Central Asia and US Foreign Policy

Another piece from a SLATE article in 1997 gives us this information about Central Asia (which, by the way, is where Afghanistan lies, in case there's any doubt about at least one of the reasons we're going to keep our troops there):

Meanwhile, back on earth, the Post fronts an interesting piece revealing that "the last great oil rush of the 20th century--targeted at a potential $4 trillion patch in Central Asia's Caspian Sea region--has lured a prestigious group of U.S. prospectors: former high-ranking government officials bent on winning a stake in the bonanza for themselves or their companies." The article's subhead mentions lobbying by former Reagan and Bush national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Bush chief of staff John Sununu, former Bush Secretary of State James Baker, and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen. The body of the piece also reveals the similar activities of former Bush Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney and former Carter national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. It's not clear why the latter two were left out of the bold type. This is tricky because it's also not clear whether in Washington it's bad to be prominent in articles like this. After all, being certified by the Post as working on something big could be great for business.

The piece mentions that Scowcroft has already made $130,000 from Pennzoil in connection with the Caspian site. Of course, for him, money has nothing to do with it. He tells the Post he's on the case "because the United States has big interests out there." Incidentally, Scowcroft is fresh from a $50,000 one-day paper profit as a result of Lockheed's announcement last week of its intention to purchase Northrop, where (a few Web keystrokes quickly revealed) he is a director holding shares and options worth more than a quarter of a million dollars.