Azerbaijan has currently lost all oil income except for what it can transport through Iran. It would take a very short pipeline to connect the two countries. (Azeri oil is being shipped across the Caspian sea to Iran now).

And the Azeris have seen an unnecesary war. That BP has just settled its conflict with Russia might also be a factor in Azeri independence from the Neocons. BP is the biggest player in Azerbaijan, (as well as the BTC pipeline).

Cheney used to be on the board of the US Azerbaijan chamber of Commerce

Georgia was a geopolitical tectonic shift at least from Turkey to Pakistan. The Neocons no doubt don't know it.

.

Gələn ildən etibarən Azərbaycan Rabitə və İnformasiya Texnologiyaları Nazirliyinin Intel və Microsoft şirkətləri ilə birgə həyata keçirdiyi etdiyi "Xalq kompüteri" layihəsinin icrasına başlanacaq. APA-ECONOMICS-inməlumatına görə, bu barədə rabitə və informasiya texnologiyaları naziri Əli Abbasov bildirib. Nazirin sözlərinə görə, 2008-ci ilin sonuna kimi Microsoft, Intel şirkətlərinin və Rabitə və İnformasiya Texnologiyaları Nazirliyinin birgə səyləri nəticəsində layihənin işlənib hazırlanması, o cümlədən dövlət tərəfindən güzəştli kreditlərin təqdim olunması üzrə işlər başa çatdırılacaq: "Həmin layihə bir çox üstünlüklərə malik olacaq ki, bu üstünlüklərin ən asası prosessor və proqram təminatlarının qiyməti ilə bağlıdır. Belə vəziyyətdə alıcıların kompüterə olan marağı artacaq. Bununla yanaşı prosesdə vacib rolu güzəştli şərtlərlə kredit ödəmə imkanları olacaq".

Ə.Abbasov həmçinin qeyd edib ki, layihənin icrası nəticəsində ilk üç il ərzində Azərbaycanın kompüter bazarının 3 dəfə genişlənməsi gözlənilir. Belə ki, əgər hazırda hər 100 nəfərə 6-7 kompüter düşürsə, yaxın 3 il ərzində hər 100 nəfərə 20 kompüter düşə bilər. Qeyd edək ki, yerli ekspertlərin rəylərinə əsasən, Azərbaycanın kompüter bazarının illik həcmi 100 min hazır sistem (stasionar və portativ kompüterlər və serverlər) təşkil edir.

Putin is in possession of "smoking gun" documents detailing the Israeli Mossad's foiled plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama.

___________

Treason-Gate Continues on ALL Fronts

by Tom Heneghan
International Intelligence Expert

Wednesday September 3, 2008

United States of America -- It can now be reported that Vice President, i.e. resident, Dick Cheney, has traveled to Georgia, the Ukraine and Azerbaijan to BRIBE and offer direct cash payments to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.

Putin is in possession of "smoking gun" documents detailing the Israeli Mossad's foiled plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama.

Obama recently received evidence detailing the full extent of the Bush-Clinton-Gary Best Inc.-Israeli Mossad "TRUE COLORS" assassination and black ops teams loose on American soil.

Note: The unelectable Obama recently received a massive cash BRIBE to go along with the election fix, which will result in a John McCain presidency.

Item: The bribery money derives from STOLEN Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocol funds.

Related:

Bush 41, Clinton 42, Bush 43 are Paid Out, then Renege

By Christopher Story

http://worldreports.org/news/165_bush_41_clinton_42_bush_43_are_paid_out_then_renege

Note: Republican presidential nominee John McCain is the noted Federal Reserve "Keating 5" bank dick who now uses his wife Cindy to hide STOLEN U.S. Treasury funds in offshore 1241 corporations.

Related:

AND IT GETS WORSE!

At this hour, at least 5 nuclear weapons are unaccounted for on American soil, and in all probability, are in the hands of the Bush-Clinton-Gary Best Inc.-Israeli Mossad "TRUE COLORS" operational teams.

There is still a strong chance that this gang of filth will trigger a FALSE FLAG terrorist attack(s) on American soil should there be a possibility that the election might actually become competitive.

Remember folks, it was homosexual in-the-closet Jon Meacham of Newsweek magazine, (202) 626-2000, along with British Intelligence, the Israeli Mossad and the U.S. NSA (National Security Agency), that scripted the Democratic primary of having two northern liberals, i.e. an unelectable African-American from Illinois, Barack Obama, run against an unelectable lesbian in-the-closet and polarizing loser Hillary Rodenhurst Clinton, from the ultra liberal state of New York, as to assure a Republican presidential victory.

Again, when it comes to Democratic presidential nominees over the last forty years, if you don't come from the South there is no chance you will ever go to the house, i.e. the White House.

P.S. In reference to last night's Republican national convention, the two major speakers were ratfink and Israeli Mossad asset Joseph Lieberman and homosexual in-the-closet and Bush-Clinton Crime Family puppet Fred Thompson.

Let us not forget that ratfink Lieberman, along with his Mossad fundraiser Mel Sembler, knew IN ADVANCE of the 2000 presidential election of the Baypoint School-Jeb Bush-Katherine Harris TREASONOUS criminal conspiracy to STEAL the 2000 election and keep over 30,000 legally registered Florida voters from exercising their Constitutional right to vote.

Item: Over 30,000 African-Americans were ILLEGALLY classified as convicted felons two weeks before the November 2000 election and therefore not allowed to cast their vote for then Vice President, now duly elected, non-inaugurated President Albert Gore Jr.

Related:

Florida's Disappeared Voters': Disfranchised by the GOP

By Gregory Palast

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010205/palast

h

Ratfink and KHAZARIAN Jew Joe Lieberman remains a Bush-Clinton Crime Family stooge and takes his orders directly from his Mossad handler, former Israeli Prime Minister, mega ZIONIST Benjamin Netanyahu.

Before we close this briefing let's not forget homosexual in-the-closet Fred Thompson conspired with former Clinton alleged Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, Washington Post Editor Bob Woodward and unelectable loser Hillary Rodenhurst Clinton to cover up the Bush-Clinton-Iran/Contra-AmeriChina Global Management Group Ltd criminal narcotic and arms trafficking laundry tied to Mena, Arkansas in the 1980s.

Closet homosexual Fred Thompson, along with Ken Starr and Bob Woodward, helped cover up the assassination of former Clinton White House Counsel turned FBI informant, Vince Foster.

Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate

Bagman and Fixer ZIONIST Marc Rich

Then Senator Fred Thompson kept secret and hid from his investigating committee the fact that then Vice President Albert Gore Jr. tried to have Bush-Clinton bagman and fixer, Marc Rich, arrested in 1993.

It was the Bush-Clinton-Gary Best Inc.-Israeli Mossad "TRUE COLORS" gang that stopped Vice President Gore's efforts to arrest Rich.

Note: It was then Vice President Albert Gore Jr., Ambassador Leo Wanta, former FBI Director William Sessions, General Vernon Walters, the late French President Francois Mitterrand, and the late White House Counsel turned FBI informant, Vince Foster, that all tried to have Marc Rich arrested.

Homosexual in-the-closet Thompson actually kept secret from the Congressional committee, of which he was Chairman, the signed arrest warrant by Vice President Gore and the European Red Notice against Marc Rich.

Reference: Again, it was daddy Bush's little bitch, SERIAL RAPIST and AIDS positive Bill Clinton, that pardoned Marc Rich; and it was Marc Rich's attorney, convicted felon Scooter Libby, who was then pardoned by occupunk Bushfraud.

Guess who was the head of Scooter Libby's defense fund, that is right folks, homosexual in-the-closet Fred Thompson together with ratfink and KHAZARIAN Jew Joe Lieberman's major fundraiser, ZIONIST Mel Sembler.

HOW DARE YOU, YOU CONSPIRATORIAL TYRANTS AND

KINGS AND NOTABLE QUEENS!

Final note: Neither Thompson, Lieberman or tonight's speaker at the Republican convention, Rudy Giuliani, ever won a primary. They are all three gigantic losers.

Again folks, we do not need any election farce as this 2008 election has become.

Getty Images

We have already had an election that has not been adjudicated.

Eight years later Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee, still remains the duly elected, non-inaugurated President of the United States of America.

. . .

"Al Qaeda is nothing more than an extension of the apparatus linked to U.S. intelligence that was allowed, by script, to remove itself as a rogue breakaway entity of the U.S. government; allowed to de-compartmentalize from oversight, and was run instead by Gary Best's rogue black ops specialists for scripted activity outside the U.S. government, with its funding being orchestrated through the Pakistani secret police—an entity of the U.S. government." Tom Heneghan, International Intelligence Expert

"The Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate and ALL of their co-conspirators face unprecedented, monumental prosecutions for massive HIGH TREASON against the American People;

thus, before the 2008 election, they are plotting 'False Flag Attacks' in the U.S. with expectations of nullifying and eradicating individual and States rights and freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution,

via martial law and subjugation of the American People,

in order to stay in control of the compromised U.S. Justice Department to continue sealing and hiding Federal Grand Jury (We the People) indictments from the American People and avoid convictions and public punishment with due prejudice." Tom Heneghan, International Intelligence Expert

http://bush-hitler.com/Graphics/Liberty.jpg

..http://www.ushistory.org/brandywine/images/sold06.gif

Lafayette remains at Brandywine and Albert Gore Jr. remains the REAL president of the United States.

Non-inaugurated, duly elected

President Albert Gore Jr.

AP by Charlie Neibergall

TOM HENEGHAN'S EXPLOSIVE INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS

International Intelligence Expert, Tom Heneghan, has hundreds of highly credible sources inside American and European Intelligence Agencies and INTERPOL -- reporting what is REALLY going on behind the scenes of the controlled mainstream media cover up propaganda of on-going massive deceptions and illusions.

GOD BLESS AND SAVE AMERICA,

LAND THAT WE LOVE

EVER VIGILANT 24/7

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

Homosexual gays and lesbians who are "IN-THE-CLOSET" are a MAJOR THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY being vulnerable to blackmail and extortion by self-serving, hostile entities against the safety, security, sovereignty and best interests of the American People.

Patriotic, God-loving, peaceful Jewish People are NOT the same as the war mongering ZIONIST KHAZARIAN Jews.

NOTICE: Occasionally the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate controlled NSA and FBI Division 5 and/or Israeli Mossad, invade this intelligence blog changing or removing images, pictures and phraseology and even disconnect the link from the internet for the purpose of trying to keep you, the American People, ill-informed.

Make special note of the pics and images they remove off these intelligence briefings and/or are scrubbing off the internet.

http://blog.myspace.com/tom_heneghan_intel

There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence now suggesting that the Beslan massacre was in fact a pseudo operation conducted by private mercenary forces whose leaders most likely expected to survive. Some of the "Muslim" fighters initially resisted the Leaders orders to capture and hold innocent children and were killed by the leadership. Three of the attackers found dead were British Algerians, Algerian terror now being described as a classic pseudo-operation, counter gang, employed for counter insurgency purposes against the legitimate indigenous Islamic democratic movement.

Moreover personnel and transnational oil cartel companies active in Algeria also operate in Azerbaijan and Georgia, both staging grounds and support bases for the Chechnya terror operations.

Julaybib provides massive, albeit , circumstantial at times, evidence, that suggests that Beslan was a pseudo-operation and that another Beslan is imminent as a response to the humiliation of the terror base in Tblisi, aided and abetted by NGIOs operating in the region, with overlapping personnel to the cartel influence operations, including International Crisis Group.

DATA ALMANAC –THE ALGERIAN –CASPIAN CONNECTION AND THE NEXT BESLAN

 beslan, algeria, azerbaijan, algerian-caspian, connection, business council, georgia, russia, chechnya, islamic terrorism, pseudo-operations, false flag, military intelligence, bp, shell, statoil, consortia, cartel, mercenaries, dsl, brown, root, eu georgia business council, us azerbaijan chamber of commerce,

FULL EXCERPT-. PSEUDO-OPERATIONS IN COUNTER-INSURGENCY-The use of paramilitary forces, sometimes unknown to the participating group, as an instrument of counter-insurgency, that is to defeat a political opposition, rebel force, insurgency. The method creates a militant violent parallel insurgency to defeat the popular appeal of a genuine populist opposition to a government

FOR ENTIRE DOCUMENT, DOWNLOAD, RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS:

PDF DATA ALMANAC –THE NEXT BESLAN

THE ALGERIAN –CASPIAN CONNECTION AND THE NEXT BESLAN

For more on Private Intelligence Operations of transnational corporations in Darfur, the Caspian, and Iraq please see:

DATA ALMANAC . EUROPEAN OIL. CARTEL OPERATIONS. IN AREAS OF CURRENT. MILITARY OPERATIONS-LOW. INTENSITY

Pdf DATA ALMANAC European Oil Cartel

Pdf DATA ALMANAC: Caspian Councils:

Pdf DATA ALMANAC : Caspian Councils:

www.julaybib.com  

http://www.julaybib.com/correlation-studies/2008/9/4/data-almanac-the-algerian-caspian-connection-and-the-next-be.html

 beslan, algeria, azerbaijan, algerian-caspian, connection, business council, georgia, russia, chechnya, islamic terrorism, pseudo-operations, false flag, military intelligence, bp, shell, statoil, consortia, cartel, mercenaries, dsl, brown, root, eu georgia business council, us azerbaijan chamber of commerce,

Also lea esta importante noticia y otras muchas más en:

In remarks made after meeting the president of Azerbaijan, Cheney said the U.S. had an abiding interest in the region's stability.

During the trip, which also takes in Ukraine and Georgia, the conflict between Georgia and Russia, and Moscow's subsequent recognition of two breakaway Georgian provinces as independent will be high on the agenda.

Cheney said Wednesday: "One of the basic foundations of security and peace is respect for national borders -- a principle that is endangered today.

"Although we decided on this visit months ago, we met this evening in the shadow of the recent Russian invasion of Georgia -- an act that has been clearly condemned by the international community.

"President Bush has sent me here with a clear and simple message to the people of Azerbaijan and the entire region: The United States has deep and abiding interests in your well being and security."

Cheney's trip began as U.S. government sources confirmed the Bush administration plans for a $1 billion aid package for Georgia.

Azerbaijan, which borders Georgia and Iran and sits along the Caspian Sea, is an oil and gas-rich nation and a key U.S. ally in the region.

Read the rest:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/03/cheney.
azerbaijan.tour/index.html?section=cnn_latest

A group of high level intelligence operatives whose memebers serve both on Caspain and/or Turkish politial  influence organizations abroad, as well as co-direct the International Crisis Group, show increased political activity in response to their humiliation in the Russia Georgia conflict.

We predicted a response in Azerbaijan by proxy mercenaries (some elements were of course present in the Georgian conflict as reported by Russa)., following geo-economics reporting on our original post:

Nagorno: Is it next for pressure from the Cartel

Expect a highly intense crack down on all Muslims in the US, EU, and EURASIA, in response to a new "Islamic" Terrorist attack of major proprtions directed against Russia or Armenia, as Julaybib reports:

ARMITAGE – BRZEZINSKI INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP ; POST GEORGIA ,LOOMING TERRORIST ATTACK ON ARMENIA OR RUSSIA IMMINENT

Brezinski , Zbig was of course the first national security advisor to fund Islamic Terrorism against Russian and Soviet civilians inside the former Soviet borders, and of course inside their allied socialist state of pre-Taliban (NATO) Afghanistan>

http://www.julaybib.com/anomaly-briefs/2008/9/3/armitage-brzezinski-international-crisis-group-post-georgia.html

When Alan Greespan said the Iraq war was "all about oil", he spilled the beans on the one global obsession of our Vice President and former Oil Services CEO--U.S. control of global oil supplies. Well, Tricky Dick is back at it again in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, like Georgia, is a former Soviet republic that has sought closer ties to the West and the United States, and it is considered a vital crossroads for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea.

Underscoring the point, Mr. Cheney’s first meetings here in Baku were with representatives of two international oil companies: William Schrader of BP Azerbaijan and Robert Satmalchi of Chevron, according to a spokeswoman, Megan M. Mitchell. She said they discussed “their assessments of the energy situation in Azerbaijan and the broader Caspian region — especially in light of Russia’s recent military actions in Georgia.”

The U.S. is about to pour $1 billion into Georgia, some of it probably sophisticated military aid. Did Congress actually approve this appropriation, or is there some Dick Cheney slush fund they can take it from?

It is evident that the US intervention in Iraq has shifted the balance of power in the region; not towards the US and her allies however, but towards arch enemy Iran. Liberated from a belligerent and anticlerical dictator with a lifetime record of suppressing especially Shia Muslims as a nextdoor neighbour, Iran is gearing up to become the major player in the region. A look at the spread of Shia Muslims across the Middle East shows a new balance of power in the making, with Sunni Muslim world leader Saudi Arabia as a counterpart to an alliance of Shias in the north. There is even potential for a Shia superstate from Southern Iraq through Iran and Azerbaijan back to Syria and Lebanon.

All of this was crystal clear from the beginning - none of this should come as a surprise. But noone was listening - the New American Century was crying havoc about Saddam as early as 1998: Does the United States really have to bear this burden? Yes. Unless we act, Saddam Hussein will prevail, the Middle East will be destabilized, other aggressors around the world will follow his example, and American soldiers will have to pay a far heavier price when the international peace sustained by American leadership begins to collapse.

"Unless we act [...] the Middle East will be destabilized" - the same thing could be said of the present situation, if it weren't for the fact that because the US acted, the Middle East is now less stable than ever before. And yet they want to "act" again? Suppose they ultimately succeed in removing Ahmadinejad and the clerics from power - which country is next in line for regional superpower status? Pakistan? Saudi Arabia? Syria? And do we really want that or is that going to lead up to yet another intervention?

"...[A]nd American soldiers will have to pay a far heavier price..." Indeed. Until someone stops this hopeless cycle of utterly predictable mayhem.

Lavrov, left, said Russia did not discriminate against Turkey in trade relations [AFP]

Russia has praised the European Union for taking a "responsible approach" to its conflict with Georgia by declining to impose sanctions on Moscow.

But Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said the EU had failed to understand Moscow's reasons for moving into Georgia and recognising the separitist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"In my view, the outcome is double-edged," Medvedev said at his summer residence on the Black Sea.

"This is sad, but not fatal because things change in this world. Another situation, in my opinion, is more positive.

"Despite certain divisions among the EU states on the issue, a reasonable, realistic point of view prevailed because some of the states were calling for some mythical sanctions."

He later said that he does not consider Mikhail Saakashvili to be Georgia's president, in an interview with a Russian television channel.

"For us, the present Georgian regime has collapsed. President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse," Medvedev said.

EU leaders met in Brussels on Monday to discuss Russia and Georgia and threatened to postpone talks with Moscow on a new partnership pact if it did not withdraw its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia by mid-September.

The leaders were unable to reach a consensus on the sanctions that some members, including Britain and the Baltic states, had been pushing for, highlighting the bloc's divisions over how best to deal with its largest energy supplier.

Cheney visit

Ahead of a visit by Dick Cheney, the US vice president, to US allies in the region, a Kremlin aide said he expected Washington would also opt against imposing sanctions.

Cheney, due to leave on Tuesday for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, has been an outspoken critic of Russia, saying last month its push into Georgia could "not go unanswered".

Sergei Prikhodko, chief foreign policy advisor to Medvedev, told reporters:"We hope that a positive agenda in relations with the United States will prevail."

Cheney has been an outspoken critic of Russia since the war broke out [EPA]

The statements contained none of the strident remarks made by Kremlin officials in the run-up to the EU summit.

It also appeared designed to signal Moscow's readiness to take a conciliatory stance with western countries if they also avoid confrontation.

Russia sent its forces against its southern neighbour in a brief war last month after Georgia tried to recapture by force its pro-Moscow, separatist region of South Ossetia.

It has drawn Western condemnation by pushing beyond the disputed area, bombing and deploying troops deep inside Georgia proper and recognising the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia said it was forced to intervene to prevent what it has called a genocide of the separatist regions by Tbilisi, and says it is honouring a French-brokered ceasefire deal.

The former Soviet republic of Georgia is strategically important to the West because it hosts oil and gas pipelines that bypass Russia.

]]> http://tech19.wordpress.com/?p=159 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:03:52 +0000 uniqueopini http://tech19.wordpress.com/?p=159 1. Karena anak saya ingin diceritakan tentang dinosaurus, dan saya mulai kehabisan cerita, maka saya mulai "mendongeng" dengan mengatakan bahwa minyak bumi itu berasal dari dinosaurus yang mati berjuta tahun yang lalu. Baru tahu kemarin bahwa hal tersebut keliru. Minyak bumi ternyata berasal dari zooplankton dan lumut. Karena jumlahnya sangat besar, zooplankton jika tidak dikonsumsi atau diurai oleh bakteri, akan menambah permukaan laut bumi meninggi setinggi 1 meter setiap 130 hari ! Jadi isu pemanasan global, yang hanya menambah max 60 cm s/d abad ini nggak ada pa pa nya:)

2. Orang Arab di Baghdad telah menggunakan minyak sebagai sumber energi sejak abad ke-8, mereka menggunakan semacam oli hitam atau tar yang diproses dari minyak mentah sebagai bahan bakar untuk lampu dan memasak. Sedangkan orang Amerika di tahun 1800-an, mereka menemukan minyak mentah dan yang dilakukan mereka adalah memasukkannya ke dalam botol-botol kecil, memberi label dan tutup, untuk dijual sebagai.....health tonic :) (minuman kesehatan), dan sudah laku ratusan ribu botol...

3. Kalau membeli bensin, sebaiknya anda lakukan di malam hari (semakin dingin semakin baik). Mengapa ? Karena bensin akan lebih berat kalau dalam keadaan dingin, anda sebenarnya memperoleh lebih banyak energi dibandingkan membelinya di siang hari.

4. Di sebuah desa di Azerbaijan, kompor untuk memasak adalah  dengan cara menggali lubang di tanah dengan tangan, dan melempar korek api ke dalamnya.

5. Lainnya di sini

The deal was prompted by the suspension of Azeri oil deliveries to world markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and by rail following the explosion of a railway bridge in Georgia earlier this month.

Azerbaijan oil supplies through Georgia were also cut due to a military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi prompted by a Georgian attack on the independence-seeking South Ossetia.

The military conflict between Russia and Georgia led to the closure of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline which normally transports 90,000 barrels of crude daily from the Azeri capital to the Georgian port in the Black Sea.

FULL TEXT:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Azerbaijan started to export its oil to the world's markets through Iran last week, adding that the country is delivering 5,000 to 10,000 bpd of crude oil to Iran's Caspian port of Neka, an Iranian oil ministry official said.

This is the result of the efforts made by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in the international arena, Managing director of Iranian Oil Terminals Company Mousa Souri told PIN.

He further stated that Azerbaijan delivered the first cargo to the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company (OTC) last week.

The deal was prompted by the suspension of Azeri oil deliveries to world markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and by rail following the explosion of a railway bridge in Georgia earlier this month.

Azerbaijan oil supplies through Georgia were also cut due to a military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi prompted by a Georgian attack on the independence-seeking South Ossetia.

The military conflict between Russia and Georgia led to the closure of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline which normally transports 90,000 barrels of crude daily from the Azeri capital to the Georgian port in the Black Sea.

According to news reports, Azeri oil is delivered from Sangachal Terminal in the south of Baku to the Iranian port of Neka in the Caspian Sea. An equivalent amount of crude oil is reportedly then provided by Iran at Khark Island in the Persian Gulf.

Souri further stated that at present central Asian countries crude oils are being swapped for Iranian oil in its terminals on the Persian Gulf. Oil swap deals with Iran have climbed 50,000 bpd to about 100,000 bpd and it is expected to rise 200,000 bpd within next few years.

He explained that setting up oil terminals in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea are a strategic plan of Iran's oil industry to increase security and continue oil exportation of the country.

"Jask oil terminal is among the projects at a cost of 3.5bln US dollars that has made a 10 percent progress so far," he said.

"It is expected to be operational by next three to five years."

Azerbaijan recognizes that Iran enjoys strategic benefits which make the new arrangements advantageous. Most important of these are the location of Iran with its ability to access free waters via the Persian Gulf, and the existence of oil terminal facilities in the ports of Neka, Amirabad and Anzeli.

The United States is worried that after the Georgian conflict, US strategic interests in Ukraine and Azerbaijan — especially in oil — could be at serious risk.

The clearest sign of US concern: Vice President Dick Cheney next week will travel to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The White House, on announcing the trip Monday, said President George W. Bush had given Cheney the job of discussing the United States' common interests with these key partners.

The White House did not specifically identify these interests, but analysts say there is a common thread in these former Soviet republics: the strategic Black Sea region, where major powers have played out power struggles ever since oil was found around the Caspian Sea in the early 20th century.

Even that far back, Azerbaijan, which does not have direct access to the Black Sea, shipped its oil to the Georgian port of Batumi to gain access to Europen markets, said Edward Chow, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

It is no fluke that during the Georgian conflict, US officials firmly spoke out against Russia's brief control of port facities at Poti, now a key site in Caspian Sea oil and gas shipping.

Meanwhile, an attack in Turkey in early August claimed by the Kurdish rebel PKK underscored the vulnerability of the BTC oil pipeline (Bakou-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) linking Azerbaijan and Turkey. It follows the Russian border. "The transit route through Georgia previously thought to be relatively secure and reliable is now seen as vulnerable and threatened by regional hostilities," Chow stressed.

US oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have major stakes in Caspian sea oilfields, he noted.

With its broad opening on the Black Sea, Ukraine also is a key strategic US ally in the region. The United States is keen to diversify its suppliers of oil to reduce dependence on the Middle East, and to limit Moscow's influence. Washington is strongly in favor of expanding NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia. But for Stephen Larrabee, of the Rand Corporation: "Georgia is a sideshow. What the Russians are really concerned about is Ukraine.

"Georgia's entry into NATO wouldn't have major strategic consequences for Russia. Ukraine, on the other hand, is a very different matter," Larrabee added.

If Ukraine joins NATO Russia would not only be forced to remove its ships based in Crimea; it also would see dashed its hopes of founding a Slavic union with Ukraine and Belarus, he said. What's more, Russian and Ukrainian defense industries are closely linked. For Dmitri Trenin, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "it is Ukraine... that moves into the center stage of the new geopolitical rivalry.

"No Russian leader could have failed to respond to a direct attack on Tskhinvali," he added in an opinion piece in Newsweek. "But, more ominously, no Russian leader can remain in power if he 'loses' Ukraine to the United States as a member of NATO," Trenin stressed.  Crimea, a peninsula attached to Ukraine in 1954 under Nikita Kruschev, is two-thirds Russian speaking.

afp.google.com

--------------------------------

Tension on the rise in Black Sea, Turkey stuck in the middle

The tension in the Black Sea has increased steadily, placing Turkey in a very difficult position. The first challenge Turkey faced was the passage of U.S. warships through its straits carrying humanitarian aid to Georgia, a move slammed by Russia.

Ankara refused to open its straits to two hospital ships of the U.S. Navy but agreed to the passage of smaller cruisers, in line with the 1936 Montreux Convention.

The two hospital ships tonnage exceeded the limits set by the Montreux Convention, which governs international traffic through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. Under the convention, the total weight of the warships that countries not bordering the Black Sea can deploy was limited to 45,000 tons.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas delivered supplies to the Georgian port of Batumi yesterday, three days after the guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul docked in the port.

By choosing Batumi, the U.S. opted for a less confrontational move than docking at Poti, another Georgian port where Russian troops are dug in. The U.S. may have also suspected that the Russians had mined the harbor at Poti.

Meanwhile warships belonging to NATO members Spain, Poland and Germany passed through the straits to head to Romania's Constanta.

NATO warships attended the Black Sea for long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria.

Russia responded harshly to the increased military presence of NATO in the Black Sea. General Anatoli Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, accused NATO of “ratcheting up tension” in the Black Sea. Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said: “It’s not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships.”

Nogovitsyn also warned U.S. ships could only stay in the Black Sea for 21 days according to the Montreux Convention, and warned if they do not leave by then Turkey would be responsible.

The U.S. ships are carrying nuclear missiles that can hit Russian targets as far away as St. Petersburg, Russia also said. Moscow has dispatched its own ships to track the U.S. vessels.

Russia sent its flagship of the Black Sea deployed at the Crimea peninsula to Sukhumi.

Tension in the region remains high, leaving Turkey stuck in the middle, being the sole NATO member that borders the Caucasus on one hand, while Russia is one of its major trading partners, especially in energy, on the other.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/home/9774236.asp?gid=244&sz=80038

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Georgian port is focal point of standoff with Russia

POTI, Georgia — Weeks before Russia invaded Georgia earlier this month, excavators in this key Black Sea port began to lay the ground for a $200 million tax-free zone to triple the port's capacity and create, Georgian officials said, the Dubai of the Caucasus.

Some of that soft green earth now is occupied by Russian tanks and soldiers camped behind huge, freshly dug trenches, within firing range of ships approaching the port. A second Russian checkpoint is about a mile away, along a river that's sometimes used to ferry goods into eastern Georgia.

The Russian presence is a stark illustration of how this 150-year-old port, which handles millions of tons of cargo moving between Europe and Central Asia, is now a key pressure point in the standoff between Russia and the West.

The port is functioning normally again, despite numerous news reports to the contrary and the claim by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili — most recently in Thursday's Financial Times — that Russia continues "to occupy" Poti.

The Persian Gulf-funded expansion project is now on hold, however, and major questions remain about the Kremlin's intentions here. On Wednesday the United States shelved plans to unload 38 tons of humanitarian cargo at Poti, not because the port was closed but to avoid a potential confrontation with Moscow. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas delivered its cargo instead to Batumi, 50 miles to the south.

Poti is a key element in a network of seaports, railroads, highways and energy pipelines to Azerbaijan and Armenia that makes Georgia a major transit link between East and West. The U.S. Commerce Department has described the sleepy, working-class town of 50,000 people as the most important port in the mountainous Caucasus region, which stretches east and west along Russia's southern border.

The expansion of the port has enhanced Georgia's strategic importance, and some U.S. analysts think that Russia wants to dominate its former Soviet neighbor to seize control of those transportation assets or to stifle Western commerce in the region.

"It's a huge deal,'' said Ariel Cohen of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center in Washington. "What Russia is trying to do is to plug the east-west transportation corridor that includes railroads and pipelines.

"By controlling Poti, they're controlling the strategic bottleneck of the southern Caucasus."

After overwhelming Georgia's military in a brief war that drew condemnation from Western nations, Russia scaled back its military presence under a French-brokered cease-fire pact. But its troops remain scattered in Poti and dozens of other locations throughout the country, prompting U.S. and European officials to accuse the Kremlin of failing to abide fully by the cease-fire.

While Russian forces haven't stopped cargo from entering or leaving Poti, port officials are worried about what could happen if the forces were provoked or after world attention on Georgia fades.

"Poti is the biggest supplier to Georgia and the region, and they (the Russians) are at the entrance of the city," said Eduard Machavariani, the port's director of commerce. "Anytime you don't know your enemy's intentions, you have to be a little scared."

Russian forces bombed the port at the start of the conflict on Aug. 8, killing five Georgian workers, damaging the container dock and knocking the port offline for nearly three days. On Aug. 19, Russian troops seized the port for several hours and captured 22 Georgian soldiers who were standing guard there. The soldiers later were released.

The bombing of a bridge near Kaspi severed east-west rail traffic until an alternate rail line opened in recent days. The rail breakdown and military blockades on the roads forced cargo to stack up in the port, and officials say that some cargo ships diverted to ports in Turkey and elsewhere.

Amy Denman, the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, said that the transport delays, along with minor interruptions at Batumi, had put companies in danger of breaching agreements on shipping contracts. Poti is Georgia's transit center for dry goods; Batumi is a transshipment point for oil from the Caspian Sea.

"Goods are moving," Denman said, "but there is still a backup."

"For a week the port was closed and therefore our vessels were not able to call the port, said Michael Storgaard, a spokesman for the Denmark-based Maersk Line, one of the world's biggest container fleets. "After the port resumed operations, there have naturally been some backlog issues. We are confident that these soon will be cleared.

More than 7 million tons of cargo passed through Poti last year, a 16 percent increase over 2006, and trade increased another 10 percent in the past year.

In April, the Georgia government sold a 51 percent stake in the port to a United Arab Emirates investment fund to develop a free economic zone. The RAK Investment Authority plans to spend $200 million to build a new port, spawning additional development that's expected to generate up to 20,000 jobs over the next five years, according to news reports.

Analysts say that transit tie-ups could cause merchants and manufacturers to think twice about shipping into Georgia, raising the prospect of future shortages in the country.

"What is it going to be in two weeks, three months?" said Rick Lussen, the director of Tbilisi's American Academy, which serves Georgian and American students. "It's a question of how interested people are in wanting to do trade with Georgia."

An executive with a major shipping company that uses the Poti port, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of company policy, said the port had operated without serious problems despite the Russian attacks. When he drove there several days ago, he said, he saw a group of soldiers clustered around four or five armored vehicles at a checkpoint.

The soldiers, he said, "just sit there" and "don't interfere with traffic."

They've had a couple of run-ins with residents, however. One night last week, a Poti man, reportedly drunk, wandered near the checkpoint and was assaulted by Russian soldiers. Another night, a group of Russians, themselves drunk, raided a nearby meat-processing plant and ran off with sausages and other products, residents said.

The behavior worries port officials.

"It's very hot, and those soldiers drink a lot of vodka," Machavariani said. "You don't know what can happen."

(Montgomery reported from Washington.)

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Vlak v Gruziji je bil povsem drugačna izkušnja. Z Boštjanom sva se odpravljala v nevarne kraje. Vsaj v vodičih so tako svarili. Zugdidi je bil že pred sedajšnjim konfliktom znan po trumah beguncev iz Abhazije, a bil je tudi odskočna deska za potovanje v Svaneti. Ubogala sva pobožno ženico, ki je tik pred odhodom vlaka prodajala svete podobice in za Lari kupila Jezusa. Kljub Jezusu in tresljajom pa spanec ni in ni hotel priti...

President Bush has asked Cheney to travel to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy next week for discussions with these key U.S. partners on issues of mutual interest, according to a White House news release.

Per "discutere argomenti di mutuo interesse". E quali sono gli argomenti di mutuo interesse fra l'Italia, gli USA e le altre tre nazioni nella lista, se non qualcosa che ha a che fare con i contratti ENI per la estrazione e distribuzione di gas e petrolio?

Insomma il Vice-Presidente Cheney, gia' alla testa di una Task Force sull'Energia nel 2001, sembra voler dire chiaramente che dal punto di vista dell'Amministrazione Bush, tutta la confusione intorno alla difesa della democrazia georgiana contro i bulli di Mosca, e' quasi unicamente una faccenda di gas e petrolio...