[cookcounty]

Good Questions:

Is uranium naturally-occurring in Afghanistan?

Did Al-Queda spill some of its "dirty bomb" materials?

Which way does the wind blow from Pakistani nuclear test sites?

Did the Soviets have some nuclear material in Afghanistan?

And, of course, did the US use (almost) depleted uranium weapons?

[Shermy]

"...In January 1984 a report was published by the chief engineer of the Afghan Geological Survey Department of Soviet uranium mining in Afghanistan. It revealed that uranium production was begun in the mountains of Khawaja Rawash north of Kabul after the discovery of deposits in 1983. Soviet engineers were also said to be mining uranium at Koh Mir Daoud, between Herat and Shindand, and also in the Khakriz area of Qandahar province. The uranium projects were restricted to Soviet personnel in order to maintain secrecy and security. All production was sent to the Soviet Union..."

http://www.gl.iit.edu/govdocs/afghanistan/Industry.html

[MHGinTN]

You've surfaced the best suspect: "Which way does the wind blow from Pakistani nuclear test sites?"

Two possibilities (and they could both be in operation): 1) the Pakistani tests 'delivered' a significant contamination toward Afghanistan or a Taliban coop program allowed Paki testing undergorund in Afghanistan; 2) Pakistan provided Uranium and or a bomb for testing to the al Qaeda goons in the Afghan mountains, and our conventional bombing of those mountains released some of the contaminates.