For years, US oil interests have been trying to build a pipeline across Afghanistan to access the oil and gas around the Caspian Sea; efforts that have continued past the 9-11 attacks. 

Source: http://www.wluml.org/english/new-archives/9.11 World Trade Center
/at-stake/unocal.htm

Enron was a key player in this game. Way back in 1996, Enron had cut a deal with the president of Uzbekistan for joint development of the nation's natural gas fields. 

Source: Houston Chronicle Date: TUE 06/25/96 Section: Business Page: 4 Edition: 3 STAR (sorry, no link)

Enron had also done the feasibility study for the pipeline. 

Source http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD201A.html

For a time, the Taliban appeared to be a potential partner. They had even visited Sugarland, Texas to talk things over. 

Source http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/west_asia/newsid_37000/37021.stm

The Crime

Unfortunately, the talks broke down, and by late last summer, the US Government was threatening to commence war against Afghanistan (an attack which would have violated every precept of international law). 

Sources http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm  

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm

At least twice, Bush conveyed the message to the Taliban that the United States would hold the regime responsible for an al Qaeda attack. But after concluding that bin Laden's group had carried out the October 2000 attack on the USs Cole, a conclusion stated without hedge in a Feb. 9 briefing for Vice President Cheney, the new administration did not choose to order armed forces into action. 

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8734-2002Jan19.html

Simultaneous with making, but not following through on these threats, Bush took a number of actions to make the US decidedly more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. He ordered the Naval strike force, which Clinton placed in the Indian Ocean on 24 hour alert so he could hit Osama as soon as he had solid intelligence, to stand down. Bush threatened to veto the Defense Appropriations Bill after Democrats tried to move $600 million out of Star Wars and into anti-terror defense. Bush opposed Clinton's anti-money-laundering efforts, which were designed to stop al Qaeda's money. Bush abandoned Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, or as the two star general Donald Kerrick told the Washington Post, reflecting on his service to both President Clinton and President Bush: Clinton's advisors met nearly weekly on how to stop bin Laden and al Qaeda. "I didn't detect that kind of focus" from the Bush Administration. 

Source http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=5714

I don't have to tell you what happened next.

The Cover Up

Dick Cheney is openly breaking the law by defying GAO requests to turn over his records of meetings with Enron. 

Source http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20020201.html

At the same time that Cheney has refused to turn over his records, Enron and its accountants have shredded millions of pages of documents.

Source http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/30/business/30SHRE.html

The Bush's themselves may have destroyed evidence. When the Justice Department instructed the Bush administration to preserve any documents related to Enron Corporation, a senior administration official said that until now, "the White House had not been making any formal effort to preserve or catalogue information about Enron contacts."

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10918-2002Feb1.html

While all of this law breaking, stalling, and destruction of evidence has gone on, Bush has asked Daschle to limit Congressional probes into Sept. 11. 

Source http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/29/inv.terror.probe/index.html

Note that the supposedly "liberal press" has so far failed to put all of these pieces together. They are too busy giving Bernard Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly the airtime to sell a canard called "Bias." 

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The Daily Brew is an editorial/opinion column appearing occasionally in this space.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the editor, and The Daily Brew is solely responsible for their contents.