Free Republic

Venezuela’s capacity to produce some much-needed gasoline and diesel of its own hinges on a single oil play. To tap it, the Nicolas Maduro regime is willing to cannibalize the country’s crumbling energy infrastructure to pay contractors with scrap metal. Unlike the tar-like crude from Venezuela’s Orinoco region, the light oil from Monagas state is the only kind that’s easy to process into fuel at the country’s aging refineries. It’s also the only area where production doesn’t require the help of sanction-wary partners. So, with the U.S. considering further steps to curb the country’s fuel imports, cash-strapped state producer Petroleos...

The Sierra Club has announced its approval for a "one-time" use of civil disobedience. The civil disobedience is intended to step up their efforts to oppose the Keystone pipeline. Many of the other groups opposing Keystone have been engaging in civil disobedience as a tactic, including arson-based ecoterrorism. This will be the first time in the Sierra Club's history that they have approved violating the law.

Recent Chinese diplomatic maneuvers in Central Asia, both bilateral and multilateral, show that Beijing’s strategy treats the region as a corridor for reaching resource bases in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. Central Asia is thus part of China’s broader blueprint of securing strategic resources and supplies to feed its developing economy (Z. Saipov, China Oil & Gas Monitor, Week 21, Issue 396, News Base, May 31, p. 3–4). Hu Jintao (L) and Islam Karimov Illustratively, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu’s two-week official tour of Congo, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on September 1–13 (English.sina.com, September 6) supports the premise that...

Lon wrote: Ransom is right, if you look at the official White House pictures of the function, it is clear that the White House was trying to keep this matter secret. It seems obvious that as the stars posed for their publicity photos they were thinking how clever it was that this was going to be kept a secret. – in response to The Alice-in-Wonderland President Dear Lon,OK. Let’s get this straight: The White House didn’t seek to keep this secret, even though they had discussions about keeping it secret. Yet it remained secret until the revelations in Kantor’s book...

Note: The following text is a quote: 09 July 2009 EGYPT ARRESTS TERRORIST CELL OF 25 MEMBERS CAIRO, July 9 (Xinhua) The Egyptian authorities have arrested a terrorist cell of 25 members, 24 Egyptians and one Palestinian, for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Suez Canal, Egyptian Interior Ministry said in statement issued on Thursday. According to the statement, the members of the cell who believe in Jihad (Holy War) were located in Cairo, Alexandria and Daqahlia governorates and communicated through internet with other terrorist groups outside Egypt. The cell's members, mostly engineers, were developing high-tech and electronic devices...

BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - Eight pipelines feeding two southern oilfields were sabotaged in an overnight explosion, affecting exports and dealing a blow to the country's vital but beleagured oil industry, officials said. Threats against oil infrastructure amid fighting between US troops and Shiite Muslim fighters in the holy city of Najaf, had seen world oil prices reach record highs before southern Iraqi exports resumed to normal levels at the weekend. "At 9:00 pm (1700 GMT), a device exploded under a bridge, which collapsed. Eight parallel pipelines, feeding the Zubeir 1 and Zubeir 2 oilfields were damaged," said a source at...

Translation from Hebrew to English by me: The Islamic Jihad organization has called upon the loyal followers of the Shiite radical leader, Muqata Al Sadr, to continue and hit oil pipelines in Iraq. "Al-Sadr has to continue his resistance and call upon his men to continue to hit the oil sources which provide revenue for the occupies," the words of the organization went. Yesterday Al-Sadr's men struck a oil pipeline using an explosive device in the south of the country.

An Iraqi air force Seeker reconnaissance aircraft awaits its first operational mission at Basra Airfield in southern Iraq, Aug. 18, 2004. The aircraft will be used to monitor oil pipelines and borders. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Steve Alvarez Iraqi Air Force Begins Operations By U.S. Army Sgt. Jared Zabaldo / Office of Security Transition / Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq BASRAH, Iraq, Aug. 20, 2004 — The Iraqi air force commenced operations Aug. 18, with the flights of two SB7L-360 Seeker reconnaissance aircraft in “limited operations missions” intended to protect infrastructure facilities and Iraq’s borders as part...

KUWAIT 22nd Apr 2003 : Web Edition No: 11546 Turkey battles recession, keen to strengthen ties with Saudis Ankara to seek Arab investment ANKARA, April 20, (AFP): Turkey has achieved "extraordinary" progress in ties with Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to warm up its tradionally chilly relations with Arab nations, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Sunday. Gul also said that Turkey, a Muslim nation with a historically pro-Western orientation, was aiming to attract billions of dollars of Arab investment, capitalizing on reported flights of Arab capital from the United States and Europe since the Sept 11 attacks. The minister...