Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A daughter's quest to unravel the mystery of her father's death reveals links to the CIA, big oil, and the origins of U.S. military involvement in World War II and the Middle East: a story in 14 maps.
When Daniel Dennett, America's first master spy in the Middle East, was dispatched to Saudi Arabia in 1947, he had a particular mission: to study the route of the proposed Trans-Arabian Pipeline. It would be his last assignment. The plane carrying him from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia went down in a mysterious crash, killing all on board. Decades later his daughter, journalist Charlotte Dennett, decided to find out what was behind her father's death and why the records about it remained classified after so many years. Along the way she stumbled upon map after map showing proposed, built, and contested pipelines. And she came to realize just how much unrest in and around the Middle East in the past three decades could be explained by doing one simple thing: following pipeline routes.
That is exactly what Dennett does in Follow the Pipelines. Through stories and maps, she explores her father's last journey and reveals the hidden dynamics of pipeline politics in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. She shows how pipeline conflicts help explain why the United States is vehemently opposed to Iran and its allies, Syria and Russia, and why Africa is becoming a major battleground where the United States is pitted against China and their proxies in the Great Game for Oil.
"Pipeline consciousness" has begun to take hold in the American public, thanks to the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline. Yet there is little awareness or discussion of how US military deployments to the Middle East are designed to protect pipeline routes from sabotage--or bring down governments that oppose them. Understanding those connections, stresses Dennett, is more critical than ever.
Since 9/11, Americans have been told that they are sending soldiers to foreign lands to eradicate Islamist terrorists threatening US national security. Rarely has the American media provided the broader context in which the conflicts have taken place--namely, the feverish competition for oil and natural gas supplies among nations and fossil fuel companies. But who, asks Dennett, would want to send their children into war to help oil and gas companies?
Synopsis
Unraveling the mystery of a master spy's death by following pipelines and mapping wars in the Middle East
When Daniel Dennett, America's first master spy in the Middle East, was dispatched to Saudi Arabia in 1947, he had a particular mission: to study the route of the proposed Trans-Arabian Pipeline. It would be his last assignment. The plane carrying him from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia went down in a mysterious crash, killing all on board. Decades later his daughter, journalist Charlotte Dennett, decided to find out what was behind her father's death and why the records about it remained classified after so many years. Along the way she stumbled upon map after map showing proposed, built, and contested pipelines. And she came to realize just how much unrest in and around the Middle East in the past three decades could be explained by doing one simple thing: following pipeline routes.
That is exactly what Dennett does in The Crash of Flight 3804. Through stories and maps, she explores her father's last journey and reveals the hidden dynamics of pipeline politics in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. She shows how pipeline conflicts help explain why the United States is vehemently opposed to Iran and its allies, Syria and Russia, and why Africa is becoming a major battleground where the United States is pitted against China and their proxies in the Great Game for Oil.
"Pipeline consciousness" has begun to take hold in the American public, thanks to the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Tar Sands Keystone XL pipeline. Yet there is little awareness or discussion of how US military deployments to the Middle East are designed to protect pipeline routes from sabotage--or bring down governments that oppose them. Understanding those connections, stresses Dennett, is more critical than ever.
Since 9/11, Americans have been told that they are sending soldiers to foreign lands to eradicate Islamist terrorists threatening US national security. Rarely has the American media provided the broader context in which the conflicts have taken place--namely, the feverish competition for oil and natural gas supplies among nations and fossil fuel companies. But who, asks Dennett, would want to send their children into war to help oil and gas companies?
Synopsis
Charlotte Dennett has written an excellent book summarizing the geopolitics of the Middle East historically through to current events. . . . This is an amazing piece of historical writing. . . . Students, foreign affairs 'experts' and officials should have this work as required reading.--Jim Miles, The Palestine Chronicle
Unraveling the mystery of a master spy's death by following pipelines and mapping wars in the Middle East
In 1947, Daniel Dennett, America's sole master spy in the Middle East, was dispatched to Saudi Arabia to study the route of the proposed Trans-Arabian Pipeline. It would be his last assignment. A plane carrying him to Ethiopia went down, killing everyone on board. Today, Dennett is recognized by the CIA as a "Fallen Star" and an important figure in US intelligence history. Yet the true cause of his death remains clouded in secrecy.
In The Crash of Flight 3804, investigative journalist Charlotte Dennett digs into her father's postwar counterintelligence work, which pitted him against America's wartime allies--the British, French, and Russians--in a covert battle for geopolitical and economic influence in the Middle East. Through stories and maps, she reveals how feverish competition among superpower intelligence networks, military, and Big Oil interests have fueled indiscriminate attacks and targeted killings that continue to this day--from Jamal Khashoggi's murder to drone strikes. The book delivers an irrefutable indictment of these devastating forces and how the brutal violence they incite has shaped the Middle East and birthed an era of endless wars.
The Crash of Flight 3804 provides important context for understanding the region, while bringing new questions to the fore:
- To what lengths has the United States negotiated with the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS to secure Big Oil's holdings in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen?
- Was the Pentagon's goal of defeating ISIS a fraudulent pretext for America's occupation of Syrian eastern provinces and a land grab for oil?
- What part does Ukraine play in the energy-dominance struggle between the US and Russia?
- Did the infamous double agent Kim Philby, who worked for the British while secretly spying for the Russians, have anything to do with Dennett's death?
- Why have the US and China made North Africa the next major battleground in the Great Game for Oil?
Part personal pilgrimage, part deft critique, Dennett's insightful reportage examines what happens to international relations when oil wealth hangs in the balance and shines a glaring light on what so many have actually been dying for.