|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Joe R. Golowka [mailto:joeG at ieee.org]
||
|| > However, the Talibs would not
|| > accept the US terms for the Centgas project
||
|| What specifically were the terms the Talibs wouldn't accept,
|| why wouldn't
|| they accept them, and when did negotiations break down? Please include
|| sources.
||
Hope you don't mind me crossposting this to LbO. I've been asked for this source previously off-list by others although it's been posted to the list, so I think a reminder may be helpful. The specific terms of diagreement are not known at this time. What is known is this: ------------------------ http://www.radioleft.com/article.php?op=Print&sid=4
Thursday November 15 01:21 PM EST
U.S. Policy Towards Taliban Influenced by Oil - Say Authors
By Julio Godoy, Inter Press Service
PARIS, Nov 15 (IPS) - Under the influence of U.S. oil companies, the government of George W. Bush initially blocked U.S. secret service investigations on terrorism, while it bargained with the Taliban the delivery of Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and economic aid, two French intelligence analysts claim.
In the book ''Bin Laden, la verité interdite'' (''Bin Laden, the forbidden truth''), that appeared in Paris on Wednesday, the authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, reveal that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's deputy director John O'Neill resigned in July in protest over the obstruction.
Brisard claim O'Neill told them that ''the main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it''.
The two claim the U.S. government's main objective in Afghanistan was to consolidate the position of the Taliban regime to obtain access to the oil and gas reserves in Central Asia.
They affirm that until August, the U.S. government saw the Taliban regime ''as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of an oil pipeline across Central Asia'', from the rich oilfields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean.
Until now, says the book, ''the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia have been controlled by Russia. The Bush government wanted to change all that''.
But, confronted with Taliban's refusal to accept U.S. conditions, ''this rationale of energy security changed into a military one'', the authors claim.
''At one moment during the negotiations, the U.S. representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs','' Brisard said in an interview in Paris.
(...)