Iraq-Turkey Oil Pipeline Down Another 5 Weeks - Army

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030908/ts_nm/energy_iraq_pipeline_dc&cid=564&ncid=1473

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's oil pipeline to Turkey will not export oil for at least five more weeks, a top U.S. Army official in the region said, further hampering efforts to revive the stricken post-war economy.

"We've had a spike in these attacks over the last three weeks," Col. Robert Nicholson, head of engineers for the Fourth Infantry Division, said Monday.

Washington had originally hoped for much earlier oil revenue to fund reconstruction after a devastating war and years of United Nations sanctions against deposed leader Saddam Hussein.

But despite army patrols and the hiring of Iraqi guards, anti-American guerrillas have forced closure of the pipeline the United States had hoped would export up to 600,000 barrels a day by year's end.

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[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. And in 5 weeks?

What magical event will transpire in 5 weeks to keep the thing from being blown up again?

Or do they just make shutdown forecasts 5 weeks in advance and then issue a new one?

[pfitz59]

2. 5 weeks to put new charges in place.

Expect oil will flow for no more than a day. Cannot guard hundreds of miles of pipe with skeleton force. Thass why $87 billion for Halliburton. Oil revenues are down.

[saigon68]

10. THEY'LL THEN BLOW THE CRAP OUT OF IT AGAIN

Is this a Guerilla War ????

Is this a Guerilla War ????

Is this a Guerilla War ????

Guess so !!!!!!!!

[Gin]

3. I am begining to think the sabatoge may be planned to up the anti

from the fools in the US...sending our children to die and our dollars to Halliburton. I put nothing past these thieves.

[htuttle]

11. Naw, you give them too much credit

This thing has been out of their control since the moment the invasion began, they just didn't realize it at the time.

All they can do now is try to spin whatever happens to their benefit.

If this were chess, I'd say the Iraqis are controlling the tempo.

[Boomer]

4. Excuse me?

>>...years of United Nations sanctions against deposed leader Saddam Hussein.<<

The U.S. and its lapdog, Britain, are the ones who insisted on enforcing draconian sanctions, despite the pleading of UN aid groups to allow the importation of supplies that could rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure (not to mention save the lives of thousands of children).

This is yet another example of how the hard facts of U.S. involvement are softened into vague references to things that just sort of happened. Such as reporting with horrified indignation the uncovering of mass graves of slaughtered Iraqis, never mind that the U.S. was responsible for those deaths by abandoning its support of anti-Saddam forces, forces which we had incited to rebel.

Sheesh.

--Boomer

[cliss]

5. Just to give you an idea

of the impossible task these "planners" have set up for themselves.

The oil pipeline is 600 miles long. There are plenty of people who do not want to see 1 pint of oil delivered to a nearby tanker waiting to be filled up.

How are you going to protect a pipeline that long? Post a guard every 10 feet? Also, there might be a few traitors in that long, long line of hot, sweaty guards holding a Kalashnikov rifle.

Sabotage, maybe?

[The Magistrate]

6. At Some Point Soon, Sir

Reports such as this will cease to be news, failing the "dog bites man" test. It will only be news when a few drops of crude manage to travel these hundreds of miles of pipe.

[JPace]

7. Its a losing effort to repair it again and again...

terrorists can blow it up so much
easier than it can be repaired. I
doubt if it will ever get up and
going while Americans occupy the
country.

[hel]

8. They won't care much about repairing it when..

..the Israel pipeline starts running. As if there wasn't enough conflict in ME, US is now creating an economic one between Israel and Turkey. Cool.

[htuttle]

9. That pipeline will never operate for more than a day at a time, either

Bank on it.

[maggrwaggr]

12. Eeeeeexcellent, Smithers ...!!!

"We can keep the price of gasoline up for MONTHS now! The American people will never suspect! We can blame it on "instability" in Iraq!