Part I--Dean Henderson: Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf. Chapter 5: Persian Gulf Rent-A-Sheik

Persian Gulf Rent-A-Sheik

Posted on 10/13/2016 | 1 Comment

(Excerpted from Chapter 5: Persian Gulf Rent-A-Sheik: Big Oil & Their Bankers…)

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a watershed event.  With the Shah deposed and the Iranian Consortium nationalized, the Four Horsemen and their bankers now sought to create a more comprehensive security system for the safeguarding of Persian Gulf crude oil.

The House of Saud was fast becoming a lightning rod for Arab nationalists, who saw the monarchy as a US surrogate.  The State Department sought to take pressure off the Saudis by finding other regional leaders willing to embrace the same oil for arms quid pro quo that had been in force in the Kingdom since the early 1950’s.

While the Middle East region contains 66.5% of known crude oil reserves, the shoreline which surrounds the southwest side of the Persian Gulf and which is the property of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); contains 42% of the world’s crude reserves.  The Saudis have 261 billion barrels, more than double any other nation and 26% of the world’s known reserves.  The Kingdom encompasses no less than 60 major oil and gas fields which produce 10 million barrels per day. [168]  Iraq has the world’s second largest proven reserves at 112 billion barrels The UAE is third with 97.8 b/b. Kuwaiti is fourth with 96.5 billion barrels.

In 1981 the US and Saudi governments spearheaded an effort to create the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), consisting of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and UAE.  All except Oman are members of OPEC.  All are what are known as banker nations within OPEC. Iran, Indonesia, Venezuela, Iraq, Algeria and Nigeria are considered the industrializing nations of OPEC.  The formation of the GCC drew immediate criticism from Syria, Iraq and the PLO who said the agreement divided the Arab League into haves and have-nots.

The banker nations are prone to sell oil to the Four Horsemen cheaply, since their countries are already developed and any oil revenues can be recycled into global investments which benefit those countries’ elites.  The industrializing nations need a higher oil price, both to develop their countries’ infrastructure and to service their enormous debts to Western bankers.  The banker nations of OPEC are the price doves, while the industrializing nations are price hawks.

The price-dove banker GCC states are all ruled by monarchs, whom Big Oil finds easy to manage.  OPEC’s price hawk industrializing nations tend to be more democratic and thus more difficult for the Four Horsemen to manipulate via bribery schemes and other forms of corruption.  These democracies tend to have nationalized oil sectors, so the sale of oil benefits the whole of society, whereas the GCC oil sector is increasingly privatized, with revenues enriching Big Oil and a few elite families.

Culturally in the Arab world the foundation of the GCC dramatically diffused the power of the more traditional and nationalistic geopolitical power centers in the Middle East such as Damascus and Beirut, while enhancing the power of the relatively short-lived Gucci Gulf State monarchies.

This new banker nation bloc quickly signed the GCC Economic Agreement, liberalizing their economies to allow for more direct investment by Western banks and corporations, creating a free trade zone within the entire membership and launching a duty free port at Dubai in the UAE.  Bahrain became a major offshore banking center.  Foreign workers from poor Asian countries like the Philippines and Bangladesh were encouraged to enter GCC countries, providing cheap labor for the oil elite.  A common market was established.  Oil policies were harmonized. [169]

According to the January 28, 2002 Wall Street Journal, the most valuable currencies in the world are not the British pound, the US dollar or the Swiss franc.  Far more valuable are the Kuwaiti dinar (D$.30=1 US dollar), the Bahraini dinar (D$.37=1 US dollar) and the Maltese lira (L$.46=1 US dollar).  Malta was founded by Catholic Crusader Knights of Malta with help from the Vatican.  It is a nexus of CIA/organized crime activity in the Mediterranean.

A 1966 al-Ba’ath newspaper column in Damascus enunciates the Arab nationalist price hawk position which was the raison d’etre for OPEC in the first place. “There remains no other course for national and progressive forces except that of struggle in all its forms”, the paper implored, adding, “even if this leads to cutting off oil supply…and closing down oil wells in order to deprive the monopolist, the embezzler, the despot of this oil”.

Dean Henderson is the author of five books:Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf: Four Horsemen, Eight Families & Their Global Intelligence, Narcotics & Terror Network, The Grateful Unrich: Revolution in 50 Countries, Das Kartell der Federal Reserve, Stickin’ it to the Matrix & The Federal Reserve Cartel.  You can subscribe free to his weekly Left Hook column @www.hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com