Illustrative Image
Written by Steve Brown
Discovered just north of the Hindu Kush by a Russian archaeologist in 1978, the discovery of the Bactrian treasure — a priceless burial treasure related to the mysterious clan of Bactria — somehow coincided with US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski-CIA’s scheme to provoke the Soviets to invade Afghanistan, the idea of course to destabilize and fail that state. But let’s refer to the Russian gold discovery in Afghanistan and subsequent US provocation of a Russian invasion there as a convenient ‘coincidence theory’.
The Bactrian hoard consists of thousands of gold pieces buried with Yuezhi nomads who roamed this wild area of the Kushan Empire in Northern Afghanistan at the time of Christ. After the 1978 discovery of the ancient golden hoard, it was displayed in the Afghanistan Museum. As the war in Afghanistan progressed, Najibullah ordered the priceless Bactria gold treasure to be removed from the museum and secured in multiple safes with trusted caretakers (‘tawildars’) having respective keys. There are variations to this story, but it’s accepted that a Mr. Amruddin Askarzai ultimately kept the treasure safe from the Taliban, when the Taliban considered the Bactria gold to represent sacrilegious iconography — and a source of loot just as the west does. But by stealthily damaging the gold vault keys, Askarzai kept the gold safe from the Taliban even if the hoard was delivered to an equally corrupt host later on.
In 2004 after the US ‘victory’ in Afghanistan, the Bactrian treasure was discovered in a vault of the Afghan central bank, a vault containing several safes. Safe-cracking techniques from simple to complex were used to open the safes so that National Geographic (Disney) fellow Fred Hiebert could verify the hoard according to notes made about the objects (and quantity) by 1978 finder Viktor Sarianidi. True to form, and after verifying them, the barbarous relics that Empire so derides were then displayed at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; the National Gallery; the British Museum; and the Bonn Museum, promoted as “Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul”. So much for the unimportance of that barbarous relic: gold.
The gold relics were eventually returned to Afghanistan on guarantees underwritten by the US government, and today underwritten by extreme irony. As the Taliban continued to threaten the US occupation, the arrogants were nervous enough to beg the US to take the treasure back! Parliament’s Mir Rahman Rahmani as speaker had this to say:
“The Bactrian gold treasure–or Afghanistan’s support for the national currency–must be sent to a reliable country for safekeeping because Afghanistan’s Central Bank lacks credibility.” And, “We will send it abroad for display as soon as we make an agreement.”
And that’s what happened. The Bactria Gold Hoard was sent to the US Federal Reserve vaults in New York for ‘safe-keeping’ late in 2020. But there is no agreement. There is no ‘display’ and no acknowledged holder. Only the theft. That’s because these priceless Afghan relics have ‘officially’ disappeared into the vaults of the Evil Empire: the same vaults in New York that hold 1,731 antique Afghanistan gold assay bars that disappeared there in 1939.
So, the story of the Bactria hoard is a story of criminality extant beginning almost one-half century ago. It does not matter whether the criminal is the Talban or the US Federal Reserve or the CIA. Except the Taliban can at least claim to represent Afghanistan’s government and people.
The tragedy of the Golden Hoard is the reality of hegemonic mischief at the highest level, which drives central bank gold holdings as the most important fundamental of nation-state economics. Those who benefit most by such nation-state gold transactions are those who deny the very importance of real physical gold trade between states. And that ignorance about gold is ordered at the very highest levels of influence and power — including Wall Street primary banks, and the US federal government. In pure sense, it’s the man with the mirror who asks you to look elsewhere while he lifts your pocketbook full of inflationary paper with a grin.
So… where is the Bactria Treasure of Afghanistan today? Perhaps only Rahman Rahmani knows. And the US Federal Reserve. Just like they know about Afghanistan’s missing 1731 gold bars. It’s a game of theft with only two players, where one is the thief and the other is the victim.
And by believing the media’s narrative about gold, while central banks hoard it, the victim will always be you.
Steve Brown: author and editor on geopolitical strategy & conflicts; contributor to: The Duran, Fort Russ News, Strategika51, Herland Report, Ron Paul Institute, SouthFront.
Twitter: @newsypaperz
