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Rockfeller And Company Plot To Seize US Oil Fields Lieerman, Levine, Jacoby, And The Rest Of The Choir Sing Along 1/23/2002 by Justin Raimondo http://www.antiwar.com January 23, 2002 THE WAR AGAINST THE SAUDIS What's behind Washington's split with Riyadh? Washington is all atwitter over what appears to be a sea-change on the foreign policy front: evidence of a developing rift between the US and Saudi Arabia, its most loyal Arab ally. Since World War II, Washington and the House of Saud have enjoyed a lucrative and seemingly permanent alliance, in which the former provided protection against enemies at home and abroad, while the latter provided a steady stream of oil profits for politically-favored American companies. The US went to war against Iraq, in 1991, and stationed close to half a million US troops on the Arabian peninsula, supposedly to protect Riyadh from a threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Now, it appears, the events of September 11 have produced a split in this formerly rock-solid relationship, with talk of an impending Saudi demand for a US withdrawal. The Washington Post reports that "Saudi Arabia's rulers are increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. military presence in their country and may soon ask that it end …. Senior Saudi rulers believe the United States has 'overstayed its welcome.'" DEMOCRATS TAKE THE LEAD The response to this has been fierce, and Congressional Democrats have been particularly bellicose, with Senator Joseph Lieberman, a putative presidential contender, going so far as to declare that a "theological iron curtain" was falling over the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia. Senator Carl Levin (D- Michigan), powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took up this "cold war" theme with some particularly hot rhetoric, saying he had "an uneasy feeling" that the Saudis were coddling Islamic terrorists and that American forces were "not particularly wanted" there: "They act as though somehow or another they're doing us a favor. And I think the war against terrorism has got to be fought by countries who really realize that it's in everybody's interest to go after terrorism. I think we may be able to find a place where we are much more welcome openly, a place which has not seen significant resources flowing to support some really extreme, fanatic views." Levin and Lieberman were joined by Rep. Ike Skelton, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who averred that the Saudis "need to cleanse the place of potential terrorist groups." 'FORBIDDEN TRUTH' This fusillade comes as the climax of a furious post-9/11 anti-Saudi propaganda campaign that has gone into overdrive in recent weeks. From noting that most of the alleged hijackers were identified as Saudi nationals to screaming headlines about a dispute between a visiting Saudi princess and her maid, the anti-Saudi jihad has become an intellectual paradigm for the theoreticians of a new cold war. Neoconservative ideologues such as Daniel Pipes and Stephen Schwartz, see Wahabism as the totalitarian flavor of the new millennium, just as the varieties of socialism (Stalinism and Nazism) were the scourge of the twentieth century. This view has been popularized – indeed, one might say novelized – by a new book, written and published inside of a few weeks, Bin Laden, The Forbidden Truth, by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, described by the Los Angeles Times as "A dense, conspiracy-minded portrait of Saudi-dominated banks, companies and tycoons, all allegedly interconnected, that they maintain have helped fund Bin Laden's holy war." THE APOSTATES This Saudi-devil theory, which posits that we ought to have bombed Riyadh in addition to Kabul, is senseless if we compare it with the facts. For Bin Laden is an avowed enemy of the House of Saud, and is pledged to their overthrow. As Peter L. Bergen points out in Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World Of Osama bin Laden: "Bin Laden also believed the House of al-Saud, the family that has ruled Arabia for generations, were 'apostates' from Islam. Apostasy is a grave charge to level against the Saudi royal family, who style themselves the protectors of the two holiest places in Islam, Mecca and Medina, and practice the most traditional form of Sunni Islam." In addition Bergen relays the charge of Khaled al-Fawwaz, an Al Qaeda sympathizer who helped arrange Bergen's interview with Bin Laden, that "several assassination attempts have been mounted against [Bin Laden] by Saudi intelligence services." Al Qaeda's holy war against the US military presence on the Arabian peninsula makes a particular target of those who invited the Americans in – the House of Saud. THE MARLARKEY FACTOR Brisard and Dasquie basically say that the Americans let 9/11 happen because of a "softness" on the Saudis on account of the influence of Big Oil in American politics. This is what supposedly motivated the Bushies to enter into secret negotiations with Bin Laden prior to September 11. The popularity of the Brisard-Dasquie book in France is understandable, as it blames the Americans for the disaster that befell them, but the lesson really ought to stand for the Europeans as well, says M. Dasquie: "The U.S. is not the only one. The question is why developed countries need to do commercial deals with Saudi Arabia and if those commercial deals are why they must close their eyes about the reality of the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Since the 18th century, Saudi Arabia has been focused on conquering the world." Such an overweening ambition would be difficult to hide, but isn't it funny how nobody ever noticed it before? And another thing: this "forbidden truth" theory being a lot of marlarkey, what, then, is the real reason for the anti-Saudi propaganda campaign, so ably and relentlessly conducted by a broad coalition of neoconservatives (the Weekly Standard, Commentary, the New York Post) and liberal Democrats (Lieberman, Levin, the New Republic)? TARGET: BUSH I The interest of congressional Democrats in the "Forbidden Truth" thesis is understandable, especially if they can make the charge of "secret negotiations" stick. If the Bush administration was not only "soft" on terrorism but even somehow protected their Saudi allies from scrutiny by law enforcement agencies, then who benefits? The Bush family, long tied to the Saudis, is fair game once the "Forbidden Truth" conspiracy theory becomes the conventional wisdom: George Herbert Walker Bush, reviled by some for his pro-"Arabist" policies, is the particular target of this left-wing hate campaign. OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS The neocons, no friends of Bush pere, also have much to gain. They blame the father for not "finishing the job" and concluding the Gulf war prematurely, even as they exhort and try to shame the son into a military confrontation not only with Iraq, but with nearly the entire Islamic world. Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol didn't waste much time after 9/11, quickly mobilizing a phalanx of intellectuals and other policy wonks calling for an all-out invasion of a whole list of Arab nations: not only Iraq, but also Iran and Syria – and I'm sure none of the signers would object to the addition of Saudi Arabia. Okay, so at least two groups of ideologues – and I can think of a few more – on the right and the left have some interest in propagating the "Forbidden Truth" scenario, but, by themselves, these people are just a bunch of writers, policy wonks, and political hacks, without the resources to do anything but bloviate. The real power – that is, the money power – behind the anti-Saudi campaign are the same financial interests that have profited from the Saudi-US alliance lo these many years: the Rockefeller family, the controlling factor in the Arabian- American Oil Co., Aramco. And therein lies a story…. THE ROCKEFELLER CONNECTION In return for US aid and support for the House of Saud, King Ibn Saud granted Aramco a monopoly over the production of Saudi oil at the end of World War II. Aramco is a consortium of companies, with Exxon, Mobil, and Socal – all Rockefeller-connected – granted 70 percent ownership, and Texaco granted the rest. A premier example of crony capitalism, the Rockefeller-Saudi alliance translated into multi-millions in subsidies through the Export-Import Bank, so that the King could build his own personal railroad from his capital to the summer palace. Franklin Roosevelt took money out of the war budget to prepare the way for Rockefeller's pipelines. In return, the Saudis granted the US an airbase at Dharan, conveniently near the oil fields. Smalltime capitalists hire private security guards to protect their property, but the big boys – or, at least, some of them – have the use of the American military. AN ENDURING ALLIANCE The Saudi-Aramco relationship has endured a lot. There was a phony "nationalization" of Aramco in the 1970s, when Nasserite and Baathist socialism were all the rage on the Arab "street": the Saudi government took over Aramco, formally, but then immediately turned around and granted the Aramco-Rockefeller consortium the exclusive contract to "manage" the operation. Under this new deal, the consortium would get the lion's share of Saudi oil, with the rest going to Petromin, the state-owned company. As Murray N. Rothbard succinctly summed it up: "It all boils down to a happy case of the 'partnership of industry and government' – happy, that is, for the Saud family and for the Rockefeller oil interests." TURNING ON A DIME This was the rock upon which the US-Saudi alliance was founded, and anyone who questioned the necessity, wisdom, or cost of this friendship – let alone calling for a US withdrawal – was roundly denounced as a foolish "isolationist." Now, the same people who hailed the Gulf war and the imperative of defending the Saudi oil fields, have turned on a dime, and are not only calling the historic friendship into question, but openly wondering if the Saudis are enemies. How to explain this sudden about-face by the chattering classes, the political mavens, and now a growing number of mostly Democratic politicians? I say – follow the money! Oh, but "everything's changed!," they cry. How can you be so cynical? Don't you know that skepticism is out and earnestness is in? Be that as it may, I can only report the facts as I see them, and what I can tell you is that everything changed well before September 11, 2001, as far as the Rockefeller oil interests in Saudi Arabia were concerned. TURNING POINT The pivotal event occurred without much public notice, on September 23, 1998, during Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to the US, where he met with the presidents of the major US oil companies, "with whom he exchanged cordial talks and reviewed issues pertaining to petroleum affairs," as the Saudi embassy website delicately phrases it. But the reality lurking beneath the veneer of diplomatic phrases was a lot rougher: according to widespread reports in the Arab media, the Prince basically told the Aramco consortium that their monopolistic state-privileged status was about to be revoked. A very interesting piece by Adel Darwish in the Middle East Analyst purports to give us the inside scoop on the Prince's message to this gathering: "During a private, hour-long meeting on Saturday 23 September at the house of Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan in McLean, Virginia, with senior executives representing seven American oil companies: The four American oil giants Mobil Corp, Exxon Corp, Texaco Inc. and Chevron Corp. (which established the Arabian American Oil Co now known as Saudi Aramco, in the 1930s) the other three were Atlantic Richfield Co., Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Co. "According to sources close to the meeting, [the] Prince [told] the executives to submit directly to him a study of 'recommendations and suggestions' about the role their companies could play in the exploration and development of both existing and new oil gas fields, said one participant in the meeting. The same source said that the executives appeared 'shocked' by the major policy reversal. Saudi Arabia began nationalizing its oil industry in 1973 and has adamantly excluded foreign oil companies from production operations ever since." SHOCKWAVES Adamantly excluded but for the Aramco consortium, that is – until now. Abdullah, the heir apparent to the invalid King Fahd, is a modernizer who has decided that it's time to throw open the doors of free competition and let the free market take over. The deal was off. The Rockefeller stranglehold on Saudi oil production was about to end, announced the Prince, and this surely sent waves of shock through his audience. Indeed, the shockwaves are still being felt today, as the US ponders not only withdrawing its troops from the Saudi kingdom, but whether our longtime ally is really our deadly enemy. |
