October 30, 2008

 

George Chaya

 

The radical change that has brought the possibility that the U.S. remove 10,400,000,000 barrels of oil that has under his basement, plus 86,000 -10 times the oil that Americans consume in a year- the service says Mineral Exploitation that is beneath its shores, it marked a turning point this summer in crude prices. Whenever Obama or McCain met his electoral promise, the summer of 2008 may have opened the door to that for the first time, a stable Western democracy to control one of the largest reserves of the planet. And the consequences should rejoice.

What should concern us because it is where the money has been the result of the recent rise in crude prices this summer, which in the words of one economist at the Wall Street Journal is "the largest transfer of wealth the world has known so far." Revenues of Gulf producers have doubled coup, giving the nations of the region hundreds of billions of dollars to play with.

How much are we talking about? The Arab monarchies or their surrogates (Iran, Libya) are opaque, but Brad Sets, the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that we talk about 1.5 trillion dollars. Asked what is done with the money thus far from being trivial, and with knowledge of the nature of these states, the consequences can lead this lot of money for the West should make us tremble.

Why play with that money? In addition to cases such as Iran with Hezbollah or Saudis with Al Qaeda, to buy bonds through financial intermediaries in Europe and off its bad image through public relations. Saudi Arabia, for example, promised 500 million dollars for the World Food Program. It is not so generously as obvious: that the promises within the Arab countries always come more easily than the actual donations and that many members of the Arab League have yet to honor its promises, the Sunday Times of London reported that the late Saudi King Fahd spent about half of that amount ($ 250 million) in "renovate" its Palace of the Mar-Mar (Marbella, Spain). American officials are certain that Fahd and his entourage have spent 2,000 million dollars, four times more than their donations to hunger in the world.

Recent sympathy cases, as the purchase of Manchester City on the part of Abu Dhabi, are only the pleasant face of this problem. The reason that the recent hike of oil threatens the national security of Western countries is none other than the fact that the most constant of "generosity" Arabic has been since the 70 finance the jihad, through a global distribution network of madrazzas, mosques, humanitarian organizations and activism facade anti-Israeli (and increasingly anti-Christian). According to a reliable source, Saudi Arabia would have only spent U.S. dollars already in this 75,000,000,000.

 

At present has also emerged a new trend, the so-called "jihad resident." In this variant, one of the richest sovereign investment funds Arabs, through a European subsidiary, takes control of any company interesting for advancing their interests, preferably media. The German government recently kidnapped U.S. law prevents foreign companies from acquiring substantial blocks of shares of media groups, in order to deter the unprecedented interest in the German chains appear to have woken up to sovereign Arab funds. The Austrian government is preparing to do the same, and Italy is evaluating the possibility that their content laws are not stringent enough to help. The entertainment industry however is completely exposed, especially the cinema. Saudi funding of recent years to the Mecca of cinema led by example to the recent film "The Kingdom". The tape attracted all sorts of criticism by the brazen attempt by one of the most repressive countries on the planet sold as a strong partner of the United States following the September 11, and his lack of fidelity to reality, without going further, The actor was walking with a dress that you've been really Riyadh would finish locked up by the religious police, and hopefully just that.

That Arab oil producers pursue own agendas with Western money should not shock or surprise anyone. But the recent historic transfer to the more questionable the world should arouse concern, not smiles. Addressing this problem will involve a serious commitment and stronger than before the media every so often to declaim the universal values of dialogue, brotherhood and universal love to United Nations.