Re: Fwd: Give me pipeline or give me death

Gary,

Could you please forward the whole Ackerman email?  Thanks.  I would 
like to fwd it around here at school.

mike

>Ugh.  Would rather not have heard about this.  It turns out that 
>while Afghanistan is mostly a barren wasteland to the naked eye, it 
>could be a very valuable pawn in the US oil industry's interests 
>(and thus in the US administration's geo-political interests).
>
>The knee-jerk "lets go get em" military response makes a bit more 
>sense now, unfortunately.  We're not just our for justice/vengeance, 
>apparently...  :-(
>
>I'd _really_ like to hear that this had nothing to do with any 
>decisions recently made, but given the corporate pedigree of many 
>Bush adminstration officials, it's somewhat hard to believe this 
>wasn't...
>
>-g
>
>>Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 19:43:18 -0400
>>Subject: Give me pipeline or give me death
>>
>>GIVE ME A PIPELINE OR GIVE ME DEATH
>>The map below, uncovered in the files of the Council on Foreign 
>>Relations, tells a part of the Afghanistan story that has attracted 
>>virtually no attention. Note the proposed pipeline routes and that 
>>once the Persian port of Gwendar is reached, the American oil 
>>industry is home free. See below for details. Makes you almost 
>>regret that you have but one life to give to Unocal. 
>><http://prorev.com/indexa.htm>
>>
>>COMMENTARY: From: Seth Ackerman <[email protected]>
>>Subject: RE: oil angle?
>>Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 18:55:46 -0400
>>MIME-Version: 1.0
>>
>><...>
>>There are two angles here. One is Unocal's proposed Afghanistan pipeline,
>>which requires a modicum of stability in the country as well as the
>>installation of a cooperative government. Its main importance for the U.S.
>>isn't profit, but the prospect of transporting Caspian oil and gas to the
>>ocean without having to go through countries like Iran or Russia or
>>countries dependent on Russia.
>>
>>The larger angle is Central Asia. It has a lot of oil and gas but countries
>>like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are increasingly dependent on
>>Russia for their security in fighting Islamic insurgencies. This trend was
>>symbolized by the July signing of the Shanghai Pact among Russia, China and
>>four Central Asian countries. Russia thereby threatens to establish
>>U.S.-Saudi-style client regimes in Central Asian countries that potentially
>>contain enough energy to fuel a lot of the European and Chinese economies.
>>
>>For the U.S., the root of the problem is twofold: a) the Islamic
>>insurgencies forcing Central Asia to turn to Russia for security. These
>>insurgencies are backed by bin Laden and the Taliban and use Afghan
>>territory as bases; and b) the absence of a U.S. military presence in the
>>region, one that could give these small countries some alternative to Russia
>>as a source of security.
>>
>>These reasons probably account for the Bush administration's hardening
>>policy against the Taliban, which began months before the WTC attacks. In
>>May Bush installed Chistina Rocca as Assistant Secretary of State for South
>>Asian affairs. Rocca was for 15 years a CIA covert operations official in
>>Afghanistan in charge of aiding the Mujehaddin and later collecting stray
>>Stinger missiles. Later she was Sen. Sam Brownback's foreign policy advisor.
>>Brownback is an oil & gas man and leading proponent of inserting a U.S.
>>presence in Central Asia and the Caspian.
>>
>>In July, U.S. envoys to a UN "track-two" meeting on Afghanistan in Berlin
>>conveyed to the former Pakistani foreign minister U.S. military plans to
>>overthrow the Taliban and replace it with a government led by former king
>>Ziad. The same idea now appears to be at the core of Bush's planned response
>>to the terrorist attacks.
>>
>>Seth
>
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