PLEASE DIGEST: "Bush's Faustian deal with the Taliban" May 22, 2001

[Bluebear]

TODAY:

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, which a military official said may have been carrying 15 to 20 people, crashed Tuesday while ferrying reinforcements to fight insurgents in a mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft....

Provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa told The Associated Press that the Taliban downed the aircraft with a rocket. He gave no other details.

Purported Taliban spokesman Mullah Latif Hakimi telephoned the AP before news of the crash was released and said the rebels shot the helicopter down.
========

Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban
By Robert Scheer
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times


Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.

Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Sadly, the Bush administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at a time when the United Nations, at U.S. insistence, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden.

http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm

[brettdale]

1. kick

kick

[BlueStateBlue]

2. My understanding of this deal was that the Afghani oil pipeline

was the real prize.

[Bluebear]

3. Bush? Cheney? Rice? OIL?

Couldn't be.

[Disturbed]

5. When the Taliban turned down the deal,,,

it gave the Bush Regime the excuse to overthrow them. Also, the Taliban didn't refuse to reveal the location of Usama. They requested proof of Usama's guilt regarding terrorist acts upon the U.S., which the Bush Regime refused to provide.

The U.S. may find that the Soviet's experience with Afghanistan should have been a warning about colonizing that territory.

[ThomWV]

9. Exactly

A simple single page document and the Tali ban would have turned Ossama over to us .... or not. If not, then I would have accepted the war as legitimate, but in fact we were not willing to provide a simple list of known facts enough for any reasonable person to see a connection. Remember, the people we would be asking to make the connection would be facing the choice of saying yes, keeping their country, and being able to milk the American cow for decades to come. In the alternative they would be bombed past beyond the neolithic.

[XemaSab]

6. USS Condaleeza Rice

steaming into port...

[Bluebear]

11. Toot toot....

[Bluebear]

18. .

[politicaholic]

4. I saw this story in 2001 and wondered why they gave them money...

This proves that they ignored intelligence. Richard Clark said he informed the WH about the Osama danger multiple times as did Bill Clinton's staff before leaving office.

I think my signature line says it all...

[bvar22]

7. An Oldie but goodie

I'm glad you revisited this.
I don't buy the cover story completely.

It does appear that the Taliban were able to supress opium crops in Afgahanistan, but I seriously doubt that George Bush* and his glee club of NeoCon Sociopaths really care about people killing themselves with Heroin (those are mostly low class whites and other inferior races anyway :sarcasm:)
I've alwayts believed that the $43Million was an attempt to buy friends in the area for other agendas, like pipelines and such.

[bvar22]

8. You know,

It would not be THAT far fetched to speculate that at least a part of this $43Million Dollar gift helped finance the attack on 9-11?

Anybody want to comment on THIS possibility?

[K8-EEE]

10. Yeah I Remember This As Well....

Who's "enabling the terrorists?" Saudi-hugging, Taliban-ass-kisser BUSH, that's who....

[UpInArms]

12. that article always reminds me of this press release

http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/2001/esgnws_051501.jsp

2001 Press Releases


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2001

HALLIBURTON SUBSEA OPENS CASPIAN MARINE BASE

ABERDEEN, Scotland - Halliburton International Inc. and KASPMORNEFTELOT (KMNF), the marine division of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), have entered into a 12-year contract for a marine base and associated services to support Halliburton Subsea offshore construction activity in the Caspian region. Halliburton Subsea is a business unit of Halliburton Company's (NYSE: HAL) Energy Services Group.

The base, with a 6,000-square metre lay down area, is located at KMNF's Southern Basin adjacent to Caspian Shipyard. The base will be primarily utilized to support Halliburton Subsea's catamaran crane vessel Qurban Abbasov (previously known as the Titan 4) during the restoration and upgrade of the vessel and during the forthcoming offshore construction, pipelay and subsea activities. The site will also be developed to provide warehouse, office and training facilities that will include advanced diver and life support technician training, utilizing the company’s 16-man modular saturation system.

The Qurban Abbasov is operated by Halliburton Subsea in an alliance agreement with SOCAR for a period of 12 years. It will provide an advanced, stable, dynamically positioned construction platform for saturation and remote vehicle diving; flexible and bundle pipeline installation with trenching; emergency pipeline repair, subsurface well intervention with wire line; and coiled tubing. It also will be used in flotel configuration for hook-up and commissioning work.

"The acquisition of the marine base is a further indication of our commitment to the Caspian region and to the success of the partnership arrangements with SOCAR," said Edgar Ortiz, president and chief executive officer, Halliburton’s Energy Services Group.

Halliburton's Energy Services Group (ESG) delivers real-time systems, technologies, and services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The Halliburton Subsea segment of ESG provides comprehensive subsea engineering, installation, and construction with a fleet of 84 ROVs, six construction and survey class Dynamic Positioning (DP) vessels, three construction class DP semi-submersibles and an array of subsea production equipment. The depth and breadth of the Energy Services Group's integrated products, services, and solutions allows its customers to more efficiently, find, develop, and produce oil and gas reservoirs.

...more...

and this map



this footnote under the map is way too surreal

The brother of Osama bin Laden, Salem bin Laden was killed mysteriously in 1988 after his plane, an BAC 1-11, crashed in Texas soon after a meeting concerning an "oil deal" with George Bush. It is time for the American people to wake up and demand the truth.

[WePurrsevere]

13. Thank you for posting that map...

it looks like the one I saw a couple of years ago that came to mind during a discussion the other day. I'll have to print it up and show it to them.

[UpInArms]

14. you're welcome - here's some follow-up on that pipeline

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/01/14/ncguest2.htm

01/14/2002 - Updated 03:45 AM ET

Build pipeline to Afghans' future

By Peter Schweizer

Now that the war in Afghanistan is essentially over, pulling off the country's reconstruction will not be easy. But, as Secretary of State Colin Powell has said, the USA has "an enormous obligation to not leave the Afghan people in a lurch."

One potential solution could give the United States an opportunity to help Afghanistan, help our friends and boost our own economy, all at the same time.

For two centuries, Afghanistan has been a victim of its geography, wrangled over by others because of its strategic location. Now, as the United States looks toward rebuilding Afghanistan, geography may prove to be the country's best asset.

North and west of Afghanistan are enormous oil and natural gas reserves in countries such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The region's available but untapped energy resources are second only to those of the Middle East.

Production in this area now is about 1 million barrels a day. But daily production could rise to 3.4 million barrels or more by 2010 if a way is found to get the energy onto world markets.

...more...

http://www.rferl.org/features/2002/09/18092002154755.asp

Caspian: Presidents Launch Construction Of Oil Pipeline

By Michael Lelyveld

Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey are marking the start of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil-pipeline project today after years of planning and political controversy. But the westward oil route from the Caspian Sea has gained commercial support over the years and lost some of the causes of conflict that made it a major regional issue between Russia and the United States.

Boston, 18 September 2002 (RFE/RL) -- After eight years of debate, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey are set to launch construction of a Caspian pipeline later today, beginning a project that may tie their countries together for decades to come.

At a ceremony near Baku, Presidents Heidar Aliev, Eduard Shevardnadze, and Ahmet Necdet Sezer will lay the foundation for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which has become known as BTC. The 1,760-kilometer link from the Caspian to the Mediterranean has been a regional goal since Azerbaijan signed its first offshore contract in September 1994. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will represent the United States, which has been a primary source of political support.

Aside from the ceremony, the event will mark an enormous commitment to the Caspian plan. In addition to the $2.9 billion cost for building the pipeline by 2005, a consortium led by Britain's BP oil company will pledge investments of $5.2 billion in the next stage of developing Azerbaijan's resources to fill the line with 1 million barrels of oil per day.

...more...

[WePurrsevere]

15. Great! These support what I was trying to express...

Although I found the last paragraph of the USA Today article rather "amusing" since my DH and I have always felt that BushCo were after that oil pipeline aspect even more then Bin Laden when he went after the whole darn country.

Thank you again, I truly appreciate the information. :)

[Bluebear]

17. That map is extremely informative

Thank you!

[LightningFlash]

16. This just makes me so pissed off.....

When it couldn't get any worse......It gets a hell of a lot worse besides.......And we have to deal with the fact that killers, Taliban nazis, are allied with the fundamentalists.

:crazy: :crazy: :banghead: