American Patriot Friends Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Date: Friday, October 19, 2001 1:37 AM Subject: "U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS" > Two major infrastructure projects are seeking to meet the need for additional > export capacity. One, under the aegis of the Caspian > Pipeline Consortium, plans to build a pipeline west from the northern > Caspian to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Oil would then go by > tanker through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean and world markets. http://www.cpc-ltd.com/ Click on public information in frames. Then click on Project Description, then CPC Ownership Structure. (Attachment CPC Owners.pdf) Click on Pipeline Route. (Attachment CPC route.pdf) The political map can be viewed under Public Information--Pipeline Route. This shows the pipeline to be built will connect two ports across Russia, one on the Caspian Sea and one on the Black Sea. Afghanistan does not appear on this map. Access is denied on all topics other than public information. > The other project is sponsored by the Azerbaijan International > Operating Company, a consortium of 11 foreign oil companies, including four > American companies, Unocal, Amoco, Exxon and Pennzoil. This consortium > conceives of two possible routes, one line would angle north and cross the > north Caucasus to Novorossiysk. The other route would cross Georgia to a > shipping terminal on the Black Sea. This second route could be extended west > and south across Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/62_folder/62_articles/62_socar _aioc.html [This shows ownership pie map. BP owns 34%, Unocal 10.3%, Lukoil 10%, Exxon 8%, Pennzoil 5.6%, Socar 10%, Statoil 8.6%, with other companies at less than 7%.] http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/topics/Oil/oilcontracts_map.html [Shows a map of each consortium member's drilling contracts in Azerbaijan and offshore in the Caspian Sea.] The main part of the Early Oil Project has been concluded which included the refurbishment of the Chirag-1 platform, the construction of a new onshore terminal at Sangachal and a 230 km subsea pipeline system, and the rehabilitation of two existing export pipelines to transport Early Oil to the Black Sea north through Russia to Novorossiysk and west through Georgia to Supsa. The Russian route has been operational since last year and the first tanker lifted 80,000 tons of AIOC-produced oil on March 24, 1998. AIOC plans to lift 2-3 tankers per month for the remaining months of 1998 to total 1.5 million tons this year. Meanwhile, the second Early Oil Export Pipeline (via Georgia) is still under refurbishment, and work continues on selecting the ultimate Main Export Pipeline. >... Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union > are all slow growth markets where demand will grow at only a half a percent to > perhaps 1 .2 percent per year during the period 1995 to 2010. > > Asia is a different story all together. It will have a rapidly increasing > energy consumption need. Prior to the recent turbulence in the Asian Pacific > economies, we at Unocal anticipated that this region's demand for oil would > almost do uble by 2010. Although the short-term > increase in demand will probably not meet these expectations, we stand behind > our long-term estimates....If Asia's energy needs are > not satisfied, they will simply put pressure on all world markets, driving > prices upwards everywhere..... [There are two options.] > The second option is to build a pipeline south from Central Asia to the Indian > Ocean. One obvious route south would cross Iran, but this is foreclosed for > American companies because of U.S. sanctions legislation. The only other possi- > ble route is across Afghanistan , which has of course its own unique > challenges. The country has been involved in bitter warfare for almost two > decades, and is still divided by civil war. From the outset, we have made it > clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan > could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the > confidence of governments, lenders, and our company.... > Unocal foresees a pipeline which would become part of a regional system that > will gather oil from existing pipeline infrastructure in Turkmenistan, > Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The 1,040-mile long oil pipeline would > extend south through Afghanistan to an export terminal that would be > constructed on the Pakistan coast. This 42-inch diameter pipeline will have a > shipping capacity of one million barrels of oil per day. The estimated cost of > the project, which is similar in scope to the trans-Alaska pipeline, is about > $2.5 billion. ... Unocal and the Turkish company Koc > > Holding are interested in bringing competitive gas supplies to Turkey. The > proposed Eurasia natural gas pipeline would transport gas from Turkmenistan > directly across the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey. Of > course t he demarcation of the Caspian remains an issue. > > Last October, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline Consortium, called CentGas, in > which Unocal holds an interest, was formed to develop > a gas pipeline which will link Turkmenistan's vast Dauletabad gas field with > markets in Pakistan and possibly India. The proposed 790-mile pipeline will > open up new markets for this gas, traveling from Turkmenistan through > Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan. The proposed extension would move gas on > to New Delhi, where it would connect with an existing pipeline. As with the > proposed Central Asia oil pipeline, CentGas can not begin construction until > an internationally recognized Afghanistan Government is in place. http://www.atimes.com/global-econ/CJ06Dj01.html Asia Times Online October 6, 2001 The oil behind Bush and Son's campaigns By Ranjit Devraj in New Delhi *** "US influence and military presence in Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, not unlike that over the oil-rich Gulf states, would be a major strategic gain," said V R Raghavan, a strategic analyst and former general in the Indian army. Raghavan believes that the prospect of a western military presence in a region extending from Turkey to Tajikistan could not have escaped strategists who are now readying a military campaign aimed at changing the political order in Afghanistan, accused by the United States of harboring Osama bin Laden. Where the "great game" in Afghanistan was once about czars and commissars seeking access to the warm water ports of the Persian Gulf, today it is about laying oil and gas pipelines to the untapped petroleum reserves of Central Asia. According to testimony before the US House of Representatives in March 1999 by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan together have 15 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The same countries also have proven gas deposits totaling not less than nine trillion cubic meters. Another study by the Institute for Afghan Studies placed the total worth of oil and gas reserves in the Central Asian republics at around US$3 trillion at last year's prices. Not only can Afghanistan play a role in hosting pipelines connecting Central Asia to international markets, but the country itself has significant oil and gas deposits. During the Soviets' decade-long occupation of Afghanistan, Moscow estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at around five trillion cubic feet and production reached 275 million cubic feet per day in the mid-1970s. But sabotage by anti-Soviet mujahideen (freedom fighters) and by rival groups in the civil war that followed Soviet withdrawal in 1989 virtually closed down gas production and ended deals for the supply of gas to several European countries. ... In 1998, the California-based UNOCAL, which held 46.5 percent stakes in Central Asia Gas (CentGas), a consortium that planned an ambitious gas pipeline across Afghanistan, withdrew in frustration after several fruitless years. The pipeline was to stretch 1,271km from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad fields to Multan in Pakistan at an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. An additional $600 million would have brought the pipeline to energy-hungry India. ... Other partners in CentGas included the Saudi Arabian Delta Oil Company, the Government of Turkmenistan, Indonesia Petroleum (INPEX), the Japanese ITOCHU, Korean Hyundai and Pakistan's Crescent Group. ...But the immediate reason for UNOCAL's withdrawal was undoubtedly the US cruise missile attacks on Osama bin Laden's terrorism training camps in Afghanistan in August 1998, done in retaliation for the bombing of its embassies in Africa. http://www.koc.com.tr/english/kurumsal/kurulmasivegelismesi.asp Koç Group : Foundation and Development Vehbi Koç (1901-1996) started his business career when he was only 16 by convincing his father to open a small grocery store in Ankara in 1917....The small shop where Vehbi Koç started his business career was registered in his father's name, but on 31 May 1926 he incorporated the business in his own name as "Koçzade Ahmet Vehbi" (Ahmet Vehbi of the Koç Family) in the Ankara Chamber of Commerce and became the owner of this enterprise. The First Corporation << Back | Next >> Institutionalization efforts constitute one of the most important stages in the development of the Koç Group. In 1938, realizing that personal companies did not survive for long, Vehbi Koç organized his business enterprises as a corporation and founded Koç Ticaret Anonim Þirketi (Koç Trade Inc.). This corporation in time became the root and center of developments that generated the enterprises making up the Koç Group. An important and pioneering practice in this Corporation was employee and manager participation in overall management which was later adopted as a principle by the Group. ...Vehbi Koç established the first light bulb factory in cooperation with General Electric in 1948. ...The joint venture is the form of cooperation that extends the span of technology and know-how transfer foreseen in licensing agreements. The Group developed a network of such ventures while trying to make up for the technological shortcomings with more licensing agreements. ...In the 1960s, the innovation and diversification of product groups substantially expanded the product range of Koç Group companies. The Group was involved in a broad range of activities varying from agricultural equipment to textiles, various office supplies to heating equipment, radio and TV sets to household goods such as refrigerators, washing machines and vacuum cleaners, from furnaces, ovens, fiber glass, boilers, radiators and liquid petroleum gas to two, three and four wheel vehicle production and its side industries, from food processing to chain stores, from tourism to finance and insurance services. As the economic development of Turkey gained pace after the creation of Turkey's first domestic car brand, Anadol, Koç Group produced Murat, Tempra, Ford Taunus and Ford Escort. http://www.koc.com.tr/english/kurumsal/yabanci_ortak.asp [foreign partners] http://www.koc.com.tr/english/kurumsal/uluslararasi.asp [International offices includes] U.S.A. Ramerica One Rockefeller Plaza Suite 2404 New York N.Y. 10020 USA http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/97news/111097.htm Unocal, Koc Holdings to form natural gas marketing services venture in Turkey Sugar Land, Texas, Nov. 10, 1997 *** “Our association with Koc Holdings in this new venture promises to help move Turkey’s energy market into a new and exciting arena,” said John F. Imle, Jr., president of Unocal Corporation. “Koc is the premier conglomerate group in Turkey and is highly respected in the manufacturing, international finance and energy communities. We look forward to working together to provide Turkey with regional energy solutions.” One of the alliance’s key objectives is to provide energy independence for end-users in Turkey and to help relieve some of the region’s current and future power shortages. To this end, Unocal and Koc have been working closely on possible development of power projects under Turkey’s ongoing power-sector privatization program. “Our main goal is to secure reliable, long-term and cost-effective natural gas supply, enabling our country’s businesses to compete with other European Union businesses, which currently have access to competitive sources of natural gas,” said Rahmi Koc, chairman of Koc Holdings, A.S. “We teamed up with Unocal because of its regional resources activities, and its expertise in pipeline construction, energy marketing and resource development. We believe this will be a very successful alliance.” ...Unocal Corporation is one of the world's leading energy resource and project development companies, with reserves of more than 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (1.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent) and major oil and gas production activities in Asia and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The company is also active in energy resource development activities in Azerbaijan and Bangladesh and is developing gas-marketing solutions for Turkmenistan. The company maintains twin headquarters in California and Malaysia, with major offices in Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Sugar Land, Texas. http://www.singapore-window.org/804caq9.htm Burma-Singapore Axis: Globalising the Heroin Trade BY Leslie Kean and Dennis Bernstein This article is from CAQ Magazine (CovertAction Quarterly) Number 64, Spring, 1998. ), 1500 Massachusetts Avenue #732, Washington, DC 20005, phone: (202) 331-9763, E-mail, Website: http://www.caq.com. ...Singapore has acieved the distinction of being the Burmese junta’s number one business partner - both largest trading partner and largest foreign investor. More than half these investments, totaling upwards of $1.3 billion, are in partnership with Burma’s infamous heroin kingpin Lo Hsing Han who now controls a substantial portion of the world’s opium trade. ...Burma now supplies the US with 60 percent of its heroin imports and has recently become a major regional producer of methamphetamines. With 50 percent of the economy unaccounted for, drug traffickers, businessmen and government officials are able to integrate spectacular profits throughout Burma’s permanent economy. *** Shielding Burma WHILE Singapore and China are Burma's closest allies, other countries and mult-national corporations provide a big shield for Burma's narcotics trade. In 1997 alone, the military regime approved 60 new projects worth $1.27 billion, bringing total foreign investment since the regime came to power to 299 projects worth $6.87 billion. Following Singapore in the foreign investment lineup are Britain, Thailand and Malaysia, in that order. The US and France follow close behind. Unocal - which no longer considers itself a US company but calls itself a "global energy company" - and the French oil giant Total have joined forces with the Burmese regime and it's state oil company Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprises (MOGE) in building the $1.2 billion Yadhana gas pipeline through Burma into Thailand. Fourteen Burmese plaintiffs filed an unprecedented federal lawsuit in Los Angeles, holding Unocal and Total accountable for the torture, rape, murder, forced labor and forced relocations of people living on the pipeline route. Unocal also faces allegations of fueling the heroin trade though its relationship to the government-owned MOGE which is "the main channel for laundering the revenues of heroin produced and exported under the control of the Burmese army" according to a sworn affidavit for the federal suit. Randy Renick, an attorney for the lawsuit, says this affidavit "provides irrefutable evidence that Unocal is in partnership with criminal drug dealers who are making profits off the backs of the indigenous people of Myanmar." In January, one Israeli and two British companies signed a contract with MOGE for oil exploration and production, the largest investment in Burma so far this year. The US oil company Atlantic Richfield (Arco) and oil firms from Indonesia and Malaysia have also entered into agreements with MOGE. Back in Washington, the firm of Jefferson Waterman International is busy campaigning against US sanctions on Burma and giving a face lift to the Burmese government for $400,000 a year plus expenses. Ironically, Ann B. Wrobleski, president of the firm, was the architect of Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign. As the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau for International Narcotics Matters from 1986 to 1989, she advocated the denial of US anti-narcotics aid to the junta in 1989 until a government supported by the people was in power. In a 1989 statement to the House of Representatives Task Force on Narcotics Control, Wrobleski said that "prospects are for expanded cultivation of what is already the world's largest supply of illicit opium" in Burma. Her State Department report the same year predicted accurately that Burma's opium production would continue to increase and that "the military regime is unlikely to resume any significant anti-narcotics activity for the near future." Yet Wrobleski's crusade against drugs seems to have made an about-face since she moved to Jefferson Waterman International. Her newsletter "Myanmar Monitor," praises the military regime for making great progress in combating drugs - information which runs contrary to the current Narcotics Strategy Control Report from her old department and the statements of Madeleine Albright and President Clinton. "Western countries are turning a blind eye to Myanmar's narcotics control efforts" proclaims a January issue, while other headlines read "SPDC makes headway in Narcotics control" and "Myanmar: serious about conquering drug trade." Services provided by Jefferson Waterman also include "strategic counsel" and "up-to-the-minute intelligence on how Washington views the foreign client," according to company information. Both the CEO of Jefferson Waterman International, Charles E. Waterman, and the Senior Vice-President, Samuel H. Wyman, were formerly officers for the CIA - Wyman for 31 years. A second firm, Bain and Associates is receiving $21,500 per month plus expenses from the Burmese construction company Zay Kabar - which has strong links to the highest levels of Burma's government - to improve the image of the regime in the media. With "exclusive permission from the Myanmar government," Bain sponsored an invitation-only media tour to Burma from February 24 - 27. Bain representative Laura Livingston suggested to participants that they write about the fact that "through mass drug burnings, strong anti-drug policies and innovative crop-substitution programs, the government is committed to wiping out the scourge of opium and drugs in present-day Myanmar." Livingston said that response from journalists to her invitation was so enthusiastic that Bain doubled the number of participants and had to turn others away. As a result, more tours are being planned. http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-oct11-01.html Unocal, an American oil company, cooperated with the Taliban in order to build the Central Asia Gas (CentGas) pipeline between Turkmenistan and Pakistan. [1] Unocal says they ended this relationship after the US embassy bombings in August, 1998. [2] [1] http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/centgas.htm [2] http://www.hazara.net/taliban/protectors/oil/oil.html in March 2000, UNOCAL negotiated with the Taliban to restart the project. http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00DD/SDC24/SDC24288.htm The Elder Bush is part of the UNOCAL crowd. For example, his Secretary of the Air Force was appointed to the UNOCAL Board in December, 1998.[1] And his buddy, Nicholas Brady, helped block a hostile take-over of UNOCAL in 1985. [2] [1] http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/120798a.htm [2] http://www.tarpley.net/bush19.htm What do I have to do for you folks? Hand you a smoking gun
