Afghanistan/oil?

[Ken Hanly]

There are several articles that provide evidence that the US was already
intending to replace the Taliban regime long before the terrorist attack of
9/11.
This may have been in order to prevent the use of  Afghanistan as a
terrorist base as well as to establish a regime more favorable to the US.
This is turn would allow the option of building an oil pipeline through
Afghanistan. Why should there not be more than one reason why the US bomb
Afghanistan? There are surely multiple reasons:

    i) To shore up political support by showing the public that the US is
responding to the attack;; ii) To destroy bin Ladin's bases in Afghanistan
and kill as many of his supporters as possible whether or not he is
responsible for the attack iii) to replace the Taliban regime with one that
is more friendly to the US and  over which they have more control and iv)
this in turn would allow for the optiion of an oil pipeline through
Afghanistan.

    I dont think the most plausible conspiracy theory would be that the CIA
concocted the attack but that they alllowed it to take place in order to
justify even more dramatic actions against bin Laden and the Taliban. Of
course it is quite possible that they did not realise the magnitude of the
attack if this was their aim. I am not convinced of the conspiracy theory
but it has some plausibility. But if the theory is not true than I do not
think it at all likely that bin Laden could have had any direct hands on
role in planning the attack. Otherwise it is probable that US or other
intelligence agencies would have known  of the attack. But then I do not
think that the US really cares whether bin Laden is guilty or not they want
to get rid of him and the Taliban regardless

Cheers, Ken Hanly

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: Afghanistan/oil?


> Angelita Manzano wrote:
>
> >I have a question for you. Some of the things I've
> >read say that Afghanistan is one of most "mineral
> >rich" countries, others say that there's not much of
> >monetary value (besides opium) . . . and a some
> >activists say this all boils down to oil . . .
>
> Partisans of the oil angle, I have a question. The U.S. was attacked,
> and it's not implausible that it was planned by ObL, who is based in
> Afghanistan, and that his operatives were trained there. So it's not
> outlandish that any response be directed there, whatever it may be.
> So how's the oil angle fit into that? Did the CIA concoct the attack
> to justify a war on Afghanistan? Is it just a happy coincidence? Or
> are people just in the habit of invoking oil as the Real Secret
> Reason for everything that happens?
>
> Doug