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Wednesday, March 23, 2005 |
 Reuters: Huge explosion at America's largest refinery.
4:43:31 PM 
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Subir Raha, the head of India's Oil & Natural Gas warns the US (particularly about Iran): ``You launch one more attack and you can't even guess where the speculation will go,'' Raha said. ``With the stalemate in Afghanistan, stalemate in Iraq and elsewhere, you already have a price of $55 a barrel.''
4:11:00 PM
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Anecdotal information from a number of US soldiers in Iraq: the Shiite units they are working with in the Iraq are starting to fight (rather than flee).
3:57:32 PM
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Marshall Auerback writes about the militarization of oil. This is driven by a combination of China's ravenous energy intensive economy and the US need for enhanced security post 9/11. Combine this with slowing/peaking production (on which all the best minds in the oil industry are in agreement with), and we have a tight situation. The interesting thing is that global guerrillas hold the match to this tinderbox.
11:49:29 AM
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AJ. Aljazeera's correspondent in Islamabad reported that an unknown group attacked the gas pipeline on the Khamri Bridge between Sui and Quetta in southwestern Pakistan. The blast caused a partial disruption of gas supplies in the region.
8:25:16 AM
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NYT. When U.S. customs officials discovered the latest tunnel under the border last month, they were stunned. Complete with concrete floor and an intercom system, the passage ran nearly 200 yards from a house on one side of a rusty metal fence, under two streets and an apartment complex, to emerge in an unassuming tract home in California.
8:20:11 AM
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LA Times. Violence in Iraq. The Bazaar's soup of Guerrilla entrepreneurship, gangs, and primary loyalties at work. Much of the violence, officials say, is inspired by the ethnic, tribal and religious rivalries that were held in check by Hussein's brutal rule, and facilitated by a ready supply of firearms. That deadly combination has let loose a wave of vengeance killings, tribal vendettas, mercenary kidnappings and thievery.
Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed the police, saying Tuesday in Baghdad that criminals-for-hire were playing a growing role in the insurgency.
One such incident, the officer said, was the brazen killing of 11 workers and customers Feb. 11 at the Happiness Bakery in New Baghdad, a working-class Shiite Muslim suburb on the capital's east side. Investigators first suspected Sunni Muslim insurgents the bakeries had images of Shiite clerics and posters urging customers to vote in the Jan. 30 elections, and the attack occurred just before Ashura, a major Shiite holiday. Police changed their thinking when witnesses recognized several killers as Shiites. Authorities now suspect a tribal vendetta. They speculate that a gang may have been hired to commit the crime and make it appear as though rebels were behind it.
Phillip Carter at Inteldump has some good thinking on this...
7:39:27 AM
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La Shawn has an interview with a member (he has a nom de guerre of John Smallberries, right out of the movie Buckaroo Banzai) of the Minuteman Project (1022 members and growing). A militia unit (loyalist paramilitary) formed to police the US border with Mexico.
Again using only words its hard to communicate how totally out of control the situation has gotten. Think back to the LA riots. If you were out in the street when all hell was breaking loose would you have felt safe? The border area is less dynamic, but still very dangerous. Automatic gunfire is a common sound. Seeing dope mules with Ak47s work drug loads over the border is a common sight. [W]hile I realize that the idea of wearing a weapon just to walk around sounds kooky, and even dangerous, your readers have to understand how totally out of control this place is. I can honestly say it is as dangerous as the Iraq/Iran border minus the landmines
7:30:22 AM
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© Copyright 2005 John Robb.
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