Hot off the wire…

The Iranian Red Crescent has decided to send two aid ships to Gaza this week in the latest bid to break the blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory by Iran’s regional archfoe Israel.

Red Crescent director for international affairs Abdolrauf Adibzadeh told the state IRNA news agency late on Sunday that the decision to send the ships was taken after a meeting with the foreign ministry.

"One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week," Adibzadeh said.

He said the Red Crescent has called for Iranian volunteers to act as relief workers and accompany the vessels.

"Volunteers who want to go to Gaza and help the oppressed people of occupied Palestine can refer to the Red Crescent website and register," Adibzadeh said.

He said the initial plan was to send the ships through an intermediary country, but "based on a decision by the society, they will be sent directly." He added that the aid would consist of foodstuffs and medicines.

The Iranian Red Crescent had previously sent an aid ship carrying food and medicines to Gaza in December 2008 but it was prevented from reaching the territory by the Israeli navy.

The decision to send the two ships comes hot on the heels of a report that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards had expressed readiness to escort aid flotillas to Gaza.

"If the respected leader of the revolution (supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) gives an order in this regard, the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces will take a practical step using their capability and equipment to escort flotillas to Gaza," Khamenei’s aide in the Guards’ naval wing, Ali Shirazi, told the Mehr news agency on Sunday.

It was unclear, however, how the Guards would escort the flotillas as their naval wing is largely made up of speed boats and light vessels.

Stay tuned…!

I have posted about Pink Floyd Politics numerous times

Roger Waters newest youtube affirms what I would have said Pink Floyd would say about the flotilla business – have a look:

I won’t back off an inch from my Pink Floyd politics – why would I? As artists, they’re so consistently correct.

Next time BP whines about "who could have known?" the answer is: they could have, and they did.

See Karen Dalton Beninato’s expose with inside information leaked by someone with a conscience. [www.neworleans.com]

Highlights:

(1) They knew in the worst case that oil would hit the Louisiana shore within 30 days – they could have prepared, but didn’t.

(2) The PR people were given instructions to be careful not to promise that everything would return to normal – they knew it wouldn’t.

(3) They knew the Corexit dispersant was toxic, so prepared their PR people to say that its toxicity hadn’t been proven.

If only BP cared this much about safe drilling procedures as they do about public relations and their stock price — and I am specifically thinking here about the corners they cut when they withdrew the mud too soon from unset concrete, despite knowing this could make the whole thing fail.

See this Firedoglake exclusive showing that Halliburton and BP knew, in advance, of the dangers of cutting corners with unset concrete.

More, much more, available here on FDL’s Oil Resources Page and FDL’s Oil Resources Archives. Sadly, we expect this resource page to be active for a long time to come.

Who could have known? BP and Halliburton.