Skip to main content

TCS: Tech Central Station - 'Terror Target No. 1'

TCS: Tech Central Station - 'Terror Target No. 1'

'Terror Target No. 1'
By Austin Bay Published 07/06/2005


NORTHERN PERSIAN GULF, AL BASRAH OIL TERMINAL -- Desert and ocean, sand and salt, literally collide in the brown-white haze above the blue water of the Persian Gulf.



It's noon, 109 degrees, and I'm standing next to a U.S. Navy petty officer who mans a machine gun on the Al Basrah Oil Terminal's (ABOT) shade-less upper deck, 16 miles off the Iraqi mainland. ABOT's the tight spot where oil and water meet, if not quite mix.



The petty officer adjusts his camouflage boonie hat and points toward the horizon. "Alfa sector," he says. Two kilometers west of ABOT, the cruiser USS Normandy shimmers in the haze as it slowly patrols the maritime exclusion zone around "Iraq's terror target No. 1."



"Terror target No. 1" is a big-time claim, but then ABOT and its decrepit cousin, KAAOT -- Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal -- are huge oil spigots. In the last six months, ABOT has pumped 270 million barrels of crude into oil tankers -- and put roughly $14 billion into Iraq's desperate treasury.



"We feel like we're guarding Iraq's economy," the Normandy's commander, Capt. Stephen Hampton, told me before I took the boat ride from his cruiser to ABOT.



Originally designed to protect the fleet from Soviet aircraft, and now capable of firing anti-ballistic missiles, super-cruisers like the Normandy have become high-tech and low-tech counter-terror warriors. Stroll the Normandy's deck, and you'll find twin-50-caliber machine guns reminiscent of World War II PT boats. The cruiser also sports 25 mm chain guns like those found on Army Bradley armored vehicles. "The machine guns may be lower-tech than our other systems," Hampton observed, "but they are the right tech for stopping small boats."



He meant small boats manned by terrorists -- speedboats or dhows that could target coalition naval vessels or the oil terminals. "If it's a choice between my ship and ABOT," Hampton said tersely, "I'll put my ship between the terrorist boat and the oil terminal. This mission's that important."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insulin Resistance- cause of ADD, diabetes, narcolepsy, etc etc

Insulin Resistance Insulin Resistance Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II, or adult, diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic? Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting? Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you. Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms. I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science. A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today. Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of the people taking ...
5 comments
Read more

Could Narcolepsy be caused by gluten? :: Kitchen Table Hypothesis

Kitchen Table Hypothesis from www.zombieinstitute.net - Heidi's new site It's commonly known that a severe allergy to peanuts can cause death within minutes. What if there were an allergy that were delayed for hours and caused people to fall asleep instead? That is what I believe is happening in people with Narcolepsy. Celiac disease is an allergy to gliadin, a specific gluten protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. In celiac disease the IgA antigliadin antibody is produced after ingestion of gluten. It attacks the gluten, but also mistakenly binds to and creates an immune reaction in the cells of the small intestine causing severe damage. There is another form of gluten intolerance, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, in which the IgA antigliadin bind to proteins in the skin, causing blisters, itching and pain. This can occur without any signs of intestinal damage. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a similar autoimmune reaction to gliadin, however it usually involves the...
19 comments
Read more

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed Scientists at John Carroll University, working in its Lighting Innovations Institute, have developed an affordable accessory that appears to reduce the symptoms of ADHD. Their discovery also has also been shown to improve sleep patterns among people who have difficulty falling asleep. The John Carroll researchers have created glasses designed to block blue light, therefore altering a person's circadian rhythm, which leads to improvement in ADHD symptoms and sleep disorders. […] How the Glasses Work The individual puts on the glasses a couple of hours ahead of bedtime, advancing the circadian rhythm. The special glasses block the blue rays that cause a delay in the start of the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Normally, melatonin flow doesn't begin until after the individual goes into darkness. Studies indicate that promoting the earlier release of melatonin results in a marked decline of ADHD symptoms. Bett...
Post a Comment
Read more