Correction:
Quote:
By Chewy (me)
The very pipeline that Bush allowed Unocal to negotiate with the Taliban about is back on.
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This is incorrect, Unocal did not negotiate with the Taliban in early 2001. The State Department did.
In fact Unocal is not currently building a pipeline through Afganistan. Nobody is. The groundwork has been laid in the form of an agreement between the three nations involved, but as far as I can tell, a consortium to do the actual work as yet to be formed, publicly at least.
As to what Moore says about this in the film....
Well he does not claim that Bush was involved with the dealings with the Taliban in the mid nineties, except to mention that he was Governor of Texas when they visited Houston to negotiate the deal. In fact Moore recounts the same facts I have told in this thread about the deal.
That Unocal was a major part of a consortium that negoiated with the Taliban in the mid 90s to build a pipeline. That this deal was canceled and ties with the Taliban were cut off until early 2001 when the Bush adminstration had some of the Taliban in Washington to discuss, amongst other things, the pipeline. Unocal was not part of these negotiations nor is it claimed as such in the film. In fact no mention of Unocal is made after the part about the early 90s except to note the that the Afgan president and the U.S. special envoy are both former Unocal consultants.
Anyway, considering the close ties the new Afgan government has with Unocal and the groundwork for the pipeline has been made, it is not above imagining that it is probable Unocal will have something to do with the pipeline in the future though this is line of specualtion is absent from the film.
Too sum it up- Claims that Moore linked Bush with the mid 90s Unocal dealings with the Taliban are plainly wrong unless mentioning that Bush was governor at the time counts as making a link.
edit for grammar
[ 06-29-2004, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]