| Airbornelawyer |
12-13-2005 13:39 |
There is a website of a nuclear nonproliferation agency - I can't remember which - which describes the enrichment process from ore to bomb in cartoon form. I'm not sure who their audience is, but the level of technical detail is not high enough to actually help one build a bomb.
RFE/RL was a little slow updating today:
Russia:
- MILITARY HOLDS TWO OFFICERS AFTER FATAL KAMCHATKA BLAST
Military authorities detained Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Chursi, who is chief of staff at an arms depot, and Major Vasilii Sergeev, who heads the depot's storage facility, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii on 13 December after two employees of a nearby scrap metal plant were killed when a shell they were disassembling exploded, RIA-Novosti reported. The depot had supplied decommissioned armaments to the plant, and the shell that exploded is believed to be one that survived a 30 September fire at an army facility.
- NALCHIK POLICE HUNT WANTED MILITANT LEADER
Police in Nalchik cordoned off a building on 12 December where they believed Anzor Astemirov, one of the leaders of the Kabardino-Balkar djamaat was hiding, regnum.ru reported. The djamaat is believed to be responsible for the 13 October attacks on police and security facilities in the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Police subsequently detained a man who proved not to be Astemirov; they are currently seeking to determine whether he too participated in the 13 October attacks.
Transcaucasia And Central Asia- ARMENIA, BELARUS APPROVE NEW MILITARY-COOPERATION PROGRAM
Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian and his visiting Belarusian counterpart Colonel General Leanid Maltsau signed an agreement in Yerevan on 12 December outlining joint defense-related activities for 2006, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. They also discussed unspecified prospects for expanding bilateral defense cooperation. Maltsau also met with President Kocharian, whose office subsequently released a statement lauding the "complete mutual understanding" between the two countries, both of which are members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. In related news, on 9-11 December Kocharian and Sarkisian inspected a number of military units located close to Armenia's borders, Noyan Tapan reported on 12 December.
- UZBEK ENVOY SAYS MINE CLEARING TO CONTINUE ON TAJIK BORDER
Shoqosim Shoislomov, Uzbekistan's ambassador to Tajikistan, told reporters on 12 December that Uzbekistan is clearing mines along the border between the two countries, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported. Shoislomov said, "One of the important issues [between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan] is the clearing of mines in the border region of Bobotogh in [Uzbekistan's] Surkhondaryo Province, which borders Tajikistan. Mine-clearing operations have begun in this region and will continue in accordance with a specific schedule." An Uzbek official made a similar statement in October, but Tajik officials said at the time that they were unable to confirm that mine-clearing operations had begun.
Southwestern Asia And The Middle East- UN REPORT INDICATES DROP IN AFGHAN POPPY CULTIVATION
The latest report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed that the area under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2005 dropped by 21 percent compared to 2004, a joint press statement released in Kabul on 12 December by the UNODC and the Afghan Ministry of Counternarcotics indicated. Afghan Minister of Counternarcotics Habibullah Qaderi called the decrease in poppy cultivation a "great achievement for Afghanistan and its international partners." According to the report, the number of households involved in poppy cultivation -- 309,000 in 2005 -- fell by 13 percent compared to 2004. The total number of people involved in cultivation has been estimated at 2 million, or 8.7 percent of the population. According to Doris Buddenberg, UNODC representative in Kabul, the "challenge" is to make sure that the reduction in poppy cultivation achieved in 2005 can be sustained in 2006. While the area under poppy cultivation has dropped considerably, opium production for 2005, estimated to be 4,100 metric tons, is only 2.4 percentage points lower than 2004. The low decrease in opium production has been blamed on "improved weather conditions," the released indicated.
- NEW GOVERNOR APPOINTED FOR RESTIVE SOUTHERN PROVINCE IN AFGHANISTAN
President Hamid Karzai has approved the appointment of Engineer Mohammad Daud as the new governor of Helmand Province, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported on 11 December. Mohammad Daud replaces Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, whom Karzai chose as one of the members of Council of Elders (Meshrano Jirga) in the Afghan National Assembly.
- OFFICIAL DENIES RECRUITMENT OF NEO-TALIBAN INTO AFGHAN ARMY
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zaher Azimi on 11 December rejected the charges that members of the neo-Taliban have been recruited into the Afghan National Army (ANA), Sheberghan-based Aina TV reported. Azimi said it is impossible for antigovernment insurgents to join the ANA because the procedure of recruitment is designed to prevent such occurrences. Every recruit's application has to be supported by two individuals, then each recruit is evaluated once in their command, Azimi explained. "Our intelligence unit is actively working" to prevent the neo-Taliban from infiltrating the ANA, Azimi added. Additionally, any individual who tried to falsify his background information would be rejected based on recruitment regulations. There has been a general concern that in the quest to find recruits for the ANA the Afghan government may unknowingly admit members of the neo-Taliban into the ranks of its national military force.
- FORMER MUJAHEDIN PARTY DENOUNCES NATO'S EXPANSION IN AFGHANISTAN
In a statement sent to some media outlets on 11 December, Hizb-e Islami (Khales faction) denounced the planned expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan as a "satanic plot," Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. The statement adds that the Afghan "mujahedin will continue their armed jihad against all those forces which in any part of the world are committing aggression against the Muslim nation or support the invaders." The statement warns NATO member states not to "drag themselves" into the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Hizb-e Islami (Khales faction) was one of the seven mujahedin parties operating against the Soviets and their client regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Party leader Mawlawi Mohammad Yunos Khales, after staying away from the Afghan civil war of the 1990s when mujahedin parties were fighting for power, resurfaced in 2003 and declared a jihad against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Rumors have circulated since early 2005 that Khales is either dead or is very ill. The most recent statement is signed by Mawlawi Anwar al-Haq Mojahed, identifying himself as "the acting head of Hizb-e Islami-ye Afghanistan," while there is no mention of Khales.
[AL Comment: Khalis was a former member of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami who broke with Hekmatyar in the mid-1980s. He used to dye his beard red (redheads have higher social status in Afghanistan; they often claim descent from Celtic warriors in Alexander the Great's army). Khalis was a maulawi, a village mullah, whose power base was among Pushtuns in the border areas with Pakistan, especially between Jalalabad and Khost. Among the so-called "Peshawar Seven" parties, his was considered the most Islamist (Hekmatyar's purported to be, but he was more an opportunist).]
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