Can You Say Military Industrial Complex?

[purejuice]

Pentagon undersecretary of defense for business development? Are you shitting me?

....“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the [$1 trillion worth of untapped mineral] deposits [in Afghanistan].

....“This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program.

....The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.

....Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.

....In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.

Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?hp


George Harris (aka Hibiscus, founding father of the Cockettes), at the Pentagon demo, 1967.
By Bernie Boston, The Washington Star.

Comments

[the-sikh-geek.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking it was control of the opium trade and gas pipelines all this time...

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank god we're going to get rid of the dope peddlers.

[uberconfused.livejournal.com]

For a minute I got excited about the discovery when I heard about it on the news this morning: the kind of thing that could really change infrastructure and quality of life in Afghanistan. But then I remembered that such natural resources have never really seemed to benefit people anyplace else, so why should this be any different?

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

yes. the former afghan minister of mining accepted a $30 million bribe from the chinese, to whom he awarded the contract for the one big copper mine so far.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

deputy undersecretary of defense for business

Most sinister job title of all time?

[microbie.livejournal.com]

emphasis on under

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

eeks. definitely the cover story for a vampire.
or beelzebub himself.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Total Yuck!

Wonder if the women of the Congo are going to get a break on getting murdered and gang raped for minerals. That would be nice.

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who finds it hard to believe that the mineral deposits were not noticed until 2006 and then not valued until 2009 when somebody just happened to look at the data?

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

nuh unh.

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

And why is the PENTAGON organizing the exploitation of Afghan natural resources? Even Ike couldn't have foreseen this.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

it's hard to believe.