Daniel Sheehan, Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School trained constitutional litigation and appellate attorney joined Jimmy Church (email) for the entire program to discuss the lost and forgotten history between the U.S. and the Middle East, which has led to the rise of ISIS, and what we need to do next to fix the problem with global terrorism and prevent another 9-11 or Paris tragedy.
According to Sheehan, the trouble we see today is ultimately the result of the U.S. and other western powers establishing nation states in the Middle East, setting up fascist potentates there, and occupying oil fields. He connected the rise of the 'Robber Baron' era in the late 19th century to a period of U.S. imperialism. "That age of imperialism is what characterized the entire Western culture—the nation state," he said, noting that when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar they set up an entirely opposing system—one the U.S. would actively work to bring down during the majority of the period of the Cold War (1917-1991).
Sheehan outlined how the western powers formed a commission in 1922, chaired by Winston Churchill, to set boundaries that were to be superimposed upon the Middle East. "They arbitrarily and capriciously set up a whole series of boundaries in nation states in the Middle East that had completely tribal cultures for thousands of years... primarily for the purpose of being able to put into power in each of those little square boxes one family," he explained. The same 'Robber Barron' magnates who dominated the U.S. political process would go on to control Middle Eastern oil through lease agreements, with part of the profits going to the to the ruling families, he added.
These magnates were also investment clients in Brown Brothers Harriman, which was led by George Herbert Walker (grandfather of President George H. W. Bush and great-grandfather of President George W. Bush), Sheehan continued. "The whole Nazi party was created by George Herbert Walker and his funders through the Union Bank of New York and they set up the fascist party in Germany [to fight against Bolshevism in Russia]," he revealed. At the end of WWII, $1.2 trillion was recovered from Japanese treasure sites hidden throughout the Philippines. President Truman brought in two partners from Brown Brothers Harriman who used the newfound wealth to finance putting fascists in power throughout Europe, Sheehan disclosed.
As the threat from the Soviet Union diminished in the late 20th century, George H. W. Bush became concerned the U.S. military's large budget could be cut, Sheehan suggested. Bush prompted Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait while Dick Cheney lied to Saudi leaders about Hussein's intentions to move into Kuwait then into Saudi Arabia, he asserted. This allowed for the renewal of exclusive oil lease agreements and an established U.S. military presence in the Middle East, Sheehan said. The groups which we fight against now hate the House of Saud and other fascist despots the West has put into place as well as the West's occupation of Middle Eastern oil fields, Sheehan recapped.
Sheehan also commented on ISIS and the resulting incursion on our individual civil liberties in the face of anti-terrorism legislation, a potential renewed clash between Russia and U.S., global climate change, and his conversations with Fr. Funes, former director of the Vatican Observatory, about the potential implications of finding an extraterrestrial civilization on one of the newly discovered exoplanets.
News segment guest: Lauren Weinstein