HOW IT WAS ALL SET UP, FROM THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION THROUGH BUSH JUNIOR. THE PROMISE OF UNIMAGINABLE RICHES FROM AFGHANISTAN AND THE PROFITS OF AN UNWINNABLE "WAR".
THIS WAS PRE-9/11.
THIS WAS BEFORE BUSH JUNIOR CLAIMED 'WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION'.
IT BEGAN WHILE U.S. OIL COMPANIES NEGOTIATED WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN FOR USE OF HIS COMPANY'S HEAVY EQUIPMENT TO HELP LAY AN AFGHAN OIL PIPELINE FROM THE OIL-RICH CASPIAN SEA AREA, THWARTING RUSSIA'S PLAN FOR A MONOPOLY ON THE RICHEST SOURCE OF OIL ON EARTH.
ONE SMALL EXAMPLE:
The Washington Post reports, “The United States has quietly begun to align itself with those in the Russian government calling for military action against Afghanistan and has toyed with the idea of a new raid to wipe out Osama bin Laden. Until it backed off under local pressure, it went so far as to explore whether a Central Asian country would permit the use of its territory for such a purpose.” Russia and the US are discussing “what kind of government should replace the Taliban. Thus, while claiming to oppose a military solution to the Afghan problem, the United States is now talking about the overthrow of a regime that controls nearly the entire country, in the hope it can be replaced with a hypothetical government that does not exist even on paper.” [Washington Post, 12/19/2000, "Afghanistan Land Mine"]
It appears that all pre-9/11 plans to invade Afghanistan involved
attacking from the north WITH Russia.
THIS WAS PRE-9/11.
THIS WAS BEFORE BUSH JUNIOR CLAIMED 'WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION'.
IT BEGAN WHILE U.S. OIL COMPANIES NEGOTIATED WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN FOR USE OF HIS COMPANY'S HEAVY EQUIPMENT TO HELP LAY AN AFGHAN OIL PIPELINE FROM THE OIL-RICH CASPIAN SEA AREA, THWARTING RUSSIA'S PLAN FOR A MONOPOLY ON THE RICHEST SOURCE OF OIL ON EARTH.
ONE SMALL EXAMPLE:
The Washington Post reports, “The United States has quietly begun to align itself with those in the Russian government calling for military action against Afghanistan and has toyed with the idea of a new raid to wipe out Osama bin Laden. Until it backed off under local pressure, it went so far as to explore whether a Central Asian country would permit the use of its territory for such a purpose.” Russia and the US are discussing “what kind of government should replace the Taliban. Thus, while claiming to oppose a military solution to the Afghan problem, the United States is now talking about the overthrow of a regime that controls nearly the entire country, in the hope it can be replaced with a hypothetical government that does not exist even on paper.” [Washington Post, 12/19/2000, "Afghanistan Land Mine"]
It appears that all pre-9/11 plans to invade Afghanistan involved
attacking from the north WITH Russia.
ABOVE: THE LITTLE-TALKED-ABOUT AFGHAN PIPELINE, FOR WHICH THOUSANDS HAVE DIED. EXPECTED TO BE FULLY OPERATIONAL IN 2019, HALIBURTON, CHENEY'S OLD COMPANY, WAS INVOLVED WITH LAYING THE PIPELINE IN TURKMENISTAN AND WANTED THE CONTRACT FOR AFGHANISTAN. THIS ALL BEGAN IN THE 1990s.
1991-1997: U.S. oil companies commit to $35 billion in future direct investments in Kazakhstan. It is believed at the time that these oil fields will have an estimated $6 trillion potential value. US companies own approximately 75 percent of the rights. These companies, however, face the problem of having to pay exorbitant prices to Russia for use of the Russian pipelines to get the oil out. [New Yorker, 7/9/2001; Asia Times, 1/26/2002]
SOLUTION? BUMP OFF RUSSIA.
November 1993: Enron Power Plant Creates Demand for an Afghanistan Pipeline
Oil company Unocal signs an $8 billion deal with Turkmenistan to construct two pipelines (one for oil, one for gas), as part of a larger plan for two pipelines intended to transport oil and gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and into Pakistan. Before proceeding further, however, Unocal needs to execute agreements with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Unocal will later open an office in Kabul, weeks after the Taliban capture of the capital in late 1996 and will interact with the Taliban, seeking support for its pipeline until at least December 1997. [Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, 2004, pp. 301-13, 329, 338, 364-66]
‘Kazakhstan alone may have more oil than Saudi Arabia. Turkmenistan is already known to have the fifth largest gas reserves in the world.’” [Daily Telegraph, 10/11/1996]
Dec. 1995: The American Petroleum Institute asserts that the states bordering the Caspian Sea, north of Afghanistan, contain two-thirds of the world’s known reserves, or 659 billion barrels. Such numbers spur demand for an Afghan pipeline. [Middle East Journal, 9/22/2000]
THE ONLY WAY TO GET THAT OIL OUT WAS THROUGH AFGHANISTAN. June 23, 1998: Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney Discusses Importance of Oil Reserves in Caspian Basin
BUT THEN THERE WAS THE "CASH CROP" OF AFGHAN POPPIES..
WHOEVER CONTROLLED AFGHANISTAN WOULD GET A DOUBLE PRIZE...OIL AND OPIUM.
ABOVE: U.S. TROOPS GUARDING POPPY FIELDS IN AFGHANISTAN.
MORE THAN 90% OF ALL HEROIN PRODUCED COMES FROM AFGHAN POPPIES.
[ (6 July 2016). Afghan Governor Wants Government To Control Poppy Crop (Radio broadcast). NPR. Quote occurs at 0:10.]
AFGHANISTAN TODAY, UNDER AMERICAN 'INTERVENTION', GROWS MORE POPPIES THAN EVER BEFORE.
In 2002, the country had about 74,000 hectares in poppy cultivation. In 2016, the number was over 200,000.
The International Monetary Fund reported that in 2004, opium exports were equal to half of the country’s non-opium GDP.
This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion PER YEAR, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers.
"Opium Amounts to Half of Afghanistan's GDP in 2007, Reports UNODC" (Press release). UNODC. November 16, 2007.
WHILE THE TALIBAN CLAIMED TO WANT TO DESTROY THE POPPY FIELDS, WE NOW SEE THE TALIBAN CONTROLLING OPIUM PRODUCTION... WITH CONSIDERABLE HELP FROM THE U.S.
Afghan Taliban Awash in Heroin Cash, a Troubling Turn for War
(A New York Times article.)
PERCENT OF AFGHANISTAN WITH HEAVY TALIBAN PRESENCE.
AMERICA AND THE TALIBAN, A 30-YEAR-OLD LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP.
Between 1995 and 1997, US support for the TALIBAN was even more driven because of its backing for the Unocal [pipeline] project.” He notes that many US diplomats “saw them as messianic do-gooders—like born-again Christians from the American Bible Belt.” [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 326] Selig Harrison, a long-time regional expert with extensive CIA ties, will later say that he complained at the time about how Pakistani ISI support of the Taliban was backed by the CIA. “I warned them that we were creating a monster.” [Times of India, 3/7/2001]
IN DECEMBER OF 1997, A DELEGATION OF TALIBAN LEADERS WAS INVITED TO TEXAS BY UNOCAL.
GEORGE W. BUSH WAS THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS AT THAT TIME.
The Taliban also visit Thomas Gouttierre, an academic at the University of Nebraska, who is a consultant for Unocal and also has been paid by the CIA for his work in Afghanistan.
A BBC regional correspondent says that “the proposal to build a pipeline across Afghanistan is part of an international scramble to profit from developing the rich energy resources of the Caspian Sea.” [BBC, 12/4/1997
Unocal Vice President John J. Maresca—later to become a Special Ambassador to Afghanistan—testifies before the House of Representatives that until a single, unified, friendly government is in place in Afghanistan, the trans-Afghan pipeline will not be built. He suggests that with a pipeline through Afghanistan, the Caspian basin could produce 20 percent of all the non-OPEC oil in the world by 2010. [US Congress, 2/12/1998]
October, 1998: Julie Sirrs, a military analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), makes a second trip to Afghanistan.
Traveling undercover, she meets with Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud.
She claims, “Massoud told me he had proof that Unocal had provided money that helped the Taliban take Kabul.”
She also states, “The State Department didn’t want to have anything to do with Afghan resistance, or even, politically, to reveal that there was any viable option to the Taliban.” After two weeks, Sirrs returns with a treasure trove of maps, photographs, and interviews. [ABC News, 2/18/2002; ABC News, 2/18/2002; New York Observer, 3/11/2004]
By interviewing captured al-Qaeda operatives, she learns that the official Afghanistan airline, Ariana Airlines, is being used to ferry weapons and drugs, and learns that bin Laden goes hunting with “rich Saudis and top Taliban officials”
[Los Angeles Times, 11/18/2001]
When Sirrs returns from Afghanistan, her material is confiscated and she is accused of being a spy. Says one senior colleague, “She had gotten the proper clearances to go, and she came back with valuable information,” but high level officials “were so intent on getting rid of her, the last thing they wanted to pay attention to was any information she had.” Sirrs is cleared of wrongdoing, but her security clearance is pulled. She eventually quits the DIA in frustration in 1999. [ABC News, 2/18/2002; New York Observer, 3/11/2004]
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) will claim that the main DIA official behind the punishment of Sirrs is Lieutenant General Patrick Hughes, who later becomes “one of the top officials running the Department of Homeland Security.” [Dana Rohrabacher, 6/21/2004]
1999: US Ready to Fight For Oil, Especially in Persian Gulf and Caspian Regions
A top level US policy document explicitly confirms the US military’s readiness to fight a war for oil. The report, Strategic Assessment 1999, prepared for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense, states, “energy and resource issues will continue to shape international security,” and if an oil “problem” arises, “US forces might be used to ensure adequate supplies.” Oil conflicts over production facilities and transport routes, particularly in the Persian Gulf and Caspian regions, are specifically envisaged.
[Sydney Morning Herald, 5/20/2003]
May 2001: US Army Sees ‘Military Implications’ for Caspian Sea Oil Pipelines
An article published in Military Review, which bills itself as “the professional journal for the US Army,” states, “the Caspian Sea appears to be sitting on yet another sea—a sea of hydrocarbons.… The presence of these oil reserves and the possibility of their export raises new strategic concerns for the United States and other Western industrial powers. As oil companies build oil pipelines from the Caucasus and Central Asia to supply Japan and the West, these strategic concerns gain military implications.”
[Peter Dale Scott, "The Road to 9/11", 2007, pp. 20, 281]
Dick Cheney and other Task Force officials meet with executives from Enron and other energy companies, including one meeting a month and a half before Enron declares bankruptcy in December 2001.
Two separate lawsuits are later filed to reveal details of how the government’s energy policy was formed and whether Enron or other players may have influenced it, but the courts will eventually allow the Bush administration to keep the documents secret.
[Associated Press, 12/9/2002]
MAY 23, 2001: Zalmay Khalilzad is appointed Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Gulf, Southwest Asia and Other Regional Issues on the National Security Council. Khalilzad was an official in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. During the Clinton years, he worked for Unocal. [US Department of State, 2001]
He previously worked under Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and helped him write a controversial 1992 plan for US world domination. [New York Times, 3/23/2003]
He was a member of the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century.
After 9/11, he will be appointed as special envoy to Afghanistan (see January 1, 2002) and then US ambassador to Afghanistan.
AUG. 2, 2001: ALMOST TO 9/11:
Christina Rocca, Director of Asian Affairs at the State Department, secretly meets the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, apparently in a last ditch attempt to secure a pipeline deal. Rocca was previously in charge of contacts with Islamic guerrilla groups at the CIA, and oversaw the delivery of Stinger missiles to Afghan mujaheddin in the 1980s.
[Irish Times, 11/19/2001; Brisard and Dasquie, 'The Forbidden Truth, 2002, pp. 45; Salon, 2/8/2002]
THE PREDICTED ATTACK ON 9/11
August 2-3, 2001: Taliban Official Predicts US Will Invade Afghanistan by Mid-October, Possibly in Response to Major Attack Inside US
AND THAT IS HOW AFGHANISTAN BECAME A TARGET OF THE U.S. MILITARY...
IT WAS NEVER ABOUT A WINNABLE WAR.
IT WAS ABOUT PROFITS.
WE STILL HOPE TO PROFIT.
WE HAVE TO STAY UNTIL THE PIPELINE IS OPEN, THEN WE HAVE TO STAY TO GUARD THE PIPELINE, AND THEN THERE'S THOSE POPPIES....
DATA THE PENTAGON WANTED TO KEEP PRIVATE... THE TALIBAN RULES AFGHANISTAN.
THE LATEST STATS ARE [SORT OF] OUT...AMERICA WILL NEVER WIN A 'WAR' IN AFGHANISTAN.
AFTER A GAG ORDER WAS PLACED ON THE FACTS BEING MADE PUBLIC, THE PENTAGON HAD TO BACKTRACK AND THEN ALLOW "SOME" OF THE HARD-TO-COME-BY FACTS TO BE MADE PUBLIC.
ALMOST 50% OF AFGHANISTAN IS STILL NOT IN 'GOVERNMENT CONTROL'.
NOR WILL IT EVER BE.
THE 'GENERAL CONSENSUS' IS THAT WE (AMERICA) SHOULD PULL OUR TROOPS AND STOP THE MADNESS.
AMERICA, GO HOME.
THE STATISTICAL IMPOSSIBILITY IS "THE BIG STORY" AND THE RAW DATA CONFIRM WHAT MANY HAVE SAID FOR YEARS:
Pentagon restricts release of Afghanistan war data - KCRG.com
Pentagon restricts release of Afghanistan war data | The Seattle Times
Pentagon: Gag Order on Afghan Data Was a Mistake
IT'S AN UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST A PEOPLE WHO DID US NO HARM, WHO DON'T WANT OR NEED OUR INTERFERENCE, AND IT'S BEEN CALLED FOR YEARS A WAR WE CANNOT WIN.
America's former envoy to Afghanistan: the war can't be won
We Can't Win in Afghanistan Because We Don't Know Why We're There: NY Times
Why America Can't Win the War in Afghanistan | The National Interest
Why we aren't 'winning' in Afghanistan - The Washington Post
The war America can't win: how the Taliban are regaining control : The Guardian, UK ...
AFGHANISTAN HAS LONG BEEN CALLED "THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES"... UNCONQUERABLE.
A BRIEF HISTORY:
THE PERSIANS GAVE UP ON CONQUERING AFGHANISTAN AFTER FOUR YEARS OF WAR (1709-1713), AND WERE DEFEATED AGAIN IN 1837.
BRITAIN GAVE UP TRYING TO TAKE AND HOLD AFGHANISTAN AFTER 3 WARS THAT LASTED FROM 1839 UNTIL 1919.
THE RUSSIANS GAVE UP ON 'CONQUERING' AFGHANISTAN AFTER 10 YEARS (1979-1989).
FEW REALIZE THAT THE USA ATTACKED AFGHANISTAN LONG BEFORE 9/11.
WHILE REAGAN BEGAN HEAVILY ARMING THE 'TALIBAN' IN THE 1980s, AMERICA DIDN'T SHOW UP PERSONALLY (AT LEAST NOT IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA ACCOUNTS) UNTIL 1998.
Operation Infinite Reach: AUGIUST, 1998: Cruise missiles were fired by the United States Navy into four militant training camps in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
HAD AFGHANISTAN FIRED MISSILES INTO AMERICA, WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMERICA'S RESPONSE?
WHY RUSSIA GOT INVOLVED
From 1933 to 1973 Afghanistan witnessed a lengthy period of peace and relative stability. It was ruled as a monarchy by King Zahir Shah, last Afghan king, who belonged to the Afghan Musahiban Barakzai dynasty. In the 1960s, Afghanistan held limited parliamentary elections. Zahir Shah was overthrown 'peacefully' by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan in 1973.
Khan transformed the monarchy into a republic with him becoming the first President of Afghanistan. He was supported by a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Afghanistan's communist party, which had been founded in 1965 and enjoyed strong relations with the Soviet Union.
By 1976, alarmed by the growing power of the PDPA and the party's strong affiliation with the Soviet Union, Daoud Khan tried to scale back the PDPA's influence. He dismissed PDPA members from their government posts, appointed conservative elements instead and finally announced the dissolution of the PDPA arresting senior party members.
LET THE ASSASSINATIONS AND COUPS BEGIN!
On April 27, 1978, the PDPA and military loyal to the PDPA, killed Daoud Khan, his immediate family and their bodyguards in a violent coup and seized control of the capital, Kabul.
The first communist leader in Afghanistan, Nur Muhammad Taraki, was assassinated by his fellow communist Hafizullah Amin. Amin was known for his independent, nationalist inclinations, and was seen by many as a ruthless leader. He has been accused of killing tens of thousands of Afghan civilians at Pul-e-Charkhi and other national prisons. 27,000 politically motivated executions reportedly took place at Pul-e-Charkhi prison alone
REAGAN'S "AFGHAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS" ARE CREATED: THE TALIBAN
The Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan on December 24, 1979.
Amin was deposed almost immediately and he and 200 of his guards were killed on December 27 by Soviet Army Spetsnaz.
He was replaced by Babrak Karmal.
After deployment into Afghanistan, Soviet forces along with government forces would begin to engage in a protracted counter-insurgency war with mujahideen fighters.
Some of those Islamic 'freedom fighters' would later transform into the Taliban according to Professor Carole Hillenbrand who stated: "The West helped the Taliban fight the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan".
REAGAN BROUGHT SOME OF THOSE OLD MUJAHIDEEN TO WASHINGTON, MADE A FEW VIDEOS OF AND WITH THEM, HELD AN INITIAL PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THEM IN A ROOM INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE, PRAISED THEM TO THE HEAVENS AND EVEN DEDICATED A NASA SHUTTLE LAUNCH TO THEM...AND ARMED THEM TO THE TEETH.
"These gentlemen [Taliban] are the moral equivalents of America's Founding Fathers"
~President Ronald Reagan. Mar 11, 1982 Reported in the New York Times, Videos on many news sites at the time. Find it on YouTube.
THE CIA DUBBED THE FUNDING OF THOSE AFGHAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS AS "OPERATION CYCLONE", AT LEAST FROM 1979 TO 1989.
Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken; funding began with $20–$30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year by 1987.
Funding continued after 1989.
[SEE PETER BERGEN'S "HOLY WAR, INC", 2001 AND STEELE AND BARTLET'S "THE OILY AMERICANS", 2008. ALSO SEE REIDEL'S "WHAT WE WON: AMERICA'S SECRET WAR IN AFGHANISTAN" PUBLISHED BY THE BROOKING'S INSTITUTION PRESS, BELIEVE IT OR NOT]
Ron Paul Had Accurate Conspiracy Theory: CIA Was Tied To Drug Traffickers...
Huff Post
"In 1988, while running for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, he highlighted yet another conspiracy theory, and this one doesn’t collapse under investigation: The CIA, Paul told a gathering of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was involved in trafficking drugs as part of the Iran-Contra debacle.
Drug trafficking is “a gold mine for people who want to raise money in the underground government in order to finance projects that they can’t get legitimately. It is very clear that the CIA has been very much involved with drug dealings,” Paul said. “The CIA was very much involved in the Iran-Contra scandals. I’m not making up the stories; we saw it on television. They were hauling down weapons and drugs back. And the CIA and government officials were closing their eyes, fighting a war that was technically illegal.”
PAUL WAS PROVEN TO BE 100% CORRECT...IRAN/CONTRA AFFAIR. ARMS FOR DRUGS.
REAGAN CLAIMED HE DIDN'T KNOW.
HE ALSO CLAIMED HE DIDN'T KNOW THAT CIA PILOTS AND AIRCRAFT WERE BRINGING COLUMBIAN DRUGS UP INTO THE UNITED STATES.
THEY WERE, AND A COULE OF CRASHED CIA PLANES LED THE PRESS TO THAT CONCLUSION.
STILL, REAGAN SAID...HE DIDN'T KNOW...
YES, 'THE WEST' HELPED CREATE THE TALIBAN AND FROM THE TALIBAN, WE GOT "AL QAEDA", AND FROM AL QAEDA WE GOT ISIS.
AFTER THE REAGAN LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE TALIBAN, WHAT HAPPENED?
THE TALIBAN THREATENED TO BURN THOSE POPPY FIELDS, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED, AND WANTED AMERICA OUT AFTER THE LAST RUSSIAN TROOPS LEFT IN 1989.
NO OIL, NO OPIUM FOR THE U.S., SO, WE LOOKED FOR WAYS TO BOMB THEM, FOUND BIN LADEN, AND THEN CREATED THOSE PATHS.
[See The Taliban's Opium War | The New Yorker]
WHEN AMERICA NEEDS A REASON TO INVADE ANOTHER NATION, BECOME ENGAGED IN CIVIL CONFLICT ANYWHERE ON EARTH, IT CAN SIMPLY CREATE AN "ENEMY", WHETHER IN REALITY OR JUST "ON PAPER".
ANOTHER THING FEW AMERICANS REALIZE OR READILY ADMIT IS HOW FAR BACK WE HAVE DONE SIMILAR THINGS...
"Since at least the 1940s, the American government has organized and supported insurgent armies for the purpose of overthrowing some presumably hostile foreign regime. In Italy, the United States helped pit the Corsican and Sicilian mobs against the Fascists and then the Communists. In China, it aided Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang in its struggle against Mao Zedong’s communist forces. In Afghanistan, it once backed the mujahedeen in their fight against the Soviet Union and today backs warlords in opposition to the mujahedeen.
All of these and other U.S.-supported groups profited, or still profit, heavily from the drug trade.
One of the principal arguments made by the Drug Enforcement Administration in support of the global drug war is that the illegal drug trade funds violent, stateless organizations. The DEA refers specifically to al Qaeda and the Taliban, but the same method of fundraising has long been used by other violent, stateless actors whom the United States befriended.
Douglas Farah was in El Salvador when the San Jose Mercury News broke a major story in the summer of 1996: The Nicaraguan Contras, a confederation of paramilitary rebels sponsored by the CIA, had been funding some of their operations by exporting cocaine to the United States."
[EXCERPTED FROM THE BOOK "“This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.”]
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
AFRAID THAT AMERICANS WOULD REMEMBER REAGAN'S PRAISE OF THE NOBLE MUJAHIDEEN, THE CIA CREATED "AL QAEDA", THEN "ISIS", AND IN SYRIA, AT LEAST, THE USA ARMED THEM BOTH TO OUST ASSAD.
FROM THE L.A. TIMES, MARCH, 2016:In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA
AUG. 2017, NEWSWEEK:U.S. Military Battles Syrian Rebels Once Supported by CIA
CONTROL OF THE "TWO Os", OIL AND OPIUM, WAS, AND STILL IS, AT STAKE.
THE PROFITS ARE JUST TOO ENORMOUS FOR US TO BACK OUT.
IN THAT "WAR ON DRUGS", AMERICA IS BLOODY WELL GOING TO TAKE ALL THE POPPY FIELDS 'PRISONER' THAT WE CAN MANAGE TO SCORE. THOSE OPIUM POPPIES MUST BE UNDER U.S. CONTROL, AS WELL AS ALL THE OIL WE CAN GATHER IN THAT SMALL AREA OF THE WORLD.
[Main sources for the above history: (1) Neamatollah Nojumi's The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region; (2) Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Robert D. Kaplan ; (3) a PDF document "Genocide and the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan"; (4) "The September 11 Sourcebooks Volume VII: The Taliban File". George Washington University. 2003; (5) "Afghanistan". Political Chronology of Central, South and East Asia. 2003]
U.S. SPREADS OUT INTO SYRIA...
Operation Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by various Arab intelligence services, most notably that of Saudi Arabia.
Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to rebel forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. According to U.S. officials, the program has trained thousands of rebels.
President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013.
AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS WHAT GOT OUR AMBASSADOR KILLED IN BENGHAZI!
However, the CIA had been facilitating the flow of arms from Libya to Syria "for more than a year" beforehand in collaboration with "the UK (United Kingdom), Saudi Arabia and Qatar."
"FLOW OF ARMS FROM LIBYA TO SYRIA..."
WE GATHERED THOSE ARMS THAT WE'D GIVEN TO LIBYAN 'REBELS' TO KILL GADDAFI AND WE SHIPPED THEM THROUGH BENGHAZI TO SYRIA.
BUT JORDAN WAS ALSO INVOLVED.
According to American and Jordanian officials, weapons shipped into Jordan by the CIA and Saudi Arabia were routinely stolen by Jordanian intelligence officials in the General Intelligence Directorate (Jordan) and sold on the black market.
The magnitude of the theft amounted to millions of dollars, and FBI officials state that some of the stolen weapons were later used to kill two American contractors, two Jordanians and one South African at a police training station in Jordan.[Arms received via Timber Sycamore have flooded Middle Eastern black markets with heavy weaponry.
Jordanian officials state that Jordanian intelligence officers who stole the program's weapons used the profits to purchase luxury items, with knowledge of superior officers. The thefts were halted after months of complaints by the American and Saudi governments.
A 2017 study by Conflict Armament Research found that external support for anti-Assad Syrian rebels "significantly augmented the quantity and quality of weapons available to [ISIL] forces," including "anti-tank weapons purchased by the United States that ended up in possession of the Islamic State within two months of leaving the factory." However, the study found no instance in which U.S. arms supplied to the Kurdish– and Arab–led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight ISIL ended up in ISIL's arsenal.
[SEE (2017-12-14). "The U.S. bought weapons for Syrian rebels — and some wound up in the hands of ISIS terrorists". USA Today.]
AND YET WE TURN ON THE KURDS EVERY CHANCE WE GET?
THE U.S. HAS OPENLY BUDGETED AND SPENT OVER $120 BILLION ON JUST THE "RECONSTRUCTION" OF AFGHANISTAN SINCE WE BEGAN BOMBING THE HELL OUT OF IT IN 2002.
HOW MUCH MORE HAS BEEN SPENT THERE UNDER THE PENTAGON'S "SLUSH FUND" MAY NEVER BE KNOWN.
IF YOU READ HERE MUCH, YOU MAY RECALL MY WRITING ABOUTT RUMSFELD'S 'SLIP OF THE TONGUE' WHEN HE MENTIONED OVER $2 TRILLION MISSING FROM PENTAGON ACCOUNTS JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE THE ACCOUNTING SECTION OF THE PENTAGON WAS DESTROYED IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS.
NICE COINCIDENCE, YES?
RON PAUL AND ALAN GRAYSON, FROM THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS, GRILLED THE FED OVER THE ENORMOUS 'MISSING' AMOUNT OF $9 TO $10 TRILLION IN 'ANONYMOUS' FOREIGN "LOANS", GOT NO ANSWERS.
NOBODY KNOWS WHERE AMERICAN MONEY GOES, NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL.
HOW MUCH WOULD OUR CURRENT FEDERAL DEBT BE IF WE HAD THOSE $11-12 TRILLION DOLLARS BACK?
WAR IS NOT ONLY HELL, IT IS VERY COSTLY, IN BOTH ARMS AND LIVES LOST.
War has directly resulted in the deaths of 149,000 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan between 2001 and 2014, according to estimates in a report released by Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute.
PLEASE NOTICE THAT WORD "DIRECTLY".
WHAT ABOUT "INDIRECTLY"?
IS ANYONE COUNTING THOSE WHO "INDIRECTLY" DIED FROM MIDDLE EAST WARS WE WERE INVOLVED IN?
As of June 29, 2016, ALMOST 2 YEARS AGO, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,424 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,952 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
SOME OF THOSE WOUNDED LATER DIED.
SOME WHO LIVED TO COME HOME FROM THAT SANDLOT HAVE SINCE COMMITTED SUICIDE OR DIED OF ILLNESSES CONTRACTED IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
THESE ARE NOT COUNTED AS WAR DEAD.
THEY SHOULD BE.
THE OPIUM POPPY FIELDS STILL FLOURISH, U.S. MILITARY GUARD THE FIELDS AND THE HARVEST OF THE OPIUM.
U.S. Marines protect Afghan's poppy fields
"The Marines of Bravo's Company 1st Platoon sleep beside groves of poppies.
Troops of the 2nd Platoon walk through the fields on strict orders not to swat the
heavy pods ...
But the Obama Administration remains intent upon protecting the poppies so that
the Afghan farmers and local drug lords can reap the benefits."
IT IS SAID THAT THE CIA IS INVOLVED IN FLYING THAT OPIUM OUT OF AFGHANISTAN VIA SEVERAL ROUTES, SUCH AS THROUGH PAKISTAN, EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA.
Heroin Dealer in Chief. Afghanistan, Source of 90% of The World's Heroin...
Aug 22, 2017 - US military and CIA-chartered airplanes fly from US-occupied Afghanistan to US every week. People getting on military and CIA planes aren't searched. People getting off military and CIA planes aren't searched.
Nov 20, 2017 - The US invaded Afghanistan largely to restore the heroin industry and it is now making about $1.5 trillion every year from this business.
THAT PRESS TV BIT IS A REAL STRETCH, BUT EVEN MAINSTREAM MEDIA HAS ASKED IF THE "WAR ON DRUGS" JUST MAY BE THE USA FIGHTING THE TALIBAN FOR CONTROL OF THE 'CASH CROP' AND FOR A ROUTE FOR THE PIPELINES OF BOTH OIL AND OPIUM.
WHAT DIDN'T THE PENTAGON WANT THE PUBLIC TO REALIZE?
WHY THE GAG ORDER ON DATA?
The auditing agency, established by Congress and known as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, revealed the new gag order in a three-month assessment of conditions in Afghanistan released overnight.
The restrictions seemed to contradict previous Pentagon assertions that it was striving to be more transparent about the U.S. war campaigns across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
THAT PRESS TV BIT IS A REAL STRETCH, BUT EVEN MAINSTREAM MEDIA HAS ASKED IF THE "WAR ON DRUGS" JUST MAY BE THE USA FIGHTING THE TALIBAN FOR CONTROL OF THE 'CASH CROP' AND FOR A ROUTE FOR THE PIPELINES OF BOTH OIL AND OPIUM.
WHAT DIDN'T THE PENTAGON WANT THE PUBLIC TO REALIZE?
WHY THE GAG ORDER ON DATA?
The auditing agency, established by Congress and known as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, revealed the new gag order in a three-month assessment of conditions in Afghanistan released overnight.
The restrictions seemed to contradict previous Pentagon assertions that it was striving to be more transparent about the U.S. war campaigns across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
AP
National Security
January 30, 2018
"The auditing agency, established by Congress and known as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, revealed the new gag order in a three-month assessment of conditions in Afghanistan released overnight.
The restrictions seemed to contradict previous Pentagon assertions that it was striving to be more transparent about the U.S. war campaigns across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Over the years, the SIGAR auditing effort has revealed many dubious practices by the U.S., including instances of contractor fraud. Since January 2016 it had published data on the number of governing districts controlled by Kabul, the number controlled by the Taliban, and the number that are contested.
John F. Sopko, head of the auditing organization, expressed disappointment that the Pentagon initially had forbidden release of the data on relative control of the governing districts.
Sopko wrote that historically, the number of districts controlled or influenced by the government has been falling since his office began reporting on it, while the number controlled or influenced by the insurgents has been rising — “a fact that should cause even more concern about its disappearance from public disclosure and discussion.”
“The number of districts controlled or influenced by the Afghan government had been one of the last remaining publicly available indicators for members of Congress — many of whose staff do not have access to the classified annexes to SIGAR reports_and for the American public of how the 16-year-long U.S. effort to secure Afghanistan is faring,” he added.
Sopko said in his report that the Pentagon also classified or otherwise restricted information that his organization had previously reported publicly, including such “fundamental metrics” of the Afghan military and police performance [such] as Afghan casualty figures and most measurements of the battlefield capabilities of the Afghans military.
In response to the release of the report, Navy Capt. Tom Gresback, coalition spokesman, said Tuesday that about 56 percent of the country’s 407 districts are under Afghan government control, 30 percent are contested and 14 percent are under insurgent control.
“It was NOT the intent of Resolute Support to withhold or classify information which was available in prior reports,” Gresback said in an email. “A human error in labeling occurred.”
Late last year, a Pentagon report said the Afghan government has control or influence over 60 percent of the population, while insurgents had control or influence over approximately 10 percent of the population, with the remainder contested."
"FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD...."
THERE'S "GOLD" TO BE HAD ALL ALONG THAT YELLOW PATH: OPIUM AND OIL.
ANYONE READING THIS CAN FIND THE FACTS, CAN SEARCH, RESEARCH AND DISCOVER THE TRUTH...IF TRUTH IS WHAT YOU SEEK AT ANY AND ALL COST.
THREE FAIR READS....BUT THERE ARE VOLUMES OUT THERE:
(2003). Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.
Steve Coll, "Anatomy of a Victory: CIA's Covert Afghan War" Washington Post, July 19, 1992
Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden
WE CAN CONTINUE TO PRETEND WE NEED TO BE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND OVER 100 OTHER PLACES IN MILITARY FORCE AROUND THE WORLD, OR WE CAN STOP ALLOWING CONGRESS TO FUND THE PENTAGON'S AND WALL STREET'S MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL WAR MACHINE FOR THE PROFITS OF THE ELITE WHO HAVE ALWAYS MADE MONEY ON WAR, ON ECONOMIC DEPRESSIONS, ON 'CRASHES' OF OUR ECONOMY.
CONGRESS DOESN'T RULE AMERICA, NOR DOES ANY PRESIDENT.
WE DO...WE, THE PEOPLE.
IF WE FAIL TO DEMAND OUR SOVEREIGN RIGHT TO THAT CONTROL, WE HAVE ONLY OURSELVES TO BLAME.
__________________________
WE LEARN OR WE PERISH.
The Tea Room owes much to the incredible website "History Commons".
It holds a wealth of information, documentation, TRUTH.
For a timeline leading up to 9/11, every American should read thoroughly every word and every link they offer.
//WW
