[Nettime-bold] New book claims U.S. Policy towards Taliban Influenced by Oil

[ed marszewski <ed@lumpen.com>]

hi can you post this?

anyone get this book yet? Was wondering what the response is like in france,
rest of Europe..

edmar

U.S. Policy towards Taliban Influenced by Oil

By Julio Godoy 
PARIS, Nov 15 (IPS) - Under the influence of U.S. oil companies, the
government of George W. Bush initially blocked U.S. secret service
investigations on terrorism, while it bargained with the Taliban the
delivery of Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and
economic aid, two French intelligence analysts claim.
In the book ''Bin Laden, la verite interdite'' (''Bin Laden, the forbidden
truth''), that appeared in Paris on Wednesday, the authors, Jean-Charles
Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, reveal that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's deputy director John O'Neill resigned in July in protest
over the obstruction.

Brisard claim O'Neill told them that ''the main obstacles to investigate
Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by
Saudi Arabia in it''.

The two claim the U.S. government's main objective in Afghanistan was to
consolidate the position of the Taliban regime to obtain access to the oil
and gas reserves in Central Asia.

They affirm that until August, the U.S. government saw the Taliban regime
''as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the
construction of an oil pipeline across Central Asia'', from the rich
oilfields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan
and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean.

Until now, says the book, ''the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia have
been controlled by Russia. The Bush government wanted to change all that''.
But, confronted with Taliban's refusal to accept U.S. conditions, ''this
rationale of energy security changed into a military one'', the authors
claim. 
''At one moment during the negotiations, the U.S. representatives told the
Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you
under a carpet of bombs','' Brisard said in an interview in Paris.
According to the book, the government of Bush began to negotiate with the
Taliban immediately after coming into power in February. U.S. and Taliban
diplomatic representatives met several times in Washington, Berlin and
Islamabad. 

To polish their image in the United States, the Taliban even employed a U.S.
expert on public relations, Laila Helms. The authors claim that Helms is
also an expert in the works of U.S. secret services, for her uncle, Richard
Helms, is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The last meeting between U.S. and Taliban representatives took place in
August, five weeks before the attacks on New York and Washington, the
analysts maintain.

On that occasion, Christina Rocca, in charge of Central Asian affairs for
the U.S. government, met the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad.
Brisard and Dasquie have long experience in intelligence analysis. Brisard
was until the late 1990s director of economic analysis and strategy for
Vivendi, a French company. He also worked for French secret services, and
wrote for them in 1997 a report on the now famous Al Qaeda network, headed
by bin Laden. 

Dasquie is an investigative journalist and publisher of Intelligence Online,
a respected newsletter on diplomacy, economic analysis and strategy,
available through the Internet.

Brisard and Dasquie draw a portrait of closest aides to President Bush,
linking them to oil business.

Bush's family has a strong oil background. So are some of his top aides.
>From the U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, through the director of the
National Security Council Condoleeza Rice, to the Ministers of Commerce and
Energy, Donald Evans and Stanley Abraham, all have for long worked for U.S.
oil companies. 

Cheney was until the end of last year president of Halliburton, a company
that provides services for oil industry; Rice was between 1991 and 2000
manager for Chevron; Evans and Abraham worked for Tom Brown, another oil
giant. 

Besides the secret negotiations held between Washington and Kabul and the
importance of the oil industry, the book takes issue with the role played by
Saudi Arabia in fostering Islamic fundamentalism, in the personality of bin
Laden, and with the networks that the Saudi dissident built to finance his
activities. 

Brisard and Dasquie contend the U.S. government's claim that it had been
prosecuting bin Laden since 1998. ''Actually,'' Dasquie says, ''the first
state to officially prosecute bin Laden was Libya, on the charges of
terrorism.'' 

''Bin Laden wanted settle in Libya in the early 1990s, but was hindered by
the government of Muammar Qaddafi,'' Dasquie claims. ''Enraged by Libya's
refusal, bin Laden organised attacks inside Libya, including assassination
attempts against Qaddafi.''

Dasquie singles out one group, the Islamic Fighting Group (IFG), reputedly
the most powerful Libyan dissident organisation, based in London, and
directly linked with bin Laden.

''Qaddafi even demanded Western police institutions, such as Interpol, to
pursue the IFG and bin Laden, but never obtained co- operation,'' Dasquie
says. ''Until today, members of IFG openly live in London.''

The book confirms earlier reports that the U.S. government worked closely
with the United Nations during the negotiations with the Taliban.

''Several meetings took place this year, under the arbitration of Francesc
Vendrell, personal representative of UN secretary general Kofi Annan, to
discuss the situation in Afghanistan,'' says the book.

''Representatives of the U.S. government and Russia, and the six countries
that border with Afghanistan were present at these meetings,'' it says.
''Sometimes, representatives of the Taliban also sat around the table.''
These meetings, also called ''6+2'' because of the number of states (six
neighbours plus U.S. and Russia) involved, have been confirmed by Naif Naik,
former Pakistani Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In a French television news programme two weeks ago, Naik said during a
''6+2'' meeting in Berlin in July, the discussions turned around ''the
formation of a government of national unity. If the Taliban had accepted
this coalition, they would have immediately received international economic
aid.'' 

''And the pipe lines from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would have come,'' he
added. 

Naik also claimed that Tom Simons, the U.S. representative at these
meetings, openly threatened the Taliban and Pakistan.

''Simons said, 'either the Taliban behave as they ought to, or Pakistan
convinces them to do so, or we will use another option'. The words Simons
used were 'a military operation','' Naik claimed.

_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold