Two basic steps are thus required: first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them; ["] second, to formulate specific U.S. policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above ["].
For those not steeped in speaking the language of diplomats and academics,
the plain English translation is: "It is the right of the United States to do whatever it wants in Central Asia, regardless of the will of the people in those countries, in order to extend its own power. Edmonds' story appears to indicate that the U.S. may have included supporting mujahedeen as one policy to "co-opt and/or control both Central Asia and the Balkans. Previous accounts, including form counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke's book, Against All Enemies, have claimed to U.S. officials quickly moved to stop al Qaeda operatives from taking over Bosnian conflict. This whistleblower seems to indicate that the U.S. was actually the facilitator of bringing jihadists into the former Yugoslav state. As far as Chechnya goes, it appears that the U.S. was dangerously close to committing an act of war with Russia.
This brings us to the present. Although Edmonds speaks of events that took place years ago, they are relevant to what is going on in the world today. As we speak, America's desire for control of Central Asia is what many believe is really being the ˜surge' of troops in the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the U.S. has successfully pushed Armenia, a strategic state in the nearby Caucasus, to sign protocols with Turkey. This has important implications for oil pipelines, according to Armenian-American writer David Boyajian:
The West has already built two major gas and oil pipelines " BTE and BTC " from Azerbaijan's Caspian coast, through Georgia and Turkey. The U.S. insists that all pipelines bypass Russia and Iran ["]. That left Armenia, perhaps Russia's only real ally in the world, as the sole obstacle to total American domination of the western land route into the Caspian.
While the major reason for gagging Sibel Edmonds appears to be the cover-up of a major bribery scandal, there does appear to be a foreign policy rationale as well. If the Turkish espionage scandal had been fully vetted publicly in 2002, the American people have demanded accountability from Turkey and its domestic agents in the United States. This might have caused a rift in U.S. " Turkish relations and ultimately torpedoed (at least partially) the current policy ˜triumphs', the aforementioned Turkey-Armenia protocols, as well as the continuing presence of a U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan.
However, it is debatable whether the U.S. control of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as America's insistence that natural resource pipelines bypass territory of her rivals, is really worth the cost in lives and money. A demonstration that the U.S. continued using al-Qaeda operatives right until September 2001 " and the possible implication that 9/11 occurred as a result of it " it could bring to a naught the backing of the war in Afghanistan by most Americans, as it would their support for co-opting Central Asian republics. To be sure, as a result of current policies, America's largest rival in the region is being encircled, but can America continue to afford to squeeze the Russians while the U.S. economy lies in such dire straits? Also, is this ongoing "chess game consistent with the Obama Administration's stated goal of a nuclear free world?
These are the hard questions all Americans must ask as they demand answers from their elected representatives on this very important espionage case.
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