Yes, radar satellite showed it both close to the surface, I read a study some were on line about a year ago.

China, what a concept pay for the rights to the oil and minerals, how strange and unAmerikan.
jo6pac

And god has nothing to do with the actions of men. Free will is real. And what stunted men use their free will to destroy and dominate. No better than chimpanzees. Sub-human.

Well….the world is just a little more complex and subtle than that: what other nations need is the patience and guile to finesse the US into serving their interests. And either through skinning them of money directly (Israel/Egypt), or indirectly, as in this case, the game remains the same.

To put Powell's remarks and this pipeline in context, look at the map. Notice that 50 mile wide backdoor into china in NE afghanistan and that big border with Iran to the West. Eventually, the US will be spent and neutered, and a pipeline between the 2 (and/or India) would be a natural.

There are no absolutes when gazing into the future. BUT, our interests there are nil, except for the geopolitical imperatives of balancing the power of India, China, and assuring out own energy supply. So this is the real story.

PRECISELY how the various players are approaching the chessboard of the map is open to a lot of improvisation, but rest assured THIS is where the real game lies.

How to stabilize tribal conflict and establish transport routes is the problem. Must go back to history books to read the blood trail before the silk road.

You will recall that in those very early days of our actions in Afghanistan Donald Rumsfeld seemed more concerned about George Tenet's C.I.A. getting the upper hand on his own Department of Defense, rather than any strategic military interests. Rummy sandbagged initial U.S. efforts in Afghanistan until he finally wrested control of "the GWOT" = his "prize" from Tenet ~ in effect, subordinating the CIA and FBI and many other functions of the Federal government under what would become that gigantic dominion that is today our current D.O.D. Surely Cheney and other capitalists scrambled to see what prizes they could pursue ~ ex post facto the invasion. But as we quickly learned Cheney saw in "Afghanistan" and "GWOT" that Grand Prize of establishing the power of The Unitary Executive, and for that purpose Over Here, any old War Over There would do.

This, (not OIL a priori) was the post-9/11 political context and historical timeline of Afghanistan. (recalling these things now is a sobering reminder; it makes the escalation of our occupation of Afghanistan seem all the more absurd). fwiw For these reasons I feel that Pepe Escobar's narrative of "Pipelineistan" informative, though somewhat obsessive; Fun to read, though wrought with hysterical rhetoric ~ more than real history writ.