Newsgroups: alt.activism,misc.headlines,talk.politics.misc,alt.desert-storm
Subject: "Who Spilt the Oil?"
Distribution: world
Keywords: 

[PeaceNet forward from AML (ACTIV-L) -- see bottom for more info]
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Subject:      who spilt the oil?
/** mideast.gulf: 133.0 **/
** Topic: GULF OIL SLICK: WHOSE POLLUTION? **
** Written  9:57 pm  Jan 28, 1991 by gn:mspaven in cdp:mideast.gulf **
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               GULF OIL SLICKS:  USA 1, IRAQ 1

ITN Channel Four News at 7 p.m. tonight (Monday 28th January) said that,
while it seemed clear that the major oil slick in the northern Gulf was
the result of the opening of valves on two major oil tanks in Kuwait by
the Iraqis, the oil pollution on the beaches of north-east Saudi Arabia,
first reported on Friday, is the result of damage caused by US military
action.  Channel Four News said that the US authorities admitted this on
Friday, and it had been confirmed by Saudi oil officials.

This means that all the TV pictures of dead and dying cormorants and oil
washing the beaches of Saudi Arabia, which are being used as illustration
for stories about Iraqi environmental terrorism, are actually the result
of collateral damage to - or deliberate attacks on - Kuwaiti oil facilities
by US forces.  The action in question is believed to have been artillery
shelling of oil facilities in the vicinity of the border town of Khafji.

Khafji was the location of the first US allegations of deliberate Iraqi
sabotage of oil facilities.  The US said that the Iraqis had set fire to
an oil terminal, and distributed pictures of the blazing facility to
back up their claim.  Shortly afterwards they admitted that subsequent
intelligence reports showed that the Iraqis had simply set fire to open
pits filled with oil, and not to the installation itself.

POSTSCRIPT:  Radio Four News (BBC) this morning carried interviews with
RAF Tornado GR.1 crews from Dhahran, in which they confirmed that their
targets were Iraqi (Kuwaiti?) oil facilities.  Their targets were report-
ed to be well ablaze after their attacks.
** End of text from cdp:mideast.gulf **

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