Stop Terrorism: Boycott Middle Eastern Oil (Chain Letter)

According to Urban Legends at About.com, "this reinvented 'Gas Out' " has been circulating the Internet since December 2001. The letter, usually an e-mail, claims that consumers can avoid lending support to terrorism by boycotting certain brands of gasoline.

The Web site calls the letter's claims false and notes that not only is the letter mistargeted but that the alleged "facts" contained therein are wrong.

"Of the five or six companies lauded in these messages for allegedly importing no Middle East oil whatsoever, only two — Sinclair and Sunoco — actually have a right to be on the list," the Web site says. "All the other companies do, in fact, use varying amounts of petroleum imported from the Gulf region."

Urban Legends goes on to say that the letter is mistargeted because 1) it wrongly assumes that all oil-producing countries in the Middle East fund or support terrorism and 2) it wrongly assumes that simply avoiding the purchase of the gasoline brands listed in the letter will keep consumers' money out of the hands of Middle Eastern oil producers.

As of 11/05/2002
Source: urbanlegends.about.com