JOIN USState mines figure in US interest list
The classified State Department cable dated February 18, 2009 asks its diplomatic posts to update a secret list of key infrastructures across the globe which are vital to America’s national security interests and need to be protected from terrorist attacks.
The secret list includes only three infrastructure projects from India. “Orissa (chromite mines) and Karnataka (chromite mines) Generamedix Gujarat: Chemotherapy agents, including florouracil and methotrexate,” the cable said.
Critical impact
“Loss” of these infrastructures in foreign countries “could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States,” it underlined.
The highly secretive American list, which has now appeared in the public domain, include undersea cables, key communications, ports, mineral resources and firms of strategic importance in countries from the UK to New Zealand, Africa, the Middle East and China. A Siemens factory in Germany does “essentially irreplaceable production of key chemicals” while a Canadian hydroelectric plant is termed as a “critical irreplaceable source of power to portions of Northeast US.”
It also included European manufacturers of vaccines for smallpox and rabies, an Italian maker of treatment for snake-bite venom, and a German company making treatment for plutonium poisoning.
Assets
“Critical infrastructure” is defined as systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States, that the incapacitation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters, according to a cable leaked by the whistle-blower website.
The newly released diplomatic cable is one of the most explosive yet out of many leaked by the website that have heaped embarrassment on Washington and caused anger around the world.
The United States, which has charged Wikileaks of indulging in a criminal act by stealing and releasing these cables, has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the documents.
WikiLeaks revelation referred to Hassan mines
Bangalore, dhns: The US may have possibly referred to the chromite mines in Hassan in its list of “key infrastructures” that will pose a threat to its national security if they come under terrorist attack.
According to the WikiLeaks disclosure, two chromite mines in Orissa and Karnataka are among the global “key infrastructures”. Geologists said chromite mining is being done at two places, in Bhakthrahalli and Thagadur, in Channarayapatna taluk in Hassan district. The Mysore Minerals Limited is holding leases for mining in both places.