Bush, Big Oil & the Situation

[Doug Millison]

http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/10/11/index.html

"[...] only two articles in the American media since September 11 have
tried to describe how Big Oil might benefit from a cleanup of terrorists
and other anti-American elements in the Central Asia region. One was by
James Ridgeway of the Village Voice. The other was by a Hearst writer based
in Paris and it was picked up only in the San Francisco Chronicle. Start
with father Bush. The former president and ex-CIA director is not
unemployed these days. He's been globetrotting as a member of Washington's
Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm which employs a motorcade
of former ranking Republicans, including Frank Carlucci, Jim Baker and
Richard Darman. George Bush senior and colleagues open doors overseas for
The Carlyle Group's "access capitalists."
Bush specializes in Asia and has been in and out of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
(countries that revere him thanks to the Gulf War) often on business since
his presidency. Baker, the pin-striped midwife of 'Election 2000' was
working his network in the 'stans' before the ink was dry on Clinton's
first inaugural address. The Bin Laden family (presumably the friendly
wing) is also invested in Carlyle. Carlyle's portfolio is heavy in defense
and telecommunications firms, although it has other holdings including food
and bottling companies.
The Carlyle connection means that George Bush Senior is on the payroll from
private interests that have defense business before the government, while
his son is president. Hmmm. As Charles Lewis of the Washington-based Center
for Public Integrity, has put it, "in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush
could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's
decisions, through his father's investments. And that to me is a
jaw-dropper."
Why can we assume that global businessmen like Bush Senior and Jim Baker
care about who runs Afghanistan and NOT just because it's home base for
lethal anti-Americans? Because it also happens to be situated in the middle
of that perennial vital national interest -- a region with abundant oil. By
2050, Central Asia will account for more than 80 percent of our oil. On
September 10, an industry publication, Oil and Gas Journal, reported that
Central Asia represents one of the world's last great frontiers for
geological survey and analysis, "offering opportunities for investment in
the discovery, production, transportation, and refining of enormous
quantities of oil and gas resources."
It's assumed we need unimpeded access in the 'stans' for our geologists,
construction workers and pipelines if we are going to realize the
conservation-free, fossil-fueled future outlined recently by Vice President
Cheney. A number of pipeline projects to carry Central Asia's resources
west are already under way or have been proposed. They would go through
Russia, through the Caucasus or via Turkey and Iran. Each route will be
within easy reach of the Taliban's thugs and could be made much safer by an
American vanquishment of Muslim terrorism.
There's also lots of oil beneath the turf of our politically precarious
newest best friend, Pakistan. "Massive untapped gas reserves are believed
to be lying beneath Pakistan's remotest deserts, but they are being held
hostage by armed tribal groups demanding a better deal from the central
government," reported Agence France Presse just days before September 11.
So many business deals, so much oil, all those big players with powerful
connections to the Bush administration. It doesn't add up to a conspiracy
theory. But it does mean there is a significant MONEY subtext that the
American public ought to know about as "Operation Enduring Freedom" blasts
new holes where pipelines might someday be buried. "