Those in government who advocate war are running up the price of gas at the pump. While telling us how concerned they are about high prices, our leaders are preventing production from new and old oil fields all over the world. World prices have risen to over $28.00 per barrel, and the President is selling off “Strategic Energy Reserves” to meet demand. Sadly, US sanctions prevent five or more producing oil countries from marketing oil and gas to Americans.
Sudan has just joined the growing number of countries that are not allowed to produce and sell oil. The fuel that could be in our tank remains in the ground in Iraq, Libya, Chechnya, Iran and Sudan. It is bottled up by deliberate war. In Part I we discussed the fictitious report of a Chinese invasion of Sudan by 700,000 imaginary troops massed to slaughter mostly imaginary Christians. This is not to say there are not Christians and dedicated missionaries in Sudan; we have interviewed many. We have also interviewed the propagandists and fundraising charlatans, whom we have dubbed “Mail-order Missionaries.” We have interviewed those who have agreed to talk to us, but some will not agree.
The Mail-order Missionaries daring stories of slave purchases exceed the wildest mythical adventure tales of the Arabian Nights. These are largely figments of self-serving imaginations in the world of money-raising frenzy. Contributors are expected to believe that Celebrity Christians dash bravely about in the war zone of southern Sudan, handing out Bibles, feeding hungry war victims, and saving the lives and virtue of scores of innocent children pressed into slavery by the “enemy”. We are told The Government of Sudan (GOS) and its military leaders capture and chain black Christians and hold them in slavery, and that the fearless Mail-order Missionaries come along with freshly-gleaned American dollars to ransom women and children from their “Arab masters.”
One such recent headline reads, “Harvard Sophomore Helps Free Over 4,000 Slaves in Sudan.” Such claims are commonplace, usually coming from Christian Solidarity International, or from Caroline Cox, formerly of CSI, or from a growing host of war parasites. A recent promotion photograph in one “Christian” fund-raising publication showed a man in Arab headdress walking directly toward the camera, followed by a procession of 50 or more women and children, sweeping behind him in a serpentine pattern. All appeared to be smiling, including the “slave master,” who was grinning from ear to ear. No doubt all were wondering why they were photographed in a snake dance. The viewer is expected to believe this is a Sudanese Arab slave trader bringing in his human cargo to the marketplace in southern Sudan, for sale to the highest bidder.
Of course, the highest bidder is always a Mail-order Missionary, who will promptly free the slaves–after photographing them and receiving translated testimonies, of course. But no one asks how did this hated Arab–a member of the mortal enemy forces–dare to enter the marketplace of this captured zone? All reported trades invariably take place on captured territory of John Garang’s Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA controls the ground, owns the guns and ushers the Mail-order Missionaries about, often under armed guard. A reasonable man might ask, “Why dont the SPLA soldiers simply capture the Arabs and steal their human booty?” Or better yet, why not let the enemy “Arabs” sell their slaves, and then kill them and steal the money? Obviously, the SPLA soldiers could do so, since all this trading goes on under their auspices.
It is equally obvious that the SPLA does not have to kill the “Arab slavers” because they can only be the SPLA (or friends) in turban disguises. The “slaves” have often proved to be village children, turning a quick buck in a place where $10.00 is a weeks pay. At the very worst, they are residents of a neighboring village, captured as hostages by warring neighbors. The entire program is staged for the cameras of the Mail-order Missionaries. Later, the films will be shown to the contributors, who then gladly volunteer more dollars to buy more slaves. It is an endless process and a delight of the war parasites, which do not seem to be at all short of money for expensive, rented airplanes for costly, illegal trips into captured Sudan.
Few ask why there is a seemingly endless supplies of available slaves at ever-declining prices– sometimes as low as $30.00 a head–less than the price of a lamb in Sudan. It is because the supply of slaves is totally elastic! Almost anyone in Sudan would be willing to act as a slave for a day if he knew he would be turned loose in a few days.
What is the actual effect of so-called slave purchases in Sudan, and who ends up with the money? The money given by well-meaning contributors in American churches is intended to do good, but instead, it finances the SPLA operations. Christians are unwittingly funding the war. Even more damaging, the press always makes the SPLA look like good guys, providing them with creditability. Some–like Caroline Cox and Peter Hammond–are openly marketing John Garang’s war as a Christian effort. But most of those who are preying on that war are in it for the millions that they are able to milk from Americas churches. Little of the money ever gets to Sudan; it cannot, because of the devious route it must take to get there. The small amount that does get there falls into the waiting hands of the Garang forces.
What about the Harvard sophomore and the Denver school teacher, Barbara Vogel, who supposedly panhandled $60,000 for Christian Solidarity International right in the schoolrooms of the Denver School system, and for a “Christian” organization? Do they know they are part of a slave sham that pays for bullets and bombs and is killing and starving the very people they claim to be helping? Most do not even suspect it. Those we have interviewed believe their own story; because everyone else seems to accept it, it must be true.
What is behind all this violation of the 5th Commandment–“thou shall not lie”? Oil is behind the lies. Oil is the reason for the attack on Sudan. To understand this, one has to examine who will benefit when the country has been destroyed. In Part I, we discussed that the first sacking and rape of Sudan by our British “cousins” in 1898 was to get the cotton. It is a sordid fact of history practically unknown by Americans. Sudan was valuable then as a giant cotton plantation on the upper Nile. Today it is just as valuable as a giant, undeveloped oilfield. More important, Sudan is a rebel to the world order of our day. It does not belong to the UN, the World Bank, OPEC or any other world organization, and it is anathema to the state of Israel and morally supports Palestine all the way. It is our guess that the biggest beneficiary of the destruction of Sudan would be the State of Israel–just a stones throw away through the Suez–which has no oil of its own and needs to purloin some from its Red Sea neighbor, just as it purloined the land it calls its own.
How Much Oil?
Relatively little is known about the oil potential of Sudan. Detailed engineering reports appear to be quite scarce. The initial discovery by the giant Chevron was some 30 years ago, but Sudan has been under civil war most of the time and little work has been done to prove or expand the find. Chevrons exploration was limited, and when Chevron stalled, the Government of Sudan kicked them out and took back the concessions. The recent operator, Talisman Energy, has also been limited by the constant threat of war and disruption (see Part II).
Enormous work and money are required to explore such a vast target, without which no one can know the potential. The GOS is pressed for instant revenues to defend itself against an outside- financed guerrilla war. It has had no time for a systematic exploration. China, Malaysia and others have forged ahead to fill the vacuum left by the US. Oil revenues are Sudan’s answer to winning the war. So the GOS hurries, forcing a major pipeline construction by the shortest possible route, and completing it in an amazingly short time. The GOS now claims there is potential for oil discovery in every region of the country. Indeed the initial production is coming from secondary discoveries that were not initially contemplated.
Sudan’s initial announced production varies from 100,000 -150,000 barrels per day, which is a drop in the bucket in international oil circles. But oil prices are sky high, and hard dollars are flowing into Sudan for the first time in its history. Sudan is playing the lone wolf, selling oil to the European market at its Red Sea port. Sudan is countering the embargo. But to continue, it must protect the pipeline and production facilities from invasion, internal sabotage, giant American and Israeli enemies, and the Celebrity Christian propagandists who seek to destroy it.
The Clinton Administration embargo has nothing to do with abuse of Christians as we are told. Sudan is under attack, both in the field of battle and in the international media, not because they practice slavery, which they do not do, but because they produce oil, which they do.
Sudan is vilified because it is judged to be independent in the eyes of leaders of world government. In a word, the GOS is unwilling to allow the international money powers to take over and manage its resources. It chose to defy the U.S., England, Israel, and the United Nations. It even challenged OPEC to go it alone, supported by such unlikely world capitalists as Malaysia and China. The response from world government leaders is embargo, war and the most vicious and false propaganda campaign since similar attacks destroyed Rhodesia and South Africa in decades past by US sanctions.
It is worth noting that both Rhodesia (now sad Zimbabwe) and South Africa were accused of being “slave states” in 1976 when they were under US sanctions. Lies about slavery were circulated in major media reports referencing “a United Nations report” that was never published. The printed map of the alleged slave states included Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala –all of which were to have their governments discredited and destroyed. ***Rocky Mountain News, page 50, August 27, 1976. This is not to say the GOS does not do bad things. It is no doubt preferential to Muslims in many ways. But it is no guiltier of war atrocities than is the SPLA, according to some very good sources. It does without doubt provide some help for refugees.
In condemning Sudan, the mail-order missionaries have adopted the pro-Garang position that oil production is bad for Christians and the pipeline should be destroyed. This is their way of saying they want someone else besides the Sudanese to control the potentially vast oil fields of Sudan. The GOS is producing oil, as least in modest quantity, which is going into the world supply. Common sense and recent history tells us oil production brings nothing but good for a third world country, if they are allowed to sell it. It provides new jobs where there are none, and for many an improved life in an impoverished war-torn country. Oil elevates the standard of living of every inhabitant, and oil helps the rest of the world by reducing prices. Any increase in supply has an effect upon our prices, regardless of who produces it or who uses it.
The staff, volunteers and advisers of We Hold These Truths are Americans, and all oil consumers, as is almost everyone we know. Regardless of how one views the war in Sudan, it is axiomatic that new oil production reduces prices worldwide, and that it is needed. War, on the other hand, brings only poverty and deprivation– something Sudan’s black population has already had enough of. We are for lower prices, so we are for new production, regardless of who produces it. We are opposed to the unchristian idea of an American war of vengeance against the population of another Black Country.
See: Missionaries, Mercenaries, Missiles and Money