Currently I agonize the Union I saw riseThe right suggests that we would have thrown the spongeThis is in effect an end to the tortuous pastThe part looks tight for the Obama administrationIn this private class are undoubtedly the AntinoriThe next year a facility in three will be nineA youth of the district comes to be murderedIn fact a large part of the explanation is elsewhereFind a new model it is a question of societyBegin negotiations at the enterprise levelThe man is a short beard. The kefieh capped and dressed very loose to protect themselves from the Sun clothing, it has everything of a Bedouin. At the Palace of Ibn Saud, known under the name of Sheikh Abdullah. It is yet not Arabic but English. Name: Harry Saint John Philby. Lovers of the desert and the Muslim civilization, converted to islam, he became one of the closest advisors of the King of Saudi Arabia. As much as the latter that by hatred of the English, had constantly to Saudi black gold in the us anyway. He succeeded beyond all measure, laying the foundations of the very special relations that, even today, unite the United States to the Kingdom of the Saud...
At the end of the 1920s, oil, long, is a global industry. A handful of large companies, mainly American and English, then dominate the market. Over the years, they have extended their activities to the planet, hunching derricks oilfield in North America, and South, East Asian, Persian and Iraq. Every day, these are tens of millions of barrels of oil are extracted from these regions. The main market of the black gold is the automobile. In 1929, almost 40 million vehicles circulating in the world. They were 15 million just ten years earlier! The exploitation of the deposits is such that more and more authorized voice worry about a risk of shortage. "Our deposits will start to decline in the next five years," warns, in the early 1920s, the Director of the U.S. bureau of mines. In these circumstances, the search for new oil fields is of major issue.
A zone, in particular, still missing: the Arabian peninsula. What is now the main producing region of the globe oil then does little raise the enthusiasm of the oil companies. "There is there that the sand and the Bedouin", thus provides, peremptory, President of Standard Oil of New Jersey in the 1920s. Two men are trying to lie. The first is prince Ibn Saud. Since the beginning of the century, he undertook, with the support of stocking the Wahhabi Muslim sect, release the Arabian peninsula from the Ottoman tutelage and of him unify by force, a prelude to his crowning as King of Saudi Arabia in 1932. In 1930, his future Kingdom is, in essence, peaceful. But his Treasury dry. The train of Pharaonic life of Ibn Saud - collecting luxury cars - gold spent to buy the loyalties and fund wars, not to mention the depletion of the flow of pilgrims following the crash of 1929, indeed emptied caisses. Quickly find money: this is the priority of Ibn Saud. Its financial embarrassment prince opens in November 1930, at a hunt in automobile, one of his most faithful companions, a man who leaves not a sole and that, to the dismay of the more traumatic wahabites well out at his side in Bedouin dress, a man finally that, despite its displayed atheism, has converted to islam by pure opportunism : Harry "Jack" Philby. It is the second character key to this story. At his "friend" Ibn Saud, the surprising character advises to build on the resources of the subsoil of the Kingdom and search for oil. A major Frank Holmes does not to be found in the nearby island of Barheïn With the future King, Philby also promises to take on the case... The Saudi oil adventure begins...
At the beginning of the 1930s, Philby is a true black beast in the eyes of the English. "Deranged", "dangerous for England", "uncontrollable": these are some of the qualifiers which affublent it regularly in their reports, the consuls of Great Britain from abroad. "Disturbed", Philby is certainly not. His hatred of England, however, is real. Books in articles, it would cease to denounce the perfidy of his homeland and ridicule the lifestyle of his countrymen. In Jordan, for example, it will go up to strut, in clubs and other social places, with two baboons, presented as the "most respectable members of the local English community.According to some, this hatred would be at the origin of the treachery of his own son, Kim Philby, master English spy returned by the Soviets in the 1930s and fled to the USSR - where he died quietly - in 1963. The least that can be said is that the father and son wore never England in their hearts...
Fascination with the Bedouin
A mediocre career as an official coupled with a genuine fascination with the lifestyle of the Bedouin: these are the secret springs of the behaviour of Philby. Born in Ceylon in 1885, the son of a ruined coffee grower, Harry "Jack" Philby continued his studies at Cambridge - he spoke several Oriental languages - before joining the Civil Service in India. Impulsive, unruly, always short of money, he was quickly back to his superiors. They him were notably not forgiven his decision to marry! Does not the tradition of the Civil Service that an official of India to wait five years at least before you get in fair wedding A tradition that Philby was blithely trampled underfoot, taking woman after only two years... But his language skills are too valuable for that one happens of its services. In 1916, in midst of war, the Foreign Office shipped in Mesopotamia, and Central Saudi Jordan. Its mission: convince the Bedouin to pull alongside the British in their fight against the Turks. A mission at any point similar to that of the famous Lawrence of Arabia - which he also met on several occasions. It is at this point it takes of fascination for the desert, as it winds through in all directions and that will be the subject of his book "in the heart of Arabia", published in the beginning
in the 1920s and crowned by the prestigious Royal Society of geography. At this time also that he binds a deep friendship with Ibn Saud, which it endorsed the cause. Beyond his instructions, it goes so far as to promise independence to the Arab tribes he meets...Las! Like those of Lawrence of Arabia, Philby dreams do not withstand the diplomatic realities of war. He feels already "more Arabic than English", and leaving only to regret the garment of the Bedouin, does not support the duplicity of Britain and does not deprive said. The dismemberment of the ottoman Empire, the policy of the mandates, implementing discrete supervision in principle independent Emirates "Treason" in his eyes, due according to agents "Zionists".Recalled to London and laid off, he did not intend for all to shut up and embarked on a career as a writer and polemicist, openly denouncing the double game of Great Britain. These excess complete sealing his fate. In 1927, it is definitively excluded from the public service. The English do not know yet, but they come from a huge mistake...
Installed in Jeddah, in Saudi, Philby embarked then trading soaps and radio equipment, relating to a commission on each sold article poor. Having left his wife and son in England, he also conducts the good life, multiplying the galantes adventures, passing his evenings drinking and playing cards, criticizing at anything Britain. "This man is a nuisance," wrote the consul of England to his superiors. One day, they will have their revenge... At present, with links to prince Saud, Philby becomes the official supplier of the Palace luxury cars, opening the only concession Ford of the region. To widen the circle of princely customers, Philby chooses in 1930 to convert to islam. A decision motivated by his attraction to Muslim culture, but which also allows him to satisfy his sexual appetites. Fascinated by polygamy, the former official of the Indies is indeed able to lead a double life in peace. Once converted, Philby receives of Ibn Saud a young slave to share its layer. Later, he marries with a Muslim woman. His English family will learn his conversion to his death...
Therefore this man became one of his relatives that the prince gives care to find and exploit the oil. Philby is an American mining engineer of his knowledge, Karl Twitchell. He is the first benchmark in eastern Saudi Arabia, he even deposits, with conviction, manages in 1933 to persuade Standard Oil of California (Socal) to embark on the adventure of the Saudi oil. In the case, Philby remained, voluntarily, in withdrawal...
A skill used
So far, he has not abandoned to influence events. The official opening of the negotiations between the Socal and Abdullah Suleiman, the Minister of Finance of the Saudi Kingdom Almighty, will give him the opportunity. The prospect of the Americans to establish a foothold on the peninsula causes in effect a real upheaval of struggle in England. Pushed by its shareholder the Anglo-Persian and, behind him, by the French State, the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) is immediately candidate to the concession. For Philby, the time has come out of the shadow. With a skill consumed without ever be invested with an official mission but solely relying on its relationship with Ibn Saud, he offers to play the role of intermediary between the Palace and the representatives of the CPI. "This man is a small player." "The King is it not listening", consider a little faster at the end of their first contact. Fatal error! While pretending to offer his services to the CPI, Philby advises indeed secretly the Socal. His goal is clear: tamp the pawn to the CPI - which has the woe to her eyes to defend the English interests - while raising the maximum auction, all in the interest of the Kingdom... and for his greater benefit! The final scene is played in April 1933, when the Socal made a bid for the concession. A CPI, finally decided to take to advise, Philby suggested bid. When the IPC representatives come in hearing before Ibn Saud, they were unpleasantly surprised to be told that the King gave his word to the Socal. In the meantime, Philby was advised to up its offer! Subtle and relentless game of go, which fully achieved its goal. In May 1933, the Socal officially won the concession. With the Texas Oil Company, it will create in 1938 the California Arabian Standard Oil Company, future Arabian American Oil Company. With Philby, Americans have to focus on Saudi oil, the operation will truly start from 1945. In London, the English are grey mine.
Philby, it will be highly paid for its services. In the 1930s, while continuing to deliver luxury vehicles at the King Saud - another source of juicy profits-, he led several explorations in Central Arabia. But the English have not forgotten him. In July 1940, while he is visiting India, he was arrested for antianglaises activities, sent to England and imprisoned in Liverpool. It will be six months before assigned to residence in Wales. The opportunity for him to write a remarkable history of pre-Islamic Arabia. After the war, he returned to Saudi Arabia, where King Ibn Saud assigned the monopoly of the importation of tents. A case in a country still largely urbanized. The death of his protector, in 1953, he left Saudi Arabia for the Lebanon with his Muslim wife. Became professor at the American University of Beirut, he was a strong supporter of the right of the Arabs, including against Israel. His last arrow, it unmarks them against Franco-British intervention in the Suez canal in 1956. He died four years later.
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