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.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (20852)	6/22/2003 11:27:59 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Desert Double Feature ___________________________ By MAUREEN DOWD OP-ED COLUMNIST THE NEW YORK TIMES June 22, 2003 nytimes.com WASHINGTON - Looking back, you have to wonder if Rummy and Saddam were in two completely different movies, Rummy starring in a heroic war adventure like "Sands of Iwo Jima" while Saddam was scheming in a slick heist caper like "Ocean's 11." (With a soundtrack by Frank Sinatra using the Iraqi dictator's favorite song, "Strangers in the Night.") Could we have been at war with someone who wasn't fighting back? In Iraq, Rummy wanted to prove that the sleek, high-tech American military could be used to fight in unconventional ways. But maybe Saddam, who gives creepy new meaning to the phrase ultimate survivor, was playing an even more unconventional game. What if he never meant to mount a last stand in Baghdad but merely spread word that there was a dread "red line" of chemical and germ warheads ringing the capital to give himself time to melt away into subterranean safety? Two nights before the war began, Qusay or his minions were busy plundering a billion dollars from Iraq's central bank. As U.S. tanks sped through Iraq, meeting surprisingly little opposition except for fedayeen harassment, Saddam may have been burning records of his weaponizing and terrorizing. He had probably already hidden or destroyed any bad stuff during the year the Bushies spent trash-talking about whupping him. Maybe he decided that rather than hit America with biological warfare, he would use psychological warfare, discrediting the U.S. with allies by stripping the anthrax cupboards. Was the tyrant sending out doubles in public while he plotted his getaway? Or making loyalists pretend to be double agents, dishing fake tips to the C.I.A. about where the Ace of Spades was dining so the U.S. would bomb the wrong places? Saddam knew how hard it would be for America to rely on trust and understanding in a part of the world that we don't understand and where no one trusts us. He had 12 years between wars and Bushes, after all, to plot ruses. His captured top lieutenant has told American interrogators that he fled to Syria with Saddam's sons after the war (until Syria expelled them) and that Saddam was hiding in Iraq. Maybe Saddam has been chortling from the sidelines as his guerrillas and Islamic militants kill enough U.S. soldiers to make Americans queasy. Maybe he could inflame an Iraqi rebellion over chaotic conditions, to expel the occupiers who came with no occupation plan. Or, if Saddam brought a plastic surgeon underground with him, perhaps he could resurface as a fresh face, a populist candidate in Viceroy Bremer's first democratic elections. After all, Baath, the name of his party, translates as Resurrection. It's funny that the Bushies didn't recognize a heist when they saw one, given that they pulled off such a clever heist of their own: They cracked the safe of American foreign policy and made off with generations of resistance to pre-emptive and unilateral attacks. On Friday, senators on the intelligence committee cut a deal that lets "a thorough review" — i.e. a Republican whitewash — go forward into whether the spy community ginned up prewar intelligence. The Democrats, already Fausted by their prewar fear of being pantywaists, naturally caved on open hearings. Open, closed, who cares? Congress is looking in the wrong place. They're scrutinizing those who gathered the intelligence, rather than those who pushed to distort it. George Tenet might have buttered up his bosses by not objecting loud enough when the Bushies latched onto bogus or exaggerated claims, but if obsequiousness is a subject of Congressional investigation, we're in for a busy summer. The hawks started with Saddam's demise and worked backwards. As the latest New Republic reports in its "Deception and Democracy" cover article: "In the summer of 2002, Vice President Cheney made several visits to the C.I.A.'s Langley headquarters, which were understood within the agency as an attempt to pressure the low-level specialists interpreting the raw intelligence. `That would freak people out,' said one former C.I.A. official. `It is supposed to be an ivory tower. And that kind of pressure would be enormous on these young guys.' " It's scary, all right. Dick Cheney's hot breath on your raw files.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (20852)	6/22/2003 12:13:31 PM
From: surfbaron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

JW: <<in financial markets, deceptions continue from 1999 on>>> what about in 95 when Rube went to short rates, the press aped how brilliant it was to reduce yearly interest charges by some 200b

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (20852)	6/22/2003 11:32:10 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Iraq Oil Pipeline Fire Blamed on Sabotage _______________________________ by Alistair Lyon Published on Sunday, June 22, 2003 by Reuters BAGHDAD - An oil fire raged Sunday after saboteurs blew up a vital pipeline, threatening supplies to Baghdad's main refinery and fresh torment for drivers in the capital, Iraqi Oil Ministry officials said. It was the second major fire to damage Iraqi oil pipelines this month. U.S. officials blamed the first on a gas leak on the main export pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey. "This incident is an act of sabotage. The pipeline was blown up deliberately," said one Oil Ministry official of the latest blast. He did not elaborate and asked not to be named. An oil pipeline burns near the highway at Hit, Iraq, 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Baghdad, following an explosion Sunday June 22, 2003. The explosion, which is still under investigation, came at a time when Iraq resumed oil exports following the war that ousted Saddam Hussein. Iraq, which exported around two million barrels per day before the US war to oust Saddam Hussein, was due to resume oil sales on Sunday from storage tanks in Turkey. A Reuters correspondent at the desert scene said orange fireballs and thick black smoke were billowing from the damaged pipeline near a metal pylon at least 12 hours after a U.S. patrol reported the blast at 11 p.m. (1900 GMT) Saturday. He said no U.S. troops or Iraqi officials were on the spot and no attempt was being made to extinguish the blaze near the town of Hit, about 140 km (90 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A U.S. military spokesman said earlier that efforts were under way to put out the fire. He had no word on its cause. The pipeline, built in the 1980s, connects Iraq's southern and northern oilfields to ensure smooth-flowing exports. Another Oil Ministry official said any disruption would affect Baghdad's al-Doura refinery, forcing it to rely on crude from the south, where oil installations are in poor shape. The refinery serves a city whose five million people have barely had time to forget the misery of petrol queues that snaked through sweltering streets for weeks after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein on April 9. LAND MINE ATTACK The pipeline exploded only a few hours after two U.S. soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry were wounded when their Humvee vehicle detonated a land mine in the same area. U.S. forces have been plagued by hit-and-run attacks in the Sunni Muslim towns such as Hit north and west of Baghdad, where Saddam's government had its tribal roots. Eighteen American soldiers have been killed in hostile action since major combat was declared over in Iraq on May 1, and insecurity has hampered efforts to revive the economy. Postwar looting and sabotage at oil facilities have delayed the resumption of Iraq's oil exports and will keep shipments well below pre-war levels for several months, officials say. Iraqi oil pipelines and installations are spread over vast swathes of sparsely populated desert that is hard to patrol. Iraq, which exported around two million barrels per day (bpd) before the U.S.-led war, is due to relaunch oil sales on Sunday from eight million barrels stored in Turkish tanks. De facto oil minister Thamir Ghadhban said Saturday it would take 18 months -- and well over $1 billion -- to restore pre-war production capacity of three million bpd. DESERT SCORPION A week ago, U.S. forces launched Operation Desert Scorpion in a fresh bid to find weapons and curb attacks on American troops, while wooing Iraqi civilians with aid projects. They have also intensified the hunt for Saddam since seizing his top aide, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Monday. Mahmud is reported to have told his captors that the deposed ruler and his two sons had survived the war. Paul Bremer, Iraq's U.S. administrator, said Saturday the issue of Saddam's fate needed to be resolved one way or another, because uncertainty emboldened his supporters. "It gives them an ability to say Saddam is still alive, he's coming back, and we're coming back, and what that does is it disinclines people who might otherwise want to cooperate with us from cooperating with us," Bremer said on a visit to Jordan. A U.S. military spokesman said Saturday that 90 Desert Scorpion raids had captured 540 people. The same day, a previously unknown group, calling itself the Iraqi National Front of Fedayeen, vowed to intensify assaults on U.S. troops until they leave Iraq. U.S. officials blame the attacks on Saddam loyalists, though there is widespread resentment at the U.S. occupation and the way the military conducts raids and detains people. Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd commondreams.org