[vox_mundi]

All they need to take out is Abqaiq. It would be the end of Saudi Arabia. I'm surprised the Houthis didn't target their Scud missile there. It would have been war over.

Outside of range. That, Patriot batteries and AWAC surveillance.

Distance between Sanaa and Abqaiq is 1307 kilometers (812 miles)

Range
- Scud-A - (SS-1b) - 180 km
- Scud-B - (SS-1c) - 300 km
- Scud-C - (SS-1d) - 550 km
- Scud-D - (SS-1e) - 700 km

Yemeni army units allied to the Houthi militia fired a ballistic missile toward southern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday but the Saudi military said it intercepted it and retaliated with air strikes on Yemeni territory.

The long-range tactical ballistic missiles were fired from Al-Nahdayn into Jizan province, the Houthi-controlled Defense Ministry and pro-Houthi al-Masirah Television said.

Residents in Yemen's capital Sanaa reported hearing a big roar as the Scud was launched from near the city, followed by Saudi-led air strikes on a presidential palace and a military depot for rockets.

An independent expert told VICE News the South Korean report about the North Korean origins of the missiles is likely accurate. "Back in 2002, Yemen purchased around 20 Scuds from the North Koreans," Joseph Bermudez, an arms expert with All Source Analysis, said. "So it's likely the Scuds being used in the conflict did come from North Korea originally."

Few of the 20 Scuds fired by Houthis over the past two months have actually landed in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis claim to have intercepted around 40 percent of the missiles fired across their border, though the number is impossible to verify.

On 6 June 2015, Houthi rebels fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia, the King Khalid Air Base being the suspected target, in response to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, which was intercepted by a Saudi Patriot battery.[54] Another Scud was fired at an electricity station in Jizan province and intercepted by a Saudi Patriot on 26 August 2015.

They would need Iran's Sajjil-2, Ghadr-1, or Emad; but to have any effect or do any damage to the Abqaiq facility would require a tactical nuke or dozens of Scud conventional warheads. 750 lbs of HE just won't cut it.

The Qurayyah Seawater Injection Plant (largest in the world) might be a better target. No Water - No Oil.

[Cid_Yama]

Ibon, has nothing to do with what who has to offer.

post1296925.html#p1296925

As we previously detailed, two topics we’ve deemed critically important to a thorough understanding of both global finance and the shifting geopolitical landscape are the death of the petrodollar and the idea of yuan hegemony.

In November 2014, in “How The Petrodollar Quietly Died And No One Noticed,” we said the following about the slow motion demise of the system that has served to perpetuate decades of dollar dominance:

Two years ago, in hushed tones at first, then ever louder, the financial world began discussing that which shall never be discussed in polite company - the end of the system that according to many has framed and facilitated the US Dollar's reserve currency status: the Petrodollar, or the world in which oil export countries would recycle the dollars they received in exchange for their oil exports, by purchasing more USD-denominated assets, boosting the financial strength of the reserve currency, leading to even higher asset prices and even more USD-denominated purchases, and so forth, in a virtuous (especially if one held US-denominated assets and printed US currency) loop.

By Goldman’s estimates, a new oil price “equilibrium” (i.e. a sustained downturn) could result in a net petrodollar drain of $24 billion per month on the way to nearly $900 billion in total by 2018. The implications, BofAML notes, are far reaching: "...the end of the Petrodollar recycling chain is said to impact everything from Russian geopolitics, to global capital market liquidity, to safe-haven demand for Treasurys, to social tensions in developing nations, to the Fed's exit strategy.”

Meanwhile, the collapse in crude prices led to the first net outflow of petrodollars from financial markets in 18 years, and if Goldman's projections prove correct, the net supply of petrodollars could fall by nearly $900 billion over the next three years. All of this comes as China is making a concerted push to settle loans from its newly-created infrastructure funds in renminbi.

Putting it all together, the PetroYuan represents the intersection of a dying petrodollar and an ascendant renminbi.

link


At the end of January, Saudi Arabia agreed to do oil trades with China in Yuan. The Federal Reserve's worst nightmare.

As to what China is offering, it's a far better deal than the West.

post1218361.html#p1218361

[Cid_Yama]

The refinery itself is the incendiary and explosives. They just need to get it started.

Too bad about it being out of range.

Qurayyah. Nice choice. Need to add that to the target list.

[vox_mundi]

Another aim point is Qatif Junction ...

The Institute for Gulf Affairs said the jugular for the oil infrastructure is “Grand Central Station” at Qatif Junction in the Eastern Province, where a network of 12 pipelines run close together, supplying the great Saudi oil terminals at Ras Tanura and Dharan.

As the name indicates, Qatif Junction is the link-up point for many of the numerous pipelines which link Aramco's prolific fields with its large refinery and busy marine terminal at Ras Tanura and with the feeder leading into the trans-Arabian pipeline which ends 1,100 miles to the west on Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.

“These lines run close to major highways and population centres, making them an easy target for quick hit-and-run attacks,” he said.

p.s. Funny how Google is serving up degraded satellite images of these sites and blocking listings of links from known high-res sources

... The Google Maps API server rejected your request

probably related to this ...

link P 182318Z FEB 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO PAGE 02 STATE 015113 182333Z
ALL DIPLOMATIC POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI PRIORITY

S E C R E T STATE 015113

NOFORN, NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION

E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/29/2019

TAG PTER, PGOV, ASEC, EFIN, ENRG, KCIP

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION:CRITICAL FOREIGN DEPENDENCIES (CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND KEY RESOURCES LOCATED ABROAD)

REF: STATE 6461 PLEASE PASS TO RSO, POLOFF, ECON, and MANAGEMENT (GSO and IT). Classified by S/CT DAS, Susan F. Burk, Reason: 1/4 (B), (D), (E), and (G)

¶2. (U//FOUO) Under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) was written to provide the unifying structure for the integration of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) protection into a single national program.

¶3. (U//FOUO) In addition to a list of critical domestic CI/KR, the NIPP requires compilation and annual update of a comprehensive inventory of CI/KR that are located outside U.S. borders and whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States.

Saudi Arabia:

- Abqaiq Processing Center: Largest crude oil processing and stabilization plant in the world

- As Saffaniyah Processing Center

- Qatif Pipeline Junction

- Ras at Tanaqib Processing Center

- Ras Tanura Export Terminal

- Shaybah Central Gas-oil Separation Plant

But this is the 21st Century.

You could probably take out all of them with a cyber attack.

[Synapsid]

vox mundi,

The Trans-Arabian Pipeline, at least, was shut down in 1990 according to Wikipedia. (So it must be so.)

[Cog]

The refinery itself is the incendiary and explosives. They just need to get it started.

Too bad about it being out of range.

Qurayyah. Nice choice. Need to add that to the target list.

Some people just want to see the world burn.

[ennui2]

I'll try this once.

I suspect more than once.

It's not the West you have been led to believe exists. And it's not the US. There are a group who have accumulated power through wealth, industrialization, banking, oil, armaments, agriculture, etc....

And so, the tinfoil hat rears its ugly head. So comforting to have a singular "they" to explain all the ills of the world.

[Plantagenet]

All they need to take out is Abqaiq. It would be the end of Saudi Arabia. I'm surprised the Houthis didn't target their Scud missile there. It would have been war over.

Outside of range. That, Patriot batteries and AWAC surveillance.

Distance between Sanaa and Abqaiq is 1307 kilometers (812 miles)

Range
- Scud-A - (SS-1b) - 180 km
- Scud-B - (SS-1c) - 300 km
- Scud-C - (SS-1d) - 550 km
- Scud-D - (SS-1e) - 700 km

Iran produces two missile with longer range then any of the Scuds. The new Emad missile, just test fired by Iran, has a range of 1700 km.

Iran, of course, is the main country supplying the Houthis with weapons for their war with KSA.

Cheers!

iran-missile-test

[shortonoil]

The best action one can do to take out the Neo-Cons is to go vote in the Primaries. Don't even let these animals in the door! One vote against Hillary there is worth 100 at the polls.

[Shaved Monkey]

The people who decide what presidents/armies do are not elected

[vox_mundi]

... Iran produces two missile with longer range then any of the Scuds. The new Emad missile, just test fired by Iran, has a range of 1700 km.

Iran, of course, is the main country supplying the Houthis with weapons for their war with KSA.

Cheers!

iran-missile-test

You mean you agree like when I wrote above ...

... They would need Iran's Sajjil-2, Ghadr-1, or Emad; but to have any effect or do any damage to the Abqaiq facility would require a tactical nuke or dozens of Scud conventional warheads. 750 lbs of HE just won't cut it.

Oh, and the Scud aren't from Iran (also, above) ...

... An independent expert told VICE News the South Korean report about the North Korean origins of the missiles is likely accurate. "Back in 2002, Yemen purchased around 20 Scuds from the North Koreans," Joseph Bermudez, an arms expert with All Source Analysis, said. "So it's likely the Scuds being used in the conflict did come from North Korea originally."

[Plantagenet]

... Iran, of course, is the main country supplying the Houthis with weapons for their war with KSA.

... "Back in 2002, Yemen purchased around 20 Scuds from the North Koreans," Joseph Bermudez, an arms expert with All Source Analysis, said. "So it's likely the Scuds being used in the conflict did come from North Korea originally."

In 2002 Yemen wasn't at war with KSA.

Now that they are at war with KSA the main country supplying the Hourthis with weapons for their war with KSA is Iran, not North Korea.

The medium range missiles just tested by Iran have much longer range then the Scuds the Hourthi got from Korea.

Iran has shown no hesitation in the past about supplying their proxies with better and better missiles---for instance, since the last Hezbollah-Israel war some believe Iran has smuggled over 65,000 new missiles into Hezbollah in Lebanon--including up-to-date missiles that can hit all of Israel.

Given Iran's history of supplying tens of thousands of missiles and weapon to their allies in the ME, its not unreasonable to wonder what kind of missiles and other arms Iran is smuggling to the Hourthi in Yemen. While the old North Korean scuds have a limited range, Iran's middle range missiles could easily hit major oil facilities and other targets in KSA if fired from Hourthi strongholds in Yemen.

CHEERS!


Boom!

[Whitefang]

"Cid_YamaThey were the only real power throughout the 20th Century. The Soviet Union they isolated. And worked hard to bring them under their domination. With their fall they saw themselves as invincible.

But they screwed up. They decided that they didn't need a national base, that globalization would allow them to subjugate even the populations of Western nations, and rule over a planet where the masses were reduced to peasantry.

Didn't work out that way. They industrialized China which then exerted their national sovereignty, and with a military they could not dominate, TPTB had no options. They had created a challenger to their hegemony, that, by the way, had the economic means to topple the Western Banking system and the source of their power. Debt works both ways.
When they tried to incorporate Russia in the 90s, they failed. Russia balked, and China stepped in to form an alliance.
That's when the Western PTB panicked. The Jig was up, their game was being called. Has been called.

They have no options left.

[/quote]

The option they, western powers Bilderberg took were a global war of terror, starting with the Balkan, then 9/11 and the rest. Not that KGB/Chinese mob is doing anything different, but for scale and not under the umbrella of peace and liberty for all.
The Royal Dutch Airforce had a patriot missile base near Adana.
I trucked a few loads with gear myself....makes me helping the largest terrorist group worldwide, NATO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incirlik_Air_Base

It has become a runaway issue now, no demonstration or vote or anything will prevent an open WW3.
All one can do is prep and be out of town when war and loss of electro and the rest is on the horizon.
TPTB want this war, being aware of abrupt CC, they panick and do the endgame thing, last man standing.
Maybe best to leave them be.

I am done with int'l trucking, Turkey, no more trips or vacation to the southeast of Europe.
I stick with the Northwest, fresh air and less people, more trees. Home sweet home.
Wish I were in BC Cnada running a wilderness school, to preserve knowledge and start something new when the smoke clears and people are few and far inbetween, after a decade or so hiding in the wild along the Cassiar Hwy.
One has to be content, or at least accept ones fate.
Everyday of peace is a gift from now on.

[peripato]

All they need to take out is Abqaiq. It would be the end of Saudi Arabia. I'm surprised the Houthis didn't target their Scud missile there. It would have been war over.

Their commanders are strategic pygmies...but good on them anyway for putting the boot up those SA low-lives.

[Sixstrings]

Well one thing about it, Trump has a different view on this than Jeb Bush, Cruz, Rubio, or Clinton.

Trump says to Bush, "we've been fighting in the middle east for fifteen years and haven't won anything, we've spent $5 trillion dollars because of thinking like THAT" (points to Bush)

Jeb Bush Emotionally Defends His Family After Donald Trump Attacks The Bush Dynasty
https://youtu.be/qsnB8pt1Xjs?t=106

Trump said "we have to rebuild our country, rebuild our infrastructure at home, and if you listen to THAT (points to Bush) you're gonna be there for another fifteen years and wind up in world war three!"

Trump says "they lied, there were no weapons of mass destruction. They knew there were no WMD, but they LIED:"

Trump Assaults Jeb Bush in LIVE Debate: "9/11 was your brother's fault!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0PSycnLqgs

[ennui2]

Not that long ago Trump talked openly about how if you go to war, you should collect the spoils (the oil). So he is no peacenik humanitarian.

[sidzepp]

The rapid changing scenario in the Middle East is the result of a human population that feels threatened by the depletion of resources and is scrambling to control the resources. It is the result of rapid population increase and the realization that the resources available are becoming scarcer. This is just the beginning of and epic that will consume humanity in the next fifty years.

[sidzepp]

The rapid deterioration of relations between the U.S. and Russia is no more than an attempt to control the resources of the region. The population doubling in fifty years and the rapid depletion of resources as led up to this conflict and the next fifty years are going to see an increased escalation in hostilities.

[Plantagenet]

Seymour Hersh, writing in the London review of books, presents an interesting history of the war the Syria. According to Hersh, Obama has been fixated on removing Assad for years, while the US military became worried that the overthrow of Assad would create a power vacuum like the power vacuum that now exists in Libya following Obama's foolish intervention in the war there.

According to Hersh the US military started secret contacts with Assad, passing intelligence on the location, strength and weapons that obama was giving to various Islamist terrorist groups in Syria. The backdoor US intelligence from the US military has helped the Russians bomb the Islamist forces that Obama and the CIA are supporting. This dynamic continues to develop, as now the Turks---a US NATO ally--- are shelling the same Kurdish forces that Obama and the CIA have been training and arming, possibly using intelligence from the US military to target the Kurds.

According to Hersh, even the US military doesn't support what Obama and Hilalry are doing to arm the Islamist militias.

seymour-m-hersh/military-to-military

[Tanada]

Seymour Hersh, writing in the London review of books, presents an interesting history of the war the Syria. According to Hersh, Obama has been fixated on removing Assad for years, while the US military became worried that the overthrow of Assad would create a power vacuum like the power vacuum that now exists in Libya following Obama's foolish intervention in the war there.

According to Hersh the US military started secret contacts with Assad, passing intelligence on the location, strength and weapons that obama was giving to various Islamist terrorist groups in Syria. The backdoor US intelligence from the US military has helped the Russians bomb the Islamist forces that Obama and the CIA are supporting. This dynamic continues to develop, as now the Turks---a US NATO ally--- are shelling the same Kurdish forces that Obama and the CIA have been training and arming, possibly using intelligence from the US military to target the Kurds.

According to Hersh, even the US military doesn't support what Obama and Hilalry are doing to arm the Islamist militias.

seymour-m-hersh/military-to-military

While I acknowledge the possibility that one or two people in the military would do such a thing it is in point of fact an act of treason. I gravely doubt many such leakers exist, the military has always worked very hard to contain such internal threats, which is to the benefit of all who shelter under their protection. Many members of my family have served in the US Military and these kind of stories about treason are very disturbing.