Oil Embargo

War's outcome is no cause for celebrationI am not celebrating the U.S. military victory over Iraq. I cannot celebrate the successful war for oil in the Middle East. On the contrary, this so-called victory is a disaster for the environment.It would have been better if the oil embargo had been allowed to last long enough to decrease the oil glut and force a change in our energy policies. But no, the military-industrial complex had to generate war fever in order to get a new lease on life and make big profits while protecting oil interests.

Lest any of you forgets that today is the 55th anniversary of the Japanese attack on American naval forces at Pearl Harbor, I feel compelled to remind you.It was indeed Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese -- led by Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto -- bombed Pearl Harbor in what has been described as a sneak attack. If you're Japanese, the attack on Pearl Harbor is the brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed pre-emptive strike to save Asia from white domination.That goes to show you how history can be rewritten from almost any point of view.

Growing up in Nigeria surrounded by oil wells, Owens Wiwa barely knew a fresh-water stream that wasn't covered by a film of petroleum. He remembers rain blackened by soot, farms ruined by spillage and oilfield fires so loud that they drove away wildlife.When he became a physician, Wiwa treated respiratory and skin diseases that he now links to pollution. His indigenous Ogoni people got little or no benefit from their underground wealth, not even electricity or piped water, he says.Now, from a North Baltimore studio apartment containing little more than a desk, a disheveled bed and a bookcase, Wiwa, 40, is trying to shake up Africa's most populous nation, campaigning for a boycott against the oil giant Shell and for an end to Nigeria's military dictatorship.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's oil production surpassed 8.2 million barrels a day last week and is expected to rise to 8.5 million barrels early next year, the highest in a decade, the Saudi oil minister,Hisham Nazir, said in an interview yesterday.The rise in Saudi production, along with increases by other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Nigeria and Iran, means that the estimated loss of 4 million barrels a day from Kuwait and Iraq as a result of the United Nations embargo has already been made up.But the significance of the Saudi increase is underlined by the factthat virtually all other major producers within OPEC and outside it, including the Soviet Union, Norway and Britain, have in the view of oil experts reached the limits of their capacity.

WASHINGTON -- An absent Russia became a key player at the Washington NATO summit yesterday, posing a potential threat to an oil embargo against Yugoslavia while holding center stage in efforts to keep the month-old war over Kosovo from getting bloodier.President Clinton challenged Moscow yesterday not to interfere with NATO ships that may be deployed to block oil deliveries to Yugoslavia. While promising that the alliance won't do anything likely to provoke violence, "we have to be firm about it," Clinton told reporters.

1971: Voting age becomes 18 1971: Pentagon Papers printed 1973: OPEC sets oil embargo 1975: U.S.-Soviet space linkup Pub Date: 12/08/99

WASHINGTON -- Turning a significant corner in its dealings with Iraq, the United Nations Security Council yesterday began discussing a French plan that calls for a lifting of the 8-year-old oil embargo and an easing of weapons inspections.The United States and Britain repeated their opposition to lifting sanctions unless Iraq disarms and discloses its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. But State Department spokesman James P. Rubin made clear that the French plan could serve as the basis for developing a new U.N. approach to Iraq.

Bart B. Chamberlain Jr., 93 Oilman, attorney Bart B. Chamberlain Jr., an oilman and attorney who fled the United States for Switzerland in 1989 to avoid paying a multimillion-dollar court judgment, died last Monday in the Bahamas, said his wife, Marilyn "Bootsie" Chamberlain. U.S. authorities had pursued him for years trying to collect a $19.4 million court judgment related to his violating pricing rules designed to combat the 1970s Arab oil embargo. Lawyers from the Justice Department formally gave up trying to collect the entire debt in 2002, and U.S. District Judge Anthony Alaimo issued an order officially closing the case.

WITH gasoline and heating oil prices reaching their highest levels in more than a decade, lawmakers in Washington want the administration to release oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. That would be a mistake. Created in 1975, the reserve was intended to be tapped for national energy emergencies similar to the 1973-74 oil embargo. The U.S. imports about 10 million barrels of oil a day -- more than half its consumption -- and is dependent on steady supplies of oil from the Middle East, Asia and Mexico.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- An oil embargo and other sanctions designed to help restore democracy to Haiti are killing as many as 1,000 children each month, according to a Harvard University study."