Power in world politics is linked to Oil
By Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Aug 26, 2004 - 9:17:00 PM
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[Editor’s note: The following text is excerpted from a lecture, "Healing the Wounds to Bring About a Universal Family," that was delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on February 17, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. Click here to order CD/DVD of full message.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
 'What was America and England doing in Libya? Both America and Great Britain had military bases there. Libya had a king called Idris and Muammar Gadhafi, as a young man, a colonel in the Libyan military in a bloodless coup, overthrew the king, then pushed the British and the Americans out and nationalized the oil. Then, He was able to raise the standard of living of all Libyans and, with money left, he aided the liberation struggle of people all over the world. America and its administrations were upset with that.' |
Allah (God) does not like cowards. He loves those who are patient and steadfast under trial. He is very clear in the Bible and Qur’an, "Me and Me alone should you fear." If we are afraid to speak truth to President George Bush, then we’ve set up a god beside Allah (God) and are unworthy of Allah’s (God’s) favor. We must strive to fear no one but God.
"Minister Farrakhan, are you rallying people to be disrespectful to the President of the United States?" No! The Holy Qur’an and Bible teaches us, "Respect those in authority whether they are of your faith or not, or whether they respect you or not, you should respect those in authority." That’s how we maintain order in the society. However, there is a way to make our disapproval known; not by picking up a gun, nor by fashioning bombs, killing innocent people. The biggest gun or weapon that we have is Truth and the unity of people behind Truth.
I wrote to the President that America could have access to whatever it needed of raw materials from the nations of the world. The nations would share their resources with joy, if America would be fair with them and allow them to receive a decent price for their goods and raw materials, so that they could improve the quality of life for their people.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said that to win the war against terrorism we must fight against poverty and disease, because poverty and disease breeds terrorists. This is a half-truth. Certainly, we must fight against poverty and disease, but it’s not just poverty and disease that breeds terrorists. It is the policies of a nation that allows other nations to be poor, while America rises to richness at the expense of the poor of the world. This is not right.
Politics is controlled by money. So, the people’s vote does not mean much when the lobbyists get to Washington and start passing money around.
We must understand that power is linked in world politics to oil. As the greatest industrial nation on the earth, America has an insatiable appetite and desire for oil. When coal was the number one energy in the world, Great Britain ruled the world because she had the greatest deposits of coal. When the power to move engines moved from coal to oil, then England and America began vying for control of the places on this earth that produce oil. Who are these rogue states that America says she does not like and how is oil connected to America’s displeasure?
Libya. Libya is one of the three countries in the world with the sweetest crude oil. What was America and England doing in Libya? Did these people bother these two great powers? No, Libya has oil. Both America and Great Britain had military bases there. Libya had a king called Idris and Muammar Gadhafi, as a young man, a colonel in the Libyan military in a bloodless coup, overthrew the king, then pushed the British and the Americans out and nationalized the oil. Then, He was able to raise the standard of living of all Libyans and, with money left, he aided the liberation struggle of people all over the world. America and its administrations were upset with that.
Iraq. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world. Next door to Iraq is Iran, and they have a tremendous supply of oil. There was a man by the name of Muhammad Mossadeq. He nationalized the oil. Therefore, he was looked upon as an evil man to the interests of the oil companies and the governments of America and Great Britain. Why was he evil? Because he wanted to use the vast oil deposits in Iran to raise the standard of living of the Iranian people. What’s wrong with that? Nothing is wrong with that in the eyes of fair-minded people, but something was wrong with that in the eyes of the rich and the powerful oil companies and governments of the U.S. and Great Britain. So, a coup was organized to overthrow Muhammad Mossadeq and place a man on the throne in Iraq that was sympathetic to the interests of America and Great Britain. That man was the Shah of Iran.
He was given weapons and modern aircraft. He was a Muslim, but under his rule, the religion of Islam and those who wanted the purity of their religion sufferred. Those who wanted to return to the pristine purity of Islam started organizing. The leader of that movement was Imam Khomeni. The shah was overthrown and Imam Khomeni, a deeply devoted spiritual leader, whom some would say was a religious fanatic, came to power in Iran. But he was exceedingly angry with America for her policies toward that nation.
Saudi Arabia, up to this time, had the largest known oil reserves in the world. President Roosevelt fashioned a good relationship with the king. The kings of Arabia have lived well and they have done fairly well by their people. But none of these oil rich Arab countries have accepted democracy as a political way of life. America did not care about that as long as these countries kept pumping the oil.
Everyone of us has someone in our family who is a victim of drugs. Drug addicts, unfortunately, become artful liars. They can make up the fanciest stories just to get money so that they can get their drug of choice. If you don’t give them the money, when you turn your back, your fur coat, your rings, watches, or things of value in your home are gone. The drug addict becomes a thief and then ofttimes, they become murderers. America is an oil junkie. She does not care how she gets the oil, she must have it. Therefore, lies, deceit, robbery and murder are part and parcel of America’s foreign policy when it comes to dealing for oil.
I had a discussion with Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. When Imam Khomeni came into power in Iran, he was also angry with the sheikdoms of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Imam Khomeni said there’s no king in Islam, only Allah is our King. In our prayers, we say, "Oh Allah, Thou art the King, there is no God but You."
Imam Khomeni, in his extreme devotion, frightened the rulers of Iraq, the Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and he also frightened those rulers who were Muslim but their governments had adopted socialist theory and practice. America appealed to Saddam Hussein offerring to build Iraq as a great power as a bulwark against Iran. Prince Bandar told me that the Saudis gave Saddam Hussein $80 billion to build him into a military power. If Saddam Hussein and Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, where do you think they got them from? He started spending the $80 billion on weapons of war. He spent it with France and France built him an atomic reactor. The day it was finished Israel bombed it. He spent money with Russia, England and America to build this great arsenal of weapons.
Iraq was a friend of America, at that time. Iran and Iraq fought a war for eight years and over a million young Muslims died. After the war was over, Iran’s military was very weak, but Iraq still had a strong military with many so-called weapons of mass destruction.
The little country called Kuwait used to belong to Iraq as its nineteenth province, but the British cut that little piece out. Thus, the country of Kuwait was born. Why did you do that Britain? Whenever Great Britain leaves a country, she leaves it ofttimes in a condition that will produce war through territorial arguments over boundaries.
So, now you have Iraq strong, Iran weak. There was a growing problem between Iraq and Kuwait that Iraq charged Kuwait with stealing from their wells located in the southern part of Iraq. They wanted to go into Kuwait; they spoke to the American ambassador. The American ambassador said, in effect, "we don’t have anything to do with that." So, Iraq marched into Kuwait.
Prime Minister Thatcher of Great Britain came to the U.S. to Colorado and met with President George H. Walker Bush. Then, they told Saddam Hussein that he had to get out of Kuwait. But he refused and then the Gulf War ensued. When his armed forces retreated from Kuwait, the oil fields were set on fire.
The billions of dollars that the United Arab Emirates and the Kuwaitis had in banks in America had to be used to pay American companies to go in and put out the fires. In the Congress of the United States, I read where some Congressperson said this is the first war that we fought where we ended up with profit. All the riches of Kuwait, the Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were gradually being drained from them. America has put her soldiers in that area and jointly those countries share the cost.
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