| Energy interests, the U.S. government, and the post-Taliban Trans-Afghan pipeline The Central Asia-Caucasus
03/12/2003
By Ron Callari
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Construction of oil and natural gas pipelines through Afghanistan was under serious consideration during the Clinton years. In 1996, Unocal won a contract to build a 1,005-mile pipeline in an effort to exploit the vast Turkmenistan natural gas fields. The pipeline would extend through Afghanistan and Pakistan, terminating at Multan, with a proposed 400-mile extension into India. The project was halted when the Taliban regime became unmanageable. President Bush appointed Zalmay Khalilzad, a former Unocal consultant, as his special envoy to Afghanistan. Today, the US desire to control fossil fuel in this region is paramount in how the energy sector is influencing the Bush administration's policies in Afghanistan and Central Asia. BACKGROUND: George W. Bush's long and personal relationship with Enron's former CEO Kenneth Lay are legion, as is the latter's generous contribution of over $600,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Scarcely a month after Bush moved into the White House, Vice President Cheney had his first in a series of secret meetings with Kenneth Lay and other Enron executives. At that time, Enron stood to benefit from a trans-Afghan pipeline in securing inexpensive natural gas for its 3-billion dollar Dabhol power plant in Mumbai, India. It's clear that Cheney had his own conflicts of interest with Enron. Another chief benefactor in the Trans-Afghan pipeline deal would have been Halliburton, the huge oil pipeline construction firm which was previously headed by Cheney. After Cheney's selection as Bush's Vice Presidential candidate, Halliburton also contributed a huge amount of cash into the Bush-Cheney campaign coffers. Highlighting the Taliban, in a speech to the "Collateral Damage Conference" of the Cato Institute, Cheney said, "the good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is." A series of e-mail memos obtained by the Washington Post and NY Daily News in January 2002 revealed that the National Security Council led a "Dabhol Working Group" composed of officials from various Cabinet departments during the summer of 2001. The Working Group prepared "talking points" for both Cheney and Bush and recommended the need to "broaden the advocacy" of settling the Enron debt. The Post commented that the NSC went so far that it "acted as a sort of concierge service for Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay and India's national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra" in trying to arrange a dinner meeting between the Indian official and Lay. But the house of cards collapsed dramatically on November 8, when Enron disclosed that it had overstated earnings dating back to 1997. Simultaneously, the administration discontinued its support for Enron in its discussions with the Indian government. IMPLICATIONS: Henceforth, the U.S. will have to move the trans-Afghan pipeline forward, divorced of its relationship with Enron. Important factors and lessons from the past are integrated into the U.S.' current involvement in Afghanistan. The U.S. plan is all-encompassing, including military control, image building, balancing warlords, and avoiding Russian intervention,. It is reasonably clear that the U.S. will not depart from the region, as it did after the war with the Soviets in the 1980s, until it has achieved its goals. Now that the Great Game is afoot once again and the Taliban has been removed from the equation, the administration can accelerate the project that international oilmen euphemistically call the new "Silk Road." On February 8, Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf agreed to revive plans for a Trans-Afghanistan route for Iranian gas. The next day, Turkmenistan chimed in that they hoped their Trans-Afghanistan route would soon be built. Turkmenistan alone has large reserves of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas (the fourth reserves in the world). However, Turkmenistan lacks capital and technology, and is far from its possible markets - and South Asia is the fastest growing market in Turkmenistan's vicinity. Both Karzai and Khalilzad were formerly employed as consultants to Unocal, which spent much of the 1990s seeking to build the pipeline through Afghanistan. Unocal appears to have dropped the scheme, but smaller companies (such as Chase Energy and Caspian Energy Consulting) are now lobbying for its revival. The fact that Karzai and Khalilzad are basically inside traders makes them ideal henchmen to cut through the red tape and assist oil companies and the U.S. to revitalize this dormant project. U.S. military bases now encircle Afghanistan and the US troop deployment may be as high as 7,000, according to a recent report from the Pentagon. In the words of President Bush "we are going for the long haul." The U.S. learned its lesson well in the 1990s when it relied on the Taliban to restore stability in Afghanistan; now it has invested its own military might to achieve its goals. While key U.S. officials have been appointed to move the project along, the taint of Enron's influence over the government is still too fresh and under continual scrutiny by the press. So, with each step forward, the administration is quick to characterize itself as a catalyst, not a benefactor. Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones's recent statement underscores the U.S. position that economics is equally important as the war on terrorism. She noted that "a range of U.S.-supported programs designed to promote economic development in Central Asia are every bit as important as our security assistance in dealing with the long-term root causes of terrorism." CONCLUSIONS: The Trans-Afghan pipeline is being revitalized by an administration that has strong interests in the energy sector. But it also fits well with the U.S. quest to lessen its, and the world's, dependency on Persian Gulf energy sources. The United States can no longer depend exclusively on the traditional sources of supply from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada. It needs to diversify its imports, and the Caspian states are a major element in this equation. The national energy plan drawn up in early 2001called on the Bush administration to undertake initiatives aimed at increasing oil and gas imports from alternate sources of supply. In particular, it requested government to work with the leaders of the Central Asian countries to boost production in the Caspian region and to build new pipelines to the West. The trans-Afghan pipeline is second step (after the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline) toward achieving this objective . By bypassing northern or western routes, the trans-Afghan pipeline will eliminate dependency on Russia or Iran. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, the rise of the Central Asian Republics and the fall of the Taliban have all allowed the United States to get a stronger foothold in the region in its quest for new sources of fossil fuel. AUTHOR BIO: Ron Callari is an American freelance journalist and editorial cartoonist for publications that include The World and I, the Sacramento News & Review, The Monitor, San Antonio Current, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, Fairfield County News and AlterNet. Callari has authored several articles focusing on Enron, Afghanistan and the Caspian States. He holds an MBA degree from Cornell University.
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