Unearthing Global Terrorist Connections
July 7th, 2008 at 05:26am Mark Noonan
In spite of what you might have heard from the left, under President Bush’s leadership, we have vastly improved our ability to track terrorists and keep America safe:
In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States.
There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon.
The records suggest that potential enemies abroad know a great deal about the United States because many of them have lived here, officials said. The matches also reflect the power of sharing data across agencies and even countries, data that links an identity to a distinguishing human characteristic such as a fingerprint.
“I found the number stunning,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, a security consultant and former assistant to the president for homeland security. “It suggested to me that this was going to give us far greater insight into the relationships between individuals fighting against U.S. forces in the theater and potential U.S. cells or support networks here in the United States.”
The fingerprinting of detainees overseas began as ad-hoc FBI and U.S. military efforts shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It has since grown into a government-wide push to build the world’s largest database of known or suspected terrorist fingerprints. The effort is being boosted by a presidential directive signed June 5, which gave the U.S. attorney general and other cabinet officials 90 days to come up with a plan to expand the use of biometrics by, among other things, recommending categories of people to be screened beyond “known or suspected” terrorists.
Fingerprints are being beamed in via satellite from places as far-flung as the jungles of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines; Bogota, Colombia; Iraq; and Afghanistan. Other allies, such as Sweden, have contributed prints. The database can be queried by U.S. government agencies and by other countries through Interpol, the international police agency.
Couple points:
1. The “dirt farmer” in Tikrit who turned out to be wanted in the US: all through this post-liberation battle in Iraq we’ve heard endlessly from the left that those fighting us are just Iraqis who want us out…and how do they know this? Because it was reported in the news…as if a western MSMer who spends most of his time in the Green Zone can tell the difference between an Arab from Tikrit and an Arab from Damascus. Certainly, plenty of Iraqis - for a while - joined the fight against us and the Iraqi government, but the vital leaven in the enemy forces, the thing which kept the fight hot, was the foreigners who came in with money, expertise (its not like Saddam actually trained his people to defend themselves, ya know?) and the will to fight. One wonders how many “Iraqis” in the news voicing opposition to the US were really Iraqis…
2. The fact that many of these people have turned out to be wanted in the US for various crimes gives one pause about claims of innocent people winding up in Gitmo - once again, how would an MSMer really be able to find out that the “innocent detainee” he’s interviewing is really someone innocent? Obviously, if someone is wanted in the US but is out and about in, say Somalia, then he’s already tangled with the law and got out of it by one means or another. Unless one wants to subscribe to the theory that our soldiers and intelligence agents are stupid thugs, one must give the benefit of the doubt to our side and discount media stories about allegedly innocent detainees. Not that an innocent person cannot have been picked up, but that the chances of a completely innocent person winding up in Gitmo are very small and would be the exception proving the rule.
3. What a good idea, huh? Everyone who is detained by us is fingerprinted and we gather forensic data from terrorist attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and slowly build up a picture of who is doing what to whom. Over time this would give us a very good picture of what we’re up against (in terms of numbers, skills, effectiveness, etc) and allow us to subvert the terrorist groups from the outside and derail their efforts through misdirection.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and his Democrats are saying that we have to get out of Iraq - at least, they’re saying it “pre-refinement”; we’ll probably see a changed tune soon, however - because Iraq has distracted us from the “real” war on terrorism…thing is, under President Bush we’ve managed to win in Iraq, win in Afghanistan, kill or capture many thousands of terrorists, build up a data base on global terrorism, de-fang Libya, end Pakistan’s “Nukes R Us” market, secure a growing alliance with India, Eritrea, Djibouti, Georgia and Poland, watch as France, Germany and other European States figure out that we’re doing the right thing in the War on Terrorism, increase the size of our military, re-equip our forces with the most modern weapons and materiel available, beef up our intelligence agencies, start to secure the border…and this is just the stuff we know about; there’s probably a lot which is still classified and we might not find out about for 50 years. Not a bad job for the man the left considers to be an evil idiot.
HAT TIP: NRO’s The Corner
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, President Bush, Republicans, War on Terror
62 Comments
1. Fredrick Schwartz | July 7th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Don’t forget Noonan you have to do all of this while keeping taxes low on the top tier of income earners in America. I guess fees for drilling righrts off the coast of Florida and in people’s backyards will pay for all of this. Oh that’s right you can just borrow from Norway, Switzerland and China!
2. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don\'t-mess | July 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Shadow: Sounds good to me. I think these half-measures against “terror” are for “appeasers” who believed in “containment.” I say $3 trillion deficit for fiscal ‘09, all of it going to “defense”. Make it so Honduras and Ghana can get $50 billion of US guvvies into their central banks.
Very hard to fight a war on terror when high-nitrate dung is a better store of value than the US Dollar.
3. Bigfoot | July 7th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I guess fees for drilling righrts off the coast of Florida and in people’s backyards will pay for all of this.
Sounds like a good idea. Drill in Pelosi’s back yard, Reid’s back yard, Murtha’s back yard, Gore’s back yard and Clinton’s back yard. However, to show that we’re not putting all our eggs into the basket of oil, build wind turbines all over the islands off Massachusetts, so that the Kennedys have to look at them while on their yachts.
Oh that’s right you can just borrow from Norway, Switzerland and China!
You mean those Chinese who are drilling in Cuban waters, about 50 miles from the Florida coast, while we foolishly ban our oil companies from doing the same?
start to secure the border
About 7 and 1/2 years overdue. For the most part, I agree with you, Mark, but Bush has largely dropped the ball on this one.
4. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don\'t-mess | July 7th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Bigfoot: When you’re right, you’re right. I really can’t argue. There’s no amount of money large enough to allocate to the US military to win the “war on terror” and secure the homeland.
5. Sarah Bloch | July 7th, 2008 at 9:09 am
3. Bigfoot | July 7th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Oh whatever! You know that if this same war had been fought by a Democrat in the White House you’d be foaming at the mouth about “the trooopps!” right now and how ignorant Democrats are about all things military. When Clinton went into Kosovo you all cried foul saying he was trying to deflect the Lewinsky heat.
And what the Chinese do in Cuban or international waters is between them and the Cubans or them and the World Court the latter of which you cannot put any stock in because the rest of Terra would finally have a way to take you down.
6. neocon | July 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I sense a huge amount of growing frustration amongst the left vis a vis Iraq. Just a few short days ago, Frederick posited that Bush hasn’t done anything in terms of intel policies to fight this battle.
And now Sarah reveals their ultimate agenda:
“And what the Chinese do in Cuban or international waters is between them and the Cubans or them and the World Court the latter of which you cannot put any stock in because the rest of Terra would finally have a way to take you down.” - Sarah
They advocate the ultimate demise of America, it’s freedoms and capitalism. I can only assume it’s because of their personal failures and their jealousy towards those that live the abundant life. So instead of aspiring to do better for themselves and use that success to help spring board others to a better life, they hope to bring everyone else down with them.
Nice.
have a hellac day
peace, neocon
7. Sarah Bloch | July 7th, 2008 at 9:31 am
6. neocon | July 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
When you position yourself as a rogue superpower what do you expect? Do other nations not have a right to protect themselves against US investment bank inspired economic shocks or attack from an Imperialist America just because you happen to live there?
8. neocon | July 7th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Sarah,
You really do have a distorted view of America.
I will remind you that it is America that leads humanitarian efforts around the globe from the tsunami in Indonesia to the aids epidemic in Africa, no other country on terra has contributed, or helped more.
The decline in the value of the dollar has been a blessing to many other countries who we now export to in record numbers so that they can have the modernities that we enjoy every day.
After fighting and defeating our foes we help rebuild them into stronger, more liberated countries; ie: Europe, Japan and soon to be Iraq.
I am not sure why you harbor such disdain for the greatest country on terra, but I do know it’s not grounded in reality.
have a collective day
peace, neocon
9. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don't-mess | July 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Neocon: I am a capitalist and would like for everyone to enjoy the bounty.
Where’s the bounty though with $9 trillion in outstanding debt and rising?
The value of your home is irrelevant to me. In 10 years it’s more likely that my son will be fighting Nonito Donaire for the World Flyweight belt that than in an American war. And Donaire is going to the Hall-Of-Fame. That’s how likely it is that your team will get my son into uniform! It’s your friends’ and neighbors kids who are going.
I have no personal investment in the success or failure of any of this. OK, it’s slightly easier to make money fading the USD knowing the military budget is going to exceed revenues by a large amount and that US monetary policy is guided by party not by patria.
You have created an imaginary creature called the “American Left” and have focused on fighting that rather than repairing Iraq. What is this “American Left”? I sure don’t see it. There are Americans whose views of fiscal policy are different from yours. There are Americans whose hobbies and ways of arranging their social lives are different from yours.
There are precious few Americans whose guiding philosophis are a planned economy and the expropriation of wealth.
10. CanadianObserver | July 7th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I will remind you that it is America that leads humanitarian efforts around the globe from the tsunami in Indonesia to the aids epidemic in Africa, no other country on terra has contributed, or helped more.
8. neocon | July 7th, 2008 at 9:47 am
———————————-
That is a commendable achievement, neocon, and the countries that have been aided by the generosity of the American people are in your debt.
However, the U.S. destroys whatever goodwill these acts produce by its disastrous foreign policies. Policies that have led to the death and destruction of countless innocents. America’s military might, used in pursuit of the glorification of imperial superiority, is not in the best interest of the country or its citizens.
11. Magnum Serpentine | July 7th, 2008 at 10:23 am
yeal right.
citizens are angered at the fact that george is listening in on their conversations with their wife, grandmother and friends. Citizens are hacked off at the fact that they now have to present a pass port just to get into Canada and soon will have to have an internal pass port (Vis a Vis USSR) in the form of the National ID card (So-called Real Id) to receive Social Security check, enter the Capital building, bank, Hospital, train station, bus station, movie theatre, church, school, McDonalds, Wendys, Pizza Hut or a airplane with-out the internal passport card (In other words just about anywhere. the law says you have to carry the internal passport at all times so its right to say that you cannot enter McDonals with out the internal passport.)
Neocon let us also not forget that while george was angered by the fact that people wanted to build hospitals and schools with his precious military money, that he said he cannot afford 30 billion OVER 10 YEARS for children and thus vetoed the measure, but george can afford 162 billion EVERY 6 MONTHS for the george war in iraq. (Didn’t help that the demo-publicans rolled over and showed their yellow spines (wait, the Demo-publicans have no spine, otherwise george would be out of office and in jail by now) and voted for this stupid 162 billions )
“Thanks for the question, you little jerk” McCain 2008 (Of team McBush)
12. neocon | July 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Tampa,
It’s an all voluntary force, so you can bring the drama of your boy not being in uniform a notch or two. And quite frankly, with a Dad like you, I wouldn’t want him in unifrom. My two nephews are Marines, served two tours in Iraq, and both of them are the finest human beings I have ever know.
I don’t know what the value of my home has anything to do with you, but considering the level of dementia displayed in the rest of your post, I guess it really doesn’t matter.
CO,
You have the same distorted view of America that the pitchforkers do. It was our military that was sent to aid those countries in need, so that is a part of our foreign policy, in case you didn’t connect the dots on that.
Also, it’s our foreign, both past and present, that is responsible for the emergence of Japan and Europe as stronger, sovereign nations, and it is our foreign policy that is systematically eliminating a an ideology that desires to oppress women and children and impose a theocracy.
It’s awfully homorable of you to dishonestly condemen those efforts as you live in the shadow and the protection of that same eeevil country.
If you had any integrity, you’d leave your comfort zone and fight against that which you claim to be so egregiously wrong. Somehow, I don’t think that will happen.
Have a peaceful day, thanks to the US
peace, neocon
13. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don\'t-mess | July 7th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Neocon: Talk about drama — I’m sure your nephews are fine young men but I’m fading their being the finest human beings you’ve ever know for all I can get into the pot. No drama whatsoever about my son. By the time he turns the age of recruitment or draft, he will no longer be eligible.
But you are probably right. I cannot either teach or influence my son into being the kind of young man you prize because I don’t feel the same about things as you do. I taught him how to hit and pitch a baseball, how to play gin and poker, how to box, a few tricks to math problems in his head, and tell a joke.
The value of your home fluctuates with the value of the dollar, the terms of your financing, world interest rates, US inflation, and the level of debt and amonts of annual deficit carried by the USA.
14. Tractatus | July 7th, 2008 at 11:03 am
You mean those Chinese who are drilling in Cuban waters, about 50 miles from the Florida coast
You know that’s not actually happening, right?
You probably don’t know that, actually. Shame you’ll swallow whatever the right wing tells you. But then again, even after this line was revealed to be false, wingnut politicians kept repeating it, showing once again just how little regard they have for the truth.
15. Cooldown | July 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am
under President Bush we’ve managed to win in Iraq, win in Afghanistan July 7th, 2008 at 05:26am Mark Noonan
Huh? Well thank God, according to Mark and the Cons Bush Jr’s legacy is safe. What is your definition of “win” this time? Hell McCain bought rugs in Iraq over a year ago and we are still there. Maybe he can get some matching throw pillows in notheast Afghanistan.
16. js | July 7th, 2008 at 11:26 am
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/china_starts_oil_drilling.html
While Washington dithers over exploiting oil and gas reserves off the coast of Florida, China has seized the opportunity to gobble up these deposits, which run throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and along the U.S. Gulf coast.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/economy/oil_cuba/index.htm
Adding insult to injury, the Times said U.S. firms were invited to bid on the Cuban contracts, but were barred by the U.S. government due to the country’s longstanding economic embargo of communist Cuba.
you aint so bright, are ya tractatus?
17. JPL | July 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am
The hate-filled, deranged, incoherent rants and misrepresentations of the leftists who visit this site are mind-boggling. Mark makes an excellent point about an efficient, high-tech American anti-terror strategy that’s actually working to defeat a dangerous enemy force of unspeakable evil, and what do the leftists give us? A concession that, yes, perhaps the media did overplay those stories about a “home grown” Iraqi resistance? A jibe that, “well, at last Bush has done something right”? No, instead they give us their usual vomit of every worn-out Bush-hating talking point in their book.
Mark’s argument was intelligent. Where does one go for an intelligent argument from a liberal?
18. David B. Schmidt | July 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am
MS is hitting all the talking points once again. Evil BushCo is listening to you conversations and intercepting your email–why they are reading this as I type — yet no one can prove this, no one can prove they have been listened to, spied on but we just “know it” because Bush is evil.
I am, I would say, leaning towards Libertarian beliefs of individual responsibility and freedoms with a conservative bent fiscally – I think this country is overdue for a National ID card. It would standardize what already exists as if you didn’t know—every state in the union already requires males reaching the age of 18 and older to carry photo identification on them at all times. It has been this way since at least WWII.
And if what we are doing (with less than 2% of our troops) in Iraq is soooo evil–why did 1215 just reenlist in Iraq on the 4th of July? Knowing that they would be staying or returning to the Iraq / Afgan campaigns.
Kosovo was a bombing campaign where you cannot control the civilian casualties using the ordinance that they used – but that was okay. Two points, first we (America) were supposed to be out by that Christmas but I guess Pres. Clinton didn’t understand the meaning of word ‘that’ either because we are still there. Second, bomb till hell freezes over—you don’t own it until you put boots on the ground.
On the point of Imperial America—I say go for it – we fully withdrawal from the entire world for a period of three to six months (including all aid and money) and watch what happens. Everyone wants us out of everywhere until they realize that the check is going with them—just ask the Puerto Ricans about Roosevelt Roads.
19. Danish Artist | July 7th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
What is it with these liberals who can’t stick to the topic?
We have the deluded minions from the Daily Pitchfork:
Frederick Schwarts (Shadow)
Sarah Block (Civil War Veteran of Gettysburg and two-time abortionist from when she was “alive”)
TampaBayRayz (haven’t figured his alias yet)
-at least their “arguments” didn’t turn into a blame religioun attack.
Lemming Magnum Stupidity for his usual regurgitation of the daily Democrat talking points.
Tractus and Cooldown for being a bunch of followers of the other two groups above.
Why are liberals afraid of the truth?
Why are they deflecting all over the place?
I guess most haven’t received their marching orders concerning the topic. I mean it goes against everything they have been regurgitating for the past 5 years.
I also believe for them to speak on topic is like a garbage man asked to do brain surgery.
20. ho-hum | July 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
We’ve “won” in Afghanistan? Really? I hadn’t noticed that.
21. ho-hum | July 7th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0707/p01s03-uspo.html
22. ho-hum | July 7th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Shortage of troops curtails U.S. military options
A U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear installations would create trouble that we aren’t equipped to handle easily, not with ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, drove that point home in a press conference last week at the Pentagon.
“I’ve been pretty clear before that from the United States’ perspective, the United States’ military perspective in particular, that opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us,” Mullen said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have capacity or reserve, but that would really be very challenging.”
23. ho-hum | July 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Meanwhile in Mark Noonan’s little bubble everything is just A-okay….
24. ho-hum | July 7th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Also, were you guys aware that TWO coalition helicopters have been shot down by Taleban within the last 10 days in Afghanistan? That sound like a “winning” scenario to you?
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAISL16065720080702
The Noonan who writes these posts seems to have completely detached himself from reality.
25. Kahn | July 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
These are the “new” liberal chants eh?
1. Defence is responsible for everything bad?
2. The rich need to be taxed more?
3. Drilling is not the answe to anything?
Great. Good.
Defence is what percentage of the budget?
Define rich?
And unless it rains oil or you’re willing to do ANY alternative energy… whats your plan?
26. js | July 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
shooting down our choppers? oh darn!!….the taliban…has such a huge army…and ulimited resources…oh me…oh my….we are all going to die….because of a radical sect in the hills are going to get us all!!
the actual war is over…done….fini…the actual government is by the afghans…for the afghans…and i really doubt they would ever allow the taliban to take that away……
27. HeyHey | July 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
lemming js,
We know you aren’t too bright but repeating the ‘Chinese Drilling Offshore of Florida talking point?
Problem is js, that’s all false. Like, completely false. China is not currently drilling off the shores of Cuba; in fact, it doesn’t even have a off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land. “China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period,” Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy, told the Miami Herald. In fact, it is not yet drilling on Cuban land, either.
China’s Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban government to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Piñon said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no drilling. Western diplomats in Havana told McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge there is no Chinese drilling offshore.
The Congressional Research Service also debunks Republican claims:
“While there has been some concern about China’s potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba’s oil sector has been focused on onshore oil extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. (Sinopec)”
First Cheney says to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that “oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We’re not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.
“Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply,” he added. “Yet Congress has said . . . no to drilling off Florida.”
Cheney’s office has since backtracked, issuing a statement that says “It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there.”
They aren’t allowed to drill offshore nor do they have contracts offshore. Many Republicans have repeated this talking point but it has proven to be false. lemmings…
28. Pain | July 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
25. Kahn | July 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Try theis Kahn-stipated [hey now I know why you guys do that it's fun!]
1. Defence is responsible for everything bad protecting the homeland
2. The rich need to pay abe taxed more proportional percentage of tax commensurate with their income
3. Drilling is not the answer to anything everything in the energy space, all alternatives need to be reviewed along with new exploration in ANWR, offshore and other places.
29. Pain | July 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
16. js | July 7th, 2008 at 11:26 am
You are really a very skilled at typing sheep are you not?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602041_2.html
“In a previous column, I stated that China, in partnership with Cuba, is drilling for oil 60 miles from the Florida coast. While Cuba has partnered with Chinese companies to drill in the Florida Straits, no Chinese company has been involved in Cuba’s oil exploration that close to the United States.”–George F Will.
And if the man that Dick Cheney quoted is not enough We have more FACTS.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/are_the_chinese_drilling_off_the_coast.html
30. NavyBU3Durf | July 7th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
It’s funny how when presented with FACTS, the neo-conservative hacks fall dead silent, sometimes they come back with name calling, most of the time they will change the subject. Very amusing
31. js | July 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
actually, gossip from columnist really doesnt impress intelligent folks as a reliable source of facts…and for checking facts that chinese companies are contracting to find the oil…you played right into my lap….only a fool would think Cuba is contracting with China to just find oil in the Florida Straights but they absolutly (with most certainty) will not and do not plan on drilling for it….you must be right…..obviously….because once they find the oil…the chinese are going home…and cuba is going to contract with russian companies to come and find it again…..
naa…nobody would do anything like that…not the chinese…and certainly not the cubano’s…
I am just going to leave you idiots in laa laa land, because you deserve it…
32. Stretchrun | July 7th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
15. Cooldown | July 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am
under President Bush we’ve managed to win in Iraq, win in Afghanistan July 7th, 2008 at 05:26am Mark Noonan
So when do we exactly celebrate VI and VA days?
33. js | July 7th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Cuba has been oil hunting, not always successfully, for decades.
With Soviet help, it discovered the Varadero Oil Field in 1971. This reservoir, within 5 miles of Cuba’s northern coast, today yields about 40 percent of Cuba’s total production — roughly 75,000 barrels a day of poor-quality, heavy, sour crude.
In July 2004, however, the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF, in partnership with Cuba’s state oil company, CUPET, identified five fields it classified as “high-quality” in the deep water of the Florida Straits, 20 miles northeast of Havana.
Seven months later, a report by the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed it: The North Cuba Basin held a substantial quantity of oil — 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude and 9.8 trillion to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Cuba wasted no time, dividing the 74,000 square mile (120,000 square kilometer) area into 59 exploration blocks, and then welcoming foreign oil conglomerates with offers of production-sharing agreements.
Oil companies from China and Canada, already prospecting for oil along Cuba’s coast, began talks with Cuban energy officials about investments in deep-water operations.
Then, in May, Spain’s Repsol-YPF announced it was partnering with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., and Norsk Hydro ASA of Norway to explore for oil and gas in six of the 59 deep-water blocks along Cuba’s maritime border with the United States. (Sherritt International Corp., the Canadian oil company, has acquired exploration rights in four of the deep-sea blocks.)
That raised the eyebrows of many an oil executive, says Jorge Pinon, a former senior executive with Amoco Oil and a research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14095881/
ya, its all gossip, cuba doesnt want to get anyone to drill for oil….aint that right obama?
34. Ricorun | July 7th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
js, could you perhaps explain why we should be concerned with the decisions the Cubans make in their own territorial waters? Obviously, if they were caught slant drilling into our territorial waters, that would be a big deal. But other than that, it’s their business, isn’t it? And ours is ours.
35. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don't-mess | July 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
32. Stretchrun | July 7th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
My wallet has been celebrating since 2002!
VA and VI days are much how Governor Huckabee described his conception of “creation” and how it dovetails with science: a “day” is a metaphorical construct which can represent 24 hours or 24 billion years.
VA-Day and VI-Day would seem to fall in between those poles, while the wallet gets fatter, the pile of corpses grow higher, and the Devil Rays increase their lead.
This US linkage of the original Al-Qaida attack with imaginary people on every scrap of real estate on Earth would suggest a very, very long couple of VA and VA days, indeed.
It’s all good, so long as Tampa Bay can hold on in the AL East, Evan Longoria wins AL Rookie-Of-The-Year, and crude oil stays north of $120/bbl.
One doesn’t look a gift horse in the eye.
36. phnx | July 7th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Rico,
Did it occur to you that the oil reserves may extend on both side of the border? Draining the oil from one side will drain the oil from the other. The point of all of this is that while the Cubans are licensing companies to exloit these resources, our government is prohibiting any oil exploration on our side.
37. Mark Noonan | July 7th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
js,
Heck, it goes back further than that - somewhere in my Dad’s papers is a letter from a Cuban official pre-Castro talking about oil exploration in Cuba…my grandfather was a wildcatter and wanted to prospect for oil in Cuba.
38. js | July 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
strange how that works mark….its an old old myth? go figure….
39. js | July 7th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
so….we go with the arguement that its a myth….and its dead now…nada…no liberal lemmings to the rescue..in the face of overwelming facts the lemming dies…again..now….rico wants to say…what?…..so what? for a myth rico…strange how you liberals jump back and forth….i’d say its a matter of national security to start with…if they have chinese military industrial complex 50 miles off our border with a legit excuse….naa…lets not go that way…the lemmings will accuse bush for letting it happen….when its congress’s fault….
40. Rich | July 7th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
here is a look at U.S. deaths so far one week into July per http://icasualties.org/oif/.
Period US UK Other Total Day Count Avg
7-2008 1 0 0 1 7 0.14
Does this still count as being stuck in a civil war to you leftists? Can you say we have turned a corner and are nearing victory? Is this why Obama is refining his war position? Would the country be this secure had we started to pull out a year ago before the military gains?
41. NavyBU3Durf | July 8th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Deleted - off topic.
42. JustAnotherTaxpayer | July 8th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Here’s the myth. The Iraqis want us in Iraq. Al Maliki today announced, despite the oppostion from Bush, the Irawqi govt. wants a troop timetable for withdrawal included in any negotiation for placement of troops in Iraq.
Iraq is sovereign. The UN Mandate for current US activites in Iraq runs out at the end of the year. Indeed, Obama will visit Iraq to speak to US troops, and their commanders. But he will also visit Al Maliki to ask how the head of this sovereign nation would like to proceed in future relations with the US.
How do any supporters of our participation in this conflict justify it’s continuance in the face of the demand of the democraticly elected govt.
How ironic, Bush may find himself in violation of a UN mandate. At that time, what has been billed as a liberation will offically become an occupation.
43. Mark Noonan | July 8th, 2008 at 2:19 am
JAT,
Well, you’re off topic but, also, monumentally foolish…we want our troops out of Iraq. Don’t you get it, even now? Come on, for crying out loud, will you drop your leftwing blinders for a moment and understand that what we wanted in Iraq was not endless US involvement, but victory? Victory is being achieved and now we’ll start to come home…
Maliki has every right to want to fully assert his nation’s sovereignty, and I’m delighted he’s showing a strong and healty independence from us. We’re allies and we will remain such, but allies don’t dominate or kowtow to one another. God bless him - and God bless the Iraqi security forces which are now proving themselves strong enough to defeat Iraq’s internal threats…the external threat remains, and so we’ll probably keep 50,000 or so troops in Iraq (I imagine somewhere west of Baghdad in the middle of the Iraqi nowhere, as well as some major base in Kurdistan…with, for a while, a battalion or two kept in or near Baghdad as back up for Maliki, just in case) - we’ll probably keep them there for 10 years or so, and it will be at the express invitation of the Maliki government and it will be governed by a Status of Forces Agreement such as we have with Germany, Japan, South Korea, etc, etc, etc. But if it eventuates that Maliki feels he doesn’t need US troops in country, then all our boys will come home…
Get off the Bush-hating fanaticism for a moment and be thrilled at the magnificent victory your armed forces have achieved.
44. Pain | July 8th, 2008 at 8:12 am
33. js | July 7th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Any demon would tell you when you step on your tail be still at least a moment.
you were caught repeating a conservative a lie that you wished to believe as true. The chinese are not drilling off the florida straits and you said they were and you were wrong. All that article says is they are seeking to invest and looking at tracts for exploration. You agreed with an earlier commenter and tried to support that they were drilling and they [the chinese] are not.
you are making yourself appear stupid by beating this non living equine!
45. Ricorun | July 8th, 2008 at 8:16 am
phnx: Draining the oil from one side will drain the oil from the other.
It doesn’t work that way. It’s not like there’s one large bowl of oil down there and you can stick one well down and suck it all out.
And js, you need to read your own article again. As it indicates there, the Chinese “military industrial complex”, as you called it, doesn’t have the technical expertise for deep water drilling.
The issues here are two, and they are independent of each other:
(1) whether American oil companies should be allowed to help the Cubans exploit their oil resources. We can’t very well stop them, but we can help them. But that would require lifting or modifying the trade embargo we have imposed on Cuba. And it’s hard to blame liberals for that. Again as your own article states, softening the trade embargo would raise the hackles of the conservative, and highly influential, Cuban-American voting lobby of south Florida.
(2) whether we should open up our own reserves for exploitation. This one is much easier to blame on the liberals. However, up until the last couple of weeks or so, it was a very bipartisan attitude. Now that McCain, Crist, Martinez, and others have flipped, it too is splitting the Florida GOP. So it’s not exclusively liberals in that respect, either.
There is another more practical issue too, which often slips below the radar, but it too was mentioned in your article: deep water rigs are in short supply, as are drill-ships needed to drill the wells. And the bottleneck has gotten worse since that article was written. As this article indicates, the world’s existing drill-ships are booked solid for the next five years, and the cost of new ones are going through the roof.
46. JustAnotherTaxpayer | July 8th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Victory? Paid for by the US taxpayer investments in the armed forces, or the US taxpayer investing in the worldwide oil market at the pump?
When Quadaffi, can do more damage getting out the buisness of terrorism, and conducting the terror of buisiness by merely threatening to reduce output, what victory has been achieved?
When Iran will announces, in the presence of our secretary of state that they will start building 9 transmission lines to help Iraq get electricity, which will be generated in part with nukes Iran gets from the Russians, what victory has been achieved?
When our allies, the Saudis will neither increase production of oil significantly nor forgive Iraqi debt, or even set up an embassy in Iraq, while their support of Wahabbism continues, what victory has been achieved?
When our allies in Iraq won’t give us a barrel of oil to help offset the cost of our activities there, what victory has been achieved?
What most Americans look at when you talk of victory is what they have gained by helping keep troops in Iraq. They don’t see victory at the pump, they don’t see victory at the grocery store, they don’t see victory in the equity in their homes, they don’t see victory over forces that take away job security, and millions here have lost their homes.
The economic damage you yourself have sustained has not opened your eyes to the economic nature of the competition in which we are engaged, and have already lost. Businissmen don’t need bombs or soldiers to terrorize or conquer their enemies. I’ve asked you on several posts to ask anyone whose lost a home to foreclosure if they feel like winners because of what their investment in Iraq has gained them.
As far as hating anyone, Mr. Noonan, that’s your dept. Your the socilalist who feels the need to do away with the Federal system, and force one size fits all solutions to problems, taking power away from the states. If you feel the need to turn a buisiness competition into a military one because you can’t compete in buisiness, go ahead. The world will laugh at you as you wave your military prowess on your way to the poor house, so be it. So long as you don’t advocate forcing me to pay for it.
But you and your liberal ilk do, Mr. Noonan, and that is why you will lose to the lamo dems in November.
It’s the terrorists selling oil, not throwing bombs that will force the outcome of the election, and many elections to come.
Have a nice day.
PS
I agree with you that democratic allies don’t “kow tow” to one another. Just look at the Reagan “victory” in Russia. Now there’s an ally.
Thanks for responding to my post.
47. NavyBU3Durf | July 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Mark,
I’m not sure why my topic was deleted. It was simply showing the difference between facts and opinions on this blog. I guess when the truth is handed to you it was a little too much to handle. What victories Mark? I have no left wing ideology, have you been to either place, have you experienced what it is like in either of these places. Have you been on deployments for over a year at a time, 2,3, going on 4 times? Unless you have, unless you have actually been there, instead of relying on reports from Fox News, I don’t believe you have ground to stand on. I have nothing else to say, because, like I said I presented direct quotes from this blog, some were opinions others were facts, and you deleted it….and why? Probably because it hurts not ALWAYS being right. But here I go again, I’m just another disgruntled military member who has gone astray from the flock. Your sense of truth Matt, is laughible.
48. Calvert | July 8th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Facts don’t come into the js lemming playbook. With his broken english and broken mind, it’s no surprise he can’t read his own article or the links provided and still say the same thing.
49. js | July 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
small brains think alike….calvert and pain…do you two have the ability to reason? obviously not…it must be something to do with “the flock” eh? lemmings all together now….get the flock out!!
50. js | July 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
with the iraqi’s reading these boards…and all the BS the liberals are bleeding….its no wonder they dont want to get in too deeply with the threat of obama on the horizon….
its like when clinton took over in 92….everything we committed to went to hell in a basket…clinton cut defense spending…limited our involvement…which left saddam in power…and let him kill another 1 million +/- iraqi people while the clinton administration aka DNC party ran with thier thumbs stuck in thier butts….
nobody can blame them…they have been screwed by the demoncrap’s before…let them be wiser this trip….you can already see the effect the DNC is having on the economy and they dont have the white house….
51. js | July 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
reality calvert;
Seven months later, a report by the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed it: The North Cuba Basin held a substantial quantity of oil — 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude and 9.8 trillion to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Cuba wasted no time, dividing the 74,000 square mile (120,000 square kilometer) area into 59 exploration blocks, and then welcoming foreign oil conglomerates with offers of production-sharing agreements.
Oil companies from China and Canada, already prospecting for oil along Cuba’s coast, began talks with Cuban energy officials about investments in deep-water operations.
Then, in May, Spain’s Repsol-YPF announced it was partnering with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., and Norsk Hydro ASA of Norway to explore for oil and gas in six of the 59 deep-water blocks along Cuba’s maritime border with the United States. (Sherritt International Corp., the Canadian oil company, has acquired exploration rights in four of the deep-sea blocks.)
——————-
read the links…you brainless lemming….
52. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
JS;
>>>>small brains think alike….calvert and pain…do you two have the ability to reason? obviously not>>>
THIS is what pain, describes herself as……..go figure.
These are the FOREIGNERS, who come to this blog to tell US what is wrong with America and W.
“Pain
Knight Slayer of Shai’ tan
Majordomo of Hell and Terra
Order of the Black Rose of the Empire
Ayatollah of Rham and its Shadow
Fair Judge Executioner of Souls
Quarterer’s Order of the Descending Aorta, 1st Class, with diamonds, mesentery and lymph nodes
Lord Gaoler of Dis
Womb of Empires
先生 立石 上様
Fifth Sea Lord of Hell
Chair, Hellac Consumer Products Safety Commission
Oracle of Elections
Chair, Hellac Commission on Sentient Being Rights
Lord High Justice of the Court of Acts & Merits
Knight Commander of the Hellac Gordian Knot of Silver
Keeper of the Keys of all the Gates of Hell
Qadi of Hades
Chamberlain Imperial of the Necropontiff
Order of the Quartz Heart (Eng.)
Count-Palatine of Sheol
Marquis di Gehenna
Emperor Consort
White Rod
President Pro tempore Bax Culdnu
23 Melnar 2 AS”
53. js | July 8th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
too funny…
delusional and selfish beoch, isnt she….
54. Fredrick Schwartz | July 9th, 2008 at 7:18 am
51. js | July 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
And still no matter how much foaming spit hits your keyboard and monitor there still isn’t anyone drilling for oil offshore around Cuba. Exploration tracts and the notional facts that oil MAY be there isn’t drilling for production purposes js and no matter how loud you shout it still isn’t true.
And so you can be a total dumbass here’s a link to GOPUSA who has Dick Cheney retracting exactly what he said about China and oil drilling off the coast of Florida.
Now note that’s not Think Progress or the dailyKos or Talking Points Memo or even the HuffPo, that’s GOPUSA! Now what are your going to do call me a sodomite/pornographer/AntiChristian/Liberal. Defeaticrat/traitor/BDS suffering loser or something to that effect because you are a liar?
I still write the truth everyday js and you write lies to make yourself less than an uneducated cretin who thinks a political party made up of elitists cares about you, your religion or your economic problems. You js make me laugh every single time I read a comment from you.
I mean what’s the point of lying when the truth is going to come out eventually and make you look like not just an asshat but a lying for no reason asshat!
55. Pain | July 9th, 2008 at 7:27 am
52. FmrMarine | July 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Have you no titles?
Are you not the “father of children” or “worker of metals.” We, Ourselves are aware that there is no Peerage in America but of course people do separate themselves by a variety of secular and spiritual titles all the time. Our ability to function on many levels allows Us to perform tasks as diverse as Fifth Sea Lord and preside over matters at civil law as the Ayatollah of Rham & Its Shadow.
Did you not accept help from many countries in driving Saddam Hussein from Kuwait when he invaded that nation illegally? Then it is Our Mandate that We show you the proper way by explaining your errors in invading Iraq and in many other areas. The mark of a truly sentient race is learning from mistakes and since these mistakes that have been made in the last eight years are grave and must never be repeated it is Our duty to make as many pronouncements as possible and do all We can within the boundaries of Hellac Law to guide Terra back toward her destiny.
56. TampaBayRayz-4-evah-don't-mess | July 9th, 2008 at 7:42 am
JS: Do you know how oil-extraction and production companies based in whichever country go about their business? Apparently, you do.
Let’s say Fredrick and Dick Cheney are wrong and there’s all sorts of drilling going on in Cuban territorial waters. Why is that bad? It’s CAPITALISM. Cuba would put a drilling quadrant up for auction. The auction might take a number of forms. It could be winner take all on an open-outcry basis. It could be winner take all on a sealed bid basis. Or it could be proporitionally allocated to all eligible bidders at the price at which the final piece of the quadrant is sold in the so-called “Dutch Auction” process.
It just too bad for US oil companies that ancient cold war BS prevents them from participating in these auctions. But there is hardly a conspiracy among China, France, Spain and Cuba to keep America dependent.
57. Calvert | July 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
js,
You are a moron. Read your links and nowhere does it say China is currently drilling off the coast of Florida. Time to get a new talking point.
China is not currently drilling off the shores of Cuba; in fact, it doesn’t even have a off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land. “China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period,” Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy, told the Miami Herald. In fact, it is not yet drilling on Cuban land, either.
China’s Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban government to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Piñon said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no drilling. Western diplomats in Havana told McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge there is no Chinese drilling offshore.
The Congressional Research Service also debunks Republican claims:
“While there has been some concern about China’s potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba’s oil sector has been focused on onshore oil extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. (Sinopec)”
First Cheney says to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that “oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We’re not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.
“Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply,” he added. “Yet Congress has said . . . no to drilling off Florida.”
Cheney’s office has since backtracked, issuing a statement that says “It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there.”
They aren’t allowed to drill offshore nor do they have contracts offshore. Many Republicans have repeated this talking point but it has proven to be false.
58. js | July 9th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
there they are…
3 stooges…all 3 idiots are claiming i said china is drilling 50 miles off key west…show me where i said that?
3 stooges…all 3 idiots keep up thier hate filled rants about cheney saying something…but all 3 idiots ignore that cheney really isnt the core source of the facts….facts that all 3 idiots dont have the common sense to figure out…
so…all the rehashing of the same thing these 3 idiots have been clobbered with….really isnt such a intreging thing for me…but mind you…these 3 idiots are will keep arguing that i said something i never did…because all 3…are idiots….halfwits…and stooges…
oh!! there they are..been a while boys…the 3 stooges, LIVE on BLOGSFORVICTORY.COM!!!!! now jump lemmings….jump!!!
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60. Money Magazine New Constr&hellip | August 14th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Money Magazine New Construction Associated Press
I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me
61. Edward&hellip | August 30th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Data Security Data Protection Safe Harbor Testing
I can’t believe I missed this! I’m going to have to do some more reading me thinks.
62. Stock Market Stock Prices&hellip | August 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Stock Market Stock Prices Mutual Funds
I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me