[Peace-discuss] skepticism Re: Afghanistan has $1 Trillion in mineral deposits (DN! Monday, June 14, 2010)

[David Green]

Of course! you don't just stumble over $1 trillion (a nice juicy figure) of resources one day, and publicize it the next. This had to be used at the appropriately desperate time. This is all an open secret among elites, but they don't expect the rabble to catch on. 




________________________________
From: Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>
To: Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 12:30:31 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] skepticism Re: Afghanistan has $1 Trillion in mineral deposits (DN! Monday, June 14, 2010)

A skeptical take regarding this purported "news" from Blake Hounshell
at (the establishment insider publication) Foreign Policy:

Say what? Afghanistan has $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources?
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/say_what_afghanistan_has_1_trillion_in_untapped_mineral_resources

[...]
In short, things don't look good for the United States ... which makes
me suspicious of the timing of this attention-grabbing James Risen
story in the Times, which opens with this mind-boggling lede:

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped
mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known
reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and
perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government
officials."

Wow! Talk about a game changer. The story goes on to outline
Afghanistan's apparently vast underground resources, which include
large copper and iron reserves as well as hitherto undiscovered
reserves lithium and other rare minerals.

Read a little more carefully, though, and you realize that there's
less to this scoop than meets the eye. For one thing, the findings on
which the story was based are online and have been since 2007,
courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. More information is available
on the Afghan mining ministry's website, including a report by the
British Geological Survey (and there's more here). You can also take a
look at the USGS's documentation of the airborne part of the survey
here, including the full set of aerial photographs.
[...]


On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 11:01 AM, Jenifer Cartwright
<jencart13 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Friends,
> This was one of this morning's Democracy Now's headlines. Anybody care to guess what the US will do about this??
>  --Jenifer
> Report: US Discovers $1 Trillion in Afghan Mineral Deposits
> The New York Times is reporting the United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, including huge amounts of copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. US officials say the find could alter the Afghan war and make Afghanistan one of the most important mining centers in the world. An internal Pentagon memo states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and cell phones. The value of mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing economy. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion. American geologists have been studying the potential for mining since at least 2004. The timing of the New York Times article has been questioned by some because it is being published at a time when the Obama administration has little good news to report on Afghanistan. On Saturday the Times reported Afghan
 President Hamid Karzai had lost faith in the United States and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan. Karzai has reportedly been involved with secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials. Meanwhile, a new report from the London School of Economics includes new evidence that Pakistan’s main spy agency, the ISI, continues to arm and train the Taliban. The report states, "Without a change in Pakistani behavior it will be difficult, if not impossible, for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency."
>
>
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--
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern

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