Thank you in particularly for bringing these issues in a professional way and above all is evidence based. Well done.

I’m interested in knowing when the US started to use coltan, from where and for what purpose. In particular I’m interested in knowing if coltan from Congo was a strategic mineral before and during the second world war.

Best regards,

Elisabeth

It is in the US interests and the interests of the Congolese people for the region to be secure for trade and not in conflict.

For humanitarian and economic benefit to the Congolese people, the fighting must stop. I don’t believe the US has a history of stealing or smuggling or going to war for minerals out of any African Country…or any country. Please cite any valid sources.

Whose side is the US on and why? Who are we fighting to wrest the minerals from? Are there Chinese vs. American backed forces for example?

Or do you think international trade in minerals should be prohibited altogether simply because people make money from it? Are you willing to give up your cell phone? The most primitive people in history traded. It is human nature. Do you think that can be changed?

The US is sending tremendous amount of aid (more than any country) to the UN for the humanitarian crisis in this area. (Congo Sudan, Rwanda etc.) Our policy goal is to end the conflict and the refugee camps and help civilians to protect themselves from brutal warlords and roving gangs of hungry, robbing,raping and killing teenage thugs.
From movie stars to Church coaltions, there is tremendous political pressure in the U.S. for this policy. It is inline with the goals of USAID.

Americans (my son included) are risking their lives to deliver aid and to try to stop the killing. He is in the camp pictured above today trying to asess the problem for the US government. He would do anything he could to stop the centuries of warfare, that keep these poor souls on the run all their lives.

Unless there is a well trained, well disciplined defense force responsible to a leader elected by a transparent process, there will never be any peace in the Congo. In the meantime, the UN is trying to give and teach protection to forces who operate under conditions of accountability. Some of the trainers, often the best, are US. officers.

I live with daily personal reports on the conditions in this beautiful country ravaged by war. Your claims of US responsibility for the violence are demoralizing to people who represent the US and the UN in trying to solve problems for internally displaced people in these pitiful and dangerous camps. 3 of them were killed in the last 24 hours. US policy is determined by their reporting. It is irresponsible to make these claims. Before you do again, please try to make a site visit and talk to as many people as you can. If the US or UN pulled out there would be another Rwandan genocide.

I have a book, “Strategic Minerals,” written from a fairly conservative perspective, which says that such statistics are not available; corporations don’t reveal the size of their geostrategic mineral stores, or where they come from, and aren’t legally obliged to. The trouble with legislation about “conflict minerals” is that they’re barely traceable. If someone has smuggled a huge amount of cobalt out of Congo, and sold it to a processor in Vancouver, who sells it to Lockheed Martin, and the Vancouver processor says that to the best of their knowledge, it did not come from Congo, nobody has much way of doing anything about it.

I believe the federal government makes the measure of it strategic mineral reserves available to the public, but that wouldn’t answer the questions you’re asking because Congo’s cobalt doesn’t go straight to the federal government; it goes to industrialists, not only to the military industrial complex, but also to the manufacturers of hybrid cars, natural gas power plants, and more.

What I have read and what I did hot link into this piece was a Congressional Budget Office document, COBALT: POLICY OPTIONS FOR A STRATEGIC MINERAL, http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5126&type=0, which says:

“SUMMARY

The vulnerability of the United States to disruptions in the supply of imported materials considered essential to industrial production has been of concern to policymakers throughout the post-World War II era. Cobalt is a prime example of such a “strategic mineral.” Cobalt alloys are important to a number of U.S. industries, especially aerospace and defense, and short-run opportunities for substitution are limited. The bulk of the world’s supply of cobalt originates in central Africa (primarily Zaire and Zambia, which hold 64 percent of the world’s known cobalt reserves), a politically unstable region. At present, the United States produces no cobalt. Thus, aside from cobalt stockpiles and the recycling of used materials, the United States is completely dependent on imports. This gives rise to two kinds of vulnerability. The first is essentially military in nature: the possible need to wage a war in the absence of foreign supplies of cobalt. The second is economic: the effect on the economy of a disruption in foreign supply with an attendant sudden increase in price. The fourfold price increases during the late 1970s, and the worldwide scramble for cobalt supplies at that time, have given prominence to this second kind of vulnerability.”

“The fourfold price increases during the late 1970s” were consequent to political instability in D.R. Congo, then Zaire.

Do you have any statistics from verifiable sources on the U.S.’s activity subtracting cobalt from the Congo? You kept referring to this as a covert war…and it makes sense that the U.S. would want Congo’s cobalt, logically speaking. But you never actually linked it with proof. What percentage of Congo’s cobalt are we taking? What companies are taking it? Is it the government or private American arms dealers or both? Where are the verifiable facts? This article could turn a whole lot of heads with that one link.

Most of us probably do not know much about the wars of the past, likely remember some highlights of the 1st and 2nd World War but know little as far back as about the Romans or even the Mongols.

With today’sknowledge, can we really endorse the continued indifference towards these current events? How long will it be appropriate and acceptable to allow ourselves being told about the failures of other nations while we keep hiding the actions of the World’s most powerful nation?

Have other governments and individuals become economically enslaved and their voices muted? What will it take to stop this and has Rwanda not learned for it’s own most recent genocide – if we can call this a genocide now?

Will we see the current administration living up to it’s expectations in particular in light of the recently awarded Nobel Peace Price?

It is too late for so many, it is not too late for all of us.