Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Posted here Tuesday, March 30, 2004 at 6:09:29 PM     This could be the equivalent of the Madrid Bombing. OPEC May Ratify Output Cuts, Sending Crude Oil Prices Higher http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&;sid=apv78X979BaI&refer=uk March 31 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC at a meeting today may leave in place production cutbacks planned for next month, six ministers said, a decision that may send oil prices in New York above $40 a barrel to reach levels last seen in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. OPEC has ``had a stranglehold on this market for a very long time, so to doubt them is not a very smart move,'' said Edward Silliere, vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York. Oil prices may rise to $40 or $42 a barrel later this year as a result of OPEC's plan, he said. ********

Posted here Tuesday, March 30, 2004 at 9:12:17 AM     Sometimes those who are at a distance can see more clearly. And it is importnat to note that the NYT, printing this, is taking a stand it badly missed the day after Clarke's meeting with the 911 commission, when the Times seemed not to see the significance of Clarke's speech http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/international/europe/29SPIEGEL2.html ichard Clarke, Washington's director of counter-terrorism for many years, has delivered a devastating condemnation of the Bush administration with his sensational revelations. The whole affair reads like a script for a catastrophic film in the best Hollywood tradition: The White House is in panic and a heavily armed Secret Service team quickly whisks Vice President Richard Cheney to a nuclear bunker and command post underneath the White House; its principal tenant, George W. Bush, jets through the skies above the Midwest in his enormous Air Force One, searching for a safe place to land. And this review of Clarke's book this morning's Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/books/review/0411books-risen.html    ********