It is indeed Obama’s third term, as we have returned to his practice of rewarding America’s enemies and alienating America’s friends.
This is interesting: “The government has apparently brokered a meeting between the Turkmenistan government and the Taliban for a trans-Afghanistan pipeline to bring Turkmen gas across Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. If this scheme sounds familiar, it should: It was the same deal that now-Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad sought to make with the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11 terror attacks when he was a consultant for the Unocal Corporation.”
How much does Unocal pay Khalilzad? Does he have a personal financial stake in this pipeline project? Does Biden and/or his family?
“Biden kills pipelines at home but promotes them for the Taliban,” by Michael Rubin, Washington Examiner, February 8, 2021 (thanks to the Geller Report):
On his first day in office, President Biden canceled permits for the Keystone XL pipeline. Environmentalists and anti-fossil fuel activists should not have applauded his move.
After all, Canada will not stop extracting oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta. Instead, it will simply export oil over existing pipelines or to the Pacific Ocean, where the damage from a potential spill would be harder to address. Biden’s cancellation cost jobs and pushes Canada toward greater economic cooperation with China. It also shakes confidence in U.S. business. Who would invest in the country if any future administration can simply renege on deals with the stroke of a pen? Especially, that is, when the investments involved here reach into the billions of dollars?
Biden’s move was both political theater and an indulgence of his liberal base. But his hypocrisy was stunning even for a politician who has spent a half-century in Washington. Consider that while the Biden administration is killing a pipeline from which the public could benefit, Biden is promoting a pipeline to enrich both one of the world’s worst dictatorships and a group responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths.
The government has apparently brokered a meeting between the Turkmenistan government and the Taliban for a trans-Afghanistan pipeline to bring Turkmen gas across Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. If this scheme sounds familiar, it should: It was the same deal that now-Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad sought to make with the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11 terror attacks when he was a consultant for the Unocal Corporation.
Khalilzad’s scheme was bad policy two decades ago, and it is even worse now.
Put aside environmental arguments and consider profit. Freedom House’s latest Freedom in the World report ranks Turkmenistan as among the world’s worst offenders, below even North Korea in terms of freedom and civil liberties. To promote the export of Turkmen gas is to entrench its regime even further. Part of the deal is then paying the Taliban protection money or transit fees for the pipeline transiting Afghan territory. Not only would this undermine the elected Afghanistan government even further, but it would also reward the Taliban for insurgency to the tune of tens of millions of dollars each month. Who needs Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers when the State Department has crafted a scheme to reward the Taliban beyond their wildest dreams?…
wpm says
I wonder if Hunter Biden will get a no show job with Turkmenistan government run gas authority? What the “big guy” take will be and if other Washington insiders get to wet their beaks with suitcases of money? Is this another part of the green new deal well paying “Union American Jobs” that Kerry was taking about to America,s MSM??
Infidel says
This time, one can’t credibly say that Hunter has ‘no experience’. He worked w/ other Soviet countries, like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and that too in ‘energy’, so he has all the qualifications needed for being on the board of a Turkmen energy company
He’ll certainly be worth it, since he can make his father’s administration approve of climate hostile pipelines in Central Asia, something that they deny in the US itself!
LB says
You can’t be serious. Is this some next level sarcasm I’m not picking up here? In case it wasn’t, you do of course realize the only reason why Hunter was (and still is) on any of the energy boards in the first place is not because of his qualifications, right? The board directors would put a lame horse in there if it would make them huge amounts of money and political influence.
How can you say that someone who spends tens of thousands of dollars in one night in a strip club under the influence of all kinds of drugs, and who leaves his laptop with every single detailed confidential information in a back-alley PC shop, protected by “hunter12” as his password, and who FORGOT HE LEFT IT THERE, has any sorts of qualifications for anything is beyond me.
This reminds me of Kamala’s niece who is pushing her own merch by using her aunt’s and Joe Bidens name so hard that at one point the White House had to issue her a warning to stop. Those people are useless, brainless and incompetent, and would probably be homeless as well if it weren’t for their older relatives.
James Lincoln says
Sarcasm, LB…
Walter Sieruk says
President impostor Joe Biden is very effective at destroying the jobs of many American workers and likewise Biden good as making the United States of America dependent again on foreign oil for energy and harming the US economy .
Furthermore , President pretender Biden, being such an evil man, likes and, as far as he is able , supports the brutal cruel,murderous ,misogynistic Taliban ,who have ruthlessly killing many US soldiers.
Bogus President Biden is a walking, talking catastrophe.
k33j88 says
Commiejoe and his band of ChiComdems are out to “fundamentally transform” America into their socialist/communist utopia. Welcome to obama, part 2.
DavidR says
Liberalism is becoming more and more the place where rich white people make a career out of fixing other people’s imaginary problems using the taxes ripped from the pockets of middle class and poor people of all races. Then they give themselves awards and pay raises for being so awesome.
Infidel says
On the main story itself, the pipeline that Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated to have oil/gas shipped to India from Turkmenistan was done when India had a Congress regime that was clueless about the risks of running a pipeline thru Pakistan. Since the BJP came to power, their alternative was the Chabahar port in Iran, and to have a pipeline running there, and from there, it would be shipped to other countries. Except that Indian companies avoided bidding on that project to avoid attracting US sanctions, and that project ultimately went to a Chinese company. India’s not likely to get much gas from Turkmenistan
Anyway, the criminal thing about this administration is that it seems to be a singular enemy of US jobs. Whether it’s the Keystone pipeline, fracking, ANWR or Pentagon jobs: the cancellation of arms sales to Riyadh simply means that Riyadh will spend half a trillion elsewhere, instead of w/ the US. It doesn’t imply that peace will return to Yemen
All the climate change fanatics like AOC should be stuffed in a rocket and set on a one way trip to Mars
Phil Copson says
“….All the climate change fanatics like AOC should be stuffed in a rocket and set on a one way trip to Mars….”
————————————————————————————————–
They don’t give a damn about the planet – pretending to is simply the mechanism for personal enrichment through getting a rake-off from subsidy brokering to “renewables” / “Carbon trading schemes” for shifting huge tranches of money around the world / and old-fashioned bribes etc, with the overall goal of taking ever more control and expunging all personal liberty.
gravenimage says
And enabling the Taliban is *even worse*. In this schema, if we can’t drill for our own oil, we will have to buy it not just from foreign nations but *from terrorists*.
And does anyone think the bloody *Taliban* is going to respect ecological safeguards? Just laughable…
James Lincoln says
Yes, gravenimage.
From a national security point of view, the United States needs to remain energy independent.
More nuclear power plants need to be built, especially as our transportation sector becomes more electric.
And…
If we need to buy *any* fossil fuels moving forward, it should be from only our allies…
gravenimage says
Entirely agree, James.
JimJFox says
FGS, grow up! Fossil fuels are NOT the future, having caused the problems we now find ourselves in. Renewables are now cheaper, despite billions in subsidies awarded to oil and gas and coal.
James Lincoln says
JimJFox,
Renewables can certainly augment fossil fuels and nuclear energy but there are reliability problems – without obvious solutions.
Tucker Carlson discusses the recent problems in Texas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA46v_aMidQ
Keys says
Amen, JL.
I have a hard time imagining a solar, or battery, powered tractor plowing a 200 acre wheat field.
But, hey, maybe a robotic wind powered tractor could plow large Midwestern fields, as long as the furrow aren’t deeper than 4”.
And another t’ing: There is no negative effect on the environment with “renewables” ? Really, or is that just “fake science” ?
gravenimage says
One can argue about this, Jim. Even if you think that renewables are going to take over at some point–a bit questionable, at a moment when swaths of the midwest and south have lost power due in part to wind farm turbines freezing immobile in the record cold snap right now–then this still will not be realized for some time.
In that time, do you *really* want to be buying your oil from terrorists? Oikl revenue funded the Islamic State, as well. Not a good thing in my opinion.
Infidel says
Nobody’s talking about the future: we’re talking about now! Renewables are a joke, if the wind turbines freezing in the Texas snowstorms are any indication: one gets the least energy when one needs it the most. Solar has promise, but more in tropical and equatorial regions, rather than in countries nearer the poles
Even people who buy those Teslas or hybrid cars – they have to charge them at charging stations, which receive their power from fossil fuels! There is no way they could be charged by solar, let alone wind
Those who’re really concerned about carbon emissions should support 4th gen nuclear power, which produces the needed electricity w/ far lower nuclear waste than previous generations
Infidel says
Mike Rubin is being another neocon. Turkmenistan may have been an autocracy, but it’s nothing like North Korea. It’s not developing WMDs, and doesn’t threaten any of its neighbors. Yeah, for several years, they followed the cult of Niyazov, but that’s a step above following the cult of islam. Also, they are the only Turkic country that has decided to be a strictly neutral country and refuse to follow their neighbors into the Turkic council, led by Turkey
These morons still don’t get that if one ‘unleashes democracy’ on muslim countries, what one will get will be results like Libya, Syria, Pakistan or Turkey
JimJFox says
Too true. Will the idiots in charge ever realise that democracy is anathema to Islam?
gravenimage says
Biden’s handlers kill pipelines at home but promote them for the Taliban
………………
Utter insanity. This will just fund more Jihad terror–and make the West complicit in its funding.
Rod says
Strangely, work on the trans-Afghanistan Pipeline has been proceeding apace throughout the glorious years of the Trump administration. This is not a new project, some sections must now be close to completion. The Taliban have been cooperative. The USA are wholly supportive, as it provides a non-Russian source of supply. If you find all this troubling, just remember, for those with tiny minds what Trump does is good; what Biden does is bad. It’s that simple.
gravenimage says
No one said that the trans-Afghanistan pipeline is a new project.
But the Biden administration is suspected of being behind the Taliban’s suddenly playing ball here:
“Taliban vows to guarantee safety of trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline”
https://eurasianet.org/taliban-vows-to-guarantee-safety-of-trans-afghanistan-gas-pipeline
What did Biden hand the murderous Taliban to gain their (likely temporary) not attacking the pipeline?
Now, “Rod” is probably thrilled at this US admiistratrion playing footsie with the terrorist Taliban, but normal people should find this concerning.
wpm says
Rod you fail to address the killing of Americas own Keystone pipeline by Biden and the shutting down of fracking on America,s public land all done by Biden(Americas energy independency?) .The USA is only now being supportive under Biden, the trans-Afghanistan Pipeline which was started before Trump was elected ,we were not broking any deals to have Taliban to help run it under Trump.
Rod says
As I said, wpm, the USA was wholly supportive, fully aware of Taliban involvement, presumably with Trump’s approval. Though who knows whether the Orange Dotard or his dull-witted appointees even knew of the existence of the pipeline or Turkmenistan.
As for the Keystone project, is there any reason why Biden, fully aware that the fossil fuel age is rapidly drawing to a close, should not take action in his own region to prevent environmental damage and combat global warming where-ever possible? Other responsible world leaders are doing so. Perhaps the news hasn’t reached your friend Spencer yet, but thankfully, the days of Trump’s ignorance and stupidity are now gone for ever.
gravenimage says
This is ludicrous. Trump mentioned the pipeline in his 2020 run for reelection, and had a message to the president of Turkmenistan on the subject.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/prospects-for-the-trans-caspian-gas-pipeline-under-the-trump-administration
And this pipeline is largely about bypassing Russia, *not* about funding the Taliban’s Jihads. That may have changed with Biden…
Infidel says
You’re talking about a different pipeline. Currently, both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – both effectively landlocked countries, can only export their oil in one of 2 ways: via China, or via Caspian/Caucasus region. The latter is what they currently do: ship it across the Caspian to Azerbaijan (which has its own oil to export), and from there, ship it thru Georgia, thru the Black Sea and then the Mediterranean. It would need the blessings of Turkey, which is a Turkic council ally of 2 of these countries. At any rate, a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan would replace the tankers crossing that sea
The pipeline referred to above seems to be a project to get Turkmen oil to Pakistan. Two decades ago, there was the idea of getting it to India, when the latter had a more clueless government that thought that Pakistan would happily allow the flow of products to or from India. That got canned by the BJP government, and their project to get Central Asian connection was thru Iran, while getting US waivers from those sanctions. Although recently China won all those Iranian projects, so doesn’t look like India will be getting anything from that region
More likely, the project would get Turkmen and/or Kazakh oil and gas to Pakistan thru either Afghanistan or Iran. Since Pakistan has stopped receiving free oil from the Saudis, who’ve thrown their lot w/ India, they’re now looking to Iran and Turkey for their alliances
gravenimage says
OK, Infidel–thanks.
Chris says
The only problem with renewable energy would be rushing in. Look how we ended up with our current fuel and infrastructure. There is no way someone didn’t think, at the time, that the long term could end badly. Opting for money and power. At the same time crushing anything like hemp. Alas, we will rush in and create more problems
OLD GUY says
Biden what an asshole. Who’s side is he on? Supports oil or gas use by India but goes GREEN on American energy independence and JOBS. Whats up JOE its ok to support our enemies pipe line and supply “dirty energy” to India, is Hunter on the board of directors? Or are you selling out the American worker and our country again.