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News Analysis from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted March 16, 2002 © 2002 Katie Alvord for Keweenaw Now

Return to Page 1: Afghanistan: War for oil?  Local voices weigh in

Did Bush administration discuss pipelines with Taliban?

According to various press reports about the book, Bin Laden: la vérité interdite asserts that the Bush administration sought to shift control of Caspian oil and gas reserves away from Russia.  This was consistent with prior U.S. policy, but according to this book, very close ties with the oil industry motivated the Bush administration to revive pipeline discussions  with the Taliban despite other problems with the regime.  These ties include Vice-President Dick Cheney's involvement with Halliburton, an oil drilling services provider; Condoleeza Rice's former seat on the board of directors for Chevron; and consulting done for Unocal by Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, recently named by Bush as special envoy to Afghanistan.

Basing their claims on interviews with former FBI deputy director John O'Neill, co-authors Brisard and Dasquié further state that the White House impeded investigations into Osama bin Laden's activities while pipeline talks were active. O'Neill resigned from the FBI in protest in July 2001, took a job as security chief at the World Trade Center and died there on September 11.

Perhaps Brisard and Dasquié's most incendiary claim in this book concerns a statement alleged to have come out of talks between Taliban representatives and the U.S. government in Washington, in March 2001. According to these authors, increasingly frustrated U.S. negotiators told the Taliban, "either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." (See note #1, below.)

Recently, investigative reports have suggested an Enron connection to this story, as well.  In 1992, Enron first invested in a power plant in Dabhol, on the west coast of India.  However, the plant lacked a source of affordable natural gas. A trans-Afghan pipeline offered the cheapest way to get abundant Caspian natural gas to Dabhol, as well as to other south- and east-Asian markets.

According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration's National Security Council coordinated a "Dabhol working group" that, at various times in 2001, assisted Enron in its dealings with the Indian government about the Dabhol plant. Other reports speculate that the administration may have helped Enron even more, and that unreleased notes from private meetings last year between Vice President Dick Cheney and Enron's Ken Lay might reveal links between Enron, the possibility of an Afghan pipeline to help supply the Dabhol plant and administration dealings with the Taliban.  In February 2002, the U.S. General Accounting Office sued Cheney over his refusal to release those meeting notes.

Access to Central Asian energy remains a goal

Ron Martin, Jr., a doctoral candidate in Environmental Engineering at MTU, who has traveled extensively in Central Asia, agrees with Wayne Pennington and Barry Solomon that this was not a "war for oil." However, he adds, "Oil may have been indirectly involved in shaping the events that led up to September 11, and the subsequent attack on Afghanistan."

Martin points out that the permanent establishment of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, an issue which has angered extremists as well as many moderate Arabs, is widely held to be for protection of Western oil interests throughout the Persian Gulf.  In addition, he notes, the U.S. supports some dictatorships where doing so helps ensure oil supplies; and repressive policies of such governments -- and thus, U.S. oil policy -- may have helped foster terrorism. Martin has previously written about Afghanistan for Keweenaw Now. (See note #2, below.)

Observes Barry Solomon, "Energy issues are often below the surface rather than directly discussed by political leaders. I don't recall, during the Persian Gulf War, that President George Bush ever said that a major reason for U.S. involvement in the conflict was to stop Saddam Hussein from securing control of Kuwaiti and possibly Saudi oil, when such a motivation was fairly obvious to many observers.  In the last 25 years only President Carter has attempted to discuss energy issues openly and fully with the American people."

In addition, Solomon believes, a continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Central Asia will help ensure access to the region's oil resources.

As Solomon points out, "While Afghanistan itself is not a major energy player, it is in a region that contains several major countries with substantial oil and natural gas resources. Consequently, the war effort in Afghanistan sends a clear message to anyone or any nation-state that may want to stir up trouble in the region to think twice about such plans, or face the wrath of the U.S. military -- which is still willing to flex its considerable muscle. I think it is clear that if there was a more direct threat to oil resources in the region, President George W. Bush would not hesitate to deploy the U.S. military for such strategic reasons."

Editor's Notes: #1: See the international French Web site of Amazon.com for an interview with Guillaume Dasquié, co-author with Jean Charles Brisard of Bin Laden: la vérité interdite, Denoël (Impacts): 2001. Amazon notes the authors used confidential and unpublished sources, including secret service documents, in their study -- retracing the secret negotiations between the Bush administration and the Taliban up to the summer of 2001. #2: Read Ron Martin's series of three articles on Afghanistan, published in Keweenaw Now in November, 2001.

Additional Internet resources: For more background about the current U.S. energy policy debate, see: http://www.lcv.org/congress/congresswatch/2002/03/04/cw_24349.asp#senateene for help in tracking the debate on the Energy Policy Act of 2002. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44300-2002Mar5.html for a 3/6/2002 Washington Post article by Michael Grunwald about how statistics have been used and misused by both sides in the debate. http://www.wilderness.org/arctic/index.htm for updates on the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. http://www.nwf.org for detailed information from the National Wildlife Federation on why they believe the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be saved from drilling, as well as a video on the refuge. http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/legwatch.asp for the Natural Resources Defense Council's Legislative Watch with updated bulletins on environmental legislation, including the current energy policy bill debate. http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/ for the White House point of view, in its Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group. http://www.wilderness.org/energy/ for a Wilderness Society report about the Bush administration assistance to oil, gas and coal interests wanting access to public lands. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/opinion/_07THU1.html for a New York Times editorial about the manner in which Interior Secretary Gale Norton has already opened more public lands to drilling. To voice your opinion, visit: http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/forests.asp#arctic -- a "do-good" site courtesy of Grist Magazine, "gloom and doom with a sense of humor." http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/takeaction.asp?step=2&item=1123 -- sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council. http://www.environmentaldefense.org/actioncenter.cfm -- The Environmental Defense Action Center. To learn more about Afghanistan and Central Asian oil, check these sources: Brisard, Jean Charles and Guillaume Dasquié. Bin Laden: la vérité interdite. Denoël (Impacts): 2001. Not available in English.  French language version for sale at http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2207253562/171-9278915-7125031 Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.  Available from Amazon.com and other book outlets. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/afghan.html for the Energy Information Administration's profile of Afghanistan. http://www.house.gov/international_relations/105th/ap/wsap212982.htm for 1998 testimony by John J. Maresca of Unocal to the House Commitee on International Relations on the importance of pipelines to access Central Asian gas and oil. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/11/19/bush_oil/print.html for a salon.com feature on Bush administration ties to the oil industry. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34646-2002Jan24?language=printer for the Washington Post story, "NSC Aided Enron's Efforts: Agency Sought Lay Meeting With Indians on Plant."

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