James Risen is angry. Writers who publish their work online in chronological order -- or, as he describes them in an interview with Yahoo! News, "bloggers" who are "sitting around in their pajamas" instead of doing real reporting -- shouldn't "deconstruct other people's stories." (Apparently, Risen also used more colorful language.)
Pushing back on (what I would call gentle) criticism here and elsewhere of his sensational Afghan minerals article, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter explained that he had first learned of the country's natural riches, and the Pentagon task force working to help the Kabul government develop them, from former CIA officer Milt Bearden. That task force is led by Paul Brinkley, a deputy under secretary of defense who has led efforts to develop the Iraqi economy.
Read more ....My Comment: The sentence that got my attention was the last one ....
More pushback here from Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief of the Times. He tells Lloyd Grove, writing for the Daily Beast: "Criticism from other journalists who claim it was 'widely known' is bullshit. Maybe they should have written about it."
.... in other words, those who were claiming that this was "old news" did not know what they were talking about.
Hmmmm .... no. This blog covered this story on Afghan's copper reserves last year on my Afghanistan War News Updates post (November 19, 2009) ..... more specifically on China's attempts to bribe Afghan officials for copper licenses in the country. i.e. ....Afghan minister accused of major bribery: report -- AFP
And if anyone bothered to use Google, they would find numerous stories like the following from 2008 .... Afghanistan copper deposits worth $88 billion attract Chinese investors from the Times, or from Radio Free Europe in 2007.
Bottom line .... I have known for myself that Afghanistan is a treasure trove of mineral riches since 2008 ..... but I have always dismissed it because I have no illusion on how difficult it would be to exploit these resources. Corruption and banditry is so pervasive in the region that any exploitation of these resources will never be successful .... especially in the current environment
As to why the story is being played out right now with all of this publicity .... the answer is very simple ..... the figure $1 trillion is now being publicized. Lets face it .... $1 trillion sounds more sexy than $30 or $88 billion.
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