U.S. battle plan: Slip in and grab oil fields

New York Daily News ^ | 1/25/03 | RICHARD SISK

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops would try to seize Iraqi oil fields before Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards could blow them up in the event of war, a senior U.S. Central Command official said yesterday.

"It's fair to say land component commanders have crafted strategies that would allow us to secure and protect those fields as rapidly as possible," said the official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity.

"Saddam has plans to sabotage the Iraqi oil industry" and blame the destruction on U.S. bombing, said the official, a top adviser to Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of Central Command.

"We've seen military movement into the southern and northern oil fields," the official said, "and we've seen a number of indications from reliable intelligence sources that sabotage has been planned."

The official would not give details but did not rule out action by U.S. paratroopers and helicopter-borne air assault troops to protect the oil wells.

Hard to predict

Blowing up the 1,000 Iraqi oil wells in the south and 500 in the north would double the destruction caused by fleeing Iraqi troops on Kuwait's oil fields in 1991, the official said. He estimated repair costs at $30 billion to $50 billion.

The official would not estimate the impact on oil prices and supplies, and John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute, said predictions were difficult.

Iraq produces less than 1.5 million barrels daily, about 3% of the world supply, and if the country goes off-line, "there's excess capacity" in other oil-producing states, Felmy said.

But losing Iraq in combination with continuing strife in Venezuela "really would strain excess capacity," he said.

[guitfiddlist]

Were any of these placard-waving dipsquats crying in the streets about forcing Germany to pay reparations after WWII? I imagine many of these pampered pinheads might even have been direct recipients of these reparations.

If any of them have a problem with making Iraq pay the bill for shutting down their criminal acts and regime - one only needs to shove their snouts into the above historical fact, and the codified-in-US-Law concept of restitution - and whale away on their dumb *sses with a rolled-up edition of the Sunday NYT.

[appeal2]

I hear there's a new credit card being issued by OPEC. You can use it to bomb arabs, seize oil fields and depose unfriendly leaders and best of all there's no credit limit. Apply now and as a marketing incentive pay no interest for the rest of the decade and then your rate jumps to 1.2%.

[sneakypete]

You want to leave Saddam alone, not because you don't believe that the world would be a better place without Saddam, but because you despise Bush so much.

Grow up. Yeah,Bubba-2 is a bigger phoney and danger to the Republic than Bubba-1 ever was,but I would still support him if he were going to war against Saudi Arabia. The fact that he isn't,and is going to war against Iraq instead only furthers my contempt for him.

But leaving Saddam alone allows Saddam to eventually develop nuclear weapons.

HorseHillary! Unlike the US,his Arab neighbors and Israel DO have very good reason to fear him,and the instant any of them suspected he was close to developing nukes,they would attack him and take them out. If the Arabs didn't do this,Israel would.

Yes, he could use these against the Israelis.

No,he can't. Israel is the ONE country in the region he can NOT attack with nukes. They have their own,and NOBODY is delusional enough to think they won't respond in kind to the point where he and his whole country are radioactive.

Strictly speaking, that's none of our business. What is our business is that several hundred thousand citizens of a close ally of the United States would be snuffed out in an instant. That doesn't matter to you. It matters to me.

It matters to me,but not enough for our citizens to die doing the job of fighting their citizens need to do for themselves. Despite all the money we dump there that makes them borderline welfare cases,Israel ain't no redheaded stepchild,and we haven't adopted them.

And what's more, the game Saddam could play is simple. Get a bomb, and use Al Qaeda as cutouts to plant one in an American city.

HorseHillary! The other Arabs are a LOT more scared of him than they are us.The first thing he would do if he ever got nukes would be to threaten his non-nukes fellow Arab nations in order to try to join them all together into one country under his domination. Saddam Hussein has been responsible for the deaths of more radical Muslims that all of the western nations combined.

The President intimated as much in his State of the Union speech of last year.

And of course a president would never lie,right? Especially not Ali Bubba Bush.

You want to take risks with American lives that I am not willing to take.

HorseHillary! You are the one wanting to put them at risk fighting a war for Saudi Arabia and Israel,not ME!

[WhiteGuy]

The answers are found in the integrity of the person running the show if the oil fields are protected from damage by the Iraqi military.

Your words, not mine.

I, for one, am NOT looking forward to additional profiteering and $2.00 per gallon gas.

[Squantos]

Signal Jamming.... Killing those cell towers that may be in the oil fields , knocking out relay stations for microwave or hard lines possibly installed, primary power disruption with the 3 payload cruise missles and the Mk 1 Mod O Special Ops "Oh Dark Thirty" solutions to anyone brave enough to try such in person at each site.......

Just my SWAG on the matter of course :o).........Stay Safe !

[Squantos]

Signal Jamming.... Killing those cell towers that may be in the oil fields , knocking out relay stations for microwave or hard lines possibly installed, primary power disruption with the 3 payload cruise missles and the Mk 1 Mod O Special Ops "Oh Dark Thirty" solutions to anyone brave enough to try such in person at each site.......

Just my SWAG on the matter of course :o).........Stay Safe !

[Squantos]

oooops.....ooooops.......

[Life of Brian]

"It's fair to say land component commanders have crafted strategies that would allow us to secure and protect those fields as rapidly as possible," said the official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity.

I think it's 'fair' to say that anything short of a wide angle fazer burst from the Star Ship Enterprise results in toasted oil for some time to come and 70+ dollar a barrel oil.

[LayoutGuru2]

[riversarewet]

What about their technology? What is to keep them from having placed charges on each well head in the past 10 years that would be detonated by cell phone? I would like to have someone explain to me how the military can protect against that. In a matter of a few seconds comp-uter generated calls to 1500 phones and what do they accomplish? Plenty.

---

I have read speculation that one of the first type of bomb to go off will be designed to fry all electronic components within its range. Only time will show if this is correct or not.

[BlackVeil]

There has already been discussion, on the financial pages, about who would get those oil wells. The idea is that the Iraqi oil concessions would go all to US companies - like in Saudi Arabia. This is not the case in Iraq at the moment. The problem is that French and Russian interests have most of the oil contracts in Iraq at the moment. Would they keep them after the war? Probably not, unless they send forces in.

There was an article in 'Business Review Weekly', an Australian magazine, a few months back, and they were talking about dividing the spoils in post-war Iraq (didn't put it quite so frankly as that, of course.) The article had a greedy tone, and noted with regret that although Australia will have forces, if there is an invasion, Australian resources companies will not be given any Iraqi assets.

[RightWhale]

I don't like the idea of their knowing our strategies in advance.

It's easy to say: "Secure the oilfields soon to prevent their scorched-earth destruction." Such a strategy would be equally obvious to attacker and defender. Implementation of the strategy would be through tactics, and that is what the defender cannot guess from the huge number of alternatives.

[dennisw]

Colin Powell now says Iraqi oil will not pay for the war but will be used to fund reconstruction. I would use some of it to pay for the war. Even if just 10 billion dollars worth. Iraqi people should not be getting a free ride. Those who don't pay don't appreciate what they get. Liberation from a demon and his two psycho killer sons.

<Powell also tried to dispel talk that the United States planned to take over Iraqi oil fields once Hussein was defeated. Newsday reported last week that administration officials are seriously considering proposals that the United States use Iraq's oil to help pay for a military occupation.

"If there is a conflict with Iraq, the leadership of the coalition take control of Iraq. The oil of Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people,” Powell said. "Whatever form of custodianship there is ... it will be held for and used for the people of Iraq. It will not be exploited for the United States' own purpose.”>

[dennisw]

Some well placed neutron bombs would leave the oil fields and other important petroleum infrastructure intact. Such as pipelines, refineries, shipping terminals.

[RightWhale]

well placed neutron bombs would leave the oil fields and other important petroleum infrastructure intact

Riiiight.

[sneakypete]

War has always been about greed and theft of assets. This one will be no different.

[antaresequity]

Amex: WEL

[agincourt1415]

To answer your question. The Oil income will be placed in trust for the rebuild or Iraq. Besides their is so much World Scrutiny of this operation, we would never get away with converstion of resources away from Iraq.

[WOSG]

Dittos on your answer, Chris.

What hogwash to say that Saddam, who has harbored Al Quaeda since 9/11, and who trained Al Quaeda and other terrorists before 9/11 is "no threat". Do we just forget that Saddam ordered the first WTC attack in 1993? I hope not.

The American diplomat killed in Jordan was killed by Al Quaeda operatives who had links to Iraq. interrogation led the authorities, via their killers, to a terrorist who got 'medical help' in Baghdad and has moved between Jordan and Iraq a number of times. turns out he is the #5 al quaeda leader. That same terrorist has ties to the cell that was arrested last week in London and which had some ricin poison... now where did they get that?

Did yu also know that Saddam has been funding GIA, Algerian terror group, part of which was arrested in Spain this week?

Saddam recently bought euqipment for making chlorine agents, banned equipment via India and useful for WMD chemical warfare -- vx gas etc.

Many former Taliban have been supplied by Saddam and his regime and let loose in northern Iraq to fight tthe kurds.

Time and again, Saddam has given aid and harbor to terrorists. It is said the reason he had Abu Nidal killed this year was that this terrorist didnt want to train Al Quaeda. Saddam wants Americans dead and works indirectly through terror networks to make that happen, including Al Quaeda.

Now, being a terror sponsor is part of why we must take out Saddam, but Saddam's WMB are really why it is Job One.


Saddam as far as ideology and capacity for violence is no less evil than Hitler. Saddam has killed over a million of his own people, tens of thousands killed by chemical warfare - he is a man who bombed Iraqi civilians with chemical warfare and let whole cities die of it. He tried similar with Tel Aviv during gulf war. he started 2 wars.

Imagine Hitler with The Bomb. Do you really want that?

[Life of Brian]

I would like to have someone explain to me how the military can protect against that.

You are obviously not up to speed on force field technology my confused friend. The Enterprise is capable of surrounding each and every well with impenetrable force fields that the Iraqis simply cannot get through. These fields also block the transmission of signals into any pre-set charges rendering them harmless. The Iraqis run up to the oil well and...CAWUNGG..CAWUNGG or ZZAP ZZZZZZZZAP..."hey! who put this invisible force field here!" If the charges are time-set then a simple tri-corder set to coordinates is capable of turning them off. These things were childs play in the early 70's and we have advanced well beyond that now. If you are still in doubt a laugh and a shaking of the head will do but to continue questioning the superior capabilities of the Star Ship Enterprise and commander Janeway or Captain Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard is stepping over the line. Isn't Jean-Luc French? Humm, yes, let's leave him on the sidelines this time shall we? Even your screen-name shows you are too much a realist to understand these things. Are rivers truely wet? What is wet? If you remove the hydrogen from the H2O is it still wet? No of course not. What if you remove the oxygen then light a match? It's not even close to wet is it? So SEE? Also have you never heard of miracles? How about wishful thinking? How about hope? Best guesses? Luck? Anyone? Help me out here.