America's Oil Ambassador, Steven Mann: Making Eurasia safe for U.S. oil companies

According to State Department sources, the United States has laid down an ultimatum to Iran. However, this ultimatum has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program. Former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan Steven R. Mann, who is also the State Department's Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts and Senior Adviser on Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy, recently warned Iran against building a pipeline to India. Mann, who was involved in successful negotiations on the building of the CentGas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, travels around central and south Asia helping to negotiate favorable pipeline and drilling deals for U.S. oil and natural gas companies. However, when it comes to U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mann strongly denies that they are being fought for oil and gas. That contention is usually met with stifled laughter from attendees at seminars and meetings in Washington and Asia.