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Bush's Worst Appointment Yet? Read Jeffrey St Clair's blazing expose of the new Interior Secretary nominee , Dirk Kempthorne, and make up your own mind. Even in the dingy history of Idaho's predators, Kempthorne stood proud as the dingiest of them all. Now he's poised to seize his place in history. Will he be the sleaziest Interior Secretary in history, sleazier than Watt, fouler than Fall? More on the great Israel Lobby debate! Norman Finkelstein cuts a new path, asks "Are the Neo-Cons really committed Zionists?" "Bliss was it in that dawn" Not in Michigan! Raymond Garcia describes Dem governor's appalling plan to scapegoat youth and teachers. Plus the full print version of Virginia Tilley's savage dissection on this website of the double-standard onslaught on Hamas by the US and EU. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
Today's Stories May 25, 2006 Robert Bryce May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
May 22, 2006 Alan Maass William Blum Elaine C. Hagopian Stan Cox Chris Floyd Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Ralph Nader Hugh O'Shaughnessy Greg Grandin P. Sainath Greg Moses Stephen Philion Landau / Hassen Fred Gardner Missy Comley
Beattie Michael Dickinson Seth Sandronsky Luke Young John Zavesky Ben Tripp Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler José Pertierra John Ross Dave Lindorff Jeff Juel Alan Farago Eric Johnson-DeBaufre José Martî Jonathan Cook Website of the
Day
May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Patrick Cockburn Christopher Brauchli Nora Barrows-Friedman Victoria Buch Eric Ruder George Wuerthner Juan Santos Website of the Day
May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner Carlos Villarreal Larry Everest CounterPunch News Service Lee Sustar Anthony Papa William S. Lind Bruce K. Gagnon JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Ted Honderich Paul Craig Roberts Annie Nocenti Charles V. Peña Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Harvey Wasserman Michael George
Smith Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn William Blum Tanya Golash-Boza
and Douglas A. Parker Dave Lindorff Debra Schaffer
Hubert Patrick Cockburn Tom Turnipseed Ken Livingstone Gideon Levy Mickey Z. Jeff Faux Website of the Day
May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad Joan Roelofs Kathy Kelly Michael Neumann Dr. Susan Block Daniel Cassidy Christopher Reed Mike Roselle Saul Landau Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Evelyn Pringle Fred Gardner Stanley Heller Conn Hallinan Valentina Palma Novoa David Krieger Col. Dan Smith Christopher Brauchli Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Dave Lindorff Leah Fishbein
/ RJ Schinner Brian Kwoba Chris Kromm Kai Diekmann David Swanson Virginia Tilley Website of the
Day
May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Jonathan Cook Tariq Ali Wayne S. Smith Mike Whitney Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Francis Boyle Edward S. Herman
/ David Peterson Website of the
Day
May 10, 2006 Werther Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Ramzy Baroud Kevin Zeese Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Sharon Smith Website of the Day
May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern M. Shahid Alam Moshe Adler Walter MIgnolo Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor William S. Lind Todd Chretien Dave Lindorff Ishmael Reed Website of the
Day
May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Ingmar Lee Robert Jensen Ricardo Alarcon Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani Alexander Cockburn Website of the
Day
May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Ariel Dorfman Joe Allen Fred Gardner Jeff Taylor Saul Landau Stephen Philion Trish Schuh Ralph Nader Robert Fisk Paul Cantor John Holt James Ryan Lawrence R. Velvel Greg Moses Laray Polk Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Mickey Z. Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
May 5, 2006 Vijay Prashad Robert Fisk David Swanson Mearsheimer / Walt Dave Lindorff Sarah Ferguson CounterPunch
News Service Corporate Crime Reporter Website of the
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May 4, 2006 John F. Sugg Jonathan Cook Roger Burbach Chris Dols Christopher Brauchli Tony Swindell Website of the Day
May 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Paul Craig Roberts James Petras Lee Sustar David Bolton Joshua Frank Jeffery R. Webber Website of the
Day
May 2, 2006 Evelyn Pringle Tariq Ali Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Sen. Russell
Feingold Anthony Papa Website of the
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May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
Day
April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
Alberts Lee Sustar John Chuckman Eric Ruder Seth Sandronsky Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Fred Gardner Don Monkerud Tommy Stevenson Lettrist International Contratiempo St. Clair, Vest
and D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway Ramzy Baroud Sarah Knopp William S. Lind Werther April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Robert Fisk Juan Santos Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Jose Pertierra
April 26,2006 Robin Philpot Sherry Wolf Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Gary
Leupp Bill
Quigley
April 25, 2006 Gary
Leupp Paul
Craig Roberts Linda
S. Heard Ralph
Nader Mike
Whitney Michael
Donnelly Sharon
Smith Website
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Stanton Dave
Lindorff Steve
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Cockburn Website
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May 25, 2006 Oil for Occupation, But None for IraqisIraq's Ongoing Fuel CrisisBy ROBERT BRYCE The ongoing war in Iraq will likely be won or lost based on the availability of one commodity: motor fuel. For the moment, the U.S. military has all the fuel it needs--about three million gallons per day -- to continue prosecuting the war in Iraq. The same cannot be said for Iraqi civilians. Indeed, the supply of motor fuel in Iraq remains highly precarious. Evidence of that can be found by looking at the case of Lloyd-Owen International, a small American company which provides security for hundreds of gasoline tanker trucks hauling fuel from Kuwait into Iraq. For the past month, Lloyd-Owen has been facing a May 25 deadline. Effective today, according to the U.S. military, Lloyd-Owen was to be prevented from moving its fleet of tankers through a military checkpoint near Safwan on the Iraq-Kuwait border. Lloyd-Owen provides security for transporters who haul about 6 million liters of fuel per day to various locations in southern Iraq. That fuel is then distributed to service stations in the region for use by civilians. Lloyd-Owen's trucks were to be barred from using the checkpoint under a new policy which said that only trucks working under contracts with the U.S. military will be allowed to use the military checkpoint. Lloyd-Owen's contract is with Iraq's Oil Marketing Company, known as SOMO, which has been buying fuel from the Kuwait Petroleum Company in order to meet domestic demand. Thus, even though Lloyd-Owen's work is directly related to the rebuilding and stabilization efforts in Iraq, its trucks would not be issued special badges by the U.S. military. And without those badges, their trucks would not be allowed to use the checkpoint. On May 11, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) intervened on behalf of Lloyd-Owen and sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking him to look into the matter. Waxman wrote that "in light of the potential consequences of a fuel shortage in Iraq, I would like an explanation for the new policy of the Defense Department." Waxman's office said they got a response from Rumsfeld's office but that it was "non-substantive." Then, about mid-day yesterday, May 24, just a few hours before the deadline, the Army suddenly rescinded its policy, and determined that Lloyd-Owen's trucks could use the military checkpoint until a "to be determined date." Now, all of this could be excused as part of the bureaucratic mess that always accompanies military operations. But motor fuel is a critical commodity in Iraq. Without fuel, there is absolutely no chance that Iraq's economy can sustain itself. The Kuwaiti fuel is essential because output from Iraq's own refineries has been dramatically reduced or stopped altogether due to insurgent activity. Corruption within the Iraqi oil ministry is also causing a myriad of problems. That means that getting Kuwaiti fuel across the border must happen quickly in order to assure adequate supplies of fuel to Iraqi citizens. The CEO of Lloyd-Owen, Alan Waller, insists that his trucks must be allowed to use the military border crossing. The civilian checkpoint is not an option. "We tried sending four tankers," through the civilian crossing, Waller told me. "It took four days to get those tankers through." By comparison, according to Waller, the trucks going through the military checkpoint can get through in 16 minutes. Waller's trucks are only meeting a fraction of the demand for motor fuel in Iraq. Normal gasoline demand is probably about 20 million liters per day. But consumption is constrained by instability and endemic corruption. Fuel availability and logistics problems are an ongoing theme of the Second Iraq War. In northern Iraq, trucks carrying fuel and other supplies into the country from Turkey must cope with monstrous traffic jams at the border. Queues of trucks waiting to enter Iraq at the Habur Gate crossing are--this is not a typo--up to 20 miles long. U.S. Army logisticians are reporting that for one tanker truck (carrying military fuel) to make a complete round trip from Turkey to Iraq and back to Turkey takes up to 24 days. In the first few months of the war, KBR, a division of Halliburton, was given the task of importing fuel from Kuwait into Iraq. Pentagon auditors later found that KBR was using huge markups on the fuel. In one case, KBR apparently charged the DOD $27.5 million to transport liquefied petroleum gas worth $82,100. From May 2003 through March 2004, KBR billed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $875 million for supplying fuel into Iraq; Pentagon auditors later questioned $108 million of that amount. The Defense Department has since decided to pay Halliburton nearly all of the disputed amount. LOI got the fuel delivery security contract (formerly held by KBR) in 2004. There have been no reported problems with LOI's management of the contract. Waller, who is a former member of the British army, says his company has accompanied some 46,000 truckloads into Iraq without the loss of a single truck. That's about 1.6 billion liters of fuel. The problems in Iraq are not confined to refined products. Earlier this month, Platts Commodity News reported that some 60 million barrels of crude oil production in Iraq had gone missing. Platts estimated the value of the missing crude at $3 billion, and said that Iraq's oil production and export figures "consistently do not balance out when supply to refineries is deducted from the total." The many opportunities for corruption have left ordinary Iraqis struggling to get the fuel they need. Earlier this week, I corresponded with an Iraqi who left Baghdad about three weeks ago and moved to Dubai. Ahmed Karrufa, who published a blog called Life in Baghdad, said fuel shortages have been constant since the U.S. invaded the country in 2003. In an e-mail, Karrufa wrote that last year,
It's not clear yet what will happen to Lloyd-Owen. If the U.S. military prevents its gasoline trucks from going through the military checkpoint, then Baghdad could be left with little or no motor fuel at all. And that will only help feed the ongoing unrest in the region. Furthermore, according to Waller, "There's more money in the black market now than ever before." Many news reports from Iraq are saying that ordinary Iraqis must purchase fuel on the black market at prices that are several times that of the official government price. Of course, there are shortages of other energy as well. Electricity in Baghdad only functions for four hours per day. Even though Lloyd-Owen got a reprieve, and its trucks can continue using the military checkpoint, there could still be a meltdown in Iraq's domestic fuel market. During a conference last month in Washington, D.C., U.S. Army officials working for the Defense Energy Support Center (the Pentagon agency that buys fuel for the military) said that SOMO "isn't paying their bills very well." That was confirmed by Waller, who said SOMO owes the trucking companies who transport the fuel $60 million; his own firm is owed some $2.7 million from the Iraqis. Iraq recently installed a new government. And the Bush Administration continues to put a smiley face on the U.S. military's efforts in Iraq. But unless or until the U.S. can resolve the ongoing fuel supply issues in Iraq, don't expect much good news. Robert Bryce lives in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate. He can be reached at: robert@robertbryce.com
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |