Chump US taxpayers fund expensive mapping of vast Afghan mineral wealth, Afghans sign deal with Indian group to start developing them-BBC

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"Afghanistan is controlled by a structured, mafiaesque system, in which money flows upward via purchase of office, kickbacks...in return for permission to extract resources (of which more varieties exist in impoverished Afghanistan than one might think)."...(9/25/11)
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7/18/12, "Afghanistan minerals fully mapped," BBC

"Afghanistan is known to have vast reserves of oil, gas, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. In late 2011, a consortium of Indian companies inked a deal to begin mining some of the country's large stores of iron.

But the country is known to have a wider array of mineral resources; in 2010, the Afghan ministry of mines claimed a value of its reserves of nearly a trillion dollars, then carrying out tours to promote investment in them....

In a series of 28 flights over 43 days, the USGS gathered the data by shining visible and infrared light from a height of 15,000m and using a camera to capture the reflections. Each "pixel" of the camera was analysed and correlated with the materials that reflect at a given colour.

The USGS public release of the data includes two maps: one of iron and iron-bearing minerals, and one of minerals principally containing carbon, silicon, or sulphur.

The survey was funded by the US Department of Defense's Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) as well as the Afghan government.

"This is a tremendous tool for the Afghan government for locating and identifying its myriad rich mineral deposits," said TFBSO director Jim Bullion.

"These maps clearly show the enormous size and variety of Afghanistan's mineral wealth and position the country to become

• a world leader in the minerals sector.""

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9/25/11, "Government by crime syndicate," LA Times, Op-ed, Sarah Chayes,

"Afghanistan is controlled by a structured, mafiaesque system, in which money flows upward via purchase of office, kickbacks or "sweets" in return for permission to extract resources (of which more varieties exist in impoverished Afghanistan than one might think) and protection in case of legal or international scrutiny. Those foolish enough to raise objections are punished. The result is a system that selects for criminality, excluding and

• marginalizing the very men and women of probity
  

• most needed to build a sustainable state."...

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