Arlen Specter: “We are heading for a cataclysm. We are headed for a cataclysmic, destructive process. When the oil industry in Iran was…”

“We are heading for a cataclysm. We are headed for a cataclysmic, destructive process. When the oil industry in Iran was nationalized in the early 1950s and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was evicted by an act of the Iranian parliament, Great Britain decided against the use of force and submitted the dispute to the International Court, which decided it had no jurisdiction. But if we are starved from oil, we should attempt to figure out some way to denationalize what the OPEC countries have done, in taking the property of the seven sisters, the oil companies--BP and others--without compensation, or without adequate compensation. But the demands and the blackmail and the extortion that is contained on the front page of the New York Times today concerning what OPEC has in mind for us should drive the U.S. toward independence from OPEC oil, not only as a matter of self-respect, but as a matter of national defense and continuing economic development in this country.”