Author Peter Bergen detailed the U.S. State Department’s first support (in September 1996) of the Taliban in Afghanistan: “This tepid support can be explained on several grounds, the first of which was simple ignorance. [The U.S. embassy had been closed down, and the U.S. had little idea of who the Taliban were.] …Unocal, a giant American energy firm, was competing to build a multibillion-dollar [oil] pipeline through Afghanistan…the Taliban seemed likely to provide a secure environment in which the Unocal pipeline might finally move ahead.” [The 15th of the month used for date-sorting purposes only.]
– Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc., Page 147