The Crude Truth: Do you want to know why you're paying so much at the pump these days? Raymond J. Learsy, a longtime commodities trader, explains the real facts behind today's outrageous gasoline prices by lifting the veil from the Mideast oil cartel. He shows how OPEC manipulates the oil markets with results that are destabilizing to the world's economy and threatening to America's national security. With refreshing candor and an insider's perspective, Learsy explains how OPEC: - promotes a bogus perception of oil scarcity in order to hike prices and gain political power. - is compromised by connections to Islamist terrorists, who fuel anti-American hatred with dollars from our own pockets. - keeps Third World populations in crushing poverty, despite rich oil deposits found in their countries. - became the de facto master of Iraq's newly liberated oil fields. Along with a sweeping survey of OPEC's methods of economic domination, Over a Barrel offers a well-informed strategy for busting the Mideast oil cartel and charting our nation's course towards energy independence.