Enron gave Taliban millions of $$$$!

[happydreams]

The most Honorable Congressman Henry Waxman will be asking the Bushies some questions about their connection to Enron. I wonder if he would find this interesting.

The Enron Corporation gave the Taliban millions of dollars in a no-holds-barred bid to strike a deal for an energy pipeline in Afghanistan -- wile the Taliban were already sheltering terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden!

Enron executives even met with Taliban officials in Texas, where they were given the red-carpet treatment and promised a fortune if the deal went through.

That's the bombshell finding of an exclusive ENQUIRER investigation into the collapse of the company that ripped off Americans for millions of dollars. The ENQUIRER has also uncovered that some of the Enron money wound up supporting Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist network!

"Enron would do business with the devil if it would make the company money!" said a member of a Congressional committee investigating the company's collapse.....more

Google: Taliban+Enron




http://www.angelfire.com/linux/pearly/htmls/enron-taliban.html



Bush admin link to Enron, real thick:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/enron_bush.htm

[fooj]

1. I LOVE YOU HENRY WAXMAN!

:loveya:

[cmd]

2. Color me not surprised

and betting there is a connection with Bush/Cheney.

[Sequoia]

3. Meanwhile, Ken Lay, disguised as Crusty the Clown,

enjoys his lifelong Caribian vacation.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

4. Moore had some of this in his film about Bush.

Showed * meeting with the Taliban when he was Governor. Was trying to get them to build a gas pipeline for his cronies. Also, When Cheney was head of Halliburton he was trying to get some sanctions lifted so they could do business with Saddam.
Their only patriotism is to the almighty $$$. They are a bunch of crooks that need to go to jail.

[Amonester]

44. Not only the almighty $$$, but nearly 10,000 US citizens died be

cause they never care about anybody else than them$elve$

9/11 (nearly 3,000) 52 clear warnings =
PNAC's neocons IN POWER did NOTHING 'cuz they were dreaming of a new Pearl Harbor...

Iraq's illegal (and unnecessary...) invasion (will go to 4,000, and beyond... :cry:)

Katrina (nearly 1,500) 'cuz the miserable failure of a pRetzeldent looked the other way when warned...

(and that doesn't include the tens of thousands maimed and traumatized for life, nor the hundreds of thousands innocent Iraqi citizens who were victims of the war criminals in the republic party.)

[xultar]

5. I keep wondering why RETHUG Texans forget W invited the Taliban to visit his prisons.

The fuckers

[happydreams]

8. I didn't know about visiting the prisons. I do know

Saudi's visited the ranch. If you've got a link to that please ad it here.
Thanks.

[indepat]

6. RW support of terrorist organizations and acts is a.o.k. because RWers are omniscient and wear

the white hats as they peddle their duplicitous mendacious reichous hypocrisy.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Enron, Uzbekistan

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=uzbekistan

June 24, 1996: Uzbekistan Cuts a Deal with EnronUzbekistan signs a deal with Enron “that could lead to joint development of the Central Asian nation’s potentially rich natural gas fields.” The $1.3 billion venture teams Enron with the state companies of Russia and Uzbekistan. On July 8, 1996, the US government agrees to give $400 million to help Enron and an Uzbek state company develop these natural gas fields.
Entity Tags: Enron, Uzbekistan
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline
1998: US and Uzbekistan Begin Conducting Joint Operations against Taliban and Al-QaedaBeginning in 1998, if not before, Uzbekistan and the CIA secretly create a joint counterterrorist strike force, funded and trained by the CIA. This force conducts joint covert operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In February 1999, radical Muslims fail in an attempt to assassinate the leader of Uzbekistan. Following this, the CIA is allowed to step up their secret operations in Uzbekistan. The CIA and NSA are allowed to install monitoring equipment to intercept Taliban and al-Qaeda communications. Intelligence is shared, and Uzbek military bases are made available for small-scale CIA operations. Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan to the north. By contrast, the other nations surrounding Afghanistan—Iran, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, do not cooperate with the US on these matters very much or at all.
Entity Tags: Osama bin Laden, Taliban, United States, Uzbekistan
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline
June 1998: Enron Shuts Down Uzbekistan Pipeline ProjectEnron’s agreement from 1996 (see June 24, 1996) to develop natural gas with Uzbekistan is not renewed. Enron closes its office there. The reason for the “failure of Enron’s flagship project” is an inability to get the natural gas out of the region. Uzbekistan’s production is “well below capacity” and only 10 percent of its production is being exported, all to other countries in the region. The hope was to use a pipeline through Afghanistan, but “Uzbekistan is extremely concerned at the growing strength of the Taliban and its potential impact on stability in Uzbekistan, making any future cooperation on a pipeline project which benefits the Taliban unlikely.” A $12 billion pipeline through China is being considered as one solution, but that wouldn’t be completed until the end of the next decade at the earliest.
Entity Tags: Taliban, China, Uzbekistan, Enron
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline

[happydreams]

22. Thanks. It looks like Bush admin tried to buy them off later.

as my reply below suggests.

When the "carpet of gold" didn't work they got the "carpet of bombs".

[happydreams]

9. Dead FBI counter-terrorism chief discovered the link.....

ENRON had its own telecommunication subsidiary in Afghanistan, TsiCommunications, who had another contract with the Taliban. Former federal war crimes prosecutor John Loftus (-> john-loftus.com) already claims knowledge of paperwork confirming secret dealings between Enron and the Taliban. According to Loftus an al-Qaeda document on this subject was discovered in 1998 by FBI counter-terrorism chief, ONeill,John, following the US embassy bombings in Africa. http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATinquirychaos.htm

The revelations on ENRON, the Taliban and their common CIA connections had never been mentioned by the US government.



http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Enron-TalibanConnection.shtml


Note: O'Neill was the guy who blew the whistle on the Saudi link to the USS Cole bombing. He died, ever so conveniently, in the WTC on 9/11

[porphyrian]

10. Go Congressman Waxman! Let's out these traitors. - n/t

[Marie26]

11. There's really

no evidence of this, much as I'd like to believe it. Who or what is the ENQUIRER?

[happydreams]

12. Here's more.

...According to a December 17, 1997 article in the British paper, The Telegraph, headlined, "Oil barons court Taliban in Texas," the Taliban was about to sign a "£2 billion contract with an American oil company to build a pipeline across the war-torn country. ... The Islamic warriors appear to have been persuaded to close the deal, not through delicate negotiation but by old-fashioned Texan hospitality. ... Dressed in traditional salwar khameez,Afghan waistcoats and loose, black turbans, the high-ranking delegation was given VIP treatment during the four-day stay."



http://www.counterpunch.org/tomenron.html

[Marie26]

15. It's still speculation

I'd like to see that actual British paper. This could be true, but since it seems to pop up mostly on conspiracy sites... it's a little dubious. Even from the article you posted, it's supposedly UNOCAL, not Enron, that met w/the Taliban.

[happydreams]

19. Maybe you should contact "Counterpunch".

I'd guess they could give you the specifics.

These people don't do business with each other for free.

Please see my reply below as well on the $132 million.

[Marie26]

20. W/headlines like:

"Russia's Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL!", I don't know if they're totally reliable here. It seems kind of like a tabloid for liberals. But to each her own.

[happydreams]

23. I agree, but it is the corroborating information from multiple

sources that seem to confirm this.

Thanks for looking more closely.

Here is someone that Henry Waxman could bring to the hearings (taken from original link):

....And Atul Davda, who worked as a senior director for Enron's International Division until the company's collapse, confirmed to The ENQUIRER: "Enron had intimate contact with Taliban officials. Building the pipeline was one of the corporation's prime objectives."

:hi:

[Marie26]

37. If he exists at all.

I definitely agree that Waxman should look into the connections between the oil companies/government/Taliban. But in this case, when I try to look into this specific story, I just keep stumbling on the same conspiracy sites quoting the same ENQUIRER article. This is the original source - the National Enquirer tabloid. http://web.archive.org/web/20020603095157/http:/www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?instanceid=22359 There's no reference to Atul Davda anywhere else, except that article. So, does he exist? Did he work for Enron? Who knows? The only real corroboration seems to be that tabloid article.

Personally, I think it's at least 50% BS. In 2002, people were outraged over Enron, and Al-Queda, and the article is trying to tie the two together to sell some papers. Davda, the only source claiming a link to Enron, might not even exist. But there does seem to be a nugget of truth there - "When contacted by The ENQUIRER, U.S. State Department's press officer for South Asian Affairs, Len Scensny, confirmed that a Taliban delegation visited Sugar Land, Texas, in 1997 to discuss business with oil companies." Len Scensny really is the State Dept. press officer, and the Enquirer probably wouldn't want to lie about what a real gov. official had said. It seems like that Sugerland meeting really happened - though it's not clear who attended. Seems like it was UNOCAL, though, not Enron. Mr. Scensny could testify before Congress, & I hope he does.

[happydreams]

27. Actually yer right Marie. There is some problem here.

on the actual transfer of the funds. This guy Davda is the only one who claims this in an absolute sense though the circumstantial evidence is considerable.

The only reference I get at google to Davda is the Enquirer article.
This guy needs to get on the witness stand.
That is if he is still among the living. :scared:

[Marie26]

42. Yeah, it's sketchy

The Davda-Enron connection seems almost non-existent, but there is a lot of evidence that the Taliban met w/oil executives in Texas, back in 1997.

This is the original BBC article:

Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline

Thursday, December 4, 1997

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.


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

[happydreams]

43. Let's take this subthread from here. You ask a REAL good question

If I had just read the Enquirer piece then I'd say no. But the specificity of Davda's title cited in the Enquirer article leads me to beleive that whoever wrote it did not pull the story out of thin air.

Davda was head of the "International Division" according to the Enquirer.

How could we go about finding him?
To be honest I'd guess he is probably on a missing persons report somewhere, if he exists/ed at all. I'm going to sniff around and see what I can find.


Next.
With all of the other corroboration combined with the specifics I mention above I'd say that Davda is a real person, but not a very bright one for coming out with something as big as this and, of all places giving it to the Enquirer.

Edited: for Bob Stevens reference.

[TahitiNut]

13. Kenny Boy funneling Bush/Baker money to the Taliban.

(yawn) Old news. The depths of the corruption are beyond "Average Joe" belief.

Carpet of gold or carpet of bombs? Who employed Karzai? (yawn)

[Peace Patriot]

32. You'd be surprise how smart the "Average Joe and Jane" are. 60% to 70% of

of the American people despise Bush and want Bush's war ended NOW. What makes you think "average" people can't follow this corruption? Far from "yawning," I am excited, intrigued and greatly heartened by the "average" American's ability to read between the lines, resist relentless 24/7 propaganda and think for themselves.

One of the most fascinating stats I know is this: 56% of the American people opposed Bush's war on Iraq way back before the invasion, in Feb. '03. At the same time, about 50% of the American people believed that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and/or had something to do with 9/11. Put these stats together. What do they tell you? They tell you that, despite total war propaganda from every side, many Americans figured out that, if Saddam had WMDs, they were not a threat, and, if he had something to do with 9/11, it was minor--and neither thing was worth a war. They didn't trust Bush. They were trying very hard to make their own judgment of the situation, despite near total disinformation from the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. 56%! (That would be a landslide in a presidential election.)

Anyone who would give a yawn to the American people trying to figure things out, and trying to overcome disinformation, as well as disempowerment and disenfranchisement, has to be quite cynical. Why predict that they will fail, when the evidence is strong that they have already overcome so much propaganda?

And, instead of yawning, why not pick out something you think "average" people don't know, and do something to help them know it? You may succeed, you may not. But why not try--given the stats that show that "average" Americans in fact care enough about what's going on to despise Bush and his war (and, if you look at the polls over the last several years, oppose every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 80% range)?

[TahitiNut]

36. (yawn)

:boring:

Some of us have known this for five years or more. I happen to be one of the (few) folks who was trying to tell people that the Taliban were in Houston in the late 90s 'negotiating' with the oil/energy people ... and that was why we invaded Afghanistan: i.e. "carpet of gold or carpet of bombs." The fraud of invading Afghanistan to get bin Laden was obvious from the outset. It was about the pipeline.

(Yawn.) So, others are catching up to what some of us have know for more than five years? Color me unimpressed with the learning abilities of those who derided us for having said this so long ago.

[happydreams]

33. Karzai actually was hired by Unocal. Another puppet of the oil

industry.

[TahitiNut]

35. Tell me something I don't know.

I ASSumed that the DU membership has known this for what? five years? :shrug:

[happydreams]

45. I'm trying to get the discussion going because of the Waxman

hearings coming up. Nothing wrong with a little review.

I had forgotten alot of this stuff until I reviewed it.

[Rex]

14. Yup, the BFEE loves to make money.

Even if it means the destruction of America, whatever it takes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. An Afganistan pipeline? OMIGOD! The French were right all along!

I'm still of the opinion that these strong-armed Cheney driven negotiations is what set off the 9/11 attacks. And if so, oh, my. Will the Republicans feel incredibly stupid. Take cover, 'cuz you KNOW they're going to find some way to blame us.

[happydreams]

17. $132 million to Taliban in 2001

It's clear the Cheney had his own conflicts of interest with Enron. A chief benefactor in the trans-Caspian pipeline deal would have been Halliburton, the huge oil pipeline construction firm which was previously headed by Cheney. After Cheney's selection as Bush's Vice Presidential candidate, Halliburton also contributed a huge amount of cash into the Bush-Cheney campaign coffers.

So the obvious question: Did Enron lobby Cheney for help in India? It has already been documented that the Vice President's energy task force changed a draft energy proposal to include a provision to boost oil and natural gas production in India in February of last year. The amendment was so narrow that it apparently was targeted only to help Enron's Dabhol plant in India. Later, Cheney stepped in to try to help Enron collect its $64 million debt during a June 27 meeting with India's opposition leader Sonia Gandhi. But behind the scenes, much more was cooking.

A series of e-mail memos obtained by the Washington Post and NY Daily News in January revealed that the National Security Council led a "Dabhol Working Group" composed of officials from various Cabinet departments during the summer of 2001. The memos suggest that the Bush Administration was running exactly the sort of "war room" that was a favorite subject of ridicule by Republicans during the Clinton years.

The Working Group prepared "talking points" for both Cheney and Bush and recommended that the need to "broaden the advocacy" of settling the Enron debt. Every development was closely monitored: "Good news" a NSC staff member wrote in a e-mail memo: "The Veep mentioned Enron in his meeting with Sonia Gandhi." The Post commented that the NSC went so far that it "acted as a sort of concierge service for Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay and India's national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra" in trying to arrange a dinner meeting between the Indian official and Lay.

While lobbying India, it appears that the Bush Administration was also raising the heat on the Taliban to allow the pipeline.

The book "Bin Laden: the Forbidden Truth" by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasique claims that the U.S. tried to negotiate the pipeline deal with the Taliban as late as August, 2001. According to the authors, the Bush Administration attempted to get the Taliban on board and believed they could depend upon the regime to stabilize the country while the pipeline construction was underway. Bush had already indirectly given the Taliban $43 million for their supposed efforts to stamp out opium-poppy cultivation. Was this an award -- or a bribe? The circumstances make this a valid question.

Enron was unraveling at the seams, yet in early August, Kenneth Lay seemed optimistic, even exuberant. Was he whistling past the graveyard, or did he have secret information? The last meeting between U.S. and Taliban representatives took place five weeks before the attacks on New York and Washington; on that occasion, Christina Rocca, in charge of Central Asian affairs for the U.S. government, met the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad on August 2, 2001. Rocca said the Taliban representative, Mr. Zaeef, was aware of the strong U.S. commitment to help the Afghan people and the fact that the United States had provided $132 million in relief assistance so far that year.




http://www.alternet.org/story/12525
http://www.alternet.org/story/12525

[elehhhhna]

18. Unocal brought the Taliban to Sugar Land for a tour.

Good times...good times.

[Marie26]

38. And they got that pipeline in the end

A law professor filed a petition in 1998 to revoke UNOCAL's charter because of its numerous human rights violations.

"On September 10, he and a coalition of more than 30 public interest organizations filed a petition calling on the attorney general (AG) of California to revoke the charter of Union Oil of California (Unocal). In social responsibility circles, Unocal is best (or perhaps worst) known for its controversial Burma pipeline, being built by a consortium co-owned in part by Unocal and the outlaw military regime there. For construction of the pipeline, the Burmese regime has reportedly seized land, forcibly relocated villages, and used unpaid labor -- even of children and the elderly. Benson's petition cites many other outrages as well -- including ''unspeakable'' human rights violations in Unocal's dealings with the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, which is known for its extreme cruelty in treatment of women; plus responsibility for the 1969 oil blowout in the Santa Barbara Channel; in addition to hundreds of other environmental and employee-safety violations. Noting that California routinely puts out of business hundreds of unruly accountants, lawyers, and doctors every year, the coalition called upon California Attorney General Dan Lungren (who is running for Governor) to revoke Unocal's charter.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1810

In 1997, UNOCAL was trying to make a deal to build a pipeline through Afganistan, but they had to abandon the project because the Taliban was too unstable. There's a familiar cast of characters here: Zalmay Khalilzad, PNAC member & new UN ambassador, was one of UNOCAL's consultants on the Afganistan deal. And Pres. Karzai also worked as an UNOCAL consultant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNOCAL
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0610/p01s03e-wosc.html

In 2002, right after the Taliban was knocked out of power, President Karzai signed an agreement to allow the Trans-Afganistan oil pipeline to be built. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2608713.stm Guess UNOCAL got their pipeline after all. This might be old news to you all, but it's pretty interesting.

[happydreams]

46. Thanks for that. I want this discussion to continue now that Henry

Waxman is going to blasting it across the airwaves. :hi:

[lovuian]

21. Taliban= Oil companies Michael Moore had it in his

movie Farenheit 911 It is such a conspiracy of the Corporations

[Peace Patriot]

24. BILLIONS, not millions. Enron stole NINE BILLION DOLLARS from the state of

California alone--our entire state surplus (built up under the Democrats and Gov. Davis).

Greg Palast exposed the meeting in Los Angeles on May 17, 2001, between Ken Lay and Schwarzenegger, and other Bushite players--George Schultz, I believe--prompted by Davis's and Bustamante's lawsuits and FEC actions to try to get our money back. Palast speculates that the meeting was about how to destroy Democratic power in California and install a governor (Schwarzenegger) who would make these efforts to recover our $9 billion (and expose Enron) go away. (My spec: ) They then engineered the first full Diebold election in California--the recall of Davis--with 125 candidates on the ballot (making it easy to distribute votes away from the Dem frontrunner, Bustamante)--with only six weeks to campaign, no Democratic voter vetting of the candidates in a primary, and Schwarzenegger of course already famous, and helped with additional millions of dollars in free publicity compliments of Time magazine, Larry King et al.

It was the most unusual election in California history--and possibly in US history--but the most unusual part about it was never mentioned by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies--the new electronic voting machines, run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. The next thing that happened was that the Democratic Sec of State, Kevin Shelley (elected in '02, pre-Diebold) sued Diebold, decertified the worst of their election theft machines, and demanded to see their source code, in May '04 just prior to the 2004 presidential election. I believe (from studying the election returns) that 5% to 10% of Kerry's votes were shaved off and used to pad Bush's national popular majority. (Kerry won the state but not by as much as he should have.) Then they went after Kevin Shelley, and "swift-boated" him out of office on entirely bogus corruption charges--in a campaign led by L.A. elections head Connie McCormack, a Diebold shill (does brochures for them, she does) and supporter of audit-free vote counting. The CA Democratic Party basically imploded at this point, and the new Dem leadership in the CA legislature failed to back Shelley, and helped Schwarzenegger APPOINT a Repug Diebold shill, Bruce McPherson, as Sec of State. In '06, the voters rebelled and outvoted the machines to place Democrat (and open government advocate) Debra Bowen in the Sec of State's office, against the Diebold/ES&S tide in which only one other Dem took a state office (Jerry Brown). We CAN beat the machines--but it takes a lot. You can be sure that Bowen beat McPherson by 5% to 10% more than the vote "count" shows. This is the "thumb on the scales" that Diebold/ES&S has been placing, for Bushites, warmongers and corporatists, since 2004.)

------------------------

Enron "went under" for the same reason that Saddam Hussein was hanged.

[Chiyo-chichi]

25. The Enron-Cheney-Taliban Connection?

good article here:
http://www.alternet.org/story/12525

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. Excellent link re Afghanistan starting pre 9/11

http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm

[happydreams]

28. The head of Enron's "International Division" is the guy

who Waxman needs to get on the witness stand. Atul Davda.

[malaise]

29. Will Ken Lay's ashes rise

like the phoenix so that he can explain this deal.

[happydreams]

31. He's in Paraguay waiting for the Bushies to move there.

:hi:

[Kurovski]

30. Why does Enron hate America?

[Twist_U_Up]

34. Another Coincedence Theory ?

911 =
Inside Job

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. Looks like Waxman found a good place to start

Might as well go back to the beginning where this whole 'war on terra' started.

[happydreams]

48. Heard anything that came out in the House hearings today?

I'm using a library computer.

[happydreams]

49. Heard anything that came out in the House hearings today?

I'm using a library computer.

[peacetalksforall]

40. The issue I remember from the TX meetings was that Unocal was

competing with Argentina for the contract. During or nearly right after the talks that didn't seem to go anywhere, Argentina experienced (had) a serious banking collapse. If anyone is contemplating a screenscript - what to you do to the funds of a competitor? (Film has taught us everything.)

I remember Unocal - but that doesn't exclude Enron. Friends are friends.

[slater71]

41. Remeber the the carpet of gold or carpet of bombs offer?

This is it.

[mirandapriestly]

47. yep.eom