Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar

[ursi]

Source: PressTV


The long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse, a place for trading oil, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, will soon open.

Iran's Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari told reporters the bourse will be inaugurated during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 1-11) at the latest.

"All preparations have been made to launch the bourse; it will open during the Ten-Day Dawn (the ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran)," he said.


Read more: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=37468§ionid=351020103

---

Is this why those internet cables were cut in the last few days? To stop Iran from opening their oil bourse? The timing is sure uncanny.

snip...

EB reader BB writes:
Iran was scheduled to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this coming week.

That probably isn't going to happen because all internet access in Iran was cut over the weekend (the undersea cables were chopped). This was mentioned on Wikipedia for a day... but now the article links and coverage have disappeared.

Iran is in total internet blackout at the moment. Any further information is appreciated.

snip...

http://www.energybulletin.net/39844.html

Look at this internet traffic report chart. Iran has ZERO activity!

http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm

[Bonobo]

1. Sorry, but what is a 'bourse"?

[mahina]

4. exchange.

[ursi]

23. with Iraq and Israel as the only countries not impacted ...why is Israel telling their people to ...

build "bomb shelters?"

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Retired senior officers told Israelis on Saturday to prepare "rocket rooms" as protection against a rain of missiles expected to be fired at the Jewish state in any future conflict.

Speaking on radio as part of a military propaganda offensive, retired general Udi Shani said: "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory."

Shani was tasked recently with drawing up a report on the way the military authorities operated during Israel's 2006 summer war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During that conflict thousands of rockets hit Israel, but were limited to the north of the country from where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080202/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraeldefence


This is sort of frightening ...or maybe it is related to the Gaza Strip stuff?

[Hart2008]

39. A bourse is a bourse, of course, of course!

And no one can talk to a horse, of course,
unless, of course, that horse is the famous Mr. Ed!

Willlburrrrr!
:kick:

[mahina]

2. Long awaited, like years.

I thought this was going to happen in 04?

[ursi]

3. All internet access to Iran is shut down right now ...

EB reader BB writes:
Iran was scheduled to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this coming week.

That probably isn't going to happen because all internet access in Iran was cut over the weekend (the undersea cables were chopped). This was mentioned on Wikipedia for a day... but now the article links and coverage have disappeared.

Iran is in total internet blackout at the moment. Any further information is appreciated.

http://www.energybulletin.net/39844.html

[aquart]

6. So now we're thinking Navy seals?

[thunder rising]

7. It has been proven it wasn't ships.

[keep_it_real]

9. Maybe this is why the cables where somehow cut

To stop the bourse?

[ursi]

11. I think so ...especially if that is true that the opening of the Iran oil exchange hurts the $$$

I did find this link but it points toward a possible set up for attacking Iran or attacking the US and blaming Iran while it is under internet "black-out". I have no idea what to think but some did cut those four lines!

http://www.i-newswire.com/pr148510.html

[Subdivisions]

26. deleted message

[DireStrike]

34. That is not true.

See my post further down: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2814387&mesg_id=2815888

[aquart]

5. Is this why George wants to nuke them?

[ursi]

8. aquart, it probably is ...do you remember reading about how Sadaam Hussein was threatening

to sell oil on the European market for Euros instead of with US dollars just before we invaded them? What a coincidence.

[JohnyCanuck]

12. He wasn't threatening, he was doing it.

Then after the US took over, Iraq switched back to dealing in dollars.

Almost all of Iraq's oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme have been paid in euros since 2001. Around 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) has been paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York.

The Iraqi account, held at BNP Paribas, has also been earning a higher rate of interest in euros than it would have in dollars.

At the time of the change the UN issued a report saying that the move could cost Iraq up to £270 million. Independent experts questioned the value of buying into a plummeting currency.

'It was seen as economically bad because the entire global oil trade is conducted in dollars,' says Fadhil Chalabi, executive director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

The marked appreciation of the euro, higher interest rates, and the ability to pay mainly European suppliers in euros is believed to have made hundreds of millions for the Iraqi oil-for-food programme.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,896344,00.html

Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse

by William Clark


“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous...Having said that, all options are on the table.”
– President George W. Bush, February 2005

Contemporary warfare has traditionally involved underlying conflicts regarding economics and resources. Today these intertwined conflicts also involve international currencies, and thus increased complexity. Current geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran extend beyond the publicly stated concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear intentions, and likely include a proposed Iranian “petroeuro” system for oil trade.

Similar to the Iraq war, military operations against Iran relate to the macroeconomics of ‘petrodollar recycling’ and the unpublicized but real challenge to U.S. dollar supremacy from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency.

It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam’s long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining strategic control over Iraq’s hydrocarbon reserves and in doing so maintain the U.S. dollar as the monopoly currency for the critical international oil market. Throughout 2004 information provided by former administration insiders revealed the Bush/Cheney administration entered into office with the intention of toppling Saddam Hussein.<1><2>

Candidly stated, ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ was a war designed to install a pro-U.S. government in Iraq, establish multiple U.S military bases before the onset of global Peak Oil, and to reconvert Iraq back to petrodollars while hoping to thwart further OPEC momentum towards the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency (i.e. “petroeuro”).<3> However, subsequent geopolitical events have exposed neoconservative strategy as fundamentally flawed, with Iran moving towards a petroeuro system for international oil trades, while Russia evaluates this option with the European Union.

http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html

[ursi]

13. thanks for the correction ...it's been a few years since I read that stuff!

[stillcool]

10. some other articles..

Ships did not cause Internet cable damage

Source: AFP

CAIRO - Damage to undersea Internet cables in the Mediterranean that hit business across the Middle East and South Asia was not caused by ships, Egypt’s communications ministry said on Sunday, ruling out earlier reports.

The transport ministry added that footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.

‘The ministry’s maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area,’ a statement said.

‘The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships,’ the statement added.

Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to Internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.

A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said.

Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.

Egypt’s communication and information technology ministry said it would report its findings to the owners of the two damaged Mediterranean cables, FLAG Telecom and SEA-ME-WE4.

A repair ship was expected to begin work to fix the two Mediterranean cables on Tuesday.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/February/theworld_February77.xml§ion=theworld&col

Two days after cable cuts which "cut off Iran" and affected the rest of the Middle East and West Asia but left communications in Israel and Iraq "intact", another cable owned by the same British company is severed, once again plunging the region into "Internet darkness". Image: FLAG's Europe-Asia "FEA" undersea cable network

Omar Sultan, chief executive of Dubai's Internet Service Provider "DU", said on Friday that an undersea cable had been cut in the Persian Gulf, causing severe phone line disruptions and making worse the already existing Internet outage across large parts of the Middle East and West Asia after two other undersea cables owned by the same British company were cut this week in the Mediterranean Sea 8.3 kilometers (5 miles) north of Alexandria, Egypt.

Mr Sultan said that the incident was "very unusual." He said it was not known how the underwater cable, owned by British FLAG FALCON company, which runs between the United Arab Emirates and Oman, had been damaged. DU said in a press release that the cause of the incident "had not yet been identified."

The only 2 countries that were unaffected were Israel and Iraq, the only two close Anglo-American allies in the region, both remaining completely unaffected by the cable cuts, leading to theories for the causes of the cuts, which have so far been given as having been caused by ships dragging their anchors across the cables. The fact that two rare incidents have happened in the same week, and both with cables owned by the same company, on either sides of Israel and the importance of the Internet to telecommunications and business, lends suspicion to the events.
http://mathaba.net/rss/?x=580589

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=disaster_recovery&articleId=9060339&taxonomyId=151&intsrc=kc_top
Cable damage in Mediterranean disrupts Internet in Mideast
Repairs could take days; companies try to reroute traffic
By Matt Hamblen

January 30, 2008 (Computerworld) Wide areas of the Middle East experienced Internet disruptions today after two underwater cables were damaged in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt, according to reports.

Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T Inc., said that two cables were cut and that AT&T has been routing traffic around the damaged area. One of the cables is owned by U.K.-based Flag Telecom Group Ltd., and the other is owned by a consortium of several companies that includes AT&T called SEA-ME-WE4. The consortium is investigating the damage and arranging for repairs, he said.
--------------------------------
A Verizon spokeswoman said that the two cuts occurred at separate times, with the first to the SEA-ME-WE4 at 11:30 p.m. yesterday (EST) and the second at 2:30 a.m. (EST) today. She speculated that the cuts may have been caused by a ship dragging an anchor; the consortium is still investigating.

http://archive.ericsson.net/service/internet/picov/get?DocNo=11/28701-FGC101838&Lang=EN&HighestFree=Y

Fiber optic cable
GASLMLTV, 40-ton DAH
4–96 fibers
Slotted core design, 4-fiber ribbonDouble steel wire armoring

[ursi]

14. Holy Crap!

thanks for the info!

All I can say now is WHAT THE FECK?

[stillcool]

17. I know...and the reaction ..

is so ho-hum...like it happens all the time.

[ursi]

19. people are too distracted over the Obama/Clinton thing to pay attention

this is serious and it took some serious effort to pull this off! What a shock that only Israel and Iraq are unaffected? Perfect timing for an attack of some sort?

[FarCenter]

15. The Jimmy Carter was equipped for this type of mission

A submarine that was equipped for finding and tapping Soviet cables would certainly be able to do this.

[ursi]

16. it could also cut the cables?

[Ichingcarpenter]

21. It can cut splice and dice- Article on it before 9-11

Spy agency taps into undersea cable

By Neil Jr., News.com
Published on ZDNet News: May 23, 2001 12:00:00 AM

Even so, the agency has been pushing ahead. At General Dynamics' Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn., the Navy is deep into a five-year, $1 billion retrofit of the USS Jimmy Carter, a nuclear-powered vessel that intelligence experts say will be the premier U.S. spy sub when it hits the seas in 2004. Among its many planned features, says one former official familiar with the project: state-of-the-art technology for undersea fiber-optic taps.

The NSA's Lt. Gen. Hayden and Navy officials decline to comment on the USS Jimmy Carter's mission.


http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-529826.html?legacy=zdnn

[ursi]

22. very interesting ...so it could tap into undersea telco cables ...

so this could have been a botched job?

[Old and In the Way]

18. Could that really bring down their market communications?

For how long...couldn't they re-establish links via telecommunications? If we did this, it is an act of war. I wonder how our corporate media will not report this?

[ursi]

20. our media is too caught up in distracting us with the obama/clinton holy war

this is very important ...it puts alot of difficulty in communication between banks so markets are seriously impacted ...let alone other market outlets.

[troubleinwinter]

24. "If we did this, it is an act of war" You make quite a point.

[KansDem]

33. So was mining Nicaragua's harbors, and we saw what came of that.

In Jan. 1984, mines were laid in Sandino harbor in Nicaragua, accompanied by other mine-layings, sabotage of Sandanista communications, and destruction of an arms depot. In April, it was disclosed that the CIA had conducted the action, and a Senate resolution condemned the mining 84-12.

The mines were designed primarily to damage and scare off ships rather than destroy them, but they were a clear violation of international law. The Sandanistas took their case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague (popularly known as the World Court) and won, though the administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction. The mining of the harbors was an example of “force against another state,” the court said; US support of the contras “amounts to an intervention of one state in he internal affairs of the other.”

By 1984 the contras had become an end in themselves. Loyalty to the contras had become the litmus test for loyalty to “Reagan’s policy” among conservatives.

On the Issues

And what about this statement: The Sandanistas took their case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague (popularly known as the World Court) and won, though the administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

...Sound familiar?

[troubleinwinter]

36. "administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction' "Sound familiar?"

NO SHIT, IT SURE AS HELL DOES. Almost like it happened in this very administration, is how familiar it sounds.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

41. US was found guilty of war crimes-ordered to pay $17 Billion to Nicaragua for that

we never payed a dime.

[orleans]

25. k/r n/t

[Subdivisions]

27. And still the tinfoil-accusers from earlier threads

on this issue have yet to come forward and admit they may have been a bit hasty in accusing me and others of being nuts for thinking this could be a sinister event.

[Neshanic]

30. Really. One cable? OK. Two cables? Shit happens. Three cables? Odd! Four?

Sorry no tin foil needed now. This has our little fingers all over it.

[redqueen]

28. Kick

:kick:

[goforit]

29. May the games begin!!!

[kineneb]

31. pardon pun: sounds fishy

note: despite the view that Iran is "backwards" because of the Islamic government, the urban people there keep up with technology, and many have internet access.

Four cables in a week is too much for coincidence. Something is up.

[DireStrike]

32. Iran is not on total internet blackout.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=1980

"I don’t expect people to know much about computers, but the story about Iran having no Internet access is complete nonsense.

It scares the living crap out of me that so many Cryptogon readers are propagating this nonsense without even trying to verify whether or not the story is true. (In fairness, one Cryptogon reader who submitted it later wrote that, by the same measure, Florida had no Internet services. HAHA)

The page that all of you are submitting monitors one router, which happens to be down, at the Iran University of Science and Technology. Somehow, through the magic bullshit amplification powers of the Intertubes, the fact that one router is down at an Iranian university has snowballed into “Iran is off the air.”

Oh really?

Why not check out the Iran University of Science and Technology’s homepage?

http://www.iust.ac.ir
IP: 194.225.230.89
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

How about the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

http://www.mfa.gov.ir
IP: 217.172.99.41
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

How about the Central Bank of The Islamic Republic of Iran?

http://www.cbi.ir
IP: 217.218.174.178
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

Hint: Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit and Slashdot."



THAT BEING QUOTED - 4 cables in roughly as many days cut? Nobody alive can believe that is a coincidence.

[smiley_glad_hands]

35. We need to do what we canto prevent them from opening this bourse.

If it opens and and our economy crashes, would this not be an act of war? I'm sure many would see it that way, especially the neocons.

[troubleinwinter]

37. How is the Iranian Bourse an "act of war"?

[Subdivisions]

40. So, what you're saying is that Iran has no right to have their own

oil market? Is that what you are saying?

[paparush]

38. If / When this Finally Happens - Keep an Eye on our B52's

B17s
B1s
etc..etc..etc..

Washington is in full "put the economic collapse off till January, 2009 mode". The Bourse will deal yet another blow to our already crummy economy and Darth Cheney, Rove, et al, doesn't want this happening on Bush's watch.