News

Paul Holmes gave a little historical context to his piece on the
oil spill in the 'Herald on Sunday', which had me astonished. Not
because I disagreed with it, but what he was saying hardly ever
gets hauled out into the sunlight. 




Holmes was writing about the role of British Petroleum in Iran in
the early years of the 20th Century. He writes - "Never forget that
BP is simply the reincarnation of the old Anglo-Persian Oil
Company, set up by the British in the first years of the 20th
Century and granted a license to plunder oil reserves in Iran, or
Persia as it was then called. They got the oil for a song. They
virtually stole it. "




Holmes goes onto say that the Iranians democratically elected a
leader, Mosadegh, who decided to do the unthinkable. He said to the
British that Iranian oil actually should belong to the Iranians,
and decided to nationalize it (familiar themes from Latin America
today).

In a book I've just finished; one helluva epic book I
might add,
by 'New York Times' Tim Weiner called 'The History of the CIA'
(more on this another time), he collates on-the-record sources and
declassified source material of the time - and what we know now is
that Winston Churchill, totally outraged that Mosadegh wanted to
kick Bri... >>>