Titanium Cat

Anyone who believes stories being told by a guy who starts talking about EM-beams being used to create man made undersea earthquakes and also makes fraudulent claims about the WTC towers is extremely gullible. And then there is another class of moron who thinks steel always wins over aluminum.

There is no doubt that Twoofers are gullible and lazy.

eagleclaw

Hey TC, found some more info on that pipeline. Looks like Canada is involved. Or is this just from some rag that has no credibility?

Pipeline opens new front in Afghan war
Canadian role in Kandahar may heat up as allies agree on U.S.-backed energy route through land-mine zones and Taliban hot spots
SHAWN MCCARTHY

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

June 19, 2008 at 2:30 AM EDT

OTTAWA — Afghanistan and three of its neighbouring countries have agreed to build a $7.6-billion (U.S.) pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Turkmenistan to energy-starved Pakistan and India – a project running right through the volatile Kandahar province – raising questions about what role Canadian Forces may play in defending the project.

To prepare for proposed construction in 2010, the Afghan government has reportedly given assurances it will clear the route of land mines, and make the path free of Taliban influence.

In a report to be released Thursday, energy economist John Foster says the pipeline is part of a wider struggle by the United States to counter the influence of Russia and Iran over energy trade in the region.

The so-called Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline has strong support from Washington because the U.S. government is eager to block a competing pipeline that would bring gas to Pakistan and India from Iran.



Special Report: Canada's mission in Afghanistan
The TAPI pipeline would also diminish Russia's dominance of Central Asian energy exports.

Mr. Foster said the Canadian government has long ignored the broader geopolitical aspects of the Afghanistan deployment, even as NATO forces, including Canadian troops, could be called upon to defend the critical energy infrastructure.

“Government efforts to convince Canadians to stay in Afghanistan have been enormous,” he says in a report prepared for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-of-centre think tank in Ottawa.

“But the impact of the proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline in areas of Afghanistan under Canadian purview has never been seriously debated.”

In an interview, Mr. Foster – a former economist with Petro-Canada, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank – said he believes the TAPI project could provide major benefits for Afghanistan and the region generally. If the project proceeds – and serious obstacles remain – Afghanistan's national government could reap $160-million (U.S.) a year in transit fees, an amount equivalent to half the government's current revenue.

But he said the security issues remain daunting and the Canadian military could – wittingly or not – become embroiled in a “new great game” over energy security that is playing out in the region.

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson – who chairs the cabinet committee on Afghanistan – would not comment on the pipeline yesterday. When asked about the project earlier this spring, he said only that Canada wants to see Afghanistan develop a “legitimate and legal economy that can sustain a credible, viable state.”

Backed by the opposition Liberals, the Conservative government has committed to keeping the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan until 2011, although there is growing skepticism that the engagement will end at that point.

New Democratic Party MP Paul Dewar said the government needs to be more forthcoming about the four-nation project and whether Canadian forces would end up guarding the pipeline.

Though experts remain skeptical that the project will get off the ground, the four countries appear determined to prove them wrong.

With the backing of Manila-based Asian Development Bank, ministers from the four countries met in late April and agreed to start construction of the pipeline by 2010, and begin supplying gas by 2015, although critical financial issues must still be worked out.

At a donor's conference attended by a Canadian delegation last November, countries committed to “assist Afghanistan to become an energy bridge in the region” and to accelerate work on the TAPI pipeline “to develop a technically and commercially viable project.”

There was no public discussion of who would provide the security for the project.

The pipeline proposal goes back to the 1990s, when the Taliban government held talks with California-based Unocal Corp. – and its U.S. government backer – while considering a competing bid by Argentina's Bridas Corp. Those U.S.-Taliban talks broke down in August, 2001. India, which desperately needs natural gas imports to fuel its growth, later joined the revived project.

Last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said the U.S. government has a “fundamental strategic interest” in Afghanistan that goes well beyond ensuring it is not used as a launching pad for terrorism, which was the original justification for the UN-sanctioned NATO mission of which Canada is a part.

That objective remains paramount, Mr. Boucher said, but he added that there is a “historic opportunity … of having an open Afghanistan that can act as a conduit for energy, ideas, people, trade, goods from Central Asia and other places down to the Arabian Sea.”

Stephen Blank, a professor at the U.S. Army War College, in Carlisle Barracks, Pa., said the U.S. government is particularly eager to provide an alternative to the proposed $7.5-billion (U.S.) Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, which those three countries have agreed to pursue.

“From the U.S. viewpoint, the idea of blocking Iran is of paramount significance,” he said.

As well, the United States is pushing the TAPI pipeline as one of several natural gas export options from Central Asia that would bypass Russia, which until now has maintained a stranglehold on gas exports from the region.

But Dr. Blank – who has written extensively on energy-related geopolitics in the region – said he doesn't believe the TAPI pipeline will be built any time soon due to security concerns.

Still, the project is seen as a key part of Afghanistan's strategic development plan, which Canada and its NATO partners have endorsed as critical to establishing its political stability.

globeandmail.com: Pipeline opens new front in Afghan war

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All the time, always

Duvidoo

Canada should get the hell out of Afghanistan. We were lured there under false pretenses ... which are getting falser by the day now it becomes clear that the USA just wanted a route to Middle East oil. Thank Heavens we didn't fall into the Iraq trap. One hopes Harper doesn't cave when Bush makes his move on Iran. But it's a faint hope.

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Denie the Delight
retarded Duvi showed up and made a fool of himself followed by you.

Titanium Cat

And? I mentioned the security problem in building this pipeline in a previous post.

Can't you comment on the issue in your own words instead of just cutting and pasting?

Is this the primary reason why the US went to war in Afghanistan, so that they could build a gas pipeline to India? And this is a huge benefit to the US?

Titanium Cat

It's not Middle East oil, it's oil from the Caspian Sea region. There is a lot of oil there but not nearly as much as the Arabian Sea region. Plus there is already a huge oil pipeline from the region that was recently completed which takes the oil out through Turkey and doesn't go through Afghanistan at all. So why is this about a route to that oil?

Do you actually think we have more troops and resources to send? Harper is an asshole but he isn't stupid, he knows it wouldn't be a popular decision and he'll play the old shell game.

eagleclaw

So now you are an expert on Middle East, Caspian Sea, Central Asia security issues? How do find the time to play with us conspiracy people when you clearly are wasting your talents?

If you want to control the energy that is sitting there the U.S. will most definitily be involved. I have some more for you. This is Dick cheney's secret energy meetings.

Sorry, cut and paste but I am so ignorant I really do not know how else I can relay this information to you.

Maps and Charts of Iraqi Oil Fields


These are documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under a March 5, 2002 court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force. The documents contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents are dated March 2001. Click here to view the press release.

Iraq Oil Map
Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts - Part 1
Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts - Part 2
United Arab Emirates Oil Map
United Arab Emirates: Major Oil and Natural Gas Development Projects
Saudi Arabia Oil Map
Saudi Arabia: Major Oil and Natural Gas Development Projects

Judicial Watch

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All the time, always

Titanium Cat

Once again incorrect, knowing and finding basic information about such subjects doesn't make me an expert on it. All it means is that I know more about it than you but that isn't exactly a major accomplishment.

How do you find the time to cut and paste all the stuff you do but not actually bother to read and comprehend it?

Wow! Did you know that Afghanistan is not Iraq?

This was my question: "Is this the primary reason why the US went to war in Afghanistan".

Duvidoo

Is Iran in the Middle East?
If so, it borders the Caspian Sea.
What part of the planet do
you consider the Caspian
Sea to be in?

__________________

Denie the Delight
retarded Duvi showed up and made a fool of himself followed by you.

Titanium Cat

It's referred to as Central Asia.

They don't need a pipeline to what is commonly called the Middle East such as Saudia Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, U.A.E. etc.

So are you going to comment on the fact that they already have a huge oil pipeline to the Caspian Sea region in Central Asia going through Turkey and not Afghanistan? Regardless of what one wishes to refer to it as, you said they needed a route to that oil.

Ptech

I'll give you this TC--you are consistent.

Consistently silly, and a bit prissy.

Yes, I do post under the influence.