September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

“In 1987, Stephen’s deal [Jackson Stephens, head of Stephens, Inc., a large investment bank in Little
Rock, Arkansas] made arrangements with Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to provide $25 million to
Harken in return for a stock interest in Harken. As part of the Stephens-brokered], Sheikh Abdullah
Bakhsh, a Saudi real estate tycoon and financier, joined Harken's board as a major investor. Stephens,
UBS, and Bakhsh each have ties to the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International
(BCCI). It was Stephens who suggested in the late 1970s that BCCI purchase what became First
American Bankshares in Washington, D.C. BCCI later acquired First American's predecessor,
Financial General Bankshares. At the time of the Harken investment, UBS was a joint-venture partner
with BCCI in a bank in Geneva, Switzerland.” [The Harken Connection, "The Family That Preys
Together” Jack Colhoun, Covert Action Quarterly, Issue No. 41, Summer, 1992]
In actuality then, the Azerbaijani Mega Oil operation – if it is the investigation referred to
by Sibel Edmonds– would have involved the same cast of illegal money launderers as
associated with the Barrick gold laundering hypothesis: the BCCI Saudis and Adnan
Khashoggi, the Bush enterprise, and illegal weapons merchants. As with the
Giffen/Williams scandal in Kazakhstan, this operation began under President George
Bush Whitehouse sponsorship.
“In 1991, Azerbaijan began negotiating with Amoco, BP, McDermott, Pennzoil, Ramco, Unocal,
TPAO, Statoil and other corporations on a deal to develop the Azeri, Chirag and Gunashli fields in the
Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) is to have a 20 percent
share in the project and the Russian company Lukoil will take a 10 percent holding. The deal was
signed in September 1994, and in December the consortium had formed as the Azerbaijan International
Operating Company (AIOC), with Terry D. Adams as chairman. American corporations (Amoco,
Pennzoil, Unocal, Exxon) have a 40 percent interest in the $8 billion AIOC. British corporations (BP,
Ramco Khazar) have a 19 percent interest. SOCAR (Azerbaijan), Lukoil (Russia), Den Norske Stats
Olieselscap (Norway), Turkie Petrollari (Turkey), Itochu (Japan), and Delta Nimir Khazar (Saudi
Arabia) are also involved.
The AIOC consortium's plan to build a pipeline from Baku to Ceylon, Turkey, has gotten lobbying
assistance from former British Energy Minister Tim Eggar (now CEO of the British corporation
Monument Oil), former British Foreign Minister Malcolm Rifkind (now a director of the British oil
corporation Ramco), two former U.S. National Security Advisors, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent
Scowcroft (now a director of AIOC), as well as former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker (oil
corporation attorney), former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen, former U.S. Defense
Secretary Dick Cheney (then CEO of oil services corporation Halliburton, now candidate for U.S. Vice
President), and former White House chief of staff John Sununu. Iran-Contra figure and former U.S. Air
Force major general Richard Secord has been helping to train the Azerbaijani army.” [Oil Wars: The
Balkans, George Draffan, www.endgame.org,a case study for the report The Corporate Consensus]
“Giffen’s lawyers contend that “his actions were taken with the knowledge and support of senior
officials of the U.S. intelligence and national security agencies,” including the CIA, the National
Security Council (NSC), the Department of State and the White House, which could effectively
“immunize Giffen” as the judge phrased it.” [Manhattan Judge Rules On Pre-Trial Motions In
“Kazakhgate” Case, Marlena Telvick, 09/07/2004]
The connection is fairly explicit, with Giffen being responsible for a meeting between
Nazarbayev and George Bush Sr. in May of 1992
“Giffen was consolidating his position as a trusted adviser to Nazarbayev. According to U.S. officials,
he helped set up Nazarbayev's first presidential visit to Washington in May 1992, when he met with
President George Bush. His company, Mercator, took charge of many arrangements for the visit, from
making appointments to paying bills. Such was Giffen's pull that he began traveling to and from
Kazakhstan on a Kazakh diplomatic passport, even though he remained a U.S. citizen. ...According to
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 75