The bulk of oppressive regimes (notable exception North Korea) fund their dictatorships on natural resources mainly oil and precious medals/gems.

In the past few months oil has dropped dramatically in price....many people have stated that this is due to increasing supplies, different/cheaper blends coming on-line, decreasing demand..etc.

However, the same type of decrease in oil price has been seen in the past, when the oil demand supply environment was completely different...but there was one key factor that was the same. The US publicly stated with conviction that we will be free of our dependence on foreign oil. Combine that with the discovery of an oil field just off the gulf coast rivaling the Alaskan oil field and you have a receipt for the oil funded dictators of the world to collude on the creation of an oil glut.

Watch in the next few months to a year...if we continue to push the agenda of energy independence the price of oil will drop like a rock. Not because it is cheaper to produce, but because the cartel of OPEC is scared they will loose their hold on the world.

Remember they only have two things in most of these Arab countries, Oil and Sand. I do not see a great demand for sand.

So how does this relate back to the methods we need to use fight terrorism. Well, if you pay attention to the 9/11 report the only area we have improved is the pursuit of terror funding.

That (terror funding) is the main tie between Saddam and terrorism in the Middle East and beyond. He funded it...before the first gulf war it was directly with oil monies, after (during the embargo's) it was with the UN's oil for food proceeds (Thanks Mr. Annan and son).

No one noticed the marked decrease in homicide bombers in the Middle East (outside of Iraq) after Saddams fall. You see, if you study the news out of the Middle East prior to 2002 you will find that Saddam had a publicly announced program to pay the families of homicide bombers attacking western or Israeli targets 50k to 100k.

That seems to indicate state sponsored terrorism to me. That is inline with the fight on terrorism, pursuing a state that harbors or sponsors terrorism.

So, it may not have been directly paying the organization, but then how much of the terrorist actions are direct....they do not attack the state they are in disagreement with they randomly kill it's citizens.

At best Saddam is a victim of his own rhetoric, at worst he is the image of Hitler who after attacking his neighbor was pushed back. Then after 10+ years was finally brought down for the systematic killing of his own people, the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the indirect funding of terrorist organizations bent on taking us back to the stone ages.

Posting on the indisputabletruth (now abandoned) blog from August 11, 2006 attacking Diana Irey for her families relationship to the Businessman Dale Stoffel. ( I do not endorse or recommend any other blog site mentioned here in)

Hey Zach.....do your home work.

You will find if you really research this that the entire group including Irey, CLI, Stoffel, and Wye Oak only go 10000...yes 10K not 10 million in total payments....they were refurbishing equipment...not selling it....they were working with the Iraqis to find a way they could come up with hard cash to pay for the services of getting the equipment refurbished....

I want to ask you a question....if your car is broken to you ask your garage to fix it for free ?
What if you had a whole fleet of cars that got hail damage and wanted them fixed...should that be done for nothing....

Read carefully and you will find that this Stoffel guy put out millions and never got paid....actually when he tried to get paid for work done...he got killed.

Believe me I do not like the Irey's....but this Stoffel guy was not trying to steal or do anything unethical....if you actually read the news storied that WERE researched you will find most AUTHORITIES on the subject of international arms and Iraq believe he was murdered for being to vocal about the Iraqi government ant it's attempt to get him to participate in kickback schemes.

-Monstercat75
A cat old enough to vote.

A house cleaning post....I am trying to get some of the commentary I have been placing on liberal, off beat, or democratic blogs over here for those of you that have been keeping up with my postings.

Now I do not necessarily endorse any of the blogs that I mention but as I will not simply cut and paste others text (I always thought that was called plagiarism). So, I will let you know who I am responding to and if you choose to read the original article I will try to include a link back.

in response to a Medianeedle posting on Sept 08, 2006.

First let me say I have as much distain for the Ireys as I do for Murtha. Both of which I believe are not well suited for anything above street sweepers as far as public service goes...but for much different reasons.

Murtha is as corrupt as any politician you could possibly name...can you say Abscam. Irey is manipulative and has a family who thinks they are bigger than they are. They have dabbled in international business and got people killed because they thought they had the political influence of gods. They have nothing special other than inflated ego's.

So, now that you know where I stand on these two candidates...you should not be continuing the inflated ego lies of the Irey clan that they had any part of that 300+ million dollar contract directly with the DoD or the Iraqi government.

The serious research into this shows that CLI (the progenitor of the Frank Irey Construction company) was responsible for NOTHING but building a few buildings...brick and mortar. THAT IS IT. They were not involved in the rebuilding of the Iraqi military they were involved in the rebuilding of buildings ONLY.

The other company listed in the articles WyeOak is the DoD side of things...the 300MM+ contract. Which the Ireys have NO CONNECTION to at all, no ownership interest, no board seats, no employment in.

The only connection was that if you READ CAREFULLY, you will find that WyeOak contracted with CLI to build buildings. In return CLI employed some WyeOak employees to better manage the project.

Further research would reveal to you that NO ONE GOT PAID....well there was 10K not 10Million, The Stoffel guy was killed in trying to get paid after WyeOak put out millions for the project.

You will further find that in widely reported press reports the Ireys have said they expect any money that may be recovered is expected to go to Stoffels Company...that would be a reference to WyeOak.

So, I do agree with you that Irey should not be going to Washington, But, I think Murtha should be sent home as well.

There are enough FACTS to support Irey not going to Washington, please to not use fabrications about War Profiteering as one of them. The Irey family got NOTHING from the war effort, if anything they may have made some money on helping to rebuild the country of Iraq off of BUILDINGS not BOMBS.

monstercat75
a cat old enough to vote.

Spending even more time on the blogs countering the under educated left who keeps quoting other conspiracy bloggers instead of doing their own research and posting their own intelligent conclusions. So here is another one from this week.


No one is disputing we need to get out of Iraq...INCLUDING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.

They are simply of the bent that if we give the opposition in Iraq a timetable they will know all they have to do is lay low for that amount of time before their next devastating uprising. This fact "that the Bush administration also beliefs we need to exit Iraq" which is well documented if anyone actually read the administration speeches and policy press releases, also FIRMLY disproves all those conspiracy theorists who say we are there to take over the Iraqi oil fields.

A timetable is an invitation for the opposition on the ground in Iraq to begin planning their future operations. When we leave there the opposition can not believe they can take over the country of Iraq by military means.

I believe if the media spend even a portion the mount of time on reporting what the administrations published approach to withdrawal from Iraq was that 60% number would be about 20%.

It has been a while. Sorry for being away but I have been busy posting responses on the blogs for the other side....that did not sound too good. That is a tone of conversation that I think we all need to get away from...the 'Us v/s Them' when it comes to domestic policy or opinion.

One of the ideals that make this nation so great is that we are able to have a free exchange of ideas without fear of physical harm or isolation. Not to say we may not have anyone listening to us, but we are free to speak...free to be wrong...as long as we are not endangering the life or safety of others.

Do any of us truly realize who lucky we are to live where we live, when we are alive? Look at the state of Mexico and its recent election. We had a similar situation in 2000...but we did not have violent protests....we did not have one political party refusing to acknowledge the government lead the other. And No this is not a republican/democrat thing....most people choose to forget that the reverse situation happened 40 years earlier...you see JFK lost the popular vote to Nixon in 1960, but yet won the electoral vote. Kennedy was then president for the next several years.

So, I do not want to hear about one party stole the election from another. We have a system that has worked for 230 years, managing to keep us the best place to live on earth.
I know it is kind of mushy. I think we all need to remember what makes us a nation this time of year.

I am going to start an effort to move labor day to the 11th of September and call it remembrance day.....just as we used to have one remembering those who fell on both sides of the battle at Gettysburg. We should remember those whose lives were taken from them for no other reason than being in America. Those who through their everyday toils of work were representing everyday American. The labor movement has done a lot for this country in helping us remember it is the citizens...the common worker...those who make us the greatest place on earth...and those people in the towers who lost their lives were nothing but that...and all of that..the common working man....The American common worker who is anything but common in history. For it is this person who has the power through thought and decision to VOTE and change the course of history, to SPEAK OUT and change the country around them today.

That one thought that seems to be getting lost on the American public today. Those ~3000 people who died 5 years ago died for no other reason than they were FREE. They represented all of the people of the United States to the terrorists.