Huge Oil Spill Swamps Philippines - Taklong Marine Reserve "Destroyed"

[hatrack]

LAPAZ, Philippines — Rescue workers battled on Wednesday to stop a huge oil spill from further polluting the central Philippine coastline as fishermen, smeared in the foul-smelling sludge, returned to shore with empty nets. "This is a major disaster. The natural marine sanctuary is destroyed. Tourism is greatly affected," Geary Barias, police director in the western Visayas region, told Reuters.

Fishing grounds, dive spots and a national marine reserve were contaminated and the livelihood of thousands of people threatened after a tanker carrying 2 million litres of bunker fuel sank off the coast of central Guimaras island on Friday. The provincial government has declared the tropical resort island a disaster zone and officials have warned that the spill, the largest to afflict the Southeast Asian country, could take three years to clear.

"It is very hard to recover the oil and the danger of the oil still coming out remains," Philippine Coast Guard chief, Vice-Admiral Arthur Gosingan, told a news conference. Officials have estimated that about 200,000 litres of fuel seeped from the submerged tanker, chartered by the Philippine' largest refiner Petron , producing a 20 nautical mile wide oil spill.

Some families have been moved away from the shores of Guimaras, about 470 kilometres (290 miles) south of Manila, as the industrial fuel, reeking of newly-cooked asphalt, washed up on beaches, staining sand and nearby trees. "We plan to leave this place temporarily because I cannot breathe," said 81-year-old Emiliano Tenaflor. Others remained behind to try to dam the thick, greasy liquid, using wood, bamboo, oil drums and tyres.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11070

[whistle]

1. Another neocon PNAC example of "creative disasters"?

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Steve Watson | December 12 2005

"In Strauss' view, you have to fight all the time ," said Drury. "In that respect, it's very Spartan. Peace leads to decadence. Perpetual war, not perpetual peace, is what Straussians believe in." Such views naturally lead to an "aggressive, belligerent foreign policy", she added.

The BBC earlier this year aired a series of documentaries that went some way to explaining the rise of the Neocon movement out of Straussian Philosophy. It was entitled the Power of Nightmares and concluded that the War On Terror is a complete fraud and Al Qaeda is a largely manufactured threat as part of the agenda to scare people into accepting the Neocon vision of the New World Order. You can watch all three parts by clicking here <link> http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm

This is how "crazy" the Neoconservative view is. It is a deeply pessimistic world view and they are constantly trying to make it a reality. They actually really believe that life on this planet is simply about death, destruction and gaining total Global Power over any other way of existence. In the early years of the Regan Administration, before the term Neocon was even coined these people were emerging. Witness Regan Pentagon adviser and former State Department and National Security Council man Michael Ledeen, who is quoted as saying : "Americans believe that peace is normal, but that's not true. Life isn't like that. Peace is abnormal."

In an influential essay in the National Review Online he asserts, "Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically ... it is time once again to export the democratic revolution."

All you have to do to predict where things are headed next is read the documents and policy reports that they put out. You don't even have to read into them if you don't want to. For example Michael Ledeen's last book was entitled Time to Focus on Iran -- The Mother of Modern Terrorism.
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http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2005/121205neocons.htm