Tom Gouttierre

Dr Thomas E. Gouttierre is director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Nebraska.

"For 37 years he has lived, worked, and studied Afghanistan — as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kabul, as a Fulbright Fellow, and then as Executive Director of the Fulbright Foundation in Afghanistan. Gouttierre has made presentations on aspects of the war in Afghanistan, on US-Pakistani Relations, on International Terrorism, and on Human Rights in hearings before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the US House of Representatives Committee on International Relations." 

He is a board member of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, and a past member of the International Rescue Committee's Citizens Commission on Afghanistan Refugees (1988-93). 


 * "Gouttierre was also a member of the Afghanistan Relief Committee, a private, tax-exempt group founded by former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Neumann and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs' wife, Mary Ann Dubs, in 1980 to help Afghan refugees...

UNOCAL Oil Controversy & Efforts with Khalilzad to Recognize Taliban Regime in Afghanistan Prior to September 11, 2001 Attacks on U.S.

 * "Thomas E. Gouttierre, the director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies, claims to be an old friend of the controversial figure Zalmay Khalilzad, President's Bush's nominee as ambassador to Afghanistan and a former paid adviser to the notorious Unocal oil company involved with allegations of egregious human rights abuses globally, and in particular Afghanistan, in support of the Taliban regime, and in the military junta in Burma. While working for the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Gouttierre's "friend" Khalilzad conducted risk analysis for Unocal for the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan. Gouttierre also claims he coached Khalilzad's basketball team at Habibia high school in Afghanistan. Gouttierre, Unocal Oil and Zalmay Kalilzad, also worked as a team to advocate and urge the U.S. State Department to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 1998, prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, for the purpose of World Bank financing of a trans-Afghanistan oil and gas pipleline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.  That team, as well as teams from various Afghan colleges, helped to form the Afghan National Basketball Team in the early 1970s."