Conspiracy: History’s Greatest Plots, Collusions and Cover-Ups (5 page)

These are, of course, difficult questions to answer and perhaps this is an area where the conspiracy theories overlap with more conventional politics. George W. Bush may well have turned a blind eye to the activities of his family friends the Bin Ladens. Perhaps more importantly, however, the oil interests between the two countries meant that American political leaders in general failed to bring Saudi Arabia to account for its terrorist activities – with devastating results, as it would eventually turn out.

Many popular conspiracy theories of modern times centre around one particular product: black gold, or oil as it is more generally known. In particular these theories suggest that United States foreign policy in the wake of September 11 has not been driven by the desire to wage war on terror but by the desire to gain control of more and more of the world's oil supply.

In the case of the war in Iraq, it is easy to see why such a theory has arisen. After all, Iraq is a major oil producer and the United States is undeniably hungry for oil. But in the case of Afghanistan the charge seems rather more far-fetched. Afghanistan doesn't actually have any oil. So why was it that within days of the decision by the United States to invade Afghanistan conspiracy theorists were starting to suggest that the invasion was really all about oil?

"I
T'S ALL ABOUT OIL"
The answer to that is simple. According to the conspiracy theorists, the United States wanted to gain control of Afghanistan in order to build a pipeline through the country. Oil could then be brought from the landlocked Caspian Sea in the former Soviet Union to the Indian Ocean. Apparently, a firm called Unocal had made plans for just such a pipeline but had ditched them when the Taliban came to power. Afghanistan was then considered to be too dangerous to risk such a large investment.

The real reason for the American invasion then, according to the conspiracy theorists, was not to root out Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorists but to overthrow an anti-American regime and make it safe to build an American oil pipeline through the country, a cause dear to George W. Bush's heart, being an oilman himself. This is the story that spread over the internet and into legitimate newspapers across Europe. The mantra of anti-war protestors became "it's all about oil". But does the theory stand up?

The short answer is – not really. First of all, one of the things the conspiracy theorists managed to overlook was that the Unocal pipeline project was for gas not oil. Secondly if Unocal and/or the United States Government really only cared about getting their pipeline built, they would have been better off coming to an agreement with the Taliban, who did at least control most of Afghanistan. Instead, the war has made the country less safe, rather than safer, for business.

Conspiracy theorists point out, however, that the new government of Afghanistan has got together with the gasand oil-rich Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan and has now agreed in principle to build a pipeline. The key words here, though, are "in principle". The government of Afghanistan may well be keen on the idea of having a lucrative pipeline running through the country, but there is absolutely no sign that any major western oil company wants anything to do with it. The fact is that the oil and gas companies have looked around for another option for their pipelines. Afghanistan may provide the shortest route to the ocean but it is not the only one. A new pipeline that runs in a very different direction was quietly built, therefore: it was completed in 2005.

Members of the Taliban take a break from enforcing religious purity, Afghanistan. Although initially supported by the US, the Taliban would quickly become a leading member of the 'Axis of Evil'.

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The pipeline in question is 1,090 miles long and it runs from the town of Baku in the oil-rich country of Azerbaijan through Georgia and on to the seaport of Ceyhan in Turkey. It is a project that has had a profound impact on the politics of the Caucasus region but it has mostly been ignored by the world's media, who have focused instead on the more sensational Afghan pipeline story.

In fact, if there is a conspiracy going on it is a rather more subtle one than has previously been suggested. While fingers have been pointed at the United States over Afghanistan, she has been quietly playing a large part in the introduction of a more US-friendly regime to the former Soviet country of Georgia, through which the new pipeline passes.

The United States has spent vast amounts in support of the so-called "Rose Revolution" in Georgia, which ushered the American-educated Mikhail Saakashvili into power. America's new ties with Georgia were clearly demonstrated when George Bush became the first United States president to visit the country. And as for the Turkish port where the pipeline ends, it is no surprise to discover that it is right next to the American airbase at Incirlik.

So there is plenty of evidence to suggest that oil and gas interests play a major part in the foreign policy decisions of the United States. And there is also no question that the huge reserves of gas and oil in Central Asia are a major prize. However, the conspiracy theorists seem to have missed a trick for once when it comes to Georgia. And as for the Afghan war? Well, it might just be the case that America did after all invade the country to attempt to rid the world of the terrorists who had so recently struck at its heart, rather than to build a pipeline that they could easily build somewhere else.

At the time that it was carried out – 19 April 1995 – the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist atrocity ever perpetrated on American soil. That grim record was comprehensively trumped six years later by the events of September 11, but at the time the Oklahoma bombing was a huge shock to the American system. What made it especially traumatic was the fact that it was not carried out by foreigners – Russians, Iraqis or any other perceived enemies of America – but by Americans. Many Americans found this difficult to believe, which is perhaps why conspiracy theories very quickly grew up around the event. The suggestion was that it was the work of outsiders. Some of these theories can be dismissed, but there remain doubts about just exactly who was responsible for the bombing. Did Timothy McVeigh and his friends act entirely independently, as was argued at McVeigh's trial? Or was McVeigh simply a cog in a much bigger conspiracy that involved a whole gang of far-right activists?

The essential facts are not in question. In the early morning of 19 April 1995, Timothy McVeigh drove a rented yellow truck up to the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. He parked the truck in a parking space for the handicapped, just beneath an infant day-care centre. The truck was loaded with a huge and lethal fertilizer bomb, consisting of more than 6,000lbs of ammonium nitrate soaked in nitromethane fuel, plus an additional quantity of commercial Tovex explosive. The whole lot was wired up to blasting caps. At around 8.53 a.m., after he had parked the truck, McVeigh lit two fuses and walked quickly away, heading for his getaway car. He was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "Sic semper tyrannis", the words that were shouted by John Wilkes Booth as he assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

Before McVeigh could reach the vehicle he was knocked off his feet by the force of the explosion he had set off. Windows were smashed and buildings shook around him as he headed towards his getaway car, an 18-year-old Mercury Marquis. McVeigh got into the car and might well have made good his escape if it had not been for the fact that he was pulled over by a highway patrolman for not having a rear licence plate. When the patrolman checked the car he found that McVeigh had a concealed firearm. The patrolman proceeded to take him into custody, little suspecting at this point that he had caught the man responsible for a bomb that had killed 168 people, injured 800 more, traumatized an entire city and shaken a nation.

W
AS THERE A SECOND MAN?
Within forty-eight hours, though, the investigating officers had figured out that the guy with the missing licence plate was indeed the bomber they were looking for. At the time, however, that did not appear to be the end of the matter. The FBI were known to be looking for a second man, whom they believed to have been directly involved in the bombings. Gradually, though, this line of investigation seemed to peter out and when the case came to trial it was McVeigh alone who was accused of actually planting the bomb. He was duly convicted of murder and was sentenced to death, being executed by lethal injection at a US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 11 June 2001.

However, the question the conspiracy theorists wanted an answer to was – did McVeigh act alone or not? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that he did not. In the early stages of the investigation, the FBI were convinced that he had at least one partner in the operation. Numerous witnesses who saw McVeigh on the day of the bombing claim to have seen him with another man. They also claim to have seen a brown pick-up truck following the yellow Ryder truck. By some accounts, McVeigh and the second man were seen leaving the Murrah Building in the pick-up truck at just after 8 a.m., before returning in the yellow Ryder truck. At 8.45 a.m. the Ryder truck stopped at a convenience store and McVeigh was seen to buy two cokes and a packet of cigarettes, even though he was a non-smoker. Another eyewitness claimed to have seen McVeigh get into the Mercury along with another man. In all, at least ten different eyewitness statements suggested that there was at least one other person with McVeigh on the morning of the bombing.

All of that explains why the FBI spent the next year looking for a mystery second man, but it does not explain why, after a year's fruitless searching, they decided instead to promote the lone bomber theory in court. The idea that McVeigh did not act alone was awarded further credence when he was put through a polygraph test by his defence team. He passed on all questions concerning his own role but he failed when he denied that anybody else was involved.

It may well be that the FBI did not change their approach because of any sinister conspiracy but for the simple reason that they had a case against McVeigh and they were worried that the trial might collapse if the existence of an unknown second man was brought into the equation. It would have been easy for McVeigh to attempt to shift the responsibility onto this unknown man. If that was the case, the tactic was successful: McVeigh was found guilty. However, it did lead to unusual anomalies during the trial, such as the FBI's refusal to call any witnesses to McVeigh's movements (because they would all have mentioned that there was another man with him). Privately, the FBI appear to have suspected that the second man died in the blast. There was one gruesome piece of evidence remaining after the bombing – a left leg whose owner had never been identified. Might the leg have belonged to the second man?