By Вen Li
Drugs, oil, and hidden world-wide financial transactions were the topics of the G6B War and Economy session on Mon., June 25, 2002. University of Ottawa economics professor Michael Chossudovsky and September 11 analyst Michael Ruppert offered their theories about the causes and effects of recent events.
“We must understand war and globalization are intimately related,” said Chossudovsky. “War is the strongest adjustment of last resort, it destroys institutions, kills people and is the ultimate instrument of economic conquest.”
Chossudovsky claimed the September 11 attacks were planned by elements of the U.S. and Pakistani governments in conjunction with the Al Qaeda network. He claims a series of high-level meetings between military and intelligence officials from all three units took place shortly before the attacks.
“What we have to remember is that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network which has been earmarked responsible for the events of September 11 is in fact a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, going back in history to the Soviet-Afghan war,” Chossudovsky said. “The attacks on September 11 are the basis for not only conducting the largest military action since World War II, but also for repealing civil liberties.”
According to Chossudovsky, control of Afghanistan also gives the U.S. control of the Eurasian corridor-which extends from the Black Sea to the Indian Ocean-and is essential for access to oil, gas and other natural resources. He also cited tactical value in proximity to nuclear powers of India, Pakistan, China, former Soviet states and Iran as reason for U.S. expansion.
“The War on Terror supports the process of globalization and destroys national sovereignty and extends the American empire to new frontiers,” Chossudovsky said. “The current militarization of central Asia was a part of the Silk Road Strategy Act of 1998.”
While Chossudovsky focused on regional explanations, Ruppert’s theories rely upon motives closer to home.
Ruppert claimed that six of the previous seven Deputy Directors of Intelligence at the CIA had prior careers in Wall Street which suggest a financial motive for the alleged collusion behind September 11 attacks.
“The CIA is an agency that works for Wall Street,” said Ruppert. “Cash is what makes the world go ’round’ but drug cash is more powerful than you can imagine.”
Ruppert also claimed companies such as Enron and Sun Microsystems who use pro forma principles to report financial statements can illegitimately improve profits-to-earnings ratios by injecting foreign drug money into earnings to produce artificial stock valuations. By doing so, companies and financial institutions can leverage non-existent resources to grow internationally.
Without citing sources, he also said both European and American energy conglomerates’ interests in central Asia as reasons for the U.S. to gain control of the region.
“The only way oil companies could monatize their investments [in central Asia] was through the south,” he said. “Companies like Enron were at the edge of broke because they could not access natural gas in India.”
In contrast to Chossudovsky’s views, Ruppert claimed the U.S. needed the September 11 attacks to justify military action in Afghanistan.
“A funny thing happened on the way to September 11, the Talliban destroyed the entire opium crop in Afghanistan. That took $200 billion (U.S.) out of the banking system,” he said.
Ruppert speculated more than $500 billion (U.S.) of drug money moves through the global financial system annually, and that trillions of dollars have been funneled out of U.S. government agencies to fund globalization.
“This money is being taken secretly to feed the globalization machine,” he said.