Dollar signs in Afghan eyes as gas pipeline gets new lease of life

[Lori Price CLG]

Dollar signs in Afghan eyes as gas pipeline gets new lease of life

The Washington sisterhood's campaign against the Taliban, led by the Feminist Majority Foundation, had thwarted ambitious plans by the US energy firm Unocal to build a strategic pipeline across the wastelands of Afghanistan.

But what a difference a war makes. In the new Kabul, the $US3.8 billion ($5 billion) gas project is being resurrected and one of the finer pairs of hands on this dog-eared brief are those of Mary Louise Vitelli, a fortysomething New York lawyer.

<snip>

Afghan optimism about the Unocal project is understandable. If the pipeline goes ahead, the Afghan Government might make up to $US300 million a year...

<snip>


Then there is a $US17.4 million exploration of Afghanistan by the US Geological Survey to establish what volumes of mineral and energy resources are in the country.

<snip>

Lori Price

[Disturbed]

1. The reason for the take over.

Anybody that believes it was to spread freedom is seriously
ignorant.

[YDogg]

2. Somehow I think if the Taliban were oilmen ...

... sympathetic to Big Oil, they'd still be in power.

[Trajan]

5. They are ....

and they are ....

Just not the 'right' ones ....

Hamid Karzai = UNOCAL Employee ...

Zalmay Khalilzad = UNOCAL Employee ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/west_asia/37021.stm

BBC News : Thursday, December 4, 1997 Published at 19:27 GMT

Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline

The 1,300km pipeline will carry gas across Afghanistan's harsh terrain

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.

Unocal says it has agreements both with Turkmenistan to sell its gas and with Pakistan to buy it.

The Afghan economy has been devasted by 20 years of civil war
But, despite the civil war in Afghanistan, Unocal has been in competition with an Argentinian firm, Bridas, to actually construct the pipeline.

Last month, the Argentinian firm, Bridas, announced that it was close to signing a two-billion dollar deal to build the pipeline, which would carry gas 1,300 kilometres from Turkmenistan to Pakistan, across Afghanistan.

-snip-

[Racenut20]

7. Sugarland, Texas. Tom Delay & Unocal's home...my my my. what

a coincidence

[catzies]

8. They don't even try to hide it or be subtle about it anymore.

Outrageous, audacious, felonious, murderous bastards.

[54anickel]

6. Oh, but they were....for the other side

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI203A.html

snip>

In 1997, Taliban officials traveled twice to Washington, D.C. and Buenos Aires to be wined and dined by Unocal and Bridas. No agreements were signed.

It appeared to Unocal that the Taliban was balking. In addition to royalties, the Taliban demanded funding for infrastructure projects, including roads and power plants. The Taliban also announced plans to revive the Afghan National Oil Company, which had been abolished by the Soviet regime in the late 1970s.

Osama bin Laden (who issued his fatwa against the West in 1998) advised the Taliban to sign with Bridas. In addition to offering the Taliban a higher bid, Bridas proposed an open pipeline accessible to warlords and local users. Unocal's pipeline was closed—for export purposes only. Bridas' plan also did not require outside financing, while Unocal's required a loan from the western financial institutions (the World Bank), which in turn would leave Afghanistan vulnerable to demands from western governments.

Bridas' approach to business was more to the Taliban's liking. Where Bulgheroni and Bridas' engineers would take the time to "sip tea with Afghan tribesmen," Unocal's American executives issued top-down edicts from corporate headquarters and the US Embassy (including a demand to open talks with the CIA-backed Northern Alliance).

[meganmonkey]

3. Hey, we won!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[KamaAina]

4. Should read "Dollar signs in PNAC eyes..."

otherwise a fine catch. :-)

[leesa]

9. This is the ONLY reason we invaded Afghanistan...it had NOTHING to do

with 9-11.

[Lori Price CLG]

11. Right, where is *Saudi* Osama bin Laden? Certainly not in Afghanistan. n/t

[GetTheRightVote]

10. yep, oil people in US win another one, when will it all end & the good

guys win ??

:kick:

[Robb]

12. Ah, remember when (Robbstrodamus, part 2)

...Remember when these -stans were so obscure?

Hit the wayback machine, if you will, to my Nov. 1, 2001 letter to the editor, reprinted by Bartcop. ;)

[lonestarnot]

13. Robberbarrons after it egh?