Blood, Oil & Afghanistan
As a reminder of why we fight in Afghanistan the following was gleaned from news articles. ________________ 1995 - Unocal signs agreements allowing the oil giant to build an oil and gas pipeline across Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan to serve potential Asian markets.
Oct. 1997 - Unocal and other oil companies form Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) in preparation for building the trans-Afghanistan pipeline.
Oct. 1997 - US Congress passes a resolution declaring the Caspian and Caucasus region to be a "zone of vital American interests".
Dec. 1997- Unocal execs host Taliban representatives at their corporate headquarters in Sugarland, Texas to seal the CentGas pipeline project. Taliban are invited to Washington DC for meetings with Clinton Administration energy officials.
Jan. 1998 - Dick Cheney, CEO of Halliburton (an oil services company) says: "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."
Feb. 28, 1998 - John Maresca, VP for International Relations at Unocal speaks before US House of Representatives, stating that the Taliban government of Afghanistan should be removed and replaced by a government that is acceptable to UnoCal, adding that it could increase Unocal profits 500% by 2015. (Maresca's full testimony is worth reading - it's an eye-opener): http://www.ringnebula.com /Oil/Maresca_testimony_USHouse_1998.htm)
May 15, 2001 - Regarding the the Unocal pipeline deal, a Bush government official delivers an ultimatum to the Taliban: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold (Unocal's pipeline), or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." (source: Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie in "Forbidden Truth")
June 2001 - US Ambassador Barbara Bodine prohibits Deputy FBI Director John O'Neill from entering Yemen to investigate al-Qaeda links to the USS Cole attack.
July 2001 - Niaz Naik, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, tells the BBC that the US was planning military attacks on the Taliban long before the 9-11 attacks, and that the US desires "to topple the Taliban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm)
Aug. 22, 2001- Deputy Director O'Neill resigns in disgust over Bush Administration obstruction of FBI investigations into al-Qaeda. (New Yorker 1/14/02)
July - Sept. 2000 - Pakistani Intelligence Chief (ISI) Mahmoud Ahmad instructs British-born Saeed Sheikh in Pakistan to wire $100,000 to two Florida bank accounts held by 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. (Dawn News 10-9-01, World Net Daily 1-30-02, Times of India 08-1-03, inter alia)
Sept. 4, 2001 - Gen. Ahmad meets with top Bush officials in Washington.
Sept. 11, 2001 - Gen. Ahmad meets with Rep.(later FBI Director) Porter Goss (R-FL) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Porter Goss subsequently serves as co-chairman of the "Joint Intelligence Committee Investigating the 9/11 Attacks."
Oct. 31, 2001 - Bush drafts an executive order sealing the presidential records of the Bush and previous administrations.
Dec. 22, 2001 - The US-backed interim government headed by Hamid Karzai takes office. Karzai is a former Unocal consultant and CIA asset.
Dec. 31, 2001 - Bush appoints Zalmay Khalilzad as Special Envoy to Afghanistan. Khalilzad is also a former Unocal consultant.
Jan. 29, 2002 - CNN reports "President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the congressional investigations into the events of 9/11/01"
Feb 8, 2002 - Afghanistan's interim ruler Hamid Karzai and the president of Pakistan agree to revive plans for the trans-Afghanistan pipeline.
May 13, 2002 - Mohammad Razim, Afghanistan's minister for Mines and Industries, reports that Unocal is rumored to be "the lead company" to build the pipeline.
February 14, 2002: Israeli news Ma'ariv reports: "If one looks at the map of the big American bases created [in Afghanistan], one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected (Unocal) oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean." Ma'ariv also notes: "Osama bin Laden did not comprehend that his actions serve American interests. If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent. Not being a believer, I can only wonder at the coincidence." [Chicago Trib, 3/18/2002] ___________ "Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say, is there any child here who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry? (Woodrow Wilson, 1919)
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The Maasai in Kenya build their houses from a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung, human urine, and ash.
What are you building Skeptic?
Well done, Skeptic. The Caspian Sea region is going to be the place to be for natural gas and oil pipelines. That's also why the Russians are so hot and bothered by the Chechnya.
I'm of the opinion that Unocal/Mobile/Exxon need to create their own troops and leave ours alone. Our soldiers were never intended to be a private army.
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." - Dwight D Eisenhower
If the environmental wackos would stop running the Democrat Party we could drill for oil in the US.
Hey Jon, how's the corruption charges for the Placer GOP going? I"m not a Democrat - I just found the story the other day to be greatly amusing.
Like I said....there is no such thing as coincidences...and Mike ..it looks like Skeptic is building ....... a "truth time line" based on real events and not the fairy tales our nation has been told to believe.
Mike - I simply presented some facts. You may build of them whatever you like, but you have to live within them.
Euripides - I like your style; Big Oil could hire its own mercenary armies instead of having us taxpayers foot the bill.
Corruption charges in the Placer County GOP, You have got to be kidding.
There isn't enough oil in the US to be able to make a difference, even if we drilled all the known, existing reserves, no matter what the Republican Party claims.
Since the 1980's our use of petroleum has skyrocketed because we use it for driving commuter cars to work from sprawlburbs, intead of using it for mass transportation or for manufacturing. And we get our oil increasingly from unstable foreign countries, who are sitting on liquid gold, and buying it from companies who are determined to keep the prices as high as possible and to control the supply and charge as much as possible- well of course, they're businesses!
Hence the Republican Party is against better fuel milage standards, and in their blind quest for "growth at any cost" can't see oil as a comodity that is going to eventually run out a lot sooner now, than later.
It would be nice to make the transition to better alternatives while we still had the cushion, but planning ahead isn't their strength.
Speaking of corruption.William Jefferson, (D) Louisiana was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The longest sentence ever given to a member or former member of Congress. He's the one with money in his freezer. I guess corruption seems to be rampant on both sides. Oh yes, the charges, the same as most, accepting bribes
Yes, Loomis. Corruption is rampant on both sides. Shamefully rampant.
The one I am referring to, however, involves a more elaborate scheme involving an Assemblyman from Alpine County and the Treasury of the Placer GOP. The story was in either yesterdays or the day before yesterdays Sac Bee.
Corruption? In the GOP, you say? I am shocked; shocked, I tell you.
Facts?
Look like opinions, half-truths, and isolated cutting room floor clippings to me.
But I'm sure it gives a lot of folks their drama fix for the day by arranging them in different configurations and patters.
Bet Oliver Stone could make a hell of a movie.
If these are the kind of "facts" you folks use to build upon
no wonder you create the sensational conspiracies you appear to need to feel alive with such ease.
You want it to be true so passionately you simpley won't let it be anything but true.
Here's a snack for you....
Some guy from Chicago landed in LA this morning.
Some guy from Florida landed in LA this morning.
And get this....they both checked into the same Hotel.
Can you believe the corrupt LAPD is just standing by and doing nothing about it?
I hear even the bell boys are involved and the maids have been told not to talk with the press.
I wonder what those two guys are meeting for?
I wonder what they are talking about?
I wonder how high up this cover-up goes?
Gee-wiizzz, no wonder we can win, no wonder we can't be happy, everything is so corrupt....
Oh poor me.....oh poor poor me......and here's ther topper:
Bush stayed in the same hotel on two different occcasions.
That explains everything eh?
Just as you suspected.
Enjoy living "within" your facts Skeptic.
Your blog looks like a junkyard, no thanks.
Canyon, Between using our own oil and nuclear we would have plenty of energy. Why even the Iranians and North Koreans are building nuclear power plants, are not they?
Skeptic, Thanks for enlightening us. It's a hard pill to swallow but the truth is out there and we must seek it or perish. The pipeline across Afghanistan is well documented. I never thought about the US bases being close to the pipeline's route. All the evidence in the world will not stop the war mongers. American imperialism at it's best. There's big bucks to be made and a thirsty Russia and China.
Jon, you forgot to answer the question: How's the corruption charges for the Placer GOP going?
The Iranians and the North Koreans are only doing it as to create the potential for international blackmail by attempting to sell nuclear weapons components to the highest bidder.
And they get caught on it all the time.
Say, JonGreen, are you and 'Lintlock wanting to site a Nuclear Plant here in CA 04 ? THAT could get the residents very animated !
Euripides, I think that the FPPC has taken one deposition. There are no corruption charges except by hopeful democrats. There will be no charges because their was no violation. Sorry to ruin your day.
Canyon, what a great idea, it would provide jobs and energy. Maybe Halliburton could build it.
Jon: Was that so hard? ;)
just not important, but you insisted.
I just couldn't resist. No hard feelings, Jon.
The statements comprising my post came from mainstream news articles, mostly. Using the dates provided you can find and read the news articles in their entirety. I decided to present them sans comment simply because I was startled by the coincidental timing of the events unfolding in Afghanistan well before 9/11. You should make up your own minds whether the US invasion was (and is) about oil.
ChuxxR -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oil-factor-afghanistan.png
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qm2i8mXTjhs/SnlelAPyAAI/AAAAAAAABnc/RkyJS8eMlVQ/s1600-h/CASPIAN-MIDDLE%2520EAST_OIL%2520%26%2520MILITARY%2520PRESENCE.jpg
Skeptic...I am surprised Mike has not done his own research on your timeline and commented back to you in depth about how inaccurate your post is. I truly like Mike and think he could be a great American...but only if he looks for the truth and then recognizes it for what it really is.....coincdence...one of my favorite words... and something that rarely ever happens...