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Thursday, August 05, 2004 |
 Cryptome interview transcript with bin Laden's bodyguard. Interesting read. More confirmation for "Superpower Baiting." Al-Qa'ida had sought right from the start to foster confrontation between the United States and the Islamic World. I recall Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin telling us: We as an organization cannot continue with the qualitative operations. So we have to draw the United States into a confrontation with all the Islamic peoples... Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin and the Al-Qa'ida have pursued this endeavor and succeeded in drawing the United States into an unequal confrontation, not from the military technology aspect, but from the ideology aspect. Muslims have now reached the point where they are fed up with the United States, which lives in prosperity off our nation's resources. I believe that the United States is heading for its demise. As to the future of Al-Qa'ida, I believe that it has found what it wanted. It can now melt into a new caldron, and a new giant would be reborn, of which Al-Qa'ida would be a part. Many of the Islamic World leaders would join it and the confrontation with the United States would be inevitable. And, Al-Qa'ida would not be the leader but a vanguard army.
8:56:42 PM 
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Northern Oil company workers found an IED along a pipeline near Kirkuk today. US forces responded. It exploded before they arrived. No info on damage.
8:30:35 PM
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NYT. Russia continues to manipulate the Yukos affair to help keep oil prices high (and radically increase export earnings). This price improvement is worth $100 m + a day to the country.
5:50:32 PM
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Economist. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, an investment bank, reckons that half a percentage point could be knocked off American growth in 2006, and 0.7 added to the inflation rate, if oil remains above $40 a barrel. (NOTE: this estimate indicates that the decline in growth will cost the US $50 billion. This is on top of the ~$200 million a day we pay as a terrorism tax on oil, which is out of ~$800 million the world pays daily. This is directly due to the war in Iraq. The GG sabotage in Iraq established the climate of fear that currently permeates the market. Additionally, it is also taking ~ 700,000 barrels a day of production off of the market, over what would be exported in a prewar steady state).
5:04:31 PM
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Although I appreciate the off-hand mention of my site by Glenn (Instapundit), he gets the facts wrong (due to a simple misread). The May 26 source listed (a DoD press release) as saying Iraq's electricity production is 6,000 MW, doesn't actually claim that. It does say that is a goal for June. It didn't reach that goal. It only reached 4,293 MW (below pre-war levels but up from immediate postwar levels of 3,000 MW). Demand for electricity in Iraq during the summer is 8,000 MW. See this post on the political equalization of electricity in Iraq (it's a big reason as to why Baghdad, which should be the center of economic recovery in Iraq, isn't recovering). Thanks again Glenn (we are all on the same side here).
4:51:06 PM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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