Forbidden Truth: U.S.--Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden
By Jean Charles Brisard & Gullaume Dasquie
© 2002
Thunder’s Mouth Press
146p + appendices

Subject: 9/11/2001; Osama Bin Laden; Taliban; Al Qaeda; U.S. Foreign Policy & Oil; International diplomacy & oil; International financing & terrorism

Brisard has degrees in comparative law, international finance, and international law. This book was informed by the report he was commissioned by the French Intelligence community to prepare on “The Economic Network of the Bin Laden Family” which led to the French Parliament shutting down bogus Islamic charities.

This book should be read side by side with the 911 commission’s report so that a checklist of questions about who knew what when can be compared and contrasted between the commission’s conclusions and that which Brisard and Dasquie have uncovered about the intricate web of relationships among international corporations, financial institutions, politicians and lobbyists both foreign and domestic who spent decades trying to influence the political scene in Afghanistan and surrounding countries in hopes of making it safe for a Western controlled oil pipe line running from the oil rich Caspian Sea through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.

The blowback of these machinations was the agitation of Fundamentalist Islam members who proceeded to create their own global network of interlocking corporations, banks and charities. Prominent players on the Islam side were members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi Royal family, Saudi Intelligence, Pakistan Intelligence and military and a number of influential Mullahs. The truly chilling revelation of Brisard and Dasquie in their book was the startling number of names of individuals and institutions common to both networks which makes it difficult to determine who was playing who.

One anecdote they related chills the soul. A story they heard from multiple sources has a second or third level U.S. diplomat commenting to a Taliban agent at a secret negotiation somewhere in Europe in July 2001: Accept our offer of this carpet of gold or we will carpet bomb you.