Testimony Shows Aramco Officials Carried out Faisal’s Order to Force U.S. to Alter Pro-israel Policy

The four American oil firms comprising the huge Arabian-American Oil Co. (ARAMCO) undertook a six month propaganda campaign last year, under orders from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, to diminish United States support of Israel, a Senate subcommittee reported yesterday. The Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on multi-national corporations said, in releasing previously secret testimony, that the campaign was started in May, 1973 by Mobil, Exxon, Texaco and Standard Oil of California, after Faisal threatened to nationalize ARAMCO operations if U.S. policy was not changed.

One highly-publicized result, which drew a storm of criticism and a retraction, was a letter to employes and stockholders of Standard Oil of California from its chairman, Otto Miller on July 26, 1973, urging support for “the aspirations of the Arab people.” The letter was the first time a major oil company took a public stand on the Arab side of the Middle East issue.

NIXON REFUSED TO ANSWER LETTER

The Faisal threat reportedly was made during a May 23, 1973 meeting in Geneva between the King, other Saudi Arabian leaders and ARAMCO officials. Sen. Frank Church (D. Idaho), said ARAMCO officials met with U.S. government officials after Faisal made his threat. The propaganda and lobbying campaign extended into Oct. 1973, highlighted by a letter to President Nixon which apparently was not answered, according to the testimony which also included a report that confidential meetings on the issue took place between ARAMCO officials and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger at his request.

According to the testimony, a staff investigator told the Senators at a closed hearing in June that Congress would have to decide on the propriety of the ARAMCO effort and that ARAMCO, “under U.S. companies, is an instrument of the Saudi Arabian government in carrying out Saudi orders in terms of influencing United States foreign policy.”

TOOK OIL COMBINE ‘OFF THE HOOK’

The testimony data showed that W.W.Messick of SOCAL, who is also ARAMCO’s top technical officer, testified that the Arab oil embargo imposed after the Yom Kippur War took the oil combine “off the hook” because ARAMCO faced a forced cutback in production because of technical problems and delays in delivery of equipment needed to develop Saudi Arabia’s huge oil reserves.

Church said that the American oil firms followed Faisal’s instructions “and reported on their activities to the King.” The Oct. 12 letter to Nixon warned that “any actions by the United States government at this time in terms of increased military aid to Israel will have a critical and adverse affect on our relations with the moderate Arab oil-producing companies.”

Jerome Levinson, the subcommittee’s chief counsel, said that while U.S. policy became friendlier to the Arabs, the subcommittee probe did not find evidence that the change was related to the oil firms’ efforts to carry out Faisal’s orders.