Here is a guy who agrees with everything you say:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/sardi7.html

...and gives you some more ammo with his description of testimony by UNOCAL's president before the House Committee on International Relations.

There is this too:

http://www.newhumanist.com/oil.html

Which is well researched, and again supports what you say.

Except that its all flawed:

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quote:

East: Geographical considerations would force these pipelines to head north of the impassable mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan across the vast, desolate Kazakh steppe, thereby adding even more length (and cost) to any eastward pipelines.
Bullshit. Now way this against the cost of destroying the WTC, plus insurance claims, plus the damage the stock markets took following the attacks. If not for the hard work done in preparing the stock markets for Y2K, the global economy might have sustained very serious damage. As it was, the NYSE shut down for a week. Do you have any idea how much that would have cost multinationals, including UNOCAL? Much cheaper to build a pipeline through the Kazahk steppe.

quote:

South: The Iranian route for gas would pipe Caspian region gas (from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) to Iran's southern coast, then eastward to Pakistan, while the oil route would take oil to the Persian Gulf, then load it onto tankers for further trans-shipment. However, any significant investment in Iran would be problematic under the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, which imposes sanctions on non-U.S. companies investing in the Iranian oil and gas sectors. U.S. companies already are prohibited from conducting business with Iran under U.S. law.
Which is shit. Iran is beoming more and more moderate with every passing day - it is one of the region's few democracies. It has a nasty habit of training terrorists, but so does Pakistan. The US government is still in a sulk because they kicked out their good friend the Shah, but Iran has recently been identified as trying to establish secret links with the US. Another 5 years and I'd guess Iran would be on side. Cheaper than overthrowing the Taleban, destroying the WTC, running the risk of ruining the global economy etc.

quote:

North or north-West: For its part, Russia itself has proposed multiple pipeline routes that utilize Russian export pipelines that transport oil to new export outlets being developed on the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. Russia is set to complete its Baltic Sea port at Primorsk later this year, and the country is working with Croatia to connect the Adria pipeline with the southern Druzhba pipeline. Reversing the flows in the Adria pipeline and tying it to the southern Druzhba route would allow oil exports from the Caspian to run via Russia's pipeline system, across Ukraine and Hungary, and then terminate at the Croatian deep-sea Adriatic port of Omisalj. In addition, Russia already has the most extensive natural gas network in the region, and the system's capacity could be increased to allow for additional Caspian region gas exports via Russia.

However, there are political and security questions as to whether the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union should rely on Russia (or any other country) as their sole export outlet, and Caspian region producers have expressed their desire to diversify their export options. In addition, most of the existing Russian oil export pipelines terminate at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, requiring tankers to transit the Black Sea and pass through the Bosporus Straits in order to gain access to the Mediterranean and world markets. Turkey has raised concerns about the ability of the Bosporus Straits, already a major chokepoint for oil tankers, to handle additional tanker traffic
And this is shit, too. People are really going to blow up the WTC etc etc rather than take extra tankers through the Bosporus? The new former Soviet governments are considered less volatle than the political circus which is Afghanistan? and the oil pipeline still has to go through Pakistan, which is only slightly less volatile than Afghanistan (and is on the verge of war over Kashmir).... And the pipeline still has to go through these "risky" former Soviet states anyway.

Jack, this just doesn't add up. Now that Afghanistan is willing to co-operate with the West and wants money badly, theyre going to do a deal with oil companies. But it doesn't work in reverse - oil companies had other options which didn't involve blowing up the WTC etc etc.