TALIBAN

Dubya's rapid, decisive, decision to "crush" the Taliban, is now being seen, from a different perspective. Seems, Dubya's administration had been involved in negotiations with Taliban, about Afghanistan's oil reserves, prior to "911". The Taliban were uncoopertive regarding the plans, of the U.S., regarding the oil and a huge pipeline project. (The Soviets control much of the oil reserves in that region.) Allegely, a threat was made, (prior to "911"), by the U.S., that if Taliban didn't cooperate with U.S. oil intentions, they (Taliban), would be bombed into submission.

:-0

....what a vivid imagination. You must be an anti-semite, anti-U.S., pro-towel-head - but most of all pro-Democrat. Get a life - the election is over. Gore is grading papers (the only other job he was qualified for was sweeping them up BTW) and we have a LEADER in the white house - and a patriot.


Go live in Afghanistan

No sources and posted anonymously . . .


. . . right.

Guess it takes one to know one.

It's IRRELEVANT whether oil is involved in this picture because there were MANY excellent reasons BEFORE 9/11 to merit crushing the Taliban and dismantling the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan and worldwide.


As I posted months before the 9/11 tragedies: the free world should unite, and hunt down and eliminate the world's worst terrorists.


After Al Qaeda is largely dismantled, Iraq should be FORCED to end it germ warfare programs and comply with U.N. resolutions and inspections...and I don't mean by sanctions. Might as well rely on traffic tickets to curtail the activities of Mafia chiefs.


Enough with the BULLSHIT from these countries and from the Saddams of the world...it's time we put the hammer down while we still can, before they achieve viable delivery systems for their weapons of mass destruction, and before they manage to surreeptitiously insert such weapons into our country. Anyone who thinks they won't use such weapons as soon as they can has my vote for Ostrich-of-the-Year.


You seem to be awfully worried about oil and motives--now compare that to what happened on 9/11 and bin Laden's words that the difference between us and them is that while the U.S. loves life, they love death. What statement could better than that for illustrating the essence of an evil philosophy?

Shouldn't America be "FORCED" to give up it's Germ and Chemical warfare production and comply with U.N inspections too.

The premise of U.N. inspections is flawed insofar as it is constructed in such a way as to allow SCHEDULED inspections, which can easily be overcome by Iraqis moving their labs around. It is my impression that there is no provision for free and frequent random access at will, which is exactly what is needed to ensure that Iraq does not continue developing these weapons (not to mention Iraqi stonewalling). The concept is also flawed in that the U.S. would probably genuinely meet these inspections if it agreed to do so, while Iraq would continue to deceive and hide. The U.S. would also be potentially be jeopardizing technological/military secrets.


The U.S. does not USE biological/chemical weapons, but I believe Iraq did so against the Kurds, and certainly possesses the inclination to do so against the U.S. if it could ever do so in an opprtunistic fashion. Additionally Iraq has close ties to al Qaeda and is a supporter of international terrorism; thus Iraq cannot be considered a responsible party to possess such weapons. It is likely that Iraq has either supplied terrorist with these types of weapons and/or will do so in the future. This is unacceptable and should be treated as such.

On October 31, the French daily Le Figaro dropped a bombshell. While in a Dubai hospital receiving treatment for a chronic kidney infection last July, Osama bin Laden met with a top CIA official - presumably the Chief of Station. The meeting, held in bin Laden’s private suite, took place at the American hospital in Dubai at a time when he was a wanted fugitive for the bombings of two U.S. embassies and this year’s attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Bin Laden was eligible for execution according to a 2000 intelligence finding issued by President Bill Clinton before leaving office in January. Yet on July 14th he was allowed to leave Dubai on a private jet and there were no Navy fighters waiting to force him down.

If so, it seems quite odd that we haven't heard about it from other newspapers worldwide.


If so, who knows what the reasons might have been.


Better late than never, anyway.


It is very easy to take a critical attitude towards CIA activities, but in order to work effectively, the CIA must be able sometimes to make "deals with the devil." We as civilians in the USA have so little information about overseas intelligence activities that we are rarely in a position to understand what is really going on in many instances when we do hear about an encounter. Corruption and crime in many countries are far more entrenched than in the USA, and in dealing with governments we must realize this--they are often inextricably entwined with crime, drugs and such forces. It is actually fairly rare that a government is held as accountable to its own people as in the USA, or that the citizens are privileged to know even as much as we do about various matters pertaining to national security and policy.


We are often shocked and indignant about things that wouldn't even raise an eyebrow in many parts of the world--much of the world in many ways really lives in a different world, so to speak...or we do, and it is only when our paths collide that the differences draw so much attention.


All this said, I question the veracity of the report you cite, although it could be possible.