It's Not Just the Oil. The Middle East War and the Conquest of Natural Gas
Reserves
By <
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/washington-s-blog/> Washington's
Blog
Global Research, October 09, 2012
middleeast
Are the Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Really About Oil?
The Iraq war was really about oil, according to
<
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece> Alan
Greenspan, <
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/02/974014.aspx>
John McCain,
<
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason
_for_iraq_war/> George W. Bush,
<
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/31/palin-iraq-is-a-war-for-oil/> Sarah
Palin, a
<
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2008/07/did-cheney-and-the-oil-bigs-plan-the
-iraq-war-before-911.html> high-level National Security Council officer and
<
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-betw
een-oil-firms-and-invasion-of-iraq-2269610.html> others.
Dick Cheney made Iraqi's oil fields a national security priority
<
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2008/07/did-cheney-and-the-oil-bigs-plan-the
-iraq-war-before-911.html> before 9/11.
The Sunday Herald
<
http://web.archive.org/web/20030402124132/http:/www.sundayherald.com/28224>
reported:
Five months before September 11, the US advocated using force against Iraq .
to secure control of its oil.
The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11 (see
<
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm> this and
<
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/> this). According to French
intelligence officers, the U.S. wanted to run an oil pipeline through
Afghanistan to transport Central Asian oil more easily and cheaply. And so
the U.S. told the Taliban shortly before 9/11 that they would either get "a
carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs", the former if they greenlighted the
pipeline, the second if they didn't. See
<
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/08/ltm.05.html> this,
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/18/opinion/a-new-oil-game-with-new-winners.h
tml> this and
<
http://www.ipsnews.net/2001/11/politics-us-policy-towards-taliban-influence
d-by-oil-authors/> this.
Congressman Ed Markey
<
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/21/dem_congressman_were_in_l
ibya_because_of_oil.html> said:
Well, we're in Libya because of oil.
Senator Graham
<
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/how-did-our-oil-get-under_b_102
8395.html> agreed.
And the U.S. and UK overthrew the democratically-elected leader of Iran
<
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html>
because he announced that he would nationalize the oil industry in that
country.
It's a War for GAS
But it's about gas as much as oil .
As key war architect John Bolton said last year:
The critical oil and natural gas producing region that we fought so many
wars to try and protect our economy from the adverse impact of losing that
supply or having it available only at very high prices.
For example, the pipeline which the U.S. wanted to run through Afghanistan
prior to 9/11 was to transport
<
http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/082198.htm> gas as much as oil.
John C.K. Daly
<
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ck-daly/collateral-damage-from-af_b_1367
684.html> notes:
The proposed $7.6 billion, 1,040 mile-long TAPI
[Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India ... admittedly a mouthful, but
you'll be hearing a lot about it in the coming months] natural gas pipeline
has a long regional history, having first been proposed even before the
Taliban captured Kabul, as in 1995 Turkmenistan and Pakistan initialed a
memorandum of understanding. TAPI, with a carrying capacity of 33 billion
cubic meters of Turkmen natural gas a year, was projected to run from
Turkmenistan's Dauletabad gas field across Afghanistan and Pakistan and
terminate at the northwestern Indian town of Fazilka.
TAPI would have required the assent of the Taliban, and two years after the
MoU was signed the Central Asia Gas Pipeline Ltd. consortium, led by U.S.
company Unocal, flew a Taliban delegation to Unocal headquarters in Houston,
where the Taliban signed off on the project.
The Taliban visit to the U.S. has been
<
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/west_asia/37021.stm> confirmed by the
mainstream media. Indeed, here is a picture of the Taliban delegation
visiting Unocal's Houston headquarters in 2007:
078 taliban in texas2050081722 8583 The Wars in the Middle East and North
Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
U.S. companies such as Unocal (lead on the proposed pipeline) and
<
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ENRON_MONEY_TO_TALIBAN.jpg> Enron
(and see
<
http://web.archive.org/web/20021014095118/http:/www.nationalenquirer.com/st
ories/feature.cfm?instanceid=22359> this), with full U.S. government
support, continued to woo the Taliban right up until 2001 in an attempt to
sweet-talk them into green-lighting the pipeline.
For example, two French authors with extensive experience in intelligence
analysis (one of them a former French secret service agent) -
<
http://www.ipsnews.net/2001/11/politics-us-policy-towards-taliban-influence
d-by-oil-authors/> claim:
Until August [2001], the US government saw the Taliban regime "as a source
of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of an oil
pipeline across Central Asia" from the rich oilfields in Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian
Ocean. Until now, says the book, "the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia
have been controlled by Russia. The Bush government wanted to change all
that."
Pepe Escobar <
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KE14Ag02.html>
notes:
Under newly elected president George W Bush. Unocal snuck back into the game
and, as early as January 2001, was cozying up to the Taliban yet again, this
time supported by a star-studded governmental cast of characters, including
undersecretary of state Richard Armitage, himself a former Unocal lobbyist.
***
Negotiations eventually broke down because of those pesky transit fees the
Taliban demanded. Beware the Empire's fury. At a Group of Eight summit
meeting in Genoa in July 2001, Western diplomats indicated that the Bush
administration had decided to take the Taliban down before year's end.
(Pakistani diplomats in Islamabad would later confirm this to me.) The
attacks of September 11, 2001 just slightly accelerated the schedule.
Soon after the start of the Afghan war, Karzai became president (while Le
Monde reported that Karzai was a
<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai#Unocal_connection> Unocal
consultant, it is possible that it was a mix-up with the Unocal consultant
and neocon who got Karzai elected,
<
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE22Df02.html> Zalmay Khalilzad).
In any event, a mere year later, a U.S.-friendly Afghani regime
<
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2608713.stm> signed onto TAPI.
India just <
http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article3449588.ece>
formally signed on to Tapi. This ended the long-proposed competitor: an
<
http://thediplomat.com/indian-decade/2011/05/04/ipi-or-tapi-for-india%E2%80
%99s-gas/> Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline.
Competing Pipe Dreams
Virtually all of the current global geopolitical tension is based upon whose
vision of
<
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/20129138245360573.html>
the "New Silk Road" will control.
But before we can understand the competing visions, we have to actually
<
http://pipelines.curry.com/> see the maps:
bw The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ...
Theyre Also About GASgasSupplyAndDemand The Wars in the Middle East and
North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
bw The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ...
Theyre Also About GASsouthAndBluestream The Wars in the Middle East and
North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
And here are the competing pipelines backed by the U.S. and by Iran, before
India sided with the U.S.:
<
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CaXVzRxWw8Y/Tz_0g68MSKI/AAAAAAAAK40/x3bnv5xGZe8/s
1600/TAPI%2Band%2BIPI%2BPipelines.png> TAPI%2Band%2BIPI%2BPipelines The Wars
in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil ... Theyre Also
About GAS
With maps in hand, we can now discuss the great geopolitical battle raging
between the U.S. and its allies, on the one hand, and Russia, China and
Iran, on the other hand.
Iran and Pakistan are still discussing a pipeline without India, and
<
http://www.tehrantimes.com/economy-and-business/100399-iran-and-pakistan-ke
ep-working-on-ipi-gas-pipeline-project> Russia backs the proposal as well.
Indeed, the "Great Game" being played right now by the world powers largely
boils down to the United States and Russia
<
http://www.irs.org.pk/spapril12.pdf> fighting for control over Eurasian oil
and gas resources:
Russia and the USA have been in a state of competition in this region, ever
since the former Soviet Union split up, and Russia is adamant on keeping the
Americans out of its Central Asian backyard. Russia aims to increase
European gas dominance on its resources whereas the US wants the European
Union (EU) to diversify its energy supply, primarily away from Russian
dominance. There are already around three major Russian pipelines that are
supplying energy to Europe and Russia has planned two new pipelines.
The rising power China is also <
http://www.irs.org.pk/spapril12.pdf>
getting into this Great Game:
The third "big player" in this New Great Game is China, soon to be the
world's biggest energy consumer, which is already importing gas from
Turkmenistan via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to its Xinjiang province - known
as the Central Asia-China Pipeline - which may tilt the balance towards
Asia. Pepe Escobar calls it the opening of the 21st century Silk Road in
2009 when this pipeline became operational. China's need for energy is
projected to increase by 150 per cent which explains why it has signed
probably the largest number of deals not just with the Central Asian
republics but also with the heavily sanctioned Iran and even Afghanistan.
China has planned around five west-east gas pipelines, within China, of
which one is operational (domestically from Xinjiang to Shanghai) and others
are under construction and will be connected to Central Asian gas reserves.
China is also pushing for an alternative to TAPI: an
<
http://idsa.in/idsacomments/NowChinamayplayspoilertoTAPI_ShebontiRDadwal_31
0712> Turkmenistan-Afghan-China pipeline.
Iran is also a <
http://www.irs.org.pk/spapril12.pdf> player in its own
right:
Another important country is Iran. Iran sits on the second largest gas
reserves in the world and has over 93 billion barrels of proven oil reserves
with a total of 4.17 million barrels per day in 2009. To the dislike of the
United States, Iran is a very active player. The Turkmenistan-Iran gas
pipeline, constructed in 1997, was the first new pipeline going out from
Central Asia. Furthermore, Iran signed a $120 billion gas exploration deal,
often termed the "deal of the century" with China. This gas deal signed in
2004 entails the annual export of approximately 10 million tons of Iranian
liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China for 25 years. It also gives China's
state oil company the right to participate in such projects as exploration
and drilling for petrochemical and gas industries in Iran. Iran also plans
to sell its gas to Europe through its Persian Gas pipeline which can become
a rival to the US Nabucco pipeline. More importantly, it is also the key
party in the proposed Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline, also formerly known as
the "peace pipeline." Under this pipeline plan, first proposed in 1995, Iran
will sell gas from its mega South Pars fields to Pakistan and India.
China's support for Iran is <
http://www.irs.org.pk/spapril12.pdf> largely
explained by oil and gas:
Referring to China, Escobar states "most important of all, 'isolated' Iran
happens to be a supreme matter of national security for China, which has
already rejected the latest Washington sanctions without a blink" and that
"China may be the true winner from Washington's new sanctions, because it is
likely to get its oil and gas at a lower price, as the Iranians grow ever
more dependent on the China market."
China has also shown interest in the construction of IP on the Pakistani
side and further expanding it to China. This means that starting at Gwadar,
Beijing plans to build another pipeline, crossing Balochistan and then
following the Karakoram Highway northwards all the way to Xinjiang, China's
Far West. China is also most likely to get the construction contract for
this pipeline. As stated above, Chinese firms are part of the consortium
awarded the contract for the financial consultancy for the project. Closer
participation in the Asian energy projects would also help China increase
its influence in the region for its objective of creating the "string of
pearls" across the region - which has often scared India as an encirclement
strategy by the Chinese government.
Why Syria?
You might ask why there is so much focus on Syria right now.
Well, Syria is an
<
http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/arab-gas-pipeline-agp/>
integral part of the proposed 1,200km Arab Gas Pipeline:
<
http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/arab-gas-pipeline-agp/> 1l
image The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just About Oil
... Theyre Also About GAS
Here are some <
http://pipelines.curry.com/> additional graphics courtesy of
Adam Curry:
arabGasPipeline The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just
About Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
syria turkey The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just About
Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
levantprovince2 The Wars in the Middle East and North Africa Are NOT Just
About Oil ... Theyre Also About GAS
So yes, regime change was planned against Syria (as well as Iraq, Libya,
Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and Iran)
<
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/neoconservatives-planned-regime-chan
ge-throughout-the-middle-east-and-northern-africa-20-years-ago.html> 20
years ago.
And yes, attacking Syria weakens its close allies
<
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57513847/iran-admits-to-elite-troops-in
-syria-advising/> Iran and
<
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/15/12238938-us-official-russia-s
ends-troops-to-syria-as-peace-hopes-fade?lite> Russia . and indirectly
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/world/middleeast/china-warns-west-against
-using-force-in-syria.html> China.
But Syria's central role in the Arab gas pipeline is also a key to why it is
now being targeted.
Just as the Taliban was scheduled for removal after they demanded too much
in return for the Unocal pipeline, Syria's Assad is being targeted because
he is not a reliable "player".
Specifically, Turkey, Israel and their ally the U.S. want an assured flow of
gas through Syria, and don't want a Syrian regime which is not
unquestionably loyal to those 3 countries to stand in the way of the
pipeline . or which demands too big a cut of the profits.
Pepe Escobar <
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KE14Ag01.html> sums
up what is driving current global geopolitics and war:
What you're really talking about is what's happening on the immense energy
battlefield that extends from Iran to the Pacific Ocean. It's there that the
liquid war for the control of Eurasia takes place.
Yep, it all comes down to black gold and "blue gold" (natural gas),
hydrocarbon wealth beyond compare, and so it's time to trek back to that
ever-flowing wonderland - Pipelineistan.
Postscript: It's not just the Neocons who have planned this strategy. Jimmy
Carter's National Security Adviser helped to
<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Chessboard> map out the battle plan
for Eurasian petroleum resources over a decade ago, and Obama is clearly
<
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/obama-is-implementing-plans-for-war-
throughout-the-middle-east-created-10-years-ago-by-the-neocons.html>
continuing the same agenda.
Some would say that the wars are also be about forcing the world into
dollars and private central banking, but
<
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/are-the-middle-east-wars-really-abou
t-forcing-the-world-into-dollars-and-private-central-banking.html> that's a
separate story.
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Received on Tue Oct 09 2012 - 22:22:20 EDT
