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exclusive club known as the Foreign Oil Companies Group, a cover for a cartel of major petroleum companies doing business in the Caspian... Another thing I learned was that Heslin wasn't soloing. Her boss, Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, headed the inter-agency committee on Caspian oil policy, which made him in effect the government's ambassador to the cartel, and Berger wasn't a disinterested player. He held $90,000 worth of stock in Amoco, probably the most influential member of the cartel... The deeper I got, the more Caspian oil money I found sloshing around Washington.” exclusive club known as the Foreign Oil Companies Group, but surely, the US military is being converted into a global a cover for a cartel of major petroleum companies doing oil-protection service.” business in the Caspian... A survey of US history since World War Two suggests that the Another thing I learned was that Heslin wasn't soloing. United States power state has consistently used the resources of Her boss, Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, the global drug traffic to further its own ends, particularly with headed the inter-agency committee on Caspian oil policy, respect to oil, at the expense of the public order and well-being which made him in effect the government's ambassador to of the American public state.” the cartel, and Berger wasn't a disinterested player. He held For at least two decades, from Brzezinski's backing of $90,000 worth of stock in Amoco, probably the most Hekmatyar in 1979 to Bush's backing of the Afghan Northern influential member of the cartel... The deeper I got, the Alliance in 2001, the United States has continued to draw on the more Caspian oil money I found sloshing around resources of drug-trafficking Islamist jihadists who are or were Washington.” associated at some point with al-Qaeda. In my book I argue that this alliance with al-Qaeda terrorists against the United States The oil companies’ meeting with Sheila Heslin in the summer public order underlies the conspiracy that made 9/11 possible. of 1995 was followed shortly by the creation of an interagency But we must also look at how the military-petroleum complex governmental committee to formulate US policy towards the came to project long-term military budgets, in the order of a Caspian. trillion dollars, that its advocates acknowledged the American The Clinton administration listened to the oil companies, and public state could not be persuaded easily to support... in 1998 began committing US troops to joint In the absence, that is, of "some training exercises in Uzbekistan.’° This catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a made neighbouring countries like new Pearl Harbor".” oo Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan wary of Russia and more eager to grant exploration Editor's Note: ; and pipeline rights to American companies.” We are unable to pubsn ne endnotes But Clinton did not yield to Unocal's accompanying this article due to their strenuous lobbying in 1996 for US extensive nature and our lack of space. recognition of the Taliban as a condition for We have seen that, However, readers can view and download building the pipeline rom Jurkmenistan. thanks to al-Qaeda, mem rom the autos wer page at inton declined in the end to do so, //socrates.berkeley.e€Qu/~pdsco responding instead to the strongly voiced US bases have AMAChap9aAzerb htm#. ftn58. This olitical opposition, especially from women's per Is an extract trom chapter Y of reter political oppositi pecially fi ‘ sprung up close to paper i tract fi hapter 9 of Pet Dale Scott's forthcoming book The Road to 9/11; it was first posted in July and revised in September 2005. groups over the Taliban's treatment of women.” The three-way symbiosis of al-Qaeda, oil companies and the Pentagon is still visible in the case of Azerbaijan, for example. Now the Pentagon is protecting the Aliyev regime (where a younger Aliyev, in a dubious election, succeeded his father). The Department of Defense at first proposed that Azerbaijan also receive an IMET [International Military Education and Training] grant of $750,000 and an FMF [Foreign Military Financing] grant of $3 million in 2003 as part of the oilfields and pipelines in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kosovo. About the Author: Born in Montreal in 1929, Peter Dale Scott is a poet, writer and researcher. He is a former Canadian diplomat and was professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1980 until his retirement in 1994. He has a BA from McGill University, Montreal, with first-class honours in philosophy (1949) and a PhD in Political Science, also from McGill (1955). war on terrorism but later admitted that the funds were An anti-war speaker during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, Dr actually intended to protect US access to oil in and around Scott co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the Caspian Sea.” UC Berkeley, and the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA). His prose books include The War Conspiracy (1972), We have seen that, thanks to al-Qaeda, US bases have sprung Crime and Cover-up (1977), Deep Politics and the Death of up close to oilfields and pipelines in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, JFK (1993, 1996), and Drugs, Oil and War (2003). He has Georgia and Kosovo. And as Michael Klare has noted [Blood __ written numerous articles and collaborated on books and and Oil, 2004]: papers with other researchers on diverse subjects such as Already [US] troops from the Southern Command international relations, deep politics, peace studies and (Southcom) are helping to defend Colombia's Cano Limén spirituality. In 2002 he received the prestigious Lannan pipeline... Likewise, soldiers from the European Command Award for his poetry. (Eurcom) are training local forces to protect the newly For more details about Peter Dale Scott and his work, visit constructed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Georgia... his websites at http://www.peterdalescott.net and Finally, the ships and planes of the US Pacific Command http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott. Dr Scott has a separate (Pacom) are patrolling vital tanker routes in the Indian web page on War, 9/11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Drugs, Oil, Ocean, South China Sea, and the western Pacific... Slowly Iraq, etc. at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q.html. We have seen that, thanks to al-Qaeda, US bases have sprung up close to oilfields and pipelines in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kosovo. We have seen that, thanks to al-Qaeda, US bases have sprung up close to oilfields and pipelines in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kosovo. And as Michael Klare has noted [ Blood and Oil, 2004): Already [US] troops from the Southern Command (Southcom) are helping to defend Colombia's Cano Limén pipeline... Likewise, soldiers from the European Command (Eurcom) are training local forces to protect the newly constructed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Georgia... Finally, the ships and planes of the US Pacific Command (Pacom) are patrolling vital tanker routes in the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the western Pacific... Slowly APRIL — MAY 2006 NEXUS © 15 www.nexusmagazine.com