Rumsfeld made hushed trip to Azerbaijan

It is about oil


According to Yergin writing in The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power (Simon & Schuster, 1991), ``Baku was the territory of `the eternal pillars of fire' worshipped by the Zoroastrians...more prosaically, the result of flammable gas associated with petroleum deposits.'' By the way, note how Azerbaijan sits on top of Iran like a tight-fitting hat.


Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Safar Abiyev hosted Rumsfeld on April 12. (bakutoday.net)

According to a story posted at EurasiaNet, Rumsfeld visited the state located west of the Caspian Sea ``under extreme secrecy, with limited public information.''

The US press, as far as I can tell, completely missed this side trip. They were too busy filing stenographic coverage praising ``fledgling democracy and noting the improving capabilities of Iraqi security forces'' and ``several positive trends in the two-year-old war'' during the Pentagon boss's quick fling to Iraq early on April 12. Naturally, US coverage lacked any apparent sense of irony as Rumsfeld scolded the Iraqis for corruption and then told them they could not purge any Saddam-era officials brought into the puppet interim defense and interior ministries under Pentagon tool Ayad Allawi.

Shrouded in secrecy and without official announcement on Rumsfeld's schedule, his stop in Azerbaijan following the Iraq visit has generated some speculation in international press. What is being set up there? According to EurasiaNet,

Recent statements from Pentagon officials about strategic needs in the Caspian Sea region appear grounded in this "rapid reaction" strategy. General James Jones, commander of US troops in Europe, confirmed in recent congressional testimony the Pentagon’s interest in creating a special "Caspian guard" that would protect the Caspian Sea’s oil infrastructure as well as the nearly finished Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The Wall Street Journal on April 11 reported that the US plans to spend $100 million on such a "Caspian guard" capable of responding to crisis situations in the Caspian Sea region, home to one of the world’s largest reservoirs of oil. This would include the development of a command center in Baku, responsible for monitoring ships in the Caspian Sea. [emphasis added]

There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Michael Klare expands on these oil-interest aspects of current US military planning, including indications Iran will be attacked by the US this year, in a recent piece on TomDispatch.

Our allies
Who are these Azeri guys with whom Rumsfeld and the Pentagon are so keen to solidify basing arrangements? An excellent, extensive posting, Secret Agent: Rumsfeld Sneaks Off to Baku Unreported in U.S. press, he stalks oil and Iran in Azerbaijan, describes the ``democracy'' and human rights situation there in terms straight off the US embassy's site:

·Ilham Aliyev, the son of former president Heydar Aliyev, was elected President in October 2003 in a ballot that did not meet international standards for a democratic election due to numerous, serious irregularities.

·Members of the security forces committed numerous human rights abuses.

·The Government's human rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit numerous abuses. The Government continued to restrict the right of citizens to peacefully change their government. There were four deaths that occurred in custody allegedly due to beatings. Police tortured and beat persons in custody, and used excessive force to extract confessions.

·The Government continued to restrict freedom of speech and of the press. Defamation lawsuits brought by officials against independent journalists and newspapers and high court fines for libel remained significant problems for the media.

·The Government restricted freedom of assembly and did not sanction any demonstrations by opposition political parties during the year. The Government continued to restrict freedom of association by harassing domestic human rights activists and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

·There were some restrictions and abuses of religious freedom, and low-level and local government officials continued to harass minority religious groups.

·Violence against women, societal discrimination against women and certain ethnic minorities, trafficking in persons, and limitations of some worker rights remained problems.

What else does any rational person need to know about Bush's sincerity -- or at least his thrust on ``force'' -- when he speaks of ``the force of human freedom''.