Monday, April 07, 2008

SPB News for Monday.


Iran to OPEC: Stop Oil Sales in Dollars Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is urging OPEC members to form a joint bank and stop pricing oil trades in U.S. dollars. According to the Iranian government's Web site, Ahmadinejad told OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri the cartel "should establish a joint bank as well as having joint currency."


Israel's Tehran connection --Israel, while supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, is happily buying Iranian oil By Richard Silverstein If you've ever wondered about the definition of hypocrisy you'll find the answer right here. Last month the Swiss foreign minister visited Iran and, together with President Ahmadinejad, attended the signing of a multi-billion euro contract for Iran to supply Switzerland with large amounts of natural gas over the next 25 years. The US State Department immediately condemned the deal and said it would be investigating whether it breached the Iran Sanctions Act. Israel complained too, describing the Swiss minister's visit to Tehran as an "act unfriendly to Israel". Various Jewish groups also joined in the protests, including the World Jewish Congress. This righteous indignation was entirely predictable but more than a little odd nevertheless. On March 30, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag retaliated with the revelation that Israel, supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, has been buying Iranian oil for years.


The Iraq war, for $100 month By Bill Adair Sen. Barack Obama says the war costs each household about $100 per month. We do the math and find he's right.

Use of Mind-altering Drugs On Captives, Maiming Weighed In '03 Memo --In the sober language of footnotes, case citations and judicial rulings, the memo explores a wide range of unsavory topics, including the use of mind-altering drugs on captives. Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo asked: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out? Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting? These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities... But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said, because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief.

Israel, U.S. plan to release details on '07 Syria attack Israel and the United States are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If OPEC does not want to take the US dollar we will be in trouble big time. Iran has a lot of oil and a lot of friends and they won't let this rest until another currency is the main one.

$100 dollars a household, that should have people thinking what they could do with an extra 12K a year with the price of everything going up but their salaries, that is if they aren't a government employee whom gets cost of living each year.