Who Is Richard Armitage
And What Is His Interest In Afghanistan?

Armitage's Cental Asian Targets
"....for the foreseeable future oil
will remain an essential commodity. Greater attention must therefore be given to
increasing supplies of oil in ways that diversify supplies from areas other than the Persian Gulf. The most promising new source
of world supplies is the Caspian
region, which appears to contain the largest petroleum reserves discovered since the North
Sea. This geopolitical crossroad, which includes Iran, Russia, and a number of
newly-independent states struggling with post-Soviet modernization and dangers of Islamic
extremism, demands more attention by American policymakers."
AMERICAS NATIONAL INTERESTS
A Report from The Commission on Americas National Interests, July 2000
Co-authored by Richard Armitage et al [pdf]
"The confusion over what the U.S.
government should be pursuing was initially caused by reports ....... about the Caspian's oil reserves constituting a strategic alternative to established resources in the
Persian Gulf and elsewhere....U.S. political and economic interests can end up paying a
fairly high price for compromising American principles which value clean government, fair
play, and respect for human rights..... Local public resentment of U.S. regional influence
is likely to occur once governments realize that the U.S. government officials they once
trusted as impartial negotiators are
now working for oil companies... Imagine the reaction in the
region when Ambassador Maresca upon leaving government service went to work for one of the major oil
companies [Unocal] lobbying
Washington to ingratiate itself with Azerbaijan.... upon leaving government service, the
official responsible for negotiating Section 907 language, Richard Armitage, joined many other
Administration officials by enthusiastically lobbying for repeal of Section 907. Instead
of observing the law, prior and present Administrations are working to circumvent it,
while promising Azerbaijan that Congress would repeal it."
ASSEMBLY CHAIRMAN KRIKORIAN TESTIFIES
AT SENATE CASPIAN OIL HEARING
Armenian Assembly of America, Press Release 8 July 1998
"Richard Armitage, the
current Deputy Secretary of State was also contracted by Unocal to work on Central Asia
pipeline interests in 1997 when he was head of Armitage
Associates."
Drillbits
and Tailings
Volume 7, Number 1, January 31, 2002
"Mr. Chairman, the
Caspian region contains tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves......[one] 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 possible route is across Afghanistan, which has of course its own unique challenges..... 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.....The 1,040-mile long oil pipeline
would extend south through Afghanistan to an export terminal that would be constructed on
the Pakistan coast."
U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS,
HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 12 February 1998 - evidence
by Mr. John J. Maresca, vice president of international relations, Unocal Corporation (US oil company)
"....Central Asia now is a repository for a lot of oil.
We have the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, places of that nature. It seems to me that this is
going to give us many more choices and certainly lessen somewhat our dependency on the
Persian Gulf for oil but oil is a valuable commodity and any shortage anywhere affects all
of us whether you live in Brisbane or whether you live in Adelaide or whether you live in
Washington DC and it's going to be a factor for some time to come."
Interview with Richard Armitage, US Deputy Secretary of State
18 Feb 2002, Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
"The CPC [Caspian
Pipeline Consortium] project also advances my Administration's National Energy Policy by
developing a network of multiple Caspian pipelines .... These projects will help diversify U.S. energy supply
and enhance our energy security, while supporting global economic growth."
George Bush, White House Press Release, 28
Nov 2001
"The United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of
Commerce (USACC) has just been established in Washington, D.C. Their goal is to promote
and advance the development of business and commerce between the US and Azerbaijan. The
Chamber will facilitate the entry of US businesses into Azerbaijan's market, serve as a
liaison between them and the Azerbaijani government, as well as help Azerbaijani
businesses connect to markets here in the US. The Chamber extends deep appreciation to the
following companies which have contributed to its establishment: Amoco, BP America,
Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Occidental, Panalpina, and Unocal. Board of Directors [include].... Ambassador Richard Armitage, Armitage Asscociates.... John Imle, President, Unocal
Corporation..."
Azerbaijan
International, Spring 1996 (4.1)
"In July 1997, Turkmenistan
signed a memorandum of understanding with Afghanistan, Pakistan,
and Uzbekistan to build a
Central Asia Gas pipeline to carry 0.7 Tcf of natural gas per year via Afghanistan to
Pakistan (and possibly on to India). In October 1997, Unocal set
up the Central Asian Gas Pipeline (Centgas) consortium to build the pipeline, which would
run 900 miles from the Turkmen natural gas deposit at Dauletabad through Kandahar, Afghanistan, and terminate in the Pakistani
city of Multan. The pipeline was estimated to cost $2 billion.... On August 22, 1998, Unocal suspended construction plans for the pipeline
due to the continuing civil war in Afghanistan and the U.S. missile attacks on suspected
terrorist training camps. In April 1999, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan agreed to
reactivate the Centgas project, and to ask the Centgas consortium, now led by Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil, to proceed, but continuing fighting in
Afghanistan, as well as sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations on
Afghanistan, kept the project on hold. Until recently, the pipeline was considered
effectively dead, but with a fragile peace in Afghanistan
established and the Taliban removed from power, the idea of a trans-Afghan pipeline has
been revived. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai
have expressed their support for the pipeline, and Uzbek President Islam Karimov is also
on record advocating the pipeline. In May 2002, Karzai, Niyazov, and Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf held trilateral talks on the pipeline proposal."
Caspian Sea Region: Natural Gas Export Options
US
Energry Information Administration, July 2002
"Enron's export plan
remains the most ambitious attempted so far by a foreign investor in
Uzbekistan: a deal signed in 1996 gave it the rights to explore 11 fields in the
Surkhandariya and Bukhara region. The proposed project called for an initial investment of
$300 mn that would reach $1.3 bn over the next 20 years. The US government funded a
feasibility study for the project, coupled with a pledge of $400 mm financing and
insurance support [the largest U.S.
goverment backed Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) investment in
Central Asia at that time, nlpwessex]. The aim was to see gas flowing
through the existing infrastructure to markets in Russia and elsewhere [i.e including southern asia via Afghanistan and Pakistan, nlpwessex] from the
fields as early as 1998.... Like other Central Asian countries,
double-landlocked Uzbekistan is keen to develop alternative export routes to the Russian
pipeline system.... Ambitions of linking into a southern export pipeline crossing
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan to deliver gas to
Pakistan have vanished for the time being, now that project sponsor Unocal has put it on the back burner....
Uzbekistan signed an MoU with the countries involved to participate in the project. But in
August the Taliban consolidated its control over Afghanistan
by capturing key northern towns previously under the control of ethnic Uzbek leader Rashid
Dostum. Uzbekistan is extremely concerned at the growing strength of the Taliban and its
potential impact on stability in Uzbekistan, making any future co-operation on a pipeline
project which benefits the Taliban unlikely."
Uzbekistan has difficulties finding venues for its gas
Alexanders Oil and Gas Connections
Volume 3,
issue #27 - 10-12-1998
"This tender is part of an
aggressive oil and natural gas investment bid launched by Uzbekistan on April 28, 2000,
when President Karimov decreed that foreign companies involved in exploring and extracting
oil and gas in Uzbekistan would receive tax exemptions and options to produce any oil or
natural gas they discover within a set period of time. ...With estimated natural gas
reserves of 66.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), Uzbekistan is the second largest natural gas
producer in the Commonwealth of Independent States (after Russia) and one of the top ten
natural gas-producing countries in the world."
Central Asia: Uzbekistan Energy Sector
US Energy
Information Administration, May 2002
"..Atul Davda, who worked as a senior director for
Enron's International Division until the company's collapse, confirmed to The ENQUIRER:
'Enron had intimate contact with Taliban officials. Building the pipeline [across
Afghanistan] was one of the corporation's prime objectives.' As The ENQUIRER revealed two
weeks ago, Enron secretly employed CIA agents to carry out its dealings overseas.... an
FBI source told The ENQUIRER: 'Enron and Unocal dumped hundreds of millions of dollars
into Afghanistan and the Taliban. The pipeline would relieve our dependence on Saudi
Arabia -- and Enron would make billions.'... The visit [to Texas in 1997 at the invitation
of Enron and Unocal] was aimed at getting Taliban cooperation to build the pipeline, which
would carry vast gas and oil deposits from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Enron had
exclusive contracts with the former Russian republics, according to another former Enron
employee. The pipeline was to travel through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean.
"
Enron gave Taliban $millions
National
Enquirer, Monday March 4, 2002
"So what was the UK's 'national
security adviser' doing in America on Sept 11? Was his visit prompted by the terrorist
threat that Tony Blair now confirms 'everybody knew' was being planned? Despite his de
facto status as Blair's special envoy on foreign affairs and security matters the US State
Department appointment records show no scheduled meetings
for Manning with Secretary Powell himself during the days immediately prior to the
attacks. Those records
do, however, show that he was meeting with Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage on September 10th. Armitage is second in command to
Colin Powell who left for a trip to Peru later that day, meaning that the Bush
administration's principal 'dove' was out of the country when the attacks happened. In Powell's absence 'when the storm breaks [on
911] Richard Armitage... is at its heart' according to the BBC's Edward Stourton (Radio 4, 27
August: 'With Us or Against Us'). So who is Richard
Armitage? Described by Stourton as a 'bulldog diplomat', Armitage has had a 'colourful'
previous history. This embraces alleged covert operations with the CIA, including illegal
arms and drug running on behalf of the US government. Those activities include illicit
dealings with people within what is now know as the 'axis of evil' (see links at bottom of
page). He was also deputy to Dick Cheney when the Vice President was Secretary of Defense in the previous Bush
administration. However, Armitage's wider interests are especially pertinent to the
situation that had developed in Afghanistan by the summer of 2001. As Armitage
himself has publicly acknowledged the energy reserves of
the Caspian Sea region are of great strategic importance to America and its allies in the
industrialised world. But they also appear to be of some personal importance to Armitage
himself. A report by the US National Bureau of Asian Research cites an article in the
Washington Times 28 July 1997 which lists Armitage, along with Dick Cheney, as having
business or consulting interests in the Caspian zone. It is also claimed that Armitage was
contracted by US oil
and gas corporation Unocal to work on Central Asia pipeline interests in 1997 when he was head of Armitage Associates (also at Armitage Associates was Peter Watson, previously Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council in the first Bush administration. Watson was
appointed President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) by George
W. Bush in 2001. OPIC provides political risk insurance and loans to US companies operating overseas
'because it is in America's economic and strategic interest'. Since Watson's appointment,
in a deal worth $350 million, Unocal has absorbed nearly the whole of the
allocation of an OPIC joint initiative with the U.S.
Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency for US business investment in
Indonesia . The allocation had been announced September 2001. The deal is despite
Unocal's human rights record and allegations that
State Department documents indicate the company's
involvement in 'corruption, collusion and nepotism' in several billion-dollar power plant
deals with the Suharto government. Similar allegations have also been made against
Enron). The importance of Afghanistan in this context was
spelt out in evidence given to a congressional hearing in 1998 by Unocal's Vice President for International Relations, John Maresca: 'Mr. Chairman, the Caspian region contains tremendous untapped
hydrocarbon reserves......[one] 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 possible route is
across Afghanistan, which has of course its own unique challenges..... 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.....' Unfortunately efforts by the Bush
administration to reach a deal with the Taliban over the proposed pipeline collapsed in
the summer of 2001. No longer willing to tolerate an impasse the US government threatened
Afghanistan with military action during at a meeting which the BBC reports took place in Berlin in July. According to one representative of Pakistan who
attended the meeting a US attack on Afghanistan was already planned for October. Thanks to
the special 'skills' of US diplomacy, therefore, it seems that the first overt provocation
in the west's new war with the Taliban was made by the US in Berlin in July 2001, and not
by al-Qaeda in New York on Sept 11. It is something of an understatement to say that in
the history of international affairs it is not unknown for provocation to produce
response. Given the threat made by the US in July, it would be reasonable to have expected
trouble there onwards. The intelligence picked up by the British and other governments
last summer would seem to confirm this. This brings us back to Sir David Manning's meeting
in Washington with Armitage on September 10. Presumably Manning also had other
meetings in Washington that day, although with whom it is not clear. Neither is the
purpose of his visit. Was he in fact passing on specific intelligence information about
the impending terrorist attacks? It is certainly possible. By coincidence or otherwise
Newsweek magazine reported 24 September that on that same day 'a
group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning,
apparently because of security concerns.' It would be interesting to know what, if any,
security issues relating to America where discussed by Manning during his pre-Sept 11
meetings in Washington and whether they involved any specific intelligence."
'The Special Relationship' - Armitage And The UK
National Security Adviser
What Did Britain Know About 911?
'Fight Smart', 28 August 2002
Hot Did Sept 11 victims die for Enron? - 8 March 2002 Hot
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Armitage Effect Who Is Richard Armitage And What Are His Interests In Central Asia? |
| Who Is Richard Armitage And What Are His Business Interests? |
| The Man Or The Myth? - Drugs, Arms and CIA covert operations |
| Armitage's Cental Asian Targets |
| Afghan Route to Caspian Sea Already Lined Up For US Attack by July 2001 |
| Armitage, The ISI and 911 Hijacker Mohammed Atta |
| Armitage following Cheney Strategy for Central Asia |
| What Did Armitge Know About 911? |
| What Did Richard Armitage Do On 911? |
'The Special Relationship' |
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