by Rudo de Ruijter
(CourtFool.info)
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, followed by the war in Afghanistan and the 'War on Terror' have changed the world. However, like the presumed Weapons of Mass Destruction had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq, Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan. The real reasons are oil, gas and pipelines around the Caspian Sea. 'Operation September 11' aimed to give a new impulse in the US conquests to gain control over foreign oil and gas.
Short content
This article is about the background of the US
war against Afghanistan. It is about oil, gas and pipelines around the Caspian
Sea. To transport oil and gas from the east side of the Caspian Sea, pipelines
had been planned to go through Afghanistan. Because a US company, UNOCAL, had failed to
control the Afghan route, the war was prepared. When the military was ready to
strike, the terrorists of 9/11 gave Bush the pretext to start this war and
obtain support from Congress, the U.S. population and the rest of the
world.
Introduction
Our politicians have shaped the idea many
people have about our world. They have divided our world into good and bad. Of
course, they are always the good guys and the ones they accuse are the bad guys.
Simple, isn't it?
However, if we stick to the facts, and throw out all
the information that comes from unverifiable sources, our world looks very
different. This research is not meant to offend anyone. If you are pleased with
the "official" version of our history, don’t read any further.
Bush said, the attacks of 9/11 were the
reason to invade Afghanistan. [1] This article shows that the war was the
logical result of an unsuccessful struggle, by he U.S., to build and control
pipelines through Afganistan, and that preparations for this war took place
before 9/11. In 2000 the neoconservatives said, they needed some catastrophic
and catalysing event. This article shows how this event may have taken place on
September 11, 2001.
The 1993 attack
The
attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 eclipse
an earlier attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993. On January 20 1993, William
(Bill) Clinton had become president. A month later, on February 26, an "immense
blast happened at 12:18 local time in the Secret Service's section of the car
park underneath and between what are New York's tallest buildings."
[2]
BBC published the words of an eyewitness: "It felt like an airplane
hit the building." Apparently the explosion was intended to bring both WTC
towers down. The New York Times found out that the FBI was involved in the
attacks. The FBI could have infiltrated a group of terrorists, would have known
about their intentions but for some unknown reason let it happen. [3] Six people
died and a hundred were injured. [2]
Timeline 1989 -
2000
In this chapter
I will present a timeline of Afghan events. I will also mention events related
to terrorism, which would become U.S. final pretext for war.
Immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S.
officials accused Osama bin Laden. Since the man had resided in Afghanistan, it
provided a pretext for George W. Bush to attack and invade
Afghanistan.
Let's have a closer look at the situation prior to 9/11. As
promised by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, the USSR had withdrawn its last
soldiers from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989. It was the end of ten years of
war. It was also the last war of the Soviet Union.
A few months later, on
November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall fell. The Iron Curtain broke down. The people
living on the other side of the curtain, of whom our leaders had always
pretended they were dangerous and ferocious, turned out to be as friendly as
us.
With the concept of the Cold War our leaders had divided our world
and maintained fear in our minds for over forty years. This terror, fabricated
by our own governments, was finally over.
Pipeline projects through
Afghanistan
On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag was lowered from
the Kremlin for the last time. [4] The former Soviet republics became
independent. Among them were the countries around the Caspian Sea, all rich in
oil and gas. [MAP: worldatlas.com]
Before, the oil and gas went through pipelines to their Soviet
neighbours, or were exported via Russia to Europe. Now each country could sell
its own oil and gas and explore new markets. Buyers showed up from
everywhere.
In the beginning, the new leaders still had no experience
with the world oil business. One of the first deals of Turkmenistan was to
auction an oil well for as little as $100,000. [5] US companies showed up,
too.
The biggest challenge was to get the Caspian oil and gas to the
world markets. The problem? The region is land-locked. If you trust neither
Russia on the North side of the Caspian Sea, nor Iran on the South side, you
need to build new pipelines. [MAP: bremmermap]
Today, from the West side of the Caspian Sea, oil is pumped through
several pipelines towards the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea from where it
can be shipped.
Big business on the East side of the Caspian Sea is still
limited. To unlock oil and gas from this side, pipelines have to be built
through Afghanistan. Here, since the early nineties, two pipelines - one for gas
and one for oil - have been in project. [MAP: greatgamemaps]
The oil pipe should go South to the Indian Ocean, ending at the port of
Gwadar in Pakistan. The gas pipe would turn East to Multan in the middle of
Pakistan. From Pakistan an extension is planned to Bombay (Mumbai, India), where
a U.S. company with close ties with father and son Bush, Enron, has built a
power plant. [6]
Contracts for pipelines are not just multi-billion
dollar projects to build them. The main contractor also buys and sells
the oil or gas going through them. With contracts he disposes of it, determines
how much the supplier gets in return, and what fee to charge for recipient countries.
He determines who gets it, how much, when, to what price and in which currency
it has to be paid.
In fact, he determines a lot in the economical
developments of both the selling and the buying countries. With Turkmenistan
eager to sell its gas, Pakistan eager to buy it and Enron in India hoping to see
it arrive as soon as possible, the pipelines through Afghanistan are of high
interest.
However, in 2001, the work in Afghanistan had not yet started.
Since the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1989, unrest was still in the
country.
The Taliban: From ally to terrorist
The unrest in
Afghanistan that blocked the business is worth mentioning. In 1992, the
pro-Russian president Mohammad Najibullah was ousted. In 1993, Burhanuddin
Rabbani became president, supported by the Tajik minority of the
population.
In 1994, the Pashtun, forming half of the population,
challenged Rabbani. Because the pipelines have to cross mainly Pashtun
territory, their movement, the Taliban, had support from the US and
Pakistan.
In March 1995, two companies, BRIDAS from Argentina and UNOCAL
from the US, both claimed to have obtained the contracts from the seller of the
gas (Turkmenistan) and the buyer (Pakistan). At that moment no deal had yet been
signed with the Afghan authorities.
In October 1995, President Niyazov of
Turkmenistan signed an official agreement with UNOCAL, but in February 1996,
president Rabbani of Afghanistan signed an agreement with BRIDAS for the main
section of 875 miles through Afghanistan. [7]
UNOCAL's chances seemed
compromised. Fortunately for UNOCAL, the Taliban wanted to oust president
Rabbani. In September 1996, they took Jalabad, Kandahar, and then Kabul.
President Rabbani fled to join the Northern Alliance.
UNOCAL sighed with
relief. It expressed support for the Taliban takeover, saying it makes the
pipeline project easier. (UNOCAL later said it was misquoted.)
Would
BRIDAS now have lost the game? No. In November 1996, BRIDAS signed an agreement
with the Taliban and Gen. Dostum to build the pipeline. Unfortunately, except
from Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia, the Taliban government didn't obtain
international recognition.
In April 1997, because work on the pipeline
still had not started, the Taliban announced it would award the contract to
whomever starts first. However, UNOCAL claimed there must be peace
first.
In July 1997, Turkmenistan and Pakistan accepted a new delay and
signed a new contract with UNOCAL, saying they had to start the work within a
year and a half.
In December 1997, UNOCAL tried to become good friends
with the Taliban and invited a delegation to their head office in Sugarland,
Texas, where they received a VIP treatment while staying in the best hotels.
[8]
In Afghanistan, civil war went on. With no internationally recognized
legal representative of Afghanistan, the pipeline project seemed to be
deadlocked. [9]
US-bombs on Afghanistan after US embassies are
attacked in Africa
On February 4, 1998 and May 30, 1998, very heavy
earthquakes shook the North East of Afghanistan. They attracted a lot of
international attention and many groups of relief workers came into the
North-East of Afghanistan to help. According to US accusations, this was the
moment that somewhere in this same region of Afghanistan a certain Osama bin
Laden would have been planning the bombings of two US embassies in Africa, one
in Nairobi (Kenya), and one in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).
The bombings had
a high impact in the press. 258 people were killed and some 5,000 injured. The
bombings occurred on August 7, 1998, apparently for no specific reason.
[10]
Apparently only president Clinton benefited from it. In the US, the
Monica Lewinsky affair had come to a height. The press and the public were
excited and angry. Clinton had stated under oath, that he had had no sexual
relations with Monica Lewinsky. Proof had come out he had. Clinton was close to
the point of being convicted of perjury.
The bombings of the embassies
drew people's attention to the drama in Africa. Finally, on August 17, Clinton
came away with the perjury charge by arguing that oral sex was not a sexual
relation. [11]
A few days later, August 21, 1998, the US military threw
bombs on Kandahar and other targets in Afghanistan. Only afterwards Clinton
explained to the journalists that this was because of Osama bin Laden, who was
supposed to be behind the bombings of the US' embassies in Africa.
[12]
Unlike George W. Bush in 2001, Clinton did not invade Afghanistan.
An invasion would have given hope to UNOCAL to see the Afghan deadlock broken,
but with the Lewinsky affair still being argued, Clinton did not have enough
credit for such a war.
On August 28, 1998, UNSC resolution 1193 blamed
the Taliban for the problems in Afghanistan. [13]
On November 5, 1998, a
US Grand Jury indicted Osama Bin Laden. (Not for the bombings of the embassies
in Africa, but essentially for considering the US as his enemy.) [14] &
[15]
UNOCAL withdraws
In December 1998 UNOCAL withdrew from
the pipeline consortium and, at least for the outside world, the pipeline
project seemed halted. [8]
However, in January, 1999, Turkmenistan's
foreign minister visited Pakistan, saying the pipeline project was still alive.
In February, BRIDAS had talks with leaders in Turkmenistan, Pakistan and
Russia.
In March, Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Sheikh Muradov met with
Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Kandahar to discuss the pipeline. In April,
Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and the Taliban signed an agreement to revive the
pipeline project. In May, a Taliban delegation signed an agreement with
Turkmenistan to buy gas and electricity. [8]
Terror warningOn June 25, 1999, the US State Department
announced: "As some of our embassies in Africa have been under surveillance by
suspicious individuals, we are taking the precaution of temporarily closing our
embassies in Gambia, Togo, Madagascar, Liberia, Namibia and Senegal from June 24
through the 27th of June - that is Sunday." [16]
The speaker seemed to
have no idea where these countries are, considering the strange order of
announcing them. Besides, the only African countries, where incidents like
attacks and hostage taking have been reported that year, are Sierra Leone,
Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia. None of these countries is on the list.
[17]
On July 4, 1999, President Clinton issued an executive order
prohibiting commercial transactions with the Taliban. [18]
Back to
Cold War budgets
On September 23, 1999, presidential candidate George
W. Bush exposed his views on the US military. He complained that since the end
of the Cold War the Defence budget had fallen 40 percent and that the army had
never been in such a bad shape since Pearl Harbor.
"As president, I will
order an immediate review of our overseas deployments - in dozens of countries.
... My second goal is to build America's defences on the troubled frontiers of
technology and terror."
Among his views of arms: "In the air, we must be
able to strike from across the world with pinpoint accuracy - with long-range
aircraft and perhaps with unmanned systems." [19]
On October 15, 1999,
things were getting more serious for the Taliban. UN resolution 1267 against the
Taliban threatened an aircraft ban and fund freezing, if Osama Bin Laden was not
handed over before November 14, 1999. [20] & [2]
On November 11,
1999, during a press conference, the Taliban minister of Foreign Affairs said
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were unable to organize attacks like those on
the embassies in Africa and condemned these actions.
In 2000 the US had
presidential elections. It was time to postpone delicate decisions.
On
April 2, 2000, Richard Clarke, who had been appointed counter-terrorist
coordinator a few months before the attacks against the embassies in Africa (on
May 22), predicted: "They will come after our weakness, our Achilles heel, which
is largely here in the United States." [21]
Curious No-Fly
list
On April 21, 2000, something remarkable
happened. As an antiterrorist measure, the US Congress announced a single
unified terrorist watch list, the TID (or Terrorist Identities Database), into
which all international terrorist related data available to the US government -
mainly the TIPOFF no-fly list - would be stored in a single repository. In
airports, this list is used to prevent suspected people from going on board and
from entering the US. [22]
However, the same day that Congress announces
the unified TID list, the FAA created a new and separate domestic no-fly list
and put only six names on it. Two weeks before 9/11, the list was expanded with
six other names, making it a total list of 12 names.
Thanks to this
separate list the hijackers of 9/11, using domestic flights, and not listed
among the 12 names, could board the planes without difficulties. On August 23,
2001, two names, later published as being two of the hijackers, had been added
to the official TID-list, which counted 60,000 suspects, but was discarded for
domestic flights. [23]
Neo-conservative
ideas
This second chapter starts with September
2000, when the neo-conservatives present their views. Their ideas will spread
through the White House Administration with the election of George W. Bush.
Even before he enters the White House, two imperialistic wars are on the
agenda: Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghanistan gets the priority.
In September, 2000, the neoconservative
think tank Project for a New American Century (PNAC) published their
imperialistic views for the US. [24] In the document, they warned that the
process of transforming the US into "tomorrow's dominant force" would likely be
a long one in the absence of "some catastrophic and catalysing event - like a
new Pearl Harbor". [25]
After 9/11, to those who would not yet have
understood the benefits of the events at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush would
explain: "The four years that followed transformed the American way of war" and
"even more importantly, an American President and his successors shaped a world
beyond a war." And, to make sure that people understood that 9/11 was just like
Pearl Harbor, he would add "September 11th, 2001 - three months and a long time
ago - set another dividing line in our lives and in the life of our nation."
[27]
Many PNAC members would become members of
the Bush administration. Those members include Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Paul Wolfowitz, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Richard Perle. [26]
On
October 12, 2000, three weeks before the presidential elections, the US
population was shortly reminded of the terrorist threat in the world. The US
Navy destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden was rammed with an inflatable
raft with explosives and was damaged. Published detail: it looked as if the raft
was coming to help the warship to moor to a buoy. [28] Message: you can trust
nobody.
On November 7, 2000 the elections took place. George W. Bush or
Al Gore would become President. The counting gave an extremely close result. The
results in the State of Florida became decisive, but the counting was and
remains far from clear.
The opponents fought in many different courts
until December 13. It turned out that in Florida, 180,000 votes had been thrown
out of the counting. This way Bush led by less than 600 votes. Partial recounts
resulted in much lower estimates. Finally, all recounts could not be executed
within the time limit set by the intervening Supreme Court. This is how Bush won
the elections. [29]
Dictator
A few days later, on December
18, speaking at the Capitol, Bush joked about his new relationship with some
congressional leaders: "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot
easier....just so long as I'm the dictator." [30]
Just a slip of the
tongue? Not really. In July 1998, about governing Texas, he said already: "A
dictatorship would be a lot easier." [31] And on July 26, 2001, speaking once
again about his struggles with Congress he repeated: "a dictatorship would be a
heck of a lot easier." [32]
Well, for the ambitious plans of the
neoconservatives, the US Congress was a major hurdle to clear. The budget of the
military had shrunk by 40 percent after the Cold War and with the wars they had
in mind they would need a lot more money.
How would they get the budget
they wanted? If the US would be attacked, there would be no problem. They would
receive all the budget, political support and public sympathy they needed. But,
as written in their document, without a new Pearl Harbor things would go slowly.
[25]
When Bush started his presidency, many neoconservatives considered
Iraq as the first target to hit. In their document of September 2000 they had
named Iraq as a "potential rival" of the US. [24]
First Target
Iraq?
Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves. The country
was exhausted. It had tried to conquer Iran from 1980 to 1988, had invaded
Kuwait in 1990, had been defeated by Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and a
subsequent UN embargo had brought the Iraqi economy to a standstill and the
population to the edge of starvation.
Since 1996, the Oil For Food
program of the UN had brought some relief for the Iraqi people. The country had
been disarmed. Extensive weapon inspections had concluded the country formed no
threat anymore. Well, at least, not military. In 2000, Saddam had still found a
trick to hit the main pillar of US hegemony, the dollar. He started to sell his
oil in euros, instead of dollars. [raisethehammer, see: Dollar Hegemony]
Afghanistan back on the
agenda
However, not even a week after George W. Bush had been
declared winner of the elections, Afghanistan was back on the international
agenda. UN SC resolution 1333 of December 19, 2000, imposed the sanctions the UN
had promised more than a year before, if the Taliban would not hand over Osama
bin Laden before November 14, 1999 (aircraft ban and funds freezing).
[33]
Afghanistan in the Caspian context
Geopolitically, Afghanistan had become a
more urgent target. Since 1996, the US had experienced severe setbacks in their
ambition to control gas and oil on the East side of the Caspian Sea and was
loosing influence. The lack of control over Afghanistan was leading to severe
complications.
As mentioned earlier, the problems had started in February
1996, when Afghan president Rabbani signed a contract with UNOCAL's competitor
BRIDAS for the construction of the gas pipeline through Afghanistan, between
Turkmenistan and Pakistan. [8] In March 1996, the US tried to block this deal,
putting pressure on Pakistan and telling them they should grant exclusive rights
to UNOCAL. This resulted in a diplomatic clash with the Pakistani government.
[8]
Still in the same month, Pakistan officially agreed to allow a
proposed Iranian pipeline to run over Pakistani territory on its way to India,
thus enabling Iranian gas sale to India. The gas would come from Iran's giant
South Pars Field in the Persian Gulf and cross the South of Iran from West to
East through a pipeline still to be constructed. [34]
Meanwhile, in
February 1996, Turkmenistan had showed it did not want to depend exclusively on
the delayed Afghan pipeline project and had signed a contract with Turkey to
supply Turkmen gas via a pipeline to be constructed along the North coast of
Iran. If necessary, Turkey would be able to absorb all the Turkmen gas.
[34]
Iranian-Libyan Sanctions act
With these two
aforementioned Iranian pipelines, the Afghan pipelines would become more or less
useless. To prevent the construction of the Iranian pipelines the US Congress
passed the Iranian-Libyan Sanctions act, [35] threatening anyone who would help
Iran to construct them, and forbid transactions with Iran of $ 4 million or
higher. That was on June 18, 1996.
Nevertheless on August 30, 1996 Turkey
signed a 20-year deal to buy gas from Iran. [34] & [36] The Turkish
president would be punished for his Islamic solidarity by a military coup
forcing him to resign. That was on June 18, 1997. [37]
With the
Iranian-Libyan Sanctions act in place, another US company, Enron, expanded its
activities in the region. In Uzbekistan, Enron had obtained a contract for 11
gas fields. In April 1997, George W. Bush himself had intervened to help Enron
obtain Uzbeki contracts. [38] Enron counted on a US controlled pipeline through
Afghanistan to export a part of the Uzbek gas to its power plant in India.
[39]
The US threatened sanctions and blocked the completion of the
Turkish pipeline connection to Iran. Therefor the gas deliveries from Iran to
Turkey were delayed several years. In August 2000, Iran and Turkey agreed the
gas deliveries would start on July 30, 2001, which would be a few days before
the expiration date of the Iranian-Libyan Sanctions act. [40]
Despite the
Iranian-Libyan Sanctions act, the construction of the northern pipeline had
started on the East side of Iran. With Iranian funding, Iran and Turkmenistan
opened an international pipeline connection of 200 km by the end of 1997.
[36]
Subsea shortcut avoiding Iran
To frustrate further development of the
Iranian pipeline to Turkey, the US came up with an idea for an alternative route
from Turkmenistan, crossing the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and from there to
Turkey. Enron did the study for this project. [39]
By that time it
appeared as if the Afghan pipeline project would be abandoned. In June 1998,
Enron withdrew from its Uzbek gas projects [41] and in December UNOCAL withdrew
from its consortium for the Afghan pipeline. [8]
The US threats did not
prevent big companies like Shell and Total from signing deals with Iran for
exploration of oil and gas. [42] Nevertheless, Shell withdrew from its pipeline
project in Northern Iran. [43]
The undersea pipeline crossing the Caspian
Sea now existed on the drawing table, but in the waters the five surrounding
countries (Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran) had not yet
come to an agreement about each other's borders, and thus about the ownership of
oil fields. As long as this would last, according to an existing agreement of
1940, Russia and Iran would have to agree with the pipeline project first. And
they did not. [44]
In 2000, the Turkmen president had blamed the US for
the delay in the trans-Caspian pipeline and had resumed gas deliveries to
Russia. [45] That May, president Putin had even come to Turkmenistan to offer
extended deals for several years. [9] Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, the oil from the
Tengiz field (world's sixth largest oil field) was going to be pumped via Russia
to the Black Sea. [46]
Wealthy actors and
influences
George W. Bush sworn
in
On January 20, 2001, George W. Bush was
sworn in as president of the US. He is the son of ex-president George H.W. Bush.
The family is from Texas and has close ties with the oil and energy related
companies there. These companies have contributed a lot to Bush's election
campaign.
Companies contributing to election campaigns is a common
phenomenon in the US. The financial support for a candidate's campaign
determines how much marketing they can afford and, ultimately, their chances to
win an election. Of course, when these companies invest a lot of money, they
expect something in return when their candidate wins, such as nominations within
the administration, influence for big business orders or favourable laws and
amendments. [47]
Enron
Enron had been the biggest
contributor of the Bush 2000 election campaign. [48] In fact, the company had
generously contributed to both father and son's election campaigns since 1985.
Enron's chairman, Kenneth Lay, had close personal contacts with the Bushes. He
had even been a sleeping guest at the White House. [49] During these years,
Enron had expanded from a regional energy supplier to a giant multinational
company, and the seventh biggest in the US.
Although loaded with debts
caused by its giant investments abroad, Enron always showed splendid results.
How? In 1997 the Securities and Exchange Commission had exempted Enron from the
Investment Company Act of 1940 that prohibits US companies from leaving debt
from overseas projects off the books. [47] At the same time Andy Fastow, Enron's
senior vice president of finance, had started his "creative" financing.
[50]
Since 1993, in India, Enron had invested $ 2.9 billion for a power
plant near Bombay. Originally it had counted on cheap supply of gas from
Turkmenistan via the planned pipeline through Afghanistan. The power plant
project had turned into a nightmare.
Enron had faced severe criticism
over their contemptuous way of doing business. They had experienced severe
opposition from the local population after hiring police officers to beat down
protests of opponents. Charges had been filed against the company for human
right violations. [39]
Last but not least, Enron’s deliveries to the
regional electricity company were invoiced more than double the price of power
from other suppliers. [51] Taking into account the real cost beared by the
regional electricity company, Enron's price was even 700 percent higher. [52]
The regional electricity company could not pay Enron's bills anymore. As
retaliation, in January 2001, Enron had cut the power to 200 million people in
Northern India, while demanding three times the normal price. [53] (Around the
same time, Enron was provoking power cuts in California as well, to force higher
prices. [54])
In 1997 Enron had started gas projects in Uzbekistan, for
which George W. Bush had had personal contacts with the Uzbek
ambassador.
As soon as the Bush administration was in place, vice
president Cheney would reward Enron for their support during the elections.
Enron's chairman, Kenneth Lay, had a wish list that was almost entirely included
in Cheney's proposals for the new US energy policy. [55] Cheney also intervened
to help Enron collect a $64 million debt for its power plant near Bombay, during
a meeting with Indian opposition leader Sonia Ghandi in Washington on June 27
2001. [56]
Enron - BinLaden
Enron had also connections with
the construction firm BinLadin from Saudi Arabia, with which it constructed a
power plant in the Gaza strip. (The power plant would not be finished before
Enron's bankruptcy in December 2001.) [57]
Binladen - Carlyle
The wealthy bin Laden family is well known
to the Bush family. Salem bin Laden supplied part of the money for George W.
Bush’s first oil company, Arbusto, in 1978. [58] His father, George H.W. Bush,
joined the Carlyle group after being US' president, [59] and developed relations
with the BinLadin company. [60] He met the family in November 1998 and in
January 2000. [61]
Bin Laden also invested in the Carlyle group. H.W.
Bush still met with Shafig bin Laden, Osama's brother, on September 10, 2001,
the day before the attacks, at the annual investor conference of the Carlyle
Group. [62] Like Enron, Carlyle had grown tremendously.
In the early 1990s son Bush had been member
of the board of a catering service company for airliners. [60] Carlyle had
bought the catering company. Although the catering service crashed, Carlyle grew
to be an important defence contractor in the US. [61] A bunch of well-known
former politicians, including George W. Bush father, former UK Prime Minister
John Major and former president of the Philippines Mister Ramos, are making a
lot of money from the "war on terror". [59]
Osama
There is
a terrible lot of information available about bin Laden's son, Osama. However,
almost all of it comes from sources that cannot be verified, like comments by
unknown people who would have known him or met him. Other stories are based on
allegations by people who have big business interests in the "war on terrorism",
like the Bush. One step further, you find the comments by officials "convinced"
that everything that has been said about Osama is true.
On the other
extremity, there is the image Osama draws of himself in an interview by CNN
reporter Peter Arnett in 1997. According to this interview he is, first of all,
a man of faith, who understands people who fight against the US soldiers that
came to steal the oil and who attacked the Islamic religion. He denies having
organized any attacks against the US himself. [63] (Many people will remember a
videotape with “Osama's confession”, that he knew about the attacks of 9/11 in
advance, which turned out to be a fake. [64])
Osama would become Bush's
key excuse to invade Afghanistan. On September 17, 2001 Bush would declare Osama
bin Laden was wanted "dead or alive". [65]
Why did Osama bin Laden stay
in Afghanistan? Here too, different sources give different stories. He had
already been in Afghanistan during the eighties, helping the mudjahedeen fight
against the Soviet occupation (as did the US). Back in Saudi Arabia in 1989, he
had opposed the king's alliance with the US.
When his passport was
confiscated, he at first fled back to Afghanistan, and then settled in Sudan in
1992, where all Muslims were welcome after a regime change the year before. In
1994, because of his support to fundamentalist Muslim movements, Saudi Arabia
revoked his citizenship and froze his funds. [66]
After the assassination
attempt against Egyptian president Mubarak in Ethiopia on June 26, 1995, Sudan
was accused of being behind it. The relations between Egypt and Sudan
deteriorated in the current of 1995.
At this point, let us jump to
Afghanistan. In February 1996 things went wrong for the US pipeline project in
Afghanistan. President Rabbani of Afghanistan contracted the Argentinean BRIDAS
instead of UNOCAL for the construction and exploitation of the gas pipeline. For
the US, to get the pipeline project back in the hands of UNOCAL, Rabbani would
have to disappear. But who could be accused if Rabbani were killed?
Back
to Sudan. March 8, 1996, the US suddenly asked Sudan to extradite Osama. It did
not specify to which country. Since the Saudis took his passport and nationality
away, Osama had few options. On May 18, 1996, he left Sudan and returned to
Afghanistan. [67]
Years afterward, many people were still wondering why
he had not been arrested at that occasion.
In Afghanistan, events would
take a different turn. From March 20 to April 4, 1996, Taliban leaders had held
a shura (meeting) and concluded with a jihad against Rabbani. [68] Osama arrived
on May 18, but would not get involved. On September 27, the Taliban conquered
Kabul and president Rabbani fled and joined the Northern alliance. At that
moment things must have looked hopeful for the UNOCAL pipeline project.
Unfortunately for them, in November 1996 BRIDAS signed a new contract with the
Taliban.
Ultimately this would lead to the Taliban being evicted from
power. Clinton would not attack Afghanistan after the US embassy bombings in
Africa in 1998, maybe thanks to Monica Lewinsky. Bush did, after "the
catastrophic and catalysing events" of 9/11.
After having used the
presence of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan as his key excuse to invade the
country, Bush would state, on March 13, 2002, he wasn't truly that concerned
about Osama bin Laden. [69]
Karzai
After the US conquest of
Afghanistan (or at least of its capital), UNOCAL's advisor Hamid Karzai would be
appointed Chairman of the interim administration of Afghanistan. On June 16,
2002, even before there was an elected president, Karzai would sign an official
agreement with Turkmenistan and Pakistan for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.
[70]
But even if the gas pipeline would come too late to transport
Turkmen gas to Pakistan, Afghanistan remains an interesting booty. It has its
own gigantic gas field south of the Turkmen field, near Mazar e Sharif. It has
also several oil fields and coal. Furthermore, in the 1970s British geologists
had already found 1600 locations with minerals.
Preparations for 9/11 and
the invasion of Afghanistan
Timing of the attacks
As noticed above, the timing for the attacks on the US
embassies in Africa helped Clinton, as it drew away the attention from his
threatening conviction of perjury in the Monica Lewinsky affair, and focused on
the common enemies: the terrorists.
The invasion of Afghanistan would
have to wait for the next US president. Between 1998 and 2001 there was enough
time to plan everything carefully. Below we will notice, that the attacks of
9/11 occurred at the very moment everything was in place. The only thing missing
was a pretext to get support from Congress, from the US population and the rest
of the world…
Military preparations
For the US to invade
Afghanistan at the other side of the world was a delicate operation. Step by
step the US had pushed its influence and control in the former Soviet republics.
US oil and gas related companies had started up activities in Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and the U.S. military had gained
influence in the region, challenging Russia and China in their
backyards.
Already in 1997, north of Afghanistan, the US had considerably
expanded its military "cooperation" with Kazakhstan, which forms the buffer with
Russia. [71] In 1999, closer to Afghanistan, the US expanded its presence in
Kyrgyzstan [72], and in Uzbekistan, one of Afghanistan's direct neighbours. [73]
In April 14-15, 2000, Uzbek and US troops conducted joint military exercises.
[74]
East of Afghanistan the US administration has strong ties with the
Pakistani intelligence service. Its director, Lieutenant-General Mahmoud Ahmad,
was with U.S. officials the week before and during the attacks of 9/11. [75] On
the west side, F-15s were based in Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey and the Fifth
fleet was permanently based in the Persian Gulf. [76]
For the war in
Afghanistan, huge transports of troops and material had to be organized well
before the invasion. On November 7, 2000, the day all US-citizens were occupied
with the election of their president, the UK announced its biggest military
exercise since the Gulf War, operation Swift Sword (Saif Sareea in Arabic),
involving 24,000 troops and a lot of heavy material. [77]
The exercise
took place on the coast of Oman, a strategic location, since all oil tankers
from the Persian Gulf region (Saudi-Arabia, the United Arabic Emirates, Qatar,
Quait, Iraq and Iran) have to cross the Gulf of Oman. Here the UK maintains a
War Material Storage. [78] The exercice had been scheduled from September 15
until the end of October 2001, [79] The UK would start moving troops and
material to Oman in August 2001.[80] The UK participated in the invasion.
[81]
From October 8 until the end of October, 2001 another military
operation was planned in Egypt: NATO Operation Bright Star. It was the world's
largest exercise including more than 11 Nations, and more than 70,000 troops
(among which 23,000 from the US) participating. [82]
Among several other
"coincidental" military moves towards Afghanistan, we notice that on July 23,
2001, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was sent out from Bremerton (on US West
coast) to the Arabian Sea. It arrived just in time to launch the first air
strikes on Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. [83]
Diplomatic
preparations
On the diplomatic front, to lower the risk of upsetting
China, on June 19 2001, Bush had proposed to attend the APEC summit in Shang Hai
and was expected to meet president Zemir between October 15 and October 21 2001.
[84] & [85] (Bush's meeting with presidents Zemir and Putin took place on
October 20, 2001) [86]
Besides, in 2001 China was completing its
bilateral agreements with all 37 WTO members to become a full WTO-member. China
wanted to become member since many years. China's bilateral agreement with
Mexico would be the last and this would complete China's membership. [87] In
July 2001 Bush would polish his relations with Mexico, "lobbying" against US
unfair import restrictions on Mexican trucks. [88]
This was probably not
only to get the Mexicans in the right mood to sign with China, but also because
Mexico would be a member of the UN Security Council in 2002 and 2003. China
reached its bilateral agreement with Mexico and became a WTO member on September
13, 2001. [89]
Bush's unmanned systems
In the summer of
1999, a number of US embassies on the African continent were closed for the
weekend because of suspicious people hanging around. [16] A few days later
Clinton had issued his order prohibiting commercial transactions with the
Taliban. [18] A few months later George W. Bush presented his ideas of defence
"on the troubled frontiers of technology and terror."
He said, "In the
air, we must be able to strike from across the world with pinpoint accuracy -
with long-range aircraft and perhaps with unmanned systems." [19]
In
September 1999 Bush still said "perhaps". He was still considering. This was at
a time when the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) for both military as
well as civil aviation was rapidly developing. [90] By 2001 there were more than
60 types of UAVs world wide, from small models to big planes. [91]
At the
time of Bush's speech in 1999, the US was developing the Global Hawk [92], a
military UAV with a wing span comparable to a Boeing 737, which had made its
first flight from Edwards Air Force Base, CA on 28 February 1998. [93] After
Bush became president, on April 23, 2001 the Global Hawk made a historical first
unmanned test flight to Australia. [94]
9/11
Not all of the material about 9/11 has been
released to the public. Some of the reliable evidence has been confiscated by
the CIA. [95] Statements of officials often turned out to be contradictory. And,
in particular about possible advanced knowledge, the White House has confiscated
dozens of documents from the 9/11 Commission. [96] It doesn't make truth finding
easier.
The official version of the events on 9/11 involves a very high
number of coincidences that facilitated the "success" of the
attacks.
A nationwide military exercise, Global Guardian,
originally planned for November 2001, is in full swing, creating confusion
between exercises and real-world events. [97]
A large-scale
military exercise, Vigilant Guardian, is taking place and involves all of NORAD,
that normally sends fighter jets after civil airplanes several times a week,
when flight control operators report incidences. [97]
The
Vigilant Guardian exercise simulates an air attack on the United States.
[97]
NORAD is also running a planned real-world operation named
Operation Northern Vigilance, for which many NORAD fighters are located in
Alaska and Canada. [98]
Operation Northern Vigilance also
creates false blips on radar screens at least until the second plane crashes
into the World Trade Centre. [99]
In Washington a planned
National Reconnaissance Office exercise involves a scenario of an airplane as a
flying weapon. [97]
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
is flying across the Atlantic on the way to Europe. [97]
The
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director is at a conference in Montana.
[97]
FAA hijack coordinator, who has to contact the National
Military Command Centre in case of hijacks, is in Puerto Rico and cannot be
reached. [97]
All of the FBI's anti-terrorist and top special
operations agents are, together with the members of the CIA's anti-terrorist
task force, on a training exercise in Monterey, California.
[97]
For the day of 9/11, the commander of the National
Military Command Centre had requested to be replaced by someone without
experience. [97]
For FAA's new National Operations Manager it
is the first day on the job. [98]
The hijackers can board
without trouble, since the official no-fly list is only used for international
flights and, curiously, not for domestic flights. [22] &
[23]
Informed a few minutes after the start of the first hijack
(Flight 11), American Airlines top management decide to "keep it quiet".
[97]
Boston flight controllers do not follow normal procedures
and waste time by contacting various military bases, instead of NORAD.
[97]
After NORAD is finally informed, two F-15s will remain on
the ground and only take off when Flight 11 already crashes into the WTC.
[97]
For various reasons F-16s will only arrive on the scene
after the last plane has crashed. [97] & [99]
A decision is
taken to ground not only civil airplanes, but also all military planes.
[99]
The presumed hijacker pilot of flight 77 was not able to
fly a Cessna without difficulty in August, but succeeded to spiral down a Boeing
757 and hit the Pentagon a few meters above the ground on September 11.
[100]
The President doesn't give any orders responding to the
attack until just before the last plane crashes. [97]
Above I only
mentioned those coincidences that facilitated the success of the attacks. If I
were to build a story on such series of coincidences, no one would believe me.
Well, I would not either. Keeping the things in their context, it makes more
sense to look at them as facts, and not as coincidences.
All released
details show that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out with military precision.
However, the hijackers on the planes would have been improvised pilots without
the extraordinary skills needed to fly in the way that has been reported. [101]
& [102]
In addition, they would not have been intelligent enough to
foresee the reactions triggered by their actions. Apparently they had so little
political awareness, that they had not heard about the neoconservatives waiting
for such a "catastrophic and catalysing event" to speed up US'
conquests.
The success of the plan relied on a lot of advanced knowledge
of the situation that day, like the confusion offered by planned military
exercises and the scenarios played by them, like the confusion offered by fake
radar blibs, like traffic controllers lacking of primary radar images in
specific areas, like the absence of several experienced officers in the command
chains responding to the hijacks, like the absence of armed jet fighters to
frustrate their plans.
All this seems more likely to be the work of a
more influential and well trained organization, an organization willing to
provide the justification for the neoconservatives' conquest plans, with
Afghanistan as the first target.
It does not seem likely to me, that such
an organization would let the success of its operation depend on the improvised
skills of the hijackers. It makes more sense to suppose the hijackers were not
in control. (In spite of an overheard phrase in the cockpit of the fourth plane,
having been translated as "Pull it down" and by officials interpreted as "Crash
the plane" [102]) It seems more likely the operation was conducted on the
“troubled frontier of technology and terror”, and that technology had taken over
the controls.
Transponders
The two types of planes used, the Boeing 757
and 767, can be controlled remotely. Robert Ayling, a former boss of British
Airways, suggested in the Financial Times a few days after 9/11, that those
aircraft can be commandeered from the ground and controlled remotely in the
event of a hijack. [13] On 9/11 the remote control would have been in the hands
of the wrong people.
If we look closer to the remote control scenario, we
notice that if the published details about the transponders are
right:
1. the transponder of the second 767 is turned off shortly
after the first 767 crashes.
2. the transponder of the second 757 is
turned off shortly after the first 757 crashes.
So, it looks as if one
remote pilot handled the two 767s one after the other, and another remote pilot
handled the two 757s one after the other. ([104] 9/11 Commission Report, P.32,
8:47 & 9:41)
It has also been reported that a C-130 military cargo
plane was tailing flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. The same C-130
was behind flight 93 when it crashed. Did the plane play a role? Or was it just
a coincidental tourist, flying around while all other planes had been ordered to
land? [101], [105], [106]
The hijackers hijacked?
Although
the official story expects us to believe the hijackers wanted to fly into the
WTC and the Pentagon, the released pieces of cockpit conversations offer no
indications to support this theory. Although mountains of stories and
counter-stories have been published about the hijackers, I did not find a single
verifiable element.
If the hijackers were to support some Arabic or
Islamic cause, they would probably have been in a stronger position if they had
returned to airports with four planes and hundreds of US citizens in their
might. They could have negotiated the release of political prisoners. They could
have demanded a retreat of US forces from Saudi Arabia. They could have pleaded
any cause they were after.
Did the hijackers really have in mind to
strike the WTC and the Pentagon or were they overruled by the organization that
had "contracted" them? Will we find out? According to the official story, all
radio contact and overhearing of cockpit conversations stopped before the planes
made their final approach to the WTC and the Pentagon. If the hijackers were to
create the biggest possible spectacle, wouldn't they have shouted a last
accusation against the US? Or a last glorious prayer to Allah? Or were they
surprised and in panic when they flew into the buildings?
Conclusion
The Afghan pipelines are only one step in US
political moves to take over the influence in the oil and gas rich former Soviet
republics. Consuming 25 percent of the world oil consumption, their imperialism
is first of all about energy. Today the US already relies for over 60 percent on
foreign oil, a percentage that is quickly increasing. The neoconservative ideas
to transform the US into a "dominant force" do not come out of nowhere.
The thought that they needed a "catastrophic
and catalysing event" was not just motivated by the personal financial benefits
several of them get from the war industries. It was also a sign of panic of a
nation facing drying up oil wells and preparing itself to conquer foreign oil
wells until the last drip is gone.
Remarks:
Today the US seems more interested
in a long lasting occupation of Afghanistan. This way they can exploit the
Afghan reserves at a convenient moment in the future. Also, they keep the power
to decide if Pakistan and India may, or may not profit from gas and oil from the
Caspean Sea, from Turkmenistan or from Afghanistan. About Iraq too, I get more
and more the impression, that today’s purpose is to make the war last as long as
possible. As long as oil and gas is sold in US-dollars, the benefit is for the
US. These changes in politics have to do with the the fact the US have become
aware that oil wells are drying up. Since 2001 the US makes a rapid switch to
nuclear energy. At the same time they appropriate a dominant role on the world
market for nuclear fuel. At this very moment a strategic coup takes place to
divide the market and close it hermetically by imposing new rules. For this,
Iran is the pretext and the test case. ( courtfool.info/en)
6 juni 2008, Message from Afghan
Ambassy in Tokyo:
The Ministry of Mines and Industries
signed a deal with China. Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), which will lead
a consortium including China's Jiangxi Copper Company to mine the Aynak copper
deposit in Logar province and build infrastructure. The project includes the
construction of a coal-fuelled 400MW power plant and a rail-road network
connecting the north of Afghanistan to the southeast.
Ambassador Zikria explained, "The
entire project is estimated to cost up to $10 billion (Dh36.7bn) and will be
completed in phases. The copper mining deal is for 30 years with an annual
extraction of 200,000 tons. Aynak contains sufficient ore to produce 11 million
metric tons of copper.
"This and all the other exploration
projects, including oil and gas schemes, offer great potential to the UAE and
GCC investors. The Aynak rail-road network will link Central Asia to Pakistan,
India and the Arabian Sea."
Ambassador Zikria said a major
survey of Afghanistan's natural resources was being carried out by the US
Geological Survey and local engineers. "The initial results revealed that
Afghanistan had 10 times more gas and 15 times more oil reserves than was
previously thought. “ There are significant oil deposits in the south of the
country, including ones at Katawaz and in Helmand province. The government will
soon announce an oil and gas exploration project in the northern province of
Jozjan and will invite foreign investors and exploration firms to become
involved. (afghanembassyjp.com/en)
Click here to see Notes.
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