Debt Rattle September 16 2019
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Pablo Picasso Night fishing at Antibes 1939 • Trump Says US ‘Locked And Loaded’ As Iran Blamed For Saudi Attack (AP) • Liquidity Dies in Darkne
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 16 2019]Pablo Picasso Night fishing at Antibes 1939
Love it.I think we’re all bozos on the same bus…
…comes to mind. (Firesign Theater: 1971)
It’s true.
But so few of us realize it…And now Iran captures a UAE-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Way to go.
There are many reasons by many factions for the attack on the oil refineries. Only a very organized group of +20 operators could keep it a secret and have enough money to carry out this attack.
Here is a good reason to do the attack.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/saudis-considering-delaying-aramco-ipo-output-recovery-expected-take-longer
Saudis Considering Delaying Aramco IPO As Output Recovery Expected To Take LongerHere is some logic for thinkers to considerr
Most drones are made in ???
Should ??? be blamed for the attack?
Should the USA attack ???? for making those drones?The USA sold billions of war machines to UAR
Should the USA be blamed for the deaths from those war machines?
Should the USA be attacked for causing those deaths?
Should the world condemn the USA for murdering?https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-bin-laden-son-killed-20190914-mh2xqsdhzbe3vjsiwcccylboie-story.html
White House says the son of Osama bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. operationPoor Houthis. They finally got together the skills and equipment to hit key Saudi targets, and then do it, and then everyone denies they did it. They showed video, Iran denied it all, but no, Pompeo says it couldn’t have been them. Can’t catch a break those guys.
The thing about this is they’ve been killed in their Yemen slaughterhouse for a very long time, and they’ve always known where KSA is vulnerable. In that sense, it’s obvious what they would do, and where. And just because of how long they’ve outlasted the barbarious attacks, you’d think it would be obvious they have capabilities. But no, it was Iran, who had just been given hopes of easing sanctions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-16/photos-that-show-how-attack-crippled-saudi-arabia-s-oil-output
The U.S. administration released images on Sunday that it said highlights the precision and sophistication of the attack on Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil-processing plant at Abqaiq.One photo appears to show a row of four spherical tanks each with similar puncture marks, indicating a highly accurate strike. Those vessels are important because they are part of a process to remove hydrogen sulfide, a highly corrosive chemical that needs to be taken out of crude before it can be refined. Without that, most refineries would struggle to process Saudi crude.
This wider angle view shows damage to other parts of the Abqaiq complex, where there were 17 different points of impact, according to the U.S. government.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-black-swan-is-drone.html
(Some published estimates place the total cost of the 10 drones deployed in the strike at $15,000. Highly capable commercially available drones cost around $1,200 each.)
This is asymmetric warfare on a new scale: $20,000 of drones can wreak $20 million in damage and financial losses of $200 million–or $2 billion or $20 billion, if global markets are upended.
If it’s impossible to defend against coordinated drone attacks, and impossible to differentiate “good” drones from “bad” drones, then the only reliable defense is to ban drones entirely from wide swaths of territory.Small hobby drones may only carry 3 KG (roughly 6 pounds), but how much damage can 3 KG of high explosives cause? The answer is “considerable” if the target is flammable, or lightly shielded electronics.
The mainstream media will be under permanent pressure to downplay the consequences of this attack, but the cat is out of the bag: the Black Swan is a drone. What was “possible” yesterday is now a low-cost proven capability, and the consequences are far from predictable.
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/global-resource-war.html
Satellite images say it will take months to fix the extensive damage done by the drones and cruise missiles.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/declassified-satellite-images-reveal-it-would-take-months-fix-saudi-oil-facilityMoon of Alabama has more specific details of the precisely targeted damage today.
Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack
Saturday’s attack on the Saudi oil and gas processing station in Abqaiq hit its stabilization facility:
The stabilization process is a form of partial distillation which sweetens “sour” crude oil (removes the hydrogen sulfide) and reduces vapor pressure, thereby making the crude oil safe for shipment in tankers. Stabilizers maximize production of valuable hydrocarbon liquids, while making the liquids safe for storage and transport, as well as reduce the atmospheric emissions of volatile hydrocarbons. Stabilizer plants are used to reduce the volatility of stored crude oil and condensate.
The pictures show some 17 points of impact. There are cars visible in the second more detailed picture that demonstrate the gigantic size of the place. The targets were carefully selected. At least 11 of those were egg shaped tanks with a diameter of some 30 meter (100 foot). These are likely tanks for pressurized (liquidized) gas that receive the condensate vapor from the stabilization process. They all have now quite neat holes in their upper shells.
The piping to and from the egg shaped tanks shows that these were configured in groups with double redundancy. Two tanks beside each other share one piping system. Two of such twin tanks are next to each other with lines to their processing train. There are a total of three such groups. Damage to any one tank or group would not stop the production process. The products would be routed to another similar tank or group. But with all tanks of this one special type taken out the production chain is now interrupted.
Two processing areas were hit and show fire damage. At least the control equipment of both was likely completely destroyed...
The hits were extremely precise. The Yemeni armed forces claimed it attacked the facility with 10 drones (or cruise missiles). But the hits on these targets look like neither. A total of 17 hits with such precise targeting lets me assume that these were some kind of drones or missiles with man-in-the-loop control. They may have been launched from within Saudi Arabia. (Distant launch with nearby control?)
There is no information yet on the damage in Khurais, the second target of the attacks.
The U.S. and Israel are able to commit such attacks. Iran probably too. Yemen seems unlikely to have this capability without drawing on extensive support from elsewhere. The planing for this operation must have taken months...
U.S. President Donald Trump was way more careful in attributing the strike than his Secretary of State.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – 0:50 UTC · Sep 16, 2019
Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!
Any direct attack on Iran would result in swarms of missiles hitting U.S. military installations in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Saudi water desalination plants, refineries and ports would also be targets.
It is doubtful that Trump or the Saudis are ready to risk such a response...
Saudi Arabia has no defenses against this kind of attacks. The U.S. has no system that could be used for that purpose. Russia is the only country that can provide the necessary equipment. It would be extremely costly, and still insufficient, to protect all of the Saudi’s vital facilities from similar swarm attacks.
Attacks of this kind will only end when Saudi Arabia makes peace with Yemen and when the U.S. ends its sanctions of oil exports from Iran. As Iran’s President Rouhani said:
“If one day they want to prevent the export of Iran’s oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf”
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/damage-at-saudi-oil-plant-points-to-well-targeted-swarm-attack.html#moreHouthis Say It’s Not Over – Saudi Oil “Still Within Range”; Iraq Denies Its Territory Used
While US officials were quick out of the gate to allege an Iranian attack on Saudi Aramco facilities launched from Iraq early Saturday, a theory which the WSJ said was focus of an ongoing US-Saudi investigation, Iraq’s government issued a firm denial on Sunday, which followed Iran’s own denial that condemned Washington’s “maximum lies”.
Saying there was no link to Iraqi soil and the attack which caused oil prices to spike to record levels the moment markets opened, initially surging to as much as 18% before retreating after President Trump authorized use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to “keep the markets well-supplied,” the Iraqi government further vowed to “punish anyone who intended to use Iraq as a launchpad for attacks in the region.”
Despite Yemen’s Houthis themselves claiming responsibility for the precision strike using ten drones, unleashing explosions that rocked Abqaiq facility and the Khurais field, US officials have long eyed Iraq’s Shia paramilitary forces also as bad actors which Iran deploys as proxies from Iraqi soil.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/houthis-say-its-not-over-saudi-facilities-still-within-range-iraq-denies-its-territory”Iranian Weapons Used”, Saudi Arabia (Duh)
Update: It’s official — after Trump over the weekend put the ball squarely in the Saudis’ court, saying the US was “waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!” — Saudi Arabia has responded by saying it was indeed Iran, confirming that “Iranian weapons” were used to attack its oil facilities.
After the US apparently ruled out Iraq as a launching pad on Monday, following Baghdad’s firm denial, it looks like Riyadh appears to be pointing to a potential direct cruise missile or drone attack from Iran.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/houthis-say-its-not-over-saudi-facilities-still-within-range-iraq-denies-its-territory
Charles Hugh Smith says “The Black Swan is a Drone”:
What was “possible” yesterday is now a low-cost proven capability, and the consequences are far from predictable.
Predictably, the mainstream media is serving up heaping portions of reassurances that the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities are no big deal and full production will resume shortly. The obvious goal is to placate global markets fearful of an energy disruption that could tip a precarious global economy into recession.
The real impact isn’t on short-term oil prices, it’s on asymmetric warfare: the coordinated drone attack on Saudi oil facilities is a Black Swan event that is reverberating around the world, awakening copycats and exposing the impossibility of defending against low-cost drones of the sort anyone can buy.
(Some published estimates place the total cost of the 10 drones deployed in the strike at $15,000. Highly capable commercially available drones cost around $1,200 each.)
The attack’s success should be a wake-up call to everyone tasked with defending highly flammable critical infrastructure: there really isn’t any reliable defense against a coordinated drone attack, nor is there any reliable way to distinguish between an Amazon drone delivering a package and a drone delivering a bomb.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-black-swan-is-drone.htmlOops, Zerosum got Charles Hugh Smith’s “Black Swan is a Drone” article in just before my screen refreshed after I sent my news dredge. No intentional redundancy…
My favorite drone delivery system is “re-useable”
Check out this cheap version to deliver explosives.
The new drone can fly vertically, like a helicopter, and in a new, aerodynamic airplane mode
By James Vincent and Chaim Gartenberg Jun 5, 2019, 1:23pm EDTThe new drone uses a combination of thermal cameras, depth cameras, and sonar to detect hazards. With the help of machine learning models, onboard computers can automatically identify obstacles and navigate around them. “From paragliders, power lines, to the corgi in your backyard, this drone has safety covered,” said Wilke.
Amazon claims its goal for the finished Prime Air service is create “fully electric drones that can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages under five pounds to customers in less than 30 minutes.”
Much of this impact can be blamed on the use of depleted uranium munitions by U.S. forces.
Slow genocide. A crime against humanity. Using Iraq as a freebie dump for radioactive waste.
15 miles: Nice drones if you have neighbor issues, zero, but that’s it. The Houthis need a whole other level
SAUDI
This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!
The idea that a fleet of slow moving drones could wander across Saudi Arabia, bomb a facility, and wander back out again, without being detected, let alone intercepted, seems totally unbelievable.
The Saudis had no idea where they came from or where they went to, which meant their radar systems must have been inoperative. The Patriot missile systems failed to detect and intercept the drones. No fighters were scrambled to destroy them even after the event.
Despite spending hundreds of billions on Western weapons Saudi Arabia was totally defenseless!
If the Saudi systems were working normally then the drones MUST have been completely stealthy and WERE undetectable. That should be worrying!
I remember reading about a research paper from a US/Chinese team which described how to make anything stealthy – I think it involved a tunable mesh on the craft’s surface to absorb radar waves. Perhaps.
If these drones are undetectable then it explains how the Houthis obtained them – they simply flew there!
If the drones were Iranian [from wherever] then they defeated all of Saudi Arabia’s advanced weapons systems – the implications are truly enormous. No country would be safe. Also, the bombs seem to be extremely accurate.
Alternatively, if the drones were US or Israeli flying out of Iraq then the US could have turned off all of the Saudi’s defense systems.
Could an Amazon type drone have been used?
Someone thinks so ….
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/damage-at-saudi-oil-plant-points-to-well-targeted-swarm-attack.html#moreThe hits were extremely precise. The Yemeni armed forces claimed it attacked the facility with 10 drones (or cruise missiles). But the hits on these targets look like neither. A total of 17 hits with such precise targeting lets me assume that these were some kind of drones or missiles with man-in-the-loop control. They may have been launched from within Saudi Arabia.
If you want to keep a secret you need to limit the number of people in the “know”.
The U.S. and Israel are able to commit such attacks. Iran probably too. Yemen seems unlikely to have this capability without drawing on extensive support from elsewhere. The planning for this operation must have taken months.
Saudi Arabia has no defenses against this kind of attacks. The U.S. has no system that could be used for that purpose. Russia is the only country that can provide the necessary equipment. It would be extremely costly, and still insufficient, to protect all of the Saudi’s vital facilities from similar swarm attacks.
Ilargi re depleted uranium: “A British doctor who co-authored two studies on the environmental impact of U.S. military operations in Fallujah said that the city’s population suffers “the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied.”
Also Ilargi, from Wikipedia ” A 2005 epidemiology review concluded: “In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU.”[13]
POMPEO, TRUMP SAY IRANIAN DRONES COMPLETELY IMPERVIOUS TO PATRIOT MISSILE SYSTEMS – WESTERN WEAPONS INEFFECTIVE
[Well, in effect!]
If it’s impossible to defend against coordinated drone attacks, and impossible to differentiate “good” drones from “bad” drones, then the only reliable defense is to ban drones entirely from wide swaths of territory.
zerosumBut it is not impossible to defend against swarms of drones; Russia has done it repeatedly at their Syrian, Hmeimim air base.
The Russian Pantsir – S1 AA system has been hugely successful against exactly that; swarms of drones. Only one very minor failure occured and the damage was negligible.
The Pantsir system was designed for exactly those kind of attacks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantsir_missile_systemIlargi: How is that “Oops”? Tons of stuff you post has been in Debt Rattles before.
John: Yeah, but intentionally for completion. I usually try to leave out what’s up today, unless it is core to the progression of ideas. This is one of my go-to sites, and has been since early 2008.
You, Ilargi, have been a tutor.
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