The Antarctic project is the biggest between US and British scientists since the 194os. Photograph: U.S. National Science Foundation/PA
British and US scientists are to collaborate on a £20m project to examine the Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica, a major glacier that drains an area about the size of the UK.
The collapse of the glacier could begin within the next few decades or centuries. Understanding more about the likely timing should help the researchers to predict future sea-level rises under global warming. The Thwaites glacier alone is thought to have accounted for about 4% of global sea-level rises, doubling its contribution since the mid-1990s
15 years after the invasion of Iraq, and now largely out of the glare of the media, US and UK oil corporations start to flaunt the spoils of imperial conquest.
After 15 years of repudiating claims that the invasion of Iraq was only initiated to seize Iraqi resources, large oil corporations fronted by former architects of the war who vacated to the private sector are flagrantly advertising their contracts for exploration and production of Iraqi oil fields to potential investors.
The British oil and gas company BP won the contract to operate the Rumaila Oil Field back in 2009, and now proudly boast of its new drilling capabilities on Twitter. Rumaila is simply huge; by some measures it is the third largest reserve of crude oil on the planet, and is currently extracting 100 million dollars worth of oil every day – enough to cover the annual health budget of Iraq under the wartime rule of the US coalition every five days.
One of the board members of BP at present is Sir John Sawers, the former Chief of MI6 from 2009 to 2014 who acted as UK special representative to Iraq during the occupation. He cashed in a few favours and joined BP as an Independent Non-Executive Director in 2015, one year after he departed MI6 and two years after BP had been handed a licence to exploit one of the most valuable pools of liquid gold on the planet. There was seemingly no regulatory oversight of this very British oligarchy.
In March 2003, just before Britain went to war, BP denounced reports that it had held talks with Downing Street about Iraqi oil as “highly inaccurate” and denied that it had any “strategic interest” in Iraq, while Tony Blair described “the oil conspiracy theory” as “the most absurd”.
However, memos disclosed by The Independent in 2011 tell a very different story. In a series of meetings in 2003, BP revealed that they had approached Labour Peer Lady Symons to lobby the Blair government into demanding a share of spoils from the Iraq War in return for UK military support.
Minutes of a meeting with BP, Shell and BG (formerly British Gas) on 31 October 2002 read: “Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis.”
The minister then promised to “report back to the companies before Christmas” on her lobbying efforts.
The Foreign Office also invited BP in on 6 November 2002 to talk about opportunities in Iraq “post regime change”. Its minutes state: “Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP is desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity.”
Not for the first time in their history (see the 1953 Iranian coup d’etat) BP succeeded in convincing the UK government to forcibly seize the resources of a sovereign foreign nation to bolster the share prices of large corporations like themselves. Cronies who endlessly spin around the revolving door between military/government positions like Sir John Sawers no doubt made a fair few quid in dividends and obscene salaries; in fact, Sawers is now a regular feature at Bilderberg conferences, rubbing shoulders with Hillary Clinton and George Bush. I imagine they got on famously.
The only cost was 100,000 Iraqi civilian lives.
At least now we can say conclusively that, yes, the Iraq War was about oil.
Mike Raddie for BS news was with us in the Democracy village peoples assembly of parliament sq occupation back in 2010. Campaign against the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - phoenix
The boy portrayed as a ‘victim’ in a video of the alleged chemical attack in Douma has told a Russian TV crew that he was asked to go to hospital, where people “grabbed” him and started “pouring water” over his head.
Panic, fear, screaming adults and frightened children featured in the purported footage of the aftermath following the alleged chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta city. The video has been circulated by mainstream media since April 7 after being posted by the so-called Douma Revolution group.
On Saturday 14 April, the UK joined the US and France in carrying out airstrikes against chemical weapons facilities in Syria. Despite the fact that only 25% of the British public back the move, the prime minister has received widespread support from many Conservative and Labour MPs who argue that so-called “humanitarian intervention” is required to prevent Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from continuing to massacre his population and breach international law.
The main problem with this argument is that it prescribes violent humanitarian intervention by heroic Western powers as the solution to the Syrian conflict, whilst totally failing to address the many ways in which those powers actively benefit from the continuation of war.
And boy do they benefit from war. Whether through weapons sales, illicit capital flows or conflict commodities, violence in the Middle East and the Global South often means excess profits in the Global North. And the UK is one of the greatest beneficiaries. From HSBC’s money laundering for Mexican drug cartels, to BAE Systems’ weapons sales to corrupt, repressive regimes, UK companies, supported by the UK government, play an active role in promoting violence around the world. Here’s how.
Hi all crew and folk of da tribe out there, we are on the final push too raise funds for the mobile Eco centre, if you’ve liked what we have done over the last 25 years then please donate or share and network this .We are on 67% of target at £1,024 we aiming for 1500 and if we go over we can get the larger size tent which is 38 x 28 rather than 30x20’ so please network share repost, email txt, tell a friend many thanks visualising abundance and many happy hours of music Events community and tea in our tribal tea tent love Phoenix https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/phoenix-eco-marquee?utm_id=107&utm_term=mEYPVqrX7
Bombed out civilian apartments once lived in by Islamist rebels in Douma
This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks – and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world’s most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There’s even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the “gas” videotape which horrified the world – despite all the doubters – is perfectly genuine.
Russiagate, Corbyn and the Crimes of the Corporate MediaMarch 21, 2018
BSNews Editors’ Trip to SyriaMarch 7, 2018
The planned smashing of SyriaMarch 1, 2018
