Admiral Dennis Blair: "We Sent Troops to Middle East…Because of Oil-Based Importance of Region"

onMar 26, 2014 @ 11:54 PDT

At the just-completed U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing titled, “The Geopolitical Potential of the U.S. Energy Boom,” Admiral Dennis Blair — former Director of National Intelligence, President and CEO of Institute for Defense Analyses and Commander in Chief of U.S. Pacific Command — admitted what’s still considered conspiratorial to some.

Put tersely: the U.S. and allied forces launched the ongoing occupation in Iraq and occupy large swaths of the Middle East to secure the flow of oil to the U.S. and its global allies, explained Blair.

Blair began his analysis lasting just over a minute after a line of questioning (beginning at 1:02:56 in the video below) coming from U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) about TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, “energy as an instrument of geopolitical power” and geopolitical tensions in Venezuela.

By Steve Horn

Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

uk/Nigel Farage Paid £27,000 to Speak at Pro-Trump U.S. Think Tank

ByPhoebe Cooke and Adam Barnett

onFeb 26, 2026 @ 09:33 PST

The Reform UK leader’s planned trip to Washington D.C. has prompted fresh consternation from campaigners.

Series: Inside MAGA’s Global Climate Agenda

Series: MAGA

Opinion

How Europe’s Climate and Sustainability Rules Were Shredded While Citizens Remained in the Dark

ByHugh Wheelan and Raj Thamotheram

onFeb 26, 2026 @ 03:53 PST

Policymakers, civil society, investors, business, and the media all must answer key questions fast — before the regulatory rollback turns into a rout.

Carney Allowed Gas-powered AI Data Centres After Lobbying From Alberta Energy Company

ByTaylor Noakes

onFeb 25, 2026 @ 07:03 PST

The Alberta gas giant Capital Power lobbied the government 37 times in the lead-up to an accord suspending clean energy regulations, federal records show.

Series: Mark Carney’s Climate Betrayal

Series: Carney's Climate Betrayal