- The economic elite have escalated their attack on the
U.S. public by surging military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
-
- As Obama announced plans for escalating the war effort,
it has become clear that the Obama Illusion has taken yet another
horrifying turn. Before explaining how the Af-Pak surge is a direct attack
on the US public, let's peer through the illusion and look at
the reality of the situation.
-
- Now that the much despised George W. Bush is out of the
way and a more popular figurehead is doing PR for Dick Cheney's right-hand
military leader Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is leading his second AF-Pak
surge now, and with long time Bush family confidant Robert Gates still
running the Defense Department, the masters of war have never had it so
good.
-
- Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate, has proven to be
a perfect decoy for the military industrial complex. Consider all the opposition
and bad press Bush received when he announced the surge in Iraq. Then consider
this:
-
- I: TROOP DEPLOYMENTS
- The Bush surge in Iraq deployed an extra 28,000
US troops. Under Obama, back in March, a surge in Afghanistan, that also
further escalated operations inside Pakistan, deployed an extra 21,000
troops. However, in an unannounced and underreported move, Obama added 13,000
more troops to that surge to bring the total to 34,000 troops. Obama
actually outdid Bush's surge by 6000 troops and brought the overall number
of US troops in Afghanistan to 68,000, double the number there when
Bush left office.
-
- Where opposition was fierce to Bush's surge, barely any
opposition was expressed during Obama's surge. Part of the reason for so
little political and public backlash was the cleverly orchestrated psychological
operation to announce the beginning of US troop withdrawal from Iraq. While
the drawdown in Iraq has been greatly exaggerated in the US mainstream
media, as of October, Obama still had 124,000 troops deployed in Iraq (not
counting private military contractors).
-
- When Obama casts the illusion of a 2011 withdrawal from
Afghanistan, one just needs look at the reality of the situation with the over-hyped
withdrawal in Iraq.
-
- Now, with Obama's latest surge announcement he will again
be adding a minimum of another 30,000 US soldiers. This means that Obama
has now led a bigger surge than Bush on two separate occasions within the
past nine months of his new administration.
-
- Obama has now escalated deployments in the Af-Pak region
to 98,000 US troops. So in Af-Pak and Iraq, he will now have a total of
222,000 US troops deployed, 36,000 more than Bush ever had - 186,000
was Bush's highest total.
-
- PRIVATE MILITARY AND NATO DEPLOYMENTS
- The amount of private military contractors deployed in
Iraq and Afghanistan is rarely reported on in the US mainstream press,
but a Congressional Research Service investigation into this revealed that
a record high 69% active duty soldiers are in fact private mercenaries.
-
- Although the administration is yet to disclose how many
private mercenaries will be deployed in the latest surge, it is believed
that the 69% ratio will remain in tact.
-
- The Pentagon released a report showing that Obama already
had a total of 242,657 private contractors in action, as of
June 30th. 119,706 of them in Iraq, 73,968 in Afghanistan, with 50,061
active in "other US CENTCOM locations."
-
- Back in June, Jeremy Scahill reported on these findings:
"According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack
Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number
of 'Private Security Contractors' working for the Department of Defense
in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan."
-
- Plus, we must mention, the immense dangers of having
private military contractors as 69% of our fighting force. For those of
you unaware, private military contractors are hired from all over the world.
Any former soldier, from any country, is welcome to come and fight for
a salary - a salary that is often significantly more than what we pay our
own US soldiers.
-
- These mercenaries have a vested interest in prolonging
the war, for as long as there is a war, they have a well paying job. So
it is easy to infer that a significant percentage of these contractors
will not have the US soldiers, or US taxpayers, best interests at heart.
-
- Obama continues to feed this out of control private army
by pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into shady and scandalous companies
like Blackwater, who recently changed their name to Xe Services, because
they destroyed their reputation by committing numerous war crimes in Iraq.
A recent investigation by Jeremy Scahill revealed the extent to which Blackwater
is involved in covert operations inside Afghanistan and Pakistan. In some
cases, Blackwater is not working for the US, but were hired by covert elements
inside Pakistan. When it comes to private contractors, the fog of war grows
ominous, exactly who is fighting for whom is unclear. The crucial factor
is who paid them the most that particular day.
-
- The US military can give them $1000 today, and an enemy
can give them $1000 tomorrow, when you have people who fight for a payday
and not for a country, you get chaos. This leads to a breakdown in the
chain of command, effectively turning a military operation into a covert
intelligence operation, where you're never really sure if the person you
are fighting with is on your side or not.
-
- A federal investigation by the Commission on Wartime
Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealed in June: "More than
240,000 contractor employees, about 80 percent of them foreign nationals,
are working in Iraq and Afghanistan to support operations and projects
of the U.S. military, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Contractor employees outnumber U.S. troops in
the region. While contractors provide vital services, the Commission believes
their use has also entailed billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud, and
abuse due to inadequate planning, poor contract drafting, limited competition,
understaffed oversight functions, and other problems."
-
- Before this latest surge, there were over 123,000
US and NATO troops in the Af-Pak region, and 200,000 Afghan security
forces, supporting the US effort. According to US intelligence sources
the total number of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the region was estimated
to only be about 25,000, giving the US led forces a minimum of a 12
to 1 troop advantage.
-
- When you add in estimated private soldiers, you get an
approximate minimum of a 17 to 1 advantage.
-
- Although Obama opened his war speech by mentioning al-Qaida
as the main justification for this war, consider this AP report: "national
security adviser James Jones said last weekend that the al-Qaida presence
has diminished, and he does not 'foresee the return of the Taliban' to
power. He said that according to the maximum estimate, al-Qaida has fewer
than 100 fighters operating in Afghanistan without any bases or ability
to launch attacks on the West."
-
- Does it seriously take a surge of hundreds of thousands
of troops to contain what amounts to "less than 100 al-Qaida members?
- Any serious war strategist will tell you that the most
effective way to combat the remains of the al-Qaida network, is through
an intelligence operation, and statistics prove that escalating more troops
into the region will only fuel further acts of terrorism.
-
- DRONE DEPLOYMENTS
- Speaking of fueling hatred toward the US, other than
a huge troop increase, there has also been a sharp increase in the use
of unmanned drones. The New Yorker reports: "According to a just
completed study by the New America Foundation, the number of drone strikes
has risen dramatically since Obama became President. During his first nine
and a half months in office, he has authorized as many C.I.A. aerial attacks
in Pakistan as George W. Bush did in his final three years in office."
-
- The unmanned drones have caused major controversy due
to the high number of civilian causalities they cause. However,
as the study stated, the Obama Administration continues to increasingly
rely upon them.
-
- So summing up these statistics, we have the most fierce
and technologically advanced military force in history, vastly outnumbering
what amounts to be a ragtag army of peasant farmers with guns, and our
best option is supposed to be an increase in troop levels?
- Obviously, something doesn't add up.
-
- After thinking about all of this, you begin to see through
the smokescreen of what this war is said to be about and get a glimpse
of some of the sinister forces at play here.
- OVER EXTENDED TROOPS
- With the rise in deployments, the US military is stretched
to a breaking point. Obama is "deploying practically every available
US Army brigade to war, leaving few units in reserve."
-
- As this war enters its 9th year, many soldiers are forced
into deploying on their 3rd or 4th combat tours, and morale is fading
fast.
- The past year has seen a dramatic increase in US soldier
deaths, with the number of wounded drastically rising as well. 928
US soldiers have died in Afghanistan thus far, with last month being
the deadliest month since the start.
-
- AP reports that "nearly four times as many
troops were injured in October as a year ago. Amputations, burns, brain
injuries and shrapnel wounds proliferate in Afghanistan, due mostly to
crude, increasingly potent improvised bombs targeting U.S. forces. Since
2007, more than 70,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic
brain injury - more than 20,000 of them this year"
-
- US soldier suicides are also on the rise. In 2008, 197
army soldiers committed suicide. Thus far in 2009, there have been 211
army suicides.
-
- McClatchy recently reported: "An Army task force
has found that a growing number of soldiers serving in Afghanistan are
suffering from some kind of mental stress and is urging the military to
double the number of mental health professionals deployed there. The study,
conducted by the Army Mental Health Advisory Team, found that soldiers'
morale in Afghanistan is 'significantly lower' than it was in 2005 and
2007 studies"
-
- As wounded soldiers return from Afghanistan and Iraq,
they are finding a healthcare system that is increasingly more difficult
and costly to get care from. In fact, 2,266 US veterans died
in 2008 due to lack of healthcare, and "researchers also found that,
in 2008, 1,461,615 veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lacked
insurance."
-
- Despite all of this, in another devastating example of
how the economy is unraveling US society, military enlistment levels
have reached a high. In a report by the Washington Post headlined: "A
Historic Success In Military Recruiting" they reveal:
-
- "For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S.
military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands
of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will
go to war.
-
- The Pentagon said the economic downturn and rising joblessness,
as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to
enlist. The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since
the all-volunteer force was established.
-
- 'We delivered beyond anything the framers of the all-volunteer
force would have anticipated,' Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense
for military personnel policy, said at a Pentagon news conference.
-
- Overall, the Defense Department brought in 168,900 active-duty
troops, or 103 percent of the goal for the fiscal year."
-
- What we are witnessing here with such high enlistment
levels during this economic crisis has many parallels to Germany in the
1930's. Just like the United States now, the German economy in the 1930's
was devastated by an economic crisis brought on by Wall Street. With rising
unemployment and poverty, German men turned to the military for income
and health benefits that their family severely needed. With over 25 million
US citizens unemployed and underemployed, over 50 million with no healthcare,
and over 50 million living in poverty, military service is now a last resort
for a growing number of desperate Americans as well. The record-breaking
enlistment numbers are expected to continue to rise as the economy continues
to decline.
-
- "Such a perfect democracy constructs its own inconceivable
foe, terrorism. Its wish is to be judged by its enemies rather than by
its results."
- Guy DeBord, Comments On the Society of the Spectacle,
1988
-
-
- II: THE MILITARIZED ECONOMY
- The amount of money necessary to keep the US military
machine growing has reached astonishing levels. Considering the increasing
amount of troops and contractors, the White House estimates that it spends one
million dollars per soldier, per year in Afghanistan, "not including
the added expense of training and maintaining a security force."
-
- According to these calculations, 30,000 troops for this
latest surge will add an additional $30 billion to the annual budget, just
in troop related costs. Also consider the price of moving fuel around, AFP
reports: "Moving soldiers and supplies across the rugged Afghan landscape
costs more than in Iraq, with the military consuming 83 liters or 22 gallons
of fuel per soldier per day." The Hill adds: "Pentagon officials
have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel
costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations
in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate."
-
- Other than in Iraq and Afghanistan, you have an unprecedented
number of military bases spread throughout the world. Officially there
are "900 military facilities in 46 countries and territories
(the unofficial figure is far greater). The US military owns or rents 795,000
acres of land, with 26,000 buildings and structures, valued at $146bn.
The bases bristle with an inventory of weapons whose worth is measured
in the trillions and whose killing power could wipe out all life on earth
several times over. The official figures exclude the huge build-up of troops
and structures in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade, as well as
secret or unacknowledged facilities in Israel, Kuwait, the Philippines
and many other places. In just three years of the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars, £2bn was spent on military construction."
-
- There was public outcry when Bush drastically raised
an already bloated military budget to record highs. But in comes the admired
anti-war candidate Obama, in the middle of a severe economic crisis, and
what happens? Obama drastically increased Bush's record budget to $651
billion in 2009. Yes, during a severe economic crisis, Obama actually increased
Bush's budget. US military spending is higher than the rest of the world
combined. The 2010 budget, which doesn't account for war-related spending
yet, is already set to grow to $680 billion.
-
- However, these budget numbers are deceiving because the
Obama Administration has been getting better at hiding extra spending in
other budget items. The actual total 2009 budget was over $1 trillion.
-
- And much like the staggering giveaway to the economic
elite in the Wall Street banker bailout, no one is really sure where a
significant percentage of this money is actually going. On September 10,
2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 trillion in military spending
was unaccounted for. As CBS News reported: "$2.3 trillion - that's
$8,000 for every man, woman and child in America."
-
- At that time, Pentagon auditors admitted that they couldn't
account for a staggering 25% of all military spending. And the budget
has exploded since then, with fewer people accounting for where this money
is going.
-
- Once again, just like the $23.7 trillion that
went into propping up the Wall Street elite - which totals $80,000
for every American - you have trillions more in taxpayer money vanishing
and very few regulating and accounting for it.
-
- Other than this staggering loss of taxpayer money, any
serious economist will tell you "that military spending increases
unemployment and decreases economic growth."
-
- Economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, in
their book "The Three Trillion Dollar War," report that military
spending on the war in Iraq has created over a trillion dollars in
loses to the US economy.
-
- On top of all the looting of taxpayer money that is occurring,
"several powerful House committee chairmen have proposed a surtax
on Americans to pay the future military costs."
-
- With the country already operating at a record $12
trillion deficit, members of congress don't know how we can afford increasing
an already huge war expenditure.
-
- WEAPONS SALES
- In this struggling economy, weapon sales have become
one of America's most booming businesses. US weapon sales have hit a record
level under the Obama administration. Foreign Policy In Focus reports:
-
- "In fiscal year 2008, the foreign military sales
program sold $36 billion in weapons and defense articles, an increase of
more than 50% over 2007. Sales for the first half of 2009 reached $27 billion,
and could top out at $40 billion by the end of the year. In contrast, through
the early 2000s, arms sales averaged between $8-13 billion per year.
-
- But last year, the United States sold arms or military
services to well over 100 nations.
- the majority of U.S. arms sales to the developing
world went to countries that our own State Department defined as undemocratic
- regimes and/or major human rights abusers. And over two-thirds
of the world's active conflicts involved weapons that had been supplied
by the United States."
-
- Selling all these weapons, especially during the biggest
global financial crisis, will lead to one thing terrorism.
-
- Given these statistics, it shouldn't be a surprise to
hear how US taxpayer dollars are still funding the Taliban. Prior
to the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban government was funded by the US taxpayer.
In fact, the Taliban still receives a significant portion of their funding
courtesy of the US taxpayer. As The Nation recently reported: "It
is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan
that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting.
And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of
money for the Taliban. 'It's a big part of their income,' one of the top
Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In
fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent
of the Pentagon's logistics contractshundreds of millions of dollarsconsists
of payments to insurgents."
-
- As former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell explained:
"Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the US military machine to
turn."
- With the war in Afghanistan now entering it's 9th year, senior
military commanders and a growing number of experts have
come to the conclusion that this war is unwinnable and will fuel terrorism.
-
- However, they all seem to be missing the point, before
explaining this in more detail, let me start by referring you to a quote
from a journalist who had firsthand experience operating inside a militaristic
empire:
-
- "The war is not supposed to be winnable, it is supposed
to be continuous all for the hierarchy of society The essential act
of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products
of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the
stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might
otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the
long run, too intelligent it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere
that a hierarchical society needs. War is now a purely internal affair."
- George Orwell
-
- III: MASTERS OF WAR
- "Come you masters of war
- You that build all the guns
- You that build the death planes
- You that hide behind walls
- You that hide behind desks
- I just want you to know,
- I can see through your mask"
-
- Many of the weapons manufactures and private military
contractors are seen as the primary war profiteers. For an example of grotesque
war profiteering, let's look at Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton.
In a report headlined: "U.S. War Privatization Results in Billions
Lost in Fraud, Waste and Abuse," Jeremy Scahill reports on KBR, a
Halliburton subsidiary.
-
- "KBR has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001.
In May, April Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency,
testified that KBR was linked to 'the vast majority' of war-zone fraud
cases and a majority of the $13 billion in 'questioned' or 'unsupported'
costs. According to Agency, it sent the inspector general 'a total of 32
cases of suspected overbilling, bribery and other violations since 2004.
- According to the Associated Press, which obtained an
early copy of the commission's report, 'billions of dollars' of the total
paid to KBR 'ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate
oversight and contractor inefficiencies.'
-
- KBR is at the center of a lethal scandal involving the
electrocution deaths of more than a dozen US soldiers, allegedly as a result
of faulty electrical work done by the company. The DoD paid KBR more than
$80 million in bonuses for the very work that resulted in the electrocution
deaths."
-
- With numerous scandals over KBR operations, Halliburton
ended it's relationship with the company. However, "Halliburton reported $4
billion in operating profits in 2008, while KBR recently said its
first quarter revenues in 2009 were up 27%, for a total of $3.2 billion.
Its sales in 2008 were up 33%, and according to the Financial Times, the
company had $1 billion in cash, no debt, and was looking for acquisitions."
-
- Beyond these blatant examples of war profiteering, there
are more insidious forces at play that most people don't see. These war
profiteering companies are funded by the same banks that have destroyed
the US economy.
-
- Consider this example concerning Alliant Techsystems
and Textron, two manufactures of cluster bombs, the controversial civilian
killing WMDs. The Guardian reported:
-
- "The deadly trade in cluster bombs is funded by
the world's biggest banks who have loaned or arranged finance worth $20bn
to firms producing the controversial weapons, despite growing international
efforts to ban them
-
- Goldman Sachs, the US bank which made £3.19bn profit
in just three months, earned $588.82m for bank services and lent $250m
to Alliant Techsystems and Textron
-
- Last December 90 countries, including the UK, committed
themselves to banning cluster bombs by next year. But the US was not one
of them. So far 23 countries have ratified the convention."
-
- Before going into further detail on how these banks make
a lion's share of war profits, let's look back at the origins of these
wars.
-
- GEO-STRATEGIC OIL OPERATIONS
- With all due respect to people who have been force-fed Pentagon
propaganda by the US mainstream media, any serious observer of the Iraq
and Af-Pak wars knows that these are geo-strategic conflicts based on controlling
the world's oil supply. Anyone in the "news" media who tells
you otherwise is either unaware of what is actually going on, or is a well-paid
propagandist working for the very people who profit off of them.
-
- ORIGINS OF THE IRAQ OCCUPATION: CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE
- As an AlterNet report put it: "In January 2000,
10 days into President George W. Bush's first term, representatives of
the largest oil and energy companies joined the new administration to form
the Cheney Energy Task Force."
-
- Secret Task Force documents that were dated March 2001,
which were obtained by Judical Watch in 2003 after a Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit, contained "a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries
and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects"
They also had:
-
- " a series of lists titled 'Foreign Suitors for
Iraqi Oilfield Contracts' naming more than 60 companies from some 30 countries
with contracts in various stages of negotiation.
-
- None of contracts were with American nor major British
companies, and none could take effect while the U.N. Security Council sanctions
against Iraq remained in place. Three countries held the largest contracts:
China, Russia and France - all members of the Security Council and all
in a position to advocate for the end of sanctions.
-
- Were Saddam to remain in power and the sanctions to be
removed, these contracts would take effect, and the U.S. and its closest
ally would be shut out of Iraq's great oil bonanza."
-
- Project Censored highlighted a Judicial Watch report that
stated: "Documented plans of occupation and exploitation predating
September 11 confirm heightened suspicion that U.S. policy is driven by
the dictates of the energy industry. According to Judicial Watch President,
Tom Fitton, 'These documents show the importance of the Energy Task Force
and why its operations should be open to the public.'"
-
- ORIGINS OF THE AFGHANISTAN OCCUPATION: "STRATEGY
OF THE SILK ROUTE"
- Up until 9/11, oil companies, with the help of the Bush
administration, were desperately trying to work out a deal with the Taliban
to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan. One of the world's richest
oil fields is on the eastern shore of the Caspian sea just north of Afghanistan.
The Caspian oil reserves are of top strategic importance in the quest to
control the earth's remaining oil supply. The US government developed a
policy called "The Strategy of the Silk Route."
-
- The policy was designed to lock out Russia, China and
Iran from the oil in this region. This called for U.S. corporations to
construct an oil pipeline running through Afghanistan. Since the mid 1990s,
a consortium of U.S. companies led by Unocal have been pursing this goal.
A feasibility study of the Central Asian pipeline project was performed
by Enron. Their study concluded that as long as the country was split among
fighting warlords the pipeline could not be built. Stability was necessary
for the $4.5 billion project and the U.S. believed that the Taliban would
impose the necessary order. The U.S. State Department and Pakistan's ISI,
impressed by the Taliban movement to cut a pipeline deal, agreed to funnel
arms and funding to the Taliban in their war for control of Afghanistan.
-
- "Until 1999 U.S. taxpayers paid the entire
annual salary of every single Taliban government official."
-
- The U.S., Saudi and Pakistan intelligence alliance that
created the terrorist financing bank BCCI reunited to facilitate the rise
of the Taliban. BCCI was a US intelligence bank, which served as the financing
arm for the creation of the al-Qaida network. BCCI was involved in many
covert operations throughout the 80's. They played a pivotal role in arming
Saddam in Iraq, creating the Iran hostage crisis, even selling drugs through
Manuel Noriega and other top drug dealers. BCCI gave nuclear weapons to
Pakistan, which led to North Korea and Iran obtaining pivotal nuclear secrets
as well. BCCI was also a driving force behind the Savings and Loan scandals
that were a precursor to our current economic crisis.
-
- Focusing on the creation of the Taliban, let's read an
excerpt from a 2003 book, " Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars
Behind the Terror Networks," by Loretta Napoleoni:
-
- "The alliance between American capitalism and Islamist
fundamentalism is not limited to the creation of the Taliban; it also produced
business ventures designed to extract favours from the new regime. To strengthen
its bargaining power with the newly formed Islamist state, Unocal joined
the Saudi Delta Oil Corporation to create a consortium called CentGas.
Delta Oil is owned by the bin Mahfouz and al-Amoudi families [pivotal BCCI
players], Saudi clans which have strong links with Osama bin Laden's family.
Mahfouz has been sponsoring charitable institutions used as fronts for
bin Laden's associates through the National Commercial Bank, which his
family controls.
-
- Naturally, as soon as George W. Bush was elected president,
Unocal and [UK's] BP-Amoco started once again to lobby the administration,
among whom were several of their former employees. Unocal knew that Bush
was ready to back them and resumed the consortium negotiations. In January
2001, it began discussions with the Taliban, backed by members of the Bush
administration among whom was Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage,
who had previously worked as a lobbyist for Unocal. The Taliban, for their
part, employed as their PR officer in the US Laila Helms, niece of Richard
Helms, former director of the CIA and former US ambassador to Iran. In
March 2001, Helms succeeded in bringing Rahmatullah Hashami, Mullah Omar's
adviser, to Washington. As late as August 2001, meetings were held in Pakistan
to discuss the pipeline business.
-
- While negotiations were underway, the US was secretly
making plans to invade Afghanistan. The Bush administration and its oil
sponsors were losing patience with the Taliban; they wanted to get the
Central Asian gas pipeline going as soon as possible. The 'strategy of
the Silk Route' had been resumed.
-
- Paradoxically, 11 September provided Washington with
a casus belli to invade Afghanistan and establish a pro American government
in the country. When, a few weeks after the attack, the leaders of the
two Pakistani Islamist parties negotiated with Mullah Omar and bin Laden
for the latter's extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for the 11 September
attacks, the US refused the offer.
-
- In November 2001 Hamid Karzai was elected [Afghanistan's]
prime minister Yet very few people remember that during the 1990's Karzai
was involved in negotiations with the Taliban regime for the construction
of a Central Asian gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan
to Pakistan. At that time he was a top adviser and lobbyist for Unocal
during the anti-Soviet jihad, Karzai was a member of the Mujahedin. In
the early 1990's, thanks to his excellent contacts with the ISI, he moved
to the US where he cooperated with the CIA and the ISI in supporting the
Taliban's political adventure."
-
- So it is not all that surprising to see recent reports
revealing that Hamid Karzai's drug kingpin brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai,
is also on the CIA payroll.
-
- With this, a new Senate investigation just revealed evidence
that Donald Rumsfeld made a conscious strategic decision to let Bin
Laden escape. AFP reports:
-
- "Osama bin Laden was within the grasp of US forces
in late 2001 and could have been caught if then-defense secretary Donald
Rumsfeld hadn't rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate
report says.
-
- It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning
down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in caves and
tunnels in a mountainous section of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.
-
- 'The vast array of American military power, from sniper
teams to the most mobile divisions of the marine corps and the army, was
kept on the sidelines,' the report said."
-
- So now that we see how these wars are driven by oil,
let's look at how the oil industry is benefiting from them. Since the invasion,
the industry has experienced record profits across the board, setting new
profit records quarter after quarter, year after year, as these wars rage
on.
-
- IRAQI OIL DEALS
- With Exxon and Shell just signing new oil contracts in
Iraq, it's obvious why there are still over 100,000 troops in Iraq. In
a Daily Mirror report headlined, "Oil Billions and Weapons of Mass
Deception In Iraq," they report on the new oil deals:
-
- "Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell won the development
rights of a massive oil field - West Qurna near Basra in Iraq's south.
The two oil giants hope to boost daily production from the current 300,000
barrels to 2.3 million barrels a day at West Qurna, which the ousted and
hanged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein wanted to give to a Russian oil company.
-
- Last month, British Petroleum (BP) and the China National
Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) won a contract to develop another oil field.
The invitation to China to join the plunder of Iraq is probably a payoff
by the US so that this Asian economic powerhouse and rising military power
would not rock the pirates' boat."
-
- Let's look back over the years since the start of the
War on Terror, here's a 2005 MSNBC report:
-
- "By just about any measure, the past three years
have produced one of the biggest cash gushers in the oil industry's history.
Since January of 2002, the price of crude has tripled, leaving oil producers
awash in profits. During that period, the top 10 major public oil companies
have sold some $1.5 trillion worth of crude, pocketing profits of more
than $125 billion.
-
- "This is the mother of all booms," said Oppenheimer
& Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit. "They have so much profit, it's
almost an embarrassment of riches. They don't know what to do with it.
-
- So an oil field that was profitable with oil selling
for $20 a barrel is much more profitable with oil trading around $60. Since
January 2002, stocks of major oil companies have gained 88 percent; during
that period the Standard and Poor's 500 index has gained less than half
as much.
-
- Oil producers have also given investors a raise by gradually
increasing the dividends paid out to shareholders."
- Here's a 2007 Public Citizen report summing
up oil company wartime profits:
-
- "Since George Bush became President in 2001, the
top five oil companies in the United States have recorded profits of $464
billion through the first quarter of 2007:
-
- ExxonMobil: $158.5 billion
- Shell: $108.5 billion
- BP: $89.2 billion
- ChevronTexaco: $60.9 billion
- ConocoPhillips: $46.9 billion"
- In Febuary 2008, CNN reported:
- "Exxon shatters profit records
-
- Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion
in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007.
|
