<Swan/+report> test to see if infoserver is echoing
messages to group +war. well all this info is probably old.
The iraqis caused an oil spill 8-10 miles long and a
couple miles wide. It's 12 times the size of that caused
by the exxon valdeez. It's not known if wells are actively
pumping into the gulf right now, or if they just dumped
stored reserves. If they're pumping at max capacity, it'll
get bigger by a factor every 3 days. in other words it
will be 13 times the size of the exxon valdeez in 3 days,
14 in 6, 15 in 9. (I realize I said that wrong). That's a
worst case. It's not possible to overstate how concerned
Bush seemed by this. I think he aged a few years last
night. the spill is not military significant, but
ecologically its a nightmare of course. There is some
concern about water problems, the oil might threaten
desalination plants. Yesterday the weather was much better
over iraq, so they set a record for the # of sorties in a
single day. 2700 I think. they launched 2 missiles at
saudi arabia today, and 7 at israel. (scuds). One hit in
israel, lightly wounding a bunch of people, killing 1. 1
person died in saudi. Patriots knocked out a whole bunch
of them. I just heard from Cheneys mouth that Bush has
something planned to deal with the oil spill. --mcneil
lehrer