In 1948 the U.S. State Department called the oil of the Middle East the "greatest strategic prize in history." Oil is the blood of industrial society. If the main product of the Middle East were tangerines and dates, there is zero likelihood that the configuration of the region or the invasions by European and American empires that have plagued it's modern history would have ever happened.
Empire and Oil documents the history of Iraq, the scramble for oil, and reveals the real motivation of the Iraq War: to control the oil of the region, not for American SUV's, but to to secure leverage over it's current and future imperial rivals.
Graphics: Veronica Davidov,Larilyn Sanchez, Alex Rivera
Music
1 Heartbeat Productions
Badawi
Segment Credits
Shocking and Awful Opening Sequence
Video Activist Network
From
We Interrupt This Empire
March 20, 2004 Demonstration Footage and Interviews
Videographer: Satya Colombo
Interviews: Brian Drolet
Iraq History
Text: David Barsamian and Brian Drolet
Narration: David Barsamian
Editor: Larilyn Sanchez
Audio Engineering: Chris Burke - Bong and Dern
Graphics: Veronica Davidov
Animation: Alex Rivera
Videographer: Satya Colombo
Larry Everest Talk
Revoluton Books, New York
April 2004
Videogrpaher: Satya Colombo
Hamid Dabashi Interview
Columbia University
Videographer: Satya Colombo
Tariq Ali
Judson Church, New York
February 20th, 2004
Videographers: Molly Fink and Orlando Richards
Shock and Awe Newspaper Photo
Margaret Morton
Noam Chomsky - After the War
Columbia University
Desert Venture
1958 Promo film for Arab-American Oil
Courtesy of Prelinger Archives
The Internet Archive
Rania Masri Interview
Interviewed by David Barsamian Alternative Radio
Videographer: Lee Buric
Arundhati Roy
Riverside Church
May 13, 2003
Courtesy of Democracy Now!
Additional Footage
David Martinez, Dario Bellini, Satya Colombo, Independent Media Centers, Barbara Trent, Gael Murphy, Chrles Krezoli, Chris Belcher, Al-Jazera, Euronews, Aaron Woolf