The 1990 Gulf War
We will look at this war from the four principal players- the US, Israel, Iraq and the PLO.
The Iraq Perspective
When the two families toppled the Shah of Iran in 1979, they installed Khomeini into power. Khomeini double-crossed his sponsors, and from that time till today, Iran is at loggerheads with both the US and Israel. In order to crush Iran and weaken Iraq, Saddam was manipulated into a war with Iran. This lasted for 8 years, costing immense loss of blood and treasure. Iraq started the war with Iran in September 1980 with $50 billion in reserves and very little foreign debt. It ended the war in August 1988 with a foreign debt of $70 billion, half of which was owed to non-Arab creditors. Iraq had no foreign reserves left. Saudi Arabia wrote its amount off, but Kuwait refused to forgive Iraq of some $15 debt it held.
For 18 months, from August 1988 to February 1990, Baghdad’s top priority was to revive Iraq’s post-war economy, which needed funds. Iraq’s best hope lay in increasing its oil revenues, but the oil price was being manipulated lower by the 2 families. Efforts to talk up the price of oil absorbed most of Iraq’s diplomatic energy until January 1990, when it began to fear an Israeli nuclear attack.
The biggest danger facing Iraq was from Israel. From the moment the Iraq-Iran War ended in August 1988, both Iraq and Israel were warily eyeing and circling one another. As the most advanced Arab state in the region in terms of industrial technology, as well as its military applications, along with a battle-tested military power, Iraq posed a threat that Israel had to neutralize. Iraq also had the potential to resist Israel’s expansionist plans in the region. Over time, Iraq had the capacity and willpower to come out of all its financial problems- time that Israel could not allow Iraq. Iraq had to be LURED INTO A TRAP SO THAT SHE COULD BE DESTROYED. Saddam was backing the Palestinians financially, politically and morally.
The US Perspective
The reason why America went to war against Iraq can best be explained by perusing the 3 key factors behind this move. These were the US military, the oil industry, and the financial health of the Rockefeller banks.
The Military
The Cold War was officially declared over in October 1990, when the unification of Germany took place. With that, the huge American military machine began to look irrelevant. Without its vast military, would the US still be a superpower? Would it remain the center of international attention? The rot was obvious to the Europeans, whose media began to give less space to reports from Washington. This sapped America self-confidence. With the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Washington needed a new beast to slay. But now, there was nothing on the horizon-just boredom.
The US military was also burdened with the image of a weakling following its humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam in 1974. It needed a success to overcome the “Vietnam Syndrome”. During the 1980s, the Pentagon was continuously updating its forces. What it lacked was an excuse to show-off its new strengths and technologies. In short, it was looking for a war.
The Oil Factor
The Middle East is the center of gravity of the international oil industry. Who controls the region controls its oil resources. Its oil reserves would be the greatest economic prize in history. As far back as the 1950s, plans were made by the West to seize the regions oil fields, but it was only the US which had the resources to undertake such a mission to guarantee the oil on which they all depended. Plus, the strength of Western economies was based on oil.
In July 1989, a US business delegation visited Baghdad in order to boost trade ties between the 2 countries. One member of this delegation had a 3-hour private meeting with Saddam. This was Alan Stoga of Kissinger & Associates. In short, a Rockefeller man. The gist of the meeting was that Iraq make available its oil resources to the Rockefeller Group, in return for US banks will re-schedule Iraq’s foreign debt. Predictably, Saddam refused this Rockefeller “offer” to surrender sovereignty over Iraq’s oil in exchange for vague assurances on future loans. Saddam knew the CIA very very well as he was put into power by them. He never trusted them. Stoga then reported back to his boss-Henry Kissinger, who then reported to David Rockefeller. With Saddam’s refusal, a plan of action was initiated. Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world, not taking into account its western areas which remain the largest unexplored oil region in the world. If Saddam Hussein would deny Iraqi oil to the Rockefeller Group, then the family will deny Iraqi oil to the Iraqis. In other words, Iraq will be denied to Iraq!
Two weeks later, Iraq’s financial spigot was turned off with the FBI raid on the Atlanta branch of the BNL bank, the main American conduit of financial loans to Baghdad. The combined effect of the Stoga talks and the BNL expose was a total Western bank credit cut-off to Iraq by February 1990. A very different impression of Saddam Hussein was forming in the boardrooms of American big business. Iraq was emerging as a regional power, and was “daring” to challenge the status quo. In the boardrooms of big business, what the captains of industry and finance think one day, the political class and the media say next, especially when the intelligence mandarins give similar advice.
Into this critical situation enters Kuwait, which was firmly in the Rockefeller orbit. Kuwait was instructed to help Iraq financially during the 8-year war. By September 1989, Kuwait’s “mission” had changed. Now, she was ordered to flood the markets with oil, in violation of agreed OPEC production quotas, which was needed to stabilize world oil prices following the debacle of 1985-87. By June 1990, the oil price dropped from $20 to $9. Every one dollar in the oil price reduced Iraq’s annual oil income by some $16 billion a year. In addition, Kuwait was stealing oil from Iraq’s Rumailiyah oil field, through the process of “horizontal drilling”.
Then, Kuwait refused to lease the 2 islands of Warba and Bubiyan to Iraq, which would enable Iraq to build a deep-water port to expedite its trade. And, lastly, Kuwait wanted Iraq to recognize its sovereignty, which Iraq refused to do, still maintaining correctly that Kuwait is an integral part of Iraq. Saddam tried repeatedly to solve the problems with Kuwait which was being stubborn about comprising with Iraq. Saddam asked Kuwait to grant it a cash fusion of $10 billion, but Iraq offered only $500 million, which Saddam took as an insult. He complained that Iraq paid a very heavy price in defending the Arab world from the Shias (Iran). He felt betrayed. And, rightly so.
The reason of Kuwait’s stubbornness was that it was given assurances by the Rockefeller Empire, through Washington and the CIA, that Saddam would not dare try an invasion of Kuwait. But, the Rockefellers were playing a double game, as we shall see. The Rockefeller Empire was using Kuwait to cripple Iraq so that Iraq would come to terms with New York-the home base of the Rockefeller Empire. It knew full well that Iraq was not able to service its old debts or finance needed food imports and its economic reconstruction.
By February 1990, the gloves were off. In a speech on February 24, 1990, Saddam complained that Iraq was undergoing an economic, military and psychological encirclement, and warned that the continued presence of US warships in the Persian Gulf posed a great danger to the Arab world.
The Finance Factor
In December 1989, a new chief was appointed to head the Bank of Japan, Tokyo’s central bank. The first thing he did was to raise interest rates, thus deflating the Japanese asset bubble. Since then, Japan has been in a deflationary spiral, with no end in sight. Japan was a huge exporter of capital-especially to the US. When rates began to rise, huge amounts of cash left the US and returned to Japan, taking advantage of higher rates.
In 1990, Germany became re-united. Prior to this, Germany was a net exporter of capital to the US. With re-unification, this was not possible any longer, for Germany needed immense sums to finance reconstruction with the former East Germany- as well as Russia- its future customer base. In addition, investors from Taiwan, Switzerland and other rich nations pulled their cash out of the US economy. Rothschild financial networks in Europe pushed this with a deliberate aim of forcing the Rockefellers to come to their aid to destroy Iraq. The combination of these moves by Germany and Japan resulted in huge outflows from Wall Street to Europe and Asia. Wall Street and the money markets were reeling. There was a wholesale flight of funds out of key banks in America- mostly banks within the Rockefeller orbit. They were also fleeing the over-leveraged and highly unsustainable American economy. The majority of banks were essentially dead in the water, and could not extend loans even if there was a booming economy. US banks had to pay interest rate premiums in order to fund their banking operations.
Market panic began to infect the US banking system. Bank share prices fell far below book value, making it impossible to raise new equity. Many bank’s credit ratings plunged. More terrifying was the slow-motion, global wholesale money-market flight from America’s largest banks. US banks were in trouble because of the quality of their loan books. They had lent massively too many 3rd World countries, which were in no position to service their loans, never mind repaying the principle. Secondly, the US real estate market was in a crash mode, as most of the banks were stuck with worthless real estate loans.
The US economy was nose-diving at a 5% rate. Unless America’s core banking system was stabilized, the US faced a financial crisis and a hard economic landing. In the decade of the 80s, excess greed decimated the S & L banks, costing the US taxpayers $500 billion. In addition, we witnessed the spectacle of rampant looting operations on Wall Street by figures such as Mike Millikan, who worked for Jacob Rothschild. All these factors converged at the same time to hit both economic and financial markets, with the result that the US banking system was in full retreat.
Wall Street entered the crisis zone, just as Saddam was moving into Kuwait. Chase Manhattan Bank – a Rockefeller entity- experienced a near-run in September. Other Rockefeller banks, such as Citibank, came under attack too. These banks responded with unprecedented cuts in operations to conserve their capital. Chase set aside $850 million to cover bad loans, slashed dividends by half and fired 5,000 staff. Other Rockefeller banks, such as Chemical, Manufacturers Hanover, First Chicago, etc. took similar steps. The largest bank in America- Citibank-went bankrupt in November! The family used its control of Washington and the Federal Reserve to engineer a spectacular, but highly secret, 2-year rescue of the bank. Citibank had the lowest asset/equity ratio and the highest non-performing loan book among the major banks. In 1991, it posted its first annual loss ($457 million) since the Great Depression. Citibank bit the bullet. The dividend was eliminated, massive layoffs were made, and expenses reduced, raised capital and reduced lending to improve its deficient asset-equity ratios.
But, Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait soon changed the situation around. US troops and equipment soon landed in Saudi Arabia. The rulers of Kuwait got out just in time, fore-warned by the CIA. The Emir of Kuwait Sheik Jaber al Sabah fled to Saudi Arabia. Kuwait had, over the years, developed a sovereign wealth fund, called the Kuwait Investment Office, or the KIO. By June 1990, the assets of this fund were standing at $165 billion. In return for offering protection to the Kuwaitis and to get their country back, the Rockefellers were demanding a substantial slice of this money. The Kuwaitis were hedging.
A few days later a deal was struck. But just before this deal, Jaber complained to Saudi ruler King Fahd, about the money that was being extorted from him by the Rockefellers. Fahd bluntly told him that he must choose, “My brother, you must decide what you want to keep – the money or the throne”. Jaber shut up and made the payment. Once the cash payment was made to the Rockefeller family, Washington went to the aid of Kuwait. The money extorted from the Kuwaitis was used to save the Rockefeller banks. No exact figure has been revealed to date, but a glimpse into the financial records of the KIO revealed that it had an investment portfolio worth some $165 billion before the invasion, which by April 1991, was reduced to $15 billion! A sum of $50 billion was properly accounted for (money for reconstruction of Kuwait and its oil fields plus paying towards the cost of the US military in this war), but what happened to the other $100 billion? It was no mere coincidence that many Rockefeller banks were recapitalized at around the same time. One of the conduits for this money was a Saudi prince, Al Waleed, whose rise to super wealth status was nothing short of a miracle. He went from a net worth of $12 million in 1990, to something like $22 billion by the end of the decade. He was one of many “frontees” in handling this extorted Kuwaiti money on behalf of David Rockefeller, becoming one of the largest shareholders in Citicorp, holding some 15% of the banks shares, purchased for $600 million. That stake was worth billions by the time he was arrested by Saudi Crown Prince MBS , in 2017, along with many other Saudi elites who formed the ”American faction” within the Saudi elite. MBS stripped him of all this wealth, rightfully citing corruption and serving foreign interests who wanted to “regime-change” MBS.
The Palestinian Perspective
The PLO was born in 1964, with Arafat becoming its head. The 1967 War resulted in the loss of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza to Israel. This energized the PLO and associated Palestinian groups to various actions, such as hijackings, etc., with the aim of focusing world attention on their cause. After the Camp David Peace deal between Israel and Egypt, Israel began to focus its attention on the West Bank. In order to quell the West Bank, Israel worked to destroy its support base in Lebanon, initiating two invasions. In 1982, the PLO was forced to re-locate to Tunis.
With the PLO far away from Palestine, Israel began to place undue pressure on its inhabitants. During the last months of 1987, tension was building up in Palestine. Violent protests began in Gaza. It was a single stone that changed the fate of Palestine. A young boy picked up a stone and threw it at an Israeli patrol. His friends began doing the same, dozens then hundreds joined in. The Intifada (the “Shaking” )had started. The resistance spread like a bushfire through Gaza and the West Bank. The people, as one, had risen. They had had enough. The Stone Revolution had begun.
Both the Israelis and the PLO were surprised with the speed with which the resistance organized itself into a mass movement. Scores of Palestinian leaders had received their political education in Israeli jails; a generation of youth referred to prison experience as “revolutionary school”. It was excellent experience. Because they were well organized in jail, it helped to organize themselves outside.
The Israelis were usually intelligent, but they weren’t always clever. The IOF was ordered to put a stop to the resistance by all means necessary. But they could not stop it. The thing was like a massive fire burning out of everyone’s control. No sooner did the IOF beat down one outbreak, than another flared up somewhere else, and another, each larger and less uncontrollable. The IOF shot dead greater numbers of the stone-throwers, most of them children. It made no difference to world opinion.
As well as shootings, there were mass arrests, curfews, beatings and deportations. Two episodes seemed particularly shocking. In one, Israeli soldiers attempted to bury alive 4 youths in a village in the West Bank. In the other, the US network, CBS, filmed 4 IOF soldiers brutally beating two Palestinian youths in Nablus in a long sequence that was almost unbearable to watch, even for the most hardened observers of violence. Over and over the stone came smashing down, and still the arm would not break. Rabin had growled the order “break their bones”, and many soldiers took it literally. It sickened the watching world. Children with stones achieved more to arouse world sympathy for the Palestinian cause in 22 years than the PLO could ever do with guns. The more Palestinian children the IOF killed, the more they undermined Israel’s international reputation.
Internal security within Israel was handled by the Shin Bet – which was supposed to give warnings of unrest. But although it had put its mark on every individual tree in the Palestinian forest, Shin Bet failed to see the wood. They thought they had the situation under control. They soon learnt that the masses had had enough. The entire world could see that the unrest had a devastating political force. These youth looked up to Arafat for leadership. He was their hero- He was “Mr. Palestine”. Who else was there for them?
The role of the media in the Intifada proved crucial. Pictures of IOF soldiers firing at stone-throwing children brought outrage in the West. Under pressure from growing public outrage, Washington supported a UN resolution calling on Israel to desist from “such harsh measures”. The US normally vetoes Security Council resolutions critical of Israel. The courage of young Palestinians inspired the Arab world.
The men and women of the Intifada found that they needed the PLO because of severe financial difficulties arising from this unrest. To make matters worse, on July 31, 1988, Jordan’s King Hussein announced that Jordan was cutting its legal and administrative ties with the West Bank, passing over responsibilities for Palestine to the PLO. Arafat was in Baghdad when he heard of King Hussein’s announcement. The PLO was in no position to assume responsibility for the OT. The PLO began smuggling funds into the Occupied Territories (OT), but much was lost through bribes. Saudi prince Salman sent $5 million to the Palestinians, bypassing the PLO.
Another consequence was that Hamas began to gain stronger support. Ironically, the Israeli government initially encouraged the formation of Hamas, thinking that a religious party could provide a counter-weight to the nationalism of the PLO. Soon, however, the desire to stay within Israel’s mandate was abandoned and Hamas gained wide popular support.
A change in the Israeli mood was clear to all. The Intifada was becoming an unbearable burden, harming Israel’s image in the Western media, costing Israel its self-esteem. An efficient fighting machine was being transformed into an exhausted, repressive police force. The economic costs were also high.
By the middle of 1988, Arafat was now ready to accept “Israel’s right to exist”. In November, at a meeting of the Palestine National Committee, Arafat declared a new Palestine state with Jerusalem as its headquarters, and Arafat was appointed the president of this new state. This made headlines around the world. Many nations around the world recognized Palestine and granted formal diplomatic recognition. Once the Western media had portrayed Arafat as a gang leader; now he was treated as a head of state.
The pressure on Arafat, from within Palestine and outside were increasing. The considerable sacrifice by the Palestinians had been to no avail. Arab states pledged financial support, but only Iraq maintained regular payments to the PLO.
By December 1989, Arafat’s exasperation was almost complete. He was fed up with America’s attempts to appease Israel by whittling away the PLO’s role to invisibility. His feelings were summed up by an unidentified Arab Foreign Minister: “The process is not sustainable any longer; first they said “Please stop terrorism and then we will discuss with you. Second they said “recognize Israel and we will discuss with you”; now they say, “Please hide yourself and we will discuss with you. The next stage will be “Please kill yourself and we will discuss with you”.
It was the end of the road. The Soviet Union, traditional ally of the Arabs, was in a state of collapse. The PLO’s other friends in Eastern Europe were falling like dominos. Worst of all for the Palestinians, a growing flood of Russian Jews were heading to Israel. For Arafat, this new influx to the Promised Land was a development of near apocalyptic proportions. It gave a fresh infusion of blood to the Zionist state adding to the already severe pressures on land and water resources. This would add weight to Israeli politicians who wanted to expand its borders and forcibly transferring Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to Jordan. The more tyrannical the Israelis acted, the more the Palestinians looked for a different solution. To a desperate people, unaware that the overall picture was more complicated, Saddam appeared to offer the beginning of an alternative. This hope became a bond. With ever more Jews flooding into Israel, pressure was on Arafat to do something about this, but only Saddam and King Hussein of Jordan were siding with him on this issue.
At the end of February 1990, Saddam Hussein arrived in Amman and gave a speech. Transmitted live and watched by millions, it electrified both Arabs and Palestinians. Saddam had brought the litany of complaints into the open. So began the most dangerous dalliance of Arafat’s career, an open alliance with a man who was already unwittingly on a collision course with the West. Then on 12 April, 1990, the US Senate passed a resolution recognizing that Jerusalem is Israel’s historic capital, causing immense outrage in the Arab world.
The Israeli Perspective
Now, we come to the true reason for the war.
When the Creator instructed the Prophet Moses to go into Canaan and occupy it as their land, the Jews refused. They told Moses that they were scared of the Canaanites. The Creator punished them by making them wander in the desert for 40 years.
When the Rothschilds established their colonial settler project called Israel in 1948, they reckoned that if the Israel survives for 40 years, then they would become invincible. May 1988 arrived, and they were still standing and expanding, with the support of the West.
Several changes occurred in the world not long after.
The world moved from an analogue to a digital computer system. This would enhance the boom in new technologies that would greatly help the electronic surveillance regime in the West.
There was no need for a communist state, as communism had outlived its usefulness to the family. Since its founding in 1847, communism broke down many obstacles on the family’s rise to power, and this was the main factor in the death of the Soviet Union in 1990/91. The collapse of the Soviet Union also meant the end of the ideological divide in the world. Going forward, all geopolitical issues would be rooted in economics.
The Rothschild family had increased its power, wealth and political control since 1948, especially in the US-the “balance-stick” in international power politics.
Combine all of the above, we see that Israel still had two enemies that would pose a serious threat –this was Syria and Iraq, with Iraq posing the greatest danger.
From late 1988, tens of thousands of Jews left the Soviet Union. Many went west to Europe, and North America. The vast majority went to Israel. That’s why we find today that the Russians and Eastern Europeans (Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania) make up the largest proportion of Jews in Israel today.
The vast arrival of Ashkhenazi Jews needed land, and as we know, a war always follows a huge inflow of Jews into Israel. The danger that Iraq posed to Israel is what we describe next. In order for Israel to expand, it had to cut Iraq down to size. At the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq had the largest military force in the region- a battle-tested force. . Israel feared Iraq. Besides, Iraq was emerging as an industrial power. It was the only Arab AND Muslim country in the world with a functioning machine-tool sector, responsible for some 1-2% of global machine-tool production! It had just reached the capacity to launch satellites into space. Iraq was the only strong Arab country in the region that had the means to back Arafat and the Palestinians. These were all facts that made Israel come to the realization, back in 1985, that Iraq had to be destroyed in order for Israel to succeed in her plans. Iraq had the potential and the will to resist Israel’s expansion plans. Israel even went so far as to threaten Iraq with nuclear weapons. To hang onto its occupied territories, all potential threats had to be removed, be it Iraq or Washington. For this to take place, Iraq had to destroy by Israel itself, or let the Americans do the dirty work for them. Either way, Iraq had to be lured into a trap so that she could be destroyed.
In August, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The rest became history.
Considering the implosion on Wall Street, the Rothschild financial network added pressure on Rockefeller banks by removing dollars out of Wall Street, thus creating the perception that only a war in the region would bail-out their bans, and the financial system. We find that each of the families had a reason to attack Iraq. The Rothschilds plan was to weaken Iraq so that the large volume of Russian Jewish immigration into Israel. And, so it came to pass.
The overwhelming US victory against Iraq at the end of February 1991 sparked an economic and financial turnaround in the US. With victory, consumer and business confidence surged back quickly as it had disappeared. Money supply rebounded, long term rates declined, buoyed by cash payments from America’s vassals-Japan, Germany and the rich Arab states. This war turned a $7 billion profit for the US! All future costs in the region were borne by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, for America’s continued military presence.
The Rothschild removed a very big threat to their Israel project. The best was they made America and the Arabs do their dirty work for them Further, Israel benefitted financially (in the form of loan guarantees to build housing for new immigrants) and military (an increased US military presence in Israel and the region). Incensed by Arafat siding with Iraq, Kuwait, after the war, expelled the 400,000 Palestinians community in the country. The Palestinians were once again sidelined by Israel and Washington, in addition to losing its financial support from the Gulf countries. This, then, is the story of the 1990 War, aka the 2nd Gulf War. We now move onto the other 2 wars, one involving Iraq, and the other being Syria. The story continues in the next and final part of this series.
