Iran poised to strike in wealthy Gulf states
Will we see a walk on the Sunni Side or a Holy Shiite fight?
By Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:49am GMT 04/03/2007
Iran has trained secret networks of agents across the Gulf states to attack Western interests and incite civil unrest in the event of a military strike against its nuclear programme, a former Iranian diplomat has told The Sunday Telegraph.
Western interests in Dubai could be attacked the Iranian regime's agents
Spies working as teachers, doctors and nurses at Iranian-owned schools and hospitals have formed sleeper cells ready to be "unleashed" at the first sign of any serious threat to Teheran, it is claimed.
Trained by Iranian intelligence services, they are also said to be recruiting fellow Shias in the region, whose communities have traditionally been marginalised by the Gulf's ruling Sunni Arab clans.
Were America or Israel to attack Iran, such cells would be instructed to foment long-dormant sectarian grievances and attack the ex-tensive American and European business interests in wealthy states such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Such a scenario would bring chaos to the Gulf, one of the few areas of the Middle East that remains prosperous and has largely pro-Western governments.
The claims have been made by Adel Assadinia, a former career diplomat who was Iran's consul-general in Dubai and an adviser to the Iranian foreign ministry. They came as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, made a formal visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday in what was widely seen as an attempt to defuse growing Sunni-Shia tensions in the Middle East.
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Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of backing Shia death squads killing Sunnis in Iraq, and of backing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia in its efforts to bring down the government in Beirut. Meanwhile, a US naval build-up has continued in the Gulf waters south of Iran, a move intended to show Washington's readiness to strike against Teheran's nuclear installations for defying UN orders to cease uranium enrichment.
Mr Assadinia, who fled Iran after whistle-blowing on corruption among the country's all-powerful theocrats, said: "The Iranian government believes that to survive it needs permanent bases throughout the Middle East. Anybody who contemplates threatening or invading Iran will have those cells unleashed against them."
Mr Assadinia, 50, served for two years at the Iranian consulate in Dubai, which he says was also used as a conduit for illicit funding of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shia militant group that waged a six-week war with Israel last summer.
Iranian foreign ministry agents would regularly pass through with suitcases containing up to £11 million, using diplomatic baggage channels to bypass customs scrutiny.
"The amounts varied, but it would come through on average twice a month," he said. "I would see it sometimes. As far as I know, that money always went to Hezbollah."
His consulate, he said, was a hub for regional intelligence operations because of the huge number of Iranians working in Dubai, which is the main trade port for the Middle East. Its skyscrapers and industrial estates are home to 4,000 Iranian businesses, providing easy cover for espionage.
Other intelligence activities included running nightclubs and prostitution rings, where carousing officials and diplomats could be lured into "honey trap" blackmail operations, and organising Iranian expatriates - there are an estimated 500,000 in the Gulf - to act as double agents.
"People were encouraged to tell the Europeans that Iran wanted a good relationship with them, when in fact Iran was involved in terrorism," said Mr Assadinia. Asked whether it was an attempt to divert attention from a covert nuclear weapons programme, he replied: "Precisely".
Of greatest potential concern is his claim that Iran has established networks of agents to liaise with Shias across the Gulf, particularly in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Saudi Arabia.
Politically disfranchised Shia communities exist throughout the region. Teheran has backed their claims for more power ever since the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979, but could now also mobilise them as a way of deterring the Gulf's Sunni rulers from supporting American efforts to stop Iran's nuclear programme. Although most of the Gulf states oppose US intervention against Iran, privately they fear that a nuclear-armed Teheran would dominate the Middle East.
Allegations of Iranian agents operating in the Gulf have surfaced before, but it is rare for them to be spelt out in detail by a former regime official. Mr Assadinia named a hospital in Dubai - which The Sunday Telegraph has not identified for legal reasons - as one place where many doctors and nurses also worked for Iranian intelligence.
He left his post in Dubai in 2002 and was granted asylum in Europe a year later, having undergone "intimidating" interrogations by Iranian intelligence agents in Teheran. Mr Assadinia plans to give more detail of his claims at a meeting later this month at Westminster, organised by the British Awhazi Friendship Society, which lobbies Parliament, the European Union and the United Nations. He hopes his disclosures will encourage other Iranian officials to follow suit.
"The government sees itself as strong, but in fact it is like Saddam Hussein before he was overthrown - very fragile and brittle within," he added.
A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in London described Mr Assadinia's claims as "baseless and fabricated". He said the Iranian diplomatic presence in the Gulf was entirely legitimate and described the friendship society as an "illegal" organisation dedicated to stirring up trouble between Iran and its neighbours.
Showing posts with label OIL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OIL. Show all posts
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Corruption leaves Nigeria in the dark
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 2, 1:54 PM ET
LAGOS, Nigeria - Day and night, a mechanical roar shakes Nigeria's main city and exhaust hangs in the leaden equatorial skies. But it's not evidence of heavy industry or a mechanized army division advancing on Lagos. With corruption and mismanagement leaving Africa's oil giant chronically short of electricity, businesses and walled residential compounds run diesel generators that clatter around the clock, spewing dirty fumes skyward.
For the vast majority of Nigeria's 140 million people who don't have the means to provide their own juice, that means added din and filth and lives in near-perpetual gloom, illuminated only when the power grid flickers on.
"This situation is very, very unfortunate. We have so many natural and human resources. If we could just develop them, Nigeria should be very powerful," said Marcus Eruaga, a 55-year-old doctor in a Lagos clinic with darkened operating room and dormant X-ray machines.
"Nigerians are very ingenious. If you give an artisan light, he'll be successful," said the doctor, who switches on the generator when patients come for treatment. "People want to work."
In the markets of Lagos, Africa's biggest city with a population of 14 million, people are getting along as well as they can.
Tailors hunch over foot-pedaled sewing machines, their knees pistoning as their fingers ease fabric beneath a flashing needle. Knives are sharpened on hand-spun grinding stones. Children study near open windows, while inside concrete hovels, wicks smoke in pots of kerosene.
The power failures — called "lights out" — come frequently and unpredictably. Even jobs that don't need electricity can be onerous, without fans or air conditioners in noontime temperatures nearing 100 degrees.
Despite low labor costs, Nigeria has little manufacturing due to the high price of energy, among other factors.
Across Lagos, Nigerians blame their notoriously corrupt government for the electricity problems, saying their leaders steal funds earmarked for the country's generators.
The government acknowledges problems and says it's increasing generating capacity, but maintains nonpayment of bills, pilfering of power lines and tapping of fuel pipelines are also contributing factors.
In 1979, Nigeria had 79 generating stations. Twenty years later, after a series of ruinous military governments, only 15 were working, producing 1,500 megawatts of power. The government hopes to increase that nearly 100-fold within 25 years.
Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999, the government is seeking to privatize the state-run power company, the National Electric Production Authority — known as NEPA. Nigerians joke that NEPA actually stands for "Never-Ever Power Always" and say reforms under Obasanjo haven't come rapidly enough.
Across the energy sector in Nigeria, which produces some 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, shortages are common. Nigerians say this is emblematic of their country's defining paradox: Such great potential riches, such extensive poverty.
After years of neglect, many Nigerian oil refineries are rusting hulks, with little refining capacity. One of the world's biggest oil producers must import most of its gasoline, which is sold at a deeply subsidized price.
But demand frequently outstrips supply, leaving motorists parked in fuel lines that can last all day. Unscrupulous gas station owners buy subsidized gasoline and ship it to other countries, where it's sold for huge profits.
Attempts to end the subsidies — which Nigerians view as one of the only benefits derived from a government that fails to provide clean water, decent health care, streetlights and many other public services — have caused riots.
Nigerians, in the end, are forced fend for themselves. And the lack of electricity is particularly rankling for many, for without it they say they're living a preindustrial existence.
"Light is a general thing. It makes jobs and when it's not there, we're useless," says Alfred Elegbe, a television repairman in a Lagos slum.
The 35-year-old father of three estimates he could earn about $200 per month fixing televisions and DVD players if there was reliable electricity. He now clears only about $30.
At night, Nigerians say, their children must study by candle or kerosene-lamp light. The heat and motionless air makes it difficult to sleep. Without electricity, water can't be pumped through taps. Meat spoils in refrigerators. There's little entertainment.
"When the lights go, everything becomes so quiet," says Elegbe. "It's so boring."
When the power does come on, Nigerians spring into action, joining the modern world in a flash. They connect to the Internet and watch foreign television and movies, looking closely to see what life is like elsewhere.
Air conditioners hum, fans turn and businesses without diesel generators throw open their doors for business.
Deji Medi, 27, operates a decades-old printing press that he says was shipped to Nigeria years ago from Germany. Electrical current turns the machine into a dynamo of arms and belts, churning out numbered receipts for a landlord.
Medi reckons a computer and laser printer could probably do the job faster, but without a steady source of power, he can't justify the investment.
"This old machine, it doesn't work without electricity," he said. "Of course, the computers, they don't work either."
Turn oil wealth into national prosperity and a civil society -- a job for Kofi Anan in his retirement ?!
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 2, 1:54 PM ET
LAGOS, Nigeria - Day and night, a mechanical roar shakes Nigeria's main city and exhaust hangs in the leaden equatorial skies. But it's not evidence of heavy industry or a mechanized army division advancing on Lagos. With corruption and mismanagement leaving Africa's oil giant chronically short of electricity, businesses and walled residential compounds run diesel generators that clatter around the clock, spewing dirty fumes skyward.
For the vast majority of Nigeria's 140 million people who don't have the means to provide their own juice, that means added din and filth and lives in near-perpetual gloom, illuminated only when the power grid flickers on.
"This situation is very, very unfortunate. We have so many natural and human resources. If we could just develop them, Nigeria should be very powerful," said Marcus Eruaga, a 55-year-old doctor in a Lagos clinic with darkened operating room and dormant X-ray machines.
"Nigerians are very ingenious. If you give an artisan light, he'll be successful," said the doctor, who switches on the generator when patients come for treatment. "People want to work."
In the markets of Lagos, Africa's biggest city with a population of 14 million, people are getting along as well as they can.
Tailors hunch over foot-pedaled sewing machines, their knees pistoning as their fingers ease fabric beneath a flashing needle. Knives are sharpened on hand-spun grinding stones. Children study near open windows, while inside concrete hovels, wicks smoke in pots of kerosene.
The power failures — called "lights out" — come frequently and unpredictably. Even jobs that don't need electricity can be onerous, without fans or air conditioners in noontime temperatures nearing 100 degrees.
Despite low labor costs, Nigeria has little manufacturing due to the high price of energy, among other factors.
Across Lagos, Nigerians blame their notoriously corrupt government for the electricity problems, saying their leaders steal funds earmarked for the country's generators.
The government acknowledges problems and says it's increasing generating capacity, but maintains nonpayment of bills, pilfering of power lines and tapping of fuel pipelines are also contributing factors.
In 1979, Nigeria had 79 generating stations. Twenty years later, after a series of ruinous military governments, only 15 were working, producing 1,500 megawatts of power. The government hopes to increase that nearly 100-fold within 25 years.
Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999, the government is seeking to privatize the state-run power company, the National Electric Production Authority — known as NEPA. Nigerians joke that NEPA actually stands for "Never-Ever Power Always" and say reforms under Obasanjo haven't come rapidly enough.
Across the energy sector in Nigeria, which produces some 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, shortages are common. Nigerians say this is emblematic of their country's defining paradox: Such great potential riches, such extensive poverty.
After years of neglect, many Nigerian oil refineries are rusting hulks, with little refining capacity. One of the world's biggest oil producers must import most of its gasoline, which is sold at a deeply subsidized price.
But demand frequently outstrips supply, leaving motorists parked in fuel lines that can last all day. Unscrupulous gas station owners buy subsidized gasoline and ship it to other countries, where it's sold for huge profits.
Attempts to end the subsidies — which Nigerians view as one of the only benefits derived from a government that fails to provide clean water, decent health care, streetlights and many other public services — have caused riots.
Nigerians, in the end, are forced fend for themselves. And the lack of electricity is particularly rankling for many, for without it they say they're living a preindustrial existence.
"Light is a general thing. It makes jobs and when it's not there, we're useless," says Alfred Elegbe, a television repairman in a Lagos slum.
The 35-year-old father of three estimates he could earn about $200 per month fixing televisions and DVD players if there was reliable electricity. He now clears only about $30.
At night, Nigerians say, their children must study by candle or kerosene-lamp light. The heat and motionless air makes it difficult to sleep. Without electricity, water can't be pumped through taps. Meat spoils in refrigerators. There's little entertainment.
"When the lights go, everything becomes so quiet," says Elegbe. "It's so boring."
When the power does come on, Nigerians spring into action, joining the modern world in a flash. They connect to the Internet and watch foreign television and movies, looking closely to see what life is like elsewhere.
Air conditioners hum, fans turn and businesses without diesel generators throw open their doors for business.
Deji Medi, 27, operates a decades-old printing press that he says was shipped to Nigeria years ago from Germany. Electrical current turns the machine into a dynamo of arms and belts, churning out numbered receipts for a landlord.
Medi reckons a computer and laser printer could probably do the job faster, but without a steady source of power, he can't justify the investment.
"This old machine, it doesn't work without electricity," he said. "Of course, the computers, they don't work either."
Gunmen kill seven in Nigerian oil city: police
Fri Mar 2, 3:23 PM ET
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AFP) - Seven people were shot dead Friday and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt, the police said.
The unidentified gunmen entered the city aboard two buses, and blocked a busy junction before shooting sporadically at passersby, Rivers State police chief Felix Ogbaudu told journalists.
The shooting happened in the Port Harcourt's crowded market district known as "Mile 1", which also houses government and business offices.
Eight of the wounded were women, Ogbaudu said. He said police had arrested one suspect for questioning and recovered the buses.
Ogbauda said the motive for the attack and the group behind it were not immediately known.
Port Harcourt is the capital of oil-rich Rivers State, where dozens of foreign oil workers have been kidnapped over the past year.
Militant groups carried out bomb attacks in the city last year.
One high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), earlier this year stormed a police station in the city and released one of their leaders, who was being detained for a traffic offence.
WHAT A GREAT ACRONYM ---- "MEND"
Fri Mar 2, 3:23 PM ET
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AFP) - Seven people were shot dead Friday and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt, the police said.
The unidentified gunmen entered the city aboard two buses, and blocked a busy junction before shooting sporadically at passersby, Rivers State police chief Felix Ogbaudu told journalists.
The shooting happened in the Port Harcourt's crowded market district known as "Mile 1", which also houses government and business offices.
Eight of the wounded were women, Ogbaudu said. He said police had arrested one suspect for questioning and recovered the buses.
Ogbauda said the motive for the attack and the group behind it were not immediately known.
Port Harcourt is the capital of oil-rich Rivers State, where dozens of foreign oil workers have been kidnapped over the past year.
Militant groups carried out bomb attacks in the city last year.
One high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), earlier this year stormed a police station in the city and released one of their leaders, who was being detained for a traffic offence.
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