Skip to content
September 28, 2023
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
  • Discord
Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas

Primary Menu
  • News
  • Opinion
  • About us
    • About us
    • Who we are – Becoming a Volunteer
    • Editorial guidelines for contributors
    • Our Sources
      • Venezuelan Sources
      • International Sources
    • Contact us
  • Categories
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Security and Defense
    • International
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Europe
      • Oceania
      • US/Canada
    • Latin America and ALBA-TCP
      • South America
      • Central America and the Caribbean (+Mexico)
    • Ideology-Commune-Labor
    • Health-Education-Sport-Culture-Technology
    • Solidarity and Social Movements
    • OT Specials
  • Support Us
Light/Dark Button
YouTube Channel
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • Falling Oil Profits Drive US War Threats Against Iran
  • International
  • Opinion

Falling Oil Profits Drive US War Threats Against Iran

June 24, 2019

By Bill Dores

“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. … We had entire training courses.” That’s what Trump regime Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told students at Texas A&M University on April 15.

On June 14, Pompeo told reporters that “Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today.” On June 16 he told Fox News, “There’s no doubt. The intelligence community has lots of data, lots of evidence.” He didn’t give any.

The Trump regime is desperately escalating confrontation with Iran in coordination with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Why? The answer can be found in the headlines.

Not the headlines parroting Washington’s claim that Iran attacked tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The answer is in the headlines that bankers and CEOs worry about.

RELATED CONTENT: US Cyberattack Reportedly hit Iranian targets

Headlines like these:

  • “Oil Prices Are Falling Because Fears of a Glut in Supplies Are Growing,” Barron’s, May 22.
  • “Oil Prices Tumble, U.S. Crude Slides Under $60, as Trade Wars Clip Global Demand,” The Street, May 23.
  • “Gas Prices Could Fall Below $2 For Many Americans,” CNN Business, June 12.
  • On June 13, Barron’s financial weekly wrote, “Oil Prices Keep Falling, Something’s Got to Give.”

Something did. Later that day, explosions disabled two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Within hours, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran. On June 18, the Israeli press reported the U.S. was preparing air strikes on Iran.

This is the second attack reported on shipping in the Gulf region since May 7, when the Pentagon announced a military buildup there. At the request of the U.S. Central Command, British units also deployed to the Gulf. Among them were members of the Special Boat Service, which specializes in covert operations at sea.

Japan disputes U.S. version

One of the tankers attacked was Japanese-owned, one Norwegian. Both carried “Japan-related” cargo, according to Japan’s Foreign Trade Ministry. The attacks happened while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran trying to defuse tension between Iran and the US.

Both the crew and the owner of the damaged Japanese ship, the Kokuka Outrageous, contradict the Trump regime’s version of the attack. They say their ship was hit by a flying missile, not underwater mines as the U.S. claims. Japanese and European Union officials have said they are not ready to accept the U.S. version of events.

Japan and the EU have good reason to fear a U.S. attack on Iran. So do the majority of the world’s people, who live in oil and gas-importing countries. So do working-class and oppressed people in the United States. Some in the U.S. ruling class fear it as well.

The Arab-Persian Gulf holds 55 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. Thirty-five percent of the world’s seaborne oil shipments come from there. A regional war could push the price of oil up to $200 a barrel, analysts say. Some say more.

RELATED CONTENT: Do Drones Dream Of Electric War Crimes?

All that money wouldn’t go up in smoke. It would be a massive transfer of wealth into the vaults of U.S. oil companies and banks and hedge funds that speculate on oil. For the trillion-dollar U.S. fracking industry — and the big banks that finance it — this could be a lifesaver. Fracking companies are struggling to keep prices over the cost of production. Hundreds of billions in investments are at risk.

Pompeo, Bolton and the fracking Kochs

The Koch brothers, Charles and David, are big investors in the U.S. fracking industry. Before he was hired by the Trump regime, first as CIA director, then secretary of state, Mike Pompeo was called “the congressman from Koch.” He got $1.1 million in donations from the oil and gas industry during his six years in Congress. Over a third, $375,000, came from Koch Industries, which is based in his Wichita, Kan., home district.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, was a fellow at the Koch-funded American Free Enterprise Institute. As an undersecretary of state for the George W. Bush regime, he helped fabricate “evidence” to justify the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Sen. Tom Cotton, who is leading the charge against Iran in the Senate, has gotten over $1 million from oil and gas interests during his six years on the Hill.

Trump’s secretary of the interior, David Bernhardt, was a lobbyist for Noble Energy. Noble is the main U.S. investor in Israeli gas projects in stolen Palestinian waters.

The fracking industry is much bigger than the “new money” robber barons around Trump. “Chevron, ExxonMobil Tighten Their Grip on Fracking,” the Wall Street Journal reported on March 5. Those oil majors control much of Saudi Arabia’s output as well. Four giant banks, JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America, have poured over half a trillion dollars into the industry.

The hydraulic fracturing — fracking — technology in use today was first tested in June 1998. In August of that year, the collapse of the Russian ruble dropped oil prices to $11 a barrel. That was despite the murderous sanctions and deadly bombing of Iraq by the U.S. It took the energy-price bubble created by the 2003 U.S. invasion and devastation of Iraq to make fracking profitable.

The “fracking revolution’ is slowly destroying North America’s water supply. But it has made the U.S. the world’s top oil and gas producer. It is central to the Trump regime’s proclaimed goal of “U.S. energy dominance.” It is the product of three decades of war, sanctions and covert operations, hundreds of thousands of deaths and nearly six trillion dollars spent on war. It can only be sustained by more war and destruction. Which is what we will get unless we build a people’s movement that can turn things around.

 

Source URL: Struggle – La Lucha

 

Don't want to be a victim of the Algorithm?

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR WEEKLY DIGEST WITH ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VENEZUELA AND BEYOND

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Bill Dores
+ posts

Bill Dores is a long time member of the Workers World Party. He became active in Youth Against War and Fascism in 1968, after the Tet Offensive — when the Vietnamese National Liberation Front "stunned the then half-million U.S. troops by seizing major parts of the country for a few weeks in February" — and the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April.

  • Bill Dores
    #molongui-disabled-link
    October 8, 2020
    Trump Cannot Order the Waves to Rollback Against Iran
Tags: CIA Donald Trump Fracking Hormuz Strait Iran Koch brothers Mike Pompeo us military aggression

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Continue Reading

Previous Previous post:

Brazil: Attorney General Rejects Dropping Charges Against Lula

Next Next post:

India Deploys Warships to Persian Gulf Amid Rising Tensions Between US and Iran (Images)

Subscribe to Weekly Digest

We keep your data private and share your data only with third parties that make this service possible. Read our Privacy Policy.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

NEWS: MOST POPULAR

Calendar

September 2023
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Aug    

Categories

OPINION: MOST POPULAR

We are on Telegram


Receive our news directly in your cell phone or PC, join us on our TELEGRAM channel.

 

We are on Discord


Join our Discord server to check our content without algorithms and to interact directly with our team.

The original content by Orinoco Tribune is free to share and it is licensed under CC BY 4.0

We are on Reddit

If you are more into REDDIT, join our Orinoco Tribune subreddit.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
  • Discord
Copyleft, No rights reserved.

W E    N E E D    Y O U R    S U P P O R T

Orinoco Tribune operates without any advertising. We are not funded by any governments, think tanks, or large institutions. Our operations are entirely funded by readers like you. Our most generous donors have been targeted by the US for supporting socialist causes or are financially struggling. As a result, their accounts have been frozen, cutting off a significant revenue stream and severely threatening the sustainability of Orinoco Tribune.

We urge our readers and supporters, especially those not currently doing so, to help us with small donation (such as US $5 or $10/month) via Patreon, via Paypal/Credit-Card/crypto or via paper checks. Readers and supporters like you will allow us to continue bringing you progressive and hard-hitting news from Latin America, the Global South, and the world.

Help us reach our goal of $650 in monthly Patreon donations. We are counting on you as our only source of financial support!