COMMENT: Past programs have dealt with the resurrection of the Fischer-Tropsch process, developed by I.G. Farben and the Third Reich to synthesize oil from coal, among other fuels.
The Fischer-Tropsch process is being utilized in Qatar to synthesize fuel from natural gas. One of the many dark clouds on the horizon of the Middle East concerns the growing and pivotal role Qatar is playing in the dynamics evolving from the Arab Spring.
Awash with cash from its vast natural gas and fossil fuel resources, Qatar is financing Muslim Brotherhood-related activities, including the Al-Jazeera network. Allied with the Axis in World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic fascist organization that has stayed true to its roots.
The rights for using Fischer-Tropsch process are under the control of the Bormann capital network (the economic component of a Third Reich gone underground) through the successor companies of I.G. Farben and the Hermann Schmitz trust. (See text excerpts below for detail on the Bormann network, I.G. Farben and the Schmitz trust.)
With Qatar subsidizing Islamic fascism through the Muslim Brotherhood and generating capital through the application of Nazi science, the possibility of that small but powerful nation as an Underground Reich subsidiary should be seriously considered.
Parenthetically, we note that the Sasol firm was founded in South Africa during the Apartheid era. Apartheid South Africa was a direct outgrowth of the Third Reich.
In evaluating the information set forth here, it should be remembered that Qatar is deeply connected to corporate Germany, as well as the German foreign ministry. Corporate Germany is dominated by the Bormann capital network. (See excerpt include below.)
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile by Paul Manning; pp. 282–3.
EXCERPT: . . . . Each of these three spinoffs from I.G. Farben today does more business individually than did Farben at its zenith, when its corporate structure covered 93 countries. BASF and Bayer individually boast worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion annually, while Hoechst, now the world’s largest chemical company, generated $16.01 billion in worldwide sales in 1980. Each does more business than E.I. du Pont de Nemours, with sales of $9.4 billion. . . . The United States is, of course, the major market, one into which these German corporations continue to pour investment money for both new capital construction and corporate takeovers. Together, these three multinationals assure permanent prosperity for the original 450 Farben stockholders, their banks, and the shadowy shareholders of the Bormann organization in South America who guard and vote the Hermann Schmitz trust fund through intermediaries at the annual meetings of BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. . . .
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile by Paul Manning; pp. 279–80.
EXCERPT: . . . . If there is any doubt in Europe who in the long run won the peace, there is none whatsoever among the former German leaders dwelling in South America. It is a good bet that if Hermann Schmitz were alive today, he would bear witness as to who really won. Schmitz died contented, having witnessed the resurgence of I.G. Farben, albeit in altered corporate forms, a money machine that continues to generate profits for all the old I.G. shareholders and enormous international power for the German cadre directing the workings of the successor firms. . . . He was the master manipulator, the corporate and financial wizard, the magician, who could make money appear and disappear, and reappear again. His whole existence was legerdemain, played out on the gameboard of I.G. Farben and his beloved Germany. . . Their [Schmitz and Bormann] association was close and trusting over the years, and it is the considered opinion of those in their circle that the wealth possessed by Hermann Schmitz was shifted to Switzerland and South America, and placed in trust with Bormann, the legal heir to Hitler. [Hermann] Schmitz’s wealth—largely I.G. Farben bearer bonds converted to the Big Three successor firms, shares in Standard Oil of New Jersey (equal to those held by the Rockefellers), as well as shares in the 750 corporations he helped Bormann establish during the last year of World War II—has increased in all segments of the modern industrial world. The Bormann organization in South America utilizes the voting power of the Schmitz trust along with their own assets to guide the multinationals they control, as they keep steady the economic course of the Fatherland. . .
EXCERPT: The compact assembly of towers, tubes and tanks that make up the Oryx natural gas processing plant is almost lost in a vast petrochemical complex that rises here like a hazy mirage from a vast ocean of sand. But what is occurring at Oryx is a particular kind of alchemy that has tantalized scientists for nearly a century with prospects of transforming the energy landscape. Sasol, a chemical and synthetic fuels company based in South Africa, is converting natural gas to diesel fuel using a variation of a technology developed by German scientists in the 1920s. Performing such chemical wizardry is exceedingly costly. But executives at Sasol and a partner, Qatar’s state-owned oil company, are betting that natural gas, which is abundant here, will become the dominant global fuel source over the next 50 years, oil will become scarcer and more expensive and global demand for transport fuels will grow. Sasol executives say the company believes so strongly in the promise of this technology that this month, it announced plans to spend up to $14 billion to build the first gas-to-liquids plant in the United States, in Louisiana, supported by more than $2 billion in state incentives. A shale drilling boom in that region in the last five years has produced a glut of cheap gas, and the executives say Sasol can tap that supply to make diesel and other refined products at competitive prices. Marjo Louw, president of Sasol Qatar, says that his company can produce diesel fuel that burns cleaner, costs less and creates less greenhouse gas pollution than fuel derived from crude oil. . . . . . . . Until recently, the method used to convert natural gas or coal to liquid fuel — known as the Fischer-Tropsch process after the Germans who invented it — had been used only by pariah nations desperate for transportation fuels when they had little or no oil available. For decades, South Africa defended its system of apartheid from international oil embargoes by producing synthetic oil from its rich coal resources. Nazi Germany did the same to fuel its military machine in World War II. But with North Africa and the Middle East chronically unstable and natural gas cheap and plentiful in the United States, some say the technology is now an enticing option to produce various fuels without importing a drop of oil. . . .
EXCERPT: In the center of Cairo, young men hold up a burning flag for the cameras to show their fury at a nation they believe is meddling in their country and the wider Middle East. It’s a familiar image. But it’s not the U.S. flag they are waving, it is that of Qatar, the Gulf state that has used its billions to spread its influence in the wake of the Arab Spring. For most Western governments and officials, the influence of Qatar emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s government is seen as broadly positive. In Egypt, Libya and Syria, where Qatar tried to play a role post-Arab Spring, it finds itself blamed for much that has gone wrong on a local level. Close ties to Egypt’s new leaders, the Muslim Brotherhood, have alarmed countries like the United Arab Emirates, where the Islamist group is still banned and which in January said it had foiled a Brotherhood-linked coup plot. Senior officials in the UAE have long believed Qatar has long-term strategy to use the Brotherhood to redraw the region. ”There is both greater apprehension and appreciation for Qatar two years after the Arab awakening in the region,” said Taufiq Rahim, Executive Director of Dubai-based geopolitics consultancy Globesight. ”While prior to the revolutions, Qatar was seen more as a mediator, its foreign policy recently has been much more proactive and in some cases partisan.” Some Western analysts and diplomats believe Qatar’s leaders have been effectively improvising their way through the new landscape, experimenting to see what they can achieve with the massive wealth generated by its natural gas reserves over the past 15 years. An estimated $17 trillion in monetisable natural gas riches still remain in the ground. Others, however, see a much more deliberate strategy. ”What we are seeing here is a high-stakes poker game for the future of the Middle East,” said one Gulf-based Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. Even supporters are concerned the country may be overstepping its boundaries and getting a reputation for playing favorites. A post from last October reported on the visit to Gaza by the Emir of Qatar described as the “biggest diplomatic victory” for Hamas since taking power five years ago. A post from earlier that week reported on the announcement of the biggest contribution of reconstruction aid for Hamas-ruled Gaza since the destruction accompanying the Israeli-Gaza conflict four years ago. A post from August reported on the plans for an Egypt-Qatar summit where the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was to receive the Emir of Qatar. AP had reported earlier that Qatar was granting Egypt a $2 billion loan to help the country’s troubled economy. A post from March reported that the Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was visiting Qatar for meetings with Qatari official. An earlier post discussed the relocation of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal from Syria to Qatar in yet another sign of the country growing importance as a center of the Global Muslim Brotherhood. A series of recent and important Global Muslim Brotherhood events have been held in Qatar illustrating the increasing importance of the country to the Global Brotherhood. . . .
“In an Alliance with the Dictatorship”; german-foreign-policy.com; 2013/04/15.
EXCERPT: The Prime Minister of Qatar, who is also the country’s Foreign Minster, is arriving in Berlin today for talks on the war in Syria and on strengthening economic cooperation. Since some time, this Persian Gulf dictatorship has been one of Germany’s closest allies in the Arab world. As in the 2011 war on Libya, it is supporting Islamist rebels today in Syria, who are seeking to topple a government combated by the West. Berlin’s cooperation with Qatar on matters of foreign policy is being consolidated by economic cooperation. German companies benefit from lucrative Middle East contracts, while the Qatari ruling clan buys a significant amount of shares in major German companies, such as Volkswagen and Siemens. Qatar has been linking its financial support in France, to a large-scale public relations campaign in the suburban slums. German involvement in the war in Syria, will most likely also be a topic in these talks with Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir al Thani in Berlin. A German Navy “reconnaissance” vessel is, currently, cruising again off the Syrian coast. Experts believe that Syrian insurgents are also profiting from information retrieved by this espionage. . . .
Fascism and the Dangers of Economic Concentration
Just FYI, if you’re passing through central Wyoming in the future, you might need to keep the tap water at a safe distance from open flames.
Here’s an interesting fun fact about VW, especially in light of its diesel emissions cheating scandal: It’s 17 percent owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund:
As we can see, this hasn’t been the best time for Qatar’s wealth fund. And given its lack of transparency it’s hard to say how bad things really are. But as the article noted, it could be worse. It could be a wealth fund based on oil and not natural gas which hasn’t plummeted nearly as much:
And that points to another reason why the whole VW emissions scandal could be worse for the QIA. While the natural gas-to-liquid (GTL) market for diesel fuel that’ Qatar has been promoting probably isn’t helped by the emissions scandal, the scandal could indirectly catalyze the growth of Europe’s passenger natural gas vehicle market, billed as a cleaner alternative to diesel (it’s sort of debatable), by closing the cost gap between natural gas and diesel emissions technology:
Yes, as of last year, the future for the European natural gas powered passenger cars market was looking up, but it was the closing of the cost cap between diesel and natural gas powered vehicles as a consequence of stronger “Euro 6” regulations that could really help the CNG market:
Yep, as bad as he VW scandal must be for any entity that owns 17 percent of its stock it could be worse for the QIA.