1985-6, the US and its Israeli ally was responsible for the most serious acts of international terrorism in this region, not to speak of the leading role of the United States in international terrorism elsewhere in the world, and in earlier years. The worst single terrorist act in the region in 1985 was a car-bombing in Beirut that killed 80 people and wounded 250. ibid.
For many years, the US has stood virtually alone in blocking a diplomatic settlement in the Middle East ... Given US power, its opposition amounts to a veto. Accordingly, the peace process has been effectively deterred. ibid.
The prevailing judgement has been that enhancement of Israeli power contributes to US domination of the region. For such reasons, the US has always blocked attempts at diplomatic resolution. ibid.
The basic terms of the international consensus on the Arab-Israeli conflict were expressed in a resolution brought to the Security Council in January 1976, calling for a settlement on the pre-June 1967 borders. ibid.
Lying behind these gambits is the belief that US-backed Israeli violence has finally brought the Palestinians to heel. ibid.
The US veto effectively terminated any UN role in the peace process. ibid.
The Israeli rejection clearly showed that the basic problem is not Palestinian rights per se, but rather the fact that recognizing them would end Israeli control over the territories. ibid.
The available evidence indicates that the US kept to the international consensus until February 1971, when it rejected the Jarring-Sadat initiative. US isolation increased in the mid-1970s as the consensus shifted to recognition of a Palestinian right of self-determination. Coincidentally, it was in February 1971 that George Bush became part of the executive apparatus as UN Ambassador. A compliant bureaucrat, Bush has adhered to US rejectionism throughout, and gives no indication of any departure today. ibid.
Control over Middle East energy provides leverage in world affairs and guarantees a substantial flow of capital to the economies of the United States and Britain. ibid.
After November 1991 dozens of Western oil companies from all the major countries raced into the Timor Sea to use these new opportunities to steal Timor’s resources, thanks to the Australian/Indonesian treaty. Noam Chomsky, lecture MOMA 16th November 1992
What we’ve seen is a very quiet plan to privatise Iraq’s oil. David Mulholland, Jane’s Defence Weekly business editor
For years the mighty US dollar has ruled the world. But what if Saddam did have a weapon of mass destruction that would not only have threatened the position of the dollar, but American military might as well? ... The war was actually about protecting the global supremacy of the US dollar ... If you want to buy oil on the international market, the currency is the US dollar. But what would happen if some other currency threatened that position? Conspiracies – Iraq
The US has always needed to keep a firm hand on the trading of its oil dollars. But in November 2000 the most serious attack on the sacred dollar was about to take place. If left unchecked it could have been an economic Pearl Harbour. After years of struggling under crippling sanctions, Saddam Hussein decided to use the one WMD that no-one had ever looked for or thought about – the Euro. With the mighty dollar’s position as the world’s number one suddenly under threat, did a ripple of fear go through the Bush administration? ibid.
The petro-dollar appears to be safe. But one other country has dared challenge the US control of black gold. Iran intends to invite all of the world’s oil producers to trade their oil in Euros. The same scenario that happened in Iraq is beginning to repeat itself. ibid.
So the money’s going to come from Iraqi oil revenue as everyone has said. They think it’s going to be something like two billion dollars this year, they think it’ll be something like fifteen? ... twelve? ... next year. Donald Rumsfeld
This is not about oil, and anyone who thinks that is badly misunderstanding the situation. Donald Rumsfeld
Afghan Pipeline Vital To ‘One of the Great Prizes of the 21st Century’. Paul Thompson, The Terror Timeline, 2004
US Military Bases Line Afghan Pipeline Route. ibid.
If you map the proposed pipeline route across Afghanistan and you look at our bases – matches perfectly. Our bases are there to solve a problem that the Taliban could not solve ... It has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski
Bush left his job being trained in the oil business by a CIA recruiter, and went to work on his own setting up shop [Zapata Oil] right in the middle of the CIA’s misguided anti-Castro Cuban operations. Dark Legacy, PSTV 2009
The secret codename for the Bay of Pig operation was Operation Zapata. ibid.
The CIA ordered a large ship from the Navy to carry guns and tanks and men to the Bay of Pigs invasion ... He [Bush] named two planes [The Barbara] after his wife. ibid.
George Bush was working for the CIA assisting their operations at the Bay of Pigs, working for Bissell, working with Hunt, working with Sturgess, supervising the CIA’s misguided anti-Castro Cuban groups. ibid.
Thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s oil. Professor David Ray Griffin
The bin Laden family and the Bush families have been friends and business partners for many years. In 1977 George Bush junior started Arbusto Energy Company in Midland, Texas. One of his first and major investors was Salim bin Laden, who at that time had become the president of the Saudi bin Laden group. Salim happened to be the brother of Osama bin Laden. 9/11: The Great Illusion
The Treaty [for East Timor gap oil] makes the Australian government a receiver of stolen property. Professor Roger Clark, international law
In 1987 two oil traders made bets for Enron on whether the price of oil would rise or fall ... Enron Oil always seemed to win. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 2005, written McLean & Elkind & Gibney
I’ve stuck oil! We’re gonna be rich! I’ve found oil in the cellar! The Young Ones s1e2: Oil ***** Vyvyan, BBC 1982
Vive le Presidenté! ibid. Vyvyan
ET, what is the meaning of this? I’ve just received this memo. You young poopie. In the one day since you inherited Global Oil you’ve managed to dispose of assets worth over $6,000,000. What is this? ‘All annual profits to the donated to the Brothers of the Soil Commune in Wales, England. All petroleum and oil to be sold at a retail price of 2p. All profits to be given tax free to anyone nice you can find’. The Young Ones s2e4: Time, Rick as Mr Malvinas to Neil as ET, BBC 1984
Oil companies also paid for editorials in national publications. Who Killed the Electric Car? 2006, director Chris Paine, narrator Martin Sheen
All that foreign oil controlling American soil. Bob Dylan, Soul Train, 1979
Thank God For Oil Spills. Westboro Baptist Church picket sign
We can expect by 1980 to be meeting two-thirds of our oil requirements from the North Sea alone. Edward Heath
The deal that had been done by Mr Heath’s government in 1972 did not give the British people the right – the legal right – to one drip of oil from the North Sea. It was entirely under the control of the oil companies. Tony Benn, Secretary of State for Energy 1975-1979
I think when people look back people will realise that this asset was wasted – if you look at it in comparison with the benefit it could have brought – it was wasted by the Thatcher policy. Tony Benn
North Sea Oil could be a mask which conceals the decline of our economy. Don’t think it will necessarily solve our problems. Britain was in a process of de-industrialization and it was essential that the revenue from oil should be used for reinvestment in industry. I have seen industry after industry in this country upon which our living standards rest going down because of the lack of investment. I have seen it in shipbuilding, aircraft, machine tools, the motor industry, motor cycles and electronics. Public investment and ownership were critical parts of the recovery of a society whose living standards and public service rested upon manufacturers. Tony Benn, speech 16 October 1977, cited The Times 17 October 1977
The Opposition [Conservative Party] have consistently resisted, from the time when they were in office until now, any extension of British control over oil in the North Sea. … The development of the North Sea is going on apace. But we believe that it is right that the British people should have a growing share in the benefits of the North Sea … It passes my understanding why a party which used to pretend to speak for the national interest should regularly denounce any extension of British control and ownership of the oil in the continental shelf. Tony Benn, speech House of Commons 5 April 1978