My Government Went to Afghanistan And All I Got Was This Stupid Pipeline

Footnotes

0: “New U.S. Empire Is No Accident,” by Peter Symonds in The Bangkok Post, June 16, 2002.
See www.bangkokpost.net/160602_Perspective/16Jun2002_pers92.html.

1: Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged on September 24, 2001 to turn over evidence of bin Laden’s guilt to the media. “U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the government would in the next few days put before the world and the American people a ‘persuasive’ case,” reported the BBC. “According to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the document would be made available to America’s allies but not to the Taliban, which she said was ‘not a government given to Western jurisprudence.’” the news service said.
See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1560099.stm. This promise was broken; some Bush Administration insiders implied that, though such evidence didn’t exist, it wasn’t necessary.

2: “UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that the “overwhelming” evidence leaves him in ‘no doubt’ that Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network were responsible for the US terrorist attacks.” From “Bin Laden: Guilty as Charged?”, BBC News, October 16, 2001.
See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1581121.stm.

3: On September 11, 2001, the Taliban (officially known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) held 95 percent of Afghanistan, including Kabul. They were diplomatically recognized by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, the first two exporters and financiers of the extremist anti-Western variety of Islam known as Wahhabiism. The Northern Alliance, or Islamic State of Afghanistan, was the former mujahedeen government of Burhannudin Rabbani deposed by the Taliban in 1996, and held the 5 percent of the country in the mountainous northeast comprising Badakhshan Province and the Wakhan Corridor. Though the Northern Alliance continued to receive Russian arms across the border from Tajikistan, most analysts expected its definitive defeat during the 2002 fighting season, an event rendered moot thanks to the U.S. bombing campaign that ended Taliban rule.

4: Karzai was also a former Talib. A tribal chieftain who fought with the mujahedeen against the Soviets, Karzai was “at first a Taliban supporter...who came to oppose their rigid policies and distrust their connections to Pakistani intelligence and Arab Islamic radicals. When the Taliban asked Karzai to serve as ambassador to the United Nations [a seat that in any event was held by the Northern Alliance government], he refused.”
See www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0886559.html.

5: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz claimed in a November 18, 2001 television interview that the Afghan campaign was planned in three weeks.

6: “A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan,” by Marc W. Herold.
See www.cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm.

7: Those plans were certainly tweaked. Initial plans for an Afghan invasion called for entering the country by ground across the Friendship Bridge separating Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and heading south to the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Uzbek soldiers would have participated in this action, and even the use of Russian troops was considered. Planners also wanted to use Tajikistan as a resupply depot for the Air Force. Perhaps because it did not want to further inflate Uzbek president Islam Karimov’s already large-scale ambitions to make his country into Central Asia’s policeman, the U.S. dropped the Uzbek ground invasion but stuck with the Tajik air component.

8: I personally witnessed the flow of Afghan troops into Pakistani Kashmir two days after Musharraf seized power in Islamabad. Characteristically the Pakistani government claimed to be unable to defend its border with Afghanistan, hoping to be held blameless in the court of international opinion for the latest attacks against Indian positions. For the most part, it worked. International opinion wasn’t concerned with the Kashmiri conflict.

9: This certainly would have been possible in the cases of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, where both governments offered their full cooperation to the U.S. Turkmenistan had officially maintained neutrality in Central Asia, but in any event its border was well-protected by Turkmen troops. Even Iran wanted to help; it had long opposed Taliban rule and had almost gone to war against Afghanistan itself after Talibs murdered the Iranian ambassador. It is, however, highly doubtful that Pakistan, America’s new best friend in the war on terrorism, would have sealed its border with Afghanistan, much less allowed U.S. troops to do it for them.

10: ”A Nation Challenged: The President; President Rejects Offer By Taliban For Negotiations,” The New York Times, October 15, 2002. Summary: “President Bush forcefully rejects new offer from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to begin talks about surrender of Osama bin Laden if U.S. halts air strikes; says U.S. demands that Taliban turn over bin Laden and members of Al Qaeda terrorist network and free foreign aid workers it holds hostage are nonnegotiable; statement issued in response to remarks by Taliban leader that it would begin discussions about turning over bin Laden if bombing stops, and that it is seeking evidence of bin Laden's involvement in September 11 attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon.”

11: “Rumsfeld: U.S. may never get bin Laden,” by Jonathan Weisman and Andrea Stone, USA Today, October 25, 2001. The newspaper reported: “After 18 days of U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that American forces might not catch terrorist Osama bin Laden. But he predicted that the Taliban regime harboring bin Laden will be toppled.
"Yes, I think there will be a post-Taliban Afghanistan," Rumsfeld said during a meeting with the USA TODAY editorial board. "That is easier than finding a single person." He added that the United States should not be responsible for forming a new government.
Bush said on Sept. 18 that he wants bin Laden "dead or alive." But recently he has played down the importance of capturing bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and stressed a less specific goal of smashing terrorism.

12: As Lahore, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper says, “American foreign policy is governed by the doctrine of ‘full spectrum dominance,’ which means that the U.S. should control military, economic and political development worldwide.” See “Oil, Afghanistan and America’s Pipe Dream” by George Monbiot, Dawn, October 25, 2001 at www.dawn.com/2001/10/25/int15.htm.

13: The U.S.S. Cole was bombed in Aden, on the Yemeni side of the Gulf of Aden, allegedly by bombers working for the Al Qaeda organization.

14: “Hamburgers, Cured Ham, and Oil,” by Aram Ruben Aharonian, Proceso (Mexico City), in World Press Review, May 1, 2002. See www.worldpress.org/Americas/581.cfm.

15: While the President’s approval rating has declined since September 11, 2001, most analysts atttribute this change to the perception that he isn’t doing enough about the lagging economy.

16: “Afghanistan: the Pipeline War?” by Malcolm Haslett, BBC News, October 29, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1626889.stm.

17: “U.N. Urges Airstrike Investigation,” by Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press, July 29, 2002, See story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020729/ap_on_re_as/afghan_wedding_attack_7.

18: “Afghan Vice President Assassinated: Shooting Raises Fears of Instability,” by Pamela Constable, The Washington Post, July 7, 2002. See www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A33642-2002Jul6.

19: “Central Asia Gas Deal Signed,” BBC News, May 30, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2016340.stm.

20: “Oil, Afghanistan and America’s Pipe Dream” by George Monbiot, Dawn, October 25, 2001 at www.dawn.com/2001/10/25/int15.htm.

21: See, among others, “Truth and Dissembling on Central Asian Oil Politics,” by Brendan Nyhan, Spin Sanity.com, October 15, 2001, at www.spinsanity.org/columns/20011015.html.

22: Frontier Post, Peshawar, Pakistan, October 11, 2001.

23: Rice is herself an authority on Central Asian oil.

24: “Taliban Defeat Revives Debate On Trans-Afghan Pipeline,” By Igor Torbakov, Eurasia Net, December 12, 2001. See www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav121201.shtml.

25: “Afghanistan Eyes A Pipeline, But Prospects Look Dim,” by Halima Kazem, EurasiaNet, June 6, 2002. See www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav060602.shtml. Karzai’s relationship, though denied by Unocal, has been reported extensively, but most notably by Paris Match magazine. Most reputable journalists believe that Karzai’s work for Unocal was done unofficially, not as an on-the-record employee of the company. Others surmise that he may have been paid indirectly, for example through Khalilzad.

26: “Afghan, Turkmen Leaders Discuss Gas Pipeline,” Reuters, March 7, 2002. See www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=43306.

27: According to Afghan Minister for Mines and Industry Mohammad Alim Razim, “U.S. energy company Unocal was the lead company among those that would build the pipeline, which would bring 30 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to market annually.” See “Afghanistan Plans Gas Pipeline,” BBC News, May 13, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1984459.stm.

28: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice flew to Moscow in October 2001 to assure Russia that the United States did not intend to intrude on Russia’s traditional political interests in Central Asia. Nonetheless, she refused to rule out “economic interests” for the United States. See Pravda, October 14, 2001, at english.pravda.ru/usa/2001/10/14/18028.html.

29: “As the War Shifts Alliances, Oil Deals Follow,” The New York Times, December 15, 2001.

30: “Caspian Sea Region: Reserves and Pipelines Tables, Table 1: Caspian Sea Region Oil and Natural Gas Reserves,” July 2002, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. See www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html.

31: The Kazakh government itself claims to have 150 billion barrels of possible reserves.

32: “Pipe Dreams: Gas Pipeline Bounces Between Agendas,” by David B. Ottaway and Dan Morgan, The Washington Post, October 5, 1998. See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/europe/caspian100598.htm.

33: “Pipeline Politics: Oil, Gas and the U.S. Interest in Afghanistan,” by Richard Tanter, Outlook India, November 21, 2001.

34: “New U.S. Empire is No Accident,” by Peter Symonds in The Bangkok Post, June 16, 2002. See www.bangkokpost.net/160602_Perspective/16Jun2002_pers92.html.

35: See www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipelines.htm.

36: “Today’s Silk Road Might Carry Black Gold,” by Stephen Kinzer, The New York Times, March 17, 2002. See resources.net.az/d/cog0302.htm.

37: “Consortium formed to build Central Asia gas pipeline,” Unocal Corp., October 27, 1997. See www.unocal.com/uclnews/97news/102797a.htm.

38: “U.S. Missiles Pound Targets in Afghanistan, Sudan,” CNN, August 21, 1998. See www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.02.

39: “Unocal Statement on Withdrawal from the Proposed Central Asia Gas (CentGas) Pipeline Project,” Unocal Corp., December 10, 1998. See www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/centgas.htm.

40: “Karzai to Discuss Pipeline Project with Pakistan: Afghan Government to Ensure Security,” Dawn (Pakistan), May 13, 2002. See www.dawn.com/2002/05/13/top8.htm.

41: According to Turkmen President Sapamurat Niyazov. See “Afghan, Turkmen Leaders Discuss Gas Pipeline,” Reuters, March 7, 2002. See www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=43306.

42: “Afghanistan Plans Gas Pipeline,” BBC News, May 13, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1984459.stm.

43: “Afghan, Turkmen Leaders Discuss Gas Pipeline,” Reuters, March 7, 2002. See www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=43306.

44: “ADB to give $1.5 mln for Afghan pipeline study,” Reuters, August 12, 2002.

45: “Afghanistan Plans Gas Pipeline,” BBC News, May 13, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1984459.stm.

46: “New U.S. Empire is No Accident,” by Peter Symonds in The Bangkok Post, June 16, 2002. See www.bangkokpost.net/160602_Perspective/16Jun2002_pers92.html.

47: “Afghanistan Eyes A Pipeline, But Prospects Look Dim,” by Halima Kazem, EurasiaNet, June 6, 2002. See www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav060602.shtml.

48: “Afghanistan Aims to Revive Pipeline Plans,” by Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2002. See www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2002/0530pipeline2.htm.

49: “Russian Oil And Gas Companies To Study Feasibility Of Rebuilding Afghanistan’s Gas Industry,” Associated Press, August 8, 2002. See story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020808/ap_wo_en_po/russia_afghan_gas_1.

50: “Central Asia Gas Deal Signed,” BBC News, May 30, 2002.

51: “Country Analysis Briefs: Afghanistan” by The U.S. Department of Energy, September 2001. See www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/afghan/html.

52: “Today’s Silk Road Might Carry Black Gold,” by Stephen Kinzer, The New York Times, March 17, 2002. See resources.net.az/d/cog0302.htm.

53: United Nations Development Administrator Mark Maoolch Brown, quoted in “Reconstructing Afghanistan--On Oil and Gas,”by Uwe Parpart, Asia Times, November 24, 2001. See www.atimes.com/c-asia/CK24Ag01.html.

54: “ADB to Give $1.5 Million for Afghan Pipeline Study,” Reuters, August 12, 2002.

55: “Joint Press Conference with Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” U.S. State Department, December 9, 2001. See www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/dec/6778.htm.

56: “Nazarbayev, Seeking Oil Favor, Positions Himself As Central Asian Reformer,” by Alima Bisenova, Eurasia Net, January 14, 2002. See www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav010402a.shtml and www.balochvoice.com/Afghanistan_Oil_route_10-12-01.html.

57: “Violence Halts Afghan Refugee Flow,” BBC News, April 9, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1918301.stm.

58: “Report: Rockets Fired at U.S. Base in Afghanistan,” Reuters, August 13, 2002.

59: “Today’s Silk Road Might Carry Black Gold,” by Stephen Kinzer, The New York Times, March 17, 2002. See resources.net.az/d/cog0302.htm.

60: “Pipe Dreams,” by Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, May 31, 2002. See www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,725435,00.html.

61: “In New Afghanistan, Scales of Justice Still Tip Toward Strict Islamic Law,” by Laura Kingap, Associated Press, January 30, 2002. See www.azstarnet.com/attack/indepth/id-islamiclaw.html.

62: “ADB to Give $1.5 Million for Afghan Pipeline Study,” Reuters, August 12, 2002.

63: “Afghanistan Eyes A Pipeline, But Prospects Look Dim,” by Halima Kazem, EurasiaNet, June 6, 2002. See www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav060602.shtml.

64: “It is simply not true that Afghanistan is the main alternative to Russia.” From an early attempt to debunk oil-pipeline theorists, “Afghanistan: the Pipeline War?” by Malcolm Haslett, BBC News, October 29, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1626889.stm.

65: “Afghanistan Conspiracy Theorists,” by Ken Silverstein, The American Prospect, in The Boston Phoenix, August 8-15, 2002. See www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi-page/documents/02388257.htm.

66: “Pakistan, Afghan Leaders Agree To Revive Pipeline,” Reuters, February 8, 2002. See www.globalexchange.org/september11/2002/reuters020802.html.

67: “Turkmen Leader, Wishing to be August, Settles for January,” by Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, August 11, 2002, p. 7.

68: Dick Cheney’s former company.

69: See “Factsheet: Turkmenistan” at www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/country/020226txfactsht.htm and “Foreign Investment In Turkmenistan To Reach $8 Billion In 2000--Niyazov,” by Justin Burke, April 4, 2000 at www.eurasianet.org/resource/turkmenistan/hypermail/200004/0001.html.

70: “Russian Oil And Gas Companies To Study Feasibility Of Rebuilding Afghanistan’s Gas Industry,” Associated Press, August 8, 2002. See story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020808/ap_wo_en_po/russia_afghan_gas_1 and also “Country Analysis Briefs: Afghanistan” by The U.S. Department of Energy, September 2001 at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/afghan/html.

71: “Pipe Dreams,” by Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, May 31, 2002. See www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,725435,00.html.

72: “Afghanistan Conspiracy Theorists,” by Ken Silverstein, The American Prospect, in The Boston Phoenix, August 8-15, 2002. See www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi-page/documents/02388257.htm.

73: See www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/front.htm.

74: “Truth and Dissembling on Central Asian Oil Politics,” by Brendan Nyhan, Spin Sanity.com, October 15, 2001, at www.spinsanity.org/columns/20011015.html.

75: “Afghanistan: the Pipeline War?” by Malcolm Haslett, BBC News, October 29, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1626889.stm.

76: “Four Flights Lost; 266 on board,” CNN, September 12, 2001. See www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/flights.casualites

77: “Osama bin Laden FAQ,” MSNBC. See www.msnbc.com/news/627355.asp?cp1=1.

78: “FBI Claim To Have Found Direct Links Between Hijackers And Bin Laden,” by Julian Borger, John Aglionby and Stuart Millar, The Guardian, September 15, 2001. See www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,552472,00.html.

79: “The Taleban ambassador to neighbouring Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said, when asked about Mr Bin Laden’s possible extradition, that the first step would be to discuss any US evidence.
It would be ‘premature’ to talk about extraditing the Saudi dissident. ‘If any evidence is presented to us, we will study it,’ he told reporters. ‘About his handover, we can talk about that in the second phase,’ Mr Zaeef said. From “Bin Laden extradition raised,” BBC News, September 12, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1539468.stm

80: President Clinton had entertained the commando option years earlier. See “Officials reveal two earlier plans to get bin Laden,” CNN, October 3, 2001 at www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/03/ret.bin.laden/.

81: “U.S. Blocks Bin Laden Money Networks,” BBC News, November 7, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1643455.stm.

82: “Al-Qaeda Eludes Financial Clampdown,” BBC News, June 19, 2002. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2053490.stm.

83: In November 2001, well-placed Afghan sources in Takhar Province told me that it was a well-known fact throughout Afghanistan that Osama bin Laden had left Afghanistan for Kashmir on or about September 12th. Kashmir is a lawless, remote and even more rugged area than Afghanistan; the Pakistani Army maintains only partial control in the region. Therefore it has often served as a hiding place for fugitives fleeing Afghanistan--recent examples include the Air India hijackers whose flight ended in Kandahar.

84: “Secret CIA Units Playing a Central Combat Role,” by Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, November 18, 2001, p. A01. See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/CIA18.html.

85: “U.S. ‘Planned Attack on Taliban’,” by George Arney, BBC News, September 18, 2001. See news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1550366.stm. This account was later confirmed by The Guardian newspaper on September 22, 2001. Lee Coldren, a former U.S. State Department official who attended the mid-July conference on Afghanistan in Berlin, told The Guardian “there was some discussion of the fact that the United States was so disgusted with the Taliban that they might be considering some military action...the threats of war unless the Taliban surrendered Osama bin Laden were passed to the regime in Afghanistan by the Pakistani government, senior diplomatic sources revealed. The Taliban refused to comply but the serious nature of what they were told raises the possibility that bin Laden, far from launching the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon out of the blue 10 days ago, was launching a pre-emptive strike in response to what he saw as U.S. threats.”

86: “U.S. Planned War in Afghanistan Long Before September 11,” by Patrick Martin at www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/afgh-n20.shmtl.

87: “Report: Bin Laden Seen Recently,” Reuters, August 12, 2002. See story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020812/ap_on_re_us/newsweek_bin_laden_3.

88: “Timeline of Competition between Unocal and Bridas for the Afghanistan Pipeline,” World Press. See www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipeline_timeline.htm.

89: “Pipe Dreams: Gas Pipeline Bounces Between Agendas,” by David B. Ottaway and Dan Morgan, The Washington Post, October 5, 1998. See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/europe/caspian100598.htm.

90: “Pipelineistan: The Games Nations Play,” by Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, January 26, 2002. See www.atimes.com/c-asia/DA26AG01.html.