FREE ESSAY ON CRIMES OF CIA AND OPEC IN 1975

CRIMES OF CIA AND OPEC IN 1975

The Crimes Of The CIA
OPEC Stalling On New Price Oil
1. Intro
A. Why the events were important
B. The basic problems that came with these events
C. Why they could have happened
2. Paragraph 1
A. Rockefeller Papers
B. How it influenced the people about the accusations
3. Paragraph 2
A. CIA incidents 
B. What they were accused of
C. The accusations
4. Paragraph 3
A. OPEC 
B. Describe the events that lead up to this
C. Why OPEC decided to do this 
D. US response to the oil prices
5. Paragraph 4
A. How these tie together or how they don't 
B. Influences on society
C. Over all reactions
6. Conclusion
A. Bring together all thoughts 
B. How some of this could have been solved 
C. Our thoughts about the government 
Democrat and Chronicle: A daily newspaper, which targets more liberal readers. It
questions the government more severely then others.
Report: CIA committed illegal acts
Stanton to head CIS probe
Oil exporters put off price decision to Fall
Report Charges CIA with 'plainly unlawful' acts
Oil import quota survives
Washington Post: A daily newspaper, less liberal standing compared to Democrat and
Chronicle.
Panel Finds CIA Illegality but Backs Record
CIA Infiltrated 17 Area Groups, Gave Out LSD
Report on CIA in Brief
Ford Insists Any Oil Price Rise Should Be Limited to 7% to 8%
New York Times: A daily newspaper, which targeted more liberal readers.
CIA Panel Finds 'Plainly Unlawful' Acts that Improperly Invaded American Rights
Unknown people drug-test subjects
Panel wants agency to watch over CIA 
We once again hear problems with governmental agency overly using their power and taking
away rights of citizens unjustly. With these problems comes societies weary eye over the
government, should society trust them or fear them. With internal problems also come
international problems. Oil runs the world and the United States can't have small oil
producing countries have to much power over them. However if these countries wanted they
could slow the world down and create huge problems. This is what happened in the nineteen
seventies, when a few of the OPEC countries decided that they wanted more money. This
caused many problems in the United States and other countries; here in the US the auto
industry had to change their thinking on car and engine size. With the CIA committing
illegal acts against the public and OPEC raising the price for oil, the United States had
many problems to face at this time. The government caused these to happen, they allowed
the CIA to go on unchecked in their performance and activities. If the US had from the
beginning given the OPEC nations the right of money they deserved the price of oil might
not have shot up so severely. The US could have prevented this situation if they had done
this.
The Rockefeller Papers were simply a report headed by Nelson A. Rockefeller to be done on
the activities of the CIA. The president had ordered a special commission to review the
CIA, at the time no one had any idea how unchecked the CIA had gone on with their
administration. When the report was finished the media and the public were shocked at the
numerous occasions when the CIA ignored the peoples civil rights. This report brought
about charges to the CIA with crimes of 'Plainly Unlawful' acts. The report charges the
CIA with using humans as guinea pigs for LSD along with numerous other crimes (Democrat
and Chronicle). An example of this testing is when a civilian of the department of the
Army was given LSD in a meeting with out his knowledge. He was told about the LSD 20
minutes later when he started having severe side affects. He goes on to New York for
psychiatric help where he jumps from a 10-story building to his death (Washington Post).
When the public herd about these accusations they became more suspicious of the
government; the public still had vivid memories of Water Gate and the hatred or dislike
for Nixon and his administration. The people were tired of the government and their
continuous lies over small guerilla warfare with South East Asia. This Report was
fundamental in the some of the final large operations of the CIA.
The exact crimes of the CIA are numerous; many of them have to do with the gathering of
information of US citizens and using it to violate people's civil rights. The alleged
crimes were that the CIA did not have "department lawyers stressed that successful
prosecution would depend on proving that the defendant was acting without proper
authorization from high government officials."(Democrat and Chronicle, Report Charges CIA
with 'Plainly Unlawful' acts) The Rockefeller commission also gathered information on
alleged assassination plots against foreign leaders, which could not be fully disclosed
to the public, the commission needed more time to fully investigate. One positive piece
of information in the report said "it could find no credible evidence of CIA involvement
in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy." (Democrat and Chronicle) One
particular top-secret project called Operation Chaos that involved spying on American
dissident groups in response to White House pressures-were clearly improper. The
commission however backs the CIA record and stated that no fundamental changes were
needed in the spy agency's basic legislative charter. Ironically the commission suggested
to President Ford that the CIA be given more authority over national issues. One example
of this is to allow the CIA to gather information on "persons suspected of espionage or
other illegal activities relating to foreign intelligence, provided that proper
coordination with the FBI is accomplished." (Washington Post) Overall though the
Rockefeller commission made 30 recommendations for change in internal controls and
guidelines and adoption of CIA's long sought version of an official secrets act.
When oil prices started to rise, the public was severely hurt by this. Leader of the OPEC
countries (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) saw that they could get more
money for their oil. He saw how the US and other nations were simply giving them the
smallest amount of money for their oil. With this he raised the price of a barrel of oil
quite drastically. This forced the US and other nations to raise gas prices severely.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Valentin Hernandez Acosta says that the reason for the price hike
was to compensate for world-wide inflation. However there was no evidence that inflation
has eroded oil revenues to the extent that some producers then wished to raise prices
that had already quadrupled since 1973. President Ford's response to the decision of
OPEC's decision to put off the price raise till fall was that "any price increase should
be limited to seven or eight percent and possibly the price should be reduced." (Democrat
and Chronicle) In nineteen seventy four a price freeze on oil was enacted; some producers
in the three day meeting in a West African capital have complained that they had a loss
of thirty five percent of their purchasing power since the price freeze (Democrat and
Chronicle). Some extreme members of OPEC like Iraq and Algeria have urged price increase
to recover the whole of the claimed loss; this is unlike more moderate governments that
were ready for a less increase to an almost lesser amount.
The US hopes that the decision on the price increase is within limits.
These two events were very important in the United States; they had a large
Impact on how companies ran their businesses and the power of government funded agencies.
With these problems came societies unrest and a hate for the government. Society reacts
quite severely when their civil rights are infringed upon or if they lose easy and
unrestricted access to large automobiles. The American public has always had a love for
large engines, gas-guzzling cars. When the price of oil shot up, the public was forced to
economize and settle for more cost efficient cars. Each one of these events shows society
that they are losing their once closed country to problems outside and inside their home.
The public did not like this situation where their civil rights were being broken and
they were having to pay outrageous prices for gasoline. This did not have a positive
affect on the public.
This look at nineteen seventy-five brings together a lot of what we have discussed in
class. We look at how the oil price has never been as low as before the price raise of
the seventies and also how the CIA hasn't been in the media as much as that time. If the
US had never given the CIA so much power, if the US had provided some type of check and
balance for the CIA we would have had less problems regarding their activities. The
government has usually tried to provide the public with as much freedom as they could.
They have just given too much power to their agencies. The public has continuously been
losing their pride in the government of the United States; they will probably never have
the same look at the US government as they once did.