Is this true?

[The Red Next Door]

Yesterday, I had went to a PSL meeting, and the speaker was talking about Afghanistan, she said that the US supported the taliban because they were hoping to build some oil pipeline there, but the taliban was unpopular, and that why the US invade Afghanistan and put in the pupper government, and also i read an article saying that the taliban was gonna to hand over, Osama but Bush refuse and decide to invade.

Can you give me links to the evidence of these facts?

[chegitz guevara]

In the late 90s, Unical was negotiating to build a pipeline from the Caspian region, through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The deal never materialized. Hamed Karzai, current president of Afghanistan, used to work for Unical. These facts have led some people to speculate that this was the reason for the invasion, and the notion that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks.

I have nothing but contempt for that "theory."

The U.S. government did give the Taliban something like $40 million in aid to help combat the drug trade, before 9/11.

It's highly unlikely that the U.S. would have turned down bin Laden or any of al Qaeda. If that fact were provable and it came out, it would almost certainly lead to the impeachment of the President and Vice-President. Bush was totally focused on Iraq and trying to pin 9/11 on Iraq. My understanding was that Clark and Armitage basically had to flat out tell the Prez that if he didn't go after bin Laden, Congress would hang him by his balls.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

^^^Unocal, surely?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unocal_Corporation

[KC]

It's highly unlikely that the U.S. would have turned down bin Laden or any of al Qaeda.

Actually, they did turn down the offer the Talib'an put forward, which was to turn over Bin Laden to the US for the halting of the US bombing of Afghanistan. The Talib'an offered to hand Bin Laden over to a third country for a more objective investigation. This is among the most damning evidence exposing the propaganda put forward by the Bush (and now the Obama) administration as a lie.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5

Moreover, according to Saudi intelligence, the Talib'an agreed to handing Bin Laden over before September 11th even happened but reneged on the proposal after the US started bombing Afghanistan in 1998.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/taliban_agreed_to_hand_over_osama_in_98.htm

EDIT: Yes I just linked to Prison Planet but I do have the original article bookmarked on my home computer which was from a reputable source.

EDIT #2: Here's a Guardian source :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/05/afghanistan.terrorism3

[syndicat]

yeah, Unocal (Union Oil of California) had proposed a pipeline. Unocal was an independent oil company based in Los Angeles. but it was acquired by BP, i believe.