this page last updated: Monday 28 August 2017
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Professor Leif Wenar, author of Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence and the Rules that Run the World talks about how governments will buy oil from anyone.
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Medea Benjamin and Paul Jay examine how 115 billion dollars in recent US arms sales and a dictatorship that helps dominate the oil-rich region is the reason for the lasting “friendship” between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
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Dr Nafeez Ahmed, the Guardian, joins Thom Hartmann. What's the REAL reason behind Washington's push for more violence and bloodshed in Syria? Read more here.
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As a purgative for the crappola fed to Americans about Hugo Chavez, Palast's foundation is offering this film as a free download: taken from his several meetings with Chavez and his would-be assassins, based on his reports for BBC Television and Harper's Magazine.
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Greg Palast joins Thom Hartmann. The man who famously called George W Bush the devil and a donkey is dead. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez passed away on Tuesday — after a long battle with cancer. So how will history look back at the man that the Bush Administration loved to hate?
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Documentary Featurette about the culture of greed and corruption in Nigeria, articulated through the Fuel Subsidy Scam of 2011.
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A failed coup attempt... a British mercenary in a grim African prison... a dictator accused by the West of torture... and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world's major powers would love to get their hands on. Storyville's penetrating look at the mysterious goings on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich from oil and infamous for corruption. This film sheds light on the uncomfortable realities of oil politics in the 21st century. more »
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Filmed in 2002, this presentation by Peter Dale Scott was for the most part accurate in its analysis of the Afghan war. Scott explains why Afghanistan is important to America and its geostrategy in the region. He also outlines why oil, drugs and terrorism are often found intertwined.
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The history of the race for oil in the Middle East, and the conflict it caused between world powers in the 20th century, is explored in this documentary series.
episode 1 YouTube
episode 2 YouTube
episode 3 YouTube
“Oh no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al-Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from WMD. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be, the bottom line. It is about oil.” (View the ‘Cheney Energy Task Force’ documents here)
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Who said the war wasn't about oil? If a new law is passed in Iraq, the big multinationals will get a huge share of the country's vast oil wealth. With deals that could secure them black gold for several generations to come, critics accuse Iraq's Prime Minister of handing over the country's national wealth.
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The proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline has a rival: the “peace pipeline”, aka the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline. They both aim to supply Pakistan and India with much-needed gas. This explains, to some extent, the increased troop levels in Afghanistan and the increasingly aggressive stance towards Iran. More detailed information can be found here and here.
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Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world — Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. She investigates what's behind the growing number of kidnappings and attacks in Africa's largest oil producer and the US's fifth largest energy supplier.
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The history of oil is the history of the 20th century. It is a history of corruption, violence, unimaginable profits and human suffering. In the last 100 years, oil has changed almost every part of human life in almost every corner of the globe. This series sets out to tell the tale of Black Gold, in suitably epic detail and scope; from John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford's Model-T, through both world wars, to the current US engagement in Iraq.
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What are the problems posed by dwindling oil supplies? What are the oil companies doing as oil becomes harder to find? Features Colin Campbell, Matthew Simmons, Chris Skrebowski, Ron Oxburgh, Jack Zagar and Chris Sanders.
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George Galloway interviews David Strahan — investigative journalist, documentary film-maker and author. They discuss Iraq, Iran and the future of oil. Strahan produced and directed the BBC Money Programme films about oil (featured below). See Strahan's website: The Last Oil Shock.
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Reporter Chris Frederick investigates the controversial background to Iraq's Oil Law, recently approved by the Iraqi cabinet, which critics say will effectively hand over control of the country's prized oil industry into the hands of foreign multinational oil companies.
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Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted that securing oil supplies is a key factor behind the presence of Australian troops in Iraq. (Who would of thunk it?)
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It's not often you see a news report covering the real reasons for the conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Chinese and American oil companies are scrambling to extract this region's rich oil reserves.
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First shown in November 2000, this programme meets the scientists who believe that we are at the beginning of the long-term decline in conventional oil production.
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America has set its sights on Africa, which, according to a White House national energy policy document, is predicted to be — together with Latin America — “one of the fastest growing sources of oil and gas” for the future American market. But in the global hunt for oil, America has to compete with an increasingly successful and aggressive major competitor: China.
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After assessing today's dwindling oil reserves and skyrocketing use of oil for fuels, plastics and chemicals, The Oil Factor questions the motives for the US wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, where three-quarters of the world's oil and natural gas is located.
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In this interview, Palast suggests that the Iraq war may actually be about keeping Iraq's oil in the ground to raise the price globally, and thereby increasing the profits for the oil majors. He also talks about Hugo Chavez and the petro-dollar.
stream Democracy Now!
Venezuela has large deposits of extra-heavy oil that previously was too expensive to exploit. Now, with oil costing over $50 a barrel, those reserves are estimated to be far in excess of those in the entire Middle East.
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The comedian and author gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years — but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre-stage as the cause of all the commotion. Excellent and factual, Newman tells it how it is.
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Ruppert's follow-up to The Truth and Lies of 9-11. In this film, compiled from various recent lectures, Ruppert discusses the 9-11 cover-up, peak oil, the war in Iraq, economic turmoil and accountability, world events relating to oil, and sustainability and the importance of community reliance.
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Simon Reeve investigates the real reasons for the war in Iraq. Starting with oil and the contracts set up between Saddam and non-American/British companies. The latter part of the film looks at the petro-dollar cycle and how OPEC members can threaten US power by using the euro to trade oil — could Iran be next?
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First shown in January 2003, this news story shows how important Iraqi oil is to the world market and how the regime change could impact OPEC.
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Three-part series that goes on a revealing journey through the world's oil-producing regions, beyond the familiar territory of the Middle East.
Part 1: Rich and Poor
Ecuador and Angola where, historically, oil has proved to be more of a curse than a blessing.
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Part 2: The Pipeline
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that transports oil from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Part 3: The Wilderness
Oil development in Alaska and Alberta.
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Palast reveals how the Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil.
stream Democracy Now!
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The advocates of war insist “it's not about oil”. But global oil production is on the brink of terminal decline, and when the West begins to run short of supplies, Iraq could be a lifeline.
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This film uncovers the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, meeting the key players and dishing the dirt that no-one else knows. It tells the inside story of international power play, oil-fuelled greed, men with guns and the son of the former British Prime Minister.
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Recently made public British government documents show that the US was considering using force to seize oilfields in the Middle East during an oil embargo by Arab states in 1973.
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Palast takes a look at the failed coup attempt by the US in the world's fourth largest oil exporting country, Venezuela.
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An interview with the president of OPEC, discussing the relevance of Iraq's oil.
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The importance of Iraq's oil supplies, and who will control them after a war.
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In 2000, oil industry expert Dr Colin Campbell lectured in Germany on the peak of world oil production.
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Short interview with Campbell.
part 1 RealMedia
part 2 RealMedia
Connections between the CIA, oil companies and the Vietnam war.
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Special news report on the politics, the players and the potential of developing a relationship with Central Asia to end dependence on Persian Gulf oil.
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