By Richard S. Ehrlich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 14, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
The Taliban, whether from twisted perceptions or a
cynical propaganda ploy, is claiming the United States is bombing Afghanistan not to
capture Osama bin Laden but to seize the "oil and natural resources of Central
Asia."
By claiming a secret, commercial motive as the real reason
for America's new war, the Taliban apparently hopes to convince world opinion that greed
forms the root of Washington's air campaign against military targets in Afghanistan.
Abdul Salaam Zaeef, the Taliban's black-turbaned,
black-bearded ambassador in Islamabad, laid out the claim at a news conference late last
week.
Reading from a one-page, typed document written in English
and titled "American Terrorist Attacks on Afghanistan Continues," Mr. Zaeef
said:
"The present game is more about oil and natural
resources of Central Asia" than about Osama bin Laden, leader of the organization
identified by the United States as responsible for the deaths of more than 5,000 people in
New York and at the Pentagon.
"To achieve this, America wants to replace the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan with a pro-American government in Kabul," the ambassador read
while sitting on the embassy's covered porch to journalists who stood on the front lawn in
drizzling rain.
"Aggression has been launched against our sovereignty
and independence, and global dictatorship is being unleashed by America under the cover of
defending democracy."
Mr. Zaeef did not elaborate on the latest Taliban salvo
against Washington.
It was not clear whether the Taliban's description of a
blood-for-oil war was simply false propaganda to deflect attention from its sheltering of
bin Laden, or a rare glimpse into the actual perception of Afghanistan's xenophobic,
reclusive leadership.
In 1996, U.S.-based Unocal Corp. and other petrochemical
firms were competing for the rights to construct a natural gas pipeline across
Afghanistan.
Unocal and other corporations were stymied, however, by
heavy fighting between the newly victorious Taliban regime in Kabul and the freshly ousted
Northern Alliance, which lost power after a 1992-1996 reign marked by bloody infighting.
"We are hopeful that this is a temporary
situation," Unocal Pakistan Ltd.'s president and general manager, Richard Keller, was
quoted by Reuters as saying in mid-October 1996, referring to the battles between the
Taliban and the Northern Alliance.
Two weeks earlier, when the Taliban seized power in Kabul
for the first time, Unocal International Energy Ventures Ltd.'s executive vice president,
Chris Taggart, was more upbeat.
"I understand Pakistan has already recognized the
[Taliban] government," Mr. Taggart was quoted as saying on Oct. 1, 1996. "If the
U.S. follows, it will lead the way to international lending agencies coming in.
"If the Taliban leads to stability and international
recognition, then it's positive," Mr. Taggart added, expressing an optimism that was
ultimately shattered when President Clinton refused to establish diplomatic relations with
the Taliban.
Unocal had hoped to team up with Delta Oil Co. of Saudi
Arabia to construct a pipeline and was tentatively mapping Afghanistan with satellite
imagery, while trying to raise cash through the World Bank, foreign investors and other
sources, according to news reports at the time.
"Obviously there has to be a government acceptable to
the Afghans and the outside world," Mr. Keller was quoted as saying. The pipeline
would have tapped into a lucrative gas field under Turkmenistan, in the Dauletabad zone,
which was said to contain billions of cubic feet of natural gas.
If a 1,000-mile-long pipeline had been built across
Afghanistan, the natural gas could have been shipped for sale to power plants in Pakistan,
India and elsewhere.
Running south from Turkmenistan, the pipeline could have
entered Afghanistan's northwest corner near Herat -- a scene of current U.S. and British
bombardment -- and dodged the country's rugged central mountains by curving across the
southern desert past Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters.
The pipeline would have exited Afghanistan near Kandahar by
veering into southern Pakistan, near Quetta.