Oil Prices Jump After Saudi Arabia Reports Drone Attack On Pumping Stationshttps://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/investing/oil-prices-saudi-drone-attack/index.htmlOil prices climbed on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia reported "armed drones" attacked two pumping stations in the kingdom, underscoring rising tensions in the Middle East.
US oil prices rose 1.4% even though Saudi Aramco told CNN that the attack caused "no damage to oil production, no oil spills or injuries." Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped 1.6%.
Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's state-owned oil company, told CNN that the drone attack targeted two pumping stations located between Riyadh in the east and Yanbu in the west. Only one of the pumping stations suffered "minor damage," Aramco said.
--------------------------------
U.S. Government Claims Iran Is Behind Attacks On Oil Tankers, But Has Yet To Show Evidencehttps://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27992/u-s-government-claims-iran-is-behind-attacks-on-oil-tankers-but-has-yet-to-show-evidenceThe news of comes amid a report that the Pentagon revised a contingency plan that includes sending 120,000 troops to respond to Iranian aggression. ... Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan presented an updated contingency plan to President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials on May 9, 2019, regarding how the U.S. military could respond if Iran or its proxies were to follow through with any attacks, or if that country were to begin work toward building a nuclear weapon.
The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said. ... It is unclear whether the president has been briefed on the number of troops or other details in the plans.
Deploying such a robust air, land and naval force would give Tehran more targets to strike, and potentially more reason to do so, risking entangling the United States in a drawn out conflict.... The previous version of the Pentagon’s war plan included a classified subset code-named Nitro Zeus, a cyberoperation that called for unplugging Iran’s major cities, it power grid and its military.... a cyberattack, without dropping bombs, carries significant risk. Iran has built up a major cyber corps of its own, one that successfully attacked financial markets in 2012, a casino in Las Vegas and a range of military targets. American intelligence officials told Congress in January that Iranian hackers are now considered sophisticated operators who are increasingly capable of striking United States targets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/world/middleeast/us-military-plans-iran.html----------------------
Operation Northwoods (... just sayin')-------------------------