Why Afghanistan's Mineral Deposits Won't Help

Round-up of today's AfPak news.

Why Afghan mineral deposits won't help. Though U.S. officials say Afghanistan's deposits, valued at $1 trillion, will lift the country out of poverty, analysts doubt they will be of much benefit to Afghans anytime soon. Both the British Empire and the Soviet Union tried and failed to take advantage of Afghanistan's vast reserves of iron ore. The challenges they faced are similar to the ones NATO faces today; Afghanistan's thriving insurgency would make it nearly impossible to transport ore out of the country, and whatever profits could be made would be snapped up by notoriously corrupt Afghan officials. [Al Jazeera English]

UK drug addict on how he was recruited by the Taliban. Muslim parents in the UK with drug-addicted children often send them to madrassas in Pakistan to beat their addiction. In doing so, they are putting their children at risk. One former addict, after receiving a few weeks of methadone therapy, began receiving religious instruction and weapons training. Within 40 days of beginning treatment, he had been recruited by the Taliban and deployed to Afghanistan. Though he managed to escape and flee back to Britain, he says Taliban operatives in the UK, who target young, affluent Muslims, have tried to recruit him again. [BBC]

Pakistan denies links to Taliban. A report issued by the London School of Economics Monday claimed Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, supplies the Taliban with ammunition and funds its training camps, and exerts control over militants by threatening to arrest them if they do not comply with the Pakistani government's wishes. A Pakistan army spokesman called the report "malicious," but another official, while denying the report's charges, admitted it is in Pakistan's interest to curry favor with any organization that might form the government in Afghanistan after NATO forces leave. [Washington Post]

Comments

[Paulo1]

10:47 AM on 06/16/2010

Oh come on. Any historian worthy of a BA can tell you that the problem in Afghanistan is not a lack of resources. The land was rich when Alexander chose to swing north instead of going for India. There is a reason or two that it was the center of the Silk Roads and home of the some of the first great Buddhist and Islamic city states.

The problem isn't riches its culture. Go read Kipling.

[JTHC75]

12:07 AM on 06/16/2010

It won't happen because no company is going to invest in the necessary infrastructure and transportation required to do it. First off, there's no guarantee of political stability once the US leaves. What company is going to sink billions into Afghanistan if Karzai is kicked by another kleptocrat in two years? Second, there's no security. Nigeria is already a nightmare for everyone involved. What company wants to get involved in a landlocked version of Nigeria with true insurgents that like to chop off heads? Third, no transport. It's landlocked. Where are they going to ship ore and how are they going to do it safely?

[shthar]

11:45 PM on 06/15/2010

Well, there goes any chance of leaving.

I hope You all enjoy your ipones and Hybrid cars. Powered by the blood of the poor.

[CoronaDischarge]

12:39 AM on 06/16/2010

"Powered by the blood of the poor. "

If only. There would be a perpetually renewable resource. Since Bush started squandering the national treasure, we have made great strides in increasing our reserves of such a potentially useful resource.

[EHarold]

11:12 PM on 06/15/2010

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1819

2007 USGS study on Afghanistan's minerals. This whole "OMFG we just found minerals!" stuff is getting tired. We've known for decades, THAT'S WHY WE INVADED.

[mrJJ]

10:23 PM on 06/15/2010

OT but maybe not...

Source: the Daily Beast

Wikileaks Founder Has Massacre Video

by Philip Shenon Info
Philip Shenon


BS Top - Shenon Wikileaks Part 2 Julian Assange, whom Pentagon investigators fear may soon release State Dept. secrets, denies having them—but says he’s readying video of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan.

After several days underground, the founder of the secretive website Wikileaks has gone public to disclose that he is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last year that left as many as 140 civilians dead, most of them children and teenagers.

In an email obtained by The Daily Beast that was sent to Wikileaks supporters in the United States Tuesday, Julian Assange, the website’s Australian-born founder, also defends a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist who is now under arrest in Kuwait on charges that he leaked classified Pentagon combat videos, as well as 260,000 State Department cables, to Wikileaks.

“Mr. Manning allegedly also sent us 260,000 classified US Department cables, reporting on the actions of US Embassy’s engaging in abusive actions all over the world,” Assange said in an email. “We have denied the allegation, but the US government is acting as if the allegation is true.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-15/wikileaks-founder-has-garani-massacre-video-according-to-new-email/?cid=hp:mainpromo1

[LeaderofMen]

07:30 PM on 06/15/2010

Ugh. This article comply ignored the fact that there are simply no railroads in that country. No railroads = NO SHIPMENTS OF ANY RAW MATERIALS OR SMELTED MINERALS IN OR OUT ON A MASS SCALE.

[oldlib127]

11:04 PM on 06/15/2010

"Their are no good targets in Afghanistan." Donald Rumsfeld

[shthar]

11:44 PM on 06/15/2010

That simply means more money for companies that make railroads.

[Pandaforum]

07:19 PM on 06/15/2010

Why Afghan mineral deposits won't help. because obama is totally incompetent?