Why Afghanistan? and Al-Quaeda connections to pipeline consortium

The points here are:

1. The oil and gas reserves of Central Asia are huge, and as yet un-developed. This represents a hugely important area for American interests. Afghanistan is the key for transporting this oil and gas.

2. American/ Saudi led consortium of oil companies ( Unocal and Delta Oil) had formulated and negotiated plans for a pipeline through Afghanistan to access these resources in the years prior to 911.

3. The Saudi company Delta Oil has some of the most important sponsors of Al-Quaeda on its board!

This is all mainstream media reportage, but I link to intermediary sites instead whenever payed subscriptions are required at the original sources.
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1. Pipeline Politics Taint US War - Chicago Tribune

‘“The invasion of Afghanistan is certainly a campaign against terrorism,” wrote author George Monbiot in the Oct. 22, 2001, piece, “but it may also be a late colonial adventure.”

“The war against terrorism is a fraud,” exclaimed John Pilger in an Oct. 29 commentary in the British-based Mirror. Pilger, the publication’s former chief foreign correspondent, wrote, “Bush’s concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth.”

... According to the book, the Bush administration began to negotiate with the Taliban immediately after coming into power. The parties talked for many months before reaching an impasse in August 2001.
The terrorist acts of Sept. 11, though tragic, provided the Bush administration a legitimate reason to invade Afghanistan, oust the recalcitrant Taliban and, coincidentally, smooth the way for the pipeline.
To make things even smoother, the U.S. engineered the rise to power of two former Unocal employees: Hamid Karzai, the new interim president of Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalizad, the Bush administration’s Afghanistan envoy. ‘

Gosh…

‘…“Osama bin Laden did not comprehend that his actions serve American interests,” writes Uri Averny, in a Feb. 14 column in the daily Ma’ariv in Israel. Averny, a former member of the Israeli Knesset and a noted peace activist, added, “If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent. Not being one I can only wonder at the coincidence.”’
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2. This Telegtaph article confirms the high stakes. Uncertain of the date, but clearly prior to September 11th 2001.

Warring nation holds the key to oil riches of Central Asia

In summary, the prize is huge, strategically and economically...

‘…But there is an immense problem. The Central Asian republics are all land-locked and there is no way to get the oil and gas out. So a race has begun to find a route. There are three main contenders. Russia wants to tap into the mineral wealth of its former empire by pushing pipelines from its Black Sea terminal at Novorossiysk eastwards towards Kazakhstan.

Iran, which dreams of being a powerful player in the region, talks of driving a pipeline from its coast at Chabahar via Mashad into Turkmenistan and beyond.
Pakistan is keen to have a source of oil that bypasses Iran and Russia
Georgia, already at work on a pipeline crossing the Caucasus to tap the fields of Azerbaijan, thinks it could eventually be driven across or around the Caspian into Kazakhstan. But to Western, and especially American interests, none of these options look attractive. Georgia is too unstable, and the idea of allowing a Russian or Iranian hand to rest on the oil jugular is considered too dangerous. Hence the attractions of Afghanistan.’

‘…Unocal, the Californian oil company, in alliance with Delta Oil, the Saudi Arabian company, has been in negotiation with the Taliban, as well as rival warlords, for much of this year over terms for the Turkmenistan-Pakistan pipeline. Preliminary agreement was reached between the two sides long before the fall of Kabul last month.

A vice-president of Unocal said last week that the victory of the Taliban could help the country if it brought stability. That would allow international investors to fund the pipeline, and eventually bring billions of pounds a year in transit revenues to Afghanistan.

Oil industry insiders say the dream of securing a pipeline across Afghanistan is the main reason why Pakistan, a close political ally of America's, has been so supportive of the Taliban, and why America has quietly acquiesced in its conquest of Afghanistan.

Pakistan is keen to have a source of oil that bypasses Iran and Russia. The evidence is already overwhelming that the Taliban, which orignated as a group of 2,000 religious students in refugee camps and religious schools just inside Pakistan, have been funded and partly equipped by Pakistani intelligence agencies throughout the two-year campaign that has now led them to Kabul.’

Another article in the same vein:
Oil Barons Court Taliban in Texas

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3. The prime force behind Unocal’s partner in the proposed scheme, Saudi company ‘Delta Oil’ is said to be one Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi and a certain Khalid Bin Mahfouz. These men are important sponsors of Al-Quaeda.

Saudi clans working with US oil firms may be tied to Bin Laden - Boston Herald December 10th 2001

‘Two billionaire Saudi families scrutinized by authorities for possible financial ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network continue to engage in major oil deals with leading U.S. corporations.

The bin Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi clans, who control three private Saudi Arabian oil companies, are partners with U. S. firms in a series of ambitious oil development and pipeline projects in central and south Asia, records show.
Working through their companies - Delta Oil, Nimir Petroleum and Corral Petroleum - the Saudi families have formed international consortiums with U. S. oil giants Texaco, Unocal, Amerada Hess and Frontera Resources.

… Much of it revolves around a 1999 audit conducted by the Saudi government that reportedly discovered that the bin Mahfouz family's National Commercial Bank had transferred at least $3 million to charitable organizations believed to be fronts for bin Laden's terror network.

U. S. and British authorities also reportedly looked at Al-Amoudi's Capitol Trust Bank in London and New York for similar activities.’

Khalid Bin Mahfouz is later included on the United Nations report 'Terrorism Financing, Roots and trends of Saudi terrorism financing' (page 11)
www.nationalreview.com/document/document122002.asp

He is one of the most important sponsors of Al-Quaeda!
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Henry Kissenger was initially selected by the Bush Admin. to head the 911 Commission, but resigned when he was later ordered to reveal his business interests as a condition, (he is known to have connections with Unocal). The Bush Admin. tried to argue against this but Congress insisted and he resigned.

Unocal connection.

Kissenger was replace by Thomas Kean, who himself can be shown to have sufficient connections to DELTA OIL, to act as a considerable disincentive to impartiality.

www.truthout.org/docs_02/020303E.htm