30 Nov 09
BOOK REVIEW

THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR, written by Alexander Klein.

A few days ago I was rummaging around in the local used book store and I found this treasure. This book was first published by the Henry Holt company in 1958 and this, the paperback edition was published by Pyramid in 1967.
Actually, the first mention of this World War II espionage tale was in a news article in the New York Times on June 3, 1945 which brought to public attention the self-sacrifice and heroism of this patriot.
This is the riveting true story of an American citizen named Eric Siegfried Erickson who, while working as a secret agent for Allied Forces, penetrated the top levels of the Nazi regime and, in doing so, had a 'profound' effect on the outcome of the war.
Eric Erickson was an expert in the oil industry having been involved in the 'ole bidnezz' (as they say in Texas) for several decades and having direct experience and contacts all over the world. Eric Erickson was born in Brooklyn in 1888 and at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in Europe was living in Sweden. America had not yet entered the conflict when Erickson was approached by an aquaintance, Laurence Steinhardt, who was the American Ambassador to Russia and asked if he would be willing to perform the hazardous task of garnering intelligence data concerning the German oil industry.
A true patriot, Erickson agreed to perform this hazardous duty and from December of 1939 to the very end of the war and the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, traveled at great personal risk through Germany and the occupied territories.
Indeed, Erickson was such an incredible spy that he could walk right into Gestapo headquarters; into Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler's office and get Himmler's personal written authorization to inspect German oil refineries and facilities.
According to a citation in the book, "The concentrated bombing of oil targets has been a major factor in Germany's defeat in the field, and has saved many precious lives ... It is a tribute to Allied intelligence that the location of all these plants were known." [United States Strategic Bombing Survey. United States Government Printing Office, 1945-1947.]
Eric Erickson was the man responsible for supplying the information for the Allied bombing of those oil targets.
If you can find a copy of this book I highly recommend that you read it. This book should be required reading for all the politico's in Washington D.C. because, as Santayana said, "Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it."
What's the main lesson we can learn from this book? Note: Our entire machine - the war machine, our transportation machine and the economic machine - runs on oil. And just like Nazi Germany, and any other oil dependent country, without a ready and continuing supply of that oil, we can be defeated.
Amazingly, the very people we are at war with now are the very people who have the oil. Imagine that!
They've got us by the you-know-what's and the throat. What in the world are those goofballs in our Nation's capital thinking! Or, do they think?
Ever since Edwin Drake drilled the first well in Titusville Pennsylvania in 1858 America has been addicted to that funky, black goo.
The time to kick the habit is NOW. And here is the way to do it ...
DECLARATION OF
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.