<IRAQ BORDER BREACHED - WAR IMMINENT

These images come from out of Kuwait. Think they don't take Saddam's WMD seriously? Think again. Img src=Al Qabas

Social professors say war only way out for region

Naturally not US social professors, but Kuwaiti ones.

"He cited that there are about 10,000 Iraqi nationals still residing in Kuwait who do not like to go back to Iraq for fear of suffering from Saddam's way of ruling the country. "Iraqis here are enjoying their way of living. They have good jobs and nobody touches them as long they abide by the rules of the host country. These people also would like a change in the regime," he pointed out."

UNIKOM Alert Phase 3

This means everyone knows what soon will hit the fan.

New efforts to protect Gulf tankers, oil fields
KUWAIT: American military forces and Gulf Arab states preparing for war against Iraq have taken steps to protect oil fields, refineries and tankers from an Iraqi counter-attack or an Islamic militant bombing. Analysts, however, doubt that Iraq could hit Gulf targets with missiles or that militants could cripple Gulf shipping with a terrorist campaign. But they do not rule out a repeat of one-off bombings such as those against the US warship Cole or French oil tanker Limburg.
Industry sources from Japan and other Asian countries which rely on Gulf states for most of their oil also thought the risk of disruption was low.
But one source said Japanese tanker crews may refuse to travel to the Gulf if war breaks out.
An armada of US and allied vessels is available to protect tankers, while the US Coast Guard has brought equipment to contain any oil spill if Iraq repeats the "environmental terrorism" it used in the 1991 Gulf war, a US Navy spokesman said.
Bahrain-based Lieutenant Josh Frey was referring to the setting alight of Kuwait's oil wells as Iraqi forces retreated from the emirate under attack from Us-led forces.
"We have assets in the sea and in the air to monitor shipping in the international waters of the Central Command area of responsibility," which includes the Gulf as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, Frey said when asked how tankers could be protected.
Frey said a total of 90 US and other allied ships-a fleet that has grown over the years to first enforce UN sanctions on Iraq and then also arrest militants fleeing US troops fighting in Afghanistan-were available if necessary. He declined to give details.
Kuwaiti oil analyst Kamal Al-Harami said he was confident that US and allied naval ships will protect oil tankers in the Gulf and that the thousands of US and British troops deployed in the Kuwaiti desert near Iraq would provide an important buffer for oil fields and refineries.
Kuwait has nonetheless taken its own security measures. The Kuwaiti Oil Co said Monday that the Abdali and Riqqa oil fields have been shut down and all others near the border with Iraq will also be closed but the emirate's total production capacity of 2.1million barrels per day (bpd) will be maintained with fields in the south.
The Defence Ministry declared the north of Kuwait a "military exclusion zone" as of February 15, and restricted entry without a permit from intelligence or security departments.
British analyst Jon Marks said Iraq did not appear for now to present a "credible" missile threat but that Gulf states and allied forces had to look out for Islamic militant groups like Al-Qaeda, which are warning of retaliation for any US war on Iraq.
"Western shipping has proven to be a successful target for Al-Qaeda in the past," said Marks, director of Cross Border Information, a British political risk consultancy and publisher.
"An actual campaign ... to really cripple Gulf shipping is very unlikely," Marks said. "That doesn't exclude something spectacular from happening."
The risk of terrorism would increase the longer a war lasted and "you'd have to assume more protection" measures, he added.
An Asian industry source in the region who asked not to be named said he had "slight concerns" about both the possibility of an Iraqi missile strike against oil facilities or an act of terror, like the one when an explosives-packed boat hit the French tanker Limburg off Yemen last year. However, he remained optimistic.
"In the case of war, the supply of crude will not be seriously affected," he said. "We believe the oil producers in the region will take due measures to maintain stability in the oil market should the said war break out."
Saudi Arabia has already offered to dramatically boost ouptut if war produces a shortage, though Harami questioned how quickly it could do that.
A Japanese oil industry source who asked not to be named said that Japanese tanker crews were threatening through their unions not to travel to the region in the event of a war-a move that would raise prices by forcing companies to rent vessels on the spot market.
"Physically we can deliver the crude oil," he said. "But the cost would increase." -- AFP

Clearly we are not going to let Saddam destroy the fields. It might even be assumed from this article, if one reads deep between the lines, that we are seizing certain Iraqi oil fields as we speak. ;-)

We have more troops in Saudi Arabia and full permission to utilize bases according to this.

More evidence of the French selling out to Saddam

Chirac doesn't care if the blood is red so long as the money is green!

Let's cross our fingers like Chinese peasants to ward off the evil spirits...

SDAI-Tech1