[A-List] Fwd: Michel Chossudovsky: "The War is Worth Waging":Afghanistan's Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas

[Tony B.]

..Another point..

The targeting of BP is by way of diverting attention from the fact that the 
entire US 'regulatory' system, nay, the entire global capitalist system, is 
at fault. That US governmental operations have, over the past few decades 
(and especially over the past decade) been gutted, hollowed out and 
privatized, and given over to corporate management should, in a better 
world, be front and center here. Instead, we are treated to Obama waxing 
self-righteous over a system of anti-government (i.e. out and out corporate 
/ financial governance) that is the real culprits in this and other 
ecological catastrophes.

Obama is now preaching 'regulation' when he himself has presided over the 
complete takeover of his own administration by Goldman-Sachs alumni and 
while the so-called regulatory reform effort has, under his watch, been 
entirely subverted by Wall St. lobbyiests. Meanwhile, CNN has taken over the 
circus and whipped up the necessary diversionary propaganda that targets - 
much like a Hollywood movie - not the capitalist collective, but a typical 
scapegoated individual in the guise of 'Baby-Face' Tony Hayward.

T.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Suzanne de Kuyper" <suzannedk at gmail.com>
To: "The A-List" <a-list at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 1:38 PM
Subject: [A-List] Fwd: Michel Chossudovsky: "The War is Worth 
Waging":Afghanistan's Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas


Maybe the point of Obama's merciless scapegoating of the head of BP
was two pronged.  One to raise his profile now on a slippery downward
slope, two to set up the final destruction of Briish Petroleum so that
it can be bought by an American corporation on the cheap.   His
methods in his scolding performances greatly diminished his prestige
as President of the U.S..   Daddy Warbucks was a few generations ago.
And only for American consumption.  CNN has made these performances,
world-wide.  Suzanne


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 4:13 PM
Subject: Michel Chossudovsky: "The War is Worth Waging": Afghanistan's
Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas
To: suzannedk at gmail.com


"The War is Worth Waging": Afghanistan's Vast Reserves of Minerals and
Natural Gas
The War on Afghanistan is a Profit driven "Resource War".

By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19769

Global Research, June 17, 2010

The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to
World public opinion as a "Just War", a war directed against the
Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate "Islamic terrorism" and
instate Western style democracy.

The economic dimensions of the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT) are
rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 "counter-terrorism campaign" has
served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US-NATO war.

The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of
economic conquest and plunder, "a resource war".

While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia,
bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the
crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge
mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have
remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public.

According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey
(USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess "previously
unknown" and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to
be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S.
Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com, June 14,
2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).

"The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron,
copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are
so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern
industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of
the most important mining centers in the world, the United States
officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan
could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the
manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a
small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan
government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American
officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the
potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry
believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are
profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from
generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus,
commander of the United States Central Command, said... “There are a
lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely
significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size
of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based
largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid
from the United States and other industrialized countries.
Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil
Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines. (New York Times,
op. cit.)

Afghanistan could become, according to The New York Times "the Saudi
Arabia of lithium". "Lithium is an increasingly vital resource, used
in batteries for everything from mobile phones to laptops and key to
the future of the electric car." At present Chile, Australia, China
and Argentina are the main suppliers of lithium to the world market.
Bolivia and Chile are the countries with the largest known reserves of
lithium. "The Pentagon has been conducting ground surveys in western
Afghanistan. "Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at
one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium
deposits as large as those of Bolivia" (U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral
Riches in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, see also Lithium -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

"Previously Unknown Deposits" of Minerals in Afghanistan

The Pentagon's near one trillion dollar "estimate" of previously
"unknown deposits" is a useful smokescreen. The Pentagon one trillion
dollar figure is more a trumped up number rather than an estimate:
“We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it
be worth now in terms of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure
seemed to be newsworthy.” (The Sunday Times, London, June 15 2010,
emphasis added)

Moreover, the results of a US Geological Survey study (quoted in the
Pentagon memo) on Afghanistan's mineral wealth were revealed three
years back, at a 2007 Conference organized by the Afghan-American
Chamber of Commerce. The matter of Afghanistan's mineral riches,
however, was not considered newsworthy at the time.

The US Administration's acknowledgment that it first took cognizance
of Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth following the release of the
USGS 2007 report is an obvious red herring. Afghanistan's mineral
wealth and energy resources (including natural gas) were known to both
America's business elites and the US government prior to the
Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1988).

Geological surveys conducted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and
early 1980s confirm the existence of vast reserves of copper (among
the largest in Eurasia), iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl,
barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum, emeralds,
gold and silver.(Afghanistan, Mining Annual Review, The Mining
Journal, June, 1984). These surveys suggest that the actual value of
these reserves could indeed be substantially larger than the one
trillion dollars "estimate" intimated by the Pentagon-USCG-USAID
study.

More recently, in a 2002 report, the Kremlin confirmed what was
already known: "It's no secret that Afghanistan possesses rich
reserves, in particular of copper at the Aynak deposit, iron ore in
Khojagek, uranium, polymetalic ore, oil and gas," (RIA Novosti,
January 6, 2002):

"Afghanistan has never been anyone's colony - no foreigner had ever
"dug" here before the 1950s. The Hindu Kush mountains, stretching,
together with their foothills, over a vast area in Afghanistan, are
where the minerals lie. Over the past 40 years, several dozen deposits
have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries
were sensational. They were kept secret, however, but even so certain
facts have recently become known.

It turns out that Afghanistan possesses reserves of nonferrous and
ferrous metals and precious stones, and, if exploited, they would
possibly be able to cover even the earnings from the drug industry.
The copper deposit in Aynak in the southern Afghan Helmand Province is
said to be the largest in the Eurasian continent, and its location (40
km from Kabul) makes it cheap to develop. The iron ore deposit at
Hajigak in the central Bamian Province yields ore of an
extraordinarily high quality, the reserves of which are estimated to
be 500m tonnes. A coal deposit has also been discovered not far from
there.

Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas.
However, only a very few people know that Soviet specialists
discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the first
gas pipeline in the country to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time,
the Soviet Union used to receive 2.5 bn cubic metres of Afghan gas
annually. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite,
barytes and marble onyxes that have a very rare pattern were found.

However, the pegmatite fields discovered to the east of Kabul are a
real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds and kunzites and
hiddenites that cannot be found anywhere else - the deposits of these
precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Also, the rocks
containing the rare metals beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum
are of strategic importance (they are used in air and spacecraft
construction).

The war is worth waging. ... (Olga Borisova, "Afghanistan - the
Emerald Country", Karavan, Almaty, original Russian, translated by BBC
News Services, Apr 26, 2002. p. 10, emphasis added.)

While public opinion was fed images of a war torn resourceless
developing country, the realities are otherwise: Afghanstan is a rich
country as confirmed by Soviet era geological surveys.

The issue of "previously unknown deposits" sustains a falsehood. It
excludes Afghanstan's vast mineral wealth as a justifiable casus
belli. It says that the Pentagon only recently became aware that
Afghanistan was among the World's most wealthy mineral economies,
comparable to The Democratic Republic of the Congo or former Zaire of
the Mobutu era. The Soviet geopolitical reports were known. During the
Cold War, all this information was known in minute detail:

... Extensive Soviet exploration produced superb geological maps
and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along
with about 70 commercially viable deposits ... The Soviet Union
subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration
and development in Afghanistan, with proposed projects including an
oil refinery capable of producing a half-million tons per annum, as
well as a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have
produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the
Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the
Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2
percent of the annual world market. The country is also blessed with
massive coal deposits, one of which, the Hajigak iron deposit, in the
Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the
largest high-grade deposits in the world. (John C. K. Daly, Analysis:
Afghanistan's untapped energy, UPI Energy, October 24, 2008, emphasis
added)

Afghanistan's Natural Gas

Afghanistan is a land bridge. The 2001 U.S. led invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan has been analysed by critics of US foreign
policy as a means to securing control over the strategic trans-Afghan
transport corridor which links the Caspian sea basin to the Arabian
sea.

Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects have been
contemplated including the planned $8.0 billion TAPI pipeline project
(Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) of 1900 km., which would
transport Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan in what is described
as a "crucial transit corridor". (See Gary Olson, Afghanistan has
never been the 'good and necessary' war; it's about control of oil,
The Morning Call, October 1, 2009). Military escalation under the
extended Af-Pak war bears a relationship to TAPI. Turkmenistan
possesses third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran.
Strategic control over the transport routes out of Turkmenistan have
been part of Washington's agenda since the collapse of the Soviet
union in 1991.

What was rarely contemplated in pipeline geopolitics, however, is that
Afghanistan is not only adjacent to countries which are rich in oil
and natural gas (e.g Turkmenistan), it also possesses within its
territory sizeable untapped reserves of natural gas, coal and oil.
Soviet estimates of the 1970s placed "Afghanistan's 'explored' (proved
plus probable) gas reserves at about 5 trillion cubic feet. The
Hodja-Gugerdag's initial reserves were placed at slightly more than 2
tcf." (See, The Soviet Union to retain influence in Afghanistan, Oil &
Gas Journal, May 2, 1988).

The US.Energy Information Administration (EIA) acknowledged in 2008
that Afghanistan's natural gas reserves are "substantial":

"As northern Afghanistan is a 'southward extension of Central
Asia's highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin,'
Afghanistan 'has proven, probable and possible natural gas reserves of
about 5 trillion cubic feet.' (UPI, John C.K. Daly, Analysis:
Afghanistan's untapped energy, October 24, 2008)

>From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979, Washington's
objective has been to sustain a geopolitical foothold in Central Asia.

The Golden Crescent Drug Trade

America's covert war, namely its support to the Mujahideen "Freedom
fighters" (aka Al Qaeda) was also geared towards the development of
the Golden Crescent trade in opiates, which was used by US
intelligence to fund the insurgency directed against the Soviets.1

Instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war and protected by the
CIA, the drug trade developed over the years into a highly lucrative
multibillion undertaking. It was the cornerstone of America's covert
war in the 1980s. Today, under US-NATO military occupation, the drug
trade generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200
billion dollars a year. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on
Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, see also Michel
Chossudovsky, Heroin is "Good for Your Health": Occupation Forces
support Afghan Narcotics Trade, Global Research, April 29, 2007)

Towards an Economy of Plunder

The US media, in chorus, has upheld the "recent discovery" of
Afghanistan's mineral wealth as "a solution" to the development of the
country's war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty.
The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their
appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.

The war on Afghanistan is a profit driven "resource war".

Under US and allied occupation, this mineral wealth is slated to be
plundered, once the country has been pacified, by a handful of
multinational mining conglomerates. According to Olga Borisova,
writing in the months following the October 2001 invasion, the US-led
"war on terrorism [will be transformed] into a colonial policy of
influencing a fabulously wealthy country." (Borisova, op cit).

Part of the US-NATO agenda is also to eventually take possession of
Afghanistan's reserves of natural gas, as well as prevent the
development of competing Russian, Iranian and Chinese energy interests
in Afghanistan.

Note

1. The Golden Crescent trade in opiates constitutes, at present, the
centerpiece of Afghanistan's export economy. The heroin trade,
instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected
by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of
$200 billion dollars a year. Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics
production in Afghanistan has increased more than 35 times. In 2009,
opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in
2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from
the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan.
According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade
accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion
annually. In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resultring
from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion. (See
Michel Chossudovsky, America's War on Terrorism", Global Research,
Montreal, 2005)




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