Oil as a terror weapon

According to this:

Pentagon preps for possibility Saddam will use oil wells as doomsday weapon...sources indicate Saddam had already begun mining his wells with explosives in ways that would make it most difficult to extinguish fires and cap the wells.

"The Tigris and Euphrates hold a large part of the fresh water for the Middle East," Skinner told the Telegraph. "If he drains oil into them, we can't use that water for firefighting. If there are ground fires, we may not be able to get to the wells."

In 1991, Saddam poured into the Persian Gulf at least 10 million gallons of crude — over 20 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled in Alaska — to preclude a marine assault by igniting a curtain of fire. The cost of cleaning it up was $700 million.

It's unfortunate some people aren't wackily crazy or devious enough to think something like this might happen. (Or, maybe they think it could happen, they're just complaining about the usual things they complain about.)

Iraq · Thu, 01/30/2003 - 00:16 · · Importance: 1