The Bush administration and top officials in the CIA and FBI did all in their power to prevent lower level FBI agents from investigating or pursuing evidence that might have uncovered and prevented the four hijackings and the subsequent terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The Bush administration, and top officials in the CIA and FBI prevented lower level FBI agents from pursuing leads that might have enabled them to uncover and stop al-Qaeda terrorists who were living and training in the United States. They sabotaged these efforts in order to reap the political and financial benefits of a war on terror and its aftermath.
"I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of connecting the dots. I think they had a veritable blueprint and we want to know why they didn't act on it." - Republican Senator Arlen Specter, 6/6/ 02.
"Of course President Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism."
-- Air Force Lt. Cot. Steve Butler
The Bush team has been needing and planning on this "war on terrorism" since the last Bush administration. And why is that? Money, power, and oil: Fabulous riches that would be theirs after gaining control over Afghanistan and the oil reserves of central Asia and Iraq; and the tens of billions of dollars that will flow into their coffers when the U.S. government and Department of Defense, make multi-billion dollar purchases from the weapon's industries and defense-related companies controlled by the Bush family, the Carlyle Group, and their associates.
Take for example, the Carlyle Group, whose portfolio ranks it as one of the major defense contractors in the country (1,2,3). According to the New York Times (3), "Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies which last year employed more than 70,000 people and generated $16 billion in revenues. About 450 institutions -- mainly large pension funds and banks-are Carlyle investors."
The Carlyle Group is a merchant of mayhem and makes money off war, terrorism, and by feeding on human misery.
Some of the principle investors in the Carlyle Group include the bin Laden family, Prince Bandar and the Saudi royal family, the Bush family, as well as former Reagan-Bush cabinet members, such as James Baker and a phalanx of former CIA and Pentagon officials such as Frank Carlucci (1,2,3,4). Carlucci is a former deputy director of the CIA, and former Secretary of Defense.
Carlucci is the chairman and George H.W. Bush is a highly paid consultant to the Carlyle Group. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 per speech -- money which is then placed in the Carlyle group's investment fund. In other words, Carlyle gives Bush money which Bush then invests in the Carlyle group.
Colin Powell has been on the Carlyle Group's payroll, receiving "speaking fees" as recently as September 2000.
James Baker, the former Secretary of the Treasury, is a senior counselor at the Carlyle Group -- a role he also played for George W. Bush during the disputed 2000 presidential elections. Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake in the Carlyle group is estimated to be worth about $180 million.
Before he became President, George W. Bush "received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle," i.e., Caterair (4). When governor of Texas, Bush appointed the Board that oversees the Texas Teacher's Pension fund, which then invested $100 million dollars into the coffers of the Carlyle Group (3). This is in addition to a $10 million dollar investment made at a time when Carlyle was desperately in need of a big infusion of cash, in order to attract foreign investors, such as the bin Ladens.
As detailed in previous chapters, the Bush family has been in business with the bin Ladens since at least the 1970s.
Dick Cheney's Halliburton, the corporation he headed until becoming Bush's Vice-President, had also partnered with the bin Ladens. According to the Wall Street Journal (5) a subsidiary of Halliburton (H.C. Price/Bredero Shaw, Inc.) had formed a joint venture with the bin Laden family to do oil pipeline-related construction business in Afghanistan.
"Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending,"
-- The Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2001
The bin Laden's are also partners in the Carlyle group.
In 1995, the bin Laden's made an initial investment of over 2 million dollars in the Carlyle Group. Since then they, as well as other leading Saudis, including members of the Saudi royal family have steadily increased their stake and their holdings (2,6,7).
According to the Wall Street Journal (6), increases in U.S. defense spending, or any war launched because of the actions of Osama bin laden, will thus directly "benefit Osama's family. As the United States boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, the bin Laden family may be the unexpected beneficiary."
The Wall Street Journal then goes on to say (6): "Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party."
The Carlyle group, and thus the bin Ladens, are not only directly plugged into the Republican party, but the current administration of George W. Bush. According to Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington based, nonprofit public interest group, "Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be."
As summed up by Tim Shorrock, writing for The Nation (8), "By hiring enough former officials to fill a permanent shadow cabinet, Carlyle has brought political influence to a new level and created a twenty-first-century version of capitalism that blurs any line between politics and business. In a sense, Carlyle may be the ultimate in privatization: the use of a private company to nurture public policy -- and then reap its benefits in the form of profit. Although the fund claims to operate like any other investment bank, it's undeniable that its stable of statesmen-entrepreneurs have the ability to tap into networks in government and commerce, both at home and abroad, for advance intelligence about companies about to be sold and spun off, or government budgets and policies about to be implemented, and then transform that knowledge into investment strategies that dovetail nicely with US military foreign and domestic policy."
Almost the exact same charges were made about IG Farben and its role in putting the Nazi government in power, helping to direct foreign policy, and then reaping the benefits when Nazi Germany went to war (see chapter 8).
Indeed, secret and not so secret meetings are regularly held between the Carlyle group and the current Bush administration to chart strategies which are designed to boost Carlyle's bottom line. For example, in February, 2001, Frank C. Carlucci met with Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and Vice President Dick Cheney (9). Although they deny it, many suspect that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about military matters and the multibillion- dollar defense projects that the Carlyle group wanted approved.
The Saudis and the bin Laden family are also regularly consulted, by no less than former President G.H.W. Bush, as well as former Bush cabinet members. In November of 1998, and in January of 2000, former President Bush journeyed to Saudi Arabia in the bin Laden's private plane and stayed overnight at the bin Laden palace (6). In 2000, he also met with "Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a luxurious desert compound outside Riyadh to talk about American-Saudi business affairs" (10).
Mr. Carlucci, the Reagan-Bush Secretary of Defense, and former deputy director of the CIA, and a past chairman of Nortel Networks Corp. is reported to have partnered with the bin Ladens in a number of telecommunications ventures, and is said to also meet with them on a regular basis, as do other former Bush cabinet members. For example, Mr. Baker has also repeatedly visited the bin Laden family including in 1998 and 1999 (10).
In fact, one of the most recent meetings took place on the morning of September 11, 200 1.As commercial jets slammed into the World Trade Center, Frank Carlucci, James Baker, and others associated with Bush, were celebrating at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Washington, DC with members of the Bin Laden family (11).
Osama bin Laden is a business man, and once, during an unguarded moment, he made the comment: "this isn't terrorism. It's business." Thus, perhaps we should not be surprised to discover that the 9/11 terrorist attack on America may have also been just another way of doing "business." Indeed, Osama's family, like the family and associates of President George W. Bush, made an incredible amount of money and they expect to make even more money because of that terrorist attack.
As noted, on 9/11/2001, the bin Laden's were heavily invested in the Carlyle Group.
Consider, for example, United Defense Industries (UDI), a company controlled by the Carlyle Group. Following 9/11, the Army signed a $665 million contract with UDI. With contract in hand, coupled with a defense appropriation bill, signed by Bush, which included an additional $487 million, the Carlyle Group was well positioned to make a major stock offering for UDI, and on 12/13/ 2001 sold $225 million of shares, while retaining a 54% stake worth $560 million (12).
According to UDI Press Releases, on January 4,2002 United Defense received $32.9 million as part of the Defense Department budget for 2002. On Jan. 31, 2002 UDI was awarded a $21.2 Million U.S. Army contract. On the same day UDI announced its revenue has increased 28% since September 2001. On February 4, 2002 the U.S. Army kicked in another $78 Million to develop a prototype for its "Crusader program." According to UDI, "this latest contract ... brings the total funding to United Defense for contracts on the Crusader program to approximately $ 1.8 billion." On March 27, 2002 -- UDI "received contract modifications worth $208.5 million to remanufacture 142 Bradley Fighting Vehicles." On April I, another $22.2 Million Contract, and another $23.4M on April 12. April 15: $58.4 million, and on and on ... By July 25, 2002 UDl's "second-quarter net Income has risen by 74%." By October 2002, net income again rises sharply. On "October 31, 2002 - United Defense Industries, Inc. received a contract...from the U.S. Navy ... valued in excess of $ 40 million, bringing the total contract value to over $190 million."
Likewise, after Bush took office, his administration awarded tens of millions of dollars to the Vinnell Corp. which is partly owned by Carlyle, including a $10,841,990.00 contract in June of 2001 (13). Vinnell, although a private corporation, is in the business of training and arming foreign militaries (14). For example, in May of 2002, Vinnell received $170 million for training Saudi Arabia's national guard and air force (15). Vinnell is also being paid, by U.S. taxpayers, to train Afghanistan's new army -- an army which will protect the oil pipeline that will soon be constructed across Afghanistan.
These are just two of the 160 plus Carlyle companies which stand to profit from the "war on terrorism."
As summed up by the Guardian (2) "since the start of the 'war on terrorism: the firm - unofficially valued at $3.5 billion - has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father ....and members ofthe family ofOsama bin Laden."
Once the United States invades Iraq, the Carlyle Group including the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family, will also benefit handsomely.
The Carlyle group is also in the business of drugs, publishing, telecommunications, and spying. They own book publishers, 50% of Baker and Taylor a major book distributor, and who knows how many reporters and editors. In addition, the "Carlyle Realty Partners have major investments in four of the 8 major Network Access Points in the U.S., including MAE-West, Lakeside Technology Center in Chicago, and the new Atlantic Technology Center in Brooklyn. This may be part of an attempt by Carlyle (which looks like a CIA venture capital front company) to expand US intelligence snooping capabilities on the Internet" (16).
That this relationship between Bush, his father, the bin Ladens and the Carlyle group, is unethical, dangerous to U.S. interests and probably illegal, has not been lost on a number of independent observers. Even prior to the 9/11 tragedy, groups, such as the conservative Judicial Watch, had already begun to complain. In May of 2001, Judicial Watch, a highly conservative, highly respected public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, strongly criticized Bush and the Carlyle Group, for a "conflict of interest (which) could cause problems for America's foreign policy in Middle East and Asia."
On 9/28/01, seven days after the 9/11 attack, Judicial Watch again complained: "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group" (17).
In February of 2002, the complaints grew even louder. As described by San Francisco Chronicle reporter, David Lazarus (18): "Critics of the Carlyle Group have grown increasingly vocal in recent weeks, particularly over the perception that a private organization with unmistakable links to the White House is benefiting from America's military action in Afghanistan."
In November of 2002, Bush announced a $10 billion dollar increase in defense spending. The Carlyle group will be a major beneficiary.
Yes -- the attack which left 3000 Americans dead and a nation traumatized, has been very good for business -- that is, so long as that business is linked to the Bush family and their associates.
OIL FOR TERROR
The expected dividend from the 9/11 attack on America was not limited to increases in defense spending, but included gold -- black gold, oil that is -- central Asian and Bagdad tea.
The Bush family and many of their associates have been in the oil business for decades.
Until he became vice president, Dick Cheney spent five years as director of Halliburton, one of the top companies providing service to the oil industry. Dick Cheney, who has never served in the military, has been one of the loudest voices screaming for oil and blood. And for good reason: war and oil are worth billions of dollars to Halliburton -- a company that gave Cheney a $37 million dollar going away present when he left to become vice president.
Are we supposed to believe he is not acting in the interests of Halliburton?
Indeed, in the months before 9/11, and with their former director serving now as vice president, Halliburton signed a 12-Year contract with KASPMORNEFTELOT. As detailed in a published press release, "KASPMORNEFTELOT, the marine division of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, have entered into a 12- year contract for a marine base and associated services to support Halliburton Subsea offshore construction activity in the Caspian region. The acquisition of the marine base is a further indication of our commitment to the Caspian region and to the success of the partnership arrangements with SOCAR,' says Edgar Ortiz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Halliburton's Energy Services Group" (19).
American Petroleum Institute has called the Caspian region, "the area of greatest resource potential outside of the Middle East." Likewise, while director of Halliburton Cheney told a gaggle of oil industry executives in 1998, "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."
However, in 1998, one of the best ways to get at that oil, was through Afghanistan. And to do that, would require a regime change, which in turn, would require a war to remove the Taliban.
As pointed out by Marjorie Cohn of the Chicago Tribune (20), gaining access to "Caspian oil presents formidable obstacles. Landlocked between Russia, Iran and a group of former Soviet republics, the Caspian's 'black gold' raises a transportation dilemma. Although the cheapest route would traverse Iran to the Persian Gulf, U.S. sanctions against Iran block this alternative. Cheney has lobbied long and hard for the lifting of those sanctions, to lubricate the Iran-Caspian connection. This is consistent with his position, described in a 1997 article in The Oil and Gas Journal, that oil and gas companies must do business in countries with policies unpalatable to the U.S."
Indeed, Cheney, like Bush, is willing to do business even with people who kill or finance the mass murder of Americans. As to outlaw regimes who practice genocide? No problem. For example, Cheney has urged the "repeal of section 907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act, which severely restricts U.S. aid to Azerbaijan because of its ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh ... Cheney chooses to ignore Azerbaijan's human-rights violations because Azerbaijan is key to the richest Caspian oil deposits" (20).
Yes, indeed. Dick Cheney sees no problem with mass murder and genocide, so long as Dick Cheney can make a buck.
And then there is Bush National Security Advisor and former oil-company consultant and Chevron Oil board member, Condoleezza Rice. During the first Bush administration, Rice became an expert on the oil-rich region of Kazakhstan, a country in which Chevron has invested more than $20 billion. Rice became a member of Chevron's board of directors, and it was during her tenure and with her assistance that the company partnered with a consortium including Kazakhstan and ExxonMobil to complete a pipeline carrying oil from the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiisk. Chevron was so thankful for her assistance that it named one of their supertankers the SS Condoleezza Rice.
Ms. Rice, being national security advisor, is one of the senior Bush administration officials who undoubtedly had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attack. Her complicity (or if we are kind: Her negligence) allowed that attack to occur which in turn justified the war with Afghanistan, which gave her oil friends access to the central Asian oil reserves. And Ms. Rice has also been one of the loudest voices demanding that we attack Iraq -- a country with the second largest known oil reserves in the world.
*******
The Bush family, and their cronies in the oil, banking, and defense industries, have had their eyes on the oil fields of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Basin, including landlocked Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, for decades. And for decades they have plotted how best to maintain control over the Saudi oil-spicket and how to take control of those resources north of Afghanistan and in Iraq.
Before even taking office in January of 2001, the Bush team had already decided to go for a "hostile takeover:" First Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then ...
However, to declare "war for oil" would not only be unseemly and transparent, but most Americans would not support it.
Terrorism would be the key, and the "war on terrorism" would be the justification for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq -- terrorism bought and paid for by Bush friends and associates including the CIA, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan's intelligence service.
As summed by Frank Viviano, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle (21): "Beyond current issues and strategies ...the hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can be summed up in a single word: oil. The map of terrorist sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world's principal energy sources. The defense of these energy resources-rather than a simple confrontation between Islam and the West-will be the primary flash point of global conflict for decades to come. It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America's Chevron, Exxon, and Arco; France's TotalFinaElf; British Petroleum; Royal Dutch Shell and other multinational giants, which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region. There is no avoiding such a linkage or the rising tide of anger it will produce in developing nations already convinced they are victims of a conspiratorial collaboration between global capital and U.S. military might."
And yet, it is not just the developing nations which have been victimized, but the citizens of America -- nearly 3,000 murdered on one day alone, and all for the sake of money, oil, and a political power grab unprecedented in the history of the United States. Indeed, the terrorist attack which took place on 9/11, as expected, transformed an inept, incompetent, former drug-addled alcoholic (22), into a war time leader who would immediately set about attacking not just Afghanistan, but American civil liberties and the constitution of the United States (23).
*******
Having been in the oil-business for decades, Bush and associates have long had their greedy eyes on the oil reserves of Iraq and those of the now independent countries that had once been part of the Soviet Union.
It has been known since the turn of the 20th century, that the Caspian basin held incredible oil reserves. However, by the late 1970s, data began to emerge indicating that incredible amounts of oil might also lie beneath the soil of central Asia, which, at that time, was part of the Soviet Union.
For example, the Tengiz field was discovered in 1979 -- the same year the U.S. decided to begin funding the mujahideen. The Tengiz field, located in Kazakhstan "is one of the largest in the world" -- Richard Matzke, Vice-Chairman, Chevron Corp. It offers incredible "opportunities for investment in the discovery, production, transportation, and refining of enormous quantities of oil and gas resources."
By the mid-1990s, some experts began to estimate that the region might contain as many as 200 billion barrels of oils.
John J. Maresca, vice president of Unocal, in his February 12, 1998 testimony before a House of Representatives committee, reported that "The Caspian region contains tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves, much of them located in the Caspian Sea basin itself. The region's total oil reserves may reach more than 60 billion barrels of oil. Some estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels."
Two hundred billion barrels of oil would be worth $40 trillion dollars!!
In 1998, however, there was just one small problem: The Taliban. In order to get that oil, the Taliban would have to go.
As detailed by John J. Maresca: "A route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil. The territory across which the pipeline would extend is controlled by the Taliban, an Islamic movement that is not recognized as a government by most other nations. Construction of our proposed pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place."
A "hostile takeover" to use business jargon, seemed to be the only answer. The oil men would have to put their own government on the throne, if they were to get their hands on that oil.
*******
Since the late 1970s, and continuing through the Reagan- Bush years, it has been American policy to pry the central Asian oil-states from the grasp of the Soviet Union. The method of choice? Terrorism.
One of the original purposes in funding and arming the mujahideen was to launch terrorist attacks on the underbelly of the Soviet Union in order to destabilize and eventually destroy the world's number 2 superpower (24). Islamic and anti-Russian propaganda was also distributed and broadcast into these countries, the purpose of which was to cause civil unrest among the Muslim population and turn them against the Soviet Union. It was hoped that with war, terrorism, and propaganda that the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the U.S. and would be able to tear these particular countries away from the Soviet sphere of influence, thus making their oil reserves ripe for western exploitation.
In the 1970s, 1980s, and I990s, Afghanistan was the key. Afghanistan was the battle ground where the Soviets and the US and their allies, would fight a proxy war (24,25). The purpose of this war was not just to break the central Asian states from the Soviet grasp, but to gain access to Afghanistan through which an oil-pipeline could be built, thus depriving the Soviets of any say over the oil-revenues.
As noted in early chapters, the CIA had provided secret aid to the "freedom fighters" in the 1970s. This became official- U.S. policy in 1979, when President Carter approved CIA efforts underway in Afghanistan to topple the Soviet backed regime. The purpose of this aid, was to draw the Soviets into Afghanistan and to instill civil unrest in the central Asian countries it controlled.
It was July 3, 1979, when President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. This aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would" (24).
And once the Soviets intervened, then the Soviets themselves could be attacked, thus paving the way for a "hostile takeover" of Afghanistan followed by the central Asian states.
According to William Casey, Director of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration (25), the principle reason for training and funding the Afghan mujahideen, was to wage terrorism and war against the Soviet Union, "with Saudi cooperation," and to sow discord in the Soviet Central Asia, in order to stir an Islamic revolution and pry these states away from the Soviet sphere of influence. Saudi Arabia's King Faud, and other prominent Saudi families belonging to the Wahhabi clan, matched the CIA and the American government in providing funds and stirring up revolution not only in the incredibly oil rich Soviet states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan, but Afghanistan; and in this regard, the Saudis and the CIA, worked directly with Pakistan's Islamic government.
Central Asia, of course, is a vast territory. There are several land routes through which oil could be piped, such as through Turkey to the Mediterranean sea. Yet another option, is through Iran -- which is the shortest route -- to the Arabian sea. The prospect of doing business with Iran, however, is an anathema to the Saudis who wish to destroy Iran's Shiit government and either convert or murder its Shiit population (26).
The only other way to get the oil from what had been the underbelly of the Soviet Union, to the sea and thus to world markets, is to build a pipeline across Afghanistan and then into Pakistan, in order to reach the Arabian Sea.
Afghanistan is also known to have modest oil reserves, as does Pakistan. According to the Asian Times (27) "Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at around five trillion cubic feet... 95 million barrels."
THE OIL PIPELINE
When the Soviet Union finally crumbled, it was hoped that the mujahideen would quickly conquer Afghanistan, so that an oil pipeline could get underway.
Bush and his oil-company friends slavored over the riches and power that would soon be theirs. Once they built and gained control over the extraction and shipping of oil via pipelines from the oil rich regions north of Afghanistan they would not only have their hands on 40 trillion dollars worth of oil, but would wield a dagger pointed directly at the throats of China and India -- emerging industrial nations who would become increasingly dependent on oil from the region.
But then, the mujahideen couldn't stop killing each other.
Enter the Taliban.
But as the Taliban conquered more and more of Afghanistan they became increasingly independent of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and of course the USA.
Enter bin Laden.
In 1996, bin Laden the business man, was "expelled" from the Sudan, and with hundreds of millions of Saudi-dollars in hand, he landed in Afghanistan. In 1996, bin Laden and his organization were receiving funds from the Saudis, Pakistan's ISI, and Western intelligence agencies -- and these funds were used not only to finance terrorism but to buy influence among the leadership of the Taliban. Bin Laden was a key player for several reasons, such as his family's close ties to the Saudi royals, and the Bush family. Moreover, he had already established his credentials as a friend to the Afghan "freedom fighters" during the 1980s. Beginning in 1996, through the riches he bestowed on the Taliban it was hoped that he would be able to wield influence over all government decisions, and bend them in a direction favored by his Saudi masters.
The bin Laden family, in conjunction with a subsidiary of Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton -- with whom they were in business -- also stood to make billions of dollars in construction fees if the oil pipeline was built. Osama, of course, is also a business man.
In 1996, soon after the Taliban took Kabul, and following the arrival of bin Laden, the Taliban leaders were persuaded to start talking business with the Bush clan, and to agree to the construction of an oil pipeline. Soon, the Taliban were on their way to Houston, Texas -- Bush country. The Taliban were then dined and lavishly entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal (28), the same Unocal that has extensive ties to the current administration of George W. Bush.
Unocal was desperate to get the oil pipeline contract. Unocal had already formed agreements with landlocked Turkmenistan to sell its gas, and the only acceptable way to move Turkmenistan oil, was through Afghanistan. The pipeline would run from the old Soviet Union, through Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and could then be shipped to the world market via the Arabian sea.
As detailed by John Pilger, writing for the London Mirror (28), "with secret US government approval, the company offered the Taliban a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build from Soviet central Asia through Afghanistan." What Unocal and the Bush oil men intended, was for the Taliban to become like the Saudis, whereas "Afghanistan would become an American oil colony. There would be huge profits for the West, no democracy and the legal persecution of women."
No democracy? The persecution of women?
"We can live with that," oozed one oil-man.
The Talibans listened, and then turned them down (29). The Taliban believed they could get a better deal from an Argentinean firm, Bridas. Bridas was actively competing against Unocal for the right to build the pipeline which would carry gas 1,300 kilometers from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan (30). In fact, Bridas had already signed one agreement with the previous Afghan government in 1996, and that same year, had filed suit against Unocal/Delta for interference in its oil business in Turkmenistan. A few weeks after that suit was filed, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Tom Simmons, met with Pakistan's Prime Minister, Bhutto, and urged her to give exclusive rights to Unocal. Bhutto was offended and refused to cooperate.
In November of 1996, Bridas signed an agreement with the Taliban and General Dostum to build the pipeline (30).
If Bridas got the deal, however, not only would Unocal be left out in the cold, but Haliburton. Likewise, the Saudis and the bin Laden family would be cut out of the deal. Haliburton, through its subsidiary H.C. Price/Bredero Shaw, Inc, and thus the bin Ladens, stood to make hundreds of millions in construction fees if Unocal signed a deal with the Taliban.
Enter bin Laden. Exit Ms. Bhutto who was replaced by the Sharif government which was more willing to follow U.S. directives. In June of 1997, the Sharif government signed an agreement with Unocal, and in November of 1997, the Taliban again sent a delegation to the United States. There they met with Unocal and U.S. State Department officials (30). Unocal offered millions of dollars to the Taliban, including one million for Afghan charities.
The Taliban were ready to deal.
And then everything collapsed following the 1998 embassy bombings and US missile reprisals. These incidents, coupled with the Taliban's barbaric treatment of women -- the public whipping of women being a form of Taliban entertainment -- and their atrocious human rights records, left Unocal with no choice but to formally withdraw from the project-which they did in December of 1998.
However, the real problem was the Northern Alliance which controlled northern Afghanistan and thus all routes into central Asia. Unocal said until peace was established in the region, and unless the Taliban cleaned up their public image, the pipeline could not be built.
As per Bridas International, which is headquartered in Argentina, managing director, Mario Lopez Olacireegui, immediately went on record saying he is not concerned about the Taliban 's human rights violations. "We are just an oil and gas company. We are not bothered by human rights or politics."
Bridas, however, was unable to complete the deal. The Pakistan government refused to cooperate, and the Taliban were unable to dislodge the Northern Alliance, which blocked access to the oil-rich territories of central Asia.
The Northern Alliance controlled northern Afghanistan, and thus they controlled all routes into the oil rich regions of what had been the southern states of the Soviet Union. Until the Northern Alliance was defeated, there would be no pipeline.
*******
Soon after taking office, the Bush team sought to establish a business relationship with the Taliban, and called upon the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the CIA -- including those who helped train and fund the Taliban and mujahideen during the Bush-Reagan administration -- to set up meetings. Since the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan, the Bush administration were happy to do business with these "terrorists."
Some of these meetings were arranged by Laili Helms (29), who was married to the nephew of former CIA director, Richard Helms. Prior to 9/11, Laili Helms served as executive director of Friends of Afghanistan, which generated support for the effort against the Soviets. Later, Ms. Helms served as the Taliban's unofficial representative to the United States (31).
The Bush team also called upon Hamid Karzai and Zalmay Khalilzad a top advisor to Unocal.
Khalilzad served as undersecretary of defense during the first Bush administration. When Bush Jr. came to power, Zalmay Khalilzad became a member of the National Security Council and an aid to Condoleezza Rice.
Hamid Karzai had been Afghanistan's first deputy foreign minister when Afghanistan was governed by the mujahideen. Although of Afghanistan royalty, he is one of those CIA-sponsored "freedom fighters" who came to the U.S. and did not leave-that is, until the defeat of the Taliban after which he was made Prime Minister. Karzai, too has Unocal connections, and before 9/11, he maintained close ties with the Taliban.
"The Taliban were good, honest people," Karzai is quoted as saying (32). "They were connected to the madrassas in Quetta and Peshawar, and were my friends from the jihad against the Soviets. They came to me in May, 1994, saying, 'Hamed, we must do something about the situation in Kandahar. It is unbearable.' I had no reservations about helping them. I had a lot of money and weapons left over from the jihad. I also helped them with political legitimacy. It was only in September of 1994 that others began to appear at the meetings -- silent ones I did not recognize, people who took over the Taliban movement. That was the hidden hand of Pakistani intelligence."
In March of 2001, Islamic extremists, including senior members of Pakistan's Jamiaat-i-Islami Party (who helped arm and fund the Taliban), and the Taliban's ambassador-at-large, Rahmatullah Hashami, began paying invited visits to Washington and CIA headquarters. As widely reported in the press, Hashami attended meetings at the State Department, as well as with top CIA and Pentagon officials.
Those who sat in on these meetings, included Richard Armitage, a former Unocal oil executive and chief deputy to Secretary of State Colin Powell (29,33). Also in attendance: CIA veteran Christina Rocca who also serves as assistant secretary of state for South Asia. Rocca also held meetings with the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul.
The Bush administration was eager to do business with terrorists and their representatives (29,30,34). Doing business with terrorists is a Bush family tradition.
As we have repeatedly stressed, the Bush oil men have long had their eyes on the landlocked oil-rich regions of the old Soviet union, just north of Afghanistan. One of the best ways to exploit these oil riches, was to build a pipeline linking the Caspian basin and landlocked Turkmenistan with the Arabian sea. Afghanistan was the key. Since the Northern Alliance were allied with Russia and Iran, and since they appeared to be losing the civil war, the Bush team were eager to do business with the Taliban.
In exchange for building an oil pipeline across Afghanistan, the Taliban-terrorists were told, the new Bush administration was prepared to remove most if not all trade restrictions and to award them with an initial payment of over $43 million dollars.
The Taliban were interested.
However, although the Taliban controlled 90% of Afghanistan, there still remained a serious problem which prevented the oil companies from fulfilling their dreams, and it wasn't bin Laden. It was the Northern Alliance, which was still allied with Russia and Iran, and fighting the Taliban for control of Afghanistan.
The Northern Alliance would have to be defeated.
Thus the Bush administration not only openly signaled their willingness to reestablish "friendly" relationships with the Taliban, but made it clear that the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance of Gen. Ahmed Shah Massoud, and former mujahideen leader Abdul Haq was no longer in favor.
And why was that?
Neither man was associated with any of the big western oil consortiums. Both were seen as too close to the Russians and Iran. And both were on unfriendly terms with Hamid Karzai who was on friendly terms with the Taliban. And, the Northern Alliance was making it impossible to construct an oil pipeline.
On 9/10/2001, Massoud was assassinated. Abdul Haq was assassinated the following month.
Would the Bush administration like access to Osama bin laden in return for these largesses, asked Sayed Hashimi, one of Taliban leader, Mullah Omar's top aids.
The Bush administration assured the Taliban that as to Osama bin laden, they did not share the views of the Clinton administration who had "overblown" and exaggerated his involvement in terrorism (35). If the Bush administration could get its pipeline, a pipeline that would be built by a consortium of companies headed by Texas based Unocal, Osama would no longer be considered a threat.
Indeed, according to Hamid Mir, Osama's official biographer, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban was absolutely "convinced that the Americans were not interested in Osama Bin Laden" (36). Not all members of the Bush administration, we are told, were happy with the Bush stratagem. Colin Powell and his aid Richard Armitage, are said to have argued against reestablishing ties with this terrorist regime (29).
Of course, that pose could be the same '01 good cop - bad cop routine used by both Bush administrations, to fool journalists and the American public.
In any case, if they had opposed those meetings, they were overruled by the CIA and the Bush oil lobby.
In May of 2001, Colin Powell announced that the U.S. would provide the Taliban with over $43 million dollars in emergency aid. This influx of cash was followed by pledges of an additional $89 million dollars "including $10 million for... other livelihood and food security programs."
As detailed by the Washington Post (37), the "$43 million in assistance to Afghanistan," raises the "total aid this year to $124 million, making the United States the largest humanitarian donor to the country."
As admitted by Colin Powell, this money was provided despite "their support of terrorism, their violation of internationally recognized human rights -- especially their treatment of women and girls -- and their refusal to resolve Afghanistan's civil war through a negotiated settlement."
"The Taliban government" oozed George Bush, are "a source of stability in Central Asia."
Bush then sweetened by the pie by offering to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan (29).
IN BUSINESS WITH THE TALIBAN
The Taliban, Bush believed, would soon yield to pressure and bribes for the construction of an oil pipeline that would enable U.S. oil companies, directly tied to the Bush administration, to gain access to the vast oil resources in the Caspian Basin. If the Taliban could be bought off, and the oil pipeline ran through Afghanistan, the oil-companies connected with both Bush administrations, would be able to control it, and thus achieve incredible power over the emerging industrial nations in the region: China and India.
Afghanistan was the key.
Echoing their policy toward Iraq up until the onset of the Gulf War, the Bush administration gave a "green light" and lots of cash to the Taliban. The message was unmistakable: Enslave your women, export drugs and terrorism, call for the destruction of America, provide safe harbor and a base of operations for Osama bin Laden, allow your country to be a base for training terrorists and the launching of terrorist attacks against American interests, and the Bush administration will be your very best friend.
The Taliban, however, were proving to be difficult negotiators and were making impossible demands, including $100 million a year in rent for the pipeline, a tap in the pipeline to supply gas and oil for Afghanistan, as well as the construction of roads, water supplies, telephone lines, and electricity power lines.
The Bush team went to work on the Taliban, to convince them that it was in their best interests to accept the terms offered.
Ambassador to Pakistan Tom Simons began holding regular meetings with high ranking Taliban officials (29). The Taliban were told that if they abandoned their extravagant demands for rent, and gave approval for the construction of an oil and gas pipeline by a consortium of oil companies led by Unocal, the U.S. would remove all sanctions. The Taliban could sell oil on the open market, they would receive a significant increase in direct foreign aid, and the U.S. would formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The Taliban, through their own initiative, and without the payment of rent, and through foreign aid, paid for by American taxpayers, would be enriched beyond their wildest dreams; but only if they accepted one other provision.
Which was? they asked.
The Taliban would have to accept a large U.S. military presence and the establishment of U.S. military bases, to guard the pipeline and the workers who would build it (36).
In the eyes of the Bush team, not only would they and their associates reap incredible riches from the oil they extracted and sold, but they would receive an incredible payoff in the form of global hegemony. If the U.S. could establish a permanent military presence in the oil-rich underbelly of Central Asia this in turn would put emerging industrial and increasingly energy starved countries such as China and India, at the mercy of the U.S. It would also place the resource-rich region of Siberia within the grasp of U.S. corporations and the U.S. military.
The U.S. military presence, and increased U.S. power and influence in the region, would lead to the further balkanization and fragmentation of Russia, whereas the oil-rich, former Soviet states, as well as Afghanistan, would be reduced to easily controlled emirate-like entities, devoid of any real sovereignty.
In some respects, the Afghan pipeline was but the icing on the cake, the "cake" being Russia, China, India.
The Taliban said they weren't interested. No matter how much money the U.S. offered to throw their way, they would not accept a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. According to Hamid Mir, Osama's official biographer, Mullah Omar, rejected the American offer, because he was convinced that "their real objective was to install a government of their own choice in Kabul which will take control of all the road links to Central Asia" (36).
The clock was ticking.
In July, the CIA made direct contact with Osama bin Laden.
As first reported by the highly respected French newspaper, Le Figaro (38), in July of 2001, bin Laden flew from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and was then transported to the American Hospital in Dubai for treatment of his well known and quite serious renal insufficiencies. He "remained in this hospital from the 4 to July 14. He was accompanied by his personal doctor and faithful lieutenant, Ayman AI-Zawahari, four bodyguards, and an Algerian male nurse. He was treated in the Department of Urology by Doctor Terry Callaway, specialist in renal disorders, who did not wish to answer our questions. During his hospitalization, Osama Ben Laden received the visit of several members of his family and Saudi emiraties. During this same stay, the local representative of the CIA, that many people know in Dubai, was seen to go in the room of Osama Ben Laden. The agent of the CIA was recalled on July 15, shortly after the departure of bin Laden for Quetta."
According to Le Figaro (38), bin Laden and the CIA agent discussed events in Afghanistan, American policy, and the upcoming 9/11 attack by al-Qaeda. The CIA may have also received assurances that the order for the attack would come from Afghanistan.
On August 2, the Bush administration tried one last time to convince the Taliban to accept U.S. terms (29).
Time was running out. The Bush administration had an agenda and a time table: first Afghanistan, and then Iraq. With Afghanistan, they would negotiate, but not so Iraq. They needed Afghanistan only as a foundation upon which a pipeline would be laid. Iraq was a different matter. Iraq, with its second largest oil reserves in the world, was a prize unto itself.
Time was running out. Decisions had to be made. Events were unfolding which could be stopped, or allowed to run their course and interpreted one way or another if the Taliban did or did not agree.
A post 9/11 "war on terrorism" could be used as justification for an attack on Afghanistan or it could just as easily become justification for an attack on the Iraq-and it all depended on the Taliban.
As detailed by Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie (29): Christina Rocca director of Asian affairs at the State Department, met with the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad carrying an offer the Bush team hoped the Taliban could not refuse.
After much discussion, she finally laid her cards on the table: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs."
The Taliban ambassador was insulted. He walked out. No deal.
But what would be the pretext for bombing the Taliban back into oblivion?
A terrorist attack on America!
Although the Taliban probably didn't know it, the Bush administration had an ace in the hole, and his name was Osama bin Laden.
TERROR AND THE HOSTILE TAKE OVER
On September 10, one day before the 9/11 attack National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and other unnamed Bush administration officials, were handed a report, outlining options for attacking Afghanistan and destroying the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
On 9/11/2001, 19 men, fifteen of them from Saudi Arabia, hijacked 4 commercial jetliners, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center, and one into the Pentagon.
By the next day, the United States government announced that it had unequivocal proof that al-Qaeda terrorists, based in Afghanistan, were responsible for this horrific crime and the mass murder of thousands of American citizens.
On 9/14/2001, Unocal issued the following statement: "The company is not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan in any way whatsoever. Nor do we have any project or involvement in Afghanistan. Beginning in late 1997, Unocal was a member of a multinational consortium that was evaluating construction of a Central Asia Gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Pakistan [via western Afghanistan]. Our company has had no further role in developing or funding that project or any other project that might involve the Taliban."
Over the following days, in response to U.S. declarations of war on terrorism, and thus, war on Afghanistan and its Taliban rulers, the Taliban government repeatedly offered to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third country for trial. The Bush administration angrily rejected this offer outright.
Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban was absolutely "convinced that the Americans were not interested in Osama Bin Laden" (36).
Although the Taliban probably didn't know it, Osama bin Laden had long ago made arrangements to escape Afghanistan once the United States attacked. He was already on his way to Pakistan.
No, the U.S. had no interest in capturing Osama and no interested in negotiating with the Taliban. Instead, the U.S. would join forces with the Northern Alliance, insert troops and establish military bases throughout Afghanistan, win agreements to base troops and take over former Soviet military bases in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrghyzstan and Kazakhstan, and then destroy the Taliban.
It would be a "hostile take over."
Iraq would be next.
*******
The Taliban were ridiculously easy for the United States to defeat.
Soon thereafter, and after the fall of Kabul, and then the Taliban, Hamid Karzai, a top advisor to Unocal, was named interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan.
In December of 2001, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited the region and commented that he "was particularly impressed" with the incredible amounts of money that American oil companies would be investing. He estimated that "$200 billion" could flow into the region during the next 5 to 10 years (39).
On December 15, it was reported that "the State Department is exploring the potential for post-Taliban energy projects in the region, which has more than 6 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent of its gas reserves" (40).
On January 31, 2002, the Bush administration announced that "we will support the construction of the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline."
*******
The Bush team were in heaven. They had won.
In return for the small down payment of 3,000 American lives and the maiming of thousands of innocent women and men during the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the Bush administration and its associates in the oil industry, finally received the icing and the cake they had long been slavering for.
Iraq would be next.
And it only cost 3,000 American lives.
_______________
Notes:
1). Melanie Warner, Fortune, 3/08/2002; Tim Shorrock, The Nation, 3/15/2002; Steve Gelsi, CBSMarketWatch, 3/21/02; Esther Schrader, Los Angeles Times, 4/14/2002; Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times, 4/25/2002.
2). Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger, "The ex-presidents' club," The Guardian, 10/31/2001.
3). New York Times, 3/5/2001.
4). BBC News, 6/11/2001.
5). Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2001.
6). D. Golden et al., "Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank," Wall Street Journal, 9/ 27/2001; see also Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.
7). Hindustani Times, 9/28/2001.
8). Tim Shorrock, The Nation, 3/15/2002.
.9). Judicial Watch; Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001. Geoffrey Gray, "The Carlyle Connection, 5/1/2002.
10). Leslie Wayne, "The Carlyle Group Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity," New York Times, 3/5/2001.
11). The Observer, "Dark heart of the American dream," 6/16/2002.
12). Jason Nisse, Independent, 1/30/02; Steve Gelsi "Carlyle Group cashing in again on IPO," CBSMarketWatch, 3/21/2002.
13). Loren Data Group, Commerce Business Daily Issue of June 18, 2001.
14). Adam Zagorin. Time magazine, 5/26/1997.
15). Loren Data Group, Commerce Business Daily Issue of August, 2001.
16).A. Huffington, "The usual suspects d'plutarch Bush "tax reform" budget," Contra Costa Times, 4/17/2001.
17). Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel, 9/28/2001.
18). David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/04/2002.
19). Haliburton Press Release, 5/15/2001.
20). Marjorie Cohn, "Cheney's Black Gold: Oil Interests May Drive US Foreign Policy," Chicago Tribune, 8/10/2000.
21). Frank Viviano, "Energy Future Rides on U.S. War," San Francisco Chronicle, 9/26/2002.
22). James Hatfield, "Fortunate Son," St. Martins Press, 2000.
23). Nancy Chang, Senior Litigation Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, 10/1/2001.
24). Le Nouvel Observateur, 11/15-21/1998; Bill Blum, "Killing Hope."
25). Peter Schweizer, "Victory -- The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union."
26). Stephen Schwartz, "The Two Faces of Islam," Double Day, 2002.
27). Asian Times, 10/6/2001.
28). John Pilger, London Mirror, 10/31/2001.
29). Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie "Forbidden Truth: U.S.- Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden," Avalon Books, 2002.
30). Ahmed Rashid, "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," Yale University Press, 2000; see also: Alexander's Oil and Gas Connections, Company News, Central Asia, 1996, 1997, 1998.
31). Alessandra Stanley, "She Spoke for Taliban and Now Pays a Price," New York Times; 11/27/2001; Camelia Fard & James Ridgeway, "Richard Helms's Afghani Niece Leads Corps of Taliban Reps. The Accidental Operative," The Village Voice, 6/6/2001.
32). Richard D. Kaplan, "The Lawless Frontier," 9/2000. See also: The Washington Post, 11/30/2001; Khilafah.com, 11/30/2001.
33). When we contacted Richard Armitage's office his top aid would neither confirm nor deny that these meetings took place.
34). Robert Scheer, "Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban," Los Angeles Times, 5/22/2001.
35). It has been alleged that the Bush administration was demanding that deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah be reinstated as ruler of Afghanistan, and that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from the pipeline. However, this is unlikely, for after the Taliban were overthrown, the Bush administration successfully opposed the reinstatement of the Shah. As per Osama bin Laden, the Bush administration also turned down repeated offers by the Taliban to turn him over to a third country where he could have then been easily apprehended.
36). Hamid Mir, "The Taliban will never surrender" 9/16/2001.
37). Washington Post, 5/25/2001.
38). Le Figaro, 10/31/2001.
39). "As the War Shifts Alliances, Oil Deals Follow," New York Times, 12/15/2001.
40). New York Times, 12/15/2001.
