one of these journalists is a reporter working named dan euroe and. spent months in the country,ch t including much time with the armed opposition. here is how he described it recently, and i quote, thede regime and its supporterscily ad describe the opposition, especially on opposition, musl m brotherhood, supporters, moslem brotherhood supporters, terrorists, this is just not true. t it is worth noting that all the fighters i met were soon the muslims, and most were pious.f the multitude of reasons,rhds, friends, neighborhoods, villages, apartments, revenge, y self-defense, dignity, their brethren and other parts of the country who are alsong fighting. they do not read religious literature or listen to salmon's they're views on as long are consistent with the general attitudes of syrian and sudanesi society which is conservative and religious. there are many small groups insu the armed opposition. it is difficult to describe their aetiology in general terma .rhoodol the muslim brotherhood ideologies is not important inot syria and did not play signi

euro crisis on the one hand, and perceived stress on the supply side on the other. at the beginning of the year this began to change. between january 1 and march 9 as dan and howard said prices rode $20 a barrel. for the past two weeks prices have been bouncing around in a new higher band and yesterday closed bat $124. the price this morning at 8:00 was $125.04. economic improvement in the u.s. and elsewhere well as weather events contribute. the concerns about supply stability were als apparent. and iranian threats to close the strait of hormuz drove much of that increase. when you look at figure 2, and i know this has been an issue that senator franken has looked at, given the up side commodity investments have increased. not unlike what occurred in 2008 and 2007. the bottom line with the near term the current psychology of the market is supportive of keeping prices at a higher level. i think the psychology is important. you look at prices the old fundamentals supply, demand and inventory. now we're looking at current prices, future prices, weather, crude oil quality and this idea of breaking market momentum is really important when you see ups and d