TBR News.org – June 8, 2007
I have two subjects of general interest to discuss today. The first concerns the flap over the Turkish threats to invade northern Iraq in the wake of Kurdish terrorists cross-border murderous activities inside Turkey and the second deals with a very serious problem with rising sea levels and genuine economic chaos for our east and gulf coasts. First, let’s look at what could very well become a major political disaster. To reduce the problem to basics, the Kurds occupy territory in northern Iraq. There is considerable oil in northern Iraq. The Kurds hate the Shiites and Sunnis who occupy the lower part of Iraq and Saddam attacked them, gassing large numbers of civilians using Sarin gas obtained from the U.S. CIA. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration approached Israel to see if they would be interested in a deal whereby Israel would oversee the Kurdish oil fields and investigate the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request was formalized in a secret telegram from the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld to the Israeli Forgien Ministry and a copy of which is in a file in my safe.
Sharon, then the Isreali Prime Minister felt that this projected pipeline to the Israeli port of Haifa was something the United States could strongly support in return for “unlimited support” by Israel for the American conquest of Iraq.
This projected pipeline would be designed to obtain oil from the Kirkuk area, representing 40 percent of all Iraqi oil production. The pipeline would got via Mosul, across Jordanian territory to Israel. The Rumsfeld secret cable did include a request for a cost estimate for repairing the present Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was in use prior to 1948. During the so-called War of Independence, the Iraqis stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into disrepair over the years.
The Isreali National Infrastructure Ministry conducted research indicating that construction of a 42-inch diameter pipeline between Kirkuk and Haifa would cost about $400,000 per kilometer. The old Mosul-Haifa pipeline was only 8 inches in diameter.
Iraqi oil initially had been transported via Turkey to a small Mediterranean port near the Syrian border. The transit fee collected by Turkey is an important source of revenue for the country. This line has been damaged by sabotage in the past, sabotage committed by Kurdish separatists.
This pipeline was not viewed well by the Turkish government and they informed Israel that they would view their interference in the oil situation as “a serious blow to Turkish-Isreali relations.
According to intercepted diplomatic messages from Israel to their Embassy in Washngton , Israel believed American statements about the pipeline was a means of pressuring Turkey to be “more cooperative” with American military forces and to forgo relaliation against Kurdish rebels. the American hints about the alternative pipeline were seen as part of an attempt to apply pressure on Turkey.
Emboldened by what the Kurdish saw as ‘unconditional” American assistance, their rebel groups, based inside northern Iraq, began to increase their incursions onto Turkish territory. This, of course, enraged the Turks, who promptly informed Washington that the United States must cease and desist supporting groups that were killing Turks. This put the Bush people in a quandry. The area was full of Israelis working on developing the oil fields and a Turkish incursion could endanger their lives and added to this, if the U.S. tried to rein in the Kurds, they could well counter by cutting off the oil.
When the Turks learned that the U.S. was planning to hand over the security of northern Iraq to the Kurds, Turkey went ballistic, moving two well-armed divisions and significant heavy artillery units to their joint border. The Turkish Foreign Ministry informed the Bush people that if the United States did not take steps to physically halt the Kurdish attacks, they, the Turks, would strike militarily into the area and destroy the capability of Kurdish separatists to launch any more attacks.
The United States is seen as being increasingly weak militarily in that area due to the carnage in Baghdad and the Turks are not happy with this country for a number of reasons.
The interesting aspect of this, again taken from Israeli diplomatic communications, is that Israel has been spying on the Kurds, has located rebel bases, safe houses, weapons dumps, key rebel personnel and so on and has made a deal with their friends, the Turks, to turn all of this over to them to assist in what is now seen as an almost certain Turkish military action. The quid pro quo? In return for their ‘assistance’ to the Turkish government, a deal has been tenatively agreed about the oil, a deal that leaves the United States out in the cold and the Kurds very dead.
It it interesting to note that a major highway from Bagadad, 250 km south from Kirkuk, was just recently destroyed, precluding any land reenforcements by the U.S. to the Kurds and, even more important, to prevent the escape of Kurds to the south.
The last report was that Israeli specialists blew the bridge to facilitate their assistance to the Turks.
The second subject of interest is the rapidly increasing melting of the Greenland icecap, a process that has speeded up way beyond any computer projection. Most scientists, outside of official U.S. ones, agree that the entire huge ice cap will melt (at the present accelerating rate) within five years, not five hundred. If this happens, and all the serious projections indicate that it will, there will be a disastrous rise in sea levels, a neutralizing of the Gulf Stream and massive and permanent flooding of most of the American east and gulf coasts and a massive destruction to the commercial infastructure that will have devastating financial consequences. For this reason, the matter is not to be discussed by any governmental agency and public discussion in any of the major media outlets has been kept very quiet. The Bush people pray it will not happen before they are out of office.
If you own property on the coast, at or slightly above the current sea level, my advise to you is to sell now while you can. When this becomes ohvious, you will be sol about selling anything and your neighbors will be moving to Chicago.”
Editor’s Comment: We have been advised that readers wishing copies of many interesting diplomatic communications on the Turkish situation should write to:
anniejohummerbug@hotmail.com for more detailed information. Ed.
See our Inside the White House archive:
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/category.asp?id=41
A Complete Copy of the Voice of the White House from TBR News April 18, 2004- December 29, 2005
Last updated 12/06/2007
Homepage