September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

“The elections confirmed Ilham Aliev as the nation's new ruler. He is the son of Heidar Aliev, a former
top KGB official and Kremlin adviser, who became president two years after Azerbaijan became
independent in 1991. The elder Aliev died last month while receiving medical treatment in the United
States.” [Washington Trades Human Rights for Oil in Azerbaijan, Jim Lobe]
The operations were “covert” because American support was illegal according to Section
907 of the "Freedom Support Act"
“The Americans' avowed priority in the Caucasus was to find a method to deliver the crude from the
Caspian oil shelf to market, avoiding both Russia and Iran as middlemen. Since the oil would flow
from Azerbaijan, this strategic goal was quite at odds with the American government's favouritism
towards Armenia in the Karabakh War.
In fact, providing support of any kind to Azerbaijan was illegal. Congress passed a law (Section 907 of
the "Freedom Support Act") effectively banning foreign aid - and, needless to say, all military aid - to
Azerbaijan. Thus America's top long-term interest in the Caspian was threatened by the promises of
Armenian-American retribution at the polls - a very real threat considering Armenian electoral power
in the key state of California. ” [God Save the Shah, Part Three,Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and
Cali Ruchala, May 22, 2003]
Those who allege that MEGA Oil at least began as a project approved by Washington
point to the involvement of Richard Secord, whose visit to Azerbaijan in early 1992 came
at MEGA's expense and coincided with the company's negotiations with Mutalibov on
building Azerbaijan's army. Secord's only public comment on the matter to date was to
state that Mutalibov couldn't decide whether he wanted his American friends to build an
army or a Praetorian Guard to hold onto power.
The fact that Congress had outlawed support to Azerbaijan would not have mattered to
Secord. At the heart of the Iran-Contra controversy was a Congressional ban on aid to
the Contras strikingly similar to Section 907, and Secord's primary role in that first
scandal was as the head of a private corporation which worked at the behest of Oliver
North for covert and illegal weapons procurement for the Nicaraguan Contras. Secord
appears to have been violating congressional intent in Azerbaijan exactly as he had for
the Contras. It should not be assumed that he was just once again demonstrating patriotic
fervor. Many forget that Secord's involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair was motivated to
a large degree by personal profit. The special investigator's report on Iran-Contra
concluded that:
"one of Secord's central purposes in establishing and carrying out the operations of the enterprise was
the accumulation of untaxed wealth in secret overseas accounts... that [Secord] received at least $2
million from his participation in the enterprise during 1985 and 1986, that he set up secret accounts to
conceal his untaxed income, and that he later lied and encouraged others to lie to keep it concealed."
[God Save the Shah, Part Three, by Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and Cali Ruchala, May 22, 2003]
Secord was reportedly investigated by the US Department of Justice for his involvement
in Azerbaijan, but there has been no mention of this report in the US press, and the
investigation appears to have been ‘buried.’
The collapse of the Azerbaijan regime was prevented by this tactic long enough so that
when the 9/11 tragedy occurred, the Bush administration was able to remove the law that
prevented the US from giving aid to despotic governments.
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 73