OPEC heads of state converged on Riyadh for a rare summit opening Saturday with the organisation divided over the falling US dollar and attempts to give a political impetus to the oil-exporting cartel.
In a gaffe late Friday, a private meeting of ministers from the 12 members of the cartel was mistakenly broadcast to journalists, revealing a spat between Saudi Arabia and anti-US members Iran and Venezuela about the waning US currency. Journalists witnessed Iran request that the final declaration to be issued by OPEC leaders at the end of the summit on Sunday express the concern of member states about the falling US currency and its impact on oil revenues.
Reacting to the proposal, which was backed by Venezuela, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned against mentioning the US currency. "There are media people outside waiting to catch this point and they will add to it (exaggerate) and we may find that the dollar collapses," Prince Saud said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who arrives later Saturday, has also called on OPEC to take on a stronger "political and geopolitical" role and return to its stance of the 1970s when it tightened the screws on consumer nations.
Saudi Arabia appeared to have prevailed in the debate about the dollar and the issue is not expected to be mentioned, but the incident highlights sharp differences at the heart of the group.
"It's the second meeting when OPEC is showing its dissension and there are clear divisions and fissures emerging," said Yasser Elguindi, a manager at oil brokerage SIG, referring to discord about output at a meeting in September. "It's a gaffe. Nobody likes to air their dirty laundry in public," he said.
The remarkable insight into the inner workings of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday, which produces 40 percent of world oil, ended when a furious official emerged to switch off the television.
The fall of the dollar, which has declined by about 15 percent in 12 months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the US currency.
The gathering comes at a time of tension on world oil markets, with the cartel under pressure to increase its output to help calm record crude prices that threatened to breach 100 dollars a barrel for the first time last week. The two-day summit, only the third in the organisation's 47-year history, will not lead to an agreement to pump more oil, ministers have said, with the issue to be discussed at a regular meeting in Abu Dhabi on December 5.
Chavez believes that oil should be priced between 80 and 100 dollars a barrel, and that OPEC must find a way to compensate the world's poorest countries for the high prices.
But not by giving them money from the oil proceeds. He means Uncle Sugar and the Euros.
He is to be joined in the Saudi capital by fellow anti-US leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, who is also expected on Saturday. The two leaders will hold talks together in Tehran on November 19.
The summit will also debate sharp rises in energy investments at a time when the cartel is required to invest heavily to raise output capacity to meet rising global demand. The environment and development funding is also on the agenda.
New York's benchmark oil price rose back above 95 dollars on Friday to close at 95.10 dollars per barrel while London's Brent North Sea crude climbed 1.39 dollars to settle at 91.62 dollars per barrel.
The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned. Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel's conference.
In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers' microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. "There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."
After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room. Oopsie! Did we do that?
Prince Al-Faisal added: "This is not new. We have done this in the past: decide to study something without putting down on paper that we are going to study it so that we avoid any implication that will bring adverse effects on our countries' finances."
Iran and Venezuela have argued that the meeting's final communique should voice concern about the level of the dollar, which has recently fallen to new record lows against the euro. They are pushing for oil to be denominated against a basket of currencies. The greenback also weakened slightly against the pound, although sterling's own recent weakness has pushed it down from $2.10 to $2.0457 during the week.
Nigerian finance minister Shamsuddeen Usman said that Opec could declare in the communique that: "While underlining our concern for the continued depreciation of the dollar and its adverse impact on our revenues, we instruct our finance ministers to study the issue exhaustively and advise us on ways to safeguard the purchasing power of our revenues, of our members' revenues."
Chancellor Alistair Darling will today urge his fellow finance ministers at a major G20 summit to increase investment in oil production and refinement.
Newsnight has discovered that until the early days of the Blair government the RAF's nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key. There was no other security on the Bomb itself.
While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof combination locks which could only be released if the correct code was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology. The British military resisted Whitehall proposals to fit bombs with Permissive Action Links - or PALs - which would prevent them being armed unless the right code was sent.
PALs were introduced in the 1960s in America to prevent a mad General or pilot launching a nuclear war off their own bat - the Dr Strangelove scenario. President Kennedy ordered that every American nuclear bomb should be fitted with a PAL. The correct code had to be transmitted by the US Chiefs of Staff and dialled into the Bomb before it could be armed otherwise it would not detonate.
Crews in missile silos also had a dual key arrangement so one man could not launch Armageddon. Similar safeguards are in place on Russian nuclear weapons.
Papers at the National Archive show that as early as 1966 an attempt was made to impose PAL security on British nuclear weapons. The Chief Scientific Adviser Solly Zuckerman formally advised the Defence Secretary Denis Healey that Britain needed to install Permissive Action Links on its nuclear weapons to keep them safe. "The Government will need to be certain that any weapons deployed are under some form of 'ironclad' control".
The Royal Navy argued that officers of the Royal Navy as the Senior Service could be trusted: "It would be invidious to suggest... that Senior Service officers may, in difficult circumstances, act in defiance of their clear orders". Neither the Navy nor the RAF installed PAL protection on their nuclear weapons. The RAF kept their unsafeguarded bombs at airbases until they were withdrawn in 1998. With the help of Brian Burnell - a researcher into the history of the British nuclear weapons programme who once designed bomb casings for atom bombs - Newsnight tracked down a training version of the WE 177 nuclear bomb at the Bristol Aero collection at Kemble.
Tornado and earlier V-bomber crews trained with these, which were identical in every way to the live bombs except for the nuclear warhead. To arm the weapons you just open a panel held by two captive screws - like a battery cover on a radio - using a thumbnail or a coin. Inside are the arming switch and a series of dials which you can turn with an Allen key to select high yield or low yield, air burst or groundburst and other parameters. The Bomb is actually armed by inserting a bicycle lock key into the arming switch and turning it through 90 degrees. There is no code which needs to be entered or dual key system to prevent a rogue individual from arming the Bomb.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/18/2007 07:20 ||
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#1
British ABUS bike lock: £ 16.91
BAE Permission Action Link £ 19,540,000.
#5
The security for an Iranian Nuke will be the contents of a ball of heavy twine wrapped around the device, and tied up nice and snug with a Gordian Knot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/18/2007 14:58 Comments ||
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Prince Charles' office rejected an invitation for his top aides to visit Israel because of fears the trip would be used to bolster the country's international image, a Jewish British newspaper reported Friday.
The Jewish Chronicle said it had seen e-mails exchanged earlier this year. The newspaper reported that Peat initially replied to Israel's then-ambassador to Britain, Zvi Heifetz, that "the invitation is hugely appreciated and Clive and I would love to come."
But in a later message... "acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want (Charles) to help burnish its international image. In which case, let's agree a way to lower his expectations..."
#4
Sea, an indication, not a poof, plain old anti-semitism can result in the same. But chances are that Chuckie is at least a sympatizer with the Koranic creed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/18/2007 7:35 Comments ||
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#7
The sheer arrogance... that his presence somehow raises the stature of the state of Israel.
"I wish I might live 50 years longer; I believe I should see the thrones of Europe selling at auction for old iron. I believe I should really see the end of what is surely the grotesque of all the swindles ever invented by man - monarchy."
Mark Twain, 1889
Posted by: john frum ||
11/18/2007 8:22 Comments ||
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#8
He's done such an awesome job of propping up Britain's image, how can you argue with his logic.
#12
I remember something that Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote about King George and the inbred monarchy that got him in trouble with the English govt, where he worked as a customs clerk or something.
Burns was spot on, and his comments apply well today to Prince Chuck. I can really understand why we American mutts have no use for the monarchy. Hats off to our founders!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/18/2007 15:03 Comments ||
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#13
Just another indicator that the sun has indeed set on the British Empire ...
#1
Yet more gathering evidence pointing towards that hideous atrocity known to our modern world as the LWM (Living White Male) Syndrome. Perish the thought that some of us might overcome such a horrible stigma!!!
#2
David Rosin, a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, who was recently awakened after a 25 year nap, says female and ethnic minority consultants are being given preferential treatment to meet artificial quotas.
Please say is isn't so Dr. Rosin, just say it isn't so.
#3
Rather funny, isn't it, that the complete reverse of reverse discrimination is Islam, where white males rule and everyone else is a slave. And yet, these two cultures share today's modern Europe.
Popcorn anyone ?
THE discovery this month of a vast offshore oil reserve justifies Brazil's plan to build a nuclear submarine because it would be used to protect the find, says the country's defence minister. Brazil has been talking about building a nuclear submarine for decades, but the project got a boost in July when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced £260 million in funding for uranium enrichment and the submarine programme.
And Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said: "When you have a large natural source of wealth discovered in the Atlantic, it's obvious you need the means to protect it." He said Brazil must take steps to guard the Tupi field and its 58 billion barrels of oil reserves from other nations andfrom "actions from the area of terror".
A few oil-fired frigates would do the job just as well and would a LOT cheaper. This is about chest-thumping and being one-up on the Argentinians and Chileans.
#5
Instead of making a nuke sub to defend their oil, they should use a different design and make a nuke sub to help them drill for oil.
This would not only speed production considerably, but be cutting edge technology, which they could lease for big money to the oil companies. In turn it wouldn't cost a fortune, it would make a fortune.
#6
Jeeze Louise! They have not even developed this oil field and they have already figured out a way to blow their oil wad. They are very much like Iran in this regard.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/18/2007 15:06 Comments ||
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#1
Are we going to be the only major industrial nation in the world without substantial oil production capabilities? I wonder where they will try to hit us??? If the assholes in D.C. can quit arguing about gay marriage for a couple of hours and stop calling each other 3rd grade poopy-pants names, they might want to have a look at this before OPEC decides to embargo again.
#2
Apparently these things include heaters and aluminized layers to provide infrared and radar signatures, and radio emitters to give the appearance of activity.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/18/2007 10:04 Comments ||
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#3
What an ingenious idea. Are they from Hollywood or Bollywood?
#4
Aren't the russians very good at decoys like that? I seem to half-recall that the 1999 serbia bombing campaign produced less than stellar results in retrospective (IIRC, the number of killed tanks was much lower than what was believed, and this was apparent when the serbs exited kosovo), as the serbs were trained and skillful in displaying convincing false targets, while concealing their assets.
Anyway, this is a good reminder that airpower has its definite limits as a standalone tool.
A LEADING international election watchdog said yesterday it will not monitor next month's Russian parliamentary poll because Moscow refused to issue visas to its observers on time.
The stand-off threatens to deepen western doubts about the legitimacy of the vote on 2 December and harden Moscow's insistence that the West has no right to criticise how they are carried out. Russia had already come under criticism for initially saying it would allow only 70 observers - far fewer than in previous Russian elections.
The Warsaw-based office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which organises observer missions in its 56 members states, said attempts to get entry visas for its experts and observers had failed. "We have not received a single visa for the 70 observers," OSCE spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. "We have tried everything."
Russia's foreign ministry blamed the OSCE for the delay. "If anything interfered with the observers coming to Russia, it was the muddle in the office and the scornful sort of actions by its leadership in not paying attention to generally accepted procedures," it said.
China is pursuing an aggressive spying program to acquire critical American know how for beefing up its military and industrial might, posing the biggest threat to US technology, a US Congress-appointed commission warned Thursday.
"Chinese espionage in the United States, which now comprises the single greatest threat to US technology, is straining the US counterintelligence establishment," the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a report to Congress. I'm not sure I'd agree with this assessment. I'd still give the nod to the NEA, with China a close second.
To underline the seriousness of the espionage problem, the panel called for immediate steps to determine the country of origin of every US weapon system components and a "full assessment" of US intelligence capabilities related to China's military.
"The commission recommends that Congress require the Department of Defense to prepare a complete list of the country of origin of each component in every US weapon system to the bottom tier," the report said. This is an excellent idea. We should also have an appreciation for how much comes from Taiwan.
The commission also asked Congress to consider providing additional funding for US export control enforcement and counterintelligence efforts, specifically those tasked with preventing "illicit" technology transfers" to China and its "state-sponsored industrial espionage operations."
Commission vice-chairman Dan Blumenthal said the panel found that the pace of military modernization in China had exceeded official US estimates. I get a bit sceptical when I read this kind of thing. They are theives, but they aren't 10 feet tall.
China's defense industry, he said, was producing new generations of weapon systems with impressive speed and quality, in part because China had developed the capacity to integrate commercial technologies into military systems.
#1
NS, they don't have to be 10 feet tall if they can get the Clintons to encourage transfer of classified technology & if they can get manufacturing expertise from western companies who base there.
Doesn't hurt that their standards for crew safety are a bit ... looser ... than ours.
#2
There's no doubt they're taking what ever the Clintons and friends will give and trying to steal the rest. But when they finally fall it will be a lot like the Soviet Union with their weapons not nearly as sophisticated or well made as was imagined previously.
Actually, I believe the opposite of what the CIA opines. Have they weighed in on this yet?
PRISTINA, Serbia - Former rebel fighter Hashim Thaci claimed victory in Kosovos third postwar parliamentary election on Saturday, making him the man likely to lead the breakaway province to independence from Serbia.
With our victory today begins the new century, Thaci told cheering supporters, six hours after polls closed. Partial results pointed to a 12 percent margin of victory, but well short of a parliamentary majority. We showed that Kosovo is ready to move forward towards freedom and independence, said Thaci, whose Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, was formed from the Liberation Army, which rebelled against Serbia in 1998.
The PDK captured roughly 35 per cent of the vote in a ballot marred by record low turnout and a Serb boycott to protest against Albanian independence plans. Beaten into second place was the long-dominant Democratic League of Kosovo of late Kosovo independence icon Ibrahim Rugova, which won around 22 percent.
All parties back a quick move to independence from Serbia for the breakaway province, which has been under United Nations rule and NATO protection since 1999. But in a sign that many voters see little difference in their ability to improve daily life beyond a declaration of statehood, less than half the electorate of some 1.5 million turned out to vote, the lowest showing since the 1998-99 war. These elections are not about Kosovos status, said Thaci, who is now clear favourite to become Kosovos new premier. We will declare independence immediately after Dec. 10.
That is the date for a report by Russian, United States and European Union mediators on efforts to find a compromise between Serbia and Kosovos 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority. There is still no glimmer of a deal. Two negotiating sessions are set for Brussels and Vienna in the coming week.
The election for the 120-seat Kosovo parliament is the third since NATO intervention in 1999. The campaign was dominated by party pledges to tackle 60 percent unemployment, minimal foreign investment and rampant corruption. The bid for statehood was never in question.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/18/2007 01:51 ||
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Didn't Slick Willie put his signature on a document that guaranteed permanent recognition of Serb sovereignty over Kosovo province, in exchange for withdrawl of Serb troops from Kosovo?
For those who don't know, Slick Willie ordered targeting of Serb tanks in Kosovo and claimed that tactic led to the armistice. However, the Serbs presented credible evidence that only 12 tanks were destroyed. When Slick Willie's tank war was a flop, he ordered much of Serbia to be destroyed. But didn't he prevent ethnic cleansing, and peaceful national reconciliation? Slick Willie put US troops in the position of passive observers of the obliteration of dozens of Orthodox Cathedrals, while it was Serbs who were cleansed from lands where they had roots dating at least a thousand years. For billions of US dollars, America got an Asia-centric drug conduit as a dubious European ally, while alienating the former East bloc states. Thanks Slick Willie; what does Hillary have in the works?
Turkey is considering joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), said Turkish energy ministry Hilmi Güler after meeting his U.S. counterpart Samuel W. Bodman here Friday.
The two held a bilateral meeting before the opening ceremony of the TurkeyGreece Interconnector pipeline takes place on the border between Turkey and Greece this Sunday.
Güler and Bodman discussed a number of issues including developments in Turkey's domestic energy market. The Turkish government's decision to build a nuclear plant appeared high on the agenda of the meeting. They noted the importance of a diverse supply of energy and the opportunity for civilian nuclear power to play a more significant role in each country's energy mix, a joint press statement said. Bodman called on Turkey to participate in the GNEP, described by him as an international framework for facilitating the worldwide expansion of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in a safe and secure manner.
Continued on Page 49
#7
A welder's helmet would make the plane virtually invisible, too. You can't see nuthin out of one of them. In fact, it makes damn near everything invisible.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/18/2007 9:15 Comments ||
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#8
Shade 14, Deacon, and you will see nothing but the flash of a nuke, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/18/2007 15:14 Comments ||
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#9
Somehow reminds me of the time way back in the mid-70's when I was working in construction during the Summer to pay for Architectural School when I took a piece of wide electrical tape and put it on the inside of a welder's helmet. I'm glad he never found out who did it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/18/2007 16:16 Comments ||
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Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that crude prices, hovering close to 100 dollars a barrel, are still lower than the actual value, the state news agency IRNA reported. "The pressure on the fossil energy (oil) market is not artificial and the price of this commodity is lower than its actual price," Ahmadinejad said before leaving Tehran for an OPEC summit in Saudi Arabia.
Ahmadinejad also said that pricing oil in US dollars was affecting the producing countries.
Oil prices rose back above 95 dollars Friday amid predictions that OPEC will not discuss raising output at its weekend summit and fresh tensions over Iran, which is the cartel's second largest producer.
Backed by fellow US adversary Venezuela, Iran has called for the summit's final declaration to express concerns about the falling US currency and its impact on oil revenues. But OPEC's Secretary General, Abdalla Salem el-Badri, said later that the dollar would not be mentioned in the final communique.
#1
Not a peep out of Washington on this. Guess we'll just sit back and watch gas go to $5 a gal. But don't worry, a few thousand futures investors will make hundreds of millions of dollars. The rest of us will have to eat our pets to survive.
HT to AOSHQ
A Case Western Reserve University statistics professor who admitted falsely reporting to the FBI that she received racially charged hate mail has been sentenced to six months in prison. Ramani Sri Pilla must also pay back $66,000 that the FBI and the university spent investigating her false claims.
Prosecutors say Pilla told FBI investigators that she received four hate letters between August 2006 and February of this year. Pilla, who is Indian, named three co-workers as possible suspects. And she also sued the school, who she accused of not protecting her. Pilla later admitted that she wrote the letters and then sent them to herself. "My bad. Do I still get tenure?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/18/2007 08:34 ||
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Tenure? I went to schgool there, and I can tell ya, they'll make her the department chair...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/18/2007 8:51 Comments ||
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#2
So why isn't she being charged with a hate crime?
With any luck her co-workers who she charged will be able to sue the sh*t out of her.
The Opec heads of state are expected this weekend to warn the US against suing the cartel for price-fixing. A draft communiqué circulating last night appeared to include a threat to US legislators who want to use a change in American law to take action against the group.
The document said: We reiterate that measures or legislation undermining the spirit of producer-consumer cooperation would jeopardise market stability and energy security. It added that consuming countries should adopt transparent, nondiscriminatory and predictable trade, fiscal, environmental and energy policies; and promote free access to markets and financial resources.
The US House of Representatives voted in May to approve legislation that would strip Opec member states of sovereign immunity they enjoy from prosecution in US courts. The proposals have gathered momentum in Washington because of high oil prices, although the White House has threatened to veto them.
Another fine mess the Dhimmicrats are getting us into. Have they actually passed an appropriations bill yet, since that's only their job?
The communiqué also emphasises the role that carbon capture and storage technology can play in helping to tackle climate change. However, it omits any reference to increased oil production or the weak US dollar, which Iran and Venezuela had pressed for in a private session that was accidentally broadcast to journalists in another room. Officials quickly cut the broadcast, in which Saudi officials were heard arguing with their Venezuelan and Iranian counterparts over a proposal to stop pricing oil in US dollars.
A Saudi official said such a measure would risk triggering a collapse in the value of the dollar.
Securing Saudi Arabias oil supply
The Saudi Government is establishing a new 35,000-strong industrial security force to bolster the oil industrys defences. Oil facilities have been protected by a variety of different security groups, including the police, traffic police, coastguard, army and private security guards.
Saudi Aramco, the worlds biggest supplier of crude oil, is spending an estimated $250 million bolstering security at its oil and gas production and processing facilities in Saudi Arabia to help to defend against possible terrorist attacks. The company is being assisted by Control Risks Group, the British security consultancy, which has been helping to draw up plans to fortify vulnerable installations and improve perimeter security
Saudi Aramcos money will be spent on a range of new measures, including thermal imaging cameras and radar technology for isolated desert production sites and export terminals.
#1
Chinese TV equals government TV, so this sounds like the government has made some 'investements' that benefit from getting other suckers to dump their dollars.
#2
Since China's economy seems to be entirely based on export, I think this is a great idea. Is this how you control inflation in a 2rd world shithole?
#3
Very poor timing. Technical analysis indicates that the $USD bottomed on Wed, Nov 14 against the Euro at .68 and the US dollar index also set its final lows recently.
There is virtually no one left to jump on this bandwagon and as is typical in financial markets, once a trend becomes accepted as the conventional wisdom a reversal is on the way.
Watch how this performs over the next few weeks for confirmation:
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (UUP)
#4
Please stay in touch Grumenk Philalzabod0723, sounds like you have serious insight.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/18/2007 9:35 Comments ||
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#5
It would be wonderful for us if they do dump their dollars now. They would lose a ton of money in the deal, and we would be far more insulated if their economy nose dives.
#6
Or it could be some Chinese MSM idiot who didn't get the memo. I agree with GP0723, the run on the dollar is probably over for now. But I look for the Chinese to try again next October, as described in the other dollar thread.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Prince Charles' office rejected an invitation for his top aides to visit Israel because of fears the trip would be used to bolster the country's international image, a Jewish British newspaper reported Friday.
