Saudi Arabia has begun trials against Islamic militants from Al-Qaeda. The kingdom has been the target of attacks in the past as the ruling family is not necessarily very popular amongst extremists. Most of those on trial are Saudi citizens who have been extradited from countries like Iraq. This is important not only in setting a precedent in Arabia and Persia, but also because of the potential blow back from the Saudi population. Only a short time ago the Saudi Government felt it was necessary to up the number of military guards which protect critical oil infrastructure. The man power was increased by a factor of six, bringing the total number of guards to around six thousand. There is almost no doubt that extremist Wahibi’s and Al-Qaeda alike will not stand for a trial or the sentences imposed. We may look for an internal crises resulting from such prosecutions. International oil trade could be significantly crippled if internal factions begin attacking the Saudi Government in earnest.
I wouldn’t even use Yahoo email in my personal life. I look down on those who use it for business. At least use Gmail (no offense Seth Godin). I view Yahoo email as tedious, clumsy, and no doubt a relic of those who simply cannot move with the times. It’s like that one friend you have that still uses AOL. Apparently Sarah Palin doesn’t feel the same way. And while I do not agree with someone hacking into her email account for political gain, she should not be using a Yahoo acount for government business. I mean she really is a soccer mom. What do you think of when you get a business card with a free mail service as the domain in the email address. They are either lazy, late adopters, or just out of touch. To think that someone would do such a thing for Government transactions is simply deplorable.
There really is something to be said when you outdo almost every service available, and thats exactly what Stormpulse has done. This is an incredibly neat way to really get a grasp on what is going on. Two guys, coding, beating NOAA.
It appears that China is gaining a fairly large foothold in the future production of Iraqi Oil. Sort of waters down the “all for oil” talk about the Iraq war. The positive here would certainly be that China will now have a set interest in that country. This should shift their future involvement in the growth, and security of Iraq’s future.
The WSJ printed an interesting article today, Why Obama Can’t Close the Sale. It is certainly a provocative look at the policies that are making some a little uneasy about the campaign line. Perhaps even more black and white was a very similar article published by Foreign Policy several days ago, Obama’s 10 Worst Ideas.
Foreign Policy is a publication which has never struck me as being bias any direction, perhaps it is. In any case it can be respected as being one of the most intelligent periodicals in wide distribution, so I tend to give it quite a bit of validity. There were some parallels between the two publications:
- Raising taxes on some and lowering for others.
- Promoting ethanol and coal while attacking petroleum
- Odd foreign policy positions
