October 1998: Military Analyst Goes Where Spies Fail to Go, but Her Efforts Are Rejected (tip o’ me tam to CooperativeResearch.org)

In October of 1998, Julie Sirrs, a military analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), traveled to Afghanistan. Fluent in local languages and knowledgeable about the culture, she had made a previous undercover trip there in October 1997. She was surprised that the CIA was not interested in sending in agents after the failed missile attack on bin Laden in August 1998, so she returned.

Traveling undercover, she met with Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud and saw firsthand, a terrorist training center in Taliban-controlled territory. Sirrs claimed,

“The Taliban’s brutal regime was being kept in power significantly by bin Laden’s money, plus the narcotics trade, while [Massoud’s] resistance was surviving on a shoestring. With even a little aid to the Afghan resistance, we could have pushed the Taliban out of power. But there was great reluctance by the State Department and the CIA to undertake that.”

She placed part of the blame on US government interest and the oil company Unocal to see the Taliban achieve political stability to enable a trans-Afghanistan pipeline (see May 1996) (see September 27, 1996). She claimed,

“Massoud told me he had proof that Unocal had provided money that helped the Taliban take Kabul.”

She stated:

“The State Department didn’t want to have anything to do with Afghan resistance, or even, politically, to reveal that there was any viable option to the Taliban.”

After two weeks, she returned with a treasure trove of maps, photographs, and interviews. [ABC News 2/18/02; New York Observer, 3/11/04] By interviewing captured al-Qaeda operatives, she learned that the official Afghanistan airline, Ariana Airlines, was being used to ferry weapons and drugs, and learned that bin Laden goes hunting with “rich Saudis and top Taliban officials” (see Mid-1996-October 2001) (see 1995-2001). [Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01 (B)]

When she returned from Afghanistan, her material was confiscated and she was accused of being a spy. Says one senior colleague,

“She had gotten the proper clearances to go, and she came back with valuable information,”

but high level officials

“were so intent on getting rid of her, the last thing they wanted to pay attention to was any information she had.”

She was cleared of wrongdoing, but her security clearance was pulled. She eventually quit the DIA in frustration. [New York Observer, 3/11/04; ABC News, 2/18/02] She said that US intelligence on bin Laden and the Taliban relied too heavily on the ISI for its information. [ABC News, 2/18/02 (B)]

People and organizations involved: Defense Intelligence Agency, Julie Sirrs, Osama bin Laden, Northern Alliance, Ariana Airlines, Unocal, Central Intelligence Agency, US Department of State, Taliban, al-Qaeda, Ahmed Shah Massoud

The ISI is Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence…. “former” Taliban allies.

Here’s just another example of something having gone awry when she was following her instincts, trying to get information that could help us in fighting terrorists, Al Q and the Taliban.

It appears as though Jack Idema and his men are in good company in terms of being crapped on by the American government when they were only doing the right thing. This is reminiscent of the whistleblowers who came forward and were ignored by the 9/11 commission that I wrote about back in October of 2004, when FBI translator Sibel Edmonds and Bogdan Dzakovic tried to speak up about corruption, cover-up and retaliation against agents who take seriously their oaths to uphold the law and defend our citizens.

Apparently, Unocal wants to set the record straight on the accusations that both Karzai and Khalizad worked for them. I was surprised to see some of this because it’s the same kind of inflammatory rhetoric coming out of Michael Moore and the extreme left. Imagine my surprise when I found out the socialist rag Le Monde has been propagating this stuff.

From the emperors-clothes.com:

Jared Israel: Well, there are two key points. One of which we’re already documenting, which is that Zalmay Khalilzad was a consultant for you -

Barry Lane: Well, he was and he wasn’t.

Jared Israel: My understanding is he never worked directly for you. Is that right?

Barry Lane: Yep. He worked for Cambridge Energy Research Associates. CERA. C-E-R-A. That’s Daniel Yergin’s outfit. Like the RAND Corporation -

Jared Israel: They’re owned by RAND?

Barry Lane: No, no they’re *like* RAND. They’re a consultant. And Khalilzad worked for them. Because he was quite a noted expert on Afghanistan you know, so he did consulting for us.

Jared Israel: My understanding is that he’s a door-opener because he’s very influential. Is that correct?

Barry Lane: Well, yes.

Jared Israel: Is it commonplace for companies dealing with an area to have people working for them that have influence in the area. I mean -

Barry Lane: You know, that’s how Henry Kissinger makes his living today.

Jared Israel: The argument is then made by people that therefore what he is doing now he is doing as your agent or the agent of the oil industry in general.

Barry Lane: Well, I’m trying to figure out how you get there because we officially - and this was way back in in December 1998 - withdrew from the Centgas consortium and never looked back.

Jared Israel: Is any other oil company now hot and panting for a pipeline through there?

Barry Lane: I haven’t heard of anybody else except Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Turkmenistan would want it so it would have a place to sell its gas and Pakistan would want it so it would have a gas supply for its markets *if* they do need a supply anymore.

Jared Israel: And of course Afghanistan wants the fees. It occurred to me that it’s in the interest of Afghanistan to say UNOCAL is still interested because that makes the project seem more attractive and *they* need it as a cash cow. So you guys are not secretly planning to go back?

Barry Lane: No. No we’ve got enough other things on our plate that are placing demands on our capital and our management’s time and basically we’ve kind of focused on many other areas. Plenty of other things on our plate and that’s not one of them. We’ve said that over and over again.

Jared Israel: So you’re not going to surprise us tomorrow? The so-called proof that’s presented that you are still involved is a May 13th BBC article in which the source is Alim Razim, Afghanistan’s minister for Mines and Industries. And the BBC quote is:

“Mr Razim said US energy company Unocal was the ‘lead company’ among those that would build the pipeline, which would bring 30bn cubic meters of Turkmen gas to market annually.”

Barry Lane: Well if you read the actual words that are said, and we don’t know if the quotes are direct - watch the tenses very closely - you’ll notice he said “Unocal *was* the lead” you know -

Jared Israel: You’re right. It’s not a direct quote. The only thing they’re quoting are the words, “lead company.” The other thing that is being asserted everywhere is that Hamid Karzai, the current head of the Afghan ‘government’ once worked for you.

Barry Lane: Yeah. Yeah, well that’s probably one of the great urban legends. He never worked for us.

Jared Israel: He didn’t work for somebody else who worked for you?

Barry Lane: No. No, not him. He was never a consultant, never an employee. We’ve exhaustively searched through all our records to try and find out where the hell that came from.

Jared Israel: Le Monde. Dec. 6th, 2001.

Barry Lane: Le Monde. Le Monde was the one who wrote it first and you know what’s strange about it is I’ve asked reporters over and over again, go ask Mr. Karzai himself. And nobody has.

Jared Israel: Well the argument is that there is something sinister and therefore you would both deny it anyway. But my argument is in order to posit that this relationship existed in the first place you have to have some evidence - something - but all le Monde has is their own assertion. They just say he was a consultant. They say, “At one time.” Not even a date. And no source. And then all these writers repeat this as if Le Monde’s assertion is enough to counter your denial. I mean, you can’t use the fact that somebody denies something to prove it’s true.

Barry Lane: Hey, it makes a great story. But I gotta tell you, our CEO was asked this kind of question about the project at the annual meeting, in May, and he was absolutely emphatic that we have no interest, no plans. I’m not sure what part of that is confusing for people.

Jared Israel: Would you have any reason to feel ashamed if you wanted to go and build a pipeline there.

Barry Lane: No because number one we thought it was a very good project economically. It still may be a good project, although we don’t think so.

Jared Israel: For what reason?

Barry Lane: Well we proposed this back in 1995 - that’s a fact that a lot of people fail to note. Long before anybody knew how to spell Taliban. But in that intervening time, as it got delayed and delayed and delayed because of conditions in Afghanistan - and we knew it would take a long time - Pakistan developed other sources for gas. So the market in Pakistan for the gas was not nearly so attractive as it was in 1995.

Jared Israel: And you don’t know of any other oil company which -

Barry Lane: The only one that I’ve heard was even remotely mentioned was GAZPROM, the Russian company. That’s the only oil company name I’ve seen that’s associated with this at all.

Jared Israel: Not a US company. What about MOBIL? EXXON?

Barry Lane: I couldn’t speak for them but I haven’t heard them associated with it. I just read the literature, you know. GAZPROM is the only one I’ve even heard that was halfway associated with it.

Jared Israel: You know, I did a lot of research on Zalmay Khalilzad. This Khalilzad is a stratospheric power.

Barry Lane: He sure is. He was a top man with the RAND Corporation.

Jared Israel: He was the director of strategy planning for the Pentagon.

Barry Lane: Yep.

Jared Israel: He seems to be close to Brzezinski. He went to the State Department from the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a key strategist behind the attack on Iraq, which he himself proposed in a policy paper in 1988. And he was a top strategist concerning the Afghan war in the 1980s. The idea that his activities are determined by a gig as an oil consultant is -

Barry Lane: It’s ludicrous.

Jared Israel: It’s a complete misrepresentation of the relation of forces. You might be *his* instrument, but he is not *your* instrument.

Barry Lane: Look, we didn’t have a lot of experience in that area so we sought out people who did. Who knew - in fact we also had a former Ambassador to Pakistan as a consultant.

Jared Israel: Who was that?

Barry Lane: I can’t remember his name. A US Ambassador. Because he knew the culture and so on.

Jared Israel: It’s the same thing that a real estate developer does when he wants to build in an area where there is conflict; he hires influential people from that area.

Barry Lane: That’s exactly the relationship we had. He was an advisor to us.

Jared Israel: So even terming him a ‘consultant’ is a mis-description?

Barry Lane: Well, he sure wasn’t there, like every day, punching a clock. [Laughs.] And as for Mr. Karzai, no. Never.

Jared Israel: If Karzai had worked for you would you regret it?

Barry Lane: Heck, no. Why? We don’t care. But he didn’t.

Jared Israel: The thing that’s interesting to me about Le Monde is, why don’t they report that you have denied that Karzai was a consultant? Isn’t that news? Their story is denied by a primary source - that is definitely news. The failure to report it tells me they have no evidence because if they did have any evidence surely they would have a great article - report your denial and then show their evidence.

Barry Lane: Well they know we denied it. We sent them a letter saying exactly that pure and simple right after their publication.

Also check ‘Further Reading’ at the end of ‘THE EMPIRE ISN’T IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THE OIL!,’ by Jared Israel at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/oil-1.htm

1) For UNOCAL’s statements see

1a) http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/082198.htm
1b) http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/centgas.htm
1c) http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/99news/021699.htm

2) ‘Ex-National Security Chief Brzezinski admits: Afghan Islamism Was Made in Washington,’ - magazine interview with Brzezinski with comments by Jared Israel. Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/brz.htm

3) Here are some articles helpful for understanding what’s been done to Afghanistan:

A) ‘Washington’s Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate Policy’ Article from “Washington Post’ with introductory note from ‘Emperor’s Clothes’. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm

B) ‘Bush & the Media Cover up the Jihad Schoolbook Scandal,‘
by Jared Israel can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/jihad.htm

C) ‘Taliban Camps U.S. bombed in Afghanistan Were Built by NATO’
Documentation from the ‘N.Y. Times’. Combined U.S. and Saudi aid to Afghan-based terrorism totaled $6 billion or more. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/camps.htm

D) ‘CIA worked with Pakistan to create Taliban’
From ‘Times of India.’ Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/pak.htm

E) ‘Osama bin Laden: Made In USA’
Excerpt from article on U.S. bombing of a pill factory in Sudan in August 1998. Argues that bin Laden was and still may be a CIA asset. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/madein.htm

F) ‘Excerpts from News Reports - Bin Laden in the Balkans’ evidence that bin Laden aided or is aiding the U.S.-sponsored forces in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/binl.htm