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Jun 16, 2010

RICH TALIBAN?



There is nothing new in the US paying the bills to enrich China and Russia. But when I think that the Taliban may just get to rule this country and we will have to live with another, worse Saudi Arabia. . .

Of course, in new green oiless Obamaland we will not need minerals either. China, Russia and bribed Afghans, Not U.S., Likely to Benefit from Afghanistan's Mineral Riches:

Although the U.S. government has spent more than $940 billion on the conflict in Afghanistan since 2001, a treasure trove of mineral deposits, including vast quantities of industrial metals such as lithium, gold, cobalt, copper and iron, are likely to wind up going to Russia and China instead of American firms.

The New York Times reported Monday that U.S. officials and American geologists have found an estimated $1 trillion worth of mineral deposits that have yet to be exploited in the country. The paper said a Pentagon report called Afghanistan potentially"the Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key component in batteries for cellphones, laptop computers and eventually, a plug-in fleet of electric cars.

But while the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries are providing the bulk of the security for Afghanistan -- U.S. troop levels are set to rise to 100,000 by year's end -- the firms that are profiting from the resource boom are primarily Chinese, and to a lesser extent, Russian. . . .

The Washington Post, quoting a U.S. intelligence official, reported that the Afghan minister of mines was accused of taking approximately $30 million in bribes from the Chinese company in exchange for the contract. The minister denied the charge and said the Chinese firm had offered the best deal.

Yeager produced a 78-page investigation into the Aynak deal, which he described as a"murky and insufficient tender process." He said a number of sources have come forward since the report was written to confirm that bribes were paid to Afghan officials at clandestine meetings in Dubai in the Aynak tender process.

Then, there are the nuclear Pakistani Taliban Dozens of Pakistani troops 'captured by the Taliban'

A ray of hope: Afgan civilians rise up against Taliban fighters



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