A Death Too Convenient

It is not only Kenneth Lay's cozy connections with Dick Cheney that makes his sudden death a matter of extreme public interest. Lay's death may hide forever the subtle connections between Enron, Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, 911, the Saudi Royals, and the war against Iraq.

For a start, Ken Lay's death takes the heat off the Bush family, primarily because Lay was at the very nexus of the Bush/Saudi axis of oil and energy. In death, there are no more tales to tell save for what can be pieced together thus far. The source for much of the following information is a captured document that, according to former federal prosecutor, John Loftus, was produced by Al Qaeda. The document supports charges of a cover-up. Ongoing terrorist investigations were said to have been shut down or interfered with even as the Enron Corporation negotiated with the Taliban for pipeline rights through Afghanistan.

Who ordered the cover up? Why was Enron made off limits to federal investigation? Who but someone very high up in the Bush administration could have shut down such an investigation? Who, in fact, did?

From that document and other bits and pieces, the following picture emerges.

Before 911, US energy companies were secretly negotiating with the Taliban to build a pipeline across Afghanistan. Unocal and Enron executives met with Taliban representatives in Tom DeLay's district of Sugar Land in 1997, an event that seems suspicious in retrospect. At the time, however, no one was suspicious of oil men flying in and out of Houston. It happens every day.

On another occasion, some 40 Enron representatives met with the Saudi royals in Tashkent. Enron was at the time "...the Afghan pipeline consultant for UNOCAL" [See Loftus vs. Sami Al Arian]; Prince Turki, son of King Faisel, was chief of Saudi intelligence. Also present at the Tashkent meeting was a Unocal consultant: Hamid Karzai —now called derisively the "Mayor" of Kabul.

At the time, the Saudis were pumping money into Enron. The Saudis wired some $10 billion "... from a Cypriot bank through Barclay's Bank in London and on to Houston" in a bid to make of Enron a "player" in the ongoing pipeline negotiations —but why? What kind of deal had Enron struck up with Prince Turki, the ruling Saudi royals, and the Bush administration?

Prince Turki, who made several trips into Afghanistan, dismisses them as mere peace missions. That rings hollow. Officially, the talks were about pipelines —not war! Peace missions are made to prevent wars, not pipelines. Did Prince Turki spill the beans?

As the Saudis placed heavy bets on Enron, the Bush State Department was at work on another front —threatening the Taliban with carpet bombs should the negotiations break down [See Forbidden Truth]

Eventually, the pipeline discussions would collapse and Prince Turki would be fired as head of Saudi intelligence. It's a safe bet, however, that he's still a major player. He was in Houston just last week. He is most certainly still close to the Bin Laden family which, according to Loftus, was promised "the" construction contract [the pipeline contract, presumably] in return for a "baksheesh" [kickback] to the Saudi Royal family. According to Loftus, this is a common business practice initiated by the Carlyle Group's contracts in Saudi Arabia.

As the Republican IPO magazine, Red Herring, confirms, President Bush' father was business partners in the Carlyle Group with the Bin Laden family during this period . This company is a Who's Who of former Democratic and Republican intelligence and political officials, whose specialty is acting as super-lobbyists at the highest levels of government. They are also suspected of arranging construction kickbacks to the Saudi royal family in return for discount oil sales. —Former Federal Prosecutor, John Loftus

Loftus has filed a private lawsuit, Loftus vs. Sami Al Arian, currently pending in Hillsborough County, Florida. It is credited with having shut down what Loftus has called the "Saudi funding conduit" and with having influenced a government raid of so-called Saudi Charities in the US. The lawsuit charges bluntly that the charities were not charities at all, rather, they "...were fronts for networking with other terrorist groups." From the lawsuit:

75. Under the guise of an ICP educational conference, Defendant and/or his agents and servants, repeatedly invited known international terrorists and leaders of extreme racist organizations to the United States. [FBI tr. P.1]

76. Defendant’s own videotapes show that Defendant regretted that some of the people he invited were prevented from attending his ICP conference, including the “Blind Sheik” who was later investigated for the first bombing of the Twin Trade Towers, and was afterwards convicted of another conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks. [FBI Tr. P.1]

77. In order to facilitate the process of obtaining visas for terrorists to attend Defendant’s terrorist conventions, Defendant, his agents and servants incorporated yet another purported non-profit entity in the State of Florida known as the “World Islamic Studies Enterprise.” (WISE).

If these allegations are true, I want to know who was funneling money into the Saudi charities. The 911 plot might also be exposed if we but knew to whom the monies are funneled.

There is reason to believe that many of these things were discussed with Enron's Ken Lay. There is reason to believe that the pipeline may have been the number one item on the agenda when Lay participated in a meeting of Dick Cheney's energy task force.

Documents turned over in the summer of 2003 by the Commerce Department as a result of the Sierra Club’s and Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil field Contracts.” The documents, dated March 2001, also feature maps of Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates oil fields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the project’s costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date.

Documented plans of occupation and exploitation predating September 11 confirm heightened suspicion that U.S. policy is driven by the dictates of the energy industry. According to Judicial Watch President, Tom Fitton, “These documents show the importance of the Energy Task Force and why its operations should be open to the public.”

When first assuming office in early 2001, President Bush's top foreign policy priority was not to prevent terrorism or to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction—or any of the other goals he espoused later that year following 9-11. Rather, it was to increase the flow of petroleum from suppliers abroad to U.S. markets.

—Secrets of Cheney's Energy Task Force Come to Light

But not all of the information was released following the lawsuit by Judicial Watch. Now, it would appear, that it will never be known to what extent the Bush administration betrayed the people of the United States and fabricated a pretext to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq.

May Kenneth Lay rest in peace. Death among Bush cronies seems to be as statistically high as GOP votes from a DieBold machine. Lay's probable complicity in the crime of the century will remain obscure on the whole and completely unknown in its details.

Jacob Bronouski had reasoned from sheer logical positivism an ethic: behave in such a way that what is true may be verified to be so! But —tragically —the Bush administration typifies an opposite and amoral view —what I call the Thom Friedman cop out: what does being right have to do with anything? It's a question that only the dead wrong would ask. Of Ken Lay, who is remembered in Houston by his many victims, it is a death too convenient!

The Existentialist Cowboy
Enron
Iraq
Oil

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The Existentialist Cowboy