The Cutting Edge

Jim Woolsey and President Bush.

In a special ceremony at the massive Washington International Renewable Energy Conference Former CIA Director and Set America Free co-founder Jim Woolsey picked up the keys to his newly converted Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

Woolsey's Prius was upgraded by Watertown, MA-based A123 Systems using an advanced Lithium-Ion battery developed at MIT. The conversion allows the Prius to achieve 100+ MPG and travel up to 40 miles on predominantly electric drive from one overnight charge. Each charge takes about 4 hours and costs about 65 cents in suburban Maryland.

"And if my Prius had an ethanol, other alcohol, or bio-based diesel engine using 85 percent biofuels," said Woolsey, "I would get close to 500 mpg on the petroleum fuel in the engine."

Woolsey's auto upgrade came on the same day that the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rejected requests from America to increase oil production. As a result, petroleum that day close at $104.52 per barrel, and continues to soar upward. The former CIA chief and now alt energy champion told a panel of carmakers and other vehicle design experts that average consumers paying at the gas statsion were responsible for sending young Pakistani boys to madrassas to become suicide bombers. He asserted that Saudi Arabia finances more than 90 percent of radical Islamic education and that country's prime income source was oil. Woolsey also addressed a seminar on energy security sponsored by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, moderated by Gal Luft.

President George Bush dropped by to take a look at Jim's newly converted plug in hybrid vehicle and admired its bumper sticker: “Bin Laden Hates This Car." Bush also stated, "America is in the lead when it comes to energy independence." He did not explain what he meant.