Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

What's Up With That Powel Trip?

The NYTimes ran an article recently about Colin Powel's trip to Russia (He should be in hiding after the lies he told the UN and has been busted in the mainstream media for. of course we knew better before the mainstream had a clue.). It contained the following statement:

More problematic, however, is the American military presence on the southern border of Russia, particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where the United States has access to Soviet-era bases it refurbished to support the war in Afghanistan. There is also a small American military contingent in Georgia to conduct counterterrorism training, but Mr. Powell promised this week that this limited force would soon depart.

now the significance of this is important to realize. D-sekou pointed me to an article over at Counterpunch that would explain the trip to Russia:

quote:
The establishment of Khanbad, along with other bases in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, enabled the American government to achieve three major strategic goals. In addition to providing a center from which the American military could pursue the Taliban in Afghanistan, the bases more importantly, improved "American access to Kazakh and Turkmen oil and gas," and extended "US influence to a region hitherto dominated by Russia and of constant concern to China (4)." The bases in essence paved the way for America to gain a foothold in a globally strategic region thereby putting it in a better position to compete with Russia and China for the great oil treasures of the Caspian Sea.


In addition to being the world's largest lake, the Caspian sea is believed to hold vast oil reserves comparable to those of the Middle East. Yet, unlike the Middle East, transport of the extracted black gold from the landlocked lake to the open sea is a major hurdle. Therefore, the primary issue guiding the politics of the region revolve around not ownership of oil, rather control of the proposed pipelines by which the oil is transported5. It is within this context that Uzbekistan has emerged as "the key strategic state in the area (5)."


Uzbekistan's cooperation with Washington has not gone unrewarded. In March 2002, Messrs Bush and Karimov formally met for 45 minutes in the White House. The meeting produced a five point strategic partnership between the two countries. Among other things, in exchange for continued use of Khanbad, the agreement granted Uzbekistan $500 million in aid and credit guarantees (6), $25 million for military assistance, $18 million for "border security assistance", and $1 million in policing assistance (7). These concessions were made to one of America's "foremost partners in the fight against terrorism (8)" despite the State Department's own declaration that, "Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with a very poor human rights record (9)."


for the Geographically challenged look at this map and this map and see where Uzbekistan and Georgia are in relation to the Caspian Sea and Afghanistan.

If you take all of this information you see that the point of war in Afghanistan is NOT to get Osama, but to maintain control of that area along with the Gergia and Uzbekistan. Pakistan is also useful which is why it hasn't recieved the Iraq treatement even though it is known that so called terrorists are in fact in the country and being protected by sympathisers.

Now if you check this piece
you'll find the following:

quote:

Citing low oil prices, concerns over Osama bin Laden, and pressure from women's groups, Unocal withdraws from Afghan pipeline consortium. Unocal also announces a 40 percent drop in capital spending for 1999 because of low oil prices.

1999

January
Turkmenistan's foreign minister visits Pakistan; says pipeline project still alive.

February
Carlos Bulgheroni, co-chairman of Bridas, visits Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia for talks with leaders.

March
Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Sheikh Muradov meets with Mullah Omar in Kandahar to discuss pipeline.

April
Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Taliban sign agreement to revive pipeline project.

May
Taliban delegation signs agreements with Turkmenistan to buy gas and electricity.


Fast forward and read on CNN that Mullah Omar is being hunted down by the US

Why I guess that Mullah Omar has more than Bin-Ladin that the US wants. It would seem that the Taliban had the legal documents needed to move oil from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean across Afghanistan.

As Angie Stone put it:
What you dyin for?

Links:
http://nytimes.com/2004/01/28/international/europe/28POWE.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/kassim01172004.html
http://www.maps.com/reference/phypol/atlas/political/asia.html
http://www.maps.com/reference/phypol/atlas/political/europe.htm
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pipeline_timeline.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/central/03/12/eye.on.three/