Enron had a $3 billion investment in the Dabhol power plant, near Bombay on India's west coast. The project began in 1992, and the liquefied natural gas- powered plant was supposed to supply energy- hungry India with about one-fifth of its energy needs by 1997. It was one of Enron's largest development projects ever (and the single largest direct foreign investment in India's history). The company owned 65 percent of Dabhol...
Enron had promised India that the Dabhol power would be affordable once the next phase of the project was completed. But to cut expenses, Enron had to find cheap gas to fuel it.....
In 1996, Unocal -- one of the world's leading energy resource and project development companies -- won a contract to build a 1,005-mile oil pipeline in order to exploit the vast Turkmenistan natural gas fields in Duletabad. The pipeline would extend through Afghanistan and Pakistan, terminating in Multan, near the India border. ...
Unocal wasn't the only energy company laying pipe. In 1997, Enron announced that it was going to spend over $1 billion building and improving the lines between the Dabhol plant and India's network of gas pipelines.
Follow the map: Once a proposed 400-mile extension from Multan, Pakistan to New Delhi, India was built, Caspian Sea gas could flow into India's network to New Delhi, follow the route to Bombay -- and bingo! A plentiful source of ultra-cheap LNG [Liquified Natural Gas] that could supply Enron's plant in India for three decades or more.
....... Entering the South Eastern Asian markets, which offered vast growth potential, could position Enron well in the global marketplace and offset some of their losses in other markets.
There was one gotcha: It looked like the trans-Afghan section of the pipeline might never be built. Afghanistan was controlled by religious extremists who didn't want to cooperate......
Click here to continue with other excerpts....
So what does this have to do with those who died on Sept 11?
Pieces of the jigsaw linking Enron and the Bush Administration to September 11 are most likely to reside within the answer to the all important question that the Albion Monitor article concludes with: "Is the White House covering up that it was molding foreign policy as well as energy policy to suit Enron? ".
But what precisely is Enron's connection to the thousands of innocent people that were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon?
Consider the following:
The above report identifies a clear interest by Enron - one potentially critical to the survival of the company - in the development of the trans-Afghanistan pipeline to transport gas from Turkmenistan. The development of the pipeline is an integral part of the US's acknowledged strategy for developing multiple oil and gas supply routes out of the Caspian Sea region. In relation to the 'War Against Terrorism' this is the crucial point at which US energy and foreign policy meet. Enron's own interest in the Caspian Sea region and the proposed trans-Afghanistan pipeline appears, however, to have extended well beyond the need to supply its electricity plant in India with gas. According to a report in 'Alexanders Oil and Gas Connections' (Volume 3, issue #27 - 10-12-1998 )"Enron's export plan remains the most ambitious attempted so far by a foreign investor in Uzbekistan: a deal signed in 1996 gave it the rights to explore 11 fields in the Surkhandariya and Bukhara region. The proposed project called for an initial investment of $300 mn that would reach $1.3 bn over the next 20 years. The US government funded a feasibility study for the project, coupled with a pledge of $400 mm financing and insurance support [the largest U.S. goverment backed Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) investment in Central Asia at that time, nlpwessex]. The aim was to see gas flowing through the existing infrastructure to markets in Russia and elsewhere [i.e including southern asia via Afghanistan and Pakistan, nlpwessex] from the fields as early as 1998.... Like other Central Asian countries, double-landlocked Uzbekistan is keen to develop alternative export routes to the Russian pipeline system.... Ambitions of linking into a southern export pipeline crossing Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan to deliver gas to Pakistan have vanished for the time being, now that project sponsor Unocal has put it on the back burner.... Uzbekistan signed an MoU with the countries involved to participate in the project. But in August the Taliban consolidated its control over Afghanistan by capturing key northern towns previously under the control of ethnic Uzbek leader Rashid Dostum. Uzbekistan is extremely concerned at the growing strength of the Taliban and its potential impact on stability in Uzbekistan, making any future co-operation on a pipeline project which benefits the Taliban unlikely." According to the Energy Information Administration of the US government: "In July 1997, Turkmenistan signed a memorandum of understanding with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan to build a Central Asia Gas pipeline, dubbed 'Centgas,' to carry 0.7 Tcf of natural gas per year to Pakistan (and possibly to India as well) via Afghanistan. The $1.9-billion, 870-mile route to Multan, Pakistan, could share a common right-of-way for a portion of the route with the proposed Central Asian Oil Pipeline." A further US press report 4 March 2002 on Enron payments to the Taliban as part of its pursuit of the pipeline quotes Atul Davda, a senior director for Enron's International Division: "Enron had intimate contact with Taliban officials. Building the pipeline was one of the corporation's prime objectives." The same report quotes an FBI source as saying that Enron had CIA agents on its payroll to carry out its overseas dealings . Following the 'election' of George Bush as US President Enron were hugely influential in the development of current US energy policy crafted behind closed doors by US Vice President, Dick Cheney. It is likely that Cheney would have been 'amenable' to oil and gas industry corporate interests. Prior to running for Vice President Dick Cheney was himself chief Executive of giant oil and military services contractor, Halliburton. Amongst other things Halliburton provides engineering, procurement and construction services for underground gas pipelines. The company describes itself as 'the world's largest provider of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries'. Halliburton was awarded a major off shore Caspian Sea 'integrated service contract' in Turkmenistan as early as 1997. Halliburton's press release at the time stated that the contract would 'position the company well for both upstream and downstream projects which are rapidly developing in this emerging market.' The strategic importance to the US of the Caspian Sea region in servicing future US energy needs is well known. It is inconceivable that the review of US energy policy at the start of the Bush Administration could have be carried out without considering policy in relation to Afghanistan, and the potential it has to provide vital access to those energy reserves for Indian Ocean pipeline and shipping routes. Not only is such access of strategic importance to the US, it was also of specific strategic importance to Enron because of the company's major investment in electricity generation facilities in India and its need for access to cheap gas supplies to run them. In anticipation of a change in the US administration in 2000 Enron had been the single largest sponsor of George Bush's Presidential campaign, with the company and executives contributing $300,000 to his Presidential Inauguration Ceremony alone. An address made at an Enron employees conference by Chairman Kenneth Lay in 2000 made it clear that a Bush victory was considered to be in the interests of Enron. According to French intelligence expert Guillaume Dasquie, co-author of 'Bin Laden - The Forbidden Truth': "Christina Rocca arrived at the State Department in June [2001], and we knew her background at the CIA; she had managed all the relations between the agency and Islamic groups in Central Asia. Since around June I have been focused on Rocca. We made requests. The embassy said it was impossible. ......We describe the meeting of Rocca and some Taliban leaders in Islamabad in August 2001. There are documents to support it. And at the same time in Washington there are lots of meetings of the energy policy task force and lots of oil company representatives around Dick Cheney. The task force's conclusion is that Central Asia oil is a very important goal." During August 2001 information relating to the financial difficulties of Enron first began to surface internally within the company. Ken Lay was informed by a member of staff that the company might 'implode in a wave of accounting scandals'. Meanwhile lack of co-operation from the Taliban over the Afghan gas pipeline resulted in the Bush Administration's own threatened attack on Afghanistan in order to push its pipeline agenda. However, a unilateral strike against Afghanistan without just cause would clearly be impossible without incurring widespread condemnation within the global community. A good reason for attack would need to be found. During August 2001 intelligence services in Germany, France, Israel, Egypt and Russia all had information relating to impending terrorist attacks on the US, whether because of or despite the threatened US attack on Afghanistan. According to President Mubarak Egypt warned the US twelve days before September 11. (How much detailed information Israel in particular had in advance is subject to some controversy according to a report in the French newspaper Le Monde which reported 5 March 2002 on the recent discovery of a large Israeli spy ring in the US with one third living in Florida.) Newsweek magazine had earlier reported that on September 10th 'a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns'. The Director of the CIA, George Tenet was also aware of the imminent threat, although claiming lack of knowledge as to precise targets. The World Trade Centre and the White House are, however, well known to be high risk potential targets (both have been subject to previous attack, the White House even having a small light aircraft flown into it back in 1994). In the absence of specific information (if indeed that was the case) about targets in August 2001 these two buildings in particular would be high priority for security protection during such a known risk period. In the event neither of these buildings received protection from hijack attack on September 11 despite well established Federal Aviation Administration/NORAD procedures for intercept by military aircraft, and despite more specific measures being put in place for such eventualities in relation to the White House following the 1994 plane strike incident. The plane that attacked the Pentagon on September 11 flew unchallenged directly at the White House, and sufficiently close to precipitate a frantic evacuation, before turning sharply at the last moment to divert to the nearby Pentagon. This plane was hijacked for a period of around an hour and was not challenged by fighter aircraft during that time. This was despite the existence of the standard intercept procedures for hijacked aircraft and despite the presence of fighter squadrons at Andrews Airforce base just 10 miles from Washington DC. As from the time of the second plane impact on the World Trade Centre (at approximately 9.03 am) it was clear that the third plane that eventually struck the Pentagon was to be used as a bomb on a prominent US target. It hit that target at approximately 9.45. The plane was known to be a potential hijack since as early as 8.50 that morning. No intercept was executed despite this huge time interval and the standard procedure of monitoring of the flight path of hijacked planes by primary radar. Meanwhile according to a later report in the London Times: "An RAF source said that even if an airliner was hijacked at Heathrow and then turned east towards London, there would still be time to act". This reassurance was given despite the fact that the RAF fighters concerned are stationed in Lincolnshire, several counties away from the British capital. These circumstances suggest that US air security operations were deliberately stood down on September 11. A week before the attacks the world renowned author Salman Rushdie was banned by US authorities from taking internal US and Canadian flights. As reported in the London Times the US Federal Aviation Administration had told the author's publisher that US intelligence had given warning of 'something out there'. The tragic loss of life that resulted from the attacks on September 11 created an unprecedented wave of outrage in the US conveniently paving the way for the decision to invade Afghanistan. At this point Enron was still the darling of the White House and the US economy, and now the possibility of seizing control of Afghanistan and installing a compliant regime amenable to the construction of the gas pipeline needed to serve one of Enron's largest global projects was suddenly a reality. Although it came too late to save Enron, in February 2002 Mr Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of the Afghanistan Government announced an agreeement with Pakistan to construct the pipeline following the American invasion of Afghanistan. Mr Karzai was installed in Kabul following his selection by the Bush Administration. Mr Karzai is a former adviser to UNOCAL the US company originally scheduled to build the pipeline. So did the victims of September 11 die as a result of a deliberate stand-down of US air defences in order to engineer this situation? Did the CIA know about the pending attacks and deliberately let them through? According to a statement made by the Chief of the Russian Air Force the day after the attacks: "Generally it is impossible to carry out an act of terror on the scenario which was used in the USA yesterday. We had such facts too. As soon as something like that happens here, I am reported about that right away and in a minute we are all up.” According to a further statement made in an interview with American Free Press, 4 December 2001 by Horst Ehmke, a former co-ordinator of West German secret services under Willi Brandt in the 1970s: "Terrorists could not have carried out such an operation with 4 hijacked planes without the support of a secret service." A later interview in the German paper Tagesspiegel with former German Minister for Research and Technology, Andreas Von Bülow, also supports this conclusion: "For sixty decisive minutes, the military and intelligence agencies let the fighter planes stay on the ground.....To hijack four huge airplanes within a few minutes, and within one hour to drive them into their targets, with complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable, without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry.....What has gone on, and goes on, in the name of intelligence services, are true crimes.... CIA chief Allen Dulles once said: 'In case of doubt, I would even lie to the Congress!'..... I know a lot of people, including very influential ones, who agree with me, but only in whispers, never publicly.... Where this all comes together, the American intelligence services are not far away....The CIA, in the state interests of the U.S., does not have to abide by any law in interventions abroad, is not bound by international law; only the President gives orders...." Testimony given by a defendant claiming to be a US intelligence officer in a recent court case in Canada also suggests an intention by US intelligence services to allow a terrorist attack on America in 2001 for tactical reasons. The links between the Bush family and the CIA are strong. George Bush senior was himself previously Director of the CIA, and in fact the CIA's headquarters at Langley are named after him. What the CIA did and did not know prior to September 11, and what it did and did not do on the day, is crucial to establishing what lay behind the success of the devastating attacks on innocent US citizens. Congressional committees are now to investigate why such an unprecedented failure of US security took place. The investigation will include closed sessions and will be lead by Britt Snider. But who is Britt Snider? He is a CIA official who worked for the Agency until last year and has close ties to CIA Director George Tenet, the person most likely to be implicated in any CIA negligence or crimes related to September 11. Sneider served with Tenet on the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee and then as special counsel to Tenet when he became CIA director. Tenet is the sole survivor from the Clinton administration. He is the first CIA director in 28 years to remain in office after the White House switched occupants. The 11 March 2002 edition of Time Magazine in fact nonchalantly reveals that Tenet survived the transition from Clinton to Bush administrations 'because he is close to Bush' - with whatever that might imply regarding Tenet's agenda during his preceding years at the Agency. Tenet's post-Clinton holdover therefore represents a unique continuity of senior tenure dating back to the time of the original pipeline negotiations with the Taliban in 1997. The Taliban were entertained by the US oil sector in Texas (where Bush Jr was Governor at the time) a few months after Tenet was promoted from Assistant Director to Director of the CIA in 1997. The close relationship between Enron's Lay and Governor Bush at that time is illustrated in the 'Dear George' correspondence between them that has since come to light. Lay had backed Bush's campaign to become Governor of the State where Enron is headquartered. Even then Caspian Sea energy reserves were already on Lay's political shopping list. According to a recent report in the New York Times: "In April 1997, Mr. Lay wrote the governor about an upcoming meeting scheduled between Mr. Bush and an influential official from Uzbekistan. He noted that Enron had opened an office in Tashkent and was negotiating a $2 billion joint venture". George Bush's business dealings with Kenneth Lay and Enron go back to at least 1986. A report in The Nation 4 March states that 'according to a publicly available record, the two drilled for oil together--at a time when Bush was a not-too-successful oil man in Texas and his oil venture was in dire need of help. Bush's business association with Enron, it seems, has not previously been reported.' However, what was clearly a more ominous portend of the emerging political role in the two men's relationship was also reported in the same newspaper as long ago as 21 November 1994: "Several years ago, says Rodolfo Terragno, a former Argentine Cabinet Minister, he received a telephone call from George W. Bush, son of the then-Vice President. When he hung up, Terragno was annoyed, he recalls, for the younger Bush had tried to exploit his family name to pressure Terragno to award a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron, an American firm close to the Bush clan... George W., Terragno maintains, told the minister that he was keen to have Argentina proceed with the pipeline, especially if it signed Enron for the deal.... Terragno says he was paid a visit by the US Ambassador to Argentina, Theodore Gildred.... Gildred cited George W. Bush's support for the Enron project as one reason Terragno should back it. 'It was a subtle, vague message,' Terragno says, 'that [doing what George W. Bush wanted] could help us with our relationship to the United States.' " With the CIA in effect being placed in charge of investigating itself on the September 11 security issue, and with Enron's friends sprinkled through the White House, will we ever find out if the victims of September 11 died for Enron?
It seems unlikely if the document shredders at Enron, the Vice President's office, and the CIA have anything to do with it. But until the shredders have completed their work perhaps it is little wonder that top executives at Enron are claiming the fifth amendment when it comes to appearing before congressional hearings, or are now suddenly dead in the case of former Vice Chairman Clifford Baxter.
Perhaps it is little wonder, too, that Vice President Cheney is refusing to hand over to Congress records of his Energy Task Force - records which may have contained important information related to foreign policy discussions on Afghanistan, as well as to any role played by Enron's interests in the events leading up to 11 September 2001.
With his alleged previous record of controversial business dealings in sanctions-bound Iraq, the Vice President may have plenty of useful experience to draw from in attempting to cover his tracks.
If so, may God bless America. And soon.
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
The Enron Files - Click Here
"Of the twenty largest contributors to George W. Bush's Presidential campaign, fully half had major links to Enron; indeed, five of his seven largest seven contributors were connected to Enron. ... " 'Bush's Biggest Donors Had Links to Enron' Common Dreams, 18 Feb 2002
"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think". Adolf Hitler
More Commerce and War
"On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush..... President Bush's family had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany; in financing and managing the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S.A.; and in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with their well-known results." "George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography" --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin tarpley.net More on this from Herald Tribune Newscoast, 11 November 2000 newscoast.com
Why the CIA is not interested in ending al-Qaeda - 26 Feb 2002 CIA provided funds to financiers of Sept 11 bomber - 18 Nov 2001
'STOP PRESS'
NEWS REPORT LINKS CIA TO SEPT 11 HIJACKER TRAINING
"New evidence linking the owner of the Venice, Florida, flight school that trained Mohamed Atta to the Central Intelligence Agency surfaced last month. The new evidence adds to existing indications that Mohamed Atta and his terrorist cadre's flight training in this country was part of a so-far unacknowledged U.S. government intelligence operation which had ultimately tragic consequences for thousands of civilians on September 11. Far from merely being negligent or asleep at the switch—the thrust so far of allegations expected to be aired at joint Senate and House Select Committee hearings this month—the accumulating evidence suggests the CIA was not just aware of the thousands of Arab student pilots who began pouring into this country several years ago to attend flight training, but was running the operation for still-unexplained reasons..... During a controversy over the awarding of a bid for an aviation maintenance facility in Lynchburg, Virginia, what had begun as a purely local spat took on national importance when it unearthed connections between Rudi Dekkers—the Dutch national whose Huffman Aviation trained both of the pilots at the controls of the airliners which crashed into the World Trade Center—and the CIA. The CIA's links to Dekkers surfaced when an unknown company called Britannia Aviation was mysteriously awarded a five-year contract to run a large regional maintenance facility at the Lynchburg, Virginia, Regional Airport.... Trying to save further embarrassment, Britannia executive Marten reassured those in attendance [at a Lynchburg City Council hearing on the dispute] that at Huffman's hangar at the Venice airport they had for some time been successfully providing aviation maintenance services for Caribe Air, a Caribbean carrier. And that is how the world learned that under Rudi Dekkers' FAA license Paul Marten's little dummy front company worked for a notorious CIA proprietary air carrier which, even by the standards of a CIA proprietary, has had a particularly checkered past. Caribe Air's history includes 'blemishes' like having its aircraft seized by federal officials at the infamous Mena, Arkansas, airport a decade ago, after the company was accused by government prosecutors of having used as many as 20 planes to ship drugs worth billions of dollars into this country..... Caribe Air is today controlled by an offshore bank located on the Caribbean island of Dominica, Banc Caribe, a private bank that may be being investigated currently by authorities pursuing the names involved in Enron's secret offshore partnerships, many of which have the name 'Caribe' in their title.... Many of the flight trainers who had trained the Arab terrorist pilots had also flown missions out of the Venice and Sarasota Florida airports for such Christian missionary services as televangelist Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. It was 'Islamic fundamentalist' Osama bin laden who cloaked his covert activities under the cover of religious charities. Were we now discovering that our own government intelligence agencies used the same ruse? What was going on here? Christian-linked or not, why did a transparent dummy front company like Paul Marten's Britannia Aviation have a 'green light' from the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration]?" 'Venice, Florida, flight school linked to CIA' Online Journal, 2 March 2002
Cheney Panics Over Sept 11 Congressional Investigation - Feb 2002 Further delay in US congressional investigation into September 11 attacks
UK is Partner in US 'Axis of Oilvil'
"The woman seen as Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest and most trusted aide is to leave the government for a job at oil giant BP...she is said to be one of the few people who can enter his office without knocking." Departure of Anjai Hunter from No 10 Downing St shortly after the commencement of the bombing of Afghanistan BBC News 8 November 2002
Note: The main rival to Unocal for the construction of the Afghan pipeline is Bridas of Argentina which is now part of BP - for detailed competition timeline of Unocal-Bridas involvement in the pipeline negotiations - click here
"Tony Blair faces further embarrassment over his links to Lakshmi Mittal after it emerged that the steel company chief has been drawn into an inquiry on alleged money-laundering and backhanders to secure big infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan. Mr Mittal has been asked to appear before the Belgian Public Prosecutor to answer questions about a $55 million (£39 million) deal struck in Kazakhstan by Tractebel, a Belgian subsidiary of Suez, the French utility group. The Indian tycoon has been at the centre of a 'cash for favours' row recently amid claims that his £125,000 donation to the Labour Party helped to secure a letter of support for a Romanian steel deal from the Prime Minister.....Last June three Kazakh former partners of Tractebel were charged with money-laundering by the Brussels court after a joint investigation by Swiss and Belgian officials. It is alleged that the trio, who were consultants and partners of Tractebel between 1997 and 2000, took payments worth $5 million to secure a pipeline deal for Tractebel." Belgian inquiry summons Mittal for questioning London Times 4 March 2002
Read about Bridas's fight againt Unocal (advised by Henry Kissinger) for the Afghan gas pipeline - click here "As of 1992, 11 western oil companies controlled more than 50 percent of all oil investments in the Caspian Basin, including Unocal, Amoco, Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Pennzoil, Texaco, Phillips and British Petroleum."
Enron, Unocal, and Tractabel's Energy Investments go Sour in India Britain and the War Against Terrorism
Bush and Blair Offer Victory to Bin Laden - Jan 2002
These People are Bigger than Bush and Blair
Support September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - click here "Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options in our search for justice, we choose to spare additional innocent families the suffering that we have already experienced—as well as to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war."
PREVENTING TERRORISM A Scientifically Validated Approach to Prevent Terrorism and Ensure U.S. Society and World Peace Terrorist reprisals are all but certain now that the U.S. has launched its military campaign to 'eradicate' terrorism. For this reason, a proven solution to terrorism is especially urgent. Please follow the link below, read carefully, and act decisively. There is no other effective defense against terrorism. Please click here
Additional Press Reports of Interest - 2002
The New American - Did We Know What Was Coming FBI Can Do Nothing About Terrorists in Our Midst Putin knew of terror bombings, says exile Authorities Warned of Hijack Risks CIA plans uprising in Iraq Congress Not Advised Of Shadow Government Christian Religous Right- Faith in Hate False Cloak of Patriotism The 'War on Terrorism' for Dummies Time - Drug running in columbia U.S. drops Saudis from allies list Waxman Cites Industry Access to DOE Enron Had Links To Bin Laden Group Through Proposed Palestinian Power Plant Cheney Daughter Gets Job at State Department Airports Screened Nine of Sept. 11 Hijackers, Officials Say Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret Top G.O.P. Donors in Energy Industry Met Cheney Panel Sweeping Military Powers Stun Canadians Judge Orders Release of Energy Panel's Files The Hague Tribunal Milosevic charges NATO with war crimes Part One U.S. Plans to Train Many Countries Democrats Starting to Fault President on the War's Future Chicago Tribune Daschle challenges strategy of terror war ONE OUT OF THREE AMERICANS SUSPECT THE LATEST OSAMA TAPE IS ANOTHER FRAUD An unsustainable black hole -The US current account deficit Russia Seeking Oil Dominance War For Oil U.S. Begins Anti-Terror Assistance In Georgia The Trail Out Of Texas The Bush Oil-igarchy's Pipeline Protection Package Was the American intervention in Afghanistan motivated in large part by oil Critics Say New Rule Limits Access to Records Bush Vows U.S. Will Not Lie on Defense Policy
NLPWessex War on Terrorism Archives - click here
Solar Energy, Agriculture and World Peace - click here NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX nlpwessex@bigfoot.com www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex |