1. http://wvhc.drw.net/VoiceNov01/HastyCol.htm
The problem, because of the region’s geography and politics, is transporting the oil to emerging markets and shipping points in eastern Asia. Until 1998, a consortium of oil companies, led by an American firm, Unocal, had been negotiating with the Taliban to build a pipeline across Afghanistan. As award- winning British journalist John Pilger has noted, "Only if the pipeline runs through Afghanistan" --as opposed to alternate routes through Iran or Russia ? "can the Americans hope to control [the Caspian oil]."
Halliburton, which had built several Asian pipelines for Unocal (including one in Burma that was internationally condemned for widespread human rights abuses associated with its construction) had a big stake in the Afghan project. But after the US launched cruise missiles against terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Africa (which were also attributed to Osama bin Laden’ s network), Unocal decided to at least temporarily suspend negotiations on the pipeline. According to a public statement, the company was waiting until Afghanistan has "the peace and stability necessary to obtain financing from international agencies, and a government that is recognized by the United States."
Another American firm with financial links to the Afghan pipeline project is the Carlyle Group, the nation’s most highly capitalized private equity company and, by virtue of its investments, the eleventh-largest defense contractor. The Carlyle Group is dominated by veterans of the Reagan and Bush I administrations, including former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, who serves as chairman, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former budget director Richard Darman, among others.
(In a rather bizarre twist, another major investor in the Carlyle Group is the wealthy Saudi Arabian family of Osama bin Laden, whose connections to the Bush family go back decades. In fact, one of the earliest investors in George W’s first oil business, Arbusto Energy, was Osama bin Laden’s late brother.)
Under the present circumstances, however, the most notable investor and member of the board of directors in the Carlyle Group is former president George H.W. Bush, who also serves as senior adviser to the group’s Asian Partners Fund. The ethical ambiguities this raises has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum [Jannuzi's note here: yes, and it certainly sheds new light on Bush's Japan policy, too.]
2. http://www2.worldbank.org/hm/hmpak-afg/0028.html (wow, the discussions at world bank are a hotbed of radicalism--makes LBO list look like a bunch of philosophes wannabes, no wonder O'Neill is going to deal with them in no uncertain terms).
Respected, Ms. Jennifer Brinkerhoff's
Q- What role, if any, have economic factors played?
Answer: There is big business group in America namely Carlyle Group with the turnover of around $20 billion under management. Carlyle group deals in the defense sector and makes its money from military conflicts and weapons spending. Ex- US official Frank Carlucci is Carlyle's chairman and managing director (he was reportedly a college roommate of Donald Rumsfeld's). Other prominent business partners are Ex- US Secretary of State James A. Baker, George Soros, Fred Malek (George Bush Sr's campaign manager). Ex-President George Bush Sr is reported to be seeking investments for the Carlyle Group from Asian markets. President George Bush (Jr) and Vice-President Dick Cheney both made their fortunes working in the US oil industry. The Central Asian states, which borders the northwest of Afghanistan, holds the world's third largest gas reserves and an estimated six billion barrels of oil reserves. Enough, experts say, to meet American energy needs for the next 50 years. The dismal Human Right record other repressive policies of Saudi Debauches, Pakistani Dictators or Islamists Taliban do not bother America. It never bothered America from 1996 to 2001 (Taliban Rule). It was all about money and ecocnomy, Osama and Talibans were just an eye wash like Saddam Hussain. Oil and gas from the Caspian region currently moves northward to European markets. Iran and Russia are major impediments to American interests. In 1998, Dick Cheney-then CEO of Halliburton, a major player in the oil industry-said: "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian [Jannuzi's note here: remember how I earlier showed that the Bush's equity group, Carlyle Group had over 200 million USD from god knows whom to invest in energy plays, but so far only 25-30 million USD has been placed, in an obscure Norwegian drilling (ship-based) company that wants to try for Caspian drilling]. It's almost as if the opportunities have arisen overnight. An American Magnate called Unocal has been negotiating with the Taliban for permission to construct an oil pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan and out to the Arabian Sea. From here, Unocal hopes to access the lucrative 'emerging markets' in South and Southeast Asia. In December 1997, a delegation of Taliban mullahs traveled to America and even met US State Department officials and Unocal executives in Houston. At that time the Taliban's taste for public executions and its treatment of Afghan women were not made out to be the crimes against humanity that they are now. In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines.
Regards and Peace MUHAMMAD AAMIR MUGHAL KARACHI-PAKISTAN
--------------------------
Posted by Charles Jannuzi