The films will take you on a tour through time and across the world following the trail of tears left by the machinations of the Seven Sisters. They tell a horrific story of private ownership and control of oil, an energy source that could have liberated humanity from the scourges of hunger, disease, ignorance, shortened life spans, etc. Instead, we see one social, economic, and environmental disaster after another, millions of lives lost in wars, corruption and subversion of governments, etc. There seems to be no end of this story as we witness events unfold in Syria that threaten more war. After having watched all four videos, I agree with the short posting introduction that they are "must-watch" videos.
Video One - Focuses mostly on the Mid-East [now available here]
Video Two - Focuses mostly on Africa. [now available here]
Video Three - Focuses mostly on central Asia. [now available here]
Video Four - Looks at the world of oil in relation to the US. [now available here]
In several sections the films make reference to a key role played by Saudi Arabia in relation to US interests. But, for some reason the film director omitted a key event that secured Saudi Arabia's loyalty to the US Empire and secured the value of the US dollar. This was accomplished in 1974 in negotiations conducted by Kissinger with Saudi Arabia's rulers which resulted in a major agreement (now a dead link, try this) that greatly enabled the US to have its way in the world after the defeat in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War in addition to the Cold War proved very costly for the US and they had to go off the gold standard as backing for US currency. In a crucial move to insure its own currency as the prime world currency, in 1974 the US guaranteed the security of the Kingdom and, in return, the Saudis agreed to sell oil only in US dollars and to recycle those dollars into US Treasury bonds and US stocks. This effectively backed the US dollars with oil. As Michael Hudson stated:
Saudi Arabia realizes that it exists only with U.S. support. Doing what U.S. diplomats tell them to do lets them keep their oil resources rather than being treated like Iraq and Iran.For a much more detailed explanation of the background and the effects of this agreement, check out this report by William Engdahl where he writes:
The deal had been fixed in June 1974 by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, establishing the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. The U.S. Treasury and the New York Federal Reserve would ‘allow’ the Saudi central bank, SAMA, to buy U.S. Treasury bonds with Saudi petrodollars. In 1975 OPEC officially agreed to sell its oil only for dollars. A secret U.S. military agreement to arm Saudi Arabia was the quid pro quo.
