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Out of the UN...I could not agree more. Like all bureaucracies, I don't think that the UN has actually solved any problem around the world. They just manage them.
Correct me if I am wrong on that.
-faz
Mate, they think we are super dumb. Doesn't matter though, they don't care what we think anyway, they have their agenda. They need the votes.
-faz
I don't know about this alarmist approach. Drives me crazy!
Mayor Compares Threat of Global Warming to Terrorism
By BENNY AVNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 12, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/article/71103
"UNITED NATIONS — While he acknowledged that scientists are unable to predict its consequences, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday compared the scourge of global warming to the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Although it is a "long-term" fight, he said, reducing gas emissions may save the life of "everybody" on the planet, the same way that fighting terrorism and its proliferation saves lives in shorter terms.
...
Mr. Bloomberg renewed his call, made first late last year, for taxing countries such as America that emit large amounts of carbons, which are believed to cause changes in the planet's climate. "So long as there's no penalty or cost involved in producing greenhouse gases, there will be no incentive" to meet targets set by international institutions, the mayor told the General Assembly. "For that reason, I believe the U.S. should enact a tax on carbon emissions."
...
"Terrorists kill people. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill an enormous amount of people," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters after addressing the U.N. General Assembly, but "global warming in the long term has the potential to kill everybody."
This is unbelievable. Global warming is more dangerous that a terrorist? Global Warming may or may not kill civilization but I am quite certain a terrorist would.
I saw the Alec Baldwin narrated show as well and I was not impressed. A lot of what ifs. They made it seem like all of that catastrophic, killer stuff was going to happen overnight.
Glad you liked it though.
-faz
Agreed,
This article and interview is driving the left wing blogs nuts! Who gives crap about international law...this is the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. Our constitution takes precedent and that drives the left wing globalist weenies absolutely nuts!
-faz
Maybe the tax dollars will be used to bribe the sun into redirecting that heat.
-faz
Clay,
Very nice and well done. Seems like a bunch of hurdles to overcome, however, I am very long in this stock and I am sure we will see the down trend reverse, the question just remains when.
-faz
Climate change may kill thousands in UK by 2017
Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:15pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1283826220080212?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true
LONDON (Reuters) - There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change, a report said on Tuesday.
The report for Britain's Department of Health estimated more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England, with just as many more dying from heat-related deaths over the summer.
Until 2012, when London stages the summer Olympic Games, the odds of thousands dying in summer heat each year will be 1 in 40, the report said, and thousands more could die each year as a result of other effects of global warming and air pollution.
"In terms of conventional thinking about risks to health, a risk of 1 in 40 is high," the report said.
Tens of thousands died across Europe in a heat wave during the summer of 2003, including over 14,000 people in France, but so far people living in Britain have coped with rising temperatures.
===> Isn't France a first world country? How in the world are 14,000 people dying of heat? The high temperatures there can't be any higher than a regular day in the middle east. Those people aren't dying in the tens of thousands are they?
Although more summer deaths are expected, fewer people will die in Britain as a result of cold winter weather, as the world warms up because of rising carbon emissions from human activity.
The report, an update of a 2002 study, was re-issued on the same day London's mayor said owners of the most polluting cars will have to pay 25 pounds ($48.77) a day to drive them in the city center in a measure to cut down on carbon emissions.
Oops...there is the taxing. Wish I could figure out who giving money to a government is going to stop global warming? Where does that tax money go to? And if anyone thinks that taxing people will make them stop driving, think again. 70%+ of the gasoline price is tax and the population is driving more than did when they instituted that tax to curb auto usage.
Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.
-faz
rdavis,
Yep, I caught that on Rush's show today as well. Here is the link:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/02/12/14-billion-border-securitystimulus-bucks-for-mexico-but-what-about-our-fence/
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/02/11/the-white-house-wants-a-14-billion-stimulusnational-security-packagefor-mexico/
..."The plan is called “The Merida Initiative.” Seems that the White House has had this plan in the works for nearly a year with little congressional input on either side of the border.
We can’t finish our own border fence, properly supply our immigration agents and border patrol with all the equipment and resources they need, or get our house in order. Yet, the Bush administration wants to fork over $1.4 billion to Mexico and Central America–with much of it going into the hands of corrupt law enforcement officials and government bureaucrats who have worked tirelessly to undermine our immigration laws. The funding is tucked into the 2008 supplemental budget."
...
-faz
Sounds to me like an invasion.
I can think of no better reason to be securing the border.
-faz
Correction: that should have been a good laugh for the day.
Following up:
Clinton Campaign Manager: HRC is Extremely Conservative
11 Feb 2008 01:16 pm
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/02/clinton_campaign_manager_hrc_i.php
Here's James Bennett, now Supreme Leader at The Atlantic, interviewing new Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams for The New York Times Magazine back in 1999:
''The biggest mistake of the American press is thinking they know her,'' says Maggie Williams, Clinton's former chief of staff and one of her closest friends. ''You know, people think she's such a big lib. I think she's extremely conservative. I think she has more in common with people in upstate New York than in New York City, in a lot of ways.'' Williams calls Clinton ''patriotic and practical. She thinks it's important to spend money on social programs, but she wants to know that they work.''
Maybe so. But until she stands on her own politically, none of us can know. Morris says Hillary Clinton recognized long before her husband the effectiveness of a campaign based on bite-size ''values'' issues like school uniforms. She supports the death penalty, as the President does. She supports abortion rights, as he does, but she has not made the issue a priority as First Lady. For all her heated warnings about children, she has been ginger in using her influence to tilt the balance of power in their favor.
Now, obviously, it's not true that Clinton is an "extremely conservative" politician. Equally obviously, she hasn't been an "extremely conservative" figure throughout her entire adult life. I'm not really sure why Williams thought it made sense to describe her boss in those terms. But in the broader context, this a welcome reminder that Hillary Clinton, progressive champion and scourge of bipartisanship, is a relatively recent identity. Not only where there the Arkansas years and the Years of Triangulation in the White House, but in the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, Clinton's main political priority was trying to convince people that she was a moderate centrist and not the liberal in the closet of her husband's administration. Her April 2006 speech to the Economic Club of Chicago is all about her love of balanced budgets and working with Republicans on small-bore reforms. She talks about health care at great length, and the idea of an ambitious program for universal coverage never comes up.
Now I don't think one should begrudge Clinton the right to shift points of political emphasis over time. I recall back when I was a New Yorker not liking the fact that Clinton was going to be foisted on us as a Senator because it seemed to me to be a waste of a safe seat to give it to someone whose presidential ambitions were going to cause her to hew to a more moderate line than was locally necessary (and of course in retrospect those fears were borne out when in 2002 and 2003 Clinton chose to use her status as a party leader to help sell Democrats on the invasion of Iraq, rather than use her Senate perch to push back). But tailoring one's politics to suit the constituency is a common turn of events -- you see it, for example, with Obama and coal over the years. But it's a reminder that this whole idea of Clinton as the authentic true progressive is hogwash -- she's been challenged from the left in this primary, and so she's run to the left; at an earlier time her confidantes were telling people that she's "very conservative." Back in October 2007 when her campaign thought it had things all wrapped up, she was ready to play the Iran hawk as part of a shift to "general election mode" and who knows what she'd come up with in an actual general election.
Lengthy, but a good read.
The Clintons' Terror Pardons
By DEBRA BURLINGAME
February 12, 2008; Page A17
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277819085260827.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
It was nearly 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve, 1982. Two officers on New York Police Department's elite bomb squad rushed to headquarters at One Police Plaza, where minutes earlier an explosion had destroyed the entrance to the building. Lying amid the carnage was Police Officer Rocco Pascarella, his lower leg blasted off.
"He was ripped up like someone took a box cutter and shredded his face," remembered Detective Anthony Senft, one of the bomb-squad officers who answered the call 25 years ago. "We really didn't even know that he was a uniformed man until we found his weapon, that's how badly he was injured."
[The Clintons' Terror Pardons]
About 20 minutes later, Mr. Senft and his partner, Richard Pastorella, were blown 15 feet in the air as they knelt in protective gear to defuse another bomb. Detective Senft was blinded in one eye, his facial bones shattered, his hip severely fractured. Mr. Pastorella was blinded in both eyes and lost all the fingers of his right hand. A total of four bombs exploded in a single hour on that night, including at FBI headquarters in Manhattan and the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
The perpetrators were members of Armed Forces of National Liberation, FALN (the Spanish acronym), a clandestine terrorist group devoted to bringing about independence for Puerto Rico through violent means. Its members waged war on America with bombings, arson, kidnappings, prison escapes, threats and intimidation. The most gruesome attack was the 1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing in Lower Manhattan. Timed to go off during the lunch-hour rush, the explosion decapitated one of the four people killed and injured another 60.
[The Clintons' Terror Pardon]
FALN bragged about the bloodbath, calling the victims "reactionary corporate executives" and threatening: "You have unleashed a storm from which you comfortable Yankees can't escape." By 1996, the FBI had linked FALN to 146 bombings and a string of armed robberies -- a reign of terror that resulted in nine deaths and hundreds of injured victims.
On Aug. 7, 1999, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. African embassy bombings that killed 257 people and injured 5,000, President Bill Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to the victims of terrorism, vowing that he "will not rest until justice is done." Four days later, while Congress was on summer recess, the White House quietly issued a press release announcing that the president was granting clemency to 16 imprisoned members of FALN. What began as a simple paragraph on the AP wire exploded into a major controversy.
Mr. Clinton justified the clemencies by asserting that the sentences were disproportionate to the crimes. None of the petitioners, he stated, had been directly involved in crimes that caused bodily harm to anyone. "For me," the president concluded, "the question, therefore, was whether their continuing incarceration served any meaningful purpose."
His comments, including the astonishing claim that the FALN prisoners were being unfairly punished because of "guilt by association," were widely condemned as a concession to terrorists. Further, they were seen as an outrageous slap in the face of the victims and a bitter betrayal of the cops and federal law enforcement officers who had put their lives on the line to protect the public and who had invested years of their careers to put these people behind bars. The U.S. Sentencing Commission affirmed a pre-existing Justice Department assessment that the sentences, ranging from 30 to 90 years, were "in line with sentences imposed in other cases for similar terrorist activity."
The prisoners were convicted on a variety of charges that included conspiracy, sedition, violation of the Hobbes Act (extortion by force, violence or fear), armed robbery and illegal possession of weapons and explosives -- including large quantities of C-4 plastic explosive, dynamite and huge caches of ammunition. Mr. Clinton's action was opposed by the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. attorney offices that prosecuted the cases and the victims whose lives had been shattered. In contravention of standard procedures, none of these agencies, victims or families of victims were consulted or notified prior to the president's announcement.
"I know the chilling evidence that convicted the petitioners," wrote Deborah Devaney, one of the federal prosecutors who spent years on the cases. "The conspirators made every effort to murder and maim. . . . A few dedicated federal agents are the only people who stood in their way."
Observed Judge George Layton, who sentenced four FALN defendants for their conspiracy to use military-grade explosives to break an FALN leader from Ft. Leavenworth Penitentiary and detonate bombs at other public buildings, "[T]his case . . . represents one of the finest examples of preventive law enforcement that has ever come to this court's attention in the 20-odd years it has been a judge and in the 20 years before that as a practicing lawyer in criminal cases."
The FBI cracked the cases with the discovery of an FALN safe house and bomb factory. Video surveillance showed two of those on the clemency list firing weapons and building bombs intended for an imminent attack at a U.S. military installation. FBI agents obtained a warrant and entered the premises, surreptitiously disarming the bombs whose components bore the unmistakable FALN signature. They found 24 pounds of dynamite, 24 blasting caps, weapons, disguises, false IDs and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
A total of six safe houses were ultimately uncovered. Seven hundred hours of surveillance video were recorded, resulting in a mountain of evidence connecting the 16 prisoners to multiple FALN operations past and present.
Federal law enforcement agencies considered these individuals so dangerous, extraordinary security precautions were taken at their numerous trials. Courthouse elevators were restricted and no one, including the court officers, was permitted to carry a firearm in the courtroom.
Given all this, why would Bill Clinton, who had ignored the 3,226 clemency petitions that had piled up on his desk over the years, suddenly reach into the stack and pluck out these 16 meritless cases? (The New York Times ran a column with the headline, "Bill's Little Gift.")
Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the midst of her state-wide "listening tour" in anticipation of her run for the U.S. Senate in New York, a state which included 1.3 million Hispanics. Three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- Luis V. Gutierrez (D., Ill.), Jose E. Serrano, (D., N.Y.) and Nydia M. Velazquez, (D., N.Y.) -- along with local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights advocates, had been agitating for years on behalf of the FALN cases directly to the White House and first lady.
Initial reports stated that Mrs. Clinton supported the clemencies, but when public reaction went negative she changed course, issuing a short statement three weeks after the clemencies were announced. The prisoners' delay in refusing to renounce violence "speaks volumes," she said.
The Clintons were caught in an awkward predicament of their own making. The president had ignored federal guidelines for commutation of sentences, including the most fundamental: The prisoners hadn't actually asked for clemency.
To push the deal through, signed statements renouncing violence and expressing remorse were required by the Justice Department. The FALN prisoners, surely relishing the embarrassment and discomfiture they were causing the president and his wife, had previously declined to accept these conditions. Committed and unrepentant militants who did not accept the authority of the United States, they refused to apologize for activities they were proud of in order to obtain a clemency they never requested.
So desperate was the White House to get the deal finalized and out of the news, an unprecedented 16-way conference call was set up for the "petitioners" who were locked up in 11 different federal facilities so that they could strategize a response to the president's offer. Two eventually refused to renounce their cause, preferring to serve out their lengthy sentences rather than follow the White House script.
Mr. Clinton's fecklessness in the handling of these cases was demonstrated by the fact that none of the prisoners were required, as a standard condition of release, to cooperate in ongoing investigations of countless unsolved FALN bombing cases and other crimes. Mrs. Clinton's so-called disagreement with her husband on the matter made no mention of that fact. The risk of demanding such a requirement, of course, was that the prisoners might have proudly implicated themselves, causing the entire enterprise to implode, with maximum damage to the president and potentially sinking Hillary Clinton's Senate chances.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rican politicians in New York who'd been crowing to their constituents about the impending release of these "freedom fighters" were enraged and insulted at Hillary Clinton's withdrawal of support. "It was a horrible blunder," said State Sen. Olga A. Mendez. "She needs to learn the rules."
The first lady called her failure to consult the Puerto Rican political establishment before assessing the entire issue a mistake "that will never happen again" -- even as the cops who had been maimed and disfigured by FALN operations continued to be ignored. Tom and Joe Connor, two brothers who were little boys when their 33-year-old father, Frank, was killed in the Fraunces Tavern attack, were dumbstruck to learn that White House staffers referred to the FALN militants as "political prisoners" and were planning a meeting with their children to humanize their plight.
Members of Congress viewed the clemencies as a dangerous abuse of presidential power that could not go unchallenged. Resolutions condemning the president's action were passed with a vote of 95-2 in the Senate, 311-41 in the House. It was the most they could do; the president's pardon power, conferred by the Constitution, is absolute. The House launched an investigation, subpoenaing records from the White House and Justice in an effort to determine whether proper procedure had been followed. President Clinton promptly invoked executive privilege, putting Justice Department lawyers in the impossible position of admitting that they had sent the White House a recommendation on the issue, but barred from disclosing what it was.
Twenty-four hours before a scheduled Senate committee hearing, the DOJ withheld the FBI's written statement about the history of the FALN and an assessment of its current terrorist capability. "They pulled the plug on us," said an unnamed FBI official in a news report, referring to the Justice Department decision to prevent FBI testimony.
The investigation revealed that the White House was driving the effort to release the prisoners, rather than the other way around. White House aides created talking points and strategies for a public campaign on the prisoners' behalf included asking prominent individuals for letters supporting clemency.
Jeffrey Farrow, a key adviser on the White House Interagency Working Group for Puerto Rico recommended meetings with the president and the three leading members of Congressional Hispanic Caucus who were pushing the effort, stating in a March 6, 1999 email, "This is Gutierrez's [sic] top priority as well as of high constituent importance to Serrano and Velazquez." The next day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste sent an email to White House Counsel Charles Ruff, who was handling the clemency issue, supporting Mr. Farrow's view, saying, "Chuck -- Jeff's right about this -- very hot issue." Another adviser in the Working Group, Mayra Martinez-Fernandez, noted that releasing the prisoners would be "fairly easy to accomplish and will have a positive impact among strategic communities in the U.S. (read, voters)."
And there you have it. Votes.
While the pardon scandals that marked Bill and Hillary Clinton's final days in office are remembered as transactions involving cronies, criminals and campaign contributors, the FALN clemencies of 1999 should be remembered in the context of the increasing threat of domestic and transnational terrorism that was ramping up during the Clinton years of alleged peace and prosperity. To wit, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1995 "Bojinka" conspiracy to hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing, Osama bin Laden's 1996 and 1998 "Declarations of War" on America, the 1998 East African embassy bombings, the 2000 USS Sullivans bombing attempt, the 2000 USS Cole bombing, and the 2000 Millennium bombing plot.
It was within that context that the FBI gave its position on the FALN clemencies -- which the White House succeeded in keeping out of news coverage but ultimately failed to suppress -- stating that "the release of these individuals will psychologically and operationally enhance the ongoing violent and criminal activities of terrorist groups, not only in Puerto Rico, but throughout the world." The White House spun the clemencies as a sign of the president's universal commitment to "peace and reconciliation" just one year after Osama bin Laden told his followers that the United States is a "paper tiger" that can be attacked with impunity.
It would be a mistake to dismiss as "old news" the story of how and why these terrorists were released in light of the fact that it took place during the precise period when Bill Clinton now claims he was avidly engaged, even "obsessed," with efforts to protect the public from clandestine terrorist attacks. If Bill and Hillary Clinton were willing to pander to the demands of local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights activists defending bomb-makers convicted of seditious conspiracy, how might they stand up to pressure from other interest groups working in less obvious ways against U.S. interests in a post-9/11 world?
Radical Islamists are a sophisticated and determined enemy who understand that violence alone will not achieve their goals. Islamist front groups, representing themselves as rights organizations, are attempting to get a foothold here as they have already in parts of Western Europe by deftly exploiting ethnic and racial politics, agitating under the banner of civil liberties even as they are clamoring for the imposition of special Shariah law privileges in the public domain. They believe that the road to America's ultimate defeat is through the back door of policy and law and they are aggressively using money, influence and retail politics to achieve their goal.
On the campaign trail, the Clintons like to say that Bill is merely supportive and enthusiastic, "just like all the other candidates' spouses." Nothing could be further from the truth. Returning Bill and Hillary Clinton to the White House would present the country with the unprecedented situation of a former and current president simultaneously occupying the White House, the practical implications of which have yet to be fully explored.
The FALN clemencies provide a disturbing example of how the abuse or misuse of presidential prerogative, under the guise of policy, can be put in service of the personal and private activities of the president's spouse -- and beyond the reach of meaningful congressional oversight.
Ms. Burlingame, a former attorney and a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, is the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Few buys staring to come in.
-faz
Dude...that is terrible!!!
But it still cracks me up!
-faz
He does not. That is why you won't get an answer.
-faz
A god laugh for the day...
Chelsea Clinton stumps for Hillary at Memorial Union
Judith Davidoff — 2/12/2008 8:59 am
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/271997
It was a surprising choice of topic given the mostly student crowd stuffed into a lounge at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union. But the first question posed to Chelsea Clinton, who was stumping in Madison this afternoon for her mother, concerned Social Security.
"It is important to me because the Baby Boomers are aging," the young woman told Clinton.
Clinton, the daughter of presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, said that a return to "fiscal responsibility," as promoted by her mother, would be one of the ways to secure Social Security. She also noted that her mom, as she referred to Hillary Clinton throughout the question and answer session, was the "most fiscally conservative candidate running" and "the only candidate who tells you how she'll pay for everything."
Chelsea appeared earlier in the day on the UW-Milwaukee campus. With just a week to go before Wisconsin's Feb. 19 presidential primary, the candidates and their surrogates are pouring into the state. Sen. Barack Obama will appear at a rally Tuesday night at the Kohl Center and both Democratic candidates will appear at a Democratic Party dinner Saturday night in Milwaukee.
The youth vote is considered critical in the tight Democratic primary race between Clinton and Obama. The Clinton campaign put up a banner behind Chelsea that read, "Hillblazers, Our Voice, Our Future," a reference to the network of campus activists it has established nationwide.
A question about what Clinton would do to make college more affordable allowed Chelsea to court this youth vote. Chelsea said her mom, if elected president, would raise the maximum amount allowed for federal student loans and institute a program that would allow service after school to count as payment-in-kind for student loans.
In all, Chelsea spent more than an hour fielding questions, with perhaps the toughest grilling coming over her mother's stance on the Iraq war.
One man asked Chelsea if her mother has ever "shown any remorse" for her vote on war funding that ended up costing "millions of Iraqis their lives. "
Chelsea said her mother's vote "gave permission for inspectors to go in" to check on claims of weapons of mass destruction and that she was "proud" that her mother was the first of the current presidential candidates "to write to the Pentagon asking how to end the war."
In response to a question from a young woman veteran who has already served 18 months in Iraq and is being redeployed, Chelsea said her mother believes that those who served their country should be provided for in return. To that end, Clinton supports full funding for the Veterans Administration and the creation of a refugee program for Iraqis who have served United States military personnel in such roles as translators and guards, Chelsea said.
Chelsea also spoke in depth and without notes on a wide range of Sen. Clinton's proposed policies, from her plan to do away with the 2005 oil and gas tax credits and invest instead in renewable energies to her plan for universal health care. Chelsea said her mother would also put an end to the Bush Administration's controversial "No Child Left Behind" school program that cuts funding to schools based on test scores.
When asked about Sen. Clinton's stance on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, Chelsea said the senator supports civil unions, but stopped short of endorsing gay marriage. Chelsea also said Clinton would immediately provide domestic partner benefits to all federal employees, do away with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military, strengthen federal hate crime laws and beef up civil rights enforcement.
Chelsea got a little flak from an older woman in the audience who took her to task for calling super delegates -- those who have the freedom to cast a vote for whichever candidate they want despite how the state votes in Tuesday's primary -- on behalf of her mother.
Chelsea disagreed that such lobbying was "unethical," as the woman charged, and insisted that she is motivated to reach out to voters because she is so proud of her mother.
Chelsea promised that her mother would be visiting Madison before the primary, but a Clinton spokeswoman said those plans are not yet confirmed.
In reference to a question on Clinton's commitment to women's rights, Chelsea said her mother would push for the "paycheck fairness act," which would ensure equal pay for equal work, and eliminate abstinence-only programs in favor of "honest, sexual education."
Fiscally conservative...hahaha!!! Love that. Then in the very next few paragraphs, the questions is what Clinton would do about rising costs of college. ANSWER: spend more federal money and give it to students. NOW HOW IS THAT FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE?!?! Sounds more liberal to me.
Then her statement on the Iraq war...are you kidding me? Is she serious? That is a bold faced lie!
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/21/iraq.hillary/
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Posted: 10:10 AM EDT (1410 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she is not sorry she voted for a resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action in Iraq despite the recent problems there but she does regret "the way the president used the authority."
Hillary Clinton Defends 2002 Iraq War Vote On Meet The Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/13/hillary-clinton-defends-2_n_81261.html
January 13, 2008 11:16 AM
This morning on Meet the Press, Hillary Clinton defended her 2002 vote for the Iraq war resolution, saying that she "thought it was a vote to put inspectors back in" so Saddam Hussein could not go unchecked. She insisted that she and others were "told by the White House personally" that this was the purpose of the resolution, and cited President Bush's assurances to defend her position.
Moderator Tim Russert pointed out that the title of the resolution was the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002." Clinton responded saying, "We can have this Jesuitical argument about what exactly was meant. But when Chuck Hagel, who helped to draft the resolution said, 'It was not a vote for war,' What I was told directly by the White House in response to my question, 'If you are given this authority, will you put the inspectors in and permit them to finish their job,' I was told that's exactly what we intended to do. "
Unbelievable! Sounds just like a Clinton!! Regret the day we get at least 4 more years of this!
-faz
Mexican Prez Decries Anti-Immigrant Tone
Feb 11, 10:18 PM (ET)
By STEVE LEBLANC
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080212/D8UOH1CG2.html
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday decried anti-immigrant perceptions in the United States and argued that Mexican immigrants complement American workers.
On his first trip to the U.S. as Mexico's president, Calderon said he is working to combat anti-Americanism in Mexico and to improve job prospects there to reduce migration. He said he hopes that Americans resist anti-Mexican sentiments.
"The worst thing that happened in this country is this anti-Mexican or anti-immigrant perception of people. We need to contain this," Calderon said after a speech at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
"I need to change in Mexico the perception that the Americans are the enemy, and it is important to change the perception that the Mexicans are the enemy," he said. "We are neighbors, we are friends and we must be allies."
The combination of American wealth and Mexican labor is an irresistible economic force, Calderon said.
"You have two economies. One economy is intensive in capital, which is the American economy. One economy is intensive in labor, which is the Mexican economy," he said. "We are two complementary economies, and that phenomenon is impossible to stop."
Calderon's trip has been billed as a high-stakes effort to shape the immigration debate during the U.S. presidential race, though Calderon is not meeting with any of the candidates or with President Bush during the trip. He said he will not endorse a candidate but will work with whomever is elected.
Immigration remains a key issue in nominating contests, particularly among Republicans, amid calls for toughened border security and a border fence.
"The American economy is suffering, but if you take the point of view that the solution for this situation, a lack of competitiveness of the American economy, is closing the border, you are making a very big mistake," Calderon said.
During his speech, Calderon said that he had worked hard to combat drug gangs in Mexico but that the effort would be long, costly and difficult. He also pointed a finger at the U.S., saying the drug trade in Mexico is contingent on the demand for illegal drugs north of the border.
"Drugs are not just our problem. We are the neighbor of the largest consumer in the world," he said.
Earlier Monday, Calderon and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed climate change, counter-narcotics efforts and U.N. anti-poverty goals during a private meeting in New York. Calderon also will visit Chicago, Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif.
Does this guy know that the debate here is ANTI-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!?!?!?! This guy is a purposely speaking in this tone to try to make Americans feel guilty. Well, I can tell him this, we are not buying it.
We need to close down the border to ILLEGAL immigration, not legalized immigration.
I personally resent the idea that the Mexican president thinks we are not intelligent enough to see what he is trying to do.
-faz
Looking back at a pr from a month ago.
Deep Down: HDUs Played Major Role in 2007
Deep Down
Friday, January 11, 2008
http://www.subseaiq.com/News/Articles/200801/Deep_Down_HDUs_Played_Major_Role_in__7971.aspx
Deep Down, Inc. said that its proprietary Horizontal Drive Units (HDU) have played a major role and had a significant impact on offshore projects for various customers in 2007.
The company said that its HDUs were used in the deployment and recovery of certain lighter-duty, flexible and not-so-flexible components of the subsea distribution system , which connects offshore platforms to oil and gas wells on the ocean floor.
First introduced in 1998, the HDU was developed by Deep Down as an alternative to industry-accepted vertical drive units to specifically enable substantially quicker, safer and more cost-effective installations of steel flying leads and specialty cables.
The HDU eliminates the undesirable, and potentially hazardous, uneven tension experienced by steel flying leads and specialty cables during deployment and retrieval operations, as well as spooling, with vertical drive units. This uneven tension can often lead to balancing and other problems due to alternative cycles of slackening and tightening due to variability in the centrifugal forces that are experienced through a vertical drive unit.
Deep Down said that the HDU also ensures quicker and safer non-permitted transportation of its proprietary Rapid Deployment Cartridges (RDCs), Subsea Deployment Baskets (SDBs) and carousels because these items can be placed on the HDU adapters with loads kept very low to the ground. After exceeding the expectations of its original design during several key installation projects over the past several years, the benefits of the HDU are receiving increasing attention in an accelerated fashion in the offshore market.
Ron Smith, Deep Down CEO, said:
"Our Horizontal Drive Units have made a significant contribution on subsea projects throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Installation contractors expend large amounts of capital to outfit their vessels with dedicated, high-tension deployment and recovery equipment required to put major systems in deep water. Ease of deployment, floor-space and safety are key considerations for these contactors. Our proprietary RDCs, SDBs and carousels can each be independently attached to the HDU. These additional components, including the HDU, can be stacked, thereby, saving valuable deck space on installation vessels."
During 2007, the HDUs were used to perform deployment and recovery functions on the following projects:
* Oceaneering Flying leads in Panama City, Fla.
* Chevron Agbami flying leads for Subsea 7
* Noble Energy Lost Ark 2 Composite Jumper for Saipem
* BP King Pump Electrical Power flying lead and steel flying leads for Saipem
* Noble Energy Lost Ark 1 flexible flowline Jumper for Saipem
* Mariner Bass Lite Steel Flying leads for Technip
* Independence Hub Steel Flying leads for Subsea 7 and for Anadarko
* BP Thunder Horse Steel flying lead, Acoustic Doupler Current Profiler (ADCP), and Riser Monitoring System (RMS)
* Chevron Agbami Flexible Flowline jumpers for FMC
* Bluewater Gomez Steel flying leads for Drill Quip
* New Field Steel flying lead
Looks like they are already involved in a number of projects involving Flying Steel Leads. Hopefully we might start to see some pull through for the new LSFL's from the HDU business.
-faz
Nope,
I get a PE right about 11 myself. However, this is a forward looking P/E and I think he is deriving his or getting his information that uses the trailing P/E. We really don't have one of those since we really haven't had earnings, however, I am guessing he is calculating it himself or some website is try to use the past couple of quarters to yield a result of 31.
Regardless of the P/E value, I think it is irrelevant for this stock as we are in a phase of extreme growth with new acquisitions.
-faz
Market Spotlight: Oilfield Services
Monday February 11, 5:00 pm ET
By Stan Choe, AP Business Writer
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080211/market_spotlight_oilfield_services.html?.v=1
Some Analysts View the Sell-Off in Oilfield Services As Overdone
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of oilfield service providers have dropped more sharply than stocks overall this year amid worries that a slowing economy could diminish demand for oil.
The Philadelphia Oil Service sector index has fallen more than 15 percent since the start of the year, while the S&P 500 is off nearly 9 percent. Several big companies have cut projections for growth in international demand for pumping and other services, rattling investors.
But some analysts say the sell-off was overdone.
"Although slower international growth prospects have hammered stocks as each company has announced, we believe the larger point is demand continues to grow," said Citi Investment Research analyst Geoff Kieburtz.
"Valuations are historically low and signs of stabilization in (North America) are encouraging." Industry heavyweight Schlumberger Ltd., for example, trades near its lowest price-earnings ratio since 1999. The stock has benefited in recent quarters from strong demand due to high oil prices.
Limited offshore rig capacity has hampered international growth, he said, but new deliveries should boost it in 2009. His top picks include Halliburton, Weatherford International and National Oilwell Varco.
Credit Suisse analyst Ken Sill agrees a lack of rigs may hurt growth in 2008, but calls the long-term picture "outstanding."
Goldman Sachs analyst Charles Minervino, though, believes earnings estimates for 2008 are more likely to go down than up.
He thinks shares may have a modest bounce, but doesn't see major gains until at least 2009, unless oil prices unexpectedly move materially higher. His top picks are Weatherford and Schlumberger.
Deep Down Wins Loose-Tube Steel Flying Lead Contract
Deep Down
Monday, July 16, 2007
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=47693
Deep Down has been awarded a contract to supply loose-tube steel flying leads and compliant Morays(TM) to a customer for their subsea field development project in the Green Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico. This is a fast-track project, and all hardware must be delivered before the end of the year.
The scope of work includes refurbishment of existing steel flying leads and construction of new loose-tube steel flying leads. Deep Down will supply its proprietary, field-proven, loose-tube steel flying leads using seam-welded super-duplex tubing for the hydraulic and chemical injection conduits involved in subsea well control. Deep Down will also be furnishing its compliant infield umbilical termination assemblies (Morays(TM)), specially designed for easier deployment and installation.
"We are pleased that our customer has chosen our proven deepwater well support products for its subsea field development project," commented Ron Smith, Deep Down's chief executive officer. "This is yet another prime example of Deep Down's innovative technology being used as the preferred solution for critical subsea oilfield development and production.
"Deep down remains committed to innovation in the delivery of subsea oil & gas and marine products and services to meet the increasing demand of the offshore energy industry," Smith concluded.
-faz
That article was originally printed in:
Exploration & Production: The Oil & Gas Review - 2004
-faz
More on steel flying leads (with DDI connection)
Steel Flying Leads - Past, Present and Future
http://www.touchoilandgas.com/steel-flying-leads-present-a52-1.html
PDF here: http://www.touchoilandgas.com/download.cfm?type=art&type_id=52
Phase 1
To understand where the flying lead industry is today in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), one needs to understand where it has been. Deep Down Inc. (DDI) was formed on 17 April 1997 just after the Shell Mensa campaign as Shell formed a management team to concentrate their umbilical efforts with a single team responsible for all GoM umbilical projects.
The umbilical team consisted of a core group of Shell and contract engineers, the controls supplier PM and DDI. Shortly after the team was formed, Shell switched controls suppliers from Kvaerner (FSSL) to FMC (KOS). The team worked with FMC to develop a new distribution system that would be reliable, easy to install and easy to maintain. Early in the game, DDI asked Shell if they would be interested in a steel flying lead concept soon to become known as the SFL. Steel was now used in the platform plumbing, the umbilical, the umbilical termination assemblies (UTAs), and the subsea tree, and it was time to minimise the use of hose flying leads (HFL) and maximise reliability of the distribution system.
Shell agreed to allow DDI to work with the umbilical team members to develop and qualify a workable steel tube flying lead solution. A concept was developed to allow the following:
* the remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) to fit up to the J-plate (via standard torque bucket);
* no bending of the SFL – it would depart horizontal to the seabed;
* it would need buoyancy to hold the J-plate out of the mud and to keep it in a weight range that the ROV could handle;
* a compliant section was needed between the J- plate bracket and the umbilical to allow for easier engagement;
* the termination (bracket) needed to connect easily to the SFL umbilical; and
* a righting moment was needed to reduce torsional effects imposed by the SFL.
The ‘Cobra’ was born – so named because it would resemble a striking cobra bobbing off the seafloor with its buoyancy. A bracket was developed to give the J-plate the height to allow the ROV to fit in behind but so that when it was flying the flying lead, the lead would trail underneath. The qualification programme began with a parking lot test in 1998 which combined four main elements.
* It demonstrated the new flying lead deployment system conceived by the team, which simplified the manufacturing process because it spooled up the flying lead material on a basket. The basket could be shipped easily and used for the installation. A basket was selected because it could be changed out quickly on a powered drive system, the terminations would not be subjected to the centrifugal effects of slinging around a vertical reel and the flying leads could be removed from the baskets and placed on pallets or the ground.
* A conventional j-plate connection was placed on one end where the umbilical would be required to be bent at an angle of 90º to make the connection.
* The other end had the cobra where the centre of gravity (CG) was below the j-plate as the umbilical weight was hanging below the plate. Buoyancy at the top of the cobra gave a positive righting moment.
* The mass of the ROV was transfered to the end of the Cobra to assist in the close-end manoeuvering of the J-plate for the connection – the flying lead orientation tool (FLOT) was conceived. Shell’s ROV consultants worked with Oceaneering for the development of the tool. This tool would reduce the effects of the stiffness, trim and torsional effects of the SFL.
The test was viewed as a success by the umbilical team even though some of the development project team members still felt SFLs were impossible to install. There was definite memory in the helicallywound and jacketed umbilical as it was spooled around the 8ft diameter drum. The first SFL prototype was the spare Shell Popeye umbilical with six 1/2” inside diameter (ID) super duplex tubes around one 1/2” ID tube. The umbilical sprung above the ground like sea serpents, but the Cobra connection was a success – the other end where the umbilical had to be bent was completely unmanageable, and the basket was very helpful in handling the product. The memory was going to have to be addressed. The following day, the sea serpents were half the height off the ground. The next day, it was laying flat on the ground. DDI added a five-ton caterpillar unit and a straightener to the installation kit. The thinking was that the straightener may not be necessary if the tension on the umbilical would allow the tubes to move and relax inside the extruded jacket.
The next step was an offshore test led by DDI. It was planned to demonstrate two installation scenarios:
* the down-line technique conceived by DDI and supported by the deployment system developed; and
* draping the flying leads from the cage of the ROV.
The test was performed on Stolt’s Defender and it was a race against time as a hurricane slipped into the gulf. Confident in the down-line method, DDI chose to proceed first with the draping technique which consumed much time and effort, and caused the umbilical to hockle (twist in the water on itself). This proved that the flying leads could be handled, but the draping idea was not the team’s first choice. Due to the weather and damage to the prototype from the twisting, the down-line method could not be fully tested. The initial test was successful, but more testing was required to confirm the down-line method.
The first SFL installation campaign would follow installation of the umbilicals for the Macaroni and Angus projects. The Seaway Condor had the umbilical installation contract. Between the Macaroni and Angus main umbilical installations, a second wet-test was conducted using the down-line method. This test was a complete success and demonstrated that the straightener was not necessary. SFLs were installed on these two projects then quickly followed by Shell Europa and Shell King. DDI wrote the procedures and set up the flying lead installation system. Shell provided the Stolt Defender and the Legend. Approximately a dozen flying leads were installed along with steel tube jumper assemblies (UTAJ) from the stab and hinge-over j-plates to the high density metal (HDM) of the UTA. The flying leads were not as easy as HFLs to fly, but definitely easier to deploy as they were already spooled and service personnel did not have to dig them out of crates and wind them onto deployment frames. The SFL era had begun.
Phase 2
The second phase of the SFL evolution began on Amerada Hess projects. While the Shell team and KOS were testing SFLs, Amerada Hess requested that KOP make an SFL for the Penn State project. The design was loose super duplex tubes inside an overhose. They were successful during their installation, but they struggled. DDI, together with KOP, conceived the KOP cobra which was more compact and stronger than the Phase 1 design and could transfer the strength of the tubes into the cobra bracket. The tube count increased along with stiffness from 15,000 pounds per square inch (psi) tubes. Using the same compliant section, two 450ft SFLs and one 5,900ft SFL single tie back from the two-well cluster were installed. This eliminated the installation complexity of an infield umbilical with UTAs on both ends and some flying lead connections. A small electrical lead was strapped to the flying lead during the installation as it was going over the chute. Plastic baskets were strapped to both cobras with the excess in the baskets and the ODI connector tie wrapped in for easy manipulation by the ROV.
Phase 3
The third phase includes DDI and KOP. After the Conger project and three years after the original development of the SFL, KOP project engineers and DDI management were together for the start of two simultaneous projects – Canyon Express and BP King. A brief discussion between the two of them resulted in the next phase, loose tube steel flying leads (LSFLs), where loose tubes are in an overhose as on Penn State, but connected to cobra terminations on the end to get the benefits of a cobra’s righting moment, seafloor proximity, and angle of attack. Both KOP and DDI began manufacturing the LSFLs. Canyon Express installed 39 KOP LSFLs and were supported by both KOP and DDI labour testing and deployment systems. BP King used KOP LSFLs and the DDI deployment system. BP Marlin used KOP LSFL and a DDI LSFL with KOS cobras and a DDI strength pot to transfer the axial strength.
At this point, DDI developed the Moray® which is a cobra-type connection but designed to host all control supplier J-plates for installation loads and ease of connectivity.
This phase also produced the compliant Moray® . The system consists of an electrohydraulic (EH) umbilicaljoining to 20ft of compliant 1/2” loose tubes via a strength termination (capable of full installation loads), then to a Moray® hosting two fibre transfer and test system (FITAS) and two electrical connectors parked on the Moray® bracket. Two 25ft long electrical flying leads (EFLs) are parked in the basket and the connectors are parked on the Moray® bracket. This design is for unlimited length of single well step-outs with only a tree connection required and has been successfully used on the Kerr McGee Navajo and BHP Boris projects. Cameron is using the system for five infield umbilicals for the ExxonMobil Erha project. This system is ideal for connecting one field to another, connecting to single well tie-backs, and for distances beyond the installation range.
Phase 4
Phase 4 was the future, but is already the present. DDI is making LSFLs 4,000ft and 5,000ft long and up to as many tubes as requested. When installing flying leads through a field, around trees, UTAs and manifolds, the LSFL with Moray® terminations is recommended. If connecting two fields or a single tie back and without meandering inside and around the field, the infield umbilical with a compliant Moray® on the ends is recommended.
In the past, the length of an LSFL was limited by EFL installation limits. That length was about 600ft. DDI is now offering either the infields, as in Erha, which are 244m to 317m long and contain hydraulic, electrical and fibre optic components, or a preferred option of LSFLs with the EFL strapped to the flying lead with excess housed in the DDI ‘doughnut’ buoyancy with electrical storage.
DDI is also in the process of manufacturing the new Mini-Moray® which is a DDI LSFL connected to the new DDI J-plates which are more compact, simpler to install and less expensive. The cobra and the Morays® were developed to compensate for the limitations of existing J-plates. The DDI Mini-Moray LSFL can be manufactured up to 6,000ft long and with the new DDI integral j-plate, more flying leads can be stacked on the stackable baskets and be installed in a single mobilisation. DDI continues developing and refining the SFL in all its forms to further broaden the reliable choices for subsea distribution systems for the industry.
-faz
From VectoGray's website:
http://www.vetcogray.com/products/sds/Pages/default.aspx
Subsea Drilling Systems
The subsea drilling systems of Vetco Gray are world wide, field proven systems that include complete connector and wellhead equipment.
The Vetco Gray range of Subsea Drilling Systems features diverless connectors and tooling systems for most applications:
* Rigid Jumpers and Tie-in Spools
* Flexible Flowlines
* Umbilicals
* Singlebore and Multibore Hubs
* Clamp, Mandrel and Collet Connectors
* Horizontal and Vertical Configurations
* Subsea Winch Systems
* Stab & Hinge Over Systems
* ROV Jumper/"Flying Lead" Systems
-faz
Yep,
Now we can officially add GE to our list of clients:
About VetcoGray
VetcoGray (www.geoilandgas.com/vetcogray) is a GE Oil & Gas business specializing in upstream drilling and production technology for the onshore, offshore and subsea oil and gas industry. The company’s 5,000 E&P professionals are part of the GE Oil & Gas team that has provided advanced technology products and services for production, LNG, pipelines, storage, refinery and petrochemicals for more than 100 years.
-faz
More from Helix's website:
http://www.helixesg.com/EnergyServices/DeepwaterContracting/Services/tabid/123/Default.aspx
Deepwater Services
Around the world, our experts command a diverse fleet of advanced, dynamically-positioned vessels. The result is a premium resource for deepwater construction. Our services include:
* Reel-lay and S-lay pipelay
* ROV intervention and trenching
* Package lifts and deployment
* Reeled flowline installations
* Pipeline construction and maintenance
* Salvage and decommissioning
* Plugged pipeline remediation
* Rigid pipelay
* Umbilical installation
* Flexible pipelay
* Flexible riser installation
* Jumper installation
* Flying lead installation
* Deepwater pipe diving
* Suction pipe driving
* Manifold installation
* Pipeline repair and remediation
-faz
From the PDF on the vessel:
"It appears the company’s confidence
was not misplaced, as the Olympic Triton
has one year’s worth of work scheduled
for the Gulf of Mexico, and sister vessel
Olympic Canyon won a three-year
contract for inspection, repair and
maintenance (IRM) work in southeast
Asia.
Heijermans says the company plans to
use Canyon’s fleet of chartered DP vessels
not only to support larger vessels like the
Caesar S-Lay pipelay vessel under
construction for ultradeep pipelay
operations but also to carry out smaller
deepwater projects.
‘Canyon has become very successful at
bundling third-party vessels with their
robotic assets to provide key customers
with a full suite of subsea intervention,’
Heijermans said following the Olympic
Canyon award.
Canyon says it is looking for two
additional multipurpose vessels to meet
current demand. According to
Heijermans, Canyon is pursuing several
long-term IRM contract opportunities,
and Canyon requires a vessel for its new
reeled pipelay system being fabricated in
the UK."
http://www.helixesg.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=5y5fsnDy4Wg%3d&tabid=55&mid=1056
-faz
jds,
you beat me to it...nice!
Here is a picture!
-faz
Guess the market was expecting $3 million in sales from DPDW not a measly $1.5 mil.
-faz
Any idea how many LSFLs $1,500,000 is? I am wondering if it is a large number and this is why they added the capabilities to do mass production.
-faz
F6,
Figures. I ask a question...Could you direct me to a source with the experimentally derived scientific evidence that anthropogenic CO2 is causing or will cause a significant increase in global temperatures?
Yet, instead, all I get is a response with links tearing apart what Bob Carter says. All I needed to know.
Thanks,
-faz
F6,
You speak of AGW as if it were proven fact. Could you direct me to a source with the experimentally derived scientific evidence that anthropogenic CO2 is causing or will cause a significant increase in global temperatures?
To this date, I have seen none.
I would contend that if you are looking at global temperature over a period of the past 15,000 years, that global temperature has indeed been warming. However, if you are looking at a period of the last 10,000 years, the temperature has been cooling. The temperature in fact has been cooling over a period of the past 2,000 years. Looking over the past 700 years, the temperature has been relatively stable. Reducing that down even further, over the past 100 years, the temperature does dramatically increase. Yet, when you look at the last 6-8 years, it has been in stasis even though the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 4%.
So it all depends on the period over which you are examining your data. The graph below shows that the earth has seen much higher temperatures than what we are experiencing today:
The data will also show that temperature also precedes rise in CO2 by several hundred years.
Also, if CO2 causes a rise in temperature, how do you explain the decrease in temperature from mid 1940's to the end of the '70's? If CO2 drives temperature and it does so very quickly, wouldn't you think the temperature should increase during this time?
As for consensus...science is not about "consensus" but rather about formulating a hypothesis and then testing it. "Consensus" is the opposite of true science. If consensus was true science, we would all still believe the world was flat. Therefore, instead of calling those who don't buy the notion that AGW is going to cause catastrophic climate change skeptics, I would suggest that all rational thinking scientists would be "skeptics".
As for the CH4 release, I have not read up on that, so I cannot speak intelligently about it. I will however, do my due diligence on the theory.
IMHO,
-faz
lock and load...
-faz
Al-Qaeda leaders admit: 'We are in crisis. There is panic and fear'
February 11, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3346386.ece
Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year's mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group's security structure suffered “total collapse”.
These are the words not of al-Qaeda's enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group's stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.
The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.
That second document is a bitter 16-page testament written last October by a local al-Qaeda leader near Balad, north of Baghdad. “I am Abu-Tariq, emir of the al-Layin and al-Mashahdah sector,” the author begins. He goes on to describe how his force of 600 shrank to fewer than 20.
“We were mistreated, cheated and betrayed by some of our brothers,” he says. “Those people were nothing but hypocrites, liars and traitors and were waiting for the right moment to switch sides with whoever pays them most.”
Assuming the two documents are authentic — and the US military insists that they are — they provide a rare insight into an organisation thrown into turmoil by the rise of the Awakening movement. More than 80,000 Sunnis have joined the tribal groups of “concerned local citizens” [CLCs] that have helped to eject al-Qaeda from swaths of western and northern Iraq, including much of Baghdad.
US intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the documents were snapshots of two small areas and that al-Qaeda was far from a spent force.
They said that while the number of car bombs had fallen over the past year, the organisation had doubled its attacks on CLC members since October. More than 20 people were killed last night when a suicide car bomber attacked a checkpoint near Balad.
Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed a compound of an “Awakening” group in Iraq's northern Nineveh province yesterday, the US military said. Among those killed in the fighting were 10 suspected Al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters.
The Anbar letter conceded that the “crusaders” — Americans — had gained the upper hand by persuading ordinary Sunnis that al-Qaeda was responsible for their suffering and by exploiting their poverty to entice them into the security forces. Al-Qaeda's “Islamic State of Iraq is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar”, the unnamed emir admitted.
In an apparent reference to al-Qaeda's brutal tactics, he said of the Americans and their Sunni allies: “We helped them to unite against us . . . The Americans and the apostates launched their campaigns against us and we found ourselves in a circle not being able to move, organise or conduct our operations.”
He said of the loss of Anbar province: “This created weakness and psychological defeat. This also created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight. The morale of the fighters went down . . . There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organisation.” The emir complained that the supply of foreign fighters had dwindled and that they found it increasingly hard to operate inside Iraq because they could not blend in. Foreign suicide bombers determined to kill “not less than 20 or 30 infidels” grew disillusioned because they were kept hanging about and only given small operations. Some gave up and went home.
Finally the emir recommended rewards for killing apostates, using doctors to kill infidels and offering gifts to tribal leaders. He said al-Qaeda's fighters should be sent to more promising areas such as Diyala province or Baghdad — which is exactly what happened.
Rear-Admiral Gregory Smith, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, called Abu-Tariq's testament a “woe-is-me kind of document”. It calls the Sunnis who switched sides a “cancer in the body of al-Jihad movement”, and declares: “We should have no mercy on them.”
The author lists those who have made off with al-Qaeda weapons or money, describes the group's arsenal, including C5 rockets, which are used against helicopters, and records the fate of the battalions under his command.
Most of the first battalion's fighters “betrayed us and joined al-Sahwah [the Awakening]”, he says. The leader of the second ran away and all but two of its 300 fighters joined the Awakening. The activities of the third were “frozen due to their present conditions”. Of the fourth he writes: “Most of its members are scoundrels, sectarians, non-believers”.
He lists 38 people still working for him but beside five names he has written comments like “We have not seen him for twenty days” or “left us a week ago”. He concludes, wistfully: “And that is the number of fighters left in my sector.”
'WE WERE MISTREATED AND CHEATED'
Extracts from letters
Abu-Tariq, al-Qaeda leader
“There were almost 600 fighters in our sector before the tribes changed course 360 degrees . . .Many of our fighters quit and some of them joined the deserters . . . As a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less.”
“We were mistreated, cheated and betrayed by some of our brothers who used to be part of the Jihadi movement, therefore we must not have mercy on those traitors until they come back to the right side or get eliminated completely.”
Unnamed emir, Anbar province
“The Islamic State of Iraq (al-Qaeda) is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar province.” Al-Qaeda’s expulsion from Anbar created weakness and psychological defeat. This also created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight.
“The morale of the fighters went down and they wanted to be transferred to administrative positions rather than be fighters. There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organisation.”
I just wished we could have figured it out sooner! Had we known that carbon offsets and taxes could alter the Earth's temperature, we would never be in this "so called mess" that we are in.
:)
-faz
Global warming impact may be overstated
Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 10/01/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/earth/2008/01/10/sciglacier110.xml
Scientists have discovered that glaciers survived for hundreds of thousands of years during an era when crocodiles roamed the Arctic, reports Roger Highfield
The most pessimistic predictions of sea level rises as ice sheets are melted by global warming may have to be scaled back as a result of an extraordinary discovery that ice persisted when the Earth was much hotter than today.
Scientists have discovered that glaciers survived for hundreds of thousands of years during an extraordinary era when crocodiles roamed the Arctic and the tropical Atlantic Ocean was as warm as human blood.
They had thought that Earth was ice free during the so called Turonian period, a "super greenhouse world" between 93.5 million and 89.3 million years ago. But now evidence has been found of hothouse glaciers that persisted by studies of tiny plankton and other marine organisms.
Large ice-sheets existed about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods in the past 500 million years, an international team of scientists reports in Science.
The scientists from the UK, Germany, USA and Netherlands found evidence of an approximate 200,000 year period of widespread glaciation, with ice sheets about 60 per cent the size of the modern Antarctic ice cap.
The team obtained their evidence from analyses of organic carbon-rich sediments that were deposited in the western Equatorial Atlantic at Demerara Rise off Surinam at that time. They contained glassy carbonate shells of tiny sea creatures, foraminifera. These shells 'captured' the chemical conditions that were present at the time, providing clues about the temperature, composition and salinity of the seawater in the hot tub oceans.
By analysing the different types of oxygen atoms (isotopes) in these shells scientists were able to reconstruct sea temperature, both at the surface and at depth. Meanwhile, a European team at the Universities of Newcastle and Cologne in the UK and Germany, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in the Netherlands studied the composition of organic molecules from other organisms in the sediments, providing an independent temperature record of surface waters for the Cretaceous western tropical Atlantic.
Professor Thomas Wagner, of Newcastle University, says: "Speculation about whether large ice caps could have formed during short periods of the Earth's warmest interval has a long history in geology and climate research, but there has never been final conclusive evidence. Our research from tropical marine sediments provides strong evidence that large ice sheets indeed did exist for short periods of the Cretaceous, despite the fact that the world was a much hotter place than it is today, or is likely to be in the near future',
Today, the Antarctic ice cap stores enough water to raise sea level by about 60 metres if the whole mass melted and flowed back into the ocean. But the new results are consistent with independent evidence that sea level fell by about 25-40 metres at this time. Sea level is known to fall as water is removed from the oceans to build continental ice-sheets and to rise as ice melts and returns to the sea.
Dr André Bornemann, who led the research at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, and who has since moved to Leipzig University, Germany, says it is not clear where such a large mass of ice could have existed when the Earth was so hot or how ice growth could have started. 'This study demonstrates that even these super-warm climates were not warm enough to always prevent ice growth.
"However, paradoxically past greenhouse climates may actually have aided ice growth by increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and creating more winter snowfall at high elevations and high latitudes,' he said.
The findings support for another related study from The University of Sheffield and Yale University in the journal, Nature Geoscience which suggested there could still be cold spells in a general greenhouse world.
Although such work might someday help researchers to better evaluate global warming on geological timescales, Dr Bornemann emphasised global climate change is now happening on a completely different, much more rapid, time scale.
rdavis,
I will leave my car running for an extra 30 minutes to try to help you out mate!
-faz
Because the sun is something they haven't figured out a way to control...yet.
LOL!
-faz
Gary,
I am all for a civil disagreement, I do however, look to get all the FACTS before I make any decisions on a course of action.
So, in the following the statement:
"I suggest it would rather foolish for us to deny the melting of major glaciers, the record high temps; in all the cycles we know of, never before have had the current temps."
The underlined portion is just not true. He actually have seen these levels of temperatures before and temps 2-3 degrees higher.
Have a look at the following video clips. They are an excellent presentation of the correlation of CO2 and Temperature.
Part 1:
"Global warming is real, we do not know the facts on exactly what caused it, nor what all we can do, or what all is going to happen exactly; but less consumption of oil and it’s many products can only help the earth"
Mate, how can you control something without all the facts? You yourself admit that we don't know all the facts of what is causing it, so how in the world can you devise a solution if you have no idea the source of the problem?
Global warming is real. OK, so is global cooling. It all falls under the umbrella of a changing climate. Everything that is being suggested is based on computer models. COMPUTER MODELS. We can't even predict the weather 2-3 days ahead of time and we have the audacity to think we can predict what is going to happen in 10...20...50 years?
Mate, I agree that foreign countries do not have our best interests at heart when it comes to oil and that we do need to lessen their influence, but that is matter entirely separate from global warming.
-faz
Two very good questions...one's which will go unanswered because they do not fit the template of the agenda.
-faz