Heartson's 9/11 Timeline Part 4

operations and put a cage on top. It was not a matter of arresting bin Laden but of access to information... and that's what could have prevented September 11. I knew it would come back to haunt us." Sudan again offers the US the files in May 2000, and again is turned down. In 1996 Sudan also offers their files to British intelligence, and are also rebuffed. Sudan makes
a standing offer to the British to take the information at any time, but the offer is not taken up until after 9/11. [http://cooperativereseach.org/completetimeline/

Oil prices triple between January 1999 and September 2000 due to strong world oil demand, OPEC oil production cutbacks, and other factors, including weather and low oil stock levels.

May 2000 Alberto Gonzales, author of a Texas Supreme Court opinion that hands the energy industry one of its biggest Texas legal victories in recent history. In Bernal vs. Southwestern Refining, Texas justices, voting 6-3, throw out a class-action suit by 885 Corpus Christi homeowners whose families were harmed and property damaged by heat, smoke and toxic fumes in a 1994 refinery tank explosion. The day the ruling is released, Gonzales' campaign treasury records a check from the Petroleum Club — a private oilman's business club in Midland — for refreshments at a reception. Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales' biggest contributors in his 2000 judicial election, giving $35,450. All told, Gonzales' campaign amassed $102,838 from energy interests. Gonzales will be appointed White House counsel when Bush takes office. ("New Bush Tie to Enron ", http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-02-10/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-140876.

asp )

May 23, 2000. Ken Alibek is President of Hadron Advanced Biosystems, a subsidiary of Alexandria, Va.-based Hadron, Inc. Hadron describes itself as a company specializing in the development of technical solutions for the intelligence community. As chief scientist at Hadron, Alibek gave extensive testimony to the House Armed Services Committee about biological weapons on Oct. 20, 1999, and again on May 23, 2000. Hadron conducted medical biodefense research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and the NIH. Hadron said it was working in the field of non-specific immunity.

DNA sequencing work by several of these microbiologists is aimed at developing drugs that will fight pathogens based on the pathogen's genetic profile. Also at developing drugs that will work in cooperation with a person's genetic makeup. Theoretically, a drug could be developed for one specific person. A drug could be developed to effectively treat a much broader class of people sharing a genetic marker. The entire process can also be turned around to develop a pathogen that will affect a broad class of people sharing a genetic marker. A broad class of people sharing a genetic marker could be a group such as a race, or people with brown eyes.

June 2000 One week, after Dick Cheney resigned from Halliburton Root + Brown, the subsidiary signed a contract with the Pentagon about constructions in various countries. The contract was later upgraded into "a 408-unit detention camp at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/c02262002_ct088-02.html

Halliburton is Texas construction and engineering company, customer of the Pentagon and UNOCAL,who was working on a pipeline in Afghanistan.

June 26 , 27, 2000 Thomas Inglesby, Hopkins Institute organise his first Anthrax-Scenario Test-games

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/documents/Atlanta/BTScenario.pdf Inglesby became important for the Pentagon and Fort Detrick, when he wrote his first popular scenario in July 1999: "Anthrax: A Possible Case History" thtp://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no4/inglesby.htm >From this text: "...Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offices in five U.S. cities have received warnings of an imminent bioterrorist attack. Each threat indicated that a "shower of anthrax would rain on U.S. cities," unless certain demands were met immediately..."

July 12-13, 2000 While public media were assuring the credulous public of a "soft landing" for the U.S. economy, the New York Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) held a second conference at its headquarters on the East Side of Manhattan, entitled "The Next Financial Crisis: Warning Signs, Damage Control and Impact". It includes a testgame regarding a possible terrorist attack.

"...a scenario of a global financial meltdown, run as a war-game simulation. The four teams covered

monetary-financial, which dealt with the functions of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors;

economic and trade, which dealt with the functions of the U.S. Treasury Department;

regulatory matters; and

national security" (former CIA director James Woolsey played the role of Secretary of Defense).

July 19, 2000: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin denounced American plans for ballistic missile defence systems. They vowed to forge a close strategic alliance to curb Washington's dominance of world affairs. But "Russia's interests are not China's interests. China's ambition is to weaken the influence of the United States everywhere. Russia's ambition is to grow closer to the West and become part of the civilised world."

July 30, 2000 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins reelection with 60% of the popular vote. His Patriotic Pole party also wins a controlling majority in the country's new unicameral legislature. (DJ)

August 2000: FBI told to stop monitoring (two future 9/11 hijackers) Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi in August 2000. These two men had been under surveillance by the CIA since January 2000.

August 10, 2000 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as part of a tour of OPEC member states. Chavez is the first head of state to visit Saddam Hussein since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. (NYT, WP)

August 23, 2000 crude oil stock levels in the United States have fallen to their lowest level since 1976. (DJ)

September 22, 2000: President Clinton authorizes the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over 30 days to bolster oil supplies, particularly heating oil in the Northeast. The release will take the form of a "swap," in which crude oil volumes drawn from the SPR will be replaced by the recipients at a later date. Crude oil for November delivery falls four percent, to $32.68, on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). (DJ)

September 28, 2000 UN Compensation Commission, (reparations from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait), approves a $15.9 billion claim by Kuwait for lost oil production and damage to oil reserves and equipment. The proportion of revenues from Iraqi oil sales under the "oil for food" program which are used for payment of claims is reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent. Iraq condemns the decision, but states that it will not call a halt to oil exports, as had earlier been feared. (DJ)

October 12, 2000: The USS Cole is bombed in the Aden, Yemen harbor by al-Qaeda terrorists. 17 US soldiers are killed. [ABC News, 10/13/00] Oil prices rise sharply, as well as escalating violence between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. (WSJ) John O'Neill and his team of 200 hundred FBI investigators enter Yemen two days later, but are unable to accomplish much due to restrictions placed on them, and tensions with US Ambassador Barbara Bodine. All but about 50 investigators are forced to leave by the end of October. Even though O'Neill's boss visits and finds that Bodine is O'Neill's "only detractor," O'Neill and much of his team is forced to leave in November, and the investigation stalls without his personal relationships to top Yemeni officials. The Sunday Times later notes, "The failure in Yemen may have blocked off lines of investigation that could have led directly to the terrorists preparing for September 11."

October 15, 2000 Chevron agrees to purchase Texaco for $35.1 billion in stock. The deal would create the fourth largest oil and gas company in the world, and follows a general trend toward consolidation among the major oil companies over the last two years. Analysts expect the merger, like other recent mergers, to face intensive antitrust scrutiny, especially as a combined ChevronTexaco would have a heavy share of both refining capacity and retail outlets on the west coast of the United States. (WSJ)

October 31. 2000 UN Sanctions Committee approves Iraqi request to be paid in Euros, (instead of US dollars), for oil exported under the "oil for food" program, which is part of the sanctions regime stemming from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. (DJ)

November 3, 2000 Russia's Lukoil announces that it will purchase Getty Petroleum Marketing of the United States for $71 million. Lukoil eventually intends to switch Getty's 1,300 retail outlets in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic states to the Lukoil brand name. The purchase represents the first takeover of a publicly traded American company by a Russian firm. (DJ)

UNPRECIDENTED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TALLY DISPUTE IN FLORIDA

In November, months of intense campaigning by Bush and former Vice President Al Gore, end with controversial results over the electoral votes from the state of Florida. Bush is eventually deemed the winner, with a 271-267 edge over Gore in the Electoral College -- where 270 votes are needed to claim the nation's chief executive office. Their seesaw court battles over recounts in Florida lasted 35 days after the election.

November 12, 2000, Bruce Hoffman, director of the Rand Institute office in Washington DC, indicated that the next US President would have to face up to the growing threat is Islamic terrorism. Hoffman: "The next administration must turn its immediate attention to knitting together the full range of US counterterrorist capabilities into a cohesive plan." [Los Angeles Times, November 12, 2000]

November 16, 2000 Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) demands that companies lifting cargoes of Iraqi crude oil begin paying a fifty cent per barrel surcharge starting on December 1, 2000. The surcharge would be paid directly to the Iraqi government rather than being channeled into the account administered by the United Nations under the "oil for food" program, and would constitute clear violation of sanctions. The Iraqi move leads to concerns over a possible Iraqi cutoff of oil supplies beginning December 1.

December 2000: A SENIOR Chinese army officer, privy to strategic thinking, defected to America, one of China's worst intelligence losses in memory. The high-flying staff officer, named by sources yesterday as Senior Colonel Xu Junping, specialises in Sino-US military relations. He was in day-to-day charge of all Chinese military contacts with North and South America and the Pacific. Col Xu, bolted last December (2000) but the news was suppressed until yesterday. His rank makes him the equal of a brigadier in the British Army. He travelled to North America on his own and contacted the CIA out of the blue, sources told The [Telegraph. March 24 2001]

December 4, 2000 California utilities are forced to cut off electricity supplies to some "interruptable" customers due to a supply shortage. California has suffered shortages and high wholesale electricity prices since May 2000. The immediate shortage stems, in part, from a reduction in electricity imports from the Pacific Northwest as a result of cold weather in the area. Other problems include: gas supply problems, low availability of hydroelectric and nuclear generating capacity, and high power demand. (DJ)

December 27, 2000 Natural gas prices in the United States surge above $10 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) first time ever in response to cold weather and stockdraws reported by the American Gas Association (AGA). Henry Hub natural gas closes at $9.978, after falling slightly from its intraday peak price. (DJ)

Jan. 2001 the magazine Nature published information that two scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's animal diseases facility in Geelong, Australia. Microbiologist, Set Van Nguyen, had worked there 15 years.

Using genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing, they had created an incredibly virulent form of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox. The researchers were extremely concerned that if similar manipulation could be done to smallpox, a terrifying weapon could be unleashed.

Jan 8, 2001 Allegheny Energy to Acquire Merrill Lynch's Global Energy Markets Unit Allegheny Energy, Inc. (NYSE: AYE) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Global Energy Markets (GEM), Merrill Lynch's energy commodity marketing and trading unit. Under the agreement, Allegheny Energy's generation subsidiary, Allegheny Energy Supply Company, LLC, will acquire GEM for $490 million plus a 2 percent equity interest in Allegheny Energy Supply-and-will have a world-class trading and marketing operation and a national platform from which to sell its wholesale generation. After only two years of operations, GEM is ranked in the top 20 in the nation in terms of electric volumes traded as of the third quarter of 2000. It is expected that the combined volumes of trades will place Allegheny Energy Supply in the top 10 of all power marketers in the nation, based on volume traded [Law Firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld]

January 17, 2001 The Minerals Management Service (MMS), an agency of the Department of the Interior, sharply raises its estimates of oil and gas reserves in the United States deepwater outer continental shelf, due to recent drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico. The agency raises its estimates for recoverable natural gas by about 65% and for recoverable oil by about 35%. (DJ) OPEC agrees, at a meeting of ministers in Vienna, to reduce members' production quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day. The move comes in response to OPEC members' concerns about declining prices. Analysts expect the actual production cuts to total somewhat less than 1.5 million barrels per day, as some OPEC members had quotas above their actual production capacity. (NYT, WP)

Jan 19, 2001 Ocean Energy, Inc. to Acquire Texoil, Inc. On January 18, 2001, Ocean Energy, Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Texoil, Inc. The all-cash transaction is structured as a first step tender offer followed by a cash merger to acquire all remaining shares of Texoil common stock and Series A convertible preferred stock for approximately $130 million.

Ocean Energy is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of crude oil and natural gas. Robert K. Reeves, executive vice president and general counsel for Ocean Energy, Inc., and Gregg Roden, vice president and assistant general counsel of North America Onshore [Law Firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld]

January 20, 2001 George W. Bush is sworn into office as the President of the United States. Later in the day, the

Senate votes to confirm Spencer Abraham as the new Secretary of Energy. (WP) Enron and chairman Kenneth Lay both contribute $100,000 to inaugural committees. George H. W. Bush is flown to the inauguration in an Enron corporate jet. ("Key Dates in Enron Case", [www.newsday.com] [www.mostnewyork.com/2002-02-03/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City] Upon taking office, the Bush administration immediately engaged in active negotiations with Taliban representatives with meetings in Washington, DC, Berlin, and Islamabad. During this time the Taliban government hired Laila Helms, niece of former CIA director Richard Helms, as their go-between in negotiations with the US government.

Bush (oil) administration includes:

Dick Cheney, VP: Until 2000 - President of Halliburton (in position to build the Afghan pipeline).

Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor: 1991-2000 - Manager of Chevron Oil, and Kazakhstan go-between.

Donald Evans, Sec. Commerce: former CEO, Tom Brown, Inc. $1.2 billion oil company).

Gale Norton, Sec. Interior: former national chairwoman of the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates - funded by, among others, BP Amoco.

Spencer Abraham, Sec. Energy: Up through his failed bid for senatorial reelection in the 2000, he received more oil and gas industry money than all but three other senators (January 1997 through July 2000).

Thomas White, Secretary of the Army: former Vice Chairman of Enron and a large shareholder of that company's stock.

"We know we must renew our values to restore our country."

-- " Text of Bush acceptance speech",

Adolf Hitler made oil central to his plans for conquest in World War II. His I’ll conceived invasion or the Soviet Union was halted just short of the rich oil resources of the Caucasis [The Prize, The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, by Daniel Yergin]

January 20, 2001 White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card issues a memo to all federal agencies ordering a 60-day suspension of all rules recently finalized by the Clinton administration. President Bush also issues a 60-day stay on regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but have not yet taken effect. [ Reuters story ]

January 21, 2001: George Bush Jr. is inaugurated as the 43rd US President, replacing Clinton. The only major figure to permanently remain in office is CIA Director Tenet, appointed in 1997 and reputedly a long time friend of Bush Sr. FBI Director Louis Freeh stays on until June 2001. Numerous figures in Bush's administration are directly connected to the oil industry. Over 50 of Bush's new staff are later shown to have worked for Enron. [Salon, 11/30/01]

January 24, 2001 The United States asks that climate negotiations on implementing the Kyoto agreement, scheduled to resume in May, be postponed until July. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says that in the coming months the Bush administration will undertake "a thorough look at the U.S. policy on climate change" and needs the extra time.

January 26, 2001 While President Bush advocates greater offshore drilling, Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush sends a letter to Washington, telling the new administration to forget about opening up Florida's Gulf Coast to more offshore drilling. The governor's letter to the U.S. Interior Department opposes the sale of an oil and gas lease that could allow drilling on nearly 6 million acres in federal waters south of Alabama near the Florida border.

January 29, 2001 President Bush names Vice President Richard Cheney to chair a White House task force which will oversee the new administration's efforts in devising a national energy policy. (DJ)

January 29, 2001: The world energy situation/problem will remain in chaos until the consumer and Producer has better energy data and a reliable energy model that is transparent for all parties. [Letter From Dale Steffes, Houstin Chamber of Commerce to Spencer Abraham Secy of Energy]

January 31, 2001 Halliburton announces that it has agreed to sell its Dresser Equipment Group unit to two investment firms for $1.1 billion. Halliburton expects to realize a $300-million net gain from the transaction. (DJ)

The final bipartisan report of the US Commission on National Security/21st Century, launched in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is issued. The report has 50 recommendations on how to combat terrorism in the US, but all of them are ignored by the Bush Administration. Instead, the White House announces in May that it will have Vice President Cheney study the potential problem of domestic terrorism, despite the fact that this commission had just studied the issue for 2 1/2 years. According to Senator Hart, Congress was taking the commission's suggestions seriously, but then, "Frankly, the White House shut it down..." The BBC later reports, "After the elections, [US intelligence] agencies [are] told to 'back off' investigating the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals, and that anger[s] agents." [cooperativeresearch.org]

Feb. 4, 2001 Good luck in this natural gas dilema, but don’t forget to do something more about the heating oil and jet fuel now. [e-mail to President Bush from Barry Siler @jetfuel.com re: [Cheney energy task force notes]

Feb 5, 2001 Chevron submits recommendations for energy Policy to Bush [Cheney energy task force notes]

February 6, 2001 CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Meeting
"The Future of America’s Unipolar Order"
Speaker: David P. Calleo Prof. of European Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Intl. Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Speaker: Henry R. Nau Prof. of Political Science and Intl. Affairs, Elliott School of Intl Affairs, George Washington University
Speaker: G. John Ikenberry Author, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars; Peter F. Krogh Professor of Global Justice, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Presider: Angela E. Stent Office of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State
[www.cfr.org]

(Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars?)

Feb. 8, 2001: Citing an energy crisis of "catastrophic proportions," a federal judge [who?] orders three major electricity suppliers to continue to supply electricity to California despite their concerns over the financial health of the state's two main investor-owned utilities. ("Monthly Energy Chronology - January 2001 to June 2001", http://www.marcon.com/main/marcon_st1.cfm?Archive=311&StoryID=236 )

 

February 9, 2001: Vice President Cheney is briefed that it has been conclusively proven bin Laden was behind the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole (see October 12, 2000). Bush has been in office a matter of days, when secret pipeline negotiations with the Taliban have begun. The new administration has already twice threatened the Taliban that the US would hold the Taliban responsible for any al-Qaeda attack. But, fearful of ending those negotiations, the US does not retaliate against either the Taliban or known bin Laden bases in Afghanistan in the manner Clinton did in 1998. [Washington Post, 1/20/02]

Barclay’s Bank handled terrorist funds for Al-Qaeda. Testimony of Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, U.S. v. bin Laden, Southern District of New York, February 2001, pertaining to the bombing by Al Qaeda of two U.S. embassies in 1999.

Feb 10, 2001 Oil Prices Cripple African Nations Oil Monopolies. OPEC-- is not a monopoly as - usually alleged. These countries, mostly from Africa, Middle East and Latin America, control only 40% of the World oil exports. - American and British Oil companies control more of the oil resources than the governments in the OPEC group. Multinationals Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco together with the British Royal/Dutch and BP control the Oil market---refining, distribution and transportation. They buy crude oil at low prices and sell at high prices. Nigeria sells oil to Shell and other companies at $9. These companies fetch $28 at the world market price.--these companies are involved in oil price fixing at the retail level, governments benefit by taxes the products. Then they turn around and blame OPEC. But judging from the recent protests throughout Europe, many people are no longer being fooled. The oil monopolies have cutthroat competition among themselves and hence the need for them to consolidate by buying each other. Exxon bought Mobil while British Petroleum bought out Amoco. All make huge profits out of the pockets of consumers as well as the low price they pay for crude oil. In 1999, British Petroleum made 40% more profit than 1998. It earned $6.2 billion in profits. It is the second largest oil company in the World.---2 years ago—oil prices were (extremely) low after the Asian financial crisis. when so-called OPEC Oil Cartel tried to raise the price, the mechanism did not work. only when Norway, a non- OPEC country and second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia cut its production and Russia and Oman joined that prices started to climb. The US House of Representatives passed a resolution urging President Clinton to cut military and economic aid to OPEC countries if they did not cut prices. US officials threatened these countries with all kinds of pressure. President Clinton in his last trip to Africa pressured the Nigerian President to help in bringing the prices down. The African countries have let the oil monopolies control the refining, transportation and distribution process. Thus they determine the prices just to make higher profits. In countries like Kenya where the government has tried to regulate this monopoly, western government envoys have condemned such a move. [www.africanperspective.com John Munoru Issue#49 Saturday 02/10/2001

February 14, 2001 Kuwait's Prime Minister appoints Adel al-Subeih as Minister of Petroleum.. (DJ)

February 16, 2001 United States and British aircraft strike Iraqi air defense targets near Baghdad. (DJ)

Feb. 17, 2001: Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announces that sanctions, proposed by the Clinton administration, against money-laundering havens will be reviewed, effectively delaying them. (He will announce on November 27 that the Cayman Islands will not have to tighten its banking laws until 2004). ("Evidence Indicates That Paul O’Neill Helped Enron Hide Financial Condition",

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1000 )

Paul O'Neill, (Treasury), from the boardroom of Alcoa, the world's biggest aluminum maker after 13 years as CEO. Paul O'Neill was a top-level budget official in the Ford administration, then headed International Paper before joining Alcoa. A longtime crony of Cheney, O'Neill was recruited for the Alcoa post by Alan Greenspan, then on the board of the giant corporation, now chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. O'Neill is reportedly worth at least $100 million, and holds options on Alcoa stock which dwarf those of Cheney at Halliburton, the oil services company Cheney headed for five years.

The Ford Foundation, historically closely linked to the CIA and the military-industrial-academic complex, has in recent years provided substantial funding grants to a number of "alternative" media organizations, such as FAIR, Progressive magazine, and Pacifica. Alcoa is also linked to the Bush administration through Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was Belda's predecessor and who has also served as the chairman of war industry think tank Rand Corporation. Alcoa originally founded by the powerful right-wing Mellon family (whose Mellon Bank is currently the Carlyle Group's sole outside partner), the company was centrally involved in the conspiracy amongst a group of US industrialists and Wall Street interests in the 1930s to support and trade with the Nazis through a cartel agreement with I.G. Farben, the notorious industrial giant which built the Nazi war machine and ran their concentration camps. This would continue even into the early part of World War II, and Alcoa's sabotage of the US Air Force's aluminum production program with this cartel agreement led Secretary of Interior Harold Ickles to warn in June 1941, "If America loses the war it can thank the Aluminum Corporation of America." Some of the other elite names involved in this crime were Rockefeller, Ford, Harriman, DuPont, and Bush; all were strong supporters of the racial eugenics movement which inspired some of Hitler's own policies. [Alternative media paymasters Carlyle, Alcoa, Xerox, Coca Cola___ SF Indymedia.htm]

February 19, 2001 President George W. Bush visits Mexican President Vicente Fox in Mexico, his first foreign trip as president. Discussions with Fox are reported to include the oil and gas industry and electric power grid links between Mexico and the United States. Foreign investment in the energy sector is a controversial issue in Mexico, where the energy sector historically has been state-owned. (DJ)

February 20, 2001 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of Unocal to stand. The ruling may eventually have effects beyond the California market, as tighter environmental standards for fuels take effect across much of the country. (DJ, WSJ) National Energy Policy Recommendations say:: Unocal patents…provide no… benefit to the industry or consumers. The huge royalties…are far in excess of the cost of even the reformulated gasoline program…may..cost consumers over $200 million per year….reduce supply and eliminate all incentive for overcompliance with environmental regulations….The patent will make it even harder to use ethanol in gasoline where ozone problems during summer months (Bush-Cheney energy Task Force notes) Could this be a dirty patent to help Unocal?

Feb 22, 2001: Enron officials meet with Cheney. ("Key Dates in Enron Case",http://www.newsday.com/ny-g1enro0117.graphic?coll=ny-top-headlines )

Feb 22, 2001 India's ONGC Videsh Limited Acquires Stake in Russian Oil Project In one of the largest merger and acquisition transactions in Russia to date, a subsidiary of India’s state-owned oil and gas company, ONGC Videsh Limited, has contracted to purchase a 20 percent stake in the giant Sakhalin 1 oil field, owned by subsidiaries of Russian state-owned company Rosneft. The terms of the transaction envisage that ONGC Videsh will make a cash payment, pay its share of the further development of the project, and also carry the Rosneft subsidiaries in financing their share of the further development of the project until the project becomes cash flow positive. ONGC Videsh’s total investment in Sakhalin 1 is expected to reach $1.5 billion-$2 billion.

Sakhalin 1 is one of the most significant of the few oil and gas fields developed in Russia with the support of foreign investment under the production-sharing legal regime. Operated by a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the project expects to begin producing oil in 2005. [Law Firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld]

February 23, 2001 Secretary of State Colin Powell begins a trip to the Middle East for consultations with regional leaders which will include stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria. It is his first foreign travel since taking office. (DJ)

February 27, 2001 Calling global warming "a real phenomenon," Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman says the administration is considering limits on carbon dioxide emissions as part of a broader anti-pollution strategy.

February 28, 2001 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces that it intends to proceed with implementation of tighter restrictions on sulfur content in diesel fuel, which were proposed by the Clinton administration. The rule, which will require a reduction of 97% in sulfur content by 2006, has been opposed by many in the refining industry. (DJ)

March 4, 2001 Tests in recent days confirm the world's largest oil find in three decades in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. Kashagan is a single reservoir at least 25 miles across, and two-and-a-half times the size of the nearby Tengiz field. (WSJ)

March 5, 2001 EPA administrator Christie Whitman assures reporters that the United States is not backtracking from an international commitment made in 1997 to cut the pollution blamed for global warming.

March 7, 2001 Likud party leader Ariel Sharon is sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel. (Reuters)

March 8, 2001 United States Secretary of Energy Abraham attends the Hemispheric Energy Conference in Mexico, an annual meeting of Energy Ministers from 34 nations. He also meets with senior Mexican government officials in order to promote President Bush's "hemispheric energy policy." (LAT)

March 12, 2001 Russian President Vladimir Putin formally agrees to resume conventional arms sales to Iran and to complete a delayed nuclear power plant. These agreements also set out general principles for the Russia-Iran military relationship and principles for resolving competing claims over oil and gas deposits in the Caspian Sea. (NYT & LAT) Turkey signs a natural gas purchase deal with Azerbaijan that will deliver 233 billion cubic feet over 15 years. This adds momentum to United States and Turkish-backed pipeline plans from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey. (WSJ)

March 13, 2001 President Bush sends a letter to four Republican senators saying he will not limit carbon dioxide emissions by electric power plants, effectively abandoning the Kyoto Protocol.[ Climate fact sheets ]

March 14, 2001: U.S. energy policy lacks global perspective and contains inherent contradictions, potentially making it difficult to meet emerging supply threats. The developing world will consume more energy than the developed world within 20 years. Supply needs to expand to meet demand growth—Under globalization, we are vulnerable to events dirupting supply or demand.

Recommendations: Avoid indiscriminate sanctions, need Iran, Iraq & Libya at full potential if other supplies not developed. Do not obstruct Caspian, Central Asian (pipeline routes) Increase foreign investment in energy producing countries. US must protect worldwide energy supply. Governments & private sector must protect energy infrastructure agaisnt sabotage, terrorist attack and cyberterrorism. [CSIS Press Release January 29, 2001] from Bush Cheney Energy Task Force notes

March 15, 2001: The world's largest oil rig, located 80 miles offshore Brazil and operated by the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, suffers three explosions. This one platform accounted for more than 5% of Petrobras' total production. On March 20 Petrobras' Platform-36 sinks with 400,000 gallons of fuel and crude oil aboard. (WSJ)

March 17, 2001: OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) decides to cut output by 4% or 1 million barrels per day, effective April 1. The cut is aimed at preventing a price collapse in a time of weakening demand. (NYT)

March 19, 2001 The Bush administration says it will relax federal pollution rules for blending ethanol into gasoline for the Chicago and Milwaukee markets to avoid a spike in prices during the summer driving season. --- Is this connected to this? United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of Unocal to stand. The ruling may eventually have effects beyond the California market, as tighter environmental standards for fuels take effect across much of the country. (DJ, WSJ) National Energy Policy Recommendations say:: Unocal patents…provide no… benefit to the industry or consumers. The huge royalties…are far in excess of the cost of even the reformulated gasoline program…may..cost consumers over $200 million per year….reduce supply and eliminate all incentive for overcompliance with environmental regulations….The patent will make it even harder to use ethanol in gasoline where ozone problems during summer months (Bush-Cheney energy Task Force notes)

March 19, 2001: QIAN QICHEN, China's Vice-Premier and foreign policy supremo, arrived in America last night in an attempt to block arms sales to Taiwan and restrict plans for a missile defence shield. Bush tougher stance against China , a "strategic competitor", rather than talking, as Bill Clinton did, of a "strategic partnership". China, in response, has announced a sharp increase in defence spending Gen Colin Powell, wants "to pick up where President Clinton left off" on North Korea, Mr Bush was quick to disagree and has refused to endorse the "sunshine policy" of bringing the two Koreas together favoured by President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea.

March 19, 2002 National Report of America’s Energy Crisis "Current energy supply crisis is not due to depletion of resources but lack of political leadership. During the 1990’s, the Clinton Administration employed a policy of taxing demand, limiting supply, and ignoring the rapidly expanding needs of the future. Through neglect or complacency or ideology, this approch has led us to the crisis we face today Demand is rising across the board, but particularly for natural gas and electricity." By 2020 Americans will consume 62% more natural gas than we do today. More than 9 out of 10 of the announced new electric generating plants will be fired by natural gas.

March 22, 2001: NPRA Recommendations on National Energy Policy

(3 main recommendations)

Instead of requiring .(new low sulfur) diesel… by mid-2006…move...date back to 2008-9…No benefit (in)…using new diesel in old truck engines. This will…prevent loss of diesel supply and refinery closures which will take place (otherwise)….overall benefits.. not reduced

EPA’s campaign against U.S. refineries should be halted and reexamined….impossible to build new refineries…industry had to add capacity at existing sites to maintain..supply..for consumers….new demand met by increased imports of refined products…The EPA sent 114 requests..in effect blanket subpoenas, to most refiners...now facing legal action…when federal and state authorities urged the industry to produce product all-out to avoid shortages. EPA actions…an attempt to discredit the industry and collect tribute in the form of fines in order to allow refiners to get on with their business

The Unocal patents-provide no-benefit to the industry or consumers. The huge royalties-are far in excess of the cost of even the reformulated gasoline program-may-cost consumers over $200 million per year-.reduce supply and eliminate all incentive for overcompliance with environmental regulations-.The patent will make it even harder to use ethanol in gasoline where ozone problems especially during summer months (e.g. Chicago and Milwaukee) (maybe this is our governments way of soothing Unocals losses over the Afghan pipeline deal falling apart?

March 26, 2001 Kazakhstan's opens an oil pipeline from the giant Tengiz field to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on Monday, giving the Central Asian producer its first direct link to international markets. The 900-mile pipeline will carry 600,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of the year, and eventually 1.5 million barrels per day. (NYT)

March 26, 2001: [Washington Post] Major improvements of the CIA's intelligence gathering capability "in recent years." A new program called Oasis uses "automated speech recognition" technology to turn audio feeds into formatted, searchable text. It can distinguish one voice from another and differentiates "speaker 1" from "speaker 2" in transcripts. Software called Fluent performs "cross lingual" searches, even translating difficult languages like Chinese and Japanese as well as automatically assessing their importance. One week later, the BBC reports that Echelon has become particularly effective against mobile phones, recording millions of calls simultaneously and checking them against a powerful search engine designed to pick out key words that might represent a security threat. Laser microphones can pick up conversations inside buildings from up to a kilometer away by monitoring window vibrations. If a bug is attached to a computer keyboard it is possible to monitor exactly what is being keyed in, because every key on a computer has a unique sound when depressed. However, the government will later report that messages about the 9/11 attacks weren't translated until after 9/11 because analysts were "too swamped." [cooperativeresearch.org]

March 28, 2001 The White House declares that the United States has abandoned the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming.
[ Sierra Club release ] [ Climate fact sheets ] [ Open Secrets report on campaign donations from coal mining companies ]

March 2001: A Taliban envoy meets with US officials in Washington and discusses turning bin Laden over. But the US wants to be handed bin Laden directly, and the Taliban want to turn him over for trial in some third country. About 20 more meetings on giving up bin Laden take place up till 9/11, all fruitless. [cooperativeresearch.org]

March 27, 2001 Thomas Picking, Deputy Director FBI, supports a hearing on "Combating Terrorism: In Search of a National Strategy", which covers mainly two questions:

1. What is the current national strategy to combat terrorism?

2. Who in the United States government is in charge of coordinating all federal agency efforts to counter terrorism?

On the same panel also Robert S. Mueller, Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense), John Magaw (FEMA) and John E. McLaughlin (Deputy Director CIA). In another panel is Bruce Hoffman (RAND), Frank Cilluffo (CSIS) and others.

http://www.house.gov/reform/ns/web_resources/news_release_march_27.htm

April 2001 (D): A report commission by former US Secretary of State James Baker entitled "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century" is submitted to Vice President Cheney this month. "The report is linked to a veritable who's who of US hawks, oilmen and corporate bigwigs." The report says the "central dilemma" for the US administration is that "the American people continue to demand plentiful and cheap energy without sacrifice or inconvenience." It argues that "the United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma," and that one of the "consequences" of this is a "need for military intervention" to secure its oil supply. It argues that Iraq needs to be overthrown so the US can control its oil. [Sunday Herald, 10/5/02] In what may be a reference to a pipeline through Afghanistan, the report suggests the US should "Investigate whether any changes to US policy would quickly facilitate higher exports of oil from the Caspian Basin region... the exports from some oil discoveries in the Caspian Basin could be hastened if a secure, economical export route could be identified swiftly." [Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century, 4/01]

"Anticipated growth in the use of natural gas--in considerable part engendered as a fuel for electric power stations--raises a new series of geopoliticaI issues, leading to new political alignment" --- "The potential for armed conflict in energy-producing regions will remain high. Early in the twenty-first century, as a result, a weakening of U.S.alliance relationships in Europe, the PersianGuff, or Asia could have major impacts on global energy security. U.S.concerns over the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the desire to promote democratization and market liberalization around theWorld will also have a significant effect on key energy exporters. The future viability of the energy-producing states in the Caspian and Central Asia will be shaped by the competing objectives or Interesm of Russia, the United States, and adjacent regional powers." [quotes from Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century]

April 2 2001 WASHINGTON demanded the immediate return of a spy plane and its crew of 24 last night after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter.

April 9, 2001 U.S. President George Bush's budget for the Department of Energy is released. It calls for a 50% or $190 million cut in research programs for renewable energy sources. However, it adds $51 million for research on the use of hydrogen gas as an energy source and on advancing power transmission technology. (WP)

Letter to Bush: The current Saudi government is run by the direct lineage to King ; they are now all over (age) 70. Iran and Iraq create trouble for Saudi Arabia with the intention of bringing down the current governement. Religeous fundamentalists (Wahhabis) within Saudi Arabia have not changed in the last 25 years. The hand over of the governemnt to the next generatiopn of Saudis will might occur during Bushes presidency . High poetential for instability. If Saudi Arabia fall so does Qutar, Kuwait and the Emirates. This leaves the US and the world extremely vulnerable to an insecure oil supply. The Iranian revolution and the start of the Iranian Iraqi war in the 80’s was relatively minor compared to the fall of Saudi Arabia to a Saddam Hussein or Saudi equivalent. [from Cheney energy Task force notes]

April 9, 2001 Bush submits budget to Congress. Federal funding for environmental programs in fiscal 2002 would shrink by about $2.3 billion. The budget proposes slashing $200 million from federal renewable energy and efficiency research programs, even as his administration declares the United States needs to find ways to cope with an "energy crisis." Bush asks Congress to remove from the Endangered Species Act a provision that allows environmental groups and others to sue the Interior Department to get rare plants and animals listed as endangered. The budget provision would still permit citizen lawsuits but effectively render them meaningless by placing severe limits on what the agency can do or spend to comply with them, according to Interior spokesman Mark Pfeifle. The budget also cuts $162 million for the Wetlands Reserve program, which provides technical and financial assistance to farmers who wish to restore and protect agricultural wetlands. EPA and the Interior Department in the new administration are putting greater emphasis on state and local governments taking charge of environmental and natural resources programs. The EPA budget, for example, would give states more latitude in enforcing federal environmental standards and the Interior Department would channel an unprecedented 50 percent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the states. With the release of his budget, Bush also abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million a year in rainforest conservation [ More on the Bush environmental budget ]

April 12, 2001 Two studies are released by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Oceanographic Data Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography that show a direct connection between rising ocean temperatures and emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. (WP)

April 17, 2001 U.S. oil major Chevron announces that oil reserves in the Tengiz field in western Kazakhstan are about 368 million barrels according to its latest estimates. This is more than double previous estimates. The field, with Chevron as operator in a consortium consisting of Chevron, ExxonMobil, Kazakhstan's state oil company Kazakhoil and LukArco, a joint venture between BP and Russia's LUKoil, produced about 1.4 million barrels of crude in 2000. (WMO) A letter from U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton to Florida Governor Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction six million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Department of the Interior estimates that the area contains 396 million barrels of oil and 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (USAT) April 17: Ken Lay memo to Cheney, Enron's demands to the energy task force:"The Administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate the wholesale power markets by adopting price caps...Price caps, even if imposed on a temporary basis, will be detrimental to power markets and will discourage private investment by significantly raising political risk." Cheney will deny having seen the memo on 1 Feb 2002. ("Memo details Cheney-Enron links",http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/30/MN46204.DTL )

April 18: Cheney announces that he opposes price caps for California power rates. ("Energy regulators launch latest investigation of Enron pricing ",

April 19, 2001 CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Meeting
"Domestic Influences on U.S. Foreign Policy"
Speaker: James D. Bindenagel Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, U.S. Department of State
Speaker: Angelo M. Codevilla Author, Between the Alps and a Hard Place
Presider: Helle Bering Editorial Page Editor, Washington Times
[www.cfr.org]

April 19, 2001 U.S. President George Bush states publicly that the U.S. government has no intention of removing economic sanctions on Iran and Libya. President Bush does not mention Iraq. According to the Washington Post, this statement comes after a draft of Vice President Cheney's energy task force report raises the possibility of lifting some of these restrictions. The Iran-Libya sanctions Act expires in August, at which point the U.S. Congress will have to renew it for sanctions to continue. (WP)

April 19, 2001: Reps. Waxman and Dingell wrote to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, asking it to investigate the conduct, operations, and funding of the energy task force. The congressional investigation of the task force was prompted by news reports that the task force had met privately with major campaign contributors, such as Kenneth Lay, the CEO of Enron, to discuss energy policy. According to these reports, major Republican contributors attended private sessions with Vice President Cheney and the task force met secretly with other contributors in formulating the President's National Energy Policy. [http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_energy/energy_cheney_chrono.htm]

April 22, 2001 The Summit of the Americas in Quebec ends, with all countries except Venezuela and Cuba (the only country not to attend) agreeing to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the end of 2005. This would be the world's largest free trade zone, with combined output of more than $11 trillion. The United States, Canada, and Mexico agree to create a joint task force to look at ways to facilitate energy trade in the North American market. (Reuters)

April 24, 2001: "[National Security] Agency officials have sometimes played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother to impress members of Congress and select visitors to the agency." (quoted in 'Baltimore Sun', 24 April 2001)

April 24, 2001 CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Meeting
"The Future of the Caspian Sea Region"
Speaker: Elizabeth Jones U.S. Department of State
Speaker: Howard Chase BP-Amoco
Presider: Richard W. Murphy Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Related Project(s): Middle East Roundtable
[www.cfr.org]

April 26, 2001 The Directors of the Dabhol Electricity Plant of India, owned by Enron of the U.S., decide to halt electricity sales to the Maharashtra state electricity board. The state has declared its willingness to renegotiate the power purchasing agreement with Enron, but the company appears skeptical. The government would have to pay about $384 million to Enron if the project is terminated. (WMO)

April 27, 2001 Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Ali al-Naimi meets with a number of senior US officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Al-Naimi, in a statement before the meetings, says leading oil producers would not allow record-high gasoline prices to spin out of control. (WMO, Reuters)

April 27, 2001 The Holy Cross Health and Adventist Healthcare forms a joint venture to support Biotech companies that want to get a product to market have to cross paths with the Food and Drug Administration

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2001/04/30/newscolumn5.html

April 30, 2001 (G): Vice President Cheney's national energy plan is publicly released. There are several interesting points, little noticed at the time. It suggests that the US cannot depend exclusively on traditional sources of supply to provide the growing amount of oil that it needs. It will also have to obtain substantial supplies from new sources, such as the Caspian states, Russia, and Africa. It also notes that the US cannot rely on market forces alone to gain access to these added supplies, but will also require a significant effort on the part of government officials to overcome foreign resistance to the outward reach of American energy companies. [Japan Today, 4/30/02]

Bush Energy Plan Heavy On Increased Production With Less Emphasis On Conservation & Alt Fuels

SITUATION

Cheney intro'd Bush energy plan that focuses on added oil, natural gas & electric production/infrastructure

Increases domestic oil production including drilling Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Plan calls for construction of additional NG pipelines

Will be massive expansion of electrical power grid

Construction of nuclear, hydroelectric, oil & coal-fired power plants also part of project

SIGNIFICANCE

Energy conservation & alternative fuels minimized in plan

Plan development group is meeting in secret

Opponents allege undue influence by former Bush/Cheney oil interests

Appears Bush Admin approach is drilling, production & construction of additional NG & Oil sources

http://www.arifleet.com/aripush/push165.html#seven May 7, 2001, #165 News digested April 30-- May 4, 2001

May 2001 - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a career covert operative and former Navy Seal, travels to India on a publicized tour, while CIA Director George Tenet makes a quiet visit to Pakistan to meet with Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Armitage has long and deep Pakistani intelligence connections. It would be reasonable to assume that while in Islamabad, Tenet, in what was described as "an unusually long meeting," also met with his Pakistani counterpart, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, head of the ISID. [Source: The Indian SAPRA news agency, May 22, 2001]

May 2, 2001: Enron Vice Chairman John Clifford Baxter resigns. (His body will be found on 25 January 2002). ("Enron press release", http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/releases/2001/ene/41- CliffBaxter-05-02-01-LTR.html )

May 4, 2001: David Addington, counsel to Vice President Cheney, responded with a letter to Reps. Tauzin and Burton in which he refused to identify whom the task force had met with or who served on the task force staff. Mr. Addington also declined to turn over records produced or received by the task force in connection with its meetings with outside groups.
[http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_energy/energy_cheney_chrono.htm]

May 7, 2001: Cheney's energy task force adopts many [17 ?] Enron proposals. ("Key Dates in Enron Case", http://www.newsday.com/ny-g1enro0117.graphic?coll=ny-top-headlines )

May 8, 2001, Bush announced a new Office of National Preparedness for Terrorism at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At the same time, he proposed to cut FEMA's budget by $200 million. Bush said that day that Cheney would direct a government-wide review on managing the consequences of a domestic attack.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wpdyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A8734-2002Jan19

May 15, 2001 Regarding the placement of the Unocal Pipeline, a U.S. Official delivered this ultimatum to the Taliban (via the Pakistani delegation acting as their interlocutors): "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." (Ref: Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie in "Forbidden Truth") (Book's Preface online-pdf format)

May 15, 2001 Reps. Waxman and Dingell again wrote to Mr. Lundquist expressing their concern over the White House's refusal to provide basic information about the task force and reiterating their desire to obtain this information.

[http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_energy/energy_cheney_chrono.htm]

May 16, 2001 Counsel to the Vice President Addington wrote to GAO asking whether GAO's investigation was appropriate, legal and productive. Mr. Addington suggested that the investigation might intrude into "Executive deliberations."

May 17, 2001 BP and Shell say that they will build a $150 million, 100-mile natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. The Okeanos pipeline will have the capacity to move as much as one billion cubic feet of gas per day from offshore production fields in ultradeep waters. (WSJ)

May 18, 2001 Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its "Gas Initiative," three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion. They are: Core Venture 1: ExxonMobil (lead), Shell, BP, and Phillips; Venture 2:ExxonMobil (lead), Occidental and Enron (a joint bid); Venture 3: Shell (lead), TotalFinaElf, and Conoco. The Gas Initiative is the first major reopening of Saudi Arabia's upstream hydrocarbon sector since nationalization in the 1970s. (WMO)

May 21, 2001 The Enron Corporation's power generating venture in India, the Dabhol Power Company, serves formal notice that it will terminate its power supply contract and pull out. The $2.9 billion Dabhol project represents the single largest foreign investment in India. The gas-fired plant already had a generating capacity of 740 megawatts and another 1,444 megawatts was scheduled to go on line in June.

May 22, 2001: Reps. Waxman and Dingell wrote to Mr. Addington to express their dismay at his unwillingness to cooperate with GAO and his questioning of GAO's authority to conduct an investigation. The letter dismissed Mr. Addington's ill-defined attempt to protect executive deliberations and explained that by precedent, executive privilege could only be invoked by the President himself [http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_energy/energy_cheney_chrono.htm]

May 23, 2001 Shell announces that it has discovered a huge reserve of oil in Oil Mining Lease 118 offshore Nigeria. This is the same block where Shell is developing the 600-million barrel Bonga field. The discovery would appear to confirm the immense potential of Nigeria's deepwater offshore area. (WMO)

May 23, 2001: Zalmay Khalilzad is appointed to a position on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Gulf, Southwest Asia and Other Regional Issues. Khalilzad is a former official in the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. During the Clinton years, he worked for Unocal. [Independent, 1/10/02, State Department profile, 2001]

Khalilzad, a fellow Pashtun and the son of a former government official under King Mohammed Zahir Shah, was, in addition to being a consultant to the RAND Corporation, a special liaison between UNOCAL and the Taliban government. Khalilzad also worked on various risk analyses for the project. Khalilzad's efforts complemented those of the Enron Corporation, a major political contributor to the Bush campaign. Enron, which recently filed for bankruptcy in the single biggest corporate collapse in the nation's history, conducted the feasibility study for the CentGas deal. Vice President Cheney held several secret meetings with top Enron officials, including its Chairman Kenneth Lay, earlier in 2001. These meetings were presumably part of Cheney's non-public Energy Task Force sessions. A number of Enron stockholders, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, became officials in the Bush administration. In addition, Thomas White, a former Vice Chairman of Enron and a multimillionaire [The Blacklisted Journalist 4/1/02]

May 24 2001:: Sen. James Jeffords leaves the Republican party, turning control of the Senate over to the Democrats for the first time since 1994. Enron can no longer count on controlling both the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States government. ("Democrats regain Senate power with Jeffords' bolt", http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/05/24/jeffords.senate.03/ )

May 2001: Around this time, intercepts from Afghanistan warn that al-Qaeda could attack an American target in late June or on the July 4 holiday. However, The White House's Counterterrorism Security Group does not meet to discuss this prospect. This group also fails to meet after intelligence analysts overhear conversations from an al-Qaeda cell in Milan suggesting that bin Laden's agents might be plotting to kill Bush at the European summit in Genoa, Italy, in late July. In fact, under Bush, the group only meets twice before 9/11 (June 3 and September 4). Under Clinton, the group met two or three times a week between 1998 and 2000. The White House later "aggressively defend[s] the level of attention, given only scattered hints of al-Qaeda activity." [cooperativeresearch.org]

May 30, 2001 Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Mohammad Rasheed signs an oil and gas cooperation agreement with his Algerian counterpart, Chekib Khelil. The deal is thought to include an Algerian role in the development of the Touba oil field in southern Iraq and a new natural gas field in the Western Desert of Iraq. (WMO)

May 31, 2001 The United States and Britain win Security Council approval of a one-month extension of the United Nations oil-for-food program. A vote on the new "smart sanctions" on Iraq proposed by the United States and Britain is delayed at least one month. Iraq demands the usual six-month extension, and says that it will cut off oil exports in response. (WSJ) The Wall Street Journal summarizes tens of thousands of pages of evidence disclosed in a recently concluded trial of al-Qaeda terrorists. They are called "a riveting view onto the shadowy world of al-Qaeda." The documents reveal numerous connections between al-Qaeda and specific front companies and charities. They even detail a "tightly organized system of cells in an array of American cities, including Brooklyn, N.Y.; Orlando, Fla.; Dallas; Santa Clara, Calif.; Columbia, Mo., and Herndon, Va." (Apparently nothing is done. The 9/11 hijackers had ties to many of these same cities and charities.) [ cooperativeresearch.org]

June 2001 Dr. Christos Tsonas, Holy Cross, 4701 North Federal Highway in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida had to confirm to the FBI, that he probably examined in this month a member of the 911 "hijackers", Ahmed Alhaznawi. Tsonas is member of the American Board of Emergency Medicine. The survey list of Holy Cross' participants at the financial services is the Pentagon Federal Credit Union. http://www.hra-nca.org/about.asp Parts of that story, without mentioning any names had been already leaked in October/November 2001. It was refreshed in on March 23rd, 2002 in the NY Times. http://www.nypost.com/apstories/V0416.htm

Dr. Thomas Inglesby helps the FBI in their investigation and comes to the conclusion, that Alhaznawi has anthrax, while the FBI later didn't.

June 1, 2001 GAO formally responded to Mr. Addington by explaining that its investigation was lawful and appropriate

June 3, 2001 Iraq halts crude oil exports in response to a United Nations Security Council resolution that extends the oil-for-food program by only one month, instead of the normal six-month period. The oil-for-food program affects revenues from Iraqi sales of about 2.1 million barrels per day. However, it has been reported Iraq will continue to sell several hundred thousand barrels per day to its neighbors through sales that are outside of the oil-for-food program. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announces that, if need be, it will make up for lost Iraqi production. Oil prices do not change greatly in response to either announcement. (NYT) The eight energy companies selected by Saudi Arabia on May 18 to take part in its Gas Initiative formally sign agreements to develop the projects. It is expected that the conversion of Saudi Arabia's power plants from oil to natural gas, which is part of the deal, will free up more crude oil for export. (LAT, WP)

June 5, 2001 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets final health and safety standards for a proposed nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. This is a key step in allowing construction of the facility, which is essential to efforts to rejuvenate the U.S. nuclear power industry. The following day, the EPA sets ground water standards for this same site. (WP) Karl Rove divests his stocks in energy, defense and pharmaceutical companies. Rove owned holdings worth more than $100,000 in each Enron, Boeing, General Electric and Pfizer. ("Timeline of Enron's Collapse ", www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25624- 2002Jan10.html )

June 6, 2001 A report from the National Academy of Sciences on global warming that had been requested by the Bush Administration is released. The report affirms the view that global warming is a real problem, i.e., that greenhouse gases are accumulating in the earth's atmosphere, and that air and ocean temperatures are rising. (NYT)

June 7, 2001 Mr. Addington informed GAO that he did not believe that its investigation had a legal basis. Mr. Addington conceded that GAO was empowered to evaluate programs or activities which "the Government carries out under existing law," but he made the far-fetched argument that this provision did not extend to the activities of the energy task force because the task force carried out its operations under the authority of the Constitution. Mr. Addington further asserted that GAO's authority to investigate matters related to the use of public money was extremely limited.

June 9, 2001: After four days of talks, the U.S. and China reach consensus on issues holding up Beijing's entry to the WTO and say they will work toward bringing China into the global trade body by year-end. the Chinese are determined to join the WTO, win the bid for the 2008 Olympics, and host a successful APEC summit meeting. With these goals in mind, Chinese leaders have opted to not retaliate against Bush administration ---instead sending signals to the United States that they wish to put the EP-3 (US spy plane mid air collision) incident in the past and get the bilateral relationship on the right track

June 9, 2001 Robert Wright, an FBI agent who spent ten years investigating terrorist funding, writes a memo that slams the FBI. He states, "There is virtually no effort on the part of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit to neutralize known and suspected international terrorists living in the United States." He claims "FBI was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred," rather than actually trying to stop the attacks. Wright claims the FBI shut down his 1998 criminal probe into alleged terrorist-training camps in Chicago and Kansas City. He says his superiors repeatedly blocked his attempts to shut off money flows to al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups. Yet his story is largely ignored by the media because the FBI will not allow Wright to provide details. He is now suing the FBI so he can tell his story. [copperativeresearch.org]

June 11, 2001 Saudi Arabia announces that it has seized ownership, effective June 7, of the 1.6-million barrel-per-day IPSA pipeline that had carried Iraqi crude oil to the Saudi Red Sea port of Mu'jiz prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The seizure includes pumping stations, storage tanks, and the maritime terminal. Saudi Arabia claims that the asset was confiscated as a result of aggressive Iraqi actions. Iraq insists that it still owns the pipeline. (DJ)

June 11, 2001 CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Meeting
"The Evolving Role of the World Bank"
Speaker: Paolo F. Gomes Alternative Executive Director (Africa), World Bank
Speaker: Pieter Stek Executive Director (Europe), World Bank
Presider: Nancy Birdsall Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
[www.cfr.org]

June 12, 2001 CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Meeting
This meeting was rescheduled from May 24, 2001.
"Negotiating Holocaust Assets: A Study in Multilateral Diplomacy"
Speaker: Stuart E. Eizenstat Special Representative for the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues; Deputy Secretary, Treasury Dept. (1999–2001)
Presider: Sidney Harman Executive Chairman, Harman International Industries Inc.

[www.cfr.org]

June 14, 2001 President Bush meets with European leaders at a European Union (EU) gathering. After the meeting, European Commission President Romano Prodi announces that EU member nations will soon begin a concerted drive to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international pact to combat global warming that Bush has rejected. (LAT)

June 2001 he discussed at a CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies ) meeting, "how biotechnology innovations may help meet domestic energy".

On the board of the CSIS e.G.:
R. James Woolsey
James R. Schlesinger
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Henry A. Kissinger
Robert S. Strauss, (Emeritus) Robert S. Strauss is director of Hollinger Inc., a company by Richard Perle, another member of the "Wolfowitz Cabal" Strauss is also in the Law Firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, which is now partnered with Kroll

June 15, 2001 ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum sign a letter of intent for a natural gas to liquids (GTL) project that would be the largest in the world. The plant would have a production capacity of 80,000 to 90,000 barrels per day, and would use about 640 million to 720 million cubic feet of natural gas per day as feedstock. The project is expected to cost between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion to construct. (OD)

June 16, 2001 The Iraqi Trade Minister, Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, states that Iraqi crude oil exports will not resume as long as the U.S.-British changes to the memorandum governing the oil-for-food program (i.e."smart sanctions") are being considered. (AP)

June 18, 2001: General Electric CEO Jack Welch calls White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to ask for assistance in pressuring the European Union to approve GE’s proposed merger with Honeywell. The next day, Bush interrupts his tour of Poland to tell reporters, "I am concerned that the Europeans have rejected it." The head of the EU antitrust review committee subsequently complains that he is being coerced by the Bush Administration to see things General Electric’s way.("The Payoff", http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020131_Payoff.htm )

June 22-23, 2001, the same crew (see May 2000 re: the Johns Hopkins Center, in collaboration with the ANSER

Institute for Homeland Defense, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Oklahoma Memorial Institute for the Study of Terrorism organised their last big scenario before Sep11th. They called it DARK WINTER. It was about a possible

Smallpox attack. Jerome Hauer participated as well, this time "playing" the director of the FBI. The whole list is still mirrored at:

http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/participants.html http://www.mipt.org/darkwinter06222001.htmlhttp://www.homelanddefense.org/darkwinter/index.cfm Among the other participants once again: James Woolsey, ex-CIA director Hon. Sam Nunn George Terwilliger etc. Observing, among many others, Thomas Inglesby, at that time Senior Fellow Johns Hopkins Institute On July 14th, 2001 the testimony on DARK WINTER was released: http://www.csis.org/press/ma_2001_0723.htm

June 22, 2001: GAO's General Counsel responded to Mr. Addington explaining in painstaking detail the legal basis for the investigation. The ten-page letter observed that "GAO has broad authority . . . to conduct the subject review and obtain [the] information requested." The letter pointed out that GAO has conducted numerous reviews of White House programs and activities in the past, such as President Clinton's Task Force on Health Care Reform and the White House China Trade Relations Group. The letter pointed to two statutes which "provide clear authority for the subject inquiry" and which give GAO tremendous discretion in performing its investigations. According to GAO, "[i]t would be difficult to conceive of language giving any official greater discretion than does the language in the statutory provisions at issue."