PUMP the Movie and Cutting Off Funding for Jihad

Oil money helps jihadist groups grow. But only because the price of oil is artificially high. If the price of oil could come down significantly, the global jihadist movement would be meaningfully disempowered.

The price of oil is high largely because OPEC deliberately restrains its output to keep oil scarce, and therefore expensive. This works only because oil has a virtual monopoly on transportation fuel, and transportation underpins the modern economy.

But a monopoly comes to an end when competition begins.

A new documentary has just come out that details how we can create fuel competition in the United States, and what consequences it would have in the world. It's called PUMP (watch the trailer here). We recommend you go see it, and bring your friends.

The movie doesn't really say anything about Islam, so you can bring anybody without making them feel shocked or offended. The movie is so inoffensive, even the Huffington Post published a good review of it (read it here). Hannity also had good things to say about the movie: Hannity On PUMP: A Story ‘America Needs To Know’.

Click here to find out when PUMP is coming to your town (click on your state in the drop down menu to find out what theaters are showing it).

In an article about the movie, Avishay Artsy writes:

PUMP was funded by Fuel Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by Israeli software entrepreneurs Yossie Hollander and Eyal Aronoff. Aronoff lost his father in the 1967 Six-Day War, and on 9/11, Aronoff’s step-brother and his new wife were killed in the World Trade Center attack. Aronoff said that freeing America from its dependence on imported oil will lead to greater security from the threat of radical Islam.

“ISIL sells 50,000 to 60,000 oil barrels a day," says Aronoff. "If there’s no demand for oil, they have no money...Someone is paying for all these rockets from Gaza into Israel. We remove this oil money, we remove the ability to pay for the rockets.”

As Edwin Black, author of The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust, writes:

ISIS has trebled its forces within recent months and in large measure finances its expansion with $10 million to $20 million per week in illicit oil sales from as many as 70 captured oil wells.

Iran now has multiplied its centrifuges to almost 20,000, enabling it to convert its 5 percent and 20 percent enriched uranium to 90 percent weapons grade HEU within a 7-week breakout period. With sanctions lifted, Tehran’s monthly oil revenues have soared to almost 3 million barrels per day, generating billions of dollars per month.

Tiny Qatar, with only about 280,000 citizens, provides Hamas with some $400 million annually. Qatar exports more than 600,000 barrels of oil per day helping to establish an estimated $200 billion petrodollar reserve.

Oil is driving it all — and more.

Read Edwin Black's article here.

Frank Gaffney of The Center for Security Policy (a strong advocate of fuel competition) hosted a National Security Summit last month. Among the speakers was former National Security Advisor to President Reagan, Robert McFarlane. In his speech, McFarlane makes a persuasive argument that true fuel competition is the answer to destroying OPEC and assuring our energy security. See his speech here (session 5: McFarlane begins speaking at 24:33). Hat tip to Stephen Decatur for alerting us to this video.

See PUMP. Watching a movie while eating popcorn is a great way to absorb information. Bring your friends and family and make a night of it. Help people change the way they see oil's strategic status. Our way of life might just depend on it.

Read more:

• If You Have a Gas-Only Car, You're Already Paying Jizya
• The Key to Today's Global Jihad is Oil Money
• How to Stop the Modern Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism