Another report from TPM Reader JE …
I am an ex-minerals exploration geologist. My experience was in Latin America and Northern Canada, but I sent the following to some friends early this morning:
“Hard to tell how earthshaking this is, given its propaganda value, the lack of publicly released data, and apparently sparse on-the-ground investigation.
“According to my pal [redacted], who worked as a geologist for the World Bank in Afghanistan until a year or two before the Soviet invasion, Russian exploration there (carried out as part of an aid program some years before the invasion) proceeded by defining a rather restricted area, establishing an elaborate camp there with permanent family housing, and then investigating it in great detail with specialists from across the earth sciences spectrum, including, for example, paleontologists. Interestingly, there was never any effort to expand the findings outside the borders of the zone that had been previously defined.
“I guess this is one of the things that would have come up some time ago, if the US had put its effort in to building Afghanistan, rather than invading Iraq.
And considering the success that China has had with the Iraqi oil ministry, a country at some distance from their borders, I would think they have an easy inside track in Afghanistan, especially since Karzai is on the lookout for anything that might counterbalance US influence.”The [redacted] I mention is a geologist out of Vancouver who I haven’t been in touch with for some time. If one of TPM’s investigators does duty as a science correspondent, and the story seems worth pursuing, it would be useful to get in touch with him — I don’t find him in a brief, Google search, but perhaps you will have better luck.
