BP wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Activity in 1909–1979
In May 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil, which he discovered in May 1908.[22] This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit this.[22] In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).[22]
After World War II, AIOC and the Iranian government initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise AIOC's concession terms still further in Iran's favour. But in March 1951, the pro-western Prime Minister Ali Razmara was assassinated.[23] The Majlis of Iran (parliament) elected a nationalist, Mohammed Mossadeq, as prime minister. In April, the Majlis nationalised the oil industry by unanimous vote.[24] The National Iranian Oil Company was formed as a result, displacing the AIOC.[25] The AIOC withdrew its management from Iran, and organised an effective boycott of Iranian oil. The British government – which owned the AIOC – contested the nationalisation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.[26]
By spring of 1953, incoming U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to organise a coup against the Mossadeq government with support from the British government.[27] On 19 August 1953, Mossadeq was forced from office by the CIA conspiracy, involving the Shah and the Iranian military, and known by its codename, Operation Ajax.[27]
Classic shield logo, designed by Raymond Loewy, used from 1979 to 2000 and still in use in a small number of petrol stations.Mossadeq was replaced by pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi[28] and the Shah, who returned to Iran after having left the country briefly to await the outcome of the coup. The Shah abolished the democratic Constitution and assumed autocratic powers.
After the coup, Mossadeq's National Iranian Oil Company became an international consortium, and AIOC resumed operations in Iran as a member of it.[25] The consortium agreed to share profits on a 50–50 basis with Iran, "but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors."[29] AIOC, as a part of the Anglo-American coup d'état deal, was not allowed to monopolise Iranian oil as before. It was limited to a 40% share in a new international consortium. For the rest, 40% went to the five major American companies and 20% went to Royal Dutch Shell and Compagnie Française des Pétroles, now Total S.A..[30]
The AIOC became the British Petroleum Company in 1954. In 1959 the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska[31] and in 1965 it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea.[32] In 1978 the company acquired a controlling interest in Standard Oil of Ohio or Sohio, a breakoff of the former Standard Oil that had been broken up after anti-trust litigation.[33]
It continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini confiscated all of the company’s assets in Iran without compensation, bringing to an end its 70-year presence in Iran.
William Knox D'Arcy wikipedia
EXCERPT:
In April 1909 D'Arcy was made a director of the newly founded Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) which would later become British Petroleum. By 1911 APOC had run a pipeline from the find to a refinery at Abadan. In 1912 the Mount Morgan company was listed in London and D'Arcy was made chairman of that board.
William J. Clinton Foundation
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Moral Promise of Freedom
by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
The Moral Promise of Freedom
by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
The Free Market
March 1994
The moral promise of a free society involves the boundaries of private property. The promise is this: property boundaries cannot be legally invaded or trampled upon. When property is protected, people can keep the fruits of their labor and investment, and not have them plundered by others. People can own land, for example, and this land can be used as the owners see fit. Private property allows wide latitude for experimentation. Property holders can form communities with internal cultures. Just as business can conduct its own affairs, people can separate themselves out entirely from the rest of society if they so desire. They need only respect the rights of others to do the same.
It's the nature of private property and a free society that it allows room for diversity of work, modes of production, and ways of life. That's how Mr. Jefferson wanted it, and that's what the authors of the Constitution promised. In the sixties, for example, hippie communes sprang up all over the country. The participants were eccentric and the utopias didn't work, but the attempts were tolerated by society and state.
Today the promise of private property is routinely violated by both private criminals and government. The attack on property began subtly at first, but today it has become explicit, sometimes brutal, and sometimes even deadly.
The community of faith that once lived at Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, believed the promise of free society. They chose to separate themselves from society, as so many others have done in our nation's history. This was not allowed in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, or Maoist China. That's one reason we regard these regimes as tyrannical.
Yet in its dealings with the Waco religious dissenters, the central government revealed that it has become intractably opposed to any individual or group that represents a challenge to its singular authority. To counter this challenge, the central government resorted to tactics that resulted in the death of 86 men, women, and children. As for the survivors, the government has put them on trial.
This sort of brutality is inevitable in a system of absolute and centralized power. A government that invades private business by demanding confiscatory taxes, imposes unbearable regulations, and rules over business culture through pervasive labor controls, builds an appetite for even more power. As the power builds, so does the extent of corruption at the top and the disinformation that covers up the truth about its tyranny.
So it was in Waco, where the tragic events combined all the elements of a government out of control. Most of what the public thinks it knows about David Koresh, the group's spiritual leader, is false. But as with war, military invasions, and other acts of state – as J.S. Griffey of the University of Houston argued in an outstanding article in the Southern Partisan – the first impression is the one that lasts.
For example, most people probably believe that the government attacked the Waco Christians because they were "stockpiling" weapons. Were they? Texans own 60 million firearms, about 3.5 per person. At Mt. Carmel there were two firearms per person, most of them locked away. The rest of their protection consisted of hay bales and plywood.
The stockpiling accusation was an act of projection, for the real stockpiler was the government. In the attack on Waco, agents used MI 13 personnel carriers, M2AO Bradley fighting vehicles, Sikorsky Blackhawks, Apache and UH-1 Bell helicopters, Abrams MI tanks, 7.62mm machine guns, FBI SWAT snipers, two varieties of hand grenades, and the FBI's psychological warfare experts. The government even fired canisters of CS gas, banned in warfare by international treaty, through windows and walls.
The BATF got their helicopters from the Texas National Guard. Under the law, the military cannot be involved in domestic law enforcement. But a special provision of the U.S. Code allows the government to use military equipment in drug cases. So the BATF told Texas governor Ann Richards that they suspected Mount Carmel had a drug lab. This canard was not in the BATF's search warrants and it hasn't been mentioned since.
Did Koresh want a confrontation with law enforcement agents? All evidence indicates he desired good relations with the law. In 1992, Koresh had actually invited the BATF into the compound so agents could see for themselves. But the government reneged. "Why do you all have to be so big all the time?" Koresh asked the FBI during the month-long standoff. "Why didn't you just talk to me?"
Did the community have a death wish? Twenty minutes before the fire began, the community hung out a sign reading: "We want our phones fixed." (The government had cut them off, along with the electricity.) That's not a message sent by people hungering for the Apocalypse. None of the survivors report discussion of suicide plans.
There is still no evidence that the religious people set the fire that destroyed their building. The place was a firetrap, entirely made of wood and sealed shut. Since the government had cut off their electricity, lanterns were their only light. The government shot out the windows, so sheets were their only protection from the weather. The tanks that battered the building probably set the fire, either accidentally or deliberately.
The initial raid was on February 28, 1993. Several people say the government shot through the roof from a helicopter, but we cannot know for sure. The physical evidence is reduced to ashes, and the government plowed the land over a week after the home went up in flames.
As the standoff continued, the women and children were upstairs because they were afraid of the government. The tanks destroyed the stairways that would have allowed them to escape the fire. The underground shelter was destroyed as well.
After the fire, the FBI made three claims it later retracted. First, the Bureau said that two agents saw community members lighting a fire. Second, the Bureau said one agent saw someone dressed in black "cupping his hands," as if to light a fire. Third, the Bureau said some members trying to flee the fire were shot by others. All assertions were false and were subsequently dropped.
The Justice Department contributed its share of lies. Spokesmen said an "independent arson investigator" concluded that members of the community started the fire. But the "independent investigator" turned out to be Paul Gray, an agent for the BATF from 1962 to 1990 whose wife stills works for the agency as secretary to the man who planned the raid. They apparently could not be sure a genuinely independent investigator would come to the preordained conclusion.
The stated purpose of the raid was to save children from abuse. Yet Janet Reno lied about that too. The information she used was already discredited, and she later admitted it. The real child abuse was committed by the government: to harass community members, the FBI turned on massive floodlights at night and played recordings of Buddhist chants, dental drills, and screaming, slaughtered rabbits. Reno herself ordered the house to be saturated with CS gas, knowing that the community's gas masks couldn't fit the children.
In ways that have become typical, the media and government worked together in this disaster. One day before the raid, the Waco Tribune-Herald started a series on "The Sinful Messiah." On the morning of February 28, 1993, before BATF arrived at Mt. Carmel, at least 11 reporters were on the scene already. After the religious community was torched, the entire media participated in the beatification of Janet Reno for her actions in Waco.
The consequences for the victims were public humiliation and death. There were zero consequences for the perpetrators, unless we consider the three agents who were suspended with pay and perks, which is no punishment at all.
The methods and strategies of the government's assault against Waco had been used for years by the military, but against foreign governments and their leaders, not against the domestic citizenry. The most familiar case of foreign intrigue was the government's attack on Manuel Noriega, in which it used similar tactics (blaring music, planting evidence, spreading disinformation), and therein lies the connection between foreign policy and domestic. Anything a government allows itself to do to foreign countries will eventually be done at home. That's one reason George Washington warned us against foreign entanglements.
We may never know the full truth about Waco or the extent of government perfidy, but we can draw lessons from the experience. This particular event was a fiasco, but it also tells something about what our government has become: "the organizer-in-chief of society," as Bertrand de Jouvenel said, which is "making its monopoly of this role ever more complete." It is a parasite and a monster that acts to protect itself. Mises was right: government's nature is coercive. It is "beating, killing, hanging." Coercion is necessary in society to protect the rights of property holders against those who do not respect property. But when government itself become the source of arbitrary violence, we have tyranny. That's why unchecked power should never be invested in a centralized government, even one with a democratic mandate. This power will invariably be exercised at the expense of peaceful social relations.
In its dealings with the community of believers at Mount Carmel, the central government abandoned the moral promise of a free society, and, as all tyrannies eventually do, ignored its own standards of law and ethics. But it paid the price of losing some measure of public confidence, which is already at historic lows. A government that governs by fear alone eventually finds itself unable to govern at all.
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
Trans Texas corridor racing ahead
EXCERPT:
After Rick Perry's highway department announced the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) route known as TTC-35 was "dead" in 2009, we find out post-election in 2010 that it, along with free trade, is very much alive and well. Canadian officials have shown renewed interest in a multi-modal trade corridor along I-35. Winnipeg recently announced its intention to build an inland port similar to those in San Antonio and Dallas. One such inland port in Kansas City has ceded sovereign United States territory to Canada and Mexico with the flags of all three countries flying over it. Officials in Winnipeg said it also intends to run a logistics and trade corridor to include rail and high speed highways all the way to Mexico as an Asia-Pacific gateway connecting to Toronto and Montreal.
by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
The Moral Promise of Freedom
by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
The Free Market
March 1994
The moral promise of a free society involves the boundaries of private property. The promise is this: property boundaries cannot be legally invaded or trampled upon. When property is protected, people can keep the fruits of their labor and investment, and not have them plundered by others. People can own land, for example, and this land can be used as the owners see fit. Private property allows wide latitude for experimentation. Property holders can form communities with internal cultures. Just as business can conduct its own affairs, people can separate themselves out entirely from the rest of society if they so desire. They need only respect the rights of others to do the same.
It's the nature of private property and a free society that it allows room for diversity of work, modes of production, and ways of life. That's how Mr. Jefferson wanted it, and that's what the authors of the Constitution promised. In the sixties, for example, hippie communes sprang up all over the country. The participants were eccentric and the utopias didn't work, but the attempts were tolerated by society and state.
Today the promise of private property is routinely violated by both private criminals and government. The attack on property began subtly at first, but today it has become explicit, sometimes brutal, and sometimes even deadly.
The community of faith that once lived at Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, believed the promise of free society. They chose to separate themselves from society, as so many others have done in our nation's history. This was not allowed in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, or Maoist China. That's one reason we regard these regimes as tyrannical.
Yet in its dealings with the Waco religious dissenters, the central government revealed that it has become intractably opposed to any individual or group that represents a challenge to its singular authority. To counter this challenge, the central government resorted to tactics that resulted in the death of 86 men, women, and children. As for the survivors, the government has put them on trial.
This sort of brutality is inevitable in a system of absolute and centralized power. A government that invades private business by demanding confiscatory taxes, imposes unbearable regulations, and rules over business culture through pervasive labor controls, builds an appetite for even more power. As the power builds, so does the extent of corruption at the top and the disinformation that covers up the truth about its tyranny.
So it was in Waco, where the tragic events combined all the elements of a government out of control. Most of what the public thinks it knows about David Koresh, the group's spiritual leader, is false. But as with war, military invasions, and other acts of state – as J.S. Griffey of the University of Houston argued in an outstanding article in the Southern Partisan – the first impression is the one that lasts.
For example, most people probably believe that the government attacked the Waco Christians because they were "stockpiling" weapons. Were they? Texans own 60 million firearms, about 3.5 per person. At Mt. Carmel there were two firearms per person, most of them locked away. The rest of their protection consisted of hay bales and plywood.
The stockpiling accusation was an act of projection, for the real stockpiler was the government. In the attack on Waco, agents used MI 13 personnel carriers, M2AO Bradley fighting vehicles, Sikorsky Blackhawks, Apache and UH-1 Bell helicopters, Abrams MI tanks, 7.62mm machine guns, FBI SWAT snipers, two varieties of hand grenades, and the FBI's psychological warfare experts. The government even fired canisters of CS gas, banned in warfare by international treaty, through windows and walls.
The BATF got their helicopters from the Texas National Guard. Under the law, the military cannot be involved in domestic law enforcement. But a special provision of the U.S. Code allows the government to use military equipment in drug cases. So the BATF told Texas governor Ann Richards that they suspected Mount Carmel had a drug lab. This canard was not in the BATF's search warrants and it hasn't been mentioned since.
Did Koresh want a confrontation with law enforcement agents? All evidence indicates he desired good relations with the law. In 1992, Koresh had actually invited the BATF into the compound so agents could see for themselves. But the government reneged. "Why do you all have to be so big all the time?" Koresh asked the FBI during the month-long standoff. "Why didn't you just talk to me?"
Did the community have a death wish? Twenty minutes before the fire began, the community hung out a sign reading: "We want our phones fixed." (The government had cut them off, along with the electricity.) That's not a message sent by people hungering for the Apocalypse. None of the survivors report discussion of suicide plans.
There is still no evidence that the religious people set the fire that destroyed their building. The place was a firetrap, entirely made of wood and sealed shut. Since the government had cut off their electricity, lanterns were their only light. The government shot out the windows, so sheets were their only protection from the weather. The tanks that battered the building probably set the fire, either accidentally or deliberately.
The initial raid was on February 28, 1993. Several people say the government shot through the roof from a helicopter, but we cannot know for sure. The physical evidence is reduced to ashes, and the government plowed the land over a week after the home went up in flames.
As the standoff continued, the women and children were upstairs because they were afraid of the government. The tanks destroyed the stairways that would have allowed them to escape the fire. The underground shelter was destroyed as well.
After the fire, the FBI made three claims it later retracted. First, the Bureau said that two agents saw community members lighting a fire. Second, the Bureau said one agent saw someone dressed in black "cupping his hands," as if to light a fire. Third, the Bureau said some members trying to flee the fire were shot by others. All assertions were false and were subsequently dropped.
The Justice Department contributed its share of lies. Spokesmen said an "independent arson investigator" concluded that members of the community started the fire. But the "independent investigator" turned out to be Paul Gray, an agent for the BATF from 1962 to 1990 whose wife stills works for the agency as secretary to the man who planned the raid. They apparently could not be sure a genuinely independent investigator would come to the preordained conclusion.
The stated purpose of the raid was to save children from abuse. Yet Janet Reno lied about that too. The information she used was already discredited, and she later admitted it. The real child abuse was committed by the government: to harass community members, the FBI turned on massive floodlights at night and played recordings of Buddhist chants, dental drills, and screaming, slaughtered rabbits. Reno herself ordered the house to be saturated with CS gas, knowing that the community's gas masks couldn't fit the children.
In ways that have become typical, the media and government worked together in this disaster. One day before the raid, the Waco Tribune-Herald started a series on "The Sinful Messiah." On the morning of February 28, 1993, before BATF arrived at Mt. Carmel, at least 11 reporters were on the scene already. After the religious community was torched, the entire media participated in the beatification of Janet Reno for her actions in Waco.
The consequences for the victims were public humiliation and death. There were zero consequences for the perpetrators, unless we consider the three agents who were suspended with pay and perks, which is no punishment at all.
The methods and strategies of the government's assault against Waco had been used for years by the military, but against foreign governments and their leaders, not against the domestic citizenry. The most familiar case of foreign intrigue was the government's attack on Manuel Noriega, in which it used similar tactics (blaring music, planting evidence, spreading disinformation), and therein lies the connection between foreign policy and domestic. Anything a government allows itself to do to foreign countries will eventually be done at home. That's one reason George Washington warned us against foreign entanglements.
We may never know the full truth about Waco or the extent of government perfidy, but we can draw lessons from the experience. This particular event was a fiasco, but it also tells something about what our government has become: "the organizer-in-chief of society," as Bertrand de Jouvenel said, which is "making its monopoly of this role ever more complete." It is a parasite and a monster that acts to protect itself. Mises was right: government's nature is coercive. It is "beating, killing, hanging." Coercion is necessary in society to protect the rights of property holders against those who do not respect property. But when government itself become the source of arbitrary violence, we have tyranny. That's why unchecked power should never be invested in a centralized government, even one with a democratic mandate. This power will invariably be exercised at the expense of peaceful social relations.
In its dealings with the community of believers at Mount Carmel, the central government abandoned the moral promise of a free society, and, as all tyrannies eventually do, ignored its own standards of law and ethics. But it paid the price of losing some measure of public confidence, which is already at historic lows. A government that governs by fear alone eventually finds itself unable to govern at all.
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
Trans Texas corridor racing ahead
EXCERPT:
After Rick Perry's highway department announced the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) route known as TTC-35 was "dead" in 2009, we find out post-election in 2010 that it, along with free trade, is very much alive and well. Canadian officials have shown renewed interest in a multi-modal trade corridor along I-35. Winnipeg recently announced its intention to build an inland port similar to those in San Antonio and Dallas. One such inland port in Kansas City has ceded sovereign United States territory to Canada and Mexico with the flags of all three countries flying over it. Officials in Winnipeg said it also intends to run a logistics and trade corridor to include rail and high speed highways all the way to Mexico as an Asia-Pacific gateway connecting to Toronto and Montreal.
Waco Slaughter 1993 (caution: some disturbing images) youtube
Lois Roden wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Contemporaneous with the Feminist Movement surge of the 1970s (and corresponding with the egalitarian teachings of many Adventist sects), Roden asserted that women, like men, were made in the image and likeness of God, and that they thereby hold a position of co-dominion with man in all things. She openly shared this concept with the members of her sect since 1973, despite some resistance within the sect. In 1977, a year before Benjamin Roden died, Lois said she had received a vision of the person of the Holy Spirit symbolized as a feminine "shimmering silvery Angel." She asserted as proof her ideas that the Hebrew word for Spirit (ruach) is feminine, and that Jews regard the concept of "Holy Spirit" and the "Divine Presence" ("shekhinah"...both of which are "feminine" words in Hebrew) are one and the same. (Although Judaism does not subscribe to any concept of "Her individual Personhood", the feminine aspect of the "Holy Spirit" is a prominent feature in Kabbalah).
Waco's female Godhead connection
EXCERPT:
It was on this place that in 1977 Lois Roden had a vision of a beautiful female Angel with a backdrop of thousands of angels coming towards earth to help mankind. Lois interpreted this vision as a message fro the Spirit of God. She began teaching that the Holy Spirit is the Female member of the Godhead, and named her ministry “Living Waters Branch.” This of course is no coincidence. Lois knew nothing of the history of the Wacos at the time.
In 1993, New Mount Carmel was invaded by the state and federal government and once again the people of this little community who worshipped the “Woman-With-The-Powers-In-The-Waters”, was massacred and burned out and had their water source destroyed when the well head was bulldozed during the cleanup. Consequently we have learned that the Trans Texas Corridor, which is a part of a national Toll Highway System to import and export product by way of rail and road internationally from Mexico, USA and Canada (NAFTA) is planned to go right through the New Mount Carmel property probably because it sits in the most strategic position to pump the water out of the huge aquifer under it and distribute it through the waterlines that will be apart of the TTC project. The ancient geyser that was capped by Austin and his cohorts was fed by this aquifer and is now to be exploited again at the cost of the lives of the inhabitants of the land. Only this time it is not just the Branch Davidians that are about to suffer, but everyone in the path of the land grabbing government.
Will history again repeat itself at the expense of the native land owners?
Steal this land
EXCERPT:
STEAL THIS LAND
Recently we have learned that the TXDOT or the Texas Department of Transportation has planned to build the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), right through our Mt Carmel property. The way it was drawn on the aerial map it looks very suspicious that the whole plan, which from what I have been told has been in the works since the 1980's. This means that Mt. Carmel and the Branch Davidian Church had been targeted even before the planned raid of Feb 28, 1993.
Mt. Carmel and the Trans Texas Corridor
EXCERPT:
ROADKILL WACO: A New World Order Trans-Texas Corridor Superhighway, Land, Gun Grab, Experiment
CLOSE [X] Highway Through 'Hallowed' Ground
Texas Highway Project Threatens a Cluster of Branch Davidians in Waco
Pace's latest cause may just attract some anti-government types to Mount Carmel. The state of Texas is considering building a north-south superhighway through the Waco area, part of a massive statewide project known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Lois Roden wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Contemporaneous with the Feminist Movement surge of the 1970s (and corresponding with the egalitarian teachings of many Adventist sects), Roden asserted that women, like men, were made in the image and likeness of God, and that they thereby hold a position of co-dominion with man in all things. She openly shared this concept with the members of her sect since 1973, despite some resistance within the sect. In 1977, a year before Benjamin Roden died, Lois said she had received a vision of the person of the Holy Spirit symbolized as a feminine "shimmering silvery Angel." She asserted as proof her ideas that the Hebrew word for Spirit (ruach) is feminine, and that Jews regard the concept of "Holy Spirit" and the "Divine Presence" ("shekhinah"...both of which are "feminine" words in Hebrew) are one and the same. (Although Judaism does not subscribe to any concept of "Her individual Personhood", the feminine aspect of the "Holy Spirit" is a prominent feature in Kabbalah).
Waco's female Godhead connection
EXCERPT:
It was on this place that in 1977 Lois Roden had a vision of a beautiful female Angel with a backdrop of thousands of angels coming towards earth to help mankind. Lois interpreted this vision as a message fro the Spirit of God. She began teaching that the Holy Spirit is the Female member of the Godhead, and named her ministry “Living Waters Branch.” This of course is no coincidence. Lois knew nothing of the history of the Wacos at the time.
In 1993, New Mount Carmel was invaded by the state and federal government and once again the people of this little community who worshipped the “Woman-With-The-Powers-In-The-Waters”, was massacred and burned out and had their water source destroyed when the well head was bulldozed during the cleanup. Consequently we have learned that the Trans Texas Corridor, which is a part of a national Toll Highway System to import and export product by way of rail and road internationally from Mexico, USA and Canada (NAFTA) is planned to go right through the New Mount Carmel property probably because it sits in the most strategic position to pump the water out of the huge aquifer under it and distribute it through the waterlines that will be apart of the TTC project. The ancient geyser that was capped by Austin and his cohorts was fed by this aquifer and is now to be exploited again at the cost of the lives of the inhabitants of the land. Only this time it is not just the Branch Davidians that are about to suffer, but everyone in the path of the land grabbing government.
Will history again repeat itself at the expense of the native land owners?
Steal this land
EXCERPT:
STEAL THIS LAND
Recently we have learned that the TXDOT or the Texas Department of Transportation has planned to build the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), right through our Mt Carmel property. The way it was drawn on the aerial map it looks very suspicious that the whole plan, which from what I have been told has been in the works since the 1980's. This means that Mt. Carmel and the Branch Davidian Church had been targeted even before the planned raid of Feb 28, 1993.
Mt. Carmel and the Trans Texas Corridor
EXCERPT:
ROADKILL WACO: A New World Order Trans-Texas Corridor Superhighway, Land, Gun Grab, Experiment
CLOSE [X] Highway Through 'Hallowed' Ground
Texas Highway Project Threatens a Cluster of Branch Davidians in Waco
Pace's latest cause may just attract some anti-government types to Mount Carmel. The state of Texas is considering building a north-south superhighway through the Waco area, part of a massive statewide project known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.
You don't need to read the first two articles in full as they are only leading up to the cover-up and in the 3rd article there is a video. I am putting them in this order as this is how I found them. Flat denial came later and then the video??????? Notice Matt Simmons name mentioned, hmmmmmmmm
Was a massive Saudi Aramco oil spill concealed from the public in 1993
2 EXCERPTs:
1) On one hand, Saudi Aramco has allowed the documentation of many field-related problems in Society of Professional Engineers (SPE) publications. Indeed, Matt Simmons wrote Twilight in the Desert based on an analysis of many such papers. But there is also a curious, almost amateur, approach to the censuring of the papers of name and place data. Nevertheless, information eventually leaks out in some form. A concealment of this magnitude would seem to require a more foolproof approach and motivation.
2)
Alternately, all or part of the story could be fiction. Indeed, after several weeks, Saudi Aramco finally issued a flat denial.
Flat denial
EXCERPT:
Aramco refutes 'secret' spill talk
Oil giant Saudi Aramco today denied allegations reported in several news and media internet blogs about a ‘secret’ oil spill in the Arabian Gulf during 1993.
Saudi Aramco Oil Spill
EXCERPT:
Déjà vu, Oil Over Again
In Esquire Magazine's The Politics Blog, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was being interviewed by writer Mark Warren about BP's response to the current crisis when he said this:
JH: The work going on to close the well is taking multiple approaches, and I am aware that BP has sent out a message to all the oil companies asking for help and advice. And I actually sent some people to BP in terms of the spill response cleanup to try to get them aware of a process that has been used in the Arabian Gulf that has not been used in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to use supertankers, empty supertankers, to suck up the oil off the surface, where they can store the oil, they can treat the water, they can discharge the water and then they can either salvage the oil or destroy it, as the case may be. And I know the mayor of New Orleans and a few other officials are now asking BP about that process as a result of these engineers coming forward from Saudi Aramco.
ES: When did that spill happen, John?
JH: I don't actually know, but it was sometime back, there was a huge, huge spill that never got reported, because they don't have an open press, obviously... But I was told it was a 700-million-gallon spill.
ESQ: That would be the biggest, right?
JH: That would be the biggest the world has ever known. And they used six supertankers to clean up the oil and were very successful. We'd do well to get supertankers in the Gulf.
Gulf oil spill supertankers with video of Hofmeister
EXCERPT:
Déjà vu, Oil Over Again (Ex-oil exec -Cleanup remedies ignored)
In Esquire Magazine's The Politics Blog, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was being interviewed by writer Mark Warren about BP's response to the current crisis when he said this:
JH: The work going on to close the well is taking multiple approaches, and I am aware that BP has sent out a message to all the oil companies asking for help and advice. And I actually sent some people to BP in terms of the spill response cleanup to try to get them aware of a process that has been used in the Arabian Gulf that has not been used in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to use supertankers, empty supertankers, to suck up the oil off the surface, where they can store the oil, they can treat the water, they can discharge the water and then they can either salvage the oil or destroy it, as the case may be. And I know the mayor of New Orleans and a few other officials are now asking BP about that process as a result of these engineers coming forward from Saudi Aramco.
ES: When did that spill happen, John?
JH: I don't actually know, but it was sometime back, there was a huge, huge spill that never got reported, because they don't have an open press, obviously... But I was told it was a 700-million-gallon spill.
ESQ: That would be the biggest, right?
JH: That would be the biggest the world has ever known. And they used six supertankers to clean up the oil and were very successful. We'd do well to get supertankers in the Gulf.
Was a massive Saudi Aramco oil spill concealed from the public in 1993
2 EXCERPTs:
1) On one hand, Saudi Aramco has allowed the documentation of many field-related problems in Society of Professional Engineers (SPE) publications. Indeed, Matt Simmons wrote Twilight in the Desert based on an analysis of many such papers. But there is also a curious, almost amateur, approach to the censuring of the papers of name and place data. Nevertheless, information eventually leaks out in some form. A concealment of this magnitude would seem to require a more foolproof approach and motivation.
2)
Alternately, all or part of the story could be fiction. Indeed, after several weeks, Saudi Aramco finally issued a flat denial.
Flat denial
EXCERPT:
Aramco refutes 'secret' spill talk
Oil giant Saudi Aramco today denied allegations reported in several news and media internet blogs about a ‘secret’ oil spill in the Arabian Gulf during 1993.
Saudi Aramco Oil Spill
EXCERPT:
Déjà vu, Oil Over Again
In Esquire Magazine's The Politics Blog, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was being interviewed by writer Mark Warren about BP's response to the current crisis when he said this:
JH: The work going on to close the well is taking multiple approaches, and I am aware that BP has sent out a message to all the oil companies asking for help and advice. And I actually sent some people to BP in terms of the spill response cleanup to try to get them aware of a process that has been used in the Arabian Gulf that has not been used in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to use supertankers, empty supertankers, to suck up the oil off the surface, where they can store the oil, they can treat the water, they can discharge the water and then they can either salvage the oil or destroy it, as the case may be. And I know the mayor of New Orleans and a few other officials are now asking BP about that process as a result of these engineers coming forward from Saudi Aramco.
ES: When did that spill happen, John?
JH: I don't actually know, but it was sometime back, there was a huge, huge spill that never got reported, because they don't have an open press, obviously... But I was told it was a 700-million-gallon spill.
ESQ: That would be the biggest, right?
JH: That would be the biggest the world has ever known. And they used six supertankers to clean up the oil and were very successful. We'd do well to get supertankers in the Gulf.
Gulf oil spill supertankers with video of Hofmeister
EXCERPT:
Déjà vu, Oil Over Again (Ex-oil exec -Cleanup remedies ignored)
In Esquire Magazine's The Politics Blog, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister was being interviewed by writer Mark Warren about BP's response to the current crisis when he said this:
JH: The work going on to close the well is taking multiple approaches, and I am aware that BP has sent out a message to all the oil companies asking for help and advice. And I actually sent some people to BP in terms of the spill response cleanup to try to get them aware of a process that has been used in the Arabian Gulf that has not been used in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to use supertankers, empty supertankers, to suck up the oil off the surface, where they can store the oil, they can treat the water, they can discharge the water and then they can either salvage the oil or destroy it, as the case may be. And I know the mayor of New Orleans and a few other officials are now asking BP about that process as a result of these engineers coming forward from Saudi Aramco.
ES: When did that spill happen, John?
JH: I don't actually know, but it was sometime back, there was a huge, huge spill that never got reported, because they don't have an open press, obviously... But I was told it was a 700-million-gallon spill.
ESQ: That would be the biggest, right?
JH: That would be the biggest the world has ever known. And they used six supertankers to clean up the oil and were very successful. We'd do well to get supertankers in the Gulf.
Monday, August 30, 2010
13 Illumaniti Bloodlines
1.1. The Astor Bloodline
2.2. The Bundy Bloodline
3.3. The Collins Bloodline
4.4. The DuPont Bloodline
5.5. The Freeman Bloodline
6 6. The Kennedy Bloodline
7 7. The Li Bloodline
8.8. The Onassis Bloodline
9 9. The Reynolds bloodline
110. The Rockefeller Bloodline
11. The Rothschild Bloodline
12. The Russell Bloodline
13. The Van Duyn Bloodline
It is important that you read this article first to understand the US relationship with Saudia Arabia. (I think it shows how Saudi Arabia was manipulated by the Rockefellers.)
Saudia Arabia
EXCERPT:
By ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM
Published: May 11, 2010 01:50 Updated: May 11, 2010 01:50
I have always been fascinated by what Aramco does and what it stands for. I have always been attached to this company either emotionally or in reality.
Two years ago Saudi Aramco celebrated 75 years of oil exploration in Saudi Arabia. It was only 6 years after King Abdul Aziz announced the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That was in 1932, so in 1938 oil was discovered in oil well No. 7.
To a lot of analysts, the date of oil discovery in Saudi Arabia is when the map of strategic influence changed.
Frank Holmes geologist
EXCERPT:
Major Frank Holmes (1874 - 1947) also known as "Abu Naft" (the father of oil) in Arabic was a British geologist. He was born on a farm in Southland New Zealand in 1874, and attended Otago Boys' High School, Dunedin in 1888-89.
That day when the oil industry came to Saudi Arabia
EXCERPT:
Vanguard At Jubail
For many in the Persian Gulf hamlet, the newcomers were the first Americans they had ever seen, and they would long remember that day when the oil industry came to Saudi Arabia.
It started with Standard Oil Co. of California (now Chevron Corp.),
EXCERPT:
It started with Standard Oil Co. of California (now Chevron Corp.), the first American firm to explore for oil in the Middle East. The company began its Middle East operations in Bahrain, where its subsidiary Bahrain Petroleum Co., brought in the first producing well on the island nation in May of 1932.
While working on Bahrain, Socal geologists Fred A. Davies and William F. Taylor became convinced that the low hills along the coast of Saudi Arabia – only 12 miles away across the Persian Gulf – were similar to the classic domal structure that paid off in Bahrain
Thomas Barger wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Thomas Barger (1909 – 1986) was an American geologist, explorer, miner, businessman and former CEO of the Arabian American Oil Company (formerly Aramco now Saudi Aramco).
Karl Twitchell
EXCERPT:
Karl Twitchell was an American mining engineer.
He surveyed for minerals in Saudi Arabia, for King 'Abd al-'Aziz. He then worked for Charles Richard Crane, looking for places to drill for water in Yemen. He decided there were no aquifers but saw the potential for oil drilling.
He first struck oil in Bahrain, which gave him a good inkling that there would be oil in Saudi Arabia due to its close proximity (12 miles).
Operation Hajji Baba
EXCERPT:
Operation Hajji Baba was a humanitarian airlift operation performed by the United States Air Force between 25 and 29 August 1952. The mission of the operation was to airlift Hajj pilgrims stranded in Beirut, Lebanon to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before the closing of the gates to Mecca. The name for the operation was derived from the title of the book The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, written by James Justinian Morier in 1824.
Discovery the story of Aramco then Chap. 8
EXCERPT:
Discovery! The Story Of Aramco Then
Chapter 8: Into Production
Written by Wallace Stegner
Illustrated by Don Thompson
SYNOPSIS — In some ways 1937 was an exciting year for the company, that was now the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) The first American wives—unveiled and nervous about it—came and settled into the raw camp at Damman Max Sieineke, in what would turn out to be a historic tri, crossed and re-crossed Arabia. Crown Prince Sa’ud came to call and came after him, England Princess Alice—to the annoyance of Benito Mussolini. But in other ways it was a most discouraging period. Police interference became intolerable, pilferage got out of hand and Damman No. 7 continued to produce nothing whatever.
The Pioneers
EXCERPT:
n the early decades of the 20th century, the people of what is today Saudi Arabia lived lives of considerable austerity. Formal education was uncommon, and the conveniences of the industrial era were mostly unknown. By the time ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman Al Sa‘ud—known to westerners as Ibn Sa‘ud—merged his central Arabian realm of the Najd with the western Kingdom of the Hijaz to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, the new nation was deeply in debt. The principal source of national revenue—a tax on pilgrims to Makkah—had declined sharply as the worldwide Great Depression reduced traffic to the Holy Cities.
Special Interest
EXCERPT:
"In Saudi Arabia we have a saying," said His Excellency Mr. Al-Jubair, "fire warms the body, the body and friendship warms the heart." In the first public address since he was appointed Ambassador in February, Mr. Al-Jubair painted a vivid picture of the friendship shared between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.
Papers
EXCERPT:
WILLIAM E. MULLIGAN PAPERS
FOLDER LISTING
Box: 1 Fold: 52 Rentz, George S. - Correspondence Re, 1945 - 1952
DATE SPAN: 10/27/1945 - 01/24/1952
DESCRIPTION: Miscellaneous correspondence regarding George S. Rentz, mainly between Aramco officials regarding Rentz' early employment at Aramco. Includes 1 carbon from Garry Owen to W. Spurlock, 1 TLS from Hamilton Osborne to unknown at Aramco, 1 TLS from Spurlock to Owen, 1 carbon from Owen to F. A. Davies, 1 copy TL from Harvey P. Hall to W. F. Albright, 1 copy TL from Wendell Phillips at the American Foundation for the Study of Man to Hall, 1 copy TL from Hall to Phillips, 1 carbon from William E. Mulligan to Richard Young, and 1 copy TL from Hall to Rentz. Much discussion of "The Middle East Journal."
Max Steineke wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Max Steineke was a famous American petroleum geologist, and Casoc's (later Aramco) Chief Geologist who is referred to as the discoverer of oil in Saudi Arabia under Standard Oil of California contracts with the Saudi government in the 1930s. He graduated from Stanford University in 1921 with an AB degree in geology. Steineke died in 1952.
Steineke Hall, a guest house in the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, was named in honor of Max Steineke.
Birth of a dream
Birth of a Dream
Written by Thomas C. Barger
I arrived in Saudi Arabia on December 13th 1937. I was hired in San Francisco allegedly to be a surveyor for a seismograph crew. They were very short of surveyors and needed me badly so I was rushed out to Saudi Arabia in 13 days, which was a record for the time. But when I met Max Steineke [the chief geologist] he said : Hello, sure glad to meet you, glad to have you here. I don’t know what I’ll do with you yet but I’m sure glad to have you here.’ He didn’t say anything about surveying for a seismic crew. He didn’t need one very badly, and he made me a junior geologist.
Ernie Berg
EXCERPT:
Reconsidering Out in the Blue
Cover story in Diwaniya, the weekly cultural supp;ement of the Saudi Gazette newspaper. Written by Peter Harrigan
18 March, 2002
“I get calls from readers just about every day. Just last week a Saudi called me from Riyadh to talk about a photograph in the book that showed his uncle 60 years ago. I get lots of calls like that,” says Tim Barger, video producer turned publisher, from his Californian home. Its nearly two years now since Barger edited and published the personal letters of his late father Thomas Barger under the title Out in the Blue.
The letters reveal the experiences of Thomas Barger as a young field geologist in Saudi Arabia between 1937 and 1940 and Tim Barger was as ever eager to talk of the pleasure and serendipitous moments that publishing them and the photographs have provided.
“Recently I received an email from an Ernie Berg. I thought that it was a request for the free video CD until I read it,” says Barger, “It turns out that a man named Ernie Berg idly typed his name into a search engine and up popped a picture of his father. He was Ernie Berg Jr. His father had died when he was 5 years old and his mother died 3 or 4 years later, so he knew virtually nothing about his dad. He certainly didn't know that his father was the unheralded discoverer of the largest oil field on earth. I sent him a copy of Out in the Blue and he was absolutely thrilled to read so much new information about his lost dad.”
Jefferson Caffery wikipedia
EXCERPT:
In 1934, while ambassador to Cuba, four assailants attempted an assassination of Cafferty in front of his residence in Havana. The assailants waited outside of his residence for his daily departure to his yacht club. One assailant was killed by a bodyguard, the others escaped. Ambassador Caffery was not hurt. The event was reported on the front page of the New Orleans Times Picayune, dated May 28, 1934.
In total, he worked 43 years in foreign service under eight presidents, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower.
He was awarded the Foreign Service Cup in 1971 by his fellow Foreign Service officers. He held several honorary degrees and decorations, including the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in 1954. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor from the president of France in 1949 and the Order of the Cordon of the Republic from the president of Egypt in 1955.
The Webster letters
EXCERPT:
A Note About the Author: Ken Slavin
Ken Slavin is the grandson of the late Ken and Mildred Webster, Aramcons from the early days of the company. Ken lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he is a public relations consultant, freelance writer and professional jazz singer. As you read the installments, please let me know what you think. E-mail me at kslavin@satx.rr.com
"Dear Folks": The Webster Letters from Arabia 1944-1959
Chapter 17: Aramco becomes world’s largest oil company, Onassis picks up first crude shipment at Ras Tanura, ‘Cinerama’ comes to Arabia, Air Force jets put on a show, Judy graduates from ACS in Beirut and the Webster Family plans for long leave via Scandinavia.
The story of Aramco Chapter 13
EXCERPT:
Admittedly, the plot was not unusual. Once the hard-working geologists had staked out the most likely regions and the phlegmatic, large-muscled drillers had poked into the strata of Dammam No. 7 there was no doubt that the venture would be a success. But there was a wealth of incident—the mid-Gulf explosion that took the lives of Charlie Herring and his wife, the fantastic visit to Dhahran of the King and his entourage of 5,000 followers, the fire at Dammam No. 12 which seared poor Bill Eisler and flared into one of the world's great oil fires, the air raid, in which a squadron of Italian bombers came in over the desert and dropped 50-pound fragmentation bombs on Dhahran and Bahrain.
Until that occurred—October 19, 1940—Casoc s people had not been directly affected by the war. Now and for the next four years they would be.
At first, the evacuation of wives and children aside, the impact was little more than an occasional delay in oil shipments. But as time went on the company slowly closed down most of its operations and the working force shrank to about 100 hardy souls who devoted most of the ensuing period to just surviving. One of these was Steve Furman, a supply expert who was about to have his
finest hour.
The story of Aramco Chapter 9
EXCERPT:
Saudi Arabia, a kingdom established over a period of a quarter century through the union of many amirates, sultanates and shaikhdoms, was never a clear image: its edges, or many of them, were blurred. The geographical unit of the Arabian Peninsula was not a political unit, and the precise line where the territory claimed by Ibn Sa'ud met the territory of Yemen, Aden, the Hadhramaut, Dhufar, Oman, Muscat, the Trucial Coast, or Qatar, was a matter of vague tradition and of agreements between Great Britain and Turkey that dated back to 1913 and 1914 and by which Saudi Arabia, for one, hardly considered itself bound. Where Ibn Sa'ud's territory joined the new state of Trans-Jordan was a matter of dispute. Where it met the shaikhdom of Kuwait, the buffer areas called the Kuwait and Iraq Neutral Zones, and the new state of Iraq, had been generally established between Ibn Sa'ud and Sir Percy Cox at the 1922 al-'Uqair Conference where Frank Holmes got the first oil concession for al-Hasa. The protocols of al-'Uqair described the boundaries between these northern neighbors and Saudi Arabia, but there had never been a survey, and the only available map was the Asia 1:1,000,000 Geographical Section, General Staff War Office 1917-1918, which Casoc surveyors had demonstrated to be inaccurate by as much as 25 miles at some points. Neither was there an adequate hydrographic chart of the Arabian side of the Gulf.
It was inevitable that the Company should take an interest in these blurred edges, for the concession ran to the boundaries of the country on south and east and north. But the Concession Agreement specifically prohibited any interference by the Company in the political affairs of Saudi Arabia, and the Company therefore could make no move to try to define its concession borders more clearly. It did, however, take the initiative in the hydrographic survey of the Gulf. And it did at the Government's request provide its surveyors on two occasions, once to survey in connection with an Iraqi party the border region along the north, from Kuwait to the Trans-Jordan border, and once to establish astronomical stations in the region around Selwa, at the foot of the Qatar Peninsula.
The story of Aramco Chapter 11 The Unicorns of Dahna
EXCERPT:
Written by Wallace Stegner
Illustrated by Don Thompson
SYNOPSIS: There wasn't ever a time, it seemed later, when everyone could just relax and say the job is done. For more than 15 years the effort to find Arabian oil had been underway—starting with the adventurers and financiers of the 1920's and ending with the successful discovery of oil in 1938 by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company—but the pace had never slackened.
One reason was that the Saudi Government kept coming up with little jobs for Casoc to do. One involved the assignment of two surveyors to define certain of the kingdom's boundaries, now, when they might include or exclude a major oil field, of primary importance. Another had to do with hydrographic soundings in the Gulf, a job that was assigned to likeable Charlie Herring. Charlie started the job but never finished it. En route for a day's outing on Bahrain he and his wife Pauline were killed when the cranky company launch exploded and sank.
They had other tasks too, like preparing for the first visit of King Ibn Sa'ud. The King led a caravan of 500 cars and 2,000 people to Dhahran to preside over ceremonies marking the day the first tanker carrying Saudi Arabian crude sailed to western oil markets.
Then came the fire.
On July 8, 1939, Dammam No. 12 exploded, sending a shock wave of sound and air rolling across the desert and a column of flames 200 feet in the air. One man was killed instantly and Bill Eisler was burned so badly that Monte Hawkins' heroic rescue and the subsequent medical efforts were of no value. He died a few hours later.
1.1. The Astor Bloodline
2.2. The Bundy Bloodline
3.3. The Collins Bloodline
4.4. The DuPont Bloodline
5.5. The Freeman Bloodline
6 6. The Kennedy Bloodline
7 7. The Li Bloodline
8.8. The Onassis Bloodline
9 9. The Reynolds bloodline
110. The Rockefeller Bloodline
11. The Rothschild Bloodline
12. The Russell Bloodline
13. The Van Duyn Bloodline
It is important that you read this article first to understand the US relationship with Saudia Arabia. (I think it shows how Saudi Arabia was manipulated by the Rockefellers.)
Saudia Arabia
EXCERPT:
By ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM
Published: May 11, 2010 01:50 Updated: May 11, 2010 01:50
I have always been fascinated by what Aramco does and what it stands for. I have always been attached to this company either emotionally or in reality.
Two years ago Saudi Aramco celebrated 75 years of oil exploration in Saudi Arabia. It was only 6 years after King Abdul Aziz announced the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That was in 1932, so in 1938 oil was discovered in oil well No. 7.
To a lot of analysts, the date of oil discovery in Saudi Arabia is when the map of strategic influence changed.
Frank Holmes geologist
EXCERPT:
Major Frank Holmes (1874 - 1947) also known as "Abu Naft" (the father of oil) in Arabic was a British geologist. He was born on a farm in Southland New Zealand in 1874, and attended Otago Boys' High School, Dunedin in 1888-89.
That day when the oil industry came to Saudi Arabia
EXCERPT:
Vanguard At Jubail
For many in the Persian Gulf hamlet, the newcomers were the first Americans they had ever seen, and they would long remember that day when the oil industry came to Saudi Arabia.
It started with Standard Oil Co. of California (now Chevron Corp.),
EXCERPT:
It started with Standard Oil Co. of California (now Chevron Corp.), the first American firm to explore for oil in the Middle East. The company began its Middle East operations in Bahrain, where its subsidiary Bahrain Petroleum Co., brought in the first producing well on the island nation in May of 1932.
While working on Bahrain, Socal geologists Fred A. Davies and William F. Taylor became convinced that the low hills along the coast of Saudi Arabia – only 12 miles away across the Persian Gulf – were similar to the classic domal structure that paid off in Bahrain
Thomas Barger wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Thomas Barger (1909 – 1986) was an American geologist, explorer, miner, businessman and former CEO of the Arabian American Oil Company (formerly Aramco now Saudi Aramco).
Karl Twitchell
EXCERPT:
Karl Twitchell was an American mining engineer.
He surveyed for minerals in Saudi Arabia, for King 'Abd al-'Aziz. He then worked for Charles Richard Crane, looking for places to drill for water in Yemen. He decided there were no aquifers but saw the potential for oil drilling.
He first struck oil in Bahrain, which gave him a good inkling that there would be oil in Saudi Arabia due to its close proximity (12 miles).
Operation Hajji Baba
EXCERPT:
Operation Hajji Baba was a humanitarian airlift operation performed by the United States Air Force between 25 and 29 August 1952. The mission of the operation was to airlift Hajj pilgrims stranded in Beirut, Lebanon to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before the closing of the gates to Mecca. The name for the operation was derived from the title of the book The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, written by James Justinian Morier in 1824.
Discovery the story of Aramco then Chap. 8
EXCERPT:
Discovery! The Story Of Aramco Then
Chapter 8: Into Production
Written by Wallace Stegner
Illustrated by Don Thompson
SYNOPSIS — In some ways 1937 was an exciting year for the company, that was now the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) The first American wives—unveiled and nervous about it—came and settled into the raw camp at Damman Max Sieineke, in what would turn out to be a historic tri, crossed and re-crossed Arabia. Crown Prince Sa’ud came to call and came after him, England Princess Alice—to the annoyance of Benito Mussolini. But in other ways it was a most discouraging period. Police interference became intolerable, pilferage got out of hand and Damman No. 7 continued to produce nothing whatever.
The Pioneers
EXCERPT:
n the early decades of the 20th century, the people of what is today Saudi Arabia lived lives of considerable austerity. Formal education was uncommon, and the conveniences of the industrial era were mostly unknown. By the time ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman Al Sa‘ud—known to westerners as Ibn Sa‘ud—merged his central Arabian realm of the Najd with the western Kingdom of the Hijaz to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, the new nation was deeply in debt. The principal source of national revenue—a tax on pilgrims to Makkah—had declined sharply as the worldwide Great Depression reduced traffic to the Holy Cities.
Special Interest
EXCERPT:
"In Saudi Arabia we have a saying," said His Excellency Mr. Al-Jubair, "fire warms the body, the body and friendship warms the heart." In the first public address since he was appointed Ambassador in February, Mr. Al-Jubair painted a vivid picture of the friendship shared between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.
Papers
EXCERPT:
WILLIAM E. MULLIGAN PAPERS
FOLDER LISTING
Box: 1 Fold: 52 Rentz, George S. - Correspondence Re, 1945 - 1952
DATE SPAN: 10/27/1945 - 01/24/1952
DESCRIPTION: Miscellaneous correspondence regarding George S. Rentz, mainly between Aramco officials regarding Rentz' early employment at Aramco. Includes 1 carbon from Garry Owen to W. Spurlock, 1 TLS from Hamilton Osborne to unknown at Aramco, 1 TLS from Spurlock to Owen, 1 carbon from Owen to F. A. Davies, 1 copy TL from Harvey P. Hall to W. F. Albright, 1 copy TL from Wendell Phillips at the American Foundation for the Study of Man to Hall, 1 copy TL from Hall to Phillips, 1 carbon from William E. Mulligan to Richard Young, and 1 copy TL from Hall to Rentz. Much discussion of "The Middle East Journal."
Max Steineke wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Max Steineke was a famous American petroleum geologist, and Casoc's (later Aramco) Chief Geologist who is referred to as the discoverer of oil in Saudi Arabia under Standard Oil of California contracts with the Saudi government in the 1930s. He graduated from Stanford University in 1921 with an AB degree in geology. Steineke died in 1952.
Steineke Hall, a guest house in the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, was named in honor of Max Steineke.
Birth of a dream
Birth of a Dream
Written by Thomas C. Barger
I arrived in Saudi Arabia on December 13th 1937. I was hired in San Francisco allegedly to be a surveyor for a seismograph crew. They were very short of surveyors and needed me badly so I was rushed out to Saudi Arabia in 13 days, which was a record for the time. But when I met Max Steineke [the chief geologist] he said : Hello, sure glad to meet you, glad to have you here. I don’t know what I’ll do with you yet but I’m sure glad to have you here.’ He didn’t say anything about surveying for a seismic crew. He didn’t need one very badly, and he made me a junior geologist.
Ernie Berg
EXCERPT:
Reconsidering Out in the Blue
Cover story in Diwaniya, the weekly cultural supp;ement of the Saudi Gazette newspaper. Written by Peter Harrigan
18 March, 2002
“I get calls from readers just about every day. Just last week a Saudi called me from Riyadh to talk about a photograph in the book that showed his uncle 60 years ago. I get lots of calls like that,” says Tim Barger, video producer turned publisher, from his Californian home. Its nearly two years now since Barger edited and published the personal letters of his late father Thomas Barger under the title Out in the Blue.
The letters reveal the experiences of Thomas Barger as a young field geologist in Saudi Arabia between 1937 and 1940 and Tim Barger was as ever eager to talk of the pleasure and serendipitous moments that publishing them and the photographs have provided.
“Recently I received an email from an Ernie Berg. I thought that it was a request for the free video CD until I read it,” says Barger, “It turns out that a man named Ernie Berg idly typed his name into a search engine and up popped a picture of his father. He was Ernie Berg Jr. His father had died when he was 5 years old and his mother died 3 or 4 years later, so he knew virtually nothing about his dad. He certainly didn't know that his father was the unheralded discoverer of the largest oil field on earth. I sent him a copy of Out in the Blue and he was absolutely thrilled to read so much new information about his lost dad.”
Jefferson Caffery wikipedia
EXCERPT:
In 1934, while ambassador to Cuba, four assailants attempted an assassination of Cafferty in front of his residence in Havana. The assailants waited outside of his residence for his daily departure to his yacht club. One assailant was killed by a bodyguard, the others escaped. Ambassador Caffery was not hurt. The event was reported on the front page of the New Orleans Times Picayune, dated May 28, 1934.
In total, he worked 43 years in foreign service under eight presidents, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower.
He was awarded the Foreign Service Cup in 1971 by his fellow Foreign Service officers. He held several honorary degrees and decorations, including the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in 1954. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor from the president of France in 1949 and the Order of the Cordon of the Republic from the president of Egypt in 1955.
The Webster letters
EXCERPT:
A Note About the Author: Ken Slavin
Ken Slavin is the grandson of the late Ken and Mildred Webster, Aramcons from the early days of the company. Ken lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he is a public relations consultant, freelance writer and professional jazz singer. As you read the installments, please let me know what you think. E-mail me at kslavin@satx.rr.com
"Dear Folks": The Webster Letters from Arabia 1944-1959
Chapter 17: Aramco becomes world’s largest oil company, Onassis picks up first crude shipment at Ras Tanura, ‘Cinerama’ comes to Arabia, Air Force jets put on a show, Judy graduates from ACS in Beirut and the Webster Family plans for long leave via Scandinavia.
The story of Aramco Chapter 13
EXCERPT:
Admittedly, the plot was not unusual. Once the hard-working geologists had staked out the most likely regions and the phlegmatic, large-muscled drillers had poked into the strata of Dammam No. 7 there was no doubt that the venture would be a success. But there was a wealth of incident—the mid-Gulf explosion that took the lives of Charlie Herring and his wife, the fantastic visit to Dhahran of the King and his entourage of 5,000 followers, the fire at Dammam No. 12 which seared poor Bill Eisler and flared into one of the world's great oil fires, the air raid, in which a squadron of Italian bombers came in over the desert and dropped 50-pound fragmentation bombs on Dhahran and Bahrain.
Until that occurred—October 19, 1940—Casoc s people had not been directly affected by the war. Now and for the next four years they would be.
At first, the evacuation of wives and children aside, the impact was little more than an occasional delay in oil shipments. But as time went on the company slowly closed down most of its operations and the working force shrank to about 100 hardy souls who devoted most of the ensuing period to just surviving. One of these was Steve Furman, a supply expert who was about to have his
finest hour.
The story of Aramco Chapter 9
EXCERPT:
Saudi Arabia, a kingdom established over a period of a quarter century through the union of many amirates, sultanates and shaikhdoms, was never a clear image: its edges, or many of them, were blurred. The geographical unit of the Arabian Peninsula was not a political unit, and the precise line where the territory claimed by Ibn Sa'ud met the territory of Yemen, Aden, the Hadhramaut, Dhufar, Oman, Muscat, the Trucial Coast, or Qatar, was a matter of vague tradition and of agreements between Great Britain and Turkey that dated back to 1913 and 1914 and by which Saudi Arabia, for one, hardly considered itself bound. Where Ibn Sa'ud's territory joined the new state of Trans-Jordan was a matter of dispute. Where it met the shaikhdom of Kuwait, the buffer areas called the Kuwait and Iraq Neutral Zones, and the new state of Iraq, had been generally established between Ibn Sa'ud and Sir Percy Cox at the 1922 al-'Uqair Conference where Frank Holmes got the first oil concession for al-Hasa. The protocols of al-'Uqair described the boundaries between these northern neighbors and Saudi Arabia, but there had never been a survey, and the only available map was the Asia 1:1,000,000 Geographical Section, General Staff War Office 1917-1918, which Casoc surveyors had demonstrated to be inaccurate by as much as 25 miles at some points. Neither was there an adequate hydrographic chart of the Arabian side of the Gulf.
It was inevitable that the Company should take an interest in these blurred edges, for the concession ran to the boundaries of the country on south and east and north. But the Concession Agreement specifically prohibited any interference by the Company in the political affairs of Saudi Arabia, and the Company therefore could make no move to try to define its concession borders more clearly. It did, however, take the initiative in the hydrographic survey of the Gulf. And it did at the Government's request provide its surveyors on two occasions, once to survey in connection with an Iraqi party the border region along the north, from Kuwait to the Trans-Jordan border, and once to establish astronomical stations in the region around Selwa, at the foot of the Qatar Peninsula.
The story of Aramco Chapter 11 The Unicorns of Dahna
EXCERPT:
Written by Wallace Stegner
Illustrated by Don Thompson
SYNOPSIS: There wasn't ever a time, it seemed later, when everyone could just relax and say the job is done. For more than 15 years the effort to find Arabian oil had been underway—starting with the adventurers and financiers of the 1920's and ending with the successful discovery of oil in 1938 by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company—but the pace had never slackened.
One reason was that the Saudi Government kept coming up with little jobs for Casoc to do. One involved the assignment of two surveyors to define certain of the kingdom's boundaries, now, when they might include or exclude a major oil field, of primary importance. Another had to do with hydrographic soundings in the Gulf, a job that was assigned to likeable Charlie Herring. Charlie started the job but never finished it. En route for a day's outing on Bahrain he and his wife Pauline were killed when the cranky company launch exploded and sank.
They had other tasks too, like preparing for the first visit of King Ibn Sa'ud. The King led a caravan of 500 cars and 2,000 people to Dhahran to preside over ceremonies marking the day the first tanker carrying Saudi Arabian crude sailed to western oil markets.
Then came the fire.
On July 8, 1939, Dammam No. 12 exploded, sending a shock wave of sound and air rolling across the desert and a column of flames 200 feet in the air. One man was killed instantly and Bill Eisler was burned so badly that Monte Hawkins' heroic rescue and the subsequent medical efforts were of no value. He died a few hours later.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Matt Simmons (world-renown oil expert) with Eric King on Kingworldnews 13th Nov 2009 - A MUST LISTEN
Was Matt Simmons murdered?
Matthew Simmons wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Matthew Roy Simmons (April 7, 1943[4] – August 8, 2010) was founder and chairman emeritus of Simmons & Company International, and was a prominent advocate of peak oil. Simmons was motivated by the 1973 energy crisis to create an investment banking firm catering to oil companies. In his previous capacity, he served as energy adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush. He was, up until his death, a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Simmons, who lived in Houston, Texas, died at his vacation home in North Haven, Maine, on August 8, 2010, at the age of 67. There is some speculation that his death may have not been accidental, although[5] after he was found dead in his hot tub,[6] the cause of death was ruled "accidental drowning with heart disease a contributing factor". [7]
Simmons was the author of the book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, published in 2005.[6] His examination of oil reserve decline rates helped raise awareness of the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves. He gave numerous presentations on Peak Oil and water shortages.[8]
Simmons believed that the Club of Rome predictions are more accurate than usually acknowledged.[9]
Simmons was the founder of the Ocean Energy Institute in Maine. His vision was to make Maine a leader in energy from offshore wind and ocean forces.
Current Events
EXCERPT:
from bayou to Black Rock Desert: still homeless and on fire
In The Ladies' Guide to the Apocalypse, art fags, cars, confusion &/or ranting, current events, road trip, shim-sham & flimflam on August 26, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Hi. My name is BP / Halliburton. Under the laws of your corrupted Constitution, I am considered a person. I am a person who has raped the Earth and killed 11 people — this time, so far, that you know of and/or can prove. I’ve fatally poisoned thousands more (wait and see), and I’m STILL paying myself to dump toxic death-chemicals in the ocean. Still lying, covering up evidence, laundering money, threatening whistleblowers, and committing treason, too. And you can’t arrest me and take my assets. Even though I’m a person. Thanks, Constitution! Don’t ever change!
Was Matt Simmons Murdered CIA secret weapons of assassination causes heart attacks videos included
EXCERPT:
For example, according to the video clip in the video and article, CIA secret weapon of assassination," a CIA secret weapon used for assassination shoots a small poison dart to cause a heart attack, as explained in Congressional testimony in the short video. There's also a link to a longer video online. Also mentioned in the article is Dick Cheney's secret CIA assassination squad: What's the big deal?
Was Matt Simmons murdered?
Matthew Simmons wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Matthew Roy Simmons (April 7, 1943[4] – August 8, 2010) was founder and chairman emeritus of Simmons & Company International, and was a prominent advocate of peak oil. Simmons was motivated by the 1973 energy crisis to create an investment banking firm catering to oil companies. In his previous capacity, he served as energy adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush. He was, up until his death, a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Simmons, who lived in Houston, Texas, died at his vacation home in North Haven, Maine, on August 8, 2010, at the age of 67. There is some speculation that his death may have not been accidental, although[5] after he was found dead in his hot tub,[6] the cause of death was ruled "accidental drowning with heart disease a contributing factor". [7]
Simmons was the author of the book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, published in 2005.[6] His examination of oil reserve decline rates helped raise awareness of the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves. He gave numerous presentations on Peak Oil and water shortages.[8]
Simmons believed that the Club of Rome predictions are more accurate than usually acknowledged.[9]
Simmons was the founder of the Ocean Energy Institute in Maine. His vision was to make Maine a leader in energy from offshore wind and ocean forces.
Current Events
EXCERPT:
from bayou to Black Rock Desert: still homeless and on fire
In The Ladies' Guide to the Apocalypse, art fags, cars, confusion &/or ranting, current events, road trip, shim-sham & flimflam on August 26, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Hi. My name is BP / Halliburton. Under the laws of your corrupted Constitution, I am considered a person. I am a person who has raped the Earth and killed 11 people — this time, so far, that you know of and/or can prove. I’ve fatally poisoned thousands more (wait and see), and I’m STILL paying myself to dump toxic death-chemicals in the ocean. Still lying, covering up evidence, laundering money, threatening whistleblowers, and committing treason, too. And you can’t arrest me and take my assets. Even though I’m a person. Thanks, Constitution! Don’t ever change!
Was Matt Simmons Murdered CIA secret weapons of assassination causes heart attacks videos included
EXCERPT:
For example, according to the video clip in the video and article, CIA secret weapon of assassination," a CIA secret weapon used for assassination shoots a small poison dart to cause a heart attack, as explained in Congressional testimony in the short video. There's also a link to a longer video online. Also mentioned in the article is Dick Cheney's secret CIA assassination squad: What's the big deal?
EOG Resources formerly ENRON
EXCERPT:
1999
EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG), formerly Enron Oil & Gas Company, adopted a new name and declared its independence from Enron Corp. Simultaneously, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Forrest E. Hoglund retired, Mark G. Papa was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Edmund P. Segner was named President and Chief of Staff of EOG.
PA to let EOG restart fracking in other wells
Posted on Sat, Jun. 26, 2010
Pa. to let EOG restart 'fracking' in other wells
By Marc Levy
Associated Press
HARRISBURG - A natural-gas drilling company whose work in Pennsylvania was shut down by regulators after a blowout at one of its wells learned Friday that it can resume hydraulic fracturing at its other wells in the state.
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Neil Weaver said the state agency was satisfied by its review of the well sites where Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. is drilling and wants to break up mile-deep shale using the hydraulic fracturing process, also known as fracking.
"We looked at their operations, we reviewed their plans and operations in general in regard to the fracking and didn't find any issues or violations," Weaver said.
Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand into a well at high pressures to create cracks in the thick shale, freeing trapped gas and letting it flow to the surface.
EOG is one of dozens of companies from around the world flocking to Pennsylvania in pursuit of the rich Marcellus Shale gas reserve, which lies beneath much of Pennsylvania.
The blowout came three weeks ago, at a sensitive point when the rapidly expanding industry is fighting an effort by Gov. Rendell to impose tough wastewater rules on it and tax the gas that companies extract from the ground.
The blowout site, on the property of a Clearfield County hunting club, remains idled.
And while EOG can resume the hydraulic fracturing that frees the gas from the thick shale, it does not yet have approval to perform the finishing work that allows the gas to be extracted from the wells. It was allowed two weeks ago to restart the first stages of well drilling.
The blowout occurred during the finishing work when rig workers were removing plugs from the well. Explosive gas and toxic wastewater unexpectedly blasted out, and remained out of control for 16 hours before specialists capped the well. No one was injured and the gas did not ignite.
EXCERPT:
1999
EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG), formerly Enron Oil & Gas Company, adopted a new name and declared its independence from Enron Corp. Simultaneously, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Forrest E. Hoglund retired, Mark G. Papa was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Edmund P. Segner was named President and Chief of Staff of EOG.
PA to let EOG restart fracking in other wells
Posted on Sat, Jun. 26, 2010
Pa. to let EOG restart 'fracking' in other wells
By Marc Levy
Associated Press
HARRISBURG - A natural-gas drilling company whose work in Pennsylvania was shut down by regulators after a blowout at one of its wells learned Friday that it can resume hydraulic fracturing at its other wells in the state.
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Neil Weaver said the state agency was satisfied by its review of the well sites where Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. is drilling and wants to break up mile-deep shale using the hydraulic fracturing process, also known as fracking.
"We looked at their operations, we reviewed their plans and operations in general in regard to the fracking and didn't find any issues or violations," Weaver said.
Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand into a well at high pressures to create cracks in the thick shale, freeing trapped gas and letting it flow to the surface.
EOG is one of dozens of companies from around the world flocking to Pennsylvania in pursuit of the rich Marcellus Shale gas reserve, which lies beneath much of Pennsylvania.
The blowout came three weeks ago, at a sensitive point when the rapidly expanding industry is fighting an effort by Gov. Rendell to impose tough wastewater rules on it and tax the gas that companies extract from the ground.
The blowout site, on the property of a Clearfield County hunting club, remains idled.
And while EOG can resume the hydraulic fracturing that frees the gas from the thick shale, it does not yet have approval to perform the finishing work that allows the gas to be extracted from the wells. It was allowed two weeks ago to restart the first stages of well drilling.
The blowout occurred during the finishing work when rig workers were removing plugs from the well. Explosive gas and toxic wastewater unexpectedly blasted out, and remained out of control for 16 hours before specialists capped the well. No one was injured and the gas did not ignite.
Rev. Billy Talen vs JP Morgan
EXCERPT:
A New York City preacher was arrested after placing a 'holy hex' on JPMorgan Chase.
Protesting what he calls JPMorgan's financing for mountaintop removal in Appalachia, Rev. Billy Talen led his Church Of Life congregation in an Easter morning protest outside of a bank branch in New York City. Courthouse News has the details:
Rev. Billy Talen youtube videos
Listen on this video and hear Tony Hayward (remember him from BP, wasn't he CEO before being replaced)
Tony Hayward wikipedia
EXCERPT:
On 27 July 2010, BP confirmed Hayward would resign as CEO of the company and be replaced by Bob Dudley on 1 October 2010.[1]
PLEASE watch this as it is something we need to do....... getting a reverend on our side is good PR, eh?
Reverend Billy Talen Dedication On Hydraulic Fracking Of Water video
Water Under Attack domain name........NOTICE: This domain name expired on 08/26/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion (waterunderattack.com)
Marcellus Shale sourcewatch inside videos
Halliburton and Marcellus Shale
Marcellus Shale
At 95,000 square miles, the Marcellus shale is the most expansive shale gas play in the U.S., spanning five states in the Northeast. The sheer size of this organically rich formation translates into the highest estimated gas-in-place totals and technically recoverable reserves of any shale in the U.S.
With true vertical depths between 4,000 and 8,500 ft, and an average reservoir thickness between 50 and 200 ft, this play lacks the extreme downhole conditions of many other major U.S. shale plays. However, operators in the Marcellus are likely to face other challenges including difficult terrain, lack of infrastructure, reservoir variability, environmental considerations, and water sourcing and disposal issues.
Halliburton's extensive, proven shale experience is leading the way in the Marcellus
Halliburton has been collaborating with operators to produce shale gas in the Northeast for decades – longer than any other service company. Since the modern era of Marcellus exploitation began in the mid-2000s, we have continued to introduce advances in drilling, completion, and production processes that have both increased production yields and reduced development costs to one of the lowest of any major U.S. shale play. We remain focused on continuously improving our current solution packages while pioneering new technologies and processes with the goal of further optimizing the value our customers derive from their Marcellus shale wells. Halliburton’s DatCISM (Design at the Customer Interface) custom bit optimization process, used in conjunction with proprietary clay-inhibited mud systems such as BOREMAX® fresh-water drilling system and EZ-Pilot® rotary steerable system (with Electromagnetic Telemetry (EMT) option) incorporate advancements in three product service lines that together have delivered record lateral drilling runs for a number of top Marcellus operators. Innovative technologies in Halliburton’s pinpoint stimulation techniques and horizontal completion tool systems permit timely and cost-efficient fracturing of more intervals in the horizontal wellbore. This results in a greater amount of the reservoir volume being effectively stimulated, increasing production and improving drainage efficiencies.
Halliburton offers customers in the Marcellus shale play a comprehensive well service infrastructure with all business lines and associated resources represented locally. We incorporate best practices developed from our worldwide experience in servicing shale reservoirs as well as customized strategies designed specifically for the Marcellus. While each of our product service lines offers unique, value-added solutions in its own right, the synergistic benefits of teaming services together are even greater. Indeed, we have seen improved success rates in the Marcellus shale by combining discrete services into holistic solutions that drive down costs and risks, increase efficiencies, and deliver superior results.
A Commitment to HSE and sustainability
HSE leadership and accountability are instilled across all levels of our organization. Halliburton is also at the forefront of timely, cost-efficient regulatory compliance. We offer a large portfolio of products and services that are designed for health and environmental compatibility while still providing the high levels of performance desired.
For example, we offer the option of hydrocarbon-free fracturing chemicals, employed in our advanced AquaStim® water frac service, that reduce the environmental impact of stimulation services yet impart the reservoir congruency and stimulation effectiveness that maximizes production potential. When it comes to water management issues, Halliburton is actively engaged in the development of technologies that enable the re-use of water-based fracturing fluid and the use of produced water in formulating fracturing fluid. Not only does this further public water conservation goals and limit disposal concerns, it also reduces expense and downtime for our customers. And at Halliburton, we view safety as our number one priority. Our extensive safety training and process controls are second to none in the industry.
Put experience on your side
Halliburton has the expertise, resources, and a proven track record in the Marcellus play. We are uniquely positioned to deliver the all-inclusive, leading edge solutions needed to maximize production over the life of your shale gas reservoir.
EXCERPT:
A New York City preacher was arrested after placing a 'holy hex' on JPMorgan Chase.
Protesting what he calls JPMorgan's financing for mountaintop removal in Appalachia, Rev. Billy Talen led his Church Of Life congregation in an Easter morning protest outside of a bank branch in New York City. Courthouse News has the details:
Rev. Billy Talen youtube videos
Listen on this video and hear Tony Hayward (remember him from BP, wasn't he CEO before being replaced)
Tony Hayward wikipedia
EXCERPT:
On 27 July 2010, BP confirmed Hayward would resign as CEO of the company and be replaced by Bob Dudley on 1 October 2010.[1]
PLEASE watch this as it is something we need to do....... getting a reverend on our side is good PR, eh?
Reverend Billy Talen Dedication On Hydraulic Fracking Of Water video
Water Under Attack domain name........NOTICE: This domain name expired on 08/26/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion (waterunderattack.com)
Marcellus Shale sourcewatch inside videos
Halliburton and Marcellus Shale
Marcellus Shale
At 95,000 square miles, the Marcellus shale is the most expansive shale gas play in the U.S., spanning five states in the Northeast. The sheer size of this organically rich formation translates into the highest estimated gas-in-place totals and technically recoverable reserves of any shale in the U.S.
With true vertical depths between 4,000 and 8,500 ft, and an average reservoir thickness between 50 and 200 ft, this play lacks the extreme downhole conditions of many other major U.S. shale plays. However, operators in the Marcellus are likely to face other challenges including difficult terrain, lack of infrastructure, reservoir variability, environmental considerations, and water sourcing and disposal issues.
Halliburton's extensive, proven shale experience is leading the way in the Marcellus
Halliburton has been collaborating with operators to produce shale gas in the Northeast for decades – longer than any other service company. Since the modern era of Marcellus exploitation began in the mid-2000s, we have continued to introduce advances in drilling, completion, and production processes that have both increased production yields and reduced development costs to one of the lowest of any major U.S. shale play. We remain focused on continuously improving our current solution packages while pioneering new technologies and processes with the goal of further optimizing the value our customers derive from their Marcellus shale wells. Halliburton’s DatCISM (Design at the Customer Interface) custom bit optimization process, used in conjunction with proprietary clay-inhibited mud systems such as BOREMAX® fresh-water drilling system and EZ-Pilot® rotary steerable system (with Electromagnetic Telemetry (EMT) option) incorporate advancements in three product service lines that together have delivered record lateral drilling runs for a number of top Marcellus operators. Innovative technologies in Halliburton’s pinpoint stimulation techniques and horizontal completion tool systems permit timely and cost-efficient fracturing of more intervals in the horizontal wellbore. This results in a greater amount of the reservoir volume being effectively stimulated, increasing production and improving drainage efficiencies.
Halliburton offers customers in the Marcellus shale play a comprehensive well service infrastructure with all business lines and associated resources represented locally. We incorporate best practices developed from our worldwide experience in servicing shale reservoirs as well as customized strategies designed specifically for the Marcellus. While each of our product service lines offers unique, value-added solutions in its own right, the synergistic benefits of teaming services together are even greater. Indeed, we have seen improved success rates in the Marcellus shale by combining discrete services into holistic solutions that drive down costs and risks, increase efficiencies, and deliver superior results.
A Commitment to HSE and sustainability
HSE leadership and accountability are instilled across all levels of our organization. Halliburton is also at the forefront of timely, cost-efficient regulatory compliance. We offer a large portfolio of products and services that are designed for health and environmental compatibility while still providing the high levels of performance desired.
For example, we offer the option of hydrocarbon-free fracturing chemicals, employed in our advanced AquaStim® water frac service, that reduce the environmental impact of stimulation services yet impart the reservoir congruency and stimulation effectiveness that maximizes production potential. When it comes to water management issues, Halliburton is actively engaged in the development of technologies that enable the re-use of water-based fracturing fluid and the use of produced water in formulating fracturing fluid. Not only does this further public water conservation goals and limit disposal concerns, it also reduces expense and downtime for our customers. And at Halliburton, we view safety as our number one priority. Our extensive safety training and process controls are second to none in the industry.
Put experience on your side
Halliburton has the expertise, resources, and a proven track record in the Marcellus play. We are uniquely positioned to deliver the all-inclusive, leading edge solutions needed to maximize production over the life of your shale gas reservoir.
Video biggest gas boom in history blowing up in US literally Trailer GasLand
Halliburton Loophole
November 2, 2009
Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of — you guessed it — then-Vice President Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton.
It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.
The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”
An even more important bill is waiting in the wings. Cumbersomely named the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, it would close the loophole and restore the E.P.A.’s rightful authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing. It would also require the oil and gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use.
The industry argues that the chemicals are proprietary secrets and that disclosing them would hurt their competitiveness. It also argues that the process is basically safe and that regulating it would deter domestic production. But if hydraulic fracturing is as safe as the industry says it is, why should it fear regulation?
GasLand screenings
Friday, August 27th
Pittsburg, PA
Venue: Frick Park
Address: Beechwood Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Directions
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Saturday, August 28th
7:00 PM: Doors Open
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Friday, September 3rd
Philadelphia, PA
Venue: At the Piazza at Schmidt's
Address: North Second Street and Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Directions
Rain: This event will be held rain or shine.
7:00 PM: Doors Open
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
10:00 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
10:30 PM: After Party
This show is FREE. More information here
Sunday, September 5th
Callicoon, NY
Venue: Delaware Youth Center
Address: 8 Creamery Road, Callicoon, NY 12723
Directions
Rain: This event will be held rain or shine.
6:00 PM: Performances and speeches by local artists and activists
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
10:00 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Tuesday, September 7th (tentative)
Harrisburg, PA
Venue: TBA
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Wednesday, September 8th
6:30 PM: Doors Open
7:00 PM: Live Music
7:45 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
Thursday, September 9th
Syracuse, NY
Venue: The amphitheater at Thornden Park
Address: Syracuse, New York 13210
Directions: The park is adjoined by Ostrom Avenue, Madison Street, and South Beech Street. The amphitheater is in the center of the park, to the east of the tennis courts.
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Friday, September 10th
6:30 PM: Doors Open
7:00 PM: Live Music
7:30 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Saturday, September 11th
New York, NY
Venue: On the pier along the East River at Solar One
Address: 2420 FDR Drive, Service Road East at 23rd Street and the East River
Directions: R/6 to 23rd St., walk all the way east.
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Sunday, September 12th
6:00 PM: Doors Open
6:30 PM: Live Music
7:30 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
10:00 PM: After Party
This show is $10. More information here
Michigan Fracking puts state at risk for another disaster
EXCERPT:
In May, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment officials -- in what was considered routine -- auctioned off 120,000 acres of state land for deep shale fracking. DNRE proposes to auction another 500,000 acres in October.
The state leased the lands with no evaluation of the risks involved with fracking. There were few advance public notices, and the department did not conduct studies. In effect, the state turned over our land and water to the oil and gas industry for fracking before it fully understood the massive amounts of water required or the potential for harm.
This blunder has been compounded by the hyper-intense leasing activity that is going on for private land. Oil and gas companies, speculators and others already have leased more than 300,000 acres. The concern for land and water, and the impacts to landowners, businesses and citizens, have been largely ignored because of the smell of money.
Halliburton Loophole
November 2, 2009
Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of — you guessed it — then-Vice President Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton.
It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.
The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”
An even more important bill is waiting in the wings. Cumbersomely named the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, it would close the loophole and restore the E.P.A.’s rightful authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing. It would also require the oil and gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use.
The industry argues that the chemicals are proprietary secrets and that disclosing them would hurt their competitiveness. It also argues that the process is basically safe and that regulating it would deter domestic production. But if hydraulic fracturing is as safe as the industry says it is, why should it fear regulation?
GasLand screenings
Friday, August 27th
Pittsburg, PA
Venue: Frick Park
Address: Beechwood Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Directions
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Saturday, August 28th
7:00 PM: Doors Open
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Friday, September 3rd
Philadelphia, PA
Venue: At the Piazza at Schmidt's
Address: North Second Street and Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Directions
Rain: This event will be held rain or shine.
7:00 PM: Doors Open
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
10:00 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
10:30 PM: After Party
This show is FREE. More information here
Sunday, September 5th
Callicoon, NY
Venue: Delaware Youth Center
Address: 8 Creamery Road, Callicoon, NY 12723
Directions
Rain: This event will be held rain or shine.
6:00 PM: Performances and speeches by local artists and activists
7:30 PM: Live Music
8:15 PM: Film Begins
10:00 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Tuesday, September 7th (tentative)
Harrisburg, PA
Venue: TBA
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Wednesday, September 8th
6:30 PM: Doors Open
7:00 PM: Live Music
7:45 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
Thursday, September 9th
Syracuse, NY
Venue: The amphitheater at Thornden Park
Address: Syracuse, New York 13210
Directions: The park is adjoined by Ostrom Avenue, Madison Street, and South Beech Street. The amphitheater is in the center of the park, to the east of the tennis courts.
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Friday, September 10th
6:30 PM: Doors Open
7:00 PM: Live Music
7:30 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
This show is FREE. More information here
Saturday, September 11th
New York, NY
Venue: On the pier along the East River at Solar One
Address: 2420 FDR Drive, Service Road East at 23rd Street and the East River
Directions: R/6 to 23rd St., walk all the way east.
Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Sunday, September 12th
6:00 PM: Doors Open
6:30 PM: Live Music
7:30 PM: Film Begins
9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists
10:00 PM: After Party
This show is $10. More information here
Michigan Fracking puts state at risk for another disaster
EXCERPT:
In May, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment officials -- in what was considered routine -- auctioned off 120,000 acres of state land for deep shale fracking. DNRE proposes to auction another 500,000 acres in October.
The state leased the lands with no evaluation of the risks involved with fracking. There were few advance public notices, and the department did not conduct studies. In effect, the state turned over our land and water to the oil and gas industry for fracking before it fully understood the massive amounts of water required or the potential for harm.
This blunder has been compounded by the hyper-intense leasing activity that is going on for private land. Oil and gas companies, speculators and others already have leased more than 300,000 acres. The concern for land and water, and the impacts to landowners, businesses and citizens, have been largely ignored because of the smell of money.
Video Fracking
Fracking
Gulf oil spill adds new wrinkle to fracking debate
Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
9 comment(s) | Email to a friend | Print version | ShareThis| RSS Feeds
By The Associated Press
SO VAST is the wealth of natural gas locked into dense rock deep beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio that some geologists estimate it’s enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years.
But freeing it requires a powerful drilling process called hydraulic fracturing ,or “fracking,” using millions of gallons of water brewed with toxic chemicals, that some fear could pollute water above and below ground and deplete aquifers.
SPP of North America
EXCERPT:
We're featuring new information on the dangers of drilling for methane gas (commercially labeled "natural" gas) in New York and other states. Visit our Water Portal for more on the toxic chemicals in "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) and the threat massive new drilling poses to clean drinking water. Please support SourceWatch.
Portal Water (Watch the video) Fracking New York
EXCERPT:
New Video on Fracking
SourceWatch is highlighting a new video about the process pioneered by Halliburton to fracture rocks to access methane gas poses grave threats to human health and safety. The process, called "fracking" uses a cocktail of toxic chemicals and thousands of gallons of drinking water to open fractures in Marcellus Shale deposits to release methane, leaving behind thousands of gallons of spoiled water as well as documented contamination of aquifers. Especially as some companies attempt to use the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster to press for expanded drilling on land, we need Americans to learn more about the deep concerns about the proposed methane drilling from the St. Lawrence Seaway to coastal carolina.
Heads up on public meeting with the EPA about fracking--August 12
The federal Environmental Protection Agency had planned to hold its last public hearing on the impact of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," on drinking water Aug. 12 at Binghamton University. Instead, the hearing was first moved to Syracuse (announced Aug 9th), then postponed until further notice. It is expected that the rescheduled hearing will be held in Syracuse sometime in September. The EPA's hydraulic fracturing page can be seen here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydrofrac.html. You can learn more about the public hearing here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydroout.html#meetings.
How Jim Gennaro councilman geologist questioned fracking to death
EXCERPT:
James Gennaro. William Alatriste, via New York City Council flickr
By Katharine Jose
9:43 pm Aug. 19, 2010 | Tweet this article
Two Augusts ago, City Councilman Jim Gennaro held a press conference outside his office in Queens and called for a yearlong moratorium on a natural gas drilling technique—formally called hydraulic fracturing—in the New York City watershed. Four members of the press attended, and it "barely moved the needle on the summer news meter."
He kept talking about it, though. For some time, almost no one was listening.
As speculation about possible drilling sites upstate gained momentum, and the drilling process—also called hydrofracking or fracking—looked like it might really happen, more and more elected officials in Albany and New York City got involved. Finally, this month, the New York State Senate approved a moratorium on the process until the State Department of Environmental Protection has more time to study what effect it would have on the New York City watershed. This is on top of the two-year study on the environmental impact of hydrofracking begun by federal Environmental Protection Agency this spring.
Documents reveal shadow government
EXCERPT:
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
Documents reveal 'shadow government'
Freedom of Information request
puts 1,000 new pages online
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 24, 2006
1:00 am Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily.com
About 1,000 documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America show the White House is engaging in collaborative relations with Mexico and Canada outside the U.S. Constitution, says WND columnist and author Jerome Corsi.
"The documents give clear evidence that the Bush administration has created a 'shadow government,'" Corsi said.
The documents can be viewed here, on a special website set up by the Minuteman Project.
Bureaucrats from agencies throughout the Bush administration are meeting regularly with their counterpart bureaucrats in the Canadian and Mexican governments to engage in a broad rewriting of U.S. administrative law and regulations into a new trilateral North American configuration, Corsi contends.
Delaware River in jeopardy
Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines
Apr 22, 2010 Anya Tikka
Delaware River at the proposed power line crossing - Anya TikkaDelaware River area is bracing against environmental destruction. It's fate rests on fracking and new power lines with the Delaware River Basin Commission.
The pristine Delaware River area is being assaulted from many sides as of April 2010. Metropolitan New Jersey demands increased capacity power lines and vies together with natural gas companies to buy land along the river corridor that in many cases goes across national forests, parks, and rivers.
The new, giant transmission towers have been blamed for increased cancer rates in areas where they already exist, and they destroy landscape and wildlife. Fracking in its present form has been linked to diseases caused by exposure to the chemicals used in the fluids which have contaminated wells and drinking water. There are also reports of airborne pollution harmful to humans.
Delaware River Basin Commission is Considering Facts about New Power Lines
Delaware River area is no stranger to battles over its water and environment. In 1960’s, Tock's Island dam project threatened to harness the mid-river for power and to flood a huge area of what is now national park land. The project was defeated by the Delaware River Basin Commission, and the Delaware National Recreation Area was formed, but not without major displacement of people and fierce opposition by local population and environmentalists.
Ads by Google
The Center for LNG Learn how liquefied natural gas is helping meet our energy needs. www.lngfacts.orgProduced Water Recycling Advanced mobile process to recycle frac flowback and produced waters www.EcosphereTech.comOnce again, the fate of the river seems to rest in the hands of the Delaware River Basin Commission. The proposed new Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to Roseland, New Jersey 500 kW Electric Transmission Line would cross the river at the scenic Matamoras, PA, near a camping ground and several national parks. It then would go on to New Jersey, where it would straddle the Highlands Conservation Area. PPL Electric Utilities Corporation and PSE&G Power Company says demand will outgrow supply leading to outages and shortages by 2012 unless the new lines are built.
The final decision about the lines will not come before that, said Amanda J. Stein, biologist and project manager of the proposed power line project at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, although the agency is anticipating another public scoping meeting late summer or early fall 2010. The Commission is just starting its review process in April 2010.
Fracking Permits Also Decided by the DRBC
DRBC is also at the driver’s seat concerning the effects of gas fracking on the river, as the deciding body over the water resources of the river. Stone Energy’s proposed permit to draw water from the Upper Delaware River tributary, Lackawaxen, as well as to dispose of the waste water produced by the drilling is meeting with widespread opposition from locals, environmentalists, and New York City residents whose drinking water supply is threatened. If permits are granted, it will serve as a precedent for other gas companies to flood the area. Their website says the Stone Energy dockets will NOT be considered on May 5, 2010 meeting.
Delaware River Basin Commission was Created to Oversee the River
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) was established in 1961. According to its web site, “The members of this regional body include the four basin state governors (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), and a representative of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who serves as the federal representative. The five members appoint alternate commissioners.”
Read on
Gas Drilling Under Fire from NYCDEP and EPA
Gas Drilling in New York State - Boon or Threat?
Fracking Fluids Under Scientific Investigation
Their mission according to the same web site is to: Provide comprehensive watershed management, act as stewards of the Basin's water resources, and to seek increased public involvement.
The Delaware River Area is Famed for its Environmental Beauty, and Watershed Purity
The Upper Delaware Valley has been called the Eastern Seaboard capital of the bald eagles, many of which winter in the area, and other rare wildlife, and the middle of the river is already protected State Forest. If the fracking companies are allowed to draw and dispose of waste water from and around the Delaware River tributary Lackawaxen River, they run the risk of both depleting the water, and of irreversibly contaminating it. The area is host to the annual shad fishing and other outdoor sports where the famous Western writer Zane Grey had his house, and found inspiration for his novels.
The power lines will alter the protected New Jersey Highlands area as well as the scenic river at Matamoras and Milford, Pennsylvania area, and other Pennsylvania National Parks.
DRBC is in the review process for both these proposed projects. The public has a say via written comments to the Commissioners, and the record shows public resistance has significantly influenced their decisions in the past.
Source:
Delaware River Basin Commission. State.nj.us, viewed on Apr 20, 2010
Read more at Suite101: Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines http://environmental-activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/natural#ixzz0y1TsFc3U
Fracking
Gulf oil spill adds new wrinkle to fracking debate
Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
9 comment(s) | Email to a friend | Print version | ShareThis| RSS Feeds
By The Associated Press
SO VAST is the wealth of natural gas locked into dense rock deep beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio that some geologists estimate it’s enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years.
But freeing it requires a powerful drilling process called hydraulic fracturing ,or “fracking,” using millions of gallons of water brewed with toxic chemicals, that some fear could pollute water above and below ground and deplete aquifers.
SPP of North America
EXCERPT:
We're featuring new information on the dangers of drilling for methane gas (commercially labeled "natural" gas) in New York and other states. Visit our Water Portal for more on the toxic chemicals in "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) and the threat massive new drilling poses to clean drinking water. Please support SourceWatch.
Portal Water (Watch the video) Fracking New York
EXCERPT:
New Video on Fracking
SourceWatch is highlighting a new video about the process pioneered by Halliburton to fracture rocks to access methane gas poses grave threats to human health and safety. The process, called "fracking" uses a cocktail of toxic chemicals and thousands of gallons of drinking water to open fractures in Marcellus Shale deposits to release methane, leaving behind thousands of gallons of spoiled water as well as documented contamination of aquifers. Especially as some companies attempt to use the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster to press for expanded drilling on land, we need Americans to learn more about the deep concerns about the proposed methane drilling from the St. Lawrence Seaway to coastal carolina.
Heads up on public meeting with the EPA about fracking--August 12
The federal Environmental Protection Agency had planned to hold its last public hearing on the impact of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," on drinking water Aug. 12 at Binghamton University. Instead, the hearing was first moved to Syracuse (announced Aug 9th), then postponed until further notice. It is expected that the rescheduled hearing will be held in Syracuse sometime in September. The EPA's hydraulic fracturing page can be seen here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydrofrac.html. You can learn more about the public hearing here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydroout.html#meetings.
How Jim Gennaro councilman geologist questioned fracking to death
EXCERPT:
James Gennaro. William Alatriste, via New York City Council flickr
By Katharine Jose
9:43 pm Aug. 19, 2010 | Tweet this article
Two Augusts ago, City Councilman Jim Gennaro held a press conference outside his office in Queens and called for a yearlong moratorium on a natural gas drilling technique—formally called hydraulic fracturing—in the New York City watershed. Four members of the press attended, and it "barely moved the needle on the summer news meter."
He kept talking about it, though. For some time, almost no one was listening.
As speculation about possible drilling sites upstate gained momentum, and the drilling process—also called hydrofracking or fracking—looked like it might really happen, more and more elected officials in Albany and New York City got involved. Finally, this month, the New York State Senate approved a moratorium on the process until the State Department of Environmental Protection has more time to study what effect it would have on the New York City watershed. This is on top of the two-year study on the environmental impact of hydrofracking begun by federal Environmental Protection Agency this spring.
Documents reveal shadow government
EXCERPT:
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
Documents reveal 'shadow government'
Freedom of Information request
puts 1,000 new pages online
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 24, 2006
1:00 am Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily.com
About 1,000 documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America show the White House is engaging in collaborative relations with Mexico and Canada outside the U.S. Constitution, says WND columnist and author Jerome Corsi.
"The documents give clear evidence that the Bush administration has created a 'shadow government,'" Corsi said.
The documents can be viewed here, on a special website set up by the Minuteman Project.
Bureaucrats from agencies throughout the Bush administration are meeting regularly with their counterpart bureaucrats in the Canadian and Mexican governments to engage in a broad rewriting of U.S. administrative law and regulations into a new trilateral North American configuration, Corsi contends.
Delaware River in jeopardy
Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines
Apr 22, 2010 Anya Tikka
Delaware River at the proposed power line crossing - Anya TikkaDelaware River area is bracing against environmental destruction. It's fate rests on fracking and new power lines with the Delaware River Basin Commission.
The pristine Delaware River area is being assaulted from many sides as of April 2010. Metropolitan New Jersey demands increased capacity power lines and vies together with natural gas companies to buy land along the river corridor that in many cases goes across national forests, parks, and rivers.
The new, giant transmission towers have been blamed for increased cancer rates in areas where they already exist, and they destroy landscape and wildlife. Fracking in its present form has been linked to diseases caused by exposure to the chemicals used in the fluids which have contaminated wells and drinking water. There are also reports of airborne pollution harmful to humans.
Delaware River Basin Commission is Considering Facts about New Power Lines
Delaware River area is no stranger to battles over its water and environment. In 1960’s, Tock's Island dam project threatened to harness the mid-river for power and to flood a huge area of what is now national park land. The project was defeated by the Delaware River Basin Commission, and the Delaware National Recreation Area was formed, but not without major displacement of people and fierce opposition by local population and environmentalists.
Ads by Google
The Center for LNG Learn how liquefied natural gas is helping meet our energy needs. www.lngfacts.orgProduced Water Recycling Advanced mobile process to recycle frac flowback and produced waters www.EcosphereTech.comOnce again, the fate of the river seems to rest in the hands of the Delaware River Basin Commission. The proposed new Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to Roseland, New Jersey 500 kW Electric Transmission Line would cross the river at the scenic Matamoras, PA, near a camping ground and several national parks. It then would go on to New Jersey, where it would straddle the Highlands Conservation Area. PPL Electric Utilities Corporation and PSE&G Power Company says demand will outgrow supply leading to outages and shortages by 2012 unless the new lines are built.
The final decision about the lines will not come before that, said Amanda J. Stein, biologist and project manager of the proposed power line project at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, although the agency is anticipating another public scoping meeting late summer or early fall 2010. The Commission is just starting its review process in April 2010.
Fracking Permits Also Decided by the DRBC
DRBC is also at the driver’s seat concerning the effects of gas fracking on the river, as the deciding body over the water resources of the river. Stone Energy’s proposed permit to draw water from the Upper Delaware River tributary, Lackawaxen, as well as to dispose of the waste water produced by the drilling is meeting with widespread opposition from locals, environmentalists, and New York City residents whose drinking water supply is threatened. If permits are granted, it will serve as a precedent for other gas companies to flood the area. Their website says the Stone Energy dockets will NOT be considered on May 5, 2010 meeting.
Delaware River Basin Commission was Created to Oversee the River
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) was established in 1961. According to its web site, “The members of this regional body include the four basin state governors (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), and a representative of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who serves as the federal representative. The five members appoint alternate commissioners.”
Read on
Gas Drilling Under Fire from NYCDEP and EPA
Gas Drilling in New York State - Boon or Threat?
Fracking Fluids Under Scientific Investigation
Their mission according to the same web site is to: Provide comprehensive watershed management, act as stewards of the Basin's water resources, and to seek increased public involvement.
The Delaware River Area is Famed for its Environmental Beauty, and Watershed Purity
The Upper Delaware Valley has been called the Eastern Seaboard capital of the bald eagles, many of which winter in the area, and other rare wildlife, and the middle of the river is already protected State Forest. If the fracking companies are allowed to draw and dispose of waste water from and around the Delaware River tributary Lackawaxen River, they run the risk of both depleting the water, and of irreversibly contaminating it. The area is host to the annual shad fishing and other outdoor sports where the famous Western writer Zane Grey had his house, and found inspiration for his novels.
The power lines will alter the protected New Jersey Highlands area as well as the scenic river at Matamoras and Milford, Pennsylvania area, and other Pennsylvania National Parks.
DRBC is in the review process for both these proposed projects. The public has a say via written comments to the Commissioners, and the record shows public resistance has significantly influenced their decisions in the past.
Source:
Delaware River Basin Commission. State.nj.us, viewed on Apr 20, 2010
Read more at Suite101: Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines http://environmental-activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/natural#ixzz0y1TsFc3U
Lockdown Gates Installed On All Major Highways In Wisconsin video
Lockdown Gates Installed On All Major Highways In Wisconsin
EXCERPT:
scism has arrived in Wisconsin-State DOT installing lockdown gates on all On Ramps of major Highways
Submitted by greatscott on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 00:03
in Daily Paul Liberty Forum
http://www.wbay.com/global/story.asp?S=12616884&clienttype=g...
DOT Installing Gates at Highway On-ramps
By Chris Hrapsky
Action 2 News has learned the Department of Transportation has started the process of installing highway gates at all on-ramps up and down Highway 41 and Interstate 43. According to the DOT, there are already about 20 gates up in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties. Over time, they plan to install 141 gates covering every major highway on-ramp in Northeast Wisconsin and to every interstate on-ramp across the state.
Rancher claims Mexican cartels takeover Texas ranch police blotter confirms story is not a hoax
EXCERPTs:
1) Rancher claims Mexican cartels takeover Texas ranch -Police blotter confirms story is not a hoax
August 10th, 2010 2:00 am PT
By Kimberly Dvorak, San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner
..After 16 days of denials by Laredo law enforcement and local officials regarding a Mexican drug cartel takeover of a Laredo area ranch, a Texas police blotter proves the alleged incident did in fact happen and that multiple agencies responded to the scene of a seized U.S. ranch.
2) Cartels have crossed the sovereign borders of the United States causing multiple agencies to respond and the end result was a media blackout. It’s well documented that media blackouts in Mexico are happening because the cartels are threatening reporters and news outlets with bodily harm. The question is why American law enforcement agencies are giving reporters the “We can neither confirm nor deny the incident happened line?”
It was a law enforcement officer on the scene that also confirmed the incident in fact happened and officers on the ground said they “considered this an act of war.”
Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 US ranches in Texas
EXCERPT:
The hostile takeover of the ranches has met with silence with local and national media; however sources say they could be waiting to report the stories once the ranches are back in U.S. control. This journalist questions if this was a Middle Eastern terrorist attack if the media would sit on their hands.
Lockdown Gates Installed On All Major Highways In Wisconsin
EXCERPT:
scism has arrived in Wisconsin-State DOT installing lockdown gates on all On Ramps of major Highways
Submitted by greatscott on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 00:03
in Daily Paul Liberty Forum
http://www.wbay.com/global/story.asp?S=12616884&clienttype=g...
DOT Installing Gates at Highway On-ramps
By Chris Hrapsky
Action 2 News has learned the Department of Transportation has started the process of installing highway gates at all on-ramps up and down Highway 41 and Interstate 43. According to the DOT, there are already about 20 gates up in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties. Over time, they plan to install 141 gates covering every major highway on-ramp in Northeast Wisconsin and to every interstate on-ramp across the state.
Rancher claims Mexican cartels takeover Texas ranch police blotter confirms story is not a hoax
EXCERPTs:
1) Rancher claims Mexican cartels takeover Texas ranch -Police blotter confirms story is not a hoax
August 10th, 2010 2:00 am PT
By Kimberly Dvorak, San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner
..After 16 days of denials by Laredo law enforcement and local officials regarding a Mexican drug cartel takeover of a Laredo area ranch, a Texas police blotter proves the alleged incident did in fact happen and that multiple agencies responded to the scene of a seized U.S. ranch.
2) Cartels have crossed the sovereign borders of the United States causing multiple agencies to respond and the end result was a media blackout. It’s well documented that media blackouts in Mexico are happening because the cartels are threatening reporters and news outlets with bodily harm. The question is why American law enforcement agencies are giving reporters the “We can neither confirm nor deny the incident happened line?”
It was a law enforcement officer on the scene that also confirmed the incident in fact happened and officers on the ground said they “considered this an act of war.”
Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 US ranches in Texas
EXCERPT:
The hostile takeover of the ranches has met with silence with local and national media; however sources say they could be waiting to report the stories once the ranches are back in U.S. control. This journalist questions if this was a Middle Eastern terrorist attack if the media would sit on their hands.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Cherry Bomb John Mellancamp youtube
The idioms lesson for the expression harken back to something may include:
(1) A quick definition of harken back to something.
(2) A clear explanation of the most common meaning of harken back to something.
(3) A real world example from a conversation using "harken back to something".
(4) Further explanation to clarify the different shades of meaning of harken back to something.
(5) Additional examples with different uses of "harken back to something" in conversation.
KBR, LBJ and Dick Cheney
December 24, 2003 Current criticism over Halliburton's lucrative Iraq contracts has some historians drawing parallels to a similar controversy involving the company during Lyndon B. Johnson's administration.
Nearly 40 years ago, Halliburton faced almost identical charges over its work for the U.S. government in Vietnam — allegations of overcharging, sweetheart contracts from the White House and war profiteering. Back then, the company's close ties to President Johnson became a liability. Today — as NPR's John Burnett reports in the last of a three-part series — Halliburton seems to be distancing itself from its former chief executive officer, Vice President Dick Cheney.
The story of Halliburton's ties to the White House dates back to the 1940s, when a Texas firm called Brown & Root constructed a massive dam project near Austin. The company's founders, Herman and George Brown, won the contract to build Mansfield Dam thanks to the efforts of Johnson, who was then a Texas congressman.
After Johnson took over the Oval Office, Brown & Root won contracts for huge construction projects for the federal government. By the mid-1960s, newspaper columnists and the Republican minority in Congress began to suggest that the company's good luck was tied to its sizable contributions to Johnson's political campaign.
More questions were raised when a consortium of which Brown & Root was a part won a $380 million contract to build airports, bases, hospitals and other facilities for the U.S. Navy in South Vietnam. By 1967, the General Accounting Office had faulted the "Vietnam builders" — as they were known — for massive accounting lapses and allowing thefts of materials.
Brown & Root also became a target for anti-war protesters: they called the firm the embodiment of the "military-industrial complex" and denounced it for building detention cells to hold Viet Cong prisoners in South Vietnam.
Today, Brown & Root is called Kellogg, Brown & Root — a Halliburton subsidiary better known as KBR.
Harken Energy wikipedia
HKN, Inc., formerly known as Harken Energy Corporation, is a small American oil and gas production company, with ownership interests in other production companies. The company is headquartered in Southlake, Texas, near Fort Worth. There is a second office near Dallas, in the town of Paris. The total number of employees varies. It is at approximately 20 in 2009. Shares with the stock symbol HKN trade publicly on the
[edit] History
The company began as an unprofitable collection of Texas oil wells for investors seeking tax write-offs.[1]
In 1986, Spectrum 7 was bought by Harken for $2.2 million[citation needed]. After the sale of his company, as part of the deal, George W. Bush would serve on Harken's board of directors. Having a board member whose father was the Vice-President of the United States (at that time) should benefit any company. George W. Bush remained on the board through 1993 and was also paid fees as a consultant.[2]
In 1987, Talat M. Othman joined the board of the company and served as the chair of the Audit Committee.
Aloha Petroleum was sold in a controversial deal in which Harken's equity stake in Aloha was turned into a loan, thereby disguising financial loses.[citation needed] This questionable accounting technique, which can serve to inflate profits, was also used by Enron. It helped result in the infamous 2003 Enron scandal, when the fifth largest corporation in America at the time suddenly collapsed into bankruptcy.
[edit] Insider trading allegations
Harken has attracted attention because of the role played in its affairs during the 1980s by George W. Bush, later the President of the United States. While a member of the company's board of directors, Bush sold stock in Harken on the 22nd of June, 1990, shortly before the company announced substantial losses.[3] This transaction resulted in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of probable insider trading.
See also: George W. Bush, business and early political career and George W. Bush insider trading allegations
A Harken transaction associated with the endowment fund of Harvard University has also been questioned; see Harken Energy scandal and the Harken board member from Harvard, Michael R. Eisenson.
The controversy is discussed in the 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11. In another documentary, Orwell Rolls in His Grave, one of the responders, Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity said that his organisation brought this controversy on April 4, 2000, 7 months before the 2000 U.S. presidential election, but the mainstream media "chose not to report the story".[4]
The idioms lesson for the expression harken back to something may include:
(1) A quick definition of harken back to something.
(2) A clear explanation of the most common meaning of harken back to something.
(3) A real world example from a conversation using "harken back to something".
(4) Further explanation to clarify the different shades of meaning of harken back to something.
(5) Additional examples with different uses of "harken back to something" in conversation.
KBR, LBJ and Dick Cheney
December 24, 2003 Current criticism over Halliburton's lucrative Iraq contracts has some historians drawing parallels to a similar controversy involving the company during Lyndon B. Johnson's administration.
Nearly 40 years ago, Halliburton faced almost identical charges over its work for the U.S. government in Vietnam — allegations of overcharging, sweetheart contracts from the White House and war profiteering. Back then, the company's close ties to President Johnson became a liability. Today — as NPR's John Burnett reports in the last of a three-part series — Halliburton seems to be distancing itself from its former chief executive officer, Vice President Dick Cheney.
The story of Halliburton's ties to the White House dates back to the 1940s, when a Texas firm called Brown & Root constructed a massive dam project near Austin. The company's founders, Herman and George Brown, won the contract to build Mansfield Dam thanks to the efforts of Johnson, who was then a Texas congressman.
After Johnson took over the Oval Office, Brown & Root won contracts for huge construction projects for the federal government. By the mid-1960s, newspaper columnists and the Republican minority in Congress began to suggest that the company's good luck was tied to its sizable contributions to Johnson's political campaign.
More questions were raised when a consortium of which Brown & Root was a part won a $380 million contract to build airports, bases, hospitals and other facilities for the U.S. Navy in South Vietnam. By 1967, the General Accounting Office had faulted the "Vietnam builders" — as they were known — for massive accounting lapses and allowing thefts of materials.
Brown & Root also became a target for anti-war protesters: they called the firm the embodiment of the "military-industrial complex" and denounced it for building detention cells to hold Viet Cong prisoners in South Vietnam.
Today, Brown & Root is called Kellogg, Brown & Root — a Halliburton subsidiary better known as KBR.
Harken Energy wikipedia
HKN, Inc., formerly known as Harken Energy Corporation, is a small American oil and gas production company, with ownership interests in other production companies. The company is headquartered in Southlake, Texas, near Fort Worth. There is a second office near Dallas, in the town of Paris. The total number of employees varies. It is at approximately 20 in 2009. Shares with the stock symbol HKN trade publicly on the
[edit] History
The company began as an unprofitable collection of Texas oil wells for investors seeking tax write-offs.[1]
In 1986, Spectrum 7 was bought by Harken for $2.2 million[citation needed]. After the sale of his company, as part of the deal, George W. Bush would serve on Harken's board of directors. Having a board member whose father was the Vice-President of the United States (at that time) should benefit any company. George W. Bush remained on the board through 1993 and was also paid fees as a consultant.[2]
In 1987, Talat M. Othman joined the board of the company and served as the chair of the Audit Committee.
Aloha Petroleum was sold in a controversial deal in which Harken's equity stake in Aloha was turned into a loan, thereby disguising financial loses.[citation needed] This questionable accounting technique, which can serve to inflate profits, was also used by Enron. It helped result in the infamous 2003 Enron scandal, when the fifth largest corporation in America at the time suddenly collapsed into bankruptcy.
[edit] Insider trading allegations
Harken has attracted attention because of the role played in its affairs during the 1980s by George W. Bush, later the President of the United States. While a member of the company's board of directors, Bush sold stock in Harken on the 22nd of June, 1990, shortly before the company announced substantial losses.[3] This transaction resulted in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of probable insider trading.
See also: George W. Bush, business and early political career and George W. Bush insider trading allegations
A Harken transaction associated with the endowment fund of Harvard University has also been questioned; see Harken Energy scandal and the Harken board member from Harvard, Michael R. Eisenson.
The controversy is discussed in the 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11. In another documentary, Orwell Rolls in His Grave, one of the responders, Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity said that his organisation brought this controversy on April 4, 2000, 7 months before the 2000 U.S. presidential election, but the mainstream media "chose not to report the story".[4]
Museum of War be sure and watch the video
Lebanon's Hizballah Museum: A Theme Park for Martyrdom
Buzz up!7 votes Share
retweet
EmailPrint..By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS / MLEETA Andrew Lee Butters / Mleeta – Fri Aug 27, 5:30 pm ET
The rocky red hills and dense oak forests of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border make perfect terrain for guerrilla warfare, as the Israeli army has repeatedly discovered to its chagrin. Whether or not the once and future war zone is an ideal location for a multi-million dollar tourist attraction is another matter. But that hasn't stopped Hizballah, the anti-Israeli militant group and Shi'ite Muslim political party, from opening a war memorial this summer here in the southern hill town of Mleeta. With a reported cost of about $20 million and a cryptic slogan ("Earth Speaks to Heaven"), Mleeta is the first stage of what Hizballah hopes will be a kind of family theme park of the Islamic Resistance that will eventually include spa hotels, a paint-ball gun battlefield, and a cable-car ride with a scenic view of northern Israel, or as the tour guides call it, "Occupied Palestine."
Mleeta is a full-frontal display of the Party of God's legendary attention to detail, its willingness to sacrifice, and its glorification of combat. Visitors walk down "The Path" - a winding trail interspersed with mannequin-filled dioramas of combat scenes, including a field hospital and a camouflaged rocket launch site meant to convey the experience of being a mujaheddin. They duck their heads and enter "The Cave" - a once-secret bunker used as barracks for as many as 7,000 militants that engineers carved out of the hillside over a period of several years, scattering its debris for miles to avoid drawing the attention of Israeli reconnaissance planes. And they can gawk at "The Abyss," a pit filled with captured Israeli machine guns, rockets and tanks. "These arms were used to destroy your homes, look at them now under your feet," said a tour guide recently to a busload of men in Hizballah canary yellow baseball caps and women in black chadors visiting from the Martyr's Association, a charity for the families of militants killed in action. "Every helmet you are seeing is from a dead Israeli soldier," he said. (See pictures of the Mahdi scouts of Hizballah.)
So far, Mleeta is a hit among the ranks of the Hizballah faithful. "When I see such achievements, I forget the blood of my son,'" says Ahmad Sleim, 70, a farmer visiting Mleeta and the father of 13 sons, all of whom were Hizballah militants, and one of whom died in 1992 fighting in the south. "This is holy ground," he says. There may even be a broader audience: some adventurous European tourists have asked about Mleeta, envisioning it as a radical-chic way to see the Arab-Israeli conflict close-up. But the very existence of Mleeta - which was two years and some 50 architects and engineers in the making - is also a sign of an organization in the midst of an identity crisis. (See a video that dives into Hizballah's new war theme park.)
Since its creation in 1982 to resist the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Hizballah's guerrilla organization has always been most comfortable living in the shadows - and shadowy guerrilla groups don't usually build permanent museums with their own websites: www.mleeta.com. But Hizballah's main source of legitimacy - the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation back in 2000 - is getting a little stale. Its recent military achievements - such as standing down the Israeli army during the summer of 2006 - have been mixed blessings to those Lebanese who complain that Hizballah started the war in the first place by kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Since then Hizballah has been in the uncomfortable position of having to justify its continued existence as an armed military force separate from the Lebanese government. That debate took a violent turn when Hizballah used its weapons on its rivals in the streets of Beirut in 2008, and negotiated a deal whereby it would have a veto power over any attempt by the Lebanese government to disarm it.
So now Hizballah is in public relations overdrive to repair the damage to its reputation caused by that internal Lebanese political battle. On the one hand, the Mleeta museum reminds the Lebanese that they owe their freedom from Israeli occupation to Hizballah. On the other hand, now that the occupation is over, Hizballah is also trying to re-brand itself as a "deterrence" organization (as opposed to one of "resistance) so that it can keep its rockets to make sure Israel doesn't come back. Mleeta is part of that rebranding: a display in one of its galleries lists the sites in Israel - Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, the nuclear reactor at Dimona, hotels in Elat, etc. - that Hizballah would target in response to an Israeli attack. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)
But plenty of Lebanese are worried that Hizballah's arsenal - Israel claims that Hizballah has re-armed with more rockets and better military technology since the 2006 war - makes another war with Israel that much more likely. A war almost broke out this spring, when U.S. officials accused Syria of training Hizballah with the use of ballistic Scud missiles.
Indeed given that officials from both sides say they expect another war within a year or so, there is something either vain or stoic about building a war memorial that will almost certainly be destroyed by the Israeli air force. "We'll just re-build all over again," says one Hizballah official. But whether other Lebanese will be so gung-ho when the dust settles remains to be seen.
See pictures of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Read about what's behind the 2010 clashes in Lebanon.
Lebanon's Hizballah Museum: A Theme Park for Martyrdom
Buzz up!7 votes Share
retweet
EmailPrint..By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS / MLEETA Andrew Lee Butters / Mleeta – Fri Aug 27, 5:30 pm ET
The rocky red hills and dense oak forests of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border make perfect terrain for guerrilla warfare, as the Israeli army has repeatedly discovered to its chagrin. Whether or not the once and future war zone is an ideal location for a multi-million dollar tourist attraction is another matter. But that hasn't stopped Hizballah, the anti-Israeli militant group and Shi'ite Muslim political party, from opening a war memorial this summer here in the southern hill town of Mleeta. With a reported cost of about $20 million and a cryptic slogan ("Earth Speaks to Heaven"), Mleeta is the first stage of what Hizballah hopes will be a kind of family theme park of the Islamic Resistance that will eventually include spa hotels, a paint-ball gun battlefield, and a cable-car ride with a scenic view of northern Israel, or as the tour guides call it, "Occupied Palestine."
Mleeta is a full-frontal display of the Party of God's legendary attention to detail, its willingness to sacrifice, and its glorification of combat. Visitors walk down "The Path" - a winding trail interspersed with mannequin-filled dioramas of combat scenes, including a field hospital and a camouflaged rocket launch site meant to convey the experience of being a mujaheddin. They duck their heads and enter "The Cave" - a once-secret bunker used as barracks for as many as 7,000 militants that engineers carved out of the hillside over a period of several years, scattering its debris for miles to avoid drawing the attention of Israeli reconnaissance planes. And they can gawk at "The Abyss," a pit filled with captured Israeli machine guns, rockets and tanks. "These arms were used to destroy your homes, look at them now under your feet," said a tour guide recently to a busload of men in Hizballah canary yellow baseball caps and women in black chadors visiting from the Martyr's Association, a charity for the families of militants killed in action. "Every helmet you are seeing is from a dead Israeli soldier," he said. (See pictures of the Mahdi scouts of Hizballah.)
So far, Mleeta is a hit among the ranks of the Hizballah faithful. "When I see such achievements, I forget the blood of my son,'" says Ahmad Sleim, 70, a farmer visiting Mleeta and the father of 13 sons, all of whom were Hizballah militants, and one of whom died in 1992 fighting in the south. "This is holy ground," he says. There may even be a broader audience: some adventurous European tourists have asked about Mleeta, envisioning it as a radical-chic way to see the Arab-Israeli conflict close-up. But the very existence of Mleeta - which was two years and some 50 architects and engineers in the making - is also a sign of an organization in the midst of an identity crisis. (See a video that dives into Hizballah's new war theme park.)
Since its creation in 1982 to resist the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Hizballah's guerrilla organization has always been most comfortable living in the shadows - and shadowy guerrilla groups don't usually build permanent museums with their own websites: www.mleeta.com. But Hizballah's main source of legitimacy - the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation back in 2000 - is getting a little stale. Its recent military achievements - such as standing down the Israeli army during the summer of 2006 - have been mixed blessings to those Lebanese who complain that Hizballah started the war in the first place by kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Since then Hizballah has been in the uncomfortable position of having to justify its continued existence as an armed military force separate from the Lebanese government. That debate took a violent turn when Hizballah used its weapons on its rivals in the streets of Beirut in 2008, and negotiated a deal whereby it would have a veto power over any attempt by the Lebanese government to disarm it.
So now Hizballah is in public relations overdrive to repair the damage to its reputation caused by that internal Lebanese political battle. On the one hand, the Mleeta museum reminds the Lebanese that they owe their freedom from Israeli occupation to Hizballah. On the other hand, now that the occupation is over, Hizballah is also trying to re-brand itself as a "deterrence" organization (as opposed to one of "resistance) so that it can keep its rockets to make sure Israel doesn't come back. Mleeta is part of that rebranding: a display in one of its galleries lists the sites in Israel - Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, the nuclear reactor at Dimona, hotels in Elat, etc. - that Hizballah would target in response to an Israeli attack. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)
But plenty of Lebanese are worried that Hizballah's arsenal - Israel claims that Hizballah has re-armed with more rockets and better military technology since the 2006 war - makes another war with Israel that much more likely. A war almost broke out this spring, when U.S. officials accused Syria of training Hizballah with the use of ballistic Scud missiles.
Indeed given that officials from both sides say they expect another war within a year or so, there is something either vain or stoic about building a war memorial that will almost certainly be destroyed by the Israeli air force. "We'll just re-build all over again," says one Hizballah official. But whether other Lebanese will be so gung-ho when the dust settles remains to be seen.
See pictures of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Read about what's behind the 2010 clashes in Lebanon.
Reflection Eternal - Ballad of the Black Gold youtube
Lyrics from 'Ballad Of Black Gold' from Reflection Eternal's Album titled 'Revolutions Per Minute'.
Chorus:
This is the ballad of the black gold
They call it Texas tea
But it’s bigger than a cowboy with a lasso
It’s deeper than a black hole
Create monopolies
Except they collect a fee when you pass go
Crises international
The government de facto
We got no control in this fiasco
Darker than the backroads
Bubble hotter than Tabasco
More than what you bargained for or asked for
I
You never see happy-hungry people that ain’t rational
They blasting through the gates and they attack you at the capital
Run up in your palace, find the head of the states and crack a few
Get a taste of power then they become fascists too
The fiscal conservatives, don’t know what they purpose is
Money on the war, then they cut the goods and services
Murderous, corporate monsters is breaking records
Exxon is at 40 billion a year
They raking in record profits, stop it
How they banking while the other industries is tanking?
Leadership is sinking
Oil pollution in the water, stanking
Loyalty to petroleum
Royalty spoiled the economy
We won’t get it poppin’ till we’re oil-free
If you’re oil-rich then we invade it
They call it occupation but we’re losing jobs across the nation
Drill, baby, drill, while they make our soldiers kill
Baby still, the desert where the blood and oil spill
II
Nigeria is celebrating 50 years of independence
They still feel the colonial effects of Great Britain’s presence
Dictators quick to imitate the West
Got in bed with oil companies and now the place a mess
Take a guess, which ones came and violated
They oiled up the soil, the Ogoni people was almost annihilated
Still they never stayed silent
There was activism, poets using non-violent tactics
That was catalyst for soldiers to break into they crib
Take it from the kids and try to break em like a twig
And make examples of the leaders
Executed Saro-Wiwa
Threw Fela’s mom out the window right after they beat her
In an effort to defeat hope
Now the people feed soap to [noir]
So they youth is doing drive-bys through speed boats
They kidnap the workers
They blowing up the pipelines
You see the fires glowing in the nighttime
Lyrics from 'Ballad Of Black Gold' from Reflection Eternal's Album titled 'Revolutions Per Minute'.
Chorus:
This is the ballad of the black gold
They call it Texas tea
But it’s bigger than a cowboy with a lasso
It’s deeper than a black hole
Create monopolies
Except they collect a fee when you pass go
Crises international
The government de facto
We got no control in this fiasco
Darker than the backroads
Bubble hotter than Tabasco
More than what you bargained for or asked for
I
You never see happy-hungry people that ain’t rational
They blasting through the gates and they attack you at the capital
Run up in your palace, find the head of the states and crack a few
Get a taste of power then they become fascists too
The fiscal conservatives, don’t know what they purpose is
Money on the war, then they cut the goods and services
Murderous, corporate monsters is breaking records
Exxon is at 40 billion a year
They raking in record profits, stop it
How they banking while the other industries is tanking?
Leadership is sinking
Oil pollution in the water, stanking
Loyalty to petroleum
Royalty spoiled the economy
We won’t get it poppin’ till we’re oil-free
If you’re oil-rich then we invade it
They call it occupation but we’re losing jobs across the nation
Drill, baby, drill, while they make our soldiers kill
Baby still, the desert where the blood and oil spill
II
Nigeria is celebrating 50 years of independence
They still feel the colonial effects of Great Britain’s presence
Dictators quick to imitate the West
Got in bed with oil companies and now the place a mess
Take a guess, which ones came and violated
They oiled up the soil, the Ogoni people was almost annihilated
Still they never stayed silent
There was activism, poets using non-violent tactics
That was catalyst for soldiers to break into they crib
Take it from the kids and try to break em like a twig
And make examples of the leaders
Executed Saro-Wiwa
Threw Fela’s mom out the window right after they beat her
In an effort to defeat hope
Now the people feed soap to [noir]
So they youth is doing drive-bys through speed boats
They kidnap the workers
They blowing up the pipelines
You see the fires glowing in the nighttime
Did JFK start the Vietnam War
EXCERPT:
Did JFK start the Vietnam War?
In: Vietnam War, John F Kennedy [Edit categories]
[Improve]
== who started the war ==Eisenhower/Nixon
NO. JFK inherited the growing conflict from Eisenhower/Nixon.
The "Vietnam War", which was a civil war was well underway before the US had any involvement, Kennedy sent additional American 'advisors' for a total of 16.200 (an increase of 4.000) from IKE's build-up after taking over from the defeated French expedition, to help the South Vietnamese. On Oct 6 1963 he signed an executive (NSAM 263) National Security Action Memorandum) report that provided for the removal of 1000 troops in December 1963 and the vast majority of troops were to be out by 1965. He strongly felt that this was a no win scenario, and that the Vietnamese people were not behind the corrupt government of South Viet-Nam . After JFK was killed, LBJ countermanded that order with NSAM 273, and increased the number of troops dramatically, eventually to 500.000 within 2 years, eventually resulting in the deaths of 58.000 American soldiers throughout the Johnson and Nixon presidencies. These soldiers died in vain, and tore the USA apart with civil strife and eventually culminated with the loss of American's trust in government with the final insult of the "Watergate travesty" which had ties all the way back to that dark day in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when America lost it's last independent leader, before the corporate military industrial take-over. JFK had warned us all . And we did not listen.. Now that's the way it was.
Kennedy had nothing to do with the start of the the Vietnam conflict. It was a civil war in Vietnam.
Eisenhower sent the first "advisors" into Vietnam on 12 February 1955. There were between 9-12 thousand US military serving in Vietnam when President Kennedy took office. CAT/Air American had a strong presence in support of the French long before that time.
NSAM 263
President Kennedy Issues NSAM 263, Ordering the Withdrawl of 1,000 Military Personnel from Vietnam by the End of 1963
Topics: John F. Kennedy, Vietnam War, Vietnam, United States, Communism, Containment Sort: Votes Recently Added
Share Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military in Vietnam from 800 to 16,300. It remains a point of some controversy among historians whether or not Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did had Kennedy served out his full term and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. In the film "The Fog of War", not only does McNamara say this, but a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson confirms that Kennedy was planning to withdraw from Vietnam, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved of. Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Nevertheless, given the stated reason for the overthrow of the Diem government, such action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was generally moving in a less hawkish direction in the Cold War since his acclaimed speech about World Peace at American University the previous June 10, 1963. According to historian Lawrence Freedman, regarding Kennedy's statements about withdrawing from Vietnam, it was, "less of a definite decision than a working assumption, based on a hope for stability rather than an expectation of chaos".
After Kennedy's assassination, new President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM 273 on November 26, 1963.
LBJ's NSAM 273
President Johnson Commits the U.S. to the Vietnam War
NOVEMBER 26, 1963
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 273
TO: The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
The Director of Central Intelligence
The Administrator, AID
The Director, USIA
The President has reviewed the discussions of South Vietnam which occurred in Honolulu, and has discussed the matter further with Ambassador Lodge. He directs that the following guidance be issued to all concerned:
1. It remains the central object of the United States in South Vietnam to assist the people and Government of that country to win their contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy. The test of all U.S. decisions and actions in this area should be the effectiveness of their contribution to this purpose.
2. The objectives of the United States with respect to the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel remain as stated in the White House statement of October 2, 1963.
3. It is a major interest of the United States Government that the present provisional government of South Vietnam should be assisted in consolidating itself and in holding and developing increased public support. All U.S. officers should conduct themselves with this objective in view.
4. The President expects that all senior officers of the Government will move energetically to insure the full unity of support for established U.S. policy in South Vietnam. Both in Washington and in the field, it is essential that the Government be unified. It is of particular importance that express or implied criticism of officers of other branches be scrupulously avoided in all contacts with the Vietnamese Government and with the press. More specifically, the President approves the following lines of action developed in the discussions of the Honolulu meeting of November 20. The offices of the Government to which central responsibility is assigned are indicated in each case.
5. We should concentrate our own efforts, and insofar as possible we should persuade the Government of South Vietnam to concentrate its efforts, on the critical situation in the Mekong Delta. This concentration should include not only military but political, economic, social, educational and informational effort. We should seek to turn the tide not only of battle but of belief, and we should seek to increase not only the control of hamlets but the productivity of this area, especially where the proceeds can be held for the advantage of anti-Communist forces
.(Action: The whole country team under the direct supervision of the Ambassador.)
6. Programs of military and economic assistance should be maintained at such levels that their magnitude and effectiveness in the eyes of the Vietnamese Government do not fall below the levels sustained by the United States in the time of the Diem Government. This does not exclude arrangements for economy on the MAP account with respect to accounting for ammunition, or any other readjustments which are possible between MAP and other U.S. defense resources. Special attention should be given to the expansion of the import, distribution, and effective use of fertilizer for the Delta.
(Action: AID and DOD as appropriate.)
7. Planning should include different levels of possible increased activity, and in each instance there should he estimates of such factors as:
A. Resulting damage to North Vietnam;
B. The plausibility of denial;
C. Possible North Vietnamese retaliation;
D. Other international reaction.
Plans should be submitted promptly for approval by higher authority.
(Action: State, DOD, and CIA.)
8. With respect to Laos, a plan should be developed and submitted for approval by higher authority for military operations up to a line up to 50 kilometers inside Laos, together with political plans for minimizing the international hazards of such an enterprise. Since it is agreed that operational responsibility for such undertakings should pass from CAS to MACV, this plan should include a redefined method of political guidance for such operations, since their timing and character can have an intimate relation to the fluctuating situation in Laos. (Action: State, DOD, and CIA.)
9. It was agreed in Honolulu that the situation in Cambodia is of the first importance for South Vietnam, and it is therefore urgent that we should lose no opportunity to exercise a favorable influence upon that country. In particular a plan should be developed using all available evidence and methods of persuasion for showing the Cambodians that the recent charges against us are groundless.
(Action: State.)
10. In connection with paragraphs 7 and 8 above, it is desired that we should develop as strong and persuasive a case as possible to demonstrate to the world the degree to which the Viet Cong is controlled, sustained and supplied from Hanoi, through Laos and other channels. In short, we need a more contemporary version of the Jordan Report, as powerful and complete as possible.
(Action: Department of State with other agencies as necessary.
Mc George Bundy
cc: Mr. Bundy
Mr. Forestal
Mr. Johnson
NSC File
EXCERPT:
Did JFK start the Vietnam War?
In: Vietnam War, John F Kennedy [Edit categories]
[Improve]
== who started the war ==Eisenhower/Nixon
NO. JFK inherited the growing conflict from Eisenhower/Nixon.
The "Vietnam War", which was a civil war was well underway before the US had any involvement, Kennedy sent additional American 'advisors' for a total of 16.200 (an increase of 4.000) from IKE's build-up after taking over from the defeated French expedition, to help the South Vietnamese. On Oct 6 1963 he signed an executive (NSAM 263) National Security Action Memorandum) report that provided for the removal of 1000 troops in December 1963 and the vast majority of troops were to be out by 1965. He strongly felt that this was a no win scenario, and that the Vietnamese people were not behind the corrupt government of South Viet-Nam . After JFK was killed, LBJ countermanded that order with NSAM 273, and increased the number of troops dramatically, eventually to 500.000 within 2 years, eventually resulting in the deaths of 58.000 American soldiers throughout the Johnson and Nixon presidencies. These soldiers died in vain, and tore the USA apart with civil strife and eventually culminated with the loss of American's trust in government with the final insult of the "Watergate travesty" which had ties all the way back to that dark day in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when America lost it's last independent leader, before the corporate military industrial take-over. JFK had warned us all . And we did not listen.. Now that's the way it was.
Kennedy had nothing to do with the start of the the Vietnam conflict. It was a civil war in Vietnam.
Eisenhower sent the first "advisors" into Vietnam on 12 February 1955. There were between 9-12 thousand US military serving in Vietnam when President Kennedy took office. CAT/Air American had a strong presence in support of the French long before that time.
NSAM 263
President Kennedy Issues NSAM 263, Ordering the Withdrawl of 1,000 Military Personnel from Vietnam by the End of 1963
Topics: John F. Kennedy, Vietnam War, Vietnam, United States, Communism, Containment Sort: Votes Recently Added
Share Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military in Vietnam from 800 to 16,300. It remains a point of some controversy among historians whether or not Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did had Kennedy served out his full term and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. In the film "The Fog of War", not only does McNamara say this, but a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson confirms that Kennedy was planning to withdraw from Vietnam, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved of. Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963. Nevertheless, given the stated reason for the overthrow of the Diem government, such action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was generally moving in a less hawkish direction in the Cold War since his acclaimed speech about World Peace at American University the previous June 10, 1963. According to historian Lawrence Freedman, regarding Kennedy's statements about withdrawing from Vietnam, it was, "less of a definite decision than a working assumption, based on a hope for stability rather than an expectation of chaos".
After Kennedy's assassination, new President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately reversed his predecessor's order to withdraw 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 with his own NSAM 273 on November 26, 1963.
LBJ's NSAM 273
President Johnson Commits the U.S. to the Vietnam War
NOVEMBER 26, 1963
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 273
TO: The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
The Director of Central Intelligence
The Administrator, AID
The Director, USIA
The President has reviewed the discussions of South Vietnam which occurred in Honolulu, and has discussed the matter further with Ambassador Lodge. He directs that the following guidance be issued to all concerned:
1. It remains the central object of the United States in South Vietnam to assist the people and Government of that country to win their contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy. The test of all U.S. decisions and actions in this area should be the effectiveness of their contribution to this purpose.
2. The objectives of the United States with respect to the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel remain as stated in the White House statement of October 2, 1963.
3. It is a major interest of the United States Government that the present provisional government of South Vietnam should be assisted in consolidating itself and in holding and developing increased public support. All U.S. officers should conduct themselves with this objective in view.
4. The President expects that all senior officers of the Government will move energetically to insure the full unity of support for established U.S. policy in South Vietnam. Both in Washington and in the field, it is essential that the Government be unified. It is of particular importance that express or implied criticism of officers of other branches be scrupulously avoided in all contacts with the Vietnamese Government and with the press. More specifically, the President approves the following lines of action developed in the discussions of the Honolulu meeting of November 20. The offices of the Government to which central responsibility is assigned are indicated in each case.
5. We should concentrate our own efforts, and insofar as possible we should persuade the Government of South Vietnam to concentrate its efforts, on the critical situation in the Mekong Delta. This concentration should include not only military but political, economic, social, educational and informational effort. We should seek to turn the tide not only of battle but of belief, and we should seek to increase not only the control of hamlets but the productivity of this area, especially where the proceeds can be held for the advantage of anti-Communist forces
.(Action: The whole country team under the direct supervision of the Ambassador.)
6. Programs of military and economic assistance should be maintained at such levels that their magnitude and effectiveness in the eyes of the Vietnamese Government do not fall below the levels sustained by the United States in the time of the Diem Government. This does not exclude arrangements for economy on the MAP account with respect to accounting for ammunition, or any other readjustments which are possible between MAP and other U.S. defense resources. Special attention should be given to the expansion of the import, distribution, and effective use of fertilizer for the Delta.
(Action: AID and DOD as appropriate.)
7. Planning should include different levels of possible increased activity, and in each instance there should he estimates of such factors as:
A. Resulting damage to North Vietnam;
B. The plausibility of denial;
C. Possible North Vietnamese retaliation;
D. Other international reaction.
Plans should be submitted promptly for approval by higher authority.
(Action: State, DOD, and CIA.)
8. With respect to Laos, a plan should be developed and submitted for approval by higher authority for military operations up to a line up to 50 kilometers inside Laos, together with political plans for minimizing the international hazards of such an enterprise. Since it is agreed that operational responsibility for such undertakings should pass from CAS to MACV, this plan should include a redefined method of political guidance for such operations, since their timing and character can have an intimate relation to the fluctuating situation in Laos. (Action: State, DOD, and CIA.)
9. It was agreed in Honolulu that the situation in Cambodia is of the first importance for South Vietnam, and it is therefore urgent that we should lose no opportunity to exercise a favorable influence upon that country. In particular a plan should be developed using all available evidence and methods of persuasion for showing the Cambodians that the recent charges against us are groundless.
(Action: State.)
10. In connection with paragraphs 7 and 8 above, it is desired that we should develop as strong and persuasive a case as possible to demonstrate to the world the degree to which the Viet Cong is controlled, sustained and supplied from Hanoi, through Laos and other channels. In short, we need a more contemporary version of the Jordan Report, as powerful and complete as possible.
(Action: Department of State with other agencies as necessary.
Mc George Bundy
cc: Mr. Bundy
Mr. Forestal
Mr. Johnson
NSC File
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