Georgia on my mind

Here's some serious fodder for the tinfoil hat posse:

Short Version:

• The Adjaran Government (on the SW border of Georgia) is claiming to have uncovered a secret Georgian plot to seize the republic and it's capitol city of Batumi

• The Head of Emergency Situations Department of Adjara was shot in the head by an unknown gunman five days ago.

• An intrinsic part of today�s oil transport network is the Batumi Oil Transport Facility.

• Both Anadarko and Chevron have been "long time users" of the Batumi Oil Transport Facility in Adjara.

• Condoleeza Rice was on the Board of Directors for Chevron.

• Bush created/served as a consultant to Anadarko.

• This weekend, Colin Powell is heading to Georgia to offer the new president a "symbolic stamp of U.S. approval."

Let the games begin...

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell congratulates Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly after naming ChevronTexaco one of this year's two recipients of the Award for Corporate Excellence.

Long Version:

Colin Powell's trip to Georgia may mark start of civil war:

Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to attend the
inauguration of Georgia's new president, Mikhail Saakashvilli, this
weekend, offering Saakashvilli a symbolic stamp of U.S. approval. In
addition to the planned festivities of singers, acrobats, dancing bears
and a military parade, Powell may be stepping into the beginning of a
civil war set off by the new president. Sources close to the president
of a small Georgian republic, the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, say the Adjarans have uncovered a secret plot by Saakashvilli to seize the republic and its port capitol of Batumi
in the aftermath of Sunday�s inaugural celebration. Adjarans believe
that as soon as Powell leaves Georgia the new president intends to
strike against them. The Adjarans, 400,000 citizens with no army but
many guns, this week encouraged their police, customs and border
guards, about 5,000 in all, to repel what they fear will be an
invasion. A friend of the Adjaran president, a former U.S. intelligence
officer with wide international connections, Chet Nagle, flew from
Istanbul, Turkey, this week and delivered a letter yesterday from
Adjaran President Aslan Abashidze to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking
for his support to �prevent the tragedy of civil war.� Georgia has
an army of some 30,000 troops, lots of equipment, and U.S. military
trainers and equipment, including some advanced attack helicopters.

But it gets even more interesting when coupled with this little tidbit:

Head of Emergency Situations Department at Georgia�s autonomous Black Sea region of Adjara was shot to death on Jan. 18
in Batumi, Georgia�s on-line magazine Civil Georgia reported. Temur
Inaishvili was shot in the head by unknown gunmen and the reason for
his murder is not clear yet, Adjara�s Interior Minister, Jemal
Gogitidze said. Gogitidze added that this was the second attack on
Inaishvili. The first incident caused the death of his mother.

Now throw this into the mix and you've got an edge-of-your-seat thriller in the making:

For more than 100 years, the Port of Batumi in Adjara has been central to the east-west trade in petroleum.
An intrinsic part of today�s oil transport network is the Batumi Oil
Transport Facility. It�s modern storage tanks which connect with the
railroad network and the modern oil handling capabilities of the port,
provide a cost efficient and flexible system for it�s customers. American oil companies, including Chevron and Anadarko, have been long time users of this complex.

As we all know, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice served on the board of directors for Chevron (verify at whitehouse.gov). And wouldn't you know it - George W. Bush created Anadarko:

When President Bush served as a director of an energy
company 12 years ago, he approved the creation of an off-balance-sheet
partnership that reduced the company's debts and improved earnings in a
transaction similar to those that led to the collapse of Enron Corp.
As a director of Harken Energy Corp. in 1990, Bush, who had sold his
own oil business to Harken and was retained as a consultant, made the
motion at a board meeting to negotiate the transfer of struggling
Harken assets into a partnership with Harvard University's investment
arm, Harvard Management Co. Inc.

The name of the entity created by that transfer? The Harken Anadarko Partnership.
So basically, if the new US-backed regime in Georgia invades
neighboring Adjara then Condoleeza's friends at Chevron and W's buddies
at Anadarko will have a pretty sweet deal going at the Batumi Oil
Transport Facility. This whole thing stinks. All I'm saying is if
things get interesting in the Caspian region next week, don't be
surprised.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 23, 2004 at 04:15 PM | Permalink