WASHINGTON, July 6 -- A report says high-ranking former government officials may be trying to change U.S. policy so they can enrich themselves or the companies they work for by exploiting an oil bonanza in Azerbaijan. The Washington Post reports two former national security advisers -- Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski -- are among the brass urging a change in U.S. policy toward the former Soviet republic.
Also on the list of top guns with a stake in the oil industry are former White House chief of staff John N. Sununu, former Defense Secretary Richard C. Cheney, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen. American oil companies want to ease restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan so they can secure U.S. government-backed loans and financial assistance to tap into fields that hold up to 200 billion barrels of oil. The restrictions were passed by Congress in 1992. The Post says Azerbaijan officials have hinted that as long as the country is regarded as a pariah, drilling concessions in the Caspian oil field may go to Norwegian, British, Russian, French and Iranian oil companies. The Post says other former officials whose palms may have been greased by the oil industry to help sway the debate include former Rep. Charles Wilson, D-Texas, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard L. Armitage. Former Maj. Gen. Richard Secord, who was chief of covert operations for Oliver North in the Iran-Contra scandal, has also been sighted in the Azeri capital of Baku, The Post reports. ---
Copyright 1997 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
