Recently, Saudi oilfields were struck by drones and set ablaze. The disruption of the oil supply is set to have an economic impact:
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The oil market will rally by $5-10 per barrel when it opens on Monday and may spike to as high as $100 per barrel if Saudi Arabia fails to quickly resume oil supply lost after attacks over the weekend, traders and analysts said.
Attacks on two plants at the heart of the kingdom’s oil industry on Saturday knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, or 5% of global supply.
Industry sources have said it may take weeks to bring production fully online.
Below are quotes from market participants, traders and analysts.
Although Iran accused the Yamani Hoiulthi rebels, all signs point to Iran as the perpetrator
First, the technical skill required to accurately hit these targets is significantly beyond the proven capability of the Houthis. And the Saudis — with advanced U.S. support — have a large number of advanced radar and ballistic missile tracking capabilities focused on missiles launched from Yemen. They would have detected at least some of these weapons in flight. But as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted on Sunday, there is “no evidence” of a Yemeni launch.
Second, the U.S. and Saudi governments both confidently assess Iranian involvement. A top Saudi official on Monday noted that “all indications are that weapons used in both attacks came from Iran.” He added that the Saudis were now investigating “from where they were fired.” The United States has also released satellite photos of the damage. Even though the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s corollary analytical assessment hasn’t been released, the satellite photos are clearly compelling. One image from the Abqaiq facility, for example, shows impact strikes at the same specific point on four different silos. That exceptional precision indicates either a ground attack at the site, laser-guided strikes, or the use of drones. The two first options appear to have been ruled out and the Houthis do not have this advanced drone capability. Iran, however, does.
How did Iran get this technology?
From Barack Obama, who donated the technology and then financed the reproduction.
Back in 2011, Iran captured a US RQ 170 drone.
Iran is pushing the propaganda advantage after showing it captured an intact US stealth drone on a spying mission 140 miles inside Iran.
Hours after Iran state TV displayed the cream-colored American bat-wing RQ-170 “Sentinel” drone – its undercarriage hidden by banners of a US flag, with stars replaced by skulls and marked with anti-US slogans – Iranian officials said the spy craft was proof of enduring US hostility toward Iran.
“Iran will target all US military bases around the world,” in case of further violations, warned conservative lawmaker Mohammad Kossari today. Iran’s response would be “terrifying.”
US officials confirmed with “high confidence” that the drone displayed by Iran is almost certainly the one reported lost last by US forces in Afghanistan last week. It was on an intelligence mission to hunt evidence in Iran of nuclear weapons work.
For some reason Obama never chose not to destroy the drone:
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney criticized Obama’s decisions on the drone, saying that, after the aircraft went down, the president should have ordered an air strike within Iran: “The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it. You can do that from the air … and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.” Instead, “he asked nicely for them to return it, and they aren’t going to”.[30]
He “politely” asked for it back, and Iran laughed at him. Now they had the technology in hand thanks to Obama.
They reverse engineered the drone, smuggling drone part into Iran:
For years, Iran has been successful in smuggling drone parts in spite of international sanctions, and now its smuggling efforts have moved into counter-drone markets. These markets, inclusive of North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Latin America, are expected to reach a value of USD 2.93 billion by 2025. Iran’s neighboring states are also looking to acquire counter-drone capabilities. Turkey has at least three known products on the market, and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are looking to step in. Due to their geographical proximity to Iran, these countries unwantedly risk operating as transhipment hubs and staging grounds for Iranian front companies and smuggling networks seeking to get their hands-on Western counter-drone technology.
This takes real money. Where would Iran get this kind of money?
From Barack Obama.
In early 2016 Obama sent $1.7 billion in cash to Iran and in between at least $29 billion and perhaps up to over $100 billion were freed up. Some of it has been traced directly to funding terrorism.
In 2018, Israel captured one of the drones and declared it a copy of the RQ 170:
TEL AVIV, Israel — A senior Israeli Air Force officer told reporters Monday that the Iranian drone it intercepted over the weekend was a “copy” of a stealthy U.S.-built RQ-170 Sentinel downed by Iranian forces over Iranian territory in 2011.
“It’s a copy of a similar system that fell in Iran,” Brig. Gen. Tomer Bar, chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force, said of the drone in Israel’s possession, which he identified as Shahed 171.
“They more or less duplicated it … but I won’t grade them,” said Bar, referring to Iran’s reverse engineering capabilities.
Iran released a video of the Shahed 171 in flight back in 2014. Two years later, Iran showed another knockoff based on the Lockheed Martin Sentinel, an armed version known as the Saeqeh, according to Tal Inbar, director of the UAV and space program at Israel’s Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies.
And it was revealed that one variant was armed:
“There are two copies that Iran made out of the RQ-170. One is Shahed 171, and this is supposed to be jet powered and for reconnaissance missions. Then there is the other variant of this vehicle — similar in design to RQ-170, with a piston engine and a propeller — named Saeqeh. This variant was shown in 2016 armed with four laser-guided munitions,” Inbar told Defense News.
Iran now has armed drone capabilities and money to spare thanks to Barack Obama. Obama’s galactic blunder puts US forces and Israel under even greater jeopardy in the Middle East.
And Iran has just seized another tanker.
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@Greg:
All of that can be placed under the category of “entrapment” at this point, and is easily dismissed.
If you cared about honor, law, and decency, you’d be supporting the investigation against the lack of need, or proof, for the investigation in the first place.
This is all partisan rhetoric, for you and your party.
@Nathan Blue, #51:
It’s not partisan rhetoric. Donald Trump has misused his powers of office to obstruct justice, which is itself a crime, and has almost certainly done so in order to conceal crimes that are even more serious.
He has ordered subordinates to openly break laws to that end. He has attempted to nullify congressional oversight powers to that end. He has attempted to destroy people who are far better than himself to that end. He would destroy national unity and the nation’s most important institutions to that end. He really doesn’t give a damn, because Donald Trump—not America—is the center of the universe. He presides as President, rather than serving.
He and those he surrounds himself with lie constantly and shamelessly—though I have to admit that Lewandowski’s game face slipped for an instant and let his shame show through, so there may yet be hope for him—while hypocritically accusing anyone and everyone who points that out of being the liars.
He’s vindictive as hell. He’s using the taxpayers’ resources to pursue personal vendettas against his enemies—Andrew McCabe, for instance, whom he had fired one day short of full pension eligibility, and who is now being targeted for prosecution on allegations that are legally without merit, but will cost McCabe a fortune to defend himself against anyway. He has ordered the EPA to rescind California’s stricter automotive air quality standards for no rational reason, when California imposed them to address its own unique urban air quality issues. And blaming the homeless for their plight, and for scaring off wealthy foreigner investors from all the best places… Seriously? He’s like an angry infant throwing a series of tantrums, striking out at anything within its reach, and if he breaks something important to whoever offends him, so much the better.
No one who genuinely cares about honor, law, and decency, or about the traditional American values this administration takes a dump on daily could possibly support this man for another term, were it not for the delusional echo chamber of conspiracy theory and utter nonsense that has been constructed for their cultivation and comfort. They really should see what that propaganda bubble looks like from the outside.
@Greg:
Yes it is. Based on lies from the NYT most of your Democrat candidates demanded Justice Kavanaugh be impeached. They don’t have the integrity to wait for facts and clarification, given the multitude of lies that were already exposed in the persecution of Kavanaugh. Now, even though the NYT’s deceit has been exposed, they still do not admit their error and retract their stupid demands.
Your Democrat field is comprised of trash. Garbage. Scum. Liars. And you’ll vote for one of them.
The lies that have been leveled against Trump that have been PROVEN to be nothing but partisan-driven lies also does not give you or any of the trash you support pause in supporting harsh penalties based on further accusations. You don’t care about facts, truth, laws or justice. You want POWER. And, the abuses your party display only proves that the LAST thing they should be entrusted with is power.
For instance:
You’ve been asked to provide the proof. You can’t. What’s more, there’s no evidence of it, including any laws that were broken supposedly at Trump’s order. Yet you continue to lie. We KNOW you are lying. We SEE the lies. No one is fooled. Why don’t you stop embarrassing yourself or, at least, find a different way?
Your entire #52 is a lie. All of it. As shown, what you describe is what YOUR party is attempting.
Cease.
@Deplorable Me, #53:
What lies would those be? The editors of the NYT have clarified the context of claims made in an essay the the Times published as a matter of maintaining their journalistic standards. They didn’t retract anything that was said.
Additionally, the essay was published in the Times Weekend Sunday Review. It was an opinion piece, not a hard news story.
Probably the distinction between essays, opinion pieces, and hard news reporting is totally lost on the Trump crowd, where the Sean Hannity program is thought to be a factual news report.
The evidence has been presented and the laws involved have been cited repeatedly, but require the application of a minimal level of unbiased intelligent analysis to be understood. That’s where can’t or won’t seem to enter in.
@Greg: All the NYT clarified was that, like their contrived effort to paint Trump as a racist, they are also willing to intentionally withhold important exculpatory facts (like Democrats seeking FISA warrants for spying) that shows that Ford and Democrats are lying.
You can’t see the lying for the lying.
@Greg:
Probably? As in; you don’t know.
Now, let me educate you.
Even an op-ed, if revised by the editor, is submitted back to the author(s) for approval. The reason being that although it is the publication printing it, it is the work of the authors. So to claim that “it was the editor’s fault we misreported” is just so much hogwash. As proven by the NPR crap that was recorded days before the NYTs op-ed (as you want to label it) appeared.
Also, the book is misleading. No surprise. When you contract with a publisher, there is generally a payment made to the author(s) prior to the book being published or even completed (called an advance). The author(s) give an outline of what the book is about and the theme cannot be changed (see contractual law). That money is refundable to the publisher if the book doesn’t meet the outline standards or is not what the publisher agreed on.
My guess is that these two lame brained women promised the publisher a “sensation” but in the end, there was no there there so they word smithed their book, and their article, to give the subliminal impression of a scandal.
I understand that you soak up every work published by outlets such as the NYTs, but the hard truth is that the NYTs is nothing more than an arm of the DNC. It is a propaganda outlet for Democrats, going back to the days of Walter Duranty, and if justice is done, it will soon become a thing of the past.
Evidence presented by whom? Eric Swalwell? Didn’t he say he had proof positive that Trump was colluding with the Russians? Where is that proof? Laws presented by whom? Jabba the Hut (Jerry Nadler)? A guy who apparently slept through law school?
Oh, well, we know that Greggie Goebbels doesn’t answer questions. He just spews crap he is fed by his Socialist handlers and then tries to act like he is an expert on all things legal.
He’s just an idiot. A sick, friendless loner who has nothing better to do that come to this web site and push lies, untruths and propaganda for the left wing.
@Deplorable Me, #56:
What “exculpatory” facts? That a victim’s friends remember a traumatic event that she has no memory of?
The GOP May One Day Regret Brett Kavanaugh
They’re not going to regret Kavanaugh as much as they’ll regret the man who appointed him. I’m sure there’s a long list of former Trump associates who already wish they’d never heard of the man.
@retire05, #57:
You have no clue how much you reveal about yourself when you project onto someone you know virtually nothing about.
@Greg:
Slate.com, Greggie Goebbels?
Jeeze, you’ll read any left wing site no matter how bad they are, won’t you?
@retire05, #60:
You can interpret it any way you like.
@Greg:
You are here ALL the time, Greggie Goebbels. Your responses to me (which you were not going to do anymore) are almost always within just a few minutes so either you are here, or checking your email notices. You don’t answer questions, don’t prove your claims and have nothing of import to say, ever. One can surmise that you are a friendless loner who has nothing better to do than blather here based on the sheer number of posts you log.
You have no self respect and frankly, someone like you, who claims to own a firearm, should be Red Flagged.
@retire05, #62:
“One can surmise” that you’re speaking of yourself, and that you are very likely the source of your own problem. You should devote less time to trying to figure out how to make other people feel bad, and more to trying to figure out how to make yourself feel better.
Trump worship actually isn’t good for you. Part of Trump’s dysfunctional, manipulative game is to reinforce in his followers the mistaken idea that Everything that’s wrong is somebody else’s fault. He’s like the other side of the positive thinking coin. And, of course, only he can deliver you from your enemies—be they black people, Hispanic refugees, homeless people, democrats, the east and west coast elite, tax collectors, or Islamic fanatics. Trump can put them in their place and make it all better. All you’ve got to do is turn off your brain and believe whatever he says.
Soon he may deliver us from the threat of Iran—which, last time I checked, was still across an ocean and over 7,000 miles away—on the suspicion that they launched some drones at a neighboring country that’s somehow totally incapable of defending itself, despite having the 3rd biggest military budget on the planet. Are we their dog, to come when they whistle? It’s not enough that we’ve crippled the Iranian economy on their behalf?
I think I will ignore you. All that ever happens when I don’t is to come back to this same totally pointless place, having wasted time, thought, and energy on nothing in the process. It’s a troll’s game, as I realized long ago. I do appreciate the reminder.
@Greg: That was the most ignorant thing you have spewed …in the last 5 minutes.
Now the subject is the former President Barry, who allowed American Drone Technology to fall into terrorist hands.
Barry was the most criminal politician to ever hold any office, more scandals than most.
You should read Mattiss’ new book on what an ignoramus Barry is.
@kitt, #64:
There are presently 29 nations that are known to have operational armed drones. The first radio-controlled drone aircraft was flown in 1917. The Nazis deployed the first remotely controlled flying bomb, the Fritz X, in 1943. It carried a 700 pound armor piercing warhead. A single hit from one of these put the USS Savannah out of commission for 8 months.
Drones are nothing new. Obama didn’t give the technology to anybody. Sophisticated GPS guidance systems, the most complex components, are now off-the-shelf items.
@Greg: Are you serious? A US Military drone just old technology? Off the shelf at a Radio shack, or black Friday Walmart special? Is that what your boob tube or liberal websites say and you bought it?
Sooner or later you might want to pull your head out of your colon.
Hey good news Saudi will have their production back to normal, I guess the money going to America exporting oil was just to much for them.
@Greg:
Hmmm… what? Let me think. Oh yeah. Here’s something. How about the fact that NONE of Ford’s “witnesses” corroborate ANYTHING she accuses, none remember a party or Kavanaugh ever doing anything like she accuses? Think that bit of minutia is important enough to throw out there? I mean, it only totally destroys all the accusations against Kavanaugh.
Yeah, not mentioning that or even running the story with that fact hanging out there is dishonest; TYPICALLY dishonest.
A fully functional attack drone doesn’t have to be all that advanced to begin with. There’s nothing especially complex about a GPS guided air frame that can carry an explosive warhead to a target.
An advanced drone doesn’t have to be based on U.S. military technology. The Russian Okhotnik isn’t. It’s based on their earlier Skat drone project and their own advanced jet fighter technology.
@Greg: Keep trying to spin Barrys FU or intentional technology transfer to sponsors of terror, its less than thin.
Like the video excuse on Bengahzi, and the US military couldnt get there in under 13 hours. The US navy gun boats captured by Irans alumacraft, all fine examples of Barrys leadership. The gun boats They conducted no patrol briefings, and missions were supported by no formal mission analysis, standard planning factors, risk assessment, or overwatch,”
Obama’s Military Coup Purged 197 Officers In Five Years, it is no wonder they couldnt defeat ISIS or train anyone to properly to drive a Navy warship.
@Greg: Trump’s approval rating is currently higher than Obama’s, 8 years ago.
Real Clear Politics average of polls, not just one.
Trump: 44.3%
Obama: 43.9%
Can’t wait to see how you “irrationalize” that away with one of your provided talking points.
Polls are B.S., and controlled by Leftists…and even they show that Trump is the largely popular president we know him to be.
@kitt: Has anyone recommended that Greg be “red flagged”. We surely do not want someone as delusional as he running around with fire arms to include water pistols.
@Randy: We have the constitution in our way of banning firearms or even borrowing them until the freaks prove they are not crazy. Greg voted for Hillary how could he possibly prove he was a tiny bit sane?