Burning the candle at both ends

By Rachel Ehrenfeld & Alyssa A. Lappen
Washington Times | March 22, 2008

With the U.S. economy “obviously going through a tough time,” America should welcome capital investments even from foreign sovereign wealth funds, President George W. Bush asserted on March 14, 2008 at New York’s Economic Club.

“It’s our money to begin with,” he added, referring to roughly $95 trillion in OPEC holdings of U.S. dollars and investments accumulated largely through oil sales. Contending that we can “protect our people against investments that jeopardize our national security,” Mr. Bush added, “Seems like we ought to let it come back.” But President Bush is ignoring some basic principles of U.S. capitalism and democracy: personal and corporate ownership rights are nearly sacrosanct.

Dollars may be “coming back,” but they do so with strings attached, giving foreigners huge leverage and control over the U.S. currency and economy. Of the world’s 86 million barrels in daily crude oil output, the Middle East produces only 25.6 percent. With escalating prices, crude oil now runs $111 per barrel, putting $2.4 billion daily in Middle East pockets.

Unlike President Bush, market observers don’t think we can burn the candle at both ends. Legendary investor and Vanguard Group founder John Bogle blasted the “orgy of speculation” that granted foreign investors excessive influence over the U.S. economy. “We should have never let ourselves get into this position where so many dollars are . . . held by foreign countries and bought by foreign countries that are enemies,” he stated also on March 14. “Friend or enemy, they have a lot of control over what happens here,” he said.

Indeed, major Middle East oil producers have a different understanding than Americans of economics and ownership. The October 2006 Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) “Mecca Declaration” is but one, albeit pointed example of this fundamental difference. Islam views all property owned by Muslims as held “in trust for Allah.” The Qur’an decrees, “The land belongs to Allah, He gives it as a heritage to those of His devotees whom He pleases” (15:128). Therefore, Muslim property “shall be subject to the terms and conditions established by their owners.” While OPEC and the Saudis blame the Bush administration for high oil prices, by “mismanaging” the U.S. economy, in fact OPEC policies cause the escalation.

In a significant indication of brazen Saudi determination to undermine the U.S. and Western economies with petrodollars, King Abdullah rebuffed President Bush’s recent appeal to boost production and lower prices.

“I would hope, as OPEC considers different production levels, that they understand that if… one of their biggest consumers’ economy suffers, it will mean less purchases, less gas and oil sold,” the President pleaded. Without hesitating, however, Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi responded, “We will raise production when the market justifies it.” Considering the effects on U.S. markets, the Saudi strategy should be recognized as economic warfare.

Despite protracted violence against the United States, West and Israel since 1979, only the September 11 attacks forced America to recognize the Islamic holy war (jihad) waged by al Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.

What will it take for the United States to recognize the far more dangerous and important part of that jihad—economic warfare (financial jihad, or al-jihad bi-al-mal)–which the Saudis and Gulf States now aggressively also pursue? Shari’a mandates that Muslims fund jihad: Qur’an 61:10-11, “strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. . . .” And Qur’an 49:15, “(true) believers are only those who…strive with their wealth and their lives for the cause of Allah…. Financial Jihad [is] ‘ more important’ than self-sacrificing,” says Saudi Islamic cleric and Muslim Brother Hamud bin Uqla al-Shuaibi.

This open economic warfare, however, has not affected U.S. economic or foreign policies, much less media coverage or presidential election campaigns or debates.

While the U.S. currency weakens and Saudi and Gulf interests continue their binge buying of strategic U.S. assets and financial institutions, their petrodollars lure more and more ignorant, and even desperate American bankers and investors into the purported glimmer of shari’a banking — a gold-plated Islamic money pit.

The president and his economic advisors should heed Jack Bogle. Without emergency measures to redirect U.S. economic policy and market regulations, the petrodollar- and shari’a-driven takeover of America will indeed endanger national and global security.

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Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is director of the American Center for Democracy and member of the Committee on the Present Danger. Alyssa A. Lappen, Senior Fellow at the ACD, is a former editor for Forbes, Corporate Finance, Working Woman and Institutional Investor.

Alyssa A. Lappen

Alyssa A. Lappen is a U.S.-based investigative journalist. She is the former Managing Editor at the Leeb Group (2012-2017); a former Senior Fellow of the American Center for Democracy (2005-2008); and a former Senior Editor of Institutional Investor (1993-1999), Working Woman (1991-1993) and Corporate Finance (1991). She served six of her 12 years at Forbes (1978-1990) as an Associate Editor. Ms. Lappen was also a staff reporter at The New Haven Register (1975-1977). During a decade as a freelance, her work appeared in Big Peace, Pajamas Media, Front Page Magazine, American Thinker, Right Side News, Family Security Matters, the Washington Times and many other Internet and print journals. Ms. Lappen also contributed to the Terror Finance Blog, among others. She supports the right of journalists worldwide to write without fear or restriction on politics, governments, international affairs, terrorism, terror financing and religious support for terrorism, among other subjects. Ms. Lappen is also an accomplished poet. Her first full-length collection, The Minstrel's Song, was published by Cross-Cultural Communications in April 2015. Her poems have been published in the 2nd 2007 edition of Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust and both 2007 issues of Wales' award-winning Seventh Quarry: Swansea Poetry Magazine. Dozens of her poems have appeared in print and online literary journals and books. She won the 2000 annual Ruah: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry chapbook award and has received a Harvard Summer Poetry Prize and several honorable mentions.