Word: oiling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Since U.S. warships began escorting reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the dangerous waters of the Persian Gulf, the Reagan Administration has adamantly refused to justify the policy to Congress under the requirements of the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The controversial law is a minefield of its own: if Congress refused to authorize the President's actions, U.S. forces would have to be withdrawn within 60 days. But the Administration argues that the escort operation does not involve a situation "where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances," so the language of the resolution does not apply...
Elsewhere in the gulf the U.S. Navy was belatedly engaged in a similar operation, its first serious minesweeping attempt since the U.S. stepped up its military role in the area late last spring. After a convoy of three reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers and three U.S. warships began to make its way north through the gulf to Kuwait, it was disclosed that the vessels were protected by the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Guadalcanal and its RH-53 Sea Stallion minesweeping helicopters. The choppers, the same type used last week by Iran, flew ahead of the convoy, dragging mine-detecting sonar devices...
...militant rhetoric masks a policy of caution, at least toward the U.S. For all its bluster, Iran has shown no inclination to confront U.S. forces directly. So far, that taunt-and-run strategy has paid off nicely. The U.S. presence has stopped Iraqi air attacks on Tehran's oil tankers, allowing Iran to increase its shipments out of the gulf and thereby accumulate much-needed cash. "The Iranians would like things to stay the way they are for as long as possible," says a Western diplomat. The mines, he adds, are passive and untraceable, frustrating the U.S. escort mission while...
...successes. In 1983, one branch set up a helicopter surveillance project in Korea to monitor North Korean agents crossing the demilitarized zone at night. The same year, they supplied Bushmaster rapid-firing cannons to the CIA, which mounted them on speedboats and used them to blow up a Nicaraguan oil refinery. Also Seaspray transferred some of its special helicopters to the CIA; several Seaspray pilots left the Army and were hired by the CIA as civilian employees. They then flew the choppers in direct attacks on the Sandinistas...
...members, since holding out on one's fellows is a capital offense. Then the stones are usually sold to middlemen at the river's edge or in nearby towns and eventually wind up in the hands of smugglers. Every guaquero's dream is to find a large "drop of oil" stone -- one of great purity that could fetch thousands of dollars. Most of the treasure hunters, however, spend their days in extreme poverty, squandering what little they earn on liquor...