Posted on 09/14/2004 6:21:05 AM PDT by TexKat
KIRKUK, Iraq - Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Tuesday, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power, officials said.
Firefighters struggled to put out the blaze after the attack near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Crude oil cascaded down the hillside into the river. Fire burned atop the water, fueled by the gushing oil.
Beiji is the point where several oil pipelines converge, said Lt. Col. Lee Morrison of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
One of them apparently was a domestic pipeline that fed a local power plant. The explosion set off a fire that melted cables and led to the power outage, electricity officials said.
"Beiji is the chokepoint," Morrison said. "It's so easy to hit."
The 3 a.m. attack came soon after engineers had completed a two-month project to install two critical valves that had been damaged in an earlier blast.
Morrison, commander of the northern office of Task Force Shield, based in Kirkuk, said that U.S. soldiers dropped off barriers to guard the lines two days ago, but that Iraqi authorities had not yet erected them.
Iraqi oil officials have been struggling to guard the country's vast oil infrastructure, deploying thousands of oil security officers to guard the lines. Insurgents, however, have largely acted with impunity — and often inside knowledge.
"They already know it's a critical point because they've blown it up before," said Morrison, of St. Petersburg, Fla. "They obviously know the system. But it's not rocket science."
Militants waging a 16-month insurgency have attacked oil pipelines and other infrastructure as part of a campaign to destabilize the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and drive coalition forces from the country.
Allawi told the Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya on Monday that sabotage of oil pipelines had already cost the country about $2 billion in losses, with oil prices near record highs.
Iraq's Minister of Electricity Ayham al-Samarie said electricity ministry's technicians and engineers have been working to restore power for hours and 30 percent of the work has been done.
"This made the Beiji Electricity station stop for technical reasons making the whole electricity system (in Iraq) stop," al-Samarie said in a statement released by his office.
"Power will be back in the next hours," he said.
(LEADS throughout to UPDATE with explosion being cause of power outage; details, oil prices at record highs; corrects dateline.)
It's almost like they are trying to help Mr."I'll get the troops out in 6 months".Naaaaaa Can't say that cause the NY Times wouldn't like it
What a great location/target to leave unprotected.
I don't know that much about the Tigris River. Is it a dead river? Was it majorly polluted prior to this? Does it have fish, etc?
No surprise: we aren't anywhere near securing the country of Iraq.
No wonder Saddam ruled with an iron fist. Some people don't know how to achieve anything but chaos. Get the Kurds set up and self-sufficient and leave the rest of the country to itself. There does not seem to be as much support for the Coalition as there is for the 'insurgents'. Inside knowledge is being passed to bomb-planters? That says a lot about the people of Iraq.
..."...Insurgents, however, have largely acted with impunity — and often inside knowledge."...
Then why in the name of G-d's teeth isn't it protected as an invaluable asset?!
Firefighters try to contain an oil pipeline fire after an attack by insurgents near Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 14, 2004. Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Tuesday, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power. (AP Photo/Yahaya Ahmed)
Firefighters try to contain an oil pipeline fire after an attack by insurgents near Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 14, 2004. Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Tuesday, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power. (AP Photo/Yahaya Ahmed)
Must be a false report.
An entire contry's grid just can't be taken down.
IT CAN'T!
IT CAN'T!
IT CAN'T!
Another student who didn't "pay attention in class" when the purpose and the evolution of 'the grid'* was presented and discussed.
FAILURE to understand where the concept of 'the grid' evolved in technical history from has gotten more students in trouble than you can shake a stick at ...
Can the student explain the concept of "N-1 contingencies" to the class as it relates to power system security (a well-defined industry term which does NOT refer to physical security) in today's power general and transmission systems?
For extra credit, explain to the class WHY the entire east coast didn't go down? It *was*, after all, interconnected with that portion of the system that *did* go down -
- so why DIDN'T the entire eastern US go 'black'?
* People like this, generally, are Wal-Mart shoppers who think everything of worth a) comes shrink-wrapped and b) has existed forever.
An Iraqi fireman attempts to control the fire from a sabotaged pipeline near Basra. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the heat has gone out of the underlying forces in the oil market and only short-term factors are keeping the oil price at about 40 dollars per barrel.(AFP/File)
Firefighters try to contain an oil pipeline fire at Hartha, 19 miles (33kms) north of Basra, Iraq, Saturday Sept. 4, 2004. A South Oil Co. official said on condition of anonymity that technicians were forced to close the pipeline, which carries 15,000 barrels of crude a day from the Nahran Omar oilfields to an export storage tank called Zubayr-1 in the Faw peninsula. Officials blamed saboteurs for the fire. (AP Photo/Nabil al Jurani)
Fire rages in an oil pipeline near the northern town of Riyadh, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, Iraq after it was attacked by saboteurs, Thursday Sept. 2, 2004. The line links fields near Kirkuk with the oil refinery of Beiji. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)
A 2001 file photo shows Al Qaeda's top strategist and second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri (R) sitting with Osama bin Laden. Insurgents fighting the U.S.-backed government in Iraq have turned U.S. plans for the oil-rich country 'head over heels,' al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahri said in a taped message aired on September 9 , 2004. 'In Islamic Iraq the Mujahideen (jihad fighters) have turned America's plan head over heels,' he said in further excerpts of a videotape aired earlier on Arabic television station Al Jazeera. (PAKISTAN OUT) REUTERS/Hamid Mir/Editor/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/File
This is doom-n-gloom. First, there is very little 'inside knowledge' needed to know where a big-ass pipeline is, and this says NOTHING about the people of Iraq, anymore than a bank heist in your town says about the whole people of your town.
And the adjectives ...
"Insurgents, however, have largely acted with impunity "
Sunday, there were scores of terrorists killed, 20 yesterday. Terrorists are getting punished too.
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
The real surprise is how easy it is to get fooled, post 9/11, by media defeatism that treats terrorism as somehow a leigimate expression of political differences.
WHAT WE ARE SEEING IS TERRORISM.
THERE IS ONLY ONE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. RESOLVE TO ELIMINATE IT.
Iraqs want democracy:
IRI's poll shows that a large majority of Iraqis have a positive outlook on their young democracy and the elections that are to take place by January 2005. More than 77% of respondents feel that "regular, fair elections" would be the most important political right for the Iraqi people and 58% feel that democracy in Iraq is likely to succeed. When asked about the upcoming elections, 62.2% expressed confidence that their ballot selection would be kept secret and above 75% felt that the elections would reflect the will of the Iraqi people.
See:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
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