JACQUELINE MARCUS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

(Photo: Eric Kounce)Two major stories are happening simultaneously that carry a predictably distinct odor of oil & gas: US control of Nigerian oil, and Ukrainian control of natural gas.

While climate change escalates to an emergency crisis, a growing national security concern, the US OILigarchy-government is on a "search and seize mission" for the very product that is obliterating our earth: Polluting Oil.

The earth is burning up before our eyes from trapped CO2 green house emissions—but that means very little to a government that is literally owned by oil firms. If a country is cursed with having oil, such as Nigeria or Venezuela, expect to see CIA-military intervention, deliberate incitements of violence, arrests of oil opponents, surveillance, PSYOPS,Blackwater (now operating under the new name , Academi LLC,) and drone attacks—all put into practice in the name of either "national security" or "humanitarian efforts."

In addition to South America, the Middle East and Africa, the US is also a new target for oil and gas drilling. With increased production, Americans have become the victims of Obama's "energy independence" agenda, which has produced an unprecedented number of oil and gas disasters that have poisoned our oceans, our rivers, our water supplies, and our agricultural lands due to gross negligence and a lack of regulatory oversight.

If US oil-gas companies have admitted to having former military psychological operations, or PSYOPs, specialists to counter opponents of drilling in the United States, you can be sure that they're applying the same techniques extensively in foreign oil-regions.

In fact, if we examine what we've learned from Edward Snowden's and Glenn Greenwald's revelations regarding US covert surveillance operations and follow it to its end conclusion, you'd probably discover that illegal surveillance has expanded into an Orwellian police state nightmare for the purpose of protecting international, private corporate interests, primarily oil-gas interests. Thousands of drones will be inspecting oil and gas production across the country with the aim to protect drilling from disgruntled Americans who've had their water and homes poisoned (see Josh Fox's Gasland Part 2).

Surveillance is used to spy on populations and international leaders to learn about all possible obstacles to US oil control. We've recently learned from Snowden, for example, that extensive surveillance has been used on Latin American leaders to obtain information on their resources in that part of the world.

Just as the CEOs of top oil firms believe that they own the Gulf of Mexico, they also believe that they own the world, every inch of it. But you need not have to go to Venezuela or Ecuador or Nigeria to understand how US political coups for oil are played out with the assistance of intrusive surveillance and CIA operatives. No other government is sold out to the oil industry more than the United States. Indeed, the reason Al Gore was prevented from officially winning the 2000 presidential election might be related to climate change: Gore's green energy plans presented a serious threat to the status quo, viz. oil profits.

As for Nigeria, US oil companies have been drilling and killing and polluting Nigeria's lush ecologies for decades. A reminder: In 1995, environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa led an international, nonviolent campaign targeting Shell in Nigeria. He was arrested by the Nigerian dictatorship (financed by Shell), tortured, subjected to a sham trial and then hanged with eight other Ogoni activists.

As Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow.org explained in her in-depth reporting of the "true cost of oil": "While the region is one of the world's most productive oil fields, the local communities are among the world'spoorest. The indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta suffer from pollution, destruction of the mangrove forests and depletion of fish stocks that sustained them. The companies operate with support of the oppressive Nigerian dictatorship and military– spurring violent and deadly backlash against activists who oppose them."

Now that US boots are on the ground in Nigeria, schoolgirls, and mass kidnappings are not the only by-product of the corrupt empire of oil. Oil theft and sabotage have become problematic, undermining crude prices. The US has urged the oil-corrupt Nigerian government to prevent crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.

Follow the oil and from there you can determine US policy in a jiffy. Let's jump over to Ukraine to make the point...

Behind all that ferocious saber rattling in the name of Ukraine's independence, behind the false accusations launched at Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, lurks the CIA machinery that typically: 1) creates civil unrest known as the "shock doctrine"; 2) blames the other guy for the violence that the CIA secretly provoked, and while things are in turmoil; 3) re-arrange the gas flow in a favorable direction. It's the same policy, same plan—with the same hideous consequences for everyone except for the ones profiting from the dirty energy. This time, it's about accessing Ukraine's natural gas production and pipeline control.

It's appallingly shocking, after millions died fighting Hitler and fascism during WWII, that the US is now backing neo-Nazi fascists (read Kiev's Troops in Nazi German Uniforms, Sleep in American Tents) in the attempt to control billions of dollars of natural gas profits in this region.

As Princeton professor and Russian scholar Stephen Cohen explained on DemocracyNow: "The premise on which American policy is being made is that Putin attacked Ukraine and began this whole mess. Whatever you think about what the outcome should be, that is just factually untrue. All of this began when the United States and Europe asked Ukraine back last November to make a decision between Russia and the European Union. That triggered the protests that led to this..."

Isn't it a strange coincidence that the vice-president's son, Hunter Biden, was recently appointed to a leading post at Ukraine's largest private gas "fracking" producer, Burisma Holdings? Could this explain why the U.S.is employing Blackwater to join the anti-Putin, neo-Nazi fascists in Ukraine for gas-line production control?

As to the question that Biden's son's appointment to Ukraine's largest gas company raises a "conflict of interest," White House press secretary, Jay Carney, announced that it's not an ethical problem at all. In other words, no one in the White House comprehends the meaning of the phrase ethical dilemma. Maybe that's because no one in the White House possesses a conscience.

As reported in RT News: Speaking about his new position, Hunter Biden said he will advise on "transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities" to "contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine." The decision immediately sparked questions if US actually supported Biden's promotion, as his father, US Vice-President Joe Biden, has frequently spoken about the need to increase Ukraine's energy independence, including during his recent visit to Kiev.

"Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family are obviously private citizens, and where they work does not reflect an endorsement by the administration or by the vice-president or president," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

So there you have it. While President Obama is giving lofty speeches about climate change, and though he's thankfully subsidizing solar and wind, behind the scenes, his administration and the CIA are working diligently hard to occupy as many oil and gas regions around the world as possible.

Like I said, ethical behavior has no place in the cavernous bowels of hell known as the US government. But fascism plays extremely well in these purgatorial circles...

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Jacqueline Marcus is a contributing guest writer for Buzzflash at Truthout.org. She's the editor of ForPoetry.com and EnvironmentalPress.com and author of Close to the Shore by Michigan State University Press. Her E-book, Man Cannot Live on Oil, Alone: Time to end our dependency on oil before it ends us, is available at Kindle Books.