Here’s a little more about the recent auction of oil development contracts in Iraq. People are putting a happy face on it, but it doesn’t sound like it went too well.

• Iraq hails oil auction; major firms steer clear
• Contracts Awarded to Russian, Norwegian Firms on Last Day of Iraq Oil Auction
• No boon for U.S. firms in Iraq oil deal auction

Critics said the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq said was driven by oil, but United States oil majors were largely absent from an Iraqi auction of oil deals snapped up instead by Russian, Chinese and other firms.

Iraqi officials said this proved their independence from U.S. influence and that their two bidding rounds this year for deals to tap Iraq’s vast oil reserves, the world’s third largest, were free of foreign political interference.

Maybe it proves their independence, although I doubt it. Maybe it proves the war wasn’t about oil, but yeah, right. To me, this whole episode simply proves that the Iraq war was just as botched as we said it was from the beginning. After seven years, oil production is still crawling along, it’s hard to find investors, and we didn’t even manage to deliver a few plums to American oil companies. Bad enough we fought this war at all, but we made an even worse disaster than we had to. Good going, Bushies. Way to secure your legacy.

• The Military’s Plan For The Afghan War Surge, In One Giant Chart

More about Blackwater:

• Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret C.I.A. Raids

Notice how carefully phrased the denial is:

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Blackwater, said Thursday that it was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids with the C.I.A. or with Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.

So did they do it without a contract? Or under contract to someone else?

Here’s a new stealth drone operating out of Afghanistan. The Wikipedia article points out the most salient question: what’s it doing there?

• Wikipedia: RQ-170 Sentinel

The fact that the UAV is deployed to Afghanistan, in spite of the Taliban not possessing radar, has led to speculation that the aircraft is being used to spy on Pakistan or Iran.

And finally tonight, this:

• Iraq oil development rights contracts awarded

There’s been a lot of buzz about this story lately:

• Mexico at risk of ‘rapid collapse’

But this article provides some context that’s missing everywhere else:

• Mexico: The Coming Collapse

The report appeared in November 2008, and was intended for use in “long range planning guidance.” It was not meant to predict anything. Media sensationalists latched on to the comments about “rapid collapse” scenarios in the JFCOM speculative study and totally missed the point that this was a “what if?” scenario for planning purposes, not a prediction. JFCOM’s long-range planners thought Pakistan and Mexico were “worst cases” of rapid collapse. Okay, this is fodder for wargaming and long-range planning excursions. No doubt a Mexican collapse would have huge effects on the US. However, the direct comparison to Pakistan was a huge stretch.

Read the report yourself, if you want. The Mexican collapse scenario appears in exactly one paragraph out of 56 pages:

• Joint Operating Environment 2008

Been a long time since we visited the former Soviet periphery. Here’s a quick look around:

• Kosovo’s new armed forces take control of security
• Saatchi & Saatchi to spice up Kosovo’s image
• Russia Ready For Talks On OSCE Georgia Mandate
• Ukraine proclaims victory after Russia gas war

I’m sure this is nothing to worry about:

• Russia says old nuclear satellite poses no threat

If there’s any water on the moon, this is the place to look. Too bad we have to hitch a ride from India to find out.

• NASA Radar Provides First Look Inside Moon’s Shadowed Craters

Here’s some early evidence that Obama won’t do what you want without you making a stink about it (and maybe not even then- time will tell.) This is a draft of a plan that has lots of process ahead of it, but he didn’t have to move it forward at all:

• Offshore Drilling Proposal Moves Forward

And finally, here’s what you’ve been waiting for: PIRATES!

• Gunmen attack ship in Nigeria, kidnap worker
• Japanese taskforce approves naval mission to Somalia
• Warships and weather hamper Somali pirates

• Russia says U.S. mercenaries, others fought for Georgia
• The Return of ‘White Tights’: Mythical Female Snipers Stalk Russians
• Alleged Shooting Fuels Tensions Between Moscow And Tbilisi

• Three Germans detained related to attack on EU office in Kosovo
• Kosovo ‘to work’ with EU mission
• Kosovo again opposes EULEX plan; Albania airs doubts

• UN Extends EU Peacekeeping Mandate in Bosnia
• Bosnia Defence and Security Report 2008

• Moldova’s Territorial Integrity Key Principle for Transdniestrian Settlement – U.S. Ambassador

• Ingushetia in ‘state of civil war’

• NATO eyes face-saver for Ukraine, Georgia

• Ukraine to prospect for gas on Black Sea shelf – PM Tymoshenko

• A court blocks an Arctic Ocean drilling plan by Shell

• Saudi owners ‘talking to pirates’
• India destroys pirate ship off Somalia
• German Navy: Twice Repelled Pirate Attacks Off Somalia Coast
• Chemical tanker was hijacked on Saturday – IMB
• Confusion surrounds Greek bulker capture
• Blackwater gunboats will protect ships

And your space roundup today is all hands-on. No pretty pictures from Hubble or exciting new discoveries, just the work of making it all happen. Or not, as the case may be.

• Lost in Space: Astronaut’s Toolbag Floats Away During Spacewalk
• Spider Missing Aboard International Space Station
• Astronauts hitch giant crate to space station
• What to do with rotten, smelly garbage when the nearest dumpster is 100 million miles away
• NASA Tests Deep Space Internet
• NASA OIG Report: NASA’s Most Serious Management and Performance Challenges

And as long as I’m here:

• Turkey, Exxon to sign Black Sea oil deal Weds
• Gazprom Seeks Oil Majors As Partners For Arctic LNG Projects

The Stuart News reported that Ricci was being held down by six or seven offended parishioners when deputies arrived at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Jensen Beach. Police say two parishioners, ages 82 and 61, received minor injuries in the scuffle.

Enviro-ish stuff:

Faced with rising sea levels, the Maldives seek new homeland

Were these countries to be evacuated, the legal status of the global warming diaspora would be unclear. The same goes for that of a submerged country’s sovereignty. No nation in recorded history has peacefully relocated its entire population and remained intact, and, as National Geographic pointed out in 2005, environmental refugees are not recognized by international law.

Not So Green: Voters Nix Most Environmental State Ballot Measures
Critical Mass Transit: Major mass-transit initiatives did well in U.S. election

IEA stokes doubts over world’s climate fight
Peak Oil: You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide From Higher Oil Prices

Wood War Bike
Metro, BTA support bike tax concept

And what’s a day without pirates? Things are heating up off of Somalia:
Royal Navy in firefight with Somali pirates

Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.

By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.

And here are three pirate stories from other parts of the world:
Pirates release 10 hostages kidnapped near Cameroon
Pirates Attack Sailboat in Venezuela
Pirates target slow barges (Singapore)

Ukraine reverses ban on Russian TV channel
South-East Ukraine Refused to Disconnect Russia’s TV Channels

Ukraine Hasn’t Breached International Laws When Supplying Weapons to Georgia

Georgia’s Saakashvili sacks military chief
Georgian Cluster Bombs Killed Civilians: Report
Ossetians fiercely resisted Georgian invasion

“The Georgians were in their tanks with the hatches down, driving on streets which they did not recognize,” said Vitaly, a 32-year-old policeman-reservist who was wounded during the recent fighting. “We live in this city all of our lives; we know every alley, every sewer, every hiding place. They could have been here for 10 years and they could not crush the resistance.”

Spiral of violence cripples Russia’s Ingushetia
Russia replaces Ingushetia leader

Kazakhstan starts transporting oil by Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
EU energy chief toTurkey for Nabucco pipeline talks

Here’s some all-purpose mayhem for you:
Knifed 666 times each and eaten

Police believe the teenagers were cooked in the flames before their flesh was devoured…. Their private parts had also been cut off in the sickening ritual in a rural area of Russia.

Nigerian militants launch new attacks in “oil war”
Peak Oil, or Just Peak Oil Prices?

So the question is—what does $90 oil do to all the revolutionary changes that were so urgent when oil was flirting with $150? Has the gasoline-fueled, air-conditioned American way of life that was under siege two months ago gotten an eleventh-hour reprieve? Or, like those quiet few minutes in the middle of a hurricane, is the recent oil-price tumble just the calm before the rest of the storm hits?

Receding Waters Leave Toxic Mix
Bear vs. Bike: Cyclist Hits 300-Pound Black Bear

The Future of America’s Space Corps
NASA PAO Wants Everyone To Know Who Pays The Bills Back Home
Nasa selects Mars climate mission
NASA awards $485M Mars project delayed by conflict

The price of the probe increased by $10 million, its launch was postponed by two years, and the science-gathering mission will be cut in half to one year, an official said. NASA chose the University of Colorado’s proposal to study the Martian atmosphere from 20 other ideas to study Mars that were trimmed to just two before a conflict of interest was declared.

UFO sightings connected to Large Hadron Collider experiment?
UFO link to orange lights
UFO mystery in Mill End

This one’s for the incomparable Trevor Blake, so he knows that people are still paying attention:
Quote of the Day: Bucky Fuller on How We Live

“Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time.
Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time.
Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time.
It’s time we gave this some thought.”

Hackers block Qaeda’s 9/11 terror on tape

Georgia Offers Fresh Evidence on War’s Start
GEORGIA: FLAWS FOUND IN TBILISI’S WAR PLANNING AND OPERATIONS
DID SAAKASHVILI LIE? The West Begins to Doubt Georgian Leader

And finally, one more post-Soviet hotspot to keep an eye on:
Russian fleet kicks off exercises in Baltic Sea
Wikipedia: Kaliningrad Oblast

You won’t find Transdniestr on a European map because officially it doesn’t exist. In reality, however, it does, and here in Chisneau a babushka was selling bus tickets to where I wanted to go.

“Tirsapol! Bender!” she called out, naming Transdniestr’s two biggest cities.

It was a promising start but when I asked for a ticket to Tiraspol the babushka demanded my passport, flicked through its pages and handed it back. “No ticket,” she said, shaking her head. “You need invitation.”

Russian troops withdraw in western Georgia
Second Georgian policeman killed in Abkhazia
Tbilisi claims ethnic cleansing of Georgians

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria said the incident occurred late Friday after Ossetian paramilitaries set fire to ethnic Georgian homes in two South Ossetian villages, Koshka and Disevi.

“Then they poured kerosene on several residents of the villages and told them to leave,” Bokeria told the Associated Press.

EC: Kosovo heading for EU

He said that in the next two or three months dicussions would begin on Kosovo at the European Commission (EC), stressing that the province was part of this process, even though it had still not signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA).

Oil flow resumes at BTC pipeline after technical failure in Turkey

OK, more cheerful stuff tomorrow. Unless I have too much fun tonight, in which case, you should be cheerful for me.

Somalia: Who`s to blame for piracy spiraling out of control?
Canada Navy to escort Somalia food aid ships

Saakashvili ex-ally demands probe of Georgia war
Documents: Russia impeding South Ossetia monitors
UN raises number of uprooted in Georgia to 192,000

Moscow eyes Afghanistan in fear
Technical failure halts oil flow at BTC pipeline
West warns Serbs over quitting Bosnia power company

RIP, AFRICOM?

Russia says it must stake claim to Arctic resources
As sea ice melts, open water encircles the Arctic

In early September, two normally ice-clogged sea routes in the Arctic Ocean were open at the same time. It’s the first time in recorded history that this has happened.

Watch a dust devil spin in Martian arctic
US space woes felt by Europe
China counts down to space launch
Mike Griffin’s Exclusive Off The Record China Briefing
NASA Talking Points: The Urgency of NASA’s Need for Legislation to Continue to Purchase Soyuz Crew Vehicles From Russia

NASA needs Congress to provide legislative extension allowing purchase of Russian Soyuz crew vehicles to support astronauts on the International Space Station by October 2008 or else NASA will have no choice but to de-crew all U.S. astronauts from the International Space Station in 2012.
…
NASA needs this legislative extension by October 2008. The development and utilization of the International Space Station has been a cornerstone of U.S. space policy and international leadership since President Reagan first announced the program in 1984. We need the help of Congress to capitalize on our Nation’s $50 billion investment in space leadership.

Industry to Congress: Renew the Expiring Clean-Energy Credits
Bye-Bye, Miss American Pyro: Eco-vandal pleads guilty to 1999 arson at Michigan State University