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AL BASRA OIL TERMINAL, North Persian Gulf (NNS) -- Mobile Security Detachment (MSD) 71 Sailors are training their Iraqi marine counterparts to defend the waters surrounding Iraq’s oil platforms, Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) and Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT). Coordinated through Commander, Task Group (CTG) 158.1, the ongoing training scenario simulates an attack on the terminals and culminates with the live-fire shooting of a target placed in the water. During the training, Iraqi marines manning the lookouts report the scenario’s progress to the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), which decides the proper course of action. While the attacking vessel...

AL BASRA OIL TERMINAL, Iraq, May 2, 2006 – It looks like a scene from the movie "Waterworld" here off the Iraqi coast. More than a thousand meters of catwalks tie the Al Basra Oil Terminal together miles off the shore of Iraq in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The Iraqi facility pumps oil into waiting supertankers. U.S. Navy and Iraqi marines guard the facility. Photo by Jim Garamone   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Two oil terminals - this one and the Khawr al Amaya a few kilometers away - rise from the sea, miles out of sight...

Capital movements due to fears over a possible US-Iran war, financial speculation or market meltdown are driving crude prices upward. Milan (AsiaNews) – Capital movements on commodity exchanges, not low supply are pushing oil prices upward. Brent crude has reached US$ 74 a barrel because of lowered refinery use and a backup in crude inventories that has left many a super tanker waiting to unload. Oil storage has become a problem since facilities are full in the Persian Gulf, Europe, the Americas and even Asia. Even Israel, which built huge embargo-busting oil depots to allow the country to survive every...

A new study shows that a release of liquefied natural gas from one of four proposed terminals off the Southern California coast could spread a fireball over several miles, but pose no threat on land because the facility would be more than a dozen miles offshore. A sudden release of up to 200,000 cubic meters of fuel from two of three tanks of liquefied natural gas at a terminal moored between Malibu and Port Hueneme would result in an airborne vapor eruption spanning up to 6.3 miles - four times farther than originally thought, according to a revised draft environmental...

Did Race play a role in the Port Deal discussions? The very charge is met by the likes of Sean Hannity and others with Righteous Indigination. In fact, to mention it makes you the true problem. Mark Levin in fact called a MAjor General a dirtbag over that charge. The below cartoons may be an issue now in the UAE. They are not cartoons about that ole darn prophet however. THere will be no boycotts over these but remember still they dont help things. The cartoonist just give us what we want sometimes. From MSNBC the following cartoon. There were...

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Shipping/10025176.html US port moves 'could affect business ties' By Stanley Carvalho, Staff Reporter Abu Dhabi: The UAE Central Bank Governor yesterday said the controversy surrounding the DP World deal to manage port operations in the US would not affect the free trade negotiations but could impact negatively on the business relations between the two countries. "What happened is very bad and it is not right to mix up political issues with commercial issues," Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi said. "What the US is doing goes against the tenets of international trade, which they created in the first place." "Investors are...

Given the extraordinary amount of petro-dollars that Dubai has spent in recent years, much of it with US companies, transforming itself from a desert fiefdom into a centre for tourism, media, technology and finance, the tiny state's commercial interests are inextricably aligned with the West rather than the Jihadis. Dubai's Internet City has attracted leading US technology companies, such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. American designers are behind the $1bn Burj Dubai development, which includes the world's tallest building. Boeing has been selling fleets of aircraft to Dubai's Emirates airline.

MANY residents of UAE thought — mistakenly as it turns out — that they knew the Clintons. Former president Bill and former co-president/current New York Senator Hillary were deemed to be friends of the UAE — and the Arab world in general. While Hillary hadn’t visited the UAE recently, Bill is a regular — at least when he’s invited for a paid speech or appearance. Sometimes, he’s graced us in person — other times via a video conference. President Bush, everyone agreed, was an anti-Arab cowboy, worthy of little more than derision.

WASHINGTON - The White House is quietly pushing a Dubai company to "significantly restructure" and partner up with a U.S. outfit to keep the port deal from sinking, sources told the Daily News yesterday. "It's in the hands of the company now. ... They're going to have to significantly restructure," said a Republican source familiar with White House expectations. A revamped deal to allow Dubai Ports World to take over six major U.S. ports - including Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container depot - would have to be something along the lines of the Marine One contract. British- and...

News reports over the last two weeks have repeatedly claimed that a Dubai company was taking control of six major U.S. ports as part of a deal approved by the Bush administration. But according to one port security expert, Dubai Ports World will run just a tiny fraction of the terminals at the U.S. ports involved if the deal goes through. Defending the transaction on MSNBC's "Scarborough Company" Monday night, Kim Petersen, president of Seasecure, noted: "There are 300 terminals at those ports. Dubai Ports World is going to handle nine of them." SeaSecure is the largest provider of maritime...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An Arab company's potential takeover of some marine terminals at six major ports on the East Coast has raised questions about foreign operations at seaport facilities. Such arrangements have been commonplace at West Coast ports for years. Most of the cargo that enters the country comes through huge ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington. Each has marine terminals operated by foreign shipping lines - many from Europe and Asia. "On the West Coast, almost all the ports have their terminals operated by foreign companies," said Ivan Eland, senior fellow...

UAE firm to run 6 U.S. ports Nation tied to 9/11 hijackers could influence terminals, including Baltimore's Originally published February 12, 2006 WASHINGTON // A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports, including Baltimore, as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular...

AL BASRA OIL TERMINAL, Persian Gulf (NNS) -- Mobile Security Detachment (MSD) 31 relieved the Norfolk, Va.,-based MSD 25 on the Al Basra (ABOT) and Khwar Al Amaya (KAAOT) oil terminals in the Persian Gulf in early November, continuing the U.S. and coalition commitment to ensuring security and stability in the region by working with Iraqi marines on the oil terminals. In an interview Nov. 20, the Officer in Charge of MSD 31, Lt. Garth Kaliczak, said his most important mission during his unit’s tour is the security of Iraq’s two oil terminals in the Persian Gulf. "Without these platforms,...

How do you keep a terrorist from smuggling a radiation-filled "dirty bomb" or other weapon in one of the seven million-plus shipping containers that arrive at U.S. ports each year? That question has dogged policy makers, customs agents and counterterrorism experts ever since [9/11].... Customs and Border Protection has sought to secure global shipping by relying on intelligence and scrutinizing suspicious cargo manifests -- such as an unrefrigerated container full of "frozen fish" -- to identify potentially dangerous shipments long before they reach American shores. But critics say this method is flawed because the information on shipping documents if often...

Phase Two of Oil Terminal Security Turnover Begins MANAMA, Bahrain: The Iraqi military has begun the next phase in the security turnover process to assume responsibility for the Khawr Al Amaya and Al Basrah oil terminals. In an interview July 12 aboard USS Normandy (CG 60), Royal Australian Navy Commodore Steve Gilmore, commander, Task Force 58 said that the process will be complete when Iraq's military takes command and control of the oil terminals. "We’re beginning phase two of a three-phase process, which will transition the point-defense of the Iraqi oil terminals to the Iraqi Marines," said Gilmore.

WASHINGTON – As California officials assert their authority in court over liquefied natural gas terminals, Congress is moving to make it clear that federal regulators have the final word on where the sometimes-controversial facilities are located. An energy bill being crafted by a House committee would solidify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's role in approving the growing number of proposed LNG facilities nationwide, proponents say. Some of the terminals, including several proposed for California, have encountered strong opposition from residents worried about accidents or terrorist attacks involving the highly explosive fuel. Senate energy subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., introduced similar...

The FBI has warned energy companies about unconfirmed allegiations that Islamic militants, as of Mid-April were targeting U.S. petroleum terminals, pipelines, refineries and ships.The warning says there are indications that extremists are actively seeking detailed information on the operations of U.S. oil companies and considering the impact that disruptions could have on the nations economy. 2253 GMT