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REVIEWS THE OIL CARD threats against key oil producers like Iran by James R. Norman and the fall of Russian oil giant Yukos. Trine Day, OR, USA, 2008 The world is not running out of oil, and ISBN 978-0-9777953-9-0 (244pp tpb) China and India are not exhausting Available: www.trineday.com Supplies; rather, says Norman, were live in a "brave new world of seeing economic warfare waged by the US economic warfare", attests retired national security establishment. The end business joumalist Jim Norman in The Oil — SMe; which may take years to play out, Card, which came out just as the current will be very Messy. Norman 8 thesis financial crisis was starting to boil over. explains manew light what's really He puts paid to notions of "free market going on in the world. economy" and supply and demand "fundamentals" by explaining how ABOVE TOP SECRET commodity markets are rigged. by Jim Marrs The Disinformation Co., NY, 2008 ISBN 978-1-934708-09-5 (284pp tpb) Available: Australia—Tower Books, tel (02) 9975 5566; UK, Eire— Turnaround, tel (0)20 8829 3000; th Bt ee USA, Canada—Consortium Book IN THE 2157 CENTURY Sales, www.cbsd.com or this compilation, veteran conspiracy author Jim Mans (Inside Job, 11/06; The Tenor Conspiracy, 14/01) selected popular topics from the AboveTopSecret forum and contributed commentaries on these great mysteries of our time that have spread like wildfire since the advent of the Internet. Marrs heads each subject with a summary in terms of the "who, what, James R. Norman when, where, why". He then analyses 5 . available facts and theories, pros and cons, The dramatically low oil prices of the to conclude whether they have validity or 1980s were engineered to push the Soviet are hoaxes. Sometimes the theory won't Union to collapse, he says. The same go away despite strong contrary evidence. kind of price-control levers have been used Among the subjects Marrs examines are eee 8 aging ina ns een 10 years, frst of all to bail out the Saudis Reserve as a seam, chetranaly ae and provide windfalls for key US allies “terraforming" agents, and Moon landing like Canada and Mexico, but then photos as fakes. He also delves into peak primarily to curb the growth and power of oil myths, the JFK assassination, the Chinas bas ically unbalanced doeopolit al testimony of "John Titor, time traveller game? Noman points ata US cabal, the OM 2086" sightings of "spidey Makes (WGEMD fompising hea of {247 apd what he year 2012 may rng Bad sonic an fiutne traine © Righlighted qotes fom posters on the commissions and major investment pove Top Secret | brs hot ‘ust to banks), which is implicatedinaseriesof . themselves with i basics of price-fixing market interventions. The acquaint . remse ves Pilea . © asics ° economic warfare equivalent of the mysteries and consparares b ut to apply Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the critical thinking and eaictive lie a ; WGFM played its part in the geopolitical be re ar ‘oah the es ad fox hein nf Tes. od 1s logic behind the US invasion of Iraq, ook 1s worth the read tor the inform and sceptical alike. THE OIL CARD by James R. Norman Trine Day, OR, USA, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9777953-9-0 (244pp tpb) Available: www.trineday.com e live in a "brave new world of economic warfare", attests retired business joumalist Jim Norman in The Oil Card, which came out just as the current financial crisis was starting to boil over. He puts paid to notions of "free market economy" and supply and demand "fundamentals" by explaining how commodity markets are rigged. ee | Tn Oil Card GLOBAL ECONOMIC WARFARE IN THE 2157 CENTURY James R. Norman The dramatically low oil prices of the 1980s were engineered to push the Soviet Union to collapse, he says. The same kind of price-control levers have been used in reverse since 1998, resulting in a 12- fold increase in oil prices in the ensuing 10 years, first of all to bail out the Saudis and provide windfalls for key US allies like Canada and Mexico, but then primarily to curb the growth and power of China's basically unbalanced economy. So who's playing this grand geopolitical game? Norman points at a US cabal, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (WGFM) (comprising heads of the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, securities and futures trading commissions and major investment banks), which is implicated in a series of price-fixing market interventions. The economic warfare equivalent of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the WGFM played its part in the geopolitical logic behind the US invasion of Iraq, NEXUS ¢ 69 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com