By Hsing Lee
www.commonground.ca

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” -Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

September 11, 2001 was a day none of us will ever forget. On BBC TV I watched a reporter ask a man in a suit and tie, a man who looked and sounded as if he had an education, if he thought the events at the WTC could be the result of US foreign policy in the Middle East.

I’ll never forget what this man on the streets of New York said, “What does flying airplanes into buildings have to do with politics?”

The public is not used to questioning its government or how a continuous stream of oil is provided at under $30 a barrel. The truth is, war is always a last resort. We face an immediate decline in our standard of living if we don’t steal every oil, gas and uranium deposit on Earth before 2012.

Population growth and industrial demand are outpacing energy production growth, and have since 1979. World oil production will peak around 2012, and after that, it’s a rapid slide downhill.

Governments and energy companies aren’t interested in finding alternative energy sources. So rather than spend on scientific research into sustainable energy, we spend nearly $1 trillion a year making things to kill lots and lots of colored people, steal their land and steal their mineral rights. Here’s a timeline to show why the world is mad at the USA. Then a timeline to let the reader decide what the war on terror is about – using genocide to keep the top dogs on top, or fighting terrorists.

On September 11, 1922 the British mandate of Palestine begins. More than three million Palestinians have been made homeless, and more than 100,000 have been killed by British, American and Israeli soldiers, to make room for Jewish settlers in contravention of international law, and in violation of no less than 30 directives of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

On September 11, 1941 ground is first broken for construction of the Pentagon, with financial support coming from many US corporations that were actively trading with the Nazis, some of them until 1945. Among those corporations were IBM, GE, Ford, and ITT.

But there were also many others. One of these Nazi collaborators was Prescott Bush, grandfather of G.W. Bush. Prescott used Auschwitz slave labor contracted from IG Farben at his Nazi steel manufacturing plant, Consolidated Silesian Steel, of which he was managing director.

Wall Street and the US media were so enthralled with Hitler that Roosevelt has to trick Americans into going to war by allowing the bombing of Pearl Harbor after backing Japan into a corner with a trade embargo.

Since that time, the Pentagon has made the US the only nation in history to use atomic bombs against civilians, not once, but twice. It has murdered three million in Korea, three million in Vietnam, three million in Cambodia, one million in Laos, more than a million in Latin America and two million in Iraq so far. The US has armed dictators in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa who have murdered millions more.

On September 11, 1946 US troops land in Korea to begin the slaughter of Korean civilians at Nogun-Ri and hundreds of other sites. In all, more than three million Koreans lose their lives, out of a combined North and South Korean population of 30 million.

On September 11, 1973 Chile’s elected President Salvador Allende is deposed in a CIA backed military coup, resulting in 3,175 deaths on the first day of Augusto Pinochet’s reign. During Pinochet’s US backed tenure, more than 100,000 people disappeared, and hundreds of thousands were tortured.

On September 11, 1990 George H. W. Bush makes his "Toward a New World Order" speech, announcing the Iraqi sanctions, which by 1998 had killed more than 1.5 million people, mostly children, the sick and elderly.

Now for Part 1 of the 'Follow the Money Timeline':

- 1970's The Bush family begins a long-term business relationship with the Bin Ladin family, which continues to this day. The Bin Ladins invest in G. W. Bush’s Harken Energy and Caterair, and later the Bin Ladins invest in the Carlyle Group.

- 1979 Osama Bin Laden goes to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, with support from Pakistan’s ISI, with ISI’s operation being funded by the CIA.

- 1980's Bin Laden forms Makhtab Al Khidimat (MAK), precursor to Al-Qaeda.

- Between 1986 and 1988 numerous think tanks call for a larger US presence in the Persian Gulf, in order to protect American oil and gas interests in particular in Saudi Arabia.

- 1988 The Soviets pull out of Afghanistan, defeated by the Mujeheddin and Bin Laden’s MAK, after more than $6 billion is spent by the CIA.

- 1989 Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia, where the US is looking to expand its military presence, and begins stirring up political dissent.

- Also in 1989 The Sudanese government begins dealing with Canadian, Russian and Chinese oil and gas interests, refusing to deal with US interests.

- 1990 Kuwait begins slant drilling for oil at the Iraqi border. Saddam attacks Kuwait after his cousin is told by a high ranking US official that the US will not get involved.

- Summer of 1990 Doctored satellite photos are shown to King Fahd by the US. These fake photos show an Iraqi military presence near the Saudi border where in fact there is no such Iraqi presence. The photos were proven to be fake by Dr. Peter D. Zimmerman, who compared them with Russian satellite images of the same locations taken during the same time period.

“Former” CIA/ISI asset Bin Laden goes to King Fahd and offers to bring his Mujeheddin to Saudi Arabia to defend the Islamic Holy Land against Iraqi attack.

Fearing a coup by the politically active Bin Laden, King Fahd rejects Bin Laden’s offer, jails him, and asks the Americans to come protect Saudi Arabia. The bases set up by the US in Saudi Arabia in 1991 are still there today.

- September 11, 1990 G.H.W. Bush makes his “Toward a new world order” speech.

- January 16, 1991 The US invades Iraq, along with a UN coalition.

- Also in 1991 Bin Laden somehow escapes from a Saudi prison. He sets up Al-Qaeda training camps in Sudan.

- In 1991 Heavy US interest in the Caspian Basin’s oil and gas reserves begin. Major oil companies begin the process of negotiating exploitation deals. US companies are also interested in uranium mining in Somalia, but have been unable to make headway.

- 1992 G.H.W. Bush begins planning for a “humanitarian operation” in Somalia.

- January of 1993 The Clinton administration goes ahead with the operation in Somalia.

-Spring of 1993 Clinton escalates the Somalia operation, in an attempt to oust the warlords.

- Also in 1993 Enron signs a deal with India for the Enron Dhabol project, amidst a slew of controversy. Accusations of bribery, thuggery and all forms of corrupt coercion are made against Enron.

According to the World Bank, the deal makes no economic sense, as there’s no existing energy source cheap enough to power the plant in a profitable fashion.

- October 1993 After suffering casualties and horrible media coverage of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Clinton the pullout from Somalia.

- 1994 Exxon forms the Exxon Natural Gas Indonesia Corporation in 1994, under the corrupt Suharto regime. In November, they sign a $35 billion gas exploration deal with Indonesia, for exploration of the Natuna gas field in the Spratly Islands.

- 1994 Exxon, Chevron, BP, Unocal, Lukoil, Delta Oil and others are signing deals, planning pipelines and exploring for oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Basin.

- 1995 Unocal signs a deal with Turkmenistan for gas exploitation, but has no way to get the product to market.

- 1995 Unocal begins negotiations with Uzbekistan for oil and gas rights.

- 1995 Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afgahan-American employee of Unocal, begins negotiations with the Taliban on the company’s behalf in order to secure a pipeline deal through Afghanistan to Pakistan. On the Afghan side, Hamid Karzai, and ethnic Pashtun, is working for Unocal as an advisor and also wooing the Taliban on behalf of Unocal.

- 1996 Negotiations with the Taliban are going badly. It want a better deal than the US conglomerates are willing to give, and refuses to take a pittance in tax revenues to make billions for Unocal and the Centgas consortium.

- June 1996 After the Khobar bombing in Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese government offers to share information on Bin Laden’s whereabouts and operations in the Sudan with the Clinton administration. Clinton refuses to accept the information from the Sudanese government, so Bin Laden remains at large.

- Summer 1996 Osama Bin Laden leaves Sudan after sanctions are in place, and runs to Afghanistan, where pipeline negotiations with US companies have stalled.

- 1997 Taliban representatives go to Houston and are wooed by US oil and gas interests, but refuse to sign a deal with Unocal.

- February 12, 1998 John Maresca (vice-chairman of Unocal) makes a speech to congress, which has become the outline for the current war and for oil and gas pipelines.

In spite of this, a route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles. It is the shortest route to the sea and has relatively favorable terrain for a pipeline. The route through Afghanistan is the one that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil.

Unocal envisions the creation of a Central Asian oil pipeline consortium. The pipeline would become an integral part of a regional oil pipeline system that will utilize and gather oil from existing pipeline infrastructure in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The announced placement and construction of 10 new military bases in and around Afghanistan in December 2002 coincides with the planned route for the newly announced Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistan pipeline deal, which is the route Unocal proposed in 1998.

Part two of this three-part feature will run next month.

Hsing Lee can be contacted by email at lee8798@shaw.ca

This is a condensed version of the September article. For the full version see: www.commonground.ca

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