Don't forget W's $43 mil to the Taliban

[theriverburns]

The right wingers are claiming that Bush was on top of going after Osama B from day one. Why then did he give the Taliban $43 million to fight drugs in may of 2001 when he knew that Osama bin Laden was holing up there?

http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm

By Robert Scheer
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times


"Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously."

"That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention."

[robertpaulsen]

1. This shows what a bad liar Condi Lice is.

Her Washington op-ed is an embarrassment, especially in light of this info. She says, "We increased efforts to go after al Qaeda's finances" without saying how. Giving $43 million to the Taliban kind of cancels out all those good intentions, Condi!

She also presents Clarke's worries about al Qaeda as ideas rather than a plan. She says, "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration". Sorry Condi, I suppose the Hart/Rudman plan from January 2001 was a figment of Congressional imagination?

[rinsd]

2. Alternet....says Scheer got it wrong

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11629

Wanted to add that there is plenty of more cut and dry stuff to go after Bush on.

Edit: added text under link.

[PurityOfEssence]

3. It was all about the pipeline

They cozied up to the Taliban so they could put their Enron-Unocal-Bechtel-Satan pipeline through Afghanistan. When, with typical Republican greed, they cheaped-out on giving the locals enough of a piece of the action, the locals nixed the deal, and we prepared for war. By allowing the enemy to hit us first--not thinking tht it'd be that successful--the administration wrote themselves a limitless line of credit.

When you hear Tom Simons' line giving them a choice between a "carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs" in the mass media, then we might be on to something. It was all about oil. Iraq was all about revenge for Daddy, oil, threatening the rest of the world and securing Israel.

Greed, selfishness and impractical stinginess are the hallmarks of the reactionaries.

[BiggJawn]

4. 43 Megabucks, then the "Carpet of Bombs"...

43 Megabucks as a reward for fighting "the war on drugs".

They killed off what, 1,000 acres of poppies?