-Caveat Lector-
http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/DA26Ag01.html
January 26, 2002
atimes.com
Central Asia/ Russia
THE ROVING EYE
Pipelineistan, Part 2: The games nations play
By Pepe Escobar
Part 1: The rules of the game
Two months ago, the White House was deliriously happy with the
official opening of the first new pipeline of the Caspian Pipeline
Consortium - a joint venture including Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman,
ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and a bunch of other minor players.
This $2.65 billion pipeline links the enormous Tengiz oilfield in
northwestern Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the
Black Sea: from there, the sky - ie the world market - is the limit.
Bush II, according to the White House, is developing "a network of
multiple Caspian pipelines that also include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan,
Baku-Supsa, and Baku- Novorossiyisk oil pipelines, and the Baku-
Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline". So one of the key nodes in the
American petrostrategy is composed by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
The pipeline consortium for Baku-Ceyhan, led by British Petroleum, is
represented by the law firm Baker & Botts. The principal attorney is
none other than Texan superstar James Baker - secretary of state
under Bush I and chief spokesman for the Bush II 2000 campaign when
all gloves were off to shut down the Florida vote recount.
Texas-based, scandal-prone Enron, together with Amoco, Chevron,
Mobil, UNOCAL and British Petroleum, were all spending billions of
dollars to pump the reserves of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan. Baker, Scowcroft, Sununu and Cheney have all closed
major deals directly and indirectly on behalf of the oil companies.
But now the Enron scandal has just exploded right in the face of the
oil industry - and Bush II's administration. It will be very
enlightening to see what the American tradition of investigative
journalism will make of all this.
Enron once had a market value of $70 billion. It filed for bankruptcy
in December 2001 after admitting it ovestated its profits by almost
$600 million. Paul Krugman wrote that "Enron helped Dick Cheney
devise an energy plan that certainly looks as if it was written by
and for the companies that advised his task force". The Enron big-
time crooks - close pals of Cheney and Bush II - dwarf any Asian
"crony capitalists" Americans were carping about before and after the
Asian financial crisis.
There's no shortage of crooks in the oil industry. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have
intimate relations with Israeli military intelligence. A so-called "former" Israeli
intelligence agent, Yousef Maiman, president of the M
ehrav Group of Israel, is nothing less than "Special Ambassador", official negotiatior
and even policymaker responsible for developing the enormous energy resources of
Turkmenistan.
Maiman is a citizen of the gas republic by presidential decree - signed by the
Turkmenbashi himself, the fabulously megalomaniac Saparmurad Niazov, former member of
the Soviet Politburo. Maiman, according to the Wall Stre
et Journal, is actively involved in advancing the "geopolitical goals of both the US
and Israel" in Central Asia. He certainly does not beat around the bush: "Controlling
the transport route is controlling the product." N
obody knows where Mehrav's money comes from.
Mehrav's planned pipelines bypass both Iran and Russia. But after the conquest of
Afghanistan, oil sources in Singapore say Mehrav may consider dealing with Iran. It's
all to do with the importance of the Turkish market.
Russia and Turkmenistan are fiercely competing to conquer the Turkish gas market.
Considering the strategic relationship between Turkey and Israel, the Israeli game
remains preventing Turkish strategic dependence on Iran.
Turkey is a NATO member and a key US ally. The US and Britain routinely strike
against Iraq from Turkish bases - from which they patrol the unillateraly-declared
Iraqi "no-fly zones". These "no-fly zones" are obviously n
ot sanctioned by the UN.
Mehrav is also involved in a murderous project to reduce the flow of water to Iraq by
diverting water from the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers to southeastern Turkey. And
Magal Security Systems, an Israeli company, is als
o involved with Turkey: it will provide security for the 2,000 km-long oil pipeline
from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Crook-infested Enron - the biggest donor to the Bush campaign of 2000 - was
ubiquitious: it conducted the feasibility study for the $2.5 billion trans-Caspian
pipeline being built under a joint venture signed almost three
years ago between Turkmenistan and Bechtel and General Electric. The go-between in
the deal was none other than the Mehrav Group. Chairman Maiman spent a fortune hiring
the Washington lobbying firm Cassidy and Associates
to seduce official Washington with the trans-Caspian pipeline project.
The intrincate relationship between Israel, Turkey and the US means that as much as
the trans-Caspian pipeline, the Baku- Ceyhan pipeline is also absolutely crucial. It
could be extended to bring oil directly to thirsty I
srael. During the Clinton years, oil giants were under tremendous pressure to build
East-West pipelines. But all of them preferred to build North-South pipelines - much
cheaper, but with the inconvenience of crossing Iran
, an absolute anathema for Washington.
Russia already has a contract with Turkmenistan to purchase 30 billion cubic meters of
gas a year. This represents a big blow to the US field of dreams, the trans-Caspian
gas pipeline. This also means that Russia will nev
er let go of its sphere of influence without a tremendous fight. The Central Asian
republics are on its borders, Russia has dominated them for centuries and they are
home to millions of Russians. Russian is still the lang
uage they all use to do business with each other.
Thanks to master political chess player Vladimir Putin, Russia is now on the cosiest
terms possible with Washington - and US-Iran antipathy is apparently receding. Russia
may eventually become a partner in at least some o
f Washington's petrostrategy games in Central Asia - like the Caspian Pipeline
Consortium. The regional map also reveals that Iran, besides holding important gas
reserves, offers the best direct access from the Caspian Se
a to the Persian Gulf, where oil and gas can be quickly exported to Asian markets.
Iran assumes, not entirely without reason, that it is the rightful guardian of Central
Asia because of centuries of ethnic, historical, linguistic and religious ties. And
Iran is very conscious that American military link
s and now physical presence in Central Asia are part of a strategy to encircle it. But
even amid so many geopolitical and ideological pitfalls, the fact remains that as long
as the US is militarily involved in Afghanistan
, there will be some sort of US-Iranian diplomatic engagement.
Under the control of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), pipelines from
Central Asia will also reach China's Xinjiang. Oil sources in Singapore stress that
this will certainly spell a slump for the sea routes
across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Washington is more than aware through its
think tanks of the consequences: an extremely likely strategic realignment between
China, Japan and Korea.
The Chinese have their sights on only one terrifying prospect: the encirclement of
China by the US. UNOCAL is dreaming about profits. Washington is thinking about the
robust Chinese economy. Whatever "war against terror"
distractions, China remains the key strategic competitor to the US in the 21st
century. With Afghanistan in the bag, UNOCAL dreams of monster profits in the Asian
market - much higher than in Europe - while Washington clo
sely monitors the Chinese economy: growth of 8 percent in 2000, 7 percent in 2001, and
needing all the oil and gas it can get. Chinese strategists are working around the
clock to develop local forms of energy production.
What happens next will be closely linked to the deliberations of the Shanghai Five,
now Shanghai Six, or more burocratically, the Shangahi Cooperation Organization (SCO):
China and Russia, plus four Central Asian republic
s (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Takijistan and Uzbekistan). Manouvering with extreme care,
China is using the SCO to align Russia economically and politically towards China and
northeast Asia. At the same time, Russia is using
the SCO to maintain its traditional hegemony in Central Asia. The name of the game
for solidifying the alliance is Russian export of its enormous reserves of oil and gas.
Since the NATO war against Yugoslavia and the de facto occupation of Kosovo - where
America built its largest military base since the Vietnam War - China and Russia have
their minds set on Chechnya and Muslim Xinjiang. Fo
r the moment, at least, America has absolutely no way of interfering in these domestic
problems, since China and especially Russia are endorsing the war against terrorism.
The Taliban were never a target in the "war against terrorism". They were just a
scapegoat - rather, a horde of medieval warrior scapegoats who simply did not fulfill
their contract: to insert Aghanistan into Pipelineista
n. All the regional players now know America is in Central Asia to stay, as Washington
itself has been stridently repeating these last few weeks, and it will be influencing
or disturbing the economy and geopolitics of the
region. The wider world is absolutely oblivious to these real stakes in the New Great
Game.
The US at the time of the Gulf War did not show any interest in replacing "Satan"
Hussein. That would seriously compromise the American design to establish bases on the
Arabian peninsula on the convenient pretext of helpi
ng poor Arab sheikhs against the Iraqi Evil Monster.
More than a decade later, Satan Hussein is still there, Bush I is now Bush II, and
assorted Pentagon hawks are still fuming, trying to fabricate any excuse to blow
Saddam back to Mesopotamian ashes. But Saddam will not be
attacked, because Saddam is the ultimate reason for American military bases in the
Gulf - a splendid affair because on top of it all it is a free ride, the expenses
being paid by the ultra-flush sheikdoms. Now, after the
(also unfinished) New Afghan War, American forces are already establishing themselves
in Central and South Asia to once again "protect the interests of the free world".
It is never enough to remember that after the end of the communist regime in
Afghanistan, the American strategy was to deliberately let Islamic extremism go wild -
a perfect way to scare the unstable regimes in the Centra
l Asian neo-republics. Islamic fundamentalism has always been a key card in the
American strategic design since the Cold War days when the CIA subcontracted to the
Pakistani ISI the arm-them-to-their-teeth policy regardin
g the mujahideen. It is always easy to forget that the good-guys-turned-bad-guys were
once were hailed by Ronnie Reagan himself at the Oval Office as "the moral equivalent
of the founding fathers".
America has been trying hard to "get" Afghanistan - the heart of Asia in Antiquity,
the Pipelineistan crossroads of Asia nowadays - for more than 20 years. In the
process, the mujahideen transformed Afghanistan, with CIA
blessing, into the world's leading producer of heroin, opening the crucial and
ultra-profitable drug pipeline Afghanistan-Turkey-Balkans-Western Europe. More than a
martini, oil-arms-drugs is the classic CIA cocktail. Thi
s "Drugistan" road has just been spetacularly reopened after the fall of the Taliban.
Pipelineistan is not an end in itself. Oil and gas by themselves are not the US's
ultimate aim. It's all about control. In Monopoly, Belgian writer Michel Collon wrote:
"If you want to rule the world, you need to control
oil. All the oil. Anywhere." If the US controls the sources of energy of its rivals -
Europe, Japan, China and other nations aspiring to be more independent - they win.
This explains why pipelines from the Caucasus to the
West have to be America- friendly - ie Turkish or Macedonian - and not "unreliable",
meaning Russian-controled. Washington, always, has to control everything: that's what
Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger always said. The s
ame goes for the military bases in Saudi Arabia, and now in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
There's no business like war business. Thanks to war against Iraq, the US has its
military bases in the Persian Gulf. Thanks to war against Yugoslavia, the US has its
military bases in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. Thanks
to war against the Taliban, the US is now in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Not to mention the base in Incirlik, Turkey. The US is also in the
Caucasus - in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Iran, China and Ru
ssia are practically encircled. There's no business like show business. Raise the
curtains. Enter Pipelineistan. (Applause).
((c)2001 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
Part 1: The rules of the game
Related Articles
Russian oil a challenge to OPEC (Jan 25, 2002)
Turkmenbashi reaches out (Jan 24, 2002)
Reconstructing Afghanistan - on oil and gas (Nov 24, 2001)
The oil behind Bush and Son's campaigns(Oct 6, 2001)
Front |China | Southeast Asia | Japan | Koreas | India/Pakistan | Central Asia/Russia
| Oceania
Business Briefs | Global Economy | Asian Crisis | Media/IT |Editorials | Letters |
Search/ Archive
back to the top
�2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.
Room 6301, The Center, 99 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
