By Jamie York
The Bush administration has pulled off a coup d'etat in the name of Big Oil.
In the weeks before Sept. 11, the Bush government had been bargaining with the Taliban in order to secure an oil pipeline route from from central Asia through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. According to a new book by French journalists Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie ("Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth"), the Bush administration began negotiating with the Taliban in February 2001 until August, just five weeks before the World Trade Center attack. The authors claim that the Bush government was negotiating for the delivery of Osama bin Laden in exchange for economic aid and political recognition of the Taliban. At one point in the negotiations, U.S representatives reportedly told the Taliban: "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." The authors of the new book have experience in intelligence analysis. Dasquie is the publisher of Intelligence Online and Brisard wrote a 1997 report on bin Laden's Al Qaeda network for the French Secret Service.
As if these revelations alone were not suspicious enough, the Bush family business has ties to a private investment firm under investigation by the FBI for the Sept. 11 attack. On Sept. 27, in an article called "Bin Laden Family could Profit from a Jump in Defense Spending due to ties to U.S. Bank," The Wall Street Journal reported that the bin Laden family, which operates a multi-billion dollar business in Saudi Arabia, is a major investor in the Carlyle Group, an international equity bank associated with former President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. According to Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman, "the idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group." The Carlyle Group is primarily involved in the aerospace and defense industries, so the perception that a sitting president may be making decsions -- such as signing a bill to increase defense spending -- that may increase his family's fortune is indeed disturbing.
After Sept. 11, President Bush never took the time to define terrorism for the American people, but through his actions and statements, it has become clear that he defines terrorism as "any organized violence or threat of violence against the interests of the United States and its allies." This definition has served as the basis for his so-called "war on terrorism." President Bush has a ridiculous and cartoonish, yet dangerous, preoccupation with ridding the world of terrorist "evil-doers" through military actions in multiple countries. Any country, or social movement within a country, that pursues a course of independence from U.S. neoliberal hegemony may find itself labeled as "terrorist" by the Bush administration.
A more globally accepted definition of terrorism might be "any political intimidation or violence, especially against an individual, ethnic group, organization or government." By this broad definition, those who would drag a black man to his death, tie a gay man to a fence post, or threaten an abortion clinic would be considered terrorists. By this definition, the bulldozing of Palestinian homes by the Israeli government would be an act of terrorism. By this definition, a covert CIA operation to destabilize a foreign government would be an act of terrorism. By this definition, an embargo on food and medicine or IMF/World Bank loan stipulations that require social spending cutbacks would qualify as terrorism. Economic policies kill and maim innocents just as surely as cluster bombs, jetliners and suicide bombers.
President Bush successfully manipulated the emotions of the American people after Sept. 11 in order to foist his father's ultra-conservative New World Order agenda upon the American people and the world, but are we willing to follow the President over a cliff just because the polls say he is popular right now? When Papa Bush spoke of the New World Order, he was referring to the day when his fellow oil barons would rule the world. He was referring to the creation of a modern Roman Empire. The implication here is that any nation that stands in the way of this Empire will be destroyed. Here is the approximate formula President Bush has used in the aftermath of 9/11:
1) Blame someone. After the Sept 11 attack, Osama bin Laden was immediately named as the person responsible, but the evidence for this blame has never been made public due to supposed "national security" concerns. It is essential that there be a single bad guy that can be blamed, as this focuses attention squarely on him rather than on other contributing factors that may reflect negatively on the United States.
2) Tell the public why we were attacked. President Bush told us that the WTC attack was an attack on our freedom and liberty, on our "American way of life." He stated that we are now at war with terrorism and told us that it is our patriotic duty to support a "long and protracted war." He also dictated that "you are either with us or you are with the terrorists," meaning that there is no middle ground and no room for dissent.
3) Focus on humanitarian concerns. Considering the fate of starving civilians and abused women is good PR during war. The Bush administration never considered humanitarian food drops before Sept. 11, yet this became a focus as the bombs started falling. And while the administration was secretly negotiating with the Taliban, the fate of Afghanistan's women was not even a concern in the negotiations, yet this became another focus after the bombs started falling.
4) Get the mass media involved. The administration knew that the corporate media would not dispute any administration claims regarding the attacks and would keep practicing self-censorship in the name of the "war on terrorism." They knew from experience that reporters would not ask tough, probing questions, but would loyally report each White House and Pentagon briefing as if every word were true.
5) Get Congress involved. With no public hearings and little discussion, Congress has given the President broad new war powers and has sharply curtailed the civil rights of private citizens and political organizations by passing new COINTELPRO-like legislation authorizing domestic spying and wiretapping. Congress has also raided the national treasury and has given away billions in taxpayer dollars to "needy" oil and airline companies and other corporate beggars.
6) Attack Afghanistan. No surprise here that the government would begin bombing Afghanistan under the guise of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. And it is certainly no coincidence that Afghanistan happens to be very important to the long-term strategic plans of Big Oil. According to the Department of Energy, the oil reserves in Central Asia alone are worth about $3 trillion at today's prices, but the oil is worthless until it can be brought to market via an oil pipeline. There is no denying that the President and his father are Big Oil men. In addition, the President's top advisors have a background in Big Oil. Vice President Dick Cheney is the former president of Halliburton, an oil consulting firm; National Security Council Advisor Condoleeza Rice is the former manager of Chevron; and Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and Energy Secretary Stanley Abraham both worked for Tom Brown, another Big Oil conglomerate.
7) Continue attacks. Once Afghanistan is secure, look for the "war on terrorism" to spread to other countries in the region under one pretext or another. Iraq, certainly, must be high on the list to be bombed again. Other possibilities include Iran, the Phillipines and Columbia, depending upon the level of civilian dissent that surfaces in the weeks and months ahead. We can also expect more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil as the cycle of war and retaliation continues.
Because of the suspicion of impropriety on the part of the President of the United States and his family, it is important for U.S. citizens to call for an independent investigation of the World Trade Center attack, including the Bush administration's negotiations with the Taliban and all finanical connections of the Bush family. This must be a thorough investigation and all White House, State Department, CIA and FBI files requested by the investigators must be made available. The democratic process demands that this investigation begin as soon as possible.