Figuring Out Who the Bad Guy Is

I hate to defend an oil company, but BP may not be the culprit here.

The Deepwater Horizon was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea for Transocean, which leases the platform to BP, which contracted with Halliburton to perform the cementing of the "well cap" which procedures may have caused the explosion which sank the platform and caused the oil spill.

It is sort of the equivalent of your leasing a Nissan from Hertz, having the accelerator stick, after which you run into a fire hydrant in a farmers' market, causing extensive water damage to all the goods. You [aka: BP] are at fault.  As some say, it happened on BP's watch, so they're responsible.

On the other hand, I'm all for having the oil industry spend some of those ill-gained profits to clean up this mess -- and for the government to start enforcing the industry safety regulations.

Now, let's add a different perspective to the situation.  

Our Russian Northern Fleet friends allege that none of the above is valid. They claim that the Deepwater Horizon was the target of a North Korean [NK] suicide sabotage operation, carried out via mini-submarine transporting elements of the NK 17th Sniper Corps. 

En route from Cuba to Caracas on 18 April, the NK M100D submarine [Yugo Class - length: 20 m], released a Sang-O mini-sub; on 20 April, the sub fired two incendiary torpedoes at the Deepwater Horizon, causing the rig's superstructure to explode.  Two days later, on 22 April, the mini-sub positioned itself under the rig, exploded, and caused the rig to sink.   The Washington reaction was to immediately dispatch SWAT teams and activate special response units from Fort Bragg, NC; initial media reports on these events abruptly ceased shortly after their appearance.

The question arises over how these submarines could have escaped detection by the US Navy.  

Reportedly, the North Koreans obtained sonar-absorbing technology from Russia consisting of chlorinated rubber/silicone, which enable the subs to avoid sonar detection.  

According to the US Office of Naval Intelligence, Iran is a prime customer of North Korea for these stealth submarines.

There is also speculation that the attack could have been carried out by environmental extremists using an Italian commercial mini-sub -- but those don't use stealth technology and would have been picked up by the USN sonar monitoring.

So, the plot thickens.  

Who's involved?  The usual suspects consist of North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and of course, Iran.

This should prove interesting.