7/22 Middle East Live Thread

Middle East Live Thread ^ | 7/22/06 | me

[BurbankKarl]

An Israeli soldier maneuvers an armored personnel carrier at their position along the Israeli Lebanese border. Israel was amassing thousands more reservists on the Lebanese border to stage ground incursions aimed at destroying Hezbollah positions, warning it would not rule out a full-scale invasion despite mounting calls for a ceasefire.

[AliVeritas]

Doesn't work for me. It's a hudna*uck.

[Samwise]

"Fog of war" isn't an accident.

They should use the media to misdirect the enemy. We need Patton to come in from another direction--or a real-life Jack Bauer. This is scary.

[eeevil conservative]

LOL! Great minds and all that...again...

;-)

[don-o]

At least they gave it a disclaimer

[cibco]

"Any sign of the Lebanese Army yet?"

They are in Beirut having coffee and waiting for the dust to settle before they go back to their positions after the IDF leaves.

[AliVeritas]

So we can get coordinates. Great.

[rogator]

“What I’m about to say is illegal in this country ...
Hezbollah has never been a terrorist organisation. I am here to glorify the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah, and to glorify the resistance leader, Nasrallah...”

What do you expect a guy who has been on Soddam Hussein's payroll to say.

[AliVeritas]

Exactly.

[debg]

Charles Krauthammer gets it (as usual).

[casino66]

Or in line to get on a boat outta there.

[Allegra]

LOL! and the Media is all too eager to publicize it!

Whoever coined the term "useful idiots" to describe these people hit the nail on the head.

[pookie18]

Can't photoshop & haven't seen one :-(

[RDTF]

That was great - I can hear Eddie Money singing 'I think I'm in love'

lol!

[Mr Cobol]

I'll go there then, I was listening to it earlier but I couldn't stand listening to Abadato another second. How does such a jerk get on the radio? Now 96.9 is dead, went from about 2 or 3 feeds to none.

[eeevil conservative]

AMEN!

On that note I have to go shower.....

been far too engulfed in FR lately....

;-)

bbl

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Being a drama queen doesn't mean you won't do what you are talking about to keep the attention.

The parallels are certainly there!

[AdmSmith]

The Achilles heel of Iran:


Iran to use reserve dollars to skirt fuel crisis - MP
Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:09 PM IST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's government will try to avoid rationing gasoline from Sept. 23 by seeking to dip into dollar reserves to pay for fuel imports, a member of parliament said on Saturday.

Parliament has cut the budget for gasoline imports in the year to March 2007, prompting the oil minister to say Tehran would have to stop buying in gasoline shipments and start petrol rationing on Sept 23.

Iran's final decision on how to cope with the budget cut is being keenly awaited by European and Asian gasoline traders who send a gasoline tanker to Iranian quaysides every two days.

Kamal Daneshyar, head of parliament's energy commission, said the government would submit a bill to parliament seeking $4 billion to $4.5 billion to pay for extra imports as a way of sidestepping rationing that could spark social discontent.

"A bill to withdraw a sum of $4 billion to $4.5 billion from the Oil Stabilisation Fund will be submitted to parliament for importing gasoline and diesel in the coming days," he said.

Iran's dollar earnings above budgeted levels go into the Oil Stabilisation Fund which, strictly speaking, is only supposed to be tapped if oil prices become perilously low.

Daneshyar could give no indication of how such a bill would be received by lawmakers.

The world's fourth biggest crude exporter has to import about 40 percent of the 70 million litres of gasoline it burns each day owing to a lack of refinery capacity.

Commentators say lavish subsidies that keep petrol at nine cents per litre erode Iran's industrial competiveness and ensure the Islamic Republic effectively subsidises its neighbours through contraband fuel trading.

Tehran is dangerously polluted and its roads are normally choked by heavy traffic.

Although dipping into the currency reserves would cool the political risks, the Central Bank warns against such action. It says all raids on the Oil Stabilisation Fund while oil prices are high could stoke inflation already running at 12.1 percent.
http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-07-22T200122Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-260644-1.xml

Comment: Follow the money.

[AliVeritas]

Nope. I knew it. I hope we're scrambled.

A reminder for Syria:

2 SYRIAN JET FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN BY ISRAELIS OVER SOUTH LEBANON
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Israeli fighter planes shot down two Syrian MIG-21 jet fighters over southern Lebanon today, a military spokesman announced. In a sparse communique, Israel said the Syrian planes took to the skies during an Israeli air strike against what the spokesman called ''terrorist training and operations bases'' in the areas of Tyre and Nabatiye.

January 1, 1981 World News

[Knitting A Conundrum]

That's what it sounds like to me! Probably includes some of the people that are upset their parade has been cancelled.