Washington, January 01: In an interview former CIA agent Ray McGovern said that the Taliban does not pose any threat to US national security.
In a reference to Wednesday’s attack against a US military base in eastern Afghanistan which killed seven CIA operatives, McGovern said that the CIA operatives should not have been there because the Taliban do not pose any security threats to United States.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Forward Operating Base Chapman, which was hit by an attack on Wednesday, was used by US spies.
It added the US sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were probably CIA employees or contractors.
McGovern said the CIA employees and contractors are in Afghanistan mainly because of the natural gas fields in Turkmenistan and the oil pipeline that needs to pass through Afghanistan.
He went on to say that he made the conclusion based on documents that he obtained from Enron Corporation, which was supposed to build a pipeline bringing gas and oil from Turkmenistan and passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Thus, the NATO and CIA presence in Afghanistan is neither for US national security nor for making Afghanistan safer, but to guarantee the delivery of oil and gas from Turkmenistan, McGovern added.
——-Agencies