Margo:

Ian McPherson was one of several dedicated Webdiarists who worked long and hard to move Webdiary from the Sydney Morning Herald website [1] to a [2]temporary site [3] before the final move here. He also donated a year's hosting. Ian's opening statement is Judging by the company we keep [3].

Ian joined Webdiary with well-informed, passionate articles about the dangers of Peak Oil long before the rest of the mainstream tuned in, triggering an intense and fascinating debate whihc saw me finally enter the fray in a 2004 Sun Herald column [4]. He also set up an activist group - 133 members - to get the facts out to the people. The group's website is http://sydneypeakoil.com/index1.html [5]

Welcome back Ian!  

PS: It's hard to find your PO pieces because Fairfax has mangled the Webdiary archive. Can you remember about when you first wrote a piece for Webdiary? 

UPDATE: Ian's first Peak Oil piece for Webdiary was Peak Oil and our government: what energy crisis? [6] (Feb 6, 2005) Michael Ekin Smyth responded in Horse dung up to our ears [7] (Feb 25, 2005)

     
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Saudi Arabian nationals comprise around 45% of the foreign militants targeting US troops, civilians and security contractors in Iraq. Of the remainder, 15% are said to be from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% from North Africa. According to the senior US military officer (who leaked the information) nearly half of the 135 foreign militants in US "custody" are Saudis.

Much more information was included in the article, but the statistics demolished the Bush administration's contention that Iran was the primary cause of US and civilian deaths in Iraq. Indeed, just as the 9/11 attacks were framed by the Bush administration as the work of the Iraqis, now the suicide bombings in Iraq are being framed by the Bush administration as the work of the Iranians.

See Saudis' role in Iraq insurgency outlined. Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a U.S. official says [8]

Flashback to 2002/3 – we'll never be fooled again, right?

Does Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most prolific oil exporters (along with Russia) have such control over the Bush administration, and by extension the US economy, that its influence can produce such political cover-up, dishonesty and propaganda? Can US foreign policy be so conflicted and corrupted that this scenario could be replayed to a world "one warned"? I think it could.

With control over Iraq, Iran and (poorly and indirectly) Saudi Arabia and the Caspian Sea, the US controls the "oil taps" of the planet, most of the warm water ports for the region that contains 2/3 of the world's oil reserves, and the future of world economic growth – most notably that of China.

Will Bush and his administration, many of them veterans of the oil industry, play the final card Bush has in his lame-duck deck? Will they attempt to place Iran under the military boot of the empire, forcing them not only to bow to the US' nuclear demands, but much more yet to be revealed?

Don't be surprised if it occurs...