The Hidden Connection – Global

Energy Trade and Global Terrorism. The

Hidden Connection – Global Energy
The Hidden Connection- Global Energy Trade and
Trade and Global Terrorism.
Global Terrorism The Hidden
ConnectionChapter–
1 - Global Energy
The motives behind Trade
American invasion of and
Afghanistan
Global Terrorism. The Hidden
Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Syed Haroon Haider Gilani

Global Terrorism. The Hidden

Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Global Terrorism. The Hidden
Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Global Terrorism. The Hidden
Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Global Terrorism. The Hidden
Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Global Terrorism. The Hidden
Connection – Global Energy Trade and
Global Terrorism.
 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism

Preface
"The Motives Behind American Invasion of Afghanistan" is actually a chapter of my upcoming
research paper "The Hidden Connection – Global Energy Trade and Global Terrorism" which
encircles the global energy and terrorism with the secretly established connection between the
most significant elements of today's global politics and systems.
In the chapter, I have presented my analysis of American suppression and tyranny upon
Turkmen, Afghan and Pakistani nation, the actual crime of Osama Bin Laden towards Americans
that failed American efforts to snatch and control the pipeline project from Turkmenistan through
Afghanistan to South Asia and Arabian ocean.
The Chapter is about the on Going War in Afghanistan that, as propagated, is between US and
Coalition forces and Al – Qaeda and Taliban. The War has cost about 2.5 to 3 Million lives in
Afghanistan and Pakistan while about 100,000 lives are being lost annually as the direct result of
increased poppy cultivation and drug trade from Afghanistan that Taliban has banned in 2001
consequently reducing the production to 91% according to UN’s estimates. In the article, I am
trying to find the reasons and circumstance which lead these countries (AF-PAK) into this deadly
war and killed, displaced and injured several million people including, women, children and
handicaps.
The American attack on Afghanistan to eliminate Taliban has darkened Pakistan, produced
current energy crisis in Pakistan that consequently destroyed the economical growth and industrial
development during Musharraf era. Musharraf government was fully aware of the de-
industrialization of Pakistan due to looming energy crisis hence started government owned
industrial units and related financial institutions on throw away prices like Habib Bank Limited and
Pakistan Steel Mills in order to avoid public awareness of the crimes of the Government.
The problem commenced with the today's lifestyle of American people that is mostly
comprised of leisure, pleasure, reckless and useless spending. It requires global US control over the
energy and natural resources trade and supremacy of US currency in order to maintain "petro-
dollar recycling" and global trade dominance of fiat currency of US. This is the real terrorism, most
dangerous terrorism against human kind, destroying civilizations and nations for the sack of
American lifestyle. President Bush and his neo-conservative advisors have exacerbated “anti-
American” sentiments by applying a military option in Afghanistan and Iraq that is in essence an
economic problem. History may not look kindly upon their actions.

Truly yours,
Syed Haroon Haider Gilani

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 2

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism

List of Contents
- Introduction
- Taliban, Bridas Corporation and Central Asian Pipelines
- Turkmenistan hydrocarbon reserves
- The terrorism of exploitation in Central Asia by Oil Giants
- Removal of Taliban regime is essential but how?
- American again in the war in Afghanistan
- The War in Afghanistan and Taliban "Again"

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 3

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism

The motives behind American

invasion of Afghanistan
Introduction
U.S. governments have so far "invested" about half a trillion dollars ($ 500,000,000,000)
entitled as cost of "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan since October 2001. No sane person agrees
that US government has not spent this amount only to counter terrorism nor as the fundamental
reason of the occupation to eliminate Taliban, Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden as Terrorists but for
some other objectives which we are discussing hereafter.
Simple answer is the oil-giants-formed "Bush Administration" wanted Taliban to be replaced
with the people favoring American interests in building Pipeline through Afghanistan because of
Taliban refusal to award the Unocal, the American participant in race for Trans – Afghanistan
Pipeline that would carry gas thirteen hundred kilometers from Turkmenistan to Pakistan. As of
2010, the value of the Turkmen gas reserve is estimated to be 4 trillion dollars. It made the attack
on Afghanistan and toppling the Taliban regime, inevitable which otherwise remains the main
hurdle in American control over Turkmen Gas and Oil treasure. William O. Beeman, an
anthropologist specialising in the Middle East at Brown University who has conducted extensive
research into Islamic Central Asia, observes that the US support of Taliban (in Mid 90s) “has nothing
to do with religion or ethnicity - but only with the economics of oil. To the north of Afghanistan is one of
the world’s wealthiest oil fields, on the Eastern Shore of the Caspian Sea in republics formed since the
breakup of the Soviet Union.” Caspian oil needs to be transhipped out of the landlocked region through a
warm water port, for the desired profits to be accumulated. The “simplest and cheapest” pipeline route
is through Iran - but Iran is essentially an ‘enemy’ of the US, due to being overtly independent of the
West, as shall be discussed later. As Beeman notes: “The US government has such antipathy to Iran that
it is willing to do anything to prevent this.” The alternative route is one that passes through Afghanistan
and Pakistan, which “would require securing the agreement of the powers-that-be in Afghanistan” - the
Taliban. Such an arrangement would also benefit Pakistani elites, “which is why they are willing to defy
the Iranians.” Therefore, as far as the US is concerned, the solution is “for the anti-Iranian Taliban to win
in Afghanistan and agree to the pipeline through their territory.”
Let us put a glance over the two vital indications about the above ideology. First is the official
report from a meeting of the U.S. Government's foreign policy committee on 12 February 1998,
confirms that the need for a US-friendly government was recognized long before the War on Terror
that followed September 11th:
"The U.S. Government's position is that we support multiple pipelines...  The Unocal pipeline
is among those pipelines that would receive our  support under that policy. I would caution that
while we do support the  project, the U.S. Government has not at this point recognized
any  governing regime of the transit country, one of the transit countries,  Afghanistan, through
which that pipeline would be routed. But we do  support the project."
[ U.S. House of Reps.,  "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]

"The only other possible route [for the desired oil pipeline] is across, Afghanistan which has of

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 4

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
course its own unique challenges." 

[  "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]

"CentGas cannot begin construction until an internationally recognized  Afghanistan Government

is in place." 
[  "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]

On February 12, 1998, John J. Maresca, vice president, international relations for UNOCAL Oil
Company, testified before the US House of
Representatives, Committee on International
Relations. Maresca provided information to
Congress on Central Asia oil and gas reserves and
how they might shape US foreign policy. UNOCAL's
problem, As Maresca said: "How to get the region's vast energy resources to the markets. The oil
reserves are in areas north of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Routes for
a pipeline were proposed that would transport oil on a 42-inch pipe southward thru Afghanistan for
1040 miles to the Pakistan coast. Such a pipeline would cost about $2.5 billion and carry about 1 million
barrels of oil per day".
It comprehensively explains the reason behind the half a trillion dollars investment and other
costs of war that include the causalities reaching 30 million people including civilians and armed
personals, increased drug trade since invasion and by 2005, Afghanistan had regained its position
as the world leader in opium production and was producing 90% of the world’s opium. The
production crossed more than 8,000 tons a year while it was only a few hundred tons in 2001 . Most
of this poppy is processed into heroin and sold in Europe, North America and Russia. Since then
Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide. It simply means that we have got
another million people killed by the increased Opium Trade due to invasion of Afghanistan by
2011. It also sparked the "anti – Americanism" and lost the sympathy of the world for American
people, that was earned after 9/11 and in turn earned anger and hatred for United States of
America.

Taliban, Bridas Corporation and Central Asian Pipelines

Caspian Sea region is the oldest oil producing region in the world with first oil well drilled by
Russian Engineer F.N. Semyenov, in 1448 in Azerbaijan. Geologically the region is divided into two
parts, the North Caspian and South Caspian. South Caspian, with territories including Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, basin has the largest oil and gas reserves in Central Asia. The Amu-
Darya Basin extends over an area of 370,000 km square of eastern Turkmenistan and western
Uzbekistan; another 57,000 km square situated in neighboring countries, in particular northern
Afghanistan. More than 130 gas, gas – condensate and oil fields have been discovered in the Amu
Darya basin. Of these, 60% are in Western Uzbekistan and 40% in eastern Turkmenistan. According
to the report (1993) of Gregory Ulmishek, The Russian oil expert the Amu Darya basin contains 0.7
billion barrels of oil in identified reserves and 3 billion in undiscovered reserves. For gas, the
cumulative production is 86 trillion cubic feet; identified reserves are 200 trillion, and
undiscovered reserves are assessed at 75 trillion. Seventy-five percent of these gas reserves are
found in Turkmenistan and 25% in Uzbekistan.

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 5

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
Current estimates indicate that, in addition to huge gas deposits, the Caspian basin may hold as
much as 200 billion barrels of oil - 33 times the estimated holdings of Alaska's North Slope and a
current value of $4 trillion. It is enough to meet the U.S.' energy needs for 30 years or more. The
presence of these oil reserves and the possibility of their export raises new strategic concerns for
the U.S. and other Western industrial powers. As oil companies build oil pipelines from the
Caucasus and Central Asia to supply Japan and the West, these strategic concerns gain military
implications.

Turkmenistan hydrocarbon reserves and its importance for the world

By the 1990, most of the Turkmenistan Caspian shelf, with more than 40 untested
structures, remained relatively undrilled. Turkmenistan was also disputing the Kyapaz field,
which was discovered by Azerbaijan. Turkmenistan’s daily oil production in 1995 equaled
79,000 barrels a day. Turkmenistan has the largest amount of gas reserves in Central Asia
counties with estimated reserves at 93 to 155 trillion cubic feet of gas, which places
Turkmenistan in between the U.S. (167 trillion) and Venezuela (142 trillion). A number of
exploration blocks were offered for bidding in September 1997.
Turkmenistan postulates undiscovered reserves on its Caspian shelf at 3 billion metric tons
(22 billion bbl) of oil and 4.8 trillion cubic meters (168 tcf) of gas. According to testimony before
the US House of Representatives in March 1999 by the conservative think tank Heritage
Foundation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan together have 15 billion barrels
of proven oil reserves. The same countries also have proven gas deposits totaling not less than nine
trillion cubic meters. Another study by the Institute for Afghan Studies placed the total worth of oil
and gas reserves in the Central Asian republics at around US$3 trillion at Mid 90's prices while in
Today's market trends the worth is about 4 trillion dollars. 
These reserves, which are according to assessments of independent and Turkmen experts, have
20.8 billion tons of oil and 24.6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.  These figures were announced
at a conference “Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan-2008” The forum was held in the London institute of
directors and included about 160 leading international energy companies from 23 countries,
including BP, Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil Corporation, Total, Conoco Phillips,
Worley Parsons and others. According to Turkmenistan representatives, both on land and sea,
more than a thousand promising oil and gas deposits have been identified in the country, over
one hundred and fifty of which have been opened.  Fifty of those are currently in development.  As
reported by the news source, Turkmenistan plans to extract 110 million tons of oil and 250 billion
cubic meters of natural gas by 2030. This information was originally published on April 18, 2008.

The terrorism of exploitation in Central Asia by Oil Giants

Larry Chim of Online Journal describes the situation as, "After the fall of the Soviet Union,
Argentine oil company Bridas, led by its ambitious chairman, Carlos Bulgheroni, became the first
company to exploit the oil fields of Turkmenistan and propose a pipeline through neighboring
Afghanistan. A powerful US-backed consortium intent on building its own pipeline through the same
Afghan corridor would oppose Bridas' project".
On the competition of Bridas Corporation, emerged the CentGas that was a consortium formed
in the 1990s to develop a project to build the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline to link Turkmenistan's
abundant proven natural gas reserves with growing markets in Pakistan. The Group led by Union
Oil Company of California (Unocal) and Delta Oil Company, Ltd., of Saudi Arabia had also
considered an extension of the line to the New Delhi area. The pipeline was to stretch 1,271km

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 6

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad fields to Multan in Pakistan at an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. An
additional $600 million would have brought the pipeline to "energy-hungry" India.

In 1998, the California-based UNOCAL, which held 46.5 percent stakes in Central Asia Gas
(CentGas), a consortium that planned an ambitious gas pipeline across Afghanistan, withdrew in
frustration after several fruitless years. The immediate reason for UNOCAL's withdrawal was
undoubtedly the US cruise missile attacks on Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in August
1998, done in so called retaliation for the bombing of its embassies in Africa but infact as UNOCAL
then stated that the project would have to wait until Afghanistan achieved the "peace and stability
necessary to obtain financing from international agencies and a government that is recognized by the
United States and the United Nations". The violence and instability was created by the cruise missile
attacks in order to topple Taliban regime that were then supporting Bridas Corporation.
Bridas Corporation started negotiations with Taliban in August 1995 after the discovery of a
new gas field in Yashlar, Turkmenistan with reserves of 800,000 million cubic meters, 10% more
than in all of Argentina, homeland of Bridas Corporation. Soon Bridas Corporation had the accords
with Turkmenistan and Pakistan while they were in process to complete the agreement with
Afghanistan. It alarmed UNOCAL and Americans and they started interfering Bridas Corporation's
operations in building pipeline. In response to the interference of Unocal, Bridas Corporation has
filed a law suit in Texas, USA, in which Bridas was seeking $ 15 billion in damages -- centers on the
Argentine firm's allegations that Unocal interfered in its operations in the former Soviet republic of
Turkmenistan. Those operations included plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan
through war-torn Afghanistan to the growing energy market in Pakistan, for which it originally had
exclusive negotiating rights.
The American influence on Turkmenistan commenced in March 1993, with the appointment of
Alexander Haig (former U.S. National Security Adviser) to lobby for increased U.S. investment
in Turkmenistan. Bridas and Turkmenistan Government were having very good relations prior to
this appointment. Turkmenistan Government has awarded gas exploration rights to Bridas with
production profits to be split 50-50 between Bridas and Turkmenistan government and just after

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 7

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
one year of this deal Turkmenistan Government awarded Bridas to operate Keimir Oil and Gas
Block in western Turkmenistan with 75-25 split in profits, in favor of Bridas. After the American
influence is settled with Turkmenistan Government, Bridas was prevented from exporting oil from
Keimir Block by the government of Turkmenistan in September 1994. The deal was renegotiated
and in January 1995, Bridas was allowed to export the oil & gas from Keimir Oil and Gas Block with
reduced profit share of 65%. Later in October 1995, when Turkmen President signed agreement
with Unocal in New York, he was probable instructed to stop the exports of Bridas from Keimir
block which he ordered in December 1995. According to Bridas, the Turkmen government then
made an overnight decision to cut off the export of oil from Bridas' Keimir field on the Caspian Sea.
The company also alleged that the deputy prime minister demanded that Bridas, with its cash flow
strangled, renegotiate its concession and "We found written evidence that Unocal was behind the
curtains".  
On the other side of border, Bridas has been scoring points with
Taliban since the first meeting with Taliban in 1995. In
February 1996, Bridas signed agreement for Tran –
Afghanistan Pipeline with Afghan government. In
November 1996, Bridas signed agreements with Taliban
and Gen. Dostum to build pipeline through Afghanistan.
By February and March 1997, Bridas succeeded to
establish its office in Kabul under Taliban government and
when Taliban announced their criteria for awarding the contract to the
company that starts the work first, wins, the Unocal's response was conditional and showing
reservations while Bridas responded with "interested in beginning work in any kind of security
situation." In May 97, one month later to this interest, Taliban-controlled radio in Kabul said a
visiting delegation from an Argentinean company (Bridas Corporation) had announced that
pipeline construction would start "soon" and The chief of Bridas' Afghan operations, said that his
company was close to signing a pipeline agreement with the Taliban, the Islamic movement that
controls large parts of Afghan territory, including virtually all the proposed pipeline route. He said
Bridas would start construction as soon as the deal is signed. According to BBC, "The radio has
reported several visits to Kabul by Unocal and Bridas company officials over the past few months".
Unocal was also putting its best efforts to win the favors of newly established Afghan
government of Taliban and other stakeholders including Afghan warlords, Turkmen government
and Pakistan Government. Craig Rosebraugh in his article "Don't Mess with Unocal" narrates,"
During the mid-1990s, the Unocal project received strong support from
Taliban representatives in Texas, 1997.
the US government. From 1995-98, especially after the Taliban seized [Source: Lions Gate Films]
control of Kabul in September 1996, Clinton administration
officials actively lobbied Taliban officials on behalf of Unocal". In March 1996, U.S. Ambassador
to Pakistan, Tom Simmons, urged Benazir Bhutto, the prime minister of Pakistan to give exclusive
rights to build pipeline through Pakistan to Unocal that Ms. Benazir Bhutto refused with apology
and Americans turned their attention towards Afghanistan where Taliban were about to control the
government. Unocal offered aid to warlords in September 1996 and next month, when the Taliban
has taken over Kabul, the Unocal expressed its support for Taliban regime in flattery and hope to
get easy way to build its pipeline.
In March 1997, Unocal established its office in Kandhar, and next month Taliban announced
that the contract to be awarded to the company that starts the work on pipeline first. In the words
of Brooke Shelby Biggs, Pacific News Service "Unocal courted both the Taliban and the rival Northern
Alliance, but paid special attention on the Taliban. In 1997, the Unocal vice president in charge of the

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 8

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
pipeline project was quoted as saying that his company had  provided "non-cash bonus payments"  to
members of the regime in return for their cooperation".
In February 1997, Taliban visited Unocal in U.S.A and later in December 1997, as reported by
BBC, "A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan is in the United States for talks
with an international energy company that wants to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across
Afghanistan to Pakistan. A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to
spend several days at the company's headquarters in Sugarland, Texas" . But in the end, all the
company had, according to Unocal spokesman Mike Thatcher, was a "letter of support" signed by
representatives of both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. "It wasn't a binding business deal," he
says, "just a piece of paper that basically said they liked the idea of the project." The game was
obviously being won by Bridas in Afghanistan, with Taliban who extensively worked out their
benefit in this case and finally showing their favors towards Bridas. Unocal halted its operations on
this project which was later carried by another American Oil company, "The Enron.
As the matter of fact, Taliban according to Craig Rosebraugh in 2002," issued two demands to
both companies before any agreement could be reached. They wanted Unocal and Birdas to construct an
open pipeline, one that could be tapped into from Afghanistan for local consumption. Second, they
wanted the companies to get involved in building roads, water supplies, telephone lines, and electrical
power lines. While Bridas agreed to meet the demands and build an open pipeline, Unocal refused,
preferring a closed pipeline for export only. Bridas and the Taliban initially reached an agreement, but
the deal later fell through due to lack of financing".
Taliban became the most important and, to my opinion, most sincere and smart guys in the
entire scenario as Afghanistan was in the centre of most important global issue of that time, "the
Central Asian energy trade dominance".

Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban's Consultant for Pipeline deal

I have researched more about Taliban and Bin Laden connection in view of Taliban's
shrewdness in dealings with the Global Oil Giants, especially American Oil companies which in past
have been fooling all the nations and governments with Oil reserves, could not trap, Taliban, the
people with very poor information and intelligence of global politics of oil, global Energy situation
unless there is a very well learned and outstanding consultant is tagged along. Who could be better
than Osama Bin Laden? With his family background in deep relations with Saudi Royal Family, Oil
construction and development business,
Now the only way for America to control the pipeline is to topple Taliban Regime and replace it
with its supporting people in order to stabilize the country and control to be given under one
government, as required by John J. Maresca, vice president of international relations for UNOCAL on
February 12, 1998, to the US House of Representatives, "It's not going to be built until there is a single
Afghan government. That's the simple answer."

Taliban, drug trade and Afghanistan

History of poppy production and heroin smuggling from Afghanistan can be traced back in the late 1970s
when Soviet Union invaded and Afghan war lords started cultivation of poppy to generate money to
purchase weapons and income for Afghan citizens. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a
part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially
independent, detailed the background and facts about Afghan poppy cultivation, trade and politics in its
report, published in August 2004, entitled as " AFGHANISTAN: The risk of losing the peace". According
to the report, some important facts are;

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 9

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
- "The temptation for (Pre & Post Taliban) government officers, law enforcement officials and
local authorities to become involved in the multi-million dollar trade has proved too much for
many and an entrenched culture of corruption prevails" .

Removal of Taliban regime is essential but how?

In the 90s, Afghanistan occupied the central position in the U.S. strategy for the economic
control of the oil and gas resources in the entire Middle East. In the mid-1990s, while Russia, China,
Iran, and several European nations squabbled over pipelines through Russia and Iran, California-
based oil and gas giant Unocal was looking at another route -- from Turkmenistan straight through
Afghanistan to Pakistan or India.
To build such a pipeline, however, the company would have to dance cheek-to-cheek with the
Taliban, who were then rising to power which finally Unocal lost and left with only option of
military occupation on the route followed by a puppet government of United States to protect the
pipeline or to lose not only the "new great game" – a rivalry for pipeline routes to access energy
resources in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea but also the control over hydrocarbon reserves and
resources of Amu – Darya Region, particularly of Turkmenistan.
In the words of Leandro Natividad" Beneath the rhetorics of US President George W. Bush to
smash the so-called Al Quida network led by Osama bin Laden in the name of ‘freedom and civilization’
lies a deeper and far-reaching reason: Central Asia’s oil and gas reserves and other natural resources.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and some of his Cabinet men – who themselves have corporate ties
with giant power corporations – are not just fighting ‘terrorism’. They’re fighting for something else".
An "inside job" was planned and later in September a "new pearl Harbour" was conducted to
divert the global attention and concern and to seek the sympathy to invade Afghanistan. I don't go
into lengthy debate on the topic but the simplest reason behind 9/11 and war on terror can be
found while meditating on the fact that who could be benefited by such an act like 9/11? What, if it
is conducted by Osama Bin Laden or Al – Qaeda, was gained? What could be their motives behind
such events of terrorism? To terrorize the world of their power and capability which could not last
a few weeks when they were retaliated and attacked by the US lead coalition forces? What they
gained is the gift of Bush Administration to them today, the grown hatred and "anti – Americanism"
as the result of American brutality and violence in the majority of global territories, particularly in
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

American again in the war in Afghanistan

Now if one looks deeply into the motives from the stand point of Neo cons and people of PNAC,
it fits best. Regarding the invasion of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the clear objective is to clear and
secure the way for the transportation channels of Central Asian hydrocarbon reserves which are
otherwise could fall into the control of Russia and Iran. After successful completion of 9/11,
America moved towards the Afghanistan with a huge stockpile of sympathy and support from
International community. Tom Turnipseed's article in January 2002, published in Counter Punch, a
bi-weekly newsletter published in the United States narrates the situation," "The Bush
Administration's entanglement with ENRON is beginning to unravel as it finally admits that Enron
executives entered the White House six times last year (2001) to secretly plan the Administration's
energy policy with Vice-President Cheney before the collapse of the Texas-based energy giant.
Meanwhile, even more trouble for our former-Texas-oil-man-turned-President is brewing with reports
that unveil UNOCAL, another big energy company, for being in bed with the Taliban, along with the U.S.
government in a major, continuing effort to construct pipelines through Afghanistan from the
petroleum-rich Caspian Basin in Central Asia".   With the Taliban's replacement, the new Afghan
government's head, Hamid Karzai, formerly served as a UNOCAL consultant a claim originated from

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 10

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
December 6, 2001 issue of the French newspaper Le Monde. Only nine days after Karazai's
ascension, President Bush nominated another UNOCAL consultant and former Taliban defender,
Zalmay Khalilzad, as his special envoy to Afghanistan. Barry Lane UNOCAL's manager for public
relations states that, "He was never a consultant, never an employee. We've exhaustively searched
through all our records." Lane however did say that Zalmay Khalilzad was a Unocal consultant in the
mid-1990s. The published works of Wayne Madsen, the investigative
journalist, author and columnist provides a detailed description of Mr, Karzai and Mr. Khalilzad in
his article, " Afghanistan, the Taliban and Bush Oil Team" published by Centre for Research on
Globalisation (CRG) on January 23 2002. He writes,"
According to Afghan, Iranian, and Turkish government sources, Hamid Karzai, the interim Prime
Minister of Afghanistan, was a top adviser to the El Segundo, California-based UNOCAL Corporation
which was negotiating with the Taliban to construct a Central Asia Gas (CentGas) pipeline from
Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan to Pakistan.
Karzai, the leader of the southern Afghan Pashtun Durrani tribe, was a member of the mujaheddin
that fought the Soviets during the 1980s. He was a top contact for the CIA and maintained close
relations with CIA Director William Casey, Vice President George Bush, and their Pakistani Inter Service
Intelligence (ISI) Service interlocutors. Later, Karzai and a number of his brothers moved to the United
States under the auspices of the CIA. Karzai continued to serve the agency's interests, as well as those
of the Bush Family and their oil friends in negotiating the CentGas deal, according to Middle East and
South Asian sources.
When one peers beyond all of the rhetoric of the White House and Pentagon concerning the Taliban,
a clear pattern emerges showing that construction of the trans-Afghan pipeline was a top priority of
the Bush administration from the outset. Although UNOCAL claims it abandoned the pipeline project
in December 1998, the series of meetings held between U.S., Pakistani, and Taliban officials after
1998, indicates the project was never off the table.
Quite to the contrary, recent meetings between U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain
and that country's oil minister Usman Aminuddin indicate the pipeline project is international Project
Number One for the Bush administration. Chamberlain, who maintains close ties to the Saudi
ambassador to Pakistan (a one-time chief money conduit for the Taliban), has been pushing Pakistan to
begin work on its Arabian Sea oil terminus for the pipeline.
Karzai's ties with UNOCAL and the Bush administration are the main reason why the CIA pushed
him for Afghan leader over rival Abdul Haq, the assassinated former mujahidin leader from Jalalabad,
and the leadership of the Northern Alliance, seen by Langley as being too close to the Russians and
Iranians. Haq had no apparent close ties to the U.S. oil industry and, as both a Pushtun and a northern
Afghani, was popular with a wide cross-section of the Afghan people, including the Northern Alliance.
Those credentials likely sealed his fate.
When Haq entered Afghanistan from Pakistan last October, his position was immediately known to
Taliban forces, which subsequently pinned him and his small party down, captured, and executed them.
Former Reagan National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, who worked with Haq, vainly attempted to
get the CIA to help rescue Haq. The agency claimed it sent a remotely-piloted armed drone to attack the
Taliban but its actions were too little and too late.
While Haq was not part of the Bush administration's GOP (Grand Oil Plan) for South Asia, Karzai was
a key player on the Bush Oil team. During the late 1990s, Karzai worked with an Afghani-American,
Zalmay Khalilzad, on the CentGas project. Khalilzad is President Bush's Special National Security
Assistant and recently named presidential Special Envoy for Afghanistan. Interestingly, in the White
House press release naming Khalilzad special envoy, no mention was made of his past work for UNOCAL.
Khalilzad has worked on Afghan issues under National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, a former

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 11

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
member of the board of Chevron, itself no innocent bystander in the future CentGas deal. Rice made an
impression on her old colleagues at Chevron. The company has named one of their supertankers the SS
Condoleezza Rice.
Khalilzad, a fellow Pashtun and the son of a former government official under King Mohammed Zahir
Shah, was, in addition to being a consultant to the "RAND Corporation", a special liaison between
UNOCAL and the Taliban government. Khalilzad also worked on various risk analyses for the project.
Khalilzad's efforts complemented those of the Enron Corporation, a major political contributor to the
Bush campaign. Enron, which recently filed for bankruptcy in the single biggest corporate collapse in the
nation's history, conducted the feasibility study for the CentGas deal. Vice President Cheney held several
secret meetings with top Enron officials, including its Chairman Kenneth Lay, earlier in 2001. These
meetings were presumably part of Cheney's non-public Energy Task Force sessions. A number of Enron
stockholders, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick,
became officials in the Bush administration. In addition, Thomas White, a former Vice Chairman of
Enron and a multimillionaire in Enron stock, currently serves as the Secretary of the Army.
A chief benefactor in the CentGas deal would have been Halliburton, the huge oil pipeline
construction firm that also had its eye on the Central Asian oil reserves. At the time, Halliburton was
headed by Dick Cheney. After Cheney's selection as Bush's Vice Presidential candidate, Halliburton
also pumped a huge amount of cash into the Bush-Cheney campaign coffers. And like oil cash cow
Enron, there were Wall Street rumors in late December that Halliburton, which suffered a forty per cent
drop in share value, might follow Enron into bankruptcy court.
Assisting with the CentGas negotiations with the Taliban was Laili Helms, the niece-in-law of
former CIA Director Richard Helms. Laili Helms, also a relative of King Zahir Shah, was the Taliban's
unofficial envoy to the United States and arranged for various Taliban officials to visit the United States.
Laili Helms' base of operations was in her home in Jersey City on the Hudson River. Ironically, most of her
work on behalf of the Taliban was practically conducted in the shadows of the World Trade Center, just
across the river.
Laili Helms' liaison work for the Taliban paid off for Big Oil. In December 1997, the Taliban visited
UNOCAL's Houston refinery operations. Interestingly, the chief Taliban leader based in Kandahar, Mullah
Mohammed Omar, now on America's international Most Wanted List, was firmly in the UNOCAL camp.
His rival Taliban leader in Kabul, Mullah Mohammed Rabbani (not to be confused with the head of the
Northern Alliance Burhanuddin Rabbani), favored Bridas, an Argentine oil company, for the pipeline
project. But Mullah Omar knew UNOCAL had pumped large sums of money to the Taliban hierarchy in
Kandahar and its expatriate Afghan supporters in the United States. Some of those supporters were also
close to the Bush campaign and administration. And Kandahar was the city near which the CentGas
pipeline was to pass, a lucrative deal for the otherwise desert outpost.
While Clinton's State Department omitted Afghanistan from the top foreign policy priority list, the
Bush administration, beholden to the oil interests that pumped millions of dollars into the 2000
campaign, restored Afghanistan to the top of the list, but for all the wrong reasons.
According to the Washington Post, the Special Envoy of Mullah Omar, Rahmatullah Hashami, even
came to Washington bearing a gift carpet for President Bush from the Taliban leader. The Village Voice
reported that Hashami, on behalf of the Taliban, offered the Bush administration to hold on to bin Laden
long enough for the United States to capture or kill him but, inexplicably, the administration refused.
Meanwhile, Spozhmai Maiwandi, the director of the Voice of America's Pashtun service, jokingly
nicknamed "Kandahar Rose" by her colleagues, aired favorable reports on the Taliban, including a
controversial interview with Mullah Omar.
The Bush administration's dalliances with the Taliban may have even continued after the start of the
bombing campaign against their country. According to European intelligence sources, a number of

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 12

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
European governments were concerned that the CIA and Big Oil were pressuring the Bush administration
not to engage in an initial serious ground war on behalf of the Northern Alliance in order to placate
Pakistan and its Taliban compatriots. The early-on decision to stick with an incessant air bombardment,
they reasoned, was causing too many civilian deaths and increasing the shakiness of the international
coalition.
The obvious, and woefully underreported, interfaces between the Bush administration, UNOCAL, the
CIA, the Taliban, Enron, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, the groundwork for which was laid when the Bush
Oil team was on the sidelines during the Clinton administration, is making the Republicans worried.
Vanquished vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman is in the ironic position of being the senator
who will chair the Senate Government Affairs Committee hearings on the collapse of Enron. The roads
from Enron also lead to Afghanistan and murky Bush oil politics.

The War in Afghanistan and Taliban "Again"

Now the war goes on after summer 2002, the Taliban commenced to trouble US and coalition
forces in Afghanistan as part of their war strategy. Taliban retreated swiftly after the US attack on
Afghanistan and scattered. My observation was that it was a very clever war strategy by Taliban to
engage US in Afghanistan for long time, like former Soviet Union. Taliban gathered their strength
for two years after the US invasion and During September 2002, Taliban forces began a recruitment
drive in Pashtun areas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to launch a renewed "jihad" or holy war
against the Afghan government and the U.S-led coalition. Pamphlets distributed in secret during the
night also began to appear in many villages in the former Taliban heartland in southeastern
Afghanistan. Small mobile training camps were established along the border with Pakistan by
Taliban fugitives to train new recruits in guerrilla warfare and tactics.
There are two kinds of Taliban in existence today, the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban.
The U.S military commanders call the Afghan Taliban Big T and they call the Pakistani Taliban Little
T. The Afghan Taliban's main goal is to remove the foreign forces and their backed government
from Afghanistan. Their leadership councils are intact and they operate in almost all parts of the
Afghanistan in one form or the other. The Taliban control most of the country side from Herat
Northwestern Afghanistan to Qandahar (southern Afghanistan) to Kunar (Northeastern
Afghanistan). Taliban fighters are also said to have started operations in the Northern city of Mazar-
i-Sharif.
In 2003, Taliban started attacks in small groups of 40 to 50 on US lead coalition forces, conveys
and isolated outposts, police and militia and disburse in 5 to 10 to avoid retaliation. In the
beginning, U.S. forces, which remained in Afghanistan in fortifications and with limited and extra
ordinary security mobility, were attacked usually indirectly, through rocket attacks on bases and
improvised mines planted in the roadside. In early 2003, when Germany and the Netherlands
formally took command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, on 10 February, Afghanistan was again warm with clashes and attacks on coalition forces.
Few incidents reported in the media were:

- In the end of January 2009 (on Jan 28th probably), near the south-eastern border town of
Spin Boldak, coalition forces killed 18 rebels in the Adi Ghar mountain cave complex.
The operation, involving US and Norwegian warplanes, was the biggest confrontation
involving the US military in Afghanistan for 10 months. Rebels loyal to the Hezb-i-
Islamic party of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were said to be using Adi Ghar
cave warren as a base.

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 13

 The Hidden Connection – Global Oil Trade and Global Terrorism
- In response, at least five heavily-armed extremists ambushed US Special Forces Patrol on
on February 10 2003, as they picked their way through a remote mountain valley. The
patrol was attacked at dawn by machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades from
overhead ridges as it was exploring Bahgran valley in central Uruzgan province.
- A car packed with explosives pulled up to a bus carrying German peacekeepers in Kabul and
detonated Saturday, killing four and wounding more than two dozen in the first fatal attack
on the international force.

Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan

From the beginning Pakistan was the prime beneficiary of the project as the Trans Afghanistan
pipeline is designed primarily to supply Turkmen gas and oil to energy-hungry Pakistan market.
Now when the project is suspended, it created the energy crisis in Pakistan and as of 2010, Pakistan
is in severe shortage of gas and electricity. Consequences, shown by the statistics are horrifying.
Since 2006, citizens of Pakistan are protesting against the power cuts which converted into violence
till 2009 and 2010. I witnessed violence in Karachi during July and August 2009 when people
blocked major roads and transportation in Karachi for several consecutive days striking against the
power cuts. A month earlier, BBC reported "Karachi, the country's financial capital and a city of 14
million people, is the worst affected. Power cuts, sometimes for as long as 12 to 16 hours a day, have
caused widespread disruption to life in the city and much anger. Traders and manufacturers in Karachi
say they are losing millions of dollars a day in lost business because of the repeated cuts." Tayyab
Siddiqui describes the situation as," The long power outages across the country has made it an issue of
extreme volatility causing suffering in the daily life of Pakistani and putting Pakistan’s economic future in
serious jeopardy." Haji Aftab Ahmad Barlas Acting President FPCCI said in February 2010 that due to
current energy shortage industry has failed to continue the productivity process in smooth way.
Shortage of gas consequently lead Pakistan's reliance on imported oil to produce electricity
forcing the already shattered external balance sheet of the country to borrow more from foreign
lenders to meet the required and increasing imports of oil. The practice is alarming for the
economic stability of the country because of its control by IMF. The intensifying shortage of gas
supply has now hit over 2500 industrial units in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and other cities and
towns.
Taliban vindicated to be the only regime that managed peace and sovereignty in Afghanistan
which historically had been centre of tribal clashes and social-political violence. The peace and
sovereignty of government, law and order implementation are the important most factors in supply
of hydrocarbon energy resources through Afghanistan to Pakistan but for US, Taliban or any other
government and regime in the region is a peaceful regime as long as it is working for the interests
and causes of America. Such a nation is peaceful and democratic as long as it is obeying American
orders and serving for American benefits. If not, then the nation, the government and the regime is
Terrorist, Al – Qaeda connected and producing Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Chapter 1: The motives behind American invasion of Afghanistan 14