How Convienent, Mineral Riches Found in Afghanistan
It was reported recently that huge mineral deposits measured in the trillions have been found in the mountains of Afghanistan. Copper, iron & lithium (like in cell-phone batteries) deposits were discovered, deposits that could completely change the economy of Afghanistan and the region. This story seemed to wake up some long sleeping conspiracy theorists.
Mostly because it only expands on a report from Afghan President Karzai earlier this year, where he broke the good news to the Afghan public:
"I have very good news for Afghans," he said. "The initial figures we have obtained show that our mineral deposits are worth a thousand billion dollars - not a thousand million dollars but a thousand billion."
Not only is the story not actually current (though only now being picked up by mainstream news outlets) but the conspiracy theories are already running wild in response to the story. The underlying theme of most of them is that this so-called "discovery" went under embargo by the Pentagon for a while until the political atmosphere in regards to Afghanistan was so torn up, some sort of news had to be broken to shed a positive light on the region and justify our prolonged presence.
That begs further discussion. If this story was truly known by the world, then the Taliban would have also known about the mineral deposits. Aside from them, China is well aware of the mineral riches in Afghanistan, when elements in the Afghan government tried to sell the mining rights to copper mines to China.
The point is, it's clear this story was shelved until it was needed. This theory, and the other conspiracy theories, were not welcomed by The New York Times writer who broke the story this past week, James Risen. He was none too pleased with the blogging community response to his story, expressing similar opinions to the ones being summed up here. Of course, it was most likely not Risen who sat on the data. If it was held, it would have been one of his primary sources - the Pentagon.
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