Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky

It’s all about the play ground

http://www.albionmonitor.com/0202a/enrontimeline.html

June 5, 1992: Enron sent a group of officials to New Delhi to make arrangements to survey the land around Dabhol for the purpose of building a large power plant.

June 20, 1992: Enron and the government of the state of Maharashtra signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to build the plant. This led to formation of the Dabhol Power Company (DPC), a joint venture of Enron and two other American corporations, General Electric and Bechtel.

February, 1993: A formal agreement was signed for a plant that could generate about 2450 megawatts at an approximate cost of $3 billion.

April, 1993: Heinz Vergin, World Bank manager for India, rejects Enron's loan application, saying that the Dabhol plant is "not economically viable."

November, 1993: The Central Electricity Authority in New Delhi gave provisional clearance to the project. It was the largest single foreign investment in India.

1994: The Washington-based Export-Import Bank approved a $302 million loan toward a $3 billion Enron-controlled power plant in India. President Clinton took an interest in the deal, asking the U.S. ambassador to that country and his former chief of staff, Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, then a presidential adviser, to monitor the proposal.

August, 1995: Clinton administration's cabinet members, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, personally urged India to accept Enron's proposed project.

October, 1995: Indian Prime Minister Rao and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati discussed a routing alternatives for a natural gas pipeline, including one which would run through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

1996: "Mack" McLarty, who later became a paid Enron director, spoke with Ken Lay on several occasions about the plant. Four days before India granted approval for Enron's project, the Houston-based firm contributed $100,000 to the Democratic Party.

1996: Enron signed a contract giving it rights to explore 11 gas fields in Uzbekistan, a project costing $1.3 billion. The goal was to sell gas to the Russian markets, and link to Unocal's southern export pipeline crossing Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

January 8, 1996: Enron and the state government of Maharashtra reached a new agreement that would shift some of the construction costs and lower the electricity tariffs.

June,1997: As an advisor for Unocal, Zalmay Khalilzad drew up a risk analysis of a proposed gas pipeline from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. He participated in talks and social meetings between Unocal and Taliban officials in 1997.

June 3, 1997: Police stormed the homes of several women in western India who had led a massive protest against Enron's new natural-gas plant near their fishing village. According to Amnesty International, the women were dragged from their homes and beaten by officers paid by Enron.

November 14, 1997: Enron International's CEO Rebecca Mark unveiled an energy plan that included a $300 million project to build a pipeline from Dabhol to Hazira and to the North to add 1200 km of complimentary pipeline system to the existing HBJ pipeline at a cost of $900 million.

December 7, 1997: Unocal invited a Taliban contingency to visit them in Houston, Texas, housed them in five-star hotels, dined them at the home of Unocal VP and medically treated the former foreign minister, Mullah Mohammed Ghaus before he returned home.

February 12, 1998: Testimony of John J Maresca, vice-president, international relations, Unocal Corporation was heard by the House Committee on International Relations and the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific regarding "a proposed extension (of the proposed trans-Caspian pipeline) would link with the SUI pipeline system, moving gas to near New Delhi, where it would connect with the existing HBJ pipeline..."

June 23, 1998: 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."

July 29 ,1998: The Department of State is pleased that Turkmen Minister of Oil and Gas Arazov announced Turkmenistan's selection of the U.S. company Enron to carry out a feasibility study funded by the Trade and Development Agency for a trans-Caspian gas pipeline.

August 20, 1998: U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles target KandaharAfghanistan and sites believed to be Osama bin Laden's training camps. Shortly after, the UN imposes sanctions on Afghanistan that isolate the nation.

January 25, 1999: Human Rights Watch released a report that indicated human right violations had occurred as a result of opposition to the Dabhol Power project. Beginning in late 1996 and continuing throughout 1997, leading Indian environmental activists and representatives of villagers' organizations in the affected area organized to oppose the project and, as a direct result of their opposition, were subjected to beatings, repeated short-term detention and were not paid.

February, 1999: Joint agreement signed by Turkmenistan and two American companies, Bechtel and GE Capital Services to build a $2.5 billion trans-Caspian pipeline, after Enron conducted a feasibility study.

November, 1999: Enron purchased 5.1 percent of the company that operates the country's sole long-distance gas pipeline, which runs from the offshore gas fields in the Bombay High area to the country's capital, New Delhi.

June-Oct 2000: Maharashtra government allies demand scrapping the project because of the cost of the power it produces.

Early 2001: Vice President Cheney held several secret meetings with top Enron officials, including its Chairman Kenneth Lay. These meetings were presumably part of Cheney's non-public Energy Task Force sessions. A number of Enron stockholders, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, became officials in the Bush administration. In addition, Thomas White, a former Vice Chairman of Enron and a multimillionaire in Enron stock, currently serves as the Secretary of the Army.

February, 2001: Vice President Cheney's energy task force changed a draft energy proposal to include a provision to boost oil and natural gas production in India. The amendment was so narrow that it apparently was targeted only to Enron's power plant in India.

March, 2001: Laila Helms, the part- Afghan niece of the former CIA director and former U.S. ambassador to Tehran Richard Helms is described as unofficial Taliban representative in Washington. Ms Helms brought Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi, an adviser to Mullah Omar, to Washington.after the Taliban had destroyed the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan. Hashimi met the directorate of Central Intelligence at the CIA and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department.

April, 2001: An Enron memo, which Lay gave Cheney during their one-on-one meeting, makes eight energy-policy recommendations. Seven out of eight recommendations were adopted in the administration's final energy plan.

May, 2001: A conference held at the Brookings Institution provides evidence that the exploitation of CaspianBasin and Asian energy markets was an urgent priority for the Bush administration, and the centerpiece of its energy policy

May, 17, 2001: The U.S. indirectly gives $43 million to Afghanistan's Taliban government as a reward for its efforts to stamp out opium-poppy cultivation. The same day, White House's energy policy recommended, "the president direct the Secretaries of State and Energy to work with India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to help India maximize its domestic oil and gas production."

June, 2001: Construction halted on the Dabhol plant.

June, 27, 2001: Cheney stepped in to try to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from Dabhol. Conducted at a Washington meeting between Cheney and the leader of India's opposition, Sonia Gandhi.

June 28, 2001: "Good news" a NSC staff member wrote in a e-mail memo: "The Veep mentioned Enron in his meeting with Sonia Gandhi." An unnamed government staff member wrote that (s)he would "ask the Indians" if Kenneth Lay "is invited to the dinner" with India's national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra. The memo is part of a series uncovered by the Washington Post that revealed that the National Security Council led a "Dabhol Working Group."

June 30, 2001: Another Dabhol Working Group memo states the need to "broaden the advocacy" and recommends diplomatic action by the U.S. Embassy and the Ambassador. The memo also notes that Christina Rocca, in charge of Central Asian affairs for the U.S. government, met with a top aide to the Indian prime minister. The memo is marked as a "Confidential Business Communication."

August 2, 2001: The last meeting between U.S. and Taliban representatives took place five weeks before the attacks on New York and Washington, the analysts maintain. On that occasion, Christina Rocca met the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad.

August 27, 2001: Kenneth Lay wrote another email to his employee/stockholders extolling the value of an employee stock option program, describing a "significantly higher price" the stock would bring in the near future.

September 5, 2001: Lay announces that the company will divest itself of $4-$5 billion in assets in the next two years.

September 10, 2001: "Those who control the oil routes out of Central Asia will impact all future direction and quantities of flow and the distribution of revenues from new production," wrote energy expert James Dorian in Oil & Gas Journal, published the day before the terrorist attacks.

September 14, 2001: Unocal issued the following statement: "The company is not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan in any way whatsoever. Nor do we have any project or involvement in Afghanistan." Lay also writes to the Prime Minister of India, insisting that his $2.3 billion asking price is reasonable "compared to the size of our legal claim," which Enron placed at $5 billion. September 19, 2001: Enron invokes a clause in its Dabhol power plant contract, claiming that because the Maharashtra State Electricity Board has violated its power purchase agreement, the Maharashtra state government and the government of India are liable for $5 billion.

October 3, 2001: Cheney meets with India External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. The NSC sends "Dabhol talking points" to Cheney's staff.

November 1, 2001: Bush signed Executive Order 13233 which limits public access to papers of all presidents since 1980 Ð including George W. Bush. Another memo written this day states that talking points for Bush were prepared for his meeting with the India Prime Minister. Bush did not discuss Enron during the meeting.

November 6, 2001: OPIC President Peter Watson contacts a top aide of the Indian Prime Minister: "The acute lack of progress in this matter has forced Dabhol to rise to the highest levels of the United States government."

November 8, 2001: Enron president Lawrence "Greg" Whalley called Treasury Undersecretary Peter Fisher in late October and disclosed that it had overstated earnings dating back to 1997 by almost $600 million. That same day, an e-mail ("Importance: High"), whose sender and recipient are blacked out, warned, "President Bush cannot talk about Dabhol."

November 9, 2001: An e-mail noted that Lawrence Lindsey, chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, had met India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra on Nov. 7, but it said Lindsey was "advised that he could not discuss Dabhol." Lindsey is a former Enron consultant and had served on its board of advisers.

Late November, 2001: Lay called Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans seeking a last-minute federal bailout and was turned down.

December 2, 2001: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

December 27, 2001: Bush Administration repealed a Clinton-era rule that prevents the government from awarding federal contracts to businesses that have broken environmental, labor, tax, civil rights or other laws.

December 31, 2001: President Bush appointed a former aide to Unocal, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy to Afghanistan. The nomination was announced nine days after the US-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul.

January 17, 2002: Enron reportedly filed an approximately $200 million claim with the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation in an attempt to recoup losses from the Dabhol Power Corporation.

January 18, 2002: According to documents released on this date, it was noted the Bush administration intervened with top Indian officials last year in a bid to salvage the Enron project in India. The White House said the effort, involving Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials, was justified because the $2.9 billion Dabhol power project was financed in part through the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a taxpayer-backed agency that provides "political risk" insurance and loans to help U.S. companies invest in developing nations. The White House denied the push was influenced by Enron's political contributions.

January 28, 2002: U.S. Ambassador Robert Blackwell addresses an Indian energy industry meeting and demands India honor the "sanctity of contract" and make good on the Enron debt, warning that India's hopes for "big-time international investment" could be harmed otherwise.

February 8, 2002: Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai said he and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had agreed to revive a plan for a trans-Caspian gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan.

February 9, 2002: Turkmenistan hopes the fragile peace in neighboring Afghanistan will allow work to resume on the natural gas pipeline connecting to Pakistan.

February 20, 2002: OPIC reveals that it gave Enron $554 million in loans and $204 million in insurance. Congress also learns the the Export-Import Bank loaned $675 million to Enron and associated companies.

February 22, 2002: The GAO sues Cheney for refusing to reveal details of his meetings with Enron officials. It is the first time that the agency has sued a member of the executive branch of government.

Then you jump to:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060504-1.html

And then read this which is slathered in almost over the top cynicism – but you get the point:

http://www.exile.ru/2006-May-19/the_cold_war_timeline.html

2342 says: It is in my opinion that with all the recent reports I have been reading about how US troops are smuggling Arms into Iran “for the common people”- and taking all of the above into consideration- this can only mean one thing. That the US is trying to topple the current Administration in Iran- to weaken it- but causing their own little internal shock and Iranian insurgent Awe- to make it much easier for the US to move in build that dreamy Caspian Sea Pipeline.

To sum things up- The U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was ostensibly a reaction to the September 11 attacks, and to some extent was aimed at toppling the Taliban. But Afghanistan has historically been in an extremely strategic location straddling South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. The country also conveniently lies along a proposed Unocal oil pipeline route from the Caspian Sea oil fields to the Indian Ocean. The U.S. had already been situating forces in the neighboring ex-Soviet republic of Uzbekistan before September 11. During the war, it has used its new bases and basing rights in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and to a lesser extent Tajikistan. It is using the continued instability in Afghanistan (like in Somalia, largely a result of setting warlords against warlords) as an excuse to station a permanent military presence throughout the region, and it even plans to institute the dollar as the new Afghan currency. The new string of U.S. military bases are becoming permanent outposts guarding a new Caspian Sea oil infrastructure.

thanks for posting that i never fully understood the enron scandal before.

I highly recommend this video- it basically spells out- where the “oil play ground” is– I believe it is in the last 40 minutes of this film- where it goes into the importance of all things Caspian.

The Oil Factor - Behind The War on Terror

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5849525957686666834&q=Oil

Okay so I am preaching to myself- that’s okay- but on the off chance anyone’s listening- or watching- and has the time- check out this Video- if you haven’t already.

Robert Newman History of Oil

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7374585792978336967&q=robert+Newman+duration%3Along

Yum, the Enron scandal is another thing entirely. I mean, this surely didn't help, but it goes way beyond that.

I think the reason people arent't responding much to this is because the Afghan pipeline connection is kind of old news by now, heavily discussed when the US decided to go to war there.

Yum, the Enron scandal is another thing entirely. I mean, this surely didn't help, but it goes way beyond that.

 

I think the reason people arent't responding much to this is because the Afghan pipeline connection is kind of old news by now, heavily discussed when the US decided to go to war there.

I agree- however the war in Afghanistan has not stopped- and the Caspian Sea still sits- with a new pipeline ready to open.

Trouble brewing in Iran- which in my opinion has more to do with a probable pipeline than a broken nuclear seal. The timing of all this- makes you think- well makes me think anyway.

Enron, Negroponte, Iran Contra, Halliburton, KBR, Human Trafficking, 9/11- Bush, Cheney, Rumy, Condi, Hitler- Darfur, Religion, Israel, Arms, Smuggling- and so on- there are too many things going on in this thread- but pick something- anything.

Americans (of which I am one) are trained from birth to believe we deserve as much as we desire of every exploitable resource on the planet, be it water or natural gas or oil, coal or salmon or steaks, Big Macs or diapers.

On the other hand- I feel that as Americans we can accommodate far more than politicians and pundits and the morally knotted Christian right would ever have you believe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,1784710,00.html

Terror alert as Caspian oil pipeline opens

In the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, a long line of broken mud cuts across the meadows. If you go anywhere near it, camouflaged guards carrying automatic weapons emerge from the forest beyond.

These guards in the Borjomi region of Georgia - trained by US army and SAS veterans - are pawns in a new great game gripping Central Asia: their job is to protect the oil pipeline buried 10ft below.

'A terrorist attack is the greatest threat we face,' says the guards' commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Giorgi Pantskhava, an energetic Georgian in desert fatigues and aviator shades.

The $4bn (£2.2bn) BTC - Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan - pipeline comes on stream today It is key in American plans to reduce dependency on Opec oil producers in the turbulent Middle East. Pumping oil 1,000 miles from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, it will avoid Russia - increasingly seen by the US as a resurgent superpower prepared to use control of energy resources as a political weapon.

The pipeline - 70 per cent funded by the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and export credit agencies - took three years to build and will carry up to one million barrels of oil a day to western markets. Yet its position on the faultline between Russia and its estranged former Soviet neighbours makes it a shaky bet.

The fiercely pro-Washington government of Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, welcomed the BTC with open arms, saying transit payments would help to kick-start the economy of the faltering ex-Soviet state.

Since coming to power in 2004 Saakashvili has steered his country away from Russia towards co-operation with the US. 'Georgia will be America's partner in spreading democracy around the world,' Bush told rapturous crowds during the first visit of a US president to the country last year. Yet the pipeline, constructed and run by a BP-led consortium, will open in the teeth of bitter opposition.

Green campaigners say the route passes too close to Georgia's Borjomi Gorge, a tourist spot with mineral water springs and abundant wildlife. 'If there is even a minor oil leak here then the reputation of the area will be irreparably damaged,' says Vano Shalutashvili, of the Borjomi People's Democracy Institute, a non-governmental organisation that has fought for the pipeline to be diverted. A leak on one section was detected in a test run this month.

Critics also say BTC passes too close to volatile breakaway regions in both Georgia and Azerbaijan, making it vulnerable to sabotage that could cause a catastrophic spill.

Georgia's interior ministry is taking no chances. Original plans to patrol the BTC route with unmanned reconnaissance aircraft were dropped in favour of small, roving anti-terrorist squads. Yet even these might not be able to prevent an attack, as another guard admitted: 'Iran may try to strike it with a missile and we shouldn't forget that Russia is the primary expert for techniques in blowing up pipelines,' he said.

Locals are furious with BP, claiming a host of negative consequences from the construction: houses damaged by heavy traffic, low compensation for lost land, and polluted springs. Pavel Poshnakhov, 45, a villager in Tsikhisjvari, said he had to show his passport to guards when he crossed the corridor with his cattle, or went to collect firewood.

Okay so I am preaching to myself- that’s okay- but on the off chance anyone’s listening- or watching- and has the time- check out this Video- if you haven’t already.

 

Robert Newman History of Oil

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7374585792978336967&q=robert+Newman+duration%3Along

This is hilarious AND very eye opening.

We had been stumbling on bits and pieces of the secret energy agenda but this thread is very comprehensive. Thanks.

Brilliant thread. I think of America` s administration as a starving vampire out to suck the last juicy vein of oil left in the earth. What I would like to know is if their are ties between these large oil companies and the big car manufacturers that are still resisting gas efficiency and alternative fuels... see recent story about GM`s gas rebate program..

Anyone?

--Alternative Power Bill.

it's [gas efficiency standards, alt sources] partly controlled by oil companies...

they have powerful lobbyists who make sure fuel economy standards won't interfere with consumption.

i think it has less to do with an alliance between oil and car industries

and more about alliance between oil companies to control the market, along with deep influence in congress that keeps more stringent LAWS about fuel standards from regulating this shit.

not to mention, big oil owns the rights and patents to at least some alternative energy

and i have heard that the Los Angeles 'metro' (one fucking line) is owned by british petroleum, thus preventing the metro system in that city form being expanded. (could be bullshit though, i havent investigates this claim)

i have heard of new technology in oil sand though

so i am not as convinced of hubbert's peak as i used to be

i have heard some 'experts' in the field claim we aren;'t anywhere near running out, and thryhad som egood points.

we are going to be stuck in this symbiotic relationship until our society is willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get divorced from cheap, easy energy and funnel money into developing environmentally responsible and renewable enery sources that will only become cheap with mass acceptance

Sunday, 4 June 2006

NYT: GM Like a Crack Dealer

Topic: Fuel Economy

http://blog.wired.com/cars/

The esteemed New York Times has prickled the folks at GM by comparing the company to a crack dealer. Op-ed writer Thomas Friedman this week said GM's plan to pay people who buy one of their larger vehicles the difference between $1.99 and the actual price of gas is "Like a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash..."

Friedman also opines "Surely, the sooner this company gets taken over by Toyota, the better off our country will be."

So much for seeing any GM ads on the NYT any day soon.

GM fired back on its website with a blog posting entitled Hyperbole and Defamation in The New York Times, claiming that GM is just as good a public citizen as Toyota, and that some of its vehicles are even more fuel efficient than a few of Toyota's models.

GM goes too far in saying "But there is no proof that the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations have done anything to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In fact, oil consumption has increased dramatically over the years, even as vehicle fuel efficiency ratings have improved significantly."

No, fuel efficiency on a select few vehicles is much higher than what was available years ago while the needle on the fleet average has barely moved in more than 30 years. Oil consumption has increased because we have more people driving more miles in cars that use just as much gas, but Congress and (to give him his props) Bush are finally trying to do something about that.

Also, if you look at the list of the most fuel efficient cars for 2006 (or any of the past few years) you will almost exclusively vehicles from Toyota and Honda, and nothing from GM.

Of course it doesn't matter what GM or the NYT say; consumers have the final word, and they are voting Toyota while eschewing GM. In may, Toyota sales increased while GM sales dropped again, by a whopping 15 percent.

GM is fucking stupid.

the death knell for their company will be sounding someday soon i bet.

i wasn't aware of that gas 'rebate' offer

does sound like crack

^^ you two both rock. Insightful thread, arigato.

the GM gas rebate thing is hilarious. here, buy this $50,000 escalade, and we'll give you a price cap on your gas! even though you'll be spending 80$ more to fill your SUV than your honda, its still 1.99$ GAS!!!!!!!! YAY!

44 dollars to fill up a 15 gallon tank with '89.

Oil Travels from Caspian Sea to Europe – New Great Game Kicks Off

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=431

Keti Khachidze

2006.06.20 18:53

Celebration of the Triumph

While tankers are being loaded in the Turkish port of Ceyhan with fresh oil delivered via the fledgling BTC pipeline, the Turkish government is compiling a list of executives from all over the world to celebrate the successful completion of the 'Project of the Century'.

Turkey is preparing to host international political leaders on July 15. Turkish Anadolu News agency reported that 15 presidents, including US president George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and more than 30 Prime Ministers have been invited to the opening ceremony for the pipeline.

Thus far, 6 presidents, including Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, nine prime ministers, 23 ministers of Energy and Foreign ministers have confirmed that they will attend.

According to the Turkish agency, the Ciragan, the Conrad, Ceylan and Hilton hotels have already been reserved for guests arriving on July 12. A group of 400 guests of British Petrol (BP), a major partner of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, will also attend. BP has reserved four hotels for its guests alone. In addition, three hotels in Adana are completely booked.

Kazakhstan Beefs UP BTC

As the fresh oil is traveling from Ceyhan to Western markets, the good news has started running from Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has finally sealed a deal with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliev to ship 25m tons of oil resources annually through the BTC pipeline. During the initial stage, 7.5 million tons is to be delivered annually from the Kazakh port of Aktau across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan's capital Baku, according to the agreement in question.

'The importance of this agreement is hard to overestimate', Nazarbayev said in televised remarks after signing the deal.

Turkey, which is already concerned over heavy traffic in the Bosphorus, welcomed Kazakhstan’s participation in the project. Kazakhstan owns the richest oil deposits in the landlocked Caspian Sea, the latter holding a projected 3 percent of the world's energy supplies. Kazakhstan’s participation has surprised skeptics who doubted the long-term viability of the pipeline and who predicted that the Azerbaijan’s resources might run out in 20 years, making the project unprofitable.

Kazakhstan had repeatedly hinted at its willingness to join the BTC pipeline project, although it has also been a long-time partner of Russia. The Tengiz–Novorosyisk pipeline, which runs 1,500 km, was seen as a major rival to the BTC. In April 2006 Kazakhstan showed another display of loyalty to Russia as Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev agreed to more than double the capacity of a pipeline transporting crude oil from his country to Russia. Kazakhstan also transports oil via rail to Russia.

However, as once against confirmed by its decision to join BTC pipeline, Kazakhstan is not putting all of its eggs in one basket. On May 26 crude oil began to flow from Kazakhstan into China via a newly-completed oil pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan to the Alataw Pass in China's western province of Xinjiang, a 1,000 kilometer route announced only last year. It marked the first time oil is being pumped directly into China. China financed the entire 700 million USD pipeline and will buy the oil.

Kazakhstan’s final consent, which did not specify the amount of its contribution in the BTC pipeline, comes just a month after a visit by US Vice-President Dick Cheney to Kazakhstan. Notably, Cheney supports the project. In 1998, when he was running the oil company Halliburton, Cheney said that he could not think of a time when a region had emerged so suddenly and become 'as strategically significant as the Caspian'. Two months earlier, before Cheney’s visit, on March 14 US Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman encouraged Kazakhstan to conclude negotiations to transport Kazakh oil through BTC pipeline.

Israeli Involvement in BTC – Blessing or Curse?

While attending the annual Caspian Oil and Gas show in Baku on June 8, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that his country was interested in exporting Azeri oil: 'We and Azerbaijan are interested in transporting Azeri oil from Ceyhan [the Turkish port in the Mediterranean] through the Ashkelon-Elot pipeline towards the Red Sea and from there to such large markets as India and China. This pipeline is the shortest and cheapest way from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea'

Israel says that no specific agreement was reached to transport Azeri oil to Israel from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, but according to Azer News, Ben-Eliezer said that all officials he had discussed the issue with, including the president, had shown great interest in this proposal, including the heads of the Azeri State Oil Company (SOCAR) and BP-Azerbaijan. Azer News quotes Ben-Eliezer as saying: 'Extending the pipeline from Ceyhan to Israel is not only in our interests. Companies from other countries should also be interested in shortening the oil route to the Red Sea. This will be profitable for these companies. Moreover, the Israeli option is viable in terms of meeting the considerable demand for energy resources in China and India'.

Israel’s aspiration to join the project is no news at all. In June 2005, India’s Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that India was considering a proposal from Israel for the supply of oil from the BTC pipeline.

Although Israel’s participation may bring economic benefits to the oil-exporting countries, it increases the pipeline’s susceptibility to attack from Iran and other Islamic nations. Some Iranian officials have reportedly said that Iran could blow up the pipeline.

In an interview with GT, political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze says: 'Israel’s involvement in the project is certainly not a neutral fact, and the move would strengthen Georgia’s association with the US. You know that Israel is in fact on the front line in Middle East and the image of this country could spill over into Georgia. This would surely spur aggressive reaction from Iran and the Arab world, and touch off a new wave of aggression in Russia, as well. For us the reaction from Iran and Russia would be most sensitive. It’s really surprising that Kazakhstan has managed to make very firm and successful steps in establishing equally good relations with countries in Asia, and with Russia and the West. Since Kazakhstan is also participating in the project, we will have common problems and we can use Kazakhstan’s resources in addition to US support'.

http://www.ifc.org/about

http://www.ifc.org/btc

BTC Project

On November 4, 2003, the Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, approved lending to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) Phase 1 oil field.

The BTC pipeline is a dedicated crude oil pipeline system, which will extend from the ACG field through Azerbaijan and Georgia to a terminal at Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

The pipeline can transport up to 1 million barrels per day, and at 1760 kilometers is one of the longest of its kind in the world. The BTC pipeline will complement oil transport from two existing pipelines—the Northern Route pipeline to Novorossiyk, Russia, and the Western Route pipeline which ends in Supsa, Georgia—whose transportation capacity is limited.

The BTC pipeline will transport oil from landlocked Azerbaijan to the port on the Mediterranean Sea, bypassing the environmentally sensitive Black Sea and the Bosphorus Straits.

IFC's investment in the BTC pipeline consists of a loan up to $125 million for its own account and a loan of up to $125 million in commercial syndication. The total project cost of BTC is approximately $3.6 billion.

The ACG Phase 1 oil field involves developing an oil field off Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea. IFC's investment in ACG Phase 1 consists of loans of up to $30 million for its own account and further loans of up to $30 million to be commercially syndicated. The total project cost of ACG Phase 1 is approximately $3.2 billion.

After all, repression and guilt-addled masturbatory fantasies make for the most basic of urges, for some- those urges are comprised of other peoples misery. Like a drunken romp though hell's sandbox……

I guess my point in posting all this apparently useless bloody information- is because I find it completely mind boggling not mention astounding that all of these supposed “Of course we are here to help you turn your recovering Ex Communist country into a democracy and keep you safe- educate your people- and ignore the fact that you have more oil floating in your back yard than any other place on this planet -we wont exploit you- we promise ---- American Scheiss companies” are in the Caspian Sea, Baku- and Uzbekistan- and countless other yet closely surrounding countries- hovering like bloody disturbed simmering psychological demongurgle starved vultures.

The Vultures are equal to Rove, Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney- just pick one- I call them all Kiser söze. David Addington is another Kiser söze and he is also Cheney’s brain.

http://www.osce.org/baku/13262.html

http://www.osce.org/documents/sg/2004/05/3242_en.pdf

When there actual countries that really need help like say DARFUR for bloody sake- ohhhh,

r i g h t – there’s no oil there- hence no power – nothing to exploit or gain. Just a whole bunch of Africans starving to death- being hacked to death- raped- pillaged and pushed out of their own land.

I know you guys have heard it all before- but I thought I would just keep at it- and at this point- I really have no idea why. Maybe it’s the narcissist in me- thinking I inform or change someone- or something, anything? But then again the narcissist always looses.