Was America preparing a war for the Gulf oil in 1973? (Docs just released)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Papers released under the 30-year rule show Britain worried about Middle East conflict and what to buy for a royal wedding
By Cahal Milmo
01 January 2004


The British Government believed America was preparing for a lightning war in the Middle East to end the 1973 oil crisis, including an invasion of Kuwait, documents released today to the National Archives show.

The Joint Intelligence Committee, the body that acts as the link between the intelligence services and Downing Street, warned the Prime Minister, Edward Heath that Washington was planning to seize oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait to secure the Western economies.

The global economy was in the grip of the crisis caused by the decision of the Arab world to hike the price of oil exports to the West and cut production in retaliation for American support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war. The proposals, based on intelligence gathered by MI6 and described as "ominous" by No 10. Officials in Whitehall said the US, fearful that the Arab countries were rapidly realising the effectiveness of oil as a weapon, was ready to flex its military muscle in the Middle East without the agreement of its allies.

The plan would entail an airborne assault on strategic targets, the entire principality of Kuwait, the Saudi oilfields in Dhahran and the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, which had announced a total embargo against the US.

More: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=477219

[arcane1]

1. "including an invasion of Kuwait"

how goddamned bloody classic is that??

methinks they took a different approach, to achieve the same ends..

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. Don'tcha know that must be the Bush/Oil empire's wet dream?

To control the ME oil fields?

[goforit]

6. LOL!!!.......too funny.

:+

[MikeG]

20. It didn't happen then because Nixon was preoccupied

with his own ass. Don't forget that the Saturday Night Massacre took place in October, 1973, causing a firestorm in the the press and the beginning of the impeachment process. We also didn't have a VP at the time. It would have been a bad time to start a war. We were also losing the Vietnam war, and had just survived a standoff with the Soviets over the Yom Kippur war.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Remember this is the height of the Cold War

and the October war brought us closer to midnight than even
the Cuban crisis, many do not realize this little known fact.

The arab states were seen as another theater of the Cold war

The motives behind that were VERY different than what the Neo Cons
are doing... yes real politik is not the same as neo con dreams

[54anickel]

4. Thanks, I was trying to go back to '73 in my head, as far as I got was

old Tricky Dicky, having my first car (Gremlin) and paying up the wazoo (for that time) for gas.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. You welcome

Also OPEC calmed down by the early part of the first quarter of '74


Most of it were clients to the USSR... and some suspect taht Gromyko put pressure on OPEC to ease up

Now we are seeing the possible reason. At the time there was a lot of very high level contacts between Kissinger and Gromyko and as much as
I dislike Kissinger, it was him, Gromyko and a lower level contact in the USSR that probably averted WW III at the time... and that one woudl have involved a nuclear exchange...

[goforit]

7. Remember those long lines and going on odd and even days?

Reducing the thermastat down to 68 degrees.
Driving 55 on the hywy.

I wonder what it will be like 2 years from now.

[54anickel]

9. He-he I've been working out on my excercise bike to build up for

those long bicycle rides into town. :evilgrin:

[boneygrey]

13. Driving 55

That was the worst.

[Flightful]

12. The west was painted into a corner

At one point during the Yom Kippur war, Israel was down to a two-day supply of ammunition and was preparing to nuke Egypt and Syria. Someone there had the sense to open up the missile silos so that US and Soviet surveillance would see the missiles being fuelled and within 24 hours the US began airlifting arms to Israel. Without that airlift I suspect that a very large chunk of the planet would still be glowing.

[Aidoneus]

16. not very different, really..

the same plan, just without any consideration of restraint.

[flaminbats]

8. I knew Nixon pulled us out of Vietnam for a reason!

Too bad Nixon resigned and Ford wasn't re-elected. But now we have so much to look foward to. :party:

[pinto]

10. "American preference would be for a rapid operation...by themselves..."

Bushco seems to think they learned from the UK experience in ME and now we're caught in the same oil slick....

[NNN0LHI]

11. This is the plot for 'Three Days Of The Condor'

http://www.tvguide.com/movies/database/ShowMovie.asp?MI=23561

Redford is the bookish and bespectacled reader for the Literary Historical Society, but the organization actually serves as a CIA front located in a brownstone in Manhattan. One day he goes out to get lunch for the others (it's his turn), and while he's picking up the food, killers armed with automatic weapons enter the building and massacre everyone there. Redford returns with lunch and finds all his coworkers murdered. Fearing that he may be next, he goes to a phone booth and calls headquarters, identifying himself by his code name, "Condor." He is told to meet an agent at a nearby hotel, but when the fellow CIA man tries to kill him, Redford realizes his own organization is responsible for the slaughter. Determined to survive and to blow the whistle on the CIA, Redford kidnaps woman photographer Dunaway and forces her to help him. Based on James Grady's novel Six Days of the Condor (the film compresses the time frame of the novel), this taut espionage thriller gained greater plausibility during its shooting when a sudden raft of sensational post-Watergate news items began coming out of Washington regarding illegal wiretaps, surveillance, and killings motivated by political expediency. What was once merely a fanciful exploitation of antigovernment paranoia, became a thrilling pseudo-expose on the corrupt inner workings of covert organizations. The public ate it up and the film was a hit at the box office.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. Loved that movie.

Does make you wonder.

[Democrats unite]

14. See just goes to show that repukes are slow.

eom

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

15. Aussie piece on same...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8298361%255E1702,00.html

BRITISH spy chiefs secretly warned that the United States would be prepared to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to seize their oilfields following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, it was disclosed today.

Files released to the British National Archives under the 30-year rule for classified documents show the intelligence agencies believed the US was ready to take military action to prevent further disruption to oil supplies.

It followed the decision in October 1973 by the Arab nations to slash oil production, and send prices rocketing, while imposing a complete embargo on the Americans over their support for Israel.

In Britain, Prime Minister Edward Heath's Conservative government, which adopted a more pro-Arab line, was forced to draw up plans for petrol rationing after panic buying led to shortages at filling stations.

<snip>

[Minstrel Boy]

17. Energy is National Security

It has always been thus. But never more so than now, as the end game opens for the last of the cheap oil.

Given that so many justifications have been floated for the Iraq war, and that its very casus belli has been found to be empty, that should strongly suggest that the real reason has never been spoken by the war makers.

But you know what? If the White House came out and said "It was, in large part, about the oil," I don't think it would cause much of a ripple among Bush supporters. Because they knew all along, as well as anyone. They accepted the cover story with a wink, because it was the seemly thing to do. But in the end, they say Yes, energy is our security, and can we entrust it to the Arabs?

[Tracer]

19. This Is Mentioned In ...

... Robert Baer's book "Sleeping with the Devil" that I cited in an above post.

_"It's not like the United States has never thought about seizing Arab oil fields. On August 21, 1975, the Congressional Research Service presented to the Special Subcommittee on Investigations of the House Committee on International Relations a document entitled "Oil Fields as Military Objective: A Feasibility Study."

... and he goes on to detail the governments pros and cons of such a strategy.

[bobthedrummer]

21. Instead Nixon's crew were quite busy helping Israel in their 1973 war.

I remember all the armor replacements being flown in.