WHAT'S A US CANDIDATE DOING IN KAZAKHSTAN? Giuliani's Texas-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, has two offices in Kazakhstan. Bracewell & Giuliani's January closings in its Almaty, Kazakhstan office totalled $1.625 Billion.
WHERE IS KAZAKHSTAN? Kazakhstan is a former Soviet Union state, the only Central Asian country sharing borders with both Russia and China, and has states of nuclear-transit significance such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
WHAT IS IT'S GLOBAL STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE Kazakhstan is in the Strategic Energy Ellipse and is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with China and Russia. A focal point of influence between the West and the East.....(can you say oil and gas pipelines?)
WHAT IS KAZAKHSTAN'S MAIN INDUSTRY Kazakhstan aims to become the world’s largest producer and exporter of uranium in the next five years.
Kazakhstan Country Profile 10: FirstWatch International (FWI)
Overview: At independence in 1991, Kazakhstan was among the four states of the former Soviet Union to inherit nuclear weapons, acquiring with it the status of the fourth largest nuclear power in the world.(1) The new acquisitions included thousands of nuclear warheads, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), cruise missiles, and the world's largest testing facility (where 456 nuclear tests took place over a 50-year period).(2)
Kazakhstan actively pursued disarmament and nonproliferation policies by joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and other international and bilateral nonproliferation initiatives. It participated in international and bilateral projects to improve safeguards and security at its facilities, to avoid becoming a target for nuclear trafficking. Kazakhstan signed the Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement with the IAEA in February 2004, although it is not yet in force.(3)
All acquired nuclear warheads, ICBMs, and cruise missiles were returned to Russia between 1994 and 1996. (4)
Similarly by the end of 1999, Kazakhstan had dismantled all missile silos and sealed 194 test tunnels at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site.(5)
Kazakhstan continues to make remarkable progress in the area of nuclear safeguards, export controls, and nuclear material accountancy and control. Its cooperation in these efforts has been essential to maintaining stability and security in the region.
Kazakhstan’s nuclear fuel cycle resources include extensive uranium mining zones and fuel processing and fabrication technologies. Kazakhstan aims to become the world’s largest producer and exporter of uranium in the next five years.
The country is taking advantage of its advanced fuel fabrication facilities to offer those services for export. While its overall intent appears peaceful, Kazakhstan has made known its desire to operate all steps of the nuclear fuel cycle. If Kazakhstan decides to undertake enrichment or reprocessing capabilities, that may be of concern to the international community as a potential source of weapon material.
At present, Kazakhstan’s nuclear strategic significance lies not in its capabilities, which are polished by decades of being part of one of the world’s two nuclear superpowers, nor in its intent, which appears to be anti-proliferation, but in the risk of nuclear security and proliferation by virtue of its location and circumstances.
Kazakhstan’s geographic position makes it strategically important to current international nonproliferation efforts.
It is the only Central Asian country sharing borders with both Russia and China, and with states of nuclear-transit significance such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan continues to make remarkable progress in the area of nuclear safeguards, export controls, and nuclear material control and accountancy. Its continued cooperation regarding these efforts is essential to maintaining stability and security in the region.
Sources
(1) “Politics and Policy,” Embassy of Kazakhstan to the U.S. and Canada, accessed January 25, 2006, .
(2) Bruce Pannier, “Kazakhstan: Nuclear Fallout Still Signals Health Hazards,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Library, August 29, 2001, ; Vadim Nee, “Can Kazakhstan profit from radioactive waste? Domestic and international legal perspectives on a proposal to import radioactive waste,” Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Spring 2003.
(3) Maribeth Hunt and Kenji Murakami, “Upgrading Nuclear Safeguards in Kazakhtan,” IAEA Bulletin, 46/2, March 2005, p. 26.
(4) The Nuclear Threat Initiative. “Kazakhstan Nuclear Facilities: Nuclear Weapons,” 20 September 2000.
(5) Jon Brook Wolfsthal et al., “U.S. Nonproliferation Assistance Program,” Nuclear Status Report: Nuclear Weapons, Fissile Material, and Exports Controls in Former Soviet Union, Vol. 6, 2001, .
Any reproduction of text and data is authorized only by permission, SIPRI March 2006.
URL http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:HQykZ-u_GL8J:www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/cnsc1kaz.html+Kazakhstan+(nuclear)&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
and that ain’t all.......
snips from:
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc_2007/CWA0709210.htm
His partnership in the law firm has also brought Giuliani unwelcome criticism in connection with some of the firm’s more controverisal clients, including a Spanish contractor involved in planning part of a Texas superhighway toll road known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Texas farmers and other landowners are worried their property rights will be trampled to make way for the highway. Conspiracy theorists see Giuliani, because of his highway connections, as allied with a cabal of international monied interests plotting to supplant the United States with a North American Union that includes Mexico and Canada.
Giuliani joined the law firm — then called Bracewell & Patterson — in March 2005. More than 400 lawyers work for the firm, which has offices in New York, Washington, Connecticut, Dubai, Kazakhstan and London.
Bracewell & Giuliani represents a business consortium involved in the Trans-Texas Corridor, a costly, high-profile toll road pushed by Perry and opposed by farmers and ranchers.
The first phase of Perry’s proposed $184 billion toll road, envisioned as part of a superhighway stretching from Oklahoma to the Mexico border, was planned by the Cintra Zachry consortium, composed of Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA of Spain, one of the world’s largest developers of toll roads,
Earlier this year, Giuliani sold his investment firm, Giuliani Capital, for an undisclosed sum to the Macquarie Group, which is part of Macquarie Bank of Australia. Cintra and Macquarie’s infrastructure group formed a consortium that operates a major toll road in Indiana.
I would never say never, but Judge J.S. Bracewell, the founder of this firm and my father were personal friends. I would come home from school many days and the Bracewell’s would be at my house.
I just can’t imagine his sons doing anything that harm this country.
Wasn’t Sir Rooty recently fund raising in London too?
What happened to the rules about no foreign monies?
Maybe they were financing a sequel to that movie Borat..
They have a lot of oil. Make nice with Kazakhstan and you can tell Hugo Chavez to go screw.
Whether or not these are the Guiliani firm's employees or are are otherwise involved with the firm and who are acting as filters for foreign contributions is unknown......and I have a picture of our federal election committee investigating something funny going on with campaign contributions in a remote place called Kazakhstan.
How sweet it is!
Leni
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