Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden -- the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free -- listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans "have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims" by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 -- a thirteen-fold increase.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[dougbob]

hey did anybody notice that the basic claim here...that OBL said oil should be $144...is linked in the Think Progress article to a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) publication? i dunno know about you guys, but I'd rather have a source more credible that the Mickey Maoist brigades.
Does anybody have a better link to source this claim? Or are we all just blowing smoke out our butts because Think Progress said so?

[Cynth]

I found this article in LexisNexis. Here are excerpts:

September 28, 2001, Friday, BC cycle
In 1998 interview, bin Laden introduces himself to the world
By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

All American men are the enemy, Osama bin Laden says. And the United States owes Muslims $36 trillion, payback for "the biggest theft" in history - the purchase of cheap oil from the Persian Gulf.
A book with that and more of bin Laden in his own words has been snapped up by Arabic readers in the weeks since he was named the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 suicide bombings in New York and Washington. The book, "Bin Laden, Al-Jazeera - and I" by Jamal Abdul Latif Ismail, includes a 54-page transcript of the complete 1998 interview that was broadcast in abbreviated form on Al-Jazeera, a popular television program.

...copies sold out in book stores across the Mideast. Readers have been borrowing and photocopying the book from friends.

Bin Laden spoke to Ismail...four months after the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa - attacks in which he's also a suspect.....

...- Bin Laden claimed the United States has carried out the "biggest theft in history" by buying oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. According to bin Laden, a barrel of oil today should cost $144. Based on that calculation, he said, the Americans have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims and they owe each member of the faith $30,000....

[research]

How about the faux Noise folks?

[Cynth]

So Bush played into Bin Laden's hand again.... Check. So much for "strategery."

Let's make sure that our next President is at minimum sharper than the forces we're contending with.

[bija]

Mission accomplished

[ranchosx]

i have said all along that Bush's cozy relationship with the bin Ladens and the Sauds was suspicious.
Manchurian candidate Bush. This only one of many thing he has handed bin Laden on a silver platter.

[jonmonbuckeye]

bin Laden and the Republicans need each other. Without the Republicans, bin Laden can't recruit kids to blow themselves up. Without bin Laden, Republicans can't play the "the boogie-man is coming" fear card.

[research]

You got it!

I will protect you from you enemies.

Give me complete control.

[Marlyn]

He has a sweet smile.

[MagisterLudi]

Hitler we loved, Hitler we know, Hitler with song in his heart"
Franz Liebkind
The Producers.

[booker52]

Thanks to the war in Iraq, speculators he has gotten his wish.

[wolf58]

Hell Bin Laden won, he has got everything he wanted and the main reason is because Bush gave it to him. Oil is one thing. Bush and the congress by taking the Consitituion and fluching it down the craper change the very fiber of what this country is made of handed him more victory, the economy is trashed because of Iraq and of course the killing of 4100 Americans in iraq is the icing on top of the cake. But hey Bush isn't worried about him, his words not mine. Yes America thanks to Bin Bush, Bin Laden is laughing his ass off and why not he got what he wanted....thanks Bush you freaking Moron

[ranchosx]

and thanks moron America for selling us out.
their needs to be an IQ test for voting

[DMcD]

Agreed !! ------ and further , there needs to be an IQ test for the Presidency as well (Google; "bushisms").

Sure would like to see Nader appointed to be the next Attorney General and then give him 'free-reign' to 'follow-the-money" for this oil fiasco , and corporate/political corruption on the whole -------- topic#1; the bin Laden/Bush/oil relationship.

Heck-of-a-job !!

[akkadian]

This is what happnes when elections are stolen.
The cuckoo ruins the nest.

[gladys46]

I've said over & over again ... you may not say God Bless America and then steal an american electioin ... and then expect success! Something so very wrong there!!

[Viper]

On another blog a person said "the crazy things people think up.. How would Osama become King of Saudi..."

Well if you had free elections in Saudi or even Egypt. he would likely do quite well as Hamas did in Palinstine or Hezbola in Lebanon.

In Iraq the elections led to a Pro Iranian Government. You dont win elections in the middle east being pro america. I wonder how Americans would feel if a foreign government had military bases in America? We never seem to see things from the other perspective/view point.

The Saudi people have not seen the oil wealth. The royal family has.

Actually, the article is somewhat wrong. Much/most of the oil money is going to Oil speculators/hedge funds. Its another transference of more money from the middleclass/poor of the world to the Global elite. The average Arab is still getting ripped off and now so are we, the middleclass/poor here. Energy price increases are like a most regressive tax.

Regards

[Cynth]

Great points, Viper. The effect of oil prices on American consumers is the same, wherever the profits go. And Bin Laden had also vowed to hurt the U.S. financially/economically. Who knew that our President, through his policies, domestic neglect, and general incompetence, would be Bin Laden's unsuspecting and inadvertent facilitator?

[brwnizofmine]

IMO, OBL is winnng the war on terror. Stupid Americans invaded Iraq, and we shouldn't have, now the price of oil is up to $144 a barrel. This is destroying our economy which is what OBL wanted to happen. We played right into his hands and we're too stupid to see it. They couldn't beat us at the war games because we have all of the artillery, but they can and certainly have beat us at the mind game, because we had and still have an idiot at the wheel! If they feel or felt that the Americans owe them for stealing their oil, they won't have to think it for too long, not if it keeps going up per barrel. Thank King George for wreaking some of this havoc!

[Viper]

And yet these facts are not stressed in the Election? The link of our poor economy and the war is not really made constantly and forcefully.

The DNC should be running such ads comstantly.

Regards

[gladys46]

Viper, you are so right! I remember G.W.Bu$h "trying" to tell the American people to listen to OBL!! Yes, "listen" to an at large terrorist!

We should listen but he did not!!? Then to go to the other extreme of randomly, illegally "listening" to Americans without warrants is surreal!

It is interesting that the war costs is not being contributed to our declined economy!

[marko77]

Bin Laden says some things you couldn't come up with on an LSD - for example, that people are "stealing" money from Muslims by buying their oil. Please. Religious extremism can fry your brain cells in a way LSD could never do.

[Viper]

You mean there is no religious extremism here... the Atlanta Olympics... Oklahoma City? You mean relgious extremist who believe in the same Creation theory just like Muslims do...

You mean we bought oil freely from the Irainians after we assasinated their elected leader in 1954 and replaced him with a dictator?

Regards

[MagisterLudi]

Oklahoma City? an example of religious extremism? Talking about ignorance....

[MagisterLudi]

"The pieces of the bodies of infidels were flying like dust particles. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, you would have been very pleased, and your heart would have been filled with joy." --
OBL at the wedding of his son in southern Kandahar about the 17 sailors who died on board of USS Cole.....

Oklahoma City --Religious extremism? talking about being badly misinformed....

Regardless, people like Viper who sympathize with Osma's primitivism are to be pitied.

[RussT]

10 years ago? I fail to see any controversy here. 10 years ago, I was 10 years younger. Please -Move on.

[MoeJava]

Isnt that remarkable how now each man woman and child in America owes around $30K to support the war efforts. Thats coincidentally the same dollar figure per person, that we supposedly stole via their oil.... what comes around goes around, only I dont remember personally stealing any oil from anyone.

[idabamaho]

Did you vote?

[Forest]

OIL!