Afghan oil news

[Paul Mackin]

Richard--does the new book you mention contain evidence that the collusion
actually happened. I mean has some believable insider who actually was in the
deal spilled the beans? Without something solid a editor isn't going to
authorize a whole lot of expense in digging into the story. Of course the
charges MIGHT  be true in the same way the charges that the CIA deliberately
undermined Watts with crack cocaine MIGHT be true. (true enough to keep the
alternative media occupied for months). I wouldn't put such things beyond the
imaginatiion of oilmen but merely the fact that oilmen in high places might
profit from such shananigans won't cut it. So my question is: Did the French
jounalists really turn up anything substantial? Of is it merely circumstantial?
I'd like to know because I dislike the Bushes a great deal and the war has
nothing to do with it.


        P.

Richard Romeo wrote:

> The US press has also not pursued the story regarding allegations in a new
> book by two french journalists that the bush admin. called off the crackdown
> on al qaeda in hopes of gaining oil concessions from the taliban early last
> year.
>
> Rich
>
> >From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Afghan oil news
> >Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2002 14:54:06 -0800
> >
> >
> >"The United States' new special envoy to Kabul once lobbied for the Taliban
> >and worked for an American oil company that sought concessions for
> >pipelines in Afghanistan. [...] his oil contacts are bound to raise
> >suspicions about both his priorities and those of the Bush administration.
> >At the NSC, Mr Khalilzad worked for the National Security Adviser,
> >Condoleezza Rice, who had served on the board of the Chevron Corporation as
> >an expert on another central Asian state with major oil reserves,
> >Kazakhstan.
> >
> >President Bush and Vice-president Dick Cheney have extensive backgrounds in
> >the oil business, too, and it will not be lost on any of them that central
> >Asia has almost 40 per cent of the world's gas reserves and 6 per cent of
> >its oil reserves.
> >
> >In addition, Mr Khalilzad has links to the most hawkish wing of the
> >administration. In the 1980s, he worked on Afghanistan alongside Paul
> >Wolfowitz, now the Deputy Secretary of Defence and an ardent advocate of
> >military action to depose Saddam Hussein in Iraq - a hardline view that has
> >also sometimes been voiced by Mr Khalilzhad. "
> >
> >http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=113662
>
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