Saudi Arabia doesn't even make it to that list
and yet we know that Saudi Arabia, too,
UNKNOWINGLY hosted nuclear weapons.
In June 1950, the National Security Council issued a report (NSC 26/3) titled Demolition and Abandonment of Oil Facilities and Fields in the Middle East. The report addressed the possibility of plugging Saudi oil wells ". . .as a means of conservation and denial during enemy occupation." Nuclear weapons were looked at as a possible tool to deny the Soviets access to the oil fields. The report found, "Denial of wells by radiological means can be accomplished to prevent an enemy from utilizing the oil, but it could not prevent him from forcing ‘expendable' Arabs to enter the contaminated areas to open well heads and deplete the reservoirs. Therefore, aside from other ill effects on the Arab population, it is not considered that radiological means are practicable as a conservation measure."2
<snip>
The NPR does state that the strategic nuclear force can serve as a powerful deterrent to preserve the status quo and prevent the outbreak of interstate conflict. However, Bush administration strategy documents further assert that the U.S. nuclear arsenal can help change the behavior of states through dissuasion, which seeks to convince states of the futility of entering into a direct competition with the United States.
<snip>
The issues of actor rationality and the function of interstate communications have always troubled analysts in thinking through the implications of assigning roles to nuclear weapons in deterrent and coercive strategies. Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara cogently expressed these doubts during his University of Michigan commencement address in June 1962, when he stated:
The mere fact that no nation could rationally take steps leading to a nuclear war does not guarantee that a nuclear war cannot take place. Not only do nations sometimes act in ways that are hard to explain on a rational basis, but even when acting in a ‘rational' way they sometimes, indeed disturbingly often, will act on the basis of misunderstandings of the true facts of a situation. They misjudge the way others will react, and the way others will interpret what they are doing.28
McNamara's misgivings about the supposed rationality of actors involved in deterrent relationships are reflected in much of the literature on deterrence theory.29
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/journal_vol11/0409_russell.aspWe won't go into the rationality-of-actors issue
other than to quote Ray McGovern in this interview with Democray NOW.
RAY MCGOVERN: Well, you know it’s really interesting. When we saw these people coming back in town, all of us said who were around in those days said, oh my god, ‘the crazies’ are back – ‘the crazies’ – that’s how we referred to these people.
AMY GOODMAN: Did George Bush refer to them that way?
RAY MCGOVERN: That’s the way everyone referred to them.
AMY GOODMAN: Including George Bush?
RAY MCGOVERN: Well, when Wolfowitz prepared that defense posture statement in 1991, where he elucidated the strategic vision that has now been implemented, Jim Baker, Secretary of State, Brent Scowcroft, security advisor to George Bush, and George Bush said hey, that thing goes right into the circular file. Suppress that thing, get rid of it. Somebody had the presence of mind to leak it and so that was suppressed. But now to see that arise out of the ashes and be implemented. while we start a war against Iraq, I wonder what Bush the first is really thinking. Because these were the same guys that all of us referred to as ‘the crazies’.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/17/1543215One of the possible methods being currently used by the US to achieve its energy goals, may involve the oil-eating bacteria developed by Ananad Chakrabharty.
We know that Kuwait was slant drilling into Iraq and we also know that when it comes to oil deposits in the Arabian Peninsula, "we are all sipping from the same cup."
We also know for a fact that the US introduced this bacteria into the waters of the Persian Gulf to clean up the Guinness-Book-of-World-Records-size oil spill it caused when it bombed the heck out of anything that looked like it might ever come with 200 miles of Saddam Hussein.
We also know that the Saudis were absolutely FURIOUS because they, and others, in that region routinely pump seawater into oil wells so as to avoid creating a vacuum and then having to increase pressure to combat the underground vacuum created by the removal of the oil.
Saudi Arabia was once famous for its Arab Light Crude Oil.
Nowadays it seems to produce mostly heavy sour crude oil.
http://www.oiltracers.com/oilbiodegradation.html17-11-04 In a year that has seen oil prices reach record highs, it may seem odd that producers have been offering discounts to get rid of the stuff. But that has been happening with crude oil known as "heavy sour," which is different from the "light sweet crude" whose per-barrel price is most often quoted as the price of oil.
In fact, more than three-fourths of US refinery capacity can process heavy sour, which typically sells for a few dollars less than light sweet crude because it is not as easily refined. And this year, as Persian Gulf producers have flooded the market with additional supplies of the heavier sour crude, the sweet and sour price gap has grown even wider, reaching $ 17 to $ 18 the last week of October.
That's good news for US refiners, which are considered to be in a better position than those in other countries to take advantage of the discounts. Indeed, earnings announcements by US refiners are singling out the cheaper sour crude as a major reason for their growing profits.
"This has resulted in excellent refining margins," said Curtis Hyatt, an associate director for the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy consulting firm. But it's unclear how much, if any, of the savings from the cheaper crude oil have benefited US consumers.
"I haven't seen anything that the savings have been passed through to consumers," said Tyson Slocum, research director for the energy program at Public Citizen, a public interest group in Washington.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntn44964.htm The nuclear option for Saudi Arabian oil was rejected because
it would have denied the oil to the Soviets
BUT
the US ALSO would NOT have been able to use it.
Well, it rather appears as if THAT problem has been surmounted.
April 22, 1999
A new technology that uses special bacterial biocatalysts has been shown to remove up to half of the impurities like sulfur, nitrogen and metals from crude oil either before or after it is removed from the ground.. When injected directly into oil wells, the biocatalysts contribute to the breakdown of the crude for easier extraction - a form of microbially enhanced oil recovery that could soon get its first test in China, in one of the world's largest oil fields.
<snip>
Conventional technology for extracting petroleum typically leaves behind more than 60 percent of the original oil. Also, today's technology is not cost-effective for the lowest-grade crudes. So,
Brookhaven scientists have worked for several years to develop bacterial biocatalysts that can withstand the extreme temperature, pressure and harsh conditions of oil wells while chemically and physically altering crude oil.The biocatalysts are based on bacterial strains that have been isolated and patented by Brookhaven. The strains - called extremophiles because of their ability to thrive in extreme conditions - are capable of converting heavy hydrocarbons to cleaner feedstocks.
Lab-scale tests have shown they reduce organic sulfur and nitrogen concentrations by up to 40 percent, and metals by up to 50 percent.
Through carefully controlled conditions, the biocatalysts can be adapted to the exact characteristics of different forms of crude oil, whether from California, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia or Canada. The patented process involves gradual adaptive changes in experimental conditions, rather than genetic manipulation of the original bacterial strains.
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1999/bnlpr042299.html
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