Missing the oil story

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

MISSING THE OIL STORY (www.tompaine.com)
by Nina Burleigh

Recently I attended one of those legendary Washington dinner parties,
attended by British cosmopolites and Americans in the know. A few
courses in, people were gossiping about the Bush family's close and
enduring friendship with the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar, dean of
the diplomatic corps in Washington. By the end of the evening,
everyone was talking about how the unfolding events were going to
affect the flow of oil out of Central Asia.

I left wondering whether 6,000 Americans might prove to have died in
New York for the royal family of Saud, or oil, or both. But I didn't
have much more than insider dinner gossip to go on. I get my analysis
from the standard all-American news outlets. And they've been too
focused on a) anthrax and smallpox, or b) the intricacies of Muslim
fanaticism, to throw any reporters at the murky ways in which
international oil politics and its big players have a stake in what's
unfolding.

A quick Nexis search brought up a raft of interesting leads that
would keep me busy for 10 years if the economics of this war was my
beat. But only two articles in the American media since September 11
have tried to describe how Big Oil might benefit from a cleanup of
terrorists and other anti-American elements in the Central Asia
region. One was by James Ridgeway of the Village Voice. The other was
by a Hearst writer based in Paris and it was picked up only in the
San Francisco Chronicle.

In other words, only the Left is connecting the dots of what the
Russians have called "The Great Game" -- how oil underneath the
'stans' fits into the new world order. Here's just a small slice of
what ought to provoke deeper research by American reporters with
resources and talent.

Start with father Bush. The former president and ex-CIA director is
not unemployed these days. He's been globetrotting as a member of
Washington's Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm which
employs a motorcade of former ranking Republicans, including Frank
Carlucci, Jim Baker and Richard Darman. George Bush senior and
colleagues open doors overseas for The Carlyle Group's "access
capitalists."

Bush specializes in Asia and has been in and out of Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait (countries that revere him thanks to the Gulf War) often on
business since his presidency. Baker, the pin-striped midwife of
'Election 2000' was working his network in the 'stans' before the ink
was dry on Clinton's first inaugural address. The Bin Laden family
(presumably the friendly wing) is also invested in Carlyle. Carlyle's
portfolio is heavy in defense and telecommunications firms, although
it has other holdings including food and bottling companies.

The Carlyle connection means that George Bush Senior is on the
payroll from private interests that have defense business before the
government, while his son is president. Hmmm. As Charles Lewis of the
Washington-based Center for Public Integrity has put it, "in a really
peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially
from his own administration's decisions, through his father's
investments. And that to me is a jaw-dropper."

Why can we assume that global businessmen like Bush Senior and Jim
Baker care about who runs Afghanistan and NOT just because it's home
base for lethal anti-Americans? Because it also happens to be
situated in the middle of that perennial vital national interest -- a
region with abundant oil. By 2050, Central Asia will account for more
than 80 percent of our oil. On September 10, an industry publication,
Oil and Gas Journal, reported that Central Asia represents one of the
world's last great frontiers for geological survey and analysis,
"offering opportunities for investment in the discovery, production,
transportation, and refining of enormous quantities of oil and gas
resources."

It's assumed we need unimpeded access in the 'stans' for our
geologists, construction workers and pipelines if we are going to
realize the conservation-free, fossil-fueled future outlined recently
by Vice President Cheney. A number of pipeline projects to carry
Central Asia's resources west are already under way or have been
proposed. They would go through Russia, through the Caucasus or via
Turkey and Iran. Each route will be within easy reach of the
Taliban's thugs and could be made much safer by an American
vanquishment of Muslim terrorism.

There's also lots of oil beneath the turf of our politically
precarious newest best friend, Pakistan. "Massive untapped gas
reserves are believed to be lying beneath Pakistan's remotest
deserts, but they are being held hostage by armed tribal groups
demanding a better deal from the central government," reported Agence
France Presse just days before September 11.

So many business deals, so much oil, all those big players with
powerful connections to the Bush administration. It doesn't add up to
a conspiracy theory. But it does mean there is a significant MONEY
subtext that the American public ought to know about as "Operation
Enduring Freedom" blasts new holes where pipelines might someday be
buried.

[Nina Burleigh has written for The Washington Post, The Chicago
Tribune, and New York magazine. As a reporter for TIME, she was among
the first American journalists to enter Iraq after the Gulf War.]

--
Louis Proyect, lnp3@xxxxxxxxx on 10/13/2001

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