PAKISTAN TO BROKER TALIBAN PEACE DEAL WITHOUT U.S.

"Pakistan is exploiting the troubled U.S. military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan... offering to broker a deal with the Taliban leadership... that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine US interests... Pakistan is presenting itself as the new viable partner for Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai, who has soured on the Americans... (which) heightens the risk that the U.S. will find itself cut out of what amounts to a separate peace between the Afghans and Pakistanis, and one that does not necessarily guarantee Washington’s prime objective in the war: denying Al Qaeda a haven... The dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will almost certainly embolden the Pakistanis in their plan as they detect increasing American uncertainty..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/world/asia/25islamabad.html

TIMES SQUARE BOMBER PLEADS GUILTY 100 TIMES

"... He said he wanted "to plead guilty and 100 times more" to let the U.S. know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halt drone attacks and stop meddling in Muslim lands, "we will be attacking U.S."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_times_square_car_bomb

KARZAI GIVES JAPAN PRIORITY TO ACCESS MINES

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week that Japan -- not the U.S. -- takes priority over other nations when it comes to mining his country's vast mineral deposits.... He pointed to Japan's status as Afghanistan's second-biggest donor, and reasoned that Japan should enjoy special access to Afghan resources with estimated values that range from $1-3 trillion dollars. "Morally, Afghanistan should give access as a priority to those countries that have helped Afghanistan massively in the past few years," Karzai told the institute. "What . . . we have to reciprocate with is this opportunity of mineral resources, that we must return at the goodwill of the Japanese people by giving Japan priority to come and explore and extract," Karzai said."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/20/japan-has-priority-on-rig_n_618545.html

AFGHAN MINERAL WEALTH

June 2010
U.S. DISCOVERS MINERALS IN AFGHANISTAN

"The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan... including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium... Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world... The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?hp

December 2009
U.S. FIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN WHILE CHINA INVESTS IN MINES

"... the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion... for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China... In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments... While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html?_r=2&sudsredirect=true

PAKISTAN SUPPORT OF TALIBAN UNDERMINES U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN

"Pakistan's main spy agency continues to arm and train the Taliban and is even represented on the group's leadership council despite U.S. pressure to sever ties and billions in aid to combat the militants... (This) could heighten tension between the two countries and raise further questions about U.S. success in Afghanistan since Pakistani cooperation is seen as key to defeating the Taliban..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistan

KARZAI DOUBTS U.S. CAN WIN AGAINST TALIBAN
Is negotiating with Taliban

"... Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan... Karzai has been pressing to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country’s archrival, Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime supporter... Karzai’s maneuverings involve secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/world/asia/12karzai.html?hp

BRITISH P.M. AFRAID TO VISIT BASE
Anglo-American campaign in Helmand was unsuccessful

"British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to abandon a planned visit to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan during his trip to that country because of fears that the Taliban might attempt to shoot rocket propelled grenades at his helicopter. It is always a bad sign when the imperial leader cannot safely visit the outskirts of the empire. The incident underlined that the Anglo-American campaign in Helmand this winter did not in fact defeat the insurgents in the area... the Taliban have come back strong in the past two weeks...."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/cameron-plans-changed-by-rpg-threat-taliban-resurge-in-helmand.html

KARZAI HAS LOST FAITH IN U.S. STRATEGY

"... President Hamid Karzai has lost faith in the US strategy in Afghanistan and is increasingly looking to Pakistan to end the insurgency... because Karzai believes Nato is unable to deal with insurgent sanctuaries on the eastern border, he is looking for an alternative strategy: rather than use western support to "harden" Afghanistan against its neighbour, he is instead striking a less robust attitude to Pakistan and the Taliban..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/afghanistan-taliban-us-hamid-karzai