Oil and Terrorism: Not So Light Summer Reading

July 25, 2004 – Vol.9 No.18

OIL AND TERRORISM: NOT-SO-LIGHT SUMMER READING.

In the book Imperial Hubris, Why the West is Losing the War of Terror, author Anonymous says this:

“One of the greatest dangers for Americans in deciding how to confront the Islamist threat (led by Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and others) lies in continuing to believe - at the urging of senior U.S. leaders - that Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than for what we do. The Islamic world is not so offended by our democratic system of politics, guarantees of personal rights and civil liberties, and separation of church and state that it is willing to wage war against overwhelming odds in order to stop Americans from voting, speaking freely and praying, or not, as they wish. With due respect for those who have concluded that we are hated for what we are, think and represent I beg to disagree and contend that your conclusion is errant and potentially fatal nonsense.”

Anonymous claims that there is a real, declared war on the West. It is not about our freedoms. It is about our decades-old policies in the Middle East.

Anonymous also says that from references to readily available information (the Internet, public libraries) bin Laden - before the attacks of 9/11 and since - has laid out six specific U.S. policies that he (bin Laden) repeatedly refers to as anti-Muslim. They are:

-- U.S. support for Israel that keeps Palestinians under the Israelis’ thrall.

-- U.S. and other Western troops on the Arabian Peninsula.

-- U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

-- U.S. support for Russia, China and India against their Muslim militants.

-- U.S. support for apostate, corrupt and tyrannical Muslim governments.

-- U.S. pressure on Arab energy producers to keep oil prices low. (below market)

Since this newsletter is focused on energy this is the conclusion Anonymous makes about Mideast oil.

“ Persian Gulf oil and the lack of serious U.S. alternative-energy development are at the core of the bin Laden issue. For cheap, easily accessible oil, Washington and the West have supported Muslim tyrannies bin Laden and other Islamists seek to destroy. “

The author, identified as Michael Scheuer, a senior U.S. intelligence official with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), predicts that the war is just beginning and given bin Laden’s (and his followers) patience has the potential to last beyond our children’s lifetimes and to be fought mostly on U.S. soil.

Beyond terrorist attacks, expect bin Laden to attempt economic harm to the U.S., he says. (Already there is some evidence of this. Oil supply concerns, in part because of terrorist attacks, are keeping oil prices relatively high. This has caused a slow-down in economic growth in the U.S.)

However, Anonymous does say that changes in U.S. policy could reduce the bloodshed and that we should be debating questions he poses.

Again, in the relation to the oil.

“ Have we the moral courage to defy the alliance of oil companies, hard line environmentalists, and political hackers of each, to install an energy policy leading to energy self-sufficiency?... In a region where we have no national interest save the oil, the question is: How many lives are we willing to pay per thousand barrels of oil?

The book was published with line-by-line approval of his superiors at the CIA. Anonymous has twenty-year’s experience in the Agency and was a specialist on bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the 1990’s.

An interview with Anonymous appears in the August 2, 2004 edition of The American Conservative. How to Lose the War on Terror can be found at http://amconmag.com/2004_08_02/article.html .

Imperial Hubris can be found online or from (or ordered through) your local book store.

Imperial Hubris adds a new dimension to the energy/oil discussion.