The Taliban: World's Next Minerals Superpower

Forbes, Gordon G. Chang, 06.16.10, 12:38 PM EDT

Afghanistan's resources raise the stakes in Central Asia.

This week the U.S. Defense Department revealed that Afghanistan possesses at least $908.9 billion in untapped mineral resources. Iron accounts for $420.9 billion of the total, and copper $274.0 billion. There is cobalt, gold and molybdenum. The country could become, according to a Pentagon memo, the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Just as interesting, there is niobium, used to make superconducting steel.

Most significantly, Afghanistan has substantial deposits of rare earth minerals, estimated to be worth $7.4 billion. And why is this so important? At present, China has a near monopoly over them. It possesses about 36% of world reserves, by far the biggest share for any nation, and accounts for around 97% of global production. Five years ago Beijing substantially tightened export controls on these minerals. At this moment, officials are building a strategic reserve of them.

Last August China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced it would prohibit exports of some heavy rare earth minerals and restrict exports of other rare earths to levels far below current global needs. The complete prohibition may go into effect by 2015.

Beijing, unfortunately, is not content to control just its own rare earth resources. The Chinese are buying deposits around the world, including those in the U.S. and Canada.

And that brings us back to Afghanistan. Beijing, not surprisingly, has already shown great interest in the resources of its troubled neighbor to the west. In 2007 a Chinese company won the concession to the Aynak copper mine in Afghanistan's Logar province--after paying, according to American officials, a bribe of $30 million to the now-former minister of mines.

As the New York Times reports, the Chinese want to buy up even more of Afghanistan's resources. They will surely succeed in exploiting most of the trillion dollars of minerals if the Taliban fighters take back control of the country, as they will if President Obama adheres to his plan to begin withdrawing troops next July. The Taliban, in short, could become a minerals superpower in a few years time.

That will surely mean an even larger portion of the world's rare earth deposits will be under Chinese control. Beijing has traditionally maintained strong ties to the Taliban, continuing relations even after Sept. 11. Since that horrible event, for instance, China went through with the sale of a telephone system for Kabul and, after the group's ouster, has supplied it with weapons used against NATO forces.

The Pentagon, in September, is scheduled to complete its report identifying “national security risks due to rare earth material dependencies.” Yet we don't have to wait until then to know what it will say.

The U.S. is not mining any rare earth minerals at the moment, and there is only one American company with commercially significant deposits of heavy rare earths. It is not entirely clear what defense planners will do when China's export ban on these minerals goes into effect.

Rare earth minerals are used in every major weapons system the U.S. fields today, from M1A2 Abrams tanks to Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. There is not a plane in the American inventory that will fly tomorrow without some mineral that is now mined in China. Lasers, radar and missile-guidance systems? Yes, they all require rare earth minerals, as do the military's hard drives.

So the stakes just went up in Afghanistan with the release of the information this week. The U.S. has a critical reliance on what is in the ground in that war-torn land. Kabul can undercut Beijing's virtual monopoly on rare earths--or it can help the Chinese tighten their grip over global markets.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.

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Rense.com

New Book Details Bush/Big Oil Negotiations With Taliban

BEFORE WTC
By TOP_VIEW
TOP_VIEW1@go.com
11-19-1

Fact: The WTC was bombed right AFTER Bush-Taliban oil pipeline talks soured.
 
The talks soured right AFTER Bush/Big Oil threatened Taliban to take their offer or receive a "carpet of bombs."
 
SPELLING IT OUT
 
Bush-Cheney/Big Oil and Afghanistan's Taliban negotiated for MONTHS over running a Caspian Sea oil pipeline through Afghanistan. Talks began in February and continued right on until only one MONTH before New York City's World Trade Center towers were demolished.
 
DURING the course of these negotiations, the two parties were unable to agree upon a deal, MAINLY because Bush/Big Oil agents constantly upped the ante on the rather naive Taliban representatives: playing intimidation, bait & switch, and "shell" games relentlessly. The Taliban negotiators, understandably, became distrustful of the entire process, and less and less confident they were being dealt with in good faith.
 
In the beginning of August, the Bush administration and its Big Oil cohorts delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to the Taliban.
 
The Taliban representatives were reportedly told by Bush/Big Oil: Accept our offer of "a carpet of gold or you'll get a carpet of bombs."
 
That's a DIRECT quote, according to French authors Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, who've just written a thoroughly-researched and heavily-documented book about the entire extraordinary business titled "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth"
 
ALSO revealed in the book is the fact that BUSH HIMSELF directly ordered the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement groups to BACK OFF on TERRORIST-RELATED INVESTIGATIONS while the oil pipeline negotiations were underway!
 
In FACT, the FBI's Deputy Director John O'Neill resigned in July in protest over this outrageous and intolerable obstruction.
 
And by the way: the whereabouts of one OSAMA BIN LADEN, then already firmly entrenched at the very top of the US's "most-wanted terrorist" list during the entire course of these pipeline negotiations, was NEVER an issue with the Bush cartel. Never ONCE were the Taliban urged to hand bin Laden over for all those OTHER horrendous crimes Feds maintain bin Laden has been charged with committing over the years.
 
And SO: barely a MONTH after the Bush administration sabotaged the negotiations with the Taliban regarding running the Caspian Sea oil pipeline through Afghanistan, the World Trade Center towers are bombed into oblivion, bringing about the currently ongoing UNDECLARED (and therefore illegal) "war on terrorism"...that just HAPPENS to be directed at the Taliban in Afghanistan.
 
The WTC was bombed -- according to Feds -- by the VERY SAME Osama bin Laden whom the very same Bush administration was so UNCONCERNED ABOUT during those JUST-WRECKED talks with the Taliban.
 
NO ONE but the bush administration and their Big Oil allies/accomplices -- not the Taliban, not the Palestinians, not ANY other nation whether Islamic or otherwise -- not any other group, agency, force or faction on Earth stood to "GAIN" from the destruction of the World Trade Center which occurred only ONE MONTH after talks between the Bush administration and the Taliban fell apart due to outrageous threats and intimidation by Bush/Big Oil "negotiators."

___
 
Now the Taliban have been removed, Americans have lost even more freedom and liberty thanks to the 'Anti-Terrorism' Bill (passed by the House without even having READ the bill), and we can expect the pipeline project to get back on track soon. It is important to remember that the world's richest oil country, Saudi Arabia, has 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The Caspian oil reserves are conservatively estimated to be 50 BILLON barrels. - ed.

SOURCE: JUAN WILSON juanwilson@mac.com

9 April 2004 8:30pm

Members of the Taliban in Afganistan before the fall

The turmoil and attention surrounding the 9/11 Hearings have centered on whether the Bush Administration had enough information to have averted the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

I am not one who believes that had we only had the forsight to limit our civil libereties before September 11, 2001 we could have escaped the tragedy of that day. The problem was not that the FBI and CIA were not sharing intelligence.

The problem was the lousy oil pipeline deal that Bush was trying to get for US oil companies. The deal was so important to Bush that intelligence agencies were told to go easy on the Taliban and their links to Al Queda.

In the beginning of August, the Bush administration delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to the Taliban. The Taliban representatives were reportedly told: accept our offer and receive "a carpet of gold or you'll would get a carpet of bombs."   That's a quote, according to French authors Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, who wrote book about this extraordinary business deal titled "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth"

The book claims that Bush ordered the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement groups to back off on terrorist related investigations while the oil pipeline negotiations were underway! Some have said FBI's Deputy Director John O'Neill resigned in July of 2001 in protest over this obstruction. After watching the recent 9/11 Commission Hearings I remembered stories that floated through the media for months after the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. Those stories have evaporated from TV but they are on the interent. After a bit of browsing some details were refreshed in my mind.

Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline December 4, 1997 from the BBC [Editor's note: George Bush was Governor of Texas in 1997] A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan is in the United States for talks with an international energy company that wants to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. The 1,300km pipeline will carry gas across Afghanistan's harsh terrain. A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to spend several days at the company's headquarters in Sugarland, Texas.

Spelling It Out November 19, 2001 from TOP_VIEW1@go.com Fact: The WTC was bombed right after Bush-Taliban oil pipeline talks soured. The talks soured right after the Americans threatened the Taliban to take their offer or else. Bush-Cheneyl and Afghanistan's Taliban negotiated for months over running a Caspian Sea oil pipeline through Afghanistan. Talks began in February and continued right on until only one month before New York City's World Trade Center towers were demolished. During the course of these negotiations, the two parties were unable to agree upon a deal, Mainly because American oil agents constantly upped the ante on the rather naive Taliban representatives: playing intimidation, bait & switch, and "shell" games relentlessly.

Bush administration negotiations with the Taliban December 30, 2002 from Tuthout.org American petroleum giant Unocal very much wanted this project for years, but it was stymied in 1998 after bin Laden blew up two American embassies in Africa, causing the Taliban to be diplomatically isolated. There are a number of reports that describe a reinvigoration of this pipeline plan after Bush took office, and further describe the Bush administration's negotiations with the Taliban including threats of war if the project was not allowed to pass through Afghanistan. Some say these threats, in the name of the pipeline, triggered the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban is gone, Afghan President Harmid Karzai is a former Unocal consultant, and the pipeline deal is finally done.

Agreement On US 3.2 Billion Gas Pipeline Project Signed December 28, 2002 from PakNews.com Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan on Friday signed here a framework agreement for a US $ 3.2 billion gas pipeline project passing through the three countries. The ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace with the three leaders, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, President Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signing the document.

Are these things not pertinent to the 9/11 Commission? Is the truth so ugly we can't look at it? Could it be that George Bush was trying to expand his families franchise with intolerant middle eastern governments to enrich that dynasty and the whole thing blew up in his face? Could he be that bad a businessman?

Well to that last question I'd say yes.