Engineers Battle Insurgents in Oil Blasts

[Barrett808]

Engineers Battle Insurgents in Oil Blasts
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

KIRKUK, Iraq - Saboteurs wrecked a recently repaired pipeline junction Tuesday and the fire set off a cascade of power blackouts that underlined the frustrations faced by U.S. engineers trying to upgrade northern Iraq's creaky oil facilities in the face of relentless bombings.

The 3 a.m. attack blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River at the northern city of Beiji. The burning oil melted power cables, causing a short that knocked power plants off line and cut off electricity across Iraq until late afternoon, officials said.

The breach also shut down the pipeline ferrying crude oil from Kirkuk's huge oilfield to an export terminal in Ceyhan, Turkey. With crude oil selling above $40 a barrel, the frequent sabotage has cost Iraq more than $2 billion, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said.

"If you build it they will come — and try to blow it up," said Lt. Col. Lee Morrison, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer who heads a Kirkuk-based oil security team. "It's definitely one step forward, one step back. You fix it and it blows up."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040914/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_oil

[hadrons]

1. there's a hint in your own statement Lt. Col. Lee Morrison

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. the reason is there are not enought troops and police to protect them

"Mission.... undermanned"

[krkaufman]

5. Not sure if it's what you're referring to...

... but part of the problem is that *we're* building it.

If *we* build it.. they will blow it up.

Step one in stabilizing the country is to get as many Iraqis as possible working on solving their own problems, rather than paying foreigners to come in and run (ruin) everything.

[REVOLT823]

7. The ultimate problem is that we are stealing it and the

Iraqis know we are (re: the billions missing when CPA left). I think there strategy now is if we can't have it, than neither can you.

[movonne]

2. Just think of how much Halliburton is making....They just keep building.

[krkaufman]

4. "If you build it they will come — and try to blow it up"

Great line. But he might have wanted to clear that one with the WH, since it may not reflect so well on their "stability" illusion.

[karlrschneider]

6. They mean a "stable" paycheck for KBR/Halliburton.

:grr:
edit, typo