Oil, Pipelines and 9/11

I posted a diary at Daily Kos earlier today in response to Jerome a Paris’s diary in which he purported to debunk any claim that the invasion of Afghanistan for a pipeline was all conspiracy theory.

There is a teaching moment here; no matter how much you’ve previously researched, there is always more information out there you missed.

I know this, because I missed something very important…

While my diary does a fair job of documenting the history of the gas pipeline in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq being about oil, I missed a very important piece of information that relates to 9/11.

In June 2002, Salon.com did an article on Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan and the gas pipeline.  It concerns an email found on a laptop computer.  Now, remember that the invasion of Afghanistan began in October 2001.

The e-mail memo was found in 1998 on a computer seized by the FBI during its investigation into the 1998 African embassy bombings, which were sponsored by al-Qaida. Atef’s memo was discovered by FBI counter-terrorism expert John O’Neill, who left the bureau in 2001, complaining that U.S. oil interests were hindering his investigation into al-Qaida. O’Neill, who became security chief at the World Trade Center, died in the Sept. 11 attack.

Atef’s memo shines new light on what al-Qaida knew about U.S. efforts to normalize relations with the Taliban in exchange for the fundamentalist government’s supporting the construction of an oil and gas pipeline across Afghanistan. As documented in the book I coauthored with Guillaume Dasquie, “Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth,” the Clinton and Bush administrations negotiated with the Taliban, both to get the repressive regime to widen its government as well as look favorably on U.S. companies’ attempts to construct an oil pipeline. The Bush White House stepped up negotiations with the Taliban in 2001. When those talks stalled in July, a Bush administration representative threatened the Taliban with military reprisals if the government did not go along with American demands.

When I read that, I had to do a double-take.  The Bush administration threatened the Taliban with military reprisals in JULY 2001 if it did not give into American demands for a gas pipeline?  In 1998, President Clinton launched missiles into Afghanistan to attack al-Qaeda camps.  In July 2001, what possible casus belli could the Bush administration use to attack the Taliban when it issued the threat?  

Then, I looked at another timeline — the 9/11 timeline.  In June and July 2001, we were intercepting “intelligence chatter“.

Evidence that a large terrorist attack was in the works in the spring and summer of 2001:

March 2001: An intelligence source claimed bin Laden operatives were planning a strike in the following month.

April 2001: U.S. intelligence received reports of a possible terrorist plot in New York and California.

May-July 2001: The National Security Agency received at least 33 communications suggesting a terrorist attack was imminent. None provided any specific information on locations, dates or methods.

May 2001: U.S. intelligence received reports that al-Qaeda operatives were planning to enter the United States from Canada to conduct bombings. No specifics were provided, but this report was widely distributed.

May 2001: The Pentagon learned that seven bin Laden associates had departed various places for Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

June 2001: The CIA’s Counterterrorism Center learned that key bin Laden operatives were disappearing, while others were preparing for martyrdom.

July 2001: A U.S. intelligence source reported that numerous people in Afghanistan were “talking about an impending attack.”

So, as reported by Jean-Charles Brisard at Salon and written in his co-authored book, “Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth,” the Bush administration was threatening the Taliban with military attack if they didn’t give into the administration demands for a gas pipeline during the same time that our intelligence agencies knew that there was talk in Afghanistan about a coming al-Qaeda attack.

Another coincidence?  You all know I don’t believe in coincidences.

Here is the State Department on Afghanistan:

By the end of 1998, the Taliban occupied about 90% of the country, limiting the opposition largely to a small mostly Tajik corner in the northeast and the Panjshir valley.

So, with the Taliban occupying 90% of Afghanistan, just how did the Bush administration believe they would attack the Taliban militarily?  Massive carpet-bombings?  Or, invasion in retaliation for a terrorist attack yet to be committed?

This question is now a key question given all we now know about the Bush administration and how little about 9/11 other than it was the springboard that gave Bush/Cheney the casus belli for all they did.

Thus, I think we must take another look at the timeline:

We know that early-2001 was dominated by Cheney’s secret energy task force meetings.  We know that those meetings involved oil executives and they were looking at Iraqi oil and gas fields.

We know that in the summer-2001, intelligence “chatter” gave plenty of warnings of a coming attack by Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda, if not the specifics.

We know that in July 2001, the Bush administration threatened the Taliban with military reprisal if they didn’t accept the administration’s demands for the gas pipeline.

We know that in September 2001, al-Qaeda did carry out its attack with stunning efficiency.

We know that the Bush administration gave the Taliban an ultimatum, give up Bin Laden or be military attacked and removed from power.  The Taliban refuse and the U.S. invades Afghanistan in October 2001.

We know that the CIA, under the Bush administration, tried to oust Hugo Chavez in a failed coup in Venezuela in April 2002.

We know that the Bush administration used false intelligence to invade Iraq in 2003.  We know because Tyler Drumheller’s 60 Minutes interview told us that the Bush administration knew in the fall of 2002 that Saddam Hussein had no WMD programs.  We know because the al-Qaeda cell the did relocate to Iraq after the Afghanistan invasion was located in the Khurmal region, which OUR planes patrolled in the no-fly zone, yet we did not attack this cell until AFTER our invasion of Iraq.

We know that the Bush administration helped install President Karzai in Afghanistan and in December 2002 Karzai signed the gas pipeline deal.

We know that the Bush administration wanted the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law, opening up Iraqi oil reserves to western oil companies.

And, as you read that diary of mine, you see just how central Iran, Iraq and Venezuela were in oil and natural gas reserves.  You also see how Afghanistan was needed to get an energy pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and possibly India.  And, that between the Middle East and Afghanistan lies Iran, the one country necessary to link all of the lines together.

23 comments

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  1. I hope to respond more fully in the a.m. or thereabouts.  In the meantime, I had/have posted this in another thread, perhaps, of interest, in realtion to this essay of yours!

  2. states he works as an energy banker.  I noticed he’s been posting the same diary since 2004 on various sites.  He also said the Asia Times is not a credible source.  I’m thinking he has some ulterior motives.  

    But we also know the PNAC charter called for a new Pearl Harbor in order to gain public acceptance for the exact scenarios being played out.  We also know bin Laden worked for the CIA and recent evidence indicates he may have been on the payroll on 9/11.  

  3. You say that “We know that in September 2001, al-Qaeda did carry out its attack with stunning efficiency.”

    Most of the people that I know including the FBI, do not buy the al-Qaeda/box cutter conspiracy theory because it has been proven false.

    As tahoebasha3 points out, Osama bin Laden is NOT WANTED for 9/11 by the FBI.

    The independent researchers have proved scientifically that the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition. Even NIST admits that WTC fell at free fall speeds.

    There are layers to the lies of the government about 9/11. I will stick with hard scientific evidence.

    Peace.

    • Inky99 on November 6, 2009 at 08:49

    I KNOW I commented on this essay earlier in the day.  I think I was the 2nd commentor, below the “tip jar” and now it is completely gone.

    I don’t even remember what I said.

    Strange!  

    But yeah, great essay.    

  4. Major Hasan, nice.  Oh and Mr Paris of dkos and Eurotrib fame?  His site has gone the way of left gatekeeper as I was contacted by a site moderator and told to cease promoting “CT” type diaries on 911 and the swine vaccine IS the bioweapon.  So censorship spreads under the guise of polite conversation.

  5. but I’m sure glad to see it resurfacing and given its due.

    Nice job!

  6. Back at the end of May, 2009, (and, obviously, at the end of an already dead essay), I posted the following, which I think many will find of interest:

    Yep, we want it all! The natural gas, the oil, the gold, the uranium and the cooper!  And we’ll do anything necessary to get it — we’ll just keep on killing, beating, impoverishing and doing anything and everything to get it — no different from Iraq.

    Here are some good articles:

    1.  “From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil,” by By Richard W. Behan, posted February 5, 2007.  

    This was the REAL reason we went there in the first place — Afghanistan was also planned by the PNAC.  Of course, they made it appear that we were going after Osama bin Laden.  

    2.  And, now, “Connecting the Dots in the New World Order” just by coincidence, mind you, it seems “Neocon Zalmay Khalilzaid to be Afghan ‘Chief Executive’?

    3. Minister claims Afghanistan hosts one of the largest mineral deposits in region

    A U.S. Geological Survey has shown that the war-torn nation may hold far higher amounts of minerals than previously thought, Afghanistan Mines Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Adel said.

    Author: Sayed Salahuddin

    Posted:  Tuesday, 17 Mar 2009

    . . . . “In the field of minerals, Afghanistan is the richest country in the region, much more, hundreds of times more. Except for diamond, you have all the other minerals that you find in nature, in Afghanistan,” Adel told Reuters in an interview late on Sunday.

    Based on the USGS survey, he said, Afghanistan’s north is estimated to hold between 600 to 700 billion cubic meters of natural gas and the country has some 25 million tonnes of oil in four basins.

    “We are a people who don’t have money, food or clothes. But we are sleeping on gold,” he said. The country’s iron deposits were estimated at between five to six billion tonnes, he added. . . .

    China’s top integrated copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Co and China Metallurgical Group Corp, were interested in going ahead with the exploration of the vast Aynak Copper Mine, south of Kabul, he said. . . .

    4.  Consultant: Sustainable Development of Natural Resources Project in Afghanistan (Please note, original link no longer comes up, but you can see by this link (and by browsing, what is going on.)

    Sustainable Development of Natural Resources Project in Afghanistan/ World Bank

    Apply By: 30 May 2009

    Afghanistan

    The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has received a grant from the World Bank toward the cost of achieving Sustainable Development of Natural Resources in Afghanistan. The Project is being implemented through a Program Management Unit (PMU) within the Ministry of Mines. The Ministry is now seeking for the services of an individual consultant with extensive industry and/or Government experience for the position of Director of the PMU. Assignment will be for 1 year with possible extensions based on need, availability of funds and the performance of the consultant. (emphasis mine)

    Boy, sounds so much like some of the kind of work I read about in John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” book!  

    5.  China’s thirst for copper could hold key to Afghanistan’s future

    By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

    March 8, 2009

    JALREZ VALLEY, Afghanistan – In this Taliban stronghold in the mountains south of Kabul, the U.S. Army is providing the security that will enable China to exploit one of the world’s largest unexploited deposits of copper, earn tens of billions of dollars and feed its voracious appetite for raw materials.  

    U.S. troops set up bases last month along a dirt track that a Chinese firm is paving as part of a $3 billion project to gain access to the Aynak copper reserves. Some troops made camp outside a compound built for the Chinese road crews, who are about to return from winter break. American forces also have expanded their presence in neighboring Logar province, where the Aynak deposit is.

    The U.S. deployment wasn’t intended to protect the Chinese investment – the largest in Afghanistan’s history – but to strangle Taliban infiltration into the capital of Kabul. But if the mission provides the security that a project to revive Afghanistan’s economy needs, the synergy will be welcome. . . .

    Looking for an investment?  Why not Afghanistan? Why Invest in Afghanistan?  Never ceases to amaze me.  This was the kind of information put out there on Iraq, too!

    Somewhere, I read Afghanistan is going to require a lot of patience — I believe it was a General or someone in the military who said that!!!!  Hmmmm, I’m just amazed!

    • publicv on November 7, 2009 at 01:34

    referred to it from a commenter on MeMeMeMeMe’s diary that seemed to resonate better with my senses.

    I pondered Jerome’s piece and wondered about his assertions.  He was asserting how we just don’t understand how this could not be the case (oil pipelines) and he just left me wondering, how he couldn’t see how it could be the case.

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