Find this difficult to believe - and we are told water costs more than oil? Well, I remember King Faisal before he was murdered, said Americans paid more for a pepsi than they did same amount of oil. Why not? Oil is old hat; big money boys are really getting out of in going into the solar age......someday that water in Holy Land if it is not already, will be worth more than the oil - cannot drink that black stuff. So anyway, if we have peace in the middle east now, what do we do when hey have war, as I sit herre using my new solar operated calculator, new solar powered battery recharger, new solar powered heater in house I see across the street - too bad I just bought a new a/c with gas furnace, and I see now all kinds of things, like toys being used and maintained by solar energy? Americans sick of being gouged to death by thir world countries where the thieves and Clinton and his henchmen have much in common. Smart Money is going into Solar Energy and New Energy.......and I also like my batteries being recharged by solar energy........ New Amtraks go 150 mph now - and this is the re if they can find someone sober enough to drive the things without wrecking. Someday arab leaders will know the value of a good glass of artesian well water.....cold, with ice cubes....prefer that on a hot day to a drink of that horrible black stuff that causes cancer anway. And we have corn oil, soy oil, and all thdifferent oils and we have wheat......or at least we did have or did Kissinger corner market on that too Viva American Farmers and Solar Power to the People and we will have peace in Holy Land.........so now they got to figure out, how to corner market on the sun? Trade water for oil? Hell No.......I can always get a a horse.... Saba
_______ ____ ______ / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ http://www.MiddleEast.Org News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know! * * * * * * * IF YOU DON'T GET MER, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT! To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OIL AND PETRODOLLARS MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 12/12: OIL is the big prize of the Middle East. Petro Dollars flow from it. The American economy floats on what remains an amazingly cheap and huge supply of it. After all, even now, oil that is pumped in the Middle East, shipped around the world, refined, heavily taxed, and trucked to gasoline stations, continues to cost Americans not much more than a gallon of bottled water! No wonder the Western countries prefer to pump Arab and third-world oil for their current needs rather than their own. The Arab people benefit little from their oil; wile the Arab oil families, the Gulf Arab "client regimes" literally bank on it. The lesson of the 70s was learned when shortly after King Feisal attempted an oil embargo he was assassinated. The regimes maintain themselves in power, and in the money, by using the huge wealth provided by the black gold to purchase everything in sight -- a steady supply of whores, both sexual and political; journalists; organizations; politicians; publications. In recent years since the Gulf War the Saudis have in fact been "convinced" to increase the role of Western oil companies, not to mention the American military and CIA, in the affairs of "the Kingdom". And to this mix that it is Western banks that soak up the recycled petro dollars, and Western arms merchants who cash in for their yearly multi-billions. The British recognized the great importance of the coming oil era way back in the days of Lawrence and Allenby. The Americans took control of the region after World War II because of it. Israel was at first a questionable addition to this mix, partly accounting for Secretary of State George Marshall's vehement opposition to U.S. support for its creation, which in fact came very close to bringing about his resignation. But today, thanks to the divisions and weaknesses of the Arab world, caused by the very oil regimes the West created and maintains, Israel is today America's closest partner in perpetuating these "client regimes" and maintaining the status quo. IRAN, LIBYA, OIL COMPANIES HOPE FOR GOP WIN By John K. Cooley A T H E N S, Greece, Dec. 11, ABC News � Middle East oil producers Iran and Libya, still under U.S. sanctions, and American oil companies prevented from working there by those sanctions hope fervently for a Bush-Cheney victory in the tortuous U.S. presidential election process. Oil industry and government sources in the Middle East believe that an administration headed by Republican George W. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, would be able to stabilize world oil prices, and also might end remaining oil sanctions against both Iran and Libya. �If Bush wins,� Muhammad-Javad Larajani, a former Iranian diplomat, told reporters in Tehran last week, �it will be certain that oil companies will have more liberty to conclude contracts with Iran.� �It is preferable for us, and it is possible that oil sanctions against Iran will be lifted,� said Larajani, who has conducted past negotiations with the United States and is close to Iran�s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Resumption of Relations? Both Bush and Cheney have worked in the oil industry. Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton Oil Services and has a network of senior contacts in the Middle East. Earlier this year, he called on the Clinton administration to allow American oil companies to resume business in Iran by ending sanctions. Larajani said Bush and Cheney, if sworn in as president and vice president, could bring a �small change in U.S. policies� in the Middle East because the Democrats are �much closer to the Zionist lobby� than the Republicans. Larajani said Tehran could re-establish diplomatic relations with Washington, which were broken off in April 1980 after the November 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, as soon as �the U.S. government takes sufficient distance from Israel.� Iran�s deputy oil minister, Hossein Kazempour-Ardebili, predicted the U.S. oil sanctions would be lifted within the next year. �Considering mounting pressures on the U.S. administration by American oil firms, we expect Washington to lift sanctions against Iran in the next 12 months,� he said. �Even a Democratic administration will be under tremendous pressure to lift sanctions. Considering Republican election statements, we expect sanctions not to be renewed in 2001,� Kazempour-Ardeebili said. Willing to Open Dialogue In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker declined to predict the future of U.S.-Iran relations. He reiterated longstanding U.S. concerns about Iran�s weapons program and involvement in terrorism. He also noted U.S. willingness to open a dialogue with Iran. The United States eased sanctions on some Iranian goods earlier this year. In a telephone interview with ABCNEWS, a veteran U.S. oil executive in Texas insisted that a Bush-Cheney victory would bring an end to oil sanctions. �Virtually everyone in senior places who really understands the Middle East has been working for this,� said the executive, who asked not to be identified. He added that after a Republican victory, �OPEC members will be able to work with us� to achieve a long-sought lower and stable �marker� or yardstick price for crude oil at levels of around $23 or even $22 per barrel. At present, Arabian Light, North Sea, West Texas and most other crude oil varieties are fluctuating around and above $30 per barrel. The same oil executive said Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a former Saudi oil minister who now heads an energy consultancy in London, is spending the annual Ramadan fast month in the holy city of Mecca. There Yamani is believed to be advising 76-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who effectively runs the Saudi monarchy because of the the protracted illness of King Fahd, on long-term policies for the oil-rich kingdom. Reaching Out to U.S. Oil Companies President Clinton has said the sanctions against Iran remain in force because of the country�s support for terrorism and its acquisition of missiles and other weapons of mass destruction. The measures constitute a unilateral U.S. trade embargo. Then-President Ronald Reagan ordered U.S. oil firms to quit Libya in 1986, mainly because of the terrorism issue, after U.S. Air Force planes carried out earlier reprisal bombings of Libya for terrorist bombings in Berlin. However, Libya�s national oil company did not confiscate U.S. oil company assets in Libya. It has continued to negotiate with the firms about possible future return to their formerly lucrative contracts and projects there. Libya safeguarded the American oil assets even after the imposition in the early 1990s of new U.N. and U.S. sanctions meant to force the extradition of two Libyan suspects in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The two men were extradited and are now on trial before a Scottish court in the Netherlands, resulting in an easing but not a total relaxation of sanctions. In a gesture toward the United States, Iran in 1985 signed a $1 billion contract with the American corporation Conoco to develop two big offshore oilfields in the Persian Gulf. Although the Clinton White House initially favored the deal, Conoco was forced by the sanctions legislation to cancel it. The French company TotalFina moved in instead, and signed a $600 million deal with Iran to carry out the same work. Firms such as TotalFina, Italy�s ENI and Royal Dutch/Shell defied U.S. legislation threatening action against non-American firms doing business with Libya and Iran and have signed major new deals with fresh foreign investment. The five-year term of the sanctions expires in August 2001. In October, Chevron Oil�s vice chairman, Richard Matzke, said that while lifting of sanctions on Iran was not imminent, he felt that �we are an awful lot closer than we were a few years ago.� MiD-EasT RealitieS - www.MiddleEast.Org Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 815 366-0800 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscriibe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject UNSUBSCRIBE
