Posted on 07/13/2004 5:44:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
While the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded on Friday that Saddam Hussein didn't have much in the way of weapons of mass destruction, its conclusions on Iraq's nuclear weapons program weren't quite the clean bill of health that the media have suggested they were.
For instance, according to the report's "Overall Conclusions" section, "Iraq was procuring dual use equipment that had potential nuclear applications."
What's more, the Committee found that "Iraq had kept its cadre of nuclear weapons personnel trained and in positions that could keep their skills intact for eventual use in a reconstituted nuclear program."
To be sure, the Committee managed to come up with alternative explanations for these developments, such as labeling Saddam's nuclear team "former nuclear scientists" who just happened to be working at "former nuclear facilities" while carrying out work unrelated to any weapons program.
But nowhere in the Committee's conclusions is there any mention of the 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium that Saddam managed to accumulate at his "former" nuclear weapons plant at al-Tuwaitha. Just last month the U.S. Energy Department transported that stockpile out of Baghdad to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on it.
And neither does the Committee discuss the 500 tons of un-enriched uranium Saddam kept at the same facility - material that certainly could have kept those "former" nuclear scientists busy, especially if they were able to convert some of that "dual use equipment."
Of course, critics of the war say fears about Saddam's uranium stockpile were overblown, that the massive cache of nuke fuel was kept under seal and inspected annually by the International Atomic Energy Agency - even after U.N. weapons inspectors were kicked out in 1998.
That would be the same IAEA that did such a bang-up job of keeping tabs on North Korea's nuclear program for the last 10 years - right up until 2002, when Pyongyang announced, "Surprise, we have eight nuclear bombs."
What's more, the Committee found that "Iraq had kept its cadre of nuclear weapons personnel trained and in positions that could keep their skills intact for eventual use in a reconstituted nuclear program."
Yet another vital piece of information that Bush needs to repeat every single day between now and the election.
did those scientists happen to take vacation in Libya? time will tell.
Slow news day. Zubrin wants to release fluorocarbons on Mars. He might consider cutting back on the caffeine.
Sorry, ran a search on the title and missed it.
Where are they now? That is the important question. Where were they educated? That would be the second best question.
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