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Date Posted: 18:25:53 11/01/09 Sun
Author: Bob
Subject: I wonder if any TV news program will cover this.....

...from today's SF Chronicle: "Chinese bid for mine called rigged: Debate over U.S. blood for Chinese riches."
"WASHINGTON----At a former al Qaeda stronghold southeast of the Afghan capital, a state-owned Chinese company is at work on a $3 billion mine project to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves,a financial boon for an impoverished country mired in war. The promise of a bright future at Aynak, however, can't conceal the troubling realty of how business is often done in Afghanistan, according to critics of the Kabul government's decision to reject bids from competitors in the U.S., Canada and other countries. The bidding process unfairly favored China, they allege, and epitomized the backroom deals and abuse of power that's turned Afghans against their government and undercut the U.S. effort there. Corruption and graft long have been ingrained in Afghanistan's public institutions. Yet the extent of this corruption has taken on new significance as the White House considers expanding the US commitment to a war unsupported by a growing number of Americans. Widespread fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election in August has raised doubts about how quickly a stable and credible government can be installed. A U.N.-backed commission threw out nearly one-third of President Hamid Karzai's votes, setting the stage for a Nov.7 runoff."

"In his recent assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander warned that unchecked corruption has led alienated Afghans to support the Taliban insurgency."

"James Yeager, an American geologist who advised Afghanistan's minister of mines, says a few Afghan officials dominated a secretive selection process that gave the winner, China Metallurgical Group Corp., improbably high marks over its competitors like the U.S. bidder, Phelps Dodge, and the Canadian bidder, Hunter Dickenson. Yeager has distributed a 78-page report on the Aynak contract in which he contends that M. Ibrahim Adel, Afghanistan's minister of mines, and his associates shut out legal, financial and technical experts who could have helped them on their decision. A spokesman for Adel said by e-mail that Yeager may have had a stroke while he was in Afghanistan, and that possibly compromised his understanding of what happened. Yeager say his health was fine while he was in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007. "That's just to discredit me,' he said.'These are the games they play.'"

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