Unocal's Bush White House Connection

A Special Assistant to President Bush and Senior Director for Gulf, Southern Asia and Other Regional Issues of the National Security Council, Zalmay Khalilzad, was employed as a consultant by the transnational oil company, Unocal, which was involved in the propoosed Afghan pipeline project until late 1998.

In its December 5, 1998 issue, the New York Times amde the following reference to Unocal's involvement in the proposed Afghan pipeline project: "When Unocal joined the project in 1995, it was viewed by many analysts as the most audacious gambit of the 1990's oil rush on the Caspian.

"The idea was to pre-empt other companies trying to solve the region's greatest problem--it is landlocked--and transport oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. Turkmenistan has the world's fourth-largest reserve of natural gas.

"There was to have been a 1,005-mile oil pipeline and a companion 918-mile natural gas pipeline, in addition to a tanker loading terminal in Pakistan's Arabian SEa port of Gwadar...The company projected annual revenues of $2 billion, or enough to recover the cost of the project in five years...

"...Unocal opened offices in Kazakhstar, Uzbekistar, Pakistan and Turkmenistan. To help it sell the project to the many governments involved, Unocal hired senior United States diplomats like the former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger...Problems began with the Taliban's capture of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in September 1996. Unocal initially took a positive view of the movement's tgriumph."