.
But the real cause is something hidden inside me that affected me more. One day while driving my car to work I saw a corpse thrown alongside the road, and for next three days no one could remove or even touch it. If you moved it you would face the same fate.
So I was gazing at that corpse twice a day for the next three days. That made me think about the whole situation and I said: It is possible there will be a day when I will be the next corpse laid on that road.
The other more important cause that made me leave was that it seemed like someone had started a campaign to assassinate everyone living in my area, no matter from which side -Sunni or Shiite - as they just needed numbers of people who had to be killed.
In Syria I did not really get any rest because although my wife and children came with me, my parents stayed behind. They were alone and they are both aged people, so they did not think anyone would target them. But what could I do for them either staying in Syria with all that agony inside me, or returning back and paying with my life as the price of that compassion?
After spending more than a year in Syria one day my father called me saying: You can now return, and do not worry. Everything is fine now.
I felt happy for them and for me, but only for a moment.
Later, that feeling began to become a mixture of happiness and wariness. I wanted to return, but at the same time I hesitated. I wanted to know if the situation there was as people said, or if they just exaggerated.
During my travel from Syria to Baghdad I was completely relaxed. There were no worries, no fear of looters and terrorists with Al Qaeda, or Ansar al-Sunna (Protectors of the Sunni), Jaish al-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) who used to control everything on the expressway between Syria and Baghdad.
Then when we stopped to get some rest near a big restaurant called Bilaad ash-Sham I saw many Iraqi and Syrian buses filled with travelers, and many four-wheel-drive vehicles.
They told me that everything was going fine and that stories that I had heard about the security situation in some Baghdad districts were right.
I reached Baghdad at 6 a.m. The driver dropped me in the Mansour district. My mother was waiting for me there. Sometimes when I was calling her I could not keep back my tears. She always makes me feel like a young child, which is something I like. It covers me with kindness and warmth. She can read my thoughts and feels whats inside me.
I put my luggage inside my mothers car and we drove to my neighborhood. While driving I was amazed to see what I had heard about: the huge difference in security, which was much better than when I left.
My mother said: Drive normally and just slow down when you are near a checkpoint.
It was a really strange feeling to see my neighborhood again. In some ways it was the same, in others different. The main road had become ugly because there are now many damaged buildings and shops, and I noticed the marks of bullets and shrapnel everywhere around.
At the end of the journey when we reached the main entrance of my neighborhood my mother told me Just slow down and say Asalaam alaikum, (Peace be with you). Do not tell them you were in Syria. She was afraid they would think I was a wanted man who had run away.
At that moment everything I had heard before seemed not right and I became more anxious with each meter I came closer to the checkpoint. Then I turned my head to the left and I saw the biggest cement wall I have ever seen, which encircles my neighborhood.
There were two Iraqi soldiers standing at the checkpoint. One of them stopped me and told me to open the trunk and engine. The other smiled, saying: It is the day of bombed cars.
He inspected my car with an explosive detector device. The other was just looking at us and it seemed that he recognized my mothers face because he said: Hi, auntie.
Now I felt really safe because those people were working properly, not like the security forces in my neighborhood before who were making a secure path during the night for militia members to pass through, targeting everything there.
I think that the Iraqi police and army are working in the right way because there is an American military center inside my neighborhood. But all the people I met said that if the Americans left, those militias would eat our flesh without mercy.
I spent my first night without hearing any kind of shooting and mortar bombing, not like a year earlier when my daughter was asking me about all the sounds around and I was telling her, Do not panic, baby, that is fireworks.
This morning I heard the man who sells cooking gas knocking on the cylinders shouting gaz, gaz, gaz which is something that had not happened for two years in my neighborhood.
This meant that all the things I heard about the improvements are true. Even the people are more friendly and I can say that there is now a kind of mutual trust between the people and the soldiers, not like before when there was no trust between each other.
Now, maybe if we think deeply about it, we will find that each needs the other. People need the soldiers to secure them. At the same time the U.S. troops are now in a safe place, maybe they can have more than one Green Zone.
Will it stay safe or not?
I guess that all depends on the American troops, since we will not have qualified Iraqi forces soon. Although most Iraqi forces are sincere you find some have been infiltrated by groups of gunmen and sectarian people who made the mess all around us.
So we still need the Americans because if they intend to leave, there will be something like a hurricane which will extract everything - people, buildings and even trees. Everything that has happened and all that safety will be past, just like a sweet dream.
As people say in my neighborhood: The Americans are now Ansar al Sunna. Protectors of the Sunni.
#1
I believe you're correct, GBUSMC - Global Warming must have melted their memes to get them to print this.
Maybe it was in 4-point font on page 96?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2008 5:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Oh, no. I get it.
It's part of the "100-year war" meme.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2008 5:55 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It's one of the New York Times's blogs. This piece likely isn't in the dead tree version at all. I wonder how many of the comments come from actual NYT readers, versus outsiders like us.
Entire sections of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district have been left nearly abandoned by civilians fleeing a U.S.-led showdown with Shiite militias and seeking aid after facing shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian groups said Wednesday. Better take lessons on how to eat dirt from the Palestinians.
The reports by the agencies, including the U.N. children's fund, add to the individual accounts by civilians pouring out of the Sadr City area as clashes intensify. Are they all getting their biometrics taken I hope?
U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in the attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The battles started in late March after the Iraqi government opened a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra, including some groups Washington says have links to Iran.
Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said up to 150,000 people including 75,000 children were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces." Yeah. That's how you catch bad guys.
She said about 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and that some areas of southeastern Sadr City were virtually abandoned. Well, hopefully after all this is over they can return to their busy slum life and start building a real city. For now, are they getting fed and housed by relatives or facilities set up by the Coalition?
The U.S. military is trying to weaken the militia grip in the slum and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes from Sadr City on the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
The fighting has prevented aid workers from reaching residents of the neighborhood, and in past weeks has led to shortages of water, food and medicine, Hajaj said. Yeah, that's what it takes to get to these bad guys.
She noted, however, that the water shortage seems to have abated in recent days, and the Iraqi government and U.S. forces have been able to restore some basic services to certain areas. Oh my, maybe they have half a heart after all.
Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the spokesman for the civilian side of the Baghdad security operations, told reporters that some groups have exaggerated the number of civilians fleeing Sadr City and that "our figures are far less than these figures." But he did not provide specific numbers. "Some groups", eh?
An official with the Iraqi Red Crescent said about 1,200 people who fled Sadr City were fed by the organization on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Medical care also has been limited by the fighting, Hajaj said. Hopefully it's mostly insurgents that are getting limited.
She said the Habibiya Maternity Hospital the one maternity medical facility in the neighborhood has essentially shut down, with "access extremely limited because it is in one of the most dangerous, militia-dominated parts" of Sadr City. So the bad guys are taking pot shots at pregnant women too it seems. Well, if that's what it takes, better get to work now instead of dragging it out for all of eternity.
"Emergency assistance can not cover all the needs in Sadr City," said Siri Elverland, a spokeswoman in Jordan for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs.
She said the "resumption of commercial activity ... and public service delivery" is essential and can only happen "when there is a cessation or pause in fighting." So the bad guys can regroup or flee as they see fit so we can cause another humanitarian problem later that you a-holes can complain about?
U.S. commanders have stressed that they are pushing to restore services water, electricity, garbage collection to areas once the security situation permits. And just what have the bad guys been pushing for?
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, speaking at the same news conference as al-Sheikhly, said the military is "responding appropriately" to militants firing rockets into the Green Zone while also "taking precautions to limit the impact on innocent civilians."
Meanwhile, al-Arabiya television identified the leader of an al-Qaida in Iraq umbrella group as Hamid Dawoud al-Zawi, a former member of Saddam Hussein's army who joined the Sunni-led insurgency after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Previously, the leader of the group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, was identified as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
The Al-Arabiya report cited the source as an Iraqi police official, but gave no further details. The U.S. military would not comment on the authenticity of the report, citing security reasons.
"Regardless of his 'real' identity, however, al-Baghdadi is a 'figurehead' to give the public appearance of Iraqi leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq," said U.S. military spokesman Maj. Winfield S. Danielson. "The real leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is the Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri." What clever boys they are! Make sure all Iraqis know that al-Masri will fight to the last gullible Iraqi.
In Kuwait, a Sunni fundamentalist linked to al-Qaida, Mubarak al-Bathali, was quoted as saying Iran provides "weapons and money" to Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
Mostly Shiite Iran has been accused by Washington of aiding Shiite militias in Iraq, but al-Bathali claimed Tehran is seeking use all Iraqi groups to keep U.S. forces "too busy" to consider a military stike on Iran. Al-Bathali, in an interview with the Al-Qabas daily, offered no firm evidence to back up the claim. I'll bet that's part of it. The other part is to keep things stirred up so that if the US bails out they will have an easier time of taking over, at which point they will de-fund the terrorists and be hailed as those who bring peace. All or nothing, baby. But it's Westerners they are dealing with, so it may just work.
In January, the U.N. Security Council added al-Bathali and two other Kuwaitis to a list of about 480 people and businesses linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The consequences of this action will certainly be more devastating than one of the UN's sternly worded memos. Especially if certain Coalition forces deliver it on the tip of a Hellfire missile. Which will probably bring about UN condemnation.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, confirmed that a Kuwaiti who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo carried out a recent suicide attack in Iraq. He had no choice. He was unfairly imprisoned.
Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in one of three suicide bomb attacks last month in the northern city of Mosul, said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a military spokesman.
It appears to be the first time a former Guantanamo detainee has carried out a suicide attack, said a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon. Does my rabid memory fail me, or don't I recall several other folks being involved in attacks against Coalition forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Al-Ajmi, 29, was transferred in 2005 to Kuwait, where the government was supposed to ensure he would not pose a threat. In May 2006, a Kuwaiti court acquitted him and four other former Guantanamo prisoners of terrorism charges. So much for that idea. These four guys were probably the most innocent of the group, too. Can they account for the other three?
Dubai-based al-Arabiya television, citing a cousin of al-Ajmi, reported last week that he had carried out a suicide attack, but the U.S. military could not confirm it until Wednesday.
In a landmark ruling, a Shariah court on Thursday allowed a Muslim convert to return to her original faith of Buddhism. The Penang Shariah court, which governs the personal and religious conduct of Muslims, allowed Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah's petition to be declared a non-Muslim after her marriage to an Iranian failed.
Siti, an ethnic Chinese going by the name of Tan Ean Yuang, had filed the application in May last year. She embraced Islam in 1998 as she wanted to marry an Iranian named Ferdoun Ashanian, but claimed that she never practised the religion. Siti will now have to get the Government registration department to have her name and religion changed back on her identification papers.
The court said Siti's husband and Islamic authorities had failed to give her proper religious advice. "So you can't blame her for her ignorance of the teachings and wanting to convert out," said Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz, a lawyer for the Islamic Affairs Council in Penang.
#2
All snark aside, and ignoring the very un-western idea that you have to get permission to practice a particular religion, this *is* a landmark ruling. On small step on the road to Islam becoming compatible with civilization.
#3
If the headline was accurate then technically she is still a Muslem.
LOL Pet peeve "revert back" kinda like a double negative.
Either way Stoning is in order, apostate or Honor since she probably brought shame to someone./snark
When even the Holy Men think you're whacked...
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian clerics have told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stick to more worldly issues after he said the "hidden imam" of Shiite Islam was directing the country's affairs. Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shiite Islam, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
But in a speech to theology students broadcast by state television on Monday, Ahmadinejad went further than ever before in emphasising his belief that the Mahdi is playing a critical role in Iran's day-to-day politics. "The Imam Mahdi is in charge of the world and we see his hand directing all the affairs of the country," he said in the speech, which appears to date from last month but has only now been broadcast. "We must solve Iran's internal problems as quickly as possible. Time is lacking. A movement has started for us to occupy ourselves with our global responsibilities, which are arriving with great speed."
Two leading clerics retorted that Ahmadinejad would be better off concentrating on Iran's social problems -- most notably its double-digit inflation -- than indulging in such mystical rhetoric.
"If Ahmadinejad wants to say that the hidden imam is supporting the decisions of the government, it is not true," sniped Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghadam, the spokesman of the conservative Association of Combatant Clerics. "For sure, the hidden imam does not approve of inflation of 20 percent, the high cost of living and numerous other errors," he said, according to the Kargozaran daily.
Ali Asghari, a member of the conservative Hezbollah faction in parliament, told the president not to link the management of the country to the imam. "Ahmadinejad would do better to worry about social problems like inflation ... and other terrestrial affairs," the Etemad Melli daily quoted him as saying. Geez, Mahmoud, even the Hezbollah guy thinks you're nutz, fer crissakes...
Since becoming president in 2005, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated that his government is paving the way for the return of the Mahdi and chided his foes for not believing that his return is imminent. Shiites believe that the Mahdi vanished in the 10th century and will return at an apocalyptic moment that will mark the end of time. Ahmadinejad's focus on that has previously caused controversy, while other governments have usually place their emphasis on other figures such as the Imam Ali, the cousin of the prophet Mohammed and first imam of Shiite Islam.
Earlier this year, Iran's former top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani complained that superstition was growing in the country and that people were even putting out food for the Mahdi in case he returned that very night. Ahmadinejad also raised eyebrows when he said he felt surrounded by a mystical aurora when he gave his first speech to the UN General Assembly in New York in 2005.
Similarly, in his latest speech, Ahmadinejad said the Mahdi had guided his "victory" in his famous talk to barracking students at Columbia University in New York last year where he was greeted as a "a petty and cruel dictator. I recalled the imam and I said to him 'help so that this scene is to the benefit of Islam'," he said.
Ahmadinejad's vision has adherents in Iran. Every year tens of thousands of pilgrims make their way to the Jamkaran mosque outside Qom, an increasingly important site where the Mahdi is once said to have appeared. "Iran will be the focal point of the management of the world, thanks to God," Ahmadinejad added in the speech. "In this region an event has to happen. The hand of God must appear and will make the roots of injustice in the world vanish.
#8
"In this region an event has to happen" > 2008 -2012/13 = "MAKE-OR-BREAK" FOR BUDDING US-LED/CENTRIC OWG-NWO, AS WELL AS IRAN-SPECIFIC MANIFEST DESTINY [Nuclearized][Perso-Asian Empire/Bloc]+ RADICAL ISLAMIST OWG JIHAD [Nuclearized].
Lest we fergit, RADICAL ISLAMISM > GOD DESIRES AND WANTS JIHAD + OWG ISLAMIST-JIHADIST STATE UNDER ISLAM = ISLAMIST ULTRA-CONSERVATISM/
FUNDAMENTALISM. IN LT, STATE/REGION-SPECIFIC
NATIONALISM + GLOBAL FEDERALISM IS CONTRARY TO THE PREMISES OF ISLAMISM + JIHAD.
NET > "BRUTAL CONVERGENCE OF EVENTS" - YOU KNOW, SECULARISM. THE USA IS PRES WINNING BUT CAN STILL DE DEFEATED, RADICAL ISLAMISM INCLUD IRAN IS LOSING BUT CAN STILL PREVAIL.
USA, etal. wants to reduce worldwide nuclear arsenals - Iran + Islamism need nucweapons and strategic capability [MAD?] to salvage their Jihad and wage again later on.
* Iff there is any ISLAMIST IMAM-MAHDI = MESSIAH, "BRUTAL CONVERGENCE OF EVENTS" = ITS TIME FOR HIM TO SHOW UP AND LEAD THE CHARGE TO ISLAMIST OWG VICTORY!
And, iff MOHAMMED and other Islamic greats of anitquity are any measure, PRAGMATICALLY/
REALISTICALLY HUMANISTICALLY ARE TALKING ABOUT A FAMILY-CLAN OF MILPOL LEADERS AND CONQUERORS, NOT JUST BIG DADDY???
Beirut - Even though the event was supposed to be a labor protest for higher wages, Hezbollah used the event for violence and riots to bring down the government, according to eyewitnesses at the scene of the protests.
One witness said: "It appears that Hezbollah was prepared right from the beginning to steal the show from the unions and inflict maximum damage to the government."
Hezbollah later confirmed what the witness said. In an interview with an Iranian news agency a Hezbollah spokesman said we are going to open the gates of hell to this government.
What follows is a list of all the rude things the Hezbies did yesterday to try and control the streets of Beirut. Fox News has a similar account.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
PAYVAND NEWS > LEBANESE GOVERNMENT CHALLENGES HEZBOLLAH; + TOPIX > BERUIT THROWS DOWN GAUNTLET AGZ HIZBULLAH, MILITANT GROUPS.
#5
Lest we fergit, ISLAMIST JIHAD > among other Islamist-Muslim premises, is an INTER-MUSLIM/ISLAMIST WAR AMONG MUSLIM CENTRES OF THOUGHT FOR DOMIN OF ANY FUTURE OWG ISLAMIST STATE [post-US/West].
IOW, RIYADH, CAIRO, INSTANBUL, etal. aren't safe just becuz the US-West, etal. have been successfully defeated or destroyed.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Entire sections of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district have been left nearly abandoned by civilians fleeing a U.S.-led showdown with Shiite militias and seeking aid after facing shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian groups said Wednesday. 
