…and the geo-grunes should dance for joy
Nobody expected this, least of all the guild of miltary experts: The world was astonished when Saddam Hussein set hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells ablaze fourteen years ago (cf. ol – the other weapon of mass destruction). Such gigantic acts of sabotage have not been part of the modern war repertoire until now.
Burning oil wells in Kuwait in May 1991. Photo: Pentagon
Now, next Tuesday, a book will be released in the U.S. that claims, based on intelligence material, that the Saudi leadership has been inspired by Saddam Hussein’s unheard-of manover and has concocted a peculiar, self-destructive strategy for averting invasion that sets entirely new dimensions: At all possible points connected with the country’s oil production, the Saudi government is said to have installed explosives designed to cripple all production for years to come in the event of an invasion.
Conventional explosives, such as dirty bombs, are believed to have been placed by engineers at key locations in oil fields, facilities, tanks, oil platforms, pipelines, refineries, ports, control systems, and water and power grids to completely destroy the infrastructure of the world’s largest oil supplier – for many years, since the "dirty bombs" to turn Saudi Arabia into a nuclear-contaminated odland, "for no one to use".
Revealed in Gerald Posner’s book is this crudely laid out sabotage master plan "Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-US Connection", to be published next week in the USA. For Arianna Huffington’s celebrity group blog, which was exclusively given the book in advance, a good opportunity for a Scoop as a jump start in the race for attention in the new news business.
Posner cites the following as sources for his revelation from the well-shielded kingdom of intelligence "electronically intercepted messages" of the American secret service "National Security Agency" there, the Saudi project has been discussed for many years under the name of "Petro SE, for petroleum scorched earth" led.
The question naturally arises whether the whole thing is not simply a bluff, a "Saudi theatrical stucco", as Daniel Pipes (see The Club of Right-Wing Wise Guys) points out in his replica, also at The Huffington Post. But the notorious warner of the dangers of extreme Islam remains true to his line and, without contributing any new arguments, considers the worst, when it comes to radical Muslims, to be the one to be reckoned with (cf. New task for the "leading Islamophobes"). He also has a surprising observation to make: While Saudi Arabia is considered by many to be backward and old-fashioned, Pipes credits the monarchy with being a "one of the most creative and underestimated political forces in modern history", who can therefore be trusted with anything.
The revelator of Saudi secrets, Gerald Posner, has made a good name for himself in the U.S. as an investigative journalist; his book on the background to the attacks of 11.09.01 "Why America Slept" has also been taken seriously in Germany. Whether the Saudi leadership is bluffing American intelligence, only the Saudi government knows for sure, comment the optimistic future-builders of an "smarter, better, greener" World the Saudi threat: "The "Geo-Greens" should dance with joy at this news" and thinking about how to finally leave the stone age of energy supply behind us.