In These New Times

Voltairenet

Translation by inthesenewtimes

The slogan comparing the Islamabad bombing to the September 11th attacks is more realistic than might appear. This unclaimed attack serves exclusively the interests of NATO: the Atlantic allinace must, as a matter of urgency, take control of thre Khyber Pass in order to supply their troops.If the Alliance can’t solve its logistical problems, Washington plans to sacrifice allied troops.

A bombing of unprecedented force wrecked the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad on the 21st September, 2008. A lorry bomb contaiming an estimated 600 kg of TNT and various munitions blew a vast crater, killing more than 60 people and wounding 226 others. Commenting on the event on TV, the editor of the Daily Times declared: “This is the 9/11 of Pakistan” This cry has been taken up by the Western press in its entirety. Even though responsibility has not been claimed, the bombing has been atributed to Al-Queda. As a response President Zardari has announced the intensification of the fight against terrorism.

Placed in their context there is nothing really surprising about these events.

With he collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Central Asian states, the Western oil companies stepped up their plans to exploit the reserves of the Caspian Basin. UNOCAL planned two vast projects. The first(the BTC) was to link the Caspian to the Black Sea passing throuygh Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, with, notably the aid of BP; the second was to link the Caspian to the Indian Ocean via Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, mainly with the help of Delta Oil.

If the BTC was built without great difficulty, the same couldn’t be said about the trans- Afghan pipeline. UNOCAL came up against the chaos reigning in the country and approached the White House to lobby for the stabilisation of the the region. The firm engaged Kissinger as a consultant and confided the management of the project to ambassadors John Maresca, Robert Oakley and two experts; Zalmay Khalilzad and Hamid Karzai. Washington bought the cooperation of the Taliban who controlled most of the country. To do this the State Department gave them a grant of 43 million dollars in May 2001. With the agreement of the G8 multilateral negotiations were opened in Berlin with the Islamic Emirate even though this latter was not recognised by the international community. but the negotiations failed as the Taliban made new demands.

The US and Britain then planned the invasion of Afghanistan. At the end of August 2001 they concentrated their naval forces in The Sea of Oman and deployed 40,000 men in Egypt. On 9th September 2001, the pro-Russian Tajik leader Shah Massoud was assasinated, but the news was kept secret. On 11th September, Bush accused the Taliban of involvement in the attacks on the WTC and gave them an ultimatum. The Anglo-saxons then took control of the country. Seven years later the pipeline still isn’t built and the country is still in chaos. UNOCAL has been taken over by Chevron with the blessing of Condoleeza Rice; John Maresca has become the owner of the Business Humanitarian Forum which is actively engaged in the cultivation of opium for medical purposes(sic); Robert Oakley is in charge of military reorganisation; Khalilzad is the US ambassador ; Karzai has used his dual nationality to become presiden of an Afghanistan transformed into a narco-state.

The Pentagon, absorbed in the Iraqi inferno, has largely delegated the military occupation of Afghanistan to NATO. In order to supply its troops NATO signed a protocol with the CSTO. The supply lines run via Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikstan. Commenting on this strange arrangement Lavrov has stressed the importance of fighting terrorism; less diplomatically ambassador Zamil Kabulov told  Vremya Novostei that it was in the  interest of Russia to see the West come to grief in Afghanistan.

Now, on 8th August the USA and Israel launched an assault by Georgian troops against South Ossetia. In reply, Russia bombed two Israeli military airports in Georgia as well as the BTC pipeline. Then Medvedev called a meeting of the CSTO which abrogated the treaty linking it to NATO. Finally, Russia’s national media suddenly began to question the supposed link between 9/11 and Afghanistan.

This reverse is all the more serious for NATO in that it is suffering defeat after defeat. 54% of the national terrirory is now controlled by the Taliban. To confront them General McKiernan has demanded an extra three brigades (15,000 men, to be taken from the Irak contingent). But there is no question of sending more men whilst the ones already there can’t be supplied.

To restore the supply chain NATO urgently needs a new supply route.There is no immediate solution. With a view to saving US troops Gates has proposed a change in the chain of command. All forces, including allies, are to be put under the control of CENTCOM. The allies will no longer have any say on the deployment of forces and the Pentagon can concentrate on supplying US forces.

Afghanistan being closed to the East by a mountain barrier, the only possible supply route is the Khyber Pass situated in Pakistani territory. It is used only for fuel supplies. A recent insurgent attack wiped out a 60 vehicle column of lorries.

To secure the Khyber Pass the Pentagon targeted suspects in Pakistani territory on 3rd September. The ultra pro-American Ali Zardari was elected president of Pakistan on 5th September. The overall US chief-of-staff Admiral Mike Mullen made a surprise visit to Pakistan on the 15thSeptember. He demanded that Pakistan cede control of the Khyber Pass to the USA.

On the 21st September, President Zardari gave his investiture speech before parliament. He promised to back Pentagon efforts against “the terrorists”. After the ceremony members of the government and parliament were invited to iftar(the breaking of the Ramadan fast) at the prime minister’s residence. Most of them were furious that the new president hadn’t made a commitment to reinstate the Supreme Court judges and because he had given to understand that he had abandoned the sovereignty of the Khyber Pass. During the reception a lorry bomb hit the Marriot hotel where is was originally intended to hold the iftar. This bombing can only be seen by parlamentarians as a warning from NATO who will have no hesitation in eliminating those who oppose its projects. From the point of view of the media, this attack justifies the US taking control of part of Pakistan’s territory, just as 9/11 had justified the invasion of Afghanistan.

Appearing on TV, Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times, exclaimed:” This is Pakistan’s 9/11″. Sethi is known for his alignment with Washington whose incoherent policies he justifies. Thus, he supported the coup d’etat of Musharraf in 1999 in the name of “order” and he defends the new US pawn Ali Asif Zardari in the name of “democracy”. He founded the Daily Times with US money in 2002.

Whatever else it may be, this bombing marks the extension of the Afghan war to Pakistan and brings into question the equilibrium of the region.