Bush, oil and the Taliban
Feb. 8, 2002 | PARIS -- In a new book, "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth," two French intelligence analysts allege the Clinton and Bush administrations put diplomacy before law enforcement in dealing with the al-Qaida threat before Sept. 11, in order to maintain smooth relations with Saudi Arabia and to avoid disrupting the oil market. The book, which has become a bestseller in France but has received little press attention here, also alleges that the Bush administration was bargaining with the Taliban, over a Central Asian oil pipeline and Osama bin Laden, just five weeks before the September attacks. The authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, see a link between the negotiations and Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force, with its conclusions that Central Asian oil was going to become critical to the U.S. economy. Brisard and Dasquie also claim former FBI deputy director John O'Neill (who died in the attack on the World Trade Center, where he was the chief of security) resigned in July to protest the policy of giving U.S. oil interests a higher priority than bringing al-Qaida leaders to justice ...

Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Bush Oil Team
Centre for Research on Globalisation When one peers beyond all of the rhetoric of the White House and Pentagon concerning the Taliban, a clear pattern emerges showing that construction of the trans-Afghan pipeline was a top priority of the Bush administration from the outset. Although UNOCAL claims it abandoned the pipeline project in December 1998, the series of meetings held between U.S., Pakistani, and Taliban officials after 1998, indicates the project was never off the table ...
Assisting with the CentGas negotiations with the Taliban was Laili Helms, the niece-in-law of former CIA Director Richard Helms. Laili Helms, also a relative of King Zahir Shah, was the Taliban's unofficial envoy to the United States and arranged for various Taliban officials to visit the United States. Laili Helms' base of operations was in her home in Jersey City on the Hudson River. Ironically, most of her work on behalf of the Taliban was practically conducted in the shadows of the World Trade Center, just across the river ...
The Bush Oil Team, which can now rely on the support of the interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan, may think that war and oil profits mix. But there is simply too much evidence that the War in Afghanistan was primarily about building UNOCAL's pipeline, not about fighting terrorism. The Democrats, who control the Senate and its investigation agenda, should investigate the secretive deals between Big Oil, Bush, and the Taliban.

Analysis: Oil and the Bush cabinet
BBC News Monday, 29 January, 2001: A majority of President Bush's new cabinet are millionaires and several are multimillionaires ... The concentration of energy connections is so pronounced that some critics are calling the Bush government the "oil and gas administration" ... Of the 100 million Americans who do not vote, the overwhelming majority are lower middle class or poor.

The Bush Oil-igarchy's Pipeline Protection Package
Arianna Huffington ... And now the oil-igarchy in the White House has chosen to reward this shining example of the idiocy of capitalism with a no-strings- attached corporate welfare check. Testifying before Congress last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell summed up the administration's position: "We thought a $98 million investment in Colombian brigades to help protect this pipeline is a wise one and a prudent one. What makes this pipeline unique is that it is such a major source of income." Income for whom? It's the new, improved Powell Doctrine: "U.S. military might should never be used -- unless it helps Corporate America turn a profit." ...

Why the Bush Oil (Energy) Policy Will Fail
www.oilanalytics.org Following his four predecessors, President Bush has identified dependence on imported oil as a urgent energy, economic, and national security concern. The gap between consumption and domestic production is more than 50 percent of total oil consumption; by 2020 it will grow to 65 percent of consumption ...

The U.S. Eyes Oil in Asia and THE NEW COLD WAR
www.bushwatch.com As the war winds down, the U.S. is eyeing Central Asia as a new colony. And as America projects its power across the region, it runs the risk of setting off a new cold war with Moscow. A few reasons why: ...

The oil behind Bush and Son's campaigns
Asia Times Online "US influence and military presence in Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, not unlike that over the oil-rich Gulf states, would be a major strategic gain," said V R Raghavan, a strategic analyst and former general in the Indian army. Raghavan believes that the prospect of a western military presence in a region extending from Turkey to Tajikistan could not have escaped strategists who are now readying a military campaign aimed at changing the political order in Afghanistan, accused by the United States of harboring Osama bin Laden.

European activists slam Caspian oil pipeline project
www.freerealtime.com Sep 22, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- Over Sixty nongovernmental organizations, most of which are European-based, have recently urged international financial institutions and bilateral export credit agencies to deny funding for a multi-billion-dollar oil pipeline project BP and other oil companies have proposed to build across Turkey.
The NGOs claim that the HGA allows the consortium building the pipeline to demand unlimited protection from Turkish security forces, without safeguards against human rights abuses. Under the wording of the agreement, paramilitary units could be placed along the pipeline route to pre-empt "civil disturbance" or "terrorist" activities, they warn ...