VZCZCXYZ0006
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBUL #1630/01 1351151
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 151151Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8063
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS KABUL 001630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/FO (BOUCHER, GASTRIGHT), SCA/A 
DEPT PASS AID/ANE 
DEPT PASS USGS (MEDLIN, MIRZAD) 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: EMIN ECON ENRG PGOV AMGT AF
SUBJECT: Supporting USGS Activities in Afghanistan 
 
Ref: A) State 62343 B) State 61921 
 
This message contains SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED information. 
Please protect accordingly. 
 
Action Request - see paras 1 and 7. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary and Action Request: The Embassy has received two 
letters from President Karzai's senior staff requesting that a 
specific USGS official be appointed Senior Advisor to the Office of 
the President.  Due to conflict of interest, perceived transparency, 
and Chief of Mission authority issues, this proposal is not 
acceptable to the Mission.  We believe that USGS technical field 
teams have been doing excellent work in Afghanistan and their 
activities have added important value to the understanding and 
potential development of Afghanistan's natural resources sector.  We 
would like these activities to continue and intensify.  There have 
been some weaknesses as well.  To strengthen USG engagement in 
Afghanistan's natural resources sector, the Mission proposes that 
the Department of the Interior and USGS consider establishing a 
Natural Resources Attache position at Embassy Kabul via the NSDD-38 
process, which the Embassy would be favorably inclined to approve. 
End Summary and Action Request. 
 
¶2. (U)  The Ambassador received a letter dated April 25 (para 9) 
from President Karzai's Chief of Staff, M. Umer Daudzai, reiterating 
an earlier request for the detailing of USGS International Program 
Specialist and Engineer Geologist Said Hashim Mirzad as Senior 
Advisor for Natural Resources to the Office of the President. 
Attached to Daudzai's letter was the earlier request -- a January 2 
letter (para 10) from then-Chief of Staff Jawed Ludin to 
then-Ambassador Neumann requesting Mr. Mirzad's appointment to the 
post in the Office of the President.  Ludin had asked that the 
request for Mr. Mirzad's services be forwarded to the Secretary of 
the Interior.  Embassy was unaware of the January 2 Ludin letter 
until it was received as an attachment to the April 25 Daudzai 
letter. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Mission has given the Daudzai and Ludin requests due 
consideration and concluded that the appointment of a serving USG 
official to a senior position in the Office of the President of 
Afghanistan is not acceptable.  Such an appointment would raise 
intractable conflict of interest issues for both the USG and the 
GOA.  The Daudzai and Ludin proposal would also appear to place this 
USG official in Kabul outside of Chief of Mission authority, which 
would pose serious security as well as institutional difficulties. 
The appointment of a serving USG official to a senior policy 
position in the Office of the President of Afghanistan might also 
raise questions about transparency and undue USG influence among 
some GOA officials as well as the international community in Kabul. 
Were the USG official to resign from USG service, we would have no 
objection to his/her appointment to this position. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The USG does have a handful of USG officials serving as 
technical advisors in the Afghan Ministry of Finance.  These 
individuals, however, are providing purely technical assistance to 
strengthen the work of line agencies of the GOA.  The position 
proposed by Daudzai and Ludin for Mr. Mirzad would be significantly 
different in that he would sit in a GOA office that has a central 
policy formulation role rather than a line implementation function. 
The USG has strategic, political, and economic/commercial interests 
in seeing the Afghan natural resources sector develop.  On occasion, 
our interests do not coincide with the interests of the GOA and its 
officials.  In such instances, a USG official also serving as Senior 
Advisor to the Afghan President, would be placed in an untenable 
conflict of interest situation.  For instance, we would like to see 
U.S. companies play a leading role in the development of 
Afghanistan's natural resources.  Currently, a major U.S. company is 
bidding on an international tender to develop significant copper 
deposits in Afghanistan.  The arrangement proposed by Daudzai and 
Ludin would complicate our efforts to advocate on behalf of U.S. 
companies. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) That said, the Daudzai and Ludin request raises an 
important issue about the appropriate USG role in assisting the 
development of Afghanistan's natural resources and points to the 
need for an enhanced and direct USGS in-country presence.  Embassy 
believes that Afghanistan's natural resources sector has excellent 
potential as an important platform for the medium to long-term 
development of the country.  Embassy also believes that USGS has 
done a superb job at the technical level of supporting the Afghan 
natural resources sector as well as U.S. foreign policy interests in 
Afghanistan.  The geospatial infrastructure assessment (including 
the airborne geophysics survey), the earthquake hazards assessment 
(including the Kabul seismic station project), the mineral resources 
assessment, the coal assessment, water resource assessment, and 
several training programs (including Ministerial capacity for 
dealing with tenders and contract negotiations) are examples where 
USGS expertise and initiative can potentially help reap important 
benefits for Afghanistan.  Embassy is committed to supporting such 
work. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Where USGS engagement in Afghanistan could do better, 
however, is in strengthening coordination with other USG elements 
and in integrating USGS activities into a cohesive USG strategy for 
the natural resources sector.  Embassy and USAID have not received 
periodic status reports regarding USGS programs funded by USAID. 
Another aspect of the USGS engagement in Afghanistan is the 
logistical and administrative support demands, which remain 
difficult.  The support has been provided by the Afghan 
Reconstruction Group at the Embassy but was supposed to have been 
taken over by USGS some time ago.  On occasion, USGS personnel have 
proposed visits directly with PRT teams without anyone in the 
Mission being informed.  USGS staff have also engaged directly with 
GOA Ministries and the Office of the President without keeping the 
Mission informed.  Last fall, USGS staff prepared a visit for the 
Afghan Minister of Mines without coordinating the program with the 
Mission or the Department of State until we learned of it from the 
Ministry. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Action Request: To strengthen our engagement in 
Afghanistan's natural resources sector, Embassy proposes that the 
Department of the Interior and the USGS consider establishing a 
permanent presence at Embassy Kabul via the NSDD-38 process, which 
we would be favorably inclined to support.  The Natural Resource 
Attache position we envision would report through the Embassy's 
Economic Policy Group to the DCM and would serve as the focal point, 
secretariat, coordinator and support for all USG activity in the 
 
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natural resources sector.  The incumbent in this position would 
advise the DCM and the Ambassador as well as all USG agencies on 
matters relating to natural resources.  The position would engage 
closely with the donor community and GOA agencies on natural 
resource issues, providing advice and technical assistance, 
assessing capacity needs and seeking resources to address these 
needs.  The incumbent would provide the necessary status reporting 
to USAID for USGS technical field programs funded by USAID.  This 
position would also coordinate and support all logistical 
arrangements for USG visits to Afghanistan that relate to natural 
resources. 
 
¶8.  (U) Septels will address Ref A and B requests for country 
clearance for the two proposed USGS visits. 
 
¶9.  (U) Text of Chief of Staff Umer Daudzai's Letter to Ambassador 
Wood, dated April 25, 2007: 
 
H.E. William Broucher Wood 
Ambassador of the United States 
Embassy of USA 
Kabul 
 
25 April 2007 
 
Excellency Ambassador, 
 
Please find attached a copy of the letter which was signed by my 
predecessor regarding appointment of Mr. H. Mirzad as Senior Advisor 
to the office of the President on Mines and Natural Resources. 
 
Once again I ask your excellency to convey this request to the U.S. 
Secretary of Interior at the earliest opportunity. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Sincerely, 
 
/s/ 
¶M. Umer Daudzai 
Chief of Staff to the President 
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 
 
End Text of Daudzai Letter. 
 
¶10.  (U) Text of then-Chief of Staff Jawed Ludin's Letter to 
then-Ambassador Neumann, dated January 2, 2007: 
 
H.E. Ronald Neumann 
Ambassador of the United States to Afghansitan 
Embassy of USA 
Kabul 
 
2 January 2007 
 
Excellency, 
 
Appointment of Mr. H. Mirzad as Senior Advisor to the Office of the 
President on Mines and Natural Resources 
I would like to express gratitude towards the service of Mr. Said 
Hashim Mirzad, International Programs Specialist and Engineer 
Geologist who on behalf of the U.S> Department of Interior and and 
the U.S. Geological Survey has provided tremendous assistance to the 
Afghan government over the last two years. 
 
As you are aware, in his latest capacity he has served the U.S> 
Embassy in Kabul from Feb 2004-Aug 2006 as Senior Natural Resources 
Advisor.  In this role, Mr. Mirzad acted as a key liaison to 
numerous Afghan government ministries and institutions dealing with 
the natural resource sector.  As an Afghan-American his grasp of the 
language, culture and knowledge of the environment has made his 
working relationship with such institutions most valuable. 
 
Therefore, I would like to request that Mr. Mirzad's term be 
extended in Kabul and further that he serve specifically as Senior 
Advisor for Natural Resources to the Office of the President. 
 
As the Afghan government reviews the preliminary results of the 
airborne geophysics study that the USGS has completed, we realize 
more than ever that Afghanistan has major potential in terms of its 
natural resources.  Such studies prove our apparent need for the 
valuable expertise of highly qualified individuals such as Mr. 
Mirzad to support our government at the highest levels. 
 
I would be grateful of you could convey this request to the 
Secretary of the Interior at the earliest opportunity.  I hope he 
 
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will be able to meet our need. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
/s/ 
Jawed Ludin 
Chief of Staff 
Office of the President 
 
End Text of Ludin Letter. 
 
Wood