Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (20667)	3/22/2003 3:30:30 PM
From: Ed Ajootian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 206202

OT: Obviously my speculation wasn't meant to be a realistic one -- shoulda clarified that I guess. Folks didn't think that way then (and as you say the geopolitical landscape was different) -- but I guess I'm saying, what if they did? Re: Japan, I always thought the only reason they tried to do what they did is because they saw how much success Hitler was having, and had he been stopped earlier (or hadn't done what he did at all) they would never have had the guts to go for it. 2 times now in the past 50 years we have created an enemy when we went to contain their aggression against their neighbor -- North Korea in the 50's and Iraq in the '90's. In each case we undid their aggression but went no further, but then created an arch-enemy that hated our guts from then on, in North Korea's case even into the next generation. Query whether that sort of policy is ever possible any more, or will we instead now always have to just decide to either: 1) Let them do what they wanna do or 2) get rid of them all together? OTOH, the Germans and Japs seem to not harbor any grudges against us, even though we bombed the hell outta their civilians (it was called "strategic bombing"!). It would be interesting to see someone try to do what we did at Dresden today with CNN filming it (firebombed the whole city).

To: Dale Baker who wrote (20667)	3/22/2003 9:50:22 PM
From: ForYourEyesOnly	Respond to of 206202

Nigerian fighters capture multinational oil sites as unrest spreads By GLENN McKENZIE The Associated Press 3/22/03 3:31 PM WARRI, Nigeria (AP) -- Ethnic militants on Saturday threatened to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they claimed to have captured in retaliation for government military raids. Dan Ekpebide, a leader of Ijaw tribal fighters in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, said his followers took over oil pipeline facilities belonging to ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf on Friday. The companies had earlier evacuated the sites during unrest that has killed scores of people. The threats came as the army accused the tribal fighters of attacking a TotalFinaElf facility on Saturday morning. Two Nigerian army soldiers and a retired officer guarding the facility were among five people killed, army spokesman Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu said. Ijaw militants said 65 of their ranks died in battles with government troops on Friday and Saturday. The fighters demanded that the Nigerian military halt raids carried out almost daily against their villages. They also insisted that the government redraw voting boundaries ahead of April elections. The Ijaws, with 8 million people the largest ethnic group in the delta, have long accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of colluding with minority Itsekiris to draw up unfavorable voting boundaries ahead of April elections. "We'll blow up these flow stations and blast the pipelines. We will take Nigeria 20 years backward," Ekpebide told The Associated Press, without giving details. Witnesses say the fighters are armed with machine guns and grenades. He spoke by satellite phone from an unspecified location in the delta's Scotland-sized warren of swamps and creeks, where roads and telephones are practically nonexistent. Six of the captured facilities belong to Shell's Nigerian subsidiary. ChevronTexaco has three and the other two belong to TotalFinaElf. The facilities pipe crude oil to the companies' individual export terminals. A TotalFinaElf spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the capture of its facilities. Spokesmen for ChevronTexaco and Shell said they could not confirm the attacks because their staff had been evacuated. However, other witnesses, including leaders of the Ijaws' main ethnic rivals, the Itsekiris, confirmed the Ijaws had captured all 11 facilities. The fighting has cut multinational oil exports by 350,000 barrels a day -- about one-sixth of Nigeria's total production of two million barrels a day. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier to the United States. The military insists it has used minimum force. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers have been deployed to the delta, reinforcing 10,000 troops based there. "We've been very restrained," army spokesman Onwuamaegbu said. "We don't know how long our patience will last."