Dude, Where's My Country_ - Michael Moore [14]
The trick to getting our hands on all this booty was in beating the Russians to it—and we had to find a way to access it without having to build a pipeline through hostile Iran.
So, while Unocal came up with the idea of running a pipeline through Afghanistan, Enron had been working on their own plan—to bring gas from Turkmenistan and pipe it under the Caspian Sea and into Turkey. The U.S. government actually paid for Enron’s feasibility study.60 Enron was also busy with neighboring Uzbekistan, where it was trying to strike deals to develop natural gas fields there. In late 1996, Unocal had begun looking into including Uzbekistan in its pipeline deal heading through Afghanistan and into Pakistan.61
And then you, Mr. Bush, decided to get in on the action. You met personally with Uzbekistan’s ambassador on behalf of Enron. Enron chairman Ken Lay ended a letter to you prior to the meeting with this little bon mot:
“I know you and Ambassador Safaev will have a productive meeting which will result in a friendship between Texas and Uzbekistan.—Sincerely, Ken”62
What role exactly did you play in the Unocal meetings with the Taliban? I’m guessing you knew that the leaders of a foreign country were visiting your state and meeting with people who were donors to your campaign. So why exactly were brutal dictators being wined and dined in your state when you seem to be so against brutal dictators?
Of course, to be fair, you weren’t the only one trying to help others make a buck from what is believed to be the world’s last vast untapped reserves of oil and gas. There was the Clinton White House, Henry Kissinger and another former secretary of state, Alexander Haig, all of them willing to lend a hand.63
And, of course, there was Dick Cheney. Cheney was then the CEO of the giant oil services company, Halliburton. When not building jails in Guantanamo Bay, ignoring massive human rights violations in order to do business with Burma, and working deals with Libya, Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (which Halliburton did happily in the nineties), Halliburton built (and still builds) oil and gas pipelines.64 In 1998, your future co-president, Mr. Cheney, had this to say about the situation in that part of the world: “I can’t think of a time when we’ve had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. It’s almost as if the opportunities have arisen overnight.” And in a talk to the Cato Institute the same year, he revealed this information about Halliburton: “About 70 to 75 percent of our business is energy related, serving customers like Unocal, Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and many other major oil companies around the world. As a result, we oftentimes find ourselves operating in some very difficult places. 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.”65
Yes, there certainly was business in Afghanistan. After the Soviets were repelled in their occupation of Afghanistan by U.S.-backed mujahedeen fighters like Osama bin Laden, the U.S. quickly forgot about Afghanistan and let chaos take over.66 The country plunged into civil war. When the Taliban rose to power in the mid-nineties, they were met with absolute glee in Washington.
Initially, the Taliban were thought to be following the U.S.-approved Saudi Arabian model of good government—stronghand oppression while giving the West what it needed. This made them a country we could play ball with. Quickly, however, their murderous ways came to light and American political leaders began to back off.67
But not the oil companies. Unocal stuck it out and plunged on with their pipeline deal with the Taliban, teaming